Why I Write, Personal Narrative Class #1

I write to get paid.

I wrote as a kid because all kids do, don’t they?

I wrote professionally because someone was willing to give me a job in the face of a complete lack of experience. They liked my enthusiasm.

2008 happened.

I still write.

I write for one of the last standing print venues. I look around at the digital world and don’t feel like learning a new methodology.

I write my blog to keep from going bat shit crazy.

Afterword

An exercise from the first class. [What Is Personal Narrative, Thoughts Before A Class]

We were given five minutes to answer the question Why do you write? I elected to leave the text as is. I could have added to it and tweaked it, but what came off the top of my head pretty much covered what I have to say. The bat shit crazy motivation, I have mentioned previously, below.

Listening to what other folks came up with, I realized that I don’t write. Not in the creative, story-telling sense. I record. I ask people questions and then organize the information. Perhaps this is why fiction is such a befuddlement to me.

[I’m Baaaaaack] 2013

[Bright-Eyed, Bushy-Tailed, & Back to Blogging] 2018

[State of the Blog: A Marketing Haiku] 2019

More about writing, [My Origin Story] 2014

Onwards!
Katherine

Staircase to Nowhere, Photography

Awareness of the outside world. By the time this is posted, hurricane Helene will have landed and be passing thru the southeast US. NOAA: #Helene resources: The latest storm forecasts, maps, imagery and more.

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Staircase to Nowhere
ArtPlay
Birmingham AL, USA
September 2024

Technical Details

Phone camera.

Wanted to use the time before class to look for photos. Didn’t want to haul around big camera, nor leaving it in truck. So, I went with best camera, i.e. the one you have with you. [Thoughts Before A Class]

The lesson I learned. Stairs assume a destination. The idea was to show how these stairs are a dead-end. Took several photos from straight ahead, concentrating on displaying the upper landing. Thought that was the answer. Took only this one photo from the side. It shows what I was after way better than the others. Take! all! the! angles!

Or I should say, lesson I learned, again. “Once downloaded, the clear winner was … of which I have one exposure.” [Hot Summer]

Onwards!
Katherine

The Water Obstacle, Life With Dogs

Awareness of the outside world. Starting tomorrow, Flights of Foundry, a speculative fiction convention. Interdisciplinary | Virtual | Global. Also free. Hat tip Cislyn Smith & shout out to co-convention chair Jessica Eanes / Anaea Lay (IRL/pen name).

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Photo of Rose because Jas gets all the press.

We have changed Jasmine’s water dish from a standard dog dish to a square cooking pan. Easier for her to get into. Less likely to get tipped over.

Well, less likely to get tipped over by the dog.

Jas has taken up residence in the middle of things. That’s fine. She stays involved. We walk around her. Her water dish needs to be near here. For a year and half, this was not a problem.

The new dish style is not good at avoiding my feet.

I kick it with my foot. I catch the edge with my toe. I step directly in it. I have even stepped on the edge & flipped the fool thing over. I never did this with the other dish.

The other word-using member of the household has started calling me Bigfoot. I’m having no luck coming up with a counterargument.

I don’t have this trouble with Rose’s water dish. Since she doesn’t like to share, her dish is down the hall.

Dog posts [archive]

Onwards!
Katherine

The Muttering, Morning Walk Stories

Awareness of the outside world. St. Louis National Charity Horse Show Saddlebred Week starts tomorrow. Per program, no Jumpers? No Working Hunter? Sad face. Even if I have no way of doing it, it’s nice to see it being done.

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Walking continues. [The Conversation]

Feet continue to be good. Seven weeks again. [Circulation Considerations]

Rodney appreciates predictability. [The Routine]

Milton insists on it.

Milton has been know to go along, by himself, in the lead, if the rest of us get disarranged. He is obviously muttering to himself, ‘I’m the only one here doing this right’. Stomp. Mutter. Stomp. Mutter.

Regroup at the turn-around. On we go.

Not a bad way to start the day.

St. Louis Posts

I may never have ridden there, but that doesn’t keep me from blogging about it. Came close one year. Was gonna ride Sam. They cancelled Academy. More sad face.

[Saddlebred Versatility, Jumpers] 2019

“Would I drive all the way to St. Louis for the chance at one jumper class? In a heartbeat.” [Picking Classes For My Imaginary Horse] 2020

[Helmet Watch and Show Stalking, St. Louis 2021] 2021

Onwards!
Katherine

Auto Ordering Is Out of Control, Or Not

Awareness of the outside world. Yes, it’s amusing. It’s also important. “It also means we’re allocating the wrong amounts of money to plan hospitals to take care of old people in the future. Your insurance premiums are based on this stuff.” The Conversation: ‘The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out’ – Ig Nobel winner Saul Justin Newman. Newman, September 13, 2024. Hat tip to V.

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You are looking at a bucket with 30 pounds of salt, that’s 8 months for one horse, or 4 months for two.

Remember when I said that the mail order process left us without supplement Y? [Subscription Service Surplus]

It was electrolytes, i.e. salt.

We bought more from a brick-and-mortar location.

Then, our online order arrived.

Milton is big on salt. No harm, no foul

However.

Our standing order is a five-pound bucket.

When I picked that up, I also picked up the above bucket.

I thought the ordering algorithm had scrambled its code.

Turns out the barn minion in charge of online ordering had gotten tired of running out of salt and decided to fix the problem.

So now we are well-supplied for electrolytes.

It’s salt. We’ll use it. It won’t spoil.

Onwards!
Katherine