Category: Writing

  • A Little Fish in a Little Pond

    I was getting ready to work on the blog this morning, and I had been thinking that I was going to write about either Tottenham beating Frankfurt, or buying shoes for my kid’s Halloween costume, and then I saw the WORDPRESS.COM ad come up for monetizing my blog. Hell, who doesn’t like making money, right? And who out there wouldn’t like making money from the thing they like to do most; for me that’s writing about my observations that are neither revolutionary nor revelatory, but might slightly be funny. I went down the rabbit hole of having ads on my blog, and the bottom line is that if I want to see any substantial money to, let’s say, pay my family’s phone bill, then I would need thousands of people to visit my site a month. Currently, the most views I have every received on my site for a single month was 228. Though my numbers have been growing almost every month for the past year, I am a long way off from having views that would generate an income.

    The other fact that must be shared is that I am not working very hard to make this blog successful. You reap what you sow? Sure, I guess that’s true. I put forth a minimum effort, as I don’t think about design or social media, and I’m very terrible about following other blogs, and commenting on them. These are all the things you are “supposed to do” to make a blog successful, and for the life of me, I suck at it.

    What I really want to do is just write, and I do that. And this is the result.

    And you know, there is a reason why I don’t tell people about this blog, or the writing that I am doing, because when I tell them that I have a blog, and I’m writing stories, some of them will immediately start telling all the things I should do the be successful at it. I know that these friends are doing this because they care about me, and want to support me to be successful at what I am doing. Yet, when this happens, it leaves me feeling annoyed because it’s like they didn’t listen to the part of why I am doing this.

    I’m doing this because I like to do it, and I want to share it, and I’m not too concerned with how many people I share it with. I’m not saying that I’m not looking for validation, as there is a little bit of vanity in me for I do check my numbers daily. (There is something nice about seeing my four to six regular readers like a post. That does make me happy.) No matter how many people read this blog today, it will not affect my resolve to write one tomorrow.

    But I will add this, as I do think about it often if not daily; My Grandma Groff used to say that in life you need at least these three things – 1. A reason to get up in the morning. 2. You gotta have a goal. 3. A little spending money doesn’t hurt. I’m not sure if this blog, or my writing in general is fulfilling those three points, but I do feel that they are intertwined. I like getting up in the morning, and I have a goal, but it’s just that “spending money” point seems to be lacking.

    The point here people – I currently won’t be putting ads on my site.

    (So… Hey Ya! Now that you have made it this far, if you would be so kind, please take a moment to give a like, or a share, throw a comment at me, or follow this blog. Because, you know, I am a little vain.)

  • Busy Day Ahead

    I am in a hurry today. I was up at the normal time and turned the coffee maker on. I got the wife up and then the kid. Made the kid breakfast, packed her lunch. The wife got clothes out for the kid and helped her get dressed. Me and the kid brushed teeth together, put on shoes and we headed out for the school drop off with the permission slip for the upcoming field trip. I got her to school on time; said hello to her teacher and some of the other parents. Said my goodbyes and returned home. Then I made a meal plan for the week, and made a grocery shopping list. Then I balanced our check book, moved some money around, updated all of our bills to make sure everything was getting paid on time. I still need to shower and head out to Trader Joe’s before the old people and the young professionals pick over the store. Then I need to put the groceries away, make lunch for me and the wife, and then head back to school for the pickup. Hopefully the kid will want to go to the local park and play with her friends which will give me an hour or two hours to read, and write in my journal. Then home, play with the kid, make dinner, watch tv together, and then make the kid take a shower. Then that leaves snuggle and story time, with the kid hopefully going right off to sleep. Which will allow me to clean up the kitchen, and get the coffee ready for the morning. Then the wife and I will get an hour to catch up and fall asleep watching something on tv. And that’s pretty much my day.

    But before I head out to the store, I need to give myself a few minutes to write this blog thing.

    And all in all, most days, I’m pretty happy with this. Some days I do wonder if I am missing out, or I wonder if I could be doing more in the world. And then there are days where I am really terrible at this stay at home dad thing.

    This is where I am and I am happy. I know this because I don’t dread waking up in the morning.

    Okay, off to the store. Maybe there will be a Tottenham blog later in the day. We’ll see.

    (AND, please be kind and rewind and also take a moment to give a like, share, comment, or the greatest gesture of all, follow this blog. Please, it would mean a lot to me because I don’t want to start making TikTok videos.)

  • ODDS and ENDS: Apple Picking, I Like Teams that Frustrate Me, and Halloween Costumes

    (By Mennen!)

    It’s Fall, which means apple picking. This is the one stupid Autumn tradition we have that I cannot quit. It’s… it’s just dumb. We go to a farm and pay the farmer to go out and harvest his crop for him. It feels like such a con, but damn do I love doing it. And we do take it too seriously. We’ll get up at the crack of dawn and drive way out to a farm in upstate New York, so we can be the first people there. And we’re gun’na buy a pumpkin too, maybe pickles as well, because I think we did that last time. The dog will be with us, and we’ll wander around the orchard, picking, then sampling apples, and if they don’t meet our standards, we’ll toss the half-eaten fruit on the ground, like some inconsiderate Patrician. Then for a week afterward, we’ll find a way to work apples into every meal. But the wife will make a really great apple pie, so that does make it worth it. It is a little bit of a cliché thing to do, but aren’t stupid traditions the ones we love the most?

