How successful writers keep up their confidence | Red Room

How successful writers keep up their confidence | Red Room

Gone from Sherbourne

SHERBOURNE
Originally uploaded by southofbloor

Mermaid or Whale

From something forwarded to me in email this morning:

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,
Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.) They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them ... where is IT? Therefore, they don't have kids either. Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale.

P..S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends.

With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good grief, look how smart I am!¨

About Writing

Sometimes it comes easy, usually those are the times when you have a lot to say and can hardly keep up with yourself. It's good to have nimble fingers. I don't know how the one fingered typists do it!

Other times it is an exercise in patience when you have interruptions and have to keep yourself getting back to it no matter how far away it gets as the day and the interruptions go on.

Other times, not so often, I just feel there is nothing I have to say, nothing I want to say and the world is a nasty, dark and horrible place. Why should I talk to anyone? Why should I even let them know a bit of me just so they can knock me on my butt again, nasty bugger that they are. Those days I give myself the day off, or I write it all down, DAMN THE LOT OF THEM!

Originally posted as a comment in Ken's blog. Sometimes I want to remember what I wrote, sometimes it helps keep me grounded in an odd way.

I tried acting when I was a kid. The school wanted me to do it. So my Mother had me join an acting group for kids. We put on a play about fish and a pricness and so on. I might still have the script. I did get a fairly big part. I did manage to do it all and didn't forget what I was supposed to say. But, I'm not a natural performer in person. I have trained myself not to say "ummm" and other stalling things people do in speech. But, I perform much better on paper, in every way. I like the mystery of making the words up as I go along. I also like having the control of being the only one speaking. People who interrupt when I am talking make me want to do bad things.

I'd forgotten about that old thing, the few months of that acting group. Funny how your life can have so much in it when you look back at where you have been. Maybe I just don't look back enough and think only about looking ahead so I miss myself.

Stage of Development

You Are In Stage I

Even though you are far from being an actual infant, you are in the infant stage of development. You are still figuring out the world around you, and you are still developing trust. For whatever reason, you don't have a lot of consistency in your life. It's sometimes hard for you to cope. If you're not careful you can withdraw from the world. What you need is more people to love and more hope in your life.

What Stage of Development Are You In?

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

Expressions in Old Stone

I can't resist weathered stone, especially something that once was man made.

Cromley explores Tokyo. 

The main walk also features 500 year old Stone Statues of Rakan in various stages of weathering. Here is what that placard had to say:

Work of 16th century. The stone statues are carved in the image of Buddhism priest. They removed here from temples in Kyoto and Toba.

Adorable Me

"Adorable, in a wicked, modest way that only the ego-maniacal can pull off", says Gracie. 

I've been looking for this quote for ages. I knew I had to have it kept somewhere. This was a description of me from an online friend I worked with at BackWash.com.