We're Big Pants People

Just saw this ancient act from Kevin Meaney and it still makes me laugh until I tear up. Some people hate his stuff, but I love his energy and audacity.

50 Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novels

Rolling Stone's list, Drawn Out: The 50 Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novels is out. Don't get caught up in what's number one and what should be number one or why your favorite isn't in the top ten. That kind of bullshit is for lesser people than you. Use the list to find some cool stuff you hadn't heard about before that comes highly recommended. That's right. I'm saying enjoy it!

Crumb's "A Short History of America"

By way of Explore:

Are You Human? Take Our Quiz

Just curious. I know real people read my posts here when I direct them from social media sites. When I don't, I still get a handful of views. I know I get hammered by spammers in the comments, so I wonder is this handful all bots, or are there real unsolicited humans reading this stuff?

If you're human, please leave a comment. It can be super short if you're in a hurry. Thanks!

Different Is Good

Halfway to Ninety and 149

Just updated the header at the top of this page (as opposed to the header at the bottom). I turned 45 on April 24th. One quarter of the way to 180! Today, Dan Rabarts sent out the latest offering from Cerberus, so that brings me to story 149 of The One-Thousand. Almost there!

Future Failed Experiment

Just had a thought to use this blog like Twitter or Facebook. Post a lot more and say a lot less. We'll see if it sucks or not. Deep in the shit with MuchoMangoMayo right now. I learned from yesterday and will record this morning while The Boy is out of the house. Talk to you later. Maybe. You, of all people, know by now that I'm super bad at follow through with most things. But then, we never know where and when we'll surprise ourselves, do we? That's why it's surprising.

Let's Go A-Mangoing!

Had a sparkling idea the other day. In the past, I've mostly taken my vacation time in one to four hour increments so I could cut out of a boring day at work. This year, I needed to take a week off to move and that very move fouled up my plans for MuchoMangoMayo 2014, which were already contingent plans. The other day I thought, "Why not take another week off?"

I asked around at work, certain it would screw something up for somebody. Fortunately, I'm delightfully unnecessary! So I'm taking the first full week of May off and I can get the fibrous bulk of MMM 2014 done then. Hooray! The only thing that could—wait, not the only thing. One of the things that could screw everything up is if I get chosen for jury duty next week and get stuck in a trial that lasts for weeks.

MuchoMangoJunio.

Hmmmm . . .

Poster Syndrome

Sorry I haven't been here in a couple of months. I moved across town and it was hairy working that around my day job. I did take a week off, but then all sorts of awesome people I usually don't see were in town and available, so they took precedence.

I went to ICFA a couple of weeks ago, hung out with old friends, made new ones, spent too much money on books, had the most magnificent steak of my life, soaked in Ellen Klages' tales of Clarion down under, and got brain freeze with Ian McDonald. It was awesome.

Because of these things and my short story writing frenzy the first two months of this year, I am, as usual, way the hell behind on Mangoes. My boss, who's a fan of the show, says I was even farther behind last year. I still have to record all four April shows (yes, there will be an April 30th show this year), and of the thirty-one shows I need for MuchoMangoMayo, I've only finished writing the first one yesterday! I hope to have the second done today.

I inadvertently shot off story 148 of The One-Thousand the other day. It was a twitter story and I submitted it before even realizing I'd taken another step toward my goal.

The Boy made supper for me today. Ravioli and garlic bread. A nice surprise for my exhausted ass. And for the rest of me as well.

Another Cerberus story is nearing completion! I always have to check the spelling on that. Being a comic book geek, I always want to write Cerebus. It's a fine line between a three-headed dog and a talking aardvark. Anyway, the current version of the story is deep and cloudy (that's good). My esteemed co-authors have begun to write some things that are just beyond my comprehension and I'm loving it.

I have other writer friends and acquaintances who talk about having imposter syndrome, which is crazy, because they're all great, published writers. I was explaining to one friend recently that I've always had the opposite problem. I'm convinced that I'm much better than I actually am, and why hasn't the world recognized my genius? Rather than living in fear of being caught, I live in disappointment for not being caught. How boring life would be if we were all satisfied. Embrace your issues. Hold them tightly. Love 'em up.

147

I got 147 off while it was still January, but I sometimes forgot, sometimes didn't feel like mentioning it here. Now it's 3:45 am, I'd really like to sleep, but that's not happening. I don't feel like creating and I don't even feel like consuming, so here I am.

147 is only partly mine. It was another joint effort by Cerberus, and I am part of that joint. That's all I have to say about that .

On Finishing And 146

Finished story 146 tonight and sent it out the door. Wouldn't it be great if the rest of the year rolled on like the last couple of days?

What happened is I thought I'd write a new story for Charles Coleman Finlay's guest issue of F&SF within the two week submission period. But I got off to a bad start this year because of my crazy, dizzy head (which is all better now, thank you), so I figured I wouldn't finish in time and submitted another story.

Yesterday after a couple of false starts at even newer stories, I realized I had literally hundreds of partial stories lying around on my hard drives, and why not finish them up? "Finish what you write" is an old maxim that Neil Gaiman, for one, always offers when asked for writing advice. I made a new wallpaper for my computer that's just a white background with the words, "It's all about finishing stories." Then I remembered a roughly thousand word story that seemed good to me even though I once thought I should add more. I reworked it and that was 145. Today I finished that story that was meant to be for F&SF and that was 146. So there you go. Tomorrow, I'll look for another unfinished story I can finish.

Maybe you've got some unfinished business too. Of course you do.

Now I'm off to record and post a couple of Mangoes!

145

Finished and sent out story 145 tonight. And then I celebrated that by submitting another story.

Harlan's New Glass Teat

Have you subscribed to Harlan Ellison's YouTube channel yet? Why not? He's not only a writer worthy of being one of my literary heroes, he's also lots of fun to watch. The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w The channel seems to include all the brilliant spots he did for Sci Fi Buzz in the nineties (Harlan Ellison's Watching)! Here's a little taste:

My Head Is Spinning

I woke up dizzy on the 2nd. That's not normal. Checked my blood pressure, it was good. Went light-headed through the day, hoping I wouldn't get dizzy while driving. Whenever something funky is going on in my body, I assume I'm going to die, it's just a question of when. I got home without being dead yet. I lay down that night and my head went nuts. The lights on my digital clock zipped back and forth like Katherine Hepburn's maracas. "That ain't right," I wisely told myself. I asked my daughter to bring me to the ER. They did a CAT scan and EKG. Fortunately, it was just Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, which sounds horrible, but focus on the "Benign" part. If you care, you can read about it here: http://vestibular.org/understanding-vestibular-disorders/types-vestibular-disorders/benign-paroxysmal-positional-vertigo

My doctor had me lie down with my head over the edge of the table or whatever you call that thing I was lying on. She tilted my head back and to the left and I got crazy dizzy. She said she'd never seen such a clear reaction. She called in another doctor and four nurses to watch the show (after she asked my permission). She did the trick again and they all enjoyed my dancing eyeballs. She later went through the whole Epley maneuver with me (referring to the following video, in fact) and the worst of it was over.

 

They gave me meds and sent me on my way. Yesterday I still felt weird and got progressively dizzier as the day went on. I took the day off from work and got the medicine, Antivert, which unfortunately did not make me less dizzy, but made me super tired. I spent about seventeen hours in bed, twelve of those sleeping. I probably won't take anymore unless I'm having trouble sleeping. Today I feel odd in a different way. My head is thick and I don't necessarily feel vertigo, but things aren't exactly locking into place. My moves are slow and deliberate. I'm hoping I'll feel progressively better as the days pass.