Site Seeing: Grammar Girl™

You've gotta love a Web site that poses the question: Why isn't "gruntled" a word? Thanks to Jody for suggesting Grammar Girl!

Shit Happens

Well, I'm not saying it was a bad weekend, but the disaster recovery team just left the house, and I'll never again look at a sewer pipe without wincing.

Fortunately, as I mulled over posting or pouting, my good buddy, The Big Rabbit, came to my rescue. In addition to pointing out that home ownership is "greatly over-rated," he pointed me toward a site that appeals to me as an artist, a knitter and a nut.

Friends are good.

Friday Fun: Double Fun!

A few more weeks, and we'll be through,
But first: this Sarah Palin video for you.

And, because there's more to life than poking fun at politicians, here's a Bart Simpson game -- with nothing political on the menu. And nothing at all on Bart.

Creative Inspiration: Cherish Your Doubts

Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Faith, or lack of it, is an incredibly personal choice -- and not always a constant. Knowing that, I want to share one of my favorite readings from the weekly prayerbook used by Reform Jews*:

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the handmaiden of truth. Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief.

Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false.

Let none fear for the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief.

For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure. Those who would silence doubt are filled with fear; the house of their spirit is built on shifting sands.

But they that fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on a rock.

They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of their hands shall endure.

Therefore, let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help: It is to the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the handmaiden of truth.

*This reading is also used by other denominations.

Creativity Exercise: Get Writer's Block

I was wandering through Borders the other day, and found this wonderful book, The Writer's Block, by Jason Rekulak. It reminded me of the great session I attended at the summer festival for the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

So, in keeping with that, here's a paraphrased example of one of the 786 ideas in the book: As a student, Ethan Canin (who has taught at Iowa), was captivated by the stories of John Cheever. To discover what it would be like to write them, Canin literally typed them out.

It's a brilliant idea -- especially for those of us who process through our fingers (as many of you know, I can't think without a pen in my hand or my fingers on a keyboard).

As Rekulak says, "... this is an opportunity to sift an author's words through your own hands, to feel a fraction of what Flannery O'Connor or Raymond Chandler might have felt as they completed the final typewritten drafts of their masterpieces."

Exercise 1: Give it a try! Exercise 2? Get The Writer's Block.

Creativity Tips: Question Assumptions

I was on vacation last week with the woman commonly known as Lynnmybestfriendsincefourthgrade.

Lynn assumes I'm smart. Now, I do have my areas of expertise. But Lynn assumes I'm just all-around smart.

Well, she did. Then, I took her on a "two-hour" drive to Canyon de Chelly from Sedona. Don't pull out the map. I'll confess. It's closer to a six-hour drive. One way.

Yessirree bob. I can't read maps. Never could. Don't know why I tried.

Make our adventure your advantage: Question your assumptions. Especially if they're assumptions about people you love.

And never ask me to navigate you out of anything but a bad paragraph.

Creativity Tips: I'm baaaaaaaaaack

Hi CI team!

Thank you for all the posts last week! You're brilliant, and generous, and I appreciate the help more than you know. (My sister sends her thanks too -- she loved the sites you suggested.)

Here's what I saw when we landed in Phoenix. So I was laughing right from the start.

P.S. to Anonymous: You're right. I should go away more often! The analytics indicated an increase in readership. Hmmmmmmm.
P.P.S. The "How's My Flying?" decal is the perfect example of stealing something and making it better.