Category Archives: Writing

October 14, 2012

Oops, Yes & Oh No!

Oops!

To My Subscribers: you just got an email saying I’d published a new article, but if you followed the link it won’t (shouldn’t!) work. I’m sure we’ve all done it: clicked the big blue [Publish] button rather than the harder-to-notice white [Save Draft] button.

I was working on an article for later, got as far as I wanted to today, and meant to save it as a draft for later. But the Big Blue was just too easy to click!

Fortunately, WordPress allows you to put a published post back into draft status (and I set it to Private just to be sure).

So, oops, my bad! Cat got out of the bag early, but kitty is kenneled again until later!

Leave a comment | tags: ALCS, Delmon Young, Derek Jeter, Detroit Tigers, Doug Fister, Joe Girardi, Miguel Cabrera, MLB, New York Yankees, Prince Fielder | posted in Baseball, Writing

October 13, 2012

Over Yonder Hill

By Wyrd Smythe

One of the things that drives this blog and informs its content is that I have a sense of being on the downward part of the hill.

The hill in question being the one they say you’re over when you’re past your prime. Mind you, I’m not far over it, but the path definitely leads downwards these days. As a great poem puts it in another context, “But at my back I always hear, Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.“

[That poem, by the way, is a hoot. It’s about an 17th century guy giving his gal the old line: ‘Time is short, let’s get it on, baby!’ And you gotta love a poem with the couplet, “The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace.“]

2 Comments | tags: age, Andrew Marvell, carpe diem, Gonzo Papers, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack London, Jimmy Buffett, over the hill, Red Lobster, wisdom | posted in Life, Writing

October 13, 2012

BB #15: Trifecta: Count of Three

By Wyrd Smythe

You never know what will bubble up when you poke around the interweb. I was browsing about, a bit blurry after couch snoozing all morning, and stumbled on a writing contest that tickled my fancy.

It’s funny how an idea can spring to life nearly fully formed after being seeded with an idea.

The seed that fertilized my mind was the current contest on the Trifecta Writing Challenge. The challenge went thusly:

15 Comments | tags: African Swallows, Count, European Swallows, Holy Hand Grenade, Killer Rabbit, rule of three, three, Trifecta Writing Challenge, triple | posted in Brain Bubble, Movies, Writing

August 24, 2012

When the Dark Comes

By Wyrd Smythe

When it’s 3 AM and the bad moon rises; lunacy.

When darkness and disappointment rip the soul.

When tears no longer wash away the pain.

When anger blots mind with spilled-ink thoughts.

When fear grows tall in cornrows of dismay.

When silence echoes with loss and cost.

When life’s hollows capture rage and regret.

When bone ache of could haves, should haves, weigh heavy.

When angels hide and demons call.

When sorrow seems the guiding star.

When unspoke pleas on deaf ears fall.

When good deeds seem unseen; each misstep marked.

When luck sours; curdled dreams gone; drained.

When words fail; brightness tarnished brass.

When age brings wear and weariness.

When change whips flesh from back; submission.

Branches move in the wind; look!

On the horizon a storm brews.

When love’s a dead ember; coals gone to charcoal.

When hope tastes like ashes and dust.

When you stand alone in the crowd.

When blank faces don’t look back; eyes avoid.

When reaching hands grasp nothing.

When longing overtakes sense and senses.

When empty arms make a cold vacuum.

When heart breaks on lonely shores; beauty lost.

The storm comes.

Winds blow; boughs break.

Lightning cracks; rains come.

The storm passes.

Air cools; breeze blows.

Day dawns; light comes.

Moon Spirits, 4/5
Lisa Unterbrink

4 Comments | tags: darkness, despair, Lisa Unterbrink, loss, Moon Spirits, poetry | posted in Writing

August 23, 2012

My Life 2.0

By Wyrd Smythe

This is a companion piece to yesterday’s post about my high school English teacher, Mr. Wilson (which may—or may not—be his real name). This piece concerns something that happened in high school that changed my life. It’s one of those moments when you turn onto a new road that ends up becoming a permanent part of your path. As we say these days, it rebooted my life.

The road turn took place in 1970, but the first real seed was planted the year before. It was my first year of high school, and I went to see a play, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, put on by the high school. The play was staged in the school’s auditorium, a 1000-seat genuine theatre complete with fly galleries, lighting positions, and a booth at the back for projectors and the main spotlight.

