Blog @ Work

The party was a great success. As it turned out The Sioux Indians met up with the composer Beethoven. He had lost one hearing aid so he couldn’t hear the music properly but enjoyed my party nonetheless. We went for a walk in the woods, camping out near a camp fire in the sun where poets and songwriters did their gig with guitar music and poetry. A wonderful night followed! We played music together. (I slept with the man of course; it was something that had to happen.) Let’s leave it to that…

I read this prompt the wrong way, thought it was about writing on fashion trends in the year 1920, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70. Was about to start an essay on the brown and black shirts of the NSB, a Dutch fascist and later national socialist political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some success during the 1930s. It remained the only legal party in the Netherlands during most of the Second World War (Wikipedia).They were the monsters collaborating with the Nazis in the Netherlands. Their favorite color was brown and black.
While writing today I am wearing what’s comfortable: gray skinny jeans and black printed t-shirt. It is the same sort of clothing I wore from my 20s till the age I am now. I never seem to change much in terms of fashion.

We make a campfire in the back yard when the sun rises and dance around it like Sioux Indians. We have to rehearse first! Singing and chanting. We smoke a peace pipe afterward.

Kee-ay wah-tah lenya lenya mahotay
Hyano, hyano, hyano

(Let me be the one with the infinite sun
Forever and ever and ever)

In total silence!

I put on my tawdry writer's cap this morning to repress this immense feeling into unconsciousness. But in my support system, I feel the gondola of life approaching. What a charm of a day is today! Number One on my bucket list!

Podcasting: the practice of using the Internet to make digital recordings of broadcasts available for downloading to a computer or mobile device.
Edison would be absolutely delighted about this possibility. Radio is available for almost everyone, everywhere. YouTube is an asset to me on a daily basis. I sometimes use video in my blogging. Sound and image through the internet, what a blessing. You can easily share and network because of this!

“He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention. “Wikipedia.

I think it’s total drivel what she is saying. I don’t agree the least. She was indeed standing in her own way. This quote is reeking towards grandeur and self-loathing; I don’t like it at all.

It’s really difficult to answer this prompt being a foreigner. I am not aware of any major resistance movement in the writer’s community while Trump is in office, but perhaps I am not informed about this. I think writers SHOULD be the force behind resistance and in many cases, it has been in the past. If you see what’s cooking at WdC there seems not a lot of social engagement through writing. I wondered about that. But perhaps a lot of writers have other channels to vent their social and political views?

"Note: Hello dear poet, Congratulations again on your yel..." to Jay O'Toole . I learned that he and his wife are married for 30 years! Wow, that’s a really long time. Admirable in these times of haste and volatility. Furthermore, there is a lot of music in his life. I love that since I am starting a musical journey myself by beginning to learn and play the guitar.

Why do birds fly and fish swim? A myth.

In the realm of the Past, everything was quiet and still. There were trees and oceans, Nature was abundant. But there had to be Life: so birds took over the sky and fish swimming in the sea. Father Growth called upon Mother Gaia to expand slowly. First by the black stately raven to fly at night and inspect what was around. He brought back his memories of what he saw and wrote a book about it. The fish in the sea swam around and provided food for the other animals, which came later as described in the book of the Raven. Their slick, sleek and slippery surface glistened in the sun when by accident they fell ashore on the ground. They then grew paws and became lions, alligators, and bears and much later, dogs. So the Kingdom of Animals commenced. It was the feast of Nature. Every Saturday in May we, the people, celebrate this wonderful beginning of new times. By rejoicing, meetings, and festivities.

This weekend we planned a walk to the Fetes de la Nature. A festival in a natural city garden with poets and songwriters. It’s an annual nature festival in my city The Hague. The weather forecasts tell us it’s going to rain again. After that, if we make it, we go to the movies. He has offered last weekend to cook for the both of us the next time we met. We’ve met only last Saturday for the first time after emailing since May first. I am very happy about our meetings online and offline.

There are several reasons someone is an arsonist. A mental dysfunction, a criminal mind or a cry for help? Uncle Festus served his time long ago and has not been a threat any longer. He is truly ashamed of what he did and wants to be an accepted part of the family. That’s why I invited him for the holiday fireworks. He is a nice man and is going beyond himself to be of assistance to the party. I tell my guests and family to accept him, enjoy his company and try to talk to him if they want to.

Yes, I can. If I am too tired to think, I’ll sleep it off by holding a siesta during the day. Or try to go to bed early. Listening to music is also an option, or being involved in a really, really good movie.

