To make up for last weeks absence and the general neglect I have been showing you all, I have created a short story. Hopefully the first of many to come. If you look in the top nav bar, you will notice a new link has appeared called “Shorts”. This is where I will be archiving these stories so keep checking back.
Today, for the first time in almost a year, I returned to one of my favorite writing holes; Sugar House Coffee in Salt Lake City. I was there meeting up with an old writing buddy who I had not seen in a long time. Naturally with so much catching up to do we didn’t get much writing done, which was not helped by me forgetting to copy the latest version of Dead Beat to my laptop (oops). Being fine purveyors of caffeinated beverages I decided to see if they had anything new on their menu. And there it was; The Cuban Revolver. The six espresso shot demon that would become my undoing. It all started with a harmless comment on Twitter:
“OMG I just notice they have something here called a Cuban Revolver. 6 shots of espresso in that bad boy :D. Dare I try it?”
Those last four words followed by a question mark, that’s where I made my first mistake. I didn’t really expect a response but I got one anyway from friend and fellow writer @winnie3k (who you should all start following right now). Her response:
“For all of our sakes, YES, drink the Cuban Revolver! I want a full report, please!”
Well being a true British gentleman I could hardly turn down such a heartfelt request now could I?!
So off I go to order my 16 oz Cuban Revolver. While it was being made I was talking with my barista. General conversation; You know, the creative atmosphere, how the area was loosing it’s bohemian charm, the dangers of Wal-Mart, that short of thing. While we spoke she mentioned that she had once tried this demonic drink herself. “I ended up awake until 4 in the morning” she said, a wicked glint in her eye.
No upon hearing this you would think that I would have had second thoughts right? Well no not me.
And why?
Because I’m an idiot. There, I said it.
Anyway, back to the story. My prize in hand I returned to the table. Over the course of the next half hour I slowly nursed the Cuban, the whole time blissfully unaware of the witchcraft that was coursing it’s way through my veins. I didn’t really feel the effects until a little while later. I noticed a little shaking and a sudden alertness to everything around me. It was not long before a certain degree of paranoia started to make itself at home (did you hear that?). This is not a pleasant feeling and certainly not conducive to a creative atmosphere. The live folk band wasn’t helping too much either. (My day really has been one big cliché hasn’t it?). By the time I arrive home I am in full temperamental, paranoid writer mode (how long has that van been there?). I’ve been trying every remedy I can think off…short of fresh air and exercise of course.
Well things are finally starting to settle down now. Now being several hours later with the lights turned out (if I leave them on, THEY will know I’m here). It was great coffee though. And for those of you with stronger coffee handling skills than me, the Cuban Revolver is a worthy opponent. Nice to catch up with an old friend as well. However I think I’ll be sticking to the Shar-gra-lattes from now on
It’s been about two weeks since my last posting and for that I throw myself upon your mercy. I do have a good reason though. My wife has recently become the student President of the University of Utah chapter of Engineers Without Borders. What had begun as me helping out in a professional capacity as a computer wiz, somehow evolved into me being made the chief PR officer. Oh and webmaster. And guy in charge of mailing lists….Basically all of the nerdy behind the scenes stuff. My own fault for touting the flexibility and ease of use of Blogger.
So here I am, two weeks later, facing what might be my biggest challenge yet as a writer. I’ve never done any PR stuff before. It’s certainly going to take me out of my comfort zone of fictional writing. But that’s definitely a good thing. I see it as an opportunity for practice at gauging an audience. That’s something I don’t think about too much when I’m writing normally. I know that’s bad form but I generally approach my works with the attitude that I’m writing for myself. That might sound egotistical and probably is, but I have found that I’m much more critical of my work than friends and family.
Anyway that’s where I have been for the past two weeks. Now that the lions share of the set up for the new website is done I can get back to writing again. BY the way if anyone is interested in learning more about Engineers without borders, I’ve put a couple of links at the bottom of this entry.
A very happy Towel Day to you all.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, check out TowelDay.org
This is a tribute to the late Douglas Adams; author of such classics as The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.
As the man says
“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.
So, don’t forget to bring a towel.
