CM Blog

Dreampost: Sweet Onion Pickles.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:08:00 +0000

5.27.12 / Non-lucid and MILD (mneumonic-induced lucid dream). / Vivid.

Part 1:

The first thing I recall about this dream is waking up to see cars going by on the road. It’s very late at night, very dark, and rainy. The road is obviously slick, and I see some little compact racing past this white Charter telecommunications truck which is creeping along. Long after the compact bullets out of sight with no traction problems (surprisingly), the truck is still chugging along. Before disappearing as well, the truck suddenly picks up speed, looking confident it won’t lose any traction, and takes a great spill into the ditch when the back end fish-tails and the driver loses control. I try to call 311 on my phone but I get an automated response saying that my type of phone cannot be used with their menu system. I hear the automated message ending with “Are you okay?” and I hang up, not responding. (I didn’t call 911 because the accident didn’t look bad at all from where I lay in bed.)

Transition to being outside, walking down the road with the driver of that truck and my sister Emers. The man is thanking us profusely for helping him out, though I know Emily is the one who called ERS and went out to check on him, and I just tagged along. We walk down the road toward a house, and the dream transitions to us inside a grocery store, well-lit and with only a few people here and there.

Part 2:

I walk around the store and a man who I recognize but don’t know offered me part of a pickle spear. I oblige and find that it is the most incredible tasting pickle I’ve ever had, and that it had no “burn” to boot – a problem I’ve had with dill pickles being a little too intense of flavour for me to eat more than one. I round one of the aisles, interested in the type of pickle the man was offering. He tells me it’s a “Sweet onion pickle” rather than a dill or Gherkin, and that they are a pleasant flavour that one can eat nonstop without the burn/sour/bitterness of dill or the sweetness of Gherkin. I try to pick out the Vlasic brand jar marked “Sweet Onion” but I am floating farther down the aisle, like my feet aren’t even touching the ground.

Small transition, still in the same store but I have floated to the back wall. There are two guys there that I recognize but don’t know, who I am trying to talk to, but I keep floating up and farther away from them. I begin screaming my assertion that “I know this is a lucid dream!!” and using my willpower to bring myself back. My floating away doesn’t slow or stop, but my vision does seem to zoom out, and I find that I am looking at a screen. The zooming out was to show one of the two guys folding up the imagery I was just looking at, as if it were moving ink on a large piece of paper.

Small transition to showing a highly-sped up video taken from behind a daytime open-air concert venue, pointed toward the audience. I am speaking very quickly, narrating the video, which appears to be on a site designed much like the Google Plus website. I am finding it difficult to explain my point through all of my words and syllables: that I was at this concert, that I was headlining it, and that I was really excited to tell everyone at the concert about the Sweet onion pickles I’d discovered.

Transition to a kind of flashback moment where I am inside the concert. This time, I am in front of the stage, but facing the crowd. I am with a small group of people who are all doing a specific kind of dancing: the guys stand behind the girls, and let the hard hits of the band’s kick drum shake their bodies together. It’s a weird form of grinding, and I seem to be doing it with a really short girl in front of me. I don’t know who she is or if she is enjoying herself, but I recall her having an all-black emo outfit, black and red plaid short skirt, and shoulder length scene-style hair. She steps to the side and sits down, visibly upset about what just happened. I’m not sure how best to handle the situation, but I sit down where I’m at, and I make eye contact with her. I make a kind of sad, “I’m emotionally hurt, because I care about how you feel about this” kind of face, and she, oddly enough, begins to smile.

Part 3:

Transition to me being back in the store, which has turned into a pub. I’m floating down toward the ground, and walking toward the bar, where it is packed with people I recognize but don’t know. I begin a speech to the dream characters present, a declaration of heartfelt respect, appreciation, and dedication to them. I become lucid, and make comments in a very loud and confident voice, while walking up and down the bar. The comments all hinge on a few points: 1) that I recognize that all of the people here are indeed in my mind, 2) that they are not the same as the real people in my waking life, and 3) that I respect and rely on them to be my friends just as much in my dreams as I respect and rely on my friends in waking life. After every point, everyone raises a glass and cheers, all visibly excited and touched by my words.

When I finish my speech, everyone erupts into a huge celebration, and I slip into the crowd that’s formed. I see a girl there who reminds me of Ashley, a girl I know in waking life, but is definitely not her. I feel that she is there somewhere, and that I want to go find her.

Transition to a nighttime scene, where I’m walking/running about on top of a hill. I’ve found Ashley, but I don’t see her. I know she’ll be heading to the bottom of the hill, so I start running down a path that I know will get me there before she does so I can catch up with her.

When I reach the bottom of the hill, I find a small hole in the pavement of the path that is emanating light from beneath, like it’s a trapdoor – but a really tiny one, at 5” square. This hole is misshapen, like it was just punched out of the pavement, and has a kind of ornate rusted wire gate blocking my hand from reaching down inside the hole. Far below it, glowing orange-yellow magma seems to be the source of the light. While looking down into it, I realize that I have made contact with the devil/Satan, and that he/it will grant me a bonus of 800% speed as a kind of evil life enhancement, that I may do and think faster than anything or anyone else. To get this bonus, I have to place a pocketwatch into the hole and recite some numbers he tells me. I have not the pocketwatch, but I touch the space I am to put it and I hear a low grumbling malicious voice tell me “37”. I repeat “37”, and then am told “37” again, followed by another number. I repeat these, and I am granted the speed. I feel no change, and I see no difference in the world, but he begins a small speech telling me about the power I’ve been granted.

Part 4:

The scene changes where Satan is still speaking, but now I am looking at a giant Lego complex, and by giant I mean this is like a castle the size of a small city. There are monuments much like the Maoi/Easter Island heads, each representing a god. The center of the complex features a red monument to Satan, and there are four long hallway-like structures coming off of Satan that link him to four other gods. The only visible ones are blue and white, and I am told that they are keeping him imprisoned here. I am told that with my power, I can help Satan be free, and since I agreed to take it on as my own special power from him, he can now fight back against the other gods. I am totally okay with this.

Fire erupts from under his monument, and pieces of the city-sized Lego complex begin falling off. It’s now that I realize that the entire complex is built to be suspended above a Lego lake of sorts, blue bricks covering the ground far beneath us. I am able to fly and float freely, and zoom around the many arms (a lot of freely suspended hallways like those I described earlier) that all branch off from the main building in the complex, all made of light gray Lego bricks. Whole walls are falling into the lake beneath me, and I have to dodge them to make sure they don’t take me down with them.

