GoDaddy won't go away...

Another hour on the phone with GoDaddy trying to migrate my basic account to ultimate so it's better protected against incorrect viewings...and they tried to charge me another $35.00 to do it, even though I should have been able to do it on my own. I got angry and threatened to shut it all down and get a refund, so they backtracked and I got everything done for the price I paid, and it's good for 3 years.

Damn, that crap pisses me off. Sneaky-assed ways used to get more money out of you while doing all they can to keep you confused as to what they're doing. Like 3-card monte. Not fun. But we'll see how it goes, now, and if it's not working tomorrow, I'm shutting the fucker down. I have no patience with this.

On a lighter note, I got a book I'd ordered from a shop in Derry, Northern Ireland today instead of 4 weeks from now. Shocked me. And it's in good shape, too. It's mostly made up of posed photos of groups of kids and people at events or such, but it does have some images of the civil rights movement, including the family who squatted in Guildhall over demands for better housing. What's even better is it has photos of the Lough Swilly bus depot on Great James and of the barricades on Rossville and William Streets. So it was worth the money.

But I've run my credit cards up, again, and that's not cool. I want them paid down as much as possible so that by the end of the year I can get a card from my credit union at a decent interest rate. I only owe on two of them, but one has a rate of more than 12% and the other is nearly 18%. I hate that. I have another one that I use for business that I pay off every month, which would also happily charge me 18%.

Thursday I head for Bermuda to do a packing job...and damn, that place is pricey. Breakfast at my hotel would be $25 and a friggin' cheeseburger and fries is $23. If I want to dine, that starts at $45. And there's no public transport where I am. I'll have to grab a taxi to get to the house, at $15-20 per trip. I'd walk, but there aren't any sidewalks along that route. Ridiculous. I don't really like the idea of going to Bermuda, but it's to handle an interesting library of Irish history so...

What I AM looking forward to is a week in England, at Reading, packing a huge library of humor and satire. I'll have help for that so maybe I can pack in an extra day or two to wander London.

Ah, the life of a travelin' man...

APoS continues...

I'm currently working on the Battle of the Bogside in August 1969 and the Celebration Fleadh that followed a couple weeks later. It's where Brendan and Joanna finally truly connect, because she's Protestant but sneaks into the festival and is caught out so he has to protect her and get her home. It's an important point in the story...so I'm taking my time with it...

I've brought in new characters, as well, who may turn out to be important, later. I don't know yet. But this is also the point where the IRA was seen as cowardly in the face of what happened, and members broke off to form the Provisional IRA...and Real IRA and on and on. There was no real need for them, at this point, since British troops were seen as protecting Catholics from the Protestants. That didn't start shifting till much later.

It's funny, but with all this talk of a wall along the Mexican border intending to keep out the hoards of illegal immigrants storming up from Central America, it brings to mind how the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland is only about 310 miles long, not nearly 2000 miles. It was heavily guarded by Great Britain, a major military power, and supposedly shut down by non-stop ground and air patrols and guard stations and the like, but it remained as porous as if there were no troops along it, at all.

1240 miles of the US/Mexico border is the Rio Grande, from El Paso to Brownsville. You can't build a wall down the middle of a river, not even one as casual as this one is, so that means building it up off the immediate banks, since those can shift a lot in occasional flooding. Which means the US Government would not only have to seize land from private individuals to build upon, it would effectively be ceding all of the river and a fair portion of Texas back to Mexico. I cannot imagine that going over well in Austin.

The stupidity of the idea that you can even close a border keeps getting proven over and over -- Berlin, The Iron Curtain, the Maginot Line...even the Great Wall of China was not completely effective. It did keep semi-nomadic invaders out, but did not stop some large scale invasions, and even the nomadic people were able to breach the wall from time to time.

The stupidity of humanity is not to be underestimated...

I know nothing...nothing...

Another long session with GoDaddy's tech support and still have to go back to it. I started out trying to change my avatar but couldn't work around its demand I do it through Gravatar, then I quickly learned my WordPress site was NOT set up exactly right, so we dug into that.

Now I've got it done except for one last action -- migrating it from a basic WP site to an ultimate one. That makes certain it's protected from kids and creeps who want to mess with it. I have to do that in a couple days.

