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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
The Old Hack

Things that make you sad.

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On a serendipitously related note I'm trying to write something big down (again). And I've been on the start-and-stop loop for the last year or so now. It's gotten so bad that I'm actually having fits of deja vu while writing and rewriting the same passages over and over again and this is despite the fact that I've drastically changed how my story is supposed to play out. I'm really starting to worry that I'm losing my mind, and more importantly, my writer's edge so soon.

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2 hours ago, Red Regent said:

On a serendipitously related note I'm trying to write something big down (again). And I've been on the start-and-stop loop for the last year or so now. It's gotten so bad that I'm actually having fits of deja vu while writing and rewriting the same passages over and over again and this is despite the fact that I've drastically changed how my story is supposed to play out. I'm really starting to worry that I'm losing my mind, and more importantly, my writer's edge so soon.

KEEP ALL YOUR NOTES AND DRAFTS!

Ask yourself if you don't actually have multiple stories in progress at the same time. It's perfectly feasible and acceptable to do so.

(I have two books and a moderately long fanfic in progress... and interrupted all three to start-and-finish a short fanfic, which refers to some events in the long one.)

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It's November 1, while you folk in the United States celebrated Halloween the day before, in my home country it's the day of the dead that follows afterward that we commemorate.

Usually, traditionally, my parents and I would go to the cemetery in past Tamontaka Bridge in Awang to stay there for a while, offer some prayers, and just say hi to my dearly departed grandparents, sadly ever since we moved to Davao on a permanent basis, that's been a physical impossibility due to time constraints, lack of lodging, and distance.

So instead I'll post my thoughts here.

Both of them are gone, I lost my grandmother before I knew how to form sentences more complicated than "I'm hungry.", and I lost my grandfather months before I finished grade school. I lost both of them to disease, grandma via diabetes, grandpa via lung cancer.

My parents (and by extension I myself) hold their memories in high regard. Personally speaking to this day I cannot even mention or make commentary on them without shedding at least a few tears, as both of them while not living completely sanctimonious lives, were helpful, and good natured people that helped raise me, and my siblings in one way or another.

As I've matured I would have thought that my immensely deep connection would damped eventually, but considering it's nearly been 10 years since the loss of my grandfather and I'm still tearing up I don't think that's how things work.

My greatest question and probably the one thing I seek out most is to find what survives of them, things that, even the hands of death or the eroding power of time can never hope to take away. By mind, body, and soul they have left our fleeting existence, some would say gone forever, while I prefer to think that they are to some extent in good company of the Heavenly host.As my grandfather loved cokcfighting, we used to joke that he was gambling with Saint Peter when he reached the Pearly Gates.

Of the things that are left, most of them are just mundane objects; from pieces of clothing, to photographs, and most potent of all, memories - intangible fragments of times gone by that have stuck with us from then, until now. Of those memories, most are simple interactions ranging from acts of kindness and compassion, to just watching them carry out mundane chores and imparting whatever forms life lessons they felt needed to be imparted to us.

And there I come to my revelation. If your forebears' legacy is that which you seek, need look no further to than the person who speaks. Portions and fragments of their existence survive within ourselves - from the very strands of DNA that make us who we are, to the countless intangibles that they had left us, and therefore to make sure that their legacy, their memory, their existence will not be forgot, one can - as we so choose - live our lives to the fullest extent; achieving our own little feats of greatness in our time, and touching those around you with the same kindness that those who've gone ahead of us imparted unto thee.

One of my favorite songs that never fails to reduce me to tears is Dan Folberg's "Leader of the Band". I disagree that our lives are just poor attempts to imitate the man, but we are the living legacies of the leaders of our own bands. Live it out, live it up, and forge your own paths. It's one way to somehow honor the sacrifices and compassion that our forebears showed us, and more importantly, what keeps their memory and what they stood for, alive.

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8 hours ago, PSadlon said:

We had to finally put down our cat.

Rest in peace, Cheyenne.  You will be missed.

I'm very sorry for your loss.  I hope you find comfort in remembering all the good times you shared.

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The spectre of death hovers us all apparently. Just woke up to news that one of my Filipino language teachers from my early days in college had passed away the night before due to cardiac arrest. May his soul find rest in the heavenly abode.

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5 hours ago, Red Regent said:

The spectre of death hovers us all apparently. Just woke up to news that one of my Filipino language teachers from my early days in college had passed away the night before due to cardiac arrest. May his soul find rest in the heavenly abode.

I am sorry to hear. It is hard to lose a beloved teacher, especially one who managed to touch your life and give you gifts of learning that will follow you the rest of your life. I hope he will find peace.

