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by Richard Timothy | Jan 18, 2010 | Gratefully Grateful, I Think There's a Point, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Non-Fiction, Observationally Speaking, Pratchett Perspective
I have much love, adoration, reverence, befuddlement (mainly because I don’t think that word is used enough these days) and gratitude for the writings of one Mr. Terry Pratchett, of the Sir variety. I remember when I was first introduced to his work. I was sitting in my college dorm room reading along and the next thing I knew I was laughing out loud, so much so that I began a bit of literary rewinding. Once I got done laughing, I’d turn back a page, began rereading the section, and then start laughing all over again.
I’m certain that my appreciation of this man’s writing will be addressed on more than one occasion, but today I wanted to talk about one of the things I love most about the Discword series, and that is all the literary cameos you get from book to book. There are over 30 books in this series now, and that’s just it, the core of all these books is the Discworld. Then you have all these stories about the people that live there.
There are books about the reluctant and cowardly hero Rincewind. There are books about Death and his granddaughter. There’s Sam Vimes and his band of misfit coppers, The City Watch. There are books about the Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax and the other witches on the Disc. There are so many more characters too. They are personalities that you either partially, mostly, or completely identify with, because they either remind you of yourself, or someone you know… or someone you hope to someday know… or in some cases hope to never know.
Regardless, you find yourself connecting with these people, and because there is more than one story about them, usually, you get to know them better and better. Cheering them on every step of the way. Even if what they are attempting something that is one chance is a million… but it just might work.
So in getting back to my main point, one of the things I love about reading the Discworld books are all the cameo appearances from characters you’ve met in other books. There you are, reading along about something happening in Ankh-Morpork and all of a sudden there’s a member of the City Watch chatting with the hero of the book. And there you are, giving a mental nod or wave to Nobby Nobbs, because, Hey! You know him.
And how could we forget the eclectic collection of cameo appearances by the one and only Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, and all the Dibbler egos, or cultural counterparts, found on each Discworld continent. There is Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah from Small Gods, and Al-Jiblah from Jingo. Also, Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala of Interesting Times fame. I’m sure there’s more, I still have a few more books to get through, and I am looking forward to finding out. It’s like running into an old high school friend while you are visiting some random city. Sure it’s a bit of a surprise and the conversation is usually short and in passing, but you are genuinely pleased to have seen them.
Such is the case with these literary cameos. The appearance may not last that long, often it’s a sort of hi, hello, how are you, and then back to things as normal. That part of its magic and appeal thought. The Disc is a whole world of characters and personalities that keep popping in every now and again for a short visit just because they happen to be in the area, and most of the time you’re not even expecting them. Well, at least initially that’s the case.
Now, it’s just part of the process. Part of the experience that is reading a Discworld novel. I might occasionally ask, “I wonder who it will be this time?” when I start reading a book I haven’t read before… or haven’t read for a few years, but it doesn’t late long. They show up when they do, whoever they may be.
So, to all you readers that have read one, some, most, or all the Discworld novels, I’d like to think that you, like me, take comfort in the knowledge that someone you know will be dropping by to say hi. It’s a thought that always brings a smile to my face every time I crack open a Discworld book. Well done and thank you sir, er, I guess Sir Terry… Pratchett. It’s always a pleasure.
What are some of your favorite Discworld cameos?
Image Source:
Google Images, key words: Terry Pratchett, Discworld, and Disworld Death.
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by Richard Timothy | Jan 14, 2010 | My List of Things that Don't Suck, Observationally Speaking
I’ve yet to give Twitter a try. Wow, try saying that three times fast… Twitter a try. Tritter a try. Tridder, trida, twit… yeah, no good. Still, I’ve yet to give it a go, but I’m sure I shall sooner or later. I guess you could say I’m working my way up to it. One thing that’s helped motivate me towards this is the site Ruminations.com. It’s kind of like Twitter, but funny and there is a task force dedicated to eradicating redundant crap, exhausted jokes, failed funnies, and pointless posts.
My little sister recommended the site to me a while ago, but it tool me a bit to warm up to it. Now, every couple of days I’ll check back and see what thoughts of randomness people have had and been compelled to share with others. The premise of a rumination equates to this, you know when you’re… well you can be anywhere really and all of a sudden some random observation pops into your head and either makes you start smiling, or in more extreme cases, makes you start giggling like a wee school girl. Well this is where people go to share those thoughts.
