Writing

If I've said it once I've said it several times. I need to write more. I am writing more, but that's beside the point. Today I thought I'd talk about what exactly I'm talking about when I say "writing". Basically, I have six different writing projects over the summer.

The first should be obvious. You're looking at it. See this? This is a blog post. I wrote it. Well, I'm writing it, but from your perspective I wrote it. Blogging is probably the easiest writing to keep up because if I didn't then those who read this would get cross with me. I've got a twofold motivation for blogging that's the same as my reason for making videos obligatory plug. I like to do it and apparently other people like to see it. That's important. Nobody wants to do something when there isn't a clear indication of its worth.

My next project is also my newest. It's my first serious attempt at writing professionally. See, Ryan North, the linguistic genius behind the webcomic Dinosaur Comics, is asking once again for submissions for the next Machine of Death book. I will be writing a short story for this. People, make sure I do this.

The next part is somewhat secret but it involves collaborative script-writing and I need to get that whole deal started as well. Keep an eye out on the YouTubes.

The fourth project is also somewhat secretive. I'm basically novelizing a friend's unwritten memoirs. I expect this to take some time. Also that friend needs to bring it up more often and ze knows who ze is.

Penultimately, as I've mentioned a bit on Twitter, I'm going to participate in JulNoWriMo this year. The only timed writing project I've ever done was the 24 Hour Comic and I've never written a full novel, so this should be challenging. I'm hoping I win. Seeing as I already have a vague premise (superpowered private school adventure romance) and quite a few ideas, I'm hoping this goes well.

The last writing project is not a project per say. I want to continue any writing "for fun" stuff I already have and any vague ideas that pop in my head- Songwriting, Flashes (more on that later) and anything else that strikes my fancy.

So what about you, Minutaur Bloggy People Read Havers? What kind of crazy business are you getting into this summer?

Transitions, Paper Towns and the Meaning of Life

Blog posts, eh? Those are always nice, I suppose. I should probably write some more of those.

My life is, as it seems to always be, in a state of transition. There are many projects on the horizon: Internet Prom this Saturday, JulNoWriMo (more on that later) and secret series #MB, to name a few. In addition, everything I am personally involved in right now- volunteering at my old high school to get hours for the College of Ed; going through the application and interview process for jobs; even trying to become a YouTube Partner (here's the obligatory plug) is just another step toward the future.

It's like the excellent John Green novel, Paper Towns. If you haven't read it, I won't spoil it, but it's an excellent book and I highly recommend it for anyone. There's a link to get it at the bottom of the post but whatever you do makes no difference to me and I digress. One of the themes of the book is that everything is just preparation for the future. Even when no ideal end is in sight, no point where we think we've the perfect life, we live to survive so that, in the end, we can say our lives had any meaning in the first place.

It makes me think about what I said in this video. Life doesn't really have a singular purpose. That's why the question of the meaning of life often has vague answers like "other people" or "love" or some appeal to theology. Looking at the grand perspective, the majority of our lives will be about "nothing" in the figurative sense. I'm not trying to preach nihilism here. Just because life doesn't have a specific point does not mean life is pointless, worthless or otherwise not worth living. It's just that, like a lot of things, life is not simple enough to be summed up in easy terms.

To kind of try and bring the whole post into a tidy summary, I'd like to use that overused Lennon quote-"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans." So these transitional periods are much more real than some imagined future. After all, as is said in another John Green book, to imagine the future is a type of nostalgia. It's not life. You're not waiting to "get a life" because you've already got one and this is it.

I'm not sure what my point is. Maybe it's that preparation is essentially no different than execution. Maybe I just wanted to get all existential today. Either way, I hope it made some sense.

Take Two

This has been an unexpected ordeal.
Through a series of unfortunate events involving glitchy Blogger servers and a squatting troll, I have had to get an entirely new blog. This one, in case you didn't notice, in which case I'm sure you'll catch on to the whole blogging thing eventually. Don't worry about it.
My first blog post was deleted and my old blog was replaced with mean-spirited, almost nonsensical douchebaggery. Here are some of the things you may have missed from my lost post:

• My name is Jon Garcia. Hi. Let's be friends.
• My main Internetular outlet is The Minute Vlog on YouTube, from which you can find my other online interactions I'm sure.
• I'm a vegetarian. No, I won't rub it in your face. No, I don't count calling meat "dead things" as rubbing it in your face.
• I'm a feminist. Yes, I am a male, as my name seems to indicate, but feminism is about more than just cis women. More on that later.
• More and more I'm becoming an activist. Anti-racism, anti-ableist, progressive government and all-around kyriarchy-is-bad, that's me.
• I have the invisible disabilities of Major Depression, Sensory Integration Disorder and high functioning autism. More on that later too, probably. Feel free to ask about it.
• I'm a college student. English major and history minor, both for education and yes I realize the irony of this fragmented explanatory sentence.

Hello again. Nice bullets, eh? In light of recent events, I should also point out that despite the nationalities of some of my ancestors, despite my ethnicity and what I call my grandparents and my last name, I do not speak Spanish. English, obviously. A little French even. But no Spanish.
Now that that's through I think I'm done for now. Oy vei.