gatlingxyz

The Good Intentions of Those Who Avenge the Dead

That title is a mouthful.

I regret nothing.

Good Intentions, as I will call it from here on, is a story I’ve been writing since I was young. Like, super young. I started messing around with this idea when I was in middle school. I remember this vividly because one of the characters used to have a backstory, the big inciting incident of the story, inspired by an event that happened to me at one of my middle school functions. (Nothing major, I promise. I just overexaggerated some details.)

It has grown and evolved with me over the years. For a few months every year, I get enough inspiration and motivation to work on it. I tweak a few details here and there, normally updating the characters to be of an equivalent age with myself. I update a few plot points, and can sometimes even get some words on a page. (There was even a point when I removed one of the main characters and replaced him with another, then felt so bad that I took him out that I included him again as a side character.)

And then I just stop.

Wash, rinse, and repeat for years.

Streamin'

In 2009, I studied abroad in Japan for two months. Right before I left home, I found this crazy new tech called a SlingBox. It let you watch and control a TV from anywhere in the world over the internet. I purchased and set that up on my parents’ TV in our living room. As advertised, on the other side of the world, I could watch Tru Blood as it aired on HBO. (Mind you, I had literal control over the home TV, so I made sure I only changed the channel when no one else was watching it.)

Self[ie] Love

If you know me from anywhere online, you are probably very well aware of how often I post selfies. It’s pretty much an everyday thing, though I have definitely fallen off recently. My mother used to tell me after I moved out that it was the only way she knew I was alive. (I rarely call. I need to work on that!) Every morning, on my way to work, I’d stop and pose somewhere with decent lighting, snap a picture, and share it with the world. It gives me a chance to show off what I’m wearing; if you’ve seen my selfies, you know I have quite the collection of hats and hoodies.

You may think that because I take so many selfies, I’m cocky or self-centered, or that I’m feeling myself a little too much. (Or worse: Extroverted. -shudder-) Don’t get me wrong, I know I look damn good, but that wasn’t how this all started. In fact, I started taking so many selfies because I thought the exact opposite.

My 2018 Reads, Part 4: Wild, Lost, and Broken.

As July neared its end, I searched for more books. Again, the same authors were continuously suggested to me, over and over and over, mainly N.K. Jemisin and Octavia Butler. Since I was already one book into Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, I decided to try another from Butler: Wild Seed, book one in the Patternist series. I also continued my off-and-on theme of reading two books at once and decided to take a chance on Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova, a book without a black lead. Instead, Labyrinth Lost stars a Latina girl who happens to be a bruja (a witch) but doesn’t want to be.

My 2018 Reads, Part 3: The Best and the Worst

On June 5th I purchased two books, still following the theme set forth in my earlier reads. I was excited to read The Root by Na’amen Tilahun and The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. I think I remember coming across both books after searching for some LGBT storylines, as I was feeling a bit underrepresented.

The Root excited me. Our main character is gay, and there’s some past relationship with a guy that I’m desperate to learn more about. And there are these creatures? Oh man. Tell me more, tell me more. The Fifth Season, on the other hand, confused me out of the gate. The prologue intrigued me, but then I came to realize that the first chapter is told not in first-person, not in third-person, but second-person? Who thought this was okay?????

My 2018 Reads, Part 1

I’ve been reading a lot this year. It was a favorite hobby of mine when I was young. I used to devour each and every Goosebumps book I could get my hands on; Matilda was very, very different from the movies; and the second Carrie movie matched the book perfectly. But, then technology came and “ruined” my life. (This is a lie. I’m actually an Android developer now. It was just setting me up for future success. But I needed something dramatic there. Carry on.)