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James-Polymer

Ghost Army of the Republic
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First, a little background information. My college hosts a student-run literature magazine called Shadows of Birds, which accepts both poetry and works of short fiction from the student body. Each semester they publish three collections drawn from this content, and the competition can be pretty fierce; I had been submitting for the last year or so and never made the cut. woe emote However, for the final issue of 2014 they decided to switch things up somewhat; instead of publishing electronically, they debuted their first-ever print edition. To celebrate, they rented out the entire on-site Freyberger Art Gallery for the evening, and invited all students and faculty to hear the issue's chosen authors recite their work.

Less than 48 hours before the event, I checked my e-mail for the first time in a week...and saw I was one of the featured contributors. :faint:

Sweet jumping John Jacob Jingle-Heimer Jehoshaphats, it felt like Christmas came early. It's not a major publication, and it's not for profit (the magazine is free), and it's only 3 lyrics, but screw it, it's finally happened! :excited: I can only hope this emotional high lasts long enough to cover the slough of rejection letters I'll probably get out of college.

Welp, back to bouncing off the walls!
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Loss

3 min read
This summer was working up to be pretty decent, though spring wasn't so nice; I'd had to buy a new computer because my old laptop broke, and the one I picked up from Best Buy turned out to be an expensive lemon which didn't work. (I wound up nicknaming it "The Congressman." ;)) After getting that one exchanged (after a considerable amount of arm-twisting), I received a much better one, and things were going swimmingly. I was making strides toward building a monetary buffer for the next semester in college, I'd gotten a raise at work, and I was coaxing myself out of my hermit-like existence to attend car shows and historical reenactments with the family.

And then, over the weekend I lost my zip drive.

I don't care about the cost of the drive; they're a dime a dozen anywhere you look. The problem was, this zip drive was the one I stored all my personal projects on. All of my songs and lyrics, all of my stories and story ideas, my debut novella in progress, a three novel series I'd planned in the vein of Cherie Priest's work, and every art piece I'd worked on over the past two-and-a-half years. And it's all. Fucking. Gone. :rage:

Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed. I'm fairly certain I lost it within my home, but given my organizational habits it's going to take a bulldozer and a mission statement to find the damn thing. And while I *do* have a external hard drive to back things up on, it's a royal pain to work with, so I only do so once in a while..."a while" in this case meaning "a while ago." :facepalm:

So...yeah. Just had to rant a little and get this off my chest. In the meantime, I'm going to cause wanton destruction in MMO's to blow off some steam.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: Well, it's been a week and the drive is still nowhere to be found. It looks like I'm going to have to start back at square one on...well, everything since my last hard-drive transfer. Last Christmas. :( On the bright side, I still have all the works published on DA, plus everything I copyrighted online. Since I mostly just mapped out the story ideas I had rather than actually writing them, my OCD memory should prove most useful. ;)

The real problem will be the pages of unrelated notes, phrases, passages, and half-finished verses I put down with the expectation that they would be springboards to something bigger in the future. Those are irreplaceable. TT^TT

Oh, well. You know what they say: When life gives you lemons, use them to burn someone's house down. :)
...no, wait...um...lemonade! Yeah, something about lemonade! ^^;
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Hidey-Ho Everybody.

Seeing as everyone and their grandmother is choosing sides on the issue, I believe I might as well add my two cents to the jar. The following is a post I made on an article on Cracked.Com (I know, I know, just hear me out!) covering issues such as video games, gun control, and violent crime. I have reworked it to make sense out of context, and I would be happy if anyone left me feedback in the comments section.
NOTE: I'm not trying to start a war or anything, I just want to say my piece. *Gets out soap box*

I own a gun because I enjoy target shooting with my father and brother; it's a fun, stress-relieving family activity when there aren't any car or scale-model expos in the offing. My father collects World War 1 weapons because he is a self-styled history buff, and his grandfather was one of the doughboys sent to Europe in 1918. Meanwhile, my grandfather on my mother's side fought in World War 2, enduring both the D-Day landings and the Battle of the Bulge. My own interest in firearms comes from their historical and cultural significance, and my interest in steam- and diesel-punk probably contributes as well. But I understand that owning a firearm means accepting a hefty amount of responsibility, and I try to keep a realistic outlook as to what a civilian could and couldn't practically handle. (For example, I see no point in owning an "assault rifle" clone or maintaining an entire arsenal, and believe there is no place for 50-100 round magazines or flash suppressors in *any* civilian market.) :no:

My family takes gun safety very seriously; all weapons are kept secured and inaccessible to anyone but us. During one of our early range trips my brother tried shooting his weapon "from the hip" and my father immediately rebuked him for it, warning us not to repeat the feat or we wouldn't be welcome back. My second brother is mentally disabled, and is *never* allowed near weapons or tools as the risk for injury–both to him and others–is just too great. We are but only a few of the millions of responsible American gun owners who have never harmed the wings on a mosquito. Any time fire-eaters on either side start beating their chests, we see the dangers of the infamous "zero-tolerance policies" that have caused such a sensation in public schools; that is, rules which punish the whole for the actions of only a few. Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty?" :worry:

Aside from that, I find the practice of comparing the crime-per-capita rate in the US to those in other countries to be completely counter-productive. There are a myriad of factors that determine the rate of crime in a given area, including cultural/racial relations and economics, *besides* the legality of firearms. And enforcing gun control (or any legislation restricting general access to something) in, say, the United Kingdom is very different from enforcing it here. England is a small island nation only accessible via air and water transport, while we are fifty times larger with two of the longest land borders in the world; in addition, state and regional boundaries criss-cross each other from coast to coast. It is possible to sneak something into America illegally with nothing more than a shovel and a mission statement…in fact, given the state of our Border Patrol you could presumably just *toss* it over. :stupidme:

The Sandy Hook Elementary massacre last year was an unspeakable tragedy, and we should do everything necessary to prevent it from happening again. However, laws and policies are meaningless if they go unenforced, as mentioned above in our Border Patrol situation. For example, only a tiny fraction of those who lie on background checks for firearms purchases are prosecuted, and restrictions regarding the availability of weapons to the mentally ill are haphazardly applied at best. However, before we pass a slough of new laws we must determine whether those already in place are ineffective or are merely the victims of time and budgetary constraints. The more clearly-set our policies are, the easier it will be to implement them effectively.

Gun control has always been a touchy subject in American politics, and will likely remain so for the forseeable future. However, one thing we must all understand is that if we wish to exercise the right to bear arms, we *must* accept the responsibility that comes with it. Cracking down on illegal firearms trade through more frequent background and certification checks will be, at the very worst, an inconvenience for me.  If it means that innocent lives are spared while our rights are protected, just show me where to sign. :salute:

NOTE: Once again, I'm not trying to start a war, just wanted to say my piece. *Puts away soap box*
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No, you did not misread the title. Almost two friggin' *years* without any activity, and now I've turned 23. Rest assured, gents, I have a good excuse: college. Since my last post I have earned my Associate's in Liberal Arts, and am currently working toward a Bachelor's Degree in Professional Writing while working summers and weekends–which hasn't allowed for much free time. Simply looking at the backlog of messages I have (all 5k of them) makes me queasy, but I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner. :faint: I had originally planned on posting a journal on Christmas Day, but no fewer than five(!) of my presents were books; knowing me, I'd still consider this good timing. ;) Of course, being tardy is not a helpful quality for a writer, and I'm treating this as my last "free ride" of sorts.

I have reached the point where I should be narrowing my classes to reflect a given post-college career, but unfortunately, that last element–easily the most important one–is still unclear. My ideal occupation would be a creative writer, penning storyboards and scripts as well as the occasional novel, eventually working myself up to the status of J. K. Rowling or Cherie Priest. Of course, given today's economy said plan is little better than a pipe dream, assuming I'm even good enough to pull it off (I've never written anything longer than six or seven pages in my life :-X). I've been taking classes in editing, business writing, and the like to broaden my skills, but no matter how I slice it, my time for testing the waters is running short. Oh, and I also have to re-take a math course I flunked last semester. :puke:

On a lighter note, my goal of staying drug- and alcohol-free is going well, my brother Paul is about to graduate high school, and my youngest brother Samuel (the disabled one) is successfully completing the 8th Grade. And to top it all, my neglect in buying End-of-The-World Insurance had no negative consequences! :phew:

The new year brings more than a new calendar; it brings challenges and opportunities, new resolutions and promises. I promise to be more active with the friends and groups I have found on this site and others (I missed you guys a lot! :blushes:). Merry Belated Chrisma-Hanna-Kwanza-Dan, and Happy New Year!
:xmas: :santa: :holly: :rudolph: :snowflake:
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Computer viruses.
You know what sucks harder?
Computer stores.

About two weeks ago my computer got blindsided by a bastardization of programming spawned from the festering excrement of Adolf Hitler and John Wayne Gacy deep within a clogged toilet in the Seventh Circle of Hell, and the results were not pretty. Fortunately, I've been using a Zip Drive to store my personal files for some time; unfortunately, I didn't include college and/or work documents in that category.

This wouldn't have been too serious a problem by itself, but I had forgotten the golden rule: Murphy's Law will #$@& you up royal. My laptop arrived at the store Saturday afternoon, and they estimated it would take until Monday to perform the exorcism. Long story short, it was Saturday the following week before I finally got the damn thing back...and all told, the bill came to over $400. I was ungodly fortunate that my family agreed to split the cost, but still–February has not been kind thus far.

Now that I'm through wallowing in self-pity, back to current events: College is moving along nicely (I actually picked some interesting courses!), my personal life is "meh," work is so-so, and I'm gathering a fistload of poems to submit to the school's quarterly student journal. Here's hoping I get published!

- James
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Featured

I've Been Published! by James-Polymer, journal

Loss by James-Polymer, journal

Thoughts About Gun Control by James-Polymer, journal

Happy Birfday to Me by James-Polymer, journal

You know what sucks? by James-Polymer, journal