Analogy Hotel
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup.
Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.”
Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr.Pepper can.
He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality,
like when you’re on vacation in another city and “Jeopardy” comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.
Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who meant to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung
but got T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake.
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
They lived in a suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances,
like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
These bad analogies were a viral graphic recently. The text version is borrowed from Laugh Break. The names have been deleted to protect the guilty.
The Other Car
PG was coming home from the pizza buffet, driving north on Briarlake road. There was a car behind him, a bit too close for comfort. On Briarlake, there is no where to pull aside, and let a faster car by. When you liken to drive at the speed limit, you get used to impatient people behind your vehicle.
The two cars went to the end of Briarlake, with the other car getting closer and closer. They both turned left onto Briarcliff. In front of Lakeside High School, there was a lane for cars to turn left. It was intended for cars going in the opposite direction. The following car went into this lane, and passed PG. In less than one hundred yards, there was a red light, with PG behind the other car.
Going down Briarcliff towards Clairmont, the other car was tailgating another vehicle. PG went at the speed limit, and watched the fun. At one red light after another, the other car would stop directly in front of PG. (Spell check suggestion for Clairmont: Clairvoyant)
The two vehicles arrived at Clairmont, and made right turns. At the red light for I85, PG was sitting behind the other car. The game ended when the other car took a right turn into Sam’s Club.
Big Hair
This monday morning post is written in response to the Trifecta Writing Challenge. The mission for today: “This weekend we’re asking you to write 33 words that will make us laugh or smile. Even a chuckle will do. We look forward to the communal spirit lifting. Good luck!”
Before thinking of what to say, PG put the pictures together. They are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. The 33 words are about one of the pictures.
Buck Owens looked at the woman with big, black hair. She held onto her pocketbook with both hands. You don’t mean that. The man in the checkered suit looked ahead, but saw nothing.
Barlow
PG has worked, off and on, for many years in blueprint shops. One thing you do is pull staples out. A while back, PG got tired of constantly looking for a staple puller, and began to use a pocket knife. The blade he uses today has a black handle, with two blades, a screwdriver, and bottle opener. PG found it under a dresser, while pulling up a carpet.
Until a few minutes ago. PG thought this was a Barlow. The four blade knife has the word “Imperial” stamped into the base of the largest blade, with no other lettering. Another knife, which looks somewhat like the four blade knife, has the word “BARLOW” stamped into the bolster.
In the embedded video, Bessie Smith sings “I cut him with my barlow, I kicked him in the side, I stood there laughing ov’r him while he wallowed round and died.”
The Barlow that PG owns is a CAMCO 551. It was made in 1948, and is worth $42.95 in good condition. The unit PG owns spent a winter under the seat of a Toyota Corolla in 1986.
Pictures,from The Library of Congress. are Union Soldiers, from the War Between the States.
#Quotes
There is a popular topic at twitter, #quotes. The first one to catch the eye here is by Joe Namath. @TomMooneyADP ” If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all? – Joe Namath. Now, Joe Willie was a good quarterback, but he is nobody to take life instruction from. When Mr. Namath was in his prime, PG was 13 years old. Joe Namath was said to be a bad influence on young people. When you are 13 years old, bad influences are important.
For some reason, quotes from Albert Einstein are popular.
@ptarkkonen “The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
@JohnnyFocal “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
@tino503 “The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits.”
@_motivatedmind A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.
The only one, of the four quotes, to be listed in wikiquotes is the first. “The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when contemplating the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of the mystery every day. The important thing is not to stop questioning; never lose a holy curiosity.” Quoted in LIFE magazine (2 May 1955)
There is a questionable quote about mistakes.” I made one great mistake in my life—when I signed that letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them!” – Written by Linus Pauling in his diary after a conversation with Einstein (16 November 1954). Quoted in The New Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice (2005), p. 175. The quote was copied directly from Pauling’s diary. On June 23, 1946, the New York Times Magazine quoted Dr, Einstein in an article, “The Real Problem is in the Hearts of Man.” “A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels. “
Before you complain about negative attitude, it should be noted that PG did agree with at least one quote. @ruhanirabin “Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it takes courage to remain silent.” Often it takes more courage to listen than to speak. Many so called tough men would do well to shut up.
