Tag Archives: lame post

Did Hemingway Have These Problems?

I ended yesterday’s post fearing I was stuck again. I thought it would be temporary, but alas, the malady continues. I was unable to write a blog post or work on my novel at work. I worked on a letter to my sister, but it did not help me segue over to other writing. I thought, that’s OK. I’m going running after work. I’ll write about that.

I ran. While I ran, I thought of some good stuff to put in a blog post about it. Before the run I dithered about how far and how hard to run, also some good stuff to put in a blog post. It would no doubt be a good, long blog post.

I don’t feel up to sitting here and typing in a good, long blog post. I don’t feel like typing in a lot. I don’t feel like thinking of anything good. I’m a BAD BLOGGER.

In my defense, I did not do a Middle-aged Musings Monday, a Tired Tuesday or a Wuss-out Wednesday. In my detriment, I have been indulging in All DARE 5K All The Time, which some people might find tiresome. Additionally, my Wednesday post was a short little riff about not being able to write, arguably a lame post (although I got 10 Likes on it).

What I guess I’m saying is, this is Non-Sequitur Thursday. I am feeling quite non-sequential. And maybe a little unconsequential, but let’s leave my poor self-esteem out of this. All I want to do today is hit “Publish” for at least 200 words.

Hope to see you all on Lame Post Friday.

Lame and Late

It is after 8 p.m. as I type this. I don’t know that I’ve ever written my blog post this late before, although perhaps I have. I knew earlier I would be late with this, but I wasn’t too worried. After all, it is Lame Post Friday. One might have thought I had a built-in title: Better Lame Than Never. That would have been good. Unfortunately, I already used it.

Just before I started typing, I looked it up, to be sure. Very instructive to read old posts. This one was from 2011. I felt encouraged at that time because I was approaching 200 blog posts. 200! What an amateur! Now I’m over 1100! Oh wait, I’m still an amateur. I’ve just written more blog posts.

Not that there is anything wrong with being an amateur. An amateur is one who does something for the love of it. I love writing my blog! Even when I can’t think of anything clever to say! Oh, I know, some people probably think I never say anything clever. Some people just gotta be that way.

I have been doing other writing today. I spent my lunch break writing a couple new scenes for my novel. I wrote more at the laundromat after work. Then I gave it up in a wave of lame. When I got home I worked on my article for Mohawk Valley Living. Oh, I don’t know if it will be good enough, but I will not bother you with my angst.

I see I am over 200 words. Time to come up with a punchy conclusion and dream about writing a better blog post tomorrow. Sad but true, I liked my post titled Better Lame Than Never better than this one. I should check back to this one 900 or so posts from now and see what I think then.

Novel Thoughts

Dammit, I can WRITE. I am an awesome writer! You would not BELIEVE the fiction that comes from these same fingers that are currently typing this Friday Lame Post. Wait a minute, I mean you WOULD believe it, because my characters are wonderful, and the story would carry you along.

I had thought NOT to have a Friday Lame Post this week since I have been not exactly non-lame for most of the rest of the week. I guess nobody believed that was going to happen, although who knows, it may someday. To that end (as well as for my fitness and weight-loss goals), I ran this morning. I fully intended to write a Running Commentary while at work. Well, let me explain what happened, starting yesterday.

I have mentioned the problems I have been having with the novel I am writing. It’s been at kind of a standstill, progressing at irregular dribs and drabs. Well-written dribs and drabs, I hope, but still. But my determination is unwavering and I persevere. I spend a good portion of every day at least THINKING about my plot and my characters. I come to very few conclusions.

Until yesterday. There I was, at my machine, hard at work, when two lines came to me, rather dramatic lines spoken by two characters who have previously had no interaction. I pondered them and found them to be good. I surreptitiously pulled out the little notebook I carry in my BDU pants and jotted them down. I pondered them more, where they were said, who else was there, what else was happening.

Then the buzzer rang for the two o’clock break. I ran to my full-size notebook and started writing like mad! That has not happened to me in YEARS! A co-worker made a sarcastic remark about my leaving my machine turned on. I went and turned it off. He made another couple of sarcastic remarks. I ignored them.

“Kind of busy here,” I said, which was not particularly well-received, but I was buried in the fiction by now and was unaware of further sarcastic remarks. It was great.

I’ll be damned if a similar thing didn’t happen to me today, on breaks and on lunchs. Perhaps the writing was a little less intense, but I liked it. I admit it wasn’t all good. I would write a scene, then think about it later, realize there was a better thing to happen, get to the next break and write a new, better scene. Oh, it was fun. This is the way writing was meant to be!

