- Thing one :
and seem to be eternally analyzing. Observing. Processing. Working through their sensory inputs in a thorough fashion. I admire this, and may attempt to steal their writing style for my own nefarious uses. Or I may just continue to enjoy reading their posts. - Thing two : I have two jobs, both part-time, and both of which I’m enjoying. Yay for income!
- Thing three: It looks like there are either two novel ideas and a short story idea, or three novel ideas. I may be abandoning the fake-mafia piece. Not sure yet.
- Thing four: Pestering
. Who can argue with cosmic bitch-slaps?
Author Archives: David Crampton
Geh.
For some reason, I have a great trepidation, a great “i don’t wanna” when it comes to writing this paper. What gives?
Horoscope
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Every year of their adult lives, male Emperor penguins in Antarctica spend 60 consecutive days standing out in the frigid wastes without food as they guard and brood the eggs containing their offspring. Their ordeal reminds me a little of the story of your life lately, Taurus. You’ve been out in the cold doing your duty for a long time. But I believe you’re ready to do something akin to what the male penguins do when the babies finally hatch and the mothers return from their 60-day vacations: feast and rest, rest and feast.
[Carnival] Todd steels himself.
—
I’m done being there for others
They have their pain and so do I
Don’t need to feel it all over
I try to hold on and you bring me down
We wait, we hate
We try to get away
Mistake my pain
It has been lead astray
I’m looking around, I drop to the ground
Why does it have to end this way
Feeling numb, so long
Oh God it’s just everything
It’s everything
Now I pray for all of them to go away!
I’m done being there for others
They have their pain and so do I
Don’t need to feel it all over
I try to hold on and you bring me down
– Korn, “I’m Done”
—
Todd sat in his basement room. He was listening to Korn, cranked up to the point that almost hurt his years. Despite the trashing around and headbanging that Korn usually inspired, Todd sat still on his futon matress. He was holding the keys to Uncle Ralph’s house – his house – and just staring at them. It wasn’t a big house, but it had felt like a dusty maze when he’d last been there. Why in the hell would old Uncle Ralph give him something so big, worth so much, hell, with so much responsibility attached?
He closed his fist around the keys, and drew his arm back to throw them across the room. At the last second, he stoped, and made a disgusted face. If he threw them, he’d likely never find them again. Clothes, CD cases, comic books, and video game magazines literally covered the floor. The often-used incense was the only thing keeping the air breatheable down here.
Todd’s parents never came down here any more, anyway. They were big believers in privacy and respecting each other’s space. That made it really easy to hide the beer and the weed. The Korn track ended, filling the world with silence for a moment that lasted forever. He tossed his headpones onto the matress and turned off his sereo. He grabbed his black hoodie sweatshirt and pulled it over his head. He slipped his feet into his laceless Sketchers and grabbed his car keys.
He took the basement stairs two at a time; he would have to be going pretty fast to avoid any of his parents’ attempts at being “involved” – especially so soon after the funeral and reading of the will – as he headed out the door.
Their questions of “Where are you off to?” and “Todd, when are you going to clean your room?” were barely deflected by the door as he raced out of the house. He certainly didn’t hear his father, Richard, say to his mother, Vanessa, “I hate to say it, ‘Ness, but I don’t think he’s ready for such a big responsibility.”
He swung the door shut on his thirteen-year-old rustbucket car, trying to think of a reason not to go to the house. He shoved in the clutch and turned the key, listening to the engine cough to life. The muffler roared and rattled in protest, so he turned up the music to compensate. The bouncy style of Soul Coughing lifted his mood on the way to explore his new house.
—
I don’t mind the worry following me like a dinosaur…
I don’t fear I am descending into the molten core…
So far, I have not found the science,
But the numbers keep on circling me.
The numbers keep on circling me.
– Soul Coughing, “So Far I Have Not Found the Science”
—
My Anime Life
| What would your Anime life be like? by hearthlight | |
|---|---|
| Name: | |
| Gender: | |
| Your looks: | Vivid green hair and glasses. |
| Your best friend: | Someone no one else can see. |
| Your powers: | Mind control. |
| Your beloved: | A sexy vampire. |
| Your occupation: | Comic relief. |
| Your ending: | The manga was better. |
| Quiz created with MemeGen! | |
Horoscope
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Green Day recently won a Grammy for best rock album, but their future was in doubt a few years ago. The band’s three members weren’t getting along, record sales were declining, and they no longer felt aligned with the bratty punk attitude that had originally been the core of their identity. They tried a variety of experiments to shake themselves out of their funk. Their best idea was to rebel against their signature style by recording a bunch of silly songs like polka ditties and dirty Christmas carols. A similar approach would be a good prescription for you right now, Taurus. Whether you’re suffering from a mental block or emotional constipation, one possible cure is to play at being what you’re not.
