Putting It in Perspective

Heat-related annoyance aside, I've had a semi-startling realization in the last couple of days.

I'm pretty happy.

Now, I'm not at exactly the perfect job, and it's not in exactly the perfect place. But I am, by and large, content. I'm doing work that I enjoy with people I respect. I have friends, though perhaps not as many or as close as I would like. And I have a person I care about.

These things are what it's all about. If I kicked the bucket in some unexpected way tomorrow, it would surely suck. I still have a lot I want to accomplish. But I would still accept it. Because I've achieved more than I thought I could. And I've done things I never imagined.

And there is love all around me. It's easy for me to ignore it, or act all ironic, or just gripe. But that doesn't change the fact that it's there. And it doesn't change the fact that I need and appreciate every bit of it.

At Home

I'm in Kansas. In small-town Kansas, in the home where I spent eight years. I'm in my room, which has largely been changed by my father into a place for his assorted stuff.

There is no air conditioning here, which is making me cranky.

The S.O. is dealing with the dog at home. I miss him, and I wish I hadn't been so cranky when I talked to him. I well remember the week I spent with the dog, alone, while he was away. It makes one desparate for human companship and communication. Or silence.

But I'm making the best of it, I suppose.

We'll all be seeing Pirates of the Carribbean tomorrow. And I'm showing my sister many and varied computer games. And I might get some clothes and the like.

Then, once I return to home sweet St. Petersburg, it will time for James' visit. Eventually, I'll find my way back to work. I'll be ready for it when it comes, too.

Familial Quest

It sounds adventuresome, only it's not. No, I get to go home tomorrow for the first time in half a year. Goodness knows what kind of excitement and thrills await me there.

It's true, the Kansas trip is the beginning of a week of quality vacation time. Perhaps it will be wonderful beyond all imagining. I'll let you know.

I Continue Breathing

A hi to the folks who are reading. I mean to e-mail you all, but things have been busy/crazy.

I was out buying stuff for the apartment today. I was running the dog through her paces. And I finally finished watching "Minority Report." I thought it let down a little bit toward the end -- one plot twist too many. But it was still impressive work, esp. for the oft-belittled Mr. Speilberg.

Coming up for Air

After that whole long thing from Sunday ...

Watching "Minority Report" on my computer. It's really shockingly good. I didn't think Stevie Spielberg still had it in him.

He basically takes everything George Lucas did wrong in the recent "Star Wars" sagas and does it precisely right. A story sheathed in special effects, true. But it's most importantly a story.

Longest Entry So Far

The house is quiet today. I plan to make up for that by posting my longest single entry to this blog -- up to today. Who knows. Some pressing matter might require gargantuan space in the future.

Part One -- Clay Outlines His Self-Referential Aims

I'm going to be adding to the post over time, and publishing at intervals. I realize that somehow violates the sanctity of the single post, the single long post, but I can't risk losing the entire thing because my browser has been inactive for too long, or something trivial like that.

I also don't want to compose the entry in Word, because that's lame. Actually, so is the entire concept, but why should I let that stop me?

Am currently reading a story about something vague and financial. It involves development funds. I'd say that since I started my life in journalism, about a third of everything I've read has involved development in suburban communities and related craziness.

I'm sure these sorts of things matter to the folks who live next door to "The Oaks at Wingate," or whatever unimaginative name is affixed to a building project. And newspapers do them a service with comprehensive coverage of such sprawl. But otherwise ...

Part Two -- Clay Muses on the Cosmic Importance of Receipts

Pay no attention to the "Parts" dividers. They serve no purpose other than breaking up the trail o' text.

Oh my God. The vague and financial story included the term "millage." Pardon me while I fall asleep.
[Clay makes faint burbling sounds and has a pleasant dream about Pokemon.]

OK, done with that. Next step: Caffiene.

Mmmmm. Nothing like a liter of lightly chilled Diet Mountain Dew. That should get me mildly excited for the evening's activities. Oh, I haven't finished the liter yet. No sir. I've only just started. It should last me for the next hour or so.

I've started drinking these liter-sized jugs o' drink all the time. At one point, I was ingesting way too much caffeine. I would have two or three of the liter jugs, topped off with some 20-ounces, a can or two, and a shot of Diet Red Bull. It pretty much turned me into a shaking, stuttering wreck.

I've cut back, but I'm still drinking the liters. They mean I don't have to visit the drink machine that often (except in awakeness emergencies).

