Jason Rimbaud
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Blog Comments posted by Jason Rimbaud
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You should've read the first draft I did of this Blog. Something is going on in my old age, I'm getting more X-rated in my writing than ever before.
J
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1 hour ago, Cole Parker said:
Jason:
A new restaurant! Exciting! Is it a full-menu restaurant or another hot wings place? I never heard how successful that was. Is that still running?
You must have had a lot of time on your hands to write that much this years.
C
Stephen King is quoted as saying, "I try to write six pages a day, polished." Or something like that. So instead of trying to hit a certain page goal, I hit a time goal. I try to write four hours a day.
Which takes me to your next question. Last year we opened a delivery only hot wing concept in a cloud kitchen space. I learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, and realized the rent they were charging made it almost impossible to turn a profit. And we built up a quite a following and had several profitable months. But once our contract at the space was nearing its end, we realized we could get a 1200 square foot space for a third of the rent we were paying for a 200 square foot kitchen. So we closed our delivery only concept and choose to open another concept, still focusing on Hot Wings but expanding the menu to make it more lunch friendly as we are in the heart of San Francisco surrounded by office workers looking for a more healthy alternative for lunch. So we will have salads, sandwiches, and of course Hot Wings.
And to your point of having time, I was at the restaurant for thirteen hours every day. And during the time between 2pm and 6pm, I wouldn't get any orders. So instead of just sitting on my hands, I would use that time to write. Spending four hours a day, seven days a week, even a bad writer such as myself can put a lot of words on the paper. All of the stories I've mentioned above, I had extensive notes, ideas, entire scenes written over the last twenty years, so once I sat down, it came rather easily.
And as you well know, I had been out of writing for a long time, so I knew the first few stories were going to be bad as I got back in the habit. I think my craft has grown tremendously over the last year by sheer volume alone. But each of these stories would be needing heavy re-writes.
J
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On 8/28/2022 at 7:01 AM, Merkin said:
it's great to read of your successful transition from Pennsylvania backwoods boy to Wing-Man to the rich and famous, Jason. I’ve followed your ups and downs over the years and you are more than deserving of a happy ending.
BTW, where was that crummy tavern in PA? There's a slight chance I drank soapy draft and ate pickled eggs and phony cutlets bellied up to its bar many long years ago.My haunts were Stallions, it was a three level nightclub/bar in downtown Harrisburg. Brownstone was a great neighborhood bar, great go go boys and underwear night. 704 was a video lounge. Though this was all twenty odd years ago so who knows when you might have frequented Harrisburg.
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4 hours ago, Merkin said:
BTW, where was that crummy tavern in PA? There's a slight chance I drank soapy draft and ate pickled eggs and phony cutlets bellied up to its bar many long years ago.
It was in a small town call Fredericksburg, Pa, the name of the place, Donna's Fredericksburg Hotel. It was a local bar that served bar food. I had a lot of good times in that place.
Fredericksburg Eagle Hotel Here is the current version of where I use to work. Wow, a lot of things have changed. Its more of a biker bar now. But this brings back memories I'd rather forget.
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The Saga of the Wings I'm sure will be mostly what I ramble on about for the next while. Well, wings and underwear.
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The full of piss and vinegar comment, is that in reference that I'm so old I have to wear adult diapers?
J
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I'm married so I actually have no say in anything that happens in my house. The only solace I get is in the kitchen. That's my domain and mine alone, unless you count Chit and Chat dogging me at all times. But I digress. I get to decorate and purchase anything I want for the kitchen. Makes you wonder why I'm over a healthy weight now, its the only time I get any respite. Thank you Cole. And dogs suck a bit less than cats.
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Sometimes look back at my old stuff and cringe, what a mess I was. But then I'm still a mess now. Just a different type of mess. Anyway, is a bit quieter than it was before but I only recently came back myself. I dipped my toe in once in a while but life has been crazy but in a sane way so there is not much to talk about.
J
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I haven’t mentioned my husband? That’s weird...oh well. I’m married. It’s been one year June 22nd and I couldn’t be happier.
j
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7 hours ago, Camy said:
A difficult call. On the on hand their behaviour is outrageous - both the assistant you dealt with, and designing a user interface with a white on white button. On the other hand they're trying to raise money for charity. Hmm. In the UK we have the 'Trading Standards' a governmental authority. They might give them a slap on the wrist and a fine... or not.
I'd write to the CEO, and use social media to embarrass them into putting a clearly visible 'opt out' button on the screen.
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Where's your Halloween Story, Jason? Post it, do! Like James has, in the Flash Fiction forum. Go on... We're waiting....
Not sure where the story is, I sent it in but I guess it was too late to be included in the Halloween posting. And since I haven't posted a new story in years, I don't know if they will make the next round of story posts and I should just wait my turn, or if it will never be posted. But I'll wait for a few days/weeks, and if nothing happens I'll probably post it in my blog if nothing else.
