Warren's First Year of World.

Tomorrow is Warren's last day of school for the year. The time flew by.

It has been a good, great fantastic year for him. Finally becoming aware of colors and shapes and numbers -- although we still have a long way to go with that one.

He still communicates uniquely -- that will likely never go away as it seems to run in the family. He uses his own made up sign language, a lot, but it's a lot easier to interpret when there's a color or a shape to go along with the sign! And, of course, there's the familiarity factor. (If he's ever telling you about the "red-blue, he's talking about the Food Court here in Mt. Orab. Why red-blue? It has red letters (that he calls numbers) and blue awnings.) But you'll only know that if you know him.


He was, in my judgement, about 18 to 20 months behind in speech and comprehension of 'things' (colors, shapes, counting). He's made up a lot of ground, closing the gap, again my uneducated but not inexperienced judgement, down to 9 - 12 months.
He's a smart boy. If we keep working with him, maybe he'll close the gap this summer. Or maybe he'll just learn at his own pace and in his own way. Maybe the challenge will be helping him accept his differences in learning and applying lessons.


As long as he keeps learning, we're all good.




And isn't that true of all of us? When we quit learning, we are in a world of trouble.

Reading "It". and Writing.

I am reading "It" by Stephen King.

Yes, I know I'm thirty years or so later than the rest of the world, but this is the first time the book has made its way to me. That's how I do most of my reading. The books come to me. Sometimes it takes thirty years.

It's a difficult read. Numerous characters, each with a back story, as well as the current story. Keeping the reader engaged on all levels. Each character fits into the story the way a jigsaw puzzle fits together. You cant leave one out or make two into one -- the picture will not be complete; will not be what it is supposed to be. Each back story fits into each character in the same way; with/for the same reasons. Putting it all together, connecting sky to trees to earth, is an epic job.

It's done well. This reader is engaged with all phases of the story (and story telling.) I just wish it would move a little faster!

Someone once said of one of my stories, that it would work better as a movie or program. I wasn't sure what she meant at the time, but reading this novel has enlightened me. I now know what she meant.
This novel would work much better as a visual (or even audio) program. The characters can and do and will carry the story.
But the story must be told, with words, and words can be bulky.

"Show, don't tell" is (cliched) advice given to writers, but the fact is you cant do storytelling without the telling. You have to tell the words that show the actions. Or the settings, or the motives. You get more than a handful (literally) of characters in on the action, and the telling of their roles slows down the general forward thrust of the story.

My forementioned story has many of the same components as this one. Many characters . Back stories. Back stories unknown to the others. Yes, it may well work better as an acted-out story, rather than a told one.

But someone has to tell the actors, don't they?

I am heartened by this discovery. That my story (different genre; different style; different audience) has so many same attributes as a story told by a master storyteller. My story has faults that are shared by a story told by the King.

I couldn't ask for much more than that.

Mashed Potatoes: An adventure.

Am I an adventurous eater? I don't know. Most people would say no, because there are a lot of things I haven't eaten and don't want to try. Things like Chinese food (sounds like lots of bits and pieces. If I want leftovers I'll just eat leftovers. I also prefer  to be filled up by my meals, and rmor has it that doesn't happen with Chinese.

I don't like soy sauce or teriyaki or other Oriental seasonings, although I'm not always clear on the country of origin.

I just plain don't like seafood. I have yet to taste anything that does not overwhelmingly taste of vast anounts of stale salt water.

I don't eat Mexican food, either. It is way, way too spicy for me. Hot spicy. I've sampled this, while cooking, but not eaten as a meal or part of one. I don't like the ingredients.

I don't like  hot spices. I want to taste the food. I don't want my taste buds burnt out or overloaded to the point where they don't function. I want to enjoy the taste, to savor the flavor, and to be able to take in all that the food item has to offer.

If that makes me unadventurous, so be it.

I like food. I like to smell it, feel it, taste it, hear it, .and see it. Eating should be a sensual experience. Not all the senses will be used with every offering, of course. Mashed potatoes are pretty quiet.No crisp snap of the fresh potato. No crunch at the first -- or last -- bite.

But they can be cheesy, golden, salty, lightly garlic, smooth, lumpy, snowy white, steamy, dry, peppery, and even food-colored if you have a kid who will only eat green. 

Mashed potatoes are mundane and boring, but they sure can be jazzed up. 

That can be an adventure.

Seasonings and combined ingredients should enhance one another and especially the main ingredient. Too many people  and places do not use balance or moderation. jalapeno flavored should include the taste of jalapeno -- not taste like jalapeno and nothing else. 

So, if my adventures in eating aren't what you expect, I'm sorry.

But let me share with you my cheesy mashed, and maybe you will learn that true adventures start with the familiar.

Dark Shadows. (No, not mine.)

