10 Minute Rule

Reading Stephen King’s fairy tale is like watching King write a kind of challenge to Neil Gaiman. It is almost like he’s saying, “This is how you do it, Son.” Though I don’t know that famous authors still have those sort of challenges in the air. I always thought I would be the writer to have those, and if I could find my path back to the beam so to speak, I would likely have those again. I’d like to challenge Martin and Erikson and Tolkein to a duel of fantasy world building and storytelling in which my Torathae utters the bark of “That’s how you do it, Son.” Down on through the ages until someone steps forward and challenges my own creation. I’d like to do that, but instead I’ve been sitting on my laurels watching the world move past.

Not doing is a drug.

I am largely composed of low hanging fruit and disappointment and failure to launch. I suppose it sucks so much to see it in my many children, because I largely see it as a reflection on myself. I haven’t shown much beyond a middling novel and a ton of RPG books that do okay. I haven’t bust out and been the shining example of what I’ve long hoped to become.

What will it take to become?

Some Thoughts:

1. My money is on Georgia. Well, not actually. Not yet. I’ve considered spinning up the betting app, but that’s just bad practice.

This has been a very long week and year. So much has happened over the last few months that I am still sort of trying to collect myself and figure out what is heads and what is tails. I took today off almost entirely. Beyond some (overly drawn out) paperwork, all I did was chill and play games. Some video games, some card games. I needed the downtime. Tomorrow I am back to being a writer in full, and putting in those tough hours to get the words the way the ought to be.

I’ve been sending myself emails about stories and about world building, because I know I have stories stored up that need to get out. I also know that I have a serious lazy streak ready to kick in at any possible moment, so I gotta keep these ideas flowing and ready to roll.

More than anything else, I know that this brief lull ought to be as restorative as I need it to be. I have a lot I still want to say as a writer, and the more I experience, the more I want to say. I hope and expect to see my stories in print more and more in the future and to continue to chase that wonderful dream.

Some Thoughts:

1. Remember the I free wrote on Fridays?

Welcome to Thursday. It is early enough that the sun has yet to crease the sky. I’m awake because, well, because I am old or I’ve trained myself to the task of waking up at 4AM each day without any real want or need to do so at the moment. Going to bed before 9PM is certainly a part of that, as is the massive amount of coast to coast travel I’ve been doing (and plan to do more of moving forward). Nevertheless, I am here and awake and trying to find anything constructive to say as I rouse this weary brain.

I’m expecting today to be a good one. I plan to see Black Adam, and teach a class. That’s the morning. The evening is one for chilling with my love and staying relaxed as I roll into the weekend. Sometimes life is just chill.

Some Thoughts:

1. Again, I don’t want to RANT about Josh McDaniels, but I do want to point out that some people are very good at certain things and not so good at others. McDaniels is a wonderful Offensive Coordinator. That is not the same skillset as a head coach. You need a different set of talents to be able to bring the entire thing together, and his record reflects that he isn’t the guy for the job. Joe Judge too was not the guy for the job. Be good at what you’re good at. Try what you aren’t good at. Once you know where your niche is, apply it.
2. Speaking of leadership, I’m facing an interesting slate of candidates in my own collegiate division chair election. The two present very different skillsets and I have to ask, which is going to help me achieve my goals?

So, I slept. When I woke it was Waiver Wednesday!

My jet lag from several days of consecutive flights across the country reminded me of how difficult it can be for a team to travel. That showed in the Giants game. That is a team that needed a break. Most take the bye after a trip overseas. They didn’t and it cost them in the long run. This bye will reset the balance, and they get to reload with all of the people they started this thing with… except Joka. He’s in KC about to try to rewrite his narrative. Hopefully he will. Good luck to him.

Miami is still at work rewriting their narrative. A flurry of trades Tuesday means a rocked up Dolphins squad is ready to beat up on the Bears. Yeah, it will happen. So will PHI over HOU and LAC over ATL, and SEA over AZ. The rest of the matchups don’t feel that easy to me. I want to say Cincy has a win in them, but they looked terrible on Monday night. Las Vegas is another squad that should be good, but struggles. I will say this: Vegas has a coach who cannot win games. He is 12-20 as a head coach. Daboll is 6-2 with a team that lacks half the talent! He isn’t good. So, I see more losses in the Raider’s future.

I’m going to give NE the benefit of the doubt this week and say they win. I won’t say the same for Buffalo. They might fall into the NY trap and get beat.

I don’t plan on doing nanowrimo this year. Thinking back to the year prior, I started something I never finished, and I never hit the 50K mark like I was supposed to. My students have been touting the legend of their friend who is nominated for a national book award for her last year’s nano novel. That’s pretty solid stuff right there. Surfing her website I found that she hasn’t published a ton of work, and it is a wonderful reminder that if you write the right book at the right time, you’ll be solid for life.

I’m not solid for life, but I know I need to keep hacking away at the keys to get my story(s) out there for the world and maybe someone will like them enough to read em. That’s pretty much all a writer needs in the end. The roof over the head is nice too though.

Some Thoughts:

1. Wildly exhausted.

I’m done with planes for a while. Not too long–I’m far from being done traveling in 2022.

