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Dialogue with my muse |
| I have been carrying on a dialogue for almost a year. During this time we have discussed the progress of my writing, editing, and publishing efforts. Join in to listen to our conversation about my daily writing life and add your comments if you think of anything Calliope and I miss. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Tired but energized. CALLIOPE: How so? JOE: Last night after golfing with my brothers and nephew, and dinner also including my sister-in-law we watched the movie Doubt which one of my brothers had not seen. CALLIOPE: How did you choose that movie? JOE: Those of us who had seen it had various opinions about whether the main character, a priest, had molested a boy. CALLIOPE: What caused the various opinions? JOE: It was staged with clues suggesting possible guilt. One opined that he was guilty as sin, another held that he was not guilty and still another thought there were indications but not proof of guilt. CALLIOPE: What do you draw from the experience? JOE: A well crafted movie or novel for that matter can elicit various reactions and conclusions. CALLIOPE: Why does that fascinate you? JOE: Art can be a way of bringing us together to compare our views and begin to understand each other. CALLIOPE: I agree. JOE: I'm glad you do. That's what I want to do with my writing. CALLIOPE: A good aim. JOE: I'm glad we are together on this. Talk with you tomorrow. Joe Langen Sliding Otter Publications jlangen@slidingotter.com www.slidingotter.com Blog: www.commonsense-wisdom.blogspot.com |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Excited. CALLIOPE: On what account? JOE: My brother from Honolulu is in town for a few days. CALLIOPE: When did you see him last? JOE: Last fall. CALLIOPE: What plans do you have? JOE: We had planned golf with another of my brothers this morning but the weather does not seem very cooperative. CALLIOPE: So what else do you have planned? JOE: He has become interested in Spiritus Christi Church which I recently started attending. We will visit some of its people to discuss their views. CALLIOPE: Do you expect them to differ much from what you believe? JOE: I'm not one much for dogma. I believe in God and try to act as a Christian but don't like to haggle about specific beliefs. CALLIOPE: I'll be interested to see how it goes. JOE: I'll let you know. We don't meet until Saturday. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good afternoon Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good afternoon Joe. I wondered what became of you. JOE: I have been wondering the same thing. CALLIOPE: Have you come up with any answers? JOE: I believe so. Mastering website technology at least to the point of getting satisfactory sites has taken me over to the point where it feels like an addiction. CALLIOPE: How so? JOE: I have reached the point where there is not much room left in my awareness for anything else. CALLIOPE: What about your writing. I am barely keeping up with my journal and our conversations. JOE: As you can, see it took me until now to get around to you. CALLIOPE I do feel a tad slighted. JOE: I was afraid of that. However I think the end is near or at least a plateau where I can stop to consider some other pursuits. CALLIOPE: I'm glad to hear that. JOE: I did manage to post my latest revisions to my Sliding Otter Website yesterday and am happy with it for the time being. CALLIOPE: Then what's keeping you tethered? JOE: Now I am hard at work on my Commonsense Wisdom site which is coming along nicely. I hope to be done with it in the next few days. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What's this about success? JOE: I am finally mastering Dreamweaver and getting it to do what I want with my web pages. CALLIOPE: How did that come about? JOE: I realized I was getting nowhere with trial and error or at least not where I wanted to be. CALLIOPE: So what led you out of the labyrinth? JOE: Going back to basics. CALLIOPE: Tell me more. JOE: Yesterday I took my son for his second cataract surgery. I had some time to use productively while he was in the hospital and wandered over to the library. CALLIOPE: And what did you discover? JOE: Among other things, Elizabeth Castro's book HTML, XHTML &CSS. CALLIOPE: How helpful was it? JOE: Extremely. I'm finally beginning to make sense of this whole process. I finally developed a template I liked and am revising my websites yet again. CALLIOPE: Good luck. JOE: I think I'm on the right track. Talk with you tomorrow |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I guess you had a busy weekend. JOE: You said it. Wall to wall people since Thursday. CALLIOPE: That must have been quite a change from your regular routine. JOE: No question. I have accustomed myself to quiet days with my computer. When I did have the chance to get at it, my energy flagged and I had little to say. CALLIOPE: What did you like best? JOE: I enjoyed meeting all of Carol's high school friends. Perhaps best was meeting one husband whose early life paralleled mine in terms of education and wrestling with the uncertainties of the draft in the late 1960's. CALLIOPE: A kindred spirit. JOE: Yes. He even had the same college major I did and knew some of my professors. CALLIOPE: Any grist for the writing mill? JOE: I am sure there will be but I need to digest the whole experience and find ways to store it in my mind other than as a whirlwind. CALLIOPE: Is that how your mind works? JOE: I guess I haven't thought about it much but I suppose it is. After reflecting on the weekend I will end up with some reflections and insights about my own life. CALLIOPE: That's good. JOE: I think so. It helps me keep some perspective. Talk with you tomorrow. |
JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I missed you yesterday. JOE: Sorry. I had to go out of town to do a police candidate evaluation and one thing led to another. CALLIOPE: What about later? JOE: I had planned to write then but the weather was perfect and we decided to attend a free Chubby Checker concert. CALLIOPE: How was it? JOE: All we expected. The high point for me was seeing Carol dancing in the aisles, caught up in the moment. CALLIOPE: As I recall you had a column in the works. JOE: Correct. I didn't get to that either yesterday. However I woke up at 2:00 AM this morning and wrote it. CALLIOPE: Did your thoughts come together at that hour. JOE: Maybe that's why I woke up. The words flowed easily and I had it ready for Carol to proofread this morning. CALLIOPE: What's up for today? JOE: I hope to work a little on my website, but mostly I will by busy preparing for company arriving tonight for the weekend Oatka Festival. CALLIOPE: You certainly are becoming the social butterfly. JOE: I can't deny it. I am looking forward to it after all the work alone on the computer lately. We have guests staying in the computer room so I don't know how much I will be able to contact you over the next couple days. I'll do my best. |
| JOE: Good afternoon Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good afternoon Joe. A lazy day today? JOE: Not exactly. I knew the rain was coming so we went for a walk to the Leroy Farmers' Market while we could. CALLIOPE: Find anything good? JOE: Some fresh veggies to munch on while we wait for ours to ripen. CALLIOPE: What's going on in web development world? JOE: I feel like a Ping Pong ball sometimes. CALLIOPE: How so? JOE: I was just getting ready to choose Joomla as my preferred way to develop a website when I discovered that it does not yet have the capability of uploading content. CALLIOPE: What good is it then? JOE: Web development practice I guess. CALLIOPE: So now what? JOE: There might be a way I can develop my site on a server connected to the Internet. The jury's still out on that. CALLIOPE: Where does that leave you? JOE: I think it's time for a professional consultation to see what my options are and how best to proceed. In the mean time I think I will relax for a while this afternoon. Talk with you on Monday. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today? JOE: Still savoring our visit to last night's Taste of Stafford and the music of John Sieger and his band. CALLIOPE: What made them special? JOE: If you closed your eyes, you would swear you were listening to Louis Armstrong, voice and trumpet. CALLIOPE: Sounds like fun. You seem intrigued by music lately. JOE: I can't deny it. But I did wake up this morning wondering how my musical musings applied to writing. CALLIOPE: What did you discover? JOE: Everything I said about music applies to writing too. CALLIOPE: Why do you think authors write? JOE: First to make sense of their own world. At least that is my primary motivation. CALLIOPE: What else? JOE; If I think I'm on to something, I like to share it with others for their consideration to see if it makes sense to them and helps them clarify their life path. CALLIOPE: Noble aspirations. What else? JOE: To explore life's possibilities- how it could be under different circumstances whether better or worse. CALLIOPE: Very interesting. Let's talk about this some more. JOE: Sounds good to me. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good Morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Where where you yesterday? JOE: Now, now. CALLIOPE: Well? JOE: If you must know, I was involved in corporal works of mercy. CALLIOPE: Such as? JOE: Taking my son to the hospital for cataract surgery. CALLIOPE: I guess that explains it. Did everything go okay? JOE: It seemed to. Only time will tell, but the doctor was satisfied with how it went. CALLIOPE: Good. My regards to your son. Did you get to do anything else yesterday? JOE: I had planned to work on my writing but got caught up in Michael Jackson's memorial service. CALLIOPE: I didn't know you were interested in him. JOE: Frankly I had trouble getting past his weird lifestyle and self mutilation. CALLIOPE: And did you finally? JOE: I did and discovered that I like his music once I can put aside my judgment of his way of life. Talk with you tomorrow. |
| JOE: Good morning Calliope. CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How was your weekend? JOE: A nice change of pace. CALLIOPE: Tell me about it. JOE: We spent Friday night at a party with Carol's family at their cottage on Canisus Lake with only a slight passing shower. CALLIOPE: And the rest of the weekend? JOE: We camped with friends at their campsite along the Allegheny River next to Allegany State Park. CALLIOPE: Is it Allegheny or Allegany? JOE: Hard to tell. The best I can discover the park is Allegany and the river Allegheny. But the spellings seem almost interchangeable. CALLIOPE: Very confusing. JOE: I puzzled about it too. CALLIOPE: So how was camping? JOE: A good chance to get away from my computer and spend time with people. CALLIOPE: How did that feel? JOE: A little awkward for me after spending so much time with the computer working on my writing. I will work on more balance. Talk with you tomorrow. |
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Hope they like snow! 
I just tell them to go get a life...
It's a sunshiny 24 here at the moment; 19 in Buffalo.