tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78509416967739225482024-02-19T08:37:24.333-08:00Chaser's JournalDon Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-6330179944176049402017-11-14T16:41:00.001-08:002017-11-14T16:41:36.905-08:00Defeated, or at best, Victory PostponedLess than a week into National Novel Writing Month, I decided to shelve my novel.<div>
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Why?</div>
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Simply put, I have too many things going on in terms of my writing that adding another project isn't going to help me in the slightest. So I'm going to go back to focusing on editing the novels I've got that are still in the words, push myself to actually get something either published or polished enough to start investigating the traditional publishing path next year.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-15337156200402526482017-11-08T16:48:00.001-08:002017-11-08T16:48:05.970-08:00Migraines SuckI have a love-hate relationship with caffeine. To the level that it feels like I should be talking about a different drug. If I'm drinking coffee, on caffeine, it helps me focus (at least a little). And it's become a relaxing habit, a part of the ritual that's hard to recapture in a way that feels right.<br />
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And it's really hard to keep on the ride. I can slip and fall off so easily. If I go a day without drinking a cup of coffee, sometime the next day I'll be hit by a migraine so hard that I feel like throwing up. I have thrown up at least once. That was my Monday. I thought because I'd felt okay for most of the day, I was okay, inside the window.<br />
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Nope.<br />
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I should have grabbed coffee in the morning, because by two in the afternoon I was starting to feel it dragging me down, and by the end of the day it was all I could do to stumble home, down a dose of headache meds, and crawl into bed.<br />
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Today's word count: 1000 words.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-85041431890601145412017-11-04T18:28:00.003-07:002017-11-04T18:28:54.956-07:00Nano Saturday 1You'll notice I haven't posted in a few days...<br />
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There are a couple of reasons for that. Thursday and Friday I didn't write. Thursday I just let life catch hold of me in the wrong way, had to hit the grocery store and just ended up too tired to write by the time I got home.<br />
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Friday? I have better reasons for not getting time to write Friday. Not ones that are going to let me finish NaNo. It was a date night, one that I'd planned. There's an old industrial building a few blocks away from me that has a truly staggering number of artist's studios inside, and on the first Friday of every month, they have an open house. It made for a really awesome evening, wandering from studio to studio and talking to the various artists.<br />
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Right up to the point where I crack my face and glasses on the car as we're heading home. That pretty much defines my Saturday, hunting down an open glasses shop that can help me keep this pair of glasses in shape long enough for a replacement pair to get here.<br />
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The good thing is it got me in the part of town that actually has a movie theatre, so I got the chance to go see <b>Thor: Ragnarok</b>. I deeply recommend it if you're a fan of colorful and fun action-comedies.<br />
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Just finished writing for the night, and added 300 words to the pile.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-6707042141806221892017-11-01T16:28:00.003-07:002017-11-01T16:28:41.903-07:00NaNoWriMo, take... Who knows at this point?So it's the start of November, and once again National Novel Writing Month is upon us.<br />
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I've attempted the sprint that is asked for in this before. And I'm doing so again. This time I'm playing with an idea that's been percolating in my head for a while.<br />
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"What if Aladdin of the Lamp didn't use magic to short-cut?"<br />
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Because, no matter where you look, the original myth or the mouse's, he lies and deceives to get what he wants. That's more than a little skeevy if you think about it. That doesn't seem the behavior of a "Diamond in the Rough." That's a con-man. Which there are plenty of interesting stories about con-men, though the best ones are usually where they end up being too invested in the person they're trying to be that they change. But Aladdin can't exactly do that. His lie is too outside of how and what he can be.<br />
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What if he asks for a chance? Not "Make me royal." but "Let me prove I'm worthy." So the idea's been filed in my head under the working title of <b>Proving Worth.</b> And I'm going to try and sprint through it this November. In that, I'll be going back to what I did when I first started blogging: daily words counts.<br />
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And if people are watching, I might end up posting the first draft as I go. But no promises.<br />
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And the first day's result? 1,286 words. It's not quite the 1.7k I'll need daily to make it across the finish line, but I managed to slip into the story without fighting the Blank Page for too long.<br />
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Let's see what tomorrow brings, shall we?Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-66223753088138873862017-10-23T09:54:00.000-07:002017-10-23T09:54:03.810-07:00A Place with no HistorySaturday night, I went to go see the opening night of the play "The Agitators." If you live in Rochester, please come see this play. If you don't live in Rochester, either consider making the trip or look into getting a local theatre company put on a production of the play.<br />