When I realize that the entire complex is just falling apart (rather than just everything that Satan isn’t in control of), I become a little worried and continue to dart around avoiding falling bricks and collapsing walls. Every now and then I bump into a brick or wall and it brings me closer to the blue lake beneath me, and eventually I keep getting pulled down by walls since I get under them as they fall.

When the last of the bricks have fallen, I find myself underneath a huge Lego structure supporting the hill I was running on earlier. All of the hill was sitting on top of this underground Lego cavern this entire time, and I find something really cool: I find out that if I grab some of the fallen bricks, I can reattach them to the bottom of that hill, and could theoretically build my own little cave directly under the hill, as a secret lair of sorts. I find that many of the fallen bricks are actually still connected to one another in the shapes of walls, floors, and small caves already, so I grab them with my superhuman strength and toss them straight up into the air, each piece finding a way to securing connect to the roof of Satan’s underground lake/cave.

I had several moments of lucidity throughout this dream/these dreams, but have only marked the ones I know for certain were the strongest and mostly vividly lucid, as it came and went often.

Dreampost: Some of my Favourite Activities. Apparently.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 21 May 2012 02:29:00 +0000

5.19.12 / Non-lucid / Somewhat vivid.

I'm in my place of work, very late at night. There's some kind of short purple metallic robot here who looks like something out of a Halo game. He's working on a computer while I sneak around behind him. He lies down on the floor and seems to shut down, and won't reactivate when I touch his head and neck. I hear my manager walking around the store opening the gates and doors, and I hide under a blanket that was stashed behind a register. Somehow this works, and I remain undetected. Other employees show up, and I decide that I want to kill someone to make sure I don't get discovered.

The scenery changes to an unfamiliar backroom with orange walls, which I understand to be our office/employee-only area. I understand I have killed someone, either by slitting their throat with scissors or choking them - I do not recall which - and that I have not yet been found out. All the employees, wearing light blue shirts of identical style and shade, are terrified that someone among them is a killer. A tall white man in a black pinstripe suit arrives on the scene, and I immediately perceive him as a threat. I begin to punch him in the face, alternating both fists. This isn't causing him any damage, but has certainly caught his attention. I remember that I'd read something prior to going to bed that night saying that being punched in the face causes one much more damage than movies portray, to both people involved. I expect that landing a knuckle-pointed punch between his eyes will put him down, and I throw my right fist toward his face. The blow is so effective, his head turns into a gray-coloured rock and shatters instantly into hundreds of shards, his body dropping to the ground.

The scene changes and I'm in an office building. People are working in cubicles and not paying any attention to me while I walk about. I get on a desk standing against a series of windows (imagine a typical office building layout) and find that I can get a better view of the outside if I open a window. Keeping in the style of this dream, I shatter the window by running my body into it, head and shoulder first. I catch myself to keep from falling out, and am amazed at the rewarding view. I am up higher than any other building in the city, which shares its space equally between urban landscape and natural life. Incredibly rich green trees surround every building tightly, rising up over their rooftops just enough to assert their dominance in the city design. I look over a full 180 degree view before ducking back inside to grab my camera.

I reach for my backpack and hear someone shouting outside. Looking out my favourite opened window, I find we are now just above ground level, as there is a car filled with some kind of bounty hunters, pointing an RPG launcher at us. Everyone inside the building screams and hides, and I run back into the room before seeing a grenade coming through the window, its launching fire trailing behind. Instead of exploding, it floats in front of me while the attacker's voice seems to emanate from it, announcing his intentions. I grab the grenade and run down a hallway, tossing it into an empty room, where it hits the ground, and waits a few seconds before exploding in a bright light-show. The dream ends here with no damage to myself or the others.

Never got that picture though.

Dream-post: Kids These Days.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:47:00 +0000

2.3.12 / Non-lucid / Vivid.

I am in Los Angeles driving a convertible car, top down. I am passing a billboard of the Japanese flag, under which is the caption "I EAT RICE AND I EAT BEEF" or something along those lines. The passing scenery behind the billboard I recognize as China, and I wonder if I can see Japan from the west coastline of California. Sure enough, I look to my left over the down-sloping terrain of the mainland and I find Japanese architecture blocking my view of the morning horizon, on a long strip of island just off the shore. Watching the island with its lush green forests, punctuated by tall Japanese towers of midnight blue and orange colours, I notice that the mainland coast on which I'm driving also features a fusion of Japanese and American culture, through its architecture and people; the same kind of towers I see on the island also populate the city I'm driving through. I get incredibly excited to take some photos of the towers, and take a left onto an orange brick street down the hill toward the shore.

I see no beach but that the entire shoreline has been setup like a pier so diners can eat and relax right on the edge of the water. I get to the end of the orange brick street and here a Japanese-American woman greeting me and inviting me to look at her dining menu. She has a lime green dress on, very dark hair and eyes, and a brilliant smile. I rifle through my messenger bag in the back seat and retrieve my camera, noticing that the people populating the pier are blocking my view of Japan. However, I imagine this would make for an even better shot than one featuring just trees and buildings, as I could take shots of the many people here, with Japan still being in their background.

I notice a few Japanese-American teenage boys standing around looking at me without smiling, and I get really uncomfortable at the thought of sitting here taking photos of these people. Looking behind me to the top of the hill, I see several more young men wearing black clothes, listening to the complaint of a Japanese woman (also in black), pointing at me while talking nervously.

I know I'm about to get attacked by a gang, and throw the car in reverse, turning almost perfectly on the spot. Facing the top of the hill, I floor the gas pedal, but the car only creeps forward and up the hill. One gang member is standing not 50 feet in front of the car, and throws a little black and silver ninja star of intricate design at me. I have no way to defend myself, so I put my head down and begin flailing my right arm in front of my head and torso as best I can to swat away the star. I open my eyes after feeling something bump my arm, and I see the star has fallen into my lap, causing no harm. I try to hit the would-be assailant with my car but he has already disappeared from sight.

The next attacker is on my right and throws another star, this time a little faster. My defense technique worked again, and I find a black and green star sitting safely on my leg.

By the time I reach the top of the hill, there are a couple more gangsters waiting for me, also throwing stars. One of the gangsters simply drops a star in front of him, and it flies as if remote-controlled around my head. The more stars they throw, the more crazy their flight paths become, none hitting me due to my wonderful defense technique.

