I am not really concerned if I can. I feel healthy right now. I look good and I am fit. In college I was a big time runner. Everynight I ran the track at my college and played basketball. It was the healthiest and fittest I have ever been in my life. I have pretty much assumed those days were behind me forever.

Then last Friday I did something I didn’t think I would ever be able to do. Something I never did in college. I ran a half-marathon. It wasn’t in a race. It was just the distance. I went for a mind boggling 13.15 miles. The funny thing is when I started runnning Friday night I hadn’t intended to run that far.

I turned on my music and headed out onto the street planning on doing about seven miles. Around mile three I knew I was on. My stride was great. My breathing was really good. Absolutely nothing hurt or was sore. The thought suddenly entered my mind, “I bet you can do it tonight.”

I still wasn’t sure if I would but then mile seven rolled around and I felt strong. I have great stamina. What usually gets in the way of running for me is my knees and back. I have a herniated disc in my back. Throw in several knee surgeries and you get the picture. Something is almost always a little achy on me. I always do my longer runs on days where everything feels good. On Friday everything felt great.

I hit mile ten and there was no doubt I was going to do it. I was still going strong and I knew cranking out another three was not going to be a problem. When I hit the thirteenth mile I was jubuliant. I had done something that only a few months before I was telling everyone I had none chance of ever doing it. Even more astounding I still felt great at the end of the run. I could have definately done more.

On Saturday and Sunday I threw in another 13 miles of running which gave me 26 for the whole weekend. I may not be able to run a marathon in a day but I can do it in a weekend. Now my brain boggles at what more I might be able to do. Can I get back to my college weight? Can I run a marathon? I have already done more than I thought would be possible with my back all defective. Who knows where this will end up.

The good news is my Dark Land trilogy is complete and the last book will be coming out sometime in the next month. I have also finished a second novel which is waiting for me to edit. My plan is to have that one out in December which means I will still put out two novels in the year.

Next up is finishing my steampunk novel and writing a ghost story which has been nagging me for a year to write it. In order to accomplish this I have already informed my school that I will not be helping out with as much administration next year. We have a principal. She is going to have to do her job. I was also asked by my bargaining team to come back and help. Things are really nasty in my school district and I know this was meant as a compliment on my ability to cut through the bullshit. It took me 2 seconds to say no. I said I would give any advice they wanted but I wasn’t going down that road again.

One of the main reasons I won’t help in the nasty school stuff is my health seems to always suffer. I have gained weight every time I have become involved in negotiations (including the last time and I told myself to be careful and watch out for it). Right now I am doing really well health wise. I am getting fewer migraines than I have in years. My weight is almost all the way back to where I want it (I made my goal and now I have only 4 pounds to lose to be back to what I was before the weight gain). My blood pressure is excellent. If I am a little unhappy about my writing this year I am thrilled with what I have accomplished with my health.

I also want to write a lot more non-fiction/essays/blogs this next year. I plan on getting that rolling again in the summer. In the meantime, I will give my students everything I have left in the tank for the next 16 days. Will work my butt off the first few days of summer vacation. Then Sheri and I hit the road. We are going to Portland, Washington, Idaho, San Diego, and Alaska this summer. Plus, we will have to spoil our wonderful cats because they will be ticked about us neglecting them.

I went from getting minimal sleep to absolutely ridiculous amounts of not sleeping. Today is Wednesday and I swear it already feels like Sunday. I think I have been averaging about three hours of sleep a night since Sunday. It’s been the same everyday too. I fall asleep and then wake up a few hours later and then proceed to not sleep for the rest of the night (of course while this is happening I am surrounded by a wife and two cats mocking me with their sleep). I feel like a zombie today. I felt like warning my students. I mean I am pretty sure it is against the law to start foaming at the mouth and then start gnawing on a kid’s arm.

It probably doesn’t help at all that my school district is in deep financial crisis again and it looks like I am taking a good pay cut, again, along with losing 10 student contact days. This would be bad enough if it was only caused by the state’s terrible economy but my district has mismanaged their money something fierce. Two huge mistakes have left it cash poor.

