Texadelphia
9828 Great Hills Trail Suite 140
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 338-1338
This time, I have made a sacrifice in the name of finding Austin’s best burger. My wife raves about the burgers at Texadelphia, but to me, nothing tops their Cheesesteak. In fact, the Texadelphia Cheesesteak might be my favorite sandwich, full stop.
But, in the hopes of uncovering Austin’s best burger, I pushed aside the menu with its Cheesesteak temptations and considered only the burger menu. I decided on the Bacon Cheddar Burger. Some will consider it ridiculous, but of course, I ordered it without tomatoes or onions. It couldn’t be my favorite burger with either…or pickles either.
For those who haven’t visited Texadelphia, you order at the counter and then sit and they bring you your food. It doesn’t take long and the décor is relaxed and comfortable. My burger arrived open faced, with shredded lettuce on the topside opposite the burger. This burger comes dry, with Hickory BBQ sauce on the side. It needs that sauce, or some of the Mustard Blend sauce that I love so much on the Cheesesteak.
No! Bad blogger! Stay on target, burgers!
Sorry about that. I tasted the meat, just a bit without anything, and it seemed mildly bland, not bad, but it definitely needed something. So, I closed my burger and took a bite. Yes, it needs some sort of sauce. I added a little of the BBQ sauce. That’s much better. I tried a little of the Mustard Blend. Yes, that will do nicely too. I eventually came to the conclusion that the BBQ sauce goes better with the bacon than the Mustard Blend, but it wasn’t a quick decision.
Now, on to the details.
The bun is soft, but has some nice tooth to it. It doesn’t mash into nothingness when you pick up the burger and it might almost be considered a wheat bun, but it wasn’t too heavy. Very nice.
The shredded lettuce was crisp with the only problem that it ends up all over the basket…and the table….and your lap, but that is the nature of shredded lettuce.
The cheese was…well cheese. Since I think it is hard to wrong with cheese, I liked it, it made the burger better, but it didn’t really jump up and call attention to itself. It was an excellent compliment.
The bacon was well-cooked, but not quite crispy enough for my tastes, but excellent.
Now, I mentioned that the beef was a little bit bland as a solo act, but in concert with the rest of the burger chorus, it is quite nice. This may be the best of the burgers I have reviewed, and I would definitely say that I would try it again, but….
It costs about as much as the Cheesesteak, and when I go to Texadelphia, I go for the Cheesesteak and I find it hard to imagine myself forgoing a Cheesesteak for a burger, even one this good. Oh, and it is priced like a premium burger, but it is well worth it.
So, obviously the big winner in this review is….Texadelphia, great Cheesesteak, and one of the better burgers in town. So, anyone want to go for a burger? How about Texadelphia?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Writing
This week, I am taking the somewhat unusual step of actually writing my latest essay. Now, you will have to understand that I mean actually taking pen to paper.
As we hurtle forward thru the computer age, we do most of our “writing” at a keyboard. We don’t write, we type. Writing has come to mean composing, but there is an experience that we are missing and I can foresee penmanship as a lost art in the very near future. Even now, few can write legibly, even when they print.
My own history with writing goes back more than 45 years. In the fourth grade, I learned cursive along with the rest of my class. I won’t claim that I loved it, or was even particularly good at it, but I mastered it.
In High School I took Architectural Drawing and learned to print neatly and carefully between the lines on my house plans. I think it was here that I developed the skill of writing legibly. It has stuck with me.
In 1975 at the age of 18 I started keeping a journal. I won’t claim that every word was neatly written, but I did get lots of practice. I have filled many volumes with my scratching.
In 1984, I joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and I even tried my hand at calligraphy. That is writing that takes a long time.
I have always preferred liquid ink. Long before they were popular, I rode my bicycle the four miles from Corte Madera to San Anselmo (in California) to buy the original Pentel Rollerball Pens, the Pentel Rolling Writer. Later I discovered fountain pens and that is what I am using to write this.
