my new favorite word...

lucubration

noun:
1. The act of studying by candlelight; nocturnal study; meditation.

2. That which is composed by night; that which is produced by meditation in retirement; hence (loosely) any literary composition.

i do this all the time...

Your word of the week...

Crepuscular- Of or like twilight; dim:

one of those fancy words that fancy people like to use to describe this phenomena when language is just not enough to convey part of the magic of being alive...while it looks good, and has a nice sound...say it...cray-pus-q-lar...it doesn't come close to capturing what it attempts to describe...it sounds more like a medical term...for some kind of bodily function..leakage perhaps...i would rather go with something more mundane...say, twilight...

your word of the week...

harridan

noun
a scolding (even vicious) old woman

new terrain...new words to contemplate...

just as the hearts of others deals with...love, sex, and death...the new thing i'm working on seems to be an attempt to view those same themes through...an awakening sense of spirituality...

don't run...this is an exploration...not a sermon...

so...acknowledging that i am by no means the first person to consider this approach to telling a story...and that the estimation of...the level and/or presence of my talent...is untested...at best...let's add some context to to the discussion...

i first came across this combination of themes in William Burrough's Cities of the Red Night trilogy...The Western Lands in particular...



it is here that he most fully describes his Seven Souls concept...


a concept inspired by Norman Mailer...

how does any of this inform what i am working on...not much...except...it forces the question...what is the nature of the human soul...where does it come from...and where does it go...

as a man who doesn't believe in heaven or hell...and because i'm obsessed with questions of mortality...i've spent a long time thinking about this...the new story is, in part, an attempt to illuminate some of my thought...

which brings us to language...because it is the foundation of thought...i've had to expand my lexicon in order to expand my thinking...

so...in no particular order...some new words, and their meanings...as an introduction to some of the new themes i am working on...

theism...

noun

the belief in the existence of one or more divinities or deities. There is also a narrower sense in which theism refers to the belief that one or more divinities are immanent in the world, yet transcend it, along with the idea that divinity(s) is/are omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.

pantheism...

noun

a doctrine that identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.

polytheism...

noun

the belief in or worship of more than one god.

misotheism...

noun

is the "hatred of God" or "hatred of the gods". In some varieties of polytheism, it was considered possible to inflict punishment on gods by ceasing to worship them.

(thanks to mr Murray for providing the impetus for my research)

shift...again...

i've been unemployed 4 months...not coincidentally...there's been an explosion of activity here...notice that did not contain the words...writing...or, more important...work...

and it's not because no work is getting done...here is a list of everything i'm working on...but haven't told you about...

a short story involving characters from the first bsb book...who knows...maybe it's a first chapter...i am planning on submitting it...here...or maybe here...who knows...i hear Shoun is plotting a new publishing ad(venture)...the point is...for the first time i am writing something with intent to submit...

the very early stages of what i hope will grow into my first novel...partially growing out of the seed of the above mentioned short story...

the continued saga of Del, Mountain, John, and Nighttrain...the artwork Justin did for it...makes me want to raise my game up...



for some reason, that's just not enough for me...i've got something else up my sleeve...just as soon as i can clear one or two of these other works off my plate...

all of this...honest to god, it may sound like bragging...but it feels like whining...is to underline a point...two points really...

first...i start working at my new job tomorrow...so...you may see a slow down in...activity...here...to be honest, i'm looking forward to it...

second...you will see an uptick in posts regarding...my continued affair with writing...

the words the words the words the wordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswordswords

our word of the week...

manqué...

adjective

having failed to become what one might have been; unfulfilled...

in other words...my worst nightmare...

yeah...that happened...

yesterday...this idiot...sung the national black anthem to the tune of the national anthem...



(i hesitate to name her, or even give her the exposure she so obviously craves...but i believe everyone has the right to make asses of themself...if that's their inclination...)

some have said...what'ev...here's three reasons why i have a problem with what she did...

one...it's unprofessional...if she had simply asked the mayor's office if she could sing both anthems...i sure they would have approved it...Hickenlooper is a forward thinker...

"Hickenlooper said in a statement: "We were as surprised as anyone that jazz singer René Marie did not sing our national anthem at Tuesday's State of the City ceremony, as our staff had requested. As I listened to her sing, I assumed she would eventually move into the traditional Star Spangled Banner."

but no...instead of asking...or at the very least...informing people of her intention...she made up her mind...and did her own thing...

"I pulled a switcheroonie on them," Marie said later.
She explained that she decided months ago to switch the lyrics because she will no longer sing the national anthem."

and that's fine...as far as that goes...i'm all for public protest...but she was asked to sing the national anthem...if she had no intent to honor that request...she should not have agreed to do it...

two...it's disrespectful...to her audience...to the people who asked her to perform...and mostly...it's disrespectful to the very ideas that allow her the freedom to protest...

"She said that she made the decision after a Russian broadcaster interviewed her and asked her what it was like to be an American.
At that moment, she said, she realized that as an African-American she at times feels like a foreigner in her home country.
"And I was going to correct her," Marie said. "And I realized I didn't feel like an American, and that bothered me a great deal."

fine...then don't take the job...make a public statement as to why you didn't take the job...organize a public protest against the national anthem...whatever...you want to be taken seriously...don't use subterfuge to promote your ideas...have some integrity...act like a responsible adult...

i'll repeat myself for the sake of clarity...freedom requires responsibility...

three...it's counterproductive...this is exactly the kind of bullshit the ignorant and ill informed will point to...as a reason why black folks aren't ready to lead this country...

watch...not only will this be dragged out all week by intellectual midgets on the right...but you can bet the ranch that this will show up in the presidential election...

heck of a job...
Total screw-up. Usually used ironically, to indicate when someone's self-delusion is in direct contradiction to well-known and easily-observed facts.
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

i learned something today...

there are only 850 words that make up the basis of basic english...somehow...i already knew that...

what i learned was...the term basic english...is also an official title for...one of the many languages people purposefully created...as opposed to the living languages...that constantly evolve...on our tongues...and in our ears...

now i've heard of esperanto...but...i knew nothing about it...especially...that it's part of...over 100 years of human effort to create...something like a universal language...this new information...fascinates me...

digging a little deeper...i discover this effort is not limited to business and politics...but also includes...more imaginative...endeavors...

somewhere down the line...i can see myself really diving...furthur...into this subject...

btw...update on bsb...10 chapters left...

cunt, cunt, cunty cunt...honey, this breakfast is cuntastic...last night's game? why it was cuntacular...i'm sorry for being such a cunt...now bring your cunt over here...it sounds like it needs a good cunt licking...

grow up