That the word bemused was originally used to describe that trance-like creative state that happens when a fantastic idea hits you and you are transported to another perspective/dimension/Reality. Hooray for the Greeks, Hooray for the Hellenists, Hooray for the Romantics!

Compare that to amused, a much more intra-Reality sensation.

Just thoughts before I head in to work.

Next word adventure: fantastic!

Death comes guised in mists and masks,
hiding from light, burning away at examination,
leaving only an absence to mark his passing.

I am becoming.
Death is ending.

Growth and fall.

I have nothing to hold against him.
A poet creating, proactively procreating;
Death is the proper end to which I aspire.

The Noticer
by Andy Andrews

ISBN: 978-0-7852-2921

Price: $17.99

Back Cover Copy: Poverty. A failing marriage. Old age. Lost dreams. A failing business. An unsure future. To the residents of Orange Beach, Alabama, these desperations are dead ends. Hopeless, barren places with no chance of change.

But to an old drifter named Jones with a gift for seeing what others miss, there is no such thing as a dead end. It only takes a little "perspective," he says, to recognize the miracles in our moments, the seeds of greatness tucked into our struggles.

As Jones mysteriously makes his way through this coastal town and into the searching hearts of its residents, he offers simple wisdom and sound hope.

"My contention is that you are right where you are supposed to be. This may look like barren sand to you, but nothing could be further from the truth. I say to you that as you lay your head down tonight, you are sleeping on fertile ground. Think, learn, play, plan dream. For soon. . . you will become."

My review:
4 out of 5 suitcases

I'm going to borrow an idea from Aerin and start with the first line of the book.

First Line: "His name was Jones." Not quite the ambiguity of Melville, but Andrews does toy with the phrasing later on in the book.

The narrator Andy begins by telling the story of how he meets Jones, a drifter of indeterminate age and race. Andy is living under a pier and dabbling on the fringes of the law. Jones appears in the twinkling of an eye and talks with Andy about his problem of perspective, of how one has to travel through the sludge and verdant growth of the valleys to reach the mountaintops.

From here, the story meanders from intervention to intervention, Jones gently correcting errors in perspective and engendering hope in those he encounters.

I received this book today at 1:30pm. It's a quick read but not in the sense of a beach book (although a large amount of the action does take place on the beach). The strength of The Noticer lies mainly in Andrews's use of narrative. I believe strongly that the most effective teaching tool is narrative and Andrews seamlessly integrates his points into his story.

There's also a degree of intrigue surrounding the main character. Is the Andy of the book the same Andy as the author? I'm sure the internet would tell me.

Recommended for fans of Max Lucado.

Thank goodness for Pandora. This week I'm working the 10-6 am shift while the library stays open 24 hours a day for finals and the music helps me stay awake.

Also, caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

We have been actively house hunting since January without much luck. As I told a good friend the other night, I think our realtor hates us. "She's a teenage boy and we're wearing a purity ring."

We just need everything in our area to drop about thirty thousand dollars asking price, and we could make some choices. As it is, we're deliberating between house 1 (east end of house has sunk a foot into the ground) and house 2 (bedrooms upstairs, bathrooms in basement). Our deliberation process goes like this:

Oh please, let a good one come on the market today. Please, oh please. We'd really rather not buy a crap house.

And this in the middle of a housing price depression.

Last night I noticed a couple of visits originating from KurtAnderson.com. So I checked it out. It's Leroy Anderson's son! Kurt Anderson conducts performances of his father's works by local orchestras around the country. You can check out Leroy Anderson's biography and listen to some more clips at LeroyAnderson.com.

Here are the winners. Olive Kitteridge sounds really cool, but I'd never heard of it until now. I'm going to go look for it now.

Isaac Asimov wrote about the greatest innovation of all time, a treatment to permanently remove or inhibit the growth of facial hair on the entire face or in select portions. I don't remember the book but I think it was in the original Foundation series. That would be a fantastic present that I and my wife would both enjoy! I hate shaving my neck.

That's a long time on the intarwebs.

A lot of the people I run into have this idea of the Writer as a lone individual hunched over a desk in the stillness of the night, working diligently on an enormous body of work, the entirety of which is pinned to the walls on scraps of notebook paper and the backs of church bulletins. Possibly connected with different colored yarns a la John Nash. This preconception has the diurnal component of social awkwardness and/or especial wit.

