bobstad

"you are what you say; no hit backs..."

Anyone remember that ditty;* from grade school playground at recess, in my experiences? To counter someone's attempting to insult or otherwise say something hurtful.

Usually amongst various other often repeated social actions; like giving someone a knuckle to the center of their bicep most painfully, or another torturous device whose name then I've also not quite remembered where a person's grip from either hand is twisted tightly in opposition to one another around the other person's wrist which raises a reddish sort of skin color from that painful effect...either of which the recipient is expected to endure stoically as part of these interchanges enacted somewhere between a ritual, handshake & corporal punishment.

*There's a good piece of generic advice, no doubt many a writer has had to ponder; that says one of the craft's biggest challenges, is knowing what to leave out. There are times for me, when that's not really opportune however; which with the technology now, is easy to imagine many people are confronted with.

So that for me, just providing punctuation; and some obvious things like sentences and paragraphs in what can easily become long blocks of formless scree, seems pretty good and definitely good enough...of the moment, if I ever want to get the feeling of moving on. Forums like this one, of which I participate in at least one other the FordFestiva.com one, also as "bobstad" are definitely not my only interest-even simply writing.

I do get encouragement, even from strangers; someone at Welcome to FordFestiva.com for instance I've never met and only recognize now from their one post commenting on me "Kurt Vonnegut, sort of...and a desperately poor George Carlin" of my real life, non-fictional experiences: Or a good friend, the late Bert Wilson a musician's "if you'd of been able to discipline yourself, you'd of been a better more popular writer than Ernest Hemingway" which was startling, not long prior to his passing.

One thread at the Festiva website, sort of my opus there; yielded "the weirdest most amusing thread" that writer claimed they'd ever read there in their post, part of a thread "my great sticker idea; Somnambulance for safety..." a person can find under that title, searching the site.

A fun romp, with lots of input including my own; about some stickers I had made, including the inspiration-done for the windshield above the wipers in reverse lettering using yellow vinyl two inches high; ostensibly so a person reading that in their rear view mirror, might get to thinking about driving while asleep or nearly so...though also implying other things done while asleep too-even sex.

Anyway, anyone say even njkayaker; is capable of a cheap shot taking only seconds to accomplish, while I'd be interested and perhaps surprised to see of that source or another other, what an equal volume of spontaneous writing taking the same amount of time; might give? Or similar, knowing how different anyone is from anyone else in habit & kind.

I remember long ago, trying to get through college which did eventually give me a BA more or less oriented towards music; I'd wanted badly to become a lawyer, imaging romantically some sort of public service like civil rights or the A. C. L. U.

Though I think writing is a lot like the pursuit of law; where as a word smith, you do evolve by making sometimes even legalistic choices trying to get more subtle effect from wording things, etcetera...were I composing music, I think that's probably a lot the same only different?

I've done a little of that too, the sort of random riff or even a whole tune on one occasion; which popped out spontaneous, upon a five year-old's request I play him something...which even has a bridge, and that I've easily recalled ever since.

That takes off with the first six tones from "Arkansas Traveler" though not the same melody; which I have tried to write down and no doubt could if I'd take the time, which sort of leaves me confused I'm that weak with those skills. Anyone who plays, will likely know the feeling; where they'd definitely like to get to more of that, rather than spending so much time at text keyboards...oh well.