The End of the World

 Had a dream the other night that the world was ending. Actually, there was some other, relatively regular dream-stuff going on before then, but the memory of it as funny, as most dreams are. What I do remember is walking outside, looking up, and seeing another planet filling the sky-view. It was pretty crazy, with asteroids and debris flying all over the place. I woke up soon after seeing it, and went on to wonder what would happen if such an event were ever to occur.

Of course, it would be the end of the world, but would both surfaces boil as they enter each other's atmospheres? Would the gravitational pull of each cancel out and cause everything to launch out in to space long before impact? At initial impact, would you be launched out into space?

Trippy scenario.

-Justin C. Key

Still here, still writing.

The job search sucks. As I was telling my friend, it's like playing one of those long RPGs (think Pokemon), putting in 40 or so hours, leveling up all your little furry friends, and then BAM! Save is deleted. Maybe you dropped it in the toilet or a lunchbox juice exploded in your pants pocket during flag football (actually happened to me some 10 years ago). Either way, now you have to start all over. The first time, it was fun, exciting, intriguing to see yourself progress and get that much closer to victory.

But the thought of starting from scratch and doing everything again...it's too much. Especially if there's a good possibility that the save will just magically delete itself again.

That's how this job thing feels. In the beginning, you get out about 20 job apps a day. You're excited about your leads, feel good when you get called in for interviews, and at the end of the week you feel like you're that much closer to being employed. Then stuff starts to fall through, other candidates get picked, and people send you e-mails that start with 'Thank you for applying to...' Yeah, those can't end good. Before you know it, it's square one, and going through all those endless pages of job openings isn't as exciting anymore.

That's my short rant and basically where I am in life. But, the good news is that I'm still writing, in one form or the other. I'm still determined to be the next Stephen King, so watch out world! I'm now blogging for WatchMissedEpisodes.com, basically doing opinion pieces about some of the television shows they feature. Anything to get my name out there, really. Still at Scribophile.com and TheCelebrityCafe.com. Still have my novels that I should go ahead and try to get published already. Once I have a job, though, it'll be a lot easier to justify spending time on these types of things.

On the bright side, things are going pretty well. My hope was to have a job before Christmas, but sometimes things just don't work out that way. But I do have a wonderfully supportive family and friend-base. And my typing fingers still work, so what's there to complain about?

-Justin C. Key

Job Search by Justin Key

I looked up from behind my computer--my computer which holds all the woes and sorrows from the past three months of job-hunting--because he had caught my eye. If it weren't for the smell, one would think he'd been born from a cloud of dust. Oblivious to the colorful life around him, he reached into the slit of the trashcan, and I winced. As he found his lunch as casually as teenagers find love, I tried to imagine what could possibly happen for my own life's path to swerve to match his, but it was about as futile as the deaf wondering what it's like to hear. He walked away, muttering incoherencies, off to fight the cold. As for me, I found it hard to look at my computer any more that day, but not so hard to live.

Under the Dome Review at TheCelebrityCafe.com

You can find it here: Under the Dome by Stephen King: A Review

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and may write more about it here later. Next book: House of Leaves.

Weird Dream....But I Can't Remember It.

I just know that when I woke up, I didn't feel real. Part of it may be because I just started reading House of Leaves (Joey, if you're reading this, it's only because I finished the sample of the Languages book), I had gotten through the introduction, which was pretty creepy.

On top of that, my arm was asleep. So the first few minutes of waking up, I felt like I didn't exist. It was like what a robot that just gained self-awareness may feel like. Creepy.

The Ball

Never talk back
But I say a lot
In my eyes, my run, the sniff
     Sniff
          Sniff
Of my nose, rhyme-time-sublime with the wag of my...

TAIL!

Aw hell, there goes a ball,

Round as the world, but with so more

    joy

        (more joy than a boy with a toy,

             i can rhyme, too cus I feel the spark

         us dogs, we do, we do)

Cus that's what I know, a thing you may lack

    lack

       lack

Because you're mind...or brain, I never knew which was the same...it

WORKS

TOO

WELL

Works as good as a nuke, or a gun, or...what do they call it?

Wars?

But there's my ball again, rolling and rolling like life rolls on.

I'm better than you, and you're sorrow, and cries

    Even your creation, who cares when soaked with lies

      LIES

....lies

Yet best thing about the wag of the tail, the feel of the fur

Is I complete you. I can't heal the pain, the violence, the flaws

But I can catch the ball and replace the tears

With happiness slob.

Top 10 Lost Mysteries That Need Answering

Here's an article I wrote for WatchMissedEpisodes.com. I was just offered a 'gig' there as a regular blogger, so I'm excited about that. Please check it out, share it with others, and, most importantly, tell me what you think!

