C.S. Robadue's Blog, page 10

Homemade

MARCH 2018 – What to do when the snow piles on, the temperatures drop, and you find yourself in the kitchen and hungry? Bake some fresh rosemary bread of course! At least one of these things typically happens to me (being hungry and in the kitchen), with frequently mixed results, haha. I did venture into the world of baking, not once, but twice this month(!!). As some of you may have noticed from my bio picture in the ‘About’ section I fancy myself a bit of a baker of bread now and again. Had actually been a long time since I had baked anything of substance, but I had a craving for freshly made bread, and with no bakery in sight, I turned to my trusty cast-iron skillet and a collection of ingredients in my cupboard.

The recipe I used (thanks internets!) was from the site ‘Baker Bettie’ and I’ll link to the exact recipe I used, in case any of you brave souls should wish to attempt it yourself! Although really, it is an insanely easy recipe, that happens to taste incredible, my roommates would agree too, I think, haha. There is something about artisan bread that I’ve always loved, in an old-world, experiencing something timeless, kind of way. Reminds me of my trip to Italy some years back, where you would almost always have freshly baked bread with every dinner. Which meant tearing off ample pieces from the loaf and dipping it in extra virgin olive oil and a collection of spices, just delicious. This Rosemary bread didn’t disappoint and the sprinkle of rosemary on top really added a nice hint of flavor to it (even if a lot of them fell off as I tried to cut the loaf, grr!).

Here is what the finished loaf looked like right out of the oven. Is making me hungry just looking at it, sigh.

So yeah, give some baking a try! Outside of entertaining myself with cooking projects I’ve kept up ‘Introverteering’ and spend time picking up more recyclables and rubbish in the woods near my house. I have a modest creative/book idea journal going, so I am working on a third book, however slow the process may be.

Hope everyone is doing well, until next time, happy baking!

– CS

Introverts For Nature

FEBRUARY 2018 – Would like to welcome you all to, Introverts For Nature! Have long wanted to find a way to give back and help the environment, both locally, and globally. While I really wanted to volunteer and contribute, I also found that when I wasn’t at work, spending time with family and friends, I needed a chance to decompress and spend time alone. As that has always been how I’ve been able to center myself and recharge as many people describe it. I suspect I’m not alone in this combination of interests, where you want to do something, and be a part of a bigger movement and help, but also be able to do it in a way that allows you to spend time in nature and give back without any other stipulations. Thus the idea of Introverts For Nature was formed!

What it means to each person can be totally different, with the only basic concept being that you spend two hours a month towards doing something positive for nature and the environment. And that can be in any form that you choose! I strongly believe in the power and capacity of accumulated affects, whether it be goals for your health, finances, work, relationships, etc. Building towards the future is incredibly valuable and consistency and dedication make it all possible. As little sustained efforts over days, weeks, months, and years can have incredible results.

Many of you probably already saw that I added a ‘Nature’ tab to the website, which has information on ‘Introverts For Nature’. I’ll be chronicling my journey with it on the site here and on a new twitter account I established (@introverteering) for the sole purpose of helping to raise awareness for the concept and maybe even inspiring other people to spend time helping nature. Thus far I have done trash pickups, the haul above was from my initial efforts of picking up trash near a local nature center and from the street in front of my home. No reason you can’t start cleaning up the world by cleaning up your own neighborhood! Think global, act local, right? I found I felt very good afterward and the are by the pond and nature center looked so much better post cleanup. I’d definitely recommend gloves, as I didn’t bring any my first go and that was a mistake, haha.

Introverts For Nature requires nothing to start, just make a commitment to yourself to spend a morning, afternoon, evening, or night once a month to do something positive for the Earth! It’s that simple. You are welcome to share your experience with others on the twitter page, or enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that you can and are making a difference! Little changes over time can work wonders, I strongly believe that! It’s how I write books, one page a time. And no, you don’t have to be an introvert to contribute, I just wanted to show people that even by yourself you can volunteer and be part of a larger movement! Working independently together could be further leveraged if people want to start their own local ‘chapters’ of Introverts For Nature and coordinate online to target cleanups for certain areas and work on it independently and have the cumulative effect be amplified by multiple efforts, it’s all possible.