Somehow I have to find a way to get to sleep tonight. Since having Sheri hit me with a club is not an option I will have to rely on outwitting the Sandman. Maybe if I wear a Darth Vader mask he will stop fucking with me. The really ironic part of all of this is I have stopped drinking coffee. Haven’t had a cup in almost a month. My caffeine intake is way down. I find this ridiculous. I am going back to drinking coffee. I always told people it didn’t affect me but apparently I was wrong. It seems if I don’t drink it I can’t sleep. Tonight I am drinking a gallon of the delicious java and then going Sandman hunting in my dreams. That bastard is getting a boot to the head.

—–
Art by Jack Kirby

It got me thinking though. I am going to see the Avengers tomorrow. Is a guide really that bad of an idea? Not a guide for the general population but one for any woman friend who might be seeing the movie with me. Not my wife, of course. She needs no help understanding the Avengers because she is super awesome (the fact that she edits this blog in no way influenced the super awesome comment. I double pinky swear).

So here is what you need to know about the Avengers, if you see the movie with me:

I will hog the popcorn.

I think Scarlett Johansson is beautiful and am a little peeved she is the only female superhero in the movie (I am also jealous of all the biceps in the movie. It’s not fair that I don’t have them and that you have such a variety to look at).

I hate that they chose The Black Widow as the only female character. It should have been Ms. Marvel or the Wasp or Scarlett Witch. I will argue this with you all the way through the stupid commercials before the movie. You will grow annoyed and be tempted to elbow me in the skull.

I laugh really loud.

There will be a mandatory after movie discussion of all our favorite parts (there will be coffee and chocolate involved in this discussion).

I will be sad about my two favorite childhood characters (Wonder Man & The Vision) not being in the movie. I will wonder why Ultron wasn’t the villain. I will probably not let these points go and you will be tempted to bring out the elbow of silence again.

We will debate what the hell the small clip after the credits meant.

I will still think Joss Whedon’s best superhero work is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Arguing with me will be fun but pointless because I make mules run in fear.

You will be hungry because I hogged the popcorn.

We will have a great time. Don’t worry about the elbows. My wife will take care of them.

Trust me, the education is a big part of this. I have lots of students who don’t think going onto the internet and downloading comics or songs is wrong. It’s out there it must be free. I have some interesting conversations with them over the years. My main goal is to educate them on what it means to support art they love.

Of course, the companies have got to catch up on this. They are lagging way behind on how to reach customers. They are not cultivating the relationships which will make them successful. They are still operating on old archaic rules. I bought an album this week by an artist in Canada by the name of KO. The album isn’t available in the U.S., it’s sitting in the Canada iTunes store but I can’t get to it. I had to buy it from an importer. Why does this make sense to companies? A lot of people would have just gone and downloaded it. I had to pay a premium to get it. This is a roadblock I shouldn’t have to go through.

I own hundreds of Kindle books. I have been waiting patiently for the book industry to follow music and drop the DRM. I don’t want to be tied to the Kindle for the rest of my life but DRM kind of forces me there. If there is no DRM I am free to buy wherever I want and know I will be able to put it on whatever device I happen to own.

Luckily, this week Tor/Forge announced the end of DRM on their books. I was overjoyed. So overjoyed I rushed out and bought John Scalzi’s new book Redshirts to show my support. I am hoping this is the first of many companies about to do the right thing. I guess I have J.K. Rowling to thank for this. She just released all the Harry Potter books without DRM. She acknowledged her books were already out there on pirate sights and felt no need to punish her readers because of their actions. Good for her.

I go out of my way to support art and creators I love. I want artists to thrive in whatever forum they choose. If they go the independent route or the big company route. Art and creativity are like magic. They fill me up with energy and joy. I resent when companies treat me like I have done something wrong (or might if they are not watching me). DRM is a slap in the face to honest customers. It is time for someone to beat DRM into submission and bury it with the 8 track tapes in the back yard.

We walked the shit out of that city. We had two days where we were on our feet walking for at least 8 hours. It made the days we went to the theater a great relief to our toes. As for the theater we loved all three shows we saw. I was shocked at how much I loved Ghost. I expected to enjoy Zach Braff’s, All New People. The real treat was Matilda, which I would see again in a heartbeat. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of a musical written by Tim Minchin but it was delightful.

