okay. this was odd. we were out at the club last night and we were hanging out with joe, a friend of ours, smoking out of his narghile (a kind of middle eastern water pipe). in the course of our conversation, i tell my friend that he has to meet my cousin eric - i think they'd get along.

i got home the first message in my inbox had the subject line "narghile" and was from eric, my cousin. the link he forwarded to me (and a few friends) was a site that belongs to joe - the same friend i had just been talking to not three hours earlier.

i spent the morning telling them both the same story and letting them know that they now have a point of commonality to start a conversation on. (this should be interesting because they're both clinically insane.)

but that was the first time that had ever happened to me and i just thought that i'd share.

and you wouldn't believe it if you read it in a book. fiction that coincidental is always bad. but when it happens in real life, it's universally strange. enough oddity for one day.

i spent the morning cutting reviews and articles out of old washington post book worlds that i've been saving for the past few months. i love book world and i love cutting out reviews of books that sound interesting because they give me ideas for an approach to fiction. of course i'm not going to read any of these books right this instant (or any time soon) but i love the idea of stealing ideas from reviews - a second remove, as it were.

strange little events. the new issue of promethea is out and we went to the library and got big piles of books. of course, because i wasn't buying the books, i was willing to take a chance on some authors that i wasn't familiar with. one of the nice things about libraries, i s'pose.

we were out with jenna and andrew and liz last night. andrew and i went inside and talked about work and creativity over whisky while the ladies stayed outside and talked, laughed and giggled over wine. one of the things that andrew and i talked about was the idea of making an online game. my biggest obstacle is the technical side of it; i'm not a programmer. his biggest obstacle is the creative side of it; he's not a writer. i figure that if we can get on the same page about something that we can cover each other's vulnerabilities. isn't that what collaboration is all about?

coolness. we went out and saw michael chabon last night. he was really nice and everything and halfway through his little talk, shannon leaned over to me and said "he's just like you." i really didn't know what to say to that. i mean, his depiction of a pot head writer who's having trouble writing his novel really struck a chord with me and i thought that he said some true things throughout the rest of the wonder boys, too. not to mention that it was a good story and the stuff he wrote about writing was true - i've woken up in the middle of the night with a desperate urge to write on more than one occasion.

the adventures of kavalier and clay was spectacular and it deserved to win the pulitzer. i loved the fact that a book about comics won such a distinguished prize. when i was getting my copy signed, he looked at me like he expected me to say something and was almost disappointed when i didn't. what could i say that no one else has ever said to him? of course, if that was my philosophy, then why would i write? all of the good stories have already been written; it is the purpose of the new writers to write the stories again. "write it new," according to ezra pound.

i was well chuffed at meeting michael chabon, though. it was an experience. i love hearing the process that writers take to get to their stories. i like to compare their techniques with my own. compare, contrast, learn. what could i do better? that kind of thing.

the phrase from the night was "a character that grabs at the edge of your skirt and demands to be brought to life."

so i'm sitting here not doing much of anything. putting out fires and the like, really. all of my attention is focused on the list today because we're talking about the stupidities of religion and fundamentalism. these are a few of my favorite subjects, really. i love the idea of people making up religious ideas from thin air and trying to sell them to people. church of elvis? easy. church of the strange ufo that hides behind the comet? been done already. these days, you have to go really far afield before you can find something that no one will believe.

i really think that philip k. dick had some great philosophical ideas and he was an interesting theologian. unfortunately, i don't think his church will ever get off the ground because it'll attract all the wrong types. nobody in their right mind would worship at the church of dick. would they?

in other news, spear britney has written a book. some good comments in there.

it's fairly early on tuesday morning and i'm still trying to shake off the sinus headache i had yesterday. i don't think it's going anywhere, though. the pollen count is high and there's enough tension at work to keep it around for a while. i'm getting really bored of people who have no concept of computer literacy. i get phone calls from people who want simple questions answered, which isn't a problem until they start asking me about things that they have no business asking me about.

whine whine. bitch bitch. that's me. grumpy and nonresponsive first thing in the morning. surrounded by things that have to be done but motivated to do none of it. the more i think about it, though, the more i realize that i should do some of this stuff. call people and harrass them for their serial numbers. or something.

