Writing That Which Will Not Be Named

Keep your fingers moving. Be specific. Lose control. Don’t think. Those four rules, or “rules”, are the basis of writing, according to Natalis Goldberg. (I keep trying to write Goldman, go figure.) Do not think about punctuation, spelling, or all that stuff. Just get it out.

I am most of the way through week one of the thing that will not be named. I have had two huge interruptions. One was being at the hospital for a nuclear based test. That started early, at 7:30 with no one else in the waiting room. It was a stress test. “Some people say they feel like they have run a marathon.” I did not feel that way. I got home, sat down, wrote 4700 words. Then I felt like I had done something, not a marathon, but it was something and I was tired.

The second time was when I was writing cancer memories. It was going slow. At breakfast, I was asked, “should we but up this tarp to protect the shed?” We needed to get the tarp onto the shed. A grapevine had its way with the roof, sending roots down through it. I looked up. It was a sunny day. Our forecast had been for rain. Rain all day. Rain all day every day for the next week. It was sunny now. “yes, we should.” and we did. We got the tarp on top of the shed. Then it was time to write and to write about things I really do not like remembering as vividly as 1 did this day. I looked up MOPP and the side effects and a “for 20 years there is a 20% chance…” When I was treated it had been in successful use for five years. This 20% over 20 years? That was still to be discovered. In fact, when I first heard about a 20% chance of developing a secondary cancer, it was over a 10 year span. But 1 found out about that side effect after they had just over 10 years. I did not know about the 20 year span until I was writing today. Lucky for me I did not get a secondary tumor. Now I am into different side effects.

I have kept my fingers moving, I do not think about spelling, too much, Specific? You can judge that. Lose control? I dunno. Do it, does I, do I lose control of my typewriter and let the keys do their thing? Ask it. I have kept up my pace. I still have enough stuff in my brain to type a single page or a part of a page after my 2,000+ words to keep to my goal.

—- MichaelRpdx :: h3k
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PS You can name it if you like. I am just tired of typing the mixed case word.

Signing and Singing

Does your typewriter sign? Does it sign to the deaf?
Does your typewriter sing? Does it sing to you?

Can you hear the typewriter sign in and singing to all about?

This typewriter sings throughout the night and the day though I cannot hear it often. I cannot hear it singing at night or in the day.

Until. Until I sit with it and start to caress it.
When I caress its keys then I hear it cleanly.

I hear it clearly. And I type.
Were your fingers deaf? So deaf you could not hear your typewriter sign.
When you cannot hear it sign you must rely only upon its singing.

Upon the sticks of the keys pushing down the levers
through the body to spring the key head to strike
against the paper through silk or cotton or sometimes nothing at all.

What does your typewriter sign?
What does your typewriter sing?

 

 

— MichaelRpdx :: h3k

Ephemera

We collect things. Today’s collection comes from our travels. Buenos Aires was today’s find as my wife was cleaning out things. Where “cleaning out” means to give up on hanging on to things from Buenos Aires.

What kinds of things? A receipt from Gout Cafe (loved the place), a bag from Kentucky Cafe (pizza, cheesy pizza), a two peso note with an inscription (este billete …), a sealed bag of postcards, a map of the city, a flyer for an art show for engraved wood, wood block?, and much more.

Going through the pile of stuff we alternate between the joy of remembering, like the wonderful foods from Gout, to the “why do we have this?” Despite of needing to get rid of the stuff. A map of Buenos Aires? Really? Do we need that? In Portland, Oregon, thousands of miles away with very dim prospects of returning to that city.

We have similar collections from Bejing, Guanajuato, Bogota, Madrid, Milan, Grenada, Bali, London, Frankfurt, Oaxaca, Cancún, Turin, and other places I cannot bring to mind now.

The difficult is throwing away this ephemera is we pick up most of them and memories flood through us. A plastic bag, the thin flimsy kind you get to carry things home again, triggers a memory of a cheese pizza with a thick layer of cheese, so much we were astounded by it. And they offered pizzas with extra cheese. gawd it was delicious. Almost enough to return to the city. If the travel there did not take 15 hours of travel time (not including getting to the airport, waiting in advance at the airport, going through customs, a cab ride to the city, the total time is closer to 22 hours, maybe more) well OK, there are other wonderful things to see, do, eat (oh gawd yes! eating) in Buenos Aires.

