Monthly Archives: January 2007

Spiky Wheel

By lytspeed Posted in Geek, General Leave a reply

In case you haven’t heard, it’s snowed quite a bit in Denver lately. It snowed again today, and for my main job as a field technician for a major TLA (Three Letter Acronym), I had to drive to Golden on sloppy, slushy freeways. I’m not complaining; I actually kind of enjoyed it. It’s been a long time since we had a really good winter out here. Plus, it allowed me to get this great picture with my camera phone.

Spiky Wheel
It’s pretty cool; since the roads were slushy, rather than snowy, the dirty slush accumulated on the center cap of the wheel. Centrifugal force from the rotating wheel pushed the slush outward, and it froze, creating this set of slushy stalactites radiating out from the center.

(Yes, they would all be stalactites, even though some of them are pointing upward. Stalactites are formed by liquid moving from the base to the tip of the formation. Stalagmites, on the other hand, are formed by liquid dropping onto the tip and running down to the base. Centrifugal force would make the droplets of slush radiate outward from the hub, which forms the base, therefore these are all little stalactites. Or dirty icicles. Whichever you prefer.)

Write about a day moon

By lytspeed Posted in Prompts, Writing Leave a reply

Father told us that three or fewer moons meant bad luck was coming that day.

There was only one moon the day of the accident.

Mother and Father had taken the truck to the space port to pick up Grandmother. I remember the dust swirling out from beneath the truck, curling up and around the rising crescent of Cambra, obscuring her with a brown film. The other four moons had already set before sunrise, so Cambra would be the only moon in the sky today.

I was never much of a believer in superstitions; most of us kids weren’t.

—- —- —- NOTE: This isn’t working very well, and I’m about to fall asleep. I like the idea here, but I can’t stick with it enough to turn it into a workable story right now. Time for bed. Maybe I will return to this when I’m feeling more focused. —- —- —-

Liking the New Blog

By lytspeed Posted in Prompts, Writing Leave a reply

So far, I’m really liking the new blog format. I’ve been able to customize it some to get rid of the stuff I didn’t really want, I’ve been able to add other things, and I’m considering playing around with the default skin to incorporate the blog into my regular site design. First, though, I should probably see if I can import all my old blog entries into this one. There’s not much future in continuing the exercise if I can’t do that.

I’ve also been working on websites for a couple of other people, and I’m pleased to say that I’m really happy with the way they are turning out.

I did just notice that my timestamp is an hour off. I must have specified the wrong time zone somewhere …

We’re supposed to get another half a foot or so of snow tomorrow. We just dug out of the one-two punch of what has become known as the “Holiday Storms of ’06.” I don’t mind the snow, personally. It’s nice to have it again, frankly. I grew up with lots of snow in Durango, and it brings a smile to my face to see piles of snow taller than I am in my front yard. This is Denver, though, and snow never hangs around here for long. By this time next week, I suspect that all of the snow from tomorrow’s storm will be gone, and much of the snow still on the ground from the Holiday Storms will be gone, as well.

As one of my resolutions from a few days ago, I pledged to write every day. Although I haven’t been writing in this blog every day, I have been keeping true to my self-assigned task. Just before New Year’s, I purchased a book at West Side’s Book Annex in Denver. The book is A Writer’s Book of Days, by Judy Reeves (1999, New World Library, Novato, CA.) It consists of many essays about writing and the lifestyle changes that come with a commitment to heed the muse, as well as writing prompts for each day of the year. I’ve been dutifully using the prompts for the first four days of the year, and I’m surprised to see what has come out. So far, I have an essay, a self-reflective journal entry, a prose poem, and a piece of humor written in the style of the old Zork text adventures. Where the hell did that come from?

At this point, none of the above are suitable for publication, and I probably won’t even develop most of what I write in these exercises. But it is nice to feel the juices flowing again; it’s been a while.

Well, I’m off to do my homework.

“A year after your death, …” (after Czeslaw Milosz)

By lytspeed Posted in Poetry, Prompts Leave a reply

A year after your death, I wrote a poem, but I hadn’t really grieved yet. Instead, I fled to Colorado because I finally had the freedom to do so.

Two years after your death, I curled into a ball on the couch and cried uncontrollably.

Three years after your death, I began to feel the guilt in earnest. Did I do the right thing?

Four years after your death, I was too busy worrying about Y2K to think about much of anything.

Five years after your death, you gave me a gift. It had to be you. Who else would stash a brand new wooden toilet seat with a hand-carved trout on it in an evergreen bush the same day my wooden toilet seat at home broke?

Six years after your death, I met your son and attended his wedding.

Seven years after your death, my marriage was in tatters, and I didn’t have enough energy to think about you. I’m sorry.

Eight years after your death, I thought a lot about our time at Brother Falls.

Nine years after your death, I had a new love and a new family, but I still found time to remember my inadequacy in regard to you.

Ten years after your death, our parents were finally ready to watch old home movies again.

Eleven years after your death, this writing prompt reminds me how much I still miss you.

2007 Resolutions

By lytspeed Posted in Fiction, Geek, General, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Writing Leave a reply

Yes, like every other blogger in the blogosphere, I’m going to post my resolutions for the new year. I did this once before, in a prior incarnation of the Lytspeed Communications site, back before the term “blog” existed. I did keep a few of those resolutions, namely dropping the weight (45 pounds, actually!), playing more live music, volunteering for Colorado Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, and learning more about coding HTML, but not in 1997.

Yes, my online home turns ten years old this year. And though I don’t have the popularity or visitation that mainstream bloggers have, I do feel pretty good about being ahead of the curve.

I think my resolutions for this year are quite a bit more reasonable than the ones I made in 1997. Maybe I’ll look back in another nine or ten years and see how many of them I accomplished this year.

Okay, enough stalling. Here are my resolutions for 2007:

Manage Finances Better – I have always had a hard time with finances, and I’m getting tired of always being behind the 8-ball. It’s time for me to get it together this year.

Take Care of My Health – My heart attack scare of a couple of years ago really woke me up, and I have made some changes to prevent that from happening again. However, there are some other concerns I need to address before they become Big Issues.

Write Every Day – Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does make one better at what one practices, and I haven’t practiced writing enough. I need to write every day. What I write and which medium I use is immaterial; if I write every day, I will get back in the habit I used to have in college, when I was most prolific. Yes, that means more blog entries, too.

Publish Some Fiction – 2006 was a great year for me as far as writing goes. I published several articles at ComputorEdge, sold four poems to Romantic-Short-Love-Stories.com (now defunct, unfortunately), and actually managed to turn a meager profit for the year after deducting my writing-related expenses. However, I didn’t accomplish one of my main goals for last year, which was to publish some fiction. It’s time to complete the set this year.

Do My Taxes On Time – Last year, I was late — very late — in doing my taxes. I guess this could be part of managing my finances better.

Buy a Variax – Line 6 makes the ultimate geek guitar, and I want one so bad I can taste it. (Yum! Rosewood!) I have all kinds of ideas on how I could use it to make things easier in my gigs.

That’s it. Hopefully I’ll get somewhere with these goals this year, and if you’ve made resolutions, I hope you reach your goals as well.