it's a beautiful day outside and, naturally, i'm a bit restless. i wish i had some simon and garfunkel for the stereo but i'm forced to make do with lou reed. i just picked up a book by one jonathan lethem. it's good enough that now i know i have to go out and buy the rest of his stuff. at some point. after i've finished this one.

so why aren't i reading it right now? because i like to dollop out good literature in bite-sized chunks. i read on the metro on the way to work and it's refreshing to have something good and interesting to keep you occupied for those forty-five empty minutes. it's one of the reasons i love metro: if i was driving, i'd have to pay attention to traffic. as it is, i get to wake up on the train and decompress on the train. and that decompression is greatly aided by good stories.

which leaves me in the lurch for something to do. i'm not going to sit here and flip through old things if i have something new to read but i don't want to read what i have right now. not yet. patience is a virtue and i consider myself a virtuous man when it comes to writing and reading. words. the written word, to be precise.

at any rate, denied the one extreme, i seek out the other. yet i am denied the opportunity to write other than characters for two months (a lesson is a lesson, after all) so here i am free-associating into my blog. trusty blog. wonderous computerized carbon paper for my random screeds, ideas, commentary and snapshots of memory. time to seek out a message board or some such...

depending on what direction you look at me from, you can sometimes see a less-appealing side of me. one of the stranger sides is the fact that i am an unabashed star wars geek. i read theforce.net almost daily. accordingly, i have hit the wall where i learned more information about the new movie than i really wanted to know.

at the same time, well. i wrote a little essay about it last night. warning! there are spoilers ahead. just so you know.

It is interesting to me how much and how little George Lucas changes (and has changed) his source material as he goes along. The most obvious example can be seen through a simple comparison between the old description of Boba Fett and the new description of Boba Fett.

In the original – written before anyone knew who Ewan McGregor or Darth Maul were – Boba Fett is described as wearing armor “similar to those favored by a group of warriors (from the Mandalore system) defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars.” The quote goes on to wonder if he was part of that group or just influenced by the design of their armor.

The current quote from the Star Wars website is as follows. “Not much is known about Boba Fett. He wears part of the uniform of the Imperial Shocktroopers, warriors from olden time. Shocktroopers came from the far side of the galaxy and there aren't many of them left. They were wiped out by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars. Whether he was a shocktrooper or not is unknown.”

The differences and the similarities between the two quotes are striking and immediately obvious, but I’ll point them out for you. Both reference a group wiped out by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars – the rumored timescale of the new movie. The identity of the group changes from an almost anonymous group of so-called Mandalore warriors to the more specific Imperial Shocktroopers.

Anyone who has paid the remotest amount of attention to the rumors surrounding Episode II has probably heard that it’s about the Clone Wars. The Clones in question are a bit of a contentious question, but they are probably an army created by Palpatine to oppose the Jedi Knights. The genetic basis for this army is rumored to come from Boba Fett’s father.

None of this is solid, of course, but the way that Lucas has blatantly changed the source material points to the truth of the matter.

just some random stuff on this friday morning. i'm cleaning out my cache of interesting, funny and strange links. of course, there are only two at hand, but that doesn't mean i don't have more. it's just that they're at home right now...

first we have the exploding airline jet. next, we have a strange site that shannon forwarded to me. i'm not sure if it's meant to be serious or what, but it make me laugh and that's always important.

and that's really it for right now. i don't have much to say this early in the morning (except that my head hurts and i wish that i had some acetominophen). i have things to do and people to call, and i'm just procrastinating now.

