QuestionAbel Parenting

It has become an unfortunate item that NaNoWriMo has eluded me this November.  Between work, the play, and life, I have had no time to write novels.  In fact, I almost have had negative time – the novel has written me sometimes.

I certainly could have tried harder.  That is an honest truth.  But it would have been a crazy attempt at garbage.  This novel was not going to be the stuff of legend at any means, but it certainly deserves better treatment than I would have given it.

The play has been over for a week.  It went amazingly well and received glowing reviews across the board.  It was said in the Perkins Journal that I “hit all the right notes,” which was pretty neat to read.  It has certainly left me with some time to do other things.  I have opted for Half-Life 2.

In this Interim, I have also seen the new Bond movie and finished reading “On The Road.”  I am now reading the original scroll of “On The Road” and will hopefully have something to say about it later on.  So far, it is amazingly good – better than the published book.  But I am just one man saying that.

I have read a lot backstage and on lunch breaks.  The Prydain Chronicles have been devoured.  A few Terry Pratchett titles.  So I have accomplished the reading portion of my journey.

Another item to discuss is that I will soon be reentering the educational world to earn my teaching certification.  I have chosen online methods for this.  Either the University of Phoenix or Western Governors University.  WGU is much cheaper, so it may win this battle.  At any rate, I will be learning again.  And that would be nice.

Holy cow, so much is happening.  The show has opened to rave reviews from those who saw it.  I have discovered how different a theatre in the round truly is.  In the “normal” stage setting, I usually couldn’t even see the audience.  They may as well not have been there.  In the Round, the audience is right there.  They could reach right out and tap you on the shoulder.

Holy Cow.  It was shocking, but I hid it well.

How is Nanowrimo going? you ask.  Terrible.  When do I have time to write?  Never, basically.  I’m not a time-waster, not really.  I tend to do what I can with the hours in the day, but working overnight seems to suck all the time out of the day.  A nine hour shift seems to equal 12 hours of normal time.  I am scared to go to sleep because I sleep forever.  Hours beyond eight, and all through the day.

I don’t like it.

So, nanowrimo is thus far a failure.  But that’s okay.  I’m sure I can pull something out of my ass.

I recently finished “On the Road” for the nth time.  Along with “Catch-22,” it is one of my personal writing bibles.  And now I am reading some Allen Ginsburg and Thomas Wolfe and going to see how that goes.  Life continues awkwardly.  It’s the Wal-Mart, really.  It gets in the way.

The play has kept me sane enough, though.  I have hives of nervousness, it seems, from the baby, work, money problems, and all that.  But we persevere, Sam and I.

And so, the Blog falls to the wayside.  But it is not forgotten.  Don’t you worry.

Here’s a neat little link.

Maybe more update later.  I’m not feeling so hot today.

Oh my GOD!  America did it.  We’ve elected Barack Obama, my symbol of hope.  I am so excited I could burst.  I discovered this news just after punching in at work.  I was listening to NPR in the car, nothing.  Walked in, punched in, and Richard told me Barack had taken Florida.

I quickly texted my correspondent, Kalin, to confirm.

Kalin was at the rally in Grant Park, and I think she had a great time.  I called her up whilst hiding in the restroom from managers to see what it was like.  This is what I heard:

“Matthew, it’s (Crowd Cheeering) and so (Crowd Cheering)…”

And so on in that nature.  I’m pretty sure I told Kalin I loved her as I hung up, so great was my elation of the victory.  Sam slept through it, so she finally got some sleep and was very excited to wake up to a bold new world.

This is such a big step.  Oh yes, there is work to be done, but the major symbol of Barack being elected shatters many more barriers in this country.  Things are going to change, finally and for real and that is amazing.

My son get’s to spend the bulk of his first four years with Barack as president.  God-Willing, the first eight.  And that’s just about the happiest one can ever be.  You have no idea unless you have kids – and I don’t even have him yet.  But I will.  I can’t wait to sit him on my lap and have him watch TV.

Well, polls show that the issue on most people’s minds is the economy.  That’s good for us Obama-folk, because who trusts a Republican with the economy anymore?  I sure don’t.  I honestly used to think there were riscal conservatives out there, but it seems they’re all Democrats.  The thing those negative nellies never seem to understand about “tax and spending” is that the “taxing” part actually gives you money for the “Spending” part.

In other news, there’s a college student march on 6th street which will probably go unmentioned in the Newspress tomorrow.  Sam says it’s pretty long.  All the people in it are Obama supporters, which makes me happy.  This morning, there were people on a corner with “Halligan” signs.  He’s the local Republican guy.  There was a lone McCain sign, though.

I originally wasn’t going to vote for anyone but president, but I instead went in and did the straight Democrat ticket.  It’s worked for me before.  Did it two years ago for the Gubernatorial in Michigan and it worked out well.

My political correspondent, Kalin Franks, will be updating all evening.  Pretty cool.  I have play practice, so I’ll be stuck in a black box all evening away from the political process.  Sad.

I rode my bicycle to the polling place, a mere two blocks away.  I forgot my bike lock so I just took the seat off.  I can’t imagine anyone in town stealing a bike without a seat.  The ladies inside were very friendly and it was very pleasant.  No lines or anything like that.

What was weird was the ballot.  Instead of a bubble, they have you connect this arrow thing.  Which was kind of confusing, but I managed.

I really think it’s stupid that we can’t have some sort of Presidential Election Registration card so we can at least vote for the National issues on Election day anywhere in the US.  I suppose the electoral college kind of screws that up.  But I know Sam wanted to vote today but was way too busy with being pregnant and in Vet school to register.  So that’s pretty depressing for her.

But I voted, and I’m pretty happy.  It’s the second presidential I’ve voted in.  Both times I’ve voted Democratic in red states.  Which is where those blue votes are needed the most!

Time to Barack the vote, people!

I “drug” Sam to Zack and Miri tonight.  I say “drug” because I had confidence in Kevin Smith to deliver the funny, and deliver he did.  It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed through a large portion of a movie.  There were lots of little things one could catch if they were looking – I wish I’d written some down.  It’s great seeing Seth Rogen, too.  All the actors did an excellent job.

Yeah, there’s boobs in this movie and people having sex.  But its so over the top and silly at the time, you kind of forget what’s going on.  Smith really did a great job selling this pretty silly concept to the audience.  It’s only now as I look back on it that things seem somewhat ridiculous.  But during the movie it all makes sense, the things that are happening.  And its good.

What I like too is that it has a happy ending.  Smith doesn’t seem to have a problem with happy endings like half the indie-bred directors seem to have.  It’s almost as if he realizes people can enjoy a movie with a happy ending – the important things are the story and characters.

The story part of this isn’t too strong.  There’s not much plot or tale to be told.  The title says it all, really.  But the characters are really strong.  It’s almost absurdist with a bunch of characters thrown together to see how they bang up against each other.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it.  Well Done, Mr. Smith.  Well Done.

Well, today is the day.  National Novel Writing Month begins!  I have yet to pump out my 2000 words today – because I don’t know what the Hell to write about!  But I think I have an idea.  Not really sure how I want to address it.

The problem isn’t the lack of idea, actually.  It’s too many ideas all vying for position in my brain.  I’ve started most of these ideas already, which is really what makes this difficult.  And I’m not too good at the stream of conciousness type writing.  But I think I’ll be okay.

Anyway, I better stop wasting time here and get on with it!