Writing

I suppose half of writing is fighting the revulsion you feel when you sit down to do it.

~ Flannery O'Connor

- - - - -

I like to write. I like the part where everything flows super smoothly and what you have created is complete and you are really satisfied without having to second-guess yourself.

I mean, I would like it if writing was like that.

I still like writing, but it has never been like what I said. However, I'm pretty sure I'd like it if it was like that. Instead you write something and think, "I should find a synonym for 'like' for this blog post."

Motivation

My toxic trait is when I find out someone doesn't like me, I try to make it worse.

~ Sweet Motivation

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Sure there have been people in my life who haven't liked me. I'm not always likable. But that isn't my goal. I sometimes lose sight of my goals, though. Like when my finger gets on the lens while I'm taking a photo. Or when I take a nap. or when I get a spam text.

Anyway, my goal is to try and pet a lot of dogs.

Birds

If you want to, you can find a million reasons to hate life and be angry at the world. Or, if you want to, you could find a million reasons to love life and be happy. Choose wisely. 

~ Carl Welsh

- - - - -

Honestly, I don't have time to find a million reasons for anything right now.

Mushrooms

If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools.

~ Katherine Mansfield

- - - - -

If you have false love, it probably makes your stomach hurt the way toadstools do.

Quiet

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

~ Ram Dass

- - - - -

I like hanging out with Leslie. She is pretty quiet. I am also quiet sometimes. Is it the same as hanging out without her? No. Companionable quiet is a bit better, I think. Unless your companion is the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes. That would not be quiet at all. Even when he isn't spinning around and stuff, he breathes loudly and moistly.

And just to be explicitly clear, Leslie doesn't do that.

Miracles

Want to perform a miracle? Forgive yourself.

~ Rune Lazuli

- - - - -

I think forgiving yourself is indeed a miracle. I mean, its not like turning water into wine or walking on water or raising the dead, but still, it's fine. 

 

Listening

[I am a] book historian who tells students constantly that if they listen to the audiobook, they are literally reading 18th century novels the way the large chunk of the original audience experienced the book. Silent, solitary reading by eye alone is so, so recent!

~ Dr. Emily Friedman

- - - - -

I think audiobooks are fine. They are just like real books. Some are good and some are not good. Which is just like people. Some are good and some are not good. Which is like my blog posts. Some are good are some are not good. And if my blog ever gets made into an audiobook, this post will have come full circle.

 

Art

Art isn't in the tools, material, and equipment that you use. It's in the way you see the world.

~ Rick Rubin

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I have probably posted about this before, but it is important enough to me that I want to post about it again now. I hate it when I take a nice photo and someone says, "That's a nice photo. What kind of camera do you have?"

I always tell them, "Art isn't in the tools, material, and equipment you use. It's in the way you see the world. Your photos are rubbish because of your outlook, not because of your camera."

No one every asks me that same question twice.

 

Balls

Problem is, y'all got league dreams with backyard work ethic. And your parents applaud it.

~ Dawn Staley

- - - - -

You know, if you can juggle croquet balls, you can juggle anything. At least anything the approximately same size and shape as croquet balls.

Beauty

I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be a shadow.

~ Sylvia Plath

- - - - -

I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be a dog.

Toy

Dogs need to play.

~ Kong web site

- - - - -

Truth.

 

Integrity

If it is not right, do not do it.

If it is not true, do not say it.

~ Marcus Aurelius

- - - - - -

I did a treasure hunt thing for Zak one time. I hid clues and he had to follow the clues to get to the end. Along the way there were treasures for him to collect. I put one of the clues in the refrigerator along with $2. Zak took the clue and then put the $2 back in the refrigerator.

I'm not sure if that was integrity or something different - like foolishness. 

(pause)

I'm going to pretend it was integrity.

 

Tools

It's okay if you aren't quire sure how to implement all the tools, techniques, and words of wisdom you've been reading about yet.

