Oooh, shiny!
If you are at all interested in good writing or genre fiction, check out Stupefying Stories’ “The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology.” The name is a bit of a mouthful but get past that and you are in for a treat. This collection contains 80 short stories by authors eligible for this year’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer award, and all free free free.
Limited time offer, get yours today!
Posted in Writing | Tagged awesome, books, campbell award, free, genre fiction, inspiration, literature, sff, short stories, Writers, writing | Leave a Comment »
photo by Benimoto on Flickr
I’m writing. How’s it going? Not bad, considering. Ann Patchett has a terrific essay called The Getaway Car. One particularly telling passage details her view of writing. While the work is in her head it is perfect, she says, a beautiful, multi-dimensional butterfly in the most magical and vibrant colors. The problem with bringing the story into being is that she has to take that gorgeous creature and smash it onto a black and white page, a two-dimensional and wholly inadequate representation of the original.
It made me laugh and want to cry because I know exactly what she means.
Posted in Writing | Tagged creativity, inspiration, short stories, Thoughts, Writers, writing | 2 Comments »
I know, in internet years Kid President is past retirement age by now. I don’t care. I tried to ignore this video for a whole week but finally broke down, and I’m glad I did. This kid is great, and his message is even better. Watch it. And be awesome.
Posted in Likes, Other | Tagged awesome, creativity, fun, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Videos, yay | 2 Comments »
photo by Jayt74 on Flickr
2012 started well but ended with a bit of a fizzle. And by fizzle I mean a wave of illness, death, and generally unpleasant travel schedules. So apologies for not being around here since the holidays. The good news is that there are still people to care about, there is still useful work to be done, still delicious food to make. Here’s to 2013, eh?
And on that note…
I pride myself on not making resolutions, not at New Year’s, anyway. But here’s the thing: I’m starting to think that maybe I should.
Why? It’s simple, really. Raised by a couple of nontraditional types (they eschewed the “hippie” label but certainly shared some defining characteristics) I generally scoff at traditions. Well, not Christmas and Easter and watching Star Wars with giant bowls of popcorn, obviously, but the other stuff. The traditions that seem designed to weigh you down rather than buoy you up, that help you feel like crap when you realize you’ve fallen short.
Honestly, that’s what New Year’s resolutions always seemed like to me: an opportunity to fail and then have to spend the rest of the year wandering around in a haze of guilt, regret, and inadequacy. Like a minor but well-established branch of several major religions I can think of, actually. No thanks, right? True enough, as far as that goes. But if you look at it as a convenient time to check in, to catch up, to re-evaluate or just to ask yourself the questions that generally get lost in all the frantic day-to-day, well. That seems to be something else entirely.
So. I’m still not going to vow to lose ten pounds a week or exercise constantly or only think thoughts worthy of a nun, because that’s never going to happen. I reject the tyranny of “should” and “must.” But I will spend at least a few belated moments checking in, to see if what I wanted last year is the same thing I want now. And if not, then what? Then I have a whole new year to figure out what comes next.
Posted in Other | Tagged inspiration, January, New Year, resolutions, Thoughts | 1 Comment »
Indiana Jones Mystery Package
Indiana Jones Mystery Package
via UChicago College Admissions, Indiana Jones Mystery Package
They don’t know who or why, exactly, but someone sent a near-exact replica of Abner Ravenwood’s journal to “Henry Walton Jones, Jr.” This is where I admit I did not know or never remembered his middle name. It is also where I say that this is absolutely awesome. Perhaps only a movie/word/maker geek would appreciate such a thing, but I am one and I most certainly do.
Posted in Other | Leave a Comment »
50,624 words.
That is all!
/crawls off to collapse in a corner somewhere, then remembers all the other work she has to do; feels pretty terrific anyway:)
Posted in Writing | Tagged awesome, creativity, nanowrimo, work, writing | 2 Comments »
Now this is cool.
You may not know, gentle reader, that yours truly spent some time in Tucson, but they had nothing as out and out awesome as this back then. Ok, the Sonoran Desert is pretty spectacular, but we’re talking human crafted for the nonce.
This machine reminds me of a fair in Somerville, Massachusetts. It was the sort of festival where people in bright colors and face paint close down streets and act happily silly, with art! art! art! everywhere. Most of that art was framed or in plastic sleeves or in display cases. It was a beautiful day, full of cotton candy and bright sun and interesting people. But what I remember most was the truly clever Art-O-Matic* at the Somerville Red Line exit. For a dollar this repurposed soda machine would pop out a random cardboard tube containing art. In my case I got a three-inch tall roll of archival paper with an abstract hand-drawn sketch of feathers. Beautiful. I stood in the subway station with people streaming by and wondered how anyone could pass up an opportunity as effervescent as this.
That’s how art should be, I think. Not up on a distant pedestal, isolated behind velvet ropes. (Ok, obvious exceptions for the Mona Lisa, etc. because people can be jerks. But still.) Easy as buying a Coke.
* Oh look, it’s a thing! Different form factor and a slightly less appealing association (cigarettes and all) but same idea.
Posted in Other | Tagged art vending-machines, arts, awesome, creativity, yay | 1 Comment »
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