C.S. Daley's Blog, page 7

Traveling Man

Red Bluff is too damn hot. I sometimes wonder how we ended up in what can only be described as Dante’s 4th circle of hell. I used to think we spent our summers traveling because we wanted to see the world. I now know we are trying to escape melting. No one wants to go out as a melted blob.

We just got back from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Portland, Oregon. How different is the weather? I would run whenever I wanted. Let me tell you I have had some fantastic runs. I have run in hills, next to rivers, I have seen deer, bunnies, hot air balloons landing. I have never worried about the time of day for those runs because the average temperature has been in the 70′s. Last night it didn’t get into the 70′s until about 3 am.

We have only been in town two days and thankfully are getting right back out. It is off to San Diego and Comic-Con tomorrow and then San Francisco to see some plays. We then have to return to hell for a week. To help us get over a week in hell we will turn around and head to Alaska on a ten-day cruise. We then head to Malibu for a wedding. Sense a pattern here. Sadly, for my brother and cats we are leaving them behind to bake in the oven. Luckily for my brother, we love our cats dearly and air condition the hell out of our house.

We love traveling but we really love getting out of the heat. Plus, Sheri is going to get to see her first Comic-Con. I don’t think she has any idea what she is getting into. Her head probably won’t stop spinning for days. Not to mention I am also going to subject her to her first w00tstock. Between that and meeting more people than she will ever be able to remember her week should be full of win. Now it’s time to pack. Come back later in the week when I tell you about how much I want to become a sell out.

The Art of Running….From Zombies!

Later this year I will be participating in a zombie run with some friends. I am pretty stoked about it. I watched some videos and some of the zombies chasing you are horrifying. I will be genuinely trying to keep away from them.

Some of my friends are training up for the zombie run. I, on the other hand, know I can do the distance with my eyes closed. It’s a weird feeling knowing that. I ran a lot in college but except for a brief period back in 2009 have mostly not as an adult.

That has changed this year. I have logged over 560 miles since March. I am running more and longer than any time in my life. It’s a trick too. The original title I thought of for this blog was chronic. That’s because I live with chronic back pain.

At its worst, I am in complete agony and unable to move even an inch without unbearable pain. This happened to me last week and I had to skip three days of running. This is where body awareness and technique come in. I am much better at shutting myself down. I think about every step I take while running.

I am aware that I am one step away from pain. I push myself when I feel good and I slow way down when I am worried my body is ready to rebel. I have done a really good job with this but my recent shutdown has shown me I need to do more. I have talked about Pilates for years and now it is time for me to get serious. I need to get my core strong.

I have run a half marathon in each of the last two months. My plan is to run one a month. I really want to do a marathon but I know without getting my core stronger I stand none chance. I have done really well the last few years of setting goals and meeting them. So I am adding this to the list.

Running really has become an art for me. I work through stories in my head. I think about my body. I work on my technique. I wanted to get healthy and I have done that. My blood pressure is amazing. I have lost 40 pounds. Now I want to finish the job.

In the meantime I will keep working and getting ready for my zombie run. I bought an app called Zombies,Run! It’s fun and can really kick your ass with speed work. I have been consumed a few times but the last time out I escaped all the zombie hoards. I am ready for the zombie apocalypse people!

Frakking Labels! A Geek..Nerd..Oh Who Gives a Fuck Manifesto

If you read my blog with any regularity you know how much I respect and admire Felicia Day. It is not easy to have a career in Hollywood. It is particularly hard to do it on your own terms. She has accomplished a lot with intelligence and sheer force of will.

Recently, Ms. Day made a country music video and posted it on YouTube. She used the words, “Gamer Girl” in the title. A shit storm of negative comments ensued. Now Ms. Day does not need me to defend her. Honestly, I didn’t even particularly enjoy the video (this shit happens. You are not always going to like everything). My problem comes into play with the people upset over the words, “gamer girl”. Somehow this label is wrong. How dare Ms. Day use it. Some people were mad because she called herself a gamer. Others were mad because of the usual gender issues. Some people were just being assholes for assholes sake.

I personally don’t give a shit. You can call yourself whatever you want. The label shouldn’t matter. Do you think of yourself as a geek, a nerd, a gamer girl, jock, hipster, superhero. Good for you. Whatever floats your boat. You want some new label? Make it up and call yourself it.

