Life in progress

Category Archives: Just Jot it January


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JusJoJan 14 – How Can I Kill Thee…?

The first thing that comes to mind is the Black Plague, though it was hardly the worst case of mass death in the world. Genghis Khan is reported here, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1350272/Genghis-Khan-killed-people-forests-grew-carbon-levels-dropped.html to have killed as many as 40 million people. Thousands die in any given year from natural disasters as well. But technology is working to change all that.

Science has come up with ways to keep people alive in the face of disease, improved warfare and methods of gaining information have been designed to ensure Hilter never happens again, and warning systems are being developed to alert people to get out of the way of impending doom due to tornadoes, tsunamis and the like. So how do we keep the population of the world down now?

Through the very same technology that claims it is trying to help us. Pharmaceutical companies provide us with life-saving drugs which only kill us in other ways, and pesticides to make our “quality of life” better in that we can enjoy our food more. Cell phones – the best way yet to receive information – are apparently giving us brain tumors. So what’s left? War, of course. Government-run, huge conglomeration-funded wars. And who wins in all of this?

The rich bastards whose gain comes from our hides.

Now watch this. It’s beautiful.

Nature happens, with or without us – but are we making it better with technology? Or are we simply allowing a certain few to stand upon a pedestal and dictate to us who we should be and how we should live our lives?

But, you say, there’s only so much we can do, isn’t there? Even if we overthrow our governments, more of the same will replace them. If we refuse to buy the products sold by the huge corporations, how do we live?

To know ourselves, to care for ourselves and each other is a good way to start. From our immediate families and outward, to our communities and our countries. We have to realize that everyone and everything on the planet is equal. We are all connected – the Earth is its own organism, just as each of our bodies are. Imagine how it would be if we were all self-aware. Not self-centered, not self-involved, but so aware of ourselves and how we affect those around us that we could do so for the sake of good.

If you haven’t watched the video by this point, go back and do it. It’s eleven minutes and eighteen seconds’ worth of footage everyone should hear.
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 Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!

1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!


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JusJoJan 13 – What Blogging has Taught Me About Subtracting

From this:

With the door closed it was very quiet in the room apart from the sound of birds cooing. Herman went to the window in search of the source. A line of tall, thick trees at the perimeter of a vast lawn surrounded the house. Daffodils and tulips poked up through the soil as close to the house as she could see without putting her forehead against the glass. Beyond the garden a cobblestone walkway, wide enough for two people to stroll side by side wound it’s way past a patio sat off to the left. To the right was a small brick building with six or eight sides, she couldn’t really tell from her vantage point. It was made of the same colour brick as the house and had many small windows near the top. It looked to be about two stories high. A shed, or a coop perhaps. She turned her back to the window see if the room appeared as domestically normal as the garden. The walls were paneled with dark wood and the furniture was antique, upholstered with red velvet. Along one wall, to her right, either side of the door hung pictures of landscapes rather than family portraits. The wall opposite the door was covered in fragrantly old books. A computer with a the large flat screen perched upon a heavy ancient-looking desk was the only evidence that she hadn’t stepped back in time.

To this:

The sound of birds cooing beckoned Herman to the window in search of the source. A protective line of tall, thick pines stood like sentries around at the perimeter of a vast lawn, and daffodils and tulips poked their heads up through the soil as close to the house as she could see. Beyond the flower garden a cobblestone walkway, wide enough for two people to stroll side by side wound it’s way past a patio off to the left. To the right stood a small red brick building with six or eight sides and a dozen small windows near the top that reflected the gloomy April sky. A shed, or a coop perhaps. She turned her back on the peaceful scenery outside, to see if the room appeared as domestically serene as the garden. The dark paneled walls were adorned either with painted landscapes or covered in bookshelves containing fragrantly old books, lending the student in her warm comfort. A computer with a the large flat screen perched upon a heavy ancient-looking desk was the only evidence that she hadn’t stepped back in time.

Above is first the original NaNo 2011 version of the beginning of Chapter 5 of my manuscript, and second is what I edited it down to this morning. What do you think?

