My son Mr. Cynic made his internet debut. He made this for a group AP History project. He wrote the songs, he acted, etc. The first song is a snippet of a prior project about, if I recall correctly, the Spanish Armada. The guys included it for a laugh from the class.
Can a mother be more proud of the musicality and creativity of her child? I don't think so. I am soaring. Except that typo in some of the print stuff, but that must be one of the other kids. ;)
It's on youtube. Go ahead and share.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
weekword prompt: synesthesia
Joye at Joyefulart chose this week's prompt: synesthesia:‘the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.• the poetic description of a sense impression in terms of another sense, as in “a loud perfume” or “an icy voice.”
My initial thought was yay! Perfect for a poem, which is my first love in writing, and the second was, holy crap what a week I have lined up, and then other things threw themselves into it, but still others dropped away.
Isn't it something how the Universe can so easily realign according to need? Well, I still need it to line up a bit lighter. The cold I have been ignoring/battling since mid last week has hit me full force. I am at the end of anything resembling inspiration. Still, I want to take a stab at synesthesia, because it is what informs my sensibility as a writer. Get it? Sense-ibility.
a tortured luncheon screams from my schedule
as my throat chafes.
my sinuses blanket a mask in my face
too close for comfort, it strangles my eyeballs.
The wintery air crisps my fingers
and the grasses grow furry frost.
Eh, not so great, but better than nothing. Not sure I really got that sense of the opposing sense in my descriptions. Okay, time for me to steam out my head in hot shower. But that's my result after being too busy and my health crashing because of it.
Please click on the link at Joyefulart at the top of this post to see many more wonderful participants' tasty arts.
My initial thought was yay! Perfect for a poem, which is my first love in writing, and the second was, holy crap what a week I have lined up, and then other things threw themselves into it, but still others dropped away.
Isn't it something how the Universe can so easily realign according to need? Well, I still need it to line up a bit lighter. The cold I have been ignoring/battling since mid last week has hit me full force. I am at the end of anything resembling inspiration. Still, I want to take a stab at synesthesia, because it is what informs my sensibility as a writer. Get it? Sense-ibility.
a tortured luncheon screams from my schedule
as my throat chafes.
my sinuses blanket a mask in my face
too close for comfort, it strangles my eyeballs.
The wintery air crisps my fingers
and the grasses grow furry frost.
Eh, not so great, but better than nothing. Not sure I really got that sense of the opposing sense in my descriptions. Okay, time for me to steam out my head in hot shower. But that's my result after being too busy and my health crashing because of it.
Please click on the link at Joyefulart at the top of this post to see many more wonderful participants' tasty arts.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
list it tuesday: writers
Can you guess what is on my mind?
Addendum: I forgot to mention , if you click on the colorful block that says List it Tuesday in my right margin, you can see many more fascinating lists throughout the blogosphere, starting with Aimee's and then read through her comments to find the others.
Monday, December 6, 2010
new favorite thing
Please forgive me if my sentences make no sense today. I had a cahrazy weekend, which included Honey's birthday, on which I barely saw him. It was a good weekend, a celebratory weekend, but I have been having a cold coming on for a few days, and I think it hit me full force today, when I can finally rest, while catching up and critiquing two manuscripts for tomorrow's writing group, that is. How's that for a run-on?
Oh, and for some unknown reason, Captain Comic has decided that somewhere between 3am and 4:30am is primo wakeup and run back and forth with lights on and doors slamming time.
Anyway, in time for the December challenge, one of my old writing friends from my Boston days turned me on to a new writing tool. It works like Julie Cameron's Morning Pages from The Artist's Way, but it's online. It's typed. It's private, and you can let your mind wander for 750 words, the equivalent of three pages. And you don't have to find that notebook or pen. I think most of us are sitting in front of a screen these days anyway, right? And it gives me a community of people who are also writing, whether or not I make any more of a connection beyond just knowing they are out there somewhere doing the same thing.
http://750words.com/
I am a horrible typist. It takes me about twenty minutes per day to meet the 750, averaging about 35-40 words a minute. all typos are left in place. I try not to go back and correct. I don't think about what I'm writing, I just let the garbage fall out of my brain through my fingers tips and up onto the screen.
