outside, not body.
One can readily understand how sleep deprivation would break one down, and make one hallucinatory. And how can it be, that when one is so tired that one could nod off in the most inappropriate places, one cannot string together a night’s sleep? [And why would anyone care, ed.? [I’ll tell you why, smart ass ed., because it explains the lack of trenchancy being displayed, and I am looking for cover.]]
No need for human adrenal glands around here, nature will provide! But all this just to lead into a day of recipes? Yes, and to keep Roz Chast* happy:
Actually, I think I am short on conspiracy theories and self-promotion, and would just like to mention that I am actually typing from deep below the Denver Airport [shouldn’t that be the Diefenbunker, ed.? [just muddying the waters, to keep the tinfoil tight!]], and offspring #3 has offered to make me lighthouse t-shirts … the slippery slope to hell begins …
No, I was thinking about sharing a terrible family secret: the easiest Swedish meatballs in the world, and nobody ever believes it. Of course, it is important to make a good meat ball to start, and while everyone has their own best recipe, my only comment is that I find baking meatballs much more satisfying than frying them, especially when they are going to soak in sauce.
The sauce is complicated, so get out your pen:
4 tubs of good sour cream [by good she means at least 14% fat, believing that carbs make you fat, and fat and protein make you lean, and the proof really does seem to be in the pudding, as Gary Taubes! has so eloquently explained, in Why We Get Fat, a book well titled for sensitive gift giving.];
4 tins of beef consommé [not broth! do not be fooled, not even by their new hybrid, consommé broth!];
a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce;
and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, which you can sneak in mixed with some of the cold consommé.
Slowly bring to heat, letting the cornstarch do its thing, and stir in the meatballs and let the whole thing come together for a bit while you boil up some noodle water. We have found broad egg noodles the best pasta trencher.
When time is of the essence, or you just want to be loved despite your failings, I highly [quiet, they might not notice if you would just shut up,ed.] recommend serving this dish.
Apologies for letting the sauce skeleton out of the family closet, but this is a secret too good to be kept, and as mentioned above, nobody will believe you either, so the secret is safe, even when served to suspecting strangers.
Have a salutary and salivary Saturday!
* she of the voice of Binky, who channelled my inner child:
! and he who has been interviewed twice by Russ Roberts, Taubes on Why We Get Fat and previously, Taubes on Fat, Sugar and Scientific Discovery, both being well worth a listen.
My favourite clothing company, that I secretly search for on eBay (not so secret now) is Jam’s World. They started out making surfing shorts, and the first pair was just a cut off pair of pajamas. Some of their patterns are stunning and everything is made of rayon, another great invention, like flannel lined anything!
This is just plain freaking genius, and I knew I just had to share, especially with this crowd. 😉
Girl Scout sells 117 cookie boxes in two hours outside pot dispensary
Hmmmm…cookies? or Meatballs? That’s a tough choice. As Mrs. O says, “But you’re a tough guy”.
Don’t even remember which movie that line comes from.
EDIT: might be young frankenstein
here i sit, coffee and cold pizza in hand waiting half hour for the s. o. and most likely it will be another hour more.
You all can check Facebook as I will be posting constant updates- oh wait- don’t do fb and don’t have smart phone. Guess all I can do is send southern latitude balmy thoughts your way- did I mention that I love it when my wife says balmy?
You’re in Denver? I thought you had sworn off messing with US Customs anymore.
Rent a car, xty. You could be here in the land o’ milk and honey in just 15 short hours, just in time for the next polar vortex. (insert the old “thumbs up” emoticon here)
balmy
nyuk, nyuk, I like that.
a touch of spring in the air here, i’ll take it. good morning all.
I mean really, why worry about the Fed, or Doomsday, or any of that crap, in a world where flannel lined clothing exists? It’s all good, folks!
Hey Pete! They’re getting the band back together!
