tilting at ...

The Perfect Murder

2009-07-06T21:20:00.001-06:00

Every time Ellen lit up a cigarette, her husband Bob would complain. Bob had never had a cigarette for his entire life. It got to the point that he was complaining about her smoking from the first cigarette that she had before getting out of bed to the last one she put out just before turning out the lights to go to sleep. That is when she decided that she had to kill him. The problem was how to do it without getting caught. In fact how to kill Bob without getting caught was all Ellen would think about, every time she had a smoke, she thought about the perfect murder. That is until Bob died of lung cancer from second hand smoke.

Dreams I

2009-07-02T20:59:00.000-06:00

Fred woke up, ate breakfast and went back to sleep. He woke up again, ate lunch and went back to sleep. When Fred fell asleep for the second time he had a dream that he was a dog. That’s crazy thought Fred. I am a cat.

Plastic

2009-06-30T10:26:00.000-06:00

Sheila arrived at the Varadero aero port, Cuba, at exactly 10:38:04. At least that was the time according to her watch. And Sheila made sure her watch was always accurate. The first thing Sheila noticed, other than the face masks on all the government workers, was all the plastic cups. There were plastic cups everywhere, in the garbage, on the floor, in the aisle of the bus, in the ditch, everywhere. “Disgusting,” Sheila thought, “Someone should do something about it.” Then she tossed her cup aside and got up to get another drink at the hotel bar.

Fresh Start

2009-06-29T03:26:00.000-06:00

Starting over again one more time ... this time following my fiction desire and writing very short stories. An attempt to get 50 words without really trying. ...

Our Move from France.

We came with a dog (un chien) that we thought would love America. He hated it. I suppose there were not enough pretty girl dogs for him. So, one day he ran away and got lost. He was very frightened and sad when our neighbour’s dog, who happens to be female found him and helped him find his way home. Our unhappy dog changed his mind and is now in love with Babette, the neighbour’s dog, he now loves America … too bad we leave tomorrow.

encouragement

2009-04-09T13:39:00.004-06:00

E	ncouragement …
wheN	was the last time you
C	oached
O	thers or even
yoU	rself to
R	un free, or
do somethinG	new or
E	vocative, without
M	easuring or
N	egating them, yourself or
T	he action …
?

Last post was many days ago, so ... my internal critical voice has been overtaking my actions, okay to be critical, not okay to let this stop me from acting ... so I will think then add to my blog and see where the process takes me as I seek to find my voice.

Post 3 - Creating

2009-02-11T17:00:00.001-07:00

Okay, first thank you to the people who have posted comments. You have helped me to think more about what I write. I particularly like the questions from the Alberta Senator, because of the challenge to think about my intent. My current hallucination is that my blogs be more of a random meander through what is currently taking my interest, at least for the first 5 or so my musings. My hope is that I am able to further develop a focus to my writing as I progress through this exercise in blogdom.

I have also decided that I will complete 30 postings (they do not necessarily have to be 1 a day for 30 days). I can see I missed that boat already. Still I am finding that I need to write and post what I write immediately. I have been attempting to post this post, that is day 3 (or is it post 3?) for 3 days. Now how does one indicate a sigh electronically? <sigh>

So my focus or so it seems for today is around the act of creating or maybe it should be the act of exposure. Before I begin that “conversation” I do have some thoughts on diversity and nationalism in Canada… I am including nationalism because I suspect that as times get difficult people tend towards a “protectionism” or nationalistic focus. I have gained this view through conversations with my daughter (who by the way is brilliant, and there is by no means a bias on my part as a father). Still, I need to think more about how we can have 2 official languages, how we embrace and protect people from different cultures, and how our provinces appear to not like to build on each other’s strengths. All of that will have to wait for another post.

So back to creating … I have just finished “A room of one’s own” by Virginia Woolf (this is the extended version of a talk that she was invited to give at Cambridge, her talk was on Woman and Fiction). There are 2 excellent reasons to read this book (3 if you are a woman).

Well, rather than go to a fourth day of attempting to write and post something… I am just going to post this. By the way, I call the act of creating the same as the act of exposure because you cannot create and keep it to yourself. Part of the definition of creativity is the act of presenting your creation to public scrutiny and public support. In order to be creative you have to at some time be public. What do you think? How does the public affect creativity?

Day 12 of Day 2

2009-01-31T06:19:00.000-07:00

Well here it is Day 12 of Day 2. Looks like my self discipline is not as disciplined as I thought, writing every day may take a little more discipline than I realized. Great start, if I'm not careful the 30 days of writing will be all wrapped up into day 30 of day 2. Anyway, here is a great link about procrastination was given to me by my friend Badr ... Why People Procrastinate

In the meantime I have just finished my first "released" version of Tilt's web site using Power Point and Articulate (still need to work on the graphics).

The latest book that I have finished reading is "The Faith of Other Men" the texts of seven radio talks broadcast on CBC University of the Air in 1962. The series of talks was given by Wilfred Cantwell Smith. Smith's lecture style and writing is excellent. He does not attempt to explain about the different religions, instead he focused on interpreting the faith of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and the Chinese by referencing specific aspects of each (a Sanskrit aphorism for Hindus, a Buddhist ceremony, the Muslim verbal witness to faith and a visual image for the Chinese). The key point for me is that in order to lead or to help others we need to understand that the world is multicultural and that it is a mistake to overlay western beliefs (including secularism) to understand other countries (or even people from other countries working in Canada). That is ..." Any man, any government, any policy that aspires to leadership in the world today, must come to understand and appreciate other men's problems and aspirations, their convictions and hopes; and must attain a point of obviously wishing to see those problems solved as well as one's own, and to see those other cultures as well as one's own survive and flourish." (Smith, 1962, pg. 58) This does not mean that we give up our own believes rather that we hold all to be valuable and worth protecting.

Anyway, I wonder how these lectures, given 40 years ago, reflect on today's world? What about understanding the needs, beliefs and values of the different generations? How do we maintain our integrity and the integrity of people from different parts of the world? How do we account for this in our work? What do you think about multiculturalism? How is it affecting you? I don't think that our political leaders (at least in Canada) get it. What do you think?

“Pooh knew that when you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out in the open and has other people looking at it.” From “The House at Pooh Corner” by A. A. Milne

Day 1

2009-01-19T02:31:00.000-07:00

I have decided to attempt to write a blog. At least my plan is to do this for 30 days. At the end I will decide if I want to continue or not. My plan is to record my thoughts around books I am currently reading or my thoughts about thinking (something that is not happening at a level that is needed these days.)

Blogs are similar to standing on a corner and speaking, except in this case there is no one standing around to listen to what one has to say.

Not sure why I decided to attempt to blog. Still this may force me to be somewhat disciplined and to practice writing and reduce any fears related to writing down and sharing my thoughts.

I also plan on asking questions in this blog.

So to anyone, who may be reading Day 1 ... why do you read blogs? Why do you suppose others write blogs?