I stalk around my room, like a mad scientist, talking and grunting to myself in a gibberish that's hard for anyone else to understand. I'm surrounded by a lab full of beakers and various half-started projects. When I sit down at my laptop, I type out two or three sentences, read what I've written and... Continue Reading →
Making up my own rules
Late in the 1985 movie Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd's character Dr. Emmett Brown tells Marty that things have changed. "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." I thought of that scene recently when fellow blogger Vicki Atkinson wrote about her love of the ellipsis. I too like the ellipsis, but I have my... Continue Reading →
Know your audience
I looked over at my father, pale and eyes closed on his bed, in the Intensive Care Unit in the local hospital. He had an oxygen mask up to his face and tubes running from his chest and arms to various machines beside him. I stared a long time at him before looking up at... Continue Reading →
Looking for my readers
Oh, where did my readers go? I look at my WordPress statistics for the first half of the year and some of the numbers have declined. I say to myself in my best Cat in the Hat voice, minus Dr. Seuss' poetic rhythm, rhyming, and alliteration, of course, because I'm horrible at figuring out what... Continue Reading →
Play it again, Sam! and great movie lines
I love great movie lines. Yes, I love them for all the reasons that everyone else loves them. They make me laugh, smile, or cry — sometimes all at the same time. I love everything about them. Oh, sometimes we remember the lines wrong. In the classic scene from Casablanca, Ingrid Bergman leans on the... Continue Reading →
The agony of defeat
As a kid, I looked forward to hearing the loud, brassy opening music to the ABC Television's Wide World of Sports and Jim McKay's opening narration. You knew you were going to see and hear something special. Shots of faraway places and events would flash across the screen and McKay in his recognizable voice would... Continue Reading →
Competition for my time
My wife called up from the first floor asking when I would be coming down. I acted like I didn’t hear her and kept working. A few minutes later, she asked again. I played innocent. I told her that I hadn’t heard her the first time and asked for ten minutes. Twenty-five minutes later, she... Continue Reading →
A few thoughts on writing – Part III
One of my favorite facets of writing a blog or a shot story is that you often go in with an idea of what you want to write. You have some general thoughts and ideas, you might even map out an outline. You start writing and the words come slow at first, but then they... Continue Reading →
Advice from an unexpected source
I got some great advice the other day. I was struggling with a work problem and I wasn't sure how to deal with it. I picked up a small book that I keep on top of my desk and immediately came to some great advice and knew exactly how to fix the problem. I'm not... Continue Reading →

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