Thanks as always for stopping by, feel free to ask any questions and consider spending some time helping nature, I found it to make me feel incredibly good after!

– CS

The Other Side Of The World

JANUARY 2018 – Highlight of the month was the world travels of… no, not me, haha… but ‘The Tao of Tula and Oslo’! One of my friends, you know who you are (haha), brought it with them to Indonesia(!!!). So in-between her travels, volunteering, and walks around the island she and her fellow travelers read it. When I sit down and write these stories, it is hard to imagine the places that they’ll go or when and where they’ll be read. Had no idea that it would travel around the globe, and I’m always thrilled to hear that people are enjoying something I dreamed up and put down on paper. Thank you very much, this was such a boost, really has me fired up to start writing again! My third book is going to be very surprising I think, will leave it there for now! But this absolutely wonderful, looks like it was an incredible trip, and thank you for the photo, I dig it!

Decided to switch things up for my reading goals this year. Versus trying to hit some illusory target number of books as I did last year, I’d like to read a handful of massive, door-stopper fiction, tomes! Before I started that, I finished reading ‘Star Wars: Heir to the Empire’, which I had started around Christmas Time. It is the first in the Thrawn Trilogy of books that take place right after the original Trilogy and the events of ‘The Return of the Jedi’ and are written by Timothy Zahn. I wanted to go back to these stories after seeing the baffling poor and incredibly disappointing recent Star Wars film in the theatre. These books are the true successor to George Lucas’ Star Wars universe in my opinion and fantastic reads, highly recommended!

But returning to the 2018 goal at hand! The first massive work of fiction I’m going to read is ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand, I’ve read the rest of her books, but haven’t tackled the 1100+ pages of what many consider her masterpiece. These are books that give your mind so much to contemplate and consider and are as relevant today as ever. Have a couple other books in mind to continue this ‘epic’ year of reading ahead. What are some of the longest (and best) books that you’ve ever read? Getting lost in the rich descriptive language, strong character development, and syllabus busting word counts. And yes, there is a very good chance that one of Charles Dickens’ books makes it on to this reading list, a very good chance.

Been puttering with the layout of the website and making tweaks here and there to fine-tune it. Mainly trying to improve the presentation and mobile friendliness of the site. More expansive changes will be coming next month, so check back for that!

Thanks for stopping by, happy reading and adventuring all!

– CS

 

2017’s Shadow

DECEMBER 2017 – Has been a momentous year, feel like the world has changed drastically, and there is much to still learn! I’d like to stop and thank everyone who has been so generous and shared their time, enthusiasm, vitality, encouragement, and passion with me. I’m incredibly fortunate to have amazing friends, co-workers, and such a wonderful family, you are the energy behind all the happiness in my life, and I thank you for it. Here’s to a sensational year ahead of growth and imagination. As there is so much potential, so much capacity for making this life that we share all the more gratifying, and I want to play my part. I have been sitting on a lot of ideas that I intend to bring to fruition, you won’t want to miss it.

Closed out the year with a focus on the holidays and a bit of travel. Did squeeze in a bit of reading in my downtime and can claim to have wrapped my imagination around a few more plot lines. Opted for a healthy dose of fun fiction reads, first of which was ‘Ender’s Shadow’ by Orson Scott Card that I picked up after it was highly recommended to me. His signature title ‘Ender’s Game’ is one of my favorite books, so it was cool to re-read the story from a different vantage point (that of Bean’s) in ‘Ender’s Shadow’ which is the first of a whole new spin-off series of titles, that I can venture down in the future.

Additionally I read Charlie Higson’s ‘By Royal Command’, which is the fifth in his young James Bond series which I have quite enjoyed reading all the installments of over the years. This edition takes Bond and his classmates at Eton College (which I also very much so want to visit!) to the Austrian Alps where we see the beginnings of Bond’s acclimation to all things skiing. Which perhaps may also be in my future one day… I’m curious to possibly continue reading the series, which has since been picked up by other authors, but in the meantime I want to give Charlie Higson a tip of the hat for doing such a smashing job with these five titles, they were most enjoyable to read sir!

