The Right Oblique

I had a drill instructor in the Marines ask me once, "Why do you answer everything in a right oblique?" (Marching term, meaning you are marching in a 45 degree angle from the direction you are facing.)

I answered: "Only direct questions deserve direct answers, sir."

Self Preservation is NOT a Good Thing...

See, there is a difference between self-preserving and self-sustaining. Self-preserving is not the good thing people would like you to think it is-- because preservation is trying to keep something AS IT IS, instead of sustaining, which is feeding and growing it. Preservation is placing it in a museum, where people can look, but not touch. Preservation keeps out the bad things, sure, but also keeps the good things from having effect, too. That is what's known as an entropic system-- your energy and resources are being used up to not go anywhere. Which is why you will find that I tend not to promote self-preservation, but self-sustenance instead. Feeding your spirit, not protecting it. Like a child, it needs to go out and experience, play and get hurt in order to have some fun. Don't lock it up, just give it some protective gear before it goes and competes in the X Games.

Crabs in a Bucket

I was once shared a lovely piece of wisdom. The speaker (damned if I can remember his name--- but I most certainly won't forget what he said) brought up an interesting little factoid, one that I know from experience to be true.

He said, when you go crab fishing, you don't need any sort of special container to hold the crabs in, just a regular old pail will do. The reason...? Because crabs will always grab crabs climbing up the side of the pail and pull them back into the pail, trying to climb out themselves. What ends up happening is that none of the crabs ever reach the top.

Then the speaker went on to point out that HUMANS are just like crabs. Any time someone is actually doing something, achieving something, the other humans around them will do whatever they can to put that person down, and pull them back from success and happiness. In fact, a lot of people are only happy if you are more miserable than they are... and thus, they seem like it is their calling in life to make everyone else miserable.

So, my friends... next time someone tries to pop your balloon, rain on your parade, stab you in the back, hurt your feelings...? Just remember one thing, and once you remind yourself, they lose all their power on you. All that person is--- is just another senseless crab trapped in a bucket that they can't figure out how to get out of.

The Faces of Friendship

A recent event in my life makes me take a moment pause.

Passion.
Action.
Reaction.
Chain-Reaction.

The Universe escalates.

A loud cacophony of noise, with two choices...

Headlong into a crescendo of resolution and a chord of harmony
...or the slow guttural death-rattle of dissolution and entropy.

"Zeal, without knowledge, is the sister of folly." --Sir John Davies

My Writer's Manifesto

Whether its exploring experiences sexual or platonic, writing must be detail oriented and character driven. The secret to truly inspirational writing is immersion. The reader must be transported wholly into the work. Smell the odors, consume the tastes, feel the textures, hear the melody, and behold the vision.

In other words, successful writers know it's all in the head.

Perception alteration.
Intimate like.
To an unknown audience of unknown proportions.

As a writer, one is tasked into performing an enjoyable mental mind fuck.

Seduce the reader into the yarn that one is weaving and spinning, wrapping them in the trappings of the identifying relatable character, the bait and lure of any good tale.

The best writers could be accused of hypnotizing their readers. Taking control of their mind's eye, the truly gifted implant the reality of bearing personal first hand witness to the reader, making them unaware of their physical surroundings, immersed as a fellow unnamed character within their entertaining alternate reality consisting of properly placed runes.

As a Writer, I take my role of Rune Mage seriously. One can change the course of History if one is truly inspired and casts the Runes on the right people at the right time.

Allow me use my Art, my simple Craft, upon you.
Read my Runes, and then, please, cast your Own.