I have spent a lot of money on pens over the years, but found that one of my favorites is one of the cheapest, the Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pen. I have several Parker Fountain Pens, following on from my first, which was a Parker.
I have probably spent an equal amount on books to write in. Now, Bookstores have whole sections devoted to journals, but through the 80s, I had to look long and hard for something suitable. I am writing this in a Moleskine and I found some excellent notebooks from Miquelrius. Now I seem to have more nicely bound books than I can fill.
The quality of the paper and pen make a big difference in the experience. Good writing paper will be smooth, but not slick. It must be rough enough to present some resistance to the pen, but not catch the nib and porous enough to hold the ink without letting it bleed through.
Pens are a very personal element. I have many pens that I like. Some have metal barrels and others are covered in rubber. Some have slim barrels and others stout. My favorites are Parker Pens, which have nice round nibs.
But, beyond the pens, the inks and the paper, there is the actual writing, the scratch of nib across the paper. When you take the time to form the letters carefully, your writing slows, and so must your thoughts. Whole lines of thought can come and go while you form one sentence correctly. The experience is so very different from flashing your thoughts through your fingertips onto a glowing screen.
Of course, you also don’t run out of ink, as happened while I was writing this.
For now, the writing of this essay has fulfilled my desire to write…though, maybe someone needs a letter…
As we hurtle forward thru the computer age, we do most of our “writing” at a keyboard. We don’t write, we type. Writing has come to mean composing, but there is an experience that we are missing and I can foresee penmanship as a lost art in the very near future. Even now, few can write legibly, even when they print.
My own history with writing goes back more than 45 years. In the fourth grade, I learned cursive along with the rest of my class. I won’t claim that I loved it, or was even particularly good at it, but I mastered it.
In High School I took Architectural Drawing and learned to print neatly and carefully between the lines on my house plans. I think it was here that I developed the skill of writing legibly. It has stuck with me.
In 1975 at the age of 18 I started keeping a journal. I won’t claim that every word was neatly written, but I did get lots of practice. I have filled many volumes with my scratching.
In 1984, I joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and I even tried my hand at calligraphy. That is writing that takes a long time.
I have always preferred liquid ink. Long before they were popular, I rode my bicycle the four miles from Corte Madera to San Anselmo (in California) to buy the original Pentel Rollerball Pens, the Pentel Rolling Writer. Later I discovered fountain pens and that is what I am using to write this.
I have spent a lot of money on pens over the years, but found that one of my favorites is one of the cheapest, the Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pen. I have several Parker Fountain Pens, following on from my first, which was a Parker.
I have probably spent an equal amount on books to write in. Now, Bookstores have whole sections devoted to journals, but through the 80s, I had to look long and hard for something suitable. I am writing this in a Moleskine and I found some excellent notebooks from Miquelrius. Now I seem to have more nicely bound books than I can fill.
The quality of the paper and pen make a big difference in the experience. Good writing paper will be smooth, but not slick. It must be rough enough to present some resistance to the pen, but not catch the nib and porous enough to hold the ink without letting it bleed through.
Pens are a very personal element. I have many pens that I like. Some have metal barrels and others are covered in rubber. Some have slim barrels and others stout. My favorites are Parker Pens, which have nice round nibs.
But, beyond the pens, the inks and the paper, there is the actual writing, the scratch of nib across the paper. When you take the time to form the letters carefully, your writing slows, and so must your thoughts. Whole lines of thought can come and go while you form one sentence correctly. The experience is so very different from flashing your thoughts through your fingertips onto a glowing screen.
Of course, you also don’t run out of ink, as happened while I was writing this.
For now, the writing of this essay has fulfilled my desire to write…though, maybe someone needs a letter…
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Disappointing Pair
The end of a good book often leaves me a little depressed. When I enjoy a book, I don’t really want it to end.
Recently, I finished a book…well, actually a set of three books and it felt more like liberation.
Then, within a few days I finished a computer game and…it felt much the same way.
I was actually both relieved and pleased to be finished with both and that was such an unusual experience that I felt the need to write about it. Plus, it makes an excellent opportunity to write a review of a popular game and an obscure book by a well-known Author.
