Friday, January 25 - Day 55

I broke down and bought the "Definitive Gold Box" version of "Twin Peaks", even though I own the whole caboodle, save the holy grail of the pilot film. I'm feeling vaguely stupid for being duped into this double dip, I knew sooner or later they would cough up this complete set, but couldn't hold my horses. Alas, such is life, I'll get over it.

Still having some issues getting the novel on track, strictly psychological, not that that's a short hurdle, but I know what's going on and it's about binding belief and goals. Like most of life's problems, the issue is simple, the execution is hard. But this big mug has no stomach for failure, and need to visualize "victory" and keep it present, as I go through the long process of finishing this thing.

Thursday, January 24 - Day 54

Well, I've fully recovered from my last leg workout, but still haven't figured out the next scene in my novel. I spent a terribly long time staring at the Word document that is "Black Nouveau", and didn't write a single usable sentence. I finally declared surrender around noon, and took the day off, getting a haircut, dropped off the dry cleaning, got the truck washed and other random detritus.

I think I'm in a bit of a funk, I had a couple of fun activites planned for the weekend, both of which cancelled. And that took some of the urgency off of this Thursday, not that its any excuse for writers block, but its probably the reason this turned into such a "meh" day.

I'm toying with the idea of doing a "Costanza", and for the next week just doing the opposite of what I would normally, just to see what happens.

Tuesday, January 22 - Day 52

People, I have known some muscular pain in my life, but nothing, NOTHING like what I've experienced the last two days. I torched my legs on Saturday, and am paying the piper now. Given that I only work three days on my longest weeks, I decided to forego the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday, and even though I was feeling pretty crippy went to the gym for some aerobic work beforehand. That went fairly well, but by the time I hit the office I was moving like I was a toddler, weaving like I'd topple with every step. Thank god the place was empty, I would've been ripe for profound ribbing.

One of my new pals at the office lost her wallet over the weekend, and it just reminds me how annoying such things can be. I was going to join her on her quest back to Dupont Circle to see if she could track it down, but when we hit the Metro found my fare card to be demagnetized, and wound up parting ways at Metro Center so that I could deal with the situation. Let me tell you, the Sales Office at Metro Center is no place to hang out, I've often said that cell phone stores are the bus stations of retail, and the great unwashed in line (me being one) reminded me of what a real bus station is all about.

Okay, gotta' scoot, peace out my babies!

Sunday, January 20 - Day 50

Yikes, I really dropped the hammer on my legs yesterday, and its making ambulation a bit of a challenge. It wasn't so bad at the gym today, but seriously, sitting and watching the Patriots victory stiffened up my quads so that now any movement feels like self mutilation! Well, serves me right for laying off for a couple of weeks, the old quads don't like inactivity.

I started the day in the laundry room, then kitchen and didn't get to the gym till around 1:00 and I allowed myself to get sucked into the game, and now the Packers and Giants are kicking off so it's likely my biggest contribution to society today will be clean socks.

Don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm digesting the 1000 or so pages of "The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps" - The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age--The '20s, '30s & '40s Edited by Otto Penzler which is awesome. It's got some stories from Chandler, Hammett and Gardner I haven't read, plus a huge number of authors I've never heard of. It's bliss. Well, except for the size, reading a 1000 page floppy paperback at bedtime is a challenge!

Saturday, January 19 - Day 49

I spent of good chunk of the day with my friend Alex, hitting the Chinese grocery in Bailey's Crossroads, and Cafe Asia for lunch. And I was struck by the lack of kittens in the 'hood, I mean, seriously, that's one of the reasons I live here is the high concentration of attractive women and if they're all going to be hiding I may have to think about moving!

However, I did run into the happiest puppy I know, Athena, this morning when coming back from the gym. Evidently she'd gotten "fixed" on Friday, but she seemed none the worse for wear, and her aggressive licking and joy at my presence seemed unabated.

I've given up on trying to find a model in the near future, but found one of those long, behind the door mirrors I had stashed, and found that it fits well on the windowsill so I pulled up the old easel, and did some life drawing for the first time in awhile. I tell ya', there's nothing like it, the most pure of the drawing techniques. Just eye, hand, paper, very primal and very much the key to keeping your mind fresh.

Oh, and I seriously banged up my legs today, squats, deadlifts, calf raises and lunges. I'm very ouchy.

Friday, January 18 - Day 48

Uh oh, I've forgotten the set-up for the next scene in my novel, which is bad. This is why you don't want to take breaks when you're writing a book, if it's not in your notes, "poof" its gone! What's really bugging me is that its really important that this scene makes sense, and I had it all worked out, down to the movements of the characters...argh! I think I just need to write my way through it, and keep my fingers crossed that my original structure pops back into my noggin.

Also, I switched up my workout at the beginning of the year, and have come to the conclusion that its too ambitious. I'm scaling back to a single body part, 16 set routine that cycles in 15 minutes of ab exercises on alternate days. I did the chest/ab workout today, it felt good, and it shaves around 20-30 minutes off the time I spend in the gym. The driver is that the last two weeks I really slacked off my early am Monday through Wednesday (pre-work), which had an impact on my "off" day workouts. Yeah, I know, this level of detail is boring, and shouldn't find its way into my journal, but one of the reasons I do this is to stay on track, so these interludes into minutia will occur from time to time.

