Oh, Yeah: I just remembered I have a blog. And that both of us who read it like to find interesting things here.

I figure if Homestar hasn't updated this week, nobody's going to complain that I haven't.

WoTF: Well, I finished one story. One more to go . . .

Thanks To Google I Now Know: There's a bunch of guys named Erik Peterson in the world.

And we all look like dorks.

Let Me Live Vicariously Through You: If you have the money to spare, you can go to this.

Finishing Stories: I have two stories I'm trying to finish in time to get them off for March 31st deadlines. One of them is almost done. So why the heck am I blogging?

Because I should never try to write a story without a finished outline, that's why.

Regarding Henri: This is from the Sleeping Beauty DVD special features, from an excellent short entitled "Four Artists Paint One Tree."

"The best advice I have ever given to students who have studied under me has been just this: Educate yourself. Do not let me educate you."

I'm reading from Robert Henri in response to a question often asked in letters from Art students. However they put it, it always boils down to this:

Students become confused by honest admiration for one school of painting, mixed with recognition of the success and popularity of another style, along with advice to follow a still different approach. Frequently a student will ask which one he should imitate.

Robert Henri would advise, don't imitate anyone. He says, "One of the great difficulties of an art student is to decide between his own natural impressions and what he thinks should be his impressions." And on another page, "Go forward with what you have to say, expressing things as you see them."

Time after time, in his Art spirit, Henri says, "Be yourself." --Walt Disney

I admit to being terribly guilty of this. Rather than write stories or essays from the heart, I sometimes feel I'm attempting to create something that fits what I think a short story or essay is supposed to be.

Too often, I attempt to impress rather than make an impression.

The result is stilted and awkward. It's too derivative to touch anyone else, and it's too withdrawn from who I really am to be cathartic for me.

In fact, since my goal was solely too impress, I inevitably end up feeling like a failure, whereas when I write something that pleases me, I get to enjoy it for myself, opinions of others notwithstanding.

But usually those turn out to be the peices others enjoy. My first bit of published fiction was cranked out in an hour, the result of an idea I was passionate about, of my having something to say.

(For further reading, check out Ray Bradbury's Essay "Zen in the Art of Writing," in the book by the same name.)

Out of Fairness: Okay, I have to admit I like the McGriddle. But it's purely a nostalgia, comfort food thing, as they remind me of the breakfasts on campouts when I was in Boy Scouts.

But that's not entirely a good thing.

An Apology: I just want to apologize to everybody who reads this blog for the font and font color this site has been using. Actually, for the whole look of the site. I was messing around with the template one day, learning html from this site, and just kind of left it. Then I never got around to fixing it. I still don't love it, but at least now you can read it.

The fact that some of you still read this thing shows you have great patience, and good eyesight.

It's Dreamworks's Fault: Yeah, it's been Shrekified. But I still plan to see the movie version of Ella Enchanted.

Autism: Around the time I found out my wife's brother had Autism, I heard Science Fiction author Elizabeth Moon give a wonderful talk on the subject that still shapes my thinking on the topic. I rushed out to read her fiction, but found most of it to be hard-core military cruiser space opera that didn't appeal to me. I was slightly more interested in her fantasy.

But now, it seems, she's published the kind of book I thought she would have been doing all along, and she talks about it in this month's Locus.