Haven’t written here in a while, and although I don’t quite feel the need, I do feel the abandonment, so here I am.

Let’s see, the job hunt. Had an interview on Friday, seemed to go well. Walkable, nice people. We’ll see what happens. Then today, I was reading Ode Magazine, which is my favorite magazine, and somewhat the template for the new Oasis, and they need a webmaster to basically start addressing their website as more than a repository for old magazine content. Want to build community, etc., etc., so I’m definitely intrigued by that, especially seeing as how that company lines up so cleanly with my politics and outlook. Going to tweak up a special resume for them tomorrow, as I don’t have anything that really speaks to community-building and online site stuff, since it was abundance of those openings online that made me think, ‘Hmm, if they’re willing to pay me, why can’t I make my own site pay me?’

I’ve lately been purging a lot. Not food, we’re not that lucky. But just weighing a lot of things in my life along two questions: Does it help the novel? Does it help Oasis? So, when I’m looking at what Tivo is planning to record, it seems like too many shows. It’s not as though I ever tape things and don’t watch them, so it’s important to whittle down the list so I have more time to read, unwind, relax. I can’t have my mind constantly engaged or else it won’t get the quiet necessary to do more important things.

So, I love watching “House,” for example. So, we’ll do the easy one first, it doesn’t help Oasis. For my own writing, I think about it. First off, the show is a procedural, which are always the first on my hit lists. At its core, the show is the same set-up every week: patient gets sick, hard to diagnose, House and team come up with various treatments (often unorthodox), and then, nearly always, the patient is cured in the last act. So, it’s basically a lot of medical jargon, office politics, and such. The interesting part to me, and honestly, the only reason I think the show is successful, is the character of House. The only thing to me is to examine how a largely unpleasant character somehow gets the audience to empathize with him. We care about him and hold out hope that he will heal himself of his addiction, and become more pleasant and human. But those moments are so infrequent, it would probably be better to dedicate a weekend to such a thing and rent a season from Blockbuster. So, House is off the list. Survivor is all about human interaction, competing narratives, manipulation, plot twists, so that gets to stay. Just digging into all of that.

I also think my movie consumption is at a proper level, but there’s been too much downloading, not enough theater time. The whole point of why I would go to the movies was that the novel and Oasis are largely me in my apartment. So, to justify the movie time, it needs to NOT be more apartment time.

Going out clubbing, again, is an OK use of time. There I just need to start steering myself home earlier. If I’m home when they are announcing last call, that would be successful. Plus, the energy changes then anyway, and better to not be there. The people looking to get laid know their time is running out, people up their drinking to account for it going away soon… it all just gets messy. The energy of clubbing is not really my scene entirely anyway, but I find the early crowd is the more celebratory and there is a shift around 1 a.m. I’m not opposed to there being a shift, just that I’m part of the people who need to be clocking out around that time. Of course, being sober at a club, it is a different experience anyway, and it tends to become a different vibe the later you go.

I’ve already touched on all the non-drinking stuff back, as far as why, in the Philosophy post, back in October. Actually, everything in that post still stands.

When I’ve been going out lately, I seem to have a knack for chatting with guys who are in relationships, but their boyfriend couldn’t come out that night. While that could be seen as a waste of time, I think it means I’m on the right wavelength, just have to find *single* guys who want a relationship.

I do question why certain things disappeared, and when. I can’t recall doing any adventurous cooking lately. Just the same staples again and again. I need to mix that up, keep it exciting. The only change in that regard is that I’m been going through my pantry and using whatever I find there as a basis for making some other dish, not usually new, since those ingredients go to certain dishes. But at least getting a lot of spices and bulk foods depleted. Like, there were organic split peas there, so I got whatever else I needed to make Split Pea and Parsnip Soup in the slow cooker. I tossed in some carrots, as well. When I have it for dinner, I serve the pre-portioned quantity over a Yukon gold potato for a little more tarchy goodness.

But I want to ratchet up the cooking. I like having food made in advance, so that when I’m working on stuff, I don’t have to add to much time in front of dinner. But, most days, I’m not *that* engaged that I can’t pull it off.

So, want to start doing at least one new recipe a week, once I blow through the bulk and pantry issue, although a lot of those ingredients are for dishes I haven’t yet made, so it works out.

No overarching theme to this entry, so hard to wrap it up and tie it all together. So, just checking in, I guess…

Either later today or Thursday, there should be a new sort of entry on Oasis from me, that will be autobiographical on a particular issue. I’m writing them with a lot more thought that I give some of the other content, as there is always a chance at future publication with them. If not, still good to really exhaust my history as it relates to different topics.

I used to worry about writing about my real-life happenings, as I felt I needed to queue them up for books. There is also the issue of the spiritual stuff removing conflict in my life, therefore putting me at risk to write boring Buddhisty books.

I don’t feel that will be an issue at all. My current viewpoint into my goal along those lines is that I want to write about people with blind spots, to use Ricky Gervais’s term. They are normal in all respects aside form the one thing they can’t see or resolve in their lives. Then, my job is to have readers identify with that character inclusive of his/her blind spot, but to get readers to a point where they want to peel off. The readers need to empathize up until they are just getting a bit tired of it, and think “Enough already?” and then the book switches things up. The crucial element for me is to determine where that point is. But by making the reader identify with them at first, that peeling away from the character later on in the book is (to me) planting seeds for them to resolve issues in their lives.

Don’t get me wrong, no one should pick up on this element. And, to be clear, I plan to use the snarky, sarcastic, demeanor that I used to live with as sort of my narrative foil to make sure none of it seems spiritual. If this element is not applicable, not comprehended on any level, or not even useful, the book still needs to stand on its own. But that is sort of how I intend to write spiritual books, unknowingly.

So, I’ve been writing a lot lately… just not here.

The novel, well, that’s no my desktop, so you can’t see that yet.

But I’ve been writing a LOT over on Oasis, including interviews with Star Trek’s George Takei, Spring Awakening’s Gideon Glick, gay youth author Brent Hartinger, and others.

I guess for the people from Oasis who come here, I’ll give them the scoop on next week. On Monday, an interview with Alex Sanchez (author of the Rainbow Boys trilogy) and on Wednesday, an interview with Robin De Jesus (who has a role in a new musical called In The Heights, that opens next Thursday. He was also the lead actor in the movie Camp, which I adore).

As for why I am up at this hour, I was a bit sluggish around 9 p.m., barely making it through Grey’s Anatomy, so I decided to try the energy drink I got am the local communist co-op. I figured the “natural, healthy” vibe would mean less effective than Red Bull or something.

Verdict: The healthy stuff WORKS!