Monday, January 7 - Thursday, January 17

Whoa! Well, thought I'd acknowledge the ten day gap in "daily journal" postings, not that there's much to report on. Had brunch with my parents, got some new sheets, watched too much football and did very little creating. Also have been falling WAY off the wagon when it comes to eating carbs, and that's just gotta' stop. And my sleep has gotten out of whack, not getting out of the sack with the same vigor I had been. Just been in a generally "blah" few days, and I'll need to shake that off and get back on the stick!

Sunday, January 6 - Day 37

Jeez, got waaaay off-track today, must've had some kind of football hangover. I'll admit I was bummed by the Redskin's loss, but I think what got me off rhytem was an early morning call from my friend Todd in Vegas. It was great catching up, but it got me into a "thinking" headspace vs. a "doing" headspace, and I wound up watching the pre-game show on Fox and didn't really get moving until 2:00. I did get everything done that needed doing, but did not get any of the more enriching activities rolling. Oh, now that I think of it, talk about a time sucker, my friend Kate sent a link to this thing called Shelfari which got me thinking about what my favorite books are, this is the kind of thing I need to avoid like the plague. Of course, I spent a good 30 minutes adding my favorites.

Well, 4:30 am is an early hour, so I'd best retire for the evening.

Saturday, January 5 - Day 36

Wildcard Saturday for the Redskins, and it's about 7:03 and the 'skin's just intercepted the ball. It's 7:06 and Santana Moss just caught a touchdown putting my boys up by 1. I started writing this because I was going nuts watching this stupid thing, and maybe I was jinxing 'em. Well, going to go back and focus on the game, I'll let you know how it turns out! Oh jeez, they recovered the kickoff! Now they've taken a timeout, if they score, it'll be a 21 point turnaround in like four minutes. I'm glad I don't have ulcers! Shit, they missed the field goal. I really need to just stay here, I am a freakin' jinx!

Well, it's 7:33 and Collins just threw the most ridiculous interception for a touchdown I've ever seen. I seriously can't keep watching, I'll just end up hurling. On the upside, I think I'll take the extra time and hack away at the novel for an hour or so. I spent a lot of time on the page I'm inking and it's a lesson in using the right tools. The sheet I penciled the page on is terrible paper, and both crow quill pens and mechanical pens feather like it's a paper towel. Of course, this is all somewhat retarded because I'm just being a perfectionist, which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to do. Volume over quality are my buzzwords for the next two months, and I need to just accept bad outcomes in pursuit of better technique.

Whatever, the game has put me in a foul mood, and I need to break that mindset and get creative. I did the bulk of my errands today, so all that's required tomorrow is the laundry and cookin' my chicken, so plenty of time for a nice workout and a long stretch with the novel.

Friday, January 4 - Day 35

I'm feeling good about getting a handle on my schedule and creative output, I'm still taking longer to get started in the morning than I'm happy with, but the work on the novel the last two days has been solid, and within my writing targets.

This is very random, but I pulled an album from the way-back machine to listen to today, "Vienna" by Ultravox, and a lot of it hasn't aged well, but the title track still transports me back to my early college years. Check the video out at YouTube, say what you will about big hair and neon windbreakers (not to mention Midge Ure's sideburns in the video), but the 80's was leaning toward a sophisticated urban fashion, heavy on style that I hoped would translate to a more sophisticated nightlife. And for a time it did, some of the clubs in DC had some serious panache, and the women knew how to make things happen. I can't tell you how sad it makes me to wander the streets of Georgetown and see the baseball caps and tennis shoes, it's so, well, midwestern and grit-le, But, fashion is fickle and perhaps my generation will still right itself, and open some clubs where style and sophistication, and perhaps multisylabic conversation are the draw. Not likely I know, jesus, this city has been buried in lunkheads.

Well, I really beat myself up at the gym today, so I'm going to kick back and watch G4's Attack of the Show in an attempt to keep myself current on technology!

Thursday, January 3 - Day 34

AM: Happy (late) New Year people! I'm not a huge resolution fan, but I will say I'm taking the advent of the New Year to re-energize on my goals. Like a lot of artists, I have a great passion for "newness", less so when things go on for awhile. This is what we in the business refer to as a "weakness", and one I continue to chip away at. I'm making this morning entry to goose my activities today, I'm going to hack away at the novel from 10:00 to 11:30, then head to the gym for my calf/ab workout, do a grocery run, then finish the afternoon inking the Jack Kirby page I penciled a couple of years ago (found it when I was digging around for holiday decorations). Okay, enough preamble, time to make some magic...

PM: Hallelujah! Was finally able to crank out a good 544 words on the novel today, and by the end of tomorrow should have my heroine out of the parking lot she's been in for about a year now. The inking on the Kirby page wasn't as fruitful, I need to bear down tomorrow and get the workout finished by noon, so I've got the full afternoon to draw. I just jumped on the scale, and the holidays (and my other dietetic indiscretions) have put me back at my starting point. No biggie, the muscle gains I've made these past few months are worth some extra effort and boiled chicken. I'm very happy that my body continues to respond with greater muscle mass, but seriously people, I'm not playing football and my real needs are in reducing the pull of gravity on my ass, so will be keeping a critical eye on the scale every day. I still intend to reach the 15 lb loss by close of January, so no more Taco Bell for the big man!