"REPO MEN"?

I try to make it a policy not to say anything that could be perceived as negative about somebody else's creative work. I know plenty of people can get away with that, but I've never been one of those people; anything negative I've EVER said has invariably come back and bitten me hard in the ass.

But I have to say this.

Didn't they already make Repo Men? Wasn't it called Repo: the Genetic Opera?

I wonder if Darren Lynn Bousman feels about this the way Robert S. Fiveson felt about The Island?

GOOD GRIEF. SEVEN MONTHS? REALLY?

Well. I've been gone from here for quite a while now, but I think I have a decent excuse, as my life has gone through a major upheaval, both personally and professionally.

I won't be going into details about any of this, but two things of note are that I'm no longer married, and have gone back to full-time freelance writing.

Things are good. :)

I've been hosting all my professional credits at www.danjolley.com, a site that I put together using iWeb for the Macintosh, but last time I tried to modify it the whole layout went really weird on me for no apparent reason. So pretty soon I'm going to create new pages on this blog, I'm thinking, and put all that stuff here, since I actually understand how this thing works. So at some point soon there should be some changes around here.

A (SOMEWHAT) TRIUMPHANT RETURN

At this point I'm neglecting this blog to such a great extent, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just post things on The Redeemer's Law Project in between chapters and be done with it. Maybe I will.

Anyway. It took about a month longer than I was planning for it to, but I've finally healed enough from my torn ass muscle that I was able to go back to White Tiger last night. As I'd planned, I'm concentrating on Hapkido now, and it's just as much fun as I'd remembered it being.

Of course, I hadn't done any rolling of any kind, front or back, in those two months, and I basically had to re-learn the back roll. Marie was there watching, and she was gracious enough not to laugh at me as I floundered around on the floor before I got it right.

Floundering or not, Master Seo gave me another rank stripe after class, and on the 28th I'll be testing for yellow stripe (halfway to yellow belt).

THEN I'll be dangerous.

To myself. :)

POSSIBLE MIGRATION

I put together my "official" website, at www.danjolley.com, using iTunes -- and now iTunes has let me down. It's doing really really weird things when I try to update it, and I can't begin to fathom why or even how.

I think I might just say "screw it" and move the entire content of my site to this blog. Working on The REDEEMER'S LAW Project has made me very aware of how customizable a Blogger site can be, and there's really no reason not to do it.

Maybe that'll be one of my projects this weekend.

DISTRACTIONS

Well, clearly I've gotten distracted by The REDEEMER'S LAW Project, not having posted anything here in nine days. I didn't realize it had been that long.

But right now I'm waiting for some water to boil so I can make some tea which will, with any luck, further loosen the congestion that's plaguing my sinuses. (I've got a mild but persistent cold.) Seems like a perfect time for a relatively quick blog entry.

Reactions to REDEEMER'S LAW so far have been uniformly good; readers have made some great comments and observations, and given me plenty to think about as I make plans to revise the manuscript. Plus a reader named Stefan Blitz, proprietor of ForcesOfGeek.com, has whipped up a striking new cover and a great-looking banner. I'll be making ample use of both.

In other news, another deal that I had thought dead and gone, or at least indefinitely postponed, has risen from the dead this week. As usual, I can't go into any details about it, but it involves a form of media that I'm excited to delve into further. I should know more about it this coming week. :)

I'm about two weeks into my month-long break from White Tiger. I've been to see the physical therapy people several times, with several more sessions to go, and I'm showing marked improvement, but today I went and strolled around the walking track while Marie participated in a sparring class, and I wanted to be down there on the mat so bad it just about made me sick. I'm very, VERY much looking forward to my return.

Hey, the water just boiled.

POSSIBILITIES

The first time someone you barely know contacts you over the Internet and says words to the effect of, "I like your writing a lot, and I'm in negotiations to do [INSERT AMAZING PROJECT HERE], and I really want you to be a part of it," your natural tendency, I would think, would be to get really excited.

That excitement, in my experience, really needs to wait until contracts are signed and, better yet, checks have cleared; I've had way too many amazing deals offered, discussed at great length, even promised to me by people with the power to back up those promises, only to have whatever deal it was pulled out from under me at the last minute.

But it's happening again, and this time I am, I will admit, a bit on the hopeful side. Of course I can't go into any details, because life is like that, but...we'll see. I feel good about it. In a tentative sort of way.

Marginally related: I've had a really rare experience, these last couple of weeks, just relaxing a bit. I'm between deadlines on freelance projects (not to mention that the discomfort from my embarrassing pulled muscle makes it painful to sit for too long), so I've just been, more or less, chilling at home. And it's been splendid. Tomorrow I start physical therapy, though, so I ought to be able to sit still for long periods of time again soon, and it's a good thing. I'm starting to get the irresistible writing itch again.

Just in time for the second half of the Death Knight book, the second book in the new Seekers trilogy, and the third issue of Toy Story. And maybe a children's novel adaptation for Lerner Books.

Tangentially related: I got to go and explain to the instructors at White Tiger tonight that I'll be in physical therapy for three or four weeks and won't be able to train (since I've been forbidden to kick, punch, roll, or throw, and that lets out more or less everything we do there). So I spent the class session lumbering around the elevated walking track, watching as Marie trained one-on-one with Master Kim and got her next rank stripe. She'll be ready to test for her green stripe (halfway to green belt) at the end of the month, and, well, I'll be ready to cheer for her.

SYNDROMES AND OTHER FUN

I don't remember which story it was, but there's a Harlan Ellison story in which one of the characters, a writer, is based largely on Ellison himself. This writer refers to the nature of his own writing as, I if I recall correctly, "fiercely confessional."

Now, it goes without saying that I am by NO MEANS Harlan Ellison. (It's actually sort of a hope of mine that Harlan Ellison never becomes aware of my existence, as I only need the one anus, and I'm sure he'd find reason to rip me a new one.) I also don't know how fierce or, for that matter, meaningfully confessional this post is. But as far as personal details go, well, it's not bad.

Today I was diagnosed with piriformis syndrome.

What is piriformis syndrome, you might ask? Something congenital? Something contagious? Something fatal?

Nope. What it is, is an irritation of the sciatic nerve caused by inflammation of the piriformis muscle, through which it passes. What does this mean in layman's terms, you ask?

It means I sprained my ass.

Yes indeed, the piriformis muscle is underneath the gluteus maximus, far inside the borders of Bootyland. THAT'S what I pulled while doing a hip-flexor exercise at Taekwondo class. THAT'S why my whole hip joint and leg have been hurting to varying degrees for the last six weeks. THAT'S why I've been feeling like an old man.

Oh well. A few weeks of physical therapy and the judicious application of pharmaceuticals ought to have me back at White Tiger reasonably soon.

In completely unrelated news, The REDEEMER'S LAW Project has gotten off to a great start. The blog itself is up to Chapter 2, with a pretty solid amount of hits each day, and there's a Facebook group of the same name with 121 members and growing. (Join today!)

So that's all the news that's fit to print for a Tuesday.

It's turned out to be a little more anal-centric than I had intended.