ON WHY I BOTHER DOING THIS AT ALL...

Okay - I stumbled upon this blog of mine again today and see that it is indeed viable when I thought for months it was not - so, what to do now? I don't really understand the purpose of blogging for someone like me - I mean is it worthwhile? Is it just a waste of time? Time that would be better spent doing some actual writing, or could this be construed as actual writing? I think it was Natalie Goldman or one of the other writing gurus who said that any writing, even just keeping the pen to the paper and letting rip (or presumably, the fingers on the keys, in the case of those who prefer the computer at times - as I tend to) - any writing, is of value; that it is the doing that is important, not so much the quality, nor the quantity really, but the doing of it. I guess she means that if you get something down and keep at it, you'll eventually start making sense or getting something you want down. Maybe it's akin to priming to pump, or what I always think of as priming the pump. I remember when I was a kid and on the island with Mom and Dad - we didn't have running water there but we did have well-water. However, to get the water to come up in the pump sometimes, I remember you had to pump the handle several times, to "prime" it, and I think sometimes, you even had to pour water down the well - sort of to wet it, maybe remind it what it felt like to be wet maybe? I don't know...I could be wrong - I don't have a really clear memory - just something vague.

        I've spent most of today trying to learn to load the digital picture frame that Katy and Scott gave me for my birthday. My kids seem determined to pull me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Last year it was the iPod nano for music - this year, the picture thingie...ah sigh. I haven't got my shredder up and running yet - maybe later.

         For the first time in a long time, I'm reading a book I can't seem to pull myself away from - "The Hour I First Believed" - Wally Lamb's 600 plus page tomb - is really something. He's had me in tears more than once. I love an author than can take real events, especially tragic ones - in this case the Columbine school shootings - and frame a fictional story around them, trying to make sense of the whole thing. Jodi Picoult does similar things but fictionalizing the whole business. Lamb is actually using the events as they happened with the people who were killed and the people who did the killing - it's absolutely fascinating to relive that time from the vantage point of a fictional person who might have lived through that horrible time...especially in the hands of such a master. It took him almost ten years to write this - I admire such perseverance - is that even a word? I mean, of course, such stick-to-it-tiveness, and I know that's not a word but that's definitely what I mean. Enough of this for now - I'm going to get back to reading that book right now. Later fellow bloggers.

Is This Still A Viable Blog or Not?

I was ready to relinquish this when a whole slew of archival material popped up - now is it mine or not?

The Way I See It - Volume IV

Checking Back In just to say...our election was a waste of time and money; another minority gov't, to the tune of $300 million - what a load of bull-droppings. However, at least it's over. You folks, on the other hand, and by you folks, I mean those of you to the South of our magnificent 49th parallel - you are still hard at it and while Obama looks like a foregone conclusion, no-one ever went broke underestimating the last-minute crazy voting patterns of the American public.

So - have at it y'all - just don't do something you'll end up regretting for the next 4 or 8 years, hear?

There must be more important things to gripe about but I'm tapped out and need to get back to writing a 50,000 word novel in a month (that's a November challenge for the writer-types), plus a poem-a-day within that self-same month. What does self-same mean anyhow? I've always wondered since it sounds fairly redundant...

In any case - another fairly useless phrase - I should get back at whatever it is I should get back at. Later all.

THE WAY I SEE IT - Volume III

So - the stock market is plunging in the U.S., and banks are defaulting and closing faster than family farms (and you know how badly that's been going). We have our tainted meat scandals here in Canada and you guys in the states have all sorts of other scandals - a war over weapons of mass destruction that don't exist, a terrorist that has been on the run for seven plus years and no sign of him, not to mention your financial morass - is it true you're into China for over three trillion bucks? I can't even imagine a pile of crap - I mean money - that high...

And how are folks going to decide, on either side of the border, who to vote for. I mean, there's no question that everyone should vote - let's face it, people fought so we could have this privilege. But - and this is a big but - sometimes, the privilege feels onerous, doesn't it? It's as if you find yourself saying, "I will vote but really, it's just an exercise in futility - it's not going to make any difference - one person can't really make a difference..." and things of this nature.

In other words, we of the entitled class, spoiled, self-indulgent - never having to worry about where our next meal is coming from or any of the basics, for the most part, we are saying basically, that - oh poor us - our lives suck! Because the slate for elections is poor and we don't know who to vote for or why our system is in such a mess. Could it be that we've be come lazy and complacent? Things are just too easy? Hmm? I wonder....

I could be wrong - it's just the way I see it....

Where Have I Been?

That's the thing, isn't it? If you're a writer and you have a blog - then chances are you don't get to your blog very often - or maybe that's just an excuse, huh? I don't know...See lately, things have been going really well. My poetry is starting to get published and I'm thinking seriously about spending more time on my novel. By the same token, I'm committing myself to taking a trip that will use up a large chunk of time and while I think it's necessary - the trip I mean - it worries me that I'm looking for ways to procrastinate, as if I needed to do that. I think I'm beginning to ramble here...better take a break and give this whole blogging thing another think.

Emailing: Ingraham Wedding 08 from Audrey, - Inbox - 'Yahoo! Mail'

Emailing: Ingraham Wedding 08 from Audrey, - Inbox - 'Yahoo! Mail'

ETTC's new and improved Poetry Forms

ETTC's new and improved Poetry Forms