Wheels Within Wheels

Lots going on. I'm still working on this one big writing project, never quite as fast as I want to, but at least happily so. Right now I'm more pressed with the fact that I'm applying to a position at my company one big step up. I hate the process more than anything—the formal interviewing and testing—and even if I'm successful and get the position, it's got its cons as well as some obvious pros. The chief con being that it's going to eat away at my already scant free time (ie. writing time) and will put me into a different lifestyle. I refuse to speculate too much right now, as I may not the get position at all anyway.

My grandmother is doing well, as well as she can for her age and in her position. She's going to a rehab, post-surgery facility today. I hope to visit her in a few days. Thanks again to you all you well-wishers.

Last night I had a dream that I had to work during a screening of the upcoming Narnia movie, and halfway through I fell asleep because I was overworked, then woke to find that all my friends and family saw the whole thing and were all talking about it and I completely missed it. How ridiculous a dream that is.

Hey—I just realized that I've had this weblog up for over a year now. Huh.

Escapee episode 22 is up.

All the Pale Things Under the Earth

Last night I saw Blackfield as the tail-end of a free admission outdoor festival at Riverside Park in Manhattan. Jewzapalooza, in fact; Blackfield's sole Israeli member was reason enough for the otherwise British-based collaboration to be a part of it, apparently. There's just something about evening concerts when it's not too hot, with very cool prog rock...

On Saturday we went to the Garlic Festival, too. What a riot of flavors that day was!

Escapee episode 21 is up from last week.

Coffee

It's one of those days that requires a third cup of coffee in the morning.

When I put some hot chocolate mix into my office-bland coffee to give it some much-needed kind of flavor, another lady in this office was taken aback. What's wrong with people? Good God....something out of the ordinary...can't...handle it!

Ummm...Arrr.

'Tis no swinging lead to come about and drop the landlubber's head and longclothes to give rightful tribute to this day of buccaneership.

Aye. Wish I could take a caulk right 'bout now.

Avast Ye!

A few comments over in the Commentation Station of Sidedown alerted me to the fact that more than just a tiny handful of people seem to be reading Escapee. That really makes me feel good. Just for the record.

Episode 20 is now up. That's twenty episodes since late April, each episode weekly (and I only skipped one week so far for vacation). Not bad, I think. Each episode seems to average about 400 words, so that's a total now of about 8,000 words. Easiest 8k I ever did, whether it's good or not.

Thanks you all for the well wishes regarding my grandmother. She's in a sort of limbo right now, awaiting her strength to build enough so they can attempt some risky, but necessary, surgery. Facing down the inevitable fact that your grandparents, and your parents, and ultimately your friends will eventually be gone from you isn't easy. As just about anyone can attest.

My latest research and interest now is pirates. Someday it will become more apparent why. First Aztecs, then Mesoamericans in general, then Indonesia...now pirates. Fun.

Inevitability

Nothing can redirect your mind from everything else as much as hearing that a relative has had a heart attack. In my case, my grandmother. My mom's mom. She's a tough old lady, has had more surgery done to her than anyone I know, and is one of the gentlest people to be found.

I still have four living grandparents. All 80 and up. Needless to say, I'm worried.

Disengage

The last couple of weeks reminds me why I'm glad that I don't watch TV and only seldom read the news. When I do, it's generally pretty nauseating. Have you ever followed a story out of morbid fascination, gut-clenching concern, and ultimately stop because you can't stomach any more of it? The chaos that overtook New Orleans in the wake of the hurricane is a prime example. I don't just mean the disease and death. I mean the opportunistic, trigger-happy, and desperate lunatics shooting at rescue helicopters and cops and each other. The complete breakdown of humanity.

Tried to hold some faith in the goodness of humanity

Not easy to do. I remember feeling disgusted at myself years ago when the Oklahoma bombing took place. I stared at the news and though I felt a measure of sadness, I didn't feel devastated. And that made me feel crappy. How can tons of people get killed and me not feel very sensitive to it? Because I was only 18 at the time? Because it happened somewhere else? Because I didn't know those people? I tried to figure out why. I cared about a lot of people at that age—why couldn't I connect to that tragedy on a personal level?

Well. Having seen firsthand the devastation of 9/11, I can say without a doubt that I have become sensitive to things—at times oversensitive. But not unusually so, I suppose. Others can be emotionally brought down as well. I figured the older you get, the less emphatic you'd be to such things, but at least in this stage of my life, that's not true. Things hurt more and more—when you see, when you understand, how such devastating events affect people.

But I also realize there's a point at which you have to stop and turn away. Because you can't function anymore when you're overloaded with tragedy. I don't think we're meant to dwell on things for too long. This is the curse of mass communication in the modern world. The news. Sometimes you just have to take in only so much, do what you can (and donate if you can, if it can help those people), and then turn away and try to smile again, try to laugh and remember that there are good moments in life, too.

In other news, another Escapee episode is up.

Celestial Mechanics

As noted way earlier, my recent project has had me studying the cultures of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas, and a number of ancient mythologies. It's really got me thinking about the change in perception over the years.

The Aztecs believed, essentially, that if they didn't feed the gods with the blood of their daily sacrifices, the gods wouldn't have enough energy to get the sun from one horizon to the other. They were doing it because if they didn't, the world would come to an end. Every day they had to do this, to keep things going. That blows me away. As history goes, this was recent; only going back a few hundred years. Not some ancient B.C. civilization.

Of course, the Spanish showed up and within two years the Aztec empire was toppled. Damned Europeans messing things up again! This cut down on the daily bloodshed (and offered new varieties of bloodshed) but totally crushed a culture and some of the amazing things they'd accomplished.

Just one culture in the mix of our spinning globe that came and went.

In any case, episode 18 of Escapee is up. It's getting weirder.