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It was an amazing production about the lives of Fredrick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, who both have roots here in Rochester. During the play, a thought struck me. Actually, it struck me during the prologue discussion, when the presenter talked about how native Rochesterians were probably aware of the fact that these two civil rights icons were friends. Rochester has a history and depth to it that the place I grew up doesn't have.<br />
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Sterling Heights, MI was incorporated as a city in 1968. Rochester, NY had already been a city for 150 years by that point. In school, we were taught elements of Michigan's history, but never anything about the history of Sterling Heights. And there were two reasons for that, I think.<br />
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<li>The subtle but obvious reason that an honest explanation for why in 1968 a whole bunch of white people decided that they wanted to live 15-20 miles north of the city of Detroit would probably be awkward to have with the people who were probably the kids or only just the grandkids of the people who made those decisions.</li>
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<li>I don't remember when I learned the term White Flight, or what a White Flight suburb was, but it wasn't hard to see that the place where I group up was one.</li>
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<li>Other then that, there's not much history to talk about. Sterling Heights was a commuter city that was built on top of farmland. The Wikipedia page for the city even offers a full paragraph to the opening of the mall in the late 70's.</li>
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The home that I grew up in was one of those houses built during that build-up, there was even a psychedelic poster hanging in the basement from the original owners. The home my mother moved to when she left that place behind was an old farmhouse, one of the few relics of what the place was before it was turned into a suburban enclave. It was a nice little place to grow up in, for all that looking back on it makes it easy to see just how fucked up things were just in the asking of "why" for the place.</div>
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In contrast, every apartment that I've lived in that's been in Rochester proper in the decade and a half that I've lived here has been at least twice as old as my hometown. The newest place was probably an old house built during the golden age of Kodak where a college buddy and I rented the second floor as we were just starting out.</div>
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I'm sitting in a newly built Wegmans that has its dining area decorated with the hundred-year history of their presence in this city, how they've been a part of it. I can look up and see an old stone church across the street and walk by the home of George Eastman to get here.</div>
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My current apartment used to be a hotel. Though in some sense, that's not unusual for downtown Rochester, everything is now "lofts" or "residences". I'm just lucky that I don't live in one of the "luxury" developments that surround my building so I can afford my rent.</div>
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In contrast, Sterling Heights has felt increasingly hollow as a place the older I've gotten. I am older now than the city was when I was born. That's an incredible thought. And the city feels like it's chasing after that illusion of youth, giant parking lots with strip malls line the road for miles as you drive into the city from Canada. And all of it is just so... disposable.</div>
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My elementary school didn't have a "real" name when I started there, it was just "City name" Elementary school.</div>
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It can feel small in some ways, but I think it's had an effect. I don't really feel rooted to Sterling Heights in any way. Rochester has time, age, character that's become part of who I am in place of the unrelenting lack of personality in the place I grew up.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-41814562000124673252017-10-04T16:50:00.000-07:002017-10-04T16:50:06.594-07:00Bundle of WorriesYesterday, my brother went to the hospital, with a blood sugar level over 700.<div>
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I'll give you a second to Google that, but holy fuck is it not good.</div>
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It worrying, he's my little brother; two years younger than I am. And this happens. In addition to his appendix almost bursting just over a year ago. I worry about his health.</div>
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And I worry about mine. I'm overweight, and it's always been such a freaking struggle to fight it. And It's something that I need to keep going with, if I want to live any kind of long life.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-42768924075985009682017-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:002017-09-01T00:00:07.728-07:00An August RetrospectiveSo, it turns out that if I have a writing class that runs the same day I tend to write these weekly updates, it throws my whole schedule for writing them wildly out of whack.<br />
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Something to think about and fix in the future.<br />
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A whole month. Guess the best I can do is hit one of the things that stuck with me.<br />