This was written like Kurt Vonnegut.
The Blank Bowl
The Atlanta Falcons want a new stadium. One proposed name is the Blank Bowl. The Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) is meeting Monday morning to vote on a 24 page document outlining the terms for building the facility. If the measure passes, there will be more negotiations to work out details. It is not known who will have the authority to green light the deal, or when this step will be taken. Evidently, voting taxpayers will not be consulted.
The fishwrapper has a story with quotes from the proposed agreement. None of the 34 comments support building a new stadium.
sad_newspaper at 10:02 a.m. Dec. 9, 2012 This city is too damn hood for a new stadium. We have so many other pressing issues, my explodes just thinking of ways I’d spend the $300 million dollars and no, a stadium is not on that list.
ThinkHarder at 8:53 a.m. Dec. 9, 2012 I can’t believe that this is even being considered. Some of the low parts in Atlanta smell like raw sewage, many of the roads are in shambles, crime still permeates many communities, and were considering the replacement of a more than adequate event stadium. This benefits a few exceedingly wealthy men at the expense of everyone else in our community. The hotel taxes are already high. Of all the things Atlanta needs to improve, the GA dome is way down towards the bottom of the list. We better get our priorities straightened out, and we better get it done in a hurry. This is a sham.
The Blank Bowl would cost an estimated one billion dollars. This is 5555% of the cost of Atlanta Stadium, the original home of the Falcons. The state will have a hotel-motel tax, which is estimated to bring in $300 million. The Falcons would cover the rest. The sale of Personal Seat Licenses will bring in an estimated $100 million.
“Falcons contribution: Other than the proceeds of the bonds backed by the hotel/motel tax, plus the seat-license sales, the Falcons “are responsible for funding the remainder of (the stadium’s) costs, including cost overruns” and must “provide reasonable evidence to GWCCA of a financing plan.” (Ballpark math: If the hotel-motel tax covers about $300 million and PSLs about $100 million, the Falcons would be responsible for about $600 million. The team could be eligible for up to $200 million in loans and grants from the NFL.)”
The Blank Bowl would replace the Georgia Dome. The Dome was built in the early nineties, after the Falcons threatened to move to Jacksonville. The Atlanta City Council voted not to approve the deal, and then changed it’s mind a week later. (This history is based on PG’s memory, and may not be completely accurate.) The Dome was built as part of the World Congress Center complex, and is used as exhibit space for trade shows.
Two sites are being considered for The Blank Bowl. Both are downtown, near the present Georgia Dome. “The north site has more property, which would give football fans more opportunity for tailgating before games. It also sits up higher on a hill, which could provide better vistas to show off the $1 billion stadium in relation to the skyline.”
PG has a few questions about The Blank Bowl. 1- Construction uses a lot of water. What will happen if Lake Lanier runs dry during the construction of the Blank Bowl? 2- The State of Georgia is broke. The City of Atlanta is broke. MARTA is broke. The city sewers are need repairs. The schools need more money. This list could go on and on, but you get the idea. Why does a new stadium for a privately owned football team take priority over the needs of the rest of the citizens? Why don’t we take the hotel-motel tax and build a pipeline to the Tennessee River? Or, we can sell Personal Seat Licenses for a sewer system. 3- The United States is on the edge of a fiscal cliff. There is an expensive war being fought. Why does the National Football League have $200 to spare right now?
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Holiday Hemisphere
Why Prose is better than poetry
1- Cons is not the opposite of poems.
2- Poetry slams can get violent.
3- Prose is not expected to rhyme.
4- Pornography is always prose.
5- Prose does not get set to music. .
