Welcome

Here you will find a record of all things fiction and the thoughts generated through clear lenses. All posts older than 12/16/2013 are works of thirst-quenching fiction you should explore freely, while everything onwards becomes what has struck the bell in my brain and turned into words. Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

POEMS WITH LONG TITLES THAT IN ACTUALITY ARE RATHER SHORT AND SAY VERY LITTLE



MUCH TO MY CHAGRIN I HAVE BEEN RENDERED UNABLE TO PROCEED WITH ROUTINE MORNING RITUALS TO BEGIN MY DAY DUE TO UNFORESEEN FACTORS OF A MOST FRUSTRATING NATURE

the oatmeal
sweet singing peaches
alas
still too hot to eat




OF OBSERVING SMALL PLEASURES IN LIFE FOR THOSE WHOM THOSE PLEASURES MOST LIKELY CONSTITUTE A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF WHAT THEY WOULD TERM AS LIFE ITSELF

the janitor lady cleaned things
while eating an orange popsicle


 
IN RECALLING THE DAYS OF YOUTH IN THE SUMMER OF MY FAIR CONTENT IT BECOMES APPARENT WHAT ONCE BROUGHT ME IMMEASURABLE GLEE IS NOW BUT A TRIFLE OF PITIFUL PUNNERY ALTHOUGH SOMETHING IN ME STILL GUFFAWS

show me your pikachu
or I'll take a peek-at'you



BEREFT OF SATISFACTORY REASON AT TIMES I DO FIND MY EMOTIONS SPIRALING IN A TORRENT AT THE CAUSE OF AN UNKOWN STORM AS THE EBB AND FLOW OF WORRY ENCOMPASS MY PERSON ENTIRELY

sometimes
i don't know why
i just feel sad



WHILST RELIEVING MYSELF OF A LARGE AMOUNT OF PROCESSED LIQUIDS THAT HAD EXPIRED IN USE FROM MY BODY I OBSERVED THE NEIGHBORING STALL TO BE OCCUPIED AND FOUND THE STRENGTH TO RESIST TEMPTATION OF ALLOWING IMMATURITY TO HALT THE PRESENT PROGRESS

whatever you do
don't cross swords



I WALKED BRISKLY THROUGH THE MORNING CALM AND FOUND MY SPIRIT TO ALIGN WITH MY MIND IN A BEAUTIFUL HARMONY BROUGHT ON MERELY BY THE RICHLY NOTED FRAGRANCE AND TEMPERAMENT OF THE AIR

around nine-o'clock in the a.m.
in april, it really smells like oregon



ALTHOUGH ACTIVISM IS NOT WHERE I GENERALLY SET MY SITES FOR DAILY PROCEEDINGS I COULD NOT HELP BUT BE SWEPT UP IN A CLANGOR OF WONDROUS NATURE UPON THE CAPITAL STEPS AS CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS YELLED

if i could be
king for a day
i'd make rainbow the national color
and chase all the crows away



HOW ABOUT MY MOTIVATION MAKES A FORLORN ATTEMPT AT FINDING ME INSTEAD OF ALWAYS FORCING MY SEEKING OF IT THEREBY GIVING THE WILL TO BE MOTIVATED IN THE FIRST PLACE TO SOLVE ALL MY PROBLEMS

yeah, I'll take a number 4, a large orange juice
and a small side of what the hell is wrong with me



WALKING ALONG THE PAVED ROADS WHEN THE HOUR OF THE NIGHT CREEPS ALONG SLOWLY AND THERE ARE NO CARS ONLY FOG AND STRANGE SENSATIONS OF FORGOTTEN FREEDOM SPUR ME TO UNCOMMON ACTS

gonna j-walk the haters away
lie in the street and make an invisible snow angel
with no snow because it's that kind of night



WHEN I WOKE THAT MORN I WAS SURPRISED AT WHOM MY BED PARTNER TURNED OUT TO BE AND UNEXPECTED PHRASES UTTERED BY THE PERSON IN QUESTION CAUSE ME GREAT CONFUSION

no,
it's okay,
the hickey will blend in
with my horrible skin
I'm just tired of dating bisexuals



REFLECTING ON MY TIME SPENT AS A YOUTH IN THE FIELDS OUTSIDE OF THE TOWN I CALL MY HOME LEAVES ME AT ONCE WITH BOTH A SENSE OF NOSTALGIA AND WORRY AS I SEEK TO TERMINALIZE THE IMPACT OF MY LIFE

