I've decided to host a separate blog to address comic books and my path towards writing them. From time to time there will be some cross over between the two blogs here, but the main purpose of the new Comic Book Observatory is to have a separate outlet for my personal life and ideas that are outside of comics. I will of course be providing links to each blog.
What this change holds for Desultory Views is both cosmetic and aesthic. I'll be altering the links available here by getting rid of the comic book ones and adding in other links to sites I find helpful, insightful, and entertaining. I am also hoping that having them both separate will allow me to be more focused on what I want to write here and on the other blog. Too often I struggled with what to write and how to balance my comics ideas and opinions with everything else. I was uncomfortable with the amalgamation and I think this will be easier for me despite what may look like extra work. We'll see.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
Moving Slowly
The march to the holidays and Christmas specifically is slowly marching on. With the triplets being young and a major undertaking to bring anywhere, we've decided to not go anywhere this year and instead have opened our home to friends and family.
It looked like we were just going to have our close friends here for dinner, with my family having Christmas at my youngest sister's house, but in true trailer-trash fashion, she finds a way to jeopardize everything and gets thrown in jail for almost two weeks because of fighting with my mother and niece and having three outstanding warrants for her arrest. To top it off her husband just lost his job for reasons I am not clear on and they don't have money for themselves for Christmas (or presents for their kids) or even rent and food. Merry Christmas huh?
My sister has things like this happen to her all the time. She refuses to do the right thing and instead lives solely for the pursuit of her desires and pleasures to the detriment of her kids and husband. Drugs, alcohol, and material gain are all placed adoringly ahead of the important basics of shelter, food, and health for her and her kids. In the past my wife and I have opened our home to them and bought them a van, gotten them jobs, kept their family together, and put them on the path to living a smart and secure life; but they have thrown it all away again and I no longer the ability to assist them even if I wanted to. My biggest task will be to try and resist feeling guilt or pity when the inevitable happens.
In more pleasant areas, the kids have just been great. For sure they have their moments of crying, whining, and being all-around cranky, but they're babies and teething and that's to be expected. Each day I get to spend with them I can almost feel the bond between us growing stronger and stronger. I might just be imagining things, but I think I see them each being a bit more calm and happy when I am holding them or near them. The crying seems less, the smiles seem greater, and they are always focused on my voice and my image to see what is happening. It's like getting hit in the gut with sledgehammer--it that strong and overpowering---except it's a joyous rapture.
Today also marked the first major excursion I've ever taken with the babies. I had to make a stop at work today to drop something off, so I loaded up the kids and we all went out. They are too big to use the smaller strollers, so I packed the big triplet stroller and they got to meet some of my co-workers. They were a big hit and everyone was wonderfully nice to the four of us. Thankfully the kids were all in great moods and they put on quite a show of smiles, coos, and giggles for everyone to see. Perrin was exceptionally happy when I picked him up to show him off. It just makes for a great experience.
It looked like we were just going to have our close friends here for dinner, with my family having Christmas at my youngest sister's house, but in true trailer-trash fashion, she finds a way to jeopardize everything and gets thrown in jail for almost two weeks because of fighting with my mother and niece and having three outstanding warrants for her arrest. To top it off her husband just lost his job for reasons I am not clear on and they don't have money for themselves for Christmas (or presents for their kids) or even rent and food. Merry Christmas huh?
My sister has things like this happen to her all the time. She refuses to do the right thing and instead lives solely for the pursuit of her desires and pleasures to the detriment of her kids and husband. Drugs, alcohol, and material gain are all placed adoringly ahead of the important basics of shelter, food, and health for her and her kids. In the past my wife and I have opened our home to them and bought them a van, gotten them jobs, kept their family together, and put them on the path to living a smart and secure life; but they have thrown it all away again and I no longer the ability to assist them even if I wanted to. My biggest task will be to try and resist feeling guilt or pity when the inevitable happens.
In more pleasant areas, the kids have just been great. For sure they have their moments of crying, whining, and being all-around cranky, but they're babies and teething and that's to be expected. Each day I get to spend with them I can almost feel the bond between us growing stronger and stronger. I might just be imagining things, but I think I see them each being a bit more calm and happy when I am holding them or near them. The crying seems less, the smiles seem greater, and they are always focused on my voice and my image to see what is happening. It's like getting hit in the gut with sledgehammer--it that strong and overpowering---except it's a joyous rapture.
