Archive for the ‘Week 37’ Category
A few alternate quotes for you to consider; let me know which you like best:
“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.”
–Salvador Dali
“If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.”
–George Eliot
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”
–James Allen
“America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal – to discover and maintain liberty among men. ”
–Woodrow Wilson
“I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.”
–Henri Matisse
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”
–Jonathan Swift
“Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for – because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.”
–Peter Marshall
“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
–Cecil Beaton
“Your neighbor’s vision is as true for him as your own vision is true for you.”
–Miguel de Unamuno
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”
–Joel A. Barker
“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.”
–Rosabeth Moss Kanter
“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.”
–James Lane Allen
Fairy Feather Hailglitter...
Fairy Feather Hailglitter
She protects and comforts the lonely.
She lives in high places where the clouds meet the earth.
She is only seen in the light of a shooting star.
She wears pale blue like the sky and has cheery turquoise wings like a butterfly.
Robyn’s birthday card this year was a zen tangle!
Okay, so last weekend, I went out to the barn and retrieved a veritable time-capsule of my adolescent years. And, among my Michael Jackson memorabilia collection and numerous 80’s magazine clippings, ranging from Joy Division to Frankie Goes to Hollywood to (embarrassingly enough) Hall and Oates, was a bunch of my writing from both school and home.
The one piece I was hoping to find was there – this 30 page novel – which I hand wrote in 8th grade. So, I’ve decided to type it up, with little revision or editorial change, to discover the long-lost story a younger me created.
For this week’s submission, I’ve submitted the first half of “Chapter One” of my untitled novel. I’m enjoying rediscovering as I type. Who was the author of this?
An as of Yet Untitled Young Adult Novel
Chapter One
Cordelia walked down those old steps. The same steps she had walked down so many times before. But today was the last time ever. The last time she would ever leave this school. She was glad. Ever since her father had been arrested, she had become an outsider. Cut off from her “friends.” Even the teachers looked at her funny. That school was an awful, cold place for her.
She began to walk the usual way. As she walked by some bushes, out they jumped. About twenty kids, some of them who used to claim to be her friends.
“Corey, we heard you were moving, so we decided to have a going away surprise for you, “ said Danny Brown, whom she had once had a crush on.
“That’s okay,” she said.
“Oh, but we must, dear Corey,” said June Winters as she swung around her numbchuk sticks.
“Please, will you just leave me alone!”
“Of course not,” said Danny.
They all came at her. There was nothing she could do. The punches, kicks were too much for her. She shut herself off. She couldn’t feel anything. She wasn’t there for at least twenty minutes. Then, they left.
“Now, tell your father to swindle us!” they yelled as they left her alone in her own pool of blood. She didn’t move. She could feel the pain now.
It seemed like hours when her mother and younger sister, Nina, finally reached her.
This wasn’t the first time they had met her after school, but it certainly was the worst.
“Oh, God! Look what they’ve done to her. Nina, get the first aid kit out of the glove compartment, fast!” said Aida as she bent down to her bruised daughter. “Honey, can you hear me? Can you talk?”
“Ye-, yes,” was Cordelia’s feeble reply.
“Okay, just keep quiet and don’t move. Hurry up with the first aid kit, Nina!”
“I found it!” Nina yelled as she ran to her mother, who was a nurse.
“Thank you.” Aida patched up her fifteen year-old daughter as best she could, then got her to the hospital.
“How is she, Frank?” Aida asked the doctor who had once employed her.
“Her right arm is broken in two places. She obviously has several bruises, and she has a slight concussion. We’re going to keep her over-night, but she’ll be fine,” replied the man in white lab coat.
“Is it still okay to move Monday?” asked Aida.
“If there is no change, yes.”
“Can I see her?”
“She is in room 236. Nina can go in too.”
“Hi, Baby. How do you feel?” asked the concerned mother as she entered room 236.
“Okay.”
“I’m going to call the principal about those kids, Corey.”
“Please don’t, Mom. They’re just upset about the swindle.”
“That’s no reason for them to take it out on you. That was your father’s and only your father’s doing.”
“I know, but they are mad. Their parents were hurt. They have to take it out on someone.”
“Not you. The only person who deserves to be hurt is that lousy father of yours.”
“Well, he’s getting it in jail.”
“Yes, and by losing his family,” reminded Aida. “I hope he never finds us.”
“Mommy, are we going to see daddy again?” asked a small voice in the corner.
“No, honey,” answered Aida. “I’ve explained it all before. We are moving to a nicer place and we’ll make lots of new friends.”
“Oh,” was all Nina could reply. It hurt her to leave her father even though he’d been bad.
“Corey, you need your rest, so we can leave Monday. So you get some rest and I’ll be here tomorrow to visit, okay?”
“Bye, Mom,” said Cordelia. “I love you.”
“I love you too, darling.”
“Bully Hill Cork Board”
I’ve been collecting the corks for this board for a number of years and finally got around to finishing it. A special thank you to fellow geeks Heather Ouellette-Cygan & husband Doug Cygan (for supplying the greater portion of the corks) and Robyn Anne Piper & Michael Sean Piper (for the handmade wine charms courtesy of their “WineCon 2008” anniversary bash) — you guys rock!
