10 Minute Rule

I’m still on my movies in the summer kick and looking forward to taking in Mission Impossible. Perhaps looking forward is a bit much. I’m doing as expected, much as I will do with Fantastic 4  but with much less hope that the film is going to turn out okay. One film that did turn out okay was Trainwreck. Amy Schumer plays a chick who is a bit of a mess–not in terms of her out there sexuality but mores because of her being a total asshole. Yep, she’s an ass and totally out there about it. This is an important aspect of the story because this isn’t about the really sweet and wonderful girl getting the dude. This is about real people who aren’t perfect getting something that works for them.

It is also crazy funny.

Without giving too much away, John Cena plays a character that I couldn’t stop laughing about. He stole most of the scenes he was in. My favorite was the movie theater scene. I’m in love with the line, ‘You ain’t about that life’–once you see it you’ll understand.

I’m about done with this ten minute stretch, much like the boys are about done with the summer. School starts in the morning and I’m looking forward to having a few extra moments to myself.

 

What is it we are really here for? Not on earth—not as a race. I mean as the children of our parents. Today walking through the shoe aisles picking out cleats I was struck by how much influence I truly have over my kids. While I am certain that influence will turn decidedly negative in less than a decade, for the moment they seem to do and like the things they presume I expect of them. My eldest two are playing tackle football together for perhaps the only time they will do so in their lives. In the spring they’ll play soccer together and I know that is purely for them, but this I suspect has more to do with me than anything else. I don’t think it is the only thing in their lives that is that way either.

 

For the longest time all I wanted to do was prove myself to my mother. Mission failed again and again, but I kept plugging away, trying desperately to make something out of the things she thought were important in life. I got the grades, excelled in mathematics, got the college scholarship, signed up to be an engineer, took the fireman’s exam (she changed her mind a lot) and sought out all manner of success purely to make sure that when she talked about me it wouldn’t be one of those, ‘Oh that’s YOUR kid?!’ situations. I didn’t want to embarrass her. I wanted her to feel pride when she thought or spoke of me. I fear my kids are the same way with me.

 

My kids are way into video games and sports, which are the two basic food groups of my early existence. Add in pop tarts (which they also dig, but all kids do so that’s not on me) and you have the makings of my clone existence. They came to know these things because of me. My ex is fond of saying, ‘you made em that way’ to which I reply, ‘no secret there’ because she’s right 100%. She isn’t about the games. She’s more about the learning and the outdoors. They like that stuff too; I can see evidence of her in all three of them. Still, the video games and the sports are the dominant programming. Does that mean they don’t like that stuff on their own? I’m not sure.

 

After this season I am not going to bring up playing tackle football or any other sport. I will merely show them the options available to them for activities or just ask, ‘you guys want to do anything this season or are you ready to chill?’ The answer could be surprising but it is necessary. I don’t need them to try to do what they think I want. I need them to be happy in their own respect. That means learning things outside of the talis-verse. The best thing a parent can do is expose their kids to everything that’s possible.

Earlier today I ran into a hairy situation in Minecraft. Here I was, loaded up with a ton of mined iron and gold and wearing my only diamond breastplate. It’d taken me some time to get to this point. I worked hard and suffered through many setbacks to get the level of kit and building that i’d accomplished. In fact I was on my way to developing a train line between two cities. I was doing my thing. Then I made a simple misstep. I tried to clear out a lava spot and stepped into the remnants, lighting myself on fire. I did not make it out in time.

The next two lives were spent dying quickly, trying to find my way back to the spot where I was before my stuff vanished. I failed. Then I lost all composure, shutting off the game and reloading it in creative mode–cheat mode. In an instant I’d ruined the game entirely. I invalidated everything I’d done on my own and moreover everything my boys had done. The world I built was no longer considered ‘survival’ it was instead a cheat world where nothing I built existed without the possibility I’d simply spun it all up in creative mode.

So what? It is just a silly game.

