Mundane Christmas

Not really in the mood to write about this...but I need to say something to someone...anyone...otherwise it'll just drive me into a further depression.

Money's been tight this year...terribly so. I've been selling off some of the electronic equipment I've aquired over the years just to make ends meet...and last week I ran into a financial brick wall with the car not wanting to start on Tuesday, leaving me stranded for a day and a half at home, feeling helpless...even more so when I got the bill. $400 later, we have a running car, but with just over half that amount in the bank account. I went to my local check advance place to get what advance I KNOW we can afford for next payday, and it's almost gone...with what's left having to go to what presents are left to get (I've already told my wife not to get anything for me, but she insists...her jewelry business on ETSY has brought in a tiny bit of money and she's set on buying me something frivolous) and foodstuffs for the family gathering next Saturday. Right now we have enough meals to last through Tuesday...after that we might be breaking into the feral cat food stash to feed ourselves.

Like us, it seems like everyone else is too broke to spend much, if any, money this close to Christmas. I have several computers posted for sale on Craigslist, but so far only a few curious nibbles...ones that seem more like teasing than actual interest.

I just don't know what else to do.

Whatever your situation this holiday season...peace be with you all, and hopefully next year will find us all more prosperous.

Pax,
S

Ok, Enough Stalling...

Yeah, I'm back...I just had something smack me upside the head that told me "Why don't you blog this?"

Ok...back up a little...I've been TRYING to put something out here for a while, but my damned anti-muse (also known as the ProcrastinationDemon) kept me from...well, not exactly "not wanting" to write, but to just tell myself "Eh, I'll do it later...", which never really arrived.

Ok...I'm meandering hard away from what I wanted to put on here...

One of the podcasts (yes, a Podroll is forthcoming) I listen to is Mur Lafferty's "I Should Be Writing...", and the latest episode dealt with questions and feedback from previous shows. One of the questions posed to Her Murness was "How does one come back to a project after a long absence away from it--wether it be from illness or apathy (yeah, I fall into the latter one...shame on me!). The listener asked for any pointers to help jumpstart the project again.

Mur's advice...just DO it, and while I don't remember the entire quote, she referred to tackling the "most daunting problem first" rather than get all the little problems squared away before tackling the bigger ones.

Ok, all this I agreed to, but was still no nearer to writing ANYTHING. If you've read any of my other blog, you know that I'm dealing with depression finally after 30+ years of denial and self-support before my defenses and support mechanisms that I had been using for so long began to break down, along with my sanity.

Well, one of the things that's suffered along the way of my mental reboot is my drive to be passionate about almost ANYTHING.

But at least that's starting to change.

One of the blogs that I've recently "rediscovered" since it was "relocated" is Walter Jon Williams' "ANGEL STATION". His personal blog is one of the many author blogs I'd kept up with over the years, and on a whim, went looking for where his old website had gone. And so, I discover Angel Station.

So I happen to check some of the blogs that I CAN read at work (damned internet filter protecting the kids from bad words!), one of which is WJW's page.

And his latest post...I had one reaction to it:

Holy Shit! Who ISN'T going to BALTICON this year???

See, I was an avid con-goer before I moved from my home in Virginia to my new residence with my now ex-wife to Ohio. I knew a lot of folks from along the East Coast con circuit, and I attended just about every fannish event occurring in the Hampton-Norfolk area. When I moved, due to financial constraints, I stopped collecting comics, and I stopped attending Cons...they just weren't the same...I knew no-one at all, and many of the cons left me feeling very much the outsider as an attendee (I suppose that's from being on staff at Sci-Con for so long, it felt wierd being an "attendee").

Now, I'm not meaning to meander this much, but I really do have a point coming up for this post...let me see if I can focus on it a little and clean up the storyline a little.

Walter Jon Williams is one of my favorite writers...has been since I read HARDWIRED back in the early 90's. I'd really like to meet him and pick his brain about some of the plot elements of some of his novels, and wether there are other stories planned for several of his "universes", namely the world of METROPOLITAN and CITY ON FIRE.

Mur, like WJW, I'd like to meet, too. She's one heck of a great writer, and her GEEK FU is truly strong. And she likes pie.

Mur talked on this last ISBW edition about going to Balticon this past weekend, and mentioned a lot of folks that would be there. While not mentioned in ISBW, Chris Lester, from the METAMOR CITY podcast was going to be in attendance, too. Had I been able to plan some of this out, I might have been able to finagle a trip out that way and hopefully talk a few old friends into making the trek up from North Carolina and Virginia up to Hunt Valley this past weekend. Alas, no...I need to save money for living expenses.

Then I found out after it was all said and done, that WJW was going to be there.

My inner voice just couldn't keep quiet any longer...

"HOLY SHIT..."

And the rest, is history.

I don't know when my next post will be...might be today, tomorrow, next month...who knows?

Let's just say I got a kick in the pants to get this place dusted off finally and begin broadcasting to the blogosphere again.

It's good to be home.

Pax, y'all.

S

Dusting cobwebs...

[hiss]
[clickclick]
Test...
[clickclickclickHUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM}
test test...well, it's got power...think anybody can hea
[click]

Going out of business...

Everything must go...not that there's much of anything left.

Thank you, those of you who've stopped by in the past. Nothing I say or do matters...my life is the same.

Be good to each other, everyone...and remembered those of us who thought we could make a difference.