Happy New Year Everyone!

– CS

No Lifeguard On Duty

NOVEMBER 2017 – Enter the busiest time of year. Been working on a major extra project at work that had a hard deadline this month and it pretty much completely absorbed all of my time and creative efforts. Happily it came out awesome and is now complete, whew! I’ve been living inside of photoshop and the other digital software tool platforms that I use daily. Is the first of a series of larger projects that I’m tackling in my life outside of the literary world and it is nice to kick off the first one on a positive note. Trade off has been several fold, the first being that I have hardly seen the sun in weeks, but I’ll remedy this in short order. Is it Spring yet? No? Doh.

Isn’t going to stop me from going to the beach though. Does this count as seeing the sun? I’m counting it. Tropical storms have brought us some pretty impressive surf this month, that’s for sure.

Only ever so slightly late to the party, I read ‘Origin’ by Dan Brown this month. Which is the fifth in his series of tales featuring Robert Langdon (Yup, have read them all). Spain is the setting for this newest adventure (I don’t think that counts as a spoiler…) which was exciting and new territory for the good professor. Certainly makes me want to go visit there as I’ve never been. I really enjoy the travel/history aspect of the series, adds so much to it for me. As like many other fans of the genre, I am constantly researching right along with the protagonists in the book. So thanks for the crash course in Spanish art Dan Brown, haha.

That’s all I got for you guys this month, check back later for more!

– CS

 

Decisions As I Go

OCTOBER 2017 – The spookiest time of year? Ehhh, perhaps. I rather lament the fact that I didn’t read a scary John Bellairs book this month, note to self, do that next year, haha. I’ve always meant to read more of Stephen King’s works as well, and this would have been the time of year to do it. I really admire his writing style, where he is able to set the stage and then write books effectively blind from there without creating an outline. Just take interesting characters, place them in an intriguing setting, and see what happens. While it sounds like the directions on the back of a cake mix for writing, it takes a tremendous amount of creativity, imagination, and confidence to approach the process this way. Though I suspect a lot of people who go into NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month in November) go with this style, as it is pretty much the glorious canon ball approach to writing a book. And I really admire that.

How was everyone’s Halloween? Has been quite warm here in Rhode Island and more weather for hiking than trick or treating. But hey, I’ll take it! Went out to some of the islands here to see the last of the sailboats of the season before everyone takes them out of the water until the Springtime. I love days like this, the air coming off the water is always so revitalizing. Hard to top being out on the ocean!

This month I did get in some quality time reading as I stumble forward in my Goodreads reading challenge for this year, haha. My book appetite always seems to exceed the amount of time I actually set aside to enjoy reading. Oops. Dug back into some pure page turning Clive Cussler goodness this month and read his collaboration with Paul Kemprecos ‘Lost City’. A very fun read with some adrenaline charged moments and European exploration, just the way I like this brand of escapism. Did have me googling pictures of glaciers in the alps, to compare them against what I was envisioning in my imagination.

Hope the change in seasons has been treating everyone grandly, thanks for stopping by!

– CS

Screaming Knees

SEPTEMBER 2017 – There are not many things that I’ll wake up (mostly willingly for) at 4:55am to do, scaling a mountain however is one of them! For the last two years I’ve been trying to convince someone to hike up Mt. Washington with me. Answers to this proposition typically go something like this “Nope”, “Wellllll, no”, “No thanks”, “Don’t you know people die hiking that?”. Imagine my surprise when this season, I rolled out the invitation red carpet to one of my buddies and he actually said, “yeah sure”, I was pretty floored.

