JEAN: Now with the team’s arrival back in three dimensional space beside time, my makeshift “switch” is ready.
As I empathically aligned myself with the web of telepathic connections, I thought of the day Sara was hit as we played in the street---my first telepathic experience---her dying thoughts. It’s nearly as intense for everyone so far affected.Their confusion, their desire to heal one another, inspire one another, dominate one another---and all the realms of daydream, exposed without relief!
So...some relief, or insanity!
I’m reminded of Wolverine; the glimpses into his mind...like treading water above a great depth, while trying to find the way back to land. He’s actually the closest model to sanity I have at hand, for dealing with similar...baggage!
His past: stitched together in ways even he is not fully aware---and I feel what he feels for me. I open myself, this one time, to wonder: what is it, really, in ourselves that forces our love to be...exclusive? But in Scott’s case, the poor guy and I...he’s the flipside to what it is I need here:
the very special brain of Scott Summers. For some time now, I’ve explored how it is that he cannot turn his mutant power—his deadly eyebeams---on and off. With the power of the Phoenix, however, lies the key---to a freedom transcendent I’ve wanted to offer him--- to try with him, part of the most special present I can.
That template---that power, uncontrollably raging in the brain--- I stir into the empathic “mix”, suggested to this localized, affected microcosm of the universal mind---that the choice is theirs. Let the power flow...or shut it off. Only mankind, as Wolverine rightly said, can know if they are ready---if this is the way life on Earth evolves, on a scale unknown to precedent.
STORM: The wind system created by the superheated plains is sucking the air away, all around it!
Fire whirls are spit from the center of the firestorm---and the strong jet stream is nearly untamable!
The increased oxygen fuels the fire to towering heights! I must reach outside the system, to bleed the jet stream of its ferocity, or no amount of rain I can bring here will be in time!
COLOSSUS: We must move!!! Firefighters are being sucked into the flaming vortex!!!
WOLVERINE: Can’t let these poor suckers buy the farm---but unless we take that mountain, we’re in for a world o’change, in the truest sense. Makes it not sound so bad, actually, considerin’ the state a’ things.
At the edge of the barrier, inside the cavern between the pillars of the Super Computer, Remus and Ray undergo a struggle that physically resembles a cellular mitosis. Remus tries to keep his composite identity together, but Ray only wants to be free.
KANE: Ray is free!
RAY: Yes! ---to reach you, the Kane and Dragonvayne, and unite around the box!
Sulinar Vix and Corpse Flower pour their powers above and below; futuristic and ancient powers struggle with the Dragon’s Line. Divided from Captain Ray, Remus lacks the substance to maintain full power.
REMUS SHARPTOOTH: No! Snarrgh! ! I become immaterial!!! BUT as you become more material...you also become more vulnerable! Behold the Fire Element, feel the claws of the dragon, as I call the heat from the blaze surrounding this mountain...to sear your bodies, as the volcano should have, a thousand years ago!
KANE: I have had no body and lived as flame. The magicks of my soul can grant us some surcease from this mighty heat...
RAY: As we reach for the Box, sister, we become more entangled in this physical plane! Soon, we will draw breath again...in a place without air!
NICOLA: If we can move the Box from its stasis, perhaps we can remove it from this time stream!
CYCLOPS: Team! Converge on the heart of this super computer! Jean, please, can you..?
JEAN: The cavern’s location is in your thoughts, on the peripheral left, people.
CYCLOPS: The man’s thoughts are transparent as glass; the Box is the objective! Nightcrawler!
Essays on creations, life lessons, and many original stories; also visit integr8dfix.blogspot for even more!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
X-MEN: tranz rupture! continues
ALL-NEW *Bite me fanboy, but this next scene w/ Logan and Kurt was cut from the next draft!*
Nightcrawler teleports Wolverine within a few feet of the gunman, while teleporting himself back in time to knock his victims out of the way; to his dismay, they, too, have been driven to fire as waves of fear meet the psychotic experience of their minds, both opened to all and flooded with random impressions of one another. The thoughts weave like a neural web, without regard for privacy nor concentration.
Without a word, the uncanny mutant launches himself towards disaster; he is all that stands between an unintentional massacre and reality. Gunfire rips and strips Wolverine, just before he unsheathes his Adamantium claws---and the hardest substance known to man brings a potential rampage to an end.