19 hours ago, Trab said:I don't mind donating a little bit once in a while, but usually they just ask, if they ask at all, if they can round up to the next dollar. More often than not, you can tear off a little donation sticker that they ring through the register. I've never been hit up as you were with the RENs Rafter place.
That said, I get asked all the time when I LIKE a charity on FB. Do you want to donate $384, $279, $117, or other? None, but I immediately wonder who these people might be who would donate hundreds of dollars!
I'm not usually a charitable person, truthfully, so it always blows my mind when people do. I'm not that good a person I guess.
33 minutes ago, Cole Parker said:I haven't run across any scams like that. I'd guess most merchants are happy for your business and don't want to give you reasons to take your trade elsewhere.
I tip well over 15%, but that's because I like a waitress or waiter and the service they provide, not because I feel charitable. The last contribution I gave was to Wikipedia. I use that service frequently and think it's only right that people that use a service pay a little. Sort of like AwesomeDude; people who come here more than once or twice to read stories should pay for the entertainment they're getting. Fair's fair.
I guess, Jason, you could have told the lady, "Look, I think this is a worthwhile cause, but you seem to be taking delight in my frustration here. So, tell you what, I'll donate five dollars if you'll do the same. No reason I should be the only sucker here. Let's do this: you give me $5 and I'll click the $10 box."
Would have been educational to see her response.
C
Cole, you are the more creative one between us, saying that to her would never have crossed my mind. I was really pretty disgusted by the sheer nature of that scam that I was almost speechless. Though it bothered me enough that I'm still talking about it two weeks later.
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(but not nearly as long as Jason's)
My dear Emu, what are you referring too? What isn't nearly as long as mine? Hm
Jason ®️
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Cole, are you sure about that "injection"? When I get injected, my shoulder never hurts. I'm just saying.
Jason®️
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On 4/27/2019 at 5:06 AM, Trab said:
Interesting read, and obviously well thought out, and introspected.
My take, from an asocial, autistic spectrum, romantic gay asexual is there isn't a gay community at all, at least anywhere that I can notice. I think of a community as a group who strive towards a support or betterment of its members, and anything else is just a cluster of individuals. My example, which may well be biased by my own experiences, would be sports oriented. You have the rah rah sis boom bah supporters of a particular club, and they wear uniform costumes, fly banners, cheer together, and drink in bars or just neighbourhood game parties. NOT a community. Then you have the kids and parents and other individuals who start a league, recruit members, arrange for coaching, develop an honor system, purchase equipment and venues. TOTALLY a community.
So where do we find a gay community? We find them where there are people working to save gay lives, literally and emotionally. GSAs, and online groups finding and distributing resources. All those bar scenes, and, in my view, many pride events (rah rah sis boom bah), and many neighbourhoods are just clusters of gay people.
It doesn't bother me, much, except I dislike the self deception so many enjoy in thinking that just being in a cluster makes them a member of a community. If the chips are down, and you need help, will those others help you? In a community they will. Judge carefully. Your wellbeing may depend on it.
I agree Traub, many people live in clusters as oppossed to communities. Maybe by choice and maybe by pressure they feel to act and behave a certain way.
On 4/27/2019 at 9:34 AM, Cole Parker said:I tend to agree with everything you've written, Jason. People are complex. You can't define them with any single word. Yet there seems to be a need to be able to do that. Call someone a liberal and it's thought you have defined them. Or a redneck—call someone that and all aspects of him seem to have been covered. And of course that isn't true. It might define one little bit of him, but not the whole. Humans are too complicated to be fully described by a word or phrase.
I'm not even sure we'd all define 'gay' the same way. There's an obvious definition, being interested in having sex with your same gender, but as you say, that's only a small part of it.
I might quibble with this statement you wrote: I have found in my travels, the “gay community at large” are shallow, promiscuous, addicts, that are too self absorbed to be good friends much less good human beings.
Some gay people are certainly that way, but I'd never define the gay community that way. Just look at the denizens who frequent our AD forum. I doubt that definition fits any of them. So does that mean they're not part of the 'gay community'?
The gay community you describe in that way might be the ones who spend a whole lot of time in gay clubs for the sole purpose of hooking up and getting wasted. That certainly doesn't fit with my view of the gay lifestyle. I'd use that term to describe a married gay couple raising a family and part of the community they live in that's comprised of families of all kinds. To me, that's the ideal.
C
That is why I put "gay community at large" in parenthesis, its the perception most would describe if you asked them what gay community means. And I wanted to try and get my thoughts and my own sense of discovery as I struggled to find meaning in my life and why I don't tend to live in that world.
On 4/28/2019 at 3:46 AM, colinian said:I've never felt a need to bond with or congregate with a (note: not the) "gay community." Doug and I have a lot of friends. My guess is they are 80% to 90% straight. And I am counting the "lesbians" (who self-describe as gay) and my brother and his boyfriend in the non-straight side of the percentages. I'm not denigrating those who want to so bond or congregate; it's just that we and our gay friends don't.
Colin
Which gives me hope that young gays aren't as stupid as I was at their age. You always seemed smarter than the average person to me Colin.