Indeed, but the lesson is far more real and human than the game would indicate. I tried to take a shortcut because a setback upset me. The result was a greater loss and me becoming a huge disappointment. All of this based on the fact that I was impatient and unable to deal with failure. Losing is a consequence of action and without the fear of consequence, some terrible things can unfold. Beyond that, the lack of consequence creates a meaninglessness and a false sense of confidence that can be detrimental.

All of this, from a silly game.

50,000 is the number of people reportedly living in my town. It is also the number of people who attend GenCon in downtown Indianapolis every year. 50K. Imagine an entire small city worth of people showing up to support role playing games and the writings, costuming, movies, etc. based off of the RPG genre. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there this year, but my heart is with the gamers taking part in the ‘Best four days in gaming’ and especially with those who are going to be picking up my new short story as part of the World of Shadows Shadowrun Anthology edited by John Helfers. I’m geeked about the anthology and about the other awesome stuff coming out during the convention.

On the other hand, this is the 2nd year that I’ve appeared in no more than a handful of publications, meaning my output has decreased significantly. The culprit? There are a million of them that all swirl back to the central idea of not handling life before life handles me. Fortunately the end of that is fast approaching (the handling, not life). I believe I’m close to hitting my ‘sweet spot’ again after identifying the issues holding me back and making some early stabs at fixing them.

It is time to shine again.

I’ve been debating the first pick in the 2015 fantasy draft; figuring on whether or not Adrian Peterson is going to be the guy or if someone else is going to step up and get me that big win in both leagues. I don’t have an answer, but I can say that the season intrigues me in many ways. There aren’t one or two things that really define whether a player will be exceptional. Sure, we know a few will always be great, but some will be exceptional, and I am starting to figure out who they are.

What does exceptional mean? Well, it means that your player performs above and beyond round-based expectation. If I pick up a player in the 1st, there is an expectation of point production on a weekly basis. If you get a late round flyer that performs well enough to be considered a key starter, then you’ve got an exceptional player. I believe those types exists throughout this latest draft, because expectations create that.

I’ll give you one or two for today. I’ll start with Shane Vereen. Here is the truth about the Giants: They won’t be a top 15 defense this year. As a result they will need to be able to go into the teeth of a run defense and still put up 24 points minimum a game. In order to make that a reality they’ll need a pass-catching back to balance the focus (and also lighten the focus) on the receiving tandem. Donell proved he can’t handle the load, but the load is still there and in need of a guy like Vereen can rank up a lot of fanstasy points in that system.

Times about up, so more ASAP.

Yeah, thats a lot of writing–Nearly 20,000 minutes. A shade over a third of the way to Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule. Not all of it has been effective. Often in writing I have to wade through a swath a detritus to find something worth keeping. A great deal of that detritus is spawned by a lack of inspiration. I debate the reasons behind the inspiration void often, but I keep circling back to the same fact: Arizona doesn’t provide as much as New York does in terms of the inspiration I recognize and can easily ingest.

I’m not saying Arizona is devoid of inspiration. For those who speak the language of sand and heat and sacrament, Arizona runs deep with creativity. I have tried time and again to learn that language and can speak to this land time to time. Though the ocean of ideas has slowed, the flow is not completely stopped. I can still find inspiration and still write here in this space, but it is often harder.

Perhaps the two most important things in writing are research and structure (though not always in that order). The majority of writers I talk to don’t do any real outlining short of thinking up the beginning and end of a story in their head and saying, “some stuff is going down in between.”

As I get back into ‘writing shape’ I have been thinking more about these twin factors and the role they’ve played in both my writing success and failures. While some writers find outlines restrictive I find that they create a remarkably sound structure for writing and research. To begin, an outline–a really good one–is a lot like creating a first draft. Through this limited telling of the story a writer knows what they know and what they don’t know about their story, creating an opportunity to use research to fill in the blanks. Furthermore, writing an outline helps you get to that corner faster. You know the one, the corner that writers sometimes write themselves into and have no legitimate way to get out of… Mr. King knows what I’m talking about. I strongly suspect that George RR Martin knows what I’m talking about, because one does not sit on a novel that powerful for that long unless they’re stuck on something…

So, I’m encouraging the proper use of the outline and the use of research to make your work consistent and authentic. I’m not just talking here, I’m taking my own advice.

