Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Ding Dong, the specter of memory

I watched Inside Out with my oldest niece and her friend the other day.

I have to say, that movie was simply delightful. I was entertained, amused, and moved, all in the same movie. The movie looked good, and felt good.

The movie had a lot of heart, which is something I sometime struggle with in my own work.

For those of you who don't know, the movie is about the mind basically. It follows the personified emotions of a little girl, as they go about the business of being emotions and driving the actions of the little girl.

That in and of itself is a subject worthy of philosophical discussion. Maybe later. The is a lot I could pick at about this movie, but for now, one major thing for me.

In the movie you meet an imaginary friend. A fellow by the name of Bing Bong. Anyway, for reasons of her growing up, he doesn't see much of the little girl anymore. This kind of tweaked at me.

I began to think about the things that sat in my own mind when I was younger.

I don't remember any specific imaginary friends, no purple dragons or magic cats, but I did have an Imagination friend, as in a person who I used to play in my, and his, imagination with.

That person was my older brother. Warren and I, when the chance arose, would exist in a world which we had built up over months and years of shared interaction. When we drove to town on errands, we'd play in the world. When we had nothing to do at home, we'd play in the world. When we had a new thought, we'd play in the world.

But it wasn't just a world. It was an empire, a universe. We were leaders, builders, protectors, the marshals of an entire galaxy. We would construct amusement parks that spanned planets, so people could have fun. We'd assemble fleets of power ships to fight off great evils threatening the worlds we protected. We'd invent new technologies to better serve our worlds.

In short, we meant something.

As I watched the movie, I remembered this. Broken snippets of what used to be grandiose whole. Scattered memories of what once was entire worlds full of people, places and things.

Now that I think of it, I realize, I'm still playing with pieces of those old worlds. The framework of long lost civilizations which mean nothing to anyone except me and my brother, have become the pieces on which I build new worlds.

The tragedy is, my brother has difficulty with his eyes when it comes to reading. Reading is a painful chore to him. The new worlds I'm making, which our play had such a part of making, are hard for him to experience.

That's a very good reason for me to make audio books too.

But anyway, that's my thoughts for the night.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

An act of kindness

In my last post, I regaled you with my light impressions of a city called New York. Or as I called it, my reason 1 of having not been writing as much as I'd like.

Well tonight you get Reason 2: a new job.

I still work full time, so it really shouldn't have that much of an effect, but it seemingly has. Mentally speaking, it doesn't take much to force my train of thought onto lesser used paths. A new job, and subsequently new people, duties, and lingering aches, would be just such a thing to make my train wander.

Wandering trains, there's a weird image.

Anyway, since a week and a few days ago, I am employed at a bus depot, dealing with freight and passangers. I've got to say though, it's going swimmingly. It pays more than my last job but isn't loads more difficult. It's actually about the same level of of physical exertion.

The people at this new job are pretty swell too. I get along good with them... well so far, but I'm pretty easy going.

Me getting this job is a huge blessing in my life. And it's one I actually have to thank my previous boss for.

You see, I got the call for the job on a thursday. But they wanted me to start friday. I, trying to be a decent sort of fellow, and genuinely liking the people at my last job, wanted to do right by them and give them proper notice. When I told my new boss this, he didn't seem entirely sure that would work.

I had resigned myself to letting the job go, not wanting to be unprofessional or do a discourtesy to my old boss. However, when I told my old boss this, she said to me that she knew how important it was to me to find a new job, and that if it was a difference between me getting the job, and me not getting the job, I should just go take the job and not give her notice.

Immeditaly called my new boss back and told him I could start friday.

I spent the rest of that suddendly last day at work in something of a state of shock. I simply couldn't believe that the job I had been ready to let pass me by was suddendly mine. And I could hardly believe the kindness of my boss in her offer to me.

I found out later in the day that two members of her staff had also quit/given notice. I felt bad for her situation, but that knowledge just made her act of kindness towards me all the more powerful.

I will be sending her a copy of my fantasy book when it's done, and a nice thank you card.

Well that's it for tonight. Farewell for now.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Traveling Tome

Ahhh so it's been a while hasn't it?

My last post is dated at April 18th, so yeah, I think that's an accurate statement. Very sorry friends. Well I mean I would be sorry, except I have valid reasons to have been late.

Reason 1: I went to New York, New York, for a week. On a trip to go visit my girlfriend, I had the chance to see the big apple itself. I took a walk down by the Hudson river, which is a most lovely river to my eyes. It had nice waves, and sound it made while it went on its way was very expressive. I did learn some interesting things at about the river, such as how part of it will reverse direction based upon the time, and as such, parts of it will alternate from fresh water to salt water.

I also had the chance to go up to the Empire State building and see the city spread out before me. You can choose to take an audio tour while you go, and learn about the construction of that towering edifice, and if you're into that kind of thing like I am, I'd recommend it. In the tour I learned of the absolutely staggering pace of construction, near the height of it, they were finishing a floor a day. Of course, they didn't just work on one floor at a time. They laid the scaffolding, did the riveting, pour concrete, and so on and so forth. I found it absolutely fascinating. I also learned how the iconic spire was a kind of last minute addition to ensure that the Empire State Building was indeed the tallest. They had stiff competition from a neighboring tower.

That poor spire. Meant as a mooring mast for passing passenger blimps, it stands as a monument to bygone dream of the future. I love blimps. I have a few dreams about how that dream could come to be again, but alas, I do not have that kind of funding yet. I'm hardly the first to imagine a future with blimps, as is evident by the existence of the mast itself.

The other thing about New York city that struck me is the feeling of it. I found it all a little overwhelming, but it has an energy to it, a sense of age and massiveness. Even when you are down in the streets where you can't see everything, and you could be convince you were just in any other city, you know you're not. You know that there are millions of humans all around. To me it was at once exciting, and a little bit oppressive. All those people going about their business, going about the business of being human. And yet, if you aren't directly involved in the business you might as well be invisible.

I can't say I really blame them in their choice of zoning things out though. With so many people everywhere, if you opened yourself up to everyone and acknowledged everyone, you would quickly be overwhelmed. You simply can't find a good quiet place to be alone easily.

My brother Brenden once said that a city is a great place to go if you want to be alone. I see what he meant, you aren't alone in the sense that there's no one there, but you can be alone in the sense that there's no one with you.

It was a great experience all in all, and I hope that it might get used in my writing, but I wouldn't want to live there. 

So anyway, that's one of the reasons. I'll bring up the other reasons in later posts.

Huh, there's an odd thought. I'm bringing up the reasons why I haven't writing my blog, by writing in my blog. Crazy.

Till next time people!