Thank to everyone that commented, you are all amazing.
J
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Sadly, I'm a kid thats big in the belly....
J
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Seriously, Camy's definition of shortly is massively skewed
J
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9 hours ago, Trab said:
I usually watch the news on a local station that is independently owned (by the staff). It is mostly NOT biased, and provides good local (within a hundred miles) news coverage, without the editorializing you get elsewhere. Much of it is information you cannot find (readily, if at all) online. Network news sucks.
I so agree with you, except I can't stand the local anchors in San Francisco, a bunch of hype for pictures of dogs crossing the street. So boring.
4 hours ago, Cole Parker said:I get the LA Times, both the paper and electronic versions, and news from other online sources. I haven't watched network news in years. It's more advertising than news, and here at least is more in depth with car chases and violent crimes than anything else. If it bleeds, it leads is more than just a slogan here. It's reality.
C
I haven't read a physical newspaper in years, though I do read online. I never thought I would be the one to stop reading physical books either, but damn do I love my kindle.
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4 hours ago, Merkin said:
These are two great sets of comment on writing, and taken together they are almost a complete manual on how to move a manuscript from start to finish. For me, these suggestions boil down to attitude and persistence: a writer has got to believe in what he is writing about, and he has to try many routes to get to the end he has had in sight from the start. Thanks, Jason and Cole, for taking the time and making the effort to explain how the process works for you.
I do agree with you Merkin, persistence is key in writing and a never give up attitude.
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14 hours ago, Cole Parker said:
Jason:
I have a couple of comments that work for me. You're a better writer than I am, but I've now written 100 stories in the 13+ years I've been writing and so have learned a couple of important things that impact on you discussion here.
Without being presumptuous, let me say, first and foremost, you need to have a reason to start a story, something you want to say. If you abandoned a story several chapters in because you'd stopped getting mail, you started writing it for the wrong reason. Writing for the purpose of getting your ego stroked doesn't work. It has to be to scratch an itch you have, to expose a problem or illuminate something that needs the light or for some other personal reason, and definitely not simply to curry flattery from others..
Second, you need to have an end in sight when you start. If you don't, you'll do as you suggest—just ramble. With an end predetermined, you have a target, a goal to write toward. That'll keep the story focused and give it forward momentum. A story, especially a long one, desperately needs that.
And third, writer's block. I have an answer to that, at least one that works for me. I get that with many stories I write, and have found a way to obviate it. It's simple. We stop writing because where we are in a story is difficult or frustrating of depressing or whatever. It's no fun to write any more and so you find reasons not to. Ideas dry up. You're blocked. There is an answer: go to another part of the story you know is still ahead, something you have ideas about and are looking forward to writing, and start again there. Suddenly, no more block. Suddenly you're writing something you want to write and the words flow again.
The great thing about this is, by doing this, the place that stopped you becomes easier to engage with again because now, you only have to get from there to where you've already progressed. And you'll find it's no longer so difficult to do that.
I really can't speak for anyone else, but these are points I've learned by doing.
C
I'm going to have to call bullshit on your comment Cole, I'm not even talented enough to hold your instrument when in comes down to writing talent. You are one of the most talented and prolific author on this site. And the king of angst. 🙂
That is why its fascinating to get a glimpse into your process. I think lots of writers can learn from your insight. So thank you for sharing with us.
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I remember the first time I was lying in bed and sneezed and couldn't walk for two days cause I sneezed my back out. ?
Technology is an amazing thing. At least you can still explore, and have the tools to keep yourself completely safe while doing it. As for saving the motorcycle guy, you are his hero.
Look at you, giving me sage advice all those years ago and now saving wayward humans in the dessert. I can see why you are at least happy.
J
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2 hours ago, Trab said:
PS, it's "since", not "sense". ROFLMAO at myself. I can't help it, being an aspie. I tried to not do it, but after a lot of agonizing, I came back to 'fix' it for you.
Hahah, how did I know you would have caught that! I'm glad you got that out of your system Mr. Bart. It's quite nice to hear that you are doing great, I've wondered often about you. Cheers
2 hours ago, Cole Parker said:Bart! Amazing! Hope you stay awhile.
C
Truth
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I've been reading over these Blog entries and I agree with you Cole, so long I wasn't happy and didn't have a clue who I was. The last four years have been some of the best years of my life and I'm happy I'm still around too. Thanks for always being around to offer a kind word or encouragement. You are amazing Mr. Cole.
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13 hours ago, Cole Parker said:
If for some reason restaurateur doesn't work out, you have a future writing film critiques!
C
I've often thought about it, I do like watching movies and writing useless letters linking into words dragging into boring sentences.
J
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21 hours ago, ChrisR said:
Wouldn't that make him a Rooster Wing?
Hahaha. I'll let him know you called him that not me.
J
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TGI Friday's & A Broken Nose
in Somewhere In Between
A blog by Jason Rimbaud in General
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Thats because you're not old!!!!
J