1 'Twas brillig.
2 And on and on.
3 One nice thing about weekends is that I have time to re-read some of this nonsense, and make mental notes. Of course I do this on Saturday mornings, which remains consistent with the DN being time-travel art.
4 I often compare this strange world to an artist working paintings, adding a touch here, disappearing a touch there, with my drippings being all the stuff that surrounds me in the process: coffee cups, grammar books, dictionaries, writing books, books on rock musicians, conspiracy-theory books, apple-pie pans, and shoes.
Sidebar: Shoes. Particularly when it rains. I have sandals, sloggers, and sports kicks, and I have scissors for cutting my socks back so my legs don't turn odd colors due to blood constriction. <shaking fists: modern tight socks, g-r-r-r-r-r!>.
5 Once this is launched, it is officially in a public gallery, but a gallery of my own imagination, if that makes any sort of sense. I can stroll through and re-read older DN's. In a way, it is sort of relaxing. In many ways, it is scary. I am also like a painter who can fix an error even as it is displayed. For example, if I see the word "then" repeating itself to a then then, I can swiftly dart in and edit, and no one will be the wiser. It's similar to those things people post on Facebook: Do You See the Error? Scroll, and you see this:
Once upon a
Sidebar: Shoes. Particularly when it rains. I have sandals, sloggers, and sports kicks, and I have scissors for cutting my socks back so my legs don't turn odd colors due to blood constriction. <shaking fists: modern tight socks, g-r-r-r-r-r!>.
5 Once this is launched, it is officially in a public gallery, but a gallery of my own imagination, if that makes any sort of sense. I can stroll through and re-read older DN's. In a way, it is sort of relaxing. In many ways, it is scary. I am also like a painter who can fix an error even as it is displayed. For example, if I see the word "then" repeating itself to a then then, I can swiftly dart in and edit, and no one will be the wiser. It's similar to those things people post on Facebook: Do You See the Error? Scroll, and you see this:
Once upon a
a time.
I find I need to wander through the gallery, have another look at a painting or two, whoop out a touch-up pen, and then move once more to a different hallway. Inverted graffiti. And then there is this:
6 I have moments where I step back and see amazing pieces.
7 I have moments where I step back and cringe.
8 And I have realizations.
9 One realization that hit me on Saturday was this: like itinerant paintings, this is only as good as the place where it displays.
10 Allow me to clarify.
11 Blogger, the machine I use to put this nonsense out there, has a sort of rough-draft page, where you can experiment with design; for example, you can space pictures evenly (or oddly, for that matter!), or you can italicize words (I noticed that many really good writers use this technique), or you can line up poems so they look the way they did when the poet wrote them. Newspapers call this a layout. Most "bloggers" do this daily.
12 The difference this past weekend is that while I usually re-read these on my laptop and do the editing, I decided to re-read them on my iPhone.
13 I realized rather quickly that iPhone has no respect for design; it instead explodes any sort of layout so that it is viewed completely different. Let me preface by saying I am not a good phone guy. I don't have delicate fingers. They can't hold still, so I'm always hitting wrong letters and numbers and stuff. I'm improving, but still...just not a phone guy.
14 I'll give an example of how iPhone tore my stuff up: last week (I think it was), I wrote a piece that ended with the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken.
15 Listen: On my rough-draft page, I battled Blogger tooth-and-nail to line up the words so they looked exactly the way Frost designed them.
16 My iPhone decided differently. My iPhone decided instead to put the last word of each stanza to the extreme left of the poem. I'm not sure who exactly "my iPhone" is, but I was under the impression that this stuff lined up consistently on other people's computers. Yes, I am that naive! I don't recall running into that circumstance with Geocities (R.I.P.), nor with Xanga.
17 Blogger also italicized things I didn't italicize. I found an entire paragraph italicized.
18 I can usually go in on a Saturday and fix that stuff, but it looks like I won't be able to any longer. Pretty frustrating.
19 Ah,vell. I guess I've now much more time to use something like Word Press. I experimented a while back with a few Blogger clones, but each had different quirks. Many wanted "upgrades" that would cost money. And like everybody else, I consider myself a cheap bastard.
20 I find that in ninety-five per cent of the instances where something has fallen off the rails with this stuff, it is this entity called Blogger doing it, and not me.
