In Darkness

With a title like: The Current State Of Science Fiction On Tv, you know there’s gonna be some drama.

Apparently Riddley Scott said some bullshit, and it got reported in a blog I read.

I had an opinion.

I had several opinions.

I’m hoping to start a fight, but I don’t think anyone is biting, yet. Check it out.

Simple Math:

1. Dark Icon does not like spiders
2. OMGWTF?

1+2=3?
No.
1+2=Dark Icon will not be going back to Texas. Ever.

Exactly when did the pursuit of amusement and entertainment become something you should be ashamed of? When did it become something you only did in your “free time”… something you were supposed to keep to a minimum?

Fuck that. Entertainment is NEVER a “waste of time.”

Life isn’t about goals and productivity. It’s all a waste if you’re not enjoying it, because enjoying your time here as much as possible without impeding other people’s attempts to do the same IS the goal. It isn’t about the destination; it’s about the journey. The destination is always the same… no exceptions, no matter how hard you try or how many hours you spend “getting things done”. Every second you spend doing something you don’t enjoy is a waste, I don’t care what your parents, your boss, or your productivity guru says. Every time you pull out your laptop at an airport so you can write a status report instead of just reading a good book… you’ve wasted time that you COULD have spent being happy. And guess what? You ain’t getting that time back, no matter how much money you make. Maybe it was worth it. But chances are, it wasn’t.

Don’t let those over-stressed, Type-A, ultra-productive asshats give you shit for wanting to watch a movie or play video games. It is NOT a waste of time. It’s the time you spend doing things you DON’T enjoy that should be kept to a minimum. Personally, being suitably entertained and de-stressed is what keeps me from stabbing over-stressed, Type-A, ultra-productive asshats in the face as soon as they open their mouths.

See… everybody wins.

You may have heard me use that phrase in a few other blog posts.
Wonder what kind of fucked-up chain of events could spawn THAT moniker? Well-

1. My wife’s main desktop computer died. Complete loss, no files recovered.
2. MY main desktop computer died. 100% loss. Of the two hard drives, one was completely toasted. The other was mostly empty because I had just copied its contents to the FIRST hard drive.
3. The old laptop that my wife started using when her main machine died… died.
4. Hey, that’s a lot of files gone. Good thing most of that shit was backed up on my networked hard drive. Well, guess what died next?
5. One of my laptops got stolen. Obviously a 100% data loss.

All in one year. And that year ain’t even over yet.

Yeah, I had backups. Hell, I had backups of the backups in some cases. But what happens when FOUR pieces of hardware die (or vanish) in one year? What THEN? I can cry about it, or I can make up funny names for it and learn from the whole thing. What did I learn?

No matter how many precautions you take, when the world (or God) wants to take something away from you… it’s fucking gone.

Two things:

Working on the plot for the next December story. I don’t know when I’ll start writing it or what I will DO with it once I start (post it online for free, package it as an ebook for sale, etc.) but I’m working on the plot right now. What’s it about? I can’t tell you, but to quote one of my favorite movies: “This one will drive you absolutely mad.”

I’m also trying to figure out what other projects I can work on at the same time that I’m writing the as-yet-untitled December novel. If I decide to post the novel as a serial (the way they have been done in the past), then that will pretty much take care of new content for the site. But if I decide to distribute the book some other way, then I’ll need some OTHER new project that I can put online (presumably for free) to satisfy the “new stories” requirement that I’ve set for myself. Or, even given a freely available December novel, I could still use something else to give away as an enticement/reward for donations. I’ve got lots of ideas, and I’m just sorting through them to see what grabs me the hardest. There are certain criteria that have to be met, though, the main ones being that whatever idea I use, it has to be: 1) Cool as hell and 2) easy to write.

So, have any words actually been WRITTEN so far?

Actually, yes. I’m just not sharing anything yet.