If you want to post something you’ll need to create your own profile. This also identifies you when you post something. All posts have a 250 character limit, which is great for people who either hate reading or have really short attention spans… or both. There is voting, so if you like something you can give it a “gourmet point.” You can also become fans of other people, and you can add your own comments to other people’s ruminations.
My favorite statistic I read on this site is this, “All submissions are screened before being approved and approximately 39% are rejected.” 39%, that’s just brilliant! This means that I’ll never have to read messages from people that they are eating leftovers, sitting on their porch, or going to go use the toilet, as well as all the other endless supply of posted Tweets that are responsible for the overused texting anagram TMI.
So after weeks of reading and checking out the site, today I finally took the plunge, I posted my first rumination. I’m not sure if it’s been accepted or rejected yet, it’s still in review, but it doesn’t matter because I did it! 
Here’s what I submitted:
- I’m amazed at how many people constantly fail to recognize that when a person begins backing away from them in the middle of a conversation it’s a sign that it’s time for them to stop talking.
Ok yes, I’m sure at some point that thought will be a Smirk all its own, because yes there is a story there, more than one in fact.
I mean sure it’s a hit and miss kind of site, but things like this always are. Look at those calendars that are suppose to have a joke of the day or thought of the day. Some days are brilliant and other days… let’s just say at least you have a useful little piece of scratch paper. The main difference here is that there are thousands of people submitting their daily thoughts, well, daily. The chance you’ll find something that’s going to make you smile is exponential.
Overall, I’ve been enjoying it, and for those of you contemplating the jump into a world of twits, I mean tweets, I might be a good starting point. I recommend checking it out.
http://www.ruminations.com/about
Have you seen this site out before? What did you think?
Image Source:
Google Images, key words: no twitter, too much information, and please stop talking.
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by Richard Timothy | Jan 13, 2010 | I Think There's a Point, Observationally Speaking, Updates Todate
Today I’ve decided to focus on finishing my feeble editing attempts on Chapter 8 of my novel. I am going to get it posted before I go to bed tonight. That’s my promise to myself that all of you get to hold me to.
The thing is I’m a pretty good editor when it comes to other peoples work. I do it at work all the time. Yet, when it comes to my own work, I, well, I think I’m kind of a crappy parent. I’m so elated and proud of my writing getting all creative and playful, that I blindly overlook all the naughty things it does in the process, like inconsistent, confusing, and WTF punctuation, and awkwardly or obviously redundant paragraphs. Editors are the world’s equivalent of the strict parent. They make sure your kids eat their broccoli, which is good because they need it, and so does my writing.
Although I am getting better at self editing, I’ve noticed that I produce a series of sounds and phrases that have their own editing definitions while I’m editing my work. Here are a few of them that come to mind:
- The hell? – This is usually said while as my eyes start to squint and my head tilts to the left. It’s the result of realizing that a specific sentence or phrase I am looking at is completely wrong. …See there are times when writing that I’m trying to get out what my brain it thinking about as fast as I can. I commonly miss a few words or if I’m lucky I only type a few minor words out of order. Then there are times when my only option is to kill the whole paragraph and start over because I have no bloody clue what the hell I was trying to say, which happens more than I’d like to admit.
- Wha… bu… tha… phuhh… – This is usually the collection of sounds I make after my “The hell?” statement. These sounds usually begin as I attempt to decipher what I was thinking while I was writing the sentence in question. Sometimes I revert to poorly edited profanity during this phase as well. Things like, “Piece of sh…”, “Son of a bi…”, “Rat bas…”, “Mother fu…”, and then I finish it all of with, “Dang.” It doesn’t help my editing any, but it always improves my mood.
- Oh! – This is what comes out when I figure out what it was I was actually trying to say, or decipher which words are out of order or misspelled as other words that the spell check did not mark and incorrect words.
- Uhh – This is usually a subtle auditory sound said under my breath. My fear is that if I say it too loud I’ll end up distracting myself as my brain attempts to process some rewording that will make a little more sense, or at the very least make the sentence cleaner.