All but one gangster has disappeared, and a huge muscular guy, about 22 in age and wearing a brown shirt, attacks the remaining gangster with a long brown guitar, using a stabbing motion. He then puts the gangster in a kind of headlock, and breaks the head-stock of the guitar against the thug's neck, then looks up to see if I'm alright.

And I never got those pictures I wanted.

Almost identical to the dream's representation. Midnight blue rooftops, orange accents and walls.

I Have A Website Now.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:25:00 +0000

Photography and A New Website.

My posts have slowed.
And I swear it's for a good reason.

Remember that photography thing I've been doing? Yeah, I'm still doing that. It's my new thing now, so it keeps me busy when not working or in class. That's most of why I haven't been posting, 'cause I've been working with my camera.

However, I now have renewed reason to post, as I recently purchased a proper TLD (top-level domain) website for myself! It's still getting worked on, but it'll be presentable by tomorrow morning and ready for regular use by the end of the week. That being said, you can take a peek at what's on it right now by heading over to www.clydemachine.com.

What's Going on this Site?
This site will function as a multi-part digital portfolio of my creative endeavours. Among them, I will be putting up music, literature, and of course photography, and later will try to incorporate my thinking endeavours/philosophies. My plan is to have a proper section dedicated to my most important/inventive/helpful philosophies, and explains them in a detailed but concise manner. But for the time being, it'll just be a collection of all the cool stuff I've worked on that people may not have seen/read/heard from me.

Oh, and I changed the name of this blog from "CME Blog" to simply "CM Blog". It just makes sense. =P

www.Twitter.com/deadlymetal86
www.Clydemachine.com

Everyday Photogwaphy Project 2wk Review + Interstate Migration.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:34:00 +0000

Yes, it's Everyday Photogwaphy. Not Photography. That's too typical and predictable and whatnot.

So! Got a camera a while ago - evidenced by the last blog post - and I've made an attempt to use it every day since. I believe I have not missed a single 24-hour period in which to turn on the camera, point it at something not expecting to be photographed, and do just that.

Everyday Photogwaphy: Review.
Thus far, I have to say the experience has changed the way I do my routine. I now go out of my way in a split-second decision, in the hopes of seeing something I haven't seen before. This has yet to do anything life changing - it just introduces me to new parking lots, new parts of town, new places around the college campus, etc. But, it does get me going places I wouldn't have otherwise gone, and of course it gives me new opportunities to try new things with the camera.

Most of my learning of how to work it has been compensating for the light of the environment, be that shooting under dark stairwells or getting incredibly bright sunlit scenes of trees. That being said, shutter speed and aperture settings have been my number one most adjusted settings, followed by the "macro" setting (for taking photos super close to your camera lens, as in less than 8 inches away) and the zoom. This, partnered with my own creative eye (or at least, it seems to be creative) and my history of Photoshop skills, has produced a rather decent portfolio of amateur photos, now amounting to 19 on my Flickr account. [flickr.com]

Everyday Photogwaphy: Reception.
Unexpectedly, people love what I've done with this camera. In particular, photos I've done with my model, the lovely and talented-beyond-belief Chelsea* have received some hardcore praise, and I am really excited about this. What it comes down to is that someone thinks my work is good, and that makes this whole endeavour worthwhile. Good to know I'm not a failure in that respect! =D

*(mentioned in earlier posts as "a certain young lady") .

Everyday Photogwaphy: 1 Year Goal.
I intend to keep going with the Everyday project into the next few months, shooting for the 3-month mark. I am in the mindset to continue this for an entire year, as I was originally inspired to do by Chelsea and her attempts at year-long Everyday-style challenges. But, I'm pacing myself by counting the months right now to see how I feel after certain lengths of time (milestones of 1 month intervals seem appropriate right now, where every month I re-evaluate how I feel about doing a year-long photography project). We'll see what happens!

Two photos featuring Chelsea, all on the Flickr:

And now onto the "oldish idea".

Introducing the Oldish Idea: Where I Got The Idea
One day while at work, I was thinking about how much I want to move. I really don't care for the geographical location I am at now. The climate is very cold, which I don't care for. The culture is very tradition, resistant to change, intolerant of new ideas (new technology, alternate religious/spiritual beliefs, new industries, new legal policies, etc.), and incredibly conservative, with a large Christian religious bias. There are no hills; the land is flat, and I like land that isn't flat. There is too much farmland and not enough city, if that makes sense.

Basically, this is a dead area for someone of my personality and demographic. I need out, and would like to go somewhere much cooler and much more responsive to people who want to do "get ahead". So, California comes to mind! But with as many problems as I'm having living here, how can I stand trying to work up the money in this area to move out/away?

Introducing the Oldish Idea: Migration support groups!

The premise is simple:

A bunch of people have the same issues. They want to move away from where they're at, and could use guidance and help in doing so, especially if they've never moved before in their life. The group comes up with a plan, where each party (can be an individual, a family, a couple, whatever) decides on their expected expenses, included but not limited to the anticipated cost of living in their destination spot, as well as the travel expenses to get there. Using this, everyone sets a party-specific financial goal and an expected date of success in reaching that goal.

Everyone then works toward this goal and records their progress, either by blog or by actually meeting in person. For continuity and a better feeling of community in participating, the expected move date is set for each party to be on the same date, or at least in the same week. Everyone also gets to go over their concerns and worries in moving away from their current home, and those with experience or insights can provide support to them to help them cross their psychological gaps to getting to the new location.

People share knowledge, worries, insights, and possibly even physical assistance (money from one party to another, household items like furniture and kitchenware, etc.). And best of all, everyone gets where they're going!

What do you think of an American interstate migration support group?

So I'm Doing a Photography Thing Now.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:12:00 +0000

I got a Fujifilm Finepix S3400 digital camera last week or the week before, and I've been playing around with it trying to figure out how to take great-looking photos.

In my efforts to ensure that my investment doesn't go to waste while I try to figure out a bunch of photography basics, I am making a goal for myself to take at least one photo a day for this month, and possibly even extend said project into the following year.

If you're interested in keeping up with my photographying skills and how they progress, here's my Flickr. (If you are a friend on Facebook, you'll see these photos there as well.) I'll be keeping only the most interesting/best photos that I take in there, so you won't see the garbage of the garbage. Let's see how much I can learn and how fast I can learn it!

