Happy New Year

Just in case there's a Y2K6 bug around, let me get this out before my machine/ISP/blog provider trips into the great electronic dustbin.

To all those who will bring in the new year jumping and screaming,
To all those who will be dragged into the new year kicking and screaming,
To all those who will toast at midnight,
To all those who will toss and turn dreaming of tommorow's burnt toast,
To the ones coseted by lovers, friends and family and to the ones hopelessly alone,
To those of the spirit and to those who have lost spirit,
To those hopeful and to those tired,
A long-interesting entertaining-fulfilling painless-eventful joyful-instructive funny-meaningful new year to you.

I'll see you all on the other side of today-tommorow.

Odigo is dead!!!

Yes, my favourite IM has been dead and gone, and I didn't even realise it.
And apparently I'm not the only one to miss it.
Odigo always had a buggy client-server connection, but it was one of the most convenient interfaces for chatting with random people.
The funniest thing is that it seems to have vanished virtually without a trace.
As always, there are the substitutes - ICQ, IRC, meetro.
But nothing quite like Odigo.

second whine in one day - yes!!!!!!!

been reading some hindi short stories - In Translation - yes yes i know, how WOGish can I get?

But its a good collection - translations of classic short stories from a number of Indian languages - and surely there isn't anyone out there who can read them all, is there?

great short stories can be inspiring sometimes, sometimes they can also make you realise you've been writing hollow crap all this time
there is a William Blake quote for that I think - but aaahh I can't quite remember it
something about not only the sweetest voiced bird singing in the forest

and I'm up to two posts a day - Wahooooooo!!!!
hows that for wasted electrons?

ghost words, lost words

struck me when writing to a word-endowed friend -

there should be a word for all those words you come across in books just once, barely find the meaning of and never find again
what could you call them
nomad words - nowords u think? or ghost words - ghords?

You can look them up in dictionaries, shly question your local literary authorities, do blind searches in google and turn up nothing useful

yes it would be a lot easier if you could recognise a ghord the moment you read one, but you're too caught up in the book, story or article at that point - the word is half glimpsed like a girl's momentary dropped veil in a bazaar - its gone before its charm registers on you

later on you've lost track of the book, but the ghord comes back to you again and again tormenting you

some ghords you'll never find again

some you'll come across again - and they'll be plain and ordinary at second look - the bazaar girl is back - plump, well wedded and unveiled and wondering why you look at her so quizzically

somewhere out there ..... maybe there is a collector of lost ghords......

One more poem

Slow Walking Through Winter

Setting out on a tired afternoon,
Hauling exhausted flesh between cities,
I can sit and watch Winter pad
And grin at me like a cold hungry dog.

Though I am poor pickings this season.
My flesh is thin, my skin weak
And far too soft for chewing.
But winter long ago dropped off its tongue.

Fools fly after fits and fevers,
As if they were coherent creatures,
With soul and breath enough to whisper to them.
Madnesses cannot be picked and chosen like fruit.

Steel frows brittle and weak in this cold.
Fresh flowers wither quickly.
But wood, even if cut off from it's roots,
Survives and ages gracefully.

Dips it's tongue deep
In what water it finds
And wraps around itself
The dark comfort of melancholy.

more whinin on writin

so much for the "new approach"
poor deadrim hasn't had a single adventure yet
he does have such a good sf/f name though - the poor bastard deserves a story or two

i suppose the lesson in all this non-writing is - write a damn story everyday stupid!
deadrimical or otherwise