I see this as the result of two years writing experience and endless blog posts which have forced me to write to be publicly read. I see this as the result of two very wonderful people who have critiqued my work and told me in no uncertain terms that I have to put the character in my descriptions. (Thank you so much, Janice and Connie. Honest critique is the most valuable thing a writer can receive.)

In all, I see the second version as something that a publisher might actually look at. But that was one paragraph out of 524 pages.

Back to work!

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JusJoJan 12 – Stream-of-Consciousness Weekend

Weekends alone are never long enough so I decided this one was going to be dedicated to that which I have no chance to do during the week or when the kids are here: I worked on my manuscript to the exclusion of all else. My bum is numb from sitting in one spot and my neck aches and it feels great to have made it a third of the way through this stack of papers which now have scribbles on each one of the ones I’ve been through. I still have so much work to do! But I figured if I didn’t start, I’ll never end.

My internet-free weekend has been freeing, in a way. No checking every few minutes to see if I have comments, even though I haven’t been anywhere at all. Aside from my JusJoJan 11 post on my fiction blog last night (and I was feeling it, let me tell you) the only thing that has been going on.. and on and on on my laptop are Buck-Tick videos. They are who I write to and Sakurai Atsushi is who inspires me to write my main character – Stephen.

So that’s it. I have to hit the publish button now before I’m tempted to edit.  I think I may do a stream-of consciousness post once a week. What did you think?

 

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Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!

1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!


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JusJoJan 10 – Lazy Blogging

When I started this blog, I did so with the intention of writing well thought out, succinct, and grammatically perfect articles. They would all be of a decent length as well as entertaining, informative, and interesting. I would write to impress potential employers who would be so wowed by my writing skills that, after reading any given post, they would be standing in line waiting to throw money at me.

Apart from the fact that I haven’t actually applied for a job anywhere yet, I seem to have failed. I’ve become lazy. My posts are getting shorter and shorter, and surely having a goal of “jotting” something down every day doesn’t help me on my quest to achieve greatness with every article.

I’ve fallen into the trap of writing what gets read most often on WordPress – 500 or less words. “Less is more” has become my mantra, and conciseness my overlord. So while I might be getting better at stating my thoughts in short, sharp, crispy little pieces, my personal goal has gone by the wayside.

It’s not that I don’t put a fair bit of thought into my blog posts: most of them anyway. Yes, I’m guilty of just posting what I’m thinking at times, like last night while I was staring, drooling over a picture of a white sandy beach. But for the rest of them, I try to come up with something my followers will want to read.

But this concise writing is habit forming. I find that if I do try to write more, it ends up rambling. Then I edit it to make it sound good and, well, it ends up shorter every time.

It’s ironic in a way, that behind the scenes I’m trying to cut an originally 214K word manuscript down to a more reasonable 140K, and here on my blog I’m whining about not being able to write enough in one article, isn’t it? Perhaps that’s my problem. I’m getting into the habit everywhere.  Maybe I should post the clumps of text on my blog that I scoop out of my novel!

Wow, is this article ever going downhill fast.

To conclude, I’ve decided I need to do something about this. I’m going to try to write a more professional-sounding article once a week that’s between 600-800 words in length. I’m hesitant to commit to a certain day of the week, though maybe having a deadline will help. If I’m ever going to write professionally, it’s a habit I need to get into.

That way maybe I won’t feel as guilty about writing the occasional one-liner with a picture of a beach.

 

 
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Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!

1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.
3. Write anything!
4. Have fun!

 


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JusJoJan 9 – Power Outage Paranoia

It was 5:37pm last night. I had just finished my dinner and settled Alex in front of the computer. I breezed into the kitchen to retrieve a glass of wine (because that’s how I move about my house – if I’m not breezing, I’m flitting. Unless I’m tired, in which case I trudge) when the lights flickered and …poof!

I said a bad word. Then I put my wine glass down on the counter and went back to get a screaming Alex out of the computer room. (Yes, I have a computer room. It used to be a bedroom, but six bedrooms seemed to be overkill.)