6- Knee jerk is better than hip hop.
7- Prose writer pants stay up better.
8- Prose makes more money than poetry.
9- Free verse always winds up costing something.
10- If you are depressed you cannot take poetryzac.
A- Dictionary says pro is the opposite of con.
B- Will Rogers said the opposite of progress is congress.
C- Is the opposite of a protest, a contest?
D- Is the opposite of a profession, a confession?
E- Is it profound that this would confound?
F- It is a profusion of confusion.
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish. This holiday wish does not represent the views of and is not endorsed by this website, webmaster or any affiliated subsidiaries thereof.
The information transmitted is intended solely for the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of or taking action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. E-Mail is not a secure medium and should not be used to communicate confidential or personal information.
This greeting is borrowed from joemyg-d , who received it from “Scott”. This is a repost .
A Dog Story
A band, Pearls Before Swine , put out an album called “These things too”. The title track told the story of a Persian king, who wanted a saying for all occasions. His advisers had a conference, invited experts, ate, drank, and thought. The phrase they came up with was “these things too shall pass away”.
Today, Persia is known as Iran. It is rich in oil, but has a troubled recent history. Instead of a king, they have a fashion challenged President, who says things that allegedly threaten Israel. (PG does not speak Farsi, and must depend on translators. There are differing opinions as to what the man said.)
You might ask, what does this have to do with a bunch of dogs, in Piedmont Park, on an overcast December afternoon? Perhaps it relates to the dog who, when asked to pose, thought you wanted to smell his butt. That is how dogs greet each other. Why should that man, pointing that little orange box at me, be any different?
A sunday in December means NFL football to millions of people. The Falcons were in Houston this day, and lost. This is another thing that is always true… somebody has to lose. The football angle could be what the wisemen meant. They just didn’t say what would happen to that pass. There are three things that can happen when you pass, and only one of them is good, at least for the offense.
Today is a repost. This is a Wednesday. The 2012 Falcons are 11-1, in the regular season. Whether they will turn into postseason pumpkins remains to be seen.
It took 85 minutes to get from Smyrna to Brookhaven tonight. Whoever said “these things too shall pass away” did not travel on I-285.
A person walked through a door, ahead of Dorothy Parker. The first one through said “Age before beauty.” Mrs. Parker replied “Pearls Before Swine.”
Hindsight For The Blind
There was a suggestion for a post, with the title “Daily Prompt: Hindsight”. The concept is “Now that you’ve got some blogging experience under your belt, re-write your very first post.” If you want to skp ahead and look at pictures, that is ok.
The first post was published on blogspot September 21, 2005. There are no pictures, or links, and the small print black font is used.
It had to happen sooner or later.
This is my first post to this blog.
Maybe I should start with a summary of my life . I am 51yo, 6’5″190# single white male residing just outside Chamblee GA.
50 hours ago, the owner of the company I was working for called me into the office, and said “I am gonna have to let you go, there is not enough work to keep you.”
I had been there 13 days.
I still don’t know which end is up.
More later..
Lets start with an update. Black fonts are obsolete. Text is just something to go between the pictures. Chamblee54 is on WordPress, and likely to stay for a while. Most posts are written in third person, with PG standing in for the literal author.
Having a blog gives you something to do with pictures. Taking pictures gives you an excuse to post. The two work together. The business of tweaking pictures has gone very nicely with the blog thing.
The unincorporated area of DeKalb county is about to become the City of Brookhaven. PG voted in the runoff election for Mayor this morning. Local politics are fun to write about. This has been an exhausting political year, and it is good to know that this is the last election.
The economy is horrible. The incident in this post is not the only time PG has been called into the office. One time, he got the ax over the phone, from a third party temp agency. The possibility of not having a job until social security kicks in is real. While PG is luckier than many, he still wishes it could be better. The good side is having more time to spend on the blog.
There was more later. The blog has evolved into what it is today. The present readers are appreciated, and maybe they will be joined by others. Writer’s tackle is reality.
