the battery on my motorcycle is dead. completely. i've ordered a new one, but this hasn't stopped me from riding it in the meantime. i have to put a hairdryer to the carb before i kick it over, and i've had to adjust the idle mixture up so that it revs at 2k rather than 1.2, otherwise the draw from the headlight stalls it out at stoplights. despite it all, i love that machine.

#

i've landed a paying freelance writing gig composing "hip" and occasionally "edgy" tech content for a canadian men's magazine which shall remain nameless. i am not proud of this. e has pointed out that she thinks it strange that i find this gig embarrassing and yet had no qualms working for pornographers in holland. i tried to explain that i had no problem with sleazy, just tacky. still, i am not too proud to take their money.

#

work on my novel has been proceeding apace. by "apace" i mean "as fast as can reasonably accepted" rather than "as fast as i had hoped." at the peak of my optimism, i had thought that i might be done a first draft by now. that is very much not the case, but the end is in sight, which is a lot more than i could say six months ago. i have had some doubts about the literary worth of the piece over these last few months, but fortunately that is not enough to dissuade me. i have reached the point where i realise that it is much better to have a finished shitty novel than it is to have two chapters of the great american etc.

#

i have seen about half an oodle of movies in the last three months. of them the gay cowboy movie was by far the best. the darjeeling unlimited is probably second, but it's well out of trebuchet range.

i still haven't gotten to the books that some husians sent me while i was in holland because i am in the process of simultaneously reading everything by michael chabon and rereading everything by stanislaw lem. i promise i will get to them eventually.

#

i guess that's all for now. salud.