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I visited a place that has escaped my radar for too many years, given how long I've lived in Rochester. Artisanworks is an art gallery tucked away just down the street from the printing company I worked at before I moved to my current job. It's a wonderful and crazy mix of art that takes you away. I went there during a slow Sunday, and was the only person there for about the first half-hour or so of my walkthrough. There's a certain kind of creepy that comes from being in a place like that without other people milling around, the glass eyes of the stuffed animals looking like they're watching you.<br />
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The space isn't brightly lit, and there's a not-quite shadowy feel to the place when you walk through alone. The creativity on display was amazing, from the wooden table and room that was an homage to Frank Llyod Wright to the camera made from a Tibetan Monk's skull.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-61201917708990703512017-08-02T00:00:00.000-07:002017-08-02T00:00:23.989-07:00This was not the crash I expectedToday was good, but I didn't get nearly as much accomplished today as I did yesterday. I did get a decent amount of editing done, but I'm nowhere near where I wanted to be with physical activity.<br />
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And it's not that I didn't have the energy today. It's that I'm still trying to adjust to my new sandals. I strapped myself into them wrong before I left to meet a friend for lunch, and ended up with a line blister across my big toe.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-67750743511997881732017-08-01T00:00:00.000-07:002017-08-01T00:00:48.652-07:00Monday. AccomplishedToday was supposed to be my set-up day for the week. Yesterday I did my grocery shopping and took care of preparing my breakfasts for the week, a spicy egg salad on lettuce. That only left me with this morning to take care of the big cook that I tend to do each week, where I prep a week's worth of dinner from a single pressure cooker batch.<br />
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That ended up taking me longer than I had expected, so I didn't leave the house until almost 11 am. I made up for my late start by putting in two solid hours on my bike. By the end of that ride, I'd burned enough calories that reaching my target burn for this week (at least 4k calories a day) was dead easy.<br />
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Mind you, it also left me dead tired for a couple of hours, but I expected that. Once I recovered, I got to work on some non-paying writing. I got started with writing when I was doing recaps for a role-playing game with friends several years ago, and it's still a thing I like doing because it helps me to push certain muscles in terms of my writing.<br />
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Plus, it can be fairly easy to pump out a massive number of words. I wrote 3,000 words this evening.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-62171810893789835082017-07-31T00:00:00.000-07:002017-07-31T00:00:09.300-07:00Late post, looking forwardI owed you one of these last week, didn't I?<br />
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Sorry, been a somewhat busy week<br />
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Spent a good deal of time working with an acquaintance, helping him shift his company over the Alphabet overlords for his email. That, combined with a passing down of a little bit of technology, means that I'm now writing this post on my new Chromebook, an Asus Flip C302. It's an interesting look at the direction that this part of the computer space is likely to move; I like the ability to pick up and play games on my machine and grabbed one of my old favorites to replay through.<br />
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And the week was bracketed by birthday celebrations: my girlfriend celebrated her birthday at a bar with a bunch of her friends last Saturday, and I had some of the people who won't be able to make the official party next week over to my place for board games.<br />
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I got some writing done, but not enough. That's something I'm looking to remedy in this coming week.<br />
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I decided to do something for myself and take off the entire week of my birthday. It's not something I've ever done before. Hells, there have been a good number of days where I've worked on my birthday. Plus, I haven't taken a vacation in years. Not a real, "You have the week away from work" vacation." So I've got time on my hands, and need to figure out a good way to spend it.<br />
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So. Here's what I want to do: I'm going to try and write one of these recaps every single day of the coming week. I want to have at least one solid "I did a thing" to point to in terms of both getting out and moving as well as writing. I want to turn this coming week into a little writer's retreat for myself.<br />
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And if it works, I want to make it a recurring thing. I think it would be good to take the time for myself and do this kind of thing once a year.<br />
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So, let's hope I see you tomorrow!Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-72822746308340009372017-07-21T00:00:00.000-07:002017-07-21T00:00:25.629-07:00Rained Out ReflectionsOne big thing this past weekend, a movie in the park. And it starts raining just as the movie's about to kick up, and we have to get going. How it goes sometimes.<br />
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Saturday was interesting. A print shop I used to work at six years ago had closed down shortly after I'd moved on to my current job, and the building had been sold. I'd seen that they were renovating the building, but hadn't been inside since they completed it. Finally made the time for it this weekend with a short ride down there, since one of the bike shops had relocated into the building.<br />