Top 10 Lost Mysteries That Need Answering by Justin Key

-Justin C. Key

Movies to Look Forward to in 2010...And those to stray away from.

You can read the full story here: Blockbusters of 2010: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I wrote it myself and the list of movies (without descriptions) is below.

The Sequels:

Wall Street 2 'Money Never Sleeps': April 23. Movie Page

Iron Man 2: May 7. Toy Preview

Shrek Forever After: May 21. Movie Page

Sex and the City 2: May 28 Movie Page

Toy Story 3: June 18 Theatrical Trailer

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: June 30 Movie Page

Under the Dome: A Writer's Analysis

Hey all. Wrote up a blog post for Under the Dome yesterday for Scribophile.com. I go in to how the book effected me as a writer and, more importantly, the types of things a writer can learn from reading it. I'm still brooding over my experience and how I feel about it and will write a review for thecelebritycafe.com later today.

Here's the link: Under the Dome: A Writer's Analysis.

-Justin Key

Finished Under the Dome

Wow. it definitely went in a an unexpected direction. But it was satisfying (mostly). I'm working on an analysis for Scribophile.com now and a review later for TheCelebrityCafe.com

-Justin Key

The bodies are racking up in Under the Dome...

Amidst Thanksgiving, Internet-outage, and the never-ending job search, I haven't been able to read as much as I would have liked. Either way, I am up to about page 750 or so, so about 3/4 of the way through. And when I can read it, I can't put it down.

And the body-count! I guess I should have expected that this wouldn't be a comedic romp like The Simpsons' version, but dang! Murders left, right, suicides piling up, planes crashing. And all for because of a big ass dome!

It's only been 4 days and some change in the book, so King wasn't lying when he said it only takes up a week. Some things that progress don't seem like they would happen that fast (like the mini-global warming effect or how the town has become so quickly divided...also, there's a character in it that is sick and it seems like they go from relatively okay to terminal in just a couple days, whereas in real life it would take months).

Also, some of the things that are happening seem kind of ridiculous, but more in a way that says 'this could really happen if a town was put in this position and its kind of ridiculous that humans could stoop so low.'

Also, I know now the origin of the dome. Or, at least, what category it falls under. It was what I guessed from the beginning, as it seemed the only logical explanation. There's still a good amount of mystery about it and the person who discovered the source was just thrown in jail, so we'll see how that pans out.

Even though this book is long as life, it's getting to that point where I'm wondering how everything will work out only 300 pages. It feels like I'm more in the middle than rounding out to the end. But I have faith and  hopefully the ending isn't a 'hey, the beings responsible for the sudden application of the dome decided to suddenly take it away, problems solved!' It would be a lot more satisfying if the town fights for and earns its own escape.

Social Media and Writing.

I just put up a new post at Scribophile.com about social media, the changing landscape of writing, and what it means for authors.

Find it here.

Lost: What's to Come.

I'm a big Lost fan. I've watched every episode and, once I get on my feet, plan to rewatch every one before the new season starts. I just wrote a feature article on it for TheCelebrityCafe.com.

You can find it here: http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/features/36469.html

Let me know what you guys think.

Investigation...

I read this this morning in the New York Times. It really has us shaken up. It's only a 1/1000 chance that she'll be picked I copied and pasted:

As Families Re-Unite, Congress Calls For Interrogation Lottery

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 71 to 28 Wednesday morning to initiate a lottery to randomly choose 100,000 Americans from the 150 million that disappeared last Friday for questioning and further research. The decision was made just under an hour ago, but there is already huge uproar from across the country.


Families woke up Monday morning to the return of their loved ones, a nation-wide phenomenon that is in many ways more baffling than the original disappearances. After shock came a relief that swept over the country as more and more reports came in, suggesting that all of the missing have returned.


Officials immediately attempted to get a hold of the situation, which left half of the country's population MIA for 72 hours, by requesting of anyone who remembers anything to come forth. The result has been more than disappointing, prompting Congress to consider a more involved approach.  The newly approved initiative will generate a lottery to choose 100,000 individuals to be called in for questioning and to possibly be kept for research. It is unknown when the lottery or subsequent activities will take place.


"America is healing right now," President Obama said in an official statement. "And we want families to have the time to heal, reconnect with their loved ones, and grieve over those who were lost. But eventually we need to assess the situation, discover the cause, and move towards ensuring that nothing of this magnitude ever happens again."


As part of the bill, Congress also pushed for heavy emphasis on Stanford University, where 90% of the student population went missing. It's reported that all 13,500 are set to be automatically included in research procedures. 

-Tom Friedman