Special thanks to my dear friend Chelsea for giving me the idea to do an "Everyday" kind of album (though she doesn't yet know she inspired it), and to my dear friend Tori who has so graciously offered to share her artistic wisdom with me.

Oh hey, I've got one of those Twitter things, if you wanna follow that or yell at me or something!

Dream-Post: The President Would Like To See Noah's Ark.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:40:00 +0000

11.5.2011
I am in a tiny classroom for kindergarteners, but I'm with Chellie and Aaron. I am seated facing them, they are seated forward, and all three of us are quoting lines from funny videos we've all seen. Chellie faces the blackboard at the front of the class and goes to say something, but doesn't seem to want us to hear it. She has her hair in two blonde braids and grabs each with her hands, making another video reference which I find hilarious. She looks around to me, clearly not expecting anyone to hear what she'd said, and laughs with me about it.

Later, I'm the President of the United States, and am in some huge dark room where a number of large items are on display. I understand the items to be important relics and artifacts collected and saved by the American government. I'm casually playing with a straight bass that is twice as tall as me, when my butler shows me an artist-drawn picture of Noah's Ark, another artifact the government apparently has possession of. I get excited at the prospect of going to see it, and we change rooms, but the dream moves to a different scene, and I don't see the boat.

Dream-Post: With Chelsea at the Food Court.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:56:00 +0000

10.31.2011 / Non-lucid
I dreamed Chels and I were at the mall sitting on a cushioned bench/love-seat thing. My arms were around her, and we leaned against one another as she closed one of her hands around one of mine. After a short while she fell asleep.

The dream shifts and we are on a different but similar love-seat in the same area, when she lays sideways onto my lap. I readjust my body so she's lying against me and I wrap my arm around her. We were talking about something but I don't recall what.

Early on in the dream, before we were on the love-seats, I had ordered some food for us at the food court. When I noticed they were taking a terribly long time getting Chellie's food ready, I left her on the seat and went to the counter. On the way I read the receipt, trying to remember what I'd ordered, but didn't recognize or understand any of the items listed. I stopped trying to figure it out when I read the item "1x www.JOOBIE.com," and handed the lone worker at the counter the receipt. (That site is not as interesting as it sounds. =P)

Since I couldn't remember what I'd ordered for Chellie, I just told her, "Can I pick up the order that has a fried chicken sandwich?" She gave me a look like she hadn't a clue what I was talking about, but tried to fake a smile to hide it, and started punching buttons on the cash register. Before the dream ended, I heard someone say, "She's the first woman to discover a whole new world," and I understood that it was referring to the cashier dealing with my order.

We never did get that order.

EDIT: Another dream fragment remembered from earlier:

I'm in a church surrounded by people with their heads down. Everyone is singing and then they all cross themselves. I try blending in - I hum along and place my hand vertically on my chest without crossing myself. My efforts fail and someone announces, "There's a rebel among us," with a laugh. Everyone disperses and I walk about the church before the dream ends.

Dream-Post: The Donnie Darko Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:52:00 +0000

10.23.2011
Coming from an earlier dream, I am with a couple very young friends, running through a muddy pond-sized puddle. I avoid some deep spots to make sure I don’t wind up drowning myself, since I can’t swim, and run through shallow waters with the group to join a group of unfamiliar older adults on a lawn on the other side. I suspect they are of some relation to me, but I don’t actually know any of them.

Lead by a tall man among them, they are reciting some long historic quote which I recognize but haven’t memorized. When they’ve finished I walk around a bit and overhear someone asking another how to install Linux on their computer – they ask, “do you have to use a CD?” I can answer their question, but I feel like I need to drive somewhere. After thinking about it a moment, I choose not to interject into his conversation, and hop in a silver mini-SUV and drive off the lawn, down a driveway that has appeared where the pond was earlier.

I stop at the road (also replacing the aforementioned pond), still able to hear the would-be Linuxer’s questions. I think about driving off like I’d planned to, then I throw the car in reverse, hop out, and push the car by its hood backward to the group of people, intent on helping out. (Somehow I’m able to drive the car without operating the steering wheel, but I think nothing of it.)

When I arrive back at the group, I push the car away and find that they’ve all gone silent. One elderly man, an ex-sailor possibly a veteran of military service, stands from his lawn chair and approaches me, and begins reading a script. It reads like a funeral speech, or something you’d hear on Memorial Day. The man’s son was killed/died early in his young life, and the group gathered every year to remember him. However, the man began directing the speech at me, going off the script to tell everyone that I am dishonouring his memory, “standing there looking all cool, wearing the shoes he could have worn.”

His words were painful for both of us, but the sadness and guilt I was feeling was quickly replaced with anger. I became thoroughly pissed and pulled off my sunglasses, disgusted that he was publicly blaming me for his son’s death. He continued to rant, both of us standing there face-to-face with no more than three feet between us, and I could feel the situation about to escalate. He pulled out an oversized handgun, loading it with a single shotgun shell. Someone came up from behind me and tried to talk him down, as did I, but to no avail. I tried to get closer to him with a kind of diagonal sidestep in the hopes of disarming him, while making it difficult for him to aim at me, but I wound up twirling as I moved. Obviously, I start to freak out because I’m moving much more slowly than I’d intended to, and am expecting to feel a bullet break my skin. However, the ex-sailor appears to have turned into a short dark-skinned boy and is having trouble figuring out how to operate the gun. Since I can’t run, I twirl a couple more times, and someone manages to stop him – I don’t see how exactly.

I find myself on the road in the silver mini-SUV, and I’m barreling down the road. I am on the phone with the boy that saved my life, and I excitedly laugh that the scene I’d just witnessed reminded me of the movie Donnie Darko. I ask the boy on the phone if he’s seen Donnie Darko, and explain the comparison: if I hadn’t started down the driveway in the SUV, then returned to try answering the Linux guy’s question, I might not have survived – it made sense in the dream. He agrees with a laugh, and the dream ends.

Earlier dream fragments:
I am with Chelsea listening to an old woman talking. She is switching between French and English, with a heavy Mexican accent to all her words. I interpret the French words for Chelsea where I recognize them.

I’m on a train which is driving on the freeway, high above a big city, and the door next to me is open to allow me a clear line of sight to the people driving cars next to us. One person is driving what appears to be a blue-coloured variation of the Dalek suit from Doctor Who, and I call it a TARDIS (without realizing my mistake). I’m incredibly entertained by seeing this as a functioning vehicle.

