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Sunday, August 22, 2010
Monday Morning Working Blues
I had to make up my own parody "Oooh, I'm halfway there, oooh-ho, writin' on a prayer" just to psyche myself up that I was halfway done with the story. This is a lie because I hate the first couple chapters--loathe them with the fire of a thousand hells might be more apt--and I'm ready to pull a Sin, delete the thing, and start over from scratch, complete with reworking the GMC and storyboarding devices. There is something to be said for writing at least 4-10 pages a day, everyday, and churning out a book in a modest 2-3 month period. Nothing ever gets so old and stale at any point that you realize how bad the beginning is compared to the end...because it's still in the same writing growth period.
But that's a discussion for a different blog. Today is about parodies and psyching yourself up for being halfway there, damnit. It's Monday--bring on the Bon Jovi!
Once upon a time
Not so long ago—
My hero used to be in love with his bride
But she’s gone on strike
He’s down on his luck, no bright side.
Evie wants a little respect, she’s strong,
The original showdown, can’t he admit he’s wrong?
He won’t even try.
But I’ve got to make them hold on to what they’ve got
‘Cause it doesn’t make a difference
If they like it or not
They’ve got each other and that’s a lot,
For love—I’ll make them give it a shot
Ohh, I’m halfway there!
Whoa, writin’ on a prayer
Give me another chocolate; I’ll make it, I swear!
Whoa, writin’ on a prayer
What sorts of things do you do to keep in the Zone? Chocolate? Rock music? Lashing yourself to your desk chair so you don't wander off from your keyboard? What fakeouts do you tell yourself to keep going? It's Monday--what are you telling yourself now just to make it through the rest of the week?
But that's a discussion for a different blog. Today is about parodies and psyching yourself up for being halfway there, damnit. It's Monday--bring on the Bon Jovi!
Once upon a time
Not so long ago—
My hero used to be in love with his bride
But she’s gone on strike
He’s down on his luck, no bright side.
Evie wants a little respect, she’s strong,
The original showdown, can’t he admit he’s wrong?
He won’t even try.
But I’ve got to make them hold on to what they’ve got
‘Cause it doesn’t make a difference
If they like it or not
They’ve got each other and that’s a lot,
For love—I’ll make them give it a shot
Ohh, I’m halfway there!
Whoa, writin’ on a prayer
Give me another chocolate; I’ll make it, I swear!
Whoa, writin’ on a prayer
What sorts of things do you do to keep in the Zone? Chocolate? Rock music? Lashing yourself to your desk chair so you don't wander off from your keyboard? What fakeouts do you tell yourself to keep going? It's Monday--what are you telling yourself now just to make it through the rest of the week?
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39 comments:
Hey Helli man
This parody don't scan
You gotta have rhythm
If you're gonna find Hiven.
Try 'Calypso' to lift you this day!
To sail on a dream, on a crystal clear ocean,
To ride on the crest of a wild raging storm;
To work in the service of life and the living
In search of the answers to questions unknown;
To be part of the movement and part of the growing,
Part of beginning to understand . . .
Aye, Calypso, the places you've been to,
The things that you've shown us,
The stories you tell;
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit,
The men who have served you
So long and so well...................
From 'Calypso' by John Denver
Happily I don't suffer from Monday morning blues.
After a weekend entertaining my grand daughter and playing endless 'hide and seek', the quiet and solitude of the physics library is like entering a blissful paradise!
I hope you find Heaven soon. :D
Hey Helli man
This parody don’t scan…
Oh my Q, you’re brilliant. Not that you didn’t know that already!
You too , Hellion. Nothing like starting the week with a-hell-of-a-Hellie-mellow-dee.
And Calypso, Q? Wasn’t that Jacques Cousteau’s ship in the 1970’s? Yes, I’m fairly sure that that was the ship’s name. Somewhere, don’t ask me where, is a tape that my dad made aboard that vessel. On that tape is a recording of him interviewing Philippe Cousteau.
For several years my father taught in the Caribbean. Talk about a long commute…
When he couldn’t make it home for the weekend he would send a cassette tape. Records of interesting people (like the Cousteaus ), the local music, and of course the locals themselves.