You do it even though there were many problems and it didn't seem possible to do. Against all odds, I managed to overcome my writer’s block and started writing again. Writing for me is such a delicate matter, it can only happen when I am in the flow and there are no, or as little obstacles as possible. Stress is a big no-no for me. I cannot function properly while having major stress. It’s a weakness in my system I have to deal with. Since writing at Writing.Com, in this foreign language, I am able to express myself and try to fulfill my promise as a writer. That brings me great joy and fulfillment on a daily basis. Today I became a preferred author at the site. Handpicked by other writers and staff! Wow, that’s really, really a big deal in my vocabulary.

Sandwiches are, in my opinion, just that! I am a simple bread/meat/cheese person that eats her sandwich for lunch because I have got to eat something. But a cheese sandwich becomes a moment in time when eaten with a nice guy on a rainy day, in between a walk in the dunes. It’s the company that makes the sandwich.

We are all creatures dreamed up by a Godlike figure or entity. Men and women walk the earth in circles, picking up mementos in their lives that maybe have connections with past lives. We stumble a bit in the dark until a different light shines on us every time we are on the path we are meant to be on. Those significant moments in time are truly important.

Memory is really, really important. In a way it defines us, it gives us our identity as a person. Without it, like in Alzheimer disease, you lose everything, despite your history or actual, factual life. That is the perspective of the individual. The others, surrounding you, need that history to keep on recognizing you as the person you always were.

The second question: is reality more or less important than fantasy? That’s a tough one to crack. They both are very important, they both serve different purposes. Reality is paramount for everyday living. Without it, you are no longer in control and functioning. But fantasy gives flavor to reality. It creates all sorts of beautiful things, like in art, music, writing etc. It is necessary to have a creative life, to step outside the boundaries of what really happened and make a new perspective on what should have happened. Both create a life story together.

My writing and walking through life is shaped by imagination and daydreaming, my mind buzzing around and making association as I go along. Your eyes watch and sees, your mind clicks and clicks and the writing can commence. The patterns are there; with your inner eye you pick out the marbles and associate. Those are the fruits of some of my writing. The creation of others helps to point out significant markers that you can use in your own work.

Blaming someone else for your own mistakes is an act of bitterness and disappointment about your own decisions. Instead of looking inside to your own responsibility in the matter, the eye turns outside to others. It’s always easier to blame others. It’s a thing only people can do; I don’t think animals can blame other animals since there is self-reflection involved. You have to overlook the scene internally, be discontent about its outcome and blame another for what happened.

New possibilities. It feels like a door opens and a light comes in shining on the old scene but with a different perspective. Every year in spring there is the start of a New Year or period in life, buzzing with new possibilities. The air is filled with hope and anticipation. From the old springs the new. Wonderful and full of wonders.

I could not answer this prompt at first because I could not remember anything funny-like that I as a kid could have said about our parents. So I called my sister to ask her this question if she could remember anything from our childhood. She explained why we both could not come up with a funny answer because we were all very serious as kids. And that is right, all three kids were extremely serious from childhood onwards. So there is no answer to the prompt that can make you laugh. Sorry!

I could not answer this prompt from personal experience. But I found on YouTube a video of Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis with their song “I told you so”.

Wow, Fivesixer , you hit the motherlode of questions. The ultimate question in Life…what’s my purpose? I think to fulfill my potential in life as a writer and a human being. To bring out that what I am supposed to be doing on this earth. To learn what the reason is I am born. To learn how to love another human being during my stay in life. I think I only am getting close; I am taking baby steps towards that goal. But I feel now is the time for me to experience and experiment with me being a writer, being a searching soul, being what my potential prescribes me. These are exciting times!

My mom was the greatest because she brought me life. In her own way, she always took care of me and provided me with the tools and skills to become the person I am today. She had a very difficult and in a way troublesome life. She chose her own path in dealing with her ordeals. That didn’t always involve the kids. But after her death, I learned more about her and am grateful she is and was my mother.

My mother is deceased since 2000. My father remarried. He died and left his wife of 11-years in shock of his sudden demise. This lovely lady of 83 years old is in a way my stepmom. I am going to visit her on Sunday to celebrate Mother’s Day with my sister and her two kids. I bought her a very small gift: a set of earrings in a lovely small box with a bow on it. I hope she will enjoy this.

I am quiet and slow. I try not to hurry. In my head, I measure the speed of my activities by the path to their results.

Today was a cleaning day for me. I am expecting a visitor tomorrow. These past two weeks I didn’t clean my house because I was busy writing or had other things to do. When it’s time to clean I have a few hour's rush one afternoon and clean my whole house. It’s never messy in my house because I am tidy, but I am no housewife so it’s never really clean as in spick and span. As long as it’s livable. I am not so interested in cleaning my house.

