Tim Donlan

Blackout

The mist behind the tires bleeds taillights into asphalt, a million man queue stretching off into the highway dark. Reds and greens melt in timelapsed exposure, testament to the very lines that slowed me, dazed and awaiting the open road.

Spam...gone critical...

From: Della To: timcrain@gmail.com Date: Jan 14, 2006 9:52 AM Subject: Lavern avow@gmail.com> citadel bimonthly bloodroot airline antarctica admissible antiphonal diameter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim Donlan to DellaWhat is the purpose of your retarded email? Are you trying to sell me something? What does it all mean?

Why I hate James Frey

…and what that his scam-artist scheme means for literature. In case you haven’t tuned into the controversy, I’ll fill you in, but I’m not going to play journalist. James Frey, an ex-junkie, wrote a book called Million Little Pieces. He tried to publish it as fiction and

Link Roundup 2K6 1.0

–What’s your dangerous idea? [http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_index.html] Lots of top thinkers and scientist give shout outs to their fears and premonitions. There are far too many to go into detail about them all, but lots of the highlights involve the failings of science, of

December Skies (Update)

Chapter Nine is up, which I literally finished with a cup of tea by candlelight.

Best Of

Top Releases from 2005, listed in order of hours listened. Mars Volta – Frances the Mute. As explained here [http://www.daydalus.net/blog/?postid=50], along with Deloused, an obsession during the late summer stoner months. L’via l’viaquez is the essential psychadelic cuban rockout, and Cassanda Geminni ascends

The Short List (Link Roundup)

–Crash [http://imdb.com/title/tt0375679/]. Manipulative and engineered to illicit a heart-felt reaction. Anguished slow-mo screaming at the sky to an ambient moantrack makes me want to do the same. Few lessons. Guns destroy people quickly and carelessly. Automobiles can do the same. Pride trumps violence. Amores Perros [http:

Strange Dreams

The first thing I remember is my house from senior year college, a tidy white three room in Home Park. However, it’s now been transformed into the last house on the left, complete with brown, rotting wood, broken windows, crooked towers of shingles and brick. Inside the floor is

In praise of Slate

I would be willing to bet that the all the Link Roundup’s I’ve done have contained at least one link to Slate Magazine [http://www.slate.com/]. There’s a reason for that. It’s a top-notch internet site. I used to read Salon and NY Times editorial

Neu Shtuff Buddy Bro

Put up Chapter Six [http://www.daydalus.net/book2k5/index.php?filename=ch6.txt] and a Cast of Characters [http://www.daydalus.net/book2k5/index.php?filename=Characters.txt] page. Enjoi!

Link Roundup

– Slate’s College Week [http://www.slate.com/id/2130141/]. Ah nostalgia for the good old days. Almost brings a tear to my eye. There are some excellent write-ups here, especially the suggestions on how to improve undergraduate education (given a magic wand) [http://www.slate.com/id/2130322/]. I

Immortality

“The woman might have been sixty or sixty-five,” begins Milan Kundera, in his 1990 novel Immortality. He describes the stranger, being taught to swim by a young lifeguard. As she leaves, she turns, smiles and waves to her instructor. Kundera says, “At that instant I felt a pang in my

It's past my bedtime

I’m listening to Tiesto for perhaps the seventh time this week, and I’ve spent the last three hours scribbling indecipherably in a composition notebook. And I feel that’s where I should be. I’m breaking all the NaNo rules that I tested last year, so I thought

Link Roundup (I have Returned)

So I’m back, listening to Sufjan Stevens and watching ASCII Starwars (telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl). Or being blasted by the syrupy cacophony of My Bloody Valentine. Needless to say, nine hundred thirty one megabytes of new music (courtesy of Pirate Extraordinaire Apu) makes this week in return new and

Aimless, Intoxicated, and Waiting

On the utmost verge of necessity, do you ever dive into the dense clouds of irresponsibility? Tonight, that should be my motto. I’m doing it all wrong. I’m attempting to mark off the checklist of requirements backwards, with the not-so-subtle aid of a six pack. What is with

I'll tell you tales you won't believe

A lot of times, when I’m supremely drunk I’ll load up my mp3 of BT’s Lullaby for Gaia before I go to bed. It’s somewhat of a “gay” song, but only if you’re a hardcore ACDC NASCAR Fan. For me, the lyrics are perfectly appropriate

I slay deadlines

Yea this was done yesterday, but I was trying to put together a display page for the book so far. Which seemed kind of lame since I don’t have a title yet. Help me think of one. http://www.daydalus.net/book2k5/ Yes, Chapter Two resides two clicks deep,

Insomniac Linkage

Sometimes I write with a pencil by candlelight Othertimes I work in digital sweatshops I read old-hat editorials that are probably true And wait for times to change “May you live in interesting times” Indeed

If only for its stark contrast

and the bleak speed metaphor it invokes, I feel obliged to submit:

A beginning?

I pulled through, got lucky (Sunday was relatively distraction-free), and finished up Chapter One [http://www.daydalus.net/book2k5/Ch1.html]. I’ll probably be putting together a splash page that lists all the completed chapters, and maybe a few extras. The rest of October I’ll probably just do

Link Roundup

I’m usually resigned to throw up these entries: they mean I’m too busy/lazy/drunk to give each subject the thought-filled entry it deserves. But usually the tangential ideas I have to accompany said link dissipate when the chaos of modern living interferes. Alas. –Speech Al Gore [http:

NaNo Reloaded

This fall I’m going to once again forsake my pride (and laziness) and try to be a novelist. I’m going to do it a bit differently this year. Instead of subscribing to the strict regimen of daily word bursts, striving merely for a word count, I’m going

Smart White Guys + Personal PR

There’s a decent discussion on Plastic [http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=05/09/25/04062507;cmt=84] about a newly released list of the 100 most influential intellectuals [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3249]. Readers were asked to select their top 5. Here

Ever catch yourself...

…in the far left lane, with the music too loud and your head wrapped around a thought, creeping past ninety five? The engine is smooth enough the vehicle doesn’t vibrate, so you stroll past the neighboring cars, oblivous to your own reckless endangerment. That’s been me for a

When I was a child

I caught a fleeting glimpse, Out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now. The child is grown, the dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb.