My Filco Keyboard
So today’s daily prompt is another exhortation to write whatever comes to mind for ten minutes.
Our weekly free-write is back: take ten minutes — no pauses! — to write about anything, unfiltered and unedited. You can then publish the post as-is, or edit a bit first — your call.
(I’m not going to do an edit. Just fix spelling and egregious grammatical errors.)
Continue reading
Spaghetti Bolognese
So Today’s assignment from Writing 101:
Tell us about your favorite childhood meal — the one that was always a treat, that meant “celebration,” — or that comforted you and has deep roots in your memory.
Spaghetti Bolognese! I have memories from even an early age of eating Spaghetti Bolognese.
The sauce cooking in the old, square, stainless steel electric frypan, the big black controller sticking out with the knob on top to adjust the heat. The battered lid that only just fit (and at that, not terribly tightly).
The smells come back so strongly as I sit here writing forty to fifty years after that cooking. First the strong, stringent smell of onions being chopped. Tomatoes being chopped, or canned ones opened, don’t have a smell that lingers through the years. Onions, green capsicum and beef mince searing on the hot frypan, those I remember. The colour of the onion changing as it softens, the capsicum curling with the heat before the pink mince hits the sizzling pan and is quickly broken up by the wooden spoon as the colour changes to dark brown.
Hugo Weaving In Macbeth© Sydney Theatre Company
Who’s the most interesting person (or people) you’ve met this year?
Our stories are inevitably linked to the people around us. We are social creatures: from the family members and friends who’ve known us since childhood, to the coworkers, service providers, and strangers who populate our world (and, at times, leave an unexpected mark on us).
The most interesting person I’ve met so far this year. Well if we have a loose definition of ‘met’ then earlier this year I went to my first Sydney Theatre Company Pier Group Lunch.
These are organised by the STC Pier Group as a fundraiser. You get a nice lunch (at the Bar at the End of the Wharf), a glass of wine and a chance to talk to some of the creative people involved in one of the STC productions. I think they have four a year. This one was the ‘Macbeth’ lunch and I had a chance to listen to Andrew Upton, director Kip Williams, Melita Jurisic (who played Lady Macbeth) and Hugo Weaving (Macbeth himself).
Found
It was stuck on the wet concrete. A small piece of card. I picked it up.
Peter,
Always
Alice
A token of love that touched my heart, brightened my day and banished clouds.
Who? Why? When? just didn’t matter. Accept and move on.
(An assignment from Writing101.)
Related Links
A welcoming room and table.
We’re all drawn to certain places. If you had the power to get somewhere — anywhere — where would you go right now? For your twist, focus on building a setting description.
If you could zoom through space in the speed of light, what place would you go to right now?
I am such a pedant and a grammar nazi. My first thought when I read today’s Writing101 assignment was “it’s at the speed of light, not in the speed of light.” (That’s why I find it hard to write and post fast — everything has to be checked and rechecked.)
I think today I’d like to go to my brother’s dining room. It’s the first room at the front of his house and has my sister-in-law’s kitchen right behind it. After that you get the back door.
So my Writing101 assignment for today, the first day of the course, is to spend 20 minutes writing anything that comes into my head.
Of course the moment you start that the brain goes almost totally blank. What shall I write about? Will it be readable?
Writing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was just reading an incredibly interesting web page about a new sort of guitar cable – an analogue optical guitar cable.
The company that has developed it is getting ready for the NAMM show – the biggest music industry trade show of the year. I’d say they are looking for a company to manufacture the cable under license.
They have certainly spent some money on developing the product they even have patents pending so they probably hired a patent attorney. They spent some money on a promotional video. They have a well designed logo and the product looks well designed.
I also assume that even a small booth at NAMM costs a fair bit. The two original inventors have also expanded the team.
The one thing they haven’t spent money on is a technical writer for their web page. The errors in grammar and sentence construction are one thing but I suspect that the person who wrote it may not have English as their first language – there is some strange word misuse such as “resolve” for “resolution” or “solution”.
Halloween (Photo credit: Pedro J. Ferreira)
Today’s Daily Prompt: “If bloggers had their own Halloween and could go from blog to blog collecting “treats,” what would your blog hand out?”
Treats? My first thought was ‘hugs’. Of course I can’t hand out real hugs and virtual ones aren’t that useful.
How about uplifting aphorisms? That’s a nice idea. Sayings like “Everyone is a talented and valuable individual in their own way” or “You can do it, just try.”
A beautiful photo they can use. Here’s a search on Flickr for photos that are Creative Commons and tagged interesting. I could try and figure out how to give them a URL and copy to one of the first 50 at random.
How about handing out a little bit of what your blog focusses on? One of my topics is explaining how major depression really feels and how it differs from “sad”, “feeling down” or “feeling depressed”. I could take my posts and shorten them into one or two hundred word nuggets and give one to every trick or treater.
I know what I’d really like to do. I’d like to give each visitor a random post and ask them to rate it. I really want to know which of my posts people like the best and then offer them both the old good ones and more of the same when they first visit. But that’s more for me.
Creative and enabling thoughts. Brian Eno has a great collection of creativity triggers called “Oblique Strategies” so I could hand one of those out to every visitor. You can get one now by visiting this site. Mine was “Do the washing up”. I have the box set, the fifth edition is available at Eno’s shop for a reasonable 30 pounds.
Then I’m also a lover of good grammar and words. I could collect together a long list of hints and hand one out to each visitor. How to sort out “to” and “too” or “they’re” and “their” might be a start. Then hints from my old editors like “Replace ‘very’ – it adds nothing.”
I think either of those last two. Something small and useful.
Bill Clinton talking at TED conference 2007. He won TED Prize 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today’s Daily Prompt: “If one experience or life change results from you writing your blog, what would you like it to be?”
The heart of today’s question is what is the one life change I’d like at the moment. I have a whole list of them but the chances of this blog triggering most of them is slim at best.
Falling in love would probably be at the top of my list, I’m a romantic and always enjoy being in love, not to mention that when you’re suffering depression one of the nicest things to get is a good cuddle – makes you feel much better.
A full time job would be nice. At the moment I’m making do with short jobs for old colleagues and past customers but something more stable and lucrative would be nice.
I don’t think either is a likely result of my writing here.
I write here because I enjoy it, I find writing a relaxing pursuit. I also find it helps with my depression to let some of the thoughts inside my head out and onto the screen. So I don’t do it to change anything or gain a life experience.
That said if someone from TED was to read my posts about depression and invite me to talk I wouldn’t say no. That would be an amazing life experience, giving a TED talk.
Of course everyone who writes would love a book contract so I would be over the moon if some publisher reading this blog was to decide to offer me one.
But let’s inject some more reality. Neither of those is likely to happen. How about a more likely outcome?
The life experience that I’d like from writing this blog is to strike up a conversation with my readers. I really enjoy every comment I get here and would love to hear more from you. If you are prompted by one of my posts to write a few sentences I’d enjoy reading them. If you don’t want to make a public comment then feel free to drop me a note at tonyw at honestpuck dot com.
(Photo credit: Colin 30d)
Love Is A Journey Love is a pilgrimage. Love is a pledge to The journey. Love is Love of the journey. Love falters when one does Not commit, commit To keep on course and Do the work required. Immediate or Effortless is not love. Love is a final Choice, not a default. You may know it is Ahead and begin The trek but not know What the voyage will hold. Can you find the track, Can you stay the course? When you falter can you Find the way to love? Look for a beacon To guide you, shining From my hard working Heart to show the way.
Tony's Texts 