Dream-Post: The Things I Do To Impress A Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:33:00 +0000

I believe I will start incorporating my dream journal entries into the CME Blog. They'll be marked by a prefix to the title like so: "Dream-Post:" They'll also be labeled properly for ease of searchability. This should prove interesting!

10.20.2011/Non-Lucid

I dreamed I was joining the US Air Force. I was in a room with a lot of strangers, almost like a kind of waiting room for a train station, about to leave for either training or some kind of active combat. I was wearing a green uniform and looking at my military ID card in my wallet when I realized I didn't want to do this - I was doing it to impress a girl, I think. I started to reverse my dream, watching earlier sequences go in reverse like a movie being played backwards. I wasn't aware it was a dream, I just knew I could undo my life at that point. I stopped just before applying for the Air Force, and I don't remember doing anything besides before the dream ended.

Simply Incredible to Read

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:12:00 +0000

So this certain young lady I keep talking about has a really incredible mind. Never mind that you haven't been introduced - 'cause we'll take care of that right now.

Meet Chellie's mind. [berniedreams.blogspot.com] While her dreams are only a glimpse into the world of an imagination she has, what you'll read here will grab and hold you. To put it simply: When was the last time you read about a girl's wild ride sitting in the shopping-cart sized basket of a motorcycle, driven by their grandmother at breakneck speed down the highway? I thought so!

To get you started, I'll point you in the direction of her most recent post, "Explosions, Heights, and Speed in Los Angeles." I won't steal her thunder in trying to summarize all of what she witnessed, but be aware that there may be a death-defying circus act, and possibly some flying vehicles à la Transformers. If any of that is an exaggeration...well, I'll leave that up to you to find out!

The blog is actively updated. Follow it by RSS or with the Google Friend Connect widget thingy and it'll just hand you all the goodies she posts!

Also, she loves getting comments. Leave her one for me!

----
Notes:
This blog post was written to the tune of some tracks off of The Colour Morale's "We All Have Demons" album [2009], and MGMT's songs "Kids" [2008] and "Time To Pretend" [2007] on repeat.

Learned Modesty

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:11:00 +0000

Okay everyone, I'm having issues both intrinsic and extrinsic. But, the good news is I'm working on them.

And yes, one of them is making my wording less complicated. =P
(If you get nothing else out of this post, you may find the music recommendation at the bottom to be of use.)

Future Planning Done Wrong
I've always had a plan for my future. Every detail had been worked out, every possibility taken into consideration. I knew what I was going to do with myself in terms of a career - I'd be a Network Engineer, either for a company or for the government. I had a general idea of where I'd be living - out of this state and somewhere warmer.

Like most big plans, this one didn't work out. Every detail of what I had hoped would be the story of my life became up for adjustment over this last summer. I am no longer sure what it is I really want to do with my life (as in, I don't have a big ol' dream like I used to), I'm not definite on working as a Network Engineer, and I haven't the faintest idea where I'll be living, though I should hope it will be somewhere warmer.

It feels like I've always had a plan, and now I just don't. Aimlessness is an accurate way to describe how I view this nasty outlook on the next five-or-so years for myself.

But then a certain young lady (the very same one I keep mentioning everywhere else I post stuff) reminded me that this is what happens when you make plans in your teen years and expect them to work out. Of course, I initially wanted to believe that my case was different. But, it really wasn't, and it really isn't. I'm 21, and still in my parents' home, which is not what I'd planned for. But that's what's happening right now and hey, I'm still alive!

I've started on a new plan, but a more realistic and flexible one. It deals only with the next few months, with a general idea of where I want to be in half a year. Nothing too rigid - just a list of things I'm going to do that adds up to "Doing It Right", rather than "Doing It Perfectly". Of course I'm going to continue trying to do great things with my time, but I'm also going to get work, get a vehicle that I can actually call my own, and at some point finish my degree, even if I don't finish it by the end of next semester. (I hate considering that last thought, but considering how terribly rigid that plan is, I really have to consider all the things that can go wrong with it.)

To put it simply, I now have a list of what I'm going to do, starting tomorrow, where I quit acting/thinking like I've "got it figured out", and actually make some things happen. On that list: get a job or two (with a new plan on how I'll conduct myself in interviews), save the money I make, get a car, find out where I want to move to and have a good reason for moving.

Learned Modesty
On a smaller scale, I recently discovered I have problems with talking too much and listening too little. It eats me up to have to realize that this old issue has come back to haunt me again, but that's the truth of it. I've always had a certain cocky element to my personality, and now it's a problem. I enjoy learning, and I enjoy listening - but I enjoy talking too, and that comes from the cockiness. Whatever word describes the antithesis of "modesty" would describe how I've been for years. While it used to be fun and handy (see: when playing on-stage in a rock band), it is now a barrier to my self-improvement and my potential usefulness to others.

And, last but not least, I've found that part of that cockiness has lent itself to my writing style - confident, and often overly wordy. I have strange ways of writing, I know. Now I get to try a new thing: writing for comprehension rather than writing to impress or to show off.

The writing of this post is rather self-serving, as it deals only with myself and absolutely nothing else. However, it is necessary for me to lay out in writing what problems I'm dealing with, and how I'll go about fixing them. If nothing else, I can come back to this later and see how well I've been accomplishing my new goals. If you've read this far, thanks for caring about what I'm thinking and feeling. =)

TL;DR and Conclusion
This is me admitting I need help, and that I've got work to do. Lots of it.
The music recommendation is below.

----
Notes:
This blog post was written to the tune of Attack Attack's self-titled deluxe-edition album [2010/2011].

Dream Journal Returns!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:50:00 +0000

I don't think I'm about to jump back into lucid dreaming like I used to do it, but I am definitely going to get back to writing down and sharing my coolest dreams.

Here's my Dream Journal (DJ) [dreamviews.com] which contains my current (and many of my past) dreams, both lucid and non-lucid. There may be profane language and some violence, but I rarely have any content that requires censoring for the general audience, so it's mostly SFW (safe for work) to read my dreamlogs. There's an RSS option to follow my DJ if you're one of those RSS types.

You should see two current posts, "Vodka Fries" and "Vodka Again: Picking Up A Lady at the Bar" (also could have been called "Chelsea Gets Her Vodka"), and a number of my past dreams. I don't believe I actually got through transferring all of my old dreams [dreamviews.com] to this DJ from my old one, but there are a number of entertaining posts in there to keep you busy if you're interested.

