Thursday, February 26

Greetings.

Sorry I haven't been around. I went through a particularly bad patch of Whatever the Fuck is Wrong With Me from the end of December through the end of January . . . and as I started to recover, my time and attention were consumed by helping the Fabulous Robyn plan and execute arrangements for a mostly-spur-of-the-moment trip to Costa Rica, because the US economic downturn has decimated Costa Rica's tourist trade (which makes travel and lodging there considerably less expensive than, oh, mostly anywhere. Except maybe New Jersey.).

For the record: if you're ever feeling unwell enough to require a regenerating adventure, Costa Rica is your place. Lane-and-a-half mountain roads twisting between sheer rock faces and thousand-foot drops . . . temperate rain forests that can be reached only by 4X4 (I'm not kidding -- the unpredictable winds and narrow defiles means you can't even go by helicopter unless you're making a HALO insertion) . . . dinner at El Avion, which is a three-star restaurant at Manuel Antonio built around (and inside!) the very same CIA C-135 that triggered the Iran-Contra scandals after being shot down by the Sandanistas . . . zipline tours through the rain forest canopies . . . white sand beaches, catamaran tours to watch dolphins and sea-birds chase flying fish . . .

There may be photos (and video!) forthcoming, for anyone who can sufficiently steel themselves to enjoy watching other people have fun.

I think the Fabulous Robyn and I might just retire down there.

Anyway: back in the country and back to work.

Finally: does anybody around here know a reliable way to get in touch with Scott Lynch?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

"does anybody around here know a reliable way to get in touch with Scott Lynch?"

Reliable? Probably. Timely? Likely not.
http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/

Unknown said...

So, uh, if it's not too personal of a question because I frequently hear you mention it but've never seen you go in-depth about it, but what exactly is it that ails you? I mean, I know you don't necessarily know the technical name or maybe even the cause, but what is it that seems to put you down for months at a time?

Also, Scott's livejournal probably isn't a very efficient way to get in touch with him as he hardly ever posts on it, which suggests he hardly ever looks at it (the gap between his most recent and second most recent posts are like a year and a quarter), but I believe his girlfriend's livejournal is: http://guipago.livejournal.com/ and she seems to post there frequently. So you might toss a comment up there and, you being who you are, I imagine she'd be happy to get along a message.

John W said...

Hey, it's good to know that you're back and feeling better!
I sent Scott Lynch an email about a year ago at scott@scottlynch.us, the email listed on his website. He got back to me just a few days later. I don't know if that's still a timely way to contact him, and you've probably already tried it, but it worked for me.

WarlordGrego said...

Matt, Its great to hear from you. I was worried about you, and figured it was your mystery illness that was keeping you quiet.

Its awesome that you found time to take a vacation. I hope you continue to feel better.

-Greg (SC)

Anonymous said...

Matt, I was wondering if you heard about PJF passing away and if you had any thoughts on his career. Obviously your work is much more highbrow and better written, but I'm still pretty much in awe of that man's imagination.

BTW, you better not croak before you finish the Barra Saga!

-Eric R.

Nathan said...

Scott hasn't been publicly online much lately. His better half's been around, though. If you can't get in touch with him directly you might enlist her aid. But I suspect he'd answer an e-mail from you.

Anonymous said...

Just bought copies of Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon and Mindor from Amazon. Alongside some Hemmingway, Kafka and a fresh copy of Orlando Innamorato. I'm stoked. Good reading ahead.

Aaron Renfroe said...

Matt - is it Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? If so, I've recently heard of a few "cures" that aren't known by the main stream.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, rare and potentially dangerously experimental "cures." Let us know how those go.

And what you end up using the third arm for. ;)

MWS said...

I've probably tried 'em already.

I have a cluster of related chronic symptoms that don't exactly fit the profile of any specific syndrome. Sometimes it's bad. Sometimes it's not so bad.

Keeping up with my four (!) different prescription pushes me more into the not-so-bad territory . . . but that's about as far as it goes. My doctors have, at this point, decided to try treating my symptoms, rather than guessing at the underlying condition. Since each of these symptoms, when active, seems to aggravate the others, it's a reasonable course of management, and it works well enough to keep me functional.

But sometimes, only barely.