This entire rabbit hole of memories of Buenos Aires is why we keep the ephemera. We need, we love the memories that it dredges up. And why we have so much other “stuff” from other places we have visited.

How can we throw away our memories?

 

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm
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Today’s News

500 Years to forget about Facebook? Can you name the big industries of 100 years ago? The members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is what I am referring to. How about the stocks of the 1971 DJIA? Most of us were alive then. The only member of it is General Electric. In fact GE was a founding member of the 12 stocks chosen for the index. It is the only one that is not a subsidiary of other more successful ones. And times are changing faster now. 500 years? Ha!

Four teaspoons of sugar in a cup of coffee. Ah, what memories they brought back. In college, we would brew up a moka pot of coffee. Take that and mix in an equal measure of milk, or cream if you had it (which I did not), and then add an equal part of sugar. Stay up all night in the darkroom. Oh yeah. Those were the days. We called it Cuban Coffee. My moka pot was given to my father when he left Zenith Television.

I made it through the Stress Test this morning. When I arrived it was me and myself in the waiting room. This is a test with lots of pausing. Injections and a pause to allow the drug to dissipate through your body. Then 10 minutes of laying very still while a giant camera rotated around you. Meditated. It kept me still. Then more waiting time. There were four people in the waiting room. Then a choice between a treadmill or a chemically induced treadmill. After noting metropolol they opted to have me take the drugs. All I had to do was wave my feet in the air. They said some people feel like they have been in a marathon after the experience. Not for me. I just enjoyed chatting with them. Then back to the waiting room. A full waiting room and I was lucky to have a chair available. Advice: get as early an appointment as you can. Back for another 10 minutes of meditation and laying still for the camera to do its stuff again. Exciting day! Hardly.

I returned home and started in on my NaNoWriMo. I made it.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm
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Curiosity

To address the curious question, yes I am. That question came from Truckin’ Mike. Is there an actual Rebel way to go? Yes, I know they have that as a status. But there is no way they have a way to track it and enforce it. Call yourself Traditional or Rebel. If you are in, you’re in.

Consider this: there is only a marathon. And I am talking about a 26.2 mile run. That sounds silly. No half marathons? It is either a full or none? I have heard a rumor x or two that they are considering shorter NaNoWriMo events. A week-long event, a 25,000 event for the month, or a 50,000 event. I think all of these are worthy of attention.

I have two goals for this event. The first being to finish 50,000 by the 25th of the month. That implies I will write 2,000 words a day. The other goal is to fail in such a way that I know why. And it is not just running out of time. What prevented me from hitting the word goal?

A few years ago I did a Photo 365 challenge. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Each day you get out, photograph something, post it How can one forget to take a photo and put it up? I had a few days when this did not happen. One day was a work day busy, busy workday. Another was a day of reading and getting wrapped up in what I was reading. Those are kinda sorta OK days to miss, for me at that time. The worst was the days when I just did not pay attention to what I had set out to do. What happened on those days?

On my NaNoWriMo, I have a stress test tomorrow. It will happen in the morning. Will I get some done beforehand? Will I be able to handle doing more writing afterward? If I miss my goal will I be able to fill in the personal goal by the weekend?

I will toss that in as a side note tomorrow.

—— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm
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A Maligned Sentence

It was a dark and stormy night. What a maligned phrase we have there. In High School Mrs. Morris, our English teacher, pointed out that it was night, what else could it be? It is always dark at night. Being a dumb kid I nodded my head and went on through life. It was later I learned that nights were not always dark. No, not at all.