Oh, but today's session wore me out...and I wasn't able to focus on anything for too long a time. So no writing done. No reading. Just a wasted day. Not good since I'm going to be traveling a lot over the next six weeks.

First, I'm heading to Bermuda for a packing job, on Thursday, and won't return till the following Monday. Another place I'd never have gone to on my own. I guess we'll see how it goes, with TSA and air traffic control being messed about by Czar Chicken Little's shut-down of the government and Republican leaders actually thinking it's no big deal for the 800,000 federal employees furloughed or working without pay.

After that is Miami for the Map Fair...which could be an issue. But then comes a job in Reading, UK, for a week...which should be okay since I'm flying out of Toronto for that. So even if the shutdown is still going on, I can make it. Just don't know if the border will be open for my return.

I'm stopping my commentary there, since I so despise Republicans, right now, rehashing this crap will only piss me off. I just pray that SOB in the White House gets indicted by Mueller and Mitch McConnell is removed as Senate Majority Leader, since he's a bottleneck to anything happening. There are people out there who think all of this is a good thing. Seriously. Though some are now actually saying, "He's hurting the wrong people" since it's begun to affect them. Fucking hypocrites.

I know America's always had selfish assholes whose racism is considered natural and their claims to Christianity unassailable. The only good thing about the last two years is, we can no longer avoid the reality that a large portion of the United States' population is racist, hateful, cruel and sadistic...as well as fucking cowardly. If we'd had people like that in control, we'd still have slavery and women would not be able to even have their own checking account, let alone vote.

God damn the GOP...every fucking one of them...

I've started a new blog...

Since Tumblr self-destructed, I've been slowly setting up an adult blog on WordPress, and today it finally came into being.  JamTheCat is about working on my writing; angerandanarchy is about letting off steam in any way I want -- be it videos, photos, sketches, stories, snide commentaries, sexual bullshit, all sorts of things I don't want just anyone to be able to see. So I've finalized a popup that warns prospective viewers it's for adults only and they have to say they are over the age of 18 or go away.

I've already posted a couple of things on it, including links to where readers can buy Underground Guy. My plan is to use it not only as a place to explode before I explode but a sales tool for my adult novels. I got 5 of the buggers, now -- HTRASG, PM, RIHC6, BC, and now UG. LD and OT are more general while A65 is about as mainstream as it gets, for me.

I guess this makes me a niche author trying to broaden his base, but so far I've only had minimal success with that. I've already sold more copies of UG in the last 4 weeks than I have of A65 in the last 8 months. Who knows what will happen once I let APoS loose onto the world.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not sorry about this. Writing dark as night books along with some sunshine and light helped me hone my ability as a writer enough to where I finally have the confidence to do APoS as it should be. I talk about having Tolstoy as my guide because he builds his worlds with lovely, deeply-felt characters and a feel for his society that is unsurpassed...but reality is I think I'm doing the Once and Future King route with APoS -- starting out relatively light and growing darker as Brendan ages and learns the truth of the world.

BUT...I do not want it bleak. I want honesty, not nihilism. I want truth, not statements. I want beauty and grace as well as hell on earth.

Not aiming for much, am I...

Missing LA...

I was in Los Angeles -- Anaheim Hills and Torrance, really, for a couple days -- but had a chance to wander around to my usual spots -- Book Soup to buy some books, The Grove to get new ear buds for my iphone, Taschen Bookstore for a couple books, India Grill to meet friends for dinner...

I spent way too much money and got caught in LA's typical traffic a couple of times, but damn I miss it. Working out of Buffalo has its advantages -- no distractions to keep me from writing, being one -- but LA is home to me. It's my city. Always will be.

One big issue is, when I'm there I start thinking about writing scripts and making movies, again, which shifts my focus away from other writing I want to do. I worked around it by reading Adrian McKinty's last book, Police At The Station and They Don't Look Friendly, and  bought a copy of James M. Cain's Double Indemnity to read on the flight back.

