The Horror, The Horror

Thanks to MerylF for the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award! It's pretty, don't you think? I'll tag Annie (I'll answer the other four random things you tagged me with later this week!), Joce, Pam, Staci and Joely!

The Horror, The Horror!

I always get high-strung during this part of the summer: I feel like I should pack, that I shouldn't get too comfortable here at home. In just a few weeks, I'll move me and mine back up to Little Rock for another school year. With classes and thesis, applications to grad schools and the GRE, as well as my job at the Writing Center, this looks to be a busy year.

Designed for Living in the Writing World!

In the writing world, I've been working on a couple of projects at once, building up word count and coming up with some pretty cool ideas. I've had the urge to turn one of my sci-fi short stories into a novella or comic. My novel,XIII,needs to be revised with the addition of fifteen more scenes and I'll definitely continue A Handful of Dust for a possible short story.

PSA: Don't Use It As A Knapsack Or Pillow!

Today, I've been digging into what someone would need to do to survive a nuclear disaster. Surprisingly, if you know what you're doing, your odds of survival don't suck so bad (not that they're very good in the first place). If the initial blast doesn't get you, odds are, you'll survive.

What will get you is living in a world with fallout and radiation poisoning, where rule of law has failed and where meds, ammo, food, fuel and water are scarce.

I think what's most frightening in these "post-apocalyptic" books and movies is that, sure the environment is hostile and resources are low, but what we have most to fear is each other. Remember that scene in 28 Days Later when our zombie slayers meet up with "law and order"? I knew that while the infected were psychotic red-eyed rage-machines, the military men were infinitely more dangerous.

Same thing applies in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. You would think meeting other men, other sentient life, in a devastated world would be a good thing. But the most horrifying moments in that book (emphasis on horrifying), are those when the father and son encounter various bands of men roving the wasted countryside.

Speaking of Horrifying!

I've got jury duty on Tuesday.

So say we all.
Bri