- Ahh – This is usually a louder sigh of relief. It’s my triumph noise, which I make when I fix a problem or catch a simple edit error and fixed it. It’s sort of my own editing ohm.
- God I need an editor – This is usually my wrap up phrase as I finish editing my work. It’s the signifier that I have made it through my editing process and verbally proclaim to myself the obvious truth. Who knows, maybe it’s a subconscious proclamation to the universe to please send me some superhero whose secret power is the love of editing and they just happen to have a desire to be my personal editing Alfred… yeah, something like that.
Well there you have it, have them, some anyway… that’s a few of my editing lingos… lingai?… lingus… there’s some of the noises I make and things I say while editing my writing. I mean sure, I could keep going, but I’ve set a goal for today. It’s time to take another look at my book get making those noises instead of writing about them.
Do you have you own lingo for when your working on something and no one else is around?
Image Source:
Google Images, key word: book editing.
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by Richard Timothy | Jan 9, 2010 | I Think There's a Point, Observationally Speaking, Public Service Announcement, Working Observations
I’m alive! Not that there was any doubt mind you. But let’s just say there was more than once that I wouldn’t have minded performing a Kryten inspired head replacement for one that was functioning a little more properly. Yes, so maybe I watched some Red Dwarf while I was confined to my bed. Still, you can imagine my elation when I woke up this morning and didn’t have the sudden urge to blow my nose and take more pills.
It’s amazing how a morning of breathing normally after being sick in bed for three days can invoke a rather strong bipolar reaction to something that I’m normally not all the excited about. As I got out of bed this morning I was actually looking forward to the prospect of going to work. Yes, excited and happy to be going to work. Have you ever had that? Were you’ve felt so crappy for so long that even the crappy things you do daily like your commute to work, or for some simply going to work, no longer seem crappy?
As it turns out, this morning was a case of premature wellness. With the euphoria of being able to breathe through both nostrils at the same time, and after getting out of my first shower in three days I was cured! At least it felt that way at the time. Even the drive to work was a pleasant endeavor. I even finished Strata (a Terry Pratchett book), which Stephen Briggs was kind enough to read to me during my commute. And for the record, Stephen Briggs is no Ethan Hawke, so thank (insert deity of your preference here) for that! Still, about an hour after being at work the drudgery of my cold started to creep over me like cold honey being pored over a freshly steamed cabbage.
This motivated me to take some day-time cold medicine, which eventually helped. But let’s just say I have a few issues with the stuff. Night-time cold medicine at least lets you sleep through the mental sludge your brain start to wander through after you take the medicine. The day-time stuff enables you to stay awake for all the mental discombobulation.
Day-time cold medicine makes me feel like my brain was just tightly wrapped in duct tape causing a small empty space between where my brain and my skull meet. Now fill that empty space maple syrup. It makes me feel like there’s a half second delay between me and my brain with every body movement.
I walked to my boss’s office and stopped at his door to knock. As I stopped walking it felt like my brain kept moving bouncing off the front inside of my skull about half a second after I stop moving forward. It wasn’t a sharp pain, just a subtle wobbly pressure, kind of like watching someone get hit in the head with a water balloon made out of Jell-o in slow motion. Just not as messy.
I even took some Jackson 5 to listen to at work today. They have a way of bringing a smile to my face. There’s something about their songs that just makes my head start doing that Night at the Roxbury head bobbing thing, while tapping my foot in rhythm… or as close to rhythm as someone of my musical aptitude is capable of. The problem I found was the head bobbing is it’s more involuntary than not. The second I Want You Back started playing my head automatically started bobbing. I kept trying to stop it, but then ABC started playing and there it went again.
My brain felt like a small 5th grader trying to play on the seesaw with John Goodman. And every few seconds John would try to figure out how to get off the damned contraption, but would keep running out of energy each few seconds and flopping back down on the seat. All the while my brain holding on for all it’s might to avoid being flung uncontrollably into the air at any given second. Sadly, I had to turn off the little Michael and the brothers just to keep my brain from triggering any mental air bags.
Damn you day-time cold medicine.