WOLVERINE: State these bo’ are in, one starts shootin’, it’s every man for his damn self.
Kurt: I am taking fighters out of the field---one Nightcrawler Express!
As the soldiers vanish, first one, then another, the surprise and distance lessens the indescribable feedback...while Colossus uses the psychic training of Professor Xavier to clear his head and demolish the stand of trees beside the all-consuming torch. Above, the gathered, strained, earnestly-summoned clouds at last yield their precious rain here in the desert wilderness...even a weakened monsoon, here, is no mean feat. As to their mistress who has called these drops:
HOLT: Look at how vulnerable she looks.
BLANCLEY: I can’t say for sure, but she resembles one of the X-Men. No one seems to know who they are or what they intend to do. Why would they risk their lives here? What are the consequences of what’s happening---and is this the world from here out?
HOLT: Can you even imagine: they’re at the center of this mind storm. No matter what things I’ve heard they can do, they can still die, right? They still have a heart that can stop beating, and lungs that can stop---
BLANCLEY: Is she choking?
STORM: Uhhh...I...feel the moisture gather on the wind...and the static of lightning building in the clouds. I am---awake! Here!
HOLT: Glad you can tell where “here” and “there” are, it’s getting hard to know!
STORM: At last the rains have come to quench the blaze---but now, have I done what most I could for you firefighters and soldiers?
BLANCLEY: What lurks within this plane of battle, I suspect has more to do with the realm we saw...
STORM: The plane we just visited, you---I see it in your eyes, you have both seen---there is some understanding passing amongst everyone.
HOLT: Are we becoming mind-readers?
BLANCLEY: It’s there the real war is fought; there’s nothing to do nor nothing, I suspect, to save us here besides one’s resolution to sheer courage, here in this wave-like schizophrenia!
STORM: My instincts ---my flesh wants to peel from the bones that choose to tread beside Cyclops and Phoenix in that cave! I feel the intense psychic pain and paranoia that has bitten like a prehistoric animal from the unreflective turmoil beneath them!
BLANCLEY: It is akin to quicksand...we resemble a mountain climbing team, jeopardized by the fall of those tied to their survival.
STORM: My thanks for your chivalry. Your courage fuels my own.
HOLT: Hope your friends can make it right.
BLANCLEY: Just don’t give up, eh? (Storm flies above.)
STORM: Wolverine---and smoky evidence of Nightcrawler. Here: my hand!
WOLVERINE to Storm: Kid’s tough! Thought that stunt ‘porting us out of the subconsciousness was pretty good---thanks for the lift, ‘Roro---but all we can do is back the play at the cave. Whatever’s out here, I can feel it--- but my senses only tell me the terrain's convulsing and it's nearly unbreathable, no other clues. It’s Jeanie's show now.
Nightcrawler teleports Wolverine within a few feet of the gunman, while teleporting himself back in time to knock his victims out of the way; to his dismay, they, too, have been driven to fire as waves of fear meet the psychotic experience of their minds, both opened to all and flooded with random impressions of one another. The thoughts weave like a neural web, without regard for privacy nor concentration.
Without a word, the uncanny mutant launches himself towards disaster; he is all that stands between an unintentional massacre and reality. Gunfire rips and strips Wolverine, just before he unsheathes his Adamantium claws---and the hardest substance known to man brings a potential rampage to an end.
WOLVERINE: State these bo’ are in, one starts shootin’, it’s every man for his damn self.
Kurt: I am taking fighters out of the field---one Nightcrawler Express!
As the soldiers vanish, first one, then another, the surprise and distance lessens the indescribable feedback...while Colossus uses the psychic training of Professor Xavier to clear his head and demolish the stand of trees beside the all-consuming torch. Above, the gathered, strained, earnestly-summoned clouds at last yield their precious rain here in the desert wilderness...even a weakened monsoon, here, is no mean feat. As to their mistress who has called these drops:
HOLT: Look at how vulnerable she looks.
BLANCLEY: I can’t say for sure, but she resembles one of the X-Men. No one seems to know who they are or what they intend to do. Why would they risk their lives here? What are the consequences of what’s happening---and is this the world from here out?
HOLT: Can you even imagine: they’re at the center of this mind storm. No matter what things I’ve heard they can do, they can still die, right? They still have a heart that can stop beating, and lungs that can stop---
BLANCLEY: Is she choking?
