A Flurry of Feathers and Wings

Seems to be the latest meme, though substantially more thoughtout. Mine were gotten from limiinal. Comment and I give you five new questions, and so on and so forth.

1. Do you have any recurring themes or concepts in your creative projects? If so, what are they and why?

Not really that I can think of. It helps that I usually don't try to repeat myself, but most of what I'm working on don't have too many overlapping ideas. Those that do tend to be born from the same cloth, so I don't quite count those as they're just the same idea told in different ways.

Actually, I take that back; one theme I find is trying to find your place in the world. Several works-in-progress have the character trying to figure out where they stand, whether it be with what they grew up with or, feeling different from those around them, with others who share the same qualities.

2. What did you hate most about working as a waiter?

...okay, at first I thought that was "writer", but limi does read my journal so now it makes more sense. Also, at no time in the following is my use of the possesive "you" directed at you, it's the royal usage so please don't think I'm pointing fingers.

John Q Public for the most part. Few people know what actually goes on inside a restaurant, and not enough think about what your server has to go through in a day. "Don't you just take orders, bring drinks, and clear tables?" Yes, and it's not that simple. On some level, you have to entertain. The people who enter didn't want to cook for themselves, but still feel that because it's their money, they can act how they want. So I'm forced to put on a happy face, regardless of how my day is going, and crack stupid jokes to keep a light mood. If the food is bad, I'm the go-between, and the rule of "don't take it out on the messenger" isn't kept in mind when they wanted their steak medium-rare with fries and the cook made medium-done with cheese fries. The cook apologizes, but he has five orders of parties of four, and if in the rush either he misread a ticket, or the wrong plate was grabbed, what the fuck do you care your order was just either paid for or reduced, maybe you got a free dessert, shut up I have other tables to deal with.

On top of that, most of the time, your jokes aren't funny. Yes, yes, we've all heard it, ha ha, yes it is just a tiny bit busy, how observant of you. No, really, I can make a "dinner and a show" joke all by myself when I break a glass, thank you. It's not that the attempt to lighten the mood isn't appreciated, it's that coming from you it isn't all that funny. Let us make those corny jokes; it shows we're not going to take it hard and be nervous the rest of the meat around you, and it allows us to break the our own tension. You want to help? A few extra bucks at checkout time would help, most of us live off our tips and state law rarely supports minimum wage for servers.

On top of that, you're not my only table, depending on the time of day I could be juggling anywhere from one to twelve tables, not counting the counter seats or the seasonal outdoor tables. That's somewhere in the range of 60+ people who I need to seat, drink, move to the next, bus, order, send orders to kitchen, restock salads and beverages, re-drink, handle mistakes, bring out your food, bus, clear tables, set tables, print checks, wash, rinse, repeat at the same goddamn time. Jesus I'm glad I got out of that!

3. Is there any book, movie, play, or episode from a show that has or continues to scare you shitless?

Mmmyes and no. I remember being scared a lot when I was younger, which lead to me being a big "where's mom and dad" kid growing up. There was the opening of Nightmare Before Christmas, the opening alone freaked me out the first time I saw it; seeing only the melting faces of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and only that scene without any context did a number on my psychi.

But still to this day?...noooot really. There's the Saw series, but that's more of "ew, god, ew, ew, ew" than scary. There are certain concepts that freak me out, but most of the time it only works once.

4. Which appeals to you more, speculative fiction or literary fiction? Why?

What the Sam Hell is "literary fiction", isn't that just "the fiction of literature"? Let's see here, Wikipedia...speculative...okay, "literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character, the plot may or may not be important". Ah hah.

Speculative, hands down. I'd rather be attracted to things that actually make up a story and be snuck up on by the themes and subject matter, instead of reading something where the definition of it is that the writer is trying to write something obviously of worth. You know what that is? It's called "the Great American Novel", and no one ever achieves it. It's the goal of people who get into writing for all the wrong reasons shoot for, because they want their work to "mean something" and "have worth" and mainly talk about something without saying anything. Literary fiction, to my mind, is masturbation with a pen, literary self-gratification.

Speculative fiction may not outright deal with the issues of our day, but they're gonna be damn more entertaining.

5. What is the earliest memory you can remember, and how old were you?

Texas. I was born in Washington state, but I only know that because I know that. I lived in Texas, San Antinio more precisely, sometime after birth until I was five, when we moved back to Washington (my dad was in the Air Force). Right now I can't think of too much in a linear timeline, but I can pick out pieces from back then.

One that I didn't remember until my mom reminded me is probably one the best. Texas, for anyone (actually) reading this might not know, is pretty lightning-pretty in the summer time. Huge electrical storms. Awesome. Anywho, my mom would take me on walks through the neighborhood and to a local football field/park area. She'd do this before a storm would actually come overhead, so I would hear the thunder and, once at the field, could see the lightning in the distance. She'd do this multiple times over the year, mainly depending on if she was home at the time and if she knew the storm was coming. But, alone with the 4th of July, sometimes we'd get Chruch icecream bars, climb to the top of the bleachers, and watch the lightning.

I didn't remember this for a long time, until I mentioned I missed the awesome lightning storms from when we visited relatives in the mid-west. She mentioned she took me on walks so I wouldn't be frightened of the storms, because I guess one of her sisters was scared of thunder storms as a kid. So she brought me up so I wouldn't be. Which is cool, because it gave me a new story idea, Lightning's Child, and also makes me crave the few times thoughtout the year I can just relax in a chair and listen to the rain and all the flash and boom of the storms.