We stayed down in Chelsea right next to the Thames which made my runs a delight. I got to cross many bridges while also running through a park. The park had lots of other people running too which was a lovely reminder at how slow my pace still is. I have gotten my long distance mile under ten minutes but there were people blazing fast in that park. I pretended they were sprinters and not people trying to run a 10K everyday.

The best part of walking around was the history everywhere. For goodness sakes we stumbled into the house where Mozart composed his first two symphonies. It was also great that they post maps on the streets everywhere. We would walk to some historic site we wanted to see and then just check out the map to see what other interesting thing was close by. This is how we found ourselves walking all day.

I was also pretty impressed with the Underground. We never had to wait longer than 3 minutes for a train. The network was vast and busy. It made me think a lot about how complicated it must be to efficiently run the system (if anyone knows the name of a good documentary on the Underground I would love the name).

The food was much better than the last time I was in London. We ate a lot of food. Amazingly, I still lost 2 pounds last week. I am guessing the large caloric increase didn’t touch all the running and walking we were doing.

We were there for seven days and we hardly scratched the surface. We can’t wait to get back. We have decided the summer of 2013 will be our return date goal. I am already excited.

It seems when most people in the United States are asked this question their answer is no. Now I have a biological disadvantage in that I can go through some deep and nasty bouts of depression. They don’t happen as often as they did when I was younger but it still pops in like the uninvited guest that it is.

If you take genetics out of it though I am basically happy. I say this while in the midst of one of my worst years of teaching ever. I have to be fair though, it isn’t the teaching. It is when I have to assume the job title of principal that I find my job satisfaction going way down. Even with that, I love my job. I am around kids all day. Kids who like me and are full of energy. Kids with problems and issues which break my heart. Kids who I know I make a difference for. Everyday some student on campus runs up to me and gives me a hug. You really can’t beat that.

My home life is great. I married my best friend. I have another best friend (my brother) living with us and helping around the house (making our after work lives a little easier). I have never had more great geeky friends in my entire life. I am finally back in shape and not embarrassed about my weight. Right now, in this moment, things are great.

I am glad they are. Life is too short to be filling it with anything less than awesome. My sister died before I was seventeen. My childhood friend Kurt died before I was 22. Everywhere I look in my life has been filled with the tragic endings of a life too short. This very weekend on the way back from our play in San Francisco Sheri and I experienced the single most frightening thing we have ever been involved with.

We were driving east on Highway 80 (a very busy freeway). Just before the University Avenue exit, some bozo tried to do something stupid and got clipped by a motor home. It turned his car into a helicopter. It spun in circles across four lanes of freeway and slammed into the guard rail. It was facing the wrong way on the freeway and it was in the fast lane. The same lane we were in. I think I had about 10 seconds to react (if that much, it happened really quick).

We were moments from a head-on collision but my instincts were good and I had already started to steer into the crash. I knew if I did it right he would fly right by us. Sadly, another car reacted wrong and turned in towards the accident. I felt his car touch ours. I knew I couldn’t go any farther without wiping out the guy on the right. I cleared the head on collision with maybe 6 inches to spare. We took minor damage on the right side of our car.

We pulled over on the side of the road. Took a deep breath and were very thankful to be alive and unharmed. I had already been thinking about the happy question before this incredible near miss. I can honestly tell you I had never been happier standing on the side of the road looking at my wife. Knowing we had dodged a big one. I am happy (although not all the time). I hope all my friends and family are too. If there is anything I can do to spread a little happiness into your life, let me know. It would be my pleasure to help out.

I sometimes wonder if I have OCD. You should see me with doors and locks. I never trust them. I drive Sheri batty with the car lock. I have driven all the way back from work because I thought I might have left the garage door open. I have to pet both of my cats before I leave for work every morning. That might seem sweet but it’s really a defense against the thought that I might have locked them in a closet. I did that once and now I have to check them every time I leave the house. The list of little idiosyncrasies goes on and on.

