Author: Matthew Groff

  • Outlining: New Possibilities?

    I am working at staying productive for this month. I was able to blog, journal, and even got in some sketching time with the kid yesterday. It was a very creative day, more than normal for me. On the fiction front, I was able to spend a little time working on an outline for a novel that I have been kicking around for about two years.

    And working on the outline was rewarding, on a level that I didn’t know existed in me. I was working on character development, and trying to figure out how to build a foundation that these characters that they would either fight against or learn to accept. And as I worked on these characters in an outline form, a narrative theme started to reveal itself to me. The story is about three guys who form a band, and I always thought the theme was about learning follow your ambitions, even through failure. As I worked on the characters, I started to see that the theme was actually about being open to possibilities.

    Most of my good friends are following their dream, and some of them have been chasing it for twenty years, and to be honest, very few have achieved that ambition that set them out so long ago. But very few of them are angry and bitter about it. (I have met my fair share of bitter actors, so don’t get me wrong, I know that chasing a dream doesn’t equal happiness.) But what keeps my friends going? What keeps me going? Is it staying curious, and being open to new ideas and possibilities?

    I don’t know, but I want to explore it.

  • It’s 2021, Ya’ll!

    And so we are in a new year. Today, Monday the 4th feels like the start of the new year to me. The kid is back in school, remotely that is, and the wife is also back at work, also remotely, but we are all back to the routine.

    Walking our dog around the neighborhood this morning, I saw that the crossing guards are back, as well as the delivery trucks, and people waiting at bus stops. Even the stupid construction on the condo tower behind our building was up and running at 6:30am.

    Everyone is back, and that’s why, for me, it feels like we are all starting this New Year.

    Today is also the day that I will try 30 days of no alcohol. I will jump on the band wagon of everyone else, and have a dry January. I don’t think our drinking is out of control, but the wife and I wanted to start this year off on the right foot with cleaning up our life style. We have put on some Covid weight, and alcohol doesn’t help. And over the holidays, we sure did eat our fair share of cookies, and cakes, and all sorts of other tasty treats that really aren’t good for us. The wife is taking the extra step and is cutting sugar out of the next 30 days. The final step is that we will be doing a 30 day yoga program. Yes, it is a form of exercise that we can do after the kid goes to bed at night, but for me, I need something to help me center and calm my mind down. I am looking for healthier ways to deal with my anxiety.

    We were talking last night, about how everyone does shit like this at the start of the year, and then they give up in February. We seem to be building in our quitting with this 30 system, thus we won’t be upset with ourselves when this ends on February 3rd.

  • Merry Christmas, Thank You, and 2020

    Say everybody, I’m going to take the next few days off for the Christmas Holiday, and won’t be consistently back at it till the start of the New Year. So, I wanted to wish everyone out there in the writing/blogging world a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a general Happy Holidays.

    I also wanted to say thank you for following this little experiment of a blog. Since I started putting a forth a serious effort toward writing back at the end of July, I have doubled my followers, and grown in views, visitors and likes. Your support has been very encouraging, and reinforced that doing the work is worth it.

    As we all know, 2020 has been one of the strangest, most awful, and plain sad years ever. Since Thanksgiving, I have been trying hard to find some encouraging… anything to try and salvage my emotional well-being from the onslaught of this year. What I have come to see is that I should never take for granted my family, friends, and community I live in. How fragile this fabric is that connects us all together, yet how strong is our desire to be connected.

    Again, thank you readers, Happy Holidays, and if I don’t see you before, I’ll talk to you in 2021.

  • Making a Sauce

    I think I was like most people, in that I had dabbled in cooking. Before Covid, I had a few solid dishes that I knew I could make which would come out great, and then the rest of the time, I was serviceable in the kitchen. Let’s just say, I never cut off a finger.

    Now that we are in the land of Covid, I like most people, started spending more time in the kitchen; cooking, planning and prepping meals. I didn’t get all bread crazy, but I started taking a more active role in helping out with food. When it became clear that I was going to be a stay at home parent for the foreseeable future, I started taking cooking and food prep more seriously.

    My friend, Erin, writes a really great food blog, BIG SIS LITTLE DISH, which I visit for ideas and to get inspiration. It also helps that my wife is a trained chef, and spent several years working in professional kitchens around NYC. If I am in the middle of a recipe and get lost, I can call on the wife to help me out.

    I have been at it for six months now, and last night, I needed to make a gravy to go with dinner. I took 3 tablespoons of butter, and melted it in a pan. Then I added an equal part of flour to the melted butter, and stirred the mixture with a wooden spoons. When the rue was a good color, I whisked in a cup of homemade chicken stock, a little at a time. Once the stock was incorporated with the rue, I whisked in salt, pepper, and dried thyme. The last part I added was about a quarter cup of cream, stirred it in, and lowered the temperature to a simmer so the gravy would thicken up.

    I made this gravy all from memory with ingredients that I now always have on hand. I had a deep feeling of satisfaction that I could just “whip this up,” and make a sauce that would complete a meal. I had unlocked a new life skill, and I guess I realized the wholesome fulfillment of being able to provide a good meal for my family.

  • The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale (Stupid Fanboys!, Not a Review)

    CLEARLY!!! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS!!!

    I have stated many times before that I dislike fanboys. (Oh, you know who I am talking about.) But I would also like to add that I have a new level disgust with a new emerging fanboy; The Middle-Aged Fanboy.

    Let me tell you a story.

    This past Friday was the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. My wife works, I take care of the kid, so we don’t watch the episode when it debuts early in the morning. We check it out after the kid goes to bed at night. This means that on Fridays, the wife and I try very hard to stay off social media for even the hint of a spoiler. All was going well this Friday.

    Then, a good friend of ours birthday was on this Friday, and his wife organized a huge Zoom group to wish him happy birthday. The group was made up of theatre professionals, and tech people. A strange grouping, but we all get along well, as we are all sci-fi nerds; STAR WARS, Dr WHO, STAR TREK, you name it.

    So, as we are chatting, our birthday friend tells us that his wife surprised him with a PS5 as a gift. Then another person, and I won’t call him a friend, then said, “Was it as big a surprise as Luke Skywalker on The Mandalorian?”

    The chat exploded into two camps, those that had seen the episode and those that hadn’t, but on the whole, everyone booed that guy.

    He spoiled it. He ruined all the fun, and he knew it. That was the point; the make people upset, and miss out on the fun. And that was executed by that annoying middle-aged fanboy. Yes, that guy who’s only argument is that, “It wasn’t as good as the original.” Well, no shit. Nothing is ever going to make you feel like the eight-year-old again, so please stop punishing the rest of us for your sad realization.

    Now, the realization that I had after I watched the episode was that so many people working on the production of The Mandalorian did a great job at keeping this secret. Think of all the crew, and editors, and production assistants. They all knew that they had something fun under their hats and they kept it quiet. I appreciate all their hard work on that.