Monakhos

Along with Jon, I partook last month in National Novel Writing Month. It was an interesting challenge, as I had never even attempted to write a novel before. Usually I am able to finish what I need to say in the length of a short story or less. I took a chance and tried it, though, and I suceeded. My manuscript ended up just over the goal of 50,000 words.

Now the task of editing begins. Fortunately I think the story is almost done at this point and just needs some touching up, but we will see. If all goes as planned, I should be able to have a second draft ready for some friends to read by the new year and then have a complete package together a few months after that.

Writing this novel was nice because too often I start tasks and then leave them before they are complete. It is just too easy to get distracted by something else. I may work a few days or weeks on a musical project and then before it is done move on to some different musical task or something else entirely. Learning how to finish something was a good experience for me.

Anyway, that’s my update for the day. Now that NaNoWriMo is over with, I should have some more time to post. One of my goals for the coming year is to write more, so some of that will probably end up appearing here.

Though the world changes
And time passes by
I remain resolute
Awaiting death and dawn
Reborn anew
Rising from the ashes
I will be incarnate
No more questions
Or faltering
I am here incarnate in you
A new day begins
Life reawakens
I am

I met a new friend last night and I thought I would introduce him. He’s a little shy and so I don’t know his name yet, but he did agree to pose for a few pictures.

We had a lot of fun the past day. He’s been with me everywhere. It’s nice to have someone to talk to who you know is never going to judge you and is always going to be there to listen.

Anyway, here he is. Go ahead and say hello. I’ll show him your greetings.

I’ve been gone a long time. It’s happened before, but usually just for a month. There’s been plenty going on (for example RockOm launched finally) I just haven’t had much to say that belongs on this blog.

I’ve been feeling bitter recently. Especially towards Christianity/the church in general. I just can’t stand the thought of it. I guess it’s pent up frustration, etc. and I guess I blame it some for parts of my life. I don’t know. It just makes me mad.

Most recently, I’ve been getting upset that Christians seem to be stealing/repurposing the word spirituality. It’s like they so screwed up the image associated with Christian/Christianity that they had to find a new word that didn’t have the negative connotations to use. What they don’t seem to get is that no matter what word you use or how you express your faith, it’s the same religion. You can be part of a charismatic movement, or part of a church like Mosaic, but you are still all the same and I don’t want any part of it. So stop stealing my words and ruining them. If you want a word, keep Christian and fix the image. Not that you can, but there’s no need in ruining another perfectly good word.

I meant for this to be more of a happy post, but I guess it didn’t turn out that. I’ve just been a little wierd lately. Maybe I’ll come out of it.

Here’s a trailer of the short my friends and I sent to Cannes. We’ll probably be posting the full version up after the festival. ‘Il Bambino’ Trailer Cannes Film Festival from waistworks@gmail.com on Vimeo.