Labels only hurt when they are used to separate. Sadly, this seems to be happening more and more in the world I rotate in. It seems quite a few people in the world of “geek” don’t want all the newcomers. They start throwing out words like pandering or fake (a lot of people accused Ms. Day of this. A ridiculous concept). I have only one thing to say to this, “get the fuck over yourself.”

I love people. I have spent a lot of my life isolated in my likes and beliefs. I have never fit into any box. For a long time this left me uncomfortable. I rarely socialized. I had few friends. It’s different now and truthfully I relish meeting new people. I don’t care if they don’t know who directed The Avengers. I don’t care if they think Jar Jar Binks is cool (I might question their sanity though).

I run six miles a day. I am a very good basketball player. I played baseball as a kid. I watch football on Sunday like a religion. If this was all you knew about me you would be tempted to label me a jock. Except it is only one small part of who I am.

Growing up I would actually go on trips to cities around the Bay Area just to visit new comic stores. My comic book store was my church. I saw Star Wars a bazillion times. I wrote hundreds of comic book scripts of my favorite characters before I reached high school. In third grade I pretended I was a tv executive and programmed a Saturday morning cartoon block. I wrote out descriptions for every show I would have on. I would then run them by my few friends and give story updates. If they didn’t like a story I would cancel its ass and write a new one. I invented a baseball simulation game with dice. I then populated said game with comic book characters (I will never forget when Wonder Man hit his 63rd home run).

I am a geek. I am a jock. I am a computer nerd. I am a writer. I am whatever the fuck I want to be when I wake up in the morning. None of it matters. What matters is I accept people. I like people. I am kind. I try to set a good example for my students. I live my life the way I want to. I won’t be boxed in by labels and I will ignore anyone who thinks their labels can keep me out. I am who I am. I worked damn hard to get to this place. I welcome anyone who wants to join me. I won’t hold it against you if you would rather not. I wish people could be nice. I long for a world where people are looking for ways to not be a jackass. Ms. Day doesn’t need me to defend her but I will. She is awesome. I am awesome. You are awesome.

Goodbye Ray

I waited a day to write this. I wanted a chance to really think about how I felt. Put into words what Ray Bradbury meant to me. A day didn’t help. I still feel a little sad. My words feel inadequate.

I have had authors I really admired pass away in my lifetime but Ray Bradbury is the first death of an author who I feel really shaped the young me. I can’t put into words how profound his fiction was for me. His words were the gateway drug into the adult world of writing. And yet he kept me so firmly grounded in my child self. His characters breathed life into my imagination.

I have written it many times before. My childhood was painful. I was lost and confused. Angry much of the time. Words soothed me. Writing showed me the world I wanted to be a part of. It was like magic. I would spend hours every night gleefully trapped in worlds that were not my own. I was alive when I read. I was real when I wrote.

Ray Bradbury was a genius. He meant a lot to the young me. I admit he was one of those men who I thought would live forever. I will miss his voice. His fiction will allow him to live forever for me. Thank you Ray. You never knew me (and thousands like me) but you helped me become a man. You filled me with art, and words, and joy. The world is a better place because you were in it.

Incarnators Published

If I am being completely honest here, I wanted this book out before now. I think I might have been a little stressed about delivering a great last book. When I wrote the first two I did it mostly for myself. I didn’t have any readers at the time. It was different this time. People were waiting for the last book. It slowed me down a little. It was either that or the cats (I have decided to blame everything on the cats. Their spoiled they can take it).

The final totals are around 270,000 words and 1100 manuscript pages. I am glad I am done. Now I will dive right into the next project. I have given myself a deadline of December to have my next novel out. In the meantime, go pick up Incarnators. I think it is a pretty good finish to the trilogy. If you have been waiting to buy all three at the same time I hope you enjoy. If not, you have my permission to blame my cats.

I will post all the links below. Smashwords will come later. It always takes a little longer to format for Smashwords.

Incarnators at Amazon

Incarnators at Amazon U.K.

Incarnators at Barnes and Noble

The Entire Trilogy at Amazon

The Entire Trilogy at Barnes and Noble

The Half-Marathon Man

The end is very near on my weight loss journey. I have only two more pounds to go before I am back to where I was before gaining the stupid weight back. Except, somewhere in the back of my mind is a lingering question. Can I get back to my college weight?

I am not really concerned if I can. I feel healthy right now. I look good and I am fit. In college I was a big time runner. Everynight I ran the track at my college and played basketball. It was the healthiest and fittest I have ever been in my life. I have pretty much assumed those days were behind me forever.

