Blog No. 397
I’m going to do another Stories that Stay with me this week because nothing else is really going on other than adding more words to the Invasion Novel but still not finishing it. More words isn’t bad, but I have to finish it eventually. Besides, it’s never going to be any good until I start fixing it in the next few drafts. For now, I wanted to talk about a movie, a theatre, and a friendship. Its a nice memory that I think will make for an interesting enough story. In 1999, a movie came out that changed how action and science fiction movies would be made from then on. I’m not talking about The Thirteenth Floor. It was, The Matrix. Continue reading “Stories that Stay with Me – Three”
This year the stars have aligned and this post is coming out on my birthday. Like today. It’s my birthday. Right now (as long as you are reading this on the day it was released). Not that birthdays are all that big a deal. I suppose I’m at the age where only the milestone years are really celebrated (and my first big milestone is next year). I can’t remember when the switch happened, but birthdays haven’t really meant that much to me for many years. For a while I was content to just think of them as a normal day, but my mom pointed out how it’s as much her day as it is mine, and that makes a lot of sense, so I got a little more into celebrating them again. I suppose it’s nice to have a day a year that’s all about you. Where being selfish is okay (to a point). I’m lucky enough to have a close core family and some fantastic friends, so I get my moments to feel special throughout the year when they are thoughtful, kind, and supportive. Not to say celebrating isn’t nice too.
Modern medicine is a miraculous thing. I go to a lot of public events and get a lot of unsolicited comments about how doctors are evil, medicine and pharmaceutical companies are there to get you sick, and other nonsense. I try to rally against it when I can (often times the person yelling is a brick wall). If it weren’t for my doctors and medication, I wouldn’t be here. If it weren’t for the antibiotics I’m currently taking, I’d probably still be sick in bed. I’m not. Pneumonia seems to be something that hangs on for a while, but I’m not bedridden anymore. It’s great. I did miss a lot of good writing time, but over the last week, I’ve done really well with the time I have. I pulled off nearly a chapter a day for four days. It’s a good feeling. 
I had a strange thing happen to me last weekend. Nothing. For a long weekend, that’s rather unusual. Most weekends I have a combination of work, events, or family gatherings. With it being the Easter long weekend, you’d think there would be some family tradition, but with my parents out of town, no book events, and the day job closed, I found myself with nothing to do for the first time in a long time. I say nothing to do, but I have plenty. My review copy of The Thinking Machine is still in transit from 
At the beginning of the year, I got a big surprise from my buddy Arvin. He told me it was our tenth anniversary of starting Wii Like To Podcast. Not only was it a milestone, but he was itching to do some more creative stuff. I was happy to oblige and we kicked off the year with an Anniversary Special. It was a really fun trip down memory lane and it showed us just how big our little podcast was once upon a time. The fire was stoked, however, and we started to plan out a new venture that took the form of Flags and High Fives: A Podcast Retrospective. It was a look back on that first podcast and a way for the two of us to ease back into the medium (and with working together again). That first experience is coming to an end soon, but we are working to transition it into something else rather than let it slip away like we did before. 
Usually sometime at the end of August or the beginning of September, I start to get really nostalgic and get caught up in thinking about the past. Inevitably I write a post about it that ends up being almost the same as the corresponding post form a year before. Still, I feel the drive to write it in an attempt to purge that action most dangerous to productivity, wistful daydreaming. Thankfully, this year, I’m just too busy to do much more than work and complain. The pressure is on and all those great accomplishments I was planning on achieving after last year’s final push disappeared into smoke surrounded by the day-job, new projects, obligations, organizations, and my own overwhelming lethargy. All is not lost, however, for I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 
Ben Van Dongen 