The Trouble With AA
There is a story about “recovery”, An unexpected fix. HT to Andrew Sullivan It is the story of a man who has a residential facility, for people with troubled lives. Not surprisingly, many of these people had substance issues. After a spell of getting started, the proprietor instituted a strict no drugs/alcohol policy for the residents.
The author, Tobias Jones, feels that doing basic chores in community can do addicts more good than sitting in meetings. The therapeutic value of shoveling pig waste is discussed. “It’s not just contact with others that’s important, but also contact with the earth — the origin, after all, of humility. We’re by no means the first to discover the irony that getting muddy is an integral part of staying clean.”
Once, a guitar player named Robert Fripp gave a solo show in Peaches record store. Mr. Fripp had been a star with his band King Crimson, and gave in to the temptations of rockstar life. He entered a facility to recover. Mr. Fripp said that the challenge of this facility was to go out and dig a latrine, with a group of men you did not like. (This show was in 1979, and the exact comment may be slightly different.)
Mr. Jones had some ideas about AA, and recovery. Before pasting in text, it is interesting to note that AA was founded in 1935. It seems to have been around forever, but was founded “only” 77 years ago. The issue of excessive drinking is as old as mankind. For some reason, the 12 step approach seems to have adopted by society as the “official” way to deal with alcoholism.
A corollary of that earthy reality is that, instead of being, in the old-fashioned phrase, ‘opium-eaters’, some of our guests eat a healthy dose of humble pie. And humility, as in 12-step AA orthodoxy, is the first step of the cure. Addicts often have a paradoxical combination of low self-esteem and massive ego, so recognising that they are ‘powerless’ over a substance is a vital reminder that they’re not super beings, just precious, weak humans, along with the rest of us…
AA is, of course, a much-debated institution. Founded in Ohio in 1935, it now has more than 2 million adherents and has been the model for dozens of other ‘Anonymous’ movements. Based on mutuality, it has no organisational structure to speak of, and yet it’s often accused of being cultish and controlling. Inspired by the ‘Oxford Group’ of Christians, it has always maintained that addiction is a ‘spiritual malady’ for which the only cure is conversion. Step three explicitly describes handing over responsibility for your recovery ‘to the care of God’…
Most notably, AA’s notion that alcoholism is a disease — ‘a cunning, baffling and powerful disease’, as the big book puts it — has meant that for decades addiction has been seen in medical terms. This is something addicts yearn to hear, because seeing addiction as a disease allows a degree of self-forgiveness. It suits the medical profession too, because, in the scathing words of the psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple in Junk Medicine (2007), it creates ‘employment opportunities’ for the ‘therapeutic juggernaut’. It’s easier, he writes with sadness, ‘to give people a dose of medicine than to give them a reason for living’…
To my mind the great drawback of medicalising addiction is that it actually obscures AA’s subtler diagnosis of a ‘spiritual malady’. It’s not, perhaps, surprising that in our secular age the spiritual tag is touted less often than the ‘disease’ one. …
Fixing addiction, then, is much more complicated than weaning someone off a needle or bottle. Treatment needs to be holistic, dealing with an individual in the round. It’s not just about repairing a brain, or a vein, but about repairing relationships and the spirit. It sounds very highfalutin’ and, since we’re not professionals, we don’t really know how to do it. But then, nobody does. There’s no textbook about how to repair the spirit…
And therein lies the problem for addiction treatment on a national scale. It’s relatively easy, in a micro-community, to follow Russell Brand’s exhortation for ‘love and compassion’. But it’s almost impossible for huge government agencies to define and offer anything like a holistic environment. The result is, increasingly, a reliance on recovery programmes such as SMART Recovery, a UK charity that has evolved out of a US parent movement founded in 1994. Consciously ‘secular and scientific-based’, SMART was initially rolled out in Scotland and is now being piloted as a treatment throughout the UK. SMART is the cool rationalist’s alternative to the alleged ‘mumbo-jumbo’ of the 12 steps. You’re not powerless, it suggests, and addiction isn’t a disease. The addict is offered masses of bumph: a lot of scientific research and therapeutic ‘tools’ from cognitive behaviour therapy, rational emotive behaviour therapy, and motivational enhancement therapy. There are lessons about ‘urge management’, ‘trigger recognition’ and so on.
