Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 467

Speak Up date announced!

Please mark your calendars!

Our next Speak Up storytelling event will take place on Saturday, September 28 at 7:00 PM at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT.

We are currently in the process of deciding if we want to change the format in any way. One thought is to add a storyteller to the program so that we have eight in all. Four before intermission and four after intermission.

We are also considering reducing the recommended time allotted to storytellers from ten minutes to eight minutes. As a storyteller myself and one who plans on telling a story that night, ten minutes is much more appealing than eight, but I also know that when you reduce the time allotted for storytellers, their stories tend to only get better.

Editing is a painful but powerful process.

This reduction in time will also allow us to better accommodate one more storyteller into the program.

If you have any thoughts about these proposed changes, please let us know.

In the next month or two, we will be releasing the theme of the evening and guidelines that will explain how to pitch a story to us. While we plan on inviting storytellers who we know to perform that night, we also plan on opening up the event to new storytellers as well.   

Lastly, if you attended our first event and took any photographs, could you please send them along to us? We have an audio recording of the evening that we will podcast as soon as that’s possible, but we have no images from our event. We’d love to get our hands on some if possible.

I’m not spiteful. I’m “aggressively moralistic.”

For a long time, I have claimed that spite is one of the best reasons to do anything.

I’ve cited examples in which authors and scientists have used spite to motivate them to great achievements. 

I’ve written about how spite is I told you so. 

These may not be the rewards that economists value, but for me, there are few things that I enjoy more.

The perfect Mother’s Day gift or the worst Mother’s Day gift of all time? I’m not sure.

I bought my wife a cookbook for Mother’s Day. It was a book that my daughter and son were going to give her as their gift.

I was extremely proud of my choice of book. It was written by a woman whose blog I know she loves. I was also recommended by the bookstore as an excellent Mother’s Day gift.

I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she opened her gift.

Yesterday afternoon I saw her using the same book to make a cake.

It turns out she already owns the book.

Not only does she own the book, but it is the only book that she has ever preordered.

She has also seen the author speak.

Her book is even signed by the author.

She could not own this book any more than she already does.

I’m not sure if this news should make me happy because I clearly chose the perfect gift had she not owned it already, or if I should feel like a fool for buying her a book that is apparently in her hands at least a few times every week.

Always re-configuring her environment

   

Jack’s magic beans have a better chance of working than this.

I live in a perpetual state of existential crisis. Though I may have been born this way, I suspect that two near-death experiences and an armed robbery that left me with a decade long bout with PTSD contributed to my near-constant thoughts about mortality.

My children don’t help with this problem. Watching them grow up is a ceaseless reminder of aging process.

New research suggests that acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, may be able to alleviate the pain of an existential crisis in the same way it alleviates the pain of a pounding headache.

A pill to overcome the constant, omnipresent, soul crushing awareness that I might someday cease to exist?

I don’t think so.

The two best pieces of writing advice that Roger Ebert ever received

I’m listening to Roger Ebert’s memoir and loving every minute of it.

 

The two best pieces of writing advice that he was ever given (forgive me for forgetting the source) is advice that I can get behind wholeheartedly.

Don’t wait for inspiration. Just start the damn thing. 
Once you begin keep on until the end. How are you supposed to know where to begin until you see where the story is going?

Ebert was known for being one of the fastest and more prolific writers in the business, but he contended that he was no faster than anyone else.

“I just spend less time not writing.”

I try to live my life by this principle.

Why you shouldn’t tell your kid to fight back

As a teacher, I often find myself in the position of telling a parent (most often a father) that it is a bad idea to encourage his or her child to fight back if confronted with aggression.

I understand the instinct. As a teenager, I got in my share of fights. Most often, I was battling an aggressor or defending my honor. Even though I didn’t win every fight, it always felt good to stand up for myself. It let people know that if they messed with me, there would be consequences.

No one wants to raise children who cower in fear or are unable or unwilling to defend themselves when necessary. Though you would never hope for your children to end up in a fight, you’d like to think that if pressed into battle, they would stand their ground, protect their physical being and defend their honor.

This instinct is wrong.

In nearly every fight that I have seen or participated in throughout the course of my life, the option of running was always available. This is what I tell my students to do. I advise that they “fight with your feet.”

“Run away as fast as possible.”

The reason is simple:

As soon as you begin fighting, you risk seriously injuring or killing your opponent. That may sound overly dramatic, but it is not. Fights result in serious injury and death all the time. Even the single, one-handed shove from an elementary school student can result in a life-altering head injury. A head can hit a desk on the way to the ground. It can strike the floor at an unnatural angle. It can smack against a concrete floor or parking lot. 

Sometimes even a single punch can kill a person, like a high school student found out last week when, unhappy with a referee’s decision during a soccer game, punched the referee in the head.

Two days later the man died from bleeding in his brain.

The high school student is expected to be charged next. week.

A man is dead.

A family mourns his loss.

A high school student’s life has been changed forever.

I am certain that the high school student did not want to kill or even injure this referee. Regardless, a life has been taken.

Please don’t tell your child to fight back. You could not give him or her worse advice.

More like six percent

A friend called to tell me that he had given my name as a reference on a recent job application.

“If they call you, please be nice,” he said.

“Why would you even give them my name if you didn’t think I’d be nice?” I asked.

“You’re usually great,” he said. “But about ten percent of the time, you’re just mean, regardless of the circumstances. I didn’t want this to be one of those ten percent moments.”

I thought his percentage was a little high.

Spock versus Spock

I am not exactly a Trekkie. I’ve seen all the Star Trek films and many of the television series, but I have serious problems with the show.

That said, this is one of the best commercials that I have ever seen. 

Budo and Graham

A reader posted this drawing on Twitter that I loved. It’s a picture of Budo, the protagonist of MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND, and his friend, Graham.

I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to know that my story inspired something like this.

I also think the artist, Alisson Peña, did an amazing job of capturing this moment from the book. It’s almost exactly what I envisioned when I wrote the book. 

Thanks, Alisson!