thoughts from last night

What a glorious city-style night. A play and dinner at a fine restaurant! The restaurant the Penn Grill at the convention center and the play, the focus of this blog, Noises Off.

Only knowing the 1992 movie Noises Off, which I loved, despite critical reception, thanks to a dynamite cast, incl: Christopher Reeve and John Ritter R.I.P., and, I thought, hilarious original material to work from.

Noises Off is described in detail all over the internet, so check it out, Wikipedia's page doesn't suck, if you want to know about it.

What'd I like? Again, only having seen the movie, I thought the sets and performances evoked near perfectly the originals in appearance, energy, enthusiasm and the ability of the actors to transition from their stage rolls to rolls within rolls without any blurring, or awkward transitions. Yay to the cast!

Not a lot to say, but I am not a real theater critic, and unable, or uncaring enough, to comment on the intellectual depth and texture. Is that necessary? Noes! It's just a great play, intelligently written, performed and produced.

Thoughts on the protest

Yeah, I marched. 3/20/2010, Washington D.C.
1000s turn out to make their voices heard.
Citing ever present problems of capitalism, classism, racism, sexism and ethnocentric, cold-war mentality thinking that produces illegal occupations which devastate the people, their culture and their way of life.
And all in the name of promoting Democracy?
Actions to promote Democracy abroad, decided democratically by a tiny number of people, most of whom know little about the culture they decide needs bombs dropped on it. Who is left out of this Democratic decision making? the people who will be exposed to the horrors that are modern war.
Sadly, if you read about peak oil, overthrows, and other histories not taught in mainstream classrooms you'd know these occupations and military actions are usually just for one thing: resources of land and people to exploit for, as Pablo Neruda called "obese emperors from New York" in his poem Standard Oil.

With reasons of what men and women of my generation and lately the next micro-generation after mine being dressed in green, hair shaved off heads and rifles in hand asked to fight for.

So what good are protests? For me, always a fun excuse to go out, pretend we will wake up da masses to what's going on. And what our mainstream media is not telling us.
Otherwise, not as much as any of us would like.
Protests occur monthly for various reasons and yet, despite the numbers of feet marching for change and the fiery rhetoric printed on our signs, we're ignored by those with obscene monies, too blind to see and too deaf to hear.

Check out the poem mentioned above here:

Warmer then usual lately...

Walking to work, I wore the usual, jeans, shoes, short-sleeve shirt and heavy coat. After wards, running errands, I wore the same but shed the heavy coat. Doubtful it'll be for good. I'm just happy to shed the heavy wool coat and wear the old reliable wind-breaker I've had for years and years.
So, what's exciting about wearing clothing that's so much lighter than before? The signs of warmer, more pleasant weather to come! Is it not wonderful? Soon, flowers growing again! Time to dig in the dirt and plant flowers and food again. Sweet...

In the cycling clothes again,

How to begin a blog on a subject written about much before? So dull to just write I did this and I did that as writers are tired to know. If you cannot get excited about what you're writing about, you're not going to be much of a writer when you write with the apathetic pen, or keystrokes, and not the so excited to burst with enthusiasm by spraying bits of connected language onto paper or computer screens all in the effort to tell a story. With any luck, you can tell an interesting one, and with even more elusive luck someone will read it, and by an act of divine intervention, they may even like it too.

Finally, the time came, awaiting this moment for far to long. Good enough weather to wear summery bike clothes, mostly wool and polyester. Hearing pluses and minuses to both materials as to what to make out of each. Shorts made from synthetics are considered better, least in my research the consensus is that way. Wool jerseys are classics for cyclists. Heavier then synthetics, but oh so much classier! Simple colors, and the long sleeve varieties make wonderful turtlenecks!

So attired in wonderful clothing for cycling, I prepare to ride.
Ah the beloved racing bike! Made of steel, made in Japan, designed to function as more than just a racer, but a durable bike that could be a real friend on two wheels. Giving her so much time and effort during my time outside Dutch county PA.
My excitement! finally! time and place to ride in my cycling clothes for a change.

