"Be careful how you run your mouth, because we'll take it out of your face." --Triple H

Here's a lyric I recently saw:

We're Just Like Heaven.
(...We can accomodate you...)
We can do it for you.

More fodder, as I collect words, and thoughts, and feelings, like I always do. My writer's block won't last forever.

And my journey continues, as yesterday Sensei awarded me my Red Belt. Unlike other things in life, this is a path that will not falter. May I never leave the road.

Interesting view point about the current state of world affairs.

Chalk this under career choices: I'd be a great editor or underground publisher.

And that gives me some ideas.

Stay tuned.

You didn't think I was done yet, did you?

Speking of links, I've mentioned a A Softer World many times. I love it. If I could find an artist, I'd love to do something similar. But if I have to draw, no one will care about a Stick Figure's Pain.

As the sidebar says, the main book I'm reading right now is my daughter's copy of A Wrinkle In Time. I'm still reading the book about the Constitutional Convention too but not everyday like the other one.

I love books. They're like old friends. So many fond memories. I think I want to marry one. :)

What are you reading?

My journal is quickly filling up with unused pieces/parts--waiting to become poetry. The scribbles of my soul are being held down but hopefully not for long. Whoever stole my creativity, I want it back.

Some lines from my journal, connect the dots where you will:

What's the point of all this living? Why don't we go home?

Education like intention means nothing without direction.

My religion is called Wishy Washy.

I lost my dream today.

Let me wallow in it.

Your identity is not your job. (Yes, it is.)

Need air to breathe.

As red as a rose is the color of blood.

Turned away from the Pearly Gates.

Can't find myself in an information age.

I put my hope in the wrong people but God just wasn't there.

I miss my Daddy.

I need you to tell me, "I'm all right" and that "I'm doing a good job." At least say, "Everything's going to be all right."

You've met my Angel.

Let's fall away.

Now it's your name. Now it's your choice.

It will be interesting to see how these lines and literally the hundreds of others that I'm looking at in my Journal will come together when the time is right. And maybe that is all I need to create again, a little more time and a little more pain.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time, but when he wound up dead, he decided he wasn't ready for the afterlife after all." --Nobius Black

Some men have too many good ideas: Warren Ellis's podcast mixtape is one of them.

I just finished another Warren Ellis tribute zine for the APA. Just need to mail it off.

Wish me luck, I test for my Red Belt tomorrow.

And the situation at work just keeps getting worse, it's one of the reasons I haven't been writing enough lately. Stress. They eliminated my defacto supervisor today. Pray I'm not next.

The Black Hole Stormtrooper. Now that's cool.

I don't have by Rabbithole post ready yet. But Warren does.

"Never say that to me." --Sevendust

I aint' finished with the links yet! Great Alan Moore interview here.

Accurate source for Star Wars spoilers. It's the Episode III crawl from the beginning of the movie.

"I can't die dead enough." --Megadeth

Writing adaptation. For the writer, it's the difference between starving artist and successful artist. Free writing advice from a professional. Damn, I love BLOGS.

"Bloody hands seem so divine." -- Soil

More original writing soon, until then, here's some good links:

Steve Grant discusses why Birds of Prey was a well launched comic and others are not. I definitely agree with him on this article, and I think miniseries and one shots are the best way to start a new series.

A search engine relationship chart.

Brent Spinner defends Star Trek: Nemesis which I feel was the best Trek film.

A page about the never fully appreciated LOGO programming language. I think this is a great way to get kids into programming and understanding computers.

100 words and pictures that define the world. Not sure how often it's updated but very neat.

Hmm...gotta go to work. Actually, I've got a few more, I'll be posting soon.

Warren writes about the art of creating comic book covers. Short, too the point, and really good. There's nothing worse than comic with a lousy cover.

The line in my head that won't go away tonight:

I am my own.
Not something you made.

Sometimes, they just hit you like a bullet train. And now to get back to my journaling.

For those of you that wonder about my journaling, search my archives for my From the Journals posts. I can also send you a copy of my Blue Rabbit Chronicles that goes even more into it. Journaling is as essential to me as breathing.

Seems I'm not the only one who remembers C3POs cereal. Mmmm...wish they'd make that again. It even looked like little droid parts.

And in other C3PO news, in Episode III, C3PO will stumble upon the planet where droids go to die. I like that idea...where robots go to die. Now, time to start jounaling.

It's gotten good reviews so far. If it sounds half as good as it looks then the Priest will be back!

Death Metal Karoke. No lie. Now follow the bouncing ball!

Ripped from Random Acts of Discombobulation.

Hmm...where did that title come from? The things a sleep deprived mind comes up with.

I'll post more soon but I just wanted to mention that I picked up another Apparat comic today (which I haven't yet read) and I bought Frank Ironwine last week. Until I get around to reviewing Ironwine I'll only say it was okay. However, I'm still intrigued by the concept of Warren Ellis publishing a group of imaginary first issues with an imaginary comic company.

This is the kind of thing that can make comics fun again, no matter what type of comics. (No superheroes in Apparat.)