[Carnival] Todd gets a gift.
The lawyer’s office smelled like orange peels, and it made Todd’s mouth water. It was sick, wanting to eat at a will-reading. He was sure that he was some kind of freakishly horrible person to be thinking about eating now.
The palaple greed around him didn’t even take his appetite away. Damn, he wanted an orange! They wanted to feed on the carrion of Uncle Ralph’s life, and he wanted a goddamn orange. His mom gave him a nasty look, so he took off his headphones. He let the rest of the room sample his Perfect Circle CD for a few seconds before he hit stop on his MP3 player. The lawyer shuffled his papers and cleared his throat.
Silence crashed over the room; Todd was sure that a mental chant of “I want” caused it. The lawyer sipped from a glass of water and began. Todd closed his eyes and tried to stop thinking about oranges. The monotone droning of the lawyer’s voice lulled him nearly to sleep. His mind drifted, and he was standing in a grove of orange trees in sunny Florida. He laughed, in his mind, and spun around.
He jumped up and snatched an orange from its branch. Todd tore off the peel and took an enormous bite out of it. The taste was perfect, and the juice filled his mouth with happiness. Here was a good place; the kind of place where Uncle Ralph had to have gone.
At that thought, thunder boomed in the distance. Clouds were gathering in an all-too-familiar spiral pattern. Something squirmed wetly in Todd’s hand, and he reflexively dropped the rotting, worm-ridden orange.
The winds began to howl through the rows of orange trees. Unreasoning terror bubbled in Todd’s heart, sending him at a dead run away from the storn. The wind blew harder and harder, pulling down rotted orange after rotted orange. A shadow blanketed everything; the spinning and churning clouds thickened and drew together. The wind was whistling fast and hard in Todd’s ears as he fled, reminding him of the eerie, haunting sounds of the calliope. Lightning crashed, thunder hammered at his ears, and the rain began to fall. Sheets of it pounded him and turned the dirt to mud. Todd slipped on the peel of an orange and slid headfirst into the Florida mud.
The storm was after him. It wanted to consume him. Somehow he knew that it had consumed Uncle Ralph, and was coming for him, now. He tried to scramble back to his feet, but the mud sucked at him, drawing him down. He struggled, sinking more and more. The storm closed in, and the earth itself kept him prisoner, holding him until he was consumed. There was a sharp pain in his side, and he was suddenly falling.
He hit the floor of the lawyer’s office with a thud and a yelp. The smell of oranges had soured. Everyone was staring at him, and his mother was giving him a death-glare. “Honestly, Todd. The least you could do is stay awake.” He blushed purple and climbed back into his seat. The lawyer cleared his throat and continued.
“To my great-nephew Todd, I leave my house, and every posession in it.” Gasps and shocked curses were whispered from all around. “In the event that I pass on before Todd turns eighteen, it shall remain in trust to him. Arrangements for upkeep of the house and yard have already been made. It is my sincerest wish that Todd explore the house fully, and do with my belongings as his heart leads him. I also ask that his parents not stand in the way of this. Todd has my trust, and will not do wrong by it.”
Live from the MSU Union computer lab.
First of all, I’d like to re-iterate how fantastic the Lansing bus system is. I’ve been able to tool around all of East Lansing today with remarkable reliablity and timeliness. Just cool.
Secondly, I’d like to state how useless MSU Surplus has become. Not only have they raised their prices, they are out of RAM, hard drives, and laptops. The only thing they still have plenty of are printers and monitors.
This is the first time in a while that
I’ve finished my Astronomy studying for today, and now I’ve got to do the online homework. If I have the time, I’m going to type up as much of the fiction piece for my Writing for Publication class as I can, here in the lab. Egads, that’s a clumsy sentence. Ah, well.
Those manic fantasies of me taking on project after project are filling my head again. Let’s see what happens.