Author: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."--E. B. White Spindle I have a tendency to be a bit impulsive at times; to jump into things without thinking them through, flying by the seat of my pants and depending on a varying combination of adrenaline and determination, a dash of guile, and the invigorating pressure of an impending deadline to push me across the finish line. Usually the results are pretty good, though quite often it's the equivalent of the "B+" paper that could have been an…

Would you go on vacation by yourself, and if so where would you go?Submitted by Sean & Stefan. New Mexico Assuming money's no object, I'd start in New Mexico, rent a real Jeep and spend two weeks driving throughout the Southwest -- NM, Arizona, Texas, down into Mexico -- taking in as many cities and open spaces as I could, never spending more than a night or two in any one place. That's the most beautiful part of the country, I think, and I'd love to just soak it all in with no particular schedule of places to go or things to do, the Incredible Hulk…

It's been a month since I started going back to the gym, and though my weight loss has pretty much come to a halt at 183lbs, I can definitely see the difference as I'm starting to tone up, and feel the difference as my stamina continues to  improve each week.  My complete workout is roughly 60 minutes -- 5-10 minutes of stretching, situps and push-ups; 15-20 minutes on the Nautilus machines; 35 minutes on the elliptical bike -- and it's quickly gone from a tough slog that I had to force myself not to cheat on, to an invigorating session that I've had to…

...the way I hate cheap beer. In the right setting, nothing beats a cold PBR in a can. Plus, I was tagged. First the housekeeping. The rules of this meme are:1. Let others know who tagged you.2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged. And now, eight things: 1) My MOS in the Army was 63B1P, which means I was a light wheel vehicle mechanic/paratrooper, which means I jumped out of airplanes that…

  Jason Carney After reading Tony Brown's latest Zero Point Zero column, "Kicking an Addiction", a couple of things jumped out at me about my own writing that I've always known but kept buried in one of the more remote closets in my brain. Much like the speaker in Buddy Wakefield's poem "Convenience Stores," I'm addicted to novelty. If I can't be unique, can't take a unique tack on a subject, I don't see it as worth tackling. For me, that idea of "novelty" always manifested itself in my tendency to write from my own perspective, distilling my own experiences into…

WKRP Talk about a one-two punch!  I was out in Cincinnati yesterday for my job and, as I'm heading into my first meeting, I get a text message from Salomé that India didn't make it into the NEST program. BODY BLOW! I wasn't completely surprised, though I'd been holding on to the slimmest of hopes that maybe she'd snag their final spot in a last-second decision by the board to push the boundaries of the program by accepting a less-than-perfect applicant, spurred on by an impassioned speech by the social worker who was initially convinced she was a shoo-in. (Too much Boston Public…

Nuyorican Performing your poetry onstage isn't like riding a bike at all, unless you're talking about the part where your foot keeps slipping off the pedal and it bloodies your shin. I used to hate that! When I decided last week to hit the Nuyorican for last night's slam, I figured it'd be a fun, low-pressure show where I'd be able to comfortably continue my slow return to writing and performing. When a wave of nausea and jangling nerves hit me around 5:15pm, I was tempted to change my mind and go have a drink instead. Nevertheless, I stuck to my plan, walking…