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It was a strange experience. A large part of me still remembers the layout of the way the building used to be, and it looks nothing like it used to inside. A stripped-down utilitarianism that had dominated when it was a print shop had been replaced with the exposed brick-work industrial, along with new windows. The building was old and has those large windows you see on old factories, the ones that are often boarded up, even if the place is in use. I can understand it, the use it's being put towards has little need for the glass. It's now a series of offices aside from the bike shop, which is an utterly strange combination.<br />
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I'd mostly stopped to rubberneck on my way to my primary destination, a frame shop. I've had a print of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1483996883/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_rPsCzbH6HQRZY" target="_blank">Reckless Magus</a> cover that I'd been meaning to get framed for a while, and this was an excuse to finally go out and do it. Was nice talking to the gentleman who owned the shop, and by the end of the month, I'll have a framed canvas print of Abe up on my wall.<br />
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In terms of writing, this week has been more productive; I've actually given myself back to the rituals of the written word, and am once again the long-haired hipster sitting in the corner of the coffee shop hammering away at his laptop. It feels good to be productive again.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-80210209222354262932017-07-13T00:00:00.000-07:002017-07-13T00:00:26.509-07:00Wandering the Streets, in Search of Art and ChickenI'm kind of dreading writing this post, because I feel like I haven't been that productive.<div>
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Actually, I haven't been. Haven't written since the last time I put one of these posts together. I think some of it is I've been trying to step out of a routine that I'd trained into my head for two years while I was trying to get back on track.</div>
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It was not a great recipe for success. So I'm back to my favorite coffee shop, a cold-brew cup in front of me while I look at the past week to remind myself about the non-writer aspects of my life.</div>
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That has been a bit more fun.</div>
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Friday night was spent at a dance party held by an event venue just down the street from me. It was a really neat event, a Silent Disco. You get a pair of headphones, with three channels of audio, and listen to what you like. It's held at the roof-top penthouse of an old bank. The building has this wonderful wrap-around terrace, though I probably like it a bit better in theory than reality. I've always had this weird relationship with heights, not quite acrophobia but still something that worms into my head.</div>
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After spending about ten minutes out there, I had to retreat into the penthouse to sit and listen to the music and chill. After I relaxed, I enjoyed my night. It's an interesting event, you can see what people are listening to based on the color of their headsets, and it can start a chain reaction. Especially when a song that has the potential to grab the room comes on one of the channels. Vincent Price and Michael Jackson took almost the entire disco with Thriller.</div>
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Saturday was Festival Day, and this past week was the Cornhill Arts Festival. Cornhill is one of the historic neighborhoods in Rochester, and the entire neighborhood is lined with artists and craft booths. It's an event that has two primary purposes for my girlfriend to hit each year: a pilgrimage to visit her favorite local <a href="https://cordellcordaro.com/" target="_blank">artist</a> and the Baptist church's food stall, which does this amazing African Pepper Chicken. I can heartily endorse both the artist and the food. We both ended up picking up a couple of pieces, and I now have a piece of actual artwork for my wall, not just a series of prints that I like.</div>
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Also ended up picking up a jar of peanut butter from the <a href="http://www.yopeanut.com/" target="_blank">Saratoga Peanut Butter Company</a>. They had this blend called Adirondack Jack, which I've been using in my lunch smoothies this week. It's a nice addition, a blend of almond, peanut, cranberries... it's described as trail mix in a jar, and that's not a bad description.</div>
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Last minor note is I ended up with a rather strange accomplishment on the 11th: I bought nothing on Prime Day. Last year I had picked up an assortment of things (none of which I regret, mind you), but this year nothing really cried out to me.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-2824963565966838322017-07-06T00:00:00.000-07:002017-07-06T00:00:12.673-07:00After the ExplosionsI hope everyone enjoyed their Independence Day celebrations. For me, it wasn't the most productive day in the world (still working on getting back into the swing on that), but it was fun. Heck, this entire post could pretty much be me talking about the holiday weekend, since that's been the majority of the time that's passed since I last checked in.<br />
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I love where I live. It's a trite thing to say perhaps, but it's something that rings very true to me. I grew up in the suburbs, the place they point to in the Midwest when they talk about White Flight and the 'burbs. But I don't feel like I really ever fit. I've talked before about how I dislike driving and got my license late; it's nice living in a place where that's not an option that's crippling. In a lot of ways, it's kind of liberating.<br />
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There are amazing concerts just around the corner from me, I can walk to my local grocer (and bike to the larger local grocery for bulk stuff).<br />