After I felt around for the barbecue lighter in the cupboard, and lit a couple of candles, I checked out my front window. Exactly what I thought: no rain, no snow, no wind … no reason for a power outage. But there I was on a dark street but for the soft glow shining through my neighbour’s curtains – they too had lit candles.

When I looked out my back window on the other hand, my back door neighbour’s house was lit up like a Christmas tree. I could see them looking out of their back window and I could imagine them saying, Oh look, that entire street is out of power! Then they probably poured themselves a nice steaming cup of coffee from their electrically charged coffeemaker and proceeded to laugh at my powerless plight.

Meanwhile, Alex was getting restless. You should have played a game with him! you’re all saying to yourselves. But I had other fish to fry. Or would have, had my stove been working. My cell phone was fully functional however. My next door neighbour seemed to be in a panic, texting me things like OMG and The power’s out! I asked her if she was okay, and if she’d like to come over but she assured me she was fine. Oddly enough, she texted me for the entire hour and a half that the power was out and then abandoned me to other pursuits as soon as it came back on. (If you’re reading this, Nancy, you’re the best neighbour I’ve ever had! Let’s do coffee soon!)

Forgotten by Nancy, I found my other son, Chris emerging from his room where had surely been shivering under the covers – he hates the dark. He announced that although the lights were back on, he would forgo his shower and take it in the morning instead.

You never know when the power’s going to go out, after all.

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Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!

1. It’s never too late to join in, since the “Jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from the sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. If you write a JusJoJan post on your blog, you can ping it back to the above link to make sure everyone participating knows where to find it.

3. Write anything!

4. Have fun!


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JusJoJan 8 – What Facebook Keeps Teaching Me

If Facebook is good for nothing else, it’s an excellent way to have motivational sayings come across your desk every once in a while. I’ve seen this one a few times before, but with my birthday coming up it made me think. Contemplate life, even.

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It’s so easy to fall into the psychological trap of mourning one’s youth. As the years pass we find we’re not able to do the same things we used to, both physically and mentally. We wake up in the morning with new aches and pains, we find gray hairs in places we never imagined would go gray, and skin wrinkling in places reserved in our minds only for someone’s grandparent. Yet one thing is true – if you’re reading this, you’re alive, no matter how old you are.

Whether or not you consider this a privilege, it is what it is. You are alive now and have the potential, for at least another little while, to affect someone else’s life. I may just be affecting yours as I write this.

I think if I could leave behind any legacy at all, it would be to remind people of this: our shared human experiences and our emotions know no cultural nor religious boundaries, and each and every one of us has the ability to affect another of our species. So be good to one another.

We’re all connected, if by nothing more than Facebook, and by nothing less than being human.

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JusJoJan 7 – Antsy

In true “Jot It” style, I’m jotting this down on Monday to be posted on Tuesday. With any luck I won’t be feeling it by the time this goes live, but after a little over two months of not pounding away at any major work of fiction, I’m getting squiggly to get writing.

What does getting squiggly mean, you ask? It means that the pads of my fingers are starting to tingle for the keyboard, I have the shadows of psychologically unsound characters swimming around in my head, and I have voices gurgling in unknown languages, reverberating in my ear drums.

It’s pretty crazy in here.

Before you run away and never revisit this crazy lady’s blog, tell me what kind of symptoms you experience when you want to write something but lack the opportunity. Come on! Join the crazy!

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JusJoJan 6 – Vacations Are Fun

I’m at a crossroads, of sorts, in regards to my son, Alex, and his behaviour. Keeping in mind that it’s 5:46am and I’ve had two hours of sleep all night, I’m writing this here as both a way to get it in black and white so I can see the problem from a different perspective, and to put the conundrum out there in hopes that someone else has gone through something similar. My hopes aren’t too high.

First, the history: To say that Alex has a hard time making decisions is a gross understatement. When trying to choose, for instance, between staying home to play a game or come with me to the grocery store, he’ll change his mind at least a dozen times. He’ll get dressed and then completely undressed; he’ll whine, cry, scratch his head a lot – it’s utter torture. I have, however, reduced it from a half hour ordeal to, “I’m leaving, if you want to come with me, be ready before I walk out the door.” As a result the process now only takes five minutes.

