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Chuck Palahniuk - Rant

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 19 October 2022

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I'm not a fan, particularly, of his style of writing, and this took a bit of getting into, but there's some intriguing ideas in it well tied together. He's a feverish imagination, and he grooms you to accept his fantastical narrative by providing you numerous rabbit holes (conspiracies, forteana, etc) to research and verify first. 

I can see why he has a cult following. Good. 

The Dentist

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 13 October 2022

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I'd almost forgotten, missed it, but - an appointment with the dentist. A cleaning, long, long overdue.

How bad can it be, given everything else I've been through?

Pretty fucking bad. 2 Hours in the chair, alternately clutching my fists, the water jets, high pitched whine, vibration, not so much pain as immense discomfort. Little flashes of pain, where the water travels up a nerve or hits something just right. After an hour of this I'm done, but she isn't. Now for the manual tooth-scraping of plaque, build-up, tarter, and this for another hour, and I'm so done, past done, it's exhausting this, hours of edge-of-your seat discomfort, brightened only by the "I knew it" flashes of pain, fucking hell, she's battling every surviving tooth in my mouth. At the two-hour mark my time is up, she estimates another hour to go - fucking bloody hell, then brightly suggests an appointment the next day - and it's "NONONO", I need fucking time to recover, go home, watch "Marathon Man" and "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Brazil", realize how lucky I have it, only, only, I'm not feeling so lucky...

Thanksgiving, The End of Sentence

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 13 October 2022

Hits: 736

Sunday, thumb out, get a ride from an American in a working vehicle who takes me right to works door.

Early. Not even 10:00. It says something about the area when hitchhiking is a more reliable form of transport than driving.

Well, maybe it says something about what I drive as well...

Anyways, homeless girl, still in her car on the ferry landing - what, 3 weeks now?

The day spent cleaning, organizing the cooler. The kitchen cooks up the last of the chicken wings and dry ribs, drop them off to homeless and she's grateful. 

I'm surprised, I'd tried a few, they were - to put it generously, disgusting, but even disgusting tastes good if you're hungry enough.

Work wraps around 3:30, all cleaning is done. Or as much as is going to be done. 

Now, thumb out to get back to Nelson, but, what's the rush? I've no dinner waiting for me and so I offer homeless, hungry, dinner, if she'll drive. 

Unsurprisingly she's down. Only - only - her car won't start. Battery is dead. And so after another hour of fucking around and her apologizing for the state of her car/home (and - she doesn't understand - but she's apologizing to me - TO ME! which is hilarious, if she'd ever looked into my jeep....).

Eventually we make it. Dinner, glass of wine, light conversation as to her circumstances, books, films. Her taste in books, not so good, largely salvaged from the free piles, but she proves surprisingly film literate, and so we compare notes on a few favorites.

You can tell, she's glad to get out of her head. I know the feeling, it's not always a welcoming place.

She has advice about housing as well, to get into stepping-stones, they'll move me into the North-Shore Inn, cheap rent...

This is not an option, but it is good to know there are resources. 

And my good deed done I buy her a mickey, me a mickey, pay for gas and that's the end of the restaurant, the end of our date, probably I should have invited her back to the jeep, only it's a mess, and, really, there's a special hell for those that prey on vulnerable women and so now it's back to the real world of 100 things too long postponed and overlooked. The winter should be busy.