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And I can walk to find an amazing place to sit and watch fireworks with the woman I love. Right next to the main library branch in the city is an open pavilion with a number of picnic tables and benches. And it gives an amazing view of the fireworks, you're so close you can feel the explosion. This is the second year in a row that I've been able to take in the 4th this way, and it's great.<br />
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This weekend also brought back another old habit that I haven't seen from myself in a really long time: just going. It had been a feature of my childhood, when I used to just leave the house during the summer and walk for hours, heading through a park or someplace just for the sake of moving. It's not exactly rigorous exercise (though pack on enough miles and you do feel it), but it's a nice way of "being nowhere."Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-63874946183859593042017-06-28T00:00:00.000-07:002017-06-28T00:00:00.372-07:00Weekly Check-inFestival season is starting to swing into full steam here in Rochester, and that means that it's time for free concerts right across the street from me and art shows.<div>
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It also means that my usual haunt is far too crowded for a couple of weeks, so I'm trying to adjust to writing in my own apartment.</div>
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I know, I know, "Qué horror! You don't get to go to a coffee shop and write, but have to try and do it in your own apartment." But it's always been something kind of a mental block in trying to write in my own place, at least that's where I've always felt least productive.</div>
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But I'm looking at a new day in that, I hope. Before I've always had a place where I crashed, the place where my bed was at. But in what seems like a rather rapid development, over the past year I've started trying to get more invested in the place that I live.</div>
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I started buying artwork and hanging it on my walls. I think my end goal is to make my apartment feel little different from the coffee shops that I write in, art covering the walls, making it a beautiful, clean space. It's nice. I've only got a small handful of pieces right now, but I have enough that I needed to buy a second six-pack of frames.</div>
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This apartment belongs to me and the furry little hay-eater who lives in my closet. And I'm no longer fighting against inertia, depression, and the debris of toxic relationships. Depression will hit again, but that's the nice thing about a studio, it's almost more effort to <b>not</b> sweep and clean up the apartment.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-36829174588780495962017-05-17T01:00:00.000-07:002017-05-17T01:00:29.434-07:00Care and Feeding of your Rabbit (and the Soul)I rent, which means that my ability to choose what kind of furry creature is part of my life are limited.<br />
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If I had more ability to choose, I would have a dog. A mid-size mutt somewhere between a lab and a golden retriever. Or what sparked my soul when I went to the local humane society to adopt (always adopt, if you can).<br />
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But so few apartments allow you to have a dog, most prefer small animals.<br />
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So I've got a rabbit.<br />
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I've talked about Loki before, my little hopping agent of chaos. He's been settling into the new apartment, but I've noticed something that didn't trouble him in the old place: there's less for him to chew.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHxo7GuwzsTo-G9XVQMgTExi0HTxtK4ZOWQ48kWHkSH4D3CRW4g6O_kCPff4YzzKjP4LFQH-2GIzkXia5H5LsGAaPgP46xE8gi1YucAsPtwtwLHAXA_tthzfa25VMFXNa0kzQ-YMJTGs/s1600/IMG_20170507_142138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHxo7GuwzsTo-G9XVQMgTExi0HTxtK4ZOWQ48kWHkSH4D3CRW4g6O_kCPff4YzzKjP4LFQH-2GIzkXia5H5LsGAaPgP46xE8gi1YucAsPtwtwLHAXA_tthzfa25VMFXNa0kzQ-YMJTGs/s320/IMG_20170507_142138.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loki, all 12 pounds of fluff</td></tr>
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I used to let him tear apart amazon boxes, but with a smaller apartment, I can't really dedicate as much space to letting him tear apart cardboard. So I've been trying to figure out what to get him in terms of toys. Loki made it clear this weekend that he likes to have things that he can pick up and toss around with his teeth, so I've grabbed a rope ball with a bell in the middle.<div>
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It's seemed a success so far, but I'm working on it.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-8639962144727106572017-05-08T01:00:00.000-07:002017-05-08T01:00:06.381-07:00Why Write?<i>Notes from the editor's desk: Going to try working back up to a normal schedule and getting at least one post a week up as I work to get things back on track.</i><br />
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There are people who've spent their entire lives knowing that they wanted to write, have a novel or short stories from when they were a teenager stuck in a drawer somewhere. People who go to school for an MFA in literature.<br />
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I envy them in a way.<br />
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I didn't know what I wanted to do. I ended up where I did because I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted out of my life. And when that left me staring unemployment in the face at one point, I turned to writing as a method of keeping myself sane.<br />
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And I liked it. I have dreamed and daydreamed every day since I was so young. My oldest friend tells me he's suggested I should write from the time we were in high school, so maybe it's just another of those things that everyone but me can see. I've struggled with it in fits and starts for the past six years, falling off and coming back to this keyboard and pushing myself, trying to capture something.<br />
