“All creatures are capable of darkness, but not all choose to succumb to it.” ― Sara Humphreys

“All creatures are capable of darkness, but not all choose to succumb to it.”
― Sara Humphreys

Sometimes I find a quote that I like that doesn’t necessarily match the topic that I wanted to talk about.  Of course the quote is usually based on the daily prompt word of the day which today is succumb.  I’m also not against borrowing quotes from Romance Book authors either so if that is a genre that interests you the quote is from this book, vampire troubles.  I’ve never read anything in the genre yet which with their liberal use of book covers with pecs reminds me of college Anatomy books.  I mean how many different ways can you illustrate books with close-up massive pecs pics – TBD.

What I really wanted to briefly talk about today was the good reads 2017 challenge for which i pledged to read 48 books this year.  And umm I’m only at 15 books :S

Therefore, I’ve decided to cheat.  Kind of.  I’ve decided to read shorter books like comics to try to catch back up.  I guess if i reached far enough I could connect three of the recent comic titles to darkness in the quote i used for this post.  And not that readers who would be interested in romance novels would likely be interested in comics but here goes:

Batman

And Batman’s sidekick Robin’s new gig:

Nightwing

and Scooby-Doo

And if you’re like me and like free, all of these comics just happen to be free on google play books:  Batman, Nightwing 201, and Scooby-Do Team-Up and all yes, just coincidentally are related to Halloween (I think) – this month’s holiday for some in the big wild world.  I hyperlinked those in case you use google play books and wanted to check them out and no I don’t get a percentage of your “free” purchase price if you go through with it.  🙂

 

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the nebulous precipice of dreamy snow-capped peaks

the nebulous precipice of dreamy snow-capped peaks

I’ve been thinking about painting lately but not with acrylic or oil but with words.  I had been toying around with the idea for sometime already when I started reading a book titled H.P. Lovecraft’s Book of the Supernatural: 20 Classic Tales of the Macabre, Chosen by the Master of Horror Himself. How is that for a long book title.  To be honest, horror has always been one of my least read genres.  However, my goal as a wannabe writer is to read everything especially genres I don’t care for as much.

As I read the book, it dawned on me that the part I loved most about it wasn’t the stories although they were good too but the essay at the beginning of the book written by Howard Phillips himself called Notes on Writing Weird Fiction which you can read by clicking on the hyper-link.  I could read that essay over and over and enjoy it anew each time even though it is extremely condensed.  Here is the first sentence from his essay:

My reason for writing stories is to give myself the satisfaction of visualising more clearly and detailedly and stably the vague, elusive, fragmentary impressions of wonder, beauty, and adventurous expectancy which are conveyed to me by certain sights (scenic, architectural, atmospheric, etc.), ideas, occurrences, and images encountered in art and literature.

I’m speechless and in my mind’s eye, I can hear George Takei, saying “OH, MY!” right now.  And yes I do hear with my mind’s eye… sometimes.  LOL.  I’ve known for a long time that one of the horror genre’s strengths is incredible imagery and scenery but I’ve never been able to articulate it anywhere near the level that HP Lovecraft does in his essay.  And one final note, what he says or implies about using writing to understand something in your own mind with extreme clarity is another reason I choose to dabble with writing though I’m not naive enough to think I’ll ever be a writer on par with HP Lovecraft.

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A final final note, the title I almost used tonight was the nebulous precipice of the xenopus which by the way is an African clawed frog.

in infinite pursuit of profound profundity

in infinite pursuit of profound profundity

Pardon my word soup but have you ever noticed how life’s hustle and bustle often impedes your ability to take a moment to stop and reflect?  Then suddenly you find yourself clamped down on a sliding table heading into a narrow white tunnel into the abyss jamming to loud music?    Wait.  What?  Ok, so it was just an MRI and and since it was for my shoulder they clamped it down with a vice so I wouldn’t move it during the 35 minute scan.  Luckily I’m not claustrophobic or it could have been worse.  I think it must have been 15 minutes into the scan when I finally realized hey this is a nice place to stop and think about some fictional story ideas I been kicking around.  LOL.   I figured it was probably a little like a sensory deprivation tank without the hallucinations.

So I certainly didn’t schedule the MRI to have a good place to stop and reflect but if life gives you lemons or 5 month shoulder injuries or long duration scans…  Well you get the picture…

After asking the xray tech to change the pandora channel to different music and still not being able to work on my story ideas very well I finally just reflected on my situation.  Here I was stuck in a narrow tube with loud noises from the machine (which is why they give you earplugs and headphones with loud music), my shoulder started hurting even worse, my arm went to sleep and my nose started itching and i couldn’t move without damaging the scan results.    And I developed a tooth ache from a crown procedure I had the day before at the dentist that was very painful.    I was trying to remember what I had did to karma to deserve all this but to no avail.

When all seemed hopeless and lost, bamm, I started getting all these great ideas for stories and I felt like I had reach flow nirvana if such a thing existed.  If you haven’t heard of what a flow state is check out the hyper-links by clicking here or here.  It isn’t just for intellectual pursuits or tasks.  There are other good pages for learning more about it too and you’ll likely recognize some of what they are describing from your own personal experiences.

Ok so you’re probably still wondering what the title is about for today’s daily-prompt word pursue?  Well, probably not but nonetheless, I needed a segue.  🙂

The little MRI experience reminded me of something I learned a long time ago that if you constantly look for opportunities to craft and shape ideas whether for stories or video games (like I worked on in my teenage years) or maybe you just want to spend a little time reflecting on your life, you can often find creative ways to do it on your schedule even if your life doesn’t slow down enough to make it easy on you.