Fallout 3 was a huge hit for Bethesda Softworks. For those who don’t know, in the game, the year is approximately 2270. 200 years before there was a nuclear holocaust, a war that devastated the planet. Your ancestors, or so you believe, hid in vaults to protect themselves from the radiation. After 200 gears of isolation you leave the vault and head out into the wasteland. I won’t give away more of the story in case you decide to play it.
My problem with Fallout 3 is that it is depressing. The game is well-crafted and well-written, but none of that can hide a depressing story. It doesn’t help that the game uses a rather muted color palette. In an attempt to be pithy, I would describe Fallout 3 as being gray, and I mean more than just the color, which to be honest is closer to sepia. There’s no green, no red except for blood, no bright colors at all.
A couple of times during the game I was tempted to quit, and having finished it, I have no desire to play anymore and no desire to get any of the downloadable content. Fallout: New Vegas looks a little better, but what does it say about a game if the sequel’s most appealing feature is that it doesn’t look as bad as the original?
I just cannot recommend it.
So, on to the books.
Many years ago, not long after it was published, I read C.D. Cheryl’s novel Rusalka. I had read several of her novels previously, most notably Downbelow Station and parts of the Chanur Saga. Rusalka, and the two novels that follow, Chernevog and Yvgenie, are based on Russian folklore. One review said they were based on Slavic Mythology, but I think folklore d better word than mythology, when applied to these stories. I enjoyed Rusalka and went on to buy Chernevog not long after. I didn’t like Chernevog as well as Rusalka, and so, while I still wanted Yvgenie, I never went back and bought a copy. In fact, I remember seeing it in hardback, but never saw a paperback copy.
And then it went out of print.
I spent over a decade watching Half-Price Books for a copy that never appeared. Finally, a few months ago I found a used copy of Yvgenie on Amazon and bought it. When my reading schedule cleared, I started again from the beginning.
Now, I read pretty fast. I have read over a hundred books some years and it usually takes no more than a couple of weeks to finish any book, usually it is measured in days, not weeks.
I didn’t like it as well the second time around. Rusalka went pretty fast, but during Chernevog I started to get bogged down. I finished it quickly enough, but when I jumped into Eveshka it seemed like I was stuck in mud. It took me forever to finish the third book.
Now, I think it entirely possible that Fallout 3 and the Russian Trilogy may have fed off each other. The books are often depressing and much of the stories seem to happen in a brown muddy rainstorm. It also doesn’t help that the books can be confusing at times as the author jumps back and forth between different viewpoints, and it gets worse as the series moves on.
In Rusalka, we jump back and forth between Sasha and Pyetr. In Chernevog she adds one move voice, Eveshka. In Yvgenie, the author just goes for broke and tells the story while swapping back and forth between the inner thoughts of all six characters in the novel.
It is just too much.
And I found the ending less than satisfying.
But, my dual ordeal is over. I’ve already moved on to another book and in just a couple of days I am more than a hundred pages in, and entranced with the story. So, I am happy to be out from under these two depressing stories and on to other things.
Recently, I finished a book…well, actually a set of three books and it felt more like liberation.
Then, within a few days I finished a computer game and…it felt much the same way.
I was actually both relieved and pleased to be finished with both and that was such an unusual experience that I felt the need to write about it. Plus, it makes an excellent opportunity to write a review of a popular game and an obscure book by a well-known Author.
Fallout 3 was a huge hit for Bethesda Softworks. For those who don’t know, in the game, the year is approximately 2270. 200 years before there was a nuclear holocaust, a war that devastated the planet. Your ancestors, or so you believe, hid in vaults to protect themselves from the radiation. After 200 gears of isolation you leave the vault and head out into the wasteland. I won’t give away more of the story in case you decide to play it.
My problem with Fallout 3 is that it is depressing. The game is well-crafted and well-written, but none of that can hide a depressing story. It doesn’t help that the game uses a rather muted color palette. In an attempt to be pithy, I would describe Fallout 3 as being gray, and I mean more than just the color, which to be honest is closer to sepia. There’s no green, no red except for blood, no bright colors at all.
