A Cleansing

I’m sometimes amazed at the almost cleansing effect that strong emotion brings about. Case in point, today I had reason to be quite irritated [dare I say angry?] at the postal service. [As in a damaged package they wanted to pass the buck on responsibility for.] But after the adrenaline rush of strong emotion passed, I felt somehow a little more whole.

Why are we, men in particular guilty of hiding or suppressing emotion to the point of boiling. How much fuller, and simpler, would life be if we simply allowed ourselves to feel in small ways instead of waiting until strong emotion overtakes us?

The First Day

What is it about a new year that causes even the best of us to make resolutions we have no desire to follow through after at most a week? How’s about we start making resolutions that stick?

For a few years, I’ve had the desire to do a photo a day project but have as of yet started… that changed today. Take a look at my Flickr photos to the right to see the infant stages of my project.

My other sundry goals are easily followed through on, such as taking better care of my oral health, and improving my shaving regimen. Along with a commitment to blog, not daily per se, but more often than I have in months past. And take a little more time for my writing… see, all very simple and small achievable goals to set down.

Other than these, I’m not promising myself or anyone else delusions of grandeur for 2010.

Suddenly, I Feel cOld

Today, my cousin had her second baby. Scary, I remember when she was in diapers running around scared senseless by the call of the “peacops”.

Sorry, I went for a bit of melodrama with the title. I don’t really feel old, the feeling I’ve felt today is more like fighting off a cold.

In other news, I received my anxiously awaited Dragnet whistle, and ordered a boomerang… It was a good day.

Randy

Getting Hung Up On Nothing

For so long I thought blogging was about well planned, wordy posts spewing out all manner of wisdom. Not so. For me, real, useful blogging can be attained with few words, or maybe even just a link and explanation of why you posted it.

The few blogs I read on a regular basis take advantage of  people’s short attention spans with quick bursts of words, sometimes a few posts a day even, to get the point across.

While I ain’t making no promises of daily post grandeur, I am promising, if only for my own benefit, to posting regularly, even if it’s one word and a picture. If it’s one word and a picture that have meaning, it’s worthwhile.

On that note, I leave you with a first for me, a video inserted into a post.

Try and catch the 50+ visual references other bands in here, it’s fun.

Randy

Where Have I Been?

When it comes to blogging, I tend to get caught up in it for a time, then drift away from my goal of regular posts.

I have every intention of changing this, as I have some ideas for post material.

Should be good, see you soon!

Randy

While You Still Know What Comes Next

The past week I have been writing at a clip unknown to me for many a year. When I was younger, I wrote voraciously, much like my reading habit. But, as our lives sometimes go, I lost sight of my love for writing, sweeping it under the rug of other things. For nearly ten years, it sat dormant. Or so I thought.

In reality, it had been growing steadily over the years. Only, I didn’t have foresight enough to see it.

One of the keys to re-sparking my fuse in terms of writing came from an unexpected source. A trip to a north Florida used book shop. While browsing, I came across a book which later I could kick myself for not buying at the time, Ernest Hemingway On Writing. [A book I suggest any writer take a look at.] After reading Hemingway’s thoughts on writing, and learning a bit about his technique, I actually felt as if I COULD write.. He made it very simple, and I acutally saw some of my writing habits mirrored in his!

I may be debuting some material here in the near future, who knows!

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“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck.” – Ernest Hemingway

“You just have to go on when it is worst and most helpless – there is only one thing to do with a novel and that is to go straight on through to the end of the damn thing.” – Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1929

A Time To Be Small

I really needed to take a bit of time away from most forms of online communication. For the past week, I’ve hardly instant messaged or even logged into my Facebook account. Both of which are normally a daily exercise. Matter of fact, it’s been rather nice not being addicted to social networking.

Instead of whiling away my time online, I’ve had my nose in books and played a few video games.

On the book front, I’ve been refamiliarizing myself with Chesterton [Father Brown in particular], going through Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Also, I finally started Jan Karon’s Light From Heaven, something I’ve shamefully put off since the novel’s release, I suppose that has something to do with being the final chapter to the Mitford series.