He being from New Hampshire, I’d say he really earned his state stripes with this climb. Forecast was mixed for the day we were planning on heading up there, thankfully it worked out beautifully, and by the time we hit the mountain trail at 8:30am it was sunny and the temperatures were in the 60s and climbing right along with us. We followed a route recommended in some travel guides of hiking up the Tuckerman’s Ravine Trail and then coming down the Lion’s Head Trail along the ridge line to get back. Gorgeous scenery awaited us all along the 4 plus mile trail up the mountain (believe that is the correct ballpark figure) and once you clear the tree line the views become absolutely spectacular. Here is the view about one third of the way up the ascent.

We reached the summit in around three hours and twenty minutes. Which coincided with some clouds rolling in and time for lunch, haha. Definite accomplishment for the month as the trail was grueling at times and quite demanding, but so worth it for the scenic vistas and pure challenge it provided. We both could have been a bit more seasoned and prepared for the climb, still, the experience will be lasting and left me wanting to hike more. After spending about a week waiting for my knees to stop screaming at me, haha.

Notable read from this month was ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ by James Joyce. One of those books by a classic author that has been sitting on my shelf for years waiting to be read. Became my evening read and is a book of a style I have read few others like it. The writing is rich in its wording and breaks into stream of consciousness type prose that while not being my sort of material, I can appreciate it for what it presents to the right audience. Pendulum is now swinging back to contemporary fiction, which should be fun.

Crisp autumn days are at my doorstep, pass the strawberry/rhubarb pie please!

– CS

Cloudy With A Chance of Beans

AUGUST 2017 – Hello my friends! Let’s get this embarrassing detail out of the way first, no I haven’t started writing the new book yet. Hey, who wants to talk politics?! No, you won’t let me change the subject? Fine, fine, fine, haha. This Summer has proven very active, I recently moved into a new place, and have done a teeny tiny bit of regional travel. Happily I had the good fortune of going from one great apartment to another, so life is pretty darn fantastic in that arena. The actual move itself involved the typical loading and unloading of cardboard boxes, figuring out where to hang prized pieces of art on the walls, and figuring out how heavy (and large) my book collection is, haha.That hasn’t left a lot of time for writing and creative projects sadly. So nothing exciting to speak of on that front, yet.

Snuck in a work of Fiction to my reading list and mixed things up from the Non-fiction heavy slate of books I’d been going through. A paperback copy of ‘Sabriel’ by Australian author Garth Nix found its way into my hands, and I’m very glad it did. Is a lively, fun, magical book about a girl who leaves school to search a magical land and brave death itself in search of her missing father. Wielding a sword, and undead banishing bells, she risks everything to save a world on the brink of destruction. I’m not doing the plot justice here, as it is a fantastic read and the beginning of a trilogy.

Which I didn’t know that it had two sequels when I started reading it. After several hundred pages, I started to wonder how it would be possibly to wrap-up the story in the short amount of time left in this one paperback book. There is a very rich foundation here and I will look into the sequels at some point in the future.

Have you ever explored the islands in the bay off Boston? I hadn’t until this month! Took a ferry out to Spectacle Island, which has been used for many different purposes over the years. Before ending up a nature preserve with native plants to entice local and migrating wildlife to stay on the island. Historically it had been used as a landfill among other less tourist friendly enterprises. Many wildflowers were in bloom and in spite of the rain it proved an excellent place to go hiking. There was a yoga class going on upon arrival and a small museum documenting the history of Spectacle Island. On a clear day it offers a spectacular view of the city of Boston, that is hinted at in the photo above from the soggy day I went, haha. The name for the island itself comes from the former aerial view of the islands, prior to being a landfill, as it looked like two connected circles.

That gives you a taste of my recent travels. The semester is soon to begin, which brings an excitement and anxiety all its own! Good luck to everyone preparing for the school year ahead, first days are always tough, so hang in there!

– CS

A Castle If You Please

JULY 2017 – Like a wrinkle in time, Summer memories fold together, from endless stretches of heat and the intensity of feeling that brings, to days that just fly by in a blur. Leaving you wondering where the time went and how it slipped so easily through your fingers. Been a fast moving one this month, but of course, as it is easy to tire of hearing, yet it has had its share of barbecues, lemonade, and adventurous spells by and on the water. Can’t claim Calvin & Hobbes, barreling down a hill in a wagon type excitement, but did manage to do a bit of restless exploring and inspiration gathering!

