The Wooly Loach

Well, after all, I think I'm going to put this blog on ice.  I need to focus on doing other things, and quite frankly writing isn't going to make me a plugged nickle.  I'll have a better chance selling my indie games than a short story or poem! Argh!

I'll archive everything here and put it up on static pages, at least the worthwhile content.  Then this blog will go poof!

Today I officially Give Up on NaNoWriMo.   After 22,000+ words, I just can't write any more!

It's a long, sad story.  The first 8,000 words flowed like wine.  The next 10,000 flowed like thick mud.  The last 4,000?  Like pulling teeth out of a rabid alligator!  And the stress effects - headaches, stomach aches, muscle spasms.. sorry, I have to face facts: I Am Not A Novel Writer.

Now, during all this I continued to post mock-epic poetry here and there, and pop out the occasional small bit of poetry, so I know it's not a creative dry spell.  My soul just kept screaming "TOO MANY WORDS", and it eventually won.

I probably could have told the entire story in about 15K words or less.  Or as a series.  But trying to crank out 50K words when all of your training has been to pack as much punch into as few words as possible, is a truly Herculean task.

So, I abandon my novel in the state that it's in.  And I return to flash fiction, poetry, and short stories.  Hooray!

I dream of changes.
One last love, a dark desire lost
Bleed into the black sand and one rose
Blossoms, as I die.

your eyes are like love
Some ancient anger blooms
Lost in emerald caverns until
I tear myself apart.

Watch the red river flow
thicker than water, desire, lust
I empty myself into you but
I can not fill you.

this empty dark dream silent
I am melting, aimless, walk away
One last time I kiss you, and go
Gladly into the darkness, withiout you

Well, here I am in Austin, and I'm still settling in.

I arrived Friday 10/23, and got picked up by my new landlady (who is a dear heart, I have to say).  We went to my new temporary place and I got cleaned up and immediately slept 5 hours.  I didn't sleep well on the train, which I'll have to write about later - it was quite an experience.

On waking up, it turns out she was going to a birthday party and asked if I wanted to tag along, so I did, and I met some incredibly cool people and had a great time!

Saturday, we went to an Oktoberfest outdoor concert, and then to Antones for a concert by Del Castillo.  Excellent musicians all around!  I was VERY impressed.  Sunday, off to Ginnys Little Longhorn Saloon for football and chicken-poop bingo (worthy of a story of its own).

Monday, first day at work in Austin! Tuesday, more of the same. Wednesday, off to a place called the Flying Saucer which has more different kinds of beer on tap than any place I've ever been in my life - more than 40.  It's heaven!

Tonight, probably just going to have dinner and a few beers out and go home.  I have plans for Friday and Sunday, nothing for Saturday yet.  Maybe I'll spend Halloween on Sixth Street!

 

 

The First Needful Thing has happened: I have the checks for my payday AND the moving money in my hot little hands!  Now, they're not good until Thursday, but that's fine - I now have "real" numbers to budget with.

So, Thursday morning into my account they go.  And as soon as they clear (hopefully by Friday or Saturday), the timer starts on my move!  I want to be in Austin by the weekend of the 24th.!

the light dims, and in a far distant place
I look into your eyes, you turn away
The phantom fades and once again
I am alone, alone.

The dust blows, dry skeleton of what
Might have been love, might have been
Something other than the empty thing
both of us have become.

One last chance, hope springs infernal
There is no God where I am, and
You dance into the silence where
I wish I could go.

Breath like ice, love dark and frozen
I open my veins, but I only bleed
Dreams,and sighs, and perhaps
the whisper of might have been

Well, it's coming down to the wire now.  My relocation check should arrive soon, and on the 15th. it goes into the bank - once that clears, I enter "mad rush mode", clean everything up, and LEAVE!

Which leads to to the topic - getting RID of 14 years worth of "stuff".  Some of it sold right away, some of it was easy to give away or donate, but oddly enough, some stuff DIDN'T get picked up for free!

Specifically, my writers library.  Sitting on the floor, in a room containing my futon, the computer station, a 2-drawer plastic cabinet and nothing else, sits a pile of fairly expensive reference books.  Many came, many saw, few took anything.  Even my fancy design books lay there, unloved.  Urgh.

I'm going to end up taking as many as I can to donate to the library, starting with the most expensive books.  If I run out of time, well, I'll stick what's left in the laundry room with a "free" sign on them, and run away!

I was so sure that someone would want them!

Well, you know, there's nothing worse than trying to find a place to live!!  Especially doing it from halfway across the country.

I have a fallback, though - there's a residence inn within a mile of the office, but it's going to set me back $1400 for a month! Ouch!  The advantage is that it's near the office and bus routes, so life would be good for that one month.  But the cost!  There HAS to be a better way...

I'm currently talking to a person that has a short-term furnished bedroom, and will have a small bungalow available the first of November.  If this works out, it's possible that I could simply stay in the room for a week or so, then switch to the bungalow as my "permanent" residence! It's near the college, the couple that rents the place out seem like nice people AND the wife is from San Jose (still has relatives there) so they're kind of California, which is cool.. into the arts and music.. too good to be true, possibly. but they're right near the UT campus, near bus stops, and seem like incredibly friendly folks.  I'd commit for six months, or a year, for the bungalow!

Time to sit down with my spreadsheet and see if this is affordable.  At $950/month, which includes utilities, I think it would work out perfectly.  At my place, I was paying $1204 for rent, $30 for water, $52 for Internet, and around $120 for electric (total: $1406) so I'd save $456 a month - not bad.

 

Ok, this gets better and better! I thought I was going to have to rent a car when I got to Austin, for a week, just to get around.  Well, it turns out there's a bus stop 2 blocks from the residence inn, that takes me to a transit center/shopping mall, where I can catch a bus that lets me off about a mile from work!

Now, it's about a mile from the residence inn to the office, as well, but it involves crossing TWO major highways.  Add to that it's storm season in Austin, and you can see that crossing 2 major highways in the rain appears suicidal to me.

From the bus stop near the office, to the office, is all residential area with sidewalks (thanks to Google Earth for letting me see this).. so it's a nice, safe walk.  Plus, when I get my bicycle, it'll be a nice quiet ride to/from the bus!

Not long now!

 

Well, based on my most current research, I can walk to/from the bus stop nearest the office in Austin in about 20 minutes.  It's about a mile, and given my average walking pace uphill, that's kind of a worst-case estimate.  That's also an *extremely* bike-able distance, and all Austin buses have bike racks.  Yaay!

This isn't just good news, it's a necessary thing.  The vision in my right eye isn't great, and I understand Texas has pretty strict vision requirements for a drivers license.  Now, all I need is access to *one* bus that runs pretty often (the 19 line does) and I'm in fat city since I can transfer.  The great thing is, the 19 goes all the way to downtown Austin, so I can take it to go out! The last bus out from downtown is at 10:30pm, so there's plenty of time for me to party out on Sixth Street before I have to slither home.

A decent bicycle just moved up higher on my priority list.  And foul-weather gear, since it does rain and thunderstorm in Austin!  It's possible I won't *need"* an electric bicycle, just a nice convenient folder (which would save me some up-front cash).

Who knew moving would be such an adventure?