Character Development

Over Yonder

2006-11-16T14:51:00.000-06:00

We always wonder what is over yonder.
When I say we I mean the curious ones, and when I say the curious ones I mean most humans.
We always think the grass is greener on the other side.
When I say we, I once again am referring to the general population
most people
us
the proletariat
los gentes
human.

I was thinking about making a break from the past.
I think that each new moment is a break from the past,
I think that's what makes the present so exciting. It ain't the future and it most definitely ain't the past.
So today, only five posts away from 300, I am starting a new blog in a new space.

visit often
ponder wisely
make a break from the past

Brand New

2006-11-14T15:10:00.000-06:00

I don't really want to steal, i want to innovate..

Things of Little Interest

2006-11-14T14:04:00.000-06:00

I am very interested in the Everyman character. Who wouldn't be? He is just like you or me.
We can all relate to the Everyman, especially when he is down.
But what's great about that is that we can also revel when he is triumphant.
We can all feel like we were in his corner. It was as if we won the battle side by side.
We built that pyramid together and sailed that vast blue sea, we buttressed the cathedral together
and we forged a living document that keeps us all safe and free. Or so we say.

We wrote the laws, and conquered the uncivilized, and forged new alliances, and burned old bridges, and blazed new trails, and planted the crops year after year, until we got some other man to do it for us, and together we learned from our mistakes, and yet we continue to make new mistakes and some of the old ones again and again. We all have that thing in common, suffering, that makes us all human, and sometimes there is a character that sort of brilliantly distills the elements of being human like a prism distills the colors of light.

We relate to the Everyman in a way that makes us all want to hear his story and watch his movie and buy his books and collect his action figures and play his video game. His or her of course.

Sometimes the Everyman is blessed with what would seem like poor luck. But things are not always as they seem because the things that seemed unfortunate early on serve to shape and define a character as one of us.
The race of man.
And it is a race, let me tell you. Betta keep ya boots laced if you wanna keep pace.
The Everyman is not afraid to run the race. Either from courage or ignorance.
The Everyman rarely comes from wealth or privilege. The Everyman is often strapped with the burden of poverty or afflicted with a mental or physical challenge right from the start.
That gives the Everyman the determination.

Pandimentional

2006-11-14T10:06:00.000-06:00

I was thinking about a character.
How about a pandimentional sad sack type character
who is not very lucky
and is living lives throughout time
over and over?
Constantly being reborn in another time.
The lifeforce that is the character will be killed at the end of each episode.

What audience would this character appeal to?

Primordial Soup
Universal experience
Things change but the essence stays the same.

Bear with me, I'm working through ideas.
Some of these ideas were stolen,
aren't most good, seemingly new ideas just built upon the ideas of those that went before us?
There is nothing new under the sun.

I am thinking about creating a new space for all this foolishness.
This place is so stale and musty.
Smells like moth balls in here.

Gasping

2006-11-13T13:20:00.000-06:00

Almost thee month without a post.
It seems I've forgotten how to write.
Luckily I haven't forgotten how to live.
I am still on a big kick of breathing
In
and
Out
everyday.

Sometimes I think about writing.
I might think about a story that I would like to tell.
Or a process I would like to elucidate.
Or a series of events I would like to describe.
But I don't do it, and thinking about that now makes me cringe.

Time Keeps On Ticking

2006-08-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

Here at the end of time, I just wanna kick back and enjoy the feeling of existing.
Is that so wrong?
Some would call me lazy.
I would call myself profoundly lazy.
Even though, physically I am quite fit.

