Just Like a Star

So I'm in the middle of re-writes. Not a boat load of fun, but a challenge sure enough. Lately the challenge has been finding the time to actually get some writing done. Work is always super busy this time of year, and I think that I might have a better opportunity to finish the book up in the spring. It is something that I will just have to dedicate myself to for a while.

One thing that has been really fun about the re-writes is building the back stories. Character building was hard enough to start with, but to make your readers fall completely in love with the characters is a real challenge. The cool part is that I read enough to know when I can really be in touch with the reader. I know when something I write starts to suck, and then I have to change it up. Otherwise called a re-write.

So a big part of what I have done is take the story line which went from death, back to youth, and straight lined the whole life story and shattered it a bit. We jump from death to young adult, childhood, and elderly Ethan Huckins. It breaks up the story much better, makes it easier to drop clues or throw the reader off the trail, and I think makes the story much more fascinating. Plus, it gave me really good opportunities to build the characters in Ethan's life. Particularly one of them.

So, there's the progress on the book. Life has been busy lately. The house is coming together nicely, and I have had a chance to meet a lot of new people recently. That has been a good and bad thing, but all in all a good thing I guess. Other than working, writing, and going to the gym, I do not have a lot going on these days. I tend to be a little homesick for Alabama some days. I realize that I really like where I live though. Alpharetta is a nice place to hang your hat.

On another note, I am going back to T-town for homecoming this weekend. That should be a lot of fun. I think that I will get to catch up with some classmates that I haven't seen in quite a while, and mom is even making the trip down to go with me. Should be good times.

You know, I think a lot about the times I used to sit up on the roof of my childhood home and stare at the stars on a cool night this time of year. I always did like gazing at them. Staring up at the stars is like taking in something that happened millions of years ago. It's an incredible thing. So is writing. I think that a published work gets to live on through the generations. I think that it gets passed down through the ages for people far removed from the times and circumstances to look at, and that is a special thing. Just like a star.

Finding my way

So, it's been a long while since my last post. I had just visited my first city away from the southeast for work. Travel is a wonderful thing sometimes. It can also be a challenge when you do it every week for long periods of time. I realize now that I have to update my blog. The links, the reading part, everything. So, I am at an interesting place in life. I feel like I went to school to prove something. I did that. I also think that I got a little too caught up in trying to be the best, so much so in fact that I am now questioning a lot of the decisions that I made post graduation. I find myself missing my family and missing my home town. A lot of things have been happening recently. I've ventured out with the roommate for some weekend adventures, but on the whole I have that 'something isn't right' feeling at the center of me. I know deep down that the winds of change are blowing, but I do not know how to go about it and it is kind of challenging. I just bought a home, which really complicates things. On that note, I really like the house. I have done a pretty good job decorating it, and it really is starting to feel like home. I guess I just have to try and focus, spend as much time searching out what I need to do in this life, and bring it all together. For too long now I have been floating while the current takes me downstream. I think it's about high time that I start swimming again.

So, here's to my first post back. I'm going to keep it up, and update the progress on the book some more. It has been an on-again, off-again thing for me, but I am going to dedicate myself to finishing it because the idea of it is great. It has really come together. So, I might not have anyone to read this except myself now, but I think this is sort of a nice outlet for me to get things off my mind and onto some space where I can observe it. So, here's to making it to tomorrow and accomplishing what I need to in order to get published.

City of my destination!

Low battery, more to come soon!

My Greatest Adventure

So the story goes something like this: Boy finishes high school. Boy travels to Europe. Boy contracts 'travel fever'. Boy thinks he loves, over and over. Boy does not love, nor does he know it. Boy fails to find direction. Therefore, Boy fails. Repeatedly. Boy matures, and Boy suffers the greatest loss of his life - a mentor, a teacher, a friend, a father figure, a grandfather. Boy is truly lost and in a doldrum in which Boy does not move, but instead begins to sink. Boy mourns. Life continues, and still Boy mourns. As an act of escape, Boy travels to a distant land. Alone, with no knowledge of language or customs, Boy hopes of finding himself or at least peace. Boy finds both.

That's the story of my life, and the lead up to my greatest adventure. I went to Switzerland in search of anything that would make life the more bearable. In August of 2000, My trip began in Zurich. I touched down at 7:00 am local time. I had needed to escape my surroundings, and I had not slept on the flight to the land of wonderful cheese and chocolate. I immediately began my excursion into the city, and I met a young fellow named Stephan Kupper. I toured the city with the German, and I made a good friend. After my short stay in Zurich, I saw Stephan off at the train station, and I boarded my train a few hours later. From the capital, it was off to Interlakken. While it was nice to have seen the capital, Interlakken is to this day what I think of when recalling my time there. I entered on a train into the quaint little town. During my stay, mist seemed to cover the mountains endlessly. It was the most tidy, quaint, and wonderful tucked away part of the world that I have ever experienced. There, apart from the sailing, touring, sight-seeing, and other activities, I found peace. It is a place that I can't really explain. I saw a movie called "What Dreams May Come". In that movie, Robin Williams dies and goes to his personal realm of heaven. It was a place on the Italian border with the Alps and a beautiful lake that he had been to earlier in life with his soul mate. The only comparison I have is that if I have ever received a personal glimpse of what my heaven would be like, then it is Interlakken, Switzerland.

