Feeding Frenzy
We just got back from an extended weekend in southern Texas visiting my parents. Snowbirds since they retired about 8 years ago, the first few years they would migrate to Florida for the winters. The last few though have been to Texas. Enjoying the lifestyle more in Texas, last year they bought a home and plan to take up permanent residence in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV as it is referred to there). We always enjoyed going to see them in January or February, when winters are coldest in Dallas Texas. read more…
Wildlife Invades Addison
I came home today to find the back patio a bit out of sorts. We have an outdoor black cat, Captain Janeway, and in the winter time provide her with a cat igloo; replete with a heating pad, just next to the patio door. This is all for ‘her’ comfort, mind you. She waits out the long cold north Texas days until spring, and doesn’t do much more than eat really. Well, she keeps our landscaping well fertilized.
Bricolage Exercise
For our next exercise we were to try out Bricolage. Merriam-Webster defines Bricolage as “a French noun, whose definition means “construction (as of a sculpture or a structure of ideas) achieved by using whatever comes to hand”. Think MacGyver!
So for Bricolage, we were given five words and told to chose the one most boring and mundane, and spend five minutes again in a free write. Once more I did a revision afterwards. The choices were: paper clip, piece of gravel, spoon, plastic bag, candy wrapper.
Galumphing Exercise
For our next exercise we were to try out Galumphing. Galump is an intransitive verb, meaning to move with a clumsy heavy tread.
“Anthropologists have found galumphing to be one of the prime talents that characterizes higher life forms. Galumphing is the immaculately rambunctious and seemingly inexhaustible play—ever apparent in puppies, kittens . . . also in young communities and civilizations. Galumphing is the seemingly useless elaboration and ornamentation of activity. It is profligate, excessive, exaggerated, uneconomical. We galumph when we hop instead of walk, when we take the scenic route . . . when we play a game whose rules demand a limitation of our powers.
inserting images into this theme
Just some ramblings tonight. I want to add my work history under the Work category, but in order for me to do so to my satisfaction I need to insert jpg images. So far my results have been less than satisfying. It seems I can either import from my hard drive, in which case the layout breaks; or I can upload the images to the hosted server and then reference, which also breaks the layout.
I’m going to continue to putter around and see what I learn. Stay tuned.
Continuing on the exercise previously posted, we are asked to further flesh out Martha at the bus stop. In this next exercise though, we are to consider such input as: “You left Martha waiting for the bus in a winter storm. The bus has just pulled up. The first person off the bus is Martha’s ex-husband John. “
Now in the assignment I was asked to only write one paragraph. But I made something like a subconscious connection and wrote non-stop for 90 minutes! I deviated in the exercise and the example, as I had Martha go ahead and get on the bus (recall the previous post; Increased distance). This is what I came up with:
Point of View – distance exercises
Our next exercise deals with our Point of View in relation to distance. Are we immediate, 1st person and right on the surface of things? Or are we only close, perhaps observing 1st or 3rd person limited? Or maybe neither, and we are just distant?
In this exercise we are asked to consider the following: Martha waits at a bus stop in a winter storm. And write a paragraph from each perspective listed above. Here is what I came up with -
Point of View samples – Exercise I
In this exercise, we get to try on points of view. The instructions were to write about Sammy as he is playing a baseball game.
Point of View samples – 1st person
This baseball tournament has worn these boys out. The concept is simple; win and play again. And as a team, they are pretty good, since this is their fifth game in two days. If they win this one, they can rest until tomorrow’s championship. If they lose, they also rest until tomorrow. I hope Tom, the coach, has stressed the importance of winning this game to them. He’s a good coach, good man. Trying more than anything to teach the boys the fundamentals at this age, and getting them to practice, practice, practice. I think he’s pretty remarkable how he focuses on each boy because his son Duncan is only about average. Sure, maybe he’ll grow into it, but he just doesn’t focus, and truth be told he’d rather be goofing off or doing more unstructured activities. I’ve seen him over time when he comes over to play with Sammy. He loves to play unstructured games, but Debbie, my wife, says he gets frustrated and cries when Sammy looks to impose some structure or suggests they get out a basketball, football, something sports related. Tom thinks Sammy is a good influence, and maybe he is. I think Duncan is just as good an influence on Sammy. All Sammy thinks about is sports. He’s a damn good catcher and he gets frustrated when he sees something the other boys should be doing on the field but they just don’t as yet see it. Sammy doesn’t understand that, and it’s frustrating to both of us. Tyler just made a mental error by throwing the ball to the base behind the runner. I know Sammy is seething because he just threw his mask down once the pitcher got the ball. Here comes Tom off the bench and he signals for all the infielders to huddle up on the mound. Just get them to focus on this inning, this game Tom. But in this instance, stress winning.
Celebrity look-a-like
In response to Face book’s doppelganger week, I thought I would participate. My friend Frank posted the results of myheritage on his blog, and he had much more impressive results. After going through a half dozen photos, I used the only one that gave me a >60% match: blurry iPhone image. I was speechless with the result. I am honored to look like the Last Lion, and would welcome any stand in opportunities whenever they decide to film another movie about his bio.
The dialoguing technique
I have been dabbling with writing at some form or fashion for decades, and have finally found that I have the luxury of available time which will allow me to pursue this. But having the time is only the beginning. How to best structure this time is, for me crucial.
I wanted to start off the right way, and that in large part has been influenced by the 10,000 hour rule I read about in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. I found it fascinating to learn that all of these incredibly talented people devoted 10,000 hours to crafting what they are so spectacular at.
What that rule means for me is taking a course to refresh my memory of terms and definitions of writing and to provide a starting point where I can develop a routine. Back to the purpose though of this post.