A couple of times during the game I was tempted to quit, and having finished it, I have no desire to play anymore and no desire to get any of the downloadable content. Fallout: New Vegas looks a little better, but what does it say about a game if the sequel’s most appealing feature is that it doesn’t look as bad as the original?
I just cannot recommend it.
So, on to the books.
Many years ago, not long after it was published, I read C.D. Cheryl’s novel Rusalka. I had read several of her novels previously, most notably Downbelow Station and parts of the Chanur Saga. Rusalka, and the two novels that follow, Chernevog and Yvgenie, are based on Russian folklore. One review said they were based on Slavic Mythology, but I think folklore d better word than mythology, when applied to these stories. I enjoyed Rusalka and went on to buy Chernevog not long after. I didn’t like Chernevog as well as Rusalka, and so, while I still wanted Yvgenie, I never went back and bought a copy. In fact, I remember seeing it in hardback, but never saw a paperback copy.
And then it went out of print.
I spent over a decade watching Half-Price Books for a copy that never appeared. Finally, a few months ago I found a used copy of Yvgenie on Amazon and bought it. When my reading schedule cleared, I started again from the beginning.
Now, I read pretty fast. I have read over a hundred books some years and it usually takes no more than a couple of weeks to finish any book, usually it is measured in days, not weeks.
I didn’t like it as well the second time around. Rusalka went pretty fast, but during Chernevog I started to get bogged down. I finished it quickly enough, but when I jumped into Eveshka it seemed like I was stuck in mud. It took me forever to finish the third book.
Now, I think it entirely possible that Fallout 3 and the Russian Trilogy may have fed off each other. The books are often depressing and much of the stories seem to happen in a brown muddy rainstorm. It also doesn’t help that the books can be confusing at times as the author jumps back and forth between different viewpoints, and it gets worse as the series moves on.
In Rusalka, we jump back and forth between Sasha and Pyetr. In Chernevog she adds one move voice, Eveshka. In Yvgenie, the author just goes for broke and tells the story while swapping back and forth between the inner thoughts of all six characters in the novel.
It is just too much.
And I found the ending less than satisfying.
But, my dual ordeal is over. I’ve already moved on to another book and in just a couple of days I am more than a hundred pages in, and entranced with the story. So, I am happy to be out from under these two depressing stories and on to other things.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Great Austin Burger Hunt
Terra Burger
10611 Research Blvd.
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 382-5864
Before getting into the meat of my review, I need to point something out. I am in favor of organic produce. Now, that probably seems odd to say in a burger review, but if you know Terra Burger you will understand. Now, I am in favor of organic produce, but I don’t buy it very often. Why? Two reasons, one, the price and two, I can’t taste the difference. Okay, I should add the caveat…usually. I usually cannot tell the difference. I could go further and say that most organic produce is priced out of my range.
This needed to be said because Terra Burger’s biggest selling point seems to be their organic beef. That intrigued me enough to pull in.
I ordered my usual burger and fries, but when it came to a soft drink I was presented with a dilemma. They didn’t really have any diet drinks and being diabetic I avoid anything else. What they did have was came sugar sodas which fits very well with the organic billing. I chose a small cane sugar root beer. I love root beer and this was better than most. A&W fountain root been might be better, but not by much.
Unfortunately, that was the high point of the meal.
The burger was okay, but it was a very average burger at a very premium price. The bun was nice, soft with sesame seeds (I like those too) and with a little more tooth than most. The meat was tasty, a little on the dry side, but I don’t mind that. It came with lettuce which was not crispy and did little to improve the burger.
The fries were a disaster. They were limp and greasy. They tasted okay, but I couldn’t finish them.
Lastly, Terra Burger has no inside dining area. They do however have an outdoor dining and play area with a children’s playscape. One note…you have to cross the drive-thru lane to get from the order window to the picnic area.
I cannot recommend Terra Burger. I expect better when I pay $9 for a burger, fries and a soda.