21 That isn't an accurate statistic, of course, but a lot of what I put out here is boushit anyway.
22 Anyway, know that.
23 Moving On, Part One: Art-Lesson-Several-Artists Have-Pointed-Out-to-Me, Dept: If you are a painter, and you want to display your paintings, you shall quickly find that they will show differently depending upon where you are displaying them. A shopping mall, for example, will display differently than a quaint Victorian. An art-and-wine faire will display differently than will a high school gym.
24 And on and on. That's the life of an artist. You can adapt the concept to your own art, whether it is painting, drawing, sketching, dancing, performing, etc. Your venue is your frame.
25 I do choose the pictures and colors carefully on this. It is an emerging art, and it has traveled with me for twenty years.
26 I put it together as carefully as I can.
28 I'll adjust to the iPhone venue. It'll be fun to see how this thing looks through different windows. I will not be able to line up poems, which is a loss. I will not be able to cut/paste articles of interest. But this just needs to make it to August, when I shall finally retire it. Meanwhile...
29 Work in progress.
30 Here. Have a swan. Have two.
31 Have three.
32 Moving On, Part One: Well.
33 This was lofty.
34 'Twas brillig.
35 Moving On, Part Two: So we now travel back in time to Saturday morning, 9:51 a.m.
36 The teevee was showing this Serial/Episodic thing called The Lovely Bones. SE is putergeek for Serial/Episodic, pretty sure invented by this lonely guy.
37 About a kid who got murdered, and whose soul gets to travel around finding out what happened, or something.
38 It's based on a book I will probably never read.
39 Not my cup of tea. I prefer lighter fare.
40 SE teevee. I swear to you.
41 Creepy stuff. Except I just now realized it was a 2009 fantasy/drama. Not SE. I just thought I'd leave the SE stuff in there anyway so we have a term for Series/Episodic teevee. Plus I didn't wish to blow up six items. I would need to re-do, and I'm pressed for time these days. Sculptors in Ancient Greece had unfinished statues; composers have had unfinished symphonies. So unfinished DN. Take me to court.
42 Moving On, Part the Thoid: I broke out my music and worked on The House at Pooh Corner. The Girl From Ipanema is going to take time.
43 I officially have a list of songs I want to learn. I have a list, I should say. I just started to make it.
44 The first song on it was All My Loving. Haha. Songs I Forgot.
45 Moving On, Part Four: At this point in my composing yesterday, my Dell laptop stuttered, and then it gave up the ghost.
46 I saw it coming, and dashed to Best Buy to purchase a state-of-the-art Apple Mac Pro.
47 Memorize this: Best Buy. To be fair, the kid who helped me did an awesome job. He explained everything to me, and I loved all of it. He talked another guy into buying a similar one for his daughter, so it was a double-sale for the guy. Granted, a girl asked me earlier if I wanted help, but I wanted to look at my options before dealing with a salesperson. When I got to the counter, the girl gave me a funny look, and looked at the guy as though he stole her customer. Things turned slightly cold at the counter. Then this happened:
48 The register declined my card. Trust me. I have lots of money in my account these days. He told me that I should simply call my bank and see if they could make the sale happen. Are you kiddin' me? Look to Best Buy for that one. Not gonna visit those peeps anymore. Guilty.
49 Ironically, I have more money now than I ever have had in my life.
50 I thanked the fellow for his help, and instantly flew over to Fry's.
51 Dude came at me like a bull in a field. I sidestepped him, and told him I wanted a state-of-the-art Apple Mac Pro.
52 He showed me the best they had, and I told him, "Oh, haaaaaaaailllll yeah!" Great price and super-fast laptop. Plus I used one my last year teaching. I never mastered it, mind you, but I was quite familiar with it. I got fed up with PC's, so this was it.
53 He then proceeded to ignore me for over forty-five minutes. Meanwhile, I tested each laptop to see what all the fuss was about.
54 I discovered that most of the other laptops seemed just as good as the prestigious Apples. My decision was a no-brainer: go elsewhere and grab a cheap Acer, and back it with an expensive hard drive, so that I could keep pics of the babies. I was tired and hungy, and a bit fed up. Mind you, my home PC was sitting out dying, and it had tons of baby pictures in it. I ran into Target, and it took around twelve seconds for me to purchase a small Acer.
55 I got it home and it turns out that the password to get into the thing already belonged to some girl whose screen name and password were already a part of the set-up.
56 Okay...but seesly?
57 I took the thing back. To Target. We're talking last night.
58 "Fools!" I thought. I became Maleficent for a half-second, and then turned into a bad version of Walter Mitty. I didn't write this.Tina Fey is my ghost writer. I swear.