Then last Friday I did something I didn’t think I would ever be able to do. Something I never did in college. I ran a half-marathon. It wasn’t in a race. It was just the distance. I went for a mind boggling 13.15 miles. The funny thing is when I started runnning Friday night I hadn’t intended to run that far.

I turned on my music and headed out onto the street planning on doing about seven miles. Around mile three I knew I was on. My stride was great. My breathing was really good. Absolutely nothing hurt or was sore. The thought suddenly entered my mind, “I bet you can do it tonight.”

I still wasn’t sure if I would but then mile seven rolled around and I felt strong. I have great stamina. What usually gets in the way of running for me is my knees and back. I have a herniated disc in my back. Throw in several knee surgeries and you get the picture. Something is almost always a little achy on me. I always do my longer runs on days where everything feels good. On Friday everything felt great.

I hit mile ten and there was no doubt I was going to do it. I was still going strong and I knew cranking out another three was not going to be a problem. When I hit the thirteenth mile I was jubuliant. I had done something that only a few months before I was telling everyone I had none chance of ever doing it. Even more astounding I still felt great at the end of the run. I could have definately done more.

On Saturday and Sunday I threw in another 13 miles of running which gave me 26 for the whole weekend. I may not be able to run a marathon in a day but I can do it in a weekend. Now my brain boggles at what more I might be able to do. Can I get back to my college weight? Can I run a marathon? I have already done more than I thought would be possible with my back all defective. Who knows where this will end up.

What Next?

As the end of the school year approaches I am trying to take a step back and prioritize where I am going next with my writing, health, and work. My writing has been particularly impacted as of late. I had a rough school year. Between teaching a class full of students with emotional trouble and taking on more administrative responsibility then ever before. There just hasn’t been the time or energy to get the writing done that I wanted.

The good news is my Dark Land trilogy is complete and the last book will be coming out sometime in the next month. I have also finished a second novel which is waiting for me to edit. My plan is to have that one out in December which means I will still put out two novels in the year.

Next up is finishing my steampunk novel and writing a ghost story which has been nagging me for a year to write it. In order to accomplish this I have already informed my school that I will not be helping out with as much administration next year. We have a principal. She is going to have to do her job. I was also asked by my bargaining team to come back and help. Things are really nasty in my school district and I know this was meant as a compliment on my ability to cut through the bullshit. It took me 2 seconds to say no. I said I would give any advice they wanted but I wasn’t going down that road again.

One of the main reasons I won’t help in the nasty school stuff is my health seems to always suffer. I have gained weight every time I have become involved in negotiations (including the last time and I told myself to be careful and watch out for it). Right now I am doing really well health wise. I am getting fewer migraines than I have in years. My weight is almost all the way back to where I want it (I made my goal and now I have only 4 pounds to lose to be back to what I was before the weight gain). My blood pressure is excellent. If I am a little unhappy about my writing this year I am thrilled with what I have accomplished with my health.

I also want to write a lot more non-fiction/essays/blogs this next year. I plan on getting that rolling again in the summer. In the meantime, I will give my students everything I have left in the tank for the next 16 days. Will work my butt off the first few days of summer vacation. Then Sheri and I hit the road. We are going to Portland, Washington, Idaho, San Diego, and Alaska this summer. Plus, we will have to spoil our wonderful cats because they will be ticked about us neglecting them.

The Sandman is A Bastard!

I am not going to lie here. I have terrible sleeping habits. I don’t know if I have some dreadful case of lifetime insomnia or it’s just another link in my chain of weirdness. Having said that the Sandman has been a real bastard to me lately (I should know as I am a lifetime member of that club also. At least according to the Catholic Church and we know they are never wrong).

I went from getting minimal sleep to absolutely ridiculous amounts of not sleeping. Today is Wednesday and I swear it already feels like Sunday. I think I have been averaging about three hours of sleep a night since Sunday. It’s been the same everyday too. I fall asleep and then wake up a few hours later and then proceed to not sleep for the rest of the night (of course while this is happening I am surrounded by a wife and two cats mocking me with their sleep). I feel like a zombie today. I felt like warning my students. I mean I am pretty sure it is against the law to start foaming at the mouth and then start gnawing on a kid’s arm.

It probably doesn’t help at all that my school district is in deep financial crisis again and it looks like I am taking a good pay cut, again, along with losing 10 student contact days. This would be bad enough if it was only caused by the state’s terrible economy but my district has mismanaged their money something fierce. Two huge mistakes have left it cash poor.

