Catangle (definition): the geometric shape formed by three or more cats’ positioning while lounging or observing human activity. When three cats group, the catangle often becomes a triangle; sometimes they are surreally equilateral.
Political Dream
The dream was short but intense. Throngs were milling and shopping. Indoors, a warm, festive ambiance dominated. I was with my wife and some friends, going in and out of stores and other places. People, including my wife and our friend, Marty, kept trying to point things out to me or ask me questions, but I was intent and focused, shopping for something for myself that I’d always wanted. I don’t know what that was in the dream, but the dream’s backstory, learned from overheard conversations, was that we were shopping for a new POTUS.
I awoke surprised and pleased.
Today’s Theme Music
I often stream this song when I’m walking around on warm, sunny days.
‘The Way’, by Fastball, came out in nineteen ninety-eight, a particularly pleasant, enjoyable and successful time of my life. A jaunty song with several beat change-ups, it had easy to hear and understand lyrics. The song seemed to be telling a story about adults running away.
Anyone could see
The road that they walk on is paved in gold
And it’s always summer, they’ll never get cold
They’ll never get hungry
They’ll never get old and gray
You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere
They won’t make it home but they really don’t care
They wanted the highway
They’re happier there today, today
source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/thewaylyrics.html
Later, while driving around, I learned from a radio show that the song was about an elderly couple who ended up missing. The wife had Alzheimer’s and the man was recovering from brain surgery, yet, they made the amazing decision to drive to a festival. Several weeks later, they were found dead in a ravine, several hundred miles off course. Fastball speculated that they’d decided to go off in another direction.
Whenever I think of this song, and it’s often, it seems, because it gets stuck in the stream and keeps looping through, I think of an elderly couple in sunshine, running, laughing and playing, hiding from and evading their children as they enjoy a childlike day.
Happy Armed Forces Day
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” — Mark Twain
The flags are up because today is Armed Forces Day in the United States, a holiday initiated by President Harry S. Truman in nineteen forty-nine. I don’t celebrate martyrs, death or killing. I celebrate those who served to defend the principles on which this country is formed, and the Constitution embodying those ideals as the law of the land.
We’re not perfect as a nation or a people, but establishing goals, recognizing our flaws and weaknesses, and striving to improve is the process that will lead to success. Success means freedom, equality, liberty and justice for all. We don’t split hairs about our sexual preferences, politics, religious beliefs, education level, race, sex, creed, or origin. We sometimes fail, but we need to try to succeed, and sometimes that means we’ll fail. Get back up; embrace the ideals; try again. But don’t bastardize those ideals to rationalize your fears and hate. Rights are not ours to give, yet, that’s where we find ourselves. Someday, we’ll fully recognize and accept that as truth.
To all those who served or are serving, Happy Armed Forces Day. Thanks for serving.
Today’s Theme Music
Paranoia, paranoia
Everybody’s comin’ to get me
Just say you never met me
I’m runnin’ underground with the moles
Diggin’ in holes
Hear the voices in my head
I swear to God it sounds like they’re snoring
But if you’re bored then you’re boring
The agony and the irony, they’re killing me
I’m not sick, but I’m not well
And I’m so hot, ’cause I’m in hell
I’m not sick, but I’m not well
And it’s a sin to live this well
(One, two, three, four)
(h/t to songlyrics.com)
Yes, that’s a couple choruses outta ‘Flagpole Sitta’, Harvey Danger, nineteen ninety-seven. Living in Mountain View, California, I worked for a medical device in Palo Alto. This song just knocked me out. Lyrics, beat, pace, it all worked for me. It became a “crank up” tune, one of those that causes my hand to gravitate to volume control.
Leglove
Leglove (definition): a cat’s habit of rubbing or brushing up against a person’s leg to show their affection or request attention.
Read Like A Reader
I’m editing and revising the novel in progress. Its working title was ‘Long Summer’. Its gained a new title, ‘Incomplete States’.
