Kinda bored, but Angel starts in about an hour so I don't want to start doing anything significant. Therefore, blog post. Works out nicely, doesn't it?

I checked the website stats today -- by far, the blog is the most popular page on the site. That's probably because Scary-Crayon just opened and because I've been linked in several well-read (I assume) blogs, so it'll be nice if some of that traffic gets directed towards SC. If you're new, do me a favor and visit -- either click the text link or use the image that tops the sidebar. (If you use that, you'll get the splash, which is neat, I think.) The site might not be up your alley given the age of the bloggers who probably show up here, but then again maybe you'll enjoy it. If you're a "child at heart", as they say, or if you're into reading about random things and random foods, and especially if you're in your late teens to early twenties (which means we were kids around the same time, and probably share a lot of fond feelings for things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), give it a look. Oh, and if you run an entertainment magazine or something like that, give it a look too. Then look at my resume. Then hire me. Please. 🙂

So today I did more work on SC -- I whipped up a few more older articles into shape, and a couple more will be ready once I get a title graphic together for them. I was planning to hold off on the next update until Friday or Saturday, but seeing as how tomorrow is apparently Oprah's birthday, and one of the newer articles is a review of the November 2003 issue of her magazine (which is one of the most awful and bloody stupid things you'll ever encounter, people), I'll probably be putting that one up pretty soon after the clock strikes midnight. That also made my decision pretty easy -- it was between that and the Maury piece, but Maury can wait. Oh, and I'll probably post another Crayon Haiku. I've got tons of 'em.

I've noticed that I've been working pretty diligently on the site to the neglect of my fiction writing. Hopefully once the site gets a little more established and I'm comfortable with the "flow" of things I'll get back to that. I really do like my fiction, and I definitely think that the things that I write in my stories are much more valuable than whatever comes out in the SC articles. The stories always have a significant point to make, and while occasionally I may make a few worthy points in the SC reviews, the overall point or theme of each article can be summed up accurately by saying, "This is some wacky shit," or, "Damnit, this is awful." For that reason it's much easier to churn out a review, and also I type those at the computer (owing to needing it for html, etc.), and I type way faster than I write by hand, which is apparently necessary for me to turn out an interesting story these days. And for some reason -- here's the kicker -- I get that same sense of satisfaction from finishing a piece for SC that I do from finishing a story, despite the lack of philosophical content, etc., in the former. In fact, it may even be greater, since I just have to upload the article and *bamf* there it is, on the web, for everyone to see. With stories, I've got to mail them out and wait a month or two to get a letter back that tells me nothing. (Or they insult me. Yay.) I mean it'd be nice if they sold -- I'm not starving, but I could really use the money, maybe to move out, but if for nothing else than to buy more crazy crap to review for SC -- but since all they do is get rejected I'm really only writing them for my own personal gratification and to maintain my sanity, just like the SC pieces. If it came down to a choice between which ones I'd rather have published, and which ones I'd rather be known for, it'd definitely be the stories. Ideally both would get some airtime. But right now I'm just collecting self-addressed stamped letters with rejection worksheets inside. Actually, these ones I've gotten recently aren't even worksheets -- just plain ol' dittos with blanks for the name. At least the old ones had checkboxes.

Hey, another request: if you publish short stories, and you happen to read SC (or the blog) and like my writing (though my fiction is obviously somewhat different, there are similarities), e-mail me and ask to read a short story or something. Or if you know of any markets that might be up for some gloomy philosophical fiction with a touch of oddness, let me know. Right now I'm gearing up to submit a really short story to Ideomancer, and maybe one to Brutarian, but I've got a handful of pieces that are just sitting around with nowhere to go and could really use homes. Still waiting on my rejection from the Playboy submission, but that's all that's floating around right now.

Perhaps I'm the most intelligent of the group. Not only am I good at book-smarts, but I'm a crafty inventor; I know my way around the lab, and the garage. So my personal life isn't too involved. I would much rather sit at home and read a good book. And I may be considered the least spiritual; but I do stand up for my beliefs and the beliefs of my loved ones. Quiz by Mikey QM :: www.mikeystmnt.com

There's another quiz window I can close on my desktop now.

I promise to make a legitimate personal page soon.

And I think that's all I've got for this post. I'd love to excerpt and drag this post out even longer -- posting an excerpt would require me to actually read the excerpt, which would take some time, and I'd possibly end up editing it also -- but I'll just stop here. I just don't want to leave this room until American Idol goes off. Ugh. Angel's been pretty bad these days too, but American Idol is so much worse.

Please visit Scary-Crayon. 😀