I spent so much of my childhood chasing dragonflies
and I still like chasing dragonflies



OFTEN I FIND MY MIND WANDERS WHILST REFUSING ATTENTIVE PARTICIPATION IN LECTURE BASED SCIENCE CURRICULUMS AND I SEEK TO PERVERSE THE INFORMATION BEING TOLD TO THE MASSES WITH MY OWN ORIGINAL INTERPRETATIONS ONE MIGHT DEEM CREATIVE

sometimes I think I am
odorless, colorless, and tasteless
and I'll never change
I guess that makes me... noble



ONCE WHEN I WAS BUT A BABE AND KNEW NOT THE WAYS OF THE WORLD AND THE CREATURES THAT POPULATE WITHIN IT I BELIEVED ONE INSECT IN PARTICULAR WENT ABOUT ITS INSIGNIFICANT LIFE SPAN WITH ONLY THE DESIRE TO CAUSE MILD DISCOMFORT

itchy itchy
a mosquito bit me


Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thoughts About Thinking


THOUGHTS about THINKING




I'm starting to worry I'm going to lose my mind.
No, not in the going crazy kind of way.
Actually, far from it, I'm worried I'm going to be too sane.
Now, it could very much be influenced by my surroundings, situation, and being in Japan.
But it seems like no one around me talks about anything.
And I hold out hope that maybe, just maybe, they're thinking of things, but I'm worried.
When I was in a cubicle in America, it was not much different.
Talk is over the new artisan cake shop, something a famous person they never met said, gross general statements about people and casually categorizing words (their 'beliefs'), and whatever hijinks their cat got into last night.
Or they just talk about work.
Or no one talks at all.
And again, maybe in their personal world of thoughts there is something more bumping around. Co-workers are, on a whole, only one step above acquaintance. But even among friends the conversation usually stays around people and events, and rarely strays to ideas or thoughts.
Though most seem closed off anyway, already knowing how they think about something, decided in what they like, making them either extremely present, way back in the past, or far off in an unknown future.
.
.
I have lunch with a group of teachers everyday.
So on one afternoon while they were talking about the latest album release from one of the most over-produced supergroups, I was trying to work out in my head the rates of domestic agriculture production in Japan versus the agriculture industry of exports in China, making best estimates from what I know of either economy, factoring in shipping, then attempting to decide how high import tariffs would need to be to keep markets level in competition.

The next day, they were talking about course prices of a restaurant they wanted to go to, and if 7000yen was worth the amount of food they would get, going back and forth over who drinks how much and whose diet wouldn't make it worth the bill, but how good the food was. I was busy being quiet, trying to determine the extent of the effect that love can motivate actions, with the variables of how much "love" is present and how susceptible a person can be to love. How much love would one who is cold and solitary need to have to willingly leave their job to be with that other person? Inversely, how much would someone with a predisposition towards being in love need to feel to do the same?
The next next day, they were talking about the changes in the schedule for the day, and I was trying to think of every fish I could name.

To be clear, I'm not trying to find some greater answer--'love' is not a quantifiable thing, but if it was, how would you count it? I'm just using my observations and understandings to think of things. Thinking is a hobby. Right now, I'm thinking of how uncommon that hobby seems to become as life settles around you with age, and some of these people aren't even 30.

I usually don't have a lot to contribute, but I'm still listening and understanding the whole time (even in a second language) and make comments where I can. When they run out of things to say, sometimes one of the teachers will ask me what I've been doing, and I tell them about my recent attempts to submit short fiction to sci-fi anthologies, or a escapade into Tokyo to see a rock group no one at the table has ever heard of. Their reaction is always followed with astonishment. I entertain the thought they could be flattering me, but the surprise comes across as pretty genuine, followed by "wakai ne!" (you're still a young dude!).

Other times, I tell them "not much" or "sleeping" because I know they're only asking out of boredom and will switch topics as soon as another thought in the group comes up.
There have been a few times they've even asked what I'm thinking. That gets a really surprised reaction, when I say something like "I'm thinking about whether lakes form differently by their altitude being above or below sea level". (If you speak Japanese, have some vocab! sea level: 'kaimen', above sea level: 'kaibatsu', below sea level: 'kaimenka', and good luck finding a place to use it, laughing out loud)

