Friday, December 16, 2016

The Search for Civilization Continues

I have been trying for two weeks now to have a good bowl of soup at lunchtime. Not a great bowl of soup - I have not been going to 5-star restaurants - but the inability to get a good bowl of soup amazes me.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

NaNoWriMo FTW!



So, NaNoWriMo went well. I managed to hold it together for the last week and in fact finished a couple days early. Well, I passed the 50,000 word mark early, I made some changes to the ending a few times right up to November 30th.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Where do I go from here.

As I am sure the one or two of you who read this blog with any regularity have noticed I have not posted in quite some time now. The single largest hurdle to writing for me has always been the idea. Once I have an idea I can generally write three or four blog posts but without that idea, nothing else works.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Religion and Politics Part 5 - Politics - No Really.

I was planning on using this post to start tying together my philosophy and my political views into a cohesive thought. However the current political environment has so burned me out and frustrated me, I do not believe I could do justice to that original idea. Instead, I will discuss some of what is going on now and what I think about it.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Religion and Politics Part 4 - Taoism (and a Bear)



I continue to look at Taoism and how it has changed me, and the life I live. This week we will look at the Taoist principles of non-contention, non-action, and non-intention.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Religion and Politics Part 3 - Taoism (and a Bear)

In my {previous post} I talked about how I found Taoism and some of the humble beginnings of learning the Way. In this series, I would like to spend some time looking at why Taoism resonates with me and why over all others I follow Taoism teachings.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Religion and Politics Part 2 - Philosophy and a Bear.


pooh.jpgAs I try to decide what I believe now I have great difficulty separating what I was raised to believe and what I really think. Twenty years ago had you asked me if I believed in God, in Jesus and the resurrection, I would have answered, without even thinking, that yes, I did. It's the "without even thinking" part that bothers me now.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Religion and Politics, two things you should never discuss. Part 1

I enjoy conversation, I savor great conversation but all conversation is worthwhile. Debate is great, there is nothing that gets the blood pumping quite like a lively debate. Debate has the added benefit of solidifying your own thoughts and beliefs and has the potential to change them. How can you truly believe something if you don't understand it?

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Writing in a coffee shop.


20160409_095245 (1).jpgNormally I write at home after the house has gone to sleep because it’s quiet and there is nothing else requiring my attention. I tend to do my best work late in the evening, I don’t know if it’s because of the minimum amount of distractions or simply because I  am a night person and naturally more effective at night. Recently though - for probably less than a month - I have been writing during my weekly coffee klatch on Saturday mornings.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Friendship, again and again.

I have been re-reading some of the classics, and I am currently working my way through Euripides. While reading last night a quote stuck with me. "for it is in trouble's hour that the good most clearly show their friendship; though prosperity of itself in every case finds friends" * This passage brought me back to something I have been thinking about for some time. 
A number of my recent posts revolve around friendships in general and my friendships, or lack thereof, in particular. Maybe because I don't have a lot of friendships or maybe because friendships have been much on my mind recently, I find I need to write another post on friendship, if only to clear my mind and let me move on. I've said it before and I am sure I will say it again; friendships, like tents, are hard

Friday, August 12, 2016

Movies Redux


moviesIt has been a long time since I posted my top 10 movies list, and I never followed that up with the next 10. Since I posted the original list my tastes have changed a little and my original list would be slightly different now. This second list is so much more difficult than the original. A top 10 is easy, the best of the best, but the second 10? There are so many movies that could be on this list I could easily make all 10 of these tied for 11 and make it 100 movies total. That being said here are 11 through 20 of my favorite movies of all time.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Escape

As a lifelong fan of sci-fi and fantasy I have been experiencing make-believe worlds and caring for make-believe people for as long as I can remember. There are those who would have me believe this is somehow unhealthy as if entering into these worlds means I am escaping from my own. Maybe I am escaping the real world... but who would blame me with the world the way it is now.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Midweek Miscellany (weekend edition)

There are a few things this week I wanted to write about, but none of them rated a full post so once again I offer you the Midweek Miscellany. Although being Saturday it will have to be a weekend edition.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The Road Goes Ever On and On...

