Originally posted on the Benrik website: http://www.benrik.co.uk/...
Nate is READING: Plutarch, "Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans"
LISTENING TO: Pearl Jam
WATCHING: "Wendigo"
The Book: http://www.amazon.com/...
As per usual, I'm going to start off the blog entry by pimping my serialized online novella, Ghost Dance, which is the story of a boy, a girl, two swords, two pagan gods, and one very old and very powerful undead spirit that's very, very pissed off.
I finally posted Chapter 6, which is the chapter where Frank and Linda finally have sex.
You can read the most recent chapter here: http://authorofghostdance.wordpress.com/
If you haven't been following or if you're just joining us, it starts here: http://authorofghostdance.wordpress....
And as before, I've got a MySpace page up and running. http://www.myspace.com/...
Essentially, the MySpace page is the same as the Benrik blog, except alot more ergonomic.
You're eighteen years old, you bastard. Eighteen. Eight and ten. You've only got nine more years to live if you want to join that club. And what have you spent those years doing? Goofing off, mostly. Hanging out. Wasted almost five of 'em crushing on a girl that I was better off without anyways. Spent the one after that in rapturous, orgasmic, romantic, unrelenting, all-consuming, God-blessed, wonderful LOVE with the most amazing creature that the Unseen Mover of the Universe ever saw fit to create. Wrote a few good stories, some good poems, some shitty poems, some fragments of shitty stories. Aquired the banjo. All-in-all, I'd say I've done alright. But most of it, I'm sad to say, has been frittered away with trifles.
Eighteen . . . I'm going to have to register with the Conscription soon. And with those Liberals, Conservatives, and other forms of FASCISTS always vying for control of this painfully Federalist government of ours (which I was not consulted on, by the way!!!), the danger of them calling up the levies is pretty real. I could always seek refuge in Canada, but where is the HONOR in that? None at all. I should start physical training, reading up on survival techniques, evasion techniques, et cetera and so forth for when I have to head for the hills. Even if I do decide to do the safe thing (and the smart thing, let's not kid ourselves), Canada is a long ways away. Alot can happen between points A and B.
I've become fascinated by the Ancients lately. Aztecs, Romans, Grecians, Babylonians, et cetera and so forth, all those vanished old-world societies. I had a dream once that I was a character in a Neverwinter Nights module and that I was trying to teach the Goblins and the Drow about Jesus. So here's an idea for a story: A modern guy is sent by some means (NOW you're thinking with portals!!) to a made-up world modelled after the Classical one. He's taken in by some Greeks and helps them fend off the armies of a mean, nasty Empire (Persians and Romans?). In the process, he teaches them all about the wonders of Shakespeare, Jesus, and Anarchism. Picture 300/Troy/(Kubric's)Spartacus meets Army of Darkness. EXACTLY like that.
We're well into Macbeth in my English class. I have to say, I'm impressed. My first judgement of the Bard (based on Romeo and Juleit, Julius Caesar, and a few sonnets) was much too harsh. True, he's a product of his time in the worst way (his tragedies are farcical, his histories sycophantical, and his sonnets . . . well, they're just bad), but I'm liking Macbeth. Maybe because they're Scotch?
Today's Task according to the U.S. version of the Book was to talk as little as possible today. Oddest thing; I resolved to speak as little as possible, but I ended up talking about twice as much as I normall do (I'm one of the quiet ones). In fact, the one and only time that I consciously restrained myself from speaking was when I didn't complement Chelsea on the fish sculpture she made in Ceramics. It was damn good.
Ah, ceramics. I never could get the hang of the wheel, but then I haven't really tried. I can do great things with just my hands, enough (I hope) to make up for my failure at wheel-turning. TURNING, by God! I'm not sure where this nonsence of calling it "throwing" came from.
I've been trying to move away from sculpture, and closer to Utilitarianism. Now I make mostly bowls, pitchers, flowerpots, et cetera and so forth. All richly decorated, of course, but primarily functional. If it can't hold dirt or water, what GOOD is it? But I suppose this Utilitarianist phase is just a rationalization of my lack of skill at figure-making. I may not be able to make a descent man-shape, but by God I can make a damn good bowl. And in half the time, too!!
Touching up on a review of Ed Abbey's "The Brave Cowboy" for the school newspaper. The Monkey Wrench Gang is a better book by far (THE BEST EVER WRITTEN, I think), but if any of the faculty have read it there's no way they'd let me review it. I already (somehow; it still amazes me) managed to get in a review of Fight Club, and I don't think I should push my luck too far.