The flight to Buffalo turned out to be half full so I got a row to myself...read a little...and actually slept on a plane. One of the rare times. And after leaving LA, where it was upper 60s and clear, I landed in a snowstorm, had trouble unlocking my car's driver's door because it had frozen shut, and drove home on icy roads. I don't mind that, really. In fact, I like having 4 seasons. But Buffalo is not nor will it ever be home.

Nothing's been done on APoS except for the reading. I like McKinty's book; I'm getting some good ideas about the society of NI and he's got bleakness and cynicism down to an art. Plus the mystery worked out in a rather surprising way. He actually had a red herring I fell for, at the end, though the scenes setting it up did remind me too much of Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Diva (1981).

But as a sometime fellow thief of a writer I have to say -- if you're going to steal, steal from the best.

Slowly...slowly...

Went digging through my books, today -- Derry Journal of the 1970s, Streets of Derry (1625-2001), Burrows Pointer Guide Map of Londonderry (1946, I think), Derry Through the Lens - Refocus, Northern Ireland - The Troubles, Derry - the Troubled Years, and No Go. Mainly photo-oriented books in an attempt to see if what I wrote is workable...and unable to say, yet.

I put in an order for another book put out by the Derry Journal, for the 1960s, but that won't be in for a while; it's coming from a bookshop I deal with in Derry and will be the cheapest postal method possible. I just hope they at least put it in a padded envelope.

I shifted to working on connecting the sections in part three, where Brendan returns to Derry. I'm missing 4 links -- him seeing his mother and youngest brother, again, for the first time in more than 8 years, as well as a sister and another brother. Then there's some moments when he has to face a form of tribunal with the Provisional IRA over what happened when he disappeared from Derry in late 1972. Not a lot and yet...

I won't get anything done, tomorrow. I'm off to LA on a non-stop flight that doesn't get in till 9:30pm, so no blogging, either. I'll be packing, finalizing my prepping for the job and getting to the airport early in case some of the TSA have called in sick and it takes longer to get through security. Same for returning; I changed my flight to a later one on Wednesday, going through Chicago (which I do not like to do) but that way if there's any issues I've got plenty of time to deal with them.

It is my fervent hope the GOP in the Senate will come to its senses and dump Mitch McConnell as Majority leader. He is the main bottleneck to solving the shutdown. I think if the bill that was passed prior to the shutdown was put up, again, it would pass with a veto-proof majority and Czar Snowflake would be kicked in the balls.

He needs to be...and often, he's such an asshole.

I've read too many murder mysteries...

Well...Rain Dogs pretty much worked out like I figured. Dammit. I was hoping my suspicion of how a locked room murder happened would wind up being a deliberate red herring, but it wasn't. However, that was made up for by the finagling nonsense of the suspect after being found out and the final coda, which involved Finland deciding to join the EEC. That was clever.

Still, I like Adrian McKinty's writing style. Very dark, cynical and staccato...not like I write at all. Well...I don't do staccato. I mix in a lot of James Joycean run on sentences with Hemingway simplicity  layered by a Tolstoy-esque depth of character...and I know, I know, I'm full of shit. But it's fun to think I do all that.

I did more work...this time on APoS's ending. I changed who dies, and by doing that shifted the dynamic of the story, a little. But it helps make sense of a small mystery -- how the RUC found out Brendan was back in Derry masquerading as someone else. Part of me thinks this is too neat...and I may yet change it, again...but it works for now.

I may finally have my WordPress blog ready to run, including protection and such. I have to wait till I'm back from LA and it's set up for Adults Only before I start posting my more in-your-face stuff, but I can leave Tumbler in the dust. I'll shut that down on January 31st.

Today I had fun prepping for a packing job in Bermuda. Man...they have a different way of working, down there. I'm trying to arrange for packing materials to be delivered to the library's site, and for two weeks I've been talking with a freight forwarder in Hamilton who say they can supply the boxes and paper and bubble wrap I need...but do you think I can find out what they actually do have?

I tell them I want newsprint to use to stuff the boxes. Yeah, we got that. Is it this size? Yeah, we got that. Packages. How many sheets are in a package? We have a couple of half packages. Okay...I'm looking for 1200 sheets of the paper in 30x20 inches. Do you have that many? We've ordered packing materials but they won't be here when you need them. NO PACKING MATERIALS? We have boxes and bubble, and we do have a roll of paper. How big is the roll? We'll send you a photo. And then they don't send the photo.

