The Embers in September

Well, it's Sunday morning, September 26th, and I never quite got around to finishing up August's bio stuff.  Who knows where the time went?  (Reminds me of Robert Holdstock's Where the Time Winds Blow).  It's a perfect autumn day:   gray and overcast, with a clean chill in the air that makes you wonder if you could get away with wearing a sweater yet; a melancholy day, with an air of self-indulgence about it. 

In just a few days, it'll be one full year since I departed for Santiago. A lot's happened in the past year, but it still feels like it rushed by, in a quick dash for the exit sign. 

I recently realized that I haven't written much since last year this time:  my hard drive had crashed back in June, taking all the little tweaks and changes I've made to my writings with it.  But in the end I didn't really lose very much work.  That was nice from the Don't-Have-To-Redo-It-All-Over-Again angle, but somewhat disappointing when I saw how little I'd written.  

On a slightly less melancholy note, I won $4 playing Powerball yesterday! The first time ever.  My winning numbers were 07 (the powerball) and 32. 

Where do we go from here?

I just bought a new book by Kathleen Norris (well, new to me anyway:  it was published in 1998), entitled Amazing Grace:  A Vocabulary of Faith (Riverhead Books,  NY).  (Kathleen also writes wondrous poems, though I've only been able to locate her recent Little Girls in Church collection).  I've been drawn into her previous works--Dakota:   A Spiritual Biography and The Cloister Walk--like a lost child who suddenly finds her mother.  Kathleen's words and spirit tug strongly at me:   she understands lost faith in ways that beckon me closer, to listen to someone who knows, to someone who has refound and refurbished her soul. 

Books, Books, and More Books!

I've rather been a book hound lately.  I read two by David Baldacci (who wrote Absolute Power):  The Winner and Total Control.   I didn't like either one as much as I did Absolute Power, which I rather enjoyed.  (I had seen the movie first, and then read the book, which was quite different from the film).

I read a cheesily corporate self-help book called You've Only Got Three Seconds.  It's all about making that first impression count for everything, and how to judge others using the same criteria.  Ugh.  It was awful.  I hope people don't really do that.  I can't imagine someone seeing my frowsy hair one morning after working on printers for a few hours, and completely dismissing me because of that.  Well, OK, I can, but I don't have to like it.

A better one was The Stone Age Present by William Allman, which argues (rather convincingly) that humanity is still trying to catch up, evolutionarily speaking, with the technological and social changes we've created over the past 40,000 years.  Very interesting.

I reread Shogun for the first time over Labor Day weekend, then rented the mini-series and watched that a few weeks later.  I definitely like the book better, but the series did a pretty good job of capturing the main action of the novel. 

I'm also rereading Michael Moorcock's Blood, mostly because I can't recall if I've read The War Amongst the Angels--the third book in the triology--yet or not (I don't thik so, but remain unsure; I know I've read Blood and Fabulous Harbors).  It's not that I don't think the book is among the best MM has written--which I do--its just that it wasn't that long ago that I read them for the first time.  I like to think that I should better remember if I'd read the third one.  Oh well.  I'll reread FabH and then hit the final installment.  (MM's also releasing a new trade paperback collection of his recent DC comic, Michael Moorcock's Multiverse, which will have some new stuff in it).

The End of Summer, into Autumn

Two trips ground these months:  Gen Con in Milwaukee, WI, from August 4th through 9th (counting travel/recovery days--the show itself was 8/5 to 8/8), and my visit to New Jersey and Pennsylanvia over Labor Day weekend (9/2 to 9/6). 

Gen Con was a hoot, but a tiring one.  We worked hard, ran many events for EHP, hung out with industry friends, made a few new friends, and slept even less than usual for a Gen Con.  The remainder of August flew by:  I saw Sixth Sense for the first time, played some racquetball, worked too much, had my CD player fritz out (it wasn't ejecting disks for some reason, and has sporadically continued this problem--anyone know a good Yamaha dealer in Kansas/Missouri/online?), and ate dinner with the soon-to-be-infamous author of "Pet Rock" (my good and dear friend Doug Hesse of black dog imageworks).  I also ran my original car warranty officially into the ground, having passed 36,000 miles in the first 18 months of my ownership.  (I knew that was going to happen, so I bought the extended warranty:  hopefully I won't need to invoke it, though).   