STORM: Uhhh...I...feel the moisture gather on the wind...and the static of lightning building in the clouds. I am---awake! Here!
HOLT: Glad you can tell where “here” and “there” are, it’s getting hard to know!
STORM: At last the rains have come to quench the blaze---but now, have I done what most I could for you firefighters and soldiers?
BLANCLEY: What lurks within this plane of battle, I suspect has more to do with the realm we saw...
STORM: The plane we just visited, you---I see it in your eyes, you have both seen---there is some understanding passing amongst everyone.
HOLT: Are we becoming mind-readers?
BLANCLEY: It’s there the real war is fought; there’s nothing to do nor nothing, I suspect, to save us here besides one’s resolution to sheer courage, here in this wave-like schizophrenia!
STORM: My instincts ---my flesh wants to peel from the bones that choose to tread beside Cyclops and Phoenix in that cave! I feel the intense psychic pain and paranoia that has bitten like a prehistoric animal from the unreflective turmoil beneath them!
BLANCLEY: It is akin to quicksand...we resemble a mountain climbing team, jeopardized by the fall of those tied to their survival.
STORM: My thanks for your chivalry. Your courage fuels my own.
HOLT: Hope your friends can make it right.
BLANCLEY: Just don’t give up, eh? (Storm flies above.)
STORM: Wolverine---and smoky evidence of Nightcrawler. Here: my hand!
WOLVERINE to Storm: Kid’s tough! Thought that stunt ‘porting us out of the subconsciousness was pretty good---thanks for the lift, ‘Roro---but all we can do is back the play at the cave. Whatever’s out here, I can feel it--- but my senses only tell me the terrain's convulsing and it's nearly unbreathable, no other clues. It’s Jeanie's show now.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The making of Superman: Opkimistic
My update, complete with materials (model, pieces from previous effort)
the man.
Superman.
Script for Superman: Opkimistic
Pg 1Superman: The twins must be in here!
Pg.2 There’s the basinet.
When I heard about their kidnapping, I changed and began
the trail of clues that’s led me---NO!
Green...KRYptonite!!! But---the children! I...I must...
Pg 3 Outside, in the alleyway, a desperate cry for help reaches...a caring person...
But one who finds the distance to the smashed wall a challenge.
Man: I know I hear someone. I’ll never forget that time that lady died in front of me, in the parking lot.
I wished I knew c.p.r. I didn’t know a thing to do.
I hope this isn’t a trap. But I can’t walk away...any easier
--Than I can walk over to this wall. Right now, it would be just as hard, either way.
A voice says: “Be careful. I will protect you, but I also need your help...”
Man: There’s Superman! I think whatever’s wrong with him is glowing in that baby bed.
SUPERMAN : I hear labored, deliberate steps.
Page 4
SUPERMAN: I listen to his breathing. To help, he summons all his strength, and more.
All his power...to help me. Great Scott! His Lungs!
He came to help, even with fiery agony, each breath...his lungs, mostly scar tissue...
Man: There!
SUPERMAN: i WON’T let you down! Many thanks!
SUPERMAN: I’ve picked out the kidnappers’ scouts watching nearby!
Until the police arrive, I need your help once again.
Man: Doctor told me...I needed to get out...and be...around people who are...more op...opki...
More opkimistic.
I can’t think of anything better.
The End.
Next this would either be redrawn or inked, but there's my draft of the story, and the writing of it was the point. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy.
Update: conforming to a single page try-out.
[IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/wi35h2.jpg[/IMG]
Superman progress [IMG]http://i56.tinypic.com/smspye.jpg[/IMG]
Sunday, January 23, 2011
TRANZ/ X-Men continues -From the darkness of the mind: a strange rescue mission
STORM: While a trans-rupture spreads across human minds---some of whom are already risking their lives against a wilderness blaze---we remain in this astral realm. I was first to enter: I joined the Vikings, to guard against those manipulating the Slay Box from their time a thousand years before! In fact, I sense a vague affinity for their location; they attempt to dissuade the use of the box by Remus Sharptooth and his futuristic patron.
COLOSSUS: Even here, these waves are creating a---how do you call, a dissonance! I have flashes of distorted impressions of the rest of you!
MACHINE MAN: At first I wondered if we’d actually breached some type of spiritual plane---which would definitely give me something to chew on later! Yet, because they are bounded by electrical impulses, I can utilize the signature of our brain patterns to keep up with everyone. Which is funny, because we haven’t really for the most part been introduced properly!
JEAN: I didn’t know telepathy could be used to read an artificial intelligence mind, but I can---and with your permission, I’m going to share that perception of our mind wave locations, to orient the team.
MACHINE MAN: Granted. It’s an open mind, anyway.
JEAN: I still psionically detect our world; the location just beyond this pocket dimension is in the midst of turbulent psychic change and natural disaster.
COLOSSUS: Except, possibly, for Marvel Girl, I do not see what good we can do unless we find our way back to Earth.
NIGHTCRAWLER: Right now, we exist at an extra-dimensional tangent to the same location. If I could figure out my location back in regular space/time in relation to this.
CYCLOPS: It’s odd enough that we still perceive time, and to some degree, space, in a similar fashion to before. So we need to return to where this mentally-generated plane shares coordinates with the place in Southern California we just left! We need to throw a wrench in the wolf sorcerer's plan.
JEAN: Here, I can prepare some kind of coping mechanism for the minds of everyone afflicted by this dimensional anomaly; that may be the key to stopping it all together. This may be as close to impossible as healing the M’Krann Crystal itself when these very energies were leaked into the world!
STORM: As with them, Jean, we are at your utter disposal to assist anyway we can.
CYCLOPS: You...you are Machine Man. I’m Cyclops, and these are most of the X-Men. You and Jean encountered the super-computer responsible for channeling the power to create this cross-the-board metamorphosis. Did you record details of the schemata that would help us, then, with the secondary problem of re-locating us to Earth?
MACHINE MAN: It may be impossible to quantize gravity in 3+1 dimensions without creating matter and energy artifacts.
WOLVERINE: Nother words, you need a flashlight?
MACHINE MAN: I meant it in a computational sense, but yes, actually, that’s one way to put it!
JEAN: Matter of fact, I’m reading a “ping” signal calibrated like Cerebro; Hank and Charles are utilizing our mutant detector to attempt retrieving us. But---the rupture’s taking nearly all my attention! Such phenomenal power! I must enter Earth with the counter-measure prepared; time’s fleeting, and I don’t know if even we can restore sanity to an entire planet!
CYCLOPS: If we can pull together something approximating our target, perhaps my eyebeam can issue a target location.
NIGHTCRAWLER: From the schematics, I have a picture of the location of the room with the Slay Box. Unglaubich! I ---may be ready.
JEAN: I’ll supplement you; can you feel the Cerebro probe? I see it forming in your mind.
CYCLOPS: Here’s your target; my beam extends out of sight, into the dark. I am not sure how far this will be, Kurt.
WOLVERINE: Or if it’ll work.
NIGHTCRAWLER: You’ll...never get anywhere...thinking ..._*BAMF*_
Like THAT!!
WOLVERINE: Are we in...mid-port?!? I smell...reality...smell anything...can hear, this way!
Jean opens contact from Logan’s mind to Kurt’s.
JEAN: Kurt, you did it!
WOLVERINE: I had to use my senses to nail down just where things are! Flamin’ astral realms!
NIGHTCRAWLER: I sense the Phoenix is to thank for your shared impressions---as well as my success! Apparently, leibchen, we’ve returned where our bodies lay, scattered about the burning wilderness surrounding the mountain.
WOLVERINE: ‘Crawler---‘port me sixty yards, four o’clock!
NIGHTCRAWLER: Mein Gott! One of the soldiers, opening fire on the rest!!!
COLOSSUS: Even here, these waves are creating a---how do you call, a dissonance! I have flashes of distorted impressions of the rest of you!
MACHINE MAN: At first I wondered if we’d actually breached some type of spiritual plane---which would definitely give me something to chew on later! Yet, because they are bounded by electrical impulses, I can utilize the signature of our brain patterns to keep up with everyone. Which is funny, because we haven’t really for the most part been introduced properly!
JEAN: I didn’t know telepathy could be used to read an artificial intelligence mind, but I can---and with your permission, I’m going to share that perception of our mind wave locations, to orient the team.
MACHINE MAN: Granted. It’s an open mind, anyway.
JEAN: I still psionically detect our world; the location just beyond this pocket dimension is in the midst of turbulent psychic change and natural disaster.
COLOSSUS: Except, possibly, for Marvel Girl, I do not see what good we can do unless we find our way back to Earth.