Long summer was part of the original concept, a summer for Brett and a summer for Humanity, ending as first contact and first battles were experienced. As concept understanding and development evolved and flowered, the underpinning concept and overarching story shifted. ‘Incomplete States’ is a fuller, better, title for the novel as written.
Into the editing and revising stage, I’m reading as a reader. I’ll mostly address my novel as I would if I were ignorant to its workings, as a reader would, reading it for entertainment. The differences come from noticing things and taking action on them.
- Typos, grammatical and spelling errors, of course.
- Pacing. If I find myself skipping over something, there’ a problem to be addressed. The Writer is summoned to find the root cause and solution.
- Pauses.
With pauses, anything breaking the reading rhythm and makes me pause requires a special investigation initiated. Several reasons can exist for the pauses. As I can’t wholly divorce myself from knowing the novel as a writer, I’m a prophet about some things destined to happen. I might be noticing a continuity issue regarding that, or a continuity issue with previously established matters. This problem, or challenge, is why some writers set aside their first draft, something called the ‘cold method’. Others will indulge in reading it aloud. I sometimes read aloud to clarify what’s causing the pause.
Mechanics could be the source for the pause, such as sloppy sentence or paragraph structures, or poor precedents and antecedents, or clumsy descriptions. Dialogue, and who is saying what, sometimes becomes muddy and must be clarified. Once in a while, the style has shifted. Some style shifts are planned and expected. The novel is a multiplex telling through six character POVs. Those characters roam in a sometimes sharply chaotic manner as their experiences and expectations, age, sex, race, and history change. The writing needs to be clear about what’s going on without revealing too much. Style is sometimes a party to that effort, but shouldn’t be an intrusion.
Yesterday’s reading efforts went superbly. I knocked out four chapters. Some changes were done. Afterward, I was answering some interview questions. The questions forced me to think more deeply about my processes. One conclusion realized from this exercise was how my processes had shifted. I used to write to finish what I was writing. I often had unrealistic expectations about how the novel should read, and how I felt about finishing it.
I’m now more comfortable with the journey and experience of writing a novel, including editing and revising it. It’s a unique experience. While people all around the planet are writing novels, each one is writing a unique novel. The experience of writing and finishing each novel is different. They concepts and stories are bred from different states of existence, expectations, and experiences – hopefully.
Time to get on with the pleasure of reading, editing and revising.
Cheers
Today’s Theme Music
I’ve been a Led Zeppelin since I first encountered ‘Whole Lotta Love’ on their second album in nineteen sixty-nine. After hearing it and the rest, I went back and found the first album. Then I bought every album whenever they came out. At first, it was on vinyl, but I also recorded them on open real and cassette, and then replaced it all with remastered CDs.
Zeppelin’s album, ‘Presence’, came out in nineteen seventy-six. I was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Another airman, Jerry Martell, and I listened to this album so many times as we drove around in his Mustang. My favorite song is ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’. I didn’t know it then, but since learned, this was an old Gospel song. I’ve come to enjoy musicians putting their interpretation and flourishes on old music. It’s taken me a lot more time to come around to accepting changes to old movies and television.
Anyway, for your Friday listening enjoyment, something to stream in your head as you conquer the world, Led Zeppelin with ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine,’ from nineteen seventy-six.
Meowrish
Meowrish (Definition): a bold, rising crescendo of sounds made by a cat.
In use: “Quinn enters a room with a non-stop meowrish that ends with an chirpy “Meow.””
The Dream Brief
I had to face the bald facts.
That’s what I saw in one of my dreams last night.
In it, I was looking at myself in the mirror. There, I discovered that I was balding in an area that I’d not noticed before. Technically, it would have been a deeply receding hairline on the left side of my face.
“I didn’t notice that,” my dream self said, turning my head and examining my hairline.
To which my awareness said, “You need to look in a new direction because you’re missing something that’s going on.”
Isn’t that the way it often is? You’re used to doing something in a fixed way. It becomes rote habit, conducted without thought. They can stale on you, but you can’t see it, because you’re always looking at it the same way.
And by you, I mean, me.
Michael Seidel, writer 