Oversized

2006-08-04T13:49:00.000-05:00

I would like to buy the world a Coke,
and furnish it with Love.
But I really only have the wherewithal and the energy to maintain my own health and sanity and that of the loved ones around me. And most of the time I can't really do anything for them but encourage. It's a hard-knocks life. And aspirations that totally outsize your skill and/or ability are an unfortunate drain on your lifeforce.
I would like to create a gun that shoots peace.
Peace of mind, peace of land, peace of meat.
Maybe something that created a sonic boom of peace, and security, and liberty.
I really think that would be wicked righteous.
But I think I'll prolly just keep eating right and feeling well so I can dole out swell vibes to the lives that I come in contact with
and use less
and smile
and treat folks like I want to be treated.

but not too heavy handed

Advise

2006-07-26T15:01:00.000-05:00

Smile.
Try to stay balanced.
Fuck the haterz.
Wash your hands.
Be persistent.

Sometimes...

2006-07-21T16:02:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I am filled with murderous rage.
Especially when dealing with the management company ot my apartment.

Pest Problems

2006-07-20T12:11:00.000-05:00

***Here is the letter that I sent to my apartment management reguarding my pest problems.
I thought ya'll might like it.
I could be wrong.***

To Whom It May Concern:
This is a letter to inform you of the great inconvenience that I have been subjected to in my apartment as of late. The rodent in the wall troubles began sometime in Late May or early June. I can hear the scurrying of rats, squirrels or some kind of pest very loudly in the ceiling of my bedroom.
There is a space in the ceiling above my bed that is beveled and in this space a number of animals are living their lives, at night, while I am trying to sleep. They are mostly quiet during the day. I think that maintenance came to check during business hours, but they couldn’t hear because they are nocturnal animals. I have resorted to wearing earplugs, but the noises are often so loud that I get only marginally decent sleep. This is disrupting my work. I am not sleeping very well at all with the constant scratching at night.
It often sounds like thumper or an old hound-dog scratching his ear with his hind leg.

When I reported the problem, I understand, that steps were taken to rectify the situation.
For whatever reason, the problem persists.
It is June 25th, and this very afternoon I have heard the movement of pests in the ceiling directly above my sleeping quarters. In the attempts to get rid of the pests, one or some must have died within the walls. This has created a stench of death and decay that has persisted for more than a week now. I have eaten many more meals out than I usually do and I have run my AC with the windows open to cope with the stench.

Please keep these circumstances in mind when considering the discount for next months rent. I think that a discount of one half is adequate for a problem that has been addressed with failed results and abandoned for the time being. I have been happy with the service of Claire and Rainier management. I understand the steps have been taken, but the problem remains mine to deal with and I think it devalues the property. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Matthew Rampage

Apocalypse

2006-07-18T15:27:00.000-05:00

I am going to be really disappointed if I don't see some version of an apocalypse in my lifetime.
I mean, all those apocalyptic visions gone to waste.
That would be a shame.

I am relying on the ineptitude and general shifty ways of the administration to come through for me.
Oh
and the hate, that people have, for other people.

come on war, come on famine, come on asteroid, where is thy sting?

It Would Seem

2006-07-18T15:04:00.000-05:00

It would seem that I had fallen off the face of the earth.
Up seems up here on terra firma but when you consider the cosmos it's really out.
It would seem that I don't care about blogging anymore.
I'm really just feeling the weight of myspace. That's not to say that I am participating, for in truth I am obstaining.
It would seem that my writing ambitions have gone down the toilet.
Not true my friends, I have been very actively working on paintings and drawings and when one of those activities blossom the other are bound by experience to suffer.
I could alter that but it would take an act of will that I will not possess until fall of 2008, or thereabouts.

It would seem that there are critters living in the walls and ceiling of my apartment.
This is true and I will post the letter of objection which I submitted to my apartment management for a discount of one half in Julys's rent. It was literary brilliance.
I say critters because I'm not sure of the exact genus and species of the pests living out their lives in the walls and ceilings of my apartment, but they chatter, and become more active at night.
That's not to say that I can't hear them during the day, because I can. They are however more active at night, while I am trying to sleep. I have used the voice recorder on my new mobile phone to record the chatterings.
I plan to go to the office of the apartment manager, this very day, and play the sounds for her for an update on the situation.

