PTS Flashback

Watching Criminal Minds, I just had a PTS flashback to September 11 and its aftermath.

I cried for the first time since that week.

Quote

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered. -- Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead)

Quotes

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening the door to your own life is, in the end, more difficult than opening the door to the mysteries of the universe.
Daisaku Ikeda

An idea, a title

Djerba, Isle of Forgetfulness, Tunisia

The Isle of Forgetfulness

Is there anything new in the world? The Isle of Forgetfulness.

Ulysses and the Sirens

And here more.

Jane said

I have a memory palace. It has to be big.

Custom

Some custom stationary here.

Elizabeth Golden's Dip

Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing or Dip

1 cup of crumbled blue cheese - about 4 1/2 ounces
1 cup light sour cream - I use no fat
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
pepper to taste

2012

Pushing journaling

Quotation on Writing

Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa said that he often envied Western writers “who can peacefully practice their craft.” Yet he also recognized that wasn’t his path. As he wrote in 1993, “The writer cannot be a mere storyteller, he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils, he or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.” (see book review section NYT, 5/3, here and here.

Rhubarb Pie

It has been more than 15 years since I had rhubarb pie and it was delicious.

Here's a recipe or two.

Quotation

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening the door to your own life is, in the end, more difficult than opening the door to the mysteries of the universe.

Daisaku Ikeda

Making Bread

3 Easy Steps to Making The Best Bread Ever

1. Combine 4 cups unbleached, white flour, 1 teaspoon baking yeast, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1.5 cups water. Mush around in a bowl until it forms a shaggy dough ball. Use your hands; don't be afraid! Let sit, covered with a piece of foil or plastic, for three hours (save the foil to re-use the next time you bake bread.)
2. Once it's risen, form into a round ball (using a little bit of loose flour on your hands, as it can be sticky) and plop on an un-greased baking sheet (with the smoothest side facing up). Take a sharp knife and make 3 decorative slashes on the top (to allow air to escape, and to look profesh.) Put in 450 degree preheated oven for twenty minutes, then lower to 350 for another thirty. I put a ceramic dish of water in the oven, too, which makes the bread crusty on the outside, soft on the inside.
3. Once the bread is ready, it'll look browned and if you tap the bottom it should sound hollow. Let sit on the countertop until it cools. Remember: don't cut it until cooled, because the inside of the loaf is still cooking even while outside of the oven. Serve with butter and honey, or jam, or whatever…

via Huffington

Quotes

“Courage is one step ahead of fear.” ~ Coleman Young

Challenges of Writing via Huffington

One of the challenges of writing is...writing. Here are some tips that I've found most useful for myself, for actually getting words onto the page:

1. Write something every work-day, and preferably, every day; don't wait for inspiration to strike. Staying inside a project keeps you engaged, keeps your mind working, and keeps ideas flowing. Also, perhaps surprisingly, it's often easier to do something almost every day than to do it three times a week. (This may be related to the abstainer/moderator split.)

2. Remember that if you have even just fifteen minutes, you can get something done. Don't mislead yourself, as I did for several years, with thoughts like, "If I don't have three or four hours clear, there's no point in starting."

3. Don't binge on writing. Staying up all night, not leaving your house for days, abandoning all other priorities in your life -- these habits lead to burn-out.

4. If you have trouble re-entering a project, stop working in mid-thought -- even mid-sentence -- so it's easy to dive back in later.

5. Don't get distracted by how much you are or aren't getting done. I put myself in jail.

6. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that creativity descends on you at random. Creative thinking comes most easily when you're writing regularly and frequently, when you're constantly thinking about your project.

7. Remember that lots of good ideas and great writing come during the revision stage. I've found, for myself, that I need to get a beginning, middle, and an end in place, and then the more creative and complex ideas begin to form. So I try not to be discouraged by first drafts.

8. Develop a method of keeping track of thoughts, ideas, articles, or anything that catches your attention. That keeps you from forgetting ideas that might turn out to be important, and also, combing through these materials helps stimulate your creativity. My catch-all document, where I store everything related to happiness that I don't have another place for, is more than five hundred pages long. Some people use inspiration boards; others keep scrapbooks. Whatever works for you.

9. Pay attention to your physical comfort. Do you have a decent desk and chair? Are you cramped? Is the light too dim or too bright? Make a salute--if you feel relief when your hand is shading your eyes, your desk is too brightly lit. Check your body, too: lower your shoulders, make sure your tongue isn't pressed against the top of your mouth, don't sit in a contorted way. Being physically uncomfortable tires you out and makes work seem harder.

10. Try to eliminate interruptions -- by other people, email, your phone, or poking around the Internet -- but don't tell yourself that you can only work with complete peace and quiet.

11. Over his writing desk, Franz Kafka had one word: "Wait." My brilliantly creative friend Tad Low, however, keeps a different word on his desk: "Now." Both pieces of advice are good.