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I keep pulling myself back here, trying to get back to writing. Because it feels good. I like being able to spin out a story, to share something that captures people. Even if right now it's only a small group of friends that I've convinced to read my writing.<br />
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And it feels like something that I can actually take ownership of in my life. In a lot of ways, I feel like I've been blown by the winds of fortune and my of biochemistry, reaching out and trying to capture that part of my brain where the stories live, building the muscles that help me put it into the world instead of floating in the back of my head.<br />
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So I don't write because I've always known that I wanted to be a writer. But I've always been a dreamer, and writing is just one way that I left people see into my dreams.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-88720131549032526212017-03-16T01:00:00.000-07:002017-03-16T01:00:42.180-07:00How quickly things explodeOr: <b>A counterpoint to the post exactly before this one.</b><br />
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Sometimes life just throws itself at you with only giving you a little bit of warning. The last month+? I had a spot of warning; I knew that my girlfriend was going to go through major, life-saving surgery. I didn't fully expect all the curveballs that got thrown at me that same week.<br />
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Three days before her surgery, I get fired from my job, the one I had just started to feel like I was falling into a rhythm with. It sucked, and it's still a blow to the ego, one mitigated by how awesome the people I'd worked with for almost five years before that point are. I'd gone, hat in literal hand (I fidget) to ask for my old job back, and I'd gotten my old job back, starting beginning of next week.<br />
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I look at the transit card that I'd purchased that expired on that same weekend with a certain amount of interesting pattern-making. Hadn't expected to be carrying that fortune cookie in my wallet...<br />
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And the past month has been getting settled back into my old job and being the best boyfriend I can be for an amazing woman. But it's taken me some time to start figuring out how to slice up time for myself again.<br />
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And so, staring at a page that I cannot feel any kind of connection to, I pull up my blog and decide to hammer out this post. I need to get back into the writing process, both in terms of this blog and my stories. I hope this is the start of it.<br />
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Because among other reasons, I'm hoping that I'll be able to announce something on here soon.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-67359579691948457342017-02-03T04:54:00.000-08:002017-02-03T04:54:33.087-08:00A new kind of stabilityIt's been two and a half months since I've started at my new job. That, holidays, and other general worries had been tagging and dragging me slow.<br />
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But I'm getting back on track. The past two weeks I've gotten back to writing, even if sometimes I'm struggling to get up and moving in time. I'm trying to find a rhythm in a new ritual: getting up and writing in the morning before I catch the bus to work.<br />
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It's got a couple of benefits, more than just actually adding writing back into my life again. It's getting me up and moving in the morning, for something other than just getting to work. That helps. It's one of the things that's a little easier to make it up in the morning, knowing that there's coffee and breakfast waiting for me before my commute in the mornings.<br />
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In a lot of ways, my life has settled into a new kind of stability. Hopefully when winter releases it erratic grip on my city I'll be back to cycling everywhere. That will free up more time in my mornings, it takes much more time to get to work when I'm riding the bus then it does if I'm biking.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-28921485636706068292016-12-07T16:19:00.001-08:002016-12-07T16:19:41.207-08:00Stumbling and Challenges.So, I said several things that ended up not happening: I was going to try and have the entire month of November blogged ahead, and I was going to try to pull no NaNoWriMo. I ended up falling behind on both fronts because I've had some serious things change in my life<br />
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<a name='more'></a>For the past several years, I've been working a swing shift at my job: running from noon until nine at night. It had some positives, like being able to sleep "in" every day, but it stole away my ability to engage in life in the evenings, since most things ended by the time I got out of work.<br />
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In the first couple of weeks of November, I accepted a position with a new company; it's been a big change: I'm back on "normal person" hours, I'm continually busy at work, and I have to depend on the bus to get me to and from work.<br />
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I'll talk about the bus part later, I have complicated thoughts that need to be unspooled.<br />
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All that upheaval in my life has left me searching for some kind of level, and that's left me unable to focus properly and get back to my writing. I'm coming home at night scatter-brained and tired. I don't like it, but I'm starting to get to the point of feeling some control again. I'm going to get back to blogging regularly, and I'll work on getting the third book's outline done.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-86530402882167529542016-11-21T01:00:00.000-08:002016-11-21T01:00:06.195-08:00No limits? No ThanksPulling another topic from my friends list, and it's something that feels like a sensitive subject: Unconditional Love. I have an opinion on it that's probably not commonly shared.<div>