So, Q ( blame him!) brought up Calypso … which reminded me of those Caribbean tapes … which in turn made me remember My All Time Favorite Caribbean Saying from those tapes… A saying that would make a perfect answer to Hellion’s question “What do I tell myself so that I make it through the rest of the week?”
What saying is it?
The one that used to drive my poor mother crazy when we said it . The one that says simply & succinctly…
“Its not me job, mon.”
And don't you think that "Calypso Q" sounds like a most Excellent Pirate name?
"Records" should be recordings.
I know what you're thinking. Its "Julie, why don't you edit yourself before you post?"
My answer?
“Its not me job, mon.” ;)
Boy, you guys are peppy already this morning! LOL I'm not good at song parodies so I'll spare you that particular torture. :) (I'm sure I can find something else, so don't worry!)
I guess what keeps me tapping away at the keyboard when I don't want to is telling myself "You only have to do this for an hour". Making myself is the hard part, obviously, because the HOA can take over.
But once I tell myself the "one hour" lie, er, motivation tool, then I'm good to go. And if I do it earlier in the day, even better, because then I actually get other "avoidable" stuff done too!
Ooops -- left out a word! LOL It should have read:
"Making myself START is the hard part, obviously." Well, except for getting ALL THE WORDS in the sentence. LOL
This is brilliant. As are both Q and Julie. In fact, there is a sheer glut of brilliance on this ship. :)
How do I keep my focus? I write late at night, when there's no one around to siphon off my attention. The kiddies in bed, the hubby snoring beside me. In the glow of a solitary lamp in my bedroom, propped up on pillows with my computer in my lap, I tap away at the keys and try to block out all the other things in my life that require my care. Then, my writing is just me, all alone in the few quiet minutes I get to myself each day. It's my little equivalent to "a room of one's own."
It's all about the butt in chair, fingers on keys. And a Starbucks at my side...
Though focus is hard to manage a lot of the times, but I'm trying!
Thanks, Q! I remember that song well. And the episode where John sailed with the Calypso here on Monterey Bay...
I'll be hearing that all day as I head south to visit with an old high school friend...
Q, I'm sorry my Bon Jovi parody doesn't work for you. No, not the best rhyming sequence, though his original wasn't that perfect either. He just has an awesome guitar riff and perfected the 8-syllable line, probably with proper emphasis on the syllables. (I never cared for Shakespeare's iambic pentameter--I never could figure out how to do it correctly. Far trickier than I could ever give it credit.)
Love the song! Calypso sounds like a great remedy. (I know the words to "Country Roads" by John Denver and it always makes me cry when I sing it--it's so ridiculous. *LOL*)
I was doing laundry (at a laundry mat) yesterday with a friend and there were little kids running about. She almost had me talked into going to a different one because this one lately has been overrun with loud children, but I assured her it had been quiet last week. Right. So at the end of folding my laundry, there was one little girl screaming and racing all over the place, clearly bored out of her mind and too impatient to let the dryers run without her running commentary that "the clothes were hot, they're burning me!" and "Daddy! The clothes are dry! I can see it." (Mind you, the clothes had been drying less than 2 minutes.)
As soon as my clothes were done, I made my apologies to my friend and bolted out. Normally I'd stay and help her fold HER laundry and chitchat, but that one kid was worse than a herd of orphans.
Anyway, here I am on my Monday, extremely I took my birth control this morning and I don't have to do laundry for a week.
Jules, good morning. *LOL* I wish I could say "It's not me job, mon" but a lot of the time around here, it is my job.
It's the first week of classes and it shows. Hence why I'm not excited to be here. I mean, I understand the first week of class is exciting, but it's the latecomers who still want to enroll that boggle me. :)
Donna, that is a brilliant idea. I love the "lying" strategy. I usually do that with ice cream--like "I'm only going to have this one bowl" and then I end up having 2.
I also like the strategy of starting earlier in the morning. I need to implement this because by the time I am usually ready to get started, it's mid-afternoon and I feel I won't get anything done anyway and why bother--and you can see why that isn't productive.
