Daily Zen

Courtesy of my lava lamp and M83

Photos from today and yesterday.



My nephew came over yesterday and made cupcakes.



Stuffed animal in my parents' room.



A swan outside this morning.

Blogging too much.



Took this in the reflection of a picture frame.




More frozen photos this morning.



Took the photo out of the frame. I like this one the mostest.

Morning, y'all.

Just watched Hotel Rwanda. Finding it hard to justify complaining about anything. Unfortunately, perspective of this nature only lasts a short time in white upper class United States of America, but for now, I am grateful for every single thing. I am the luckiest person in the world. Good night.

Today the world froze over and I went out to take photos! My mom came too. As we were walking around huge tree limbs were crashing down along with buckets of ice shards. Kewl.



Grass is completely frozen.



View between the trees.



My mom took this photo of me. Like it.

Today's photo: um, my lava lamp.

I was pretty productive today. In the morning I finished Cat's Cradle. In the afternoon I read my camera manual and figured out how to do some stuff I should have figured out a long time ago. Later, I went to the library with Ben and got Dave Barry's book, "Dave Barry Talks Back", which includes some of his best columns. I'm trying to hone my humor writing skillz, so I figure the more I expose myself to, the better chance I have of being able to....write humorously.

Peace out cub scouts.

The past few days I've been doing this experiment in which I see what it's like to be 80 years old.

I started by throwing out my back. I googled the meaning of throwing out one's back just now, and apparently it is not a medical term and doesn't really mean anything. However, I stand by my statement that that is what happened to me.

So as a result I've been hobbling around a bit and complaining, and not going out, and telling kids to get off my lawn (well not that last one), but still.

It's actually kind of horrifying to think that this is what I will seriously deal with in the decades to come. And it will hurt a lot worse and be a lot more inconvenient as a working person.

Not to be dramatic or anything but this little thing has made me appreciate my youthful vigor and health a bit more. I doubt that appreciation will last more than a day after I'm healed, but until then I am happy about this rare occasion to realize how good I've got it.

Enough about that. Now here's a long lost photo from my Christmas shoot in Florida that didn't turn out as I had hoped:



One of my goals for this blog for the new year is to post a photo every day (and some writing too). So I hope that works out.

P.S. Look what I found today! Andrew Bird pre-release stuff, check it out if you're indie and interested: http://www.andrewbird.net/useless.php

I'm reading Cat's Cradle now, so I was reading up about Kurt Vonnegut and found this thing he wrote about how to write a short story. I think it's perfect so I thought I'd post it here:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

What do I have in common with Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara?

Congenital Ptosis! I'll allow Tegan to explain it:



I actually didn't find out what this was called until recently, but I've always known that my right eyelid droops more than my left one. It's called Ptosis, and it's really not a big deal. For some people it only happens to them when they age, but for me and people like Tegan, it is an inherited condition already in effect at birth.

What I think is cool is that not only do I have it in common with Tegan Quin, but I also have it in common with several of my ancestors on my mother's side of my family, including:

My Great-Great-Great Grandfather



My Great-Great Grandmother



I like that I have this small thing in common with my ancestors. So I'm not going to change it. Plus I wouldn't get a surgery for cosmetic reasons only.

I guess that's where Tegan and I differ. Brings new meaning to the lyric, "Look me in the eye and tell me you don't find me attractive." Lol.