Kyle Michel Sullivan's Blog: https://www.myirishnovel.com/, page 263
April 26, 2014
Jumpin' in feet first...
I'm sending Return to Darian's Point out to competitions, again. I did a pass through it to simplify my formatting a bit; I tend to get a bit too caught in precision when trying to tell a story in a screenplay, making sure every scene is delineated properly...which could make it hard to catch the flow. And there are a couple of points in RDP that jump back and forth in time. I think it reads a lot easier now.
Once that was done, off it went...and I made this a Star Trek evening -- watching the J. J. Abrams reboot and "Into Darkness", back to back. Thoroughly enjoyed them. And Zachary Quinto is a fantastic Spock. I even liked Chris Pine as Kirk, this time around.
Got nothin' else to say...for now.
Once that was done, off it went...and I made this a Star Trek evening -- watching the J. J. Abrams reboot and "Into Darkness", back to back. Thoroughly enjoyed them. And Zachary Quinto is a fantastic Spock. I even liked Chris Pine as Kirk, this time around.Got nothin' else to say...for now.
April 25, 2014
Now this is chemistry...and star power...
Worked late so watched a DVD of Ball of Fire that I won at eBay...and sill loved it.Barbara Stanwyck is a nightclub singer hiding so the DA won't make her testify against her gangster boyfriend. She's ingratiated herself into a house containing 7 professors and Gary Cooper, an uptight linguist studying slang...and parts of it are hysterical.
This is the "Yum-yum" scene.
Thoughts about anything else are non-existent, right now.
This is the "Yum-yum" scene.
Thoughts about anything else are non-existent, right now.
April 24, 2014
Slowly getting there...
I'm practicing avoidance by focusing on getting all my books back in order, everywhere I can. This evening was spent working on GoodReads, trying to get everything set up to where only the new editions come up. But like Amazon, they won't take anything down, even if it is no longer available. The best I can do is combine them into one listing and choose which one is premier.
What's good about GoodReads is the following it's brought me. And positive feedback, a few instances non-withstanding. I hope I've developed a good attitude about the occasional criticism that is shot at me over my books. Some of it's been pretty funny. Some of it...pisses me off a little, because it may have turned people off from buying the book. I'd like to think it's their loss, but that's a bit self-aggrandizing.
I finally got Tumbler back. They must be European based, because their IT department was shut down during Easter Week. Come the Tuesday after Easter Monday (a real holiday in Euro-ville) I started getting through to them. I finally started working on my thread at work, on the PC, and then it came together. They must not like Macs. But now I can use it to sell my books, again.
So things are pretty much back to normal and this weekend I'll have lost all my excuses and reasons not to write...and it will be back to work on OT. Facing this new demon of Jake's. and seeing where that leads us. I hope it's to the end of the story. Then I can get onto UG and then return to P/S.
The next few months look to be quiet on the travel front. Maybe that way I can get some continuity going, again.
One can always dream...
What's good about GoodReads is the following it's brought me. And positive feedback, a few instances non-withstanding. I hope I've developed a good attitude about the occasional criticism that is shot at me over my books. Some of it's been pretty funny. Some of it...pisses me off a little, because it may have turned people off from buying the book. I'd like to think it's their loss, but that's a bit self-aggrandizing.
I finally got Tumbler back. They must be European based, because their IT department was shut down during Easter Week. Come the Tuesday after Easter Monday (a real holiday in Euro-ville) I started getting through to them. I finally started working on my thread at work, on the PC, and then it came together. They must not like Macs. But now I can use it to sell my books, again.
So things are pretty much back to normal and this weekend I'll have lost all my excuses and reasons not to write...and it will be back to work on OT. Facing this new demon of Jake's. and seeing where that leads us. I hope it's to the end of the story. Then I can get onto UG and then return to P/S.
The next few months look to be quiet on the travel front. Maybe that way I can get some continuity going, again.
One can always dream...
April 23, 2014
D'Arcy Oake
Totally fun...just...fun...
April 22, 2014
I'm weird or something...
I've been trying to get into "Firefly"...and I just can't. I've gone through half a dozen episodes and the bad acting and poor direction are killing me. Nathan Fillion is good, but the other actors are flat or wooden, at best, most of them seemingly having reached the peak of their abilities in grade school. And the directing and editing are just ludicrous. I watched a duel by swords that didn't even rise to the level of beginning stage combat. "Buffy" quality, this is not.
But that's what happens when you buy into hype, I guess. I've had this happen before. A woman I worked with raved about Russell Banks' Continental Drift so I picked up a copy...and after 100 pages I chucked it. I could see the ending a mile away and everything was going to be just that way and I didn't need the depression that came with the moral lesson behind the book or whatever it was supposed to be. What's funny is, when I told her how I felt, she freaked out and all but stopped talking to me.
