Much Nothing About Ados · 27 August 2007
It’s not that I’ve got nothing to write about. It’s that once again school has started and limited my time, so I thought I’d write a brief synopsis of the things that have caught my attention in the last week.
Tis deeds must win the prize
I found out that Gather.com is having an American Idol style elimination contest for prospective romance novel authors. It started August 21, 2007 and the submission deadline is September 18, 2007. The writing selections with the most votes advance, so interested people should get their creative juices flowing and post as soon as possible.
Now, romance isn’t normally my genre, but I thought about entering (until I found out about the contest which was announced as “coming soon” had actually already started) and that spawned all sorts of inspirational gems, one of which has already birthed 1600 words. I’ll be keeping an eye on this contest and hoping the next round is science-fiction/fantasy based.
Then, I was given the go-ahead at work to redo the company website ASAP. This has led to a few low-sleep nights as I’ve been trying to put together a design and get it up and running without much content.
Of course, there’s the normal spattering of homework assignments. The picture below is one in progress as I test the limits of my graphical skills in order to set up the foundation for my project website.
A Rose by Any Other Name?
I did manage to make the rounds of the blogosphere mid-week last week and tried to be a conscientious commenter on the blogs that I read. One thing that I’ve noticed is that those of us blog participants with common names (raises hand) have a conundrum. How do we identify ourselves in comments?
To some extent, I want my comments to be an extension of this blog, of the online footprint that I leave in the virtual world. I want people to be able to look at my comments and realize who I am in other words. I’ve been considering changing the name I use to post comments in response.
I notice that other authors with common names use the name of their blog as part of their name. I’ve done this once of twice, but I’m loathe to do it on a blog where the blog owner doesn’t know me because I don’t want it to appear that I’m only commenting for self-promotion.
Other commenters choose to use a pseudonym that’s their blogging author name. I’ve got 2 pseudonyms that I’m quite fond of (Fortrix Enigma and Chanalix) but they’re more part of my gaming and personal lives than of my online lives and they usually don’t tie back into the content and discussions that I’m commenting on.
Still other commenters use their last initial to distinguish their name. I think this works out well for people with unique enough name/initial combinations, but mine would be Kim S., which to my ear sounds incredibly generic and not nearly eye catching enough.
In conclusion, I haven’t come to a conclusion, and will probably be signing comments the more mundane “Kim” until I’ve made my decision.
To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
I’ve already made an update to my R.I.P. Challenge list. Since my ankle is still healing, my date-night walks have been temporarily transformed into date-night Barnes and Noble visits. On the most recent, I found a copy of Vampires: The Greatest Stories. It caught my eye because of Jane Yolen’s name, so I turned it over to find there are also stories written by Philp K. Dick and Dan Simmons who are both authors I’ve been meaning to read as well as Roger Zelazny who is one of the first science-fiction authors I’ve ever read.
Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he's worth, to season.
I know, I owe you the content I was teasing you about last week. I’ll still be posting reviews of Tipperary. I’ve taken so long, I may even be able to use carrots from my garden in the carrot soup I’ll be making to go along with the feature!
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Living in Oblivion – Musing About The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf · 11 June 2007
“People probably took Ruby for the artist, because she looked so dreamy, but people were fools. For while Ruby was merely dreamy, Flo was observant. Well, observant and patient, Helle amended.” - Helle Ten Brix from The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf
Two weeks ago, as you may recall, I went shopping for Saffron and experienced sticker shock.
I don’t normally think of myself as the oblivious type, but I’ve come to realize that I’ve got the tendency to focus on what will lead me towards the solution that I want. I must have shopped for spices dozens of times in my life and never noticed that Saffron was exorbitantly expensive.
At some times this can be a great trait. With the amount of information constantly bombarding the senses, it’s imperative that we learn to filter out the unimportant stuff. I think the first time I was consciously aware of this as a survival trait was when I was learning to drive. It didn’t take me long to figure out that an overall impression of the drivers around me was a much safer perspective than an in depth study of the one driver next to me.
Other times though, I wonder if I’m protecting myself from my tendency to woolgather and if, in growing up and focusing on the “relevant” facts, I’ve lost a bit of my ability to meander and daydream in a creative capacity. If left to my own devices, I could easily spend an eternity browsing book titles, spice aisles, bins of grain, paperclip museums, you name it. My ability to become entranced by minutia could easily subsume my ability to function as a “normal” adult, and so I’ve toned it down.
Yet, every so often, I have to stop and remind myself to take a few moments to look at the world and really “see” it. I’ll stop what I’m doing, and instead of thinking about my emails or the stack of paperwork sitting in my inbox, I’ll simply concentrate on something. It’s amazing how the simple act of really looking at an object can cause you to notice it, and doubly amazing to comprehend the level of detail that our brain automatically omits for us.
Reading The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf reminded me of this exercise. It put me in the mood to be creative. I worked out the kinks in my Tiny Stories, and submitted the final version to Carl for the Once Upon a Time Tiny Story contest as a result. It’s also gave me a haunting feeling and caused me to dream dreams that were art and images I wish I could remember in my waking hours. Hopefully my subconscious has a laxer filter on it than my conscious mind, and eventually those thoughts will percolate through and unwittingly into some of my work in the coming weeks.
So inspired, I was planning to make a stunning, observant-artsy meal, prompted by this quote by Helle in The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf,
Here, she said, handing me a bag or oranges. They needed to be peeled, the white outer fiber pared away, the flesh sliced from between the membranes. No seeds. Did I think I could do it? Because they had to be perfect, these crescents of bright orange deployed here and there among the white slices of smoked turkey. It had taken her three days to get the turkey just right, and she didn’t want the effect ruined by sloppily sectioned oranges.
But when it comes down to it, I’m not very crafty. I mangled two perfectly fine apples attempting to make an apple bird, and when I had stuffed myself on the evidence of my artistic shortcomings, I didn’t have the stomach space to try out alternate recipes.
Then, I remembered my visualization exercises. Why not simply photograph the apple as it is? I arranged one of the survivors with some fresh cherries and went out to practice my photography (one of my ongoing goals is to improve the quality of pictures on this site). As you can see, I ended up including a lot of detail that had nothing to do with the apple, perhaps food for future creative inspiration. And, in one of the pictures, I received a surprise; my cat had successfully stalked me and snuck into the picture without me being aware of her, so involved was I in the picture taking.
Sometimes, there are distinct advantages to being a bit oblivious, you let the unexpected slip in and astonish you, never losing your sense of wonder. Sometimes, there are distinct disadvantages. It’s a delicate balance, and one I continue to struggle with as I juggle my many goals in life.
Apple,
Creative Cooking,
The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf
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