I’m dedicating the next few weeks to getting right. I have a ton of work and other situations to handle and get straight, so that is where my mind is at. I want to be at a place where the writing is getting handled on a natural schedule, and I want to get back to feeling good about my body and how I treat it. I suppose how I treat me and the ones I love is the biggest thing I am thinking about now–how I treat my mind, body, soul, and partner. How I treat my kids and neighbors matters as does how I respect my job. these are the things on my mind as I roll into the end stage of 2022 and begin to think about 2023 and what that means to me.

Some Thoughts:

1. Giants game was fantastic in spite of the Loss.
2. I might be a Seahawks fan based on the way they treat the fanbase.

I’ve spent a lot of time on planes over the past week. This is my second flight in as many days and I’ll be back on another tomorrow. Such is the life I’ve started to live. The life my partner and I want to be engaged in is one of exploration and discovery. Truthfully, it is the sort of life I think I always wanted. I want to go everywhere and then take the kids to the best places – and even some of the not so great ones as a way to show them the world is theirs as much as it is ours. I’m sure this is the best way to take advantage of what I am calling American wealth. 

American debt isn’t so far in the rear view that I cannot see it. It haunts me daily, and I know there are still bills to pay and work that needs doing in order to effectively continue this new lifestyle. In fact, once I end this blog I’ll be shelling out the appropriate funds to get the internet connection to not only post this blog from a plane, but to plan and post the online classes that need to be refreshed by tomorrow. 

This is the way.

I’ve said that a lot lately; each time a signpost of what I am doing right or wrong. This path is what I am choosing to see and use as the way forward in what remains of this beautiful life. 

Some Thoughts:

1. Travelling with the boy to see the Giants take on the Seahawks. Hoping for a G-win. 
2. Yes, I’m that corny.
3. What do you do in a city when you only have one day to sort out the place?

I’ve been giving a bit of thought to picking up some land in Tennessee to go alongside the new family’s plot. Could I, a black man of a certain age, live in the backwoods of Tennessee? Yeah, so long as I keep to my own land and don’t try to rustle up too much trouble. Gotta stay humble in places like this which are so homogenous.

But do I want to own land here? I want to own land and have something to pass down to the kids one day. I want to own a bit of land I actually want to be on. I like the idea of adding acres to the existing property because of the history here and the ability to grow some of that myself.

Some Thoughts:

1. We will be missing half the boys this Thanksgiving, and given the mounting injuries, it might be for the best. No Turkey Bowl.
2. Gotta think about the fact that both boys who’ve gone through HS football developed knee injuries. Third one is starting next year. He’s built a bit different, but not all that different.
3. Giants @ Seahawks tomorrow. Excited to go to my first Giants game.

I think it is time to start trending in opposite directions. On the one hand, I am not so much engrained in the philosophy or as up to date as I mean to be in the way of the futurist. So much more is happening now than I know, and I don’t take the time to do the proper research. As such, I need to be doing so. At the same time, I really do want to write that great fantasy epic before I shed this mortal coil. Doing so requires me to actually build the world. I need to develop it to the point where I can see it and I know the history, and I know the peoples of the world, in order to shape characters who are based on that history and not some fanciful riff on what has been done thus far. The beauty of the Malazan book of the Fallen is that it accomplished that neatly. That is the path I seek to take.

So, I am really trying to accomplish two things at once. I’m trying to write stories about the future and about a fantasy past and do these things in parallel. It is a tough thing and one that requires time on task, and that is clearly the one thing I have yet to truly sink into. But why?

Not sure about that entirely. Yet I have thoughts.

The Joke has a new area code. Today the Giants traded Kadarious Toney for pics. He went to the KC Chiefs who’ve been in need of a game breaking WR this entire season. New meme: F-It the Joke out there somewhere. Yes, but will he play? I suspect the hamstring stuff was at least partially real and a result of Joke not knowing the script and not feeling the plan to manage his snap count. Daboll is straight forward: You gotta earn reps. That old school thinking has led to the scrappiest Giants squad I’ve EVER seen. Not the best–they don’t have the game changing Linebackers or a single remaining WR who can be relied upon to catch the ball, or a Tight End who earned the right to start, but they’ve got PLUCK.

With the Chiefs taking it easy this week I’m left to consider other teams to discuss at the wire. The Ravens take on the Bucs tonight, and Brady is staring at the future of the QB position. Fortunately for him, the Bucs have a serious LB corps. That will slow Lamar down, but it won’t stop him. BAL over TB.

Denver is a really really bad team with a QB who is over, but doesn’t know it yet. JAX over DEN

CAR over ATL is tough to call, but I’m doing it. I think this young PJ Walker led squad has a ton to prove and that will be the difference.

DAL over CHI. I mean they just dumped a key defender for what?

MIA over DET. This DET team keeps having huge games and losing.

MIN over AZ. No faith in the Cards.

NO over LV. Two teams that should be dope but are not. Expect points.

JETS over NE. Yeah, I’m calling this one for the JETS. Crazy, right?

PIT over PHI. Coming off a bye into a game against a 2-5 team desperate to show what their D can do, I see the Eagles losing in a low scoring affair.

TEN over HOU

WAS over IND in the battle of the replacement QBs!

SF over LA in the real debut of McCaffrey.

BUF keeps rolling over GB

CIN keeps rolling over CLE