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Entries from December 2008

“… 3… 2… 1… 0… I Said ZERO, Dammit, ZERO!”

December 31st, 2008 · 11 Comments

[This post's title alludes to this little tidbit of news: 2008 will last
a second longer than most years.]
The New Year, per usual, calls to mind resolutions about what we hope will come within the next 365ish days. I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, though, I want to note that whatever else it stands for, [...]

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Tags: Comics · In the News · Looking Backward · Ruminations

Paying Attention to Action — or Is It Character?

December 30th, 2008 · 4 Comments

I’ve written here before (here and here) about the terrors of newly-published-authordom — particularly, when the bad reviews land in your mailbox.
But sometimes, even a bad review contains a nugget you cling to when the whole damned thing threatens to come unraveled, when your spirit sags and you wonder why you’re even bothering to continue.
In [...]

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Tags: Paying Attention · Short Fiction · Style and Craft · Writing

Here Be Dragons

December 29th, 2008 · 4 Comments

[Caption: "It must be yours. I have no imagination."
Cartoon by Charles Barsotti in The New Yorker, November 27, 2006]
The end of a year heralds all sort of soul-searching not just among writers, of course, but among everyone else. Did I do everything I could do? Did I do it as well as I could? What [...]

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Tags: Looking Backward · Ruminations · The Business · Writing

Smile After Smile

December 28th, 2008 · 6 Comments

They say old habits die hard, and I guess it’s true.
But traditions are a sort of shared old habit, and traditions don’t die hard at all — although they don’t flat-out die, either. Traditions evolve. People come and go. What’s possible replaces what you could never do, and what you used to do all the [...]

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Tags: Family · In the Blood · Linux/Ubuntu · Tech · The Internet · Windows

The Case of the Missing Human

December 27th, 2008 · 2 Comments

All men are dogs, they say. But not all dogs are men.
And I should know. My name’s Sophie. I’m a private eye. And yes, I’m a dog. But I’m a bitch.
****
Things were looking pretty good that Friday morning when That Woman came into the back room of my office. I don’t let just anybody do [...]

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Tags: Everyday Life · Family · Nature & Pets · The Missus

Figure, Ground, Imagined, Real: Not So Very Different

December 26th, 2008 · 4 Comments

From whiskey river:
The Cutting-beam
Imagine this blur of chill, white, gray, vague, sadness
burned off.
Imagine a landscape
of dry clear sunlight, precise shadows,
forms of pure color.
Imagine two neighboring hills, and
your house, my house, looking across, friendly:
imagine ourselves
meeting each other,
bringing gifts, bringing news.
Yes, we need the heat
of imagination’s sun
to cut through our bonds of cloud.
And oh, can the great [...]

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Tags: Movies · Poetry · Reading · Ruminations · whiskey river Fridays

A Quirky Eclectic Christmas Music Playlist

December 23rd, 2008 · 3 Comments

Okay, let’s do this playlist thing… These artists and numbers appear, back-to-back, in the playlist:

Peter Robbins et al.: dialogue from A Charlie Brown Christmas
Anonymous 4: Hodie Christus Natus Est
Waverly Consort: Three Spanish Villancicos – Dadme Albcrecias
Perry Como: Home for the Holidays
Mannheim Steamroller: Joy to the World
George Winston: The Holly and the Ivy
Celtic Woman: O [...]

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Tags: Looking Backward · Movies · Music · Reading · Running After My Hat · The Online World · Writing

Placeholder Post: Pre-Playlist

December 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

At least one thing has surprised me about Running After My Hat so far: the extent to which I’m blogging about and incorporating music in my posts.
I mean, it’s not as though I actually know anything about the subject. I’m not a musician or musicologist or, well, much of anything regarding music — except maybe [...]

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Tags: Music · Programming, Web Design, Databases · Running After My Hat · Tech · The Online World

The Taking of Pelham One— *

December 22nd, 2008 · 6 Comments

__________________________________
* Reference: fun flick.

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Tags: In the News · Movies

Flange: A Gargoyle Looks at Xmas (Part 1)

December 20th, 2008 · 4 Comments

After much debate, my co-blogger (Flange the gargoyle — “Flj” if you’re a purist of gargoylespeak) and I have finally resolved how to handle the mechanics of posting here.
In this entry, at least, I will simply tell you what he’s told me, translated to English; every now and then I’ll interject a comment from him, [...]

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Tags: Everyday Life · Flange · Humor