12. If you're stuck, try going for a walk and reading a really good book. Virginia Woolf noted to herself: "The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw."

13. At least in my experience, the most important tip for getting writing done? Have something to say! This sounds obvious, but it's a lot easier to write when you're trying to tell a story, explain an idea, convey an impression, give a review, or whatever. If you're having trouble writing, forget about the writing and focus on what you want to communicate. For example, I remember flailing desperately as I tried to write my college and law-school application essays. It was horrible -- until in both cases I realized I had something I really wanted to say. Then the writing came easily, and those two essays are among my favorites of things I've ever written.

The Happiness Project book is due out in January. In the book, I describe my experience writing a novel in a month, inspired by Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! Yes, you can write a real novel in one month. It was a lot of fun.

* I always find something great on Dumb Little Man.

* If you're starting your own happiness project, please join the Page on Facebook to swap ideas. It's easy; it's free.

On the road dream

Nice (France) Railway Station*

Car, Marijke, Sarah, Belgium, Amsterdam, perhaps Jane Blake, travel, petrol station, many different roads to follow.

M and S are going to Europe. I remember my displeasure that M was going to Belgium and not Amsterdam. I wondered, as I do in life, why she has no active curiosity about where she was born.

We and I am not certain who this we is are in a vast territory. I was driving and went off the road to get petrol and use the Loo.

At the railway station we all seem to converge and I use another route while M is in the Loo.

When I emerge another person who appears to be a friend enters another stairwell and she says, "there you are."

And in the course of this brief interaction, I say it is safe, and she says, "no I'd rather go the 90 dollar route."

For reasons I can't pinpoint, yet, when reviewing this dream a few hours later, Nice's railway station came to mind. I have not been to this station since 1967. Not incidental to this connection is that when I was in Nice I was part of a traffic accident that ruptured my spleen.

Another glimpse of a dream, a message

Newport Bridge, Rhode Island

Cars, Vincenzo, Martin, little children, art work, a bridge, dolls, all appear in a dream that indicated my vision was off.

Three people sitting up front, fog, a bridge, I had to stop, pull over and get my bearings.

Dreams

Babette's Feast

One of loss, another of gain.

One in historic Germany during the Holocaust, the second more local with lots of good cooking, friends and of all people, Rene.

I am wondering how these two dreams tie into or back to my card of the day or my reading or viewing these days.

And the second dream had some interesting twists, much of which I can no longer remember, but the last bit of the dream was a telephone call to the house asking for "abundance" and suggesting Rene said we had so much to offer freebies were being offered.

In this same dream two featured players were young, male and blonde.

As I am a strong believer that all the players, characters, people in our dreams are ourselves, I have to ask myself how these young males play a role in my life.

And when I ask that question I find myself back to my card of the day picks.

Recently I have been pulling coins/pentacles, court cards and Major Arcana. If I took the last cards I pulled and did a spread I wonder what it would indicate.

I think I will try that later today or tomorrow.

Programming

Until this year I never watched a television series, especially not through to its seasonal end. But this year I did, and these left me speechless:

- NCIS I watched on the net the day after its conclusion. The team went to Israel after a Mossad agent was killed by Tony. Ziva stayed behind but at the end we see Ziva bloody and being beaten by Arabs.
- CSI-NY ended with the entire team together under attack and ducking for cover. The after-preview implied one or more of the team would not be back, but they didn't know who would be written out of the series.
- CSI-Miami ended with Eric shot accidentally by Calleigh and missing after trying to save his father.
- Criminal Minds ended after a 2hr special with Hotchner facing a masked intruder with a gun.

Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake By Gale Gand From her grandmother on her mother's side, a great baker in the Austria-Hungarian tradition, Gail found this great ample streusel coffee cake recipe in her card files. And here it is revised with a little twist from using pears instead of apples. For the cake: Unsalted butter, for the baking dish 1 1/4c. All purpose flour 2 1/4tsp. baking powder 1/2c. Sugar 1/2tsp. salt 1/2tsp. ground cinnamon One at large egg 1/2c. Whole milk 4tbsp. unsalted butter, melted 2 ripe pears (Bartlett's are preferred,) unpeeled cored and chopped approximately 1 1/2c. For the streusel topping: 1/2c. Sugar 1/4c. All purpose flour 3tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut up 1tsp. ground cinnamon Heat the oven to 400°F.Butter and 8inch square baking dish. To make cake combine the flour with the baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In separate bowl, beat the eggs and then mix in the milk and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the pears and mix well. Pour this into the buttered baking dish. To make the streusel, mix with the sugar, flour, cold butter and cinnamon in a bowl by the pinching them together with your fingers until well combined. Sprinkle over at the top of the batter. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes until it is golden and dry on top. Cool in and the pan and then cut into squares. This cake keeps for to four days covered at room temperature Recipe courtesy "Gale Gand's Brunch," written by Gale Gand with Christie Matheson, Clarkson Potter, 2009.