To conclude, as I've written before, I love bike riding no matter what I am wearing, but in the proper attire it just to me has this much better feel of being so much more of say one with the bike, rather than just riding a bike.

FS: model trains...

Edit: Yay rewrite! so much for auto save functions...

Selling model trains on eBay. Basically trying to make some extra money outside work. Successful? I'm selling them, sometimes for prices to low, but they are getting out there and my customers seem to like what they get.

For my first 9-5 type, fill out a W2 style job, a hobby store! Here, learning the art of dealing with the public and upper-level management.
I made no commission, thankfully, as I had a regular salary instead. I spent a lot, saved very little. I lasted 6-months giving notice long after I no longer had fun working there. Temporarily killing my love of model railroading, but it had definitely peaked by then. No longer were trains something fun, but a product on a shelf to move and replace with others.
Fast forward some years: numerous college credits down... I found another avenue to sell trains, eBay. I work out of home, making my own hours and selling stuff off at my own pace. How do I like it? Well, it's work! Writing somewhat detailed listings for trains is dull, monotonous and time-consuming, not to mention time spent putting in boxes and running to post office, but I do make some monies at it. And clear out stuff I needn't keep around, yay!

While packing and shipping these trains, it brought back memories of what the hobby meant to me:
From 1998 to 2003, oh such fun, working with my hands, doing research, learning new skills, yes at the expense of school, but I didn't care. Paint and glue fumes probably weren't good for my brain-cells at the time, but again, I cared not, this stuff is fun! Breaking the stereotype of being an antisocial shut-in, I found a train club, where a finished layout that functioned pretty well allowed me to room and space to actually run my trains.

How do I regard it now? To me, all trains, even the nicest scale models are toys, as in toys for adults. The stuff that only lays behind glass? Maybe not so much, but they serve no function other than being eye-candy.
That said, I've always thought highly of the hobby, few allow you to engage in so many skills and crafts in pursuit of the creation of works of art. Wood and metal working, using an airbrush, historical research, electrical work and others all can be practiced through model railroading. Importantly, I feel that my own abilities with working on bikes, cars and small appliances had been boosted by having played with model trains in my younger days.

So I definitely thought highly of that hobby. I even still like looking at pictures of well done railroad models, but for personal reasons, namely other interests, I just choose not too.

To soon for another post? Nay!

I say!

All writers can relate to the challenges and trials of editing works. Easy? The rules of editing are simple for what punctuation marks follow what type of language. Yet, there is always conflict, either eternal or external as to what is truly correct. You know what you want to say, but others, readers think the finished product should sustain certain changes and be different. The whole writer vs. reader argument, and unfortunately, we the writers gain nothing if readers will not read our works because our editing is sloppy, it is our fault for being careless, not their fault for expecting works that are both well written, AND edited.

Several writers will have several different opinions on editing. Giving some time between writing and editing is healthy for oneself. Editing and writing at the same time drives one insane and if nothing else prolongs the process of trying to finish and polish a work.

Editing/revision never ends, one can always come up with changes and revisions no matter the work.

As a writer I'm fond of the computer and the physical form of written words on the medium of paper.
When editing, I always notice the real change in dynamic between going from writing/editing on a computer screen to editing changes to documents on paper. You look at the work differently, the change in medium really presents a significant difference in how you view it, and how you can then edit.

Welcome the second month of the new decade

Here we are and it is February. A thick coat of white to blanket fair Lancaster expected this weekend. And honestly, would it be February in Lancaster PA if that weren't the case?

For a change, at the end of this month I am going to Orlando! A Florida trip with just the family. Usually I don't go, not interested in Disney's rampant commercialism, but realizing that despite my disdain for Disney as it is. My family members, especially my sweet youngest sister so over the top with joy that Alvie will be going to Orlando! Mom is happy too, but no one so happy as Sara.

One of my goals for this year, get out of America, even for a couple days. Where? Anywhere cheap to fly too and stay in. Language barriers? I'm not so worried about that. What to do? I just want to relax, spend time in the sun, write in my journal or even my laptop, take some photos and if possible, ride my Bridgestone around.