Happy Birthday to ME!!!! (7/9)
July 8th, 2007
Thirty years on this Earth and I could not have made it without all my friends including the virtual ones who know me by my words alone. My birthday present is you; thank you for being in my life. This year, I just want to dance and celebrate life!
(hey, Neruda did it, so why can’t I?!)
Feet, you scream the sentences of my stories
and lamentations of my soul
upon the wooden tarimas
beats skipping stones
rich of sound nuances
leaping from your agile bones
You’re a poultice wonder of surprise
Strong and lean
with an arch so high
you induced gazelles to hail the sky
God, you remind me of my past
your veins are the mighty waters
of the black Mississippi,
the color coded Rio Grande,
the stoned carpeted Cauca,
that I’ve crossed in a rickety bus
now you live inside the bayou mud
You are the most direct and simple part of my being
I look to you to tell me when I’m growing old and fat
You’ll stop when the trek is weary
and push forward when the music is right
Your broken, beaten, disappointed
twisted unmedicated ankles
are thick as elephant trunks
that always persevere and never forget
Never doubt that I’ve worked!
my callouses are rough sandpaper dreams
Patches of white space in my foot print
that I wear like a soldier’s purple heart pin
Beautiful by magazine standards you are not
Crowns do not fit your stubbly toes
But to me you are the most perfect imperfection
the most beautiful natural innovation there can ever be
Feet, you are so loved by me
Broken, Broke: Clap Hands!
July 6th, 2007
Colorful language aside, having to deal with Houston crack heads on trucks speeding by me creating tidal waves, crack heads at Lez Zep and Double Trouble (minus Vaughn) concert, having to cancel my birthday plans three times now, replacing tires on my car and crashing my computer…all I can do is clap like I broke dishes. But hey, Wordpress is updated and running…I am still tinkering with it so I plan to do a follow up post schedule to come out later this month. So as I sit on a lovely Friday night loading and organizing my desktop, what have I learned from this experience: ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA!! Thanks to Flaquis for all his help and the folks at Latino Internet Cafe who were able to save 5 DVDs of my data…lots of love!!!
My late Birthday Party on the 9th of August, look forward to some more info .
Windows can go and….yeah, well, add a purchase of office to that list and a prayer that it wont be another lock and loaded night in front of my screen….DUDE!
What is your relationship with the English language?
July 4th, 2007
This is an interview with j. r. gonzales, copy editor here in town as well as a Houston history blogger on his relationship with the English language. As I was swimming the complex sea of the internet, I stumbled upon jr who confirmed my ranting that there is no such word as wuthering in the English language…but should I take the word of one whose screen name is rimmers? Dare I ask and will it publishable on my wholesome site?
j.r.gonzales: That’s my job. There are 10 of us. Well, we have slots who work here too, you know. My relationship with language? The English language?
cp: (no, cantonese) yes
j.r.gonzales: I think I’ve developed a nice relationship with the English language over the last few years. I would say we were well apart for quite some time until I started to take her seriously. Now it works out great and I get paid every other week for my efforts. More like “I never knew you existed,”"where you been all my life.” It would have been nice if I got to know it a little better sooner.
cp: Do you taste every word or use it like spork?
j.r.gonzales: I wouldn’t relate so much to words, but more like punctuation and usage and grammar. No…those are more like the plates and glasses. They keep everything together and in place.
cp: so, what is desert for you? what do you look forward to in your writing job?
j.r.gonzales: Hard to say. I take greater joy in writing a clever headline more so than when I was reporting. Coming up with a headline is like trying to solve a puzzle. You have so much space to fit the words. And you have to be accurate about it too. By longest, they could take an hour. You only have so much time with a story before you send it off. And I probably read about 7-10 stories a night. So, you can’t really dawdle on a story or headline. I remember a nice one that never got published when Katrina was off the Louisiana coast: “Doom Awaits Gulf Coast.” The gulf coast was doomed in retrospect.
cp: do you ever feel poetry in your craft? or would you describe it as an art?
j.r.gonzales: It’s definitely an art. Depending on the way words come together, it can sound like sheer bloody poetry. Some work on an informative level. Others come with double meanings that are both relevant to the story. My boss had a great one a few weeks back when Queen Elizabeth II visited the U.S.: “Queen with a capital queue.” Queue means line. It’s also how u pronounce the letter Q. yeah. Some headlines elevate themselves to sheer poetry. Some can be so succinct as well. The NY Post had a famous headline on Gerald Ford denying federal money to help NYC’s financial crisis. It was “Ford to NYC: Drop Dead.”
cp: what do you do to further or perfect your tools?
j.r.gonzales: READ. Oh, and READ SOME MORE. Building vocabulary, reading comprehension adds more tools to my toolbox. I don’t write in my books. I don’t check out books because I don’t read fast enough. When I finish reading, I keep them and put them on my bookshelf or I just give away to people. I read one book at a time. I don’t have a particular nonfiction writer or blogger. I don’t read much poetry. I try to alternate between topics. I just finished a novel on espionage. Now I’m reading something on howard hughes. Last one I read was “Slaughterhouse Five.” In a few weeks, I’ll begin “Grapes of Wrath” or maybe “Fahrenheit 451.”
cp: wow. Thank you for your interview, is there anything else you would like to add?
j.r.gonzales: Tempus fugit. Time flies.
cp: BTW, I want to know your truthful thoughts on my work
j.r.gonzales: I would say your poetry is… vaginal.
(there was a long pause after this, i didn’t know if I could laugh or be offended, I opted for laughter)
cp: I have never heard anyone describe my poetry that way…the best is nuttier than squirrel feces. Yours just took the cake
j.r. gonzales: Hmm…I think it sums up poetry that comes off as wildly feminine, angry, cultural, out in left field, frentic, needy, wanting and imaginative. But overall, it’s vaginal.
ummm…thank you, ummm, (I guess?!)
add to del.icio.us Swimming Way Out of my Element, HELP II
July 1st, 2007
okay, so I went through and very thoroughly back up my sql, but then came step three: ftp back up. So here is my question: if I already exported my content through WP on line, zipped my sql over to my hard drive in different versions, do I still have to do it through my ftp program? Also, this Synchback program is $30, is it worth its money? Should I be switching from my Core Lite to FileZilla? Last question, is it really necessary to delete old word press files…don’t they just update automatically? Please read instructions below or go to http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress. Bang, bang, duuu bu duuu…AAAAGH! (Please let me know if you can see something weird on the website.)