Bermuda is not a place I've ever wanted to go to...and this is only confirming my impression of it. Who knows? Maybe the shutdown of the government will drag on and I won't b e able to go if the TSA and Air Traffic Controllers walk off the job for not being paid, since Czar Snowflake is dumb-fuck enough to think he can do to them what he's done to contractors.

God damn the GOP for helping that bastard.

Feeling weird...

I was heading home from work and got a need for another helping of enchiladas, but the only place that has halfway decent ones in Buffalo is 10 miles away in evening traffic. Not that big a deal but I didn't want to drive. Still...I talked myself into it but as I reached a point halfway I happened upon another Mexican Food Restaurant and decided to try them.

Big mistake. They weren't even on the level of El Patio. I got chips and processed salsa, which should have warned me, but then I ordered guacamole...and it was more like avocado soup. Not bad just not right. And then came the enchiladas, rice and beans...and I'm still tasting them 6 hours later. Try a new place, for once, and get shot down. Even a Corona didn't help.

I'm not sick; I ate vegetarian so I know the beans weren't made with chicken stock. I just feel...incomplete. So I've been reading more of Rain Dogs and it's interesting. Perhaps a bit too intensely bleak and cynical but I do want to see if my theory as to who committed the murder works out to be correct.

But I'm pretty bad off when sitting in bed with a good book and a nice cup of tea doesn't make me feel better.

WordPress is a pain...

I'm trying to set up a more adult in your face blog on Wordpress and they are making it really damned hard. I'm doing it through GoDaddy and they assigned me a temporary web address which is, I think, supposed to get updated to my blog's title...but it ain't yet. And the link to add comments has vanished. It was there yesterday.

I don't want to publicize it till I know everything's in place and it's up and running right...but that's not looking likely anytime soon. Maybe I'll look into starting an alternate blog on Blogger. I want to keep JamTheCat as my writing blog and use Anger & Anarchy as the political pissy one, with nudity and assholiness. We'll see how that goes. If this takes too much time, I'm not doin' it. I have other things that need my attention more -- like APoS.

No writing done, today, but I had a solid run the last couple days so no real complaints.

I learned my nephew, Daniel Pruske, had an architectural project he helped design featured in a glossy coffee-table magazine called C3: Brand and Identity. In fact, his building is on the cover. This is major. It's one of 4 buildings discussed in the magazine, in both English and Korean.

I remember him showing me some of the preliminary designs a few years back and thinking it was amazing, then. Now? He's really moving forward and has a lot going for him. I am so proud.

Funny story is, when I was visiting San Antonio from LA for his graduation, he mentioned he was interested in architecture and thinking of going to Texas Tech. They have a serious 5-year program for that. So we decided to just drive up and look it over. In the middle of summer. In friggin' Lubbock, Texas...the middle of nowhere in a town that does not believe in trees. But he, his mother (my sister) and I drove up...and found it was pretty much shut down but open enough to take a gander.

He liked it well enough so we headed back to the car to go grab a bite to eat before heading home, but on the spur of the moment my sister and I decided since we were there we should find out what it would take to apply. Turned out the day we were there was the last day for applications to the school and for financial aid. So instead of leaving we spent a couple hours filling out forms and he met with a counsellor. He had some of his artwork up online so they could look at that. And he got in. Just in time.

I think it was meant to be.

Working on the Celebration Fleadh for APoS...

I got sidetracked for a bit in a flame war with some Fuck Bernie nitwits on Twitter...till I stopped arguing and started asking them who they DID support for 2020. Suddenly crickets. So now I see social media is being used by assholes to sow discontent, distrust and dissension in the Democratic party. Stupid of me to get caught up in that for so long.

Still, I did some work on the Celebration Fleadh in Derry, that was put on shortly after the Battle of Bogside. It was a victory dance and was important to have, even if it was premature. Within a year the British were starting to side with the Protestants in Northern Ireland, and a year after that was internment...which led to violence even more hideous than before.

But this is important because it's where Brendan and Joanna connect and start seeing each other.