It would seem that the big things are the things that one should be patient about.
Family, career, relationships, long term desires etc.
What good does it do, to not mind waiting for the check, when the thought of your own career advancement makes you pace a rut in the wooden floor.
It would seem that patience is a virtue and that some are more virtuous than others.

It would seem that you should constantly be removing obstacles and lessening desires and getting rid of stuff.
Or else you'll get all weighed down.

Possibilities

2006-07-13T14:38:00.000-05:00

I am considering blogging again.
Don't get too excited.
It ain't happened yet.

30

2006-04-18T14:32:00.001-05:00

Here I come.

War Criminal

2006-04-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

George Bush is a war criminal and everything is going to shit under his watch.

White People

2006-04-18T14:31:00.000-05:00

Why do white people have such a weak family structure?
At least compared to Latinos.

Plain As Day

2006-03-29T16:11:00.000-06:00

I have been coming in chronically under potential all my days.
I think I am afraid of success. Success don't jibe with my system of stress management.
The teachers used to always tell me that I wasn't working up to my potential.
Yeah
No Shit?
If I work up to my potential then folks is going to expect too much of me.
I am blooming at my own pace.
Don't wanna come out of the gates too fast.
Might blow a hammy.

The war in Iraq was a mistake and I think it assures our downfall as the dominant city state of the world.

People will try to put it on you if you let them.

Jessica and Nick were a bad match to begin with but the pressures of celebrity and the scrutiny of the MTV cameras would make dern near any marriage fail.

The End is Nigh, so I am really trying to enjoy myself.

How do you paint a picture of ambition?

Character Flaw #63

2006-03-28T13:25:00.000-06:00

I am a bad speller.

Character Flaw #9

2006-03-28T09:34:00.000-06:00

Too self-absorbed.

Thirty

2006-03-28T08:26:00.000-06:00

In about a months time I'm gonna be thirty years old and I am so fuckin' psyched.
I have traditionally had a bad attitude about birthdays and the celebrations thereof.
But this year I feel like its really an achievement.

So there's gonna be a party.

I mean.... Can you believe it? Me. Thirty. Hells YES.
Now I don't wanna jinx myself. I'm not there yet. I'm being careful. I'm takin er easy.
I'm gonna make it.

When I was a very young human, the outlook was bleak as far as how old I might become in this lifetime.
You see, I was a very rambunctious child. And I was a reckless teen. And a wild young adult.
But alas, no amount of recreational drug, nor knock on the head, nor shattered glass to the face, has been able to stop my progress a a sentient, living, breathing, eating, sleeping, fucking human.
Hizzah.

In other news, I think I am going to start writing about entertainment and current events. It seems to me all of the sudden that I have been terribly self absorbed both in this blog and in life so I'm thinking of branching out and touching topics that touch all our lives.

Like sectarian violence, or the troubles that have befallen the cop from the Village People,
how tragically ironic.

30woohoo

Character Flaw #18

2006-03-27T16:07:00.000-06:00

I am what some people would call a "serial opportunist."
Which I think is means that I am disloyal.

Stay Current

2006-03-27T16:05:00.000-06:00

Well
Looks like
if I'm gonna stay in vogue
I better get a myspace page.

Jeez I hate it when I fold for the latest fashion.

and

If Ezra ever reads this
I think "Make Me Eggs" rocks.

Character Flaw #13

2006-03-24T14:42:00.000-06:00

I have what they call an addictive personality.

Tide Pools

2006-03-23T09:09:00.000-06:00

Oh the ebb and flow of emotion.
How I do love those towering peaks of manic madness.
And oh how I relish those deepest darkest chasms of self loathing stew.

I swing both ways I have to say.

