Tag Archives: writing

I Try to Make a Lame Post Friday Post

This is the point on a Friday evening when I usually say to hell with it, I’ll make another late Lame Post Friday post.  That may yet happen today.  However, I am sitting on my couch, episode of Columbo on the television, glass of wine nearby, Tablet in hand, trying.

That is another trick I try on myself.  I have talked about the trick of doing Just One Thing.  For example, just wash one dish, put away one thing, write one journal entry.  A trick I may not have mentioned is that of Just Try.  For example, when I say, I can’t wash the dishes! I can’t go running! I can’t write anything!  I say to myself, Just Try.

Sometimes it doesn’t work.  Of course sometimes it does.  I mean, when it comes to the dishes, I can usually manage to get them organized, fill the dishpan with hot, soapy water, wash one dish… and it goes on from there.  Full disclosure:  often I get the dishes washed but do not scrub the sink afterwards.  And I quite frankly never dry them. I say why waste effort on what patience will accomplish.

However,  in most cases, washing dishes and writing are two disparate activities with very little in common. Once you wash a dish, it seems a very easy action to wash another.  Just because you write one word or even sentence is no guarantee that more words will be forthcoming.

On the other hand, I have gotten over 200 words with this nonsense.  I say Happy Lame Post Friday.

 

There Are No Words

I was reading a few other blogs hoping to get some inspiration for today’s post, and there it was: Wordless Wednesday.  If only I had a good, evocative picture to share.  Damn!

He was so handsome!

After looking through a LOT of pictures on my Tablet, I came across several of my dearly missed husband, Steven.  This one caught my eye, because I am wearing that same shirt tonight. I spilled a little sauce on it when I was eating supper.  I’d better remember to rub in a little soap when I take it off later.

Anyways, the picture was taken at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort,  NY, when we used to go almost every Wednesday for music and food.  That adds a little symmetry to the post, I think.

Full disclosure:  I did not want to make a cheerful, chatty post today.  I was rather inclined to give a grief update.  It occurred to me today that my sadness is just a chronic condition I have to get used to, like a bad back or knees (both of which I have, but they are not constant, so I count my blessings).  This is actually a helpful thought: Just something I have to get used to.  I can get used to something.

So I am over 200 words on this Wordless Wednesday.  I can never get these things right.

 

No Tricks Here!

I thought I could make a Running Commentary Post, because I went for a run after work.  Then as I was running, I thought, “This isn’t going to make a very good blog post.”  It did not seem to be making a very good run.  However, one must get through the crap runs on the way to the good ones.

In some ways it was not a bad run at all.  Most of the sidewalks were bare.  The sun was shining.  It was warm enough to run in shorts and short sleeves. In short, what was I complaining about?

Not exactly what it looked like today.

I wanted to put a picture of something I ran by.  I took this one of Meyers Park in Herkimer, NY earlier this year.  There is a little more snow now, although it is melting.  I am still trying to figure out what I was complaining about.  Oh, I remember now.  I was disappointed that my run was not more memorable.

Additionally, I was a little discouraged by my huffing and puffing.  I ran Saturday and Sunday, and walked on Monday.  I have been walking and/or running most days since the beginning of the year.  Shouldn’t I be getting better at it?  When I was in the army, I loved running, because I magically got better at it.  All I had to do was do it.  Maybe there is some trick to it now that I am older.  Still, I was in my 30’s when I joined the army.  That’s pretty old in army years.

There may be a trick to making a better blog post, too.  Once again, I don’t know it. But I shall persevere.  Once again I thank you for tuning in.

 

My Rules on Monstrous Monday

I have often said that writing begets writing, and I have been writing several things this evening, yet here I sit, looking at a blank space on my “Add New Post” screen.  Maybe I was writing the wrong things.  I wrote a couple journal entries and finished a letter to a friend.  By my rule of Any Writing Counts, that should help.  Then again, why do I think that my rule made up by me has to always be true?

“Why oh whyyyyy can’t I make a blog post?”

I throw in a picture of a monster, because it is Monday.  Regular readers know how I love my Monstrous Monday Posts.

Is this the formula for a decent blog post?

If I continue to add pictures of monsters, I’m sure I can get to 200 words.  I realize making blog posts of at least 200 words is just another one of My Rules For Me.  What is it with me and rules?

Are they pondering the rules of magic?

I wonder if I think something magic is going to happen if I follow these rules.  For example, when I started this blog, I decided I was going to make a post every day for one year.  I did pretty good for the first year, and not bad off and on for the subsequent years (it’s been almost 12).  I don’t know that anything magic happened.  I don’t make up the rules about what counts as magic.

 

Mid-Week Monsters from my Media Library

I am having a hard time writing anything these days.  I open a notebook (the spiral-bound paper kind), uncap a pen, and…  sometimes I write a word or two, sometimes not.  I guess the important thing is to keep trying.  So I will try to make a blog post.  I know what!  It’s Wednesday:  I will do a Mid-Week Monsters Post! I look in my Media Library…

He’s not the only one who was scared!

I open with Nosferatu (1922), because I have been watching it on DVD while running in place on the mini-tramp this past week or so.  I have only been doing short runs, so it took a few times to see the whole movie.

Not showing the monster, but appropriate for the day.

I love Young Frankenstein, in fact, I love most of Mel Brooks’ movies.