In 2010, PG attended a lecture at DeKalb county drug court. His friend Dexter had gotten in trouble, and was going through a program in lieu of going to prison. It was “friend and family night”, and the attendees brought a guest to the lecture. The speaker was insanely boring, with a lot of talk about “triggers” that cause recovering people to relapse.
In an ironic touch, this lecture was the same time as the “teaching moment” at the White House. A Harvard Professor got locked up for mouthing off at a policeman. The two met at the White House, with BHO. Beer was served. In Atlanta, PG attended a lecture on “triggers” that cause drug use. In Washington, a political meeting featured drug use. It is a strange world.
One other irony of using talk of higher powers as a device for recovery is the potential for abuse of those higher powers. PG is scarred by his experience with a Professional Jesus Worshiper who would go crazy over religion. The temper outbursts from this person were every bit as damaging as those from a person influenced by alcohol. And yet, no one ever said “It’s just the Jesus talking”. The Christian religion encourages excessive behavior caused by belief. Often, people substitute one yoke for another.
The fact is, many addicts are damaged people. There is a chicken and egg dynamic to addiction. Is the person a drunk because he is a messed up person, or is he a messed up person because he is a drunk? The damage to the soul is often still there when the symptom of substance abuse is removed. Mr. Jones has some stories about this.
Often, though, it’s more complicated than that. A while back, we had a classic ‘dry drunk’, a man who hadn’t touched a drop for years, but who was full of fury, self-pity, resentment and a not very well-hidden hatred of women. During innocuous chats at evening meals, he would get so wound up he would shake with rage. It was when our six-year-old said she was scared of him that we knew we had to ask him to leave. It’s a not uncommon phenomenon, as anyone who goes to Al-Anon — the support group for relatives and friends of alcoholics — will attest. You’ll sometimes hear people whisper: ‘It was easier when he [or she] was drinking’. The hard work often comes long after someone has stopped, when they’re grieving for the loss of their old friend — the bottle, the needle or whatever — and are having to deal with issues they’ve ignored for years….
Perhaps most strangely of all, we had someone here for four months who was only pretending to have an addiction. We took him at his word that he had battled alcohol, that he was struggling for, and proud of, his fragile sobriety. But we then discovered certain clues that he was probably just your normal, social drinker who merely longed for the attention and solicitude that he thought were reserved only for recovering addicts.
In the comments to the original post, the phrase “attack on AA” was used. One other commenter added: “Certainly not an attack on AA, yet, I feel that the author doesn’t fully understand 12 step principles. I have doubts that the author has ever attended an AA meeting nor ever had an addiction..”
This was written like David Foster Wallace. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Types Of Intelligence
There is a book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The concept is that people are smart in different ways. This is not news to someone who can see the world outside. The book describes seven types of intelligence, which was expanded to nine.
1. Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)
2. Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)
3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart)
4. Existential Intelligence
5. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart”)
6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)
7. Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart)
8. Intra-personal Intelligence (Self Smart”)
9. Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”)
Not everyone is impressed by the book. Lemas Mitchell notes “This book is just ENTIRELY too wordy. 412 pages of text could have been cut down to 103. (This is about the same waffle-to-information ratio as an Ayn Rand book.) ” This comment was in the second paragraph of a lengthy review, where it is easily noted by the casual reader.
Another way to divvy up the mind is left side of the brain vs. the right side. The left is logical, linear, and factual, where the right side is emotional, intuitive, and random. There is possibly a connection here to the yin-yang divide in Taoist thinking.