I am still having trouble finding the right shoes. I bought a nice pair of New Balance trail running shoes. The 809's to be exact. New Balance are great cause they come in all those handy widths. But this time I think I went too wide. They felt perfect in the store, and the left one is gonna work out fine, but the right one feels a tad too large. I can kinda compensate with the laces but I think I may cinch them up so much that they can't go any tighter, ya feel me? And I can't believe how different my two feet are from one another. The left one is all bulbous on the top and the right one is kinda flat. But the right one spreads farther out yonder than does the left one. I'm not giving up on this pair. I think I can mold them in place.
I was looking on the interwebnets to find some expert advice on the 'breaking-in' of running shoes, and the opinions vary widely. Almost as much variation as is exhibited between my bi peds.

There is a lot of talk about the Sopranos. I liked the episode. I think the people who didn't like it a. fear change and b. are unimaginative. Those folks just want the classic mobland stories of danger, racketeering and homicide. I think what the Sopranos is about is the things that go on in the life of a mob guy when he's not engaged in all those 'central to his existence/money making activities.' Sometimes you gotta go to the shrink, sometimes you gotta pick up the kids from school, and sometimes after sustaining serious internal injuries and massive blood loss you go into a coma. Now whether or not you like the writers version of purgatory and their interpretation of Tony's life inside his own comatosed limbo, well, that's another beef.

I feel I have been too hard on Mr. Gattis buffet in the last eight or ten years, pretty much avoiding it altogether. The place is still the same, and although it ain't great, it ain't that bad either.
When I was a younger man I would go into the Gattis buffet with the intent on getting my monies worth. That would inevitably lead to some degree of nausea. You just gotta take it easy there and things seem better.
I'm getting more mature.

Oblivious

2006-03-22T13:33:00.000-06:00

I want to write about things that to me seem ridiculously obvious.
You know, crap, that you see all the time. The same old shit. Just being perpetrated over and over.
Insanity really.
But base, and basic in a way.
Things that just are, and some people can't seem to see them or grasp them.
Whether it be word or thought or deed.
I don't mean obvious in the sense of apples are red or escalators go up and down or honey is sweet.
I mean things that are both obvious and simple like use your turn signal or say you are sorry or don't eat too much.
Things that are obvious lend themselves to the finding out of many dumb things and dumb people all around.
Obvious things are a magnet for stupidity, they kind of set the standard and weed out the pack.
Not to be judgmental. I am as dumb as the next guy.
But sometimes I think I have a better sense of the obvious than your average joe shmoe.
I say that
but when I sit down to write and set my mind to the task of writing about these aforementioned obvious things I often have a difficult go at it.

I love the Sopranos. The quality that makes that show so engrossing seems elusive.
I love endorphins, they make me feel so good.
I love people, for the most part, and I try to love them all as children of the One.
It is the same energy that made and sustains and fulfills us all.
I love sports. More points less wars.
I love music, I even make it sometimes.
I love art.
I prize it above most human endeavors.
Although I realize it is often quite useless and/or misused in the modern world.
I am a believer in a higher power. I believe there is one true god. One true one.
The God of love and the God of peace.
But the same dude used to be the God of justice and wrath.
I know that god by the name of Jehovah
Yaweh
But I reckon that other names of other god and gods spoken by other tongues of other folks of the human race are embodiments of the same great force or forces that give us life and promises us more than just ourselves
and more than just suffering in the now.
Myths vary but truth is universal.
I believe teh true god is the un-name-able.
I love food, meat and fruits and vegetables. I give thanks to the One who gives us life and energy for our bounty.

I don't like hate or prejudice or pain.
I accept the destructive forces as necessary to balance the planet and cosmos,
but I grieve the passing of leaves and lives and I try to dwell in and on the light.

I think the end of late fees was a great mistake for Blockbuster as a corporation and I wish I had bought some Google stock the second it was first offered.

I believe the interwebnets has us all thinking differently.
Closer to collective consciousness.

I wish people would always use their turn signal.

I think the war and the foreign policy is a mess and I fear for the future.
But then I remember that God is in control and that the design of the universe and the plans of the creator are a process and they must unfurl the way that was set out
long ago.

I drink Tecate and I think beer is a gift from God.
Just don't drink too much.

I wish to see things more clearly.