Christine McVie Rejoins Fleetwood Mac, Possible 2014 Tour
EO, i haven’t been to one of their shows but i did see Stevie at a Tom Petty concert and she still sounded fantastic.
“the world outside is tugging like a beggar at my sleeve”, this tune was likely written with a lady in mind but
is delusional enough to think that he’s the focus. OK, i just really like this song.
yup, mornings are the time to drop in. but if everyone leaves now, i will have to reevaluate.
Xty – i told you not to give out my Stroganoff sauce base. leaving out the dill does not make it OK. i should let loose your bacon and bourbon jelly recipe on the web now for revenge.
i cannot stand having anything on my arms. i have even gone as far as cutting off shirt sleeves if they are too loose to stay rolled up. i had just thought it was a redneck thing. so they have a name for this condition? now i can’t find it. was that in the last thread?
since i’m all over the place as usual, id like to play a clip that just goes to show how easy it is to get someone to completely stop thinking, especially a man…
Caution: graphic content.
u.s. hockey teams.
hi 44. cool animation and sounds effects.
you forgot one Xty. this is like the one i used this summer.
Poor Xty, Day 4 and the hallucinations.
on one “Day 4” i was driving a HMMWV (Humvee) with a 60 gunner up top and 1 other victim in the back. we were off road, in a convoy, and it was at night. No idea how fast we were going, probably about 5 miles per hour, but it seemed really fast, my eyes were locked on the tail lights (black out drive) in front of me, but I kept hallucinating with all kinds of crazy stuff appearing in front of me.
Every time i would “see” something, I would completely lock up the brakes!! Again and again and again this would happen… my poor buddy in the turret, he was on Day 4 as well, so his beating was just part of the same blurr, but what a mess that was. zombies poking along on a midnight convoy, barely moving and then every couple of minutes “BAM!” ammo cans and ruk sacks and us zombies all tumbling and getting jarred awake for a few minutes… then do it again. lol… good times.
Stay hydrated Xty, you’re about to do a lot of sleeping.
i think Xty is at least getting some sleep. it is still awful – i went for about 4 months one time with very little sleep mainly because of poor medical care. by the end of that i believe i was very close to certifiably insane. my original medical problem didn’t even matter at that point.
i read that if you go too long without sleep your brain starts taking brief power naps by shutting down for 5-10 seconds at a time. is that what was happening to you DN?
i found this article just now and read the whole thing. it is really worth it. there also is an embedded video if you don’t want to slog through it – but i still hope you do. a big part of the reason we are all here at the Lighthouse is because present company gets it. if you read this article, and agree, then you get it!
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
omg, what a fiasco. We got pasted 5-0 by the Finns for the bronze. I guess our guys just didn’t even want to show up. We finish the Olympics by getting shut out 2 full games in a row. Gonna be some housecleaning within USA Hockey, both boys and girls, after this mess. Heads will roll.
Of course, the Russians are saying the same thing, so I guess we’re in good company. At least we beat the Rooskies. We get the “We’re not quite as crappy as you” award.
i started reading your Taubes’ interview. i am afraid he is going to say that beer makes one fat, so i had to quit reading. i will finish them if someone else can mine sweep the articles for anti beer ordnance first. or maybe i just wanted to post this picture again…
This is a tremendous read. Written by a 93 year old man, about life and death, and love. It’s sweet, it’s smart, and wickedly funny in places. It’s the sort of thing I imagine our xty will be writing at the Lighthouse some 40 years hence.
Thanks to Barry Ritholtz for linking it up as one of his weekend reads.
THIS OLD MAN
As for me, I had a dream last night, and a nearly fully formed screenplay for a romantic comedy has appeared in my consciousness. The basics were in the dream itself, and I’ve been fleshing out the details in my head pretty much all day. I think it’s pretty much done. I just need to sit now at the keyboard and get it all down before it goes poof.
Not that I’ll ever really do anything with it, but it’s good. Really.