The Copper Chopper
Built for Arizona’s 100th Birthday February 14, 2012
This is a vignette from something I’ve been working on, off and on, for the better part of fifteen years. This is going to be a novel-length work when it’s finished.
Here’s the set-up: The main character, Jack, is back in his Connecticut hometown for his 20-year high school reunion. This is a flashback sequence to 1985, involving Jack, his girlfriend, Diane, and Jack’s friend, Jason.
Everything was perfect. Jack’s parents were away for the weekend, dinner was almost ready, the table was set, REO Speedwagon was on the turntable, and Diane would be arriving any minute. Jack did a quick once-over in the mirror.
“Yuck.” He hated the skinny yellow tie Diane gave him for their anniversary last week, but it did go really well with his turquoise silk shirt. He fussed with his hair as the doorbell rang. “Just a minute.”
He ran over to the table and lit the dinner candles. Jack opened the door slowly, and was completely surprised by Jason Barnes pushing the door open wildly. So surprised was Jack that he fell backward onto the floor, landing with a loud thud.
Jason was in hysterics. “OH. MY. GOD, Jack, turn on the television! Quick!”
Jack lept up off the floor, and scrambled for the remote control. The batteries were dead. “Goddamn thing,” Jack muttered, and ran to the TV, flipping the knob. “What channel?” He was panting wildly.
Jason breezed in from the kitchen with a large plate of Beef Stroganoff, a can of Tab, and Jack’s pack of Marlboro Reds. He set down the food in his arms, lit a cigarette, and looked at Jack as if he should already know. He threw his hands up on the air. “MTV! The new World Premiere video by the Thompson Twins is starting in like, three minutes! Hello? We talked about this in Study Hall today!” Jason sat down on the sofa, and shoveled a forkful of food into his mouth. “Now will you turn it up and move, please? I have to see this video.”
Jack flipped the dial. He looked at Jason with surprise, then anger. “You fly in my door like your clothes are on fire, knock me right on my ass, and scream at me to turn on the TV. Here I am, thinking Russia just bombed Hartford, and all you wanted to see was a fucking Thompson Twins video!?!? Are you out of your FUCKING mind? And another thing! I ought to throw your ass right out…” Jack stopped abruptly. “What are you eating?”
“I don’t know. Some noodles and brown sauce. It’s barely edible.” Jason shoveled more food into his mouth.
“Where did you get it?”
“On the stove,” Jason said in between bites.
Jack’s mouth dropped open. “Do you even know what that is?”
“No, but it’s not very good.”
“You fucking moron! That’s the Beef Stroganoff that I spent all afternoon making for my DATE tonight with Diane! And she’ll be here any minute! How much did you take? There was only enough for the two of us!”
“Jesus Christ, Jack. You’re pretty wound up tonight, aren’t you? There’s still some left.” Jason continued eating. Jack went into the kitchen, and screamed.
“Goddamnit, Jason! There’s three fucking noodles left in that pan! What am I going to serve to my girlfriend?”
“Shit. I’m sorry, man.” Jason said from the other room. “Hey, will you get me another Tab? Preferably in a glass. With ice.”
Jack ran out of the kitchen and into the living room, leaping over the couch and onto Jason. He grabbed him around the neck and began shaking him wildly. “You fuckin’ son of a bitch! You ate our dinner! What the fuck are you doing here anyway? I didn’t even invite you!”
“Jack!” Jason gurgled. “I can’t breathe!”
“Good! What the fuck were you thinking! My girlfriend is going to be here any minute!”
Diane tapped Jack on the shoulder. “She’s already here. I arrived just as Jason turned from blue to purple. Let him go, will you?”
Jack released Jason’s neck, and pushed him onto the floor. Jason was coughing and gasping for air.
“Diane, he ate the nice dinner I spent all afternoon making for you.” Jack said.
Jason piped up from the floor, “Honey, I did you a favor. It wasn’t all that terrific.” Jack kicked Jason in the head. Jason winced in pain. “Diane, I can have pizza or Chinese in thirty minutes.”
Diane put down her purse on the hall table and smiled. “Pizza would be great, Jack.”
Jack picked up the phone. “What would you like on it?”
“Ham and pineapple. I’m feeling Hawaiian tonight,” said Jason from where he was sprawled on the floor.
Jack got up off the couch. “What are you still doing here? GET OUT, Jason!”
Diane laughed. “Jack, let him stay. Just don’t kill him, okay?”
Jack grumbled, and picked the phone back up, lighting a cigarette and glaring at Jason, who was now getting himself and Diane a Tab.
Get Away
When life gets too crazy, you need to get away. I want to go to a place only travelable by snow mobile. That would be the ultimate get away.
A couple weeks old. Phew! Sorry, I’ve been making a tree skirt, designing a Christmas postcard, applying for a new job and a hundred other things. I also just got a new drawing tablet and am trying to get used to it. This piece is NOT digital but the dying marker made an interesting shading tool. Hopefully I can get back on track!
This weeks geek went back to a very favorite medium for me -Acrylic on canvas – just a quick afternoon – heres what im feeling – a reflection of my time spent here in the vineyards – surrounded by mountains, questions, and vines – a clear lit path through the dark, and the vibe that somehow – someway – spirit is always present
hence the cave is lit in gold – as I cross through to the otherside i too – drip with gold paint ❤
TwinGeekz Artz Project 