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I think it's either dangerous or a crock of shit.</div>
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Boundaries are something that I've worked very hard over the past several years to build for myself. And that is what Unconditional Love is to me, love without boundaries. Unconditional, nothing that the other person can do that's too far.</div>
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Loving someone no matter what they do? No. You need to have limits, places where someone can go to give cause for pulling the eject switch. Otherwise you're trapping yourself in a situation that all too easily can become toxic.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-87895232152107448542016-11-14T01:00:00.000-08:002016-11-14T01:00:21.610-08:00Getting GoneIf you've been reading these Monday posts, it should come as no surprise that I'm an avid cyclist. I'm on my bike every day, and use it as my primary method of transportation.<div>
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But I've never taken a trip on my bike. I want to. I want to travel with just my bike and what I can carry on it, traveling some long distance. I'd have to build myself up to be able to do it, but it would be an accomplishment I'd be proud of.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-70573808444737039622016-11-09T01:00:00.000-08:002016-11-09T01:00:20.467-08:00Round 1... Fight!I've been chasing a kind of memory for several years; something that's a fragment of my youth. Sitting in a friend's living room as we toss a controller between ourselves in a round robin session of Dead or Alive 2. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123123/battlecon-devastation-indines" target="_blank">Battlecon</a> is a board game, but it does something that I think helps me to capture a little bit of that feeling.<div>
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It's a board game that is a fighting game; each player picks a character from the roster of fighters, you place your token on the board, and then proceed to try and beat the ever-loving crap out of the other guy. And you're not going blind at it; you can see exactly what your opponent has in hand before you chose your action every turn, the custom cards each player has in their deck is on a card you trade at the start of a match. You pick what you're going to do by combining a "base" (what you do) with a "style" (how you do it). You reveal your choices at the same time, and then based on the moves chosen, the order you execute is decided.</div>
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I've played maybe ten games, and I'm already starting to dig into the mindset the game asks you to have, thinking and trying to outguess your opponent. It's pretty easy to learn, but the depth in the game is kind of impressive. I don't have any idea how long I'd have to play to reach the point where it feels like I've explored all the play space in the game.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-86525926795732969892016-11-07T01:00:00.000-08:002016-11-07T01:00:20.278-08:00ObserverI've been a daydreamer forever; I think it's part of why I like writing, it gets those stories that are spun in my head out and gives them a life.<div>
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But actual dreams? I've always had a hard time remembering those. But recently, even though I've gotten no better at remember the details of my dream, there's been something that's felt strange in them:</div>
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I'm not there. I wish I remembered some of these so I could give solid examples, but it's something that has just carried through in what I wake up with. I dream in the third person. There's not a character in my dreams that I feel like I'm inhabiting, but instead I'm watching the story play out.</div>
Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-58252265844657233812016-11-02T19:55:00.005-07:002016-11-02T19:55:59.773-07:00Day 2900 words. It feels like a better day in general, and it was nice to be able to actually enjoy my coffee tonight.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7850941696773922548.post-81750865511062648932016-11-02T01:00:00.000-07:002016-11-02T01:00:04.733-07:00Putting life on Hold<b>How the hell am I planning on doing NaNoWriMo?</b><br />
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When this post goes live, I'll be one day into November and trying to climb the hill that is NaNoWriMo. It's not going to be my first attempt at this mountain; but I want to make it a successful one. That's going to require some things.<br />
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I'm going to try and have all of November written up by the time the month starts, so anything you see on this blog posted in November of 2016 was written... To be honest, it was written in the crunch time of the last week of October while I enter "Oh shit, the paper's due" mode.<br />
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I'm going to be making more of an effort to get writing done. On a weekend, I usually have a little bit of free time, and I've occasionally struggled with what I'm going to do with it. Not this coming month. I'll be pushing myself to write in every moment I can manage to spare.<br />
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Less time with my Girlfriend. This one is going to be easy enough; she's got several research projects that she's pointing to the bleachers on, so both of us are going to be rather wrapped in our writing.<br />
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The biggest X factor is going to be how well I can keep myself from burning out. And that's something that's not entirely on me. I'm going to need to lean on my friends, make time to relax with them.<br />
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Wish me luck.Don Schlaichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14191275784706900239noreply@blogger.com0