At some point, I hope to write a second part of this exploring ideas of creating your own environments to facilitate thinking or reflecting.  Something I experimented with many many years ago when I was making video games.  Think of it as a thinking chair or area on steroids.  Of course all of this isn’t really that unique and most people have probably already discovered it on their own or read about it elsewhere but I think it’ll still be fun to compare notes.  🙂

time’s apprentice

a stern teacher and a willing apprentice

an early lesson counting with tiny thumps, followed shortly by tiny wisps of air

sights, sounds, tastes, feelings and scents in a wild wild world, they are all there

curiosity follows, exploration, crawling, walking, falling, and walking with care

playtime begins with so many toys and friends and ends with a torn yellow bear

days with hours of numbers and letters and two long bus rides in the bully’s lair

then emotions lots of them with no where to go and what’s this, arrgh, chest hair

then a new close friend and sadness that she’s gone and realizing how life is unfair

out of despair a new friend and a new little family is born with many memories to share

days turns to weeks to years and decades and loss repeats itself almost to much to bare

finally time’s final lesson hugs and kisses some real and some not and a final prayer

 

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It’s not great but it’ll have to do i suppose.  It’s not all about me except the torn yellow bear was when my beloved Pooh bear was chewed up by dogs.  They tore his ear and I kept the bear for many more years.  LOL.  The new close friend was about a friend of mine in high school that was murdered by someone robbing her house.  Luckily they caught the guy and I think he is in prison for life.   😦

 

 

the mouse in the willow and the fry in the lake

the mouse in the willow and the fry in the lake

The sad young mouse looked out of his tiny window in the willow tree down at the lake below.  He saw a tiny creature in the water and asked his mother what it was.  She said that is a fry.  “Well, how does he breathe under water mommy?”  His mother looked at him for a moment and then said, “Well, you see son.  The fry’s mother has great magical power and she passed some of that magical power to her son so he too can breathe under water. ”  The tiny mouse said, “Wow.  I wish I had magical powers.”  She looked at him and smiled and said “Everyone is magical in their own way.  Even you.  ”

The next day the mouse was on ground next to the lake and saw the little fry crying.  He asked the little fry why he was crying.  “Some tall creatures, came and took my mommy,”  the little fry said sobbing.  The mouse remembered what his own mommy had said about the fry’s mother being magical and told the fry it would be ok.  Your mother will be back soon enough little fry do not worry.  But the little fry continued to cry.  It wasn’t long before the tall creatures returned and the little mouse hid behind a large plant by the water.  The tall creatures released the fry’s mother gently back into the water and he noticed she had some new colorful adornment on her with strange markings.  After the tall creatures left, the little mouse went back to the edge of the water where the little fry was jumping with excitement after being reunited with his mother.  “Mommy, mommy, there is the magical mouse I was telling you about.”    After hearing the fry’s kind and intriguing words, the little mouse smiled widely, his first smile in many days.

 

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I felt like writing a little story tonight.  The daily prompt words have been challenging lately.   LOL.

 

the timely refrain from life’s domain

The Timely Refrain from Life’s Domain

walk, speak, run but don’t no don’t look back
the dry grass high the distance far
the wind soft the trees stretch high

walk, speak, run but don’t no don’t look back
time creeps no sneaks elusive it peaks
from behind every valley atop every hill

walk, speak, run but don’t no don’t look back
you can’t escape fate life bestows
don’t try you’ll fail then weep so deep

time time hide hide not now not now
not ever not ever one more day one more day
old frail silent heart i miss thy song
old frail silent heart i miss thy song

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Whew.  Didn’t mean to go all existential and such.  Not sure if it’s grammatically correct and makes sense but decided to play with words today.  I had a hard time coming up with something with the word “timely” geez.  🙂  I started not to add a picture because i wanted everyone to read it in their own way.  Hopefully I’m not plagiarizing any of it because I kept thinking some of it sounded familiar but I googled several parts of it and didn’t find any hits.

 

 

do not go blindly into that good night

If you’re reading this you probably paused for a moment while the error-correction part of your mind paused and said wait a minute that’s not how that beautiful beautiful poem by Dylan Thomas went – we all know it is Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.  And then there was rage, rage in your mind against any novice writer such as myself who would take such a remarkable piece of work in what seems like vain or some type of gimmick approaching blasphemy.  But now that I gave you the hyperlink above so you can click it and see the original masterpiece in all it’s glory which has nothing but my utmost respect and admiration, my goal here is simply to use it for inspiration and follow the rules of The Daily Post since today’s word is blindly  If it eases your rage feel free to consider me a fanboy of beautiful literature.

My substitution for the word “gentle” with “blindly” is a play on words to emphasize something I feel very strongly about.  It’s the importance of education and life-long learning and always trying to improve yourself with the power of knowledge.  You’ll see Dylan’s most popular words used over and over in Hollywood movies and one my personal favorites is with Michael Caine in the movie Interstellar  The music after the narration in the video is by Hans Zimmer.  It is rare that an Ad catches my attention but his ad for his Master Class is incredibly inspiring and full of wisdom.

Good poems and prose can be more powerful than the strongest weapons and some like Dylan’s seem to resonate with a universal audience.  If my post tonight does nothing but to remind you to stop and smell the roses or enjoy a good work of art then to me it’s a success.  It doesn’t matter whether that work of art is a good poem, book, music or movies – all that matters is it is something you enjoy and hopefully inspires you in some way.  So I’ll leave you with one more narration of Dylan’s work (warning it has a four letter word at the end of it (Rodney Dangerfield’s Video) so skip it or stop before you get to the end of it if profanity is offensive to you).  And remember to rage against the dying of the light which in my mind means stay thirsty for knowledge and by not going blindly into that good night.

Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School

Sorry, I told you I was a fanboy – I couldn’t leave off Anthony Hopkins.