For people in our modern times with electricity, it seems dark out there. Nothing is darker than a dark place right after you have been in a lit-up place. Give the nighttime and you will develop the ability to see. Kinda of. You won’t be able to see colors. But you will have “visual purple” or “rhodopsin that builds up and you can see better in the dark. Commonly known as dark adaptation. In the light of the stars, no moonlight, never any moonlight at a star party, I would walk around just by the light of the stars. I could see the bushes, the roadway, everything I needed. Bright out the moon and it was even brighter. So bright that when I was camping in White Sands, New Mexico, I read a book. It was that bright. You could have the same effect on a white sand beach.

So no, it is not necessarily dark in the nighttime. A dark night is special. That talks about clouds. Clouds to block the light from the stars and moon. Add some rain, Then you have darkness. A dark and stormy night. You want darkness, you want stormy add them together and you have one proper dark and stormy night.

But we have Bulwer-Lytton still known for The Dark and Stormy Night. There is an annual contest of people writing their worst first sentences to books that are never written. This years winner (??) was:

A lecherous sunrise flaunted itself over a flatulent sea, ripping the obsidian bodies of night asunder with its rapacious fingers of gold, thus exposing her dusky bosom to the dawn’s ogling stare.

– Stu Duval, Auckland

It does not have the spare seven words employed by Bulwer-Lytton’s namesake. It does go on for a bit there. There are other categories Western, Vile Puns, Historical Fiction, Adventure to name a few.

It was (not) a dark and stormy night. Not tonight here. The moon is waning. Just a night or two ago, it was in three-quarters. If you were up at three or four in the morning you could see it shining light into your home.

Side note, I usually fill up my car on the last or first day of a month. Not this month. My wife told me the average driver in the US spends $250 for a month of gas. I have used four gallons of gas, about $15 worth. I can got through that same amount next month. So I will try. Two months, one tank.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

Everybody Wants

“My sister looks cute in her braces and boots. A handful of grease in her hair.” Got that? Got that in your mind? Were you a juvenile product of the working class? or “Yeah, you got the speed-freak jive now Ah can’t you hear me knocking’ on your window Ah can’t you hear me knocking! on your door”? Down your dirty steeet, how was yours? “There’s somethin’ happening here … stop stop whats that sound?” Could keep going. But something is growing. Another worm. Another earworm. Earworms “Nobody told me about her…” How are your earworms?

Sorry, I have not had any in the last few years. If you have one, well, Sorry about that.

Whether it is the time of the seasons, oh sorry about that.

I am going to comment on lefts, rights, people all apart here in our fine country. I have only one thing to say: Vote. If you have not voted because the candidates are not to your liking, Vote. Write in who you want. We will be stuck with two party system until they get the message. Unless there is enough people voting for people not in the parties to have them see people wanting others enough to vote for them. You can follow a white rabbit. But vote for who you want to see in the office.

Today the rain stopped. We have a couple of days of bright, sunny days coming our way. But we also have March weather, never mind the yellow leaves, we have wind. If you had a kite it would not take anything to get it up and high in the sky. I heard it is time for kite flying in the spring. Why then? I dunno it is something I heard through … sorry. It might be the wine bringing what I almost write, except I have not had any wine tonight.

You know I always thought of this as a ZZ Top song. “I look good and I’m funny so why am I lonesome honey?” David Lee Roth But Don’t You Forget about me . . .

I need to leave here. I do not have earworms. I do have YouTube rolling around in front of me.

It is Saturday Night and …

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

Three Responses and Some Blather

AP from Tacoma We are all joining the stream of our lives. It is good that you are intereted in history. Just plopping in and joining the conversation (??) works out just fine. Pho is, so far, a west coast stronghold. Though I just read a Duluth review of it. Very favorable. It is too bad their choices of cow parts is so limited. A PNW stronghold of One Typed Page-ers? I only count five people in that group. If a group is the right description.

The Who Was It? Who recommended: Kanopy. Oh yes, it is a gem of a place. We started with “Intelligent Trees”. Yes, a documentary. But the diversity of what they offer in easy to navigate groups is wonderfiul.