Of course, most importantly in August, I met my new second-cousin--Grace Cooper Jackson--and her entourage (Denise and Robert, and Robert's mom and grandmother).  We all ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza in Kansas City.  We strolled around awhile, Grace oggled a few gadgets in The Sharper Image, Robert ogled a few trains (I forget which scale), and we all enjoyed the sunshine.  I don't have any pictures of Grace, but she has Robert's hair, Denise's skin, and a nice amalgamation of sundry pieces and parts.  She nuzzled right into my beard 8-)

September began with my trip to NJ, during which I vacationed with my family in Ocean City, caught a Bruce Springsteen cover band with my brother Phil and his friends (the band was pretty good), walked through the skeleton of the new house my parents are building in OC (it didn't have walls or a second floor the last time I saw it in June), and read Shogun.    That was in the first two days.  During the second two days, I partied and visited with friends from Penn State, some of whom I haven't seen in 10+ years.   We had a blast--I even discovered some tunes (the excellent 80's soundtracks to Romi and Michelle's High School Reunion).  I also converted a few folks to Porcupine Tree-dom.  Then I left, unable to return to Kansas with pepperoni bread (they were all out!) or Tastycakes (I can always mail order those, at least). 

The rest of September has been a blur.  I ran into a good and dear friend who I'd not seen in ages (two years or so)--Brandon Devlin.  So we ate dinner and caught up.   The night before I ate with my good and dear friend Erik Parker, who was in town while en route to another job interview (he's currently in Orlando, Florida, but he's looking for a PC-game development job).  I helped my good and dear friend Gene turn 25 (we played Speed Uno).  My good and dear friends Shawn, Elizabeth, and Zoe Mulkey introduced me to their good and dear friend Heather Schunk, and we all went to lunch while the Renaissance Faire suffered through mud (and our absence) from the rain the night before.  Heather and I have subsequently fallen in love!!

The last Saturday of the month I threw a apartment re-warming party (sort of like leftovers, eh?), and several friends came by.  We partied some, watch Ryun Edwards tear around the apartment like only a 1 1/2 year old could, chatted, played Speed Uno and Taboo, wrote Magnetic Poetry Kit poems on my front door, and otherwise revelled.  The distinguished list of attendees included Jennifer Phythyon and her trophy husband (the gaming industry tycoon John, laterly of EHP, now of GOO); EHP's own Matt Harrop and Elise Waldron (who was not, unfortunately, feeling very well); The Edwards Clan (Robert, Misti, and their delightful terror Ryun); David and Susan Burgett (alas, Susan also didn't feel well), who were congratulated on their marriage over the summer by Scott Kemme, in for the party on his first weekend off from Event Managing at Sprint; .  Also making apearances were the aforementioned soon-to-be-infamous Doug Hesse,

Power's flickering in a nasty wind storm, time to bail!

The Sixth Sense, Mark II

It's now 11pm on Sunday night, and--after an omlette brunch--I spent the afternoon chatting with Heather about senses and poetry, songs and travels, school and cities (among other things).  We concluded the afternoon by watching The Sixth Sense again.  It remained as powerful the second time around as the first.  Check it out if you haven't done so yet.  If you have, go see it again:  the trip is well worth it.

The End?

Well, that's the end for the nonce.  To peer into the windows of my pasts, please feel free to read my next-most-updated bio, the current-ish bio, less-current bio, and older bio, then the yet-older life notes, followed by earlier, still-earlier, and very-much-still earlier versions of the same, in addition to my original biography (also rather lame/silly) created when The Dreaming City was launched way back in the Spring of '96. 

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