Less Than Random Thoughts From a Science Fiction Author and Generally Good Guy [ Fawkes ]

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Onward and Downward


So I'm making hay while the sun shines, so to speak. I'm using this long rainy weekend to get a lot done on Time Diving (TD). I'm 56,000 words into it; maybe 2/3rds through, maybe a bit less. My guess is it will end up being close to 100K words. As I mentioned before, I'm intentionally writing in an unhurried expansive style, so 100K would be about the right write [ okay, 'right write' is a cheap-shot alliteration, but I wanted to take what might be my only opportunity ever to write right write, right - so please indulge me ].
I just worked through the first hard pass ( as opposed to casual first-pass ) of the segment where the protagonist, Matt, really looses touch with reality, really [ okay, I'll stop ]. He's a bad man, in the final tally. Hence the picture - a bad monkey is Matt for sure!
I hope your New Year is progressing well, here on day 2. You know what I think? Well you soon will, because you are reading my blog, and I can pontificate at will, and will ; ). I think the passing of what is technically labeled 'the old year' and the advent of what is artificially dubbed 'the new year' is an important road-stop. One can take stock. I am troubled to see so many people write "good riddance to 2010", or similar remarks. It is easy, too easy, to focus all at once on the negatives and not see the positives. Plus, the time-blocks are, as I mention, artificial, man-made constructs. I think we are all imbued with large capacities for hope and optimism, and equally burdened with dour and negative propensities. Hence, we look back on a year, label it 'bad' when it wasn't, on the whole, and set our minds to the 'new year' being "better".
It is the very same 'me' who lived last year and will [hopefully] live the next one. We are exceedingly unlikely to change our personalities, much. Therefore, how we walk the path of our lives is unlikely to change. Hence, the year will be remarkably similar to the last, and the last, etc.
My prayer for you, and most definitely for me, is to grasp that fact and try to make ourselves, and in so doing our years, better. Notice I did not say 'great'. We can realistically hope to make ourselves a little bit better. It is, I hate to be the one to say it, not possible to make ourselves great in one quick leap. So don't stress over it. Little by little, poco a poco, work on you, and the year will take care of itself. Then, 363 days form now, you can look figuratively in the mirror and say, "I did good! I'm a little bit better and that 2011, you know, I made it a little better too."
Best of luck with your homework assignments, and remember two things, always. You are in control of you - be a good boss. Second, I am your friend - that, my friend, is a mouthful of important words.
I cannot end on too somber a note, because I am a goof-ball at heart. So did you here the one about three non-carbon based aliens? So, they walk-a-late into this bar.....

No comments:

Post a Comment