Happy Halloween

Just a quick update. NaNoWriMo is starting on November 1st, so just after midnight tonight I think I am going to start writing. I'll have more on that later, but good luck to anyone else taking on this endeavor.

Junk Food

Junk Food

Tonight is our night out and
we're going to dinner
at the Tacoma Transfer Station.
H'ordeurves at the recycling center
of broken bottles,
or perhaps some crushed cans
(with a delectable nail polish dip)
I hear that the compost salad is excellent,
if but a little over done with variety.
However, I am planning on ordering
the carburetor,
well done,
I wouldn't go all that way
just to eat, junk food.

Copyright 2008 William Curb

Time

There are two statements that I find amusing that often go together. One of them is "You have too much time on your hands", and the other one is "get a life". I find them amusing because the first statement actually has very little too do with time, what people are actually trying to say is that they think what you are doing isn't worth your time and hence you have enough time to waste it. Honestly you could say that about a lot of people's activities, such as watching TV. It is silly to imply that what anyone does isn't worth there time. Perhaps there are better things that they could do with there time, but whatever. The second statement first implies that the person does not have a life. I'll skip the literal definition because that is also silly. I guess the idea is fairly similar to that of the other statement and that the person is wasting their life. I don't think I am the judge of a wasted life. For that I'd have to value some one's life and honestly I don't want to do that. I mean imagine where I'd fall.

Waste of Time

This poem is a waste of your time.
You should just stop reading now.
Nothing of worth will ever be said.
In fact I don't even know why I'm still writing.
Is there a point to words that do not matter?
Is there a point to writing when you don't care?
Or do I care?
I should care.
I am writing.
I want people to read these words.
I want my words to matter, but how
to do I make careless words matter
more than they ever will?

Copyright 2008 William Curb

Rules

A year has passed since I first started posting in this blog. Not bad, although certainly I could have kept up with the content a lot better. Nothing I can do about that now, only what I can do in the future. I was looking at my original post, which was about rules in writing, and more specifically rules that I have for myself. The post said it needed to be updated, but I honestly haven't thought of anymore rules, not that I have been thinking about it for very long, nor do I intend to. But I thought to celebrate my belated blogs birth (honestly I planned to do this post six days ago and well, forgot) I am going to write a poem about rules.


Rules

They tell me that rules
are made to be broken.
That rule keep only
keep you down.
Then they tell me
that laws
are made to be broken.
That laws are what
the Man
uses to keep us down.
They shout things like
"Fuck the police"
in some strange accent,
like they are trying to hide
their voice.
But these same people,
the rulebreakers,
rely on those rules.
They can't be cool
if they aren't breaking rules,
doing there own thing.
And then they whine
and scream when those
rule makers change things.
Because when those rulemakers
don't follow the rules,
well,
it is just anarchy,
because rules are there for a reason.

Copyright 2008 William Curb

Jobs

Everyone needs a job I suppose. It is always awkward when people ask you what you do and you don't have a job. It is even more awkward when you tell them you aren't looking. But I'm in luck, rather than looking for a job, a job came to me. I was recently invited to help coach some middle school kids in ultimate. It is only part time, but that suits me fine and it is only going to be going on for 4-8 weeks, which is also good. One thing it definitely will do is get me doing something, and it will also probably give me a good reference. It also won't hurt that I will be paid and that I will be teaching ultimate. Fun all around.

Work

Oh shit.
Its time for work.
I'm not nearly ready to go.
My carpool out front is honking.
I need to hurry up but I just don't want to.
If I don't go I'll let every one down.
I just a little need more time.
I need to calm down.
Its time for work.
Oh shit.

Copyright 2008 William Curb

Stuggles

There are some things that I have always struggled with when writing. One of the things I often have trouble with when writing poetry is how to make what I write not sound cheesy or too serious. I don't like having to take things at face value, and so when I write something that is too serious I find myself looking at it as if it were the cheesiest thing ever - they tend to be anyways since I don't have a good style for that kind of writing. When thinking about what to write a poem about I often reject ideas just on the fact that I don't know how I could write about the idea and actually find the poem acceptable. For instance I have only written one poem about ultimate frisbee, and that was for my intro to poetry class. The poem was about laying out and while it was decent I just don't think it was worthwhile. It is one of those things that I'm not sure how I'll get around without practice, and is also certainly something that I don't really want to practice.

The Conundrum.

Whether I do it or not it is still going to be a problem.
Nothing is ever easy.

