My Inner Author

As this year winds down, and I for one will not be sad to see 2013 in the rearview mirror, a new year once again offers the chance for such promise, for a year better than the one just past, and the opportunity to better ourselves, the lives of others and the world as a whole.  Many resolutions will be made, and most of them will be self-centric (things like losing weight and being more fit come to mind).  Indeed, I saw someone once proclaim January 1 as National Unrealistic Fitness and Weight Loss Expectations Day.  By and large, these are good ideals and certainly as always, I will hope all of my friends who make such resolutions are able to attain their goals in 2014.  But most of our resolutions don't address the world as a whole, or even our community.  Probably because we all feel we are just one person, just one voice and in a country of over 300 million, well, what real difference can we hope to make?  Well, it all starts somewhere, so I am going ...

Oh, it is nice to take another break from trying to write fiction and write something which flows easily from brain to words.  Today's bit of fun comes courtesy of the Alabama-Texas A&M football game yesterday.  As I watched the game, like so many college football fans, I am stunned into jaw dropping often by the play of Johnny Manziel (aka Johnny Football-JF).  I am constantly amazed at how elusive he is and how he just makes things happen seemingly by simply being present.  As a coach however, I am also rendered nearly brain dead from all the face palms and shaking my head at how absolutely awful his mechanics are.  He makes Tim Tebow look fundamentally sound.  Yes, I just typed that. The kid really should go to Vegas and let it ride.  With the unholy amount of luck he has on a football field, he should be a billionaire in Vegas by the end of the season.  No less than 8 times yesterday I saw a play which should never have resulted in a pos...

Well, typing one-handed stinks, but I am longing to get some practice writing, so I want to post something.   I haven't been blogging so much lately since I have finally gotten the compulsion to write a story, science fiction of course, and for once Donna doesn't find the whole idea behind it to be too dark or depressing.   Heh!   So, I am very much trying to make that work.   However, it is a much slower process than blogging and I simply have missed the art of writing about stuff or things I have some knowledge about, rather than having to not only write well, but imagine everything that goes into such writing.   Much more slow going a process. So, sorry anyone reading this, you are just going to get a brief journal on my recent rotator cuff surgery.   Anyone facing such a circumstance can at least read about someone else who's been through it.   How did I tear it?   I honestly don't know for certain.   It could have been 13 mo...

I had been intending to blog about a specific topic, but so far, I have been unable to really get to where I want to be on it before I post anything, so as a writing exercise which might possibly generate one comment from someone, somewhere, I thought I would take some random questions, discussions and such I have seen online over the years, or heard people wonder about before and just post some of the questions here with my answers to them.   I would welcome other's answers, it could be fun and informative.   However, since readership is likely to be miniscule, I will just enjoy the writing exercise and anything else is gravy.   I did put a real eye opener in here, so, let's see what we get. What is a creative way or two at making other people's days better? For me it has been simply calling people by their name, especially in restaurants and other service industry environments (grocery store, retail stores, etc) and even at work.   There are others I hav...

I saw a link online where they discussed the idea of casting a JJ Abrams reboot of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  After pondering some of the people they discussed, I chose to take it upon myself to try and choose my own choices for the roles.  I tried to imagine what I would do with a reboot and choose accordingly.  In many cases, I struggled to make a clear choice, I had several candidates.  The one certain casting which I think is absolutely perfect is Jon Hamm from Mad Men as Commander William Riker. He fits the bill of being handsome, a bit unstable, and can rock the beard. So, feel free to contribute your own ideas and choices. Without further adieu: Captain Jean Luc Picard - Ben Kinsley or Stanley Tucci  Sir Ben would be almost perfect I think.   Commander William Riker - Jon Hamm  Just perfect.   Counselor Troi - Morena Baccarin Morena, known well in the SciFi genre for Firefly, Stargate...

Today is July 4, 2013.   The 237th anniversary of the day our nation declared to mother England, our freedom from their rule.   We usually celebrate such an occasion with barbeques and fireworks.   Today in Tallahassee though, city officials cancelled the big celebration at Tom Brown Park due to the torrential rains and thunderstorms which have pounded our fair city for the past few days, with the rain stretching back over a week.   I agree with their decision, after all, if it is storming again tonight, we sure don't need thousands of people out in it.   And there is another part of me which finds it ironic and perhaps appropriate the celebration be cancelled.   You see, those folks in 1776, they were more free then, than we are now.   Today we talk of freedom as though it is overflowing in abundance, and yet the sad fact of the matter is, it is dying.   Oh, some of you just rolled your eyes and said in your head, there he goes again. ...

For many years I have long admired the wisdom, the advice, the unique visions of the world and the future offered by so many wonderful people during commencement speeches year in and year out.  Indeed, some offer standard clichés and slogans, but some offer such profound insight into the world which we live and advice on how to succeed in it that I wonder, why don’t we hear these speeches more often?  Why stop with graduations?  Good, solid, practical life advice should always be welcome in our society.  Indeed our world actually surrounds us with some great ‘learning moments’ but in the hustle and bustle of our lives, sometimes we don’t even realize it.   Everyone had help.  Einstein would not have been Einstein without his parents helping to make sure he went to school and got an education.  Einstein had teachers, peers, friends, and they all played a part in shaping the man who would forever alter the world of science. Wisdom...

I honestly don't know exactly where this idea came from, I think it happened while I was stuck at the red light at Weems and Mahan for the 37,894,434th time in 37,894,436 times trying to go through the intersection.  The city of Tallahassee traffic engineering office simply cannot program this light to work in sequence with rush hour traffic period.  Or any hour traffic really.  Anyhow, I digress, I had this crazy idea to update Dante's Inferno for new 21st century sins and trespasses of life.  So, I did.  I sat down, tried to think them through and I changed a few around the way I would if I were dreaming it up, which I was in a way.  I left only 1 open for now, I need to ponder that one more.  If anyone wants to tweak the ideas or add one of their own, feel free.  I just needed to do some writing exercises and this flowed easily from brain to the virtual page.  It is a first draft, so forgive me if it isn't the best.  I just thought ...