Two Years and Counting

by Steve Lazarowitz

This is a very odd period in time for me, for a number of reasons. There are all sorts of changes going on in my personal life that I won't yet detail here, but might at some future date. In addition, this month represents the two year anniversary of the first issue of Blue Iris Journal. May 1st, on the other hand, is the day that will see the very last issue of the Wandering Troll Ezine.

For those of you who don't know, the Wandering Troll is an online fantasy zine that hosts my other column, Shattered Fragments, which as of it's closing date, I will have been writing for... you've guessed it, two years. There's a bit of synchronicity that would have made Carl Jung proud. Hopefully, you will all get over there in May and read my final Shattered Fragments column, which I will write just after I finish this one.

While Blue Iris Journal has been around for two years, I have not. That is to say, the Journal was in existence for about six months, when the first issue of Sahara Ice appeared. You are reading the eighteenth installment of Sahara Ice, which means, for the past year and a half, I have been filling your mind with all sorts of inane drivel. Why you keep coming back, is completely beyond me.

And yet there are, I'm sure, many of you who haven't been along for the entire ride. So, as a sort of public service, I thought I would speak a bit about what has passed before. It will give the newcomers a chance to see what they've missed, and the rest of us a chance to reminisce.

The very first issue of Sahara Ice, by the way, is available for your enjoyment on my webpage at http://www.dream-sequence.net/articles/saharaice.html . This introduction is not only fun to read, but explains the origin of the column's name.

That aside, here are the subtitles of each column and some of the topics I've covered in past installments:

Drawing a Blank discusses, among other things, the origin of ideas and thoughts.

The Big Move is about movement of all sorts, except for perhaps bowel movement, which is covered in a later installment.

A Day in the Life of a Writer is just that.

The Revolution of Lowered Expectations talks about why the world is in the sorry state it is, and why we can't do anything to change it.

The Point of Diminishing Returns is the first and only political installment to date. It talks about many things, including our most recent presidential election. I have no doubt this issue will be glossed over in history texts, because no one is hiring me to write them.

It's Only A Movie talks about my favorite movies of all time and a couple of newer ones that particularly touched me.

The Price of Satisfaction is about materialism and its hold on the American people, including myself.

Who Am I Anyway is a more serious piece than most, in which I do a bit of soul searching for the entertainment and edification of my readers.

The Lost Oasis is also a serious column that perhaps continues the soul searching I'd started the month before.

Return to Gor is about the Gor books, tolerance and why the hell can't adult people make their own decisions about consensual sex, without pissing other people off.

A Writer's Lament is a rant that every non-writer should read and every writer should be able to appreciate.

Life Behind the Cam deals with my obsession with life online.

Manipulating the Odds is a rather tongue in cheek treatise on how to keep your year going long after it's over (or alternately how to begin your year anew, even after only a few short months).

Shut Up and Watch is yet another rant about self-proclaimed movie critics that just don't get it.

The Seat of Power is about toilets and their role in my life, literature and pop culture.

Isolation, the last column before this, is an intensely personal column about some of my deepest, darkest feelings. A must read, if you are at all in touch with your darker side.

Why list all these here?

Because soon, I will have every single one of them archived on my sff.net webpage. You will be able to peruse them all, whether you wish to visit them again, or catch what you've missed.

Sahara Ice is my favorite column to write, for there are no constraints on what I say. Unlike other columns I've written in the past, the topics above were not dictated by a specific genre or a monthly theme.

So stayed tuned for next month, when I return with yet another dose of creative rambling.

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