Blog @ Work

I must it over to you: this a very difficult set of today. But I it anyway with a . I this was much easier to do. The is up, there is some but no or . winter yet in .

I’ve created three poetry booklets. There were 1000 copies each to be sold. Everything has been sold over the years. I would like three of those copies put in a time capsule to be opened after I am gone in fifty years. I also would like to show a transcript of my recent writing (on WdC) in that time capsule.

Years ago I was at a high school reunion with my best friend. We wanted to visit the school once more and see how others were doing after so long. It turned out great, with a few surprises I recall of people we hadn’t seen in a very long time. That best friend died at 40 so it is one of my good memories of her and the school.

I think it’s a good thing to try to see that group of people once in your lifetime, to reminisce and dig up good stories.

I am not afraid of readers at Writing.com. We are all writers so we have a lot in common. I don’t write for a particular audience. In fact, I am writing for myself most of the time. I should perhaps consider my (small) audience more. I like to see on a weekly basis what my statistics are. Between 20-25 people read items per day. A steady flow. So I think that’s awesome.

I am a sucker for fried eggs. Without much butter to fry it in I love the planning, making and eating of a fried egg on bread or toast. The white and yellow sizzling in the pan…yummy! I love eggs to begin with, boiled, scrambled or fried. I have to keep it under wraps though because of the cholesterol, but I try to indulge myself as often as it is allowed.

I log in every day for hours to create
pieces like playing in an original gamelan orchestra.
The glass is always half empty but things
never are the same after that.
My household cannot do without
so I spent the night.

Not writing?
It simply is not an option
since my life isn’t over yet:
a very dangerous place to visit
as in an individual right.

Recently I am struggling with my writing.
Is it ever working out?

I played in an original gamelan orchestra for a year at the Indonesian School of The Hague. I played the saron in slendro scale.

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The saron is a musical instrument of Indonesia, which is used in the gamelan. It normally has seven bronze bars placed on top of a resonating frame (rancak). It is usually about 20 cm (8 in) high, and is played on the floor by a seated performer. In a pelog scale, the bars often read 1-2-3-5-6-7 across (the number four is not used because of its relation to death) (in kepatihan numbering); for slendro, the bars are 6-1-2-3-5-6-1; this can vary from gamelan to gamelan, or even among instruments in the same gamelan. Slendro instruments commonly have only six keys. It provides the core melody (balungan) in the gamelan orchestra.(Wikipedia)

{embed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1xdd8LpHR4}

I have to rearrange my portfolio in July again, after my first anniversary of WdC. Then I will take out the bulk of my stories and put them in my folder Superfluous and redundant trash.

Now my port is consisting of folders for blogs (Blog@work and Poet@Work2, All fingers and thumbs, and In every nook and cranny). I also have folders for short stories (Tales of a kind), poems (Poetry), Rising Stars Program, columns and articles and snippets. I just created a folder for The Grammar Garden, a winter course of New horizons academy, but I think I won’t need that, so maybe I remove it during the course. My two longer writing projects are Pygmalion, a serial killer’s weblog and The veil of Death.

I have to reorganize everything after one year at WdC because I have an upgraded membership that only will allow 250 items.

’You cannot enjoy yourself’ is something I often experience. It has something to do with growing up in a dysfunctional family. I try to silence it every day by trying to enjoy myself as best I can. I even have a Weekly Goal of Enjoying myself here at WdC, a reminder that I am worth it to enjoy life. But because of my background, I find it hard to see the bright side of life. I am what you may call a pessimist because of it. The glass is always half empty. Surrounding myself with optimistic people here at WdC is part of my plan to see Life in a better, brighter way.

That’s what I love about Americans, by the way, the most optimistic group of people I ever encountered. Some call it shallow, I call it great. I love that. We as Europeans tend to brew at the inside. Not a very healthy way of living. So I am still learning to overcome that.

I am totally addicted to the internet. In real talk The internet aka Writing.com means everything since I joined 7 months ago. I log in every day for hours and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if there was no connection. I wrote a piece on this very subject:

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I have had my share of worst experiences in the past. When I was molested and stalked and got death threats from a client’s family I was devastated for a long time. I had a nervous breakdown because of it and stopped working as a psychologist. It ruined my career and my life for a long period. I had to make the best of things after that. I put my life back together and started a new life as a writer. But things never were the same after that bad experience.

If people have had no bad experiences in their lives that is great. I salute them. But my experience is different.

Faraday Future electric car: I would like to test its ability to go from 0-60 mph in 2.39 seconds. I never drove an electric car so it would be interesting. In my country buying an electric car came with tax benefits and that pushed its growth on the market significantly. They will stop those benefits in the coming months; I think that is not smart since the amount of electric cars sold will diminish again after that. At first, they thought electric cars were the future, but now they are not so sure. And the $200,000 you will have to pay in order to get one will not help either. Too expensive for my taste.

I think the Smarter's FridgeCam (150 dollars) and the tea cube for $55 are just silly items. My household can do without.

My father died just before Christmas 2015, so the holiday period and New Year’s Eve 2015/16 I spent in the house of my stepmom. This year on New Year’s Eve I thought to do the same in order for her to be not alone on New Year’s Eve. So I spent the night. I promised my father to keep an eye on her if he passed away first. And I am doing just that. So I think I’ve set a new tradition to be at her place and spent the night at New Year’s Eve.

Every week this last year I’ve visited her on Sunday and I call her often during the week. She has trouble with being alone. Because she is 82 years old I try to be there for her as much as possible.

No evil shenanigans or trickery for me. This blogging challenge is first of all not about winning but about participating. It totally depends on my Muse for inspiration and I cannot fool my Muse. She will play along or will not, simple as that. So if I cannot win I won’t. But trickery doesn’t come into play. It simply is not an option.

I think I am safely at home; I’ve fulfilled some goals in life. At the same time, I am on the road since my life isn’t over yet and I have still time to make future plans. So I think both apply to my situation at the present.

Colombia, South America because of the drug cartels and crime. In my view it is a very dangerous place to visit and I have absolutely no intention of ever going.

Maybe it’s about abortion, or drug usage like smoking, or pregnancy, or suicide, or sex work, or voluntary amputation, or gender reassignment surgery, or organ donor after death. I think it’s a person’s right to do with their body what they think is best. It’s an individual right.

A government can say what they think is best for their citizens to protect them from harm or abuse. They also want to protect the cost of health care so it’s natural they have a say in this as well. But the ultimate power in this lies with the individual, I think.

I am not sure if this quote applies to me as a writer. It sounds so easy, writing is thinking through your fingers. To me, writing is more difficult than that. Recently I am struggling with my writing. It is more difficult to activate my Muse these days. My inspiration is not always directly available. Apparently, the holidays have drained me a little bit with all the groceries, shopping and cooking and entertaining family. I feel a bit tired these days in the New Year.

I hope to be inspired these coming two days since I have to write a new story this week for the I Write in December, January and February Challenge. And I have no plot or outline yet. It will be a last minute effort I am afraid. Unlike Isaac Asimov, it’s not simply thinking through my fingers. It is hard work to come up with something. I keep my fingers crossed.

I am a smoker and smoking is bad for me. So I tried for years to make my New Year’s resolutions about quitting smoking. It never worked out. I usually start smoking again after two hours of finishing my last cigarette. So I stopped making New Year’s resolutions after that.

It’s the end of this blog on Australia. I wish everybody a great ending of the year 2016 and a good beginning of 2017 wherever you are!