Usually about three quarters of the way in, I hit my stride and there's at least a phrase if not an idea that I like or that I can work with in something else, later.
Here's the thing:
When the boys were younger, and I was single and working three part time jobs to support them, when I woke up in the morning, I put the baby gate across the kitchen doorway of our little condo, got the coffee started, and while it brewed, I started my morning pages with pen and notebook amidst the dulcet tones of Captain Comic hanging on the opposite side of the gate, rattling it and screaming for my attention, Mr. Cynic momming me, and the themes of Blues Clues or Bob the Builder running from the tv in the background. After a few months, they got that I was not going to give them the time of day during "Mommy's morning pages"
And that's when I started writing my almost finished editing this draft manuscript - later in the day, somewhere between job number one and the first school bus arrival, I had thirty minutes in which I wrote the first thirty or so pages of this book. But I was only productive on that if I had been productive earlier by getting through the mess of my daily concerns to hit the subconscious, where the better writing sprung from, like an underground spring of fresh water. First I had to clear away the mud.
So why have I not been writing or editing what I really want to be working on lately?
I think the key is in these morning pages. I think it's in getting the garbage out of my head. It only takes me twenty minutes, so why not? Here I am, doing it online. And this site has some interesting tools to help you see what mood you're writing in, for instance. Or what words you repeat, or what senses you are using, and how dominantly you write in one over another. It also has a healthy dose of competition that fuels some of us to write. For me it's much needed accountability.
I highly recommend it.
http://750words.com/
C'mon....you know you want to.
Oh, and for some unknown reason, Captain Comic has decided that somewhere between 3am and 4:30am is primo wakeup and run back and forth with lights on and doors slamming time.
Anyway, in time for the December challenge, one of my old writing friends from my Boston days turned me on to a new writing tool. It works like Julie Cameron's Morning Pages from The Artist's Way, but it's online. It's typed. It's private, and you can let your mind wander for 750 words, the equivalent of three pages. And you don't have to find that notebook or pen. I think most of us are sitting in front of a screen these days anyway, right? And it gives me a community of people who are also writing, whether or not I make any more of a connection beyond just knowing they are out there somewhere doing the same thing.
http://750words.com/
I am a horrible typist. It takes me about twenty minutes per day to meet the 750, averaging about 35-40 words a minute. all typos are left in place. I try not to go back and correct. I don't think about what I'm writing, I just let the garbage fall out of my brain through my fingers tips and up onto the screen.
Usually about three quarters of the way in, I hit my stride and there's at least a phrase if not an idea that I like or that I can work with in something else, later.
Here's the thing:
When the boys were younger, and I was single and working three part time jobs to support them, when I woke up in the morning, I put the baby gate across the kitchen doorway of our little condo, got the coffee started, and while it brewed, I started my morning pages with pen and notebook amidst the dulcet tones of Captain Comic hanging on the opposite side of the gate, rattling it and screaming for my attention, Mr. Cynic momming me, and the themes of Blues Clues or Bob the Builder running from the tv in the background. After a few months, they got that I was not going to give them the time of day during "Mommy's morning pages"
And that's when I started writing my almost finished editing this draft manuscript - later in the day, somewhere between job number one and the first school bus arrival, I had thirty minutes in which I wrote the first thirty or so pages of this book. But I was only productive on that if I had been productive earlier by getting through the mess of my daily concerns to hit the subconscious, where the better writing sprung from, like an underground spring of fresh water. First I had to clear away the mud.
So why have I not been writing or editing what I really want to be working on lately?
I think the key is in these morning pages. I think it's in getting the garbage out of my head. It only takes me twenty minutes, so why not? Here I am, doing it online. And this site has some interesting tools to help you see what mood you're writing in, for instance. Or what words you repeat, or what senses you are using, and how dominantly you write in one over another. It also has a healthy dose of competition that fuels some of us to write. For me it's much needed accountability.
I highly recommend it.
http://750words.com/
C'mon....you know you want to.
Friday, December 3, 2010
weekword results: pyrophoric
My Pyrophoric entry is a lot of little sparks. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, or month really, very hard to focus on one thing well.