~ Lis Olivera

- - - - -

I started using tools when I was pretty small. My dad was a carpenter and he showed me how to use different tools. I remember pulling nails out of boards so we could reuse the wood. I didn't learn to use all the tools he had and I certainly didn't learn to use tools as well as he could use them.

I also learned it takes a lot fewer tools to break something than to build something. Sometimes it takes no tools at all to break something. Like someone's heart. Or a sweat. Or the Guinness World Record for hot dog eating.

Anyway, tools.

 

Hearts

What happens when people open their hearts?

They get better.

~ Haruki Murakami

- - - - -

It's good to have an open heart. It makes you a better friend, partner, parent, grandparent.

It's also good to have open heart surgery if you need that. It makes you better. In a different way, but still...

 

Garage

I sat in a garage and invented the future.

~ Steve Jobs

- - - - -

Last December we got new garage doors. The light on my side hadn't worked for months and then the door on my side started popping out of the track. We were able to fix it a couple of times, but finally decided that we needed to replace the doors. 

I had looked online to try and fix the light when it first quit working and I found a model by the same name from 1974. There wasn't a manual online. The garage door guy said that since our doors didn't have sensors they had to be older than 1993 or 1994 when those were first required for garage doors.

Leslie thought I was weird for being so excited about the garage doors, but I was. I love them. They look nice and they work. But I reflected some more on why I was so excited and why she didn't think it was a big deal. I realized she didn't care that much because her door didn't pop off the tracks on the light on her side never quit working. 

Sheesh, Leslie.

Vegetables

The normal food of man is vegetable.

~ Charles Darwin

- - - - -

I call this "deconstructed salsa".

Potatoes

We must row in whatever boat we find ourselves in.

~ Christie Watson

- - - - -

Apparently most potatoes do not float unless they are in salt water. If you are going to make a potato boat, it is best if that is something you're going to use on the ocean. Or in Utah.

Employees

Washing your hands of something requires soap.

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

- - - - -

Some employees really don't like being told what to do.

Shadow

Come back. Even as a shadow. Even as a dream.

~ Euripides

- - - - -

When we return after an absence - well, let's be honest - people are really lucky to get to see us.

Smells

Each day has a color and a smell.

~ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

- - - - -

The other day I had an idea for a brand of candles called "Common Scents" and the smells of the candles would be things like exhaust, pizza, dirty diaper, and other things you might smell on a regular basis. Then I did some research and realized there are already a number of companies using "Common Scents." 

That is logical now that I think about it.

 

Chickens

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

~ Samuel Butler

- - - - -

According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, today's chickens are likely a result of breeding between red junglefowl and gray junglefowl. Also, chickens became widespread because of their meat and eggs and the fact that they don't compete with humans, (and also because of cockfighting). 

Also, I would watch a competition between humans and chickens - sprints, Scrabble, standardized testing, whatever (but I would not watch cockfighting).

 

Desk

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

~ Anais Nin

- - - - -

Sometimes the things on my desk just crack me up. Sometimes I crack up things on my desk. Usually when I knock them off of my desk.

Perfection

If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.

~ Leo Tolstoy

- - - - - 

One time I wrote a blog post about being afraid of people seeing our perfections. I meant to type "imperfections," and I went in and changed it. But then I thought about it and maybe I am a bit worried about people knowing how perfect I am, too. Then they'll expect things from me. And who wants that?! 

Bert

Yes, I DO mind.

~ Bert

- - - - -

I think a good activity would be for resident assistants who work with students in residence halls to draft a roommate agreement for Bert and Ernie.

Mountains

Mountains are the beginning and end of all natural scenery. 

- John Ruskin

- - - - -

I like seeing mountains in the distance. They are beautiful and majestic. I hate it when mountains run up close to you, though. I mean, how do they do that?!

Performance

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. 