Am I just more honest and forthcoming with what I'm saying? Could be. I know there is a group dynamic here--that people in a group want to talk about safe, surface subjects that anyone can go along with (though those can often be reverse-alienating if you are not interested in the bland waters of the mainstream) and I know what I think of seems further out there, but the chances to talk with only 1 or 2 other people grow fewer as folks just get too busy, and groups become the main. I'm worried. I'm not saying these people don't think; they are active, adaptive, strong-willed teachers who work with teenagers every day, and if anything are more youthful for it. I worked a number of different jobs when I was back in the States with all kinds of folks, and don't find country of origin to make much difference with personal interactions. I'm aware that Japan is more secluded, sharing less than other societies, but these people are friends who work together, going out drinking with each other, and act and speak like any other groups I've been in.
.
.
I'LL PULL THIS ALL BACK TO SUMMARY: all in all, it's not them I'm worried about--it's me.
I'm worried I'll stop thinking.
I like the part of me that still questions, wonders, asks why and then tries to form answers. It's given me powers of judgment and compassion as a result, an overall wisdom I pride myself on. As years go on, however, the sort of wide-eyed conversation and consideration for life, how to live it, and all things in it continues to decrease in frequency and length. No one wants to talk much, unless it's a heated political issue that calls some preset value they have into question. No one wants to examine things for the sake of seeing what more there is too them, or think of the abstract for the sake of thinking. The trend is more towards whatever is right in front of them making them busy, or whatever will make them feel relaxed to do after. And I'm worried the more I'm continuing with people around in this universal trend, the more I'll keep slipping in with it. Will I be the guy to point out the new artisan cake shop? Will I buy a TV just to see what everyone else is talking about? The age of social media and anything "viral" throws so much in front of us, but is more thinking the result, or just more passive reception to be counted like items on a list later.
"Did you see _____?"
"Yes, I did."
"Okay."
Even if there is a 'what did you think' to follow, it usually doesn't go on for more than a sentence of two, because the other side is not really asking to engage the idea, more often than not it's just to see if you share the same perspective, so then you get that little spark of connection-communication, and you can move on with the day.

I want to continue living an observed life, where everything can be turned into a chance to think, reason, and understand. It's that form of brain-tinkering that brought me into the person I am now, that's pushed me to live a more challenging life, and do things no one else has done, for the experience and to see what comes next. I want to keep thinking, thinking as an active mode of operation, not just an occasional necessity. And I'm wondering how I'm going to do that when a lot of the dialog around me doesn't come out as conducive and lulls me into slogging along in the daily grind, where a day can go by without a thought.

I've recently returned to trying to memorize song lyrics just to give my mental-bits something to do. I've been writing more, revising too, and am trying to internalize the thinking process to make it less dependent on outside factors, though those have always been the ones I've enjoyed, trying to gain another perspective and hear things said in a different way.

I'm assuming only about 3 and a half people have the attention span / care enough to have read this far, but I wonder if there are others out there who feel the same? Wanna be thought-based pen-pals? I don't want to misplace the communication connection of thinking, as another good-brain perspective always opens up as much new territory as a new dimension.

Where I am, job-wise and by way of country, is temporary. Within about a year I'll be looking for a new place to start a new chapter of life, and that will come with all kinds of exciting challenges and frustrating struggles, though there's no way I can know what they'll be. And I think the best thing I can do to prepare for them is to keep thinking, keep my mind sharp, and not let myself go too sane. After all, I don't want to lose my mind.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Green Demon & Purple Demon

[Japan has a moral education fairy tale, called "Red Demon and Blue Demon", wherein blue demon follows the advice of red demon to make friends with village children, which leads to red demon leaving forever so he won't scare the kids. It is a dumb story, and it also is a very poor moral story, as it seems to dissuade students from communicating with their friends. So, I rewrote the story (to a higher level of English, but) with a better ending, supporting the value of friendship, and the two demons become radical rockstars.]


