Bookpuddle

Splash du Jour: Friday

2012-05-25T08:19:00.000-04:00

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

2012-05-24T03:18:00.003-04:00

Imagine the terrestrial timespan as an outstretched arm: a single swipe of an emory-board, across the nail of the third finger, erases human history. We haven't been around for very long. And we've turned the earth's hair white.
-- Martin Amis, London Fields --
Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

2012-05-23T03:57:00.002-04:00

I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.
-- Charles Darwin --
Have a great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

2012-05-22T01:46:00.001-04:00

Have a great Tuesday!
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Splash du Jour: Monday

2012-05-21T03:09:00.002-04:00

Life is made of fear. Some people eat fear soup three times a day. Some people eat fear soup all the meals there are. I eat it sometimes. When they bring me fear soup to eat, I try not to eat it, I try to send it back. But sometimes I'm too afraid to and have to eat it anyway.
-- Martin Amis, Other People --

Have a great Monday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

2012-05-18T00:38:00.001-04:00

Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.
-- John Banville --

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

2012-05-17T01:49:00.009-04:00

As I passed under the first broad, high, cool canopy of leaves, it occurred to me to wonder when a tree would feel most like itself, when it would feel it had most fully achieved its true being. I mean, if it were sentient -- and who is to know if we are the only conscious ones, or that our consciousness is the only kind there is? -- at what stage of its yearly cycle would it say, now, now I am what I am, now at last I am in my total treeness.

-- John Banville, Shroud --

Have a great Thursday!
******

Breakin' It Down...

2012-05-15T21:25:00.007-04:00

Just thought I'd drop by and say "I made it here!"
To my vacation!
Having a grand time in the ol' city of Toronto.
The weather could not be better.
[Cipriano, your "Book" page is starting to sound a lot like a Facebook© page!]
I know -- but to my credit, hey, I DID sit out in the sun today at a nearby Starbucks and read Shroud, by John Banville. PLUS -- visited a couple of really neat bookstores! Plus ate some hamburgers..... and some shawarma -- There I go. FACEBOOKING, again!
Anyhoo -- just wanted to show you this shot of a guy breakdancing [or whatever it is] in front of The Eaton Center this afternoon. Completely wild.
If I did anything like this -- even remotely like this, I would have been left in some sort of unrecognizable radiated heap, strewn about like a mechanically de-boned chicken due to the centrifugal forces alone!
I'M HAVING A GREAT TIME!
Oh, and as a BONUS, earlier in the day, I saw two trucks for the company I work for! There's only one thing better than not working, and that's knowing that other people where you work are working when you aren't working.

Splash du Jour: Monday

2012-05-14T06:43:00.005-04:00

I am about to enter into one of my favourite modes of living.
I can describe it in one word.
It begins with "v" and ends in "...acation".
All that's left for me to do is get out on the highway [right now] in my Mazda 3, ["Zoom, zoom!"] meet up with my friend and continue on to a glorious week of frivolity in Toronto!
This shall be a much needed break from work, indeed!

Have a great Monday!
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

2012-05-11T02:34:00.002-04:00

Boy, those French!
They have a different word for everything.
-- Steve Martin --

Have a great Friday!
*****

CRASH du Jour: Thursday

2012-05-10T21:40:00.013-04:00

Those of you who are addicted to a daily dose of Bookpuddle Splash du Jours will notice that today you had to… go without, as it were!
<-- And the reason has everything to do with the photo here.
Lately I have had some severe sleeping issues, as in, I can't do it.
So I've resorted to these -- pills. [I spoke of this recently].
Anyhoo -- last night I took one of these blue beauties and then nodded off into Never-Never Land. And this morning, I was still slumbering like a tranquilized rhinoceros when [of all things] my bedroom phone rang, two feet away from my paralyzed head.
It was a worried co-worker wondering WHY I WASN'T AT WORK!
"What?"
I looked at my alarm clock and launched out of bed like Wile E. Coyote falling from a cliff -- neck all stretched out and everything, but in REVERSE mode.
Either my alarm clock is made by the ACME© company, OR -- these pills are just too powerful, man!
At any rate, I did make it in to work -- with quite the hair-do, I must say, and minus a Splash du Jour for my blog!
I spent the day reconsidering the power of Sleep-Eze.
And also, I thought of the movie The Matrix.
Remember when Morpheus [Laurence Fishburne] gives Neo [Keanu Reeves] the option of taking either the blue pill or the red pill?
Well -- Morpheus LIED to Neo, because last night I chose the BLUE pill, and I did NOT "wake up in my bed" as promised. I stayed in "wonderland!"

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

2012-05-09T02:53:00.002-04:00

Drummers

To believe in a different set of principles.
We say one person is marching this way
and another, that. The while, our self
lockstep with everywhere it has been,
ever seeing all it has seen, walks.

What does the person distant hear?
Too often mere rumble, echoing
through the trees or against the walls.
As rhythmic as anything they’ve beaten,
surety travels. Conviction and loyalty --
Discord, reeking of tribe.

If civilization means a thing, it involves a
heart loving harmony. An ear hearing
that it cannot produce sound. A mind
knowing that all are equally wrong.
Drummers drumming, not in a different way,
but in an other way.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2009

Have great Wednesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

2012-05-08T02:38:00.001-04:00

All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was it expecting people to exceed what they had just accomplished; it was simply feeling so complete.
-- John Irving, A Widow For One Year --

Have a great Tuesday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

2012-05-07T08:19:00.002-04:00

There is no such thing as a Christian child: only a child of Christian parents.
-- Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion --

Have a great Monday!
*****

Prayer: A Trifecta Writing Challenge

2012-05-05T05:00:00.019-04:00

I know in advance that I will not win and/or place in this particular Trifecta Writing Challenge because of the political [or religious] incorrectness of my response, but I'll give it a go, nonetheless:

This week’s Trifextra challenge is simple, but ambiguous.

