Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 187
May 13, 2018
Small Happinesses
“Researchers estimate that much of happiness is under personal control. Regularly indulging in small pleasures (such as warm baths!), getting absorbed in challenging activities, setting and meeting goals, maintaining close social ties, and finding purpose beyond oneself are all actions that increase life satisfaction.”
What small (or large) happinesses did you find this week?
(Also, happy Mother’s Day!)
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May 12, 2018
Cherry Saturday, May 12, 2018
Today is Limerick Day.
Per Wikipedia: “A limerick is a form of verse, often humorous and sometimes obscene, in five-line, predominantly anapestic[1] meter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and share a different rhyme.”
Per me: A limerick is an annoying form of verse that is usually intended to be funny and is often intended to be dirty.”
Examples:
There was a young lady of Niger
who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
with the lady inside,
and the smile on the face of the tiger. (Edward Lear)
There was a young belle of old Natchez
Whose garments were always in patchez.
When comments arose
On the state of her clothes,
She replied, “When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez.” (Ogden Nash)
Wikipedia had this one which I think is pretty clever:
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Which when read out loud is:
A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.
Another favorite:
There was a young man from Japan
Whose limericks never would scan.
And when they asked why,
He said “I do try!
But when I get to the last line I try to fit in as many words as I can.”
Feel free to add more in the comments. There’s that one about Nantucket (clean and dirty versions) that I feel sure we’ll see down there. :
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May 10, 2018
This is a Good Book Thursday: May 10, 2017
I’ve bought some new books through Book Bub and recs here, but I haven’t read any of them yet. I’m obsessing on political reporting and the Justice League movie (so bad), trying to figure out what matters and what doesn’t about the Trump show and why, if Justice League has the exact same plot as The Avengers, one was so good and the other so bad, instead of reading good books. Must fix that.
What have you been reading?
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May 9, 2018
Working Wednesday, May 9, 2018
I’ve been vegging, writing a lot but not getting anywhere except in my head. Every week I come in here and say, “I’ll get the photos up, I’ll make progress on the house, I’ll finish the book,” and then I go back to bed. The good news: Having to come up with something every Wednesday and failing is a good motivator. The bad news: there really isn’t any bad news, I need this kick in the butt.
What effect is this having on you? I love seeing the pictures, hearing the progress, but is it making other people feel guilty (bad) or inspired?
And what did you do this week?
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May 8, 2018
The Breakfast Slog
Bob Mayer used to make me walk the terrain of whatever novel we were writing (translation: go walk around the setting), and as much as I bitched about it, he was right, it really helps. So this morning I walked the terrain of Nita’s breakfast scene.
Yes, the same damn scene I’ve been trying to fix for months. It’s too long, it goes nowhere, it’s infodumpy (which I now have a new horror of after watching Justice League) and it’s annoying the hell out of me. But I need it there because it’s the first sober interaction between Nita and Nick, and it has to establish the foundation of the relationship. I have accepted that I have a vulnerability problem with Nick ( he’s dead, so he’s invulnerable) and I have realized that I need a much bigger end to the scene and fixed that,, but it’s still all over the place.
So since it takes place at breakfast in a diner, I went to breakfast at my diner and ate the terrain.
It was delicious. I worked the whole time, splitting the scene into four parts (set up, escalation, complication, climax, although those two middle ones could have been swapped, no problem), and sorting out the subplots in color coding that have to keep spinning while Nita and Nick argue and eat. Now all I have to do is rewrite the damn thing.
I will have this sucker fixed before I go to sleep tonight, I swear. This is just to let you know that I’ve been working. Also my Grammarly report this week says that I am more productive than 99% of users, used 99% more unique words than most users, but I’m only 75% more accurate than most users. Then they tempted me to buy the premium service because the advanced program found 1,320 more mistakes.
Why they think that’s a selling point is beyond me.
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May 6, 2018
The Time to be Happy is Now
Why now? Because now is the only time you’ve got right now. Unless you have an actual tragedy pressing down on you in the next five minutes, unhappiness a lot of times is fear of the future. Well, a lot of us have that–have you seen America lately?–but right now, in this moment, how are you doing? If it’s pretty good or even just okay, wallow in it.
Right now, in this moment, it’s a rainy Sunday, I have three dogs who are annoyed they can’t go out (they can, they just aren’t fans of unnecessary wetness), I have a book to write I really like, and there’s a pancake mix from Krissie and pecans in the kitchen. I’m happy.
How’s by you?
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May 5, 2018
Cherry Saturday, May 5, 2018
Today is Cartoonists Day (also Free Comic Book Day). I don’t know why some people think cartoons are for kids and refuse to recognize them as art.
Some of the best philosophy in the world is in those little boxes, not to mention insight and guidance on everyday problems.. Also, they’re often funny.
Also, science:
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May 3, 2018
This is a Good Book Thursday, May 3, 2018
May is Get Caught Reading Month. No idea why you have to get caught, reading is not generally an activity that’s illegal or done with others, so it’s pretty much you and the cat-and-or-dog, and they’re sleeping, so they don’t care. Still, it’s important to observe the holidays, so what did we just catch you reading?
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May 2, 2018
Working Wednesday, May 2, 2018
It’s spring, definitely, I’m almost positive, so I ordered honeysuckle and daisies for my garden. Now I have to make good beds for them when arrive. Also Krissie is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, so I have to make a good bed for her, too. Also Krissie’s birthday is today, so there will be cake or at least brownies which I will freeze until she gets here.
What are you working on?
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May 1, 2018
This Is A Good Poem, May 1, 2018
She burned her candle at both ends and won the Pulitzer for poetry, but what Edna St. Vincent Millay to me was one of the first female writers I read who truly did not give a fruck. She was anti-war when that was unpopular, then supported the war against Hitler when that was unpopular. She was bi-sexual when society demanded that you pick a side and that side better be hetero. She was headstrong and hedonistic, “a frivolous young woman, with a brand-new pair of dancing slippers and a mouth like a valentine,” according to one critic who proposed to her (she turned him down). She had a damn good time, and she wrote damn good poetry:
I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
To bear your body’s weight upon my breast:
So subtly is the fume of life designed,
To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind,
And leave me once again undone, possessed.
Think not for this, however, the poor treason
Of my stout blood against my staggering brain,
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity, – let me make it plain:
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
For conversation when we meet again. (1923)
And of course . . .
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