Bye Bye July

The cogs begin to turn once August begins. There will be pinch points for this project in the near future...many things may be set in my path. Must be ready. Vowed to run 100 miles next month with my co-worker. No certain terms besides the deadline and the number, but we'll be keeping track.

In other news, Thanks to everyone who's been posting suggestions for me on that social media site we all begrudgingly use. It's been nice to have the support and suggestions lined up. I had been trying to get them everyday from a different person and I found my correspondence stretching thin. Again, if you have any sort of suggestion, be it a word or a topic, for either the drawing, haiku or even this writing section, I would gladly take it on!! Nothing is too weird. And I'll give you credit, of course (unless you don't want me to...in that case, you will be given a name of my choosing.)

Godspeed, my web children, and let us welcome in the month of Rome's first emperor with open arms!

Haiku of the Day:

Duskwalkers prowl on

and holler through my window

emphatic curses

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Lethargic" posted by Emilia LaPenta)

Today's "365"Project (Do something with staples)

"Wilfred Stapleton"

Wake Up Hope

Woke today from a different world. Sometimes this happens, when a dream state is so consuming that most of the day is spent shaking it off. I was an exposed nerve until 2 in the afternoon, tears and tantrums welling at the top of my skull. Found solace in laughter, which struck like lightning, and took a roiling caldron and turned it into a reflecting pool in just a moment. Frightening, the mercuriality of mindset.

Here's the update for week 5!

Stats:
Running Mileage: 48.9/1,000
Push-ups: 520/10,000
Sit-ups: 480/10,000
Pages Read: 1235/6,000
Books Completed: 3/25
Word Written: 6548/100,000

Fasts (Days without)
Internet: 8/100
TV: 21/100
Gaming: 31/100
Meat: 6/100
Junk: 5/100
Booze: 5/100

Par for the course...Keeping up with old standards, but still have to up the ante.

Haiku of the Day:

Drunk and running fast

I leap down a flight of stairs

Ankle nearly breaks

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Thwart" posted by Danielle Marsh)

Today's "365" Project (Make something old into something new)
"Keyboard Mantras"

For those who have trouble reading:

Run

End Escape

Enter Sleep

Climb Home

Insert Power

Wake Up

Hope

Mr. Pink Bakes Eggs

Special Blog! My "365" Project was to give instructions on how to make something and here are the fruits of those labors:

"Mr. Pink Bakes Eggs"

1. Get Eggs. Lotsa Eggs. 

 2. Get a nappy towel. 

 3. Soak it in cold water.

 4. Ring it out, dog.

 5. Put it in the oven. That's right. OVEN.

 6. Cover all them slats.

7. Remember the eggs. Get 'em. 

8. Put 'em on the towel between the slats. 

9. Don't let them touch each other. 

10. 320 degrees. 30 minutes. Ignore fear from having towel in oven. 

 11. Grab 'em while they're still hot.

 12. Make a hobo bag.

 13. Be careful but deliberate. Like a boss.

 14. Place 'em in a flat sided pot.

 15. Shake it.

 16. Like you mean it. Crack 'em all up.

 17. Cold water filled to the eggs tops.

18. This is ice. 

19. Time to shock. 

 20. Don't be scared.

 21. Wait this long.

 22. Be sure to flex while you're draining.

 23. Peel at the biggest crack. Do it over running water for best results.

24. Oven. Baked. Eggs.

Haiku of the Day:

Armpits shoved in faces

Shifty eye contact thriving

Morning on the T

Today's Drawing (inspired by the words "Content Peaceful Calm Relaxed" posted by Janet Chodos)

Splinter and Wire

More deluges around flights. Here's another picture poem from last year!:

“Splinter” based on the image of a tree

        Fibrous - Ancient

She holds her spines in close.

    You fear to grip

                      to caress

without those creamy-white

                     semi-transparent

         anglerfish teeth

sinking in deep and breaking off

where flesh becomes skin.

Then, as a jeweler,

you appraise your approach

to lessen the damages.

There is no blood;

just discomfort and dead skin,

as you dig with desperate needles

like it’s botfly larva

and hope it comes out on its own.

But she holds firm, barbed in suspension

and becomes part of you,

                   like gum on a sidewalk.

Haiku of the Day:

Some old friends came down.

 Now caught in a wash of a  

Strange kind of homesick 

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Gnome" spoken by Emily Regan Byrne)

Today's "365" Project (Do something with wire. First project assist by Tym, Ellen and Emily)

"Monsters in Minuscule"

Motion States

Preping for another early morning. I've got to remember to never book flights this early again. Cuts deep into rest time, though I do love having traveled a great deal before noon. I have sympathy now for when Emily had to travel every weekend for a month for grad school...this "on the road" thing gets highly disorienting. I feel like I need a totem to keep me grounded...remember Inception? Man, what a weird space.

Just barely grasping the time in front of me as the cavalcades of waking moments flush in and out with heartbeats, uncertain. The nature of me and now and most things blur out and erupt in gulps of static. I was born on a fault-line, and the crust is too molten for me the drill down and get to the source of all this seismic activity.  Spinning iron cores span fields of mystic protection about my head as I propel thousands of miles per minute into the lightless expanding vacuum. How long must it go on?

Haiku of the Day:

The Michigan clouds

bring darkness and rolling black

to the marshy flats.