~ Thomas Merton

- - - - -

Leslie is one of my favorite people. How can you not enjoy being around someone who so enjoys being?

Clouds

Clouds suit my mood just fine.

~ Marie Lu

- - - - -

Without clouds in the sky, what would meteorologists do?

Fortune

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

~ Hermann Hesse

- - - - -

I got up early one morning, did my morning routine and saw there was one last fortune cookie on the bread box. I thought, "I can start my day and see what the universe has in store for me." 

The fortune cookie was empty.

I could have thought, "The universe has nothing in store for me." Or I could have thought, "There is no limit to what the universe has in store for me." What I actually thought was, "I wish I had opened this fortune cookie second to last so there was still a cookie with a fortune in it."

Mail

Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though 

the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, 

and even when it does it can be lost so easily.

~ Lemony Snickett

- - - - -

This is what is known as a "helpful list of resources":

 

Because

There would be no "Just because" or unjust because.

~ Barbara Kingsolver

- - - - -

A year ago today we had a cool day for summer. The high was 79 degrees. I was having a rough day, though I'm not sure why. And then I had a revelation. Autumn would arrive again. 

And then I was okay.

(pause)

I also had a glass of water. That helped, too.

 

Objects

Try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, "Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow," and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you.

~ Claud Monet

- - - - -

I am at an age where I can forget objects without even trying. I guess that mens I'd be great at art.
 

Pounce

You have to be ready to pounce when a rare chance comes.

~ Susie Wolff

- - - - -

There's too much jumping and not enough pouncing if you ask me. Pounce sounds playful and fun. Jumping sounds exhausting or scary. Unless you're jumping on a trampoline. That doesn't sound too scary. Unless you're jumping with a friend who is holding a pitchfork.

 

Confetti

8-year-old: Do you want me to throw the confetti in my pocket?

Mom: No not in the car! Why do you have confetti in your pocket?

8-year-old: It's emergency confetti, I carry it everywhere in case there is good news.

~ Ana the Distracted Gardener

- - - - -

Confetti comes from the Latin conficere which means "put together" and later, also Latin, confectum - "something prepared." In this case, the 8-year-old in the conversation above is really embracing the Latin roots of confetti. Way to go, 8-year-old.

 

Looking

We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.

~ Louise Gluck

- - - - -

This is Ezra. He is looking down on the rest of us.

That's just how he is.

Art

Flattery and criticism go down the same drain.

~ Georgia O'Keefe

- - - - -

When you make art, don't worry about what other people say. Just make the art. 

(pause)

Unless you're trying to sell it. Then what other people say might matter. But it probably shouldn't.

Wait. I didn't mean art. I meant methamphetamine. And also I meant, don't make that stuff. 

 

Thermometer

When you're hot, you're hot.

When you're not, you're not.

~ Jerry Reed

- - - - -

Oh those great thermometer trading pin days. 

(pause)

I do not remember those days at all.

 

Wander

A person does not grow from the ground like a vine or a tree, one is not part of a plot of land. Mankind has legs so it can wander.

~ Roman Payne

- - - - - 

It is important to remember that plants actually can wander. Like the genus Tradescantia. Or Socrateo exhorriza the walking palm in South American rain forests. 

I say remember as if you or I either one knew about that plant before and are just recalling the information. You know we were clueless about it until this post. 

Trolling

To live is to war with trolls.

~ Henrik Ibsen

- - - - -

I have someone (former student, fan, troll, etc.) who enjoys periodically sending me things related to Nicolas Cage. I have gotten candles, pillow covers, a wooden spoon engraved with Cage's image, and lots of other things. I also got a bunch of Cage-related stickers. 

While the person responsible for this has never come forward, I suspect I know the person (or people) who are responsible. Last year for Halloween I sent them this card. And as I type this today, I realize that I am in sort of a "Cage match" with this nemesis. 

Sometimes this sort of engagement is harmful or threatening, sometimes it is fun. I choose fun.