Another One Done

I’m filled with a slight glow. I got up extra early this morning since I knew that I had a tough section to write. I quickly ate breakfast and sat down to work. I was five minutes late to my real job, but I finally got Chapter 23 done. It’s not the end of the part and a very, very rough draft. But that’s ok. I’ll go through when I’m all done to hit the re-write. I was only a day late from my goal of getting Ch. 23 done in February, but hell I got it done. I’m three chapters away from hitting the real climax of the story. It’s just been so long. So much time spent writing, and then trying to write, and then writer’s block. It would probably help if I just got rid of the goddamn internet. It’s sooo tempting to hit the fun stuff, to start playing games, and to skip the real work. I’ve wasted whole week, whole months, by getting hooked on certain games and spending my whole free time on them.

Though my job sucks, it’s one of the final best motivations for getting on my ass and writing. (Get it? I got to sit down to write? Oh sheesh. Never mind.) My hours have recently been cut back. The commissions are less than stellar. My wife’s hours got cut back even though she did good enough work to get a raise. We’ve got a whole bunch of debt and keep cutting off dead weight, bad expenses. Trimming here and there. We can’t afford to eat as healthy as we once did. We can’t afford health insurance any more. It’s stupid because we’re keeping the car. I wish we could just get rid of it again. Having the car itself isn’t so bad, just the goddamn insurance.

Yuck! This was supposed to be a self-congratulatory post, not a bitchy post. Please rest assured that I’m happy (with a strong grumpy undercurrent) about this. I’m writing more than usual. I outlined Ch. 23 late December, early January. I spent most of January working on a proto-type for a board game that still hasn’t quite come to fruition. Sooo, I basically wrote 14,000 words this last month. I’m proud because a lot of the nitty-gritties of writing are coming a little easier. I’m able to visualize a scene a bit better. I trust my instincts more. If I don’t have something solved before I write, I write anyway and let the characters figure it out. But the most important thing is that I’m not stressing about having a finished product right away. I’ll have time to re-write later and that’s where the story will really come together.

Here Comes the Wedge…

In a last ditch effort to preserve conservative credibility, Bush attempts to pull the heart(less) strings of the religious right.   In an attempt to raise the spector of renegade judges and warn of the perils of homosexuality, Bush blasts New Jersey’s Supreme Court for closing legal loopholes.  As written, the constitution of New Jersey allows for equality between same-sex and inter-sex marriages and mandated that the legislature needs to fill in the loophole.

Let’s hope that New Jersey has the balls to realize that homosexuality has never hurt anyone and it never could.  Even viewed apart from the abstract concept, homosexuals are no more likely to sexual or any other type of crime than straight people.  If they want legal rights, let ‘em have ‘em.  If they want the name, give it to them.  What’s in a name anyway?  Legal rights?  Monetary rights?  The right to visit your partner on his death bed after hours?

You show me a good marriage threatened by homosexuals and you show me a set of sad people–dinosaurs that hopefully the next generation can finally fossilize into the ground.