The Curious Case of Charlottesville and the White Supremacist Super Girl.

I've been composing and re-composing this is my head for a while. Long enough, in fact, that it may actually be too late to do any good. The news cycle has moved on and everyone is now talking about Harvey and Houston, and all related things. But this remains important. So... Sorry for not posting this earlier I guess. I have excuses. They are all lame.

So Charlottesville happened. There are a few conflicting about what exactly happened, who did what, etc. The only details that matter to me personally is that a group of people marched on a church yelling and chanting "Jews will not replace us." A woman lost her life. If they aren't actually racist or white supremacist, they've chosen to counted among those that openly are. The fact that I have to point out how is bad, troubles me.

Shortly after, my Facebook feed was flooded with "Oh God. I knew one of them." I won't lie. I wasn't really surprised. My mind went through a list of people. Most of them were the "Heritage not Hate" crowd- which I sort of respect in a kind of misguided way, and then there were the Fox News watchers who thought BLM was a terrorist organization or whatever.

But no...

It was that woman I kind of sort of knew from the Dragon Con scene that hung out with the photographer dude and cosplayed Super Girl. A long series of "seriously?" and "The fuck?" came out of mouth and  I was overcome by a profound sadness.  

Evil doesn't always look like evil. Maybe I don't have anything to say about it.

Day 23.... Where in I remember that I was doing the thing, and kind of admit defeat.

I'm not really broken up about it. I have been more consistent in my writing in the last- how ever long it's been, since May 18, than I have been in  a while. And I feel fairly good about  that.

Marlow's Tale:
I think I've reached a point where I have to actively know where it's going, and I'm not sure I do. I guess I do. The image of the next scene is pretty clear. A random person reading this would have no idea what I'm talking about. This blog is just so  I'm accountable to myself, I guess.

But that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about deserves it's own post. So that's what I'm going to do.

Words are not  flowing like they should- or at least like how I want them to. I spent Saturday and Sunday with my wife, and didn't really make time for writing. Fuck it. "Write Every Day" is a lie. Or at least it's a gross exaggeration.

Nazis. Seriously, man. Nazis. What the fuck kind of world do we live in where I have to get upset about Nazis? Like, we haven't made them comic book villains enough over the course of my lifetime.

Day Seven of doing the thing.

I seem to have missed two days. I am determined to not care.


So I'm wearing a kilt everyday in the month of October to raise money for Heifer International. I also seem to be doing a fair amount of goofing off on social media about kilts. I'm not really sure what else to say about that. It baffles me how much a garment can form communities. But it does...

I swear I've written more today, but it's not worth sharing. The worth sharing might be the tricky part.

I'm suddenly up to my eyeballs in kilted social media.

Um...
Day Four of writing a page a day.  So very close to not happening. It's 11.03. I'm not quite willing to call the whole thing a failed experiment.
--
The Book of Writerly Wisdom:
How to Choose Your Satellite Office.

Sometimes you have to get out of the house, and there's no better way of shredding that pesky impostor syndrome than to setting up your laptop at a coffee house and letting everyone know you're a writer. I like to go that extra step further. I put on pictures of family and a plastic potted plant. I figure if you're gonna do it, really occupy the space.

Wi-Fi
There are two kinds of writers- no, that's not right. There are many kinds of writers but for the sake of this exercise, there are the kind that need to be connected to the internet for research or cloud media storage, or there's the kind that needs to be not distracted by those things. I tend to fluctuate wildly between the two. Know which you are at any given time, and you'll be fine. Also,  you probably have a phone. You don't *need* WiFi, I say in an attempt to convince myself.

The ability to hang out.
For the most part, we're talking about  businesses here. Although, I will happily point out that libraries have most of what you'll need, and don't charge $5 for coffee. Point being, businesses tend to want you do your thing, spend money and leave. Servers get paid in tips, and people damping out in their section kills that.

Restrooms.
Yep. At some point you're going to have to pee. You'll want to choose a satellite office that you can conceivably leave your stuff in attended for the appropriate amount of time.

Caffeine
Because..  Caffeine

Power outlets.
Unless you have a really good battery.

...

I'm calling that a page.
..

Today's writing was done. It was about two pages in the Marlow story, and I'm not going to post it. That is all.

The Five People You Meet in a Kilt

The Five People You Meet in a Kilt.

I’m seldom a fan of putting people into categories.  I find reducing people to a set of stereotypes to be dehumanizing and often trite. It must be noted that we are more than a set of labels and identities. Besides, we’ve all fallen into, or been mistaken for one or more  of these at one point or another. I like to think we’re all individuals but there some definite types.

1. The Olde Scots Guard.
Who are they?
Well to start with, myself, I guess. At the very least my Dad.

Where do you find them?
St. Andrew’s Society. Bagpipe Bands, Highland Games. Clan Societies

Notable Quotes:
“Well that’s not how Jimmy MacIntosh did it!”