And so I didn’t write a blog post. And I’m not apologizing about it. I’m going to go back and work on my novel some more. When I finish it and publish it, you can read it and tell me if I wasn’t right to do so.

Better Words Are Not Forthcoming

I am having a Blog Crisis. I started this blog thinking to highlight the Mohawk Valley. I would write ABOUT things, it would not be just a silly diary kind of thing all about me. So why is it, I write a ridiculous thing about not being able to write anything and I get 11 Likes, then I write about the library book sale — a “real” post, so I thought — and one measly Like!

Oh dear, I did not mean “measly,” really. Each and every Like is near and dear to my heart.

But I’m just saying, what am I doing here? Do I really write so much better about not being able to write? Is that really much more interesting than my beloved Mohawk Valley? Oh no, does this mean I am so narcissistic that my writing purely about me is better than my writing about anything else?

SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!

Perhaps my problem is getting so caught up in the number of Likes I get on a given post. Oh, this is getting worse and worse. I’m not only narcissistic, I am dependent on the admiration of others. I must get my validation from outside, not from within!

Oh well, I guess I’m not a particularly valid person to begin with (and I don’t usually go to places where I need to get my parking validated) (sorry, couldn’t resist). But look, I’m over 200 words. We can postpone this existential crisis to another time, possible a Lame Post Friday.

To Half and to Half Not

Well it’s Lame Post Friday and I’ve never felt lamer. I just said that in a reply to a comment somebody made on yesterday’s post, which was also no great shakes. I do love my Lame Post Friday, but I must confess today’s is less delightful, because it is the last day of my week off. Um, I still have the weekend, so it doesn’t totally suck. But vacation is, sadly, drawing to a close. Perhaps I could muster some half-baked philosophy to lighten my mental burden (as regular readers know, this is my traditional day for random observations and half-baked philosophy).

That was a long first paragraph. Is anybody still reading? No matter, I write for my own entertainment as well.

I have had a rather pleasant week. Last year at this time I was dealing with a flooded basement. It was good that I had the week off to deal with it; bad that I had to spend my precious week off dealing with it. So the glass was half-full and half-empty. Hmmm, lots of halves today.

Thinking of halves, when you were a little kid, did you ever divide something into three halves? Then you found out that “half” meant two parts, so you got all superior when some other little kid divided something into three halves.

And that’s over 200 words. Sufficiently lame, I trust. Happy Fourth of July, everyone.

Flying Saucers Over My House

Did I mention I’m on vacation this week? I seem to remember writing or typing it any number of times, but I may have crossed it out or erased it each time. It was not my idea to take vacation this week, but I do like to take a day off. Or a few days. And it seems I am taking some days off blogging as well. On the other hand, I just read the first paragraph of another blog that said people never read blogs during the summer (probably would be nice to credit that quote, wouldn’t it? I think it was Return of the Modern Philosopher).

Be all that as it may, today is Non-Sequitur Thursday and all I’m going to do is list the movies Steven and I have looked at this afternoon. We began with The Stranger (1946) with Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Richard Long. We like to have a connection from movie to movie, so after that we watched House on Haunted Hill (1958) which featured Richard Long. The movie starred the incomparable Vincent Price and was directed by the great William Castle.

We do not have another movie with Richard Long. In fact, the only other thing I know him from is a TV show from the early 1970s called Nanny and the Professor. So we went another way with Plan 9 From Outer Space. I could probably think of a good connection between this and the other two movies, but this is Non-Sequitur Thursday and, as I said, I’m on vacation. I’m listing and hitting publish. But I may indulge in some commentary on Lame Post Friday. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

What if None of my Guesses are Right?

It does not matter how bad I have been all week, I cannot, I simply cannot be good on Lame Post Friday.

That statement just cries out for some half-baked philosophy on what is “good” and “bad.” In this context, apparently “good” is “good writing,” a manifestly subjective term. Although, I guess by “good” I must mean a blog post about something OTHER THAN the fact that I have nothing to write a blog post about. Something I wrote earlier today and, dare I say, edited. Maybe thought about. Maybe made a little bit “better” than something I just type off the cuff at the computer.

Well, here is my problem. Every time I write something foolish (like this, I hope), I get Likes from other bloggers. Apparently my writing off the cuff is extremely entertaining to some people. On the other hand, perhaps they merely hit “Like” because I have made them feel so much better about their own blogs because mine is so bad (note the absence of quotations this time). In any case, I have been encouraged in my folly.