10611 Research Blvd.
Austin, TX 78759
(512) 382-5864
Before getting into the meat of my review, I need to point something out. I am in favor of organic produce. Now, that probably seems odd to say in a burger review, but if you know Terra Burger you will understand. Now, I am in favor of organic produce, but I don’t buy it very often. Why? Two reasons, one, the price and two, I can’t taste the difference. Okay, I should add the caveat…usually. I usually cannot tell the difference. I could go further and say that most organic produce is priced out of my range.
This needed to be said because Terra Burger’s biggest selling point seems to be their organic beef. That intrigued me enough to pull in.
I ordered my usual burger and fries, but when it came to a soft drink I was presented with a dilemma. They didn’t really have any diet drinks and being diabetic I avoid anything else. What they did have was came sugar sodas which fits very well with the organic billing. I chose a small cane sugar root beer. I love root beer and this was better than most. A&W fountain root been might be better, but not by much.
Unfortunately, that was the high point of the meal.
The burger was okay, but it was a very average burger at a very premium price. The bun was nice, soft with sesame seeds (I like those too) and with a little more tooth than most. The meat was tasty, a little on the dry side, but I don’t mind that. It came with lettuce which was not crispy and did little to improve the burger.
The fries were a disaster. They were limp and greasy. They tasted okay, but I couldn’t finish them.
Lastly, Terra Burger has no inside dining area. They do however have an outdoor dining and play area with a children’s playscape. One note…you have to cross the drive-thru lane to get from the order window to the picnic area.
I cannot recommend Terra Burger. I expect better when I pay $9 for a burger, fries and a soda.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
P.G. Wodehouse
I believe it was my Dad who first introduced me to Wodehouse. I think that means that it must have been about 30 years ago, or more. What I can’t remember is which book I saw first. For some reason, I think it may have been one of the Psmith books. However, what I always truly loved most was Bertie Wooster. Later, I found other books, and recently I found a collection of Blandings Castle stories, which was another delightful find.
If you haven’t read Wodehouse, and I suggest you do, it can be hard to describe the appeal of the stories. The best word I can use to describe them is…fun. They are just fun. They certainly aren’t serious; at least I have yet to find a serious story by Wodehouse. Certainly, Jeeves and Wooster stories aren’t serious, and the most serious thing that happens in the Blandings Castle stories is that the prize pig goes off her feed. Usually, the stories are about one of Bertie’s friends trying to convince some girl to marry him, or Bertie trying to get out of some arranged marriage. Similar storylines abound in the Blandings Castle stories.
The second thing that makes them fun is the era. Well, at least I have fun with the era before the Second World War and after the First. In fact, most of the stories are set before the Great Depression, or at least the Great Depression seems to have little effect on Bertie Wooster.
Bertie leads a life of leisure. He obviously has a bit of money, but I would not actually say that he was rich. He has enough to live without working, to keep a house and a car, and most importantly, a servant. Jeeves, and I don’t believe that we ever actually learn if this is his first or last name, he is always just Jeeves. To continue, Jeeves is Bertie’s valet, his gentleman’s gentleman. Jeeves keeps his house clean, at least we never see a maid, though there may be someone who comes in to clean. Jeeves does occasionally cook, but he is certainly not hired to cook. He keeps Bertie’s wardrobe and generally takes care of Bertie, something which Bertie desperately needs.
The proper term for Bertie is a wastrel, but only if you can find a way to use that word without implying spendthrift, or drunk (though Bertie does drink rather a lot), or in fact, most of the negative connotations of the word wastrel. Bertie does no work, but he does not live extravagantly, except in that he has a personal servant. He makes no contribution, other than the contribution of funds to various clubs and restaurants, by his patronage. He enjoys the good life, but without being overly hedonistic.
Jeeves is the brain of the operation. Jeeves is always ready, with the proper drink, or the proper choice of attire, or good advice, or even a plan of attack for the many small problems provided by Bertie and his cast of friends and relatives, for it usually his old school friends, or his many aunts and cousins who provide the fodder for the stories.