Three truths and a lie.

33 to 333 words.

Bring it.

Three truths and a lie.

Fair enough.

Utilizing only the minimum requisite of 33 words, here are my thoughts:

Truth One: In difficulty, we should pray to God.

Truth Two: We need only the faith of a mustard seed.

Truth Three: God will answer that sincere prayer.

Lie: God will answer it.

*****

Guilty, as Charged: A Saturday Snapshot

2012-05-05T03:07:00.009-04:00

I am guilty, yes, of wishing I was this young again.
This was taken in the backyard of my youthful residence, on Argyle Street, on the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada.
NOT A WORRY IN THE WORLD!
Wow -- to be this cute again, would be nice.
A recent photograph would not be nearly as universally endearing.
I long for the pristine teeth, and full head of hair. And brain full of lofty ideals.
However, as a wise old man once said:
The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquility of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
-- W. Somerset Maugham --

Thank you Alyce, for hosting this terrific Saturday Snapshot meme @ At Home With Books.
*****

A New Irving on Deck...

2012-05-04T23:34:00.005-04:00

Let's see -- what am I up to lately?
Well -- last night I finally had a good sleep, but only because I resorted to these pills you see at the bottom of this blog.
Sleep-Eze©.
I do indeed endorse them, if you are having problems getting some zzz's.
It's like horse-tranquilizer, but for humans.
In book news, well, I am still immersed in this terrific novel by Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections -- really enjoying it. The guy can write, there is no doubt.
Just today I heard that John Irving has a new novel, to be released on May 8th.
I'm excited about this. I have a lot of faith in the work of John Irving. He's an author that has occasionally disappointed me here and there, but overall, an author I like to like -- and someone I trust.
This new one is entitled In One Person.
Here is an Amazon blurb about it:
A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp.
His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers—a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”
Sounds interesting.
John Irving is one of those rare authors I would pay hardcover price for. In the realm of Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan….. Shakespeare.
[Hey….. no need to be sarcastic, Cipriano!]
Right!
Please disregard anything else I say tonight. I just dropped a Friday-night Sleep-Eze!

Splash du Jour: Friday

2012-05-04T08:34:00.002-04:00

Have a great Friday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Thursday

2012-05-03T02:21:00.001-04:00

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.
-- Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot --

Have a great Thursday!
*****

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

2012-05-02T02:04:00.002-04:00

You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything... affects everything.
-- Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why --

Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

2012-05-01T01:08:00.001-04:00

And meanwhile the sad truth was that not everyone could be extraordinary, not everyone could be extremely cool; because whom would this leave to be ordinary? Who would perform the thankless task of being comparatively uncool?
-- Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections --

Have a great Tuesday!
******

A Bookpuddle Bloggiversary!

2012-04-30T21:44:00.004-04:00

Dear Friends:
It is true that lately I have been a lot less than... bloggerific!
Sort of in a slump as to writing, and even reading, I'll be honest. And even visiting friends in Blogland. I think that the technical difficulties will only be temporary -- and I usually don't like to talk about overly personal things on Bookpuddle -- but seriously, for the past number of months I have been dealing with nearly catastrophic bouts of insomnia.
Too much coffee? Too much late night pizza and hamburger? I don't know!
Some may think that NOT SLEEPING would afford a person MORE time to blog and/or read -- but no -- I find that I am spending an inordinate amount of time trying to get to sleep, and then the next day the relentless pace of work continues on as ever.
It slowly wears one down to a frazzle, chronic insomnia does. In other words, in my wakeful hours, I am less attentive than usual.
At any rate -- it's my Bloggiversary today.
Seven years of blogging. In that time I have posted 2,925 items.
I hope to be blogging for a long while yet, and it has been so nice to meet so many really neat people through Bookpuddle.
Everything good to you all!
*****

Splash du Jour: Monday

2012-04-30T01:42:00.001-04:00

Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it's really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours.
-- Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus --

Have a great Monday!
*****

Ladybug on the Titanic: A Trifecta Writing Challenge

2012-04-28T21:22:00.007-04:00

This weekend's Trifecta Challenge sounded like a real hoot, so I gave it a go.
Here are the parameters, the "prompt" -- followed by my submission:
This weekend, we return to the 33-word prompt, but this time, a 33-word prompt with a twist. Your task, should you choose to accept, is to take a scene that involves (or affects) at least three people. You should then write this scene from the point of view of three of the characters, using 33 words for each character. So for example, if your story involves a mother, a father and a young boy, you will tell the story first from the point of view of the mother (in 33 words), then the same story from the point of view of the father (in 33 words) and finally, from the point of view of the boy (also in 33 words).

*****

Ladybug on the Titanic

"I shall never forget you, Little Ladybug. May the Lord guide you in your new life." Tears fell silently on the Southampton dock as Mary waved toward the beloved red capped child onboard.

The young girl was confused. Everyone else had been so happy about her leaving for America. She hugged her doll and looked up, feeling the reassuring touch of a hand upon her shoulder.

"Come now, Love. Let us find our cabin." As they turned and walked away, Miss Parsons said to herself, "Mary, nothing on earth shall prevent me from keeping your daughter from harm's way."

*****

Splash du Jour: Friday

2012-04-27T03:14:00.002-04:00

When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any firearms with me. I said, Well, what do you need?
-- Steven Wright --

Have a great Friday!
******