And I had another thought as I finish my second Warren Ellis fanzine/tribute zine...I want to be the Warren Ellis of poetry writing. Or at least the Alan Moore.

I'm going to be doing things that will make poetry fun and unique. Poetry stunts and the like. Don't believe me?

Stay tuned.

DC states one of there lowest rated comics is The Losers. And because I love it, it's bound to get cancelled. So, please do me a favor, and go out and buy it or I'm telling Mom!

:)

It's great wartime fun 'cus very boy wants be a mercenary when they grow up.

For a very long time, I've been designing a Warren Ellis fan club blog. In fact, I have enough material for months worth of posts. And though it would obviously be nonprofit, I worry about copyright issues. Can anyone out there discuss copyright with me?

Vertigo will be publishing a $4.99 trade paperback featuring six Vertigo comics. Great idea for new readers. I'll probably pick one up. But not for me, someone else. I've read them all except for the Swamp Thing reprint.

It's funny I should find this link, I was just thinking that if I were a comics publisher (which I'd like to be someday), my site would definitely have some free full length e-comics that could be downloaded. I can't think of a better way to promote a comic book.

From zinebook.com:

Whatcha Mean What's a Zine?

Excerpted from The Book of Zines

Most zines suck. There's no nice way to say it. The truism coined by Theodore Sturgeon applies: Ninety percent of everything is crap. Most people forget what Sturgeon said about the remaining 10 percent. He said it was worth dying for.
I'm dying! Zines (pronounced "zeens," from fanzines) are cut-and-paste, "sorry this is late," self-published magazines reproduced at Kinko's or on the sly at work and distributed through mail order and word of mouth. They touch on sex, music, politics, television, movies, work, food, whatever. They're Tinkertoys for malcontents. They're obsessed with obsession. They're extraordinary and ordinary. They're about strangeness but since it's usually happening somewhere else you're kind of relieved. You can get to know people pretty well through their zines, which are always more personal and idiosyncratic than glossy magazines because glossies and the celebrities they worship are so busy being well known.
Most zine editors can recall the moment they first saw Factsheet Five, the zine that reviews zines, and asked themselves (1) that's what I've been doing? or, more likely, (2) I can do that, and why not? Everyone cleared space on their kitchen tables, and estimates flew like confetti—10,000 zines, 50,000 zines, a million readers. Nobody knows. A zine dies, a zine grows. Over the years since I assembled the first issue of Chip's Closet Cleaner and sent copies to my puzzled relatives, I've exchanged zines and letters and e-mail with hundreds of underground publishers and found we share the same desire—the same need—to create. Factsheet Five used to ask its readers a deceptively simple question, "Why publish?" and always received passionate (if sometimes long-winded) responses.
Most zines suck, but you find that golden 10 percent and you're hooked for life. Found mine.

—Chip Rowe

Apple unveils $99.00 I-Pod and $499.00 Mac.

Mommy can I have them? Can I have them?

Please?

An unusual audio post from Warren.

And you thought I was demented.

I've seen this on several blogs so I figured ...oh what the hell.

Looking at my relatively low score, I would say this test truly depends on what your defintion of nerd is.

Finally broke through the writer's block I had been suffering from the past few weeks. Unfortuantely, this morning I have to go to work but I did want to mention a couple of things. It's a shame too because the words are flowing in my head, talking to me, wanting to escape!

Have you seen A Perfect Circle's website? Real content--videos, music, and interviews. Why can't all bands have sites like this. I'm listening to their cover of Lennon's Imagine now. It's streaming right from the site.

I saw Finding Neverland this weekend with my wife. I'm not good at reviewing but I will tell you it is clearly one of the best movies I have ever seen. Definitely, a movie I'll buy and I'm hoping to find a novelization (I've been looking).

From the movie I was inspired to write this passage (more soon):

Out, out the window we go.
Dust and love give us wings.
Hope and heart make
Why can't my children stay children forever?
Why can't I always "Daddy" be?

Ticking clocks and ravenous crocodiles
Always chase us down.
Little boys get eaten,
Men take their place.
When we were young--things were safe.
Never Land forgotten amidst that
Demon life.

In the end, my dear Kalisa,
(My love, My angel)
We all fly away.
Out, out the window we go.
We all fly away!

Who killed Ava Star?

Leaving light means I am shadow.
But I can be so much colder
When I love you.
I have to know,
Who killed Ava Star?
Beautiful like Rita Hayworth
Gone like the dark night sky.
(It ain't nothing at all.)
Stole the lime light.
You'll never get away.

The overture-mad-aria-
Plays on and on.
It's in our soul
(Heart string chords)
It's in the head
Over and over.
The song sings
We don't know -who- we really are.
Or what life is for.
Even when it's over.
I ask myself--
Don't go away!

Why do I do this?
-Why-
No one recognizes me.

The pain is all the same.
Something returns.
Suicide's a bore
Unless I'm the one doing the killing!
But I can be so much colder
When I love you.

Never feel.
Never miss anyone.
And if you hold your eyes wide open
Just enough--the tears don't spill out.
I can't say the name.
(Jesus.)
I can't take the blame.
(Christians.)
Healthy suspicion will keep the heart beating.

