Running With Artemis

Self Reliance

Jan 24th, 2010 by admin

I got a new journal today – actually, a sketchbook, but I find I am less self conscience when writing in a sketchbook for some reason. It’s a black hardcover sketchbook where you can’t tear out the pages without making a mess of things.

I’m using this for a new writing project,a novel, which encompasses the theme of knowing yourself and not being an imitation of someone else’s psyche. I find this to be more common than not – so much of our tastes, values, beliefs, and preferences are inherited from someone else – be that person a parent, sibling, spouse, or celebrity.

I found this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance”, and it really struck a chord with me. The image for this post is from a wine bottle by the way. Il Bastardo sangiovese. It’s awesome, and it only $7 – $8 a bottle. I thought the illustration suited the quote.

From “Self Reliance”, by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Best,

McKee

Tags: writing project

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The Deer are Nonplussed

Dec 10th, 2009 by admin

dog and deer There’s a deer run through the wooded area between our house and the river. Although our property extends all the way to the river, we have a normal backyard-sized area fenced off for the dogs, so the deer sometimes come all the way into the field to graze.

Today when I let the dogs out back they started barking and raising a ruckus. The deer had been walking by along the edge of the wooded area. Apparently, their being partly hidden caused some excitement, because usually the deer are out grazing in the middle of the field, in plain view, and the dogs don’t even seem to notice them.

The deer were nonplussed by the sudden attention. They halted their procession and gave the dogs a kind of sidelong ” … what …” kind of glance, and stuck around a bit longer than I believe they had originally intended so as not to appear to have been “run off”.

This was very exciting for the dogs. In fact it completely distracted them from the acrobatic feats of Senor Sanchez, the squirrel, who daily makes his aerial trek across the oak and dogwood branches that bridge our backyard from fence line to fence line. It is the highlight of the three amigas day to stand on hindlegs and yelp wildly as Senor Sanchez transports his walnuts from one neighbor’s yard to the other.

I suspect that this is mostly a game to Senor Sanchez, who surely realizes that he isn’t limited to conveying his treasures over the heads of these three ferocious fenced in beasts. I support this theory with the fact that there are unusually large quantities of walnuts found in my backyard, despite the fact that the nearest walnut tree is two lots away. The dogs love the walnuts, and gnaw on them until they crack the shells and devour the meat inside. I’ve yet to determine if Senor Sanchez is trying to bribe the dogs or hit them on the head.

Best,

McKee

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Why I Read Fiction

Nov 29th, 2009 by admin

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

Fiction is so vitally important to my mental well being.

It’s more truthful than non-fiction, in my opinion, the latter of which is generally some sparse facts loosely supported by scientific studies and skewed statistics, and a whole lot of marshmallow fluff in between – anecdotes, personal case studies, etc.

Well written fiction is generally told by the well read and very observant. The ultimate goal of most fiction writers is to be read, rather than to earn a quick buck or make a fortune in related sales and speaking engagements.

One of the best gifts fiction gives it’s readers is an opposing perspective.

Why does this character say this or do that? It helps to explain why people sometimes behave opposite their thoughts, and how that’s misinterpreted.

For example, in Dean Koontz’s Fear Nothing, the lead character, Christopher Snow, has just had his father die from a long terminal illness. He discovers that his father’s body has been switched with a homeless man’s, and his father’s body taken to a military facility. Snow goes to the funeral home and asks to view his father’s body one last time, and is told that he is too late, his father’s body has already been put into the furnace:

I was embarrassed by Sandy’s deceit, as though it shamed not merely him, but also me, and I couldn’t meet his obsidian stare any longer. I lowered my head and gazed at the porch floor.

Mistaking my embarrassment for tongue-binding grief, he stepped onto the porch and put one hand on my shoulder.

I managed not to recoil.

This detail where the antagonist’s dishonesty results in the protagonist being unable to look him in the eye due to his empathy and shame for the other person, really struck me. I had to stop reading for a moment to consider how I have responded to dishonesty and bare-faced betrayal in the past.

When it’s so outright, and there’s no room for doubt, there is a sense of embarrassment. And humility in the fact that you have been so easily lied to, and considered so unimportant that it would be easy to betray you. You feel ashamed for having been betrayed. This isn’t something a person is likely to discover reading a non-fiction book. It’s the type of truth and self discovery that only narrative can provide.

Lecture over – if you’re interested in reading this book, know that it’s a two-part series:

This is a two-part thriller, with clear distinctions between good guys vs bad guys. We’re not put in the head of the antagonist and meant to understand how and why they come to their actions, it’s definite white hat vs black hat, although there are some side characters where we do get that sense of them choosing sides, and there motivations. It’s classic Koontz, and as such, a very addictive storyline with likable characters.

Fear Nothing is first, followed by Seize the Night.

Happy reading.

Best,

McKee

One of the best gifts fiction gives it’s readers is an opposing perspective. Why does this character say this or do that? It helps to explain why people sometimes behave opposite of their thoughts, and how that’s misinterpreted.

Tags: Dean Koontz, Fiction

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Of Dog Hair and the Beeping PC

Nov 28th, 2009 by admin

dog-on-computer My computer wouldn’t start today, it just beeped at me, and I just about had a seizure, I kid you not. Turns out it was just dust and dog hair that needed to be blown out of the machinery, thank God. Because I can’t afford to get it fixed, being on unemployment, and I can’t afford to NOT get it fixed, seeing as I have no way to make a living without the Internet.

The company I worked for went virtual six years ago, and based on that fact, and the fact that there were no raises in sight, and no where to go but sideways, me, my daughter, my fiancee, and his many animals moved to a small town in the south where I could afford to buy a house, such as it is.

The house would most likelyhave been condemned if we’d bothered to have it inspected, which we did not. We needed a cheap house with property, for my fiancee’s dogs and garden. I mean really cheap, as in we bought the house for less than some people pay for their vehicles. The reason being that I was a single mother who had put herself through school while her daughter was in diapers, which amounted to quite a lot of debt by the time I got out. And as my now-husband is an entertainer and mostly “on the road”, all bills as well as the care and feeding of animals soon fell to me. And yard work, though thankfully the proposed garden has never materialized, as house plants quake in my wake.

One fine day, when the recession was well under way, my former company, never to be left out of a trend, decided to lay off the entire technical support department and replace us with one completely incompetent and uneducated soul who lived locally, and was therefore able to sit in a cubicle in-house where the new operations manager could keep a strong eye on her and call her in to meetings and such. The job mainly entailed supporting the company’s proprietary software, for which there is no external help. All manuals were written by me. All fixes found by me. There is nothing external to Google. In the end the child was so incompetent, I released all my tools and notes knowing that they would just sit idle on her hard drive. And so now the programmers provide the technical support, but at least they only pay the salary of one support person, and not three.

Which is all to explain that I’m here, in this small town with double digit unemployment and some of the lowest wages in the nation, and pretty much stuck trying to make a living selling my services via the Internet. Hence, the rant against the beeping computer. If your computer beeps, and the pc won’t load up properly (resulting in a black screen), get out your handy can of compressed air and start spraying.

Best,

McKee

Tags: Dogs, working at home

Posted in Dogs, Technical crap | No Comments »