I don't feel that way when somebody doesn't like something I recommend. I love "The 400 Blows" but I know people who only think it's nice. I think "Grand Illusion"'s third act is what makes it a great movie, but others have argued it's not even necessary. I once lent my copy of Ozu's "Late Spring" to someone who loved Japanese movies, and got it back with a big shrug of, "It was okay, I guess; kind of slow."
I do get miffed when so-called film buffs and critics complain about the pace of a Japanese film, completely ignoring the whole rhythm of Japanese culture. It's like whining about the repetition in Opera Lyrics -- most of the time they're there more for the musical continuity and dramatic emphasis, and if you don't like it, you're not paying real attention.
However...with "Firefly" my main complaints are -- hell, everything about it. Barely adequate special effects. Derivative storylines. Actors who sound like actors when they're acting even as they aren't supposed to be acting. A hero who's always going to do good, even though he's a bit shady. It was sad to watch, and I love Joss Whedon's work.
Maybe I'm spoiled by the kick-ass perfection of the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot. But if I'm going to spend my time watching a space opera, it better keep me interested...even if I AM ironing at the same time.
Make me happy or go find yourself a black hole.
But that's what happens when you buy into hype, I guess. I've had this happen before. A woman I worked with raved about Russell Banks' Continental Drift so I picked up a copy...and after 100 pages I chucked it. I could see the ending a mile away and everything was going to be just that way and I didn't need the depression that came with the moral lesson behind the book or whatever it was supposed to be. What's funny is, when I told her how I felt, she freaked out and all but stopped talking to me.
I don't feel that way when somebody doesn't like something I recommend. I love "The 400 Blows" but I know people who only think it's nice. I think "Grand Illusion"'s third act is what makes it a great movie, but others have argued it's not even necessary. I once lent my copy of Ozu's "Late Spring" to someone who loved Japanese movies, and got it back with a big shrug of, "It was okay, I guess; kind of slow."
I do get miffed when so-called film buffs and critics complain about the pace of a Japanese film, completely ignoring the whole rhythm of Japanese culture. It's like whining about the repetition in Opera Lyrics -- most of the time they're there more for the musical continuity and dramatic emphasis, and if you don't like it, you're not paying real attention.
However...with "Firefly" my main complaints are -- hell, everything about it. Barely adequate special effects. Derivative storylines. Actors who sound like actors when they're acting even as they aren't supposed to be acting. A hero who's always going to do good, even though he's a bit shady. It was sad to watch, and I love Joss Whedon's work.
Maybe I'm spoiled by the kick-ass perfection of the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot. But if I'm going to spend my time watching a space opera, it better keep me interested...even if I AM ironing at the same time.
Make me happy or go find yourself a black hole.
April 21, 2014
Just one of those days...
...where all I want to do is curl up and read a book ro watch a movie and not think beyond the instant. So I'm slacking off and offering up a ludicrous competition -- someone actually asked who the better writer is -- Tolstoy or Dostoeyvsky? I've read both and fall more in the Tolstoy camp because of his humanism...but here is what Ellen Chances, Professor of Russian Literature, Princeton University had to say:
The question, in my mind, is meaningless. One of the worrisome tendencies of contemporary society is its impulse to rank. Who is better? Who is Number One? The question should not be, “Who is the greater novelist?,” but rather, “What do I learn from reading the books of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, or of anyone else?
Why does everything have to be a race? Why does everything have to be competitive? This implies that there is a winner and a loser. Why does the reading of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky or of anyone else have to be part of a “success” or “failure” story? Framing the question, “Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: Who’s the better novelist?,” in this way does a disservice, it seems to me, to the act of contemplating the meaning of these writers’ books.
Asking the question is equivalent to asking, “Which is the greater food, milk or orange juice? Which is the greater food, blueberries or strawberries? Which is better, the sky or the grass, night or day?”
To me, both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are equally great writers. Each focused on some of the important “big questions” of life. Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov, in The Brothers Karamazov, asked how a just God could have created a world that includes the suffering of innocent children. Tolstoy, through his character, Levin, in Anna Karenina, asked what the meaning of life is. Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy asserted that the essence of life cannot be found by relying on the intellect alone. Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy understood that being true to the authentic rhythms of life means respecting the non-linear nature of life.
Each of the two offers profound insights about psychology. Tolstoy emphasizes the ways in which people relate to one another in a societal context. Dostoevsky digs deeply into the individual human psyche. Tolstoy paints a world in which extreme things happen to ordinary people. Dostoevsky shows us the extremes of which people are capable. Each of the two writers describes crises in faith. Each describes the journey to a life of spiritual values.
Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy write in a way that conveys the energy of life. That energy comes about, in Dostoevsky, through the clash of ideas, through the tension he creates through suspense and the use of words like “suddenly.” Ivan Karamazov says that he loves life more than the meaning of life. Tolstoy shows a love of life of this world – the smell of the earth, the beauty of a flower. He speaks about living a life of authenticity.
Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy make me think about what is important in life. Both urge the reader to appreciate those things that money or competition cannot bestow – love, and life itself…
…So who is the greater writer, Dostoevsky or Tolstoy? Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are great…And then there is Chekhov, and Pushkin, and Mandelstam and Akhmatova and Bitov… And that’s just the Russians…
---------------
FWIW -- I think the chapter in Anna Karenina where Levin reaps wheat with the peasants as he worries and ponders and pouts and realizes is perhaps the most perfect joining of prose and poetry and the emotions of the heart and soul ever written.
The question, in my mind, is meaningless. One of the worrisome tendencies of contemporary society is its impulse to rank. Who is better? Who is Number One? The question should not be, “Who is the greater novelist?,” but rather, “What do I learn from reading the books of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, or of anyone else?
Why does everything have to be a race? Why does everything have to be competitive? This implies that there is a winner and a loser. Why does the reading of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky or of anyone else have to be part of a “success” or “failure” story? Framing the question, “Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: Who’s the better novelist?,” in this way does a disservice, it seems to me, to the act of contemplating the meaning of these writers’ books.
Asking the question is equivalent to asking, “Which is the greater food, milk or orange juice? Which is the greater food, blueberries or strawberries? Which is better, the sky or the grass, night or day?”
To me, both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are equally great writers. Each focused on some of the important “big questions” of life. Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov, in The Brothers Karamazov, asked how a just God could have created a world that includes the suffering of innocent children. Tolstoy, through his character, Levin, in Anna Karenina, asked what the meaning of life is. Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy asserted that the essence of life cannot be found by relying on the intellect alone. Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy understood that being true to the authentic rhythms of life means respecting the non-linear nature of life.
Each of the two offers profound insights about psychology. Tolstoy emphasizes the ways in which people relate to one another in a societal context. Dostoevsky digs deeply into the individual human psyche. Tolstoy paints a world in which extreme things happen to ordinary people. Dostoevsky shows us the extremes of which people are capable. Each of the two writers describes crises in faith. Each describes the journey to a life of spiritual values.Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy write in a way that conveys the energy of life. That energy comes about, in Dostoevsky, through the clash of ideas, through the tension he creates through suspense and the use of words like “suddenly.” Ivan Karamazov says that he loves life more than the meaning of life. Tolstoy shows a love of life of this world – the smell of the earth, the beauty of a flower. He speaks about living a life of authenticity.
Both Dostoevsky and Tolstoy make me think about what is important in life. Both urge the reader to appreciate those things that money or competition cannot bestow – love, and life itself…
…So who is the greater writer, Dostoevsky or Tolstoy? Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are great…And then there is Chekhov, and Pushkin, and Mandelstam and Akhmatova and Bitov… And that’s just the Russians…
---------------
FWIW -- I think the chapter in Anna Karenina where Levin reaps wheat with the peasants as he worries and ponders and pouts and realizes is perhaps the most perfect joining of prose and poetry and the emotions of the heart and soul ever written.
April 20, 2014
Easter cleansing...
I am currently sneezing my fool head off because I cleaned my apartment, today...and DAMN, I think I killed three generations of dust bunnies. Now their ghosts haunt my eyes and nasal passages. And that's with me wearing a mask all day - well, a wet bandana over my nose and mouth...which may be why it didn't start hitting me till nearly 7pm.
I still have a stack of paperwork to go through but I'm too bushed. I will say, my apartment's the cleanest it's been since practically when I moved in...over 4 years ago. Shit. I also have a lot of ironing to do. Not sure which will be gotten to, first.
Jake and I continue to mull over the revelation he brought to me. I can see it...and see how it works...but it means major changes to one character and I'm not sure I want to do that. Nor is he sure how he feels about it. Which probably means we'll go through with it, because it's hitting our danger zones.
But at the same time, I'm scared of it. This touches close to something that happened to me and cuts to the bone. Hell, it hurts to even think about.
Suddenly I remember a moment at Blarney Castle, my first trip to Ireland. 12 years ago. I did the bit where you kiss the Blarney Stone...which meant lying on my back and leaning into a pit and putting my lips to it, upside down, after a hundred other people had just done so. You get your picture taken when you do it. Only, my encounter was not the norm. I scratched the tip of my nose, barely touched the stone, and when I came up, the photographer said, "That other one was the last." Meaning he'd run out of film so my photo wasn't taken.