Marn, that sounds blissful... Well, aside from the snoring, but if you're used to the sound, there is a certain peace in that too. :)
Hellie, even though I can set my schedule (for the moment -- LOL), I always have this weird thing about 5 p.m., like those long-ago days when I worked in an office. So if it gets close to that my brain goes, "Well, might as well wait til tomorrow". Seriously? I stay up til 2 a.m. LOL I don't HAVE a schedule.
But guess who hasn't done the morning writing she promised herself even though it worked so well yesterday? Sigh. I am a lot of work sometimes. LOL No wonder I didn't have kids.
When I was a sophomore in HS, I tried out for the Flag Corps to this Bon Jovi song. It always takes me back, even in parody.
Very little is getting me through the week at this point. 2am this morning I was laying in bed with my eyes wide open freaking about if I'm moving, if I'm buying, if I'm renting, if I'm ever going to actually revise these stories, or write the next one or just curl up in a ball and cry.
Really, it's a toss up at this point. Right now, I'm in a waiting game. I did work on the short story and wrote my blog for tomorrow. Other than that, I've been cleaning out stuff to go to charity. It's the only way to convince myself I won't have that much to pack should I need to make a quick getaway. :)
Nothing sets my teeth on edge more than a child screaming like a banshee and the parents doing nothing. Makes me want to shake the shit out of the parent.
I would have gladly shook the parent--Daddy had the kid in tow by himself because usually the moms don't tolerate that sort of behavior on the whole--but the Dad looked beleaguered. *LOL* He had the look of a man who looked like he'd liked to have shook her, but couldn't because there were too many witnesses. "Stop touching the machines" is pretty much what he said non-stop. She didn't listen.
I'm cracking up at the Flag Corps and Bon Jovi, but pretty sure when I was in high school, we did all our "cool stuff" to Def Leppard tunes so I can't snort too loudly.
The house is still up in the air? I thought it had crashed and burned last week and you were breathing a sigh of relief?? I swear house buying is more traumatic than getting married--and I think getting married is traumatic. (This attitude about marriage might be contributing to my writing malaise.)
Your kiddie is back, right? That's good news, right?
The house contract runs out this Thursday so I have to wait it out to be free then. At that point, I have to decide if I'm going to try to buy something else, stay in my apartment (which might not even be an option) or rent something else. If I rent (mine or something else) then I have to figure out if I'm going to wait another year to try again (rates could go up and I'd be screwed out of these great rates) or deal with getting out of the lease in a few months when something comes through.
Really, my brain is on overload and the stress is killing me. Five hours of restless sleep is not enough. Which reminds me, I need more coffee.
Kiddo isn't back until this coming weekend. Which is also when my dad arrives. My mostly deaf, cranky dad. *sigh* This should be fun.
I wish I could say “It’s not me job, mon” but a lot of the time around here, it is my job.
Oooh I didn't say that it wasn't their job to do when they said “Its not me job, mon.” In fact most times it was. which is why (IMO) that phrase is so funny!
I don't think the housing market is going to bounce back that dramatically in the next year to have sucky ass rates, but it's up to you what you really want to do. Is there any place you really love that you can afford? If you don't love it, then maybe stay committed to the renting scene. House owning does come with a new set of problems once you do manage to move in. There's mowing and upkeep and all those lovely things that my landlord takes care of. But I know owning a house is one of your Big Dreams--so it's up to you. There is always going to be a "better deal" no matter when you buy. It's like buying a car. No escaping it--so you can't feel like you got screwed. That's not productive. Like getting a book contract...you get one and you think "Yeah!" and then you find out some jackanape got a better deal, more books, and more promotion--and they haven't been looking as long. It's just Murphy's Law.
Our kids around here are already back in school. I wasn't sure.
Terri, sorry you're going through so much agony right now. It's so tough when each decision seems like it is predicated on another one. . .so it's no wonder you're having restless sleep.
I don't know if this helps or not, but I've been reading that more people right now are opting to rent, because of the volatility of the housing market. When it goes up, it doesn't usually go up rapidly, so you will most likely have a chance to jump in when you do find something you love.
