Scary Things In My Head

MicroBlogging

2008-07-16T10:33:00.001-04:00

I find it rather interesting that I spend more time microblogging on twitter and facebook than I do writing actual blog entries on here.

67, 68, 69...

2008-05-15T19:15:00.001-04:00

A ficlet (and for some a story they already know)

The coffee shop is normally a good place to people watch, though I don’t think I’m going to have much luck today. I have my usual corner table, coffee and laptop out; pretending to be working.

Sitting at the next table are a young mother and her two children. They are maybe 3 and 5 years old and noisy. The mother smiles at me apologetically a few times, aware that her children are causing a general disturbance. I just smile back and nod knowingly, my eyes on the ring on her finger.

The boy is trying to prove to his older sister and mother how high he can count, unaware that he’s proving it to everyone else as he continues right along.

“67, 68, 69.” He stops.

The mother turns up her head to look straight at me. In a voice directed above her children she asks. “You do know what comes after 69, don’t you?”

A wry smile crosses my face, my eyes never leaving hers as I murmur. “I roll you over and take you before sending you home to your family.”

The young boy turns to look at me through eerily familiar eyes.

Autographs

2008-05-09T23:45:00.003-04:00

Phil Bourque and Eddie Johnston signed my new 'Class of 1967' Penguins hat tonite.

A 'toe-dip'

2008-05-07T09:29:00.004-04:00

"Your hair's a mess, your skirt's hiked up, and your shirt's half open." He observed. "You look like a victim or an invitation."

"Victim? You try walking through the hot sand in a skirt. When the fools at the desk told me you were 'just down the beach' I didn't expect a ten minute hike."

"Upset that they didn't offer to carry you down in a palanquin? Really Mags, you of all people shouldn't be that put out by a short walk."

"Ha. You know when your assistant told me that you were in trouble and needed my help, I assumed the worst. Stretched out in a hammock with a pina colada in your hand doesn't exactly look like you're in trouble."

"But I am. I have a blender full of boat drinks and no one to drink it with."

"You mean to tell me that I spent four hours on your private plane, worried sick, preparing myself for the worst... all because you wanted someone to drink with?"

"You were worried about me? I'm touched."

"Grow up Gabriel."

Hard.

2008-05-06T20:20:00.002-04:00

The hardest part about starting to write again is starting to write again.

#edit (about 2 minutes later)

I originally intended this post to be one sentence, but the movie 'Finding Forrester' keeps going through my head:

Forrester: No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!

Forrester: Writers write things to give readers something to read.

Cylons Like Hockey

2008-04-27T00:06:00.003-04:00

I had a rather surreal experience last night. I went to the Pittsburgh ComicCon looking for more artwork from a couple of my favorite artists, more anime and bootleg TV shows. There was next to no anime. I finally found a decent price on my favorite TV series from the 80s, 'Tales of the Gold Monkey.' $40 for the entire series on a handful of discs.

While I was wandering through the expomart, I turned a corner and there was Aaron Douglas. You will probably recognize him as Chief Galen Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica. They'd just announced that the dealer room where he was sitting was scheduled to close in 15 minutes. There weren't many people left wandering around so I was able to walk right up instead of the usual line you see at cons. I'm wearing one of my Penguin Hockey shirts and he's reading to back to me as I'm stepping up to say hi. I spent the next 15 minutes talking hockey with Aaron Douglas. Any thought BSG or what was going to happen in season four was right out the window.

We discussed the playoff race, who we thought had a chance to go all the way and who would come out on top in the end. We talked about the goaltending each real contention team (Montreal, Pittsburgh, San Jose, and Detroit) had and the depth that would be required. We talked about who had the best all around team and whether the high scoring shooting stars from the east would be able to overcome the precision and discipline from teams from the west. We talked about how the NHL was probably upset for the missed marketing opportunity to have Ovechkin vs Crosby. I was half tempted to invite him back to my house to watch the Pens v Rangers and Sharks v Stars game. I asked him one BSG related question about when they would be done filming, got an autographed print and then we started talking about hockey again.

A very surprising and enjoyable conversation.

Hi.

2008-04-23T15:16:00.001-04:00

Is this thing on? Apparently I need to write more. This appears to be the location where it's going to happen. Now if my muse would wake up and provide me with inspiration again.

Is anyone still paying attention?

Wow.

2005-10-24T13:27:00.000-04:00

I have a blog. Who would have guessed? I have so much back posting to take care of. Too many things have happened. Serious neglect for all things not wedding related.

Oh yeah... I got married. It has been the prime focus of the past 4 months of my life. Now that things are finally calming down, I can start to focus on the rest of my life again.

Stories soon. If you're nice, pictures.

By the way...

2005-06-27T14:17:00.000-04:00

I hate the term 'mistress.' I much prefer 'bound concubine.'

Reposts

2005-06-27T14:16:00.000-04:00

I've started reposting stories from the original Scary Things. In honor of yesterday's concert, I'm posting one of the first Buffett concert stories on Semi-True Stories. It's live if you want to read it again.

Innocence

2005-06-22T09:26:00.000-04:00

None of y'all are innocent. I know better. There will only be partial protection of the innocent on the story site. I'll change names where appropriate.

And I fixed the damn typo. But the original still stands. I should be a damn fun ride.

Random Thoughts

2005-06-21T10:08:00.000-04:00

I've decided what I want to do with this place. It's going to be a staging ground for a sister site: Semi True Stories.

STS is the site I've wanted to do for several years now, building on something I've wanted to do since High School. I'm finally going to put random things I've written over the years online. As a start, I'm going to pull old posts from the original Scary Things and paste them in there. I'll pull what I consider my best essays and repost them. If you have any special requests from my older essays (and you're twisted enough to remember them) drop me a note and I'll post it.

The stories are going to range from Autobiographical to Completely Made Up. Most of them will be embellished versions of things that happened in the course of my life. Unless I say otherwise, at least part of each story will be true. There's a lot of wild things in my life, some I remember, some I don't quite recall.

For example, when I was a young child living in Key West, we had to call Animal Control because there was an aligator in the courtyard of our apartment complex. While I remember seeing the aligator, and the chaos that ensued, I don't remember exactly how the day played out, but I can write a damn amusing story around that kernel of an idea. It will be above all, an experiment in writing for me.

Scary Things will be a random entry site, where I'll detail how certain stories are progressing, talk about the motivations behind them, and the rest of the general bullshit that is my life.

Stick around. It should be a fun ride.

I'm Back

2005-06-09T17:45:00.000-04:00

Because someone who shall remain nameless asked so nicely, I've come back from the dead. I have no idea what form or function this will take, if it even stays around, but I'm here.

More updates in the near future as I start to collect my thoughts and figure out what I want to say.

First!

2005-06-09T17:38:00.000-04:00

First post!