Somehow I have to find a way to get to sleep tonight. Since having Sheri hit me with a club is not an option I will have to rely on outwitting the Sandman. Maybe if I wear a Darth Vader mask he will stop fucking with me. The really ironic part of all of this is I have stopped drinking coffee. Haven’t had a cup in almost a month. My caffeine intake is way down. I find this ridiculous. I am going back to drinking coffee. I always told people it didn’t affect me but apparently I was wrong. It seems if I don’t drink it I can’t sleep. Tonight I am drinking a gallon of the delicious java and then going Sandman hunting in my dreams. That bastard is getting a boot to the head.

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Art by Jack Kirby

C.S. Daley’s Girls Guide To Watching The Avengers

So my friend Amy wrote a blog about a stupid article over on Moviefone called “Girl’s Guide to The Avengers” (there were a bunch of other words after that but they seemed useless so I left them out). The article was crap. You know one of those articles that makes your blood get all icy. That gives you the overwhelming urge to spew letters out all over a page. I was going to do this but Amy did a great job so go read her blog. I can’t add anything new.

It got me thinking though. I am going to see the Avengers tomorrow. Is a guide really that bad of an idea? Not a guide for the general population but one for any woman friend who might be seeing the movie with me. Not my wife, of course. She needs no help understanding the Avengers because she is super awesome (the fact that she edits this blog in no way influenced the super awesome comment. I double pinky swear).

So here is what you need to know about the Avengers, if you see the movie with me:

I will hog the popcorn.

I think Scarlett Johansson is beautiful and am a little peeved she is the only female superhero in the movie (I am also jealous of all the biceps in the movie. It’s not fair that I don’t have them and that you have such a variety to look at).

I hate that they chose The Black Widow as the only female character. It should have been Ms. Marvel or the Wasp or Scarlett Witch. I will argue this with you all the way through the stupid commercials before the movie. You will grow annoyed and be tempted to elbow me in the skull.

I laugh really loud.

There will be a mandatory after movie discussion of all our favorite parts (there will be coffee and chocolate involved in this discussion).

I will be sad about my two favorite childhood characters (Wonder Man & The Vision) not being in the movie. I will wonder why Ultron wasn’t the villain. I will probably not let these points go and you will be tempted to bring out the elbow of silence again.

We will debate what the hell the small clip after the credits meant.

I will still think Joss Whedon’s best superhero work is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Arguing with me will be fun but pointless because I make mules run in fear.

You will be hungry because I hogged the popcorn.

We will have a great time. Don’t worry about the elbows. My wife will take care of them.

C.S. Daley’s Girls’ Guide To Watching The Avengers

So my friend Amy wrote a blog about a stupid article over on Moviefone called “Girl’s Guide to The Avengers” (there were a bunch of other words after that but they seemed useless so I left them out). The article was crap. You know one of those articles that makes your blood get all icy. That gives you the overwhelming urge to spew letters out all over a page. I was going to do this but Amy did a great job so go read her blog. I can’t add anything new.

It got me thinking though. I am going to see the Avengers tomorrow. Is a guide really that bad of an idea? Not a guide for the general population but one for any woman friend who might be seeing the movie with me. Not my wife, of course. She needs no help understanding the Avengers because she is super awesome (the fact that she edits this blog in no way influenced the super awesome comment. I double pinky swear).

So here is what you need to know about the Avengers, if you see the movie with me:

I will hog the popcorn.

I think Scarlett Johansson is beautiful and am a little peeved she is the only female superhero in the movie (I am also jealous of all the biceps in the movie. It’s not fair that I don’t have them and that you have such a variety to look at).

I hate that they chose The Black Widow as the only female character. It should have been Ms. Marvel or the Wasp or Scarlett Witch. I will argue this with you all the way through the stupid commercials before the movie. You will grow annoyed and be tempted to elbow me in the skull.

I laugh really loud.

There will be a mandatory after movie discussion of all our favorite parts (there will be coffee and chocolate involved in this discussion).

I will be sad about my two favorite childhood characters (Wonder Man & The Vision) not being in the movie. I will wonder why Ultron wasn’t the villain. I will probably not let these points go and you will be tempted to bring out the elbow of silence again.

We will debate what the hell the small clip after the credits meant.

I will still think Joss Whedon’s best superhero work is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Arguing with me will be fun but pointless because I make mules run in fear.

You will be hungry because I hogged the popcorn.

We will have a great time. Don’t worry about the elbows. My wife will take care of them.