A Very Sad Dream

A dream that's stuck with me for a couple of days.

In real life, I was having trouble sleeping.  One of those nights where I seemed to wake up every forty-five minutes or so.  I do manage to fall asleep, but then in the dream, I'm having trouble sleeping.

There, I wake up and I'm at my folks' house.  In the dream, I'm housesitting, taking care of their dogs.  It's night time, and I look outside, out into the woods surrounding the house.  I see a bright light in the woods, and at first I think it's Christmas lights.  I go outside to investigate.

There, my parents' cat Doofus shows up.  I pet him, and tell him I've missed him.  (Doofus died earlier this year, after a long life of somewhere around 19 years).  Then, their dog Sally comes up and greets him in that dog way.

Doofus then leads Sally into the woods surrounding my folks house, in the direction of the bright light I'd seen earlier, which now looks like a sunrise.

That's when I woke up.

Sally is an old dog.  I wandered to see my folks yesterday.  I took and extra minute to say hey to Sally....

The Listens, this day, 26 August 2013

Made myself get up early this morning.  Six days or so of sleeping until 8 don't mesh so well with having pull my big ass out of bed at 5:15 in the morning.  Maybe lessen the shock, somewhat, for tomorrow.

The cool things about this little break, and the next?  Yeah, I'll work 10 out of the next 11 days, but then I'll be off for another week.  It's not ideal for vacationing, but at least going back to the workspace won't feel as much like hiked off to Siberia.

Anyway.  I woke up.  Drank coffee.  Wrote for a couple of hours.  I started a new story a little more than a week ago.  Just an idea I'd been kicking around for a little while.  Following some advice by my buddy Alex to just set a daily goal.  I write even when it doesn't feel good.  After writing 9 out of the last ten days (if my math is correct), I've got about 16000 words down on one story.

The trick to to get a thousand words in on those days where I've devoted 12 hours of the day to the day job.

That's not always easy.  I just have to convince my lazy ass that it's important.

To close out, here's the listens from this morning:

"Gine Fare"            Toubab Krewe
"Nutty (Bruins Theme)"            Dropkick Murphys
"Sin City"            the Flying Burrito Brothers
"Medley: The Connaught Man's Rambles/Christmas Eve Reels..."     The Mahones
"O Valencia"          The Decemberists
"Ebo Walker"         The Dillards
"Gospel Plow"           Elizabeth Cook
"No One Else"        Weezer
"Boris the Spider"           The Who
"Out of the Frying Pan (and Into the Fire)"       Meat Loaf
"Crocodile Rock"            Elton John
"I'm Leaving Now"          Johnny Cash
"These Hills"            Iris DeMent
"Tore Up and Loud"           Hank Williams III
"Eyes"        Jherek Bischoff, featuring David Byrne
"Hunger"             Spectre General
"Atomic Man"            Portugal, the Man
"Cigareets, Whuskey and Wild Wild Women"            Black Jake & the Carnies
"Turn it Up"               Todd Snider
"Gump"             Weird Al Yankovic
"So Much More"         Old Man Markley

Affleck?1!??!?

Brief thought on Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in the next Superman flick?

Meh.

I made a joke on the Twitter, saying I don't even know what's real.

It's an exaggeration.  I don't care for Affleck's acting.  I would call him a bad actor, though that's probably unfair.  He could probably act circles around me.  That said, I can say that I can think of very little that I've truly enjoyed his performance in, and therein lies my personal disappointment with the casting as Batman.

Batman's a favorite.

Lots of have gotten it wrong (Kilmer, Clooney, and even Bale).  There is little to make me think Affleck will get it right.

But then, I'll pay my $8 or whatever.  Went to see Kilmer's, Clooney's and Bale's Batman, Bale thrice.  So, at the end of the day, I think any disappointment I have is a moot point.  I'll pay for a Batman/Superman flick.  Almost regardless of who's playing Batman.  And even after not particularly enjoying Man of Steel.

Also?  The disappointment is doubled.  As little as I like Affleck as an actor, I like him very much as a director.  The Town, and Argo were both tremendous flicks.  I was saddened to hear that with his taking the role of Batman, he was stepping away from a big screen adaptation of The Stand.  Granted, that project was just developing, but for no real reason, I'd be interested to see his take on the book.  And I say that with that being a favorite book, and something of a sacred cow in and of itself

Notes, and The Listens

Taking a couple personal days leading up to this weekend's Southern Brewer's Fest.  One doesn't have much to do with the other, except that I was already taking the weekend off, and if I don't start burning personal days before October, there's not a lot of chance to use them.  No buybacks.  And seeing that we were "given" the personal days in lieu of the annual safety bonus a couple years back, I'd prefer not to lose those again....

Anyway.  Took advantage of the time off to wander out to North Carolina on Wednesday for trout food.

Wandered out last night to catch a screening of Edgar Wright & company's Cornetto Trilogy up in Knoxville last night.  Found new gags, on the big screen, for Shaun of the Dead.  And a new appreciation for Hot Fuzz, which was one of those movies I watched most likely overtired and in bad mood.

The World's End?  I'd like a little distance before I declare the best, but I liked it better on first screening than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz.  Time will tell.

Wrote some this morning.  Trying to get back into the swing of things.  Find a routine.  Managed to put about a thousand words on the page four days out of the last five.  So, there's that.

Here's what I listened to this morning while doing so:

"I'm No Elvis Presley"     Lindi Ortega
"Heading for the Light"      Traveling Wilburys
"Driver 8"      R.E.M.
"One Left in the Chamber"     Corb Lund
"Half Mile Down"     Old Crow Medicine Show
"the Death of Me"      Dex Romweber Duo
"Trigger Happy"      Weird Al Yankovic
"Sweet Caroline"      Neil Diamond
"Fall in Love with Me"     Iggy Pop
"South Australia"      the Pogues
"Rise to the Sun"      Alabama Shakes
"Jump Around"     House of Pain
"A Good Man Knows"     Black Jake and the Carnies
"Bennie and the Jets"      Elton John

Thoughts from Near the Ass End of the Night

Wandered out to play some trivia today.

It sucked.

We were stupid today.

Especially.

If you've ever wondered why the blog is called, after all these years, Big Stupid Tommy, that is why.

Don't know stuff.

Stupid.