While not wanting to go into extreme detail, I found many pictures over the course of the last few days, and I had to write about my experience there. It changed my life. My life is being changed again as I move from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta. I helped Jason Goldman move today. Among my closest friends, it was difficult to say goodbye to Jason. He has been my comrade in the trenches, voice of support, and a wonderful friend and human being to me. We have much in common, and his departure signaled the end of the era for me. This is when graduation has hit me. Kenny - gone, Ben - gone, and now Jason. It is a little scary. I have read my journal that I found among my things that I have not updated in several years. The focus of my life changed so much. From what it should have been on in the first place, my priorities and myself in general, I have become an entirely different person.

Now to be honest I am scared. I don't know what awaits me. I will be in Atlanta where I will meet colleagues and other friends, but it will not be the same. I will truly miss the people that I have become so close to while studying here. I will be alone, and that is going to be a challenge for me. I suppose I will work late and take up hobbies. I don't really know. I hope that in time, perhaps I will find another great adventure.

Leaving Town

This time, for good. I will soon update my blog regularly now that MIS now longer rules the roost of my time. I am posting a college life photobucket, and I will soon have many photographs of memories that I've had here at UA as a link on my blog. I have a month to get cracking on the wrap up of my book, and I have so much work to do around the apartment before I go. It has been sad since graduation. Slowly but surely my friends have moved away - most of them anyway. Now it's my turn. There's something about leaving something that you have admired for so long. I told some of my friends that I thought it was probably a bit like child birth. You have had this thing inside of you that made you grow for so long, and now that it is out it is more rewarding than you could have imagined. It still leaves a hollow space somewhere inside though. Now I have to fill my life with new people again, and I have to move on with building a career, finding a home, and a family. It has been a wonderful experience to be here, and I hope that the rest of life is as rewarding as this has been. So long Tuscaloosa, it's been a wild ride.

A DJ Status Update: A Song About Me (Beverly Hills)

Where I come from isn't all that great
My automobile is a piece of crap
My fashion sense is a little whack
And my friends are just as screwy as me

I didn't go to boarding schools
Preppy girls never looked at me
Why should they?
I ain't nobody
Got nothing in my pocket

Look at all those movie stars
They're all so beautiful and clean
When the housemaids scrub the floors
They get the spaces in between

I wanna live a life like that
I wanna be just like a king
Take my picture by the pool
'cause I'm the next big thing in

The truth is, I don't stand a chance
It's something that you're born into
And I just don't belong

No I don't
I'm just a no-class beat down fool
And I will always be that way
I might as well enjoy my life
And watch the stars play

Beverly Hills
That's where I want to be
Livin' in Beverly Hills

Chariot

So, it's been about a month since my so called vacation. This major is running me ragged. I had it out with the professor in charge of the capstone, or senior year, and she has given me grief. I was called down here early, and I've been locked away ever since. I only have 102 days left though. May 13th can not get here fast enough. It's definite, the move to Atlanta is on. I'm going to go looking at apartments over there in the next week or two. (depending on if I have time to do it) I have honestly been consumed with project work. It is a quarter 'til 4 now, and I just got home from the lab. The worst part is that I have an 8 o'clock class. GBA 490, the hardest business school class. The last class that all seniors have to take as business students. It's been enjoyable though. I've learned a lot, and I really like my professor. I just can't wait to get out of here. Believe it or not, I still haven't gotten my signing bonus yet! Neither has Tyler, so I don't feel bad, but man I thought it would be a faster process than this. Anyway, I'm on the verge of passing out and thought that I would add an entry. Got class at 8, meeting at 9:15 with an executive from Cingular Wireless, taking the brother (who totaled his car this weekend) to work, capstone assignment, finance 'til six, a meeting with the lab MX and then hopefully sleep after another night full of homework until 3 or 4. I just heard the Gavin DeGraw song on the radio, and I remembered how Elijah the prophet didn't die. He was collected by a chariot of fire. Oh how I wish it would come down and save me right about now from my life. "Oh Chariot I’m singing out loud
To guide me
Give me your…
Strength "

The Times They Are A-Changin

No other song speaks to me right now like that one does. Will Hoge hit the money on it. I've spoken to my family, and I think that I'm nearing a decision in regards to where I'll be going to work. This has been tough. I really like people at both companies. It really comes down to where I see myself fitting. It is going to be tough to turn down either of them. I can see a new life setting itself out in front of me. I've been on this road to self realization and improvement for so long that I really didn't think that I would reach the finish line. I will probably have no more proud moment than when I stroll across that stage in a few months. I've met so many people that I care about. I've gone through so many faces and things here. Now I'm about to move on. It's tough. I'm leaving behind a long history between me and this place, these people, this campus. I don't want to get in front of myself, but I know that nothing will be the same anymore. I will lose touch with so many people that mean so much to me now. I have very few friends like Jo, Daniel, Karen, Mark, and Michael Finley. I think that I have made some real friends here that I won't lose touch with, but I still have this deep feeling that the things in life that I haven't been ready for I am finally going to realize. A family, a career, a path, a home, hope... "And the first one now, will later be last for the times they are a-changin"