- We’re gonna roll with today’s date for starters, then see where we end up.
- Sound good?
- I started my writing journey in Mr. Roberts’ sixth-grade class.
- Maybe every other week, we’d have a creative writing assignment.
- I don’t think they were prompts, more of a “write a story” kind of deal.
- But that was a long time ago, so I’m sure there are details missing.
- Back in my day …
- (had to)
- … We got away with watching whatever Rated R movies we could.
- One time, for my buddy Francis’ birthday, his parents rented us some horror flicks, and because I was, what, 11, 12?, I became obsessed with them.
- Loved Halloween stuff then, love it now.
- C’mon, the hockey mask and machete … iconic.
- So when creative writing came around, I wrote sequels to the films.
- Even at that age, I knew having movie series with multiple sequels was kinda ridiculous, so I named my stories, Friday the 13th, Part 2,351 or something like that.
- And then I’d have Jason do his thing.
- (I honestly think I still have one of them in a box somewhere, written in pencil on wide-ruled notebook paper.)
- We had to read these at the front of the class, mind you.
- By like the third or fourth one, I think he stuck me at the end of the reading rotation.
- No recovering from my nonsense, I guess.
- Horror sequels = prime sixth-grade entertainment.
- Lol.
- Ridiculous, right?
- Anyway, because I know you wanted to know, that’s when and where I became a “writer.”
- That’s my villain origin story.
- Earliest I remember anyway.
- The next official creative writing instruction didn’t come until Senior year in high school.
- Mr. Vollertson’s class.
- Which has stayed with me all this time.
- He would not have put up with the Friday the 13th nonsense.
- “Write what you know.”
- Very much in the Hemingway school of writing, Mr. V.
- He still writes today, btw.
- Has a blog.
- He’s still better than I am.
- When college rolled around, I realized … I could weave in creative writing to my degree.
- I worried I couldn’t make an immediate living doing it, mind you, but I was pre-med at the time and figured I might as well enjoy something.
- Somehow I ended up with a journalism degree and a minor in creative writing.
- (And was just two classes short of my graphic design minor.)
- But what’s important to this story is that Unlocking Opportunity didn’t exist then, and those academic advisors didn’t tell you, “Hey, Editor, you’re only going to make like $15,000 a year with your first job.”
- Might’ve made a difference.
- Pre-med/Psychology to journalism because I wanted to be Dave Barry and did not think I could make a living as a graphic designer.
- I was the only journalism grad who earned a … B.S. and not a B.A.
- (Took a lot of science classes before changing majors as a junior.)
- I had no good information, obviously.
- All my graphic designer friends made more than I did for the longest time.
- I still would’ve done the creative writing stuff, but … maybe journalism was not such a great major for life-sustaining wages?
- And that’s back when a semester of classes was less than $2,000.
- (Or was that a whole year?)
- Heck, I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees and only ended up with $17,000 in student loans.
- Now is not the same.
- But we all know this, and I’m not getting into it any more than what I just did because I like being employed.
- Back to Jason.
- One year in junior high, I bought the hockey mask and then proceeded to scare the pants off my best friend.
- That is a different story I’m not going to tell right now because I sometimes repost these lists in other places and he might read it.
- (Love ya, brother!)
- He hasn’t done anything lately to deserve my telling of that story.
- Ch-ch-ch, ah-ah-ah.
- I need to ask the boss if she can make an exception to starting Halloween season in Sept. when there’s a Friday the 13th.
- And start my GoFundMe for the 12-foot skeleton.
- I kid. I kid.
- I need to mow some lawns or set up a lemonade stand or something.
- Old skool.
- Here’s a truth: I’m not sure I could watch Friday the 13th again.
- After we had the Teenager, I sorta lost my taste in horror films.
- Part of it was becoming a parent, but part of it was Saw and Hostel.
- Torture-porn.
- Hated those movies.
- I trashed them as a critic, fairly or not, we’ll never know.
- That’s the thing about critics.
- You have to find one that jives with you or you’ll never get any use from them.
- Trust me.
- I wrote my master’s thesis about film critics.
- That was before Rotten Tomatoes and all that, mind you.