I fell into a funk, thinking it had all sorts of meaning, and wandered around the grounds. Then, by the Warlock's Cave, I saw a dragonfly slowly dancing around. It landed on my finger and I carried it to a nearby pond, where it crawled onto a reed. As I walked away, a poem came to my head -- I can't find it, now, but it was basically saying I was handed a gift...only with that gift came a curse...and that curse was to follow the muse. No matter where I was led.
I'm finally getting an idea of what that curse means.
I still have a stack of paperwork to go through but I'm too bushed. I will say, my apartment's the cleanest it's been since practically when I moved in...over 4 years ago. Shit. I also have a lot of ironing to do. Not sure which will be gotten to, first.
Jake and I continue to mull over the revelation he brought to me. I can see it...and see how it works...but it means major changes to one character and I'm not sure I want to do that. Nor is he sure how he feels about it. Which probably means we'll go through with it, because it's hitting our danger zones.But at the same time, I'm scared of it. This touches close to something that happened to me and cuts to the bone. Hell, it hurts to even think about.
Suddenly I remember a moment at Blarney Castle, my first trip to Ireland. 12 years ago. I did the bit where you kiss the Blarney Stone...which meant lying on my back and leaning into a pit and putting my lips to it, upside down, after a hundred other people had just done so. You get your picture taken when you do it. Only, my encounter was not the norm. I scratched the tip of my nose, barely touched the stone, and when I came up, the photographer said, "That other one was the last." Meaning he'd run out of film so my photo wasn't taken.
I fell into a funk, thinking it had all sorts of meaning, and wandered around the grounds. Then, by the Warlock's Cave, I saw a dragonfly slowly dancing around. It landed on my finger and I carried it to a nearby pond, where it crawled onto a reed. As I walked away, a poem came to my head -- I can't find it, now, but it was basically saying I was handed a gift...only with that gift came a curse...and that curse was to follow the muse. No matter where I was led.
I'm finally getting an idea of what that curse means.
April 19, 2014
That lost feeling...
Now that Porno Manifesto if up and running...or about to...I'm going through decompression. I can't face doing anything except letting my brain drift as it recharges. Now I get to figure out just how deep in the hole I went to complete this. And wonder how the hell I'm going to get out of it.
I got my first royalty payment, which will help mitigate a bit of the cost. I have to wait and see how much Paypal takes out for handling it, but after the mess with my credit cards, no way in hell do I want my bank account to be out there...at least, not as much.
Okay...I'm officially brain dead for the night. I can't think of anything to say or discuss or even whine about. I did read a little about the ludicrous uproar the white folk in Topeka, Kansas are having over Michelle Obama being invited to make a commencement speech on the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. But it's the usual "I'm not a racist" crap being spewed by right wing slugs.
And I caught up on the anti-Semitic scumbag who killed 3 Christians because he thought they were Jews, and the mayor of the small-town he's from who agrees with him. People are trying to recall that prick. Good.
Oh, and there's the right wing hissy-fit about Obamacare claiming to have brought health coverage to more than 8 million people and how it's all lies and smoke and mirrors and yap, yap, yap. When will people stop listening to the idiots who make unsubstantiated claims and realize the bastards are just using bullshit to obscure how the Oligarchs are looting America's treasury. I'm planning to swear never to buy anything from a Koch-affiliated company ever again...if I can figure out what all they are.
I did get that Japanese art site back, at least.
I got my first royalty payment, which will help mitigate a bit of the cost. I have to wait and see how much Paypal takes out for handling it, but after the mess with my credit cards, no way in hell do I want my bank account to be out there...at least, not as much.
Okay...I'm officially brain dead for the night. I can't think of anything to say or discuss or even whine about. I did read a little about the ludicrous uproar the white folk in Topeka, Kansas are having over Michelle Obama being invited to make a commencement speech on the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. But it's the usual "I'm not a racist" crap being spewed by right wing slugs.
And I caught up on the anti-Semitic scumbag who killed 3 Christians because he thought they were Jews, and the mayor of the small-town he's from who agrees with him. People are trying to recall that prick. Good.
Oh, and there's the right wing hissy-fit about Obamacare claiming to have brought health coverage to more than 8 million people and how it's all lies and smoke and mirrors and yap, yap, yap. When will people stop listening to the idiots who make unsubstantiated claims and realize the bastards are just using bullshit to obscure how the Oligarchs are looting America's treasury. I'm planning to swear never to buy anything from a Koch-affiliated company ever again...if I can figure out what all they are.
I did get that Japanese art site back, at least.
