The Wheels on the Bus Go 'Round and 'Round

I continue to feel less and less like writing. (Yet here I am.) It seems like one of those things from my childhood that I got in my head that I had to do it. I always wanted to be a writer.  At some point in my early childhood, I was around people who would have regarded that as an admirable accomplishment. Now, I put slightly less credence in the idea that I'm a Libra and therefore like books, but who knows--that might be a true statement as well. At any rate, I find myself wondering if I feel like it's something I'm supposed to do, even if after all this time I haven't really done much.  Maybe that is what I should be looking at.  Know me by my fruits, to paraphrase a wise man.

Yet, writing is a lot of work. It's not that fun sometimes. More and more, actually. Maybe that's it. Maybe I'm just old and tired. And there is that whole thing about the lack of instant feedback. Photography is kind of the same way, but only kind of. Music is the exact opposite, or it feels like it is. I don't play in front of an audience, though, so "feedback" is kind of a moot point, but I hear the music, like it (or don't like it,) and it's done and will never come back, so I just have to play some more.

I doesn't seem like I have much to say. That would be why one writes in the first place, isn't it? It seems more and more likely that I'll never think of anything that hasn't already been thought of, and possibly written down. Maybe, for me, writing is like air-guitar. I used to like the way it made me feel, but it is essentially an empty avocation. I would love to have something to say. I was thinking about this the other day when I ran across an article, and had a subsequent conversation with a writer, about the art of plotting. I remembered seeing lots of articles online about plotting, and story elements and character development, and all that good stuff. The thought I had was, with all these books and articles, a lot of people must want to figure this out, obviously not because they have a story to tell (if they did, they wouldn't be looking at articles on how to create stories) but because they want to write and are in search of something to write about. Odd. Sort of.

I still may do it.

A Moment

How much can I write in fifteen minutes?

I've been working on the music pretty hard lately. I am beginning to think that those of us who are not universal or Renaissance or good at multi-tasking (and the latter is not one of my strong suits,) may not be able to be consistently creative in things that reside in areas of the brain that are too far apart. I say this because when my interest in photography increases, I feel less like writing. I always thought that had more to do with finding a creative release, so to speak, where only one is necessary, so you tend to want or need to do only one or the other. Now I think maybe it actually has more to do with the way the brain works. You know, the visual cortex and the language part of the brain being so far apart that the little neurons can't wink at each other from that greater distance.

The music, that is a whole 'nother thing, though at least in my case, it's closely related to the visual, but not language. This may explain why I've noticed musicians tend to use language in ways that invoke visual images rather than strict logic. Hmm. Just thought of that.

  Well, a lot of half-baked ideas. Let it simmer.

An Embarrassment of Extravagances

move over, Chet

Today's entry will be brief. I bought this guitar. Did I say that? As a matter of fact, I got a pretty big tax refund this year so I thought I might get away with splurging on a guitar. Main thing you need to note: it's red. My second guitar (when I was in high school) was also red, and similar in design. Only, it cost about $15 back in 1964, and this one cost slightly more than that. Possibly 8X more in 1966 dollars. Whatever that means.

As it turns out, I also bought a new cell phone. This was more a matter of necessity, in order to preserve my sanity. The Samsung was driving me nuts, so I bought an iPhone again. I had one about three or four generations ago and it worked great. This is even better. One thing I am glad about is that the camera on it is much better, despite Samsung's claims about how good the cameras in their phones are. I found the one I had to be pretty crappy.

picture of Uma taken with my new iPhone

Now you're thinking that's not such a great picture, and you're right, but the lighting is challenging, and the iPhone did a pretty good job of creating some sort of "usable" image. Trust me, the Samsung would have botched it.

I just realized that Uma might be the most photographed cat in Missouri at this time. I'm not sure I want to think about what that says about me.