It's been a fairly productive writing week for me and I'm temporarily pleased about that. Why does being happy about it never last for long? There's always something else lurking and pushing me along. I guess it's the nature of the writing beast.
I've been having a great time though, discussing economics and politics on one of the internet sites I frequent. Sometimes the people who post there infuriate me and sometimes they amuse me and occasionally they cause me to think about something in a new way. It's easy to become insular when I spend so much time alone. Or maybe that's just my excuse. 'Posting' does take more of my time than it should. Now I've given up one not-so-productive habit and acquired another.
I made my usual Saturday afternoon pigrimage to the free movie at the library. This week it was "Surviving Picasso" and I came away from it wondering how he managed to get all his women (and I use his advisedly) to subsume themselves in his life. I guess it was his enormous talent, his ego and his magnetic sexuality/personality. Damn, I wish I could find a magnet that would do that. Sometimes it would be just peachy to have someone at my beck and call so that I could commune with my muse.
But then I wouldn't be able to send them away when I wanted to work. Conscience I suppose and the blessing and curse, the ability to know how someone else feels. I doubt that Picasso cared about how anyone felt. It simply didn't matter. I detest a lot of his work and he was a monster in some respects but Guernica will stand and perhaps that's his legacy to the world.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Friday, May 20, 2005
"Ready to Serve"
One of our local supermarkets uses the slogan "Ready to Serve." Well, so am I. It could happen at any moment. I looked in my closet to see of my Superheroine cape was still there and I found it. I can't locate my magic wand yet but it must be around here someplace.
What prompts me to get ready? I received an e-mail from a dear friend I used to work with at a certain Community Centre. It seems that a lot of staff are going to be away on the long weekend and I have been named as a back-up management person. This nonsense has given me a huge laugh, because I left the job I had there due to political shenannigans four years ago. It seems that I have not been forgotten and so I'm searching for my cape and my wand.
Mind you, I may have to lend it to Belinda Stronach. She might need a new image, an identity fix if you like, now that she has become a Liberal. It's more than odd, but I have a small sneaking sympathy for her. Maybe because I butted heads with people in power and failed to conince them I was right, or should I say correct, since I lean to the left. Or maybe my sympathy is evoked because she has been called such horrible things. Eventually we'll find out what her motives are but in the meantime I think I believe her.
What prompts me to get ready? I received an e-mail from a dear friend I used to work with at a certain Community Centre. It seems that a lot of staff are going to be away on the long weekend and I have been named as a back-up management person. This nonsense has given me a huge laugh, because I left the job I had there due to political shenannigans four years ago. It seems that I have not been forgotten and so I'm searching for my cape and my wand.
Mind you, I may have to lend it to Belinda Stronach. She might need a new image, an identity fix if you like, now that she has become a Liberal. It's more than odd, but I have a small sneaking sympathy for her. Maybe because I butted heads with people in power and failed to conince them I was right, or should I say correct, since I lean to the left. Or maybe my sympathy is evoked because she has been called such horrible things. Eventually we'll find out what her motives are but in the meantime I think I believe her.
Monday, May 16, 2005
JEOPARDY!- Alex,. I'm Leaving You.
It's all my friend R.'s fault. Once upon a time, I didn't watch the television program "Jeopardy" with any regularity, but now, I'm hooked on it. And not because I know most of the answers, I don't. In fact, watching it makes me realize there are great gaps in my knowledge of geography, history, sports (especially sports) Americana and probably every other category too.
This evening, there was a match to determine the last person who will be in the "Ultimate Tournament of Champiions" (yes Ken Jennings will appear too). The runaway winner of the quiz I just watched was an American writer. He seemed to know so much about so many categories, and I was left with the question - When does the man write? Not to mention, though I will, what the heck does he read aside from all the factual stuff he must have read. Maybe he's one of those people who has a visual memory and everything he's ever read is stored in his video brain.
My grandson is somewhat like that - once he's read a fact, he always remembers it and he can quote it almost verbatim. As for me, perhaps my memory is something like a giant pudding of mixed up things, a trifle. Because I can remember both large events and small ones if they happened at a significant time in my own life. If they didn't; I couldn't tell you much.
Once the "Ultimate Tournament of Champions" is over will the program go off the air? I don't imagine so, but it will in my house. Spring is trying to get here. It made a brief appearance but didn't sign the contract. It will be back for another round of negotiations, but I'm not signing the next watch Jeopardy contract. I'm giving it up, right after the tournament is over so that I can make friends with spring. I promise.
After all, acording to the interesting quiz my friend Lori sent me, I'm a Cultural Creative person by nature.
http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=23320
The test said I'm
Cultural Creative 88%
Post Modern 81%
Idealist 63%
Romanticist 63%
Existentialist 50%
Modernist 50%
Materialist 38%
Fundamentalist 13%
And therefore, I should spend more time being Creative, with a capital 'C.' I did the test twice. Why not? I'm a Cancer and we like to try things more than once. Both times it came out 88% Cultural Creative. Ah! if only these tests ensured anything.
This evening, there was a match to determine the last person who will be in the "Ultimate Tournament of Champiions" (yes Ken Jennings will appear too). The runaway winner of the quiz I just watched was an American writer. He seemed to know so much about so many categories, and I was left with the question - When does the man write? Not to mention, though I will, what the heck does he read aside from all the factual stuff he must have read. Maybe he's one of those people who has a visual memory and everything he's ever read is stored in his video brain.