He also suffers with the occasional insomnia, and for the past week he’s been combining the lack of decision-making skills with lack of sleep. The fact that there are two single beds in his room has never been a problem before. When my mother comes to visit on the weekends, she sleeps in his room and he’s quite happy with that deal. Only for a week now he can’t decide which bed he wants to sleep in. At approximately 2:30 every morning since before New Year’s Eve, he’s been doing the whining, crying, head-scratching routine. It’s torture for both of us, and it goes on for a couple of hours each night. I tried hanging a calendar in his room and striking up a deal with him that he sleeps one month in one bed and the next in the other. That worked for one night – coincidentally it was the same night he didn’t have a choice because Nanny was in the other bed.

So. I’m faced with a dilemma. Do I go to all the trouble of taking the extra bed out of his room?

On the surface it seems to be the logical thing to do.

Except: there is still the communication barrier thing going on. Not being completely fluent in my own son’s language – American Sign Language – I never really completely know if he understands the consequences of his actions before they happen. It’s always that one word I’m missing: “If you don’t get ready now, I’m leaving without you.” I will temporarily lose from my addled brain the sign for ‘without.’ Or, “If you don’t stay in one bed all night, I’m going to move the other bed out.” Is he getting that I’m going to move the bed? Or does he think I’m going to let him sleep in another room? Even if I turn the sentence around and keep it positive, I have the same problem. Aside from sleeping in his room, which is exactly what he wants me to do and will ensure that I’ll never sleep in my own bed again, I can’t keep him in bed at night. In the past I’ve been able to demonstrate what I mean. Like during the period when he decided to turn the television on in his room at 2am. I tried to explain to him that if he didn’t leave it off I’d take it out of the room, and when that didn’t work, I took it out of the room. He got it after that. Moving a bed, box spring and mattress down four flights of stairs is a rather more difficult undertaking.

So, my next thought was, tip the bed on its side and leave it where it is. Only that would be an all new brand of hell for my little darling and his OCD.

I know I need to ask his school for help. At this point his teacher is already practically living my life for me in regards to making sure he does as he’s told at home. They, unlike me, know how to explain things to him in no uncertain terms. It’s easy to see how vacations from school become nightmares at home.

Before you ask, there is no support for hearing parents to learn sign language for their Deaf children in the area.

Oh, and I just found out there’s no school today because of flash freezing. Oh joy.

Any suggestions, hugs, or paid-in-full Caribbean vacations can be left in the comment box and will be gratefully received.

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JusJoJan 5 – Keeping It Together

I can always tell when my youngest son, Alex, is ready to go back to school after having time off – his behaviour is intolerable. Right now I’m trying to ignore him while he plays a game on his Wii U and screams and claps louder than one would think is humanly possible. The alternative is to shut him in his room until tomorrow morning, in which case he won’t get the nutrition he needs because he’ll unplug his feeding pump.

If tomorrow is a snow day I may just kill something.

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JusJoJan 4 – I Spy

“I spy with my little eye…”

It started out with colours, when I was a small child and progressed to “…something that begins with…” a letter of the alphabet when I was old enough to spell. It was a great way to pass the time on long drives.

I have since graduated from that delightful little game however. Sure, I played it with the kids when they were little. But around the time when my eldest son was born, my ex and I started playing another game in the car. The first one to guess the name of the band playing the song on the radio got a point. The game would start when we got in the car and wouldn’t end until we arrived at our destination. New trip, new game.

Since then I’ve started playing it with my eldest. At nineteen years of age, he’s almost able to beat me, especially when the music is of the newer variety. It’s taught him to appreciate the music that is the same age as he is and older, which is great as far as I’m concerned. I thank heaven to this day he’s never been interested in rap – possibly because of years of listening to his dad and I play “The Game.” It’s amazing how far a little competition can go.

When was the last time you played a silly game with your family and/or friends, and what was it? Let’s have some fun today, and teach each other a game or two!

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