Poetry isn't therapy.
(But oh it is!)
It's in our soul
(Where were you when the lights went out?)
Over and over
Feelings run toward the sea
And my inside longs to be: albatross.
(I want to face it all.)
My words are heart beat...
And time...
To me.

Uncertainty

This uncertainty is making me sick
Self worth is measured in dollars and cents.
If I lose my job,
(Again)
If I make a mistake,
(Again)
Others pay, (my kids, my family)
Identity dies.

Try asking for help in a welfare line.
Self respect will disapate faster than your tears.
America hates it's poor.
(They say it's a choice,
But I'd rather be dead.)

Right now...
I'm trying to make it to my future
But can't afford today.
Everyone else has needs,
No time or cash to take care of my own.
I'll just stuff mine back in the sock.
And pay another creditor.
And be another debtor.
How much more can we do without?
(A lot more.)

Doubt kills slow.
Bills kill too.
Where will the money come from?
Suck up the last of my spine,
And beg for the lights to stay on.
And beg....
(You're poor! You're nothing!)

Damn the world that grew up
And left me a child with a man's responsibilites.
They never let up.
Never relent.
But it's way too late to cry about it....
No one cares about a masculine pain.

So, what have I been telling myself?
(Deep inside.)
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
That's why I'm telling you.

I have to wonder why Warren Ellis has never appeared in a collection like Year's Best Science Fiction. I love those things.

I think someday I'll appear in one.

Like a magic trick.

I'm also currently skimming an older copy of the Poet's Market my friend Jase Goodman loaned me.

Found a number of interesting listings including Abbey Cheapochapbooks. "They want poetry that does for the mind what the first sip of Molson ale does for the palate." From reading the listing it sounds like this is a photocopied chapbook...kind of like the APA. Though it may be a small press run, I emailed the publisher.

I am looking for a poetry forum on the internet to submit some work too. I had some success with Yahoo's Cafe Poetry however the moderator sensors and much of my work never got posted with no explanation. When I tried contacting the moderator, I got no response. I've done some GOOGLE searches, etc but then thought one of you might have some ideas.

By the way, a chapbook is a small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts. The concept interests me very much.

"The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first."

Ginger Rogers (1911-1995)

See my wishlist.

See my wishlist run.

Run wishlist! Run!

Sit boy! Sit!

Good wishlist.

Warren posted this meme for January 27th which is Lewis Caroll's birthday. I think you'll agree, it'll be a good theme for a blog named White Rabbit - *BLACK HOLE*.

"...A few months ago, I had a dream in which LiveJournal and everyone on it went completely nuts for a day. The entire world had turned upside-down and inside-out and nobody was their normal self anymore. And it was such a good read, that I think it should happen for real.

January 27th is the birthday of Lewis Carroll, author of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Alice fell down a rabbit hole into a place where everything had changed and none of the rules could be counted on to apply anymore. I say, let's do the same: January 27th, 2005 should be the First Annual LiveJournal Rabbit Hole Day. When you post on that Thursday, instead of the normal daily life and work and news and politics, write about the strange new world you have found yourself in for the day, with its strange new life and work and news and politics. Are your pets talking back at you now? Has your child suddenly grown to full adulthood? Does everyone at work think you're someone else now? Did Bush step down from the White House to become a pro-circuit tap-dancer? Did Zoroastrian missionaries show up on your doorstep with literature in 3-D? Have you been placed under house arrest by bizarre insectoid women wielding clubs made of lunchmeat?

Let's have a day where nobody's life makes sense anymore, where any random LJ you click on will bring you some strange new tale. Let's all fall down the Rabbit Hole for 24 hours and see what's there. It will be beautiful.

For consideration: this only works if you spread the word, of course, but three and a half weeks is forever in LJ Meme Time."

I'll be participating, I hope you will too. My entry will appear here and at my Live Journal. I had a lot of fun the last time he did something like this with
Strange Machine. However this meme isn't from Warren it's from Dan Crisper.

On January 27th, we all fall down the hole.

Though you haven't seen a lot here lately, are you reading my Live Journal? It's an archive of my creative work only, past and present. Drop me a line and let me know what you think about it.

I also just finished another issue of the Blue Rabbit Chronicles my zine for APA Centauri.

"I just needed to realign." -- Godsmack

Currently reading another Laurell Hamilton book: The Laughing Corpse.

My wife has a couple of intriguing looking books I want to read including The Art of Amy Brown. She's practicing her artwork now so that she can become rich and famous like Amy. Then Kalisa can support me in the lifestyle to which I'd like to become accustom to....or she could leave me for Johnny Depp after meeting him at one her art shows. :)

More poetry soon. And I'm thinking about a piece of fiction that involves an Angel, a kiss, and something darker than the night.

Have you read the new Books of Magic comic series yet? Very cool adult stuff. The suicide spellers have to be the most disturbing.

And by the way, what are you reading?

I couldn't say it better myself so I'll let the great Neil Gaiman say it for me:

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

Happy New Year!