So! Quick recap:
- Current Dream Journal.
- Old Dream Journal (The one with all the really good dreams in it.)

Now go read 'em and laugh and whatnot.

Post-21st-Birthday Planning!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:43:00 +0000

Before I start, pardon anything that sounds a little more like me than it usually sounds like - I stayed up quite late last night, got up early for classes this morning, and had a southwest-style chicken sandwich coupled with a mocha coffee as my only meal yet today. I say this obviously not looking for pity, but only understanding, as, to put it simply, I am feeling pretty weird right now. =P

So! 21st birthday was yesterday, and it was a good albeit average day. Got my new driver's license, so that's all nice with the new picture and all. Haven't touched any alcohol yet as an over-21 candidate for perusing such beverages, in case you were curious, so no, I have no great stories to tell (or great stories to have forgotten in drunkenness). XD

However, I do have an idea.

I'm 21 years old. I've lived in the same house, same city, same state, same country for every one of those years. I have traveled little, and experienced much - but not enough. I have great friends, for lack of a more generous adjective of appreciation, and want to do some story-worthy things with them. And by that, I want to make some memorable events take place.

So!

I want to compile a list of all the great things I'd love to say I've done, when my 22nd birthday rolls around. Think of it like a bucket list with a 1-year expiration date. These can get pretty crazy and outlandish, but that's kinda the point.

This list is not intended to be a closed effort, noted by my mentioning that I want friends involved in these memorable experiences. That said, anyone and everyone is welcome to throw ideas my way of nuts or crazy things to do.

I'll throw out some thoughts as they come to me, see how this list will get started.

- Revise and edit the novel I wrote back in July.
- Publish said novel!
- Write a novel's worth of short stories. (Plans for NaNoWriMo, as they stand now.)
- Learn to swim, or practically die trying. =P
- Roadtrip several states away. To quote The Doctor: "Anywhere you want. Any time you want. One condition: it has to be amazing."
- Learn to write good poetry.
- Release my first recorded album.
- Take a young lady out to a place she's never been and do something mind-blowingly amazing.
- Ice skate without dying.
- Roller blade without dying.
- Fly in a plane for the first time. Preferably without dying.
- Visit California.
- Visit a country not attached to North America.
- Get a job, learn what it's like to have a job that's less than pleasing. Everyone else seems to be able to pull this one off. =P
- Meet Matt Smith or Benedict Cumberbatch, respective actors for the 11th Doctor (Doctor Who) and Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock).
- Get a college degree!
- Watch so many movies I've missed over the last 30+ years of film-making history that I find nothing interesting to watch besides reruns. This will be a challenge.
- Get the CompTIA Network+, Security+, and Linux+ certifications.
- Get the (ISC)^2 SSCP (associate of) certification.
- Teach a class of college kids for a day (or close to it). This will take some sneakiness to pull off, I'm sure.
- Help my brother Myron [myrongreeneforsheriff.com] succeed in his campaign for Sheriff of the local law department.
- Make at least green-belt in Taekwon-do, yellow belt in Aikido.
- Get caught up watching all the worthwhile TV shows I've missed. (Included but not limited to: Arrested Development, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Eccleston-era and older Doctor Who.)
- Figure out what to do about the following issue I'm having. (Image source: XKCD 863: "Major in the Universe")

- finish reading "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens.
- get to "conversational" level in French, but sound like I'm fluent.
- get to "conversational" level in Arabic, but sound like I'm fluent.
-

And the list goes on.

The Arch Linux Adventures Begin

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Been a while since I've done a Linux/computer-related blog post, so here's what I attempted last night:

I installed and started configuring Arch Linux x64 alongside my Windows 7 x64 OS. Since my existing machine was factory setup, there were three partitions dedicated to Windows - a system recovery thing, some other system-protected thing, and then the main partition with all the typical Windows C:\ drive goodies on it. After installing the GRUB, everything was running fine as far as I could tell - until I booted into Windows. (Isn't it always a Windows problem after a Linux install? XD) When I'd boot in, it would take me straight into the Acer eRecovery Manager. After poking around with CHKDSK /F, the MSDaRT Windows 7 disk [technet.microsoft.com], and considering going through with the factory reset I was being told to do, I popped into Google with my Android tablet (since I haven't yet set up GNOME in Arch, and didn't feel like doing a Google search in a text browser [archlinux.org]) and came across this forum topic [bbs.archlinux.org] where a gent/lady was attempting the same thing, and getting a different problem which resulted in the same problem I was having. The end of the thread suggested editing GRUB's menu.lst to read the following for the Windows partition:

# (2) Windows 7
title Windows 7
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

The suggested change was to modify (hd0,0) to (hd0,1), and that's all it took to make Windows 7 work again.

Pretty cool fix if you ask me! I'm mostly posting this in case someone else has the same issue and didn't come across the fix elsewhere, lest they wipe their machine due to a bootloader/partition mismatch. Now all I have to do is figure out why my Windows clock keeps fast-forwarding by 3 hours whenever I boot into it. XD

In other news, it's the first of October, and this is one beautiful day. I had/have plans for today, and so far a few of them have been modified in favour of tinkering with my machine. It's gonna be a good weekend no matter what I do, I'm sure.

Hit me up on Twitter [twitter.com] or Google+ [plus.google.com].

Now Playing: Ingrid Michaelson - "Die Alone"

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:37:00 +0000

A beautifully-done live version of this incredible song.

Atheism: Only For Smart People?

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:10:00 +0000

Evening once again, one and all. I trust this post is received in a comfortable but mentally engaged state, as this post will likely be a long one.

The Prompt
The reason for this post comes from a number of prompts, but the lighting of the fuse only really took off last week on what became an explosion of personal inquiry on the topic of atheism. To clarify: I was asked off-handedly by my sister, in so many words, "Is atheism only for smart people?" Before I'll jump into my take on this small but enlightening intellectual challenge, I'd like for you to take a moment and think on it. I realize it's directed at those who already hold a skeptical view of spirituality, but all the same, I'd like to know that this question - not just my reaction - is being thought about as you are reading this post.

My instinct in taking the question led me to blurt out the obvious response, "No." After all, the state of atheism is simply lacking a belief in any god(s), higher power, or any kind of supernatural what-have-you. Any person who can understand the basic concepts of the world around them and of belief has the capacity to choose not to believe.