OK – i got through Taubes. he only mentions beer in passing. i could have easily missed it.
i think his thinking about carbohydrates is on the mark. my wife struggles much more with weight than i do. i eat whatever i want, but i like lots of fat, and protein. she likes her carbs.
i was told by a person i was paying for advice yesterday that i should write a book. my reply to that is that no one reads books anymore, and it is mostly true. i think the only hope these days for a new author is that someone influential reads their book, and then it gets made into a movie. so why not just write the screenplay first? let’s see what you got EO.
🙂 🙂 🙂
c’mon 44. get back.
and this…
Woodpecker.
and i are multi tasking, got UFC on the tube(muted) many thoughts in my head and my incredible social interaction to maintain. 😯
Brief power naps? no, not really, that’s when you’ve been getting very little sleep for extended periods. On NO sleep i think part of the brain shuts down or something, it’s not good.
EO, You say you need to sit down and type out the screenplay while it’s still fresh in mind. But once you start typing details, doesnt that make the clear big picture fade out? And I ask because that’s how my brain works, but i’ve never thought it was normal.
I would have to draw a quick sketch on a white board of the overall big picture, but that’s just me. Everything is linear, metaphorical, and clear, but then when i have to actually type it out… uuugggghhhhhhhh. either that or i’m just writing like i talk… like here. and that’s all i got. which is why i’m not a ‘writer’ in the least.
But Xty (who is probably comatose as i type this) is one of my favorite writers ever. i just like reading what she writes. Not necessarily what it’s about, or anything, just… i dont know, hard to explain. She could write an article about what a jerk DN is and i would enjoy reading it.
What is happening when she writes i wonder. is she converting thoughts to words, describing what she sees? Is she applying learned methods of composition that I missed?
I was tracking with EO and his screen play, but then when he said ‘need to type it up before it’s lost’… i thought NOOO!!! trying to type it is what fades it out, but that’s just me.
Maybe for some people the writing is the process that brings it out? idk
Anybody wants to take a crack at describing the dynamics of how they write and what they are writing?
I know what you are saying DN. As I was walking around today, with it rattling around in my head, trying different things, finding some good lines, discarding others, it was a living breathing thing. It was dynamic. As soon as I started to type, I could feel it stiffening up. All of a sudden I felt like I needed to hurry up and finish before it hardened completely, like I was working concrete or something. Now, I know that I can continue to edit forever, but creatively, it just felt like rigor mortis started to set in as soon as I typed the title.
Writing is hard. Awful hard. Even just putting it down on screen for myself makes me feel very vulnerable, and open to criticism and ridicule. It’s a bit crude. Some of the language, I mean. It’s about the terrible decisions guys sometimes make because of sex. You can only clean it up so much. The rest is part of the core of the story. You water that down too much and it’s just mush. You might as well toss it in the trash right off. The thought that someone else might actually read it though? Horrifying. I might show it to my wife, but even that scares me. It really feels like putting myself really out there, even though I know she’ll be kind. Yeesh, what have I done? Now I feel like I want to hide it somewhere. Get it off my desktop, so nobody finds it by accident. It’s good though. I really think it’s good. I want someone to tell me it’s good, but I’m too thin skinned to take any criticism about it. I’m in a pickle. It has a happy ending. At it’s core it’s a Sandra Bullock style romantic comedy. The boy gets the right girl after all, but a lot of the F-word involved. I see no other way.
Writers and actors and artists take these kind of risks every day. I don’t know how they do it. This is terrifying.
EO- aha, so we sort of do the same thing i do, but it sounds like for 2 different reasons…
I have the dots all connected in my head, but then when i go to type, everything is RRRRrrrr….clunk.
A writer lady friend from way back used to tell me the same thing you are saying. She’d say the biggest thing keeping her from writing was the strong fear that somebody would actually see it.
