Year: 2009

What’s in a Name?

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Good morning campers!

I’ve decided to start posting writing prompts to help get our creative juices flowing. Even though I write a lot (every day), I sometimes find myself falling back to the same old same old.

Today’s prompt is a simple one.

Here’s a list of locations and things. Your job? Name them. Mine are in italics.

A greasy spoon type diner: Stick to Yer Ribs

A race horse: Tommy Can You Here Me

A rock band: Tears of Ophelia

A summer cottage: Sand Between Toes

A castle: Castello della Torre

Triplets: Madison, Pierce, Grant

A new religion: Followers of Manfred

An avant garde restaurant: Sushi On the Rocks

A soda: Mango Fizzle

Have fun and come up with more of your own. Feel free to post here.

This is adapted from What If? by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter

You mean unicorns don’t exist?

General Geekiness

As of late, I’ve really been enjoying this TV show called Supernatural. It’s on the CW, but I’m not watching the current season.

A bunch of friends and I are slowly making our way through the show’s second season on DVD. I have to say, I really prefer watching shows on DVD to television. You don’t have to worry about commercials or when it starts. And, the best part is if you want to watch another episode, you can. Case in point, I got through 24‘s season four in under a week (and I got my homework done).

Back to Supernatural. Last night I watched the episode “Houses of the Holy” (yes, like the Led Zeppelin song and album). It involves these layabouts being visited by what they perceive to be an angel and go around killing people who commit horrible crimes–murder, child abuse and so forth–because the angel told them to.

The episode is really interesting because it delves into the main characters’ belief systems. Sam desperately wants to believe in a higher power in order to make sense of his life as a Hunter of supernatural beings. His brother Dean says he can’t believe in something that he hasn’t seen, despite having seen things that most people would never dream of.

I enjoy the inner turmoil that these characters face. It makes for good television.

What’s On the Bookshelf? Vol. One

What's On the Bookshelf?

What’s on the Bookshelf?

Lately I’ve been reading Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day. Unlike some of his better known works like Gone Baby Gone, The Given Day is historical fiction.

On my last trip to the library, I spotted this on display, happily chillin’ next to Chuck Palahniuk and Stephen King, quite the odd trio. Intrigued by the old photographs used on the cover, I picked it up and started to read it.

I’m roughly a third of the way through the 700 page behemoth, and I’m enjoying it. It certainly is taking a while to get through, and I’m a fast reader.

As can be expected with Lehane, the city of Boston is a character by itself, and he brings it to life very well.

As for the story itself, it involved the Boston Police Department, the Spanish Influenza and the Boston Red Sox, circa 1918. Not to mention the undercurrent of social unrest, plenty of anarchists, communists and other menaces to society. There are undercover cops, bar fights, deaths, Babe Ruth and more.

My assessment of the book might change as I delve further into it, but for the time being its an entertaining look back to a different time.

Ciao!

Uncategorized

Life, the universe and everything. That’s what I’ve set out to contemplate.

Life is a biggie. What’s going on? What am I doing?

The Universe. My take on the world outside of my own. Who knows what’ll be discussed? I’m keeping my head above the water, watching and waiting.

Everything. Whatever doesn’t fall into the categories of life and the universe. So pretty much anything that strikes my fancy at any given moment.