Scary Shite

Once upon a time in the not-too-distant future (in distant days longing to sense it all so clear):

Still no new tale to tell.But hope from Neil Gaiman for all of us who want to be writers:“When I started, I made my day job writing. I was a journalist, I wrote a few short stories, I interviewed people, I wrote non-fiction books. It taught me a lot about the way the world worked, a lot about deadlines, and it meant I wrote enough to develop a style, a voice that sounded like it was mine. And it paid the bills, and I edged over towards prose fiction and comics and only gave up my last few regular columns when I could afford to.That's how I did it.When I went to talk to kids on careers at my old school, in the 80s, I advised anyone who was doubtful about writing as a career to do something else ("Johnnie wants to know if there's job security in being a freelance writer?" said one mother. And I told her that there wasn't, and if Johnny, who didn't say anything, really wanted job security, she should go and talk to the people from jobs in banking and hotel management in the main hall). It's not an easy thing to do. But I still wouldn't trade it for anything else...”

Hmm…..Anyway moving on and in spirit of Halloween, here are some things that creep me out or just horrify me:

Maggots, tapeworms and worms: I have nothing against most bugs, but those that decompose dead flesh and garbage make me want to hurl, runaway and return to set them on fire.Raw meat: It is surprising that it took me almost thirty years to fully become vegetarian. As a kid I remember going to the open air markets where the bovines came straight after being butchered. The smell was overwhelming, and you could not escape the sights- I mean the cow head was still looking at me despite being several feet from the rest of the body.Gridlock: The first level of hell is being stuck in traffic going ten miles or less on four hours on a sweltering day with no AC and the car next to you is belting out the same Gangsta Rap tune the whole time.Doing your own income taxes and you realize you have to look something up to make sure you are doing it right.Doing your own income taxes and you realize that you owe.Realizing that band you like ain’t as good as they used to be.What passes for music on alternative radio stations nowadays.Rich Socialites.The government in Burma.The face that none of us are as young as we used to be.That karaoke is now on TV and is a hit.That originality has been dead for a long, long time. The rapid decline of the US dollar.Auto mechanics in Texas.Traffic in Texas. Weather in Texas.Nepotism in the creative industries.How alone we all really are. The price of comic books nowadays. The idea that out there, there is a 24 year old man is currently mourning the death of his 84 year old wife. DUDE, SHE WAS 84!The fact that none of this may be real. That scene in the Transformers live action movie where Optimus Prime holds the halves of his fallen friend like he was nothing more like a broken toy.The fact that whole world is conspiring against you. The pictures of the red skies in California- I remember all the ash falling from the sky during past wild fires there- but never the red skies. The realization that we will eventually lose everything that is dear to us. Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it. Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true.(For life is quite absurd and death's the final word.)

And that is all I can think of for now.