I marked my spot in my living room where of this week my new guitar is standing. Hopefully, I have the time and inclination to learn how to play the guitar.

I think that is absolutely true. For me, this summer is the first time I am going to take a little time off writing after writing non-stop for a year. I think I will make a plan beforehand and set a date when to start again. A deadline so to speak, a reminder of writing challenges or projects. There are a few stories waiting for revision. I think I’ll start with those. And I will start immediately with blogging every day. Hopefully, that will start the Muse again after hiatus. It’s an experiment so I am in anticipation whether it will work the way I planned.

For me, to close a certain period in my life and start a new one. Having experienced everything the last few years and hopefully learned a great deal from it.

For me, in my short stories, a plot is enough and I’ll work from there. But for longer stories, I think character cues, specific behaviors, sensory perceptions, and dialogues are to be refined and explored. This is new to me so it’s a challenge.

I think writing is the best way to overcome a writer’s block. I have had a severe one that lasted on and off a couple of years; that was when writing solely in Dutch and before I found WdC.

Since I am writing in English and have several blogs with prompts to write every day I have overcome the writer’s block. It activated my Muse every day for a year now.

I have tried everything before: leaving the writing altogether in the hope that when you return the Muse will be there, but that didn’t work at all. I tried different forms of art: mosaicking and sculpturing but that didn’t make me more creative at writing either. So I am very grateful to the different forums 30-Day Blogging Challenge, Blog City and Blogging Circle of Friends for prompting me every day.
Writing Dot Come has saved my life as a writer. I am now a published author in the English/American language as of this month because an American magazine published one of my short horror stories in their e-zine. I have been chosen to participate in the Rising Stars Project 2016-2017 with writing challenges to become a better writer. It’s all happening because I found WdC and buckled down.

I haven’t written in Dutch for a year because everything I write is in English now, but I find that writing in Dutch again is also a possibility in the near future. I am already starting with baby steps writing Dutch poetry again. That was not possible while having a writer’s block.

A writer’s block is also, in my case, an indication that certain periods in my life were still causing problems. Writing every day has helped in a therapeutic way as well. I was able to live through certain things which helped the writing back. And it helped me as a person. I think I have overcome the writer’s block with this past year of continuous writing 24/7 every day. I am so grateful for that.

Now, when I am feeling a little exhausted, like two weeks ago for the first time in a year, I try to write the blogs no matter what. My other writings were minimal during that time, but I continued because of the writing prompts. That helped in a great way. There is no hiatus in my writing any longer, I make sure of that.

I am a blessed person and a proud writer at the moment!

I’ve had an uncle Frits, a younger brother of my mother. I think during her pregnancy of me the war in New Guinea was announced over and he could go home. While retracting from a field in that country he stepped on a booby trap and was killed immediately. I think he was 21 years old. I never knew him, but in retrospect, I think it affected the relationship with my mother significantly. She was mourning while pregnant.

I totally agree. Waiting in anticipation is a killer. It drains strength and can paralyze you. It is best to just keep on living and be busy while waiting. But that’s not always easy. Waiting in Zen is best for me. That means active waiting, with open hands, an open heart and trying to do your thing in the meantime. Whatever happens happens, at its own pace. You can’t rush things.

I have never heard this expression before. So I had to look it up. http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0526/What-is-a-milk-moon-anyway

Within 17 days this Milk Moon will occur at 7.07 pm. I love the full moon. It is mysterious and it gives the night an eerie sort of anticipation. The notion that anything can happen. Not necessarily ominous, although the full moon is a feature that can be used in horror fiction. It is an experience rather than an expression so I will try to look out the window at May 27/28, and write a poem then. It’s a date; I’ve put it on my calendar.

Anais Nin, the Cuban writer, can cook me dinner. I would like her to cook something with a twist and prepare a quote of each dish with it. So I could learn the trade from her. She wrote a famous quote: We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are. I am curious as to how her cooking and quoting about it would turn out, telling something about her talent. Her journaling is famous! I am not sure what I want her to prepare, I would leave it up to her!

Scars are wounds in the psyche of a person that have healed but left a reminder so we can learn from it. There are millions of scars possible, every person with a certain age has them, they come with life and living.

