Persistent Distraction

Pay No Attention To The Woman Behind The Curve

Ceci n'est pas un blog.

I don't bring to your attention the latest YouTube video; I don't write about politics or gadgets or celebrity plastic surgery, and I hardly ever link anywhere.  I'm shamefully negligent when it comes to updates. 

But here's the thing, children:  there are plenty of folks out there in the... the... (I can't do it, don't make me do it, please...)  blogosphere (damn, I did it; I feel so dirty) to keep you up-to-date with Kos and Arianna and PS3 and Xbox and BeyoncĂ© and Jessica.  And this isn't a date-sensitive sort of rig.  There are no deadlines whooshing by, only a temperamental muse with the work ethic of Karen Walker and the holiday schedule of George Walker Bush.

That said, I've got a heap o' stuff to shovel your way in the next few days.  A tongue-in-cheek record review.  The confession of a 20-year-old pet peeve (yes, it's language-related).  Some more music-related lines, and maybe even a new category.

All that has been sitting around for a while, so yes, it's all close to its sell-by date.  Which is why I'll be offering these entries at blow-out prices.  Up to 35% off, and more, this week only, to you, my gentle readers.

Tuesday, 28 November 2006 in Miscellanea | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Recumbent Feline

Three reasons for this post:

1.  Writer's block

2.  I'm no photographer, so I'm extra proud of my Best Photo Ever, taken of a friend's cat, Floyd, as she recovered from the fireworks on New Year's Day, 2005.

3.  I finally figured out how to get a full-sized picture to display.  This kitty is too pretty for a thumbnail.


Minifloyd

Sunday, 02 October 2005 in Miscellanea | Permalink | Comments (5)

End in Sight for Bad Hair Year

Finally worked up the courage to go to the hairdresser's on Sunday, and 55 euros later, my hair looks exactly the same as it did on Saturday.

Lesson learned:  know what you want (I didn't), don't be talked out of it (I was), and take a photo (D'oh!).

I was discussing this setback with a more stylish colleague, and mentioned that I would have liked shorter layers.  "But then," she protested, "it would go all sort of Suzi Quatro."

YES!  That is exactly what I want.  Make me Leather Tuscadero!

Wishy-washy hair problem sorted.  And I know exactly where to find the photo.

Thursday, 15 September 2005 in Miscellanea | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sixteenth-Century Trackback, or How The Blogosphere Aggravates Writer's Block


There are more books on books than on any other subject, and all we do is comment upon one another.
                  
--Michel de Montaigne


Montaigne

The problem with trying to write in the age of New Media is that no matter what you think up, someone has beaten you to it, and--what's worse--it is impossible to remain ignorant of that fact. So the other day as I was walking home from the subway stop, thinking "Montaigne's Blog" would be a good post title, I also knew before my next step that one Google search would burst my bubble.

Every jewel I think to share is snatched away by the discovery that someone else has been there, done that, and sold the t-shirt on eBay. This, Gentle Reader, is why I haven't written much yet.

I once knew an academic who, before giving a copy of his latest book to a colleague, would first pencil in "Hi!" next to the recipient's name in the bibliography, knowing that that was the first page his colleague would turn to.

I also know that most people who blog, whether they write political commentary or recipes, do so to participate in a community.

So I have contemporary as well as historical affirmation that we are all interested in being read and acknowledged, and I do understand that we are meant to cite each other; people have been doing so since the second book was written. And I'm trying to get over the newbie's naive arrogance that wants to achieve sufficient originality, or at least comment-worthiness, to warrant clicking the Post button.

The problem is that my fear of saying something already said goes pretty far back.  In school, the only thing that terrified me more than the filmstrips they showed to boys and girls separately at age eleven, and later the Scared Straight-style slides depicting the consequences of drunk driving or not wearing a seatbelt, were the warnings of what would befall the student who committed the sin of plagiarism.  I imagined that teachers had a database of the complete works of everyone in their brains (they didn't), and that as they marked my papers, they scoured them for the presence of a too-familiar sentence or idea. Just as now, I fear that anyone who might read my blog has access to a global card-catalog of just about everything that has been published (and they do).  I figure the only way to avoid falling into an unintentional life of crime is by writing what I know.

So far, that approach is slowing my production a bit. What I know is the random stuff that happens to me, minus the stuff that bores even me to tears and the stuff that is potentially embarrassing to myself or my nearest and dearest. The rest doesn't exactly fill a journal in the purest sense: I won't have a post for every day, just one for every little thing that occurs to me. Like the recursive irony of being scooped by someone quoting someone who said all we do is quote each other. And then writing about it.

Monday, 29 August 2005 in Miscellanea | Permalink | Comments (2)

Trees 1, Forest 0

My friend Lisa came to visit.

She opened my kitchen cupboard, the one above the counter, the one that holds everything, and giggled.

"Why do you put that there?"

"That" was my food processor and all its attachments.  You know, the thing you use to make  hummous, pesto, muhammara, and canteloupe sorbet.  "There" was the bottom shelf, the most accessible one.   

The water glasses and coffee cups were perched on the top shelf, where I can just reach if I stand on my toes.

Why did I never see this before?

I need a Life Coach.

Tuesday, 02 August 2005 in Miscellanea | Permalink | Comments (0)

Archives

  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006

More...

Categories

  • Auntie Shell's No-Backtalk Music Reviews
  • Expat Life
  • Food and Drink
  • List of the Day or So
  • Miscellanea
  • Music
  • Quote Wars
  • The European Office
  • TV & Movies
  • Unauthorized Quotations
  • Wacky Dutch Idioms We Should Adopt Into English
  • Words

Recent Posts

  • The Black Keys And The Pink Moon
  • A Case of the Mondays
  • Is MySpace over?
  • What My Taste In Music Says About Me
  • The Weepies: Say I Am You
  • Pay No Attention To The Woman Behind The Curve
  • List for 25 November: Words I Shall Use In The Coming Week
  • Unauthorized Quotation #8
  • Unauthorized Quotation #7
  • Unauthorized Quotation #6

Recent Comments

  • Timberland Outlet on My Favorite Paris Restaurants
  • Gail Garcia on A Case of the Mondays
  • Batangas City real estate on Apartment for rent / furniture for free
  • Ray Brickman on Apartment for rent / furniture for free
  • christmas cash on Apartment for rent / furniture for free
  • arizona self storage on Tell it to the cat
  • Shox r4 on Top 2 Terry Wogan Quips from Eurovision 2006
  • Philippines Real Estate on Apartment for rent / furniture for free
  • grand canyon tour from phoenix on Apartment for rent / furniture for free
  • Shutters Perth on Apartment for rent / furniture for free
Subscribe to this blog's feed

Last Week, I Listened To A Lot Of

My Pretty Pictures

  • shellquoi. Get yours at bighugelabs.com/flickr