New ribbons coming for this typewriter (Hermes 3000) and my others. This seems a bit odd. The density of ink on the paper does not seem too bad. But, well, maybe it is the paper. The inkjet paper I buy because it feeds my printer and typewriter and I use more paper in the printer. What I use in typewriters is such a small amount I have not purchased paper just for it, for typewriting. (If you have thoughts on the matter I am listening.)

Writer of the Lucinda saga: (If “Lucinda Saga” is the right description) I greatly admire your hanging from the cliff end of the page work, It is not a lot to work with but each and every one gets to the end of a page and … well? What is next? So nice whoever you are.

Who decided to put ‘ and ” in a dedicated key to the right of ;/: key?

The typewriter gods decreed they should be above 2 and 8 and I still find them there. I often type @ and * when I mean ” and ‘. They are (were?) in convenient places on the keyboard. If you second on an instrument, with similar keys, like guitar and ukulele or clarinet and saxophone, this must be maddening.

Getting, getting ready for NaNoWriMo. My preparation is getting lists of things to type about. Not in the chroninolgy of the book To Be. Just daily things to do 2,000 (yes, I am aware I only need 1,667) words I can sort them out later. It is a First First Draft and so it will be. What scares me most is lacking in things to type about. Yes, I did do five consecutive days. Yet at the same time, I run up against not having ideas to type where? Here!. I mean what the hell? I sit in the morning and type out a bunch of words and then later not much comes from me. Perhaps because I am conscious of all of you seeing this. My morning words were to one person. In a week I will know if I need to have all of my First First Draft writing to one person. We will know in a week.

— MichaelRpdx :: h3k

Advice

Three bucks for a …? What can you buy that you might want for three bucks? It used to be a hamburger and fries. I am not referring to whatever it is at McDonalds for $1 to be a hamburger. In a hospital I frequented (wait, yes I do frequent a hospital) I can get a bowl of soup or 4oz of tuna salad, or 30% of tater tots for under $3, three bucks. (Why did I ask a question I already know the answer to? Really, honestly, this is one of those cases of writing something to answer it. Those that kind of events is to ask a question about something weighty and Something that requires thought and you need to write it out (where write equals typing, but all of you get, understand that) to get the thoughts on paper and figure it out.) But what can you get for three bucks that will provide you with lots of pleasure and things to think about and really enjoy?I strongly suggest Stephen King’s novel 11-22-63.

(Substitute slashes for the dashes here, which my typewriter does not have so I can present the title of the book the way the author intended.)

As to why you should splurge $3 on this book, and if my, well forget this if my stuff. I say it is good. But who knows if your tastes come close to mine so why read a book based on my Saying so? Don’t,

You should find Kent Peterson’s review about the book, read that, and then go buy the book and read it. I realize I am not giving you much leeway here. The book is that good. But read Kent’s piece as to why.

#   #   #   #

I get my booster vaccine yesterday. I was kinda out of it yesterday. Today I feel much better. OK, I feel better, not a lot yet. But I am sure I will feel better with each passing day. Just like I did the last two times I got a vaccinene. I am (yes, more unasked for advice here) Suggesting you get your booster vaccinen, ahem, vaccine, whatever. As soon as your six months since your second one was administered. Even though I had to go to the community-based place to get it this time around my health provider provided. Same day service.

Gotta love that. Not too many things you can make a call and get treatment the same day. For that matter, the only other times I had same-day service involved emergency rooms and ambulances. This was much nicer.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

The Way We Were

kanopy – what a great suggestion you made. I am sorry for not naming you, but … damn it looks great. Even with just six movies a month.

Remember when you had one, or perhaps two, movies to see at a time? We had one movie place, the Blue Fox, and that was it. It was where I first viewed “The Way We Were”, remember that? It holds up should you be so inclined. (I just spent time looking up 1973 movies. DANGER! Rabbit Holes Ahead! )

All first drafts of everything are garbage.
The first draft of everything is shit.
– Ernest Hemingway

Those are the alleged words, including an edit, from Ernest Hemingway. Everything I write for One Typed Page is a first draft. Just get it out. My college class in Logic leads me to conclude everything I put here is shit. At least I can get it for you wholesale.

Good night all.

-— MichaelRpdx :: h3k