Lastly, I must mention Wodehouse’s amazing prose. At least in the Jeeves and Wooster stories, he lets Bertie relate his story and the style of the storytelling is one of the joys of Wodehouse. In other stories, he may write in third person, but Bertie’s rather intimate narration of the story is always amusing. First is the manner of speech from the time, which I cannot hope to recreate in a few words here, but it is truly wonderful banter. Well, maybe I shouldn’t use the word banter, because that may conjure images of British WWII pilots speaking to each other in their indecipherable slang, but banter is what I mean. Rarely in these stories does Bertie speak in straight lines. I just cannot think of a better way to say it. Other characters are a bit more forth right in their speech, but there is always an sense of trying to work around subjects, rather than just coming out and saying it.
And, though this is not really a plug, you can read some of the stories for Free! Right now, I am reading them on my PC and my phone using Kindle software, and I found two books among the free titles on Kindle. So get out there and read something light hearted and fun. You’ll feel better afterward.
If you haven’t read Wodehouse, and I suggest you do, it can be hard to describe the appeal of the stories. The best word I can use to describe them is…fun. They are just fun. They certainly aren’t serious; at least I have yet to find a serious story by Wodehouse. Certainly, Jeeves and Wooster stories aren’t serious, and the most serious thing that happens in the Blandings Castle stories is that the prize pig goes off her feed. Usually, the stories are about one of Bertie’s friends trying to convince some girl to marry him, or Bertie trying to get out of some arranged marriage. Similar storylines abound in the Blandings Castle stories.
The second thing that makes them fun is the era. Well, at least I have fun with the era before the Second World War and after the First. In fact, most of the stories are set before the Great Depression, or at least the Great Depression seems to have little effect on Bertie Wooster.
Bertie leads a life of leisure. He obviously has a bit of money, but I would not actually say that he was rich. He has enough to live without working, to keep a house and a car, and most importantly, a servant. Jeeves, and I don’t believe that we ever actually learn if this is his first or last name, he is always just Jeeves. To continue, Jeeves is Bertie’s valet, his gentleman’s gentleman. Jeeves keeps his house clean, at least we never see a maid, though there may be someone who comes in to clean. Jeeves does occasionally cook, but he is certainly not hired to cook. He keeps Bertie’s wardrobe and generally takes care of Bertie, something which Bertie desperately needs.
The proper term for Bertie is a wastrel, but only if you can find a way to use that word without implying spendthrift, or drunk (though Bertie does drink rather a lot), or in fact, most of the negative connotations of the word wastrel. Bertie does no work, but he does not live extravagantly, except in that he has a personal servant. He makes no contribution, other than the contribution of funds to various clubs and restaurants, by his patronage. He enjoys the good life, but without being overly hedonistic.
Jeeves is the brain of the operation. Jeeves is always ready, with the proper drink, or the proper choice of attire, or good advice, or even a plan of attack for the many small problems provided by Bertie and his cast of friends and relatives, for it usually his old school friends, or his many aunts and cousins who provide the fodder for the stories.
Lastly, I must mention Wodehouse’s amazing prose. At least in the Jeeves and Wooster stories, he lets Bertie relate his story and the style of the storytelling is one of the joys of Wodehouse. In other stories, he may write in third person, but Bertie’s rather intimate narration of the story is always amusing. First is the manner of speech from the time, which I cannot hope to recreate in a few words here, but it is truly wonderful banter. Well, maybe I shouldn’t use the word banter, because that may conjure images of British WWII pilots speaking to each other in their indecipherable slang, but banter is what I mean. Rarely in these stories does Bertie speak in straight lines. I just cannot think of a better way to say it. Other characters are a bit more forth right in their speech, but there is always an sense of trying to work around subjects, rather than just coming out and saying it.
