Nevada at night

It's (finally) snowing ... big, fat flakes ... just why now when I have to go to town? I hate driving in weather like this but gotta go. Wish me luck.

Masks for the New Year

A couple of friends and I had a New Year/Winter Solstice, vegetarian feast, mask making, I Ching party on the 1st. Naturally, I took a bunch of photos and videos. The masks aren't painted yet but here is a video of Susan wearing hers, playing around with homegrown mudras and a set of japa mala. Happy New Year!

Mask & Mala

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New Year's day masks mudras

WPIX yule log

Snowy morning

We finally got a little snow on the valley floor yesterday, not a lot but it's nice and powdery. On Friday the birds ate about three times their normal amount so I wasn't surprised when the snow came. I wish I had built a little warming hut for the quail. I think they would appreciate it.

I did put out a Marvel Meal buffet this morning however.
It was a big hit all around.
Breakfast in the snow
(YouTube 02:02)

Will write for money?

Here's a little something I found over at Craig's List that was just listed today, a paying, free lance writing gig. If you like the prospect of getting paid for writing, check it out. Typical payment per story is between $100 and $200 for up to 2,000 words but they prefer less than 1,000. Common Ties.

Excerpt 34

One word, one sentence at a time I will reconstruct the story. I've written it before on countless scraps of paper. One word, one sentence at a time I will reconstruct the story. Forgive me. It is composed of a seemingly endless succession of beginnings. The original order of the words has been lost so I rely on you to supply the details. One word, one sentence at a time I will reconstruct the story. Forgive me. The original has been lost but I promise to stay true to its drift. That is not a matter of memory. It is a matter of being. One world at, one word at a time. Forgive me. The original version of this story does not exist. One word, one sentence at a time, this is its drift. This is the drift. The notes are scattered. No. Not scattered. The notes were never collected. Jotted. Scribbled. On scraps, in notebooks, on flaps. They have never been collected. They have seldom been re-read. Or read. The words, disjointed, have been set down and abandon. No, not abandon. There is much thinking between them, the phrases, the paragraph and elimination of words. And ideas. "Why?" I am telling a story. Build the house. Paint it later. And later still introduce the particulars. Each letter reverberates, twists but... if morning brings a promise it is a simple thread strung between opposites requiring a wire dance in thin air...

Christmas cheer

Mr. Lee emailed me this fine bit of Christmas cheer to help kick off The Season. It's a little clip from Space Bass Films.

Santa

Open mike finder

Want to know where the open mikes are in your area? I just stumbled on a cool website that lists them. Check it out. Openmikes.org.

In passing

NaNoWriMo ends tonight at 11:59:59. I'm glad I'm already done. I would hate to be grinding words out at this late hour but I'm sure people are. Right now the collective word count is 909,464,173. Crazy. So... to commemorate the end of the wonderful madness that is NaNoWriMo, here is a recent photo I took up in Virginia City during my daughter's Thanksgiving visit and a great little poem by A. E. Housman. I think the two compliment one another and NaNoWriMo in a fitting and oblique way.

Infant Innocence
A.E. Housman

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild;
He has devoured the infant child.
The infant child is not aware
It has been eaten by the bear.

Nevada poetry Housman

New troupe member

A new actor joined the cast here at the Language Barrier's Invisible Theatre over the holiday weekend. She was living up in Virginia City when I spotted these fellows through an open door off the boardwalk. That's her just right of center, between the white lamb and the golden dancer; the one with the long, gray hair.

NaNo's end and holiday cheer

Virginia City, Nevada
Big happings around the Language Barrier. First off, my daughter and her very nice fiance came home for a Thanksgiving visit. We had a great time. Also, I finished NaNoWriMo while they were here. That's 50,000 words in one month, babeee! Naturally my ... uh... novel ... is crap, throat clearing, but I expected that. It was all about the word count. It is a beginning or not but at least I got out from under the boot of the bastard inner editor for a month. And like they say, you can't edit a blank page. Anyway, I hate to disappoint you but that's it for the What I did on Thanksgiving and My NaNoWriMo posts for now. I've got errands to finish before the snow hits. In the meantime, here's a little casino love to keep you going. I recorded this from the platform of the huge, crazy, indoor mining diorama at the Silver Legacy in Reno. Enjoy.




Silver Legacy casino, Reno, Nevada
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nanowrimo