GREEN DEMON & PURPLE DEMON
by Brent Danley Jones


            Once upon a time Green Demon lived in the city of Shimokitazawa. Green Demon wanted to be a famous rockstar drummer. So he put a board in front of his live house. He wrote the words, `I`m a radical drummer! Please come and listen!` But everyone was afraid of him so no one came in, because he was a scary demon and his ticket price was too high. He felt angry and finally took the board away.
             One day, Purple Demon came to Green Demon`s house. He said, `Do you really want to be a famous drummer?` Green Demon said, `Yes, I do!` Purple Demon agreed with him and said, `Okay, you need to start a band. I am a great guitarist. Together, we will be the Toxic Brothers!` Green Demon liked Purple Demon`s idea and said, `That`s a great idea! We may have an awesome time!` Then they went down to the village station to perform a street live.
             Lots of people were at the station. Suddenly, Green Demon and Purple Demon came. They shouted, `We are the Toxic Brothers! We`ll rock your world!` The people were excited and shouted, `Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!` with their hands in the air. Then, Green Demon sang: `When you`re lost, and you don`t know what to do, listen to your demon heart, and let the music guide you!` Green Demon hit the drums like crazy and Purple Demon played like his hands were on fire. Everyone shouted, `Yaaaaaaaay!`
The people cheered, `Thank you for your awesome performance! You are radical dudes. We want to go to your live house.` Green Demon`s live house became very popular and the Toxic Brothers were the most famous band in the local indie scene.
A few years later, Green Demon went to Purple Demon`s apartment to thank him. Green Demon found a letter on the door:

`Hey Green Demon,
I`m glad you are a famous rockstar now. I want to play with you again, but I need to become a more powerful guitarist. I will go far away into the mountains to practice with the Guitar God and find myself. I will always be your friend.
Rock on,
Purple Demon.

Green Demon couldn`t believe it. He made a new band called The Purple Hearts and they also became very famous. Green Demon never forgot the power of music thanks to Purple Demon.

A few years later, Green Demon still did not forget about his long lost friend. He wanted to tell Purple Demon that he didn`t need to be better, because he was already a very powerful guitarist that had all the Toxic Brothers needed to be a radical band. Green Demon decided to follow Purple Demon into the mountains to tell him that the power of music was more important to him than how well someone can play guitar.
When Green Demon got to the top of the mountain, he was amazed by what he saw. Purple Demon was playing guitar… in a big rock battle with the Guitar God! Purple Demon was having a hard time. Green Demon wanted to help. He quickly made a drumset from sticks, stones, and a mountain goat. He played like crazy, supporting Purple Demon. Because they had always been best friends, they matched each other perfectly and played and played and kept playing with awesome power until the Guitar God exploded in a brilliant pyrotechnics display. It was the greatest song in the world, even though no one was there to see it but the two demons.
`We did it! We did it!` Purple Demon said. He was so happy that he jumped up and down. But Green Demon went over and hit him! `Ow! Why would you do that?`
`What a fool you are! You could have been killed by the Guitar God`s groovy high voltage music. I know you wanted to be stronger, but you should have told me, your best friend, about your plans. I could have come to practice here with you. You taught me the power of music, but also you taught me the power of friendship. If there is anything more important than music, it is believing in your friends!`
Purple Demon was crying. He said `You’re right, music is radical, but playing music with your friends is the most awesome.`
`Right on dude!`
Green Demon and Purple Demon went back down the mountain and started a new band, DEMON800, and played a lot of radical music as friends forever and ever.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Anti-Humor Jokes & Post-Modern Internet Rose Poems

JOKES:


Q. What did the Farmer say when he lost his Tractor?
A. "Where the hell is my Tractor?"

Q. What smells like blue paint but looks like red paint?
A. Red paint

Q. What's brown and sticky?
A. a stick.

The little boy walks into a classroom and says "poop-poop-poop, you're poop-poopy pants!".
Teacher says don't say that.
The little boy says "okay, sorry".

    So a guy walks into a bar,
he drinks there every day,
it's slowly destroying his family.

So this guy walks into a bar, orders some food and eats it, shoots the bartender, then leaves like nothing happened.
So another patron of the bar was like "well what the fuck was that?!" and another patron tells him, oh he's a panda bear, he eats shoots and leaves.

Q. If you're paddling upstream in a canoe and a wheel falls off, how many pancakes fit in a doghouse?
A. None! Ice cream doesn't have bones!





POEMS:

Roses are red...
Violets are blue...
In Soviet Russia,
poem writes you

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
This line doesn't rhyme,
And neither does this one

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
I can't get a girl,
But I guess you'll do.

I whistled for a cab,
and when it came near,
the license said fresh,
it had dice in the mirror

Pokeballs are red
Great balls are blue
Just like I chose my charmander
Now I choose you!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Tulips are pink
And sometimes yellow

Mario is red
Sonic is blue
Will you please be
My Player 2

Roses are red
Violets are blue
All of my base
Are belong to you

Roses are grey
Violets are grey
Everything's grey
I'm a dog

roses are red,
violets are purple
shit
nothing rhymes with purple

roses are red
oranges are orange
fuck
missed here again too