And, though this is not really a plug, you can read some of the stories for Free! Right now, I am reading them on my PC and my phone using Kindle software, and I found two books among the free titles on Kindle. So get out there and read something light hearted and fun. You’ll feel better afterward.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Move More
The page stares back at me, blank and empty. A week has passed and I have missed the deadline I set for myself. Now another week has passed, and still the page is blank. A new year has begun, and the page remains blank, but then again, the year is also blank.
January.
Janus is the roman god of beginnings and endings. January, a month of new beginnings. It also happens to be the month of my birth. So, as I contemplate a new year, I also contemplate getting one year older. I have reached the age where another birthday is not something I look forward to.
It was a tough year, and I don’t think the new one is going to be much easier, but we continue to slog on. The last few years I haven’t slogged quite as hard as I could have, and that brings me to my one resolution for the year.
Move more.
I have been more than a little sedentary over the last few years, and that is one thing I intend to change this year. I don’t believe in resolutions, so I won’t lay out some grandiose plan of exercise and healthy eating. I know myself too well. But, I have spent way too many nights parked in my chair in front of my computer, and that is part of what I mean to change. No plans to exercise several times a week. No plans on how much weight I want to lose. Simple.
Move more.
I suppose that I could also say, do more, but, I want to keep it truly simple. No goals that will fail before February and make me feel bad. No goals that I will look back on at the end of the year and feel a sense of failure over, just a simple proposal for how to end up in a little different place a year from now.
Move more.
Hopefully some of it will be moving the fingers, and this blog will get back on track. Hopefully, moving will include getting some work done and a few projects will move forward to completion. I hope for lots of things, but I won’t put them as goals, because I have always found that those goals fail. The goals that succeed are the ones that I hold in my heart. The goal that I have in my heart is to stop the slow…or not so slow…slide from middle age into premature old age. I am stiff and sore and out of shape and unhappy and bored and….I don’t know what else, but I feel the answer is simple.
Move more.
January.
Janus is the roman god of beginnings and endings. January, a month of new beginnings. It also happens to be the month of my birth. So, as I contemplate a new year, I also contemplate getting one year older. I have reached the age where another birthday is not something I look forward to.
It was a tough year, and I don’t think the new one is going to be much easier, but we continue to slog on. The last few years I haven’t slogged quite as hard as I could have, and that brings me to my one resolution for the year.
Move more.
I have been more than a little sedentary over the last few years, and that is one thing I intend to change this year. I don’t believe in resolutions, so I won’t lay out some grandiose plan of exercise and healthy eating. I know myself too well. But, I have spent way too many nights parked in my chair in front of my computer, and that is part of what I mean to change. No plans to exercise several times a week. No plans on how much weight I want to lose. Simple.
Move more.
I suppose that I could also say, do more, but, I want to keep it truly simple. No goals that will fail before February and make me feel bad. No goals that I will look back on at the end of the year and feel a sense of failure over, just a simple proposal for how to end up in a little different place a year from now.
Move more.
Hopefully some of it will be moving the fingers, and this blog will get back on track. Hopefully, moving will include getting some work done and a few projects will move forward to completion. I hope for lots of things, but I won’t put them as goals, because I have always found that those goals fail. The goals that succeed are the ones that I hold in my heart. The goal that I have in my heart is to stop the slow…or not so slow…slide from middle age into premature old age. I am stiff and sore and out of shape and unhappy and bored and….I don’t know what else, but I feel the answer is simple.
Move more.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Craft of Writing
Writing is a skill, but the word writing is a verb, an action. To write. One can dream about being a writer, but one must perform the action of writing to be a writer. All of us write. Sometimes we actually write letters, though it seems that advent of email is going to kill letters eventually. We write book reports in grade school. We write essays about what we did on our summer vacation. As we move up to higher grades, we begin to write papers. We could possibly call them research papers though that may be a bit of aggrandizement. We write essay answers on tests all the way up through college and generally by the end of our college years we have written at least one paper that deserves the research paper title.
But, there is more to writing. We blog, and we visit forums and though we may not think of it, we are honing our writing skills, or at least we are if we care about our writing. Maybe we take another step, and write fiction. More likely is that we get a job and do more writing. We write reports. We write emails and memos. Once again, most people don't really consider the craft of writing. It is just something that they do.