(I HAVE ALREADY PAINFULLY TYPED BUT JUST STARTED TO DELETE EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE BECAUSE IT’S MY TYPICAL INABILITY TO EXPLAIN IN WRITING, aka THE REASON I CAN”T WRITE. BUT I”M GOING TO LEAVE IT JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT.)
In Myers-Briggs terms, The problem I have as an ENTP is that the N (Extraverted Intuition) is my primary function.. (why i’m big-picture intuitive) So my “N” can perceive/see some pretty complex insightful stuff.
But when i go to write it, I have to shift to my “T” which for me is introverted thinking. And Introverted Thinking is the slow meticulous thinking, like when you ask somebody what they want and you can see the wheels turning…. So I perceive like a supernova, but then have to write it like i’m sending morse code or something… concrete like you say. As i shift to writing mode, the pictures with all the understanding fade out.
But you, You PERCEIVED your story in your primary mode,(whatever your primary function is, i’m guessing N, you’re a xNxx) but when you shift to your secondary function to act, to write it, it has a problem with what it sees with the eventuality of someone reading it. It’s not that you think they won’t understand it,… that would be T (in T vs F)
but you are afraid of their reaction it’s an “F” thing. And not just an F thing but an Introverted F thing… you’re afraid of how you will feel when someone reads/reacts to it. You’re not hesitant for them to read it because it might make them feel bad, that would be an Extroverted F thing.
this would mean you must be an INFJ ? (same as Xty) And i could be way off here.
But regardless, making the switch is where you start locking up. It even effects your writing of the story, you want to water it down.
So you “CAN” write, and it probably is a well written and good story, but you are going to have to NOT water it down. Disconnect from the internet and only save it encrypted on a thumb drive if you have to ,but you’re going to have to write the full on thing from the perspective that nobody will ever see it.
Because if you think somebody might read it, and then you watered it down… well then that will be another perceived “problem”… the fact that what they are reading is actually watered down!!! So then do they not like it, or not like it because it’s watered down? And after they didn’t like the watered down version, they could never read the REAL version, especially not for the first time. And on and on that problem would build on itself..
Again, you are going to have to write it at 100% full strength or not at all. From a John Doe hotel room, and only saved encrypted on a thumb drive, whatever you gotta do.
Then if you think it’s good, print out a hardcopy at office max and send it to a magazine that prints similar stories/articles. Under a pseudonym.
Otherwise the whole perceived conflict is going to prevent you from writing, or cause you to water it down, or write then delete, or stress and then not write because you know you will stress etc.. This all just my opinion of course. I hope you go for it and see what happens. And NEVER show it to any of us, or even tell us if you do go for it as you might think we might wonder whatever happened with that screenplay…
Wait a MINUTE… “SHE DOESN”T WRITE ANY MORE” (my lady friend tells me) BS, she just doesn’t tell anybody!!
i thought for sure we’d be back to hockey talk!
would it help you to dictate your story EO? my wife just bought a portable digital recorder that can hold a whole book for 40 bucks.
here’s my thoughts on writing, since you asked DN!
first i am way better with the written word, than spoken. EO and Dude have met me in person, so they would probably concur. at least in my case, i must be using different pathways in the brain. i can read and write way faster than anyone can speak. i was the guy in school to copy “notes” from.
i believe my best teacher K through college was my 7th grade English teacher. 6 months of writing. if remembered correctly, first assignment 25 words, last 1600?, anything you wanted to write about, but it had to be perfect before you could move on. the number of words per assignment progressed, but not quite in doubles. he taught much more than spelling and grammar, though i did not realize it at the time. he taught how to get your thoughts into words. he also encouraged creativity by making writing fun. he even let us make fun of him. it was “cool”.
between note taking, and writing term papers in college my writing changed. then later because of tech jobs, even more. finally the speed needed to keep up on the internet changed my style too…
i developed my own shorthand after a while in college. some classes were graded 100% on lecture. and some of these profs spoke 1000 miles per hour in heavy accent. then at work i spent about 8 years talking to machines, using a different sort of shorthand – unix. finally, i first started posting on-line at the YAHOO financial boards – if you could not get your thoughts down fast, you were left behind. you can still see this forced brevity in the comments at Zero Hedge. finally, how i write now, such as right now, is akin to writing a first draft. except, i don’t bother to go back and edit it. who has time for that?
