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Like many of my generation, I adored the writings of Kurt Vonnegut. My personal favorite was Cat’s Cradle, but a close runner-up would be Slapstick. The former taught me all I ever needed to know of religion; the latter, of politics. On my first reading of Slapstick, I came across a quote that took root in my memory. …[MORE] When you read a lot, you learn a lot of words. You learn a lot of words that are not used in everyday conversation and you see them in context. If you don’t read much, all you know of language is what you hear in everyday conversation. Nonreaders often reveal themselves when they write by using homophones—words …[MORE] While I have not been blogging over these past few years, I have not stopped writing entirely. There have been a number of short stories in the works, and I’ve continued playing with some writing exercises. From time to time, I plan to post some of that here. One of my favorite exercises is 100 Words. The …[MORE] “Want to see the 642 slides of my Caribbean vacation?” Hell no. Once upon a time, there was a small group of people who thought that everyone they knew would be fascinated by the minutiae of their travels. Slide shows, projected on portable screens, blank walls or suspended bed sheets, allowed these narcissists to bore their family …[MORE] I’ve been trying to do more reading lately. It’s a reliable way to find inspiration and spur my own writing. A recent read is Stephen King’s sci-fi-ish / time-travel story 11/22/63. [You guessed it: Here’s a time portal! I know…Let’s save JFK! ] If you read Stephen King stories with the same wild abandon I bring to …[MORE] I witnessed a perfect moment the other day. A young person was skateboarding down a sidewalk and stopped at an intersection for a red light. It was one of those signals with a “crosswalk countdown” display. As the young man kicked up his board at the corner, the countdown was switching from three seconds to two. Apparently, …[MORE] My roster of pets has changed since I first wrote here. My old Eartha Kitty enjoyed a long and lazy ninth life, but finally gave up the ghost one summer a few years back. It was sad, but not really unexpected. She was around 14, and almost all those years were spent with a loving mama in …[MORE] If you look at the most recent post below, you might notice that it was dated several years ago. The motivating factor behind that last piece was the offer of a district officer position with Toastmasters. It was a year-long commitment, so not one I made lightly. It also required more skills than I had to …[MORE] I’ve just return from a two-day conference where much of the discussion revolved around leadership. It got me thinking about a curious human characteristic that I’ll call the Leadership Paradox. On the one hand, we all like to think of ourselves as special. We have unique talents to offer. We are all above average. Everyone wants to be treated better than …[MORE] I stumbled across this movie trailer. I’ve never heard of the film, but since it was a UK release and documents the way the world whistled through the early signs of global warming until it was too late to do anything about it, I’m guessing it had only a very limited US showing. I’m a big …[MORE] |
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