And this can be true. Some writers are especially witty or socially awkward or have paranoid delusions. Then again, the same is true of college professors, or white women aged 19-27. G.K. Chesterton touches on this subject in his Father Brown short story "The Scandal of Father Brown":

‘Now you are romantic,’ said Father Brown helpfully. ‘For instance, you see somebody looking poetical, and you assume he is a poet. Do you know what the majority of poets look like? What a wild confusion was created by that coincidence of three good-looking aristocrats at the beginning of the nineteenth century: Byron and Goethe and Shelley! Believe me, in the common way, a man may write: “Beauty has laid her flaming lips on mine,” or whatever that chap wrote, without being himself particularly beautiful.

You can read the entire thing here since the Australian copyright of literary works whose authors died before 1955 has expired*.

From my experience, writers come in as many shapes and sizes as does humanity. The writing process varies individually. While working under the sloping roof of a Paris garret and pounding away on a manual typewriter may work for you, some writers do their best work longhand in the woods. (Hemingway and Thoreau)

I write best on the computer with Pandora playing and a window to the outside nearby. What about you?



*Here's the disclaimer from the FAQ section of the Australian ebooks site:

Under Australian copyright laws, copyright in literary works of authors, who died before 1955, has expired. These works are now within the \221public domain\222 in Australia and this is why the University is able to reproduce such works on this site. HOWEVER, works may remain copyrighted in other countries. If copyright in the work still subsists in the country from which you are accessing this website, it will be illegal for you to download the work. It is your responsibility to check the applicable copyright laws in your country.

If you're interested, check out my favorite Father Brown story, The Oracle of the Dog here.

Caveat: If you decide to pursue other Father Brown stories, Chesterton makes use of some language and racial observations which would not be okay today.

I love spoken word. It's the most fantastic combination of monologue and poetry and I like to think that I would be pretty okay at it. But that's beside the point. Here's the thing, Spoken Word is socially conscious, sincerely seeking answers to universal questions and getting a laugh at the ridiculous things that we as social animals do and accept. This particular video illustrates the hilarious consequences of blind faith in a spellchecker. Watch it here or below.



If you like this guy, check out Sekou tha Misfit, Steve Connell, and Sarah Kay.

They're not always clean, and not always PC, but (to me) this is the successor to Coleridge's poet of the flashing eyes and floating hair.

PS, Thanks for following!

The man behind "Sleigh Ride" and "Bugler's Holiday" composed a lot of fun novelty songs that utilize. . . uncommon musical instruments. Here is Jerry Lewis performing "The Typewriter" in Who's Minding the Store. Sometimes, I'll mime along to limber up my fingers.

Jerry Lewis is an acquired taste that most boys acquire around 9 and dequire around 15. Some boys hang on into their late 40's. If you can't stand Jerry's face, open the video in a new tab and don't watch.

If you don't want to make the jump and avoid the ridiculous youtube commentors, you can watch it below.

For Easter, I wanted to revisit some songs by Five Iron Frenzy.

The first is "Dandelions" from Quantity is Job #1.



Second is "On Distant Shores" from The End is Near Here.



Third is an unrelated video with the audio of "Farsighted" from Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo. Reese Roper told the crowd at Cornerstone that "Farsighted" was written for Scum.



The last is a link to last.fm where you can listen to "World Without End" from All the Hype That Money Can Buy.

last.fm

Have a good Easter.

This is fun.

Your standard workweek goes something like this: Sunday off, go to work in the mornings Monday-Friday, Saturday off. This is in red.

My first job was at a salvage grocery store. I worked there a few years part time until I graduated, then full time for a short bit. That schedule went like this: Sunday and Monday off, open at 10 Tuesday-Saturday. This is in green.

Next I worked for a few years at a retail office furniture and supply store in sales, delivery, repair, basically whatever needed doing. A dogsbody, if you will. That schedule was very dependent on the current project. Never got done early, but often stayed late. Sundays off (usually), Monday through Friday open at 7.30, Saturdays open at 10. Blue.

