I decided to take a shot with some of my written works, stuff that has never been published beore (sans on this web site) and actually submit them to a literary review. It’s been about a month since I made those submissions. It oculd be another two before I hear back from said literary review.
I’m skeptical on my chances.
Certain posts are disappearing for a time. Those posts / pages will return in the near future.
Dear Creative Loafing,
Look, I’m not the most interesting guy out there. Just go through the archives here on The Stonegauge (which stretch back to 2002) and you can find plenty of boring, personal, and petty drivel. I’m not flashy, but I have been involved with the sites and people that your independent newspaper has honored again and again — such as helping Tommy Duncan run Sticks of Fire from 2005-2007, or aiding CL columnist Catherine Durkin Robinson with her blog as well as editing one of her books. I’m online buddies with one of Tampa Bay’s most popular Twitter personalities in Clark Brooks (oh, yeah, he also writes for me on Raw Charge).
I’ve been blogging for nearly a decade, I am one of the longest tenured hockey bloggers in the sport (having started on Boltsmag.com in 2004). And I’m the only local net personality who has not only been threatened with litigation from the most popular pop group of the 20th century, but I’ve been in USA Today and quoted between the likes of Tony LaRussa and “Crash” Davis.
My point is, how about throwing a little recognition my way in your upcoming 2011 Best Of The Bay awards? I’m not as trendy and attractive as former Interbay Superstar Rachel Moran, nor am I as social as other personalities who’ve won accolades through their net presence…
But I have been around a while, and I’ve been the guy keeping things running for some of your favorites in the past. A hat tip to the mysterious online producer isn’t much to ask, is it?
Amy Winehouse has been found dead. Not a surprise, not in the slightest. She officially becomes another member of the Stupid Club, whose members the pop-culture have immortalized for members contributions to entertainment, as well as their over-indulgence and untimely demises.
When was the last time you sent a letter to someone? I don’t mean a card, I don’t mean paying a bill, I mean a letter. Taking yoru time to write out something — or even print it out — and sticking it in an envelope and sending it out?
I’ve been sending out letters, from time to time, for ages. Usually typed up, which does dampen the personality of the correspondence… But there’s something about a letter in the mail that exceeds electronic correspondence – even if Email, instant messages, social network communication, and even a telephone call are more instantly gratifying.
You take the time, you take the effort, you take the energy to convey what you are thinking – maybe it’s business, maybe it’s personal… Heck, maybe it’s intimate (think about it, guys and girls). It’s something we forget when we greedily rip open a letter and read it’s contents… Unless the letter itself is long and winding.
But here’s another piece to think about with a letter: The actual journey. Did you ever take the time to think about what your correspondence goes through, where it travels, on it’s way to its destination?
I’ve had envelopes sitting on my desk from time to time in the last few days and months… They’ve looked rather monotonous with an address label and return address label stuck on them, the only distinguishing characteristic on them being a number I scrawled on the back of each. I’ve had them all ready to go, and then it’s hit me: just what is in store for these things as they travel? They weren’t just being sent locally or nationally, but overseas…
A little envelope, a folded and glued piece of paper, containing other pieces of paper, due to travel some 5,000 miles or more. How many lives touch it? How many people see it? What does it experience on it’s journey? And just what does the recipient think or feel when it arrives? How do they react?
This doesn’t tell the whole story of what I am thinking, but it does give some more of an idea what a letter in the mail goes through at sort facilities:
It’s been months since I posted anything on Stonegauge. Where am I? is thsi site dead?
I’m busy more often than not, and no – the Stonegauge is not dead. Just dormant. When I have been writing lately, it’s been personal and it’s been in the mail (didn’t I once say that it’s great getting letters in the mail?)… That or I am doing hockey stuff.
This off-season has afforded me more time for myself (which has been a good and bad thing). I’ve found escape in writing, an ability to immerse myself in a thought or idea, or a feeling and a story. It’s like a release, as it used to be when I would write a real good poem that conveyed something creatively.
Oh, I’m still doing poetry too. Just not much of it, thanks. That’s what this post is – a poem. Something I wrote a few months ago for an absent face.
My name is John, and I have a problem.
(this is where you greet me, “Hi, John!”)
For the longest time, I’ve been a dreamer. In a good way, and in a bad way. I like to construct grand things, I like to believe in the best… Or a mountain that you can climb. I sometimes put people on pedestals in this fashion. Placing them atop a pedestal of desire and want.
There are two potential problems with this:
Concerning item #2, I’m not talking about someone being direct and telling you that they’re not interested. I’m saying you learn the hard way that they’re just not that into you.
That’s only the start of my problem.
You see, I delude myself. I start trying to see someone in the best of lights regardless of what the truth is. I want things to work, or to progress… And I keep offering the benefit of the doubt in the ignorance of silence. I construct all sorts of excuses, and sympathize with situations… But in the end, I’m no closer than no where than I was before. The same place I was at the beginning.
The place where things will ultimately end.
I said in 2008 just what I learned when I was hurt int he past, and you know what? I’ve learned nothing. I’ve learned nothing because I fell into the same situation all over again… Or at least I allowed myself to get close to doing such. Again.
I’m a shitless dreamer. I realize this. And it hurts. Without the dream, things feel flat, emotionally. With the dream? Things never happen to begin with, because I’m too busy wondering and constructing. And being stepped on, taken advantage of, or made to feel like I’m 2nd, 3rd, 4th class or less.
A lot of images were taken off banner rotation for now… Mostly because they weren’t mine and I figured, being a professional, I should stop doing what they tell us not to do with images: Just take and crop to your satisfaction.
I’ll figure out something new for the header soon enough.
Whatever WordPress did to upgrade recently, and whatever hole that was opened up so Akismet could be exploited, it’s done the one positive thing for me:
It’s forced me to make more regular trips to this site to keep an eye on things.
“A man needs to know his limitations.”
I think I have found mine. I was offered a job I wanted but I did not want to lose focus on what I am most proud of.
I also knew that my physical limitations kept me from truly fulfilling the role.
Maybe in time I’ll have another opportunity, but right now I’m disappointed with myself… But I know and can admit my own limits. maybe that is a plus?