In regards to video games, I’m mostly a Nintendo DS person, with a bit of Wii action thrown in. I was addicted to Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure for a bit, but ended up ready to throw it across the room. I picked up The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass a few days ago but can’t seem to get into the thing. On another note, I’m looking forward to several new games in the next two weeks!

Otherwise, I’ve been doing some thinking and plot weaving for several small writing projects I’m about to take on. And when I get in a thinking mode, the best thing for me is to abstain from needless social interaction.

In other news, I finally did give up on Twitter. Some of you know I’ve had a love/hate/malicious attitude toward the blasted thing, so why keep myself irritated only to keep up appearances? I’m much happier since doing so, odd how something like that can create stress due to dislike!

Enough chatter for now! I’ll be back over the weekend with a proper post, but wanted to fill my readers in on my absence!

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“Why spend all your time making someone else’s dream?” – Sondre Lerche [Suffused With Love]

No More Shotgunning

I have a tendency to post, then shortly thereafter wish I had said something differently or had been more eloquent. My Problem?

Shotgunning!

Plain and simple, I get the bones of a thoughtful post down and pull the trigger releasing a spray of words. Instead of simply taking a bit more time to flesh out ideas properly. Instead, my results are oftentimes messy.

In doing this, I not only sell myself short, but do you the reader a disservice. For me blogging is a learning curve, and think I’ve discovered one of my flaws early in the game. Giving me plenty of time to correct for drift.

My new approach will mean a smaller number of posts per week, but in the end should help to produce quality content.

On that note, I’m checking out! Some weird glitch with Twitter has caused my browser to slow and I’ve lost this post twice in the process.. quite frankly, I’m tired of writing it! haha

Until next time,

Randy

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“We all indulge in the strange, pleasant process called thinking, but when it comes to saying what we think, then how little we are able to convey!” – Virginia Woolf

Why I Do The Things I Do

In reviewing my particularly dismal traffic stats here, I got to thinking about why I’m doing what I do here. Not in the woe is me, I’m not getting the crowd I want, way either. But a small inventory of my motives.

Firstly, I’m blogging for myself, to hear my head roar. As is the case with most bloggers, there’s a bit of ego inflation that goes with self publishing territory. While I exaggerated slightly, I am blogging for myself.  As an outlet for thoughts and feelings, blogs are great.

Second, I would be a liar if I said I didn’t want readership to grow. But if I never attain the following of some more popular bloggers, I think I’ll be okay with it.

Thirdly, is another self centered approach. I’m doing this to stretch myself, to get out in more dangerous water. Having a voice with the potential to be read world wide, I’m getting well out of my comfort level.

Thanks to those who have been reading, commenting, and or giving me kind words offsite. It’s much appreciated!

I’m working on a few post ideas for the next few days so expect more shortly.

Randy

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“I pay no attention to anybody’s praise and blame. I simply follow my own feelings.” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

That’s The Good Stuff

After a downer of a last post, I’ve had what seems to be a rebirth of hope in my life. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, I took a few days and forgot life. Starting today, I’ve been rethinking how to get where I’m going, and it’s been far nicer than looking at problems.

Embracing the good stuff. That’s what life should be about. In light of that, I’d like to make a little list of the good things in my life at this moment.

• Long car rides on a Sunday afternoon
• A family who really and truly cares
• Standing a few feet away from a fawn, and him letting me take his photo
• An unexpected scalp massage thrown in with a $15 haircut
• Switchfoot’s Learning to Breathe
• Knowing I’m forgiven
• Being alive, which is the greatest thing one can have going at any given moment.

It’s a simple list, and one which can include most anything. I noticed something as I was typing that list, I realized how amazingly simple it was, yet how much it meant to me. How much it means to be thankful for the little and the large things which make life enjoyable.

Yes, I rambled a bit here.  Thanks for bearing with me, as this was meant more as a stream of consiousness than a cohesive post.

I CAN see how to get over my wall, and the fog of doubt and frustration is abating. Yeah, that’s the good stuff.

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“I’m learning to breathe, learning to crawl, I’m finding that you and you alone can break my fall, I’m living again awake and alive, I’m dying to breathe in these abundant skies” -  Switchfoot [Learning to Breathe]