My grandson is somewhat like that - once he's read a fact, he always remembers it and he can quote it almost verbatim. As for me, perhaps my memory is something like a giant pudding of mixed up things, a trifle. Because I can remember both large events and small ones if they happened at a significant time in my own life. If they didn't; I couldn't tell you much.
Once the "Ultimate Tournament of Champions" is over will the program go off the air? I don't imagine so, but it will in my house. Spring is trying to get here. It made a brief appearance but didn't sign the contract. It will be back for another round of negotiations, but I'm not signing the next watch Jeopardy contract. I'm giving it up, right after the tournament is over so that I can make friends with spring. I promise.
After all, acording to the interesting quiz my friend Lori sent me, I'm a Cultural Creative person by nature.
http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=23320
The test said I'm
Cultural Creative 88%
Post Modern 81%
Idealist 63%
Romanticist 63%
Existentialist 50%
Modernist 50%
Materialist 38%
Fundamentalist 13%
And therefore, I should spend more time being Creative, with a capital 'C.' I did the test twice. Why not? I'm a Cancer and we like to try things more than once. Both times it came out 88% Cultural Creative. Ah! if only these tests ensured anything.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Seesaw Margie Daw
Is it the effect of spring, or is it something else more insidious? All the federal political shenannigans, all that swinging from political trees to very little effect may be part of what's causing me to be on the seesaw too.
It's been a time of swinging up and down. Starting a story and then leaving it and then tinkering, adding a few wee bits and leaving it in the lurch again.
Theres a bird, a type of thrush I think, somewhere in the trees on a neigbour's property that starts singing at 3 a.m. and does not stop until about 7 a.m. It's confused, like me.
Could it be that what I think is angst about whether I can write fiction that will be good enough to be published is actually only butter withdrawal? I thought I was doing quite well, adjusting to the lack of high cholesterol foods, but then I had a butter dream. Skim milk in my coffee is tolerable, low fat mayo is - well, not the same, but acceptable. but healthy margarine just seems tasteless, like a tacky pop singer trying to sing an aria.
Perhaps I can push up the seesaw with a little positive action.
It's been a time of swinging up and down. Starting a story and then leaving it and then tinkering, adding a few wee bits and leaving it in the lurch again.
Theres a bird, a type of thrush I think, somewhere in the trees on a neigbour's property that starts singing at 3 a.m. and does not stop until about 7 a.m. It's confused, like me.
Could it be that what I think is angst about whether I can write fiction that will be good enough to be published is actually only butter withdrawal? I thought I was doing quite well, adjusting to the lack of high cholesterol foods, but then I had a butter dream. Skim milk in my coffee is tolerable, low fat mayo is - well, not the same, but acceptable. but healthy margarine just seems tasteless, like a tacky pop singer trying to sing an aria.
Perhaps I can push up the seesaw with a little positive action.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
A.S.A. , I Miss You.
A little over a month ago, I finally found medical care here in K-W. Now, I'm a health centre client. I had been on a waiting list at a couple of places since moving here in 2002. Because I hadn't had a complete physical in at least four years, that was the first oder of things.
The nurse practitioner was great and the first appointment was a full hour. She took a very detailed history and set me up for some baseline tests. Okay by me. Read all the destructions, she said. I was sent for a fasting blood sugar test and some other blood tests plus an EKG. The instructions said no food or medication for at least 18 hours before the test.
My left knee has considerable damage, no cartilage, and it's been dislocated numerous times, my right ankle is also wonky (a previous bad sprain and a break) and so I take two regular strength Aspirin at night. Just two mind you. I really missed them. My knees were swollen and cranky the morning of the test. It was late afternoon before I could have anything to eat and I was longing for my Aspirin, but good doobie that I am, I waited until evening. The next set of tests didn't require givng up my dear sweet A.S.A., instead I was squashed and scanned.
Now, there is one more test I have to complete, and I won't put down the somewhat gross details here. Before completing the steps of the test, I have to abstain from aspirin for at least a week. I'm on day five. Acetominiphin is the substitute but it just doesn't do it - I want my A.S.A. back
There's been nothing in my mail box, so the potential for good news still exists. Myabe next week, or the week after that, or ... sometime.
My friend, who is very involved with Caballah tells me that this is a time of little light in the universe. But I'm hopeful that maybe what little light there is will shine in my direction.
In the meantime, A.S.A., I miss you.
The nurse practitioner was great and the first appointment was a full hour. She took a very detailed history and set me up for some baseline tests. Okay by me. Read all the destructions, she said. I was sent for a fasting blood sugar test and some other blood tests plus an EKG. The instructions said no food or medication for at least 18 hours before the test.
My left knee has considerable damage, no cartilage, and it's been dislocated numerous times, my right ankle is also wonky (a previous bad sprain and a break) and so I take two regular strength Aspirin at night. Just two mind you. I really missed them. My knees were swollen and cranky the morning of the test. It was late afternoon before I could have anything to eat and I was longing for my Aspirin, but good doobie that I am, I waited until evening. The next set of tests didn't require givng up my dear sweet A.S.A., instead I was squashed and scanned.
Now, there is one more test I have to complete, and I won't put down the somewhat gross details here. Before completing the steps of the test, I have to abstain from aspirin for at least a week. I'm on day five. Acetominiphin is the substitute but it just doesn't do it - I want my A.S.A. back
There's been nothing in my mail box, so the potential for good news still exists. Myabe next week, or the week after that, or ... sometime.
My friend, who is very involved with Caballah tells me that this is a time of little light in the universe. But I'm hopeful that maybe what little light there is will shine in my direction.
In the meantime, A.S.A., I miss you.
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