Find Particular Stuff
… him who writes this stuff.
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Writing forces me to examine my views as cold words on a page.
My views are borne out of my experiences on this world.
My experiences are slowly adding to the short story that is my life.
While I still can, I choose to share some for anyone who might find them useful, or perhaps just entertaining.
Photographs and written content, including original fiction and non-fiction, are copyrighted Emilio D'Alise, 2010-2015.
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NOTE: WordPress wiped out many of the links in older posts.
If I reference a SmugMug album, and the link does not work, it can be found here: ejdalise SmugMug
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- Stuff, plus back to writing
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Stuff, plus back to writing
This is gonna be a short post . . . short-ish.
The post after this one contains a short story concept I played around with. If interested in reading it, please leave a comment below and I will e-mail you a password (do not include your e-mail; I will have it when I get a notification of the comment).
It’s the first short story I’ve written in a while, so I’m a little rusty. It was a fun write, but I know it has little drama and is not a deep when it comes to plot and conflict.
If you do read it, and if so inclined, I would appreciate an honest opinion about it, even if only to say “Wow, this would be pretty lightweight. . . even if it were well-written . . . and even if it had a decent plot . . . and even if the characters were not as flat as the virtual page they are written on!”
That’s the writing part. Here are some things I came across and found interesting. Some are entertaining, as well. A few are informative.
Appropriately, the thing is peripherally about the election and how divided we are:
One Nation Divisible
It charts a far more complicated picture than the usual “me and my good, you and yours bad.” Interesting reading.
This next LINK offers an interesting thought piece regarding the differing treatment of ruins in the US versus in other parts of the world. It’s something I’d not really even been aware of.
A somewhat related piece, THIS deals with the history of Hawai’i and how it came to be a US state. This one pissed me off a bit. It points to the same issues we have today. Governments exist more to cater to the whims and desires of the wealthy than to provide for the populous.
One more semi-dark piece, but an important one. THIS is about cats. I’ve known this since the 80s when I first read about the issue and resolved to keep my cats indoor. People will not like it but try and read it objectively.
We now turn to a lighter subject . . . the visual gag. For this, I go back to a true master of the art. In my opinion, Buster Keaton was unparalleled in his ability to execute gags. Whereas Chaplin plaid on pathos, Buster dealt, in my opinion, pure humor to the masses in an easily identifiable way. Meaning, we could identify with what we saw. Here’s The Art of the Gag.
One of the reasons I am interested in this is that I can relate parts of it to writing scenes, especially when doing action or writing humor.
You might want to also watch Cops. At 18 minutes long, I know it will seem an eternity to readers conditioned by Twitter and Facebook to bite-size content. Still, give it a shot; it’s pretty funny, even 94 years later.
Do you know how when something is pointed out to you, you wonder why you had never noticed it before? This piece was like that for me. I’m not musically inclined, but I do like music, and it’s pretty much always on.
Finally, a picture of Akaka Falls.
That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.
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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website. Could be they also torture small mammals.
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Please, if you are considering bestowing me recognition beyond commenting below, refrain from doing so. I will decline blogger-to-blogger awards. I appreciate the intent behind it, but I prefer a comment thanking me for turning you away from a life of crime, religion, or making you a better person in some other way. That would mean something to me.
If you wish to know more, please read below.
About awards: Blogger Awards
About “likes”: Of “Likes”, Subscriptions, and Stuff
Note: to those who may click on “like”, or rate the post; if you do not hear from me, know that I am sincerely appreciative, and I thank you for noticing what I do.
. . . my FP ward . . . chieken shit.
Finally, if you interpret anything on this blog as me asking or wanting pity, encouragement, or advice to better my life, know my subtle mix of irony, sarcasm, and humor is blowing right by you.
HawaiiCon 2016
I’ve been absent for a bit. I think two people noticed and got concerned, and to them, I apologize.
My last post was a week ago Thursday. A day before I attended HawaiiCon.
Why the absence? Good question. The four days of the Con were busy, but not that busy. The last six days were mildly busy, but with plenty of time to post something, only I didn’t.