2. The LORDES of Scotland:
Who are they?
They’re the people who want to be confused with the Olde Scots Guard, and some of them may even be. I’ll be blunt about this one. Screw these people. They’re the kilted equivalent of that guy in the comic book store who tells you just how much more of a nerd he is than you are, and will shame you for not being a real fan when he discovers you don’t know who Wally West is. I’d take these a grain of salt, but slightly more often than not, their modeus operandi is to just make stuff up. I’m sorry, that’s too polite. They lie. At best they exaggerate, or at the very least brag about things that really aren’t that impressive. As you can probably tell, I have very little patience for most of them.

Where do you find them?
You don’t. They’ll find you, and they will talk to you at great length. They’re at ren fests, highland games, and conventions. I’ve met them on street corners. They might show up random places in period and expect it to be perfectly normal.

Notable Quotes?
“I’m Scottish. I was actually born in Scotland. I’m heir to the Scottish throne. You know in Scotland they wear their leather kilts everyday. Tartan was for {mystical overtones} Gatherings.”

3. The Life Stylers
Who are they?
You’re probably already acquainted with this crowd. You may even be in the particular unbifurcated tribe.  You may have heard tale of these people who tried on a kilt and decided that pants just weren’t for them. They took the plunge and went kilted 24/7, which is silly because I yet to find a kilt that you can reasonably in. No matter. All kilted. All the time.
I’ve known a few of these people. I even like most of them. They tend to run the gament between “decent fellow who does his thing” to “complete douche nozzle who decided to wear a kilt because he couldn’t otherwise talk to women or otherwise have a personality.” I’ve  found it’s a good practice to assume the former rather than the latter. (That’s the first thing for you non-English Majors.) I’ve noticed they tend to favor non-traditional kilts at least a little and that’s okay, for them, I guess.

Where do you Find them?
Literally anywhere. I saw a guy at the airport in Kansas City to Atlanta. I probably I knew him, but never asked.

Notable Quotes
“Hi, my name is Kevin.”

4. The Society of Kilted Anachronists.
Who are they?
Oh you know.. Those guys who do that thing.... with the sticks, in armor.  There’s a bunch or reenactment or “living history" groups around the country. The most notable is the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA. They refer to themselves as Scadians because they like being clever. Also, it’s easier to say. They pride themselves on historical accuracy and sometimes they aren’t wrong. (There’s a reenactment group that has several members I love dearly, but insist they’re recreating Scottish clan of the 13th Century. I’ll let you do your own looking about to find out what’s wrong with that.) You might occasionally mistake them for the LORDES of Scotland, and that’s mores the pity. They make good mead.

Where do you find them?
SCA Events, Highland Games, Conventions, Ren fests.

Notable Quotes:
“Far be it from me...”

5. The Kilt Punk,
Who are they?
That guy in a kilt at the punk show. I thought that was obvious? They’re occasionally mistaken for the Life Stylers and they might even be. This particular breed of kiltie is mostly concerned with the music, the Paddy Punk scene etc. Much to their chagrin they will eventually become the Olde Scots Guard and become the old man at the bar drinking his stout, whether they like it or not.

Where do you find them?
Shows. Also all the usual places where kilties roam. As if this wasn’t obvious from the name.

Notable Quote:
“Dude! Flogging Molly is town.” or something.

Hello and welcome to the blog.

Yesterday Facebook memories reminded me that August was "Write a Page a Day Month" or however it was phrased. I won't lie. I failed to do this last year. I made a noble effort and got distracted by something shiny. I'm not going to flagellate myself too much over it. I suck at finish things. I swear I'm getting better. Right?

Yeah probably not. There's a reason I'm not Joss Weldon. 

 I decided to start a new blog. Yes, this blog. Sort of. I went blogspot, like one does when one is starting a blog, only to discover I had already made one. In fact, I made two. (Armchair Nerd is the other one.) Neither of them had any entries. Seems I might suck at starting things too.

So anyway, I figured if I already this set up, I might as well use it. Here is where I post stuff to keep myself honest. Hopefully this time I won't get distracted by something shiny. 

Here are the Rules I made for myself last year:

1. “One page” constitutes one page written on abiword singe spaced in Times New Roman 12pt, or 300 words whichever is the more convenient definition on that day.
2. The writing can be essay, fiction or script. Poetry or filling up the page with lists doesn’t count. 
3. Each writing must be complete. Parts of a larger work such as a chapter in a book are acceptable, but there must be a beginning middle and end. 
4. Writing can exceed one page, but the number of pages do not average or roll over to the next day.

Seems reasonable. More to follow,  because this is probably not a page.