- Back in my day we didn’t have …
- Sigh.
- I got to order a new Kindle this week.
- Stoke is high.
- The Wife kept stealing mine to read books, so I just gave her the old one and ordered a new one.
- Maybe that’s unfair.
- But you know what the Kindle means to me.
- The precious.
- I’m sitting here this morning listening to, not Friday the 13th, but Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Makes me feel good.
- Currently, it’s the music from the Map Room scene.
- OMG.
- So good.
- My life would be less without John Williams.
- And this is where I get riled up about corporate greed and AI.
- Imma sigh again.
- That’s what I’m doing at my desk right now.
- Sighing.
- And internally swearing.
- Perhaps.
- Brainnns.
- “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”
- This is one of those lists where it would be super swell if you guys dropped some comments.
- Tell me about the horror movies of your youth.
- Share your stories of changing majors and what you wanted to be when you were still young and idealistic.
- If you want to.
- You don’t build community by sitting there silently, sipping your coffee, and frowning at your computer screen.
- And I say that as a card-carrying introvert.
- This list is waaaay too informational about myself.
- I’m uncomfortable with it.
- Who are you people?
- Anyway.
- You guys caught up on Bad Monkey?
- Rings of Power?
- Watching anything good?
- I realize, I think, I’ve crossed the precipice of the longest list to date.
- If you must know, I only started typing on this thing about 36 minutes ago.
- It’s best, sometimes, to just get out of your own way.
- Sometimes, it’s also good to know when to stop.
- …
- I wrote a haiku as a Facebook comment before work this morning in answer to my buddy’s “Friday Question” he’s been doing every Friday for more than a decade.
- He asked about how you check the weather, and he and another friend were talking about watching it on TV.
- Gross.
- Do not watch news.
- Read it.
- READ. IT.
- Anyway, I’ll share the haiku, then get on the way.
- Websites to write.
- And … other things.
- Ready?
- The Weather, by The Editor:
It is on my watch
And on this fancy smart phone
TV rots your brain
Ch-Ch-Ch, Ah-Ah-Ah
Comments
3 responses to “Ch-Ch-Ch, Ah-Ah-Ah”
-
First, I’m loving reading these! They bring up memories of my own self long ago. My English teacher in high school for one. I loved writing theme papers and writing outlandish poems that were pure fantasy. “The dancing pencils” I think was one. Anyway, I swear I’m going to re-read all those papers one day. Your post made me think of so many things, that I’ve forgotten them as I got to the end. But for one, I still love horror movies but could see how, if I had kids, that might change. I’m in a horror movie group- and our leader makes a nice big Google Sheets list of movies to watch, then we each vote on them when finished. It’s great. Oh, and John Williams??? Man he’s the best and made the best soundtracks.
I started a book club. Oh boy! I think it will help me to read more, which I love but don’t do enough of it. Our first meeting is coming up!
Bad Monkey!!!!? You already know how much I love this series.
Watched the Oprah interview last night about all things AI. It was fascinating.
LikeLike
-
P.S. what did you think of Midnight Library? It reminded me of so many things….
LikeLike
-
- I want to punch you in the face for having so many bullet points
- I wanted to be a vet
- worked at a vet for 3 years and found out…I did not want to be a vet. More of the long hours than the “gross” stuff.
- choked out a cat for biting me so hard it hit the bone in my thumb. Thought I killed and put it on the exam table and rubbed it until it regained consciousness. The put it back in the cage and acted like nothing happened.
- I do not like horror movies other than the gratuitous boobs scenes.
- Bad Monkey has been good, although I am over the recaps in every episode.
- Terminator: Zero graphically has been awesome so far. Only 1 episode in. Story seems promising.
- LOTR has been a good ride so far.
- I think you should give Mayberry’s Kagen the Damned series a try. I liked the first one but am too cheap to get the second or third book right now.
- I have a Haiku for you
- Mother’s fury blooms..
- Bullet points pierce through my eyeballs….
- they should burn in Hell.
- bro hug from the best coast
LikeLike
skepticlysm 
Leave a reply to lbsutke Cancel reply