i am not afraid to spill my guts to strangers. i never really got wrapped up in that popularity thing on blogs. what you see is what you get. but i am much more self-conscious when being read by people i know. perhaps Xty’s Lighthouse is not all that anonymous to me any more, and that will make it more difficult for to be as forthright in the future. i do know that this site is being read by many others now but that does not bother me at all.
well, my wife just turned on the TV in the other room, and that throws cold water on my ability to write. so, i will shut up now, and finish my coffee.
btw – she’s watching Frazier reruns on Netflix, so i’ll close with “thanks for listening” 😀
just hit ‘post comment’, damn it…
No, dictating would be worse. There would be a lot of “wait, go back”. Possibly useful as a way to simply spitball/brainstorm every single idea, every single phrase, and then I’d have to go back and sift and winnow and get everything back in order anyway.
And I need to say, I overstated the case when I said it was fully formed screenplay. There is actual screenwriting software people use in order to get the format that studios want. This is really more of a narrative, first person from the main character. A synopsis is probably the best term. It runs almost four pages. There is a lot of filling in that is needed to make a hundred minutes of lightweight Hollywood movie out of it. Somebody could go a few different ways with it right now. I see it as romantic comedy, but a green reader could see tragic drama as well. Or porn even, if they want to go that way. It’s all potentially there.
Actually, today all my creative juices, all the “rattling around in my head”, has almost nothing to do with editing the synopsis. That thing has hardened. Now it’s all about considering what the potential critiques of it could be, and the possible rebuttals. And again, at some point it will be pretty much fully formed in my head and I’ll need to sit down at the keyboard and capture it. And again, that part of it will begin to harden. But somewhere in that process, maybe something might come to light to make me want to go back to the synopsis and make it better. Round and Round we go.
I can tell you right now that critiques about grammar and punctuation don’t interest me in the least. I won’t even address them. It’s all about the characters, and style. Do they make sense? Are their motivations understood, and their choices logical therefrom? Would a reader be sympathetic with the protagonist, even though he’s making really bad choices all the way through, until the very, very end? And what about the language? Is “fucking” really necessary? Does it come across as juvenile? Or would euphamisms seem even more juvenile? There is nobody “making love” in this whole sordid tale, I can assure you of that.
This is where I’m at today. This remains fun, as long as the possibility of someone else actually reading it remain remote. 😯
And no, we don’t talk about hockey anymore.
have you read either of these authors EO? i would not worry too much about language. words are words. clunky, and imperfect, yet they are your only tool. they are your canvas, your brush, and your colors of paint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski
just saying.
rock hard abs, or is it rock hard flab?
That picture made me think of this:
Ok, time to go do some tax returns. I know it’s Sunday. Don’t start with me.
By mid college I had my note taking process mastered.
I would just sit and listen and try and visualize what was being said (or daydream/check out girls)
My notes would be on a new page in my notebook each day and I would only write-
1- Any word I heard that I didn’t know the meaning of went on the left side of that little red notebook paper line.
2- Any statement that had a quantifying number in it was written on the main page.
3- Occasional random facts that the professor would mention that had nothing to do with the subject matter whatsoever. (e.g. sociology prof might say… “I was talking last evening with my brother who lives in Norfolk, and he blah blah blah…” ) I would writer “Brother lives in Norfolk”.
4. The rest would be filled with geometric ‘crop circle’ish doodles and that was it.
I played along, had no test anxiety, got good grades and such, but “writing” I don’t know.
Now,… how and why some people, (like everybody else here) can and do write I find fascinating. Ditto for DP and EOs posts regarding the subject. Very interesting.