Today also marked the first major excursion I've ever taken with the babies. I had to make a stop at work today to drop something off, so I loaded up the kids and we all went out. They are too big to use the smaller strollers, so I packed the big triplet stroller and they got to meet some of my co-workers. They were a big hit and everyone was wonderfully nice to the four of us. Thankfully the kids were all in great moods and they put on quite a show of smiles, coos, and giggles for everyone to see. Perrin was exceptionally happy when I picked him up to show him off. It just makes for a great experience.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Energy Siphon
It seems that the days are all starting to smash together into an almost unrecognizable blob. Every day I wake up and wish for just 30 minutes of quiet, uninterrupted time to myself so that I can write something, even if it's just a few sentences at a time, but it doesn't come. It doesn't come with any kind of consistency at least. As the days progress I fear that I am going to go to bed one day soon and when I wake up I'll be 75.
The triplets are really starting to demand my attention with greater frequency these days. I don't mind, but it sure does add to the above feeling I've been having of late. The biggest thing with them is that they are teething, so they go from periods of joy, to crankiness, to absolute hunger! It's funny, exhausting, and enriching at the same time, but it sure as hell keeps me away from writing. I have to keep telling myself that it will get better soon and that eventually I'll begin to have time to write. Hopefully that happens very soon.
The Chicago area seems to be a hot bed of idiots lately. Within the past few days there have been three separate incidents of violence and death. One guy from out of state opened up fire on police officers in a high school parking lot (after hours) after being pulled over for a traffic concern; a disenfranchised inventor killed three lawyers over a dispute involving a patent for a toilet for trucks; and another man was arrested attempting to buy grenades to blow up a shopping mall. It's just totally bizarre. I guess it interests me because I frequently feel frustrated and overwhelmed, but I've never even come close to thinking about doing a stunt like these. When I think about all the mental anguish, pain, and insanity that must be going through those guys minds to do those things, it makes me appreciate the sanity and security that I have in my life, regardless of my opportunities to write.
On the plus side, I did recently get a chance to write a review of a comic book. Over a month ago I joined a website called Silver Bullet Comics to write reviews. With everything I have going on, it took time for me to get to this, but I eventually did and I just submitted that first review the other day. I'm still waiting for it to be posted, but I am excited to have gotten one done and to at least have accomplished something. Hopefully I can get back into a groove and start doing this on a more regular basis, especially once the holidays have passed.
I've also been doing some thinking about blogs and websites and I think I am going to go back to trying to write two separate blogs and bring back the Comic Book Observatory in some for or another. I just don't feel comfortable mixing comics with everything else here. Comics are such a passionate and specific area for me that I feel comfortable that I can easily provide material for a separate blog. I do want to give it a better look than it previously had, so it may be about a week or so as I play around with a template or layout. I'll let everyone know once I get that done. For now, that's all I've got.
The triplets are really starting to demand my attention with greater frequency these days. I don't mind, but it sure does add to the above feeling I've been having of late. The biggest thing with them is that they are teething, so they go from periods of joy, to crankiness, to absolute hunger! It's funny, exhausting, and enriching at the same time, but it sure as hell keeps me away from writing. I have to keep telling myself that it will get better soon and that eventually I'll begin to have time to write. Hopefully that happens very soon.
The Chicago area seems to be a hot bed of idiots lately. Within the past few days there have been three separate incidents of violence and death. One guy from out of state opened up fire on police officers in a high school parking lot (after hours) after being pulled over for a traffic concern; a disenfranchised inventor killed three lawyers over a dispute involving a patent for a toilet for trucks; and another man was arrested attempting to buy grenades to blow up a shopping mall. It's just totally bizarre. I guess it interests me because I frequently feel frustrated and overwhelmed, but I've never even come close to thinking about doing a stunt like these. When I think about all the mental anguish, pain, and insanity that must be going through those guys minds to do those things, it makes me appreciate the sanity and security that I have in my life, regardless of my opportunities to write.
On the plus side, I did recently get a chance to write a review of a comic book. Over a month ago I joined a website called Silver Bullet Comics to write reviews. With everything I have going on, it took time for me to get to this, but I eventually did and I just submitted that first review the other day. I'm still waiting for it to be posted, but I am excited to have gotten one done and to at least have accomplished something. Hopefully I can get back into a groove and start doing this on a more regular basis, especially once the holidays have passed.
I've also been doing some thinking about blogs and websites and I think I am going to go back to trying to write two separate blogs and bring back the Comic Book Observatory in some for or another. I just don't feel comfortable mixing comics with everything else here. Comics are such a passionate and specific area for me that I feel comfortable that I can easily provide material for a separate blog. I do want to give it a better look than it previously had, so it may be about a week or so as I play around with a template or layout. I'll let everyone know once I get that done. For now, that's all I've got.
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