I’m well know for complaining about how us Brits always seem to be portrayed as the villain by Hollywood. I pretty much refuse to watch any more remakes of Robin Hood until they cast and actual British actor in the lead role. Come on Hollywood, he’s our guy. (At least their getting a little closer with Russell Crowe)
So this isn’t writing related (too much) but I though I would share it anyway. My wife is doing her bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah. As she is a junior, she had to take part in the two semester long Mechatronics contest. This year they had the King Kong challenge. The event took place during the past week and I was there to film it. Just for fun (and after I had made the team a short video), I decided to have a little fun and made this little Sci-Fi short. Get ready, for the “Rise of Hal”…
So after yesterdays rant about the ailing literacy coming out of our public schools, I started thinking about things I have problems with. After a bit of thought I realized that there are certain words which seem to stump me every time I try to spell them. The word guarantee, for example. I don’t know why, but I have too look up the spelling every single time I use it. Which might explain why I don’t use it that much. So this embarrassing little problem leads me to ask:
“Am I the only one?”
Are there others out there who suffer from this as well. Maybe we should form a support group!? (I’ll bring the sugar cookies). What words do you tend to trip on when writing? If this is a common problem then it needs a cool name. I like the one I picked for the title but I’m always open to suggestions.
I admit that I probably spend more time than I should on social networks. If I have a browser open you can be certain that I have one tab opened on Facebook and, more recently, one opened for Googles new effort: Google Buzz. Everyday I see status updates written in the form of text speak (txt spk?) and each time I see it I die a little inside. Now I’m certainly no technophob, quite the opposite in fact, so I understand the purpose of text speak. When using SMS you have a limited number of characters, so naturally you will find a way to send out the maximum amount of information within these limitations. I don’t have a problem with that.
The problem I see is that this style of writing is creeping away from it’s intended purpose and starting to invade other areas of our lives. Not just on Facebook but on forums, message boards and emails. It seems that we have somehow come to the conclusion that if something is being written electronically, it’s okay to use abbreviations. Being a Systems Administrator I get to read a lot of emails on a daily basis. Over the last two years I have seen an unfortunate trend happening. At the start of each semester, the messages and requests we get are becoming less and less coherent. It was just small things at first; u instead of you, ur instead of you’re/your. Then the number substitution began to creep in; 4/for 2/too/to.
Now it is easy to turn around and blame things like SMS and the numerous social networking sites. But is that truly where the problems lays? To a certain extent I would have to say that they have had some influence, however the root cause goes much deeper than that. Take a look at the comments section of any online news site and you will see what I mean. The comments being made are, more often than not, done so by those who did not grow up texting or tweeting (ugh I said it, I feel dirty). Yet the standards do not seem to be much higher. I’m not talking about typos, we all make those. I’m talking about little things; Not capitalizing ‘I’ when speaking in the first person. Starting a sentence in lowercase, or worse (deep breath) not actually using any periods or punctuation in a post at any point so that the entire paragraph becomes one big long sentence and if you ever tried to read it out load you would more than likely die of oxygen starvation before reaching the end is another problem that I can guarantee you will find in each and every comment section of any given article.
So where is this problem coming from. If you ask the parents they will blame the schools. If you ask the schools they will blame the parents. And if you ask both groups at the same time they will blame the Internet. They truth is that all three share some responsibility. A recent study from Canada shows that around 30% of undergrad students cannot pass the bare minimum when it comes to English language skills. Why is this?
I recently attended a writing course where the teacher told us of her own experience. She had come from High School as an English honor student. When reached college she found herself in trouble when it came to things like correct grammar. The reason, she told us, is that if you were an English honor student, they didn’t bother to ever explain grammar rules to you. Are you serious? This leads me to ask how you get to be an honor student in that field without ever knowing proper grammer. So here we see a clear failing from the education establishment but what about the parents. This one is a little trickier as they have been failed by the same system. However we need to keep in mind that how a parent approaches the subject of literacy is going to have a dramatic affect on how their child perceives it. If the parent is apathetic then that is going to passed on.
The ability to not just read and write, but to be able to do it in a clear and meaningful way, are absolutely essential if a person wants to get ahead in the world. Our ability to communicate with each other is the very foundation of our society. If you are concerned about the type of literary education your child is receiving I urge you to speak to their teachers, their principles, your representatives. But even more than that, I urge you to get involved as well. Reading to your child from a young age can be more important than just being a way to get them off to sleep. On a global view we are starting to fall behind. Do you really want to be the nation that gets held back a year?
Today brings sad news to the literary world. Dick Francis, author of books such as “Field of 13”, has died at the age of 89 in the Cayman Islands. Francis was a champion jockey during the 1940’s and went on to be the Queen Mothers official jockey during the 50’s. His crime novels have sold over 60 million copies world wide and have been translated into 20 languages.
Francis has won numerous accolades for his works including the Crime Writer’s Association lifetime achievement award in 1996. His last novel, co written with his son, will be released in the Fall.
BBC Report: Author Dick Francis dies aged 89
J B Angell - Author 