While our lives are filled with daily decisions to make, none are more substantial than the lifechanger. As you may have guessed, this is the type of decision where if you choose wisely, you will prosper for many years to come, if not for the rest of your life.

I say this now because this afternoon, I will be staring down a potential lifechanger. While I cannot go into details, this opportunity has the ability to open many doors for me to the next level. It’s exciting to have the chance, and I am optimistic that things will go well, as long as I focus on being myself and what the shared goals are.

But you have to believe it can happen. This is what life is all about. Being right here in my shoes about to tempt fate and destiny all at once. You have to love it. Cross your fingers for me.

I was reading about how the new Tool album ‘10,000 Days‘ has been leaked to the Internet yesterday, well ahead of its scheduled May 2 release. While I’m tempted to go in search of this free advance copy, I’ll resist and wait for the final piece. Sure, I have all 4 of the previous Tool albums, but I’ve enjoyed the music (except maybe that first EP) and out of respect, I wouldn’t feel the need to cheat them, even if the music industry does get a sizable portion of the proceeds.

Anyway, I was wondering what the significance the number 10,000 had, and Wikipedia shed a little light on exactly how many potential meanings there were. When I imagined it, 10,000 days seemed like a pretty long time. Yet, maybe it wasn’t. So, for shits and giggles, I decided to see how many days I’ve lived, and found that number to be 11,058. Ouch. I think I’ll stick with 30 years.

Of course, it was only natural Sahmthought to wonder what percentage of those 11,058 days have been good, or which ones would be considered my top ten best days. Despite a score of bad life decisions, I’ve had my fair share of luck and minor success. So I’d gather on the whole, my percentage is higher than most. Maybe I’m being optimistic?

The greater question is: will that percentage improve over the next 10,000 days? Will yours? Or will it decline like the shooting percentage of an aging NBA superstar?

That, my friends, is entirely self-determined. Nevertheless, I’m fairly certain that when Tool’s new album does finally debut, that day will be a good one. Cheers.

Setting a quick Easter theme in play, I can express what I’m feeling and thinking right now. I’m recalling how back in the days of my childhood, I’d get those giant chocolate bunnies every Easter. These bunnies would get promptly wrapped in aluminum foil and tossed in the freezer. Then every night for the next two weeks, I’d spend fifteen minutes a night gnawing at that frozen hunk of sugar laced cocoa, getting as much of a treat as I could before relenting.

Nowadays, the chocolate bunies that the kids receive at Easter are hollow inside, as compared to when I was a kid, the bunnies were solid through. I understand it from the chocolate maker’s standpoint since they’re just selling the festive shape itself instead of the actual ounces of chocolate. But it seems like a real letdown from the days of my childhood.

As I stretch this example a little further, it explains my creative output over the last week. I have become the chocolate maker— my in-progress 2nd novel is the classic bunny. It is the treat which satisfies more, but it does not make as much money (if any at all!). However, about twelve days again, I had the opportunity to create a current day chocolate bunny— a website design project. This bunny has made me a nice commission, my first in that area. Yet since the site was not really my own, it was not as satisfying as working on my novel.

The role I’m accepting is that sometimes I can no longer be the child in such an equation. Sometimes you have to be the chocolate maker and realize that in order for your business (or life in my case) to survive, you have to do what is more productive, instead of enjoyable.

Yes, as you may have guessed, coupled with the Easter weekend away from home, this is basically my excuse for having written a whopping zero words this week on the quota. It happens, tough decisions are always in the balance. I’ll get it back. But at least I have a little bit more corporate sponsorship while I’m busy making solid bunnies again— that I didn’t have before. So it’s all good in the end. Cheers.

Stephen King wrote in his book ‘On Writing’ that he has a daily 2,000 word quota. Which is nice if you’re home every day! 14,000 words a week sounds stellar, but in reality such an amount would be exhausting if not totally improbable for me to do.

My quota for my first novel was 4000 words per week. It worked out well for the most part, with some bad weeks mixed in with a 10,000 week of vacation and a 7500 final week.

Since I have more experience under my belt, I decided to raise it to 5000 wpw for my second novel. On top of a full time job, I felt that was an entirely feasible amount. Sure, I could probably do more if I was really desperate to finish. But (a) I’m a medium paced writer and (b) that would most likely lead to burnout.

As it turns out, I’m at 25,000 words right now, but am 8,000 words behind the pace (because of a few bad weeks). So it looks like sometime in the next two months, I’m going to have to pull that 14,000 word week out of my ass, if I am to finish by my goal date of June 6.

Reality is without a sense of irony, eh?

Looking for a nice glossy 9×12″ photo to hang above the toilet in the spare bathroom? Of course you are!

That’s why we’ve fulfilled your wishes by offering original Magic Junk photos and images as prints, now available through the artist community deviantArt and their high-tech printing service. Yes, try to contain yourself. Find the links below:

Portal • To Enter The Turret • Spring From Within • Philosophers • Plastic Tongues

We promise to make even more photos and art prints available soon. It’s another part of Magic Junk’s multifaceted creativity, filtering into the atmosphere… one molecule at a time. Like laughing gas. Take a deeeeeeeeeep breath.

Thank you for reading. Cheers.