NIGHTCRAWLER: Right now, we exist at an extra-dimensional tangent to the same location. If I could figure out my location back in regular space/time in relation to this.
CYCLOPS: It’s odd enough that we still perceive time, and to some degree, space, in a similar fashion to before. So we need to return to where this mentally-generated plane shares coordinates with the place in Southern California we just left! We need to throw a wrench in the wolf sorcerer's plan.
JEAN: Here, I can prepare some kind of coping mechanism for the minds of everyone afflicted by this dimensional anomaly; that may be the key to stopping it all together. This may be as close to impossible as healing the M’Krann Crystal itself when these very energies were leaked into the world!
STORM: As with them, Jean, we are at your utter disposal to assist anyway we can.
CYCLOPS: You...you are Machine Man. I’m Cyclops, and these are most of the X-Men. You and Jean encountered the super-computer responsible for channeling the power to create this cross-the-board metamorphosis. Did you record details of the schemata that would help us, then, with the secondary problem of re-locating us to Earth?
MACHINE MAN: It may be impossible to quantize gravity in 3+1 dimensions without creating matter and energy artifacts.
WOLVERINE: Nother words, you need a flashlight?
MACHINE MAN: I meant it in a computational sense, but yes, actually, that’s one way to put it!
JEAN: Matter of fact, I’m reading a “ping” signal calibrated like Cerebro; Hank and Charles are utilizing our mutant detector to attempt retrieving us. But---the rupture’s taking nearly all my attention! Such phenomenal power! I must enter Earth with the counter-measure prepared; time’s fleeting, and I don’t know if even we can restore sanity to an entire planet!
CYCLOPS: If we can pull together something approximating our target, perhaps my eyebeam can issue a target location.
NIGHTCRAWLER: From the schematics, I have a picture of the location of the room with the Slay Box. Unglaubich! I ---may be ready.
JEAN: I’ll supplement you; can you feel the Cerebro probe? I see it forming in your mind.
CYCLOPS: Here’s your target; my beam extends out of sight, into the dark. I am not sure how far this will be, Kurt.
WOLVERINE: Or if it’ll work.
NIGHTCRAWLER: You’ll...never get anywhere...thinking ..._*BAMF*_
Like THAT!!
WOLVERINE: Are we in...mid-port?!? I smell...reality...smell anything...can hear, this way!
Jean opens contact from Logan’s mind to Kurt’s.
JEAN: Kurt, you did it!
WOLVERINE: I had to use my senses to nail down just where things are! Flamin’ astral realms!
NIGHTCRAWLER: I sense the Phoenix is to thank for your shared impressions---as well as my success! Apparently, leibchen, we’ve returned where our bodies lay, scattered about the burning wilderness surrounding the mountain.
WOLVERINE: ‘Crawler---‘port me sixty yards, four o’clock!
NIGHTCRAWLER: Mein Gott! One of the soldiers, opening fire on the rest!!!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Year of the Road Warriors: NFL Conference Championship Weekend '11
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/player/Devin-Hester/401335
The Playoff Heat is with the New York Jets in the American Football Conference, and with the Green Bay Packers ---also known by Dixie as the Gross Banana Pants--in the National Football Conference.http://msn.foxsports.com/search?q=aaron%20rodgers
To start: Green Bay and Chicago's teams have met more than any other two professional football teams in American history. This is their first playoff meeting since 1941---70 years! Jake Cutler lead the Bears to the NFC Division North title, with Daren Hester's skilled catches and superb runbacks, as well as future Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher, who will need to pressure Green Bay's highly mobile Aaron Rodgers, who has been playing like John Elway. If the Bears can't shut down the Packers running game, Rodgers may light them up for five (Touchdowns).
The Windy City, and Soldier Field, have a reputation for being a particularly tough place to kick, so if it comes down to field goals--and there's a better than even chance one will win it---conditions will play a role. One thing you can never predict is an injury. A key substitution will change the strategy. I have felt the Bears, despite winning mostly, were a bit uneven; their offense, I don't think, can get more than 21 out of the Packers, so if the score runs up, it's going to be down to punt returns and kick returns if the Bears are going to win. I look for a quiet first half overall, probably 14-3, 14-7 at the half. The Bears need to keep Rodgers off the field in the second half, because he comes to this game in the zone.
