Friday, December 31, 2004
So Long, 2004
Wow, it's over. This is the last day of the year. And, what a year.
Here's what I did:
- Moved twice.
- Filed for divorce.
- Rediscovered dating.
- Found a kindred spirit.
- Published some stories.
- A lot of other significant things too private to list here.
So, what did you do this year? And, if you're reading this in 2005, Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Whoa!
What a job. Makes my hands sweat just looking at it.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Not Since Krakatoa...
From the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation's website: Thank you for your concern about my safety in the wake of Sunday's devastating tidal wave.
I am enormously relieved that my family and household have escaped the ravages of the sea that suddenly invaded most parts of coastal Sri Lanka, leaving a trail of destruction.
But many others were not so fortunate. For hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans and an unknown number of foreign tourists, the day after Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow.
Among those affected are my staff based at our diving station in Hikkaduwa and holiday bungalow in Kahawa -- both beachfront properties located in areas worst hit. We still don't know the fully extent of damage as both roads and phones have been damaged. Early reports indicate that we have lost most of our diving equipment and boats. Not all our staff members are accounted for -- yet.
This is indeed a disaster of unprecedented magnitude for Sri Lanka which lacks the resources and capacity to cope with the aftermath. We are all trying to contribute to the relief efforts. We shall keep you informed as we learn more about what happened.
Curiously enough, in my first book on Sri Lanka, I had written about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbour (see Chapter 8 in The Reefs of Taprobane, 1957). That happened in August 1883, following the eruption of Krakatoa in roughly the same part of the Indian Ocean.
Arthur Clarke
27 December 2004
Here's all my good karma and prayers going out to those affected by this natural catastrophe.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas 2004
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The road is so long
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
John Lennon
As relevant today as it was in 1971.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Recent Photographs
Cloudscape at Dusk 11-23-2004
B&W Cloudscape 11-23-2004
Cloudscape 12-6-2004
Out My Bedroom Window, Last Night
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
What the heck?!
Snow in Dallas! Looks like it will stick around until Christmas, too. Figures. We finally get a White Christmas, and my kids are in California.
Monday, December 20, 2004
Insidious Danger to Society
A few weeks ago, a 10 year old girl named Porsche Brown, going to 4th grade class in Philadelphia, was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to the police station because they found scissors in her backpack.
The school district admits that Porsche never threatened anyone. She posed no danger. No one even considered for a moment that she might be dangerous. But, because of "Zero Tolerance" they were "forced" to do this thing. Terrorize and probably traumatized a poor little girl, with handcuffs, the whole bit, down to the police station.
Get this, the scissors were used in school all the time. Scissors are SUPPLIED by the school. But since Porsche brought her own, they were considered a deadly weapon, and they were "forced" to take action.
My friends, excuse me but ... this is the most goddamned idiotic thing I have ever heard. It's a black day ... no, month ... no, YEAR, for the that school district. A dark cloud of shame must cloak the entire Philadelphia police department. Why? Because obviously they're employing some of the dumbest people to have ever walked the face of the planet. A dog would have more common sense. A mole. A cockroach. And, obviously it's not just one idiot, it's a whole group of them. "Idiot" is too bright a word for this travesty of justice. "Moron" seems too weak.
I mean, a single dull grey rock must be more intelligent than this crowd. Dirt, just common dirt, has more brain power. How many millions of dollars is Philadelphia spending on protecting the school district and the public at large against 10 year old girls with scissors? What's the next step? Brand them as terrorists?
Philadelphia, what is WRONG with you? Find these morons, expel them from positions of authority, purge them from your society. If you allow this to happen, then you're ALL to blame.
Remember: Zero Tolerance = Zero Common Sense. Porsche Brown is not a danger to society. Zero Tolerance is the danger. The shutting down of higher brain functioning, en masse, on command. Trained professionals turning into imbeciles at the flip of a switch.
You have brains, Philadephia. Use them! For God's sake, USE THEM!
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Pen And Paper, Together Again
I've found the best way to concentrate on writing, for me, is to do a very ironic thing: Use a pen and write out the first draft on binder paper. And that's what I'm doing. A couple of hours a night, scribbling away, like I used to do way long ago in the pre-computer days, sitting for hours on end at Carnations restaurant in Stockton, California, becoming such a regular that I knew every other regular by name and routinely gave waitresses rides home after their shifts.
Come to think of it, my friend Danny and I double dated a couple of them for a short period. Huh. I'd forgotten all about that.
Anyway, so, here I am 25 years later, going back at it with a trusty old pen. No email to bother me, no blogs to distract, no instant messaging to pop up in the middle of a sentence. I was using my PDA the same way, but the software ended up having this annoying habit of crashing and losing my work unless I saved the file after every sentence. That got so distracting that it defeated the advantages of writing on the PDA.
I of course tried to justify this as an excuse to upgrade my PDA to one that wouldn't crash, but, no, turns out a pen and paper is much easier on the wallet.
So here I am scribbling out the latest part of my current novel, and of course, out of nowhere, my muse gives me a great idea for a completely different novel. (She has no idea she's given me this idea. I haven't even told her about it.)
I must jot this idea down and hope it doesn't go away before I have time to work on it. Since my muse will be reading this, I need to give her a hint: "Meow." That's it. Heheheh.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Two New Fiction Sales
After a cozy, relaxing weekend, I came back to my tree house this morning to discover acceptance letters from two different magazines.
My story Resurrection of Broken Dreams, an odd little piece about a Marilyn Monroe clone, will be appearing in Neometropolis, and my psychedelic marooned story Inconsistent Island will make it's debut in Mytholog.
Both are very high quality publications and I'm proud to be associated with them!
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