Hugs for you.
I always love Hellie's parodies, whatever the meter.
And thanks to Q, the playlist in my head is going to be all John Denver today. Maybe "Poems and Prayers and Promises" will inspire me. I need inspiration. The day is just over halfway through, and it's already been disastrous. My muse is AOL, and my mood is cloudy with severe storms predicted.
Ter, for what it's worth, my brother the builder, my nephew the mortgage broker, and my nephew the super real estate agent all think the housing market recovery is going to be very long and very slow.
Woot, it's MONDAY!! I can be excited because I'm only working two days this week. Count 'em. TWO :) (insert evil laugh here)
AND I'm almost finished my book. Yes, it's taken me FOREVER and a day, but I can now see the end. It's right there next to VACATION.
Love you guys :)
JK Coi, I have to enjoy the mean streak. *LOL* But I'm very glad you're almost done with your book! (Maybe you'll finish the first draft before vacation??) *crossing fingers*
I have off Friday. *evil laugh*
Janga, thank you! And I'm also glad I'm not the only one humming "Take Me Home Country Roads" today, even though my playlist scheduled was something else altogether.
Funnily enough my mood is also cloudy with severe storms predicted!
Uhm, I have off the 6th. :)
I'm sure you are all correct about the real estate stuff. Just irksome because the market didn't fall apart here like it did in other places. In fact, prices didn't even fall that much. With the constant influx of military families in and out of the area, there are always buyers who must have a place.
If I'd have gotten the condo, there would have been no outside maintenance, but I'm not afraid of cutting a little grass, and a little grass is all I can afford. LOL! With my rent being higher than what my mortgage payments would be, it's just insane to think about throwing that money away each month on something I don't own.
Hellie, every time I think "Country Roads" now I hear the version in Japanese from some anime soundtrack my youngest nephew plays all the time. I'm laughing now just thinking about it. I always wonder if that version actually translates "West Virginia, Mountain Mama."
Hey, who broke the ship? LOL I can't use it as an HOA item if it disappears! :)
WTH. I log in late (of course- I'm beginning to hate my job) and see there are only 27 COMMENTS?! WTF happened? I had to do a double take because I'm used to 127 comments instead of 27.
And I want you to know I've not pulled a "Sin" in a while. Thankyouverymuch. Except I'm about to pull a Sin at work and start ice picking MFers.
Dear Evil Twin,
Thank you for the warning about the scheduled ice picking event. I for one will take the opportunity to make myself scarce.
I believe the ship was out of commission for a short while today. Or at least I was prevented from boarding for quite a long while.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Very truly yours,
DRD
Donna - The ice picking is entertainment for us. *We* are not the targets. Really, pull up a deck cushion and grab some popcorn.
Blog was down for me too. Couldn't get on this afternoon or when I first got home.
Yeah, but when she pulls out the ice pick she sorta goes blind sometimes... Remember the hottie she accidentally...
Nevermind.
Remind me again why Sin isn't on the Pirate "Most Wanted" list. . .
No, don't tell me. It'll be easier to give testimony if I don't actually know anything.
*grabs popcorn* It wasn't one of my Hotties, I hope.
Hellie, your parodies are always AWESOME! :)
Q, I'd forgotten that song.
Julie, love the Caribbean speak. I've got to remember that one. "It not me job, mon." ;)
And SIN my sweet lil’ piratical pirate, I would be more than happy to run up the comment count but alas me lass Its not me job, mon! AHAHahaaaaaaooomfffff …
*splah*
Ahoy there? Could someone throw down a rope? Hellooo?
“I would … BUT Its not me job, mon!”
Dear DRD,
Who says I'm not on the "pirate" most wanted list. I have multiple alias for a reason.
Don't make me have to get a new one. Know what I mean?
Sincerely,
Evil Twin
Chanceroo,
The Kraken ate him. I swear. I had nothing to do with that "unfortunate" accident.
Jules, I have a rope you can borrow...
Thanks SINHhhhheeeyyyy?! There's a noose at the end of it!
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