And Xty’s writing,… sometimes I will read something and i’ll be like “what the HEck” just happened?”, how did she do that? and then I can’t figure out why I so like what I just read.
Maybe it’s because I don’t know enough about the nuts and bolts of writing to articulate my thoughts.
I had many years of Art classes, art appreciation etc.. plus the intuition. I can see and explain a painting with anybody anywhere. Even though most don’t even realize many things are there… I guess I just answered my own question sort of.
DP, imo you are an excellent writer, and I have always noticed that you do sort of have 2 or maybe 3 modes, as you say. maybe one mode when you are trying to make a point, and then others when you’re just sharing, or trying to move the mood of things. ?
Also on Day 4 your body quits accepting food. You can swallow it but it just sits there, so you quit eating.
The wife has been out of town helping family, so apologies for rambling on here so much with all my free time. A few more days of nobody “disctracting” with things like Frazier reruns DP!! Oh, but then I miss her too… with and without is good and bad, lol
now, i’m off to surf over and try and check out that screenwriting sofrware, wonder why they do that ??
ramble away DN. the weather here hasn’t changed. when i’m home lately, i’m stuck inside. i don’t watch TV much, so i’m on the computer a lot. Xty’s Lighthouse is the only place i post regularly anymore, so the more company the better.
your writing is good. the goal is to be understood. after that it’s just different styles.
i was/am a doodler also. i was totally wrapped up in a doodle in class one time and the professor snuck up on me and snatched up my spiral notebook and took it back with him to the front. after class we had a little talk and he returned it. 🙂
i have not posted a picture in a while. this oddity is a Madagascar Palm. it has proven to be even more cat proof than any of my true cacti. this sucker is growing fast and i wonder how difficult it will be to move next summer. the ornery bastard even wounded me posing for this picture…
DN – can you get gyros around by you? i have been down there, but i always go for the BBQ.
http://www.spartangyros.com/
my brother just went to the above location and sent me a picture of the super gyros he ordered on his phone. just plain cruel.
Writing is very difficult, and one of my selfish reasons for starting the Lighthouse was to force my hand. Obviously sometimes I am reaching for a topic, or not feeling well, or life has hit me too hard to be cheerful naturally, but it has been very interesting to try to put something out there, for others to read, every other day or so, and even daily, almost with the WoD.
I suffer dreadfully from writers’ block for many reasons, but the worst is the thought that what I write will be too transparent and I will alienate everybody who has ever known me when they find out how depraved my mind is. Like EO realizing he might be on to a great porn plot – what are people to think if you write about anger and jealousy and fear and murder and lust – where has that brain been? And if they recognize themselves?
And to accept DN’s kind praise I will say a number of things. One, I do proofread, many times. I am careful about metaphors, and try to be consistent throughout, returning to the beginning at the end, through metaphor. Alliteration is always key. But I often do not really know what I think before I write it, and I often find humour in the words I am writing – so I will have an idea of what I want to communicate, but how I actually communicate it is often a surprise even to me. But that is why I proofread – to make sure that my introduction matches my conclusion – and is it funny is always a crucial question. The internet is good for writing because of the way you can seamlessly add media and links. Gives visual interest and allows the reader to explore or not your topic in-depth. Also helps add timing.
And reading, or in my case listening, to great writers has been very influential. Also my dad was a real stickler for being precise. We used to get paid to proofread the manuscripts of the Collected Works of John Stuart Mill at the cottage – I think I was only about 8 or so – we would read out loud, sometimes backwards to avoid getting caught up in meaning – and my dad would be double checking the original. I still remember someone called F stop Fitzgerald, because periods were said as stops.
We lived in a house of words. It would make a good post, actually. We wrote a book of word games, even, congealing our oddness in print.
My advice to EO is to hammer it out and don’t worry about people going through your files when you are dead. And do it first thing in the morning before all your brain’s filters are working, and your self-consciousness is still soft.