That's why I can't see the Bears winning without causing turnovers. If they hold the rush under 126 yards or so, the Bears might win with the clock game. I honestly saw something in the Packers that evoked the 49ers of the 80s. I perceive them as 2 to 1 favorites, honestly. But then, I haven't had a good look at the Bears since mid-season. I had an obscenely good look at the Pack last week. Home field advantages don't impress them.
The Jets haven't had Rodgers-perfect games out of Sanchez lately but he is a good leader. Look for LT to take two in. I do hope the Steelers run a couple of gadget plays, though; they were a lot of fun to watch the year they won their last SB.
We probably have an even number of Jets and Steelers boosters here, but I think the Jets have their mojo back and learned a lesson in Foxboro. If they win the Superbowl, that buried football will become Jets legend. They are definitely the media favorite in general.
http://msn.foxsports.com/search?&sp_q=Rothlisberger&q=%22ben+roethlisberger%22
http://multimedia.foxsports.com/football/pittsburgh-steelers/troy-polamalu.htm
The match-ups in the Steelers' secondary will be the next thing I check out. They still have most of their wild card championship team, but I can barely remember who Pittsburgh beat last week, whereas the Jets overthrew the team Voted Most Likely to Take it All over the course of the season, after a stinger just weeks before.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/player/ladainian-tomlinson/70656
http://msn.foxsports.com/search?sp_q=Mark%20Sanchez
The Packers seem like they were a pre-season pick to win the Super Bowl. These teams all played evenly against one another earlier in the season. Green Bay and the Jets both beat the top-seeded teams, last week, but any given Sunday...at any rate, they both have to pull it out on the road. Is this going to be the Year of the Road Warrior? what do you think?
Free of the fallen World: The Song I discovered
Before I could finish my TRANZ pastiche you may have been following in this very column, it seems I had to experiment with making some of the words into a soothing post-midnight ballad, which just a handful of hours earlier could've kicked off the night with bright, loud, snappy guitar! Now, I'm getting the last truly killer touches in these, my professional calling cards, the stories I'd hand to Marvel Entertainment to demonstrate, first, my admiration for these characters rediscovered as I reconnected with my inner child, who was happy to see me indeed. Here's hoping to some kids in the real, yo! Now, I have a song, the first completely original by-product of that creative effort: a song, all my own. Already ideas to fill it out have come to me, but they'll have to wait, it's a one room apartment :-d
Lue
Monday, January 17, 2011
22nd Annual Martin Luther King Day Festival
Check out the sea life~
Danny I
Shoreline Rootz
If only my phone clips could do it justice; Southern California is blessed with a need to dance, and thanks to the World Beat Center's free show at Balboa Park, we did just that, strangers sharing a big floor and many smiles. Babies and aged Rastafari and young ladies and Black Mothers and everyone ever descended from Africa was represented in some way: playing chase on the playground, chattering in excited groups, and no hard feelings, just driving beats.
I particularly enjoyed "Rat Race" by Shoreline Rootz, Rosie's solo turn, and all the lyrics. They were the reason I came, and did not disappoint!!!
The guy from Army finished with this beautiful a capella number. They are hard to find on YouTube; I'd try ReverbNation. They hail from the Virgin Islands.
There was food from all over America and the West Indies, too; Costa Rica Chili, Louisiana Creole Gumbo, African Peanut Coconut Curry, and our personal choice, a cold Bob Marley Berry drink.
I can't say enough about Danny I, either. Now him, you can find in many clips; his 2007 album seems like a good place to start.
Please don't take this as a diss to the rest; I woke up late after we painted at 4 am! :-D
Friday, January 14, 2011
Her eyes are open
Good for Arizona Congressperson Gabrielle Gifford: Wednesday afternoon, she opened her eyes! What's more, while she is still in critical condition, she has opened her eyes for fifteen straight minutes. I want you to understand: the odds against this physiologically traumatized doing that within the week were astronomical. If the bullet had followed most any other trajectory through her skull, she would've been lost. A head trauma recovery of these proportions---and it's nowhere close to a done deal--is enough to make the most studious surgeon begin mumbling about miracles.
I've really been sucked deeply into this story, which I've struggled to put myself too deep inside. But the misery and shock of almost a week ago were met, from the start, by the bravery of those there who stopped the shooter and of course, Daniel Hernandez, the young, new intern who probably saved her life.