Whether I do it or not it is never going to get done.
Nothing is ever simple.

Whether I do it or not I am going to disappointed.
Nothing is ever right.

Whether I do it or not I am just going to be repeating myself.
Nothing is ever original.

Whether I do it or not I am still going.


Copyright 2008 William Curb

Concerts

The other night I drove up to Seattle to enjoy a Sigur Rós concert with an old housemate of mine. I enjoyed to music but the concert only reminded me of one thing. I really don't like going to them. I have a few problems with concerts. First they are too crowded. I understand that a lot of people want to go to them and they want to sell as many tickets as possible, but I am not really a people person. I don't really like having that many people around me. The entire concert I couldn't help but think "If there is a zombie outbreak now, I am going to be completely unprepared", which was an odd thought, but definitely there (I am so very strange). I also find that most shows are strikingly too loud. This is something more personal to me as I just don't like things being that loud, but I can't help but think that when you can still hear the concert hours later (and you were fairly far back in the auditorium) that perhaps it was a few more decibels then they really needed. But they say when its too loud you're too old... so I suppose I'm getting too old :). Finally I find that they tend to be too bright. I've never seen the need for flashing strobe lights, or lights so bright that you can barely see and I am certainly not a fan of when the two are combined. I found myself with my eyes closed for a large part of the performance because I simply could not take the intensity of all the lights aimed at my retinas (and having my eyes closed certainly did not make my zombie fears dissipate).
I will say that I enjoyed my evening but I don't foresee myself buy concert tickets anytime in the future, even for bands that I may really enjoy. I'm not terribly happy about being in the audience for some odd number of hours anyways. Perhaps it is just me but when I sit still that long I just start waiting to go home because I want to do something that is at least a little productive, which comes from my biggest problem with concerts, which is (too many witches) that I find them terribly inspiring. Nothing is worse than sitting on your ass listening for hours when you are inspired. It is like torture. You want to go out and do something, anything but you are stuck because you paid for a seat that inspired you.


In concert

Tonight we will be presenting
a show of light and sound
so bright and
so loud that
you will see with your ears and
you will hear with your eyes.

Copyright 2008 William Curb

Dramatic News Music

News

Breaking story at 11
rain in Tacoma.
[cue dramatic music]

Copyright 2008 William Curb

Promises

I really shouldn't promise things I don't really think I can keep, although last night I may have actually believed that I would/could write two poems for today. Admittedly I don't do anything at all so writing two poems is not a very difficult task. Maybe I can delve into something I've been looking into recently and go from there (I usually do).

Today

I can't say that this day
is any different then the next.
I don't know what tomorrow will hold
(so to speak)
I don't know what it won't.

So there is the little matter of what I do know
(which is really little, indeed).
I know about today
and the waste I've produced.
The wrappers taken off candy,
the toilets flushed twice.
But the real waste I say
is what I am doing with my life.
Too many hours laying sprawled out
all over the chase lounge.
I won't say it is lack of motivation
but that is only because I am far
too unmotivated to say it.

---

I don't exactly agree with this poem and it isn't really about today. I don't want to get anyone worried. I don't really think I am wasting my life (as if you could do such a thing) and I don't flush the toilet twice (...)(I decided nothing else needed to be said, but still wanted to point out that I had more thoughts - and that lead to this long winded explanation).

---

War Games

I am the Cheese.

The Speaker for the Dead
Eats, Shoot and leaves.
Doomsday ship,
50/50.
Good Omens,
Monster Island.

Red Mars,
Dark Star,
Slow Burn.

---

This poem was done in a significantly different way then I usually approach poetry. Some readers have probably noticed that some of the lines are titles of books. In fact every line (including the title) is the title of a book. I took my keyboard over to my book shelf (wireless keyboards are great) and I started typing up titles for books as I saw them. In the beginning I was mainly just typing the titles as I saw them, but I decided to skip a few because they were too involved. Then with a little editing I stuck this together. It isn't a master work or even a great or good work, but I think it is interesting - and for me that is what I was going for with this experiment.

Copyright 2008 William Curb

October

I'm tired and forgot to do this earlier - so I'll keep it short.

I'm planning on updating everyday in October, and not only that, but updating with a new poem. I am also going to try and finish the trip updates, but those probably won't count for my daily updates (we'll see how I feel after putting them up). The only day without a poem will be today and that is only because I plan to go to bed very shortly and don't have any on hand to just stick up here. Look for a twofer tomorrow.