The one area which has always been true about me is that I feel like an outsider constantly. Even though it is usually far from the truth. I have built up a lot of baggage over the years and sometimes it just grinds me down. I worry if people knew what I was really like, they would never talk to me.

This is not giving people nearly enough credit. My friends know what I am really like. I am passionate about art and creating. I am passionate about protecting those who can’t protect themselves. I am opinionated but not in a way that leaves me closed to others opinions. I respect people’s right to disagree with me as long as the disagreement isn’t about someone elses rights being violated. I am a kind person. I love cats.

I sometimes talk too much in groups because I am masking my discomfort and my mouth suddenly can’t turn off. I then walk away mad at myself sure I have spilled fool all over my face. I marvel at how far I have come though. Ten years ago I could count my friends on one hand. This isn’t the case anymore. I have made a lot of friends over the last few years and marvel in the knowledge that so many people can put up with my brand of crazy (I suspect it is because they are crazy).

I am slightly off and by slightly I mean ….you get the picture. It doesn’t bother me anymore. It only scares me a little. It certainly isn’t crippling my life (although it will inconvenience it from time to time). This new world of social media has allowed me to connect into a web of people. Glorious, intelligent, different, slightly off people. For all that is wrong in the world sometimes, at least this has gone right.

Don’t get me wrong the graphics are crazy good. It is noticeably faster for me and I can’t wait to watch movies on it when we fly to London. I also like the new dictation feature which I have used a lot over the last three days. Other than that it isn’t much different. It is slightly heavier and I mean slightly. I barely notice it. Some people are saying their’s are running hot but I worked the hell out of mine on Friday and I experienced no such phenomena.

If you already have an iPad 2 though, I probably wouldn’t recommend this upgrade. I don’t think it brings anything new to the table you can’t live without. While the graphics are better they are not so much better that I wouldn’t say wait for the next one. Plus, I have noticed one small drawback. It does seem to take a long time to charge.

If you are still working on the first iPad I could see making the jump. It pretty much kicks the first iPad’s ass. I, myself, do pretty much everything on my iPad now. About the only time I regularly switch to a laptop or desktop is when I am reading comics at Marvel online. For some reason they are still using flash to deliver their comics. Despite the fact they use Comixology for new digital comics. Hopefully Marvel will remedy that soon.

I have also decided it is time for me to get writing again. I have several novels bubbling up inside of me and I am going to have to release the Kraken (I know this made no sense but I have always wanted to write it in a blog). Originally, I had planned to edit Incarnators and Dragonroot back to back. This is not going to happen. I need to write a novel and then I will edit my next book. Kind of nice having a book ready to edit.

Speaking of Dragonroot, I have its cover in hand. I really like it but I am not ready to share yet. I will let it into the wild when I actually start the final edit. I feel like I have been treading water a little on the writing side lately. It has given me a chance to read a lot of books though and I have to admit I really needed that. Now it is time to get busy again (including this blog which I have been somewhat neglectful of lately).

On a completely different note I have broken my elliptical machine. I worked that damn thing to death. Luckily, I have an extended warranty on it so it will get repaired as soon as the parts get here. This has forced me to venture outside and start running again.

I have said it before but I really love to run. I know this makes me even weirder in some of your eyes but running is a great thinking time for me. It doesn’t really surprise me that I am all jacked up to write after spending the whole week running. I was a little worried at first because I have been losing weight entirely on the elliptical, but everything went great. The elliptical has actually improved my stregth and I have run a 5K everyday with little problem (considering I have been sick I am really happy with that).

My weight is almost all the way back to where I want it to be. It has come off slow but that was always the plan. Slow and steady so that I knew I could keep it off. I have about an inch on my waist left to go. I am also only about 7 pounds away from the weight goal I set. So far I have lost 30 pounds and this time I plan on keeping it off. I am in a terrible spot with my clothes though. I don’t fit into my final goal pants and the ones I am wearing are starting to get clown-like loose. I have had to buy smaller sizes as I went down but there is no more smaller sizes. I hope I get there soon. Looking like a clown accidentally isn’t any fun. Now on purpose, that is a whole different story.