This blog is sort of like my child but luckily not exactly like my child since it would be dead from neglect by now. It’s been a week since my last post. I don’t think I’ve been nearly busy enough to justify that. Sorry.
I will make up for it by posting frequently over the next few days. My faithful reader always says that I shouldn’t waste all my posts in one day. He’s right, but the goal is to reach 365 by my one-year blogversary, so I need to play some big-time catch-up!
The violet is my favorite flower. Because of my “no hit-and-run” policy, I can’t just drop this random fact on you and retreat. I have to tell you more. For 2007, the violet’s time is already over and most of the things I could say about violets would therefore not seem so fitting. It’s OK. I have something to tell you that relates to the color rather than the flower.
I once wrote a story for a children’s magazine. Violet was the name of one of the characters and her favorite color was purple. I never submitted the story for publication. It’s sad that I finished it but did not have the courage to share it.
I would like to run away now please.
But I won’t.
Some mistakes in life you never get the chance to fix. Others, the option is always there if you’re willing to take it. I can’t submit the story as a contest entry, which was its original purpose, but I can still submit it for regular publication. In other words, it’s a mistake that I can fix.
My promise: I will submit the story to a magazine by the end of the summer; if it is rejected, I will publish it here.
TAHA (The Ambulance Has Arrived…)
Whenever I see the word “glided” I want to change it to “glid.” It seems natural, thanks to “slide” and “slid.” Or how about “glode” (to match “ride” and “rode”)?
It’s a silly language we speak.
And now, to continue the clothing line of limericks…
As the snake’s chafed skin kept getting redder.
He thought covering it might make it better.
So he went to the store
And bought clothing galore.
His first choice was a pink chenille sweater.
All his friends mocked his very bad taste,
And they laughed at the obvious waste.
For he had not a limb
To hold clothes onto him.
He slunk home in the raw and disgraced.
It’s officially June and that means time for Script Frenzy. Anyone got a good idea and 20,000 words to go with it?
I was once enrolled in the library science program at Southern Connecticut State University. I wanted to leave my dead-end, low-paying job and becoming a librarian seemed like just the ticket. Not only would I have made more money, but I would have been surrounded by books. Heaven! But the ultimate fate of public libraries was very much an issue at the time. The Internet was changing everything and librarians were scared. It seemed to me that they spent more time etching their epitaphs than looking for ways to avoid their demise. I didn’t want to join a field that was thinning, if not actually disappearing, so I quit the program. Along the way, though, I picked up a thing or two, including some information about how libraries develop their collections.
I had always thought that the goal of a library was to own as many books as possible. Tons and tons of books. Maybe even all the books in the world! I was wrong. Your average public library is not trying to build the biggest collection. Instead, they aim to create a collection that will suit just about every need and taste without spending too much money or exceeding their storage capacity. They have to constantly prune the collections, making room for new acquisitions by dumping the books that aren’t popular.
Obviously I need to do the same thing, just on a smaller scale. To get it right, I need a set of guiding principles. That’s the hard part. The only way for me to create a set of guiding principles is by answering the questions from my previous post, one at a time.
We have too many books. Or we have too little space. Either way, it’s a problem.
We could get rid of some books. Actually, we already do. We donate some to charity every year, but we also continue to acquire new books. There seem to be more coming in than going out. I don’t know if I can part with enough of them to really improve the situation.
Alternatively, we could rent a storage unit, but that’s an expensive option that puts physical distance between me an my books. I don’t want to pursue that course of action unless it’s absolutely necessary.
I believe the solution to the problem lies in the answer to this question: what am I trying to achieve with my personal library? A library can serve many purposes. It can be a monument to taste or a demonstration of wealth. It can allow you to keep your favorites nearby. It can fill your need to collect something, to complete something.
Some books I need for reference. Fine. Some books I love; they are my friends and I want them nearby. Fine. But what if a book is…
One question magically became five and I bet that there are more questions lurking in there. As someone once said, “Inside of every small problem is a larger one struggling to get out.”
I’m going to think about this some more. If you have any thoughts on this subject, feel free to share!
To play tennis a toad bought some shorts,
But he found that they exposed his warts.
And his knobbly old knees
Got so cold in the breeze
That he wore pants and gave up on sports.
I don’t have just one Magic 8 Ball. I have two! The big one’s called Mama and the small one’s called Baby. What would happen if I asked both Mama and Baby the same question at the same time? Would it disrupt the space-time continuum, rip a hole in subspace, collapse the universe, or create a pilot for a new “Star Trek” series?
I don’t dare ask them.
That snoopy Google found my website and made my content available to the world. I feel exposed, naked even.
The Magic 8 Ball said I’d have to get naked in order to earn some authority. I wonder if it was speaking metaphorically.
Magic 8 Ball, were you speaking metaphorically?
“You may rely on it.”
Ah! Then soon the authority will be mine!
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