The Origin Story (and more writing junk)

So, a lot of you have been asking me where the name of the blog came from. That's not true. No one's been asking. No one ever asks... Anyways, I just needed a set up so I could spend time talking about where the name Funhouse Building comes from. I take that back, its half true as people have asked me about the sketchiness of the name alansfunhouse and why, when they visit, they can't seem to find any child pornography, as the name suggests. Well, to those people, I say you're just not looking hard enough.

huh, I swear I posted it there last week

Sadly, the worst part about that joke - I spent roughly two days trying to think up the perfect pedophile joke for you... and that was the best I could come up with. I know, you deserve better and I'll try to do better... but don't get your hopes up (besides, I've accepted that I'm not that funny, you should too).
     Back on topic. Funhouse Building. I stole it. Sort of. Yeah, I stole it. But before you go getting all high and mighty on me, remember this quote from Lionel Trilling: "Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal." (yeah, I'll even take quotes from people to fit where I need them). Back when I was in college, I read John Barth's short story Lost in the Funhouse and the story stuck to me. Why? For the most part, its a story about writing, at least that's what I interpreted it as. The Funhouse being the story, the lovers wandering through it as the readers, and the narrator is the one who builds the funhouse. Also, through the narrator's ramblings, you get a first-hand glimpse at the difficulties of building a story and that related to me (the confusion, the writer's block, the characters not following the paths laid out for them, etc). And thus I titled this Funhouse Building.
     And now you're probably wondering why I'm only bothering to tell you all this now, especially since I started this blog a couple years ago already? Honestly, its because I finally joined the twenty-first century and started ordering crap from the internet. And my first purchase? Yeah, I'm sure you guessed

And yes, I bought a whole book just for one short story

I finally gave up looking for it at Barnes and Nobles (the last bookstore on Oahu). As I've already said, it was definitely one of the better reads I had during my time in college. Its too bad I never got a chance to scan the story before reselling the textbook back, especially since no one is willing to buyback the book once you've taken an X-acto knife to it.
     Anyways, that's where I got the name for the blog. But as everyone whose read comic books knows, it takes more than just a cool name to be a superhero. Not to say that having a cool name isn't important, just not enough to get you out there fighting crime. They need that initial motivating factor (usually a parental figure being killed in front of them). So, I think I started trying to write maybe either my freshman or sophomore year of college and when I got to Japan I found myself with more free time than I knew what to do with (I spent 12 hours a week in school with less homework than I've had since elementary school... I had some time to kill). So, with my new-found free time, I spent more time writing and coming up with ideas which I had hoped to use as starting points for new stories

to think, just 4 years ago these were all taped to my wall

     While visiting, Jacob suggested I should start a blog to write all of these... and I did. Yep, its as simple as that. And yes, I know that's a horrible picture of him since it doesn't even show his face but its all I've got. If you're curious, check out his blog as well as his experiences teaching English in Korea (both of which can be found on the side bar to the right under No Laughing Allowed and Nowhere Korea).
    And, if you've got the time, I figured I'd get out everything I had on the topic of writing all at once with more on my personal writing method (and as you can tell from my infrequent posts and unfinished stories, it's not a good method, nor is it a productive one and thus not one to be copied... by anyone). If you're not interested in anymore reading however, here's a video for you instead

Hope you enjoyed that little flashback video from four years ago. Sorry, I missed fireworks this year for Fourth of July and its just not the same without them, though I guess its good since now I don't have to wonder if this will be the year when my neighbors burn down my house (since I'm pretty sure these are the same people who were allegedly shooting guns in the air instead of fireworks this year).
    But back to what we were talking about... which was... writing. First off, as I'm sure I said before, I'm pretty incapable of writing on my laptop for a variety of reasons. Spending 8 hours a day at work in front of a computer is one of them. Also, with a basic lack of focus I tend to work on multiple stories at once so I would need a bunch of windows open when its so much easier to switch from packet of paper to packet of paper. What do I mean by "packet" you ask? You didn't.... well, I'll tell you anyway. With all the scratch paper we accumulate at work, I figure we shouldn't let it go to waste, so I steal it, staple about a dozen or so pages together and take it home to write on (it doesn't count as company theft if they were just going to throw it away, right?). Also, I tend to be a stickler with pens. As in I buy pens based on the way they write, how much pressure I need to apply to the paper for it to write, how smoothly it writes without skipping, if they have click-tops, etc. Its just as bad as when I used to write only with newly sharpened pencils. I still refuse to use the pens provided at work, meaning all the pens on my desk are my own.

So are all of these

And that's it for now. Also, if you were wondering how I got this post out so fast (you know, compared to the month I normally would take between posts) well, I've been trying to fight my minor motion sickness to start writing on the bus on my way to and from work rather than just sleeping all the time. Plus it stops me from leaning on people while I sleep, which I tend to do depending upon which seat I get, though to be honest I'll lean on people no matter what seat I'm in.