59 I had to choose. Do I wait for tomorrow (that would be today), or do I push this one into the end zone?
60 I decided to shun dinner and to head back to the great Tar-zhay.
61 They rocked it; got me a refund of sixty some-odd dollars, because all they had left was one cheaper model. I got home and ran all the set-up stuff. I didn't take long at all.
62 It does the exact same things my Dell did, only at full power.
63 Never mind that it jumps letters up an item, and then back down an item. That might just be because I always use a wireless mouse. It's not that annoying.
64 Stray dogs. I saved this little fellow, and the world again soaks in the beauty of my artistic paint strokes, this time art beyond its own realm.
65 Time-travel art.
66 'Twas brillig, indeed.
67 I remember some famous guitarist breaking a string mid-gig. Without looking, he fixed the thing and got on with the gig. Might have been Peter Frampton. Might have been a wino in Golden Gate Park.
68 Meanwhile, will you welcome please, my new Acer, who I have yet to name.
69 Excellent debut. I'll grab a list of baby names...
70 Gottago.
71 See you again.
73 Have a GREAT day.
74 Peace.
45 Moving On, Part Four: At this point in my composing yesterday, my Dell laptop stuttered, and then it gave up the ghost.
46 I saw it coming, and dashed to Best Buy to purchase a state-of-the-art Apple Mac Pro.
47 Memorize this: Best Buy. To be fair, the kid who helped me did an awesome job. He explained everything to me, and I loved all of it. He talked another guy into buying a similar one for his daughter, so it was a double-sale for the guy. Granted, a girl asked me earlier if I wanted help, but I wanted to look at my options before dealing with a salesperson. When I got to the counter, the girl gave me a funny look, and looked at the guy as though he stole her customer. Things turned slightly cold at the counter. Then this happened:
48 The register declined my card. Trust me. I have lots of money in my account these days. He told me that I should simply call my bank and see if they could make the sale happen. Are you kiddin' me? Look to Best Buy for that one. Not gonna visit those peeps anymore. Guilty.
49 Ironically, I have more money now than I ever have had in my life.
50 I thanked the fellow for his help, and instantly flew over to Fry's.
51 Dude came at me like a bull in a field. I sidestepped him, and told him I wanted a state-of-the-art Apple Mac Pro.
52 He showed me the best they had, and I told him, "Oh, haaaaaaaailllll yeah!" Great price and super-fast laptop. Plus I used one my last year teaching. I never mastered it, mind you, but I was quite familiar with it. I got fed up with PC's, so this was it.
53 He then proceeded to ignore me for over forty-five minutes. Meanwhile, I tested each laptop to see what all the fuss was about.
54 I discovered that most of the other laptops seemed just as good as the prestigious Apples. My decision was a no-brainer: go elsewhere and grab a cheap Acer, and back it with an expensive hard drive, so that I could keep pics of the babies. I was tired and hungy, and a bit fed up. Mind you, my home PC was sitting out dying, and it had tons of baby pictures in it. I ran into Target, and it took around twelve seconds for me to purchase a small Acer.
55 I got it home and it turns out that the password to get into the thing already belonged to some girl whose screen name and password were already a part of the set-up.
56 Okay...but seesly?
57 I took the thing back. To Target. We're talking last night.
58 "Fools!" I thought. I became Maleficent for a half-second, and then turned into a bad version of Walter Mitty. I didn't write this.Tina Fey is my ghost writer. I swear.
59 I had to choose. Do I wait for tomorrow (that would be today), or do I push this one into the end zone?
60 I decided to shun dinner and to head back to the great Tar-zhay.
61 They rocked it; got me a refund of sixty some-odd dollars, because all they had left was one cheaper model. I got home and ran all the set-up stuff. I didn't take long at all.
62 It does the exact same things my Dell did, only at full power.
63 Never mind that it jumps letters up an item, and then back down an item. That might just be because I always use a wireless mouse. It's not that annoying.
64 Stray dogs. I saved this little fellow, and the world again soaks in the beauty of my artistic paint strokes, this time art beyond its own realm.
65 Time-travel art.
66 'Twas brillig, indeed.
67 I remember some famous guitarist breaking a string mid-gig. Without looking, he fixed the thing and got on with the gig. Might have been Peter Frampton. Might have been a wino in Golden Gate Park.
68 Meanwhile, will you welcome please, my new Acer, who I have yet to name.
69 Excellent debut. I'll grab a list of baby names...
70 Gottago.
71 See you again.
73 Have a GREAT day.
74 Peace.
~H~
fin.
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