    Oh, I sure know how to pick sports teams that end up confounding and frustrating me. I will say this, Tottenham accomplished the bare minimum in their Champions League Group match against Frankfurt – They didn’t lose. At the half way point in the group stage matches, Spurs are in second place with four points, so they are not out of the woods, and could still blow this. And that is the thing with this team – they still don’t seem to have found their groove. The Kane/Son duo still hasn’t shown up this season, and I think without that threat up front, it gives opponents the confidence to try added pressure against Tottenham’s back line, especially in the final ten minutes. And this Saturday will be another test against upstart Brighton, who is in fourth place behind Tottenham in the Premiere League. With only a month left to go before the World Cup break in November, Conte has to get this club into some cohesive championship form. The goal this season wasn’t to just be good, it was to win trophies.

    And, I spent two hours this morning searching and ordering a Hermione Granger costume for my daughter. Not that tie and robes boarding school stuff, no sir! She wants a very specific version of Hermione from a certain scene from a movie. I didn’t mean to, but I think I am teaching my daughter how to Cosplay.

    (Don’t forget! If you are enjoying this blog, please be kind and give a like, share, comment, or even start following! It would help my case to the wife why I need to stay in my pajamas on the sofa all morning writing this stuff.)

  • I Hit a Wall Today (Unedited)

    I’m throwing in the towel for today. I have been at it for about three hours now, I have been unable to string together a 300 to 500-word blog for today. I could say that some factors came into play today, but I have overcome tough and hectic days before.

    So, I call quits, and will do the half assed, “I don’t know what to write blog.”

    I was looking up the war in Ukraine earlier, but I don’t feel like I have an insight on that. It’s all awful, and also seems like Ukraine is sticking it to Putin now.

    But, I don’t want to get into news or politics, and I was thinking about.

    What I wanted to say was something about how the start of “Planet Telex” is a really great opening.

    Then I wanted to add that when I saw “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” I didn’t think it was that great of a movie, but I was on a pretty awful double date at the time, so now looking back at it, I think that situation might have unfairly jaded my opinion of the movie.

    Then, I read the pilot script to “Cheers” this morning, and to be honest, it wasn’t that great of a script. Kind’a surprised that it got made.

    And I need to get the kid’s Halloween costume put together.

    Anyway… this is a bit of a cop out, I admit it, but I did show up today.

    (Look, I ask the end of every blog for you to like, follow, comment, or subscribe to this blog. But, hey, let’s be honest. Today wasn’t the best. Check out the older ones, and like those.)

  • Personal Review: “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami

    I first heard of Haruki Murakami somewhere in 1995 or 1996, when I read a translated short story of his in The New Yorker. I’m pretty sure it was “The Zoo Attack,” and I think it was all tied into the article about the upcoming publication of his novel, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.” The short story made enough of an impression on me that I went to the local bookstore, and found a copy of his short story collection, “The Elephant Vanishes.” I mean I read it almost 25 years ago, but I remember that the collection was great; funny, surreal, and feeling very honest. Murakami does a great job on creating these fantastical stories where the characters reactions to this unreal situations land true and authentic. (Other surreal short story writers could learn a great deal from this man.) He is a great talent, truly a world talent.

    And there was one novel of his that for a long time, you couldn’t get in English; “Norwegian Wood.” Being a huge Beatles fan, the title of the novel always stuck with me, clearly, because it’s one of their more famous songs. Published in 1987, this was the novel that made Haruki Murakami a famous author and household name in Japan. Whenever anything was written about him, “Norwegian Wood” was always mentioned as his best novel. Sadly, being that there wasn’t an English translation until 2000 of the novel, in the late 90’s, it fell off my radar as a novel I had to read. Every now and then, I would see the title show up on reading lists of writers, and friends, and I would think, I need to read that book.

    Then back in April, when I took the kid with me down to The Strand to go book hunting, I found a huge stack of paperback copies of “Norwegian Wood” sitting on a cart that I am sure had yet to be shelved. Looking at the cover, I thought it’s time for me to read it. And when September rolled around, I finally got around to it.

    I liked the novel, but I wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be. I had read that this book was a “normal” and “straight-forward” story, and not at all in the surreal vein of his earlier stories, and that was very true. It was a memory story, and used that formula. Toru, the narrator, is on a flight and he hears the song, “Norwegian Wood” as the plane is taxing to the gate in Hamburg, Germany. This song causes him to remember the time in his life where he had just started college, and first fell in love. Thus sets in motion the story, and Toru tells us that though he hasn’t thought of these events in years, the memories come back to him in vivid detail. It was a little caveat trick that Murakami used to give agency as to why the narrator is so detailed in his memories, and also to signal to us that what we are about to hear from the narrator is the truth.

    The setting is 1969 Tokyo, and all the cultural changes that come with it. I liked learning that the upheavals that hit universities in the US and France during this period, also hit Japan as well, but Toru seems to exist just adjacent of all of this turmoil. It is a lonely life this very normal young man lives; living in a dorm, going to class, working a part-time job. Soon he reconnects with the Naoko, who had been the girlfriend of his best friend, Kizuki, in high school. We learn that Kizuki had committed suicide their senior year, and this tragic loss still hangs over both of their lives. Though they come together, they both handle the death in different ways, and with different compounding struggles.

    The novel is more complicated, and there is a theme of loyalty, duty, and commitment as well. But also, the desire to go into the world and experience and discover. I can see why the “coming of age” moniker would get thrown on this story, but I feel that is more used for marketing that an actual description of what the novel is. The characters didn’t feel like they were coming into their own, but discovering how the death of a loved one can change the prism of their world, and viewpoint; some felt guilt, some felt relief, some had a rebirth.

    But as I write all of this, and I just finished reading it yesterday, I have this feeling in the back of my head that I need more time with the novel kicking around in my head. Let it marinate, and see where it takes me. Though it wasn’t as profound as I thought it would be, it hasn’t shaken my opinion of Haruki Murakami’s talent or status as an author.

    (And, since you are still here. Please be kind, and give a like, a share, a comment, or follow this blog. It drives the traffic engine that keeps the whole world running.)