Temporary Setback

     I didn't make it, did I ?  It was nice to be myself for awhile.  I am a quirky, intermittent nonconformist.  I wanted to be a writer or create something in the entertainment industry.

     My reasons were sound. They made sense to me , anyway.   I love to write and I love to let my mind take me wherever it wants to.   I love Amy and want the chance to marry her and be available when needed, and still be able to work.  I DO NOT want to be on government social programs. I DO want to pay my debts and bills.
      Sooo, I looked at the idea of writing and creating these other projects as my way of trying to hit a home run.  Entertainment is the only field I could think of where I could conceivably be able to make enough money to do this.

     I cannot pull this off working at a convenience store.  I have to find  flex schedules and work at home more .
     I took six weeks to try to make it happen.  That is really more than I could take.

     Survival wins again.

                                                 I am just not viable. It sucks to lose.

It doesn't help that I took six weeks to make it in a field that many struggle to succeed in for their entire life. I left my bloody soul on these pages and tried every avenue I could get to in this limited time.

In that respect, I have given it my all.


On to the next brilliant idea that I will work on part time.

This is a whole lotta I in a story that is really about trying to find work that fits our needs.

whine.

The only thing worse than a quitter, is someone who never even GOD DAMNED tried, but criticized those that do.

Throwback Bowlers Tour

All Things Burkenbine --Bowling

4ward Roll Productions  presents


Throwback Bowlers Tour
Check in ...4 ball maximum.  1 rubber or plastic ball required
8 games
1st 4 game block   --- use rubber or plastic balls
2nd 4 game block --- use any of 4 balls  on your card
Prize ratios for 1st block, 2nd block and totals

Charity Pro Am and Party--costume themes encouraged

Side events
Shots will vary
Heavy or Mag pins used from time to time



Good Friends
Good Food
Good Times

Back in the day when bowling centers were full...

The women bowled morning coffee leagues.
The men had a night out with the boys.
Everyone learned to keep score.
You got to know a fairly diverse group of people in your community.
Bowlers may drink, smoke, gamble and enjoy a good cheeseburger; or do none of these vices.

They also may be friends for life.

Maybe the old days weren't so bad.

The rare form of Stupid I have been diagnosed with is both fluorescent and magnetic. A glowing form of stupid that attracts all manner of crap and unwanted attention.  No known cure and apparently it is a lifelong affliction.

     Evaluation.

     I am taking a weekend break from daily posting to take a look at this BLOG thing versus some other forms of expression.     Maybe, I will move up nort'  and make ice sculptures and snow angels. It probably pays better.

     Maybe, after cutting a e-book in 40 days  ( ten days late)  I will attempt to cut an album of my own songs.  I would probably be better off finding others to sing on it.

     Maybe-

- I can finish another book in three days.

- I should focus on finding someone that will read the books?

- I will go ask my neighbor if I can borrow 10 acres of his land to build an entertainment center on it, built my way of course.   ( You may find this hard to believe , but 'my way' is always the hardest way. That it is how it has to be)

- I could make some fantastic you tube video channel and they would pay me for a development deal

- I can have a garage sale

- I will go bowling (nah)

- I will set on the back porch all weekend

-I will put together an election campaign to get me elected as Grand Poobah of  the bowling universe ,  or maybe just lay out a bowling paper idea I have.

- I will just look for normal shift work

- I will do some online research to figure out what this rash is?  Can you get a rash from ramen  noodles?

Maybe I will just work on the car.


Ah, If only I had the budget to do it all.

Have a fantastic weekend.
 

--Mark Burkenbine

Small Business Grant   video contests here I come.   Why won't anyone shake my hand? NO- I do not really make porn.

I actually watched some of these grant contests online...this is just me wondering what entrants they don't show. I know it is odd.

For those with mobile video issues, click here for youtube link

Laugh in the face of diversity.

--Mark Burkenbine

Aristotle, Homer, Shakespeare, Hemingway,Dickens,  Stevens....I just mention a few.   Think of how different life would be if we never read about our favorite philosophies. Never even heard of these authors or their stories.

What would it have been like if Shakespeare was the least known writer on his block?  If  Homer's Aunt  had eight cookbooks on the market?   How would Hemingway have made it if he had to sell his book at a family reunion, but couldn't get time at the Aunt and Uncle's book signing table. He would have been categorized into the children's corner.