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Spectacular" spoken by Joyce Chodos)

Today's "365" Project (Do something with pens)

"The Pen Carcass Expression"

Residual

Hungover. Not as bad in terms of strictly physical pain as I've had in the past, but a pretty heinous one in terms of exhaustion and mental fatigue. Sooo difficult to motivate to do anything. But we managed to get out and check out a few breweries for the rehearsal dinner so it was still a productive day. Looking forward to seeing family tomorrow!

Haiku of the Day:

Saw wedding venue

for the first time today and

I'm so excited!

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Acquiesce" spoken by Ben Chodos)

Today's "365" Project (Make something with an ephemeral medium)

"Blend"

One Month Anniversary!

Wahooo! One month of writing in this godforsaken blog. I have returned from the beerfest and I was victorious. Many beers consumed and many good times had. Talked a great deal to my youngest brother about his time in Europe and it was pretty funny.

Drunken Haiku of the Day:

Drinking at beerfest

I feel the slog of poison

Happy Happy Hap.

Today's Drawing (inspired by the words "Octopus...or cactus" texted by Andee Middleton)

Today's "365" Project (Make a path)

"The Short Road to Mediocre Glory"

Back to the Hartland

A truly full day of travel. From door to door it took 10 hours because of many delays. But I was able to get a great deal of reading done, and enjoy my preferred form of crowed solitude. I was surrounded by noise and conversation and barely spoke a word all day. Couldn't have asked for a better commute. Though I did find a few moments of disconcertion when I surfaced from my book and Emily wasn't there to explain what they just announced on the loudspeaker.

Haiku of the day:

Delays in travel

My patience is iron-clad

Time is on my side

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Stinky" texted by Pam Kuehn)

 Today's "365" Project (Do something with toys)
"Ol' Time Fun Collage"

Pre-Trip Check

First of all, welcome friends and facebook link-clickers! Thanks for your support in coming and checking it out. I had over 100 people look. 100!! It's a little weird to have access to how many people visit the site everyday...

Getting ready to go back to Michigan. Yes you read me right. Michigan. AGAIN.

Heading there for an annual Beerfest that has become a bit of a tradition among the men in my immediate family. Might be a while before we get to do it with all of us again, because who knows where my freshly-graduated brother Ben may be living come this time next year. 

Alright, enough beating 'round the bush. Here are the stats for Week 4:

Stats:
Running Mileage: 40.6/1,000
Push-ups: 370/10,000
Sit-ups: 330/10,000
Pages Read: 813/6,000
Books Completed: 2/25
Word Written: 5358/100,000

Fasts (Days without)
Internet: 6/100
TV: 18/100
Gaming: 23/100
Meat: 5/100
Junk: 2/100
Booze: 4/100

At about half strength on the work-out goals. Definitely needs work. Though I am pretty happy with how little TV and video games I've been partaking. The food goals have also proved difficult due to unintentional, self-imposed scarcity. Booze will take a hit this weekend. Much of the same, and the same excuses of there being too much to do and not enough time...Thinking about hitting up a 5 mile run later this evening to make a small dent. Morning runs paired with two-a-days might be essential to getting it done.

Haiku of the Day:

With clear skies, let's get

preparations underway

for travel once more.

Today's Drawing (Inpsired by the word "Duck" fb messaged by Marie-Angela Della Pia Kikuchi)

Today's "365" Project (Make a disguise for yourself or something else)
"Blond, Bespectacled Stanley" 

Breaking Point

Overwhelmed at work. It's baffling how easy it is to go from confident to drowning to confident again. Feels as if I've been wrung by a pair of massive hands. All the mental gaps and cracks are white hot and volatile.

I'm reminded of when I used to have mythic emotional cycles back in high school, the ones that left me ancient and withered, grasping at the very edge of my awareness. Sometimes I fear the drugs of that time did irreparable damage to my nerve cells...

Eh.

I've come out the other end wiser and stronger each time. I can say that with confidence.

So here's to the ringer and the fire and all those terrible gasping sounds.

Haiku of the Day:

Billowing stresses

sweep up throats and eyeballs with

the tightness of knots

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "INFESTATION" fb messaged by Amelia Laing)

Today's "365" Project (Make something using school supplies)
"Camp snakes!"

BEFORE

AFTER

"Una de cada" Enchilada CASSEROLE!

Sipping on a summer saki with the windows open, letting the car sounds ebb through the living room.

No roommates for the time being and the space and solitude carry with them a cushion of calm.

Speaking the term "copacetic" without knowing quite what it means, realizing words glom to me without context and only in speaking them do I shake off a bit of their power.

Qualm.

Fetid.

Blanch.

Horrid.

Destitute.

Sodden.

Haiku of the day:

Today I made an

enchilada casserole.

It was quite filling.

(Get it? Because it "fills" up the whole second line? HA! Haiku joke.)

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Go" texted by Jackie Chandler in a drug-addled state)

Today's "365" Project (Make something inspired by a dream)

"Bed Head"

The Soft Swell of Sunday

Cat allergies rake my eyes and mouth. The discomfort and swell of taut skin, heated by over-excited cells and that ancient foreigner fear. But the day is pleasant and exceptionally productive. The calm is sweet in the ripening day I can nearly taste it. Here's to the weeks ahead.

Haiku of the day:

Red nails and migas,

Peach/plum cobbler and Dixit,

Game night is afoot.

Today's Drawing (inspired by the word "Pour" spoken by Caitlin Gibbons to William Chodos)

Today's "365" Project (Make something portable that usually isn't)

"Flavor of the Flav"