Walter Mosley’s Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned was basically amazing. I found myself completely sucked into the stories. That does not happen very often. I have forbidden myself from doing book reviews here, so that’s about it. Compelling is a good word. I would use it here, in a review. So are concise, zen and gritty. [...]

Julio rubbed his eyes and thought about his abuelo. When he opened them again, the half-blurriness was still there, his eyes still dry and red; he could see the smoke momentarily wafting around in front of him. Or at least he thought he could. Julio could smell the smoke, anyway. The breeze on the roof [...]

1 lb. ground chuck beef (cubed beef might work a little better, but this is what I had handy)1 can Cream of Mushroom soup1 med. onionA few mushrooms. I used half the package.Add Salt, Pepper, rosemary, thyme, oregano and garlic to taste1 bag of egg-noodles. Cook the egg-noodles, drain. Done. Sauté the onions, mushrooms and [...]

Write little koan-like stories, often involving some level of debauchery or otherwise unsavory behavior. Masturbate Attempt to figure out what the hell happened to my novel, read a bit of it, become disgusted with myself, barely keep my finger off the delete key and smoke a cigarette. Look at recipes and remember enough to experiment [...]

Having kids makes you happy? Apparently not. On Friday an older lady looked at me and said, with a very concerned look on her face, “Don’t you want a wife and kids, a house?” I just looked at her and said, “I dunno. Maybe. Should I?” I was thinking more about the inevitable horrors of [...]

It’s a hard state to change. It takes forever and by time you do it, it feels pointless or it turns out it didn’t matter. Or you regret it.

Tastes like ass.

This is legendary in that ‘came on my mom in Grandma’s Boy’ sort of way. Read it slowly and bow down to the power of the internet. (NSFW)

Indeed: Look how long it took “jump the shark” to jump the shark. But “under the bus”—as in, “throwing someone under the bus”—got old from overuse in a matter of weeks. I like ‘jump the shark’ and quite a few others. I tend to feel that catchphrases are a common ground for language: you can [...]

I had a very interesting time in Atlanta this week. The seminars were either very informative and interesting or dry and dull. There wasn’t much middle ground. I am dehydrated from drinking coffee all day long for three days straight (and plenty of beer in the evenings, as well). For some reason my back is [...]