--MY FOLLICLES ARE EVERYWHERE

…Wow, what a fun weekend in Portland.  Trips to see the guys there really beat the crap out of me, but they’re a blast every time nonetheless, and thus I suppose they’re worth it.

…So I am behind on things.  I definitely need to have a productive week, especially on the writing front.

What did you do this weekend?

…I’ve been working on the same story for the last couple of weeks.  It’s about twins (of course) and there’s already been an accident and some deaths (of course) but so far I haven’t even got them across the lake.  Maybe they’ll start swimming later today.  I hope so anyway.

…Here are some things I like that you might like as well:

Lint

I’m haunted a little this evening by feelings that have no vocabulary and events that should be explained in dimensions of lint rather than words.

I’ve been examining half-scraps of my childhood. They are pieces of distant life that have no form or meaning. They are things that just happened like lint.

—Richard Brautigan

-“Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the Gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both. We gallop through life like circus performers balancing on two speeding side by side horses - one foot is on the horse called fate, the other on the horse called free will. And the question you have to ask every day is - which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?”- Elizabeth Gilbert

-“A day dawns, quite like other days; in it, a single hour comes, quite like other hours; but in that day and in that hour the chance of a lifetime faces us.”- Maltbie Babcock

-"One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful." Sigmund Freud

-“Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.”  Samuel Johnson

-“A good sweat, with the blood pounding through my body, makes me feel alive, revitalized. I gain a sense of mastery and assurance. I feel good about myself. Then I can feel good about others.” Arthur Dobrin

-“The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist.” J. Harold Wilkins

-"Joining, in other words, happens through a process of opposition, irony, and dissent. If you’re going to join a messed-up club, you have to pass the messed-up entrance exam. You enter into the sect only when you push back, when you finally say, Listen, I don’t care what you tell me. I know it’s a bad idea, but I’m determined to do it, and I will do it. “ J. Ashmen