On a plus note, I did leave a little early today. The decision happened shortly after I asked a coworker to come into my office to see if the heat was on too high. He thought it was nice, and much cooler than his own office. I was wiping sweat from my forehead when he told me that. Yeah, like I said it’s been a premature wellness kind of day. At least I got home before the rush hour traffic hit. And on a plus note, I didn’t get ill at all until after the holidays, so I guess there’s that.
How about you, any crazy day-time cold medicine stories… that won’t get you in trouble at work?
Image Source:
Google Images, key words: sick at work, seesaw, Jackson 5, and Strata.
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by Richard Timothy | Jan 7, 2010 | Observationally Speaking
I didn’t go to work today. I guess you could say today is kind of like a snow day, with two exceptions. First, it’s not snowing. And second, I’m sick. Not in the confusing adolescent slang sense of the word, but in the legitimate cough, cough, sneeze, running face kind of the word.
This got me thinking about the evolution of words and how some words evolve into meaning the exact opposite of once they use to. In fact thanks to Michael Jackson we have a whole song about the word Bad, which was not about being bad, but instead was about being bad, but the good kind of bad. The problem I ran into is that there was no working up to this shift in the use of the word bad. Getting the hang of this definition addendum took me about a year. And during that first year I had to asking people if they meant good or bad when they would say bad.
Awful is another 180 word. Initially it was a word used to describe this that inspired awe, as in something that is full of awe. Today it’s used to describe the exact opposite.
Then there is the always word gay. This is one word that didn’t evolve into a 180 meaning though. This once happy word was adopted to describe people belonging to the homosexual lifestyle. Now over the past years the word has taken on a new addendum. Gay is now being used by some to describe something that one might consider as lame. That is lame as in lacking in any impressive qualities and not lame, as in handicapped.
I’m sure there are endless examples of word evolution, but let’s just say my cold medicine is starting to kick in and my motivation to Google anything is passing with each blow of my nose. I’m not sure everyone experiences this, but for some reason when I get sick not only does my nose feel compelled to perform a mass exodus, but my eyes decide to follow my nose. So when I say runny face I mean runny face.
I’ve been taking medicine and that helps in intervals, but during the time where it starts to ware off and the new drugs begin to kick in I am a fountain of mucus and tears. Meaning, I’ve opted to stay home today and yesterday. I mean staying home when your kind of sick is find of nice, because there is still the prospect of playability that could happen. Being sick sick is a different story. I didn’t get out of bed until about noon today, and then after taking more cold medicine I spent about an hour wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, and always in that order.
On a completely unrelated topic, I have spent a few hours in front of the television this afternoon, phasing in and out of sleeping, but I did manage to stay coherent long enough to enjoy two episodes of The Wild Wild West. After becoming reacquainted with the show, I only have one thing to say… shame on you Will Smith, shame on you.
Ok, I’m giving up today. Note to self, do not start blogging after taking nighttime cold tablets.
What are some evolved words that come to your mind?
Image Source:
Google Images, key words: cold sick, and wild wild west will smith.
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by Richard Timothy | Jan 4, 2010 | Gratefully Grateful, My List of Things that Don't Suck, Observationally Speaking
One of the perks about having a birthday on New Years Day is that everyone comes over the night before and stays up until it’s actually your birthday. Now I’ve heard that New Years in Times Square is one of those, well for some it’s a life defining event. You are one of two types of people in this world, you are either someone who has spent New Years Eve in Times Square or you’re not.
Problem with this logic is that that applies to everything. There are always two types of people in this world. There those that drink beer and those that don’t, or those that eat Jell-o and those that don’t. Although, there are 10 kind of people in this world, those that can read binary and those that can’t. (That one always makes me smile.)
Still, I’ve always preferred the smaller kind of New Years gathering. Bringing in the New Year with a bunch of close drunk friends indoors makes a lot more sense to me than spending the evening outside with a few friends who are surrounded by a street full of drunken strangers. It’s warmer, more comfortable, and the drinks are a lot cheaper. I will say this though, the evening held a number of party firsts for me.
One of them was… ok first off, is it wrong to say I got syphilis from my friend Debbie as one of my birthday presents? It’s true… it also makes a fabulous little finger warmer. It was a little pink stuffed animal, actually make that a stuffed microbe. They are called Giantmicrobes, and there’s a whole gaggle of them. Some of my personal favorites are: rabies, anthrax, the clap, e. coli, typhoid fever and black death. Still how can you go wrong with giving syphilis to a friend for their birthday?
