Hello Heat

It's starting to get hot up in here and thus I finally put in my window air conditioning unit today after storing it for three months in the trunk of my car (the new apartment doesn't come with a storage room). The installation of air conditioning is an annual event in the life of transient St. Paul apartment dweller such as myself, as it seems any building in any area that's remotely cool has no AC and or costs too much to rent, which for me is any apartment above the bare minimum. I used to live in an apartment with really flimsy windows (actually, they were just two storm windows, with no real window at all and they fogged up like crazy) and I owned a mammoth AC unit that barely fit. But as we age we gain experience, do we not? And so I now own a reasonably sized AC unit in an apartment with proper window frames, so it didn't take too long to install today.

Once I called my landlord to show me how to remove the magical window screens, that is. Now I just have to teach the cat to shut the damn bedroom door when he goes in and out which he does, like, a thousand times a day.

Scribd

I learned about a cool site during the Stoker weekend called Scribd. On Scibd you can post your documents, pretty much any type of documents, and people can read and comment on them. There's other sites that allow you to do this, but Scribd is cool because it tends to pop high on google and it also presents the documents in a read-only format, which means no one can copy and paste your document into another document.

Last night I created my own account (it only takes about two minutes) and posted three stories, with more to come, and today I posted my magnum poetry opus, Darth Vader Watches the Stars.

http://www.scribd.com/DavidOppegaard

Whoop!

Paths

"In the end, the only thing of any interest is the paths people take. The tragic part is that even when they know where they're going and who they are, everything is still a mystery."

-Pierrot le Fou (1965 film)

Final Thoughts on Stoker Weekend

So, alas, I did not win the first novel award but overall it was a worthwhile trip and I enjoyed many funny and surreal conversations. My favorite event on the big Saturday I detailed in a previous post turned out to be sitting on the first novel panel. All the first novel panelists were very nice and after meeting my fellow finalists I realized in a concrete way that there were no villains to be defeated here just fellow writers struggling to market their novels.

I also now have more empathy for the finalists in award ceremonies who have to sit there for three hours waiting to either be strangely elated or crushed and go over their victory speech in their minds and in the end, you know what, it doesn't really matter if you win or not because you'll be exhausted either way.

So there you have it. Noah, thank you for the rose you hid in my luggage for me to find when I arrived home in St. Paul.

Hello from the Stokers

Hola from Burbank, CA. Noah and I are ensconced in our Stoker hotel among all the Stoker people and we're drinking much but not enough because every fucking drink is $12 and damn, how does a poor writer get drunk in L.A.-ish? We tried to sally forth and find a liquor store but our hotel is near the airport and the best we did was nothing, nothing at all. We haven't actually talked to many people yet but we are observing, observing, observing and tomorrow will be a marathon day. I have an interview at 11 AM a reading at 1 and I'm sitting on a first novel panel at 4 and then the Stoker awards/banquet in the evening.

Tonight I will bury myself bashido style and live tomorrow as if I am already dead and feel no fear.

Though when you think about it that's a little extreme. Perspective, Blogagaard!

Rainy Day Zombies

We needed this rainy Saturday but I swear there must be some kind of sleepy drug in it. I just woke up from a two and a half hour nap and I usually don't sleep longer than an hour. Perhaps this rainfall proceeds a summertime zombie invasion?

Must...stay...awake...to...fight...zombies...

Blogagaard Goes to the Gym

I know, I know. You must be confused by the title of this post. Gym? Blogagaard? Dave Blogagaard? But yes, it's true! I tagged along with my friend Mike today to the Baley's on University, inspired by the utmost shame at my sea lion physique, most noticeable to myself on the trip the Oregon coast. And what a sweaty orgy I endured! The weight lifting, the walking machine thing, the thick necked muscle bound men and women!

Actually, it was alright. I sweated like a mean monsoon and feel good. Mike was like my own personal trainer and now the machines aren't totally incomprehensible. So this is the "exercise" I've heard so much about. Hmmm. Maybe I'll get a membership when my ship comes in. Anything is possible. I'm even eating and drinking less in hopes of working on my sea lion issues. Can this last more than a week?

Tune in to find out, you skinny fuckheads!