I don't know why my eyes did not fill with tears at the sight of the 9/11 flag, brought from New York by a fire fighter who wished to honor...ah, this IS sad. It ties me up intellectually to ponder the perverse symmetry of Christina Green's 9/11 birth and tragic death in this shooting. She packed a lot of living into her little life. The stories of the rest of the people, the young man who was engaged, the four older people, including the fellow who died protecting his childhood sweetheart---it's all moving. But I've known enough 9 year olds to tell you, for them, you expect nothing but the future, as it should be.
When I think about her playing baseball, or finding out what government is and how, ideally, the adult world works out its serious, all-inclusive problems, she is only alive. I had to see the tiny, handmade coffin for myself to let the sobering thought all the way in.
Maybe the thousands who gathered along the funeral route felt that way. Maybe they felt deeply intertwined already, through tears and sympathetic thoughts of the family. God knows, my heart weeps for the shooter's parents...much less those of Christina Green, and the children of her school, about whom I can write no more without assuredly crying.
Maybe all my muses could not help but stand in reverence this week, to absorb a lock step moment in our walk through time, as for once, all of us had one scene to ponder, to bring us all together...the way we live each day, regardless of our disagreements.
I never knew Christina, but they did a good job letting me know her. I needed her perspective to see this all clearly, to see how I'm not alone in hope, even knowing the many difficult realities of government as it exists. There is not much more I can say that wasn't best said by my President, who spoke as much as a father of his own nine-year old as the collected, dignified focal point, for one shining, sorrow-born minute, of our country. Hope comes with children; anything is yet possible. Yet we must rejuvenate our own hope with them, for them---and for ourselves.
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes, tracked people and objects, moved her arms and dangled her legs over the edge of her hospital bed.
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes, tracked people and objects, moved her arms and dangled her legs over the edge of her hospital bed.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/01/13/20110113gabrielle-giffords-medical-progress.html#ixzz1B0P64pI9
An early recovery is a good portent of a full recovery. I hope she's back on Capitol Hill, one day, cognizant once more, wishing her astronaut commander husband good luck on his way out of the atmosphere, hugging the strangeness out of strangers and making another lifetime of friendships. They are all we really need to light the night against the cold encroachment of mortality; its chill remains at our back, while our smiling faces ring the circle of life giving love.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sorry I've been somewhere
I was told by one of his best friends that Steven Volk has a new book coming out in June called Fringe-ology (How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable---and couldn't). I only have a hint that it may be very much in my "love loops" of imagining quantum consciousness, in the people I discover in original stories. What holds us here? What would it take to keep us here? I have only the slightest idea what the book's going to be about, but check it out, would you?
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Fringe-Ology-Steve-Volk/?isbn=9780061857713I cannot wait to see what stunning plots I'll have to try after this book!
You followed me long here, you know I've revived an interest in artificial intelligence, leading back to the ancient question "where did we come from?" allied with "how are we coming to be here now? And why are we not just programmed creatures without decisions?"
This leads me back to the Penrose-Hameoff theory I've tried to inter-twine, using two test stories, right here in this blog. (Well, the other one's tucked away on http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2010/12/twelve-days-of-defenders-begin.html Anyway, I chose as my two test groups the X-Men (here) and the Defenders (on integr8dfix.blogspot.com). If you are not familiar with the characters, don't fret: I was. I needed them to help me plunge into the outer reaches of experience and knowledge; after all, I DO sound like I'm in way over my head, right? I just couldn't die without writing these characters; they were part of the journey from my father's death of pulmonary fibrosis on Nov. 29th, 2007, and the miserable year that preceded that, where I studied doom and gloom on the environmental scale and felt as much loneliness as I think I'll ever again know.
From here, I hope to refine the spiritual journey through the original characters, such as those that began to emerge flamboyantly and boldly starting with Sunstrike, Valkyrie Maiden, Sylvane, Zero, Elda, Analogy, and Miracalla in September of 2009, then began to make themselves at home in a novel dependent till then upon years of non-fiction reading and research and personal exploration. The pitch for their series, Portal Immortal, is neatly outlined for quite a distance, were the right artist to come along, and its first 17 issues end up in yet another retelling of this Transmetamorphosis. Whether #16 & 17 or the novel itself will see print first, who knows. In keeping with its all-too-human cast, "Phenomenal Experience" is about a trio of regular folks---albeit geniuses---finding one another across the dream of death and life. Which, come to think of it, is another cool title, there. No one in these stories has to come back and fulfill a trademark's duty to make money with regular appearances. Who knows what saving the day will mean in this strange new world, where, unlike with the superheroes, the status quo is not the likely story goal.