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More proof of human insanity--we keep miniature tigers in our homes and think that they are the cutest little fuzzy-wuzzy adorable things ever, yes they are!

*Ahem*

So, who's the baddest predator on the planet now, eh? We is!

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Current novel query statistics:

  • Queries submitted — 24
  • Rejection notices — 12
  • Overdue replies — 7 (5 of them assumed additional rejections)

First the blood work drama, then last night's drama, now another rejection notice today. Only seven queries still active. I can only handle so many body blows at one time, even with the help of medication.

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9 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Current novel query statistics:

  • Queries submitted — 24
  • Rejection notices — 12
  • Overdue replies — 7 (5 of them assumed additional rejections)

First the blood work drama, then last night's drama, now another rejection notice today. Only seven queries still active. I can only handle so many body blows at one time, even with the help of medication.

Take heart in the fact that you are not alone. True, many of us have lost or been injured by this decision. But we have one another and we will support one another. You are not forgotten and you may rely on your friends, me included.

My wife is very unhappy now. The unrelenting misogyny and and hatred that blighted the election took a harsh toll on her and she is, to put it mildly, not willing to trust the president-elect. I have supported her as best I can and for now at least she sleeps, aided by that old sovereign from the Old Country, whisky. We can only take one day at a time.

To all my friends here, you are in my thoughts no matter where you live. I trust we shall overcome the challenges ahead of us if we stand together and help one another.

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1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Current novel query statistics:

  • Queries submitted — 24
  • Rejection notices — 12
  • Overdue replies — 7 (5 of them assumed additional rejections)

First the blood work drama, then last night's drama, now another rejection notice today. Only seven queries still active. I can only handle so many body blows at one time, even with the help of medication.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo right now and writing my first novel.

From what I have been told, rejection notices come with the territory.  Rejections are not a judgement on your work though it's so personally a part of you that's hard to remember.

Do you have a writing group or beta readers?  Support systems help a lot.

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Remember also that publishers usually base their decisions not on the literary quality of your book, but rather on a marketing prediction of how many copies they believe they can sell. If their internal math tells them that they need to sell sixty thousand copies to make  it worth their while, and they predict that yours will only sell fifty-five thousand, then they will reject it.

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13 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I have a massive support group. It's called The Ubergroup, and it's based on the writing site Scribophile.

How personal is it?  It sounds like you need more emotional support than you're getting.

Are you familiar with the podcast writing excuses?  There are episodes from there I could post but a lot of it could be stuff you already know.

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3 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

How personal is it?  It sounds like you need more emotional support than you're getting.

The Ubergroup is as personal as one wants to make it, as long as your fellow Ubergroup team members go along with things. I have good friends in The Ubergroup. I'm also a moderator for the group, which means I get even more personal support from fellow moderators. Not as close support as what I get here, though. ;)

I'm about to go through an Ubergroup "beta cycle" in a few weeks. That's where you get a team of 4 or 5 people together and everyone critiques a single novel at once, rotating through the members' works each week. My book is up for the first week of the cycle.

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Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer/songwriter passed away at the age of 82.

Quoted from Rolling Stone:

Quote

Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet.

I'd probably put him up there with Johnny Cash in that he was still performing and producing music up until his death, his most recent album "You Want it Darker" was just released earlier this year.

 

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TL;DR: An innocuous post regarding people and our interactions with others put one of my friends into a state of existential dread.

Longer version:
I have two friends, JM, and L, JM gets tagged in a post about asking what does he remember about person X. JM responds and reposts the thing and he gets a fair number of responses as well. I got tagged so I reposted too and got a modest response from my other friends to and I though might as well tag a few others as well. When it got to my buddy L, that's when things started to go wrong. JM and I posted our best memories with the guy, then we waited to see more...

I'ts been 6 hours and nobody else has posted anything yet.

See L has an inferiority complex (won't get into too much detail, let's just say he had a rough childhood) and really wants to be a big name achiever in life so he didn't take that response (or lack thereof) very well. I'm currently talking to him right now but let's just say he's starting to sound like one of those annoying stereotypical emo archetypes you see in basically any given anime. I say that but I don't mean to be dismissive about him or his plight (he is my buddy after all) but you know that difficult process where you want to convince someone everything will be alright while they're going through a really dark period of their life? Yeah, L's about 10 feet away from that sort of outlook.

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1 hour ago, PSadlon said:

John Glenn, the First American in space & former US Senator died today.

Godspeed and Rest in Peace, Mr. Glenn.

2016 claims another.

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