There is one incident I can recall when I was very young. I think about 7 or 8. I attended a nun’s school. I was walking through a corridor when a nun was approaching. When we passed each other there was an empty milk carton lying on the ground. The nun was cross at me for throwing it on the ground, but I refused to pick it up since I didn’t do it. I had to stay after school and my mom was there to talk to the nun about the incident. She didn’t stand up for me but was very cross and agreed with the nun I was at fault. Later at home, my father too was cross and they punished me. It was an example that they always stood behind the other party i.e. authorities and never behind me, their daughter. That hurt more than the punishment at the time.

This is rather funny because this is exactly the case today. I am writing this stand-up comedian piece and it’s hard to write because I really don’t have a punchline yet. So what I’ll do today I write different things hoping to get inspired. I’ll probably go to YouTube again to watch some stand-up comedians in action for inspiration as well. I will try to be loose with my writing so my Muse can roam freely. In the end, I hope to deliver.

I really can’t remember, but I do know I always thought throughout life that you can become anything you wanted. And that is so untrue. You will find that there are limitations inside yourself that are boundaries you cannot cross in order to become anything you want. The sky is not always the limit, they turn up sooner.

I like all color roses. In nature, all colors can be beautiful. Especially in roses colors are deeply dark and lovely. In a big bunch, they can brighten up your living room and your mood.

I couldn’t find any other good news than this: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/05/painting-sold-by-mistake-on-kings-...

It’s about a girl who sold a painting at the flea market, only to find it was an important painting of her mother. Through messages on Facebook, the painting was retrieved back. Good news and a good role for Facebook.

I love Facebook, although I am not frequently visiting. But only last night I had a long 3-hour chat with a newly found friend. Since I don’t have an I-phone it was very convenient and fun to chat that long with him. And today I noticed a message on Facebook for a literary and musical event in The Hague. I think I am going to attend later this afternoon. For networking Facebook is still very handy.

I am from the sixties of the last century. And I’ve seen everything from my past in fashion come back and become popular again.

The answer is of course: he put them in the fridge!

I love the month of June. One of my favorites. I would be happy all the time if it was June year round. With the sun, the trees in blossom, the sea breeze. Wonderful!

The Netherlands is a small country with trains and railways in almost every city. So we travel a lot by train. Since I don’t own a car I travel by train when visiting another city. I also travel by train to Antwerp, Brussels, and Paris. Once I visited a sculptor workshop near Avignon in the south of France by train. It was a nice ride with sleeping accommodation. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night, our door was opened by strange men. I woke up and hollered at them, that’s when they left. That was the one thing I didn’t like about that train ride. One of my dreams was years ago to do the Orient Express to Russia. That’s not possible any longer. Too bad, because it would have been fun.

The obvious: ice cream in the spring and summer and mashed potato dishes in the autumn and winter.

A name or brand is not important to me, it never has been. I always buy stuff cheap, without looking at the name or brand.

My biggest fear today is writing a comical piece for the Rising Stars Program. Deadline May 20. I am not funny at all and don’t know exactly how to tackle this assignment. Humor is such a delicate issue. I already did some research on the topic and got a good tip from a friend to turn an everyday mundane topic into something funny in a sketch. How to proceed I am not sure, but I try to let this float in my mind for the day and hopefully I come up with something. I have to put this assignment on top of my to-do-list every day for the next few weeks in order to tackle it. I can’t postpone like my original thought because procrastination will not help. I have to face it and try to write something funny. Wish me luck!

It’s a very long time ago, but I think I just got my driver’s license after graduation and went on a holiday trip by car with my then-boyfriend. We went to Wales, England as I recall. A few weeks camping in England’s Nature. I love Great Britain; have not been visiting in a long while. Too bad because it’s one of the nicest countries I visited.

I try to balance the review in writing about what I think can improve, and actual praise. But I try to give more praise than critique because I found that a lot of writers do react with difficulty if it is the other way around. Writers’ souls are very delicate. I think it’s easier online than face-to-face. But facing that writer also means you have more opportunities to explain what you mean. I think writers should be braver in taking in critique since it is never personal, but presumably always to better the writing. If you cannot stand it, don’t write at all.

I think they have every right to express anything they like, including their political view. But they do have to take into consideration that they are in the public eye. They have a responsibility. I personally am not always interested in their (political) views, but a lot of people want to know.

If we are aware of our motives, our thoughts, and inner works, if that is conscious to us, we are wiser and more equipped to handle situations and ourselves. Know thou self! But that’s very difficult to do and takes a lifetime. It’s true that people, including myself, avoid looking inside, because it is time-consuming, and it’s not always pleasant what we are seeing. That takes courage.

I am not sure if this works all the time. There are situations where although you love something, it will not work because of all sorts of factors outside of your control. Not everything in life is makeable. But I agree that with love everything is easier to do.