Oh, this is sad news:
Harold Ramis, ‘Ghostbuster’ Actor And ‘Groundhog Day’ Director, Dies : The Two-Way : NPR
Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’
Harold Ramis Dies…
Posted in Entertainment, tagged artists, Caddyshack, death, entertainment, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, Thoughts on February 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Inspirational TED Talks for Writers
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, creativity, Fiction, fun, inspiration, Motivation, storytelling, TED talks, Thoughts, Writers, writing on February 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.
—Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Perhaps your weekend will be spent climbing Everest or solving cold fusion, but if you plan to spend at least some time facing down a blank page in an effort to write, the following TED talks may be of some use. This collection comes to us via Aerogramme Writers’ Studio and includes a variety of topics and speakers:
- Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
- Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion
- Andrew Stanton: The Clues to a Great Story
- Lisa Bu: How Books Can Open Your Mind
- Amy Tan: Where Does Creativity Hide?
- Billy Collins: Everyday Moments, Caught in Time
- Elif Shafak: The Politics of Fiction
- Joe Sabia: The Technology of Storytelling
- Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius
- Tracy Chevalier: Finding the Story Inside the Painting
- Jarred McGinnis: Writing is the Only Magic I Still Believe In
- Julian Friedmann: The Mystery of Storytelling
- John Green: The Paper Town Academy
I featured #9 in a previous post but there are a dozen other talks too. A baker’s dozen. … Hmm, baking… Perhaps I’ll make something tasty to go along with the above educational material. Because, cookies. Butterscotch ripple cookies, even:)
Beauty
Posted in Likes, tagged beautiful, inspiration, nature, pictures, snow, Thoughts, winter on February 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Oh look, it’s snowing again, and I realize that I’m on the edge of what I’m calling Snow-Related Stockholm Syndrome. When I start to enjoy the fact that I’m buried under feet of the white stuff, it’s time for a change of scenery. Today, I give you Zion National Park.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, finishing, inspiration, Michael Faraday, quotes, Thoughts, work, writing on February 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Not Today
Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged creativity, funny, impostor syndrome, The Onion, Thoughts, work, writing on February 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The Onion does it again, succinctly summing up what so many of us have felt at one time or another in hilarious fashion.
Report: Today The Day They Find Out You’re A Fraud
While experts agree you’ve been remarkably successful so far at keeping up the ruse that you’re a capable, worthwhile individual, a new report out this week indicates that today is the day they finally figure out you’re a complete and utter fraud.
…
“They’re all on to you,” the report continues. “You do understand that, don’t you?”
Whatever, impostor syndrome, I’ve got work to do.
Trigger Points, for Writers and Knitters
Posted in Likes, Other, Writing, tagged knitting, RSI, Thoughts, tools, Writers on January 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »
I got into knitting a while ago and loved it (making things, yay:), so much that I would keep working even when my hands, wrists, and shoulders asked to stop. Then they forced me to stop, and decided they would make typing a challenge too. Obviously, Something Had to be Done.
My issues are well controlled now that I’ve cut back on knitting, but I do sometimes need to massage a muscle knot. I use a tennis ball or a frozen lime against a wall to target trigger points in my back, but because pain can be referred from the real problem area, getting just the right spot can be a bit of a challenge.
Enter this handy interactive trigger point map, which I found quite useful for my shoulder issues. Once I figured out that the pain actually originated from a point two inches to the right, the situation improved dramatically. If you have similar problems, I hope you find this tool helpful. Because writing, to paraphrase my grandmother’s comments on old age, is not for sissies.
Try, Try Again
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, failure, inspiration, progress, quotes, Samuel Beckett, success, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, yay on January 29, 2014| 1 Comment »
Some of you will have seen this poem, but I fielded a question about it recently and wanted to revisit what is a sometimes painful yet ultimately encouraging truth:
Ever tried.Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.
—Samuel Beckett
Not “stop trying.” Not “don’t fail.” Fail better. It’s a sentiment close to the heart of many writers:)
It Takes a Snow Plow
Posted in Likes, tagged home, o canada, public health, responsibility, snow, Thoughts, urban living, winter on January 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »
A City truck is outside, parked next to the fire hydrant. The hydrant has a long arm attached to it, one that goes up every Fall and comes down in the Spring, so workers and fire fighters can find it even in snow. That’s not good enough, though, not up here where ploughs pile drifts that can be my height or more, and so this worker is outside in −25C weather, digging out the hydrant.
This is my neighborhood, it’s my house, and it’s my hydrant. If I have a fire, or one of my neighbors does, that’s the hydrant we’ll need to put it out. The City takes care of it, just as they take care of the sidewalks. Cute little plows buzz up and down the walkways after a storm, pushing aside snow and spraying ice melt as they go, keeping the pavement clear for pedestrians. I love that.
Every other place I’ve lived, clearing sidewalks is the homeowner’s responsibility. That’s all well and good except for the years I spent climbing over and sliding through other people’s lack thereof. Responsibility, I mean, snow was in abundance. The danger of twisted ankles, sprained wrists, shattered hips, all because someone didn’t do their shoveling. Here, keeping pedestrians healthy and on their feet is considered a public good, benefiting all, and as such is taken care of by the City.
My tax dollars at work, and I’m all for it.
A Season in the Show
Posted in Writing, tagged artists, creativity, Fiction, john scalzi, Motivation, sff, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 20, 2014|
John Scalzi has a nice piece up today with encouraging words about persistence in writing… I particularly like this bit:
Who knows what will happen tomorrow.
Will you, as a writer, become like George RR Martin? Probably not. But you might find your own measure of success, so long as you keep showing up.
This last weekend I had an enjoyable time at the Confusion convention, which is no surprise, as I usually do — it’s one of the reasons I’ve gone back to it now for nine years running. I mostly hung out in the bar and talked to writers, doing the usual combination of business talk and complete idiocy, as writers generally do at conventions when they chat with each other.
One evening I talked to a couple of different authors about writing careers and the ups and downs careers have, and how from time to time we’re all filled with frustration with them, especially during a downturn. We all want to be on award lists; we all want to have bestsellers. If those things don’t happen we can wonder if what we’re doing matters much at all. As we were talking about it I came up with a metaphor which I…
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