My other barbecue pit is a smoker

[gurdonark]

I notice sometimes that when I just rack up the various pool balls of my life into triangles, and then merely whack the cue ball into the triangles, it doesn't really take that long to pocket a lot of balls. This makes me wish I spent less time worrying about how many balls are on the table, and spent more time putting them in the triangle.

Today on the way to work I was thinking about those little barbecue rings they have in public parks nowadays. They're usually little brick or metal "built-in grills", with a cast iron grill face on top. The problem is that nowadays most folks prefer to bring their own portable barbecue cookers, which are usually easier to light and easier to use for cooking. Why can't parks be built with little inset spaces for these portable cookers? I sense a metaphor there someplace--the system seems all set up for things nobody really does anymore.

The mail brought a really impressive bit of mail art from heymaggie. Cool!
Now if I can just get a few more of my projects off the ground, and out the door--such as that butterfly mail art call response. Today I'm thinking of a website for my poems--a really cool website, not the primitive website I use for LJ and such, but a pix and poems and a cool counter and a guest list page. This surely would be cheaper than printing up booklets, and shouldn't bad poetry be free anyway?

The folks at vault.com meanwhile determined that their new Vault Gold membership would
include the right to view message board postings over 60 days old. Now this is a curious thing--if I posted something over 60 days ago on their message board, I would have to pay them to see it again. I'm all for revenue models, and all against the odd belief that the 'net should be free. But now my words have a price--for somebody else :). Odd!

I am still not inclined to start a nanowrimo journal, but let me say that the folks out there who have them impress me no end. I spend my life perpetually impressed, in fact, and what could be better than that?

Comments

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

How come everyone is WRITING in a NaNoWriMo journal already??? isn't that cheating??? aren't we supposed to BEGIN on November 1st? Are people taking headstarts? aren't we supposed to be using the HONOR system???? I don't get it. All these people on the NaNoWriMo forums-- discussing their ideas etc... what's with that? I think they're all a bunch of cheaters-- a contest is a contest-- but if you're not going to play by the rules... well... then all is lost.

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

i'm not writing one yet

in fact i'm not writing one at all

no cheaters allowed i say!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I think they're cool. The nanowrimo site has a list of things you can do, like outlining, etc. So far the ones I've seen are in that category.

I'd hate to think anyone would need to get a head start on writing just to get mentioned on a website.

Re:

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well if you say so... okay then.

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! Please don't call me a cheater! My understanding is that it is okay to think about things, take notes, make outlines, etc. You just can't begin writing the actual novel until midnight Nov. 1. So, it's okay, really it is. I just need a few thoughts floating around so I can write anything.

I'm really excited you're doing it, though. And everyone else I "know" in lj-land. It's like a revolution or something. Maybe the world will become better with so many people simultaneously thinking and writing their brains out for an entire month. Dig it!

Re:

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figure-- all that outpouring of creative energies can't be bad.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I think you're well within the rules, and I know you would always stick to the rules. But it will be fun for me to to see how many words one can actually get out of this project. I think I'll put a footnote at the bottom of my journal entries:
nanowrimo word count: x.

[microbie.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your last sentence. To be impressed, awed, amazed, interested, intrigued... that to me is a good life.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes--that sense of wonder--that really matters!

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

i tried to find a barbecue ring in a park a few years ago and there were none to be found

then we headed to a few beaches and the same holds true

there are rings only on fiesta island and that was good on a windy winter evening

but what about summer?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The LA parks all had the rings, and yet everyone brought the "illegal" portables instead. Southern CA is such a forest firey area I'm surprised that they didn't build accomodations for the portables, as they lack the enforcement to "stamp them out".

[ex-mysterios564.livejournal.com]

That first paragraph is a very tasty metaphor indeed.

But what is nanowrimo?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Thank ye kindly. Nanowrimo.org is the website for the National November Writing Month deal. It's fun--you begin writing 11/1, you finish by 11/30 and you must write 50,000 words! A lot of lj folk are doing it (I'd never heard of it until nacowafer mentioned it in passing), and I've signed up to explore my inner typist.

Big girl's blouse

[kelquestor.livejournal.com]

...as would I, if I wasn't paralysed by fear of failure. Which is, of course, the saddest failure of all.