But, of course, I couldn't simply let my gut reaction stand as the representative to my thoughts on the question. After all, she was expecting an informative (and informed) response. I gave it some thought and considered the validity of my fast-thought reasoning. Just because someone has the capacity to do something doesn't mean that they will - or even can - reasonably do it. In context: Any conscious human being has the capacity to become an atheist if they haven't done so (and vice versa), but the daughter of a priest will find it nearly impossible to do so, as will most Muslims whose families are also followers of Islam. (In case the example is lost on you, Muslims who convert out of the religion are subject to being killed for their heresy.)

Although that doesn't call into question whether or not a person's intellectual development could be a prerequisite for becoming a nonbeliever, it does make my original support for the answer weak. To come back from this, I considered the scenario of a person who is not intelligent, but still chooses to be atheist. All I could come up with was an apathetic guy who had no ambitions in his life beyond getting the next highest scoring spot on the leader-boards for some outdated Flash game. As nasty as an image as that was, I shrugged my mental shoulders and accepted that it was feasible that an unintelligent person can accept atheism as their outlook on the spiritual aspects of their life.

But to what degree are they really living a secular lifestyle?

Atheism vs. Full Atheism
This is where my brain got a little workout. To be an atheist today means far more than simply renouncing any faith in a celestial being. Those who truly live an atheist life understand the conditions under which various deities were created, and therefore also will reasonably have their doubts about the possibility of there being an afterlife. When one accepts an atheist view of life, and is truly thinking about where their beliefs are founded, they will take issue with the concept of their being a place that a person's "soul" goes to when their physical self dies - and, if you're like me, you'll also take issue with the concept of a "soul" in terms of it being an invisible separate entity from the body. After all, where outside of religious teaching is the idea of an afterlife imprinted upon us? Does nature give us any reason to believe there is a heaven or a hell beyond that which we create for ourselves? If you find something, please contact me that I might be wrong in saying that religion is the only source of the belief in an afterlife.

The intelligent being will understand that, should they truly accept a lifestyle that accepts no gods and no afterlife, it's a scary proposition to think that once the body dies, everything ends there. Death is scary for the previously described atheist - I'll call this the "full atheist", as they accept nothing from religion that is not founded elsewhere in the universe. Being a full atheist myself, I am still scared of the concept of my life ending. I accept it as my belief and understanding that everyone dies in this way, and that my experience will be no different. Given this much, it's incredibly difficult to imagine that unambitious apathetic guy accepting the life of the full atheist, given that his behaviour while living on earth is the only thing against which his ultimate worth will be gauged.

This is where the question comes back, under a new lens: Is "full atheism" only for the intelligent?

This rephrasing of the question, for me, begs more questions as responses than it begs statements. One of these questions is: Can an unintelligent person renounce the concepts introduced by religion? To the reader, I ask you to think on this. As far as my imagination will allow, I can't imagine a person saying they are a full atheist without re-evaluating the beliefs they grew up with (if one grew up with religion and later discovered atheism) and taking the time to form their new beliefs based only on what they find to be true - not on what they are told. This is a far cry from simply saying that all editions of the Bible, the Torah, and the Qur'an (to name a few) are wrong, and leaving it at that.

Conclusion
To be a full atheist means to prove the falsehood to oneself of the religious texts they were once taught to accept. This cannot be accomplished by a person who does not care for their own intellectual cultivation.

Therefore, I do not believe full atheism is for the unintelligent in our society today. We now know how to prove and disprove theories and ideas, and must use this knowledge to examine our personal fundamental beliefs.

Thank you for your time, patience, and open-mindedness. If you have questions, comments, concerns, complaints, interjections, or any other resulting status from reading this post, or just want to bang away at your keyboard for a minute to appear intelligent to that pretty young lady sitting next to you at the coffee shop, that's what the comment box below is there for.

P.S.: Disclaimer
Since I've gone this entire post without making any disclaimers, I might as well toss one in now. I realize this post will be read by atheists, theists, deists, agnostics and every other belief-related label you can think of. These ideas regard atheism in a sense that I cannot say is empirical, as there is no quantifiable measurement of the difference between a wannabe atheist and a full atheist, nor reliable sources to say whether or not the religious texts mentioned are false. However, I have made an attempt to present the information in an objective format, that can be read, understood, and hopefully accepted by atheists and non-atheists alike. I do not present this particular post to push my atheist beliefs onto my readers, only to share an interesting thought process I encountered when asked about my beliefs. If it got you thinking, my goal has been achieved.

P.P.S.: I realize that theism can be for smart people, so in case you were thinking about that, I'm not saying that all non-atheists are dumb or that all atheists are smart - just that full atheism cannot be accepted by a relatively unintelligent person.

A Very Short Review of Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:13:00 +0000

I posted this originally on the CZ and figured it would do nicely to update this blog sometime this week with a casual post, in case my planned post (regarding an intelligent topic, of course) isn't finished before the weekend hits.

The following is the imported post:

What I like about Google+ when compared to Twitter:

Compared to Twitter, it is identical in practical use, with the exception that it adds mobile functions to dictate which groups of your followers will see your content. To do so, append +friends or +public or +extended or +DFA to the end of each mobile update. This is mostly just relevant to me since I do the SMS social networking, but whatev.

As for the site and follower management, it far exceeds Twitter's user friendliness.

Why I stick only to comparing Google+ to Twitter and not comparing G+ to other social networking sites:

They both do the same thing for me. I send a text message to a shortcode they provide, they post it, you guys all see it. My Facebook and MySpace are linked to auto-import my tweets, so realistically I only actually work with two social networks on my mobile anyway.

Current downside to adding G+ to my list of oft-used social networking sites:

- currently, my phone doesn't get SMS updates from updates from those I follow, be they Friends, Acquaintances, Following, or whatever. So, I don't actually see what others are doing while I'm out and about, but if they comment on my stuff or start a conversation with me, I can see it then.
- not enough people I know actively use G+. I know b4k4 made the point that so long as it lacks a desktop client it won't get much use in his camp, which sounds logical to me: I only started using it when I found I could do (some of) G+ via texting.

So, that's some food for thought if you're into mobile social networking and were thinking about G+.

What Do You Think? A New Subject For CME Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:50:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I've got a new thing I'm going to try on the CME Clyde Machine Environment blog. Most of my current topics of interest for discussion and for writing deal with abstract concepts within sociology, psychology, and are often labeled as "philosophical". Naturally, the idea to bring them to CME crossed my mind, but didn't come to a head.

Until now!

