How to be Annoying

The Daily Post prompts “We all know how to do something well — write a post that teaches readers how to do something you know and/or love to do.”

I really don’t mean to be an annoying know-it-all. As I had mentioned in earlier posts, I like to refer to myself as a polymath. I would not call myself a Renaissance person since that term really ought to be reserved for geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci. But I do know a little bit about a lot of things and I love to share that knowledge. A lot of people don’t like that for some reason.

Since I am not about to change, I might as well share my program for becoming the best pain-in-the-butt possible.

There is some preparation required: first, you visit as many museums as possible, take classes for fun, read books far into the night, become a news-junkie, and find some kind access to cable shows like Ancient Aliens and Pawn Stars — great resources for a variety of factoids.  Next, you organize your knowledge. This means you will have multiple journals devoted to different themes or interests.  You also calendar your daily study tasks (Monday: astronomy, Tuesday: how to make pasta, Wednesday: history of Greenland,  et cetera.)

Sharing your knowledge: this is how you really become annoying. First, steer dinner conversations to your current favorite area of interest (doesn’t everyone want to know that fire turns blue when you throw arsenic into it?). Give a history lesson to the passengers in your car when you drive by an old building. Like or share dozens of posts on a variety of topics on Facebook. (I have cut back on this since I discovered that most of my friends are not following me anymore). Finally, start blogging — about everything.

Like I said, I don’t want to be a know-it-all exactly; it is just that I so marvel and revel in the glorious world created for us to live in that I want other people to feel the same wonderment that I do. Someday I will find people who can appreciate that — and me.

Consider this: Who do you think would make a better role model for young women? Who would you rather have as your friend?:   Bella from the Twilight series or Hermoine from Harry Potter?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

 

ljg 2015

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/teach-your-bloggers-well/

Do I really have an accent?

The Daily Post prompt for yesterday was “Write about whatever you’d like, but write using regional slang, your dialect, or in your accent.”

So, I never used to think that Californians had accents.   I mean, I don’t hear it.  What accent?

I read the we’re supposed to sound a bit like we’re from the mid-west — sorta boring and bland (sorry, mid-westerners). We don’t have the twang of Texas or the slow drawl of the South. And, tsk, we sure don’t sound like “New eYOHRkers.” That would be, like, so weird.

I was really bummed thinking I didn’t have an accent so I thought I would check out Youtube to see if maybe there might be a video of California accents. And, guess what? There’s plenty of samples out there.  Here are a couple:

Now in this first sample, I totally disagree with how she pronounces “herb” and “jacquar”.   It’s “erb” in California, not “h-erb”. And it sure isn’t “Jag-wire”. It’s “jagwahr”. But, the girl herself is SO totally California that I had to share the clip. She isn’t faking it.

This next one is kinda fun, but the speaker’s southern accent about sent me into a sugar coma– at least the parts I could understand.  The clip does serve to show the differences in regional dialects including West Coast Californian.

Okay, you guys. So I do have an accent.  I mean there has to be a reason why Siri says she doesn’t understand what I’m saying.  Maybe someday she’ll get reprogrammed to understand Californians.  That would be so totally awesome.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/non-regional-diction/

Waiting for My Mojo to Come Back

I haven’t posted anything here for about three weeks.  In fact, I haven’t done any creative writing for even longer.     I have a half-written story just hanging there waiting for a conclusion.  It will never be finished at this point, I fear.

I tried doing some written journaling to see if I could get my writing mojo back.  That has dwindled.   My fear is that my creative self has become like a cold bowl of soup — no steam and a bland savor.

I tried some arting and photography.  That’s not working either.    I even tried one of those self-help art books that offer suggestions like drawing your dirty beach towel draped over a chair or painting a picture of your sleeping cat.

Nothing inspires me anymore.

However, lately I have been almost obsessed with physical journals and planners.  I put together a new day planner which I will junk in a few weeks to set up another one for 2016.  Besides that,  I have been spending huge amounts of time disassembling a four-year journal and commonplace book I just finished and redacting it into thematic sections and adding visual elements.

What is that all about?

I think I have an idea.  Perhaps focusing on placing creative elements into a book form is a way of containing and controlling expressions that I may fear to let out to the world with the hope that these elements will morph into something I can let go to the world.    Perhaps it is the physicality of the paper and the ink and the act of coloring, cutting, and gluing that make the act of creation a more real thing to me than just sitting at a computer monitor dealing with the ethereality of bytes and pixels.

Maybe I just need to walk away from it all for a while.  Or maybe I need to plunge into it more to thoroughly explore the explosive elements that think they need to be contained in a hard cover book.

When I get my creative mojo back, I’ll let you know.

A page from the current art journal

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/an-odd-trio/

An Odd Trio