Blog

  • Going to a Candy Store

    It’s been a busy day, but I’m making the time to take the kid to a candy store in the Lower East Side.

  • President’s Day

    What am I doing on this holiday? Why, doing laundry, and then taking the kid to the park for a very long time!

    I got up like normal, and actually went to the gym. As I was running on the tredmill, I kept thinking that my mind would clear and I would start think about important things. Like, what to do with the kid this week as she is off from school for Winter Break. Or, I could have thought about what I should make for dinner tonight. Or, I could have thought about what to blog. OR, I could have spent some time working out the end of the story that I am working on.

    What I ended up doing was just listening to music, and think about how cool it was to roll the windows down in my car, and play mu music really loud as I went down the highway. That’s what was on my mind, just driving and listening to music.

    (I think I can do better, when it comes to a blog. I might be back later…)

  • ODDS and Ends: NYTimes Killed WORDLE, War, and Crypto Value

    (Say it ain’t so…)

    Yup, @nytimes killed WORDLE. They took something fun, monkied with it, and now it’s not fun. WORDLE has become more difficult, not hard or impossible, just a little more difficult, to the point where now sometimes you lose. There is a good chance that you might not get the word in six tries. Just like how you might not be able to fully fill out the Times’ crossword puzzle, or become a Queen Bee on their Spelling Bee game. (I play both semi regularly, and I keep struggling for perfection, but may never attain it at those games.) WORDLE was the opposite of that. It was challenging enough to make you think, but not so hard that you couldn’t succeed. WORDLE was easy, and for most of us out there, it gave us an easy win at the start of the day. And the sociability of it, to share your box of colors, but not the letters, kind’a gave an insight on your thought process without divulging that you use the same words over and over and over again. Now, seeing everyone get it on the fifth or sixth try isn’t encouraging, or even envy creating, it just shows that we are frustrated. Read the room @nytimes, we liked our easy win.

    I have been avoiding talking about Ukraine and Russia and all of that going on. Sadly, I don’t feel good about it. I am not an expert, clearly, but it just feels like everything is leading to a war. Maybe it won’t turn into a world war, but it just feels like a war will happen. The reason I feel this way is sadly because it feels like a pattern humans keep repeating; Disease, Limited Resources, War. That and it’s been over eighty years since a world war, and well, most of the people who lived through that are gone, so no one remembers how bad this stuff can be. Just makes me nervous.

    My crypto currency has lost 37.45% of its value since I purchased it in October 2021. That means I have lost $12.92.

  • Don’t Be a Chicken Shit

    Writer’s groups got brought up again.

    I have a great wife, and she was asking how my writing was going. I said the blog was fine, that I had submitted a story to five different publications, and writing at the library was paying off, as I was getting close to finishing a first draft on a new story. Also, I was finally making time to read again, which was making me feel better about everything.

    Then she asked me about if I had thought anymore about joining a writer’s group. I answered her honestly; I don’t want to.

    I know where she’s coming from, and it is very logical. All of our friends who are professional writers belong to, or run, writer’s groups. They all speak highly about it, and say it has helped them not only with their writing, but also with navigating the business. That and they have made some really good friends in these groups, as well.

    But I still don’t want to.

    Am I being illogical and stubborn? Most likely, yes.

    I am torn between two different thoughts, though.

    The first is that I no longer want to do things for my career that make me feel uncomfortable. See, when I got to New York, I went to everything – opening nights, parties, rehearsals, talks, feedbacks, open classes, and none of it ever helped me. What worked for me, was working hard when I got the job. But if I were to do this, join a group, then that means that I have to put myself out there. I might just be a little chicken shit about that.

    The second thought is that what I am presently doing isn’t working. Right now, I am an unpublished writer who posts a daily blog that if I am really REALLY lucky, four people will read. Come July, I have been doing this for two years, and… not much has really changed. BUT, I feel good about myself, and that’s worth something.

    So, I’m torn. Not sure what to do.

    I prefer the idea of just putting my head down and working hard. But the other one is putting myself out there.

    Balance. I have to find a balance between the two.

    Yuck

  • Short Story Review: “Annunciation” by Lauren Groff

    (The short Story “Annunciation,” by Lauren Groff appeared in the February 14th & 21st, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.)

    First of all, I am not related to Lauren Groff. Second, this is the first short story by her that I have read. And it was a good one to start with. From the first paragraph, I felt like I was on a journey, and was being guided by a person who knew how to unfold a story. If you haven’t pieced it together, I liked this story, and I am suggesting that you should read it. For that reason, I will forgo a synopsis of the piece, and give my reflections on it.

    Lauren Groff crafted a well-made short story. As it unfolded, I didn’t know where I was being taken, but after I finished, I could see the structure that held the story up. The opening, narrator development, introduction of characters, seemingly random incidents, rising action, climax, resolution, and even a denouement, which not too long ago I was complaining about the use of denouement in short stories. I mean, the title tied in to the denouement, as well. But the structure wasn’t the only admirable quality of the story.

    What I loved reading was about this narrator who was not perfect, who did struggle, and was still struggling. A person who had these moments, anecdotes even, that represented the life she led, and she still found herself thinking of these people, and the mysteries that never will be solved. And, this was a personal favorite of mine, the narrator was literary person without being a writer character. I fully believed that she was introspective, empathetic, and aware of the small details of the world she inhabited.

    But it was the theme, the through line, of motherhood that ran through the story that impressed me. Though I didn’t catch it as I was reading it, the denouement captured, and focused the theme for me. It made me reevaluate each of the women in the story, their form of motherhood, and how they are viewed or appreciated by their children for what they do, or have done for them. This theme of motherhood didn’t fit neatly in a box, meaning that I didn’t feel the story was trying to say motherhood is “this way.” Mothers are all over the map; good, bad, wonderful, awful, secretive, open, all different and yet the same, somehow. And for some, motherhood takes a toll.

    That makes the story sound dark or overtly complex, but I found myself optimistic, and hopeful at the end of the story. Lauren Groff created a journey in this story, so we all came out on the other side different from this experience. I liked the world that this story is in, and the characters who inhabit it. Stories like this leave me feeling inspired; that short stories can express truths, and have weight. That they are worth reading and creating.