Thursday, April 27, 2006
New Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Sunny and warm

I love the optimism of the new moon, where it feels like anything and everything is possible!

Sixteen pages on Real yesterday, and a few pages on the mystery as well. All in all, a good writing day.

I split the writing into two sessions – one early in the morning, and one late at night. Both were quite productive. I used music for the second session – Jim Sutherland, Mary J. Blige, Springsteen, Tellu – sounds like a weird mix, but it worked.

In between, I ran errands, went grocery shopping – hard to make an omelet with a single egg, and, heaven forefend, I was nearly out of coffee! Plus, I paid off a massive debt that’s been a monkey on my back for the past few years. Once the confirmation of receipt is received, I’ll truly feel like a weight’s been lifted.

Did some character work on the flash fiction writing exercise from the Dog Blog. Not quite ready to write yet, but I have my characters and I have the thread of the piece. Keeping it to 500 words will be the biggest challenge. It’s inspired by the article I clipped on wounded GIs being billed for their care and the accounts being turned over to collection agencies. Pretty disgusting.

Oh, and the moron that calls himself President thinks that repealing environmental laws will help bring down gas prices and preserve the environment? How can anyone be that out of touch with reality?

If the prices were a true result of supply-and-demand geopolitics, the oil companies would not be raking in profits in the billions. The profits should be going back into the companies to transfer over to renewable energy sources, not into executives’ pockets. In fact, all executive salaries should be slashed down to a ceiling of $85,000 a year until the manipulated “oil crisis” is solved. The only place one can’t live comfortably on $85,000 a year is New York. They can earn back a percentage of their previous salaries dependant on how successful new strategies are implemented that actually help the people buying the product. Yeah, they can’t indulge themselves and spoil their families, but maybe then they’d do some work for a living for a change and come up with solutions, instead of just raping the everyday consumers’ wallets.

I have to admit, I don’t have sympathy with the people in the SUVs whining about high gas prices. Few people need an SUV, most of them drive them badly (if the regulations are the same light ones as those for trucks, the driver should have to get a truck license to drive one, because around here, most people can’t responsibly drive SUVs and 90% of the accidents around here are caused by SUV drivers, mostly talking on their cell phones). And maybe if some of these overindulged suburban brats had to walk to school or bike to after school activities once in awhile, they wouldn’t be obese. I’m sorry, but a 16 year old doesn’t need a Hummer from Mommy and Daddy so he can drive it two blocks to school to impress his friends. He can walk to school, get a job and buy his own car.

(I know I’m going to get an email from a pro athlete I know in his early twenties who drives a Hummer – honey, you bought that with your own money and you drive everyone else around all the time and do the errands for all the elderly neighbors – you’ve earned it. Though I still don’t like Hummers).

Good yoga session this morning. I took my friend’s advice and paid attention during the session. Often, I find my mind wanders to the writing while I’m doing a pose, and that’s just as bad as having the television on. It negates the purpose of the session, which is to bring you in touch with your body, not remove you even farther.

However, writing up until I fell asleep, I slept the book and woke up feeling like I’d been very busy all night.

Back to the page.

Devon