Most of the results on the first page of google are repeats of the text above. There are two tests for the different types of smarts. PG is too slack to work on this feature, so he is going to see what the tests say.
The Learning Disabilities Resource Community has the Multiple Intelligence Inventory. There are 80 statements, like ” I can hear words in my head before I read, speak, or write them down. ~ I enjoy playing games or solving brain teasers that require logical thinking. ~ I enjoy fishing, hunting, gardening, growing plants, or cooking. ~ I sometimes think in clear, abstract, wordless, imageless concepts.” There are five possible answers: 1. very little like me, 2. a little like me, 3. somewhat like me, 4. like me, 5. a lot like me. PG scored Linguistic=32, Mathematics=32, Visual/Spatial=30, Body/Kinesthetic=33, Naturalistic=25, Music=23, Interpersonal=22, Intrapersonal=24.
The Quizilla 7 Types of Intelligence – Which is yours? test is a lot less work. It is one page of multiple choice questions. It said PG was “Linguistic”.
This is written like David Foster Wallace.
Pictures are by Chamblee54. They were taken October 7, 2012, in Oakland Cemetery.
Ten Questions For A Blogger
The Daily Post at WordPress posted a feature yesterday, Blogger Profile: Go Jules Go. It was based on Julie Davidoski of Go Jules Go, and was accompanied by Bloggy Love: Who Inspires You? The feature had ten questions for bloggers. PG is going to take the optimistic step of thinking that people are interested in his answers. If you get tired of reading, you can skip ahead to the pictures. These pictures, from The Library of Congress are Union Soldiers, from the War Between the States.
1- Where does your post inspiration come from? Maybe the best way to answer this is to look at the last few posts. The ideas for features come from everywhere. Topics include religion, politics, and race … subjects that are not acceptable for polite company.
Twitter Bumper Stickers and Why WMR Lost are about items in the news that made PG angry. Having a blog is a great outlet for those with inconvenient opinions. You can express yourself, and feel like you have contributed to the dialog. If you are later proven to be incorrect, you are just a blogger.
The Burning Of Atlanta is history. At this time 148 year ago, the union armies left on their march to the sea. Before leaving town, anything of value was destroyed. War is like that. This feature is a repost. The burning of Atlanta (there were actually two) is the hottest thing that ever happened here. It is also ignored by the media, both mainstream and shallow creek.
Turn Turn Turn is another repost. There is a list of posts from 2008-2011 that are worthy of a repeat appearance. On days with writer’s tackle, this is a good source of material. For TTT, a 1965 video of the Byrds on TV was included, complete with dancing girls behind the band. David Crosby is smiling. You should click on youtube thingies when doing a repost. Often, the video has been taken down.
Smedley Butler was a Marine who fought many battles. After his military career was over, he gave speeches about how the killing benefits business more than freedom. This was during the thirties, when America was horrified by the carnage of World War I. Smedley Butler died before World War II, when happy talk in the press was confused for patriotism. This was posted on the day after Armistice Day.
So It Goes was prompted by the 90th birthday of Kurt Vonnegut. Whenever his name is mentioned, someone is sure to say “and so it goes.” PG did a bit of research, and found that “and” was not a part of that saying. A man brings joy to millions with his stories, and the most famous thing he said is a misquote. So it goes.
2- What’s your typical process for developing and writing a post? Lets look at the Vonnegut post. PG saw a facebook note about the birthday, and got to thinking about the trademark saying. There is a method for checking the veracity of quotes. You find the alleged speaker’s page on wikiquotes, and copy the contents into an open office text document. A search is done for a key word in the quote. In this case, “and so it goes” was the first search item, and it turned up nothing. When “goes” was used, a few examples of the famous phrase came up.
You want to open a word document, and save it as something related to your subject. (You may be searching for this someday, so don’t be too cute.) PG likes wordpad, but any text program should do. You want to compose your text, add the appropriate code, and then copy the whole nasty thing into the WordPress window.
