Jay Lake: Writer

[writing] Exquisite Corpse for Halloween

Let’s play a Halloween writing game. I’m going to provide a brief story starter below. Add a sentence or a paragraph in comments, hopefully building on prior comments for a tiny bit of continuity. (Which is, strictly speaking, not an exquisite corpse exercise, I know. Maybe this is more of an exquisite warm body.) I’ll try to edit them together and make us a story. Just for fun, just for fun.

The Bone Witch’s front yard was something between a horror and wonder, depending on the hour of the day and the depth of the sin you’d brought up to her cabin with you. Eyes glistened from among the leaves where no animal dared tread, while noisesome little teethy things strained sharp-edge runners past the rusted barbed wire to pluck at your ankles. Samhain was no time to be up on her mountain.

Tags: Exquisite Corpse, Writing

Posted: 6:39 am Mon October 31 2011 | Comments(3) |

[photos] Your Monday moment of zen

Your Monday moment of zen.

Collapsed outbuilding, Alcatraz © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, zen

Posted: 6:30 am Mon October 31 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad says Happy Halloween

Tumors closer to committing “cellular suicide” are more sensitive to conventional anticancer drugs. — Tumors closer to committing “cellular suicide” are more sensitive to conventional anticancer drugs.

What’s Luck Got to Do With It? — My personal experience with very successful entrepreneurs is that they often confuse luck for skill. Interesting stuff.

Gorey Manor: 1939

Pa. Researchers Unable to Unearth Irish Mass Grave — Labor history.

Japan nuke radiation higher than estimated

Occupy protesters arrested in Texas, Oregon — Ah, Portland.

Republican House Majority Vulnerable In 2012: Poll — Not in this economy, no. Even though the long-running freakshow that is GOP party politics is finally getting acknowledged in the press after all these years.

?otD: Boo?

10/31/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 hours (fitful overnight plus napping)
Weight: 217.4
Currently (re)reading: Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett

Tags: business, Cancer, healthcare, Japan, Links, Occpuy Wall Street, Oregon, Personal, Photos, Politics

Posted: 6:27 am Mon October 31 2011 | Comments(0) |

[cancer] Chemo 9 of 12, day two

I managed to be a bit more alert than normal, to where I could even read some, albeit laboriously. But mostly I vegged and watched Bakulavision. Plus dreamt about cooking eggs in a chair at school. And daydreamed some Green backstory, which proves my right brain is still in there somewhere. Off the pump in a couple of hours. Hopefully wit and erudition will re-emerge tomorrow.

Tags: Cancer, health, Personal

Posted: 7:37 am Sun October 30 2011 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Sunday moment of zen

Your Sunday moment of zen.

San Francisco as seen from Alcatraz © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, zen

Posted: 7:32 am Sun October 30 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad perseverates

talekyn reviews Endurance — He liked it but didn’t love it.

iPads Change Economics, and Speed, of Hotel Wi-Fi

NASA Confirms ‘Suspicious Events’ in Satellite Hacking Report — Hmm. Oh wow.

Time Lapse: Crater Lake — One of Oregon’s beauty spots, and I’ve never been there.

Who was Karl Marx? — In American political discource, Marx is a man whose name is invoked out of ignorance to provoke fear.

DOJ Inspector General Retracts $16-Muffin Claim — See all the widespread coverage of the retraction in Your Liberal Media? Not to mention fairly unbalance FOX-GOP?

Is Michele Bachmann dragging the Tea Party down with her? — Quick! Someone throw her an anchor!

DesMoinesRegister.com Iowa Caucuses — A GOP candidate making a factual error on the campaign trail? One that just happens to incite the idoelogical misconceptions of her votng base? Inconceivable.

The Republican Addiction to Attack Politics Has Backfired — The Serious Republicans built the politics that now so embarrass them, so it’s a little late to be overcome by the vapors at the unseemliness of it all. Something I’ve been saying for ages. GOP strategists and leadership have shit the bed hard over the years. Unfortunately we all have to lie in their crap.

?otD: Did you notice?

10/30/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: none (on the chemo pump)
Hours slept: 11.5 hours (solid overnight plus napping)
Weight: 222.4
Currently (re)reading: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Books, Green, Links, Oregon, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, Travel, Videos

Posted: 7:29 am Sun October 30 2011 | Comments(0) |

Chemo session 9, day 1 – FOLFIRI

Yesterday was day, which began earlier than normal due to the vagaries of the appoint making process. Which is fine with me, because then I come off the needle earlier on Sunday. tillyjane is my primary caregiver this weekend. H— came over with a CD of La Planète Sauvage [ imdb ] which made for some very strange viewing when one’s brain is scrambled on drugs.

Today, another quiet day in the offing. Yay for anti-nausea drugs.

Tags: Cancer, family, friends, health, Movies, Personal

Posted: 8:51 am Sat October 29 2011 | Comments(3) |

[personal] Burning down the house

Yesterday afternoon during one of my chemo naps — I’m on the pump this weekend and sleeping a lot — I had a brief, laughably symbolic dream. I was home in a dream version of Nuevo Rancho Lake. I was on the chemo pump, and half the house had burned down. It was still smoldering, in fact. Mother of Child was scolding me for having the place in such a mess. I asked her if I could wait until I was off chemo and the ashes had cooled before cleaning up.

It’s a pop truism that one’s home symbolizes one’s line in dreams. Well, that’s my life under cancer, all right. Half burned down and still smoldering. And me on the pump, well, I guess that symbolizes me on the pump. MotC scolding me is my subconscious telling me to cut it out and get my life in order. My asking her to wait is me saying not yet, I can’t do it now.

Ah, cheap pop psych symbolism. Heh. Surely my subconscious can do better than this.

Tags: Cancer, dreams, family, health, Personal

Posted: 8:45 am Sat October 29 2011 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Saturday moment of zen

Your Saturday moment of zen.

Watchtower at Alcatraz © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, zen

Posted: 8:42 am Sat October 29 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is with the high command

Alma Alexander announces the publication of the anthology River — In which I have a story, a brief post-apocalyptic piece set in the Columbia gorge.

Mountain Shadows

Police Actions and Media Coverage of Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street: Outing the Ringers

The Rage Of A Privileged Class — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the politics of NYPD. pnh with more on this at Making Light.

Oh How They Loved Sarah Palin — A little restrospecitve on the Right Wing commentariat’s love feast for the First Grifter.

Paul Ryan, Defender Of The Safety Net — The GOP thinks that conservatives are eager to develop a self-image of themselves as the real friends of the poor. From the part whose candidates consistently call the poor lazy leeches and undercut every effort to help them. Hypocrisy much, Rep. Ryan? Slackivist with more on this, in detail.

?otD: Can you hear me running??

10/29/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: none (on the chemo pump)
Hours slept: 11.25 hours (solid overnigt plus napping)
Weight: 221.0
Currently (re)reading: Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Links, New York, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Publishing, stories, Videos, Washington

Posted: 8:39 am Sat October 29 2011 | Comments(0) |