Surviving the Zombie Apocalype Virus pt. 7

Salutations, good people of the internet, and of the ofigueroamusicblog. I haven't written in a long time, and for starters, let me say, that it's good to be back writing blogs again. For those of you that were wondering where or what I have been doing, feel free to check out my plague journal, located here.

Moving on, to the current events. Covid-19 has ravaged the lands. America is described as a failed state by other nations that feel pity for us and periodicals in op-eds state the same. Today, 2,000 people died from the virus in the US.

I'm still on hiatus from work, on a leave of absence. This has been ongoing since April but I think when my time is up in June, I will go back to work, and just pray to God that I don't get COVID. I need the money and the stimulus isn't enough. I wear gloves and a mask as a safety precaution. I think everybody should wear gloves and a mask if they go to the grocery store.

I've been bunkering in my room. I've been playing a lot of video games and reading a lot. Right now I'm focused on finishing Plutarch's Lives, a history/biographies book by an ancient Greek named Plutarch, and the book focuses on the lives, achievements, and virtues of famous Greeks and Romans. It's a heavy-duty book, consisting of 1200 pages, right now I'm almost to page 400! I find that reading ancient history really puts me in a different universe, one where I don't have to worry about the woes of the present predicament. It's a sense of freedom, that's what I enjoy about reading the book in particular.

Before that, I finished a science fiction short story hall of fame collection. That one was very impressive and I learned a lot about the science fiction genre from it. It focused on stories from the 1940s to the 1960s, aka the golden age of science fiction. I can see where a lot of sf ideas came from and noted that none of the new sf movies/shows/short stories/novels are original. "It's all been done before." 

I also read two great science fiction pulp novels from the 1940s and 1960s. The first one was The Day They H Bombed Los Angeles, a wonderful zombie apocalypse wasteland story, probably the first of its kind. The writing was only okay but it was a fun read. Want to know how a zombie apocalypse wasteland is created? An H Bomb. There's a twist. These zombies become sentient, enough to the point where they can shoot guns and call others for help in firefights.

In addition, I read Slan, a novel from 1940, the first mutant novel. It's very pulpy writing, meaning its not very literary at all, however, there's a great twist for an ending that is very endearing. It turns out that the woman the main character, a young mutant man loves, she's also a mutant, her father is the villain of the novel. But that's not all. The villain was known for being a bad guy that hates mutants, and not a mutant, completely human. Well, it turns out that he's the father of the woman our hero loves, AND a mutant, AND our hero doesn't have to kill him because he's allowed him into his shadow government organization where mutants have infiltrated human society. How nice. 

Aside from books, I did start writing a beginning for a zombie apocalypse virus novel but haven't made much progress. It has the same name as my zombie virus short story, entitled Human, Ghoul, Zombie, which you can read here.

Lastly, I've been playing a lot of guitar. I play acoustic guitar on my balcony most afternoons or evenings. As a result, I've become a much better guitar player. Acoustic forces you to work on your chords and timing, leaving the fancy solos in the dust. My jazz improvisation is at its best its ever been and I'm still doing my jazz duo with my friend Jason, who plays the alto saxophone. In my plague journal, you can hear some of our recordings. Check out our latest free form improvisational track The All Wizard.

Tonight I jammed outside on the balcony and my neighbor across the way came out with his acoustic and we did a short jam session. It was a lot of fun. He played chords and I played lead over it. We had one really good number but the rest wasn't so hot. Still, I give Chris props for coming out and bringing out his guitar, him knowing that I practice guitar outside almost every day and have a lot more chops. There was a sensational moment as a result of this; both his family and my neighbor's family next door came out, and we all talked for a bit. The power of music really brings us together!

I plan on going back to work in June. But in the meantime, I'm reading Plutarch and taking the news day by day. If you read the news nowadays or watch the news on TV, it's very scary, and it's very real. Welcome to our nightmare. 

But don't fret. The best thing we can do is keep calm and stay undeterred from our goals, our plans, our lives, our families, our jobs, our hobbies, our fortunes and virtues, or lack thereof. The strongest skill of this time period isn't wealth or even happiness, perhaps not even health, rather it is the ability to stay focused on the things at hand, that truly matter. 

