BEDA 21: Hands. Writing. Work

Credit: www.edwardbouches.com

My fingers are dry, rough, and peeling. But they didn't get this way because I swing a hammer all day or clean up fence rows. I didn't construct a swing set in the backyard this weekend or rebuild the engine in the van.

My best guess? Friday afternoon I spent a few hours collating text book tearsheets, sorting and stacking 11 x 17 pages of paper, pulling off paper tags, moving bunches, shuffling the paper from here to there on my desk, to a copier to make some scanned PDF files, then back to my desk to do it again.

Believe it or not, rubbing the page edges on my finger tips must have abraded the sin more dramatically than you might otherwise assume. So, maybe office work is more manly than is otherwise supposed?

(Nah, I don't really believe that either.)

***

I've also been catching up on my Fresh Air podcasts the last few days and thoroughly enjoyed her interview with David Sedaris on Thursday. I really enjoy Sedaris' writing. I bought the audio book of his previous volume, and like to hear Sedaris' distinct voice reading the stories that he wrote. His new collection--Lets Talk About Diabetes with Owls--is partially based on some of his private journals that he has been keeping since the 1970s.

Thinking about the daily commitment to observation, note-taking, writing, and collecting for that many years is impressive. And it certainly has paid off for Sedaris. Listening to him talk about writing, though, is frustrating. I imagine what that life might be like . . . left to your own devices and thoughts, writing every day, making a living off of that writing, being successful. It sounds great, but the work is much harder than you might suppose. It involves unspoken talent and skill that doesn't just come from finding the time to write all the time.

And to add insult to injury, in a separate book review, Terri Gross introduced the author by saying that "he entered into his public writing rather late . . ." (at the age of 44!). That immediately made me depressed. I may never be more than a sometimes blogger, I guess.

BEDA 20: Fun with Acronyms (via MentalFloss)

It's much easier to do this daily blogging thing if you completely and totally lean on the hard work and slick production values of others. So, in that spirit, please enjoy this MentalFloss video that has lots of fun information about acronyms and initialisms. (Though . . . I'm still a bit stunned that John didn't provide TARDIS as an example. I guess it's too obvious?)

Though, I would love it if you provide in comments any acronyms or initialisms that YOU expected to see and didn't.

Excelsior!

BEDA 19: Man of Steel Trailers x 2 . . . UPDATED

The new Superman movie is coming out in June. And even though I didn't hate the Bryan Singer offering Superman Returns, there is no denying that Man of Steel looks pretty impressive.

The newest trailer was released just recently, in case you haven't seen it.


(via Warner Bros. YouTube channel)

You may have seen that. But you might not have seen a reimagining of the same trailer using only images from Superman: The Animated Series.


(via YouTuber Jawiin)

Enjoy.

***
April 25 @ 8:14 pm
While perusing the internet tonight, I found a completely different version of the Superman origin story.

Kal-El of the Wild (via The Good Stuff--which is a good new channel on YouTube,created by the excellent Wheezy Waiter.)

BEDA 18: Spoiler Alert

Credit: www.hayleystorm.net

What do you want me to write about today?

I didn't really do much, looking back on the day as it was. I went to work as I normally do and I read emails, I tried to advance forward on the current project while successfully ignoring tasks on two others. I followed orders and frustrated others. I got frustrated myself. (I suppose I should be more of an active agent in things rather than serving as other people's mouthpiece--but that would probably require that a.) I was emotionally engaged in some of the things that I have to do and b.) I wasn't slipping more and more into a doldrum-ic state (who's about THAT for coining a phrase? anyone?)

(And isn't THAT entire last sentence a sorry admission of things?)

I left work early so that I could take Sarah to her orthodontist appointment. And then I spent the rest of the late afternoon with her and Hannah, fixing dinner, playing a bit with the kids in the backyard and then counting the hours until Lynda and I can relax a bit on our own before falling asleep and doing it all again tomorrow.

So . . . what do you want me to write about today?

If you clever, you can see what I don't write about between the lines of the poor words and phrases that I can squeeze out. And sometimes there is nothing interesting hiding there at all. Sometimes I am just sitting and typing and letting my fingers transcribe the jumble of words that are forming in my head with very little in the way of filter and only pausing to fix a typo resulting from my fumbling fingers. And the I pause to let my fingers and my arms rest and I'm left with the question rattling around in my brain.

What do you want me to write about today?

The inspiration for the title above was in the chance that I might be inspired to write something about last night's Game of Thrones episode or last night's Mad Men episode. But I don't have much energy (or any notes) to try and lay out all of the events that occurred. And besides--as the title suggests--you might not have seen them yet--or at all. And if you had, you've most likely turned to other professional recappers to lay out all of the themes and call backs* and subtext. I very likely could never approach that level of detail and thematic consistency, what with my not taking notes and all.

So . . . what do I write about today?

I'm officially out of ideas for now. My fingers are still and my mind is done spinning.


*Be honest. Raise your hand if you knew that when Don eavesdropped on Peggy's ketchup pitch, he (and you) recognized that the phrasing she used ("switch the conversation") was stolen directly from her master's mouth?**

**Also, be honest again . . . did you realize until this moment that I intentionally used the phrase master's mouth to simultaneously refer to Peggy's apprenticeship with Don and to hint to the famous RCA Victor ad campaign?

BEDA 17: Sharon Woods

We took the kids on a ramble in the Sharon Woods metro park this afternoon after church.

They devised a scavenger hunt of things to find. We split into teams and spent a while in the trails.

There are lots of old, impressive looking trees in the backwoods trails of the metro parks. Too bad this old boy wasn't able to leaf out anymore. But he's still standing.

Then we came home and I mowed the back yard, bought some mulch, did the grocery shopping, and now I'm home and we're about to have dinner.

My legs are tired and I am tired.