Some Thoughts:

1. This article was very interesting. It reminds me that there are still mysteries in the world.
2. The Fantastic Four looks horrible. I have no interest in seeing that film. I do wonder what the failure of that film means for Marvel properties not under the banner of the shared universe…

So much of what I do with my time is an effort to avoid having to engage in real thought about the important things in life. It started back when I was a kid, I the moments where any real length of silence reminded me that this might be what death is like and the idea of that halting state frightened me so thoroughly that I sought out someone to hold on to. I’m older now and far less prone to what I’ve come to recognize as panic attacks, but the habits of youth stay with me. It is only in the moments of silence that I realize it at all.

There is nothing so important in the world of sports that I need to turn on ESPN (followed by a short turn to the NFL Network) first thing in the morning. For a time I excused this behavior in the way I excused watching a few minutes of CNN—these stories they report will be conversation pieces to the greater world, and if I don’t know or delve into the story then I’m not part of the world.

When I am out in the world beyond my doorstep and don’t have the power to participate in such frivolities as internet, I find that I turn to books to learn and the signal of written words to be able to write better and learn about the craft I love.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

Some Thoughts:

1. NFL season is approaching. I am looking forward to a solid fantasy season and a great season for my G-men. It is time to return to glory.

I could have named this blog ‘zero in’ because that is the topic i’ve been dwelling on. The mantra of the summer has been ‘do the home projects you dream about’ and many of them were completed. What I didn’t–and should have–done is focus internally, working to strengthen my core in both the physical and metaphysical sense. I didn’t, because the wounds of 2015 are still very raw and change, though incremental, is yielding results.

Had a good talk tonight about the idea of making time. In reality it is more about carving out a space of the time that already exists and is devoted to other things and devoting that time to yourself. More importantly, the ‘you time’ needs to come first. Its like they say on the plane rides, ‘secure your mask first’

I believe that every step of this difficult journey towards self actualization yields a micro-change in goals and ability. I fear that too often people get so far away from who they wanted to be that they spend the time thinking about how they got there as opposed to recognizing the incredible people they’ve become.

I could no more be the person I intended to be than I could sprout wings and fly like a 2D character in a Red Bull promo. The intention was built on a limited understanding of the world and my person. The reality is a shifting miasma of identity and action.

Think about the last decade plus of mass shootings. not only have we seen a major increase in mass shootings, but out mass media has entirely dismissed these shootings under two excuses: Mental Health Issues and Terrorism. The result has been a shift of the narrative away from any real conversation about violence.

I want to push this even deeper towards a national discourse on race. The fact is that every publicized mass shooting by a white male has been dismissed with this short disclaimer ‘He had mental health issues’ Likewise every mass shooting by a black person has been under the header of terrorism. So, I am to believe that the only black people who kill en masse are doing so under the behest of Allah and the only white people who do so are bat shit crazy? First of all, if you think that killing in the name of your God is going to get you into heaven, you too are bat shit crazy. But that isn’t the narrative. Even the narrative of ‘mental health issues’ is suspect. What mental health issues? Why do we allow that disclaimer to override their often anti-government slants?

I think the so-called gun lobby is ridiculously powerful. The narrative has been any effort to create gun law is an attack on the constitution. Of course, other efforts to remove rights created by our bill of rights have been openly attacked without the blowback any politician gets for even mentioning guns without attaching the Hestonian, ‘from my cold dead hands’

This inability to really consider why violence is occurring is hurting us as a society. We want to ignore the violence and even deny it. I hear more on a daily basis about how Sandy Hook was a hoax than I do about the concept that a grown man would storm a school and kill 20 kids, or the conditions that created such behavior. Well, he had ‘mental health issues’ so I guess we can dismiss that shooting and the most recent theatre shooting as stuff best forgotten or overlooked.

Tell that to the victims in Louisiana.