I'd plotted the Defenders story last spring, but hadn't scripted it. Just one of those things you realize you have to do before you die, trust me. Over the summer, I discovered an idea that spawned the original story I began drafting before the holidays. Well, among Santa's presents was a box of ideas how to present this personal science fiction story, with Nate, Abbie, and Janaka, its original characters. http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/11/phenomenal-experience.html Apparently, it's taken me a while to finally part with these stories I've been leading up to since April 4, 2009; my most conservative part would live on in these fantasies and their gratification. I could not chance rushing this, however much I wanted to submit "Phenomenal Experience" for publication by my birthday, at least. So, let me acquaint you with the discovery I made in an issue of EnlightenNext one rainy afternoon that's colored the these three stories.
But give Stuart Hammeroff a shot to lay out his theory on
the brain. You'll understand, I think, why I believe it's good material for speculative fiction---which is to in no way say I've disproved it.
http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/presentations/whatisconsciousness.html
He is an anaesthesiologist and professor with the Univ. of Arizona system. I wonder what he is thinking right now about Congresswoman Gifford.
This is his basic introduction to the idea and its genesis. Don't worry if you have to come back and listen again as you grasp different aspects along the way. It's quite mind-expanding and I hope it helps me finish the story I've been meaning to post here almost two weeks past!
Monday, January 3, 2011
X-MEN: Frightened Off the Face of the Earth! conclusion
Chronologically, this story takes place before:
http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/09/vanishing-wave-part-one.html and is an alternative version and contemporary of http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/11/calinferno.html. See http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/05/iron-man-heart-of-mountain-feat.html for the epilogue.
An alternative was begun with http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/10/basin-city-blues-noirscience-fiction.html
http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/09/vanishing-wave-part-one.html and is an alternative version and contemporary of http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/11/calinferno.html. See http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/05/iron-man-heart-of-mountain-feat.html for the epilogue.
An alternative was begun with http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/10/basin-city-blues-noirscience-fiction.html
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Editorial preface to X-MEN: Frightened Off the Face of the Earth! conclusion
http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/12/frightened-off-face-of-earth.html was where our TRANZ saga kicked off! So my final Marvel Wish List crossovers with my novel (see http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2010/12/twelve-days-of-defenders-begin.html for the Defenders) are at last complete, as I shed the twenty month pastiche story project begun 4/4/09 (http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2009/09/vanishing-wave-part-one.html with one lasting tribute: to Superman, and his biggest fans, and also, my Dad. Coming up on 1/5/11!
The seven stories completed in this cycle are my love letter to the comic book super heroes of my youth and my life, as their reliable voices helped me as I have wandered back again and again into the possibilities of the first full-length novel I wish to complete, as well as a life long dream of writing at least one really good story (I hope?) with each of these, retouching the power of the imagination in the age when I discovered them. That imaginative power now lights my way as I continue a career of writing in gratitude for the opportunity to type again every day.
The rest of 2011 will be dedicated to completely original characters, the music of Integr8d Soul, and more random decisions than ever before!
And now, as we go into the final chapter tomorrow:
XAVIER: i WILL lend you what I can of my experience from uniting humankind against the Z’nox, Jean---THOUGH I SPENT MONTHS at that task!!! But so far, though they are exceptionally troubled, only several thousand incubate the Transmetamorphosis effect.
JEAN: Remember what a mess I was, Professor, when you came to teach me? I can draw on that. The Phoenix...can do almost...anything.
NIGHTCRAWLER: This Box seems to be the key; could I teleport the Box out of the chamber?
STORM: But the feedback may kill you!
WOLVERINE: Don’t be shocked if it doesn’t save the day, either. Just the same, I’d carve that sucker into toothpicks.
(How will the X-Men ever get out of this one? Is this an unusually original story for you? I promise I've given it my best shot!If You've been following the crisis, hang on! I'm typing out the draft tonight, and editing in the morning! See you at 11 AM Pacific!)
Be Chill Cease ill
Dear Future
with some harmonica overdubs, too. Ready to move to the next level of audio fidelity. WELCOME to our songs!! Lue Lyron
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