Inception

So, I'm going to catch "Inception" somewhere after work. Haven't decided, yet. Someplace downtown. It's crazy-hot here today, and is likely to be so tomorrow, too. Ack. So glad I live next to the lake. One thing I will say about living in Chicago -- hug the shore! Don't go west. Stay by the shore, where it's about 10 degrees cooler than it is in the rest of the city. When it's mid-90s, it matters! Lordy, yes. Fucking HOT today.

I'll review "Inception" elsewhere.

Hopefully Exene won't be around this weekend. Bleah. Can't wait until I never have to say that again. Yeah! From "Bleah" to "Yeah!" in so many words! Baha!

My life actually is going to be so much better on my own. It's incredible to realize that. Maybe lonelier in some way, shape, and form, but since writing's "the loneliest profession" (wasn't it Hemingway who said that?) I'm really ready for that, honestly. I'll make use of that time to write -- that's the best thing about writing: you're never really alone. Hahah! But seriously, part of what drives me with my writing is building a better future for my boys -- that matters so much to me. If I can get things going with my fiction, I'll have single-handedly safeguarded their futures, and that matters more to me than anything I've done in my life. I want to do right by them.

It was the hardest thing for me to come to terms with splitting with Exene not because of her, but because of the boys. First I thought they'd be demolished by that reality, and worried that I needed to be there for them, but then I realized that being Happy Daddy was vital for their long-term health as much as it was for me -- they needed to see their dad happy and free and creative and vital, to be a good model for them. And in so being, I'll be able to create a good life for them, give them a head start, despite being a single parent.

I'm going to do better by them than I ever could as Exene's hired hand, truly. It's so clear to me. I'm free to be fully me, and there is power in that, and they'll see that and take heart in that, despite the change in their lives this will bring. I'm at peace with that.

Shrimps On Prozac?

Weird study I just saw today on SALON, basically showing that shrimp exposed to the main chemical in Prozac are more vulnerable to dying, for whatever reason. Several things about this -- I've been wondering for years about the role antidepressants play in suicides and murder-suicides, but the prospect of the chemical poisoning the environment by the way of urban runoff is creepy as well. The tip of the hat to brain parasites manipulating serotonin levels in shrimp is, of course, intriguing, too, given my lingering fascination with parasites. Parasites are tricky mofos. I'm forever amazed that dinosaurs had tapeworms, and those frickin' tapeworms survived the extinction of dinosaurs and migrated to mammalian species (no doubt because early mammals scavenged dinosaur remains and picked up the tapeworms, which then adapted themselves to mammalian bodies). That's an impressive (and horrifying) evolutionary feat. Don't underestimate parasites! Seriously. They. Will. Fuck. You. Up.

I've also long followed endocrine disruptors in the environment, too, which seem to come from plastics, creating false estrogens which may increase risks of cancer (and may be responsible for declining fertility in populations). Creepy shit.