The next step is to write an opening paragraph. This can be tricky, as the perfect phrase is seldom the first thing to come to mind. Apply the formula for writing … ass plus chair … and turn the fingers loose.
Next, you add the research material. In this case, it is fairly limited. In other stories, there is a tsunami of information. If you are using twitter, every time you look down at the trending topic there are going to be more tweets. At some point, you have to decide what is important, and what will be fun to read. This is not a dissertation, this is a blog post.
The rest of the preparation is what might be called formatting. Chamblee54 does not use black fonts, or tiny letters. Medium sized text is easier to read, and using colors is fun. For this post, alternating shades of green are used. This is done using hand coded HTML. Follow the link for more information about blogging in colored fonts.
The next step is to insert the links. You should always show where you get your information. This serves both to give credit for this data, and allows the reader to learn more about the subject. Links are one great advantage of digital media to writing on dead trees. These links are inserted into the text using HTML. For more information on how to do this, see How To Blog. If your post has a lot of links, open another document, and compose your links there. This will save a lot of scrolling.
The theme of Chamblee54 is “Pretty pictures and ugly opinions”. For the Vonnegut post, these images came from The Library of Congress. The text is just something to put between the pictures.
When you paste the text into the window, the next step is to look at the post. Click “save post”, and open the preview in a separate window. Look over the post, and see if there are any horrible mistakes. If you see one word on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph, you need to edit. See if there is anything in the line above that be left out. This will give your post a better appearance, and usually improve your writing. This one word by itself is known as a widow.
When there are no more mistakes to correct, click publish. Copy the final code for the post in the word document you used to write the text.
There is a site called I Write Like. You paste the text in the box, and it tells you what writer your style reminds them of. Today’s post is written like William Shakespeare.
3- What are your five daily reads? There are so many places to go. Facebook, the fishwrapper , and twitter are no brainers, pun intended. Andrew Sullivan, Informed Comment, Palestinian Pundit, Peach Pundit, Pure Film Creative can be counted on to cause brain damage.
The word “reads” is misleading, since BloggingheadsTV is listened to. BHTV is the one podcast that is followed regularly, with a few thousand others available for visits. Likewise, not all content providers publish daily. Jesus and Mo only appears on Wednesday, but is cool enough to cover the other six days. As you might have noticed, the five limit is being ignored as well.
Last but probably least are the blogs that have banned PG from commenting. If you want to know the latest about racism in comic books, go by The Chronicle. If you think the Bible is the inerrant word of G-d, you might appreciate Pyromaniacs.
4- You have a vibrant and engaged community of readers and commenters. How did you create and sustain it? This must be a question for Jules. Chamblee54 gets 100 hits on a typical day, and very few comments. The readers are terrific, and appreciated.
5- What are your top three tips for new or struggling bloggers? Don’t spill your beverage, link to your sources, have fun.
6- Why did you choose WordPress.com? Chamblee54 started on blogspot. One day, a bit of code got into the machine, and google products were not accessible. PG started to look for a host. One day, a comment needed to be made at a blog where WordPress registration was required. PG looked at the opportunity, and decided to go with it.
7- What does your blogging setup look like (computer, surroundings, etc.)? The text today is written in the back yard. There is a stone circle, with a patio table in the middle. The wifi reaches this outdoor office, kinda sorta. The post will be put online inside. The computer is on a table, and is in front of a window. There is a mirror on the wall, which allows PG to watch TV from the desk. The chair is a combination of two office chairs known as the Frankenstein chair. It is typically in need of repair.
8- Which of your posts has had the most influence on your readers, and why? See question 4.
9- Are there topics you’ll never write about? Anything about PG, or his family, that one billion people don’t need to know about.
10- Tell us about how a commenter or reader had an impact on you. One sometimes reader said that he doesn’t like long posts. You can see today how much PG listens.
Chamblee54 
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