Part Three -- Clay Travels to Ancient Egypt

The books on my desk:

Florida Almanac 2002-2003
The Synonym Finder
Lapsing Into a Comma -- Bill Walsh
The New York Times Almanac 2003
The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage -- Theodore M. Bernstein
Words on Words -- John B. Bremner
The Associated Press Stylebook -- 2001
The Associated Press Stylebook -- 1977
The Copy-Editing and Headline Handbook -- Barbara G. Ellis
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition
Webster's New World Dictionary, 4th Edition

Part Four -- A Scandal In Bohemia

So you're asking at this point (as is some dark, frothing part of my brain), why even bother with this? It's clear you're just stringing together what would be a bunch of separate posts on any other day.

And I respond (as does some sunnier, more drug-affected part of my brain) that I'll do what I want. Thanks.

I still don't understand my phone at work, though.

I was given a poorly photocopied sheet of instructions when I started at the Tampa Bay area daily newspaper, and I suppose the expectation was that the poorly photocopied sheet of instructions would give me all the information I needed to work the phone. Which they didn't and they don't.

They're still there under the phone, over the bay, taunting me as I sit here at home, insinuating I'm not enough of a man to comprehend their poorly photocopied truths. They may taunt me, but I will not rise to their bait. I will not allow poorly photocopied directions to run my life. Nossir.

Yet the phone persists. It still has a greeting from the previous person to have my number. Sometimes, people leave me messages. I can't listen to them, of course, because they're in this previous person's voice mailbox. The little red light on the phone telling me I have a message is still lit, though.

It will stay lit for several days, then go out. The message will float off into the ether. And I will be happy.

Part Five -- An Investigation into the Medicinal Qualities of Herb Extracts

It's about 8 p.m.. In a bit, I'll start my evening rounds of the neighborhood. But before then, some random comments:

The dog chewed up my cell phone antenna a couple of weeks ago. I have restored it with tape. It does not look just like new. It does not look new at all. It looks as though I have wrapped tape around my cell phone antenna.

I have created an anthropomorphic copy editing mascot named Prickly, the copy editing porcupine. He will shortly star in his own Saturday-morning cartoon show on the WB.

Meat Loaf as a dish is much less overwrought than the singer.

I have always sort of wanted to ride in a hot air balloon. It seems as though it would be neat.

Part Six -- Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Things have been busy today. I intended to devote far more time to this monumental post. However, that seems like so many good intentions, pipe dreams, and other such cliches right now.

I'll include some more random observations to finish it all up:

Who is this guy, and why should I care?

Stress is good food.

I always liked the Transformers. There's more than meets the eye with them, you know. Plus, their movie had Eric Idle and Orson Welles in it.

Subjectivity and objectivity are both pretty boring.

I believe in plastic.

Part Seven -- Clay and the Wizard in Oz

So was this all worth it, in the end?

You know, when you add up the columns of little numbers and see what result they give you. Did the conceit pan out? Was the result truly a product of the effort?

Admittedly, my long-form prose work varies. This is from a guy who wrote a novel when he was in middle school. It's true. I did write a novel when I was in middle school. But it wasn't overly gripping.

An excerpt:

"Pete sat at his desk, feeling nervous. Today was the day he was supposed to trip Kimberly. He didn’t know why he was mixed up in all of this, but he really wanted out. How could he leave it, though?

"Jeremy appeared in the classroom doorway and walked towards Pete. Pete glanced around, hoping a trap door would suddenly open up and he could escape through it. No trap door opened.

"Jeremy stood next to him now. Pete looked up and smiled weakly. Jeremy gave a small, cold grin. “In four minutes,” he said, “you’ll be by the water fountain. Eventually Kimberly will walk by on her was to class, and you’ll trip her. Got it?”

"Pete began to change. The doubt that had collected inside him for days changed to anger, anger that Jeremy tried to control him like this."

Yeah. So.

Maybe this whole "longest blog thing ever" thing was a mistake.

But perhaps it was a brilliant meta-blog thing thing.

It's all a mystery. In the end.

You know.

If You Can Spare a Quarter ...

Go to Scott McCloud's site and read part one of his new online graphic novel, The Right Number.

Mr. McCloud has written and drawn a couple of concise, intelligent books explaining comics as an art form. He believes the future of the medium is online, and has devoted a lot of time to his site and putting various comics up there. They're all free, and I urge you to look at them too.

One of Mr. McCloud's dreams has been effective micropayments online. That is, you could quickly and easily spend a quarter or some other tiny amount to access a piece of creative work. The reasoning is, of course, that such a system would reward the creator with instant income and the surfer with low-cost fun.

For whatever reason, micropayments have been slow in arriving. But Mr. McCloud has found such a system for this new work, and I urge you to try it. It helps to have a Paypal account. You pay a few bucks into a micropayment stash, which then can be doled out to individual projects.

Not sure if the explanation makes sense, and it's all a bit long-winded, but the concept interests me. The point is, though, The Right Number is an intelligent, slickly drawn comic. And there are two more parts to come.

Check it out.