The Secret Plan...Retired...

Note: Updates located at Zeek's Library


So what was Zombiekiller's Secret Plan?

Well, depending on who you asked it involved different variations of ranting about my political views, taking anecdotes from my personal life and trying to find some way to derive universal truths from them, and trying to let people know that it's okay for us to disagree about important issues, as long as we're civil towards each other in the process. Throughout history, societies grow and flourish when people of differring opinions discuss their differences rather than tear each other apart. Now, that doesn't mean you have to remain dispassionate and cold about a subject (as evidenced in some of the missives I've typed on subjects ranging from immigration to the erosion of our civil liberties), but it does mean that you listen to the people who are just as passionate about the other side of the argument.

Call the loons for what they are, but realize that the loons are a small minority of any opinion poll. Most of the people you argue with will be just as smart as you, if not smarter. We all approach the facts through our own frame of reference and understanding those frames of reference and how they allow seemingly rational people to come to two or more very different conclusions based on the same evidence is what helps us grow as humans and as a society.

ZombieKiller began as anonymous postings on the St. Louis Post Dispatch's discussion forums. The objective was to find political discussions where the people involved were not so much discussing a topic as they were "screaming" at each other attempting to be the loudest voice in the room. I would insert myself into the argument, make a salient point about the topic and illustrate how it really didn't matter who was right since the coming zombie apocalypse would result in the destruction of all mankind, not just the other side. Some people got the point I was making. Some saw it as trolling (though...I was always on topic, polite, and my arguments, apocalypse included, were reasoned and my own). Some thought it was funny. I just thought it was a good outlet for my frustration with a political process that increasingly marginalized anyone not willing to participate in the growing American schizm.

The ZombieKiller experiment evolved from those postings not into an online identity but into an actual representation of myself. I've always been a closet writer with a few things published here and there. At one point I realized that as long as I was typing goofy little internet messages on that forum, I wasn't doing any "real" writing or practice. So, I created this space to get in the habit of sitting down and writing on a single subject for a committed period of time. At times I've committed the usual blogger sins of whining about my life, but I like to think that for the most part I kept things interesting for us all. Most of all, I've never written anything here that I wouldn't in say in person. That's important to me.

As I enter my 32nd year in the next couple weeks, I'm going to focus more on the process of creative writing. That doesn't mean I won't still write the occasional essay, but it does mean that a lot of the updates here didn't fit with what I want this place to be.

In choosing between the Secret Plan and the Library, the library had more stuff in it and would be harder to merge into this site than the other way around. So, I've moved all of the essays and reviews I want to keep online into the library.

The address for the library is http://zeek.tumblr.com

In the coming weeks, I'll be moving all of the writing over to my personal website. First I have to design a website that serves as more than just a placeholder for a domain name I want to own email addresses for. When that happens I'll let you know.

Summarizing...

More creativity.
More submitting.
More real writing.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for talking. And I hope to see ya in the future.