This blog was started simply as a way for me to share my greater ideas and discoveries in more than the 140-character limit Twitter offered me. Does the inclusion of philosophies and other intellectual discussions fit this venue? You bet! Since the majority of this blog's attention comes from readers rather than commenters, I am uncertain as to what kind of reception this will receive - though I would hope the reception would be shown through inspired discussions on relevant posts.

This idea has been with me for a short while now - just a month or two - but recently came back to the forefront of my free-time attentions when my College Composition II course instructor said that we would be keeping a blog specifically for use in class assignments and discussion. Upon discovering the opportunity to share more of my thoughts with others who may share them, I immediately began working out how to incorporate the class blog into the CME blog, since the time and effort I'll be putting in will certainly warrant a larger audience for the thought-products than an ENG112 community college course.

The alternate "class blog" mentioned is "Promoting High-Level Thought" and covers a topic very important to me: the decline in American collegiate students' interests in pursuing high-level thought and philosophical discussion, and how best to address and overcome this apparent apathy for cultivation of the human mind. To keep things clean but connected, I will introduce posts from "Promoting HLT" into the CME Blog if they truly warrant a larger audience's eyes, or if there is an apparent interest in seeing such posts. For the most part, the blog posts for the class will be simply to ensure I'm keeping up with the assignment requirements, but there will (and already are) those posts that are passionate and inspired. Where those posts occur, they will be posted here as well, with potential addendum as there is room for further development on whatever good ideas were written at the time of the original post.

Of course, posts from "Promoting HLT" will not be the only intellectually-charged posts that will make their way onto the CME Blog. I will share what thoughts I have when they are profound enough to share using this vehicle, and will certainly make sure they are worth taking the time to at least skim through.

Excited? Scared? Intimidated? Give me at least one word of a feeling you get from what you expect from these posts, here or on Twitter.

I predict this'll be a fun adventure for everyone involved! How about you?

Music on Soundcloud + Camp NaNo Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:53:00 +0000

Great news! Clyde Machine tunes are now on Soundcloud! If you head over there right now, you can listen to some of my newest (and some of my oldest) tunes from within your browser! Like what you hear? There's a little downward-pointing arrow on each track that lets you download the mp3 of the song, and if nothing's gone wrong in the uploading of each track, they should be fully labeled with their proper IDv3 tags - artist name, album name, track name and number, those kinds of things should be on each track.

Also! I've been slacking on Camp NaNo.... Yes, I know I should already be racing ahead like last time around, but I'm sufficiently distracted with other things at the moment. Not to mention, I haven't got a solid plan for the novel yet.... But hey, it'll get done one way or another!

Until next time, hit me up on Twitter like usual, but make sure to follow @ClydeMachine right now - some updates are coming in tomorrow you might want to pay attention to!

Another Novel? Camp NaNoWriMo Hits Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:00:00 +0000

August session of Camp NaNoWriMo is underway! And I've written one paragraph. Not bad, I suppose, considering I wasn't planning on writing anything on day 1 anyway.

Follow the novel's progress here (stats page) and here (detail page)! And, naturally, follow the guy who got me started into NaNoness, Lloyd Wallace and his currently untitled WIP! I expect awesomeness from you, B4k4!

Camp NaNoWriMo: I Just Finished My First Novel. :3

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:01:00 +0000

I feel cool and accomplished now. But, out of the 57000 words it now contains, I wrote 9000 of them in one almost uninterrupted sitting tonight. So this is all I'll type before going to bed. Night!

EDIT: Here's the stats page for the novel!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Closing in on the 50k!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:44:00 +0000

Hello everyone! As of this post, I'm sitting at a comfortable 45400 words in the novel, and my anticipated finish date is....tomorrow! Yeah, can you believe it?

I'm really excited about this whole experience - as I've been from the start - but not because I'll be finishing the goal I set for myself on July 2nd of this year. I'm excited about this whole ordeal because I will (in the coming weeks!) have a chance to show you all some writing that you might enjoy! I'm not yet sure how I'll release this, though you can be certain it'll be in at least a PDF ebook format, for readability on most ereaders and all current computer screens. I'll look into making an EPUB version since I know a few people who use ereaders that prefer that format, and simply because I prefer availability over proprietary my-way-or-the-highway distribution methods. =D

So! The title of the novel hasn't yet been officially decided, though it's carried the working title "Presence is Everything". I'm reluctant to use this title because it's already found a home as the title to a new music piece released on the Luminarium in the recent exhibit "Sequential". (Click the link to explore the exhibit, and find the tune by Clyde Machine in there among other excellent works from artists and musicians, as usual! You will not be disappointed.)

The anticipated endgame plan for this novel is to shoot for 60-75000 words, since I will not be done with the story in 5000 more words, plain and simple! Since the 50k goal has kept the novel rolling along so well, I'm scared to think of how it might turn out (if at all) if I attempt to finish it without a wordcount goal to reach up to. Hence, 60-75k range, which is a good amount to allow several more chapters in for rounding out the story and wrapping up the package nicely.

Until next time, I'll be writing or reading - or learning Arabic. Wish me luck in all three endeavours!

How I'll Spend Independence Day This Year.

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:54:00 +0000

This is all I feel up to doing for the major portion of the day. =D

Enjoy your Fourth o' July!

Camp NaNoWriMo: Broke the 11K Mark, Surprisingly!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Greene) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:21:00 +0000

Okay, this is pretty crazy and quite cool - I've been involved with the Camp NaNoWriMo project for about two full days, and I've written a total of 11238 words toward the 50000 word goal of the novel-writing challenge!

What's also really cool is that I was able to listen to a ton of my post hardcore tunes while doing so. I've never been one for creating things while listening to music, as I have to give each an equal amount of attention, which makes them conflict in my mind, but it seems that listening to A Skylit Drive, Abandon All Ships, Alesana, and Amyst do help me write some great material!

I'm really enjoying what I've come up with so far, and I'm glad that I've been able to produce this much material so early into the project. I can only hope the ideas keep flowing and I don't run into any major snags down the road. I'm fearing writer's block, but will equip myself to handle it if I do run across it.

I wish all those involved in the project right now the best of luck and the most productive of July's, and really hope others I know will jump onto the bandwagon. It's pretty darn great, and there's still plenty of time to start writing for July! Camp NaNo information is here!

Happy Independence Day to everyone worldwide!

FUN FACT: The last three digits of my collective word count right now, "238", is the title given to a demo song done by A Skylit Drive on their "Industry Demos" collection.