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say!"
J.R.R.Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" *

I have been thinking about that song/poem a lot recently.  As I head into another birthday... another year older, hopefully, a little wiser, I can't help but wonder where the road ahead must now lead.

Friday, June 10, 2016

The Ending of an Era, the Turning of a Page...

OK so sappy lyrics aside, The past few weeks have been very strange. My youngest children, the twins, have graduated from high school. I am at once very proud of them and yet saddened by the fact that my relationship with them is going to change.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Friends, Now and Forever.

friends.jpgSome time ago I posted about friendship and how difficult it is as the years go by to create new friendships (Sometimes, even Frasier Crane is right). In the months since that post went live, I have tried to build a new friendship. Just one, but a real and meaningful friendship.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Cup of Coffee Concerns

No, I am not practicing my alliteration, Well... OK, I am, but not on purpose. Almost every morning I take a few minutes over my first cup of coffee to get all introspective on myself which usually leads to concerns, questions, and not unsurprisingly a lot more coffee. Hence, the Cup of Coffee Concerns. 

Friday, May 20, 2016

#DealWithIt Presents the Life of a Shy Introvert

Growing up I knew that I preferred to live a bit differently than most of my friends. I have no way of knowing how many of my friends were playing the same game, pretending to be something that they really were not just so they could fit in.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Campaign for Real Commas

This past weekend at my weekly coffee klatch* we had a discussion about punctuation. We were editing one of my posts and discussing my incorrect usage of a number of punctuation marks most notably the ellipsis. However, there was an addendum to this editing saying that I actually use the comma correctly most of the time. This was probably brought up to keep me from hanging myself with coffee stirrers after the editing was finished. This aside grew into a rather lively conversation about comma usage and how the comma must be both the most misused and overused punctuation mark in modern times.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Mid-Week Miscellany


There are a few things that I wanted to put down on digital paper this week. None of them are long enough for a post on their own but they are on my mind so I wanted to toss them all together and see what happens.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

The Emotion of Emotion

The other day I was talking with someone and we turned to the subject of people. Wait...no... people that carry drama and chaos with them everywhere they go. I am sure you know the type of which I write.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Spring. My favorite season

I live in Michigan because I enjoy seasons. 

Well, that’s not entirely true. I live in Michigan because I was born and raised here. I stay in Michigan because I enjoy seasons. I could never really live anywhere the weather is the same all year long. 
Of course, if I could find someplace that was 65 degrees and sunny all year-'round, was surrounded by water, beaches, and had great internet access I would consider moving there. But since, to the best of my knowledge, no such place exists I will stick with Michigan.

Friday, March 25, 2016

A Hobbit’s Life: "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."



There are days, sometimes weeks, where I would give almost anything to have a small comfortable hobbit-hole in the Shire. To sit on a bench in front, relax, and have nothing more important to worry about than if there are enough seed cakes for the supper guests.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Sometimes, even Frasier Crane is right



One of the TV shows I am re-watching my way through right now is Frasier, one of my all time favorite shows.
While most of the time Frasier is a pompous windbag and you have to laugh at him; one episode ("The Friend" [S3.E11]) really struck a chord with me.

Friday, March 11, 2016

The Ritual Is More Important Than The Result…



There is more to coffee than caffeine. More to coffee than hot. More to coffee than Brownian Motion*. Coffee is more about creation than consumption. Most mornings I have just about enough time to pop a coffee pod into the Keurig and press BREW, this is not creation. This is consumption. This is the understanding that I need caffeine NOW and there is nothing for it, no time to savor the creation. However once in a while, there comes a day where creation is king. Weekends were made for Coffee. (This is not coffee, but Coffee, the idea, the dream, the Coffee.) The ritual creation of something so pleasurable that the act of creation is more important than the end result.