Introduction

This blog is the online representative of my writing throughout the 1990s. Fortunately or unfortunately, I do not write like this anymore. I intended to publish the zaniest bits in a book entitled Utter Weirdness. There will be no such book written by the current me.


For a good portion of the nineties, I was socially awkward--weird. I guess the term "weird" is still somewhat of a compliment for teenagers. Instead of interacting with people awkwardly, I chose to compose weird pieces of writing. However, it's not the same writing as one would find in Weird Tales. Writing, college, and my first teaching job helped me overcome my sense of being weird. The transition was kind of like this: shy guy to immature prankster to goofy reactionary to apparently less weird.


After a lot of self-reflection and analysis, I believe I was actually quite normal. I was just behind in social development, and I believe I'm somewhat in the "normal" range. I can be weird if I want to be, but I'm not constantly in a state of weirdness like I thought I was for the last decade of the 20th Century.


So here it is, the utterly weird writing of Jeremy, 1990-2000. If you prefer not to read in this random order, use the labels to read by genre or time period (high school, college, first teaching job).

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Henry Timble, the Man of the Streets, on the Streets, for the Streets, and from the Streets

Hellow! I’m Henry Timble and I will tell you about the 99 easy steps to a simple, more satisfying life. Let’s follow these steps in numerical order, OK?

Step #1 – Get plenty of shut-eye.
Step #2 – Read to children daily. They don’t have to be York’s children.
Step #3 – Pick up a heavy stick and then lay it down gently on the back of an old woman.
Step #4 – Call yourself a “winner.”
Step #5 – Organize your socks and beans in the same chromatic order.
Step #6 – Return all your juicers, mixers, or blenders to their rightful owners.
Step #7 – Arrest a new hobby.
Step #8 – Don’t dawdle when you can smolder.
Step #9 – Collect hickory for later usage.
Step #10 – Address your authority more dignifyingly.
Step #11 – Praise those who actually should be praising you.
Step #12 – Remove fear from your dreams.
Step #13 – Tackle the newest magazine on the shelf.
Step #14 – Sip lemonade more gently.
Step #15 – Stop taking breathers when you could be encouraging smokers to quit.
Step #16 – Begin something you have never thought of before.
Step #17 – Categorize your local library willfully.
Step #18 – Salute not only your national flag, but also your local and state ones as well.
Step #19 – Think things through the tube.
Step #20 – Magnify monarch butterflies on to the white wall.
Step #21 – Roast beef.
Step #22 – Stay away from unwanted mushrooms.
Step #23 – Frighten dragons that stay in caves.
Step #24 – Quit your night-job to get more free time.
Step #25 – Zero in on the moments that are most remembered.
Step #26 – File lost paper.
Step #27 - ♥
Step #28 – Gather his lost millions.
Step #29 – Bundle a piece of wood into more.
Step #30 – Distribute hugs evenly.
Step #31 – Moisten the brink of destruction.
Step #32 – Soft-shoe shuffle your way into delight.
Step #33 – Stick stickers to sticks.
Step #34 – Loop laces around eyeholes.
Step #35 – Giggle humungously.
Step #36 – Bewitch whatever lies beneath you.
Step #37 – Grate high-grade cheese into a small bowl.
Step #38 – Garnish a primrose path.
Step #39 – Lasso in a few more cattle for the rodeo show.
Step #40 – Cringe when danger approaches.
Step #41 – Muffle the buffer.
Step #42 – Wring rags of excess bath water.
Step #43 – Place things straight and evenly for optical pleasure.
Step #44 – Ring around the rosy without pockets full of posies.
Step #45 – Hang chewed lemon gum from your bottom lip.
Step #46 – Ride around in a dune buggy.
Step #47 – Tell all the people that you are made to suit them.
Step #48 – Spill camouflage emptiness upon the stream of consciousness.
Step #49 – Weigh the ineptitudes of everyone’s spouse.
Step #50 – Just do it better.
Step #51 – Yank the noodle candy.
Step #52 – Climb the effervescent ladder of successful destiny.
Step #53 – Rake in thousands of leaves.
Step #54 – Hound a pound of brown bread.
Step #55 – Decorate a lot of trees with international smiles.
Step #56 – Fund a local charity for as long as you like.
Step #57 – Liquidate every furniture store in the city.
Step #58 – Nullify the statements previously uttered by yourself.
Step #59 – Pop a few more kernels of corn.
Step #60 – Circumscribe all authority that carry arms.
Step #61 – Vindicate all your mother’s uncles.
Step #62 – Stop looking at me.
Step #63 – Abolish a tax concerning general welfare of the public.
Step #64 – Thrash a bore until the lions roar.
Step #65 – Pop another wheelie to impress the neighborhood kiddies.
Step #66 – Never miss a beat.
Step #67 – Rhyme to a different drummer.
Step #68 – Hop into a brand new Cadillac.
Step #69 – Quote Copernicus in bed.
Step #70 – Sift out the bits of iron in your breakfast cereal.
Step #71 – Choose a ruse.
Step #72 – Shower your friends with gifts of a different color.
Step #73 – Cherish an item found in the gutter.
Step #74 – Repeat steps #8 to #12 in reverse order.
Step #75 – Vocalize your innermost thoughts to your outermost thoughts.
Step #76 – Pour water to the very top of the glass.
Step #77 – Shake a few candles loose from the candleholders.
Step #78 – Core an eaten apple.
Step #79 – Supplement your workspace with black pepper.
Step #80 – Rinse your ears to remove your fears of lost hearing.
Step #81 – Team up with some other people who just might help you.
Step #82 – Fling dust bunnies while they’re alive.
Step #83 – Sympathize with the corporations for once.
Step #84 – Renew your driver’s license early.
Step #85 – Touch a sprouting flower in the dew of morning.
Step #86 – Copy someone else’s copy and throw it away.
Step #87 – Pinch sheets.
Step #88 – Gargle rose water before joining a Christian sect.
Step #89 – Scratch your itches.
Step #90 – Collaborate with an Arabian musk ox.
Step #91 – Relish in the designers’ trash.
Step #92 – Locate any lost items you may have lost in your lifetime.
Step #93 – Adjust the color on your TV set again.
Step #94 – Step out of the shower so we can see how clean you are.
Step #95 – Poke a dot.
Step #96 – Shimmy yourself into a trance.
Step #97 – Drag your friends along.
Step #98 – Emasculate the mayor or her husband.
Step #99 – Buy another one just in case.

Are you still with the program? Those 99 steps weren’t as easy as I thought. What do you think?

No comments:

Post a Comment