Now I work second shift at the library. This is a doozy. Fridays and Saturdays off, Sundays 12-9pm, Monday through Thursday 2-11. A lot less physically strenuous than the furniture and much more frequently air conditioned. However, your body gets used to staying up and sleeping late, because Honestly, who can go to bed directly after getting off of work? Well, when I was carrying desks all day I could, but library work doesn't really make you sweaty and exhausted. By the time you get up and going (in the morning if you're lucky), it's time for lunch with your lovely wife who works the standard shift (red), then head in to work. This is burgundy.

If we call the last day of the workweek Friday and the first day of the workweek Monday, the grocery store's Monday was Tuesday, Friday was Saturday and Sunday was Monday. The furniture gig was normal. But my shift at the library is kind of fun to talk about since my Monday is Sunday, my Friday is Thursday and my Sunday is Saturday.

Since the school is out for Good Friday Spring Holiday this Friday and I normally get Fridays off, I get Thursday off which means that Wednesday was my normal Thursday which means that Thursday (today) is my Good Friday holiday and I will be going in on Easter Sunday. woohoo?

I left a note to my coworkers to have a Good Friday. Hopefully I won't be sued.

**
I've got a buddy who works third shift in a warehouse shipping/receiving dept. Same days as me, but his hours are 10pm-6am. We debate whose hours are worse.

Ree-Diculous video of Michael Manring playing "Excuse me, Mr. Manring." If you like jazzy bass gods, check out him, Brian Bromberg (esp. Wood and Wood II), Jaco Pastorius and Victor Wooten, plus quite a few that I haven't heard of yet.

In high school, I played around with an electric bass, learning a few riffs and just being loud. I still get it out when I have a lazy day. It helps limber up my fingers, makes me type faster. Anyway, enjoy!

I use statcounter.com to keep track of visitor stats. It helps me see what posts people click to and mostly whether I get visitors at all.

Unfortunately, I've seen several visits where the browser listed is Rippers 0. After some entirely trustworthy internet research (*cough*), it looks like Rippers is exactly what it says, someone ripping off the content of my site. With the possible aim of reposting or making money. somehow?

So since I can only control my actions and not the actions of everyone in the world, I will be removing some of my original content and working to find a way to have it available, but less easy to steal.

Any suggestions? Well, other than getting published?

I bought a book! I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but we're on a shoestring budget as we save up for house-hunting.

We were in the campus bookstore cum coffee shop. My wife was meeting some friends and I tagged along to "play" as she termed it. I prefer to call it browsing and grazing. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far.

The third book I picked up was The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. Honestly, the jacket design is what made me pick it up. Such an unconventional turquoise with the skinny gold lines. Then the author's first name made me wonder about a possible religious affiliation, since I've seen rabbi spelled a number of different ways. The heft of the book also helped. Not that I discriminate on the basis of length, but a nice long book can be so much fun with so many opportunities for recurring themes, motifs, etc.

I sat down and read the first chapter, then bought the book. Luckily for us, I got a 10% discount for being on staff and a gift card covered the rest. Well, there was a penny in change.

I'm hooked. Like I said, I'm only a chapter in. Multiple story lines and time periods, fable and history interwoven. I love it. I just have to keep focused on the other six books that I'm currently reading. Maybe having this book in the wings will help me finish some of the others that have died on me.

Like Dostoevsky's The Idiot. When I started, I loved it. I think my biggest obstacle is that I have access to so much more accessible reading material. But I'll make it through. Just like I made it through that ridiculous 20th Century American Novel course. Blehh.

*Caveat*
According to some of the reviews that I've read, The Hakawati contains an inordinate amount of graphic detail, which I am going to guess means sex. Since this book pulls stories and themes from Arabian Nights, or more correctly The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, I don't see why readers are surprised. Also high up in the complaint department is the man-boy romantic/sexual relationship. Again, read One Thousand and One Nights. It's not just about djinni and princesses.

Ok. So, I don't want to condone pirated music, but head over to youtube and check out the video for B.A. in English/It Sucks to be Me. If Avenue Q came to my corner of the South, I would try really hard to get to it. Imagine the characters of Sesame Street in 'realistic' (read PG-13) situations, with different names, but very similar voices.

If you have the opportunity and access, check out the show or buy the soundtrack.

Woohoo! My follower quotient has increased by one hundred percent! That means twice the viewers!

That also means I have two followers.

It's much more exciting when you say DOUBLED!

Thanks Deb M.