 

“This is a good boy!”

Here is the monster! At first, I went to Facebook and downloaded a new photo, but when I tried to put it in the post, it was really small, so I went back to my Media Library.  I do not properly understand photos and computers.

“I said I only wanted a trim!”

After Dracula (although they couldn’t call him that) and Frankenstein,  I put in the Wolfman.  I don’t know what movie this is from; it was in my Media Library.  Sometimes I just download pictures I like.

This silliness has gotten me over 200 words.  Apparently I can come up with more words pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus.  Tomorrow I will try again with pen and paper.

 

 

Perhaps I Should Have Left It Blank

I am sitting here staring at a blank space and feeling that my mind is equally blank.

Well, I thought that if I typed in something, anything (pecking it out one letter at a time with the stylus, of course), I could go on from there.   Sometimes these little tricks work.  Sometimes not so much.  However,  I want to make a blog post.  I will attempt to make a blog post.

The famous white bathing suit.

I throw in a picture to pep things up. Earlier I watched Creature from the Black Lagoon on a DVR’d episode of Svengoolie.  I loves me some Svengoolie.

I know how she feels.

This is also not the picture I was looking for.  However, sometimes I like to jump on the I Hate Monday bandwagon.  I personally will not be pouring myself such a measure of booze.  I had a little wine earlier, but not enough to render Monday even more hideous than it is forced to be by nature.

Cheers, my love.

Speaking of wine, here is a picture of my sadly missed husband, Steve, enjoying a libation at the Waterfront Grille in Herkimer, NY.  My friend Kim and I had a couple drinks at the Waterfront yesterday.  Did I mention that in my Scattered Saturday Post?   It is far too much trouble to go back and look.

I guess I can bill this as a Wrist to Forehead Sunday Post, because I must sound like I am about to swoon, dramatically posed with the back of one wrist to my forehead.  I will try for a little less drama tomorrow.

 

Monsters, Murder and Memories at Mid-Week

I can call this a Blogger’s Sick Day or a Blogger’s Stress Day (I think that might be a new one), but I am making yet another post about not making a decent blog post.  Some may find it frustrating that I am sharing no details about my sickness or stress.  Others will be happy to be spared the sordid details.  I always say explanations are tiresome.

Unrelated but amusing photo.

I throw in a picture to pep things up.  I had thought to make this a Mid-Week Monsters Post, so here we are.

The fact is that even when undergoing great personal trauma (accuse me of overdramatizing if you like), I cling to my image of myself as a writer.  I have not traditionally experienced great success in writing about what bothers me.  What often happens is that as I write, I think, “Wow, I am really justified in feeling upset!”  And I get even more upset.  Go figure.

We have always been a lovely couple.

I have experienced greater success in distracting myself from my problems, if not with monsters, then with memories.  The picture shows my husband Steven and I in Fabulous and Fatal, a murder mystery we presented to benefit the Herkimer County Historical Society.

OK, that got me over 200 words.  I’ll call it a blog post and hope for a better one tomorrow.

 

Slacker Sunday, But Here’s a Snowman

Earlier today I posted on Facebook, “Two things done.  Roughly 5,438 left to go!”  In fact, I got more than two things done today, but the backlog of things that yet need doing looms before me in a most menacing manner.  Although I have had a couple Mohawk Valley Adventures lately, I just don’t feel I can make good blog posts about them.  And so I slack.

A giant snowman might cheer me up!

I took this picture in my neighborhood yesterday while on an otherwise unremarkable walk.  I thought it would be nice to include in my Sunday blog post.  Waste not, want not, I always say.

A smaller snowman, but still cheery.

I remembered I had another picture of a snowman in my Media Library.  I even remembered it was November 2020, so my brain is apparently not completely fried.

It would take a lot of oil to fry this brain!

I venture into non-sequitur territory with The Brain from the Planet Arous.  Or is it more of a tangent, since I just mentioned brain?  I ought to know these grammatical considerations.

All this nonsense is my way of continuing my Blogger’s Sick Day.  I will strive to get my act together in the coming week.  Will I succeed any better than the last dozen times I have thought to get my act together (never mind the last 8,562 times)?  A little uncertainty will add interest to my week.

 

Making with the Memories

If I make a Throwback Thursday Post a day late, that just means I am throwing back by one more day.  Another thing one may judge me on:  I am not going to worry about sharing pictures I have shared before.  For one reason (some may call it a rationalization, but I decline to enter into any such argument), some readers may not have seen the particular pictures I choose or they may enjoy seeing them again.

What a long introduction.  Perhaps I should go back to writing my blog posts in advance and doing a little more editing.  For right now, I’d better make with the pictures.

I’m not taking any of his nonsense.

Here is a throwback to 2012 and the Ilion Little Theatre production of Harvey.  I played Veda.  My husband, Steven, was Dr. Chumley.  How I loved being on stage with my husband!

Again, I was not putting up with his nonsense.

Here we are on stage together again, in Splitting Issues, again at Ilion Little Theatre.  I forget the year and am too lazy to look it up.

I dished out the nonsense in this show.

I was actually looking for a different murder mystery picture, but this is a great theatre memory,  A G.R.A.V.E. Murder, presented at Mohawk American Legion to benefit Herkimer County Historical Society.  That reminds me, I’d better get writing on my upcoming productions.  Off to make more memories!