When people lived as though the ego did not exist, they found that they were happier.

something to think about.

troubleshooting modem connections is far from where i'd like to be right now. but necessity dictates action. i find it necessary to afford my apartment and eat regularly.

call this a minimalist entry. i just had a few seperate issues wash over me all at once.

so today was another slow one, but that's okay.

some interesting stuff that i've come across lately includes this page about a genuine mystery that someone is conducting on the web. fascinating, really. it shows what someone with decent resources can accomplish. i'm intrigued.

i've also been thinking about pornography. it may come as a surprise to some of my non-existant readers that i have an affinity and interest in pornography. hell, i think it would be fun to take erotic pictures for a living. who wouldn't? but the real bugaboo these days is the idea of posting naked pictures on the internet. aside from the obvious question of exhibitionists, there is a real issue among some women when it comes to being a nude model. to put it lightly, they're shy. or modest. the idea of thousands of anonymous men jerking off to their pictures is slightly disturbing. moreso, i suppose, if someone actually walked up in a bar and started talking about it.

personally, i don't see the issue. obviously, it's different if the viewers are all people who know you personally. on the other hand, the internet is so fucking vast that any pictures posted anonymously (and without recourse for feedback, which is another issue) would have very little chance of actually impacting on the reputation of a given individual. granted, there is always an outside chance that someone, somewhere is going to see someone they know, but that's the chances a model takes, really.

but hey. i'm not posing nude, so i guess that i have no idea what i'm talking about, right? i'm not familiar with the issues involved. i don't have those concerns. good for me.

fun weekend, but now i'm hungover. at work. with stuff to do. blah.

i went drinking with greg on friday, which was interesting. we talked about life and literature, two of the more important things you can talk about while you're waiting for a pool table in a very busy bar in shirlington. he told me that i am a good writer but that i have the ability and the potential to be a great writer. the only thing i lack is a certain empathy towards character. simply put, i don't like people very much and it shows in my writing. (and in my life, too, i suppose, but that's not really that important right this instant). he told me that i have to stop writing stories - narratives - for two months and just write characters. learn them. what makes them tick, what they're going to say. that sort of thing. i've been assiduous so far. writing is important to me, so i plan to work hard at this. even though i don't care about people, i care about my ability as a writer. it's important to know your priorities.

saturday night we went to catacomb with our friend john. john is one of the biggest assholes i know. what makes him interesting, i think, is that he knows he's an asshole and he does nothing to hide that knowledge. but he's also fairly charming. that makes him dangerous. he also likes living on the edge. i don't know if he's ever read sartre, but i have a feeling that he would be able to identify with the concept of not knowing life until you are on the edge of it. all of this makes john an interesting person to have around. especially when you bring him in close contact with a certain dj that you don't like very much.

anyway, there was conflict and there was drinking and all was well with the world.

sunday was just joe and jenny and shannon and i. we sat around drinking and watching movies. very low-key and very relaxing. and hungover. but that's okay.

oy. it's been too long since i posted, but now i have some time, so here goes.

we finally finished our computer conversion at work and now we're down to making sure that everyone's network connection is up and running. i still have some minor things to go over, but they can wait. it's friday and i'm burned out.

just as we finished our project, though, we were told that our lead programmer/deputy program manager and operations manager were leaving for brighter things. that fucked everything up because they ARE the senior staff around here. they've been running things so well and for so long that working without them is almost unthinkable. and now we have to think about it. shit. so the programmers are rebuilding our major data entry software and everyone is sort of shuffling their feet until we can sit down and find out what the situation is about the operations duties. the operations staff seems to think that i'm next up for the operations duties. i wouldn't mind doing that kind of thing, really. i was just apprehensive about being a manager. i don't want to be a manager. that's more responsibility than i'm prepared to take on right now. i'm just not confident enough in my abilities.

however, there is some gossip that the manager portion of operations manager is going to be removed, so that whoever gets those responsibilities doesn't actually have to deal with being a manager. i say great. all of the prestige with none of that kind of hassle. i don't want to have to deal with the dot. i'd rather deal with the data (the operations manager we have right now does qc on the dataset, inventory and vin checking).

i'm just not sure how this is going to effect my next novel.

in other news, shannon and i are planning a laser tag event on the first of june. we finally got the flyer squared away and we're ready to take money. we can fit 50 to 100 people in the place and we'll have it to ourselves for seven hours. and we get to bring in our own alcohol and music. it should be fun. we've had an enthusiastic response so far. i'm just concerned about the money part of things. that's always where it gets touchy.

this is just a test post to see if blogger is working. it should not be regarded as content of any kind. thank you for reading it, though.