We giggled about that all night. Every time I handed it to someone new they’d yell out, “Hey look, Rich just gave me syphilis.” In fact I think I gave everyone at the party syphilis. You know, if you read that out of context it gives an entirely different image of what was really happening at my New Years/birthday party.
There was also the count down and birthday song. Usually this happens chronologically. We all count down to midnight, yell Happy New Year, and then people start singing happy birthday. Well, we sort of missed the count down this year, err last year… at the party. We were all engaged in conversations and laughing and drinking, and just enjoying the time together that we just sort of missed it. Only by a few minutes mind you.
Once we realized the fact we just went ahead and sang the birthday and blew out the candles on a big ass half eaten cinnamon roll pull apart pastry thing that my mom had made for the party, which was mostly eaten. Hey it was something to put candles while people sang. After the singing we opened the champagne, poured everyone a glass and did the count down… three times. What? It’s like singing karaoke. You always get at least one mulligan before the real one counts.
I think what I enjoyed most about the evening was the after. Normally there is a point in the evening where after the party peeks people decide call it a night and start heading home. For my friends and I it’s usually around 11 to midnight… cause, well, we’re old, oldish… let’s just say we’re not in our twenties anymore, and staying up past midnight doesn’t hold the same level of accomplishment as it use to.
When you have your own bed only a few miles away it’s more appealing to be sober up by 11 so you can be asleep, in your own bed, by midnight, or 1 at the latest. But after the countdown there was no mass exodus or migration. No, we just kept going on with the evening as normal. Midnight held no sleepy time power over us. In fact most people didn’t start leaving until about 2. The last people called it a night a little after 4. It might not seem like anything big or major or life altering, and you’re right it wasn’t. It was just a really subtle observation for the evening, which I thought was delightful.
The only grumble I had was that some of my closest friends couldn’t make it. But then again I was able to make a few toasts in their absence, so to those of you that weren’t there know that were was more than one time that a glass was filled, raised, and emptied just for you. Still, it was a grand way to finish 2009 and begin 2010.
I did get a call from one of my best friends shortly after midnight to wish me a happy birthday. It’s a bit of a tradition. In the event that he can’t make it I always get a call shortly after ball drops and everyone finishes singing. He did ask me two questions while we were talking. The first was, “What was the best thing about 2009?” I told him it was rekindling my joy and passion in creating through my writing. He then asked, “What is one of the main things you want to accomplish in this new year?” I said it was to become a published author. I guess you could call it my 2010 goal, resolution, motivational speech topic thingy… it’s my dream.
So there you have it. My exit from 2009 and my entrance into 2010. I’m looking forward to the upcoming year and hope you continue to join me while I continue to smirk about it. Thanks for reading. Now please excuse me… I’ve got some left over birthday wine, and I don’t want it to go bad (/wink).
So how was your New Years celebration? What are your answers to the questions my friend asked?
Image Sources:
Google Images, key words: new years party, giantmicrobe syphilis, singing happy birthday, asleep in bed, and toasting friends.
I have much love, adoration, reverence, befuddlement (mainly because I don’t think that word is used enough these days) and gratitude for the writings of one Mr. Terry Pratchett, of the Sir variety. I remember when I was first introduced to his work. I was sitting in my college dorm room reading along and the next thing I knew I was laughing out loud, so much so that I began a bit of literary rewinding. Once I got done laughing, I’d turn back a page, began rereading the section, and then start laughing all over again.
There are books about the reluctant and cowardly hero Rincewind. There are books about Death and his granddaughter. There’s Sam Vimes and his band of misfit coppers, The City Watch. There are books about the Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax and the other witches on the Disc. There are so many more characters too. They are personalities that you either partially, mostly, or completely identify with, because they either remind you of yourself, or someone you know… or someone you hope to someday know… or in some cases hope to never know.
Now, it’s just part of the process. Part of the experience that is reading a Discworld novel. I might occasionally ask, “I wonder who it will be this time?” when I start reading a book I haven’t read before… or haven’t read for a few years, but it doesn’t late long. They show up when they do, whoever they may be.