I did read a lot (pretty much all of my fiction; flash, short, and novel-length). Plus, I read other stuff, both fiction and non-fiction. Plus, you know, snacks. Some people can do it, type with one hand as they stuff their face with the other. Not me. Eating interrupts my hunt-and-peck typing.
Perhaps the biggest stumbling blocks are the sheer number of photos I want to share. They are overwhelming. Waves, Hawai’ian ruins, lava, sunsets . . . I don’t know where to start.
But, this post is about our experience at the Con.
The first day, Thursday, started with our usual morning walk and a surprise visitor in the harbor.
Continue reading
Hawai’i – Saddle Road Part II
The first post about Saddle Road ended with this photo of the Pu’u Huluhulu Cinder Cone (not to be confused with the cone by the same name in Volcano National Park).
My second purposeful trip to Saddle Road — as opposed to driving it just to get from one place to another – was to specifically visit the cinder cone and walk the short trail at the protected site.
I deliberately took a circuitous route so I could photograph other points and sights of interest (to me). For reference, here’s the route.
I drove along the coast on 19 to the bypass that took me past Waikoloa and onward to 190 where I headed toward Waimea instead of taking the shorter route to Saddle road. That took me into a portion of Saddle road that, while redone and resurfaced, maintains some of the hilly features of the original road as well as some of its one-lane bridges and twisty route. The numbers above reference the locations where I snapped the following photos.
As usual, the photos can be found on the accompanying SmugMug Gallery HERE. Note that there are more photos on the gallery as some are close duplicates of each other. I could not be bothered to sort them (getting lazy in my old age).
The better hummingbird
The main reason for yesterday’s post was to showcase the processing of a hummingbird using Topaz’s Impression and Glow Plugins. Sure, I added words in there. That’s because my readers are split into two camps. Some just come for the words and some just come for the photos. I think there are three who come for both, and one of the three might be me.
Unfortunately, I picked a mediocre photo to play with. This time, I picked a better photo . . .
I also took better care in processing it, actually playing with the settings by throwing switches hither and fro and pushing sliders left and right.
Now, I need to also up my game with the words I write. Not that I would know how to up my writing game. An amateur wordsmith, I be, and not even native born.
Some stuff, some other stuff, and odd stuff
Writing a generic post begins by choosing a photo. In this case, a hummingbird photo. This hummingbird photo . . .
As I work with the photo, I’m quasi-simultaneously thinking about what I might write. I finish my first iteration . . .
. . . and my mind is occupied with politics, religion, guns, food, writing, weather, people, socio-economic issues, and bemoaning the poor performance of electric stoves vis-à-vis the much better and more practical gas counterparts.
Writing update apology
Yesterday, I wrote a piece on writing. From the comments, I gather some readers felt the need to encourage me, to shore me up, as it were. Perhaps they even felt sorry for me. While I appreciate their concern, I fear I might have inadvertently mislead my readers.
For that, I offer my apologies.
The piece was not offered as a voyage down the well of self-pity and I consider it a failure on my part if even a few readers took it as such. At best, it was an update of my current efforts sprinkled with what I thought was humor and sarcasm. Most, if not all, of my writing posts — and there are many — are sprinkled with the same. Some self-deprecation, some flat out humor, some Trump-like bragging (only I don’t mean it), and a bit of rumination about the art itself. It’s never saying “woe is me, the world done did me wrong.”
Some might know I don’t take compliments well. It embarrasses me and I’ve only recently learned to just say “thank you” instead of stepping back from the compliment.
Here’s something everyone should know; I’m even less comfortable taking commiseration or words of encouragement. For one thing, if it’s offered it means I complained about my life. I can’t say I’ve never done it, but I can say if it happens, it’s a slip.
The last thing I want is to mislead someone into thinking I’m in need of encouragement, or being told to I should “soldier on.” I especially do not want anyone feeling sorry for me. I mean, I can’t keep them from it, but I tend to discourage it. There is nothing anyone should feel sorry about.
Where am I going with this? For them concerned that I might be getting despondent and depressed because of rejections, let me clear up a few things about writing. Specifically my writing.