1. A week before Thanksgiving, a cousin of mine passed. I was too far away to get to her funeral, but I will always remember how she sparkled. She spent decades crippled by Rheumatoid Arthritis and then Multiple Sclerosis to boot. But she never complained of her pain or even showed it, though she was pretty much curled up in a little ball. She always smiled, asked how you were, and had a twinkle in her eye.
2. My girl Toots, sparks my heart several times a day, everyday. She has a twinkle in her eye, too.
Please see what else Pyrophoric sparked for the many creative people below:
Carmen at Tails of a Biomouse
Joye at Joyefulart
Maria at Simply Cool Stuff
Christine E-E at Silver Linings 4 ME
Sally at Diario
Sally at Sow and Sew
Enjoy!
On Monday, please go to Joyefulart to find out the next Weekword prompt. Joye is hosting next!
1. A week before Thanksgiving, a cousin of mine passed. I was too far away to get to her funeral, but I will always remember how she sparkled. She spent decades crippled by Rheumatoid Arthritis and then Multiple Sclerosis to boot. But she never complained of her pain or even showed it, though she was pretty much curled up in a little ball. She always smiled, asked how you were, and had a twinkle in her eye.
2. My girl Toots, sparks my heart several times a day, everyday. She has a twinkle in her eye, too.
3. Captain Comic sparks a laugh from me, or several, everyday. There is no way to know what spark of the way he thinks will come shooting out of his mouth like a firecracker.
4. Mr. Cynic and I both love turning the lights out and chomping on Wint-O-Green Lifesavers to watch them spark....hmmmm, I should go pick some up. It's been quite a while.
5. When I see my Honey, after a long day of him away at the office, he still sparks a little something in me. It's a chemical reaction.
Carmen at Tails of a Biomouse
Joye at Joyefulart
Maria at Simply Cool Stuff
Christine E-E at Silver Linings 4 ME
Sally at Diario
Sally at Sow and Sew
Enjoy!
On Monday, please go to Joyefulart to find out the next Weekword prompt. Joye is hosting next!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
convo at the stop light
Mom: Stop doing that with your glasses! You'll hurt your eyes!
Captain Comic: Well, I think it's time for for me to get new glasses.
Mom: Your right. That's coming soon. We'll get your eyes checked and you'll get new glasses.
Capt. Comic: Well, I hope when I do I'll be able to see stuff really clearly - like a car scratch from 300 feet away.
Mom: That won't happen, because you're NOT AN EAGLE! (laughing)
Capt. Comic (laughs, suddenly stops): Well, I wish I was.
Captain Comic: Well, I think it's time for for me to get new glasses.
Mom: Your right. That's coming soon. We'll get your eyes checked and you'll get new glasses.
Capt. Comic: Well, I hope when I do I'll be able to see stuff really clearly - like a car scratch from 300 feet away.
Mom: That won't happen, because you're NOT AN EAGLE! (laughing)
Capt. Comic (laughs, suddenly stops): Well, I wish I was.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
walk across america for pancreatic cancer
BJ Timoner is one of the first people I met when I arrived on my college campus a hundred years ago. At the time, he was very welcoming, and made me much more at ease in my new surroundings. He is going to walk from San Diego to New York starting on Christmas Day, December 25, 2010. He is doing this to raise funding for pancreatic cancer research through The Lustgarten Foundation.
BJ lost his father at the age of five to this disease which still does not have early detection testing. When someone is diagnosed it is generally already too late. BJ is just reaching his father's age of passing, 41, and decided to do what he could so that future families will not have to live the life his family did, without the presence of a parent or other loving family member.
Pancreatic cancer comes in fourth in the statistics of cancer fatalities.
Fourth, people. That is too big to not have early detection tests available. By now, through the success of other cancer tests, for prostrate, colon and breast cancers for instance, we know that early detection is the monumental key to treatment and therefore survival of formerly guaranteed to be fatal cancers.
Please, friends, go to his website:
http://www.bjwalksamerica.com/
to learn a little more and to donate. Every dollar goes to research only, none to support his endeavor or him personally. Remember, even if you barely have enough to get by during this Holiday Season, even a little bit from each of us can go a long way together.
Thank you.
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