It was the first time I’d seen a live play or a theatre like that.

24 Comments | tags: Cloris Leachman, drama, Ed Asner, high school, lighting guy, Mary Tyler Moore, theatre, theatre lighting | posted in Life, Writing

August 22, 2012

Somewhat Unique

By Wyrd Smythe

(Not Mr. Wilson)

I’ve spent so much time today reading and commenting on other people’s blogs (and a few on my own) that now I’m feeling a bit weary of writing. Still, we’ll see how this one goes. It’s a combination bone to pick (albeit a small and arguable one) and remembrance of things past. Distant, dim past. High school past. Nearly forty years past.

I’ve been remembering the past for a variety of reasons. A high school friend, one of the very few I’m still in touch with, is also facing looming job elimination.

And just yesterday, someone else from high school sent a message to my Facebook page (which I maintain for the purpose of old friends finding me, and only for that purpose).

12 Comments | tags: Chaucer, classy, English class, high school, Mr. Wilson, Neil Gaiman, Sandman, unique | posted in Life, Writing

August 21, 2012

Strange Dreams

By Wyrd Smythe

Had a pair of interesting dreams I want to record. They were odd enough to stay with me once I awoke, and interesting enough (at least to me) that I want to record them. They seem possibly related to my current job situation.

(NOTE: This post is intended more for me — a true web log — than for any putative readership, so you may not find it very interesting. This is your one and only warning!

Continued reading may lead to a why am I reading this syndrome!)

4 Comments | tags: Cousin Itt, dreams, Morticia Addams, retirement, work | posted in Life, Writing

August 16, 2012

Low-Mass Thoughtinos

By Wyrd Smythe

I’m torn over today’s topic. I’m tired (for the moment) of nattering about work (got some thanks, but no thanks messages today, and that makes me disinclined to discuss the distress; nepenthe beckons, I’ll answer the call, now 94 bottles of beer on the wall).

And I’ve spent some time in the blogsphere, which is endlessly fascinating, but time-consuming and a bit draining. After reading about the struggles of others, mine own seem pale and pointless.

So it’s time for something light and refreshing. I realized I haven’t bored anyone with science recently, so, as the good The Doctor would say, “Run!”

Leave a comment | tags: CERN, Einstein, neutrinos, OPERA, particles, quarks | posted in Physics, Writing

May 12, 2012

I’m Back! (I Think)

By Wyrd Smythe

You know how, if you don’t visit or call someone regularly, sometimes the longer you haven’t connected the harder it is to will yourself into connecting again? It’s been that way with this blog. I haven’t posted in a while, and the longer it goes, the harder it is to return. I’m not strapped for the ideas or the desire or even the time; it’s something else that makes sitting down to write a lesser option.

Maybe I just have a huge inertia quotient, but I do find I get “stuck” in doing — or not doing — a thing. It can be hard for me to will a transition; it seems better somehow, or maybe just easier, to keep doing whatever I’m doing. Or not doing. If I get really into something, be it reading a book or doing some task, stopping to eat or sleep seems so inconvenient, so inefficient.

Fortunately, one can eat and drink while reading or working. I haven’t managed to do those things while sleeping though.

9 Comments | tags: blog, blogger, blogging | posted in Writing

November 8, 2011

A Brace of Freeway Dreams

By Wyrd Smythe

I had a pair of weird dreams this weekend. They’re worth remembering. I’m not sure what the hell they mean, but they’re also worth considering. (For me, I mean… I’m not sure what your interest is. Consider it another webside tale.)

Now, I’ve never had a nightmare. The one time I did have a nightmare, it turned out to be reality. I don’t mean that in a metaphorical (or even metaphysical) way, as in, “My marriage turned out to be a nightmare.” I mean, what supposedly was a bad dream, wasn’t a dream at all, but a misinterpretation of reality. (Actually, we’re back to my marriage again.)

I mean dreams, literal dreams. When you sleep dreams. I’ve never had a bad one. Except for the time when I was just post infant (headed for postmodern), and I had what I was told was a bad dream about a bird running across my New York City bedroom floor. Except later my rents found a mouse in the house (or something house mouse-like). So that was no bird.

Leave a comment | tags: dreams, freeways | posted in Writing