telling stories

Next week, I start a creative nonfiction writing course. I am looking forward to the opportunity to improve my storytelling skills because I have come to believe that all forms of communication involve narrative components.

wasted evening

I am really hating Quicken 2006 for the Mac right now. Two hours down the tubes trying to set up my stupid checking account. Their User Guide and Help section were both useless.

snowy plovers

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day at Ocean Beach. I went for a walk on the beach in the early evening and found myself drawn to what looked like a bunch of neatly arranged white rocks in the distance. Or maybe someone was having fun collecting sand dollars and propping them up in the sand. As I walked toward the formation, I noticed the bird tracks in the sand. Bigger footprints were interspersed among the thousands of small ones. At that moment, I regretted leaving my camera at home. With the sun positioned low in the sky, the lighting would have been perfect for a close-up shot of the tracks.

I spent the next fifteen minutes observing the flock of little shore birds, staying motionless in hopes that they'd come closer. I didn't know what they were, but I had seen a few of them before. Their bodies are brownish except for their white bellies, so it's difficult to see them unless you're looking at them from the front or sides. In my previous sighting, I was walking behind one of them for a while without even knowing it. What I love about them is the way that they move. Their feet move so fast when they're walking, yet their heads stay very still. It's absolutely mesmerizing.

Watching the flock, I was struck by the way their collective movement reminded me of water. Taken as a whole, the flock seemed to flow from one place to another. When a larger bird decided to land in their midst, it resulted in an avian ripple effect: little birds moving away from the big bird in concentric circles. My reward for waiting patiently for them to get closer was hearing how noisy they were. The sound of the surf drowns out their chirping unless you're pretty close. I wonder what they were saying to each other.

almost there

About six weeks ago on the second day of my family reunion in Hawaii, I came down with a fever and a cough. I thought it was the flu. One miserable week later, I came back to California, went to the doctor, and found out I had walking pneumonia. Who the hell gets pneumonia in the middle of summer in Hawaii? The next few weeks weren't great, either, but it was kind of neat spending so much time in my new house.

Getting that sick really made me appreciate how great it is when I am well. I'm not 100% yet, but I'm getting there.

food coma-induced mutterings

This is the second night in a row that friends have invited me over for dinner. Both nights featured great meals with even better company. The one drawback is that I am too tired to write when I get home. If BART had wifi I could post entries during my daily commute. Then again, there's nothing stopping me from using pen and paper. Now, what was I saying before about disciplined writing?

misplaced modifier reveals truth

During the Press Gaggle with Trent Duffy yesterday, Duffy stated that one of the ways to fight the war on terror is by

"giving law enforcement the tools to protect us from terrorism like the Patriot Act." [emphasis mine]

While I don't think that's what he meant, I do agree that the Patriot Act is a threat to our civil liberties.

"It's not the happy little world that you might think."

Yes, it's true. Keeping an aquarium is not for the faint-hearted. My friend and I were discussing his new setup and he said, "Oh, I never told you what happened to the other shrimp." Uh-oh, I thought. It turns out that the last batch of poor little red shrimp were eaten alive by the bigger shrimp that were already in his aquarium. Apparently, it was some kind of crustacean turf battle. Of course, earlier in the year the big shrimp population had been decimated by an especially vicious puffer we liked to call "Fang." Fang got his name after he chipped one of his two front teeth on a block of frozen bloodworms. Despite his small size (1.5 inches on a good day), he sported quite the attitude. Fang was exiled to a local fish store after his murderous rampage. Unfortunately, the image of Fang plucking the legs off one of his victims still lingers in my memory.

I have my own stories of death and destruction, most notably the Chrismas Day Massacre of 2003. (Or perhaps it was 2002.) In any case, that is a tale for another day.

paying for procrastination

I am working on something that I should have finished earlier.
When will I learn?

food art

Karen's Lemon Curd Tart
Originally uploaded by Jane.

Karen made this lemon curd tart for our friends' party. Not only was it delicious, it was just so pretty that I had to post a picture of it. The tart is topped with raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and kiwis.

I want to be a superhero

When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about being a secret agent - a good guy who went on missions to defend the world against the bad guys. In recent years, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and select screen adaptations of comic books have satisfied my appetite for epic tales of good versus evil. Unfortunately, I often end up despairing at the state of the world after watching these kinds of movies. A few months ago, after I watched Batman Begins, I was finally able to articulate why I feel this way. It's because in the real world, superheros like the ones that we watch and read about don't exist. However, there are definitely real people who are as twisted and depraved as the villians we love to hate on the silver screen. Furthermore, in reality, justice is hard to come by and rarely is there a tidy, happy ending. I guess that's why I have to keep watching TV shows (like Alias) and movies where the good guys kick the bad guys' asses.... So I can pretend - just for a moment - that all is right in the world.

Day Two

I realized last night that the original title of my blog, Desultory Ramblings, is redundant. Desultory is one of my favorite words. It describes something that skips around. For example, a desultory conversation is one that jumps from topic to topic. I was introduced to this term in my high school Latin class. Juxtaposition, which means being placed side by side, is another word that I love. Maybe I'll rename my blog Desultory Juxtapositions. It's a strange pairing of words, but it might end up describing this blog pretty well.

maintaining privacy

This isn't my first blog. My first blog still exists, but it is woefully neglected. I guess I've abandoned it. I feel kind of guilty about that, but I have to admit that getting a fresh start feels good. One of the reasons that my first blog failed (or I failed my first blog) is because I couldn't answer the privacy question: how much do I want reveal about myself, my views? Even now, I don't think I have the definitive answer to this question, but I feel more confident about being able to express my ideas in a public medium while maintaining my privacy.

Some of you may be wondering, if maintaining privacy is so important, then why blog? That's a good question. I guess I have things I want to say, and I want an opportunity to be heard. It will take a while for me to develop my voice, and I may be the only one who ends up reading what I write. If that's what happens, then so be it. If nothing else, developing the practice of writing will be good for me.

Day One

Hmm....Could this be the start of yet another soon-to-be-abandoned blog that no one will read? Hopefully not. I'm not as concerned about others not reading it as I am about my own commitment to writing it.