"Angry Candy" by Harlan Ellison

Angry Candy, by Harlan Ellison, is a collection of stories that was published in 1988. My favorites are "Laugh Track" and "The Function of Dream Sleep."I wish I could write as powerfully as Harlan Ellison did. There is an interesting touch on the title pages of the stories. Each title page has a drawing of what looks like a candy wrapper. In the first drawing it is unwrinkled. In each successive drawing it becomes progressively more wrinkled until at the end it is a ball of paper. This one of my favorite boos by the author. If you haven't read any of his books this is a good place to start. I cannot recommend his writing strongly enough.

"Deathbird Stories" and "Slippage: Previously Uncollected, Precariously Poised Stories" by Harlan Ellison

Deathbird Stories and Slippage: Previously Uncollected, Precariously Poised Stories, as should be obvious, are collections of stories by Harlan Ellison. The former was first published in 1975, and the latter was published in 1997. Slippage also contains essays and teleplays. There are some powerful stories. "Mephisto in Onyx" is one of my favorite stories by the author. It is powerful and has an unexpected ending. "Keyboard," a story of dark humor has one of the best opening sentences that I have read, "Chris Hudak knew he was in trouble when his computer bit him." "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, " from Deathbird Stories, is another powerful story that is as pertinent today as it was when it was written. I do not want to give away the plots of the stories. I highly recommend Harlan Ellison's books to all readers.

A Post About my Best Friends

Three of my best friends are in jail or prison. My best friend is in another city. I hope that he will be somewhere closer soon. I need to send him money. I will try to write him more often. I miss him very much. The other two friends are in the local jail. I will visit them soon. Another of my best friends recently got out of jail. He is in recovery from addiction. I would like to see him, but I do not want to hinder his recovery. I know that he has been through a lot lately. I want to be a good friend for all four of these guys. They have all helped me. It helps to have friends who accept me as I am. I would like to be able to help all of them financially, but that is not possible. I can only do that for one of them. I will do as much as I can for each of them. I trust that they will not take advantage of how much I am willing to do for them. They are family. I feel very lonely without them.

T-Shirts that Make the Wearer Look Bad

People who wear t-shirts that insult other people make themselves look bad to me. Yesterday I saw a man who was wearing one that said, "Stand back: I'm allergic to stupid." It would be more effective if it said stupidity instead of stupid. If you are going to insult others lack of intelligence make sure that you do so in correct English or whatever language you use on your t-shirt. I am not fond of trying to make oneself look better by putting others down anyway. I have seen t-shirts that read "Sarcasm: Just one of my many talents." I have been tempted to ask the wearer of that shirt if s/he is being sarcastic and has few talents. I think I will ask the next person I see wearing that shirt. People who wear t-shirts that insult others do not deserve any mercy. Either don't wear clothing that shows your own ignorance while insulting others or be ready pay the consequences.

Timothy Leary and LSD

When I read some essays by Harlan Ellison I was reminded of a misconception held by the majority of people concerning Timothy Leary. In one of the essays Mr. Ellison stated that Dr. Leary had been in favor of the indiscriminate use of LSD. He must not have read Dr. Leary's writings about LSD. He was in favor of the careful use of LSD. He said that not everybody should use it. He also said that one should only do LSD in a safe environment with people that one trusts completely. He warned against those with schizophrenia doing LSD. He was definitely against the indiscriminate use of LSD. I have done LSD twice. The first time was not very pleasant. It seemed like I was stuck in a time loop that was never going to end. The second time was uneventful but pleasant. I would like to do it again, and I plan on remembering the precautions that Dr. Leary advised.

"Harlan Ellison's Watching"

Harlan Ellison's Watching is a collection of film criticism by the author. I do not always agree with his opinions, but I agree with him more often than not. After reading what he wrote about some of the films I want to see quite a few movies that I have not seen. After reading some of the others I am glad that I have not seen some of them. I agree with what he said about "Star Trek - The Motion Picture," but he was not aware of some of the things that caused it to be a rather boring movie. Close to the time when it came out I met George Takei at a science fiction convention at eh banquet before the con. He said that there were things that were taken out of the film script, because the studio insisted on the film having a G rating. Because of this some things that were said in the movie did not make sense. There were times when a character would walk on screen then walk off without saying or doing anything, because what they said or did had been cut. I agree with him about "Star Wars." (That is what it was called when it was released, so that is what I am going to call it.) I still have not watched it from beginning to end in one sitting. It is not a bad movie, but nothing outstanding. On the other hand I do not agree with him about "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" He said that if you did not love it your opinion about anything was worthless. I liked that movie, but I did not love it. I preferred Ralph Bakshi's "Cool World." He listed "The Wizard of Oz" as one of his favorites. It is one of my least favorite. It does give me some satisfaction to read opinions that are similar to my own when those opinions do not reflect the opinions of the majority of people. Harlan Ellison was always an entertaining writer with great integrity. Fortunately his books are still around to entertain us.

Adult Content on a Saturday Afternoon

Some things have changed. There is someone who claims to be a friend who wants me to pay him to suck his dick. I told him that I do not pay friends for that. He brings up that I had paid a couple of friends to do this. This may be true, but it is something that I no longer do. I am still friends with the guys he mentioned, but I no longer do anything sexual with them. Well, I may do something with one of them, but I won't pay him. I am not going to pay someone whom I respect as a friend to suck his dick. I am tempted to pay one guy to get his cock in my mouth, but he is not someone I consider a close friend. He wants more money than I am willing to pay anyway. He says that he gives the best golden showers and has the best pee in town. I have been tempted to ask him whose pee he has been drinking. Thinking about giving him oral pleasure is about to make me hard. I don't need to pay for dick when I can get it free. I sucked a friend's cock under a tree earlier today. I rimmed him too. He wanted me to cum, but I have a hard time cumming until the other guy does. We were interrupted by the sound of sirens going by. He was not able to cum or pee. Hopefully we will be able to play again.