Don't let up.

Focus Pocus Part II: A Philosophical view

Howdy yall, what's up? I thought I'd write a bit more about what I discussed in the previous post, which can be viewed here. I explained how I was in a funk after vacation and how I couldn't get anything done, mainly my reading and guitar playing, in a lull. 

Well its been almost a month since I've been back, things have been going good for me. Work has been pretty insane, retail, over 40 hours a week. I'm working from today (Thursday) until next week (Friday) with no days off in between. The crazy thing is that although the thought of that is a little depressing, I'm actually getting a lot done in the sense that I've divided up all my time for rest and only the essentials. What's that pray-tell? 

The essentials for me is reading, writing, and music. Once I realized that I have no time to play video games probably ever! it was a pretty hard thing to observe, and then to get over. I used to love video games but now there's simply no time for it if I'm going to become a better writer, keep reading great science fiction (The Difference Engine) and philosophy (Adam Smith), and learn more classical and jazz guitar pieces (so much practice). Its a full time job all on its own, forget about the retail job, this is my job! 

There's a philosophy to this. Breaking everything down in your life to just the bare essentials. What do you want to accomplish in one day? What do you want to accomplish in a lifetime? Practice it one day at a time until you achieve complete and total mastery. 

My job gets in the way but if I take away the video gaming and stop spending so much time procrastinating on Facebook or playing video games, I can actually get a lot done in a day. Because I stay up very late (sometimes till 4 or 5, reading on my Kindle, which I got from a co-worker for free, retail is great sometimes) I can get a lot of reading done late at night after my late night shift. Everything's turning up Millhouse.

Happiness is a very tangible thing. Happiness is practicing guitar every day, reading, and writing. Find your passion and stick to it. Work is a necessary by-product of monetary situation, but it doesn't dictate who I am or who I will be. The future is ours to decide! 

Focus Pocus

Ahoy shipmates, and welcome aboard. I haven't written anything new lately mostly because I haven't read any new novels or anything, in fact I've been in a funk, unable to focus, until tonight. I've got my mojo back, and even the inspiration to work harder on classical guitar, which I just started working on recently, as in the end of the summer. 

I thought I'd write a bit about it (the funk) for fun. I was really distracted after the Chicago trip, maybe even a little depressed. For a while I was gaming nonstop in between 1AM retail job shifts. It was bad, I had to ease up on the gaming to get a gripe on reality, get back to my reading, and focus more on my guitar playing. 

I was a little down because the drummer I've worked with for the past year or so, we both decided to go our separate ways and no longer jam together. It was kind of sad but it was probably for the best because we're at different skill levels musically. I hope everything works out for him and his new death metal band. 

Anyways, its super easy to get distracted. For a while I couldn't even read the news because I would be thinking about something else. It was like I had ADD or something. Where's the adderal when you need it (lol)? The news and politics didn't help either. The 15 pipe bombs, the synagogue shooting, the Borderline bar massacre, and the Fires going on right in California all made me pretty sad. Even things like that affect my mood sometimes. 

I don't know if there's a trick to staying focus or disciplined. I certainly haven't figured it out. I think for myself I need somebody to push me, not just myself. Its like when I lost a lot of weight. I only lost it because I disciplined myself super hard and didn't eat anything late at night.

On musical terms though now that I'm just doing solo guitar stuff I realized I have to practice more and harder, especially if I'm going to play solo guitar pieces. 

I'm still looking for musicians to play with online but so far haven't found anybody. I'm looking to find horn players, maybe we could get a trio going without drums, play small events, parties, etc. Play straight ahead jazz..or maybe find some freak out free jazz avant garde types, although I highly doubt I would find musicians like that here in the Valley.

With Martin, my former drummer out of the picture I'm not playing death metal anymore, I'm focusing more on serious music-jazz, blues, and classical. The real stuff. 

I'll keep the blog updated as much as I can. I should've finished another novel by now but California has so many distractions-the Bio-Mass beckons. I also want to write more short stories as well. Gotta keep perfecting my art if its ever going to take off. 

I'll be in touch.