Highlights you ask? Given my love of all things castle and stonework related, I was very excited about the prospect of exploring Miantonomi Park Tower in Newport. It is the highest point in the city, housed in a lovely wooded park, and was constructed in 1929 I believe, as part of a World War I Memorial. Normally the tower is gated and closed to the general public and writers of blogs. However! Thanks to the generosity of the Aquidneck Land Trust and the city, they were able to open it for viewing for a limited stretch on Sundays during the Summer.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, an expedition was thrown together, and the tower climbed!

View from inside the tower at the base looking up (as you may have already guessed, haha). The spiral staircase leads to a walkway and rampart with glorious three hundred and sixty degree views of the island. The world was blue and green from the top and you could see all the way across the Newport bridge to Jamestown and beyond, just stunning. Really wish New England and the United States in general had more stone architecture and castles! Will certainly continue to search out those that do exist and at some point I want to plan a castle tour of Europe. For now, a trip to Miantonomi Tower will satiate my need to explore ancient structures.

Haven’t started writing my third book yet, keep punting on this process in general. Lots of peripheral happenings at my regular job that has kept me busy hasn’t helped either. Worry not! For I’m stockpiling mental notes for ideas to include in my next writing project. And will elaborate about it more once these notes have culminated into a ‘tower’ of paper notes here on my desk, to heights that would rival that of Miantonomi, haha. Thanks for stopping by everyone, until next time!

– CS

A Closer Look

JUNE 2017 – This year I’m participating in a Goodreads reading challenge, pitting me against my own expectations of how many books I imagine myself reading in a given year. Currently I’m on pace to reach my target (24 books), which admittedly wasn’t very ambitious as I was quite confident based off my past voraciousness that I would be able to hit it. Now this doesn’t count every single book that I read, as light weight pleasure reading doesn’t make its way on to that list, but overall it is a pretty accurate representation of what makes it from my bedside table into my brain, haha.

Is interesting to gauge what your individual appetite for things is, whether it be media, cups of tea, or toilet paper, haha. While I have a vague idea of how many podcasts I listen to in a given year (I’d guess somewhere around 75) I am liking this reflective quality of knowing how much reading I’m doing. Makes me ask myself if I should consider a similar approach for writing goals. Saying, oh, I’ll write X number of pages this week and so forth. To help push forward my goals and set reachable benchmarks. Seems very reasonable, no?

Well I like the idea of benchmarks and do use them, but setting the microscope that close to my subject also gives me pause. As I don’t know if I like what I see there. As while word counts may have helped drive the writing of say a Charles Dickens to immense production and incredible heights. To me it steals some of the magic from the process and that is what I like about it, the unexpected, the creative, that it isn’t an equation to fill out (in most senses of the word). But I still see the value in benchmarks and having a target you are trying to hit. Just for me, I want that target to be a bit more illusory and overarching.

As mentioned in past blogs, more walks out into the world were inevitable and welcomed into the landscape of my afternoons. Rare is the moment now that I find the windows of my apartment closed to the sea breeze or sounds from the street several floors below. For the uninitiated, Newport RI is a Summer tourist destination and over the last four weeks the population has swelled to well more than double, maybe even triple that of a Winter’s eve. Keeping things lively at all hours and the parade of bicycles around the island an inviting reminder of the seasons delights.

Why so reflective in this edition of the WaveGarden Arts News posting? Well I’m reading this insightful book titled ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport, about what it takes to push the needle forward creatively and to do the in-depth thinking and tasks that are most valuable to society. I first came across his work while watching a Ted talk of his and wanted to learn more about his research and suggestions for this richer more productive intellectual and creative life. Given its applicability to the creative and information driven work that I myself participate in. Has helped to reconfirm my own world view about creativity. In that it requires (for me) large uninterrupted blocks of time to take place, time without distraction. Is a rich subject worth investigating, especially if you are in a field that benefits from personal innovation and creating that which doesn’t otherwise exist.

– CS