My other problem is, it’s kind of fun to just sit here rattling on. Editing can be hard work. For one thing, unless it is really obvious which is the better way to say something, it leads to some very uncomfortable second guessing. I hate second guessing! For one thing, it very often turns out that none of my guesses are right.

I’m hoping for some running commentary tomorrow. In the meantime, happy Friday, everyone.

I Wrote, I Typed, I Hit Publish

Do I dare have a Lame Post Friday after taking a sick day on Wednesday and writing a ridiculous post on Thursday? I actually don’t see how today’s post could be anything but lame. I am going to be very pressed for time after work today. I am attempting to write something before work (which you are currently reading) that I can type into the computer later (um, right now; so time-warpy). Possibilities swirl through my mind. Can I pick one and go with it?

Today is Friday the 13th and it is a full moon. The last time I remember that happening, I was in California in the army. I thought it was so unusual I suggested we have a bonfire on the beach and cook hot dogs. Some friends were into it, but we ended up at my house. I cooked the dogs in a frying pan on the stove. It was a fun time.

On some Friday the 13ths, you can find a television channel showing the slasher flicks of that name. There’s some cheesy fun for Mohawk Valley Girl, although I confess my taste in horror runs at least ten years previous to ’70s slasher flicks.

In any case, I have other plans for the evening. Steven and I are going to attend the theatre (pronounced thea-tah, if you like). We are going to Ilion Little Theatre’s production of Funny Money. It should be a fun time.

What often happens in these cases, meaning when I hurry home and get ready to go someplace, is that I end up posting some fast thing pretty much making fun of myself for being so unorganized. How many times can I get away with that? I was determined not to let that happen today but to write something beforehand.

How’m I doing so far?

And that was all I wrote. Now it is VERY close to the time when I must go. It’s Wrist to Forehead time! But I wrote, I’ve typed, and now I will hit “publish.” Happy Friday, everybody.

Just an Expression

For today’s Friday Lame Post, I offer another edition of Cliches Revisited.

“It’s like living in a fishbowl.”

People usually say this about places with large windows and no curtains. My first response is, you’ve probably never lived in a fishbowl, so how would you know? It seems to me that living in a fishbowl would be a whole lot more boring, even if it had one of those little castles or sunken ships. In your average living room, picture window or not, there is usually at least a television set. All a fish can do is swim around. They can’t even run out for a loaf of bread as many of us can. The fish don’t seem to mind, but then I don’t know what a fish thinks.

I know, it’s Just an Expression. I realize it means, “I feel as if everybody can watch my every move!” Oh, get over yourself. Most of us are not that interested.

Next cliche: “Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.”

I have never personally licked an ashtray, but I would think that the consistency is probably much different from the mouth of a smoker. Hello! Glass, metal or plastic covered with ashes… the mouth of somebody you presumably like well enough to kiss.

I know! Just an Expression. Look, people can feel free to kiss or not whoever they want, as far as I’m concerned (as long as the other person wants to be kissed). But just say, “I don’t want to kiss a smoker.” You do not need to engage in inaccurate hyperbole (or is hyperbole inherently inaccurate and I am guilty of redundancy?).

Oh dear, those were the only two cliches I thought about while I was running this morning. I think three would make a better post. Ooh, there’s a cliche, “Third time’s the charm.”

What is it about the number three? Three wishes. Three Little Pigs. Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. This is not a cliche I can argue with. Three is, apparently, a very good number. The best I can do is buck the system and not deconstruct three cliches. Thank you for playing. And have a nice Friday.

My Philosophy is You Have to be Philosophical About It

My plan was to write two posts today. I intend to give blood at work tomorrow. Sometimes my body reacts badly to that and all I can do is lie down and watch the room spin. So I thought, I’ll write my Friday Lame Post on Thursday as well as Thursday’s post, type both in and be ahead of the game. I’ve done it before. I can rock this.

I even had some pretty good half-baked philosophy for Lame Post Friday. I had no ideas for Thursday, but there’s always Non-Sequitur Thursday. I sat down and wrote two paragraphs for Friday. That I wasn’t so thrilled with. I spent the rest of my breaks at work solving Cryptogram puzzles from a Dell Puzzle Book or working on the crossword in the newspaper with a friend of mine.

Well, Thursday’s post was still going to happen. I had plans to go home and plant my tomatoes. I could do a gardening post. Well I may yet do that. For right now… well, let’s just say the tomatoes are not planted yet and at least I didn’t cry.

I can’t, I positively can not keep writing posts about Why I Can’t Write a Post. Well, apparently I can. The question is will anybody keep reading them?