Spent the weekend browsing the old show. YouTube has quite a bit, if you have the patience to weed out the Johnny Depp- Tim Burton overwhelming publicity. YouTube has quite a few clips from the old show, including one with the very beginning. Fan club events and interviews, from then and a few from now.

I saw a few clips that might have been from the short run evening version with Ben Cross as Barnabas. I didn't look at those.

What I did not see anything of, is the two movies they made from the show: Dark Shadows and House of Dark Shadows. Not surprising. The movies were pretty bad. By the time the movies were made, the show had lost focus and was campy. Blood and guts and 'boos' and very little story. An adventure into variations of time travel and ghosts and vampires and werewolfs and anything else 'not normal'.  It created a lifelong interest in these things for me, led me to some good reading that led to better research that led to more reading that leads to more research.

Interesting the bizarre storylines were, and even educational. Entertaining they often were not.

Over time, everyone seems to have lost sight of the fact that Dark Shadows didn't start out as a vampire-and-werewolf chiller and thriller.

It started out as a Gothic Romance.

"My name is Victoria Winters.My journey is beginning. A journey that I hope will open the doors of life to me.and link my past to my future."

Victoria Winters, you see, is an orphan. She has been pulled out of her orphanage to be a governess in a big old house by the sea. The residents of the house consist of an angry young boy, an angsty teenaged girl (and could anyone be more angsty than a teen in the late 60s?), the boy's drunken irresponsible father and the girl's mother who hasn't left the house for nearly twenty years.

Pure Gothic as far as genre goes. Nowadays cliched, but back then the genre was undergoing a revival. (Maybe as an outlet for all that built-up angst?)

It took Barnabas almost a year to appear. The first few months were dedicated to straight out mysterious events that had logical explanations. Then the supernatural began creeping in -- ghosts and premonitions and dreams.

Oh my lord, the Dream! I don't remember the details of the dream, but the storyline was that each person would have the dream, but each person added something to it. And when the next person had the dream, the last person who'd had it died. It was one of the most intricate and well developed plot arcs I have ever watched grow daily. Just seeing bits of it, and sometimes the actors, can give me thrill-chills because it was such a creepy story. (It was also a good way to kill off a bunch of characters that no longer fit, which as an author, I appreciate today and didn't realize then.)

The Barnabas-Josette- Jeremiah- Angelique story was well done as well. The ghost stepping out of her picture and opening her music box and waltzing through the big empty room. WOW! This story would be reworked over and over again throughout the show, but the first incarnation was damned good storytelling. So were a few of the others as Barnabas keeps going back to try and change the past, and Angelique or/and her cohorts follow to prevent him from doing so.

This is pretty much where the evening television remake started, and they didn't do a bad job with it. I would have continued watching. But too many people turned it off or turned away from it when it wasn't played for thrills or laughs. A common complaint was that there was too much sex.

Really? It was a soap opera. Or a Gothic Romance. Romance IS usually about sex, is it not? And exactly why was Angelique so obsessed with Barnabas? If it had just been for his money or his standing, his brother would have fit the bill just as well. No, she wanted Barnabas, and it wasn't so she'd have someone to talk to during meals.

So much good drama in there. Good plotlines, good story arcs.

It's a shame that it is being remembered as camp and memorialized for new generations as a comedy. although I don't mind the laughs. From what I've seen, they are mostly clever, if campy, laughs.

But I sure do wish they'd revive the "it was a dark and stormy night" genre of serials. The endings are so much more satisfactory than the endings to the current reality spooky shows.

Badly made by today's standards (and even their own) but entertaining and mysterious and fun.
I guess that's what most people remember -- the fun. 

A Rousing Good Whatchacallit.

I love to debate. I love to argue. I sometimes love to take an opposing view on a topic just to rile someone. Or to try and figure out where I do stand on an issue. Or to find out where the gaps in knowledge are -- mine as well as theirs.

Because I like to learn. I like to know. I like to think, and I like to see others thinking and learning.

Sometimes the same subject will come up again. Sometimes because the person on the other side doesn't leave things alone. More often because something new has come to light and needs to be examined, taken apart, checked out, cleaned up and put back together again. The best way for me to do that is to be arguing (debating) with someone about it.

A debate is a good way to find out where you don't have any answers, or that the answers you have may be inadequate. After all, there is no one like a sibling to say "nyah, nyah, you don't got an answer." Or a friend who will say, "But why not?"

Hyperbole, of a sort, can play into this type of debate. I will sometimes make a grand, broad statement, then sit back to see how people react. I think I know how this one will, or what that one will say, but much more often, I am proven wrong in my expectation. I like that.

Hyperbole can draw attention to a topic, too. Sometimes, saying something wrong can get people talking. To you, asking or telling you about your wrongness. Sometimes to one another, about how wrong you can be, and how you got that way.

So don't be afraid of argument, discussion, debate. It will keep fresh winds blowing through your brains. It will help you see 'old' friends and family in a new way.

It will keep you lively, and alive.