For a time, I earned my daily bread with my writing. I was doing email technical support for Dell, and then later graduated to working on the Dell Forums. Technical writing is a skill on its own, but I learned a few things that have helped me across all of my writing. These are two things to consider when writing.
First, you must consider your audience. When I was working on the Dell Forums, I was writing to the general public. I had to assume that my audience knew nothing about computers, except how to buy one from Dell. The problem is that some of those Dell customers are extremely knowledgeable about computers. I had to avoid any hint of condescension in my tone. I had to walk a line between giving the novice all the information he needed, and making the expert feel like I was talking down to him. It was also extremely important to say exactly what you needed to say, and no more. I got very good at stating the facts in a way that did not allow for alternate interpretations.
The second is voice. Voice in writing can be a little hard to explain, but it is easy to show what is meant by examples, though I am not sure that I have any handy, as I am writing this. I will see what I can do. Now the viewpoint taken in fiction has something to do with voice. When an author writes in first person, he writes as the character in the story, and he must fit the writing to the character, he must give the character a voice. One can hardly imagine the same story being told by Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, even if it were the same story that involved both of them. Now, that may seem a strange example, but I hope that you see my point.
But voice can even carry over into non-fiction writing. Imagine writing a how-to manual. If any of you have ever read a …for Dummies book, then you know that even a dry subject had be handled in a witty and humorous manner, but for every subject handled this way as part of the …for Dummies series you can find a hundred dry and mostly boring texts.
Some may confuse voice with tone. This is understandable, and they are related. Voice can certainly convey tone, but voice is both less and more than tone. The tone may be conveyed through other means, and the voice can present more than just the tone. I am trying to think how to explain that better, or provide examples, and I am drawing a blank. I will just have to ask you to accept this…or at least accept that this is my opinion.
Because this writing has drawn to a close.
But, there is more to writing. We blog, and we visit forums and though we may not think of it, we are honing our writing skills, or at least we are if we care about our writing. Maybe we take another step, and write fiction. More likely is that we get a job and do more writing. We write reports. We write emails and memos. Once again, most people don't really consider the craft of writing. It is just something that they do.
For a time, I earned my daily bread with my writing. I was doing email technical support for Dell, and then later graduated to working on the Dell Forums. Technical writing is a skill on its own, but I learned a few things that have helped me across all of my writing. These are two things to consider when writing.
First, you must consider your audience. When I was working on the Dell Forums, I was writing to the general public. I had to assume that my audience knew nothing about computers, except how to buy one from Dell. The problem is that some of those Dell customers are extremely knowledgeable about computers. I had to avoid any hint of condescension in my tone. I had to walk a line between giving the novice all the information he needed, and making the expert feel like I was talking down to him. It was also extremely important to say exactly what you needed to say, and no more. I got very good at stating the facts in a way that did not allow for alternate interpretations.
The second is voice. Voice in writing can be a little hard to explain, but it is easy to show what is meant by examples, though I am not sure that I have any handy, as I am writing this. I will see what I can do. Now the viewpoint taken in fiction has something to do with voice. When an author writes in first person, he writes as the character in the story, and he must fit the writing to the character, he must give the character a voice. One can hardly imagine the same story being told by Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, even if it were the same story that involved both of them. Now, that may seem a strange example, but I hope that you see my point.
But voice can even carry over into non-fiction writing. Imagine writing a how-to manual. If any of you have ever read a …for Dummies book, then you know that even a dry subject had be handled in a witty and humorous manner, but for every subject handled this way as part of the …for Dummies series you can find a hundred dry and mostly boring texts.
Some may confuse voice with tone. This is understandable, and they are related. Voice can certainly convey tone, but voice is both less and more than tone. The tone may be conveyed through other means, and the voice can present more than just the tone. I am trying to think how to explain that better, or provide examples, and I am drawing a blank. I will just have to ask you to accept this…or at least accept that this is my opinion.
Because this writing has drawn to a close.
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