A New Story, A New Song, A Bad Post

As many of you are aware, I have been working on a new story, which is currently and tentatively titled 21 Deaths and Grim, A Portrait of Life. I'm not sure how much I like the working title, but that's where I'm at now. The story is really many different brief tales, all interwoven and connected with the protagonist, Grim. Grim, essentially, is a deity that we know as Death. I'm writing Grim's part as journal entries (or at least that's what it is now) for what he's done through the day, and interjecting prose on the Task itself.

Now let me take a minute and say yuck. It seems so much easier to write a synopsis or blurb about someone else's work. Possibly because I'm not finished, but probably because it's my own self describing my own work. How do I sound objective and self-pleasing both without coming off as proud and cocky? Blah. Let's move on.

I'm writing because the story came to me and I enjoy writing (especially short story fiction). If you like it, then I am twice pleased. If you don't, then I still am pleased, as the process alone is fun and entertaining, even if I'm writing about death.

This sentence serves as a transition, conditional upon you convincing yourself that there is a nice transition here.

Some of you are aware that I am an engineer, and a few of you may know that I also am an artist. (Well, sort of.) I truly think that I'm a Jack of All Trades but Master of None. I can draw and paint, but not with amazing beauty like many others. I can play guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, harmonica, and the piano, but again not with the amazing talents like others. I can do some Differential Equations or solve a triple integral if you'd like me to, but I'm not a genius astrophysicist mad scientist. Heck, I can solve crossword puzzles from time to time, but I'm nothing compared to all those other crazy crossword solvers out there. I think my problem is that I enjoy doing so many things that I don't take time to hone in on one skill. Sure, I could devote all my time to painting, improving my artistic skill in that area, but I think I would miss the other things I do with my time.

I've been teaching myself to play the piano for the past year or so off-and-on, basically the same way I taught myself guitar and mandolin. Learn the chords, learn how to put your fingers there, throw in whatever you can and hope it sounds okay. So I'm going to now put this video here. You don't have to like it. It's okay. But doing this helps me get over some sort of mental-block. It's like throwing myself out there in hopes that I'll callous.

This was another post in a string of pointless and mundane posts, brought to you by logankstewart. I should have a book review for you tomorrow, if all goes according to plan. Take care folks.

Song Lyric: "Well there's a punk in the alley and he's looking for a fight, there's an Arab on the corner buying everything in sight, there's a mother in the ghetto with another mouth to feed, it seems that everyway we look today there's misery and greed. I guess you know the earth is gonna crash into the sun, but that's no reason why we shouldn't have a little fun, so if you think it's scary, if it's more than you can take, just blow out the candles and have a piece of cake. Happy Birthday!"--Weird Al Yankovic, Happy Birthday