   If ancient Greece had not won the war with the Amazons and defeated the plan of Artemis, the God of Self Publishing , then the past I have described would be so.  

The first month of ATB is now in a collection available for free on Amazon kindle and smashwords.  There is a link to it in the picture to your right.   Gotta love my cover art, huh?   What do you expect from a man who describes himself as quirky and intermittent.   A collection seemed to be an easier way to read my posts and still allows me to build the stories into individual books and projects.

Who would have thunk that my work would be hard to format, and categorize? Crap, I just described this as "my work".

I am hopeful that I can now get busy on uploading more of the story chapters and get this thing in motion. That should be six hours of the day, now I am off to find work for the other eighteen hours.

Only tired people sleep

Ta Ta

Mark Burkenbine

I obviously love using " bad grammar" in stories to get a message across. I love particularly a fractured broken all to heck sentence.  I do not like perfect grammar simply because so few actually speak it.

I love reading .  I love writing. I tend to not edit anything except blatant spelling errors. My process is to spit the story out of my head, hit enter, and hope.   It is fun for me.

 I just spent the day doing the edit on part of  an e-book series, and it sucks the life out of you.
 Everybody should have to go through the pain of an edit.  I have now seen somewhat funny sentences turned into dead paper.   I have not seen anything get funnier after edit.

Nobody likes to see their quirks washed off like it is something dirty.

Enjoyable is the process of higher learning.

That is all I gots tonight....

---Mark Burkenbine

Good Evening.  Enjoy the slick production of the show and be responsible out there.

--Mark

If having issues with phone video, click here for youtube

For mobile video issues, Click the youtube link

Good Evening. We interrupt your All Things Burkenbine conceptual blogging experience so the author can beg like a little girl for a few moments.

Can I , will you....may I ....please...pretty please....of course you look pretty in that outfit.....um,   will you buy my old bowling balls off eBay?

No?...darn.


So what's a blogger/bowler with an obvious problem with authority do for work?

Keep checking the self employment options?   Probably the way to go.   I will keep writing.  The laws of the market say if I come up with something worth buying then it will be bought. Unless, of course, I have not protected it well enough and it will be stolen, I mean, tweaked.

What if I don't unveil an idea, and someone else does it.   Crap, that has happened to me before. It sucks. I remember preschool when I coined the phrase , 'nutter nutter, peanut butter'. It was a long court battle, but that bucktoothed kid used a slightly different punctuation and won. We were seniors when it was settled and both lost millions to the lawyers.

Nothing is original, timing is everything.

Maybe I will create my own food show.  Doesn't everyone love my peanut butter ,bacon,mayo, tomato on toast?    I'm tellin you, you are only cheating yourself if you don't try that once.  Fifty years from now , when the golden arches of Mark's have sold 1 BILLION of them, you will wish you listened.

Motivation is everything, I guess.  What makes the "successful" what they are? What comes first, the need for invention or the idea itself?  

I have not yet begun to fight for the creations I have not quite yet created.

--Mark

When your phone tells you it is overheating during work, and you cannot afford to replace it, it may be time for a career change.
When you cannot afford to fill your gas tank to get home from a work assignment, it may be time for a career change.  
When your transmission slips, and you gots alot o years left to pay on this car, it may be time for a career change.

After being covered with wasps last month, and  looking back on how many hundreds of times I got out of very intense situations with minimal damage....I have lost my nerve.
 ( I have seen things, man....)

I know blogging looks like a brutal job to many, but after what I have been through in my time, I will take those blogging hits any day.

It was easier to justify when I almost made a living, but the last year plus I have  not.  I have a family that needs a provider, and I would kind of like to be alive to do just that.

When your day job starts to remind you of driving 1000 miles for a $400 to win bowling tournament...It is time for a change.

Always try to change for the better, and now and then, swing for the fences. You may be amazed what can happen.

Have a good evening and thanks for your time

Mark Burkenbine

whenever you hear the words 'no offense' , someone is about to be offended.

The only time it is ever good  to approach someone with the words " I hope you don't mind that I..." is when you are writing the check in front of them.    It just never turns out good otherwise.