I realized something recently. The thing that intrigues me about a lot of writing that I see is the author's use of "showing words". In my high school English class, my teacher tried to drive through the concept of using such words to make our writing more interesting and entertaining. This task was often about as successful as driving a toothpick through concrete. The idea is to express things with more imagery. For example, instead of saying her lips were "red", one might say "her lips were like luscious strawberries that I longed to devour." Instead of calling someone is "old" or "wrinkly", one might say that "his body's skin stretched with his every move, occasionally giving indication that it may in fact crack from its years of wear."
I happened to naturally use showing words and was very good at being descriptive and fun. Somewhere in the middle of law school, I think this must have ended. It also may have resulted from all of the history papers (over 50) I wrote through undergrad. I now look at my writing and am disheartened. Where did all my flash and pizazz go? I'm so much more succinct, and to the point now ... well I'm not sure anyone has ever really accused me of getting to any point too quickly.
My weekend was again full of exciting adventure - and plenty of sun. We went to a little even called Sun Fest here. I had really wanted to go Sunday because 3 Doors Down was going to be playing, but people's Sunday plans being what they are, we had to go Saturday. It was probably the better choice though because the sun was out and the breeze was blowing and it was really just a beautiful day. Sunday was much darker.
Sunday I made a dinner inspired by Stacey. She had recommended that I use this whole wheat penne pasta I still had kicking around my apartment in a stir fry. I had been unable to obtain baby sea scallops yesterday so instead I was left with only chicken breast. However, I persevered with a wonderful marinade selected by my girlfriend, some added spicy sauce she acquired in South America to kick it up a notch, and some lime juice. Then stir fry it with the pasta in a garlic olive oil sauce. Top it all off with roasted vegetables. Good times. It did involve having three items cooking at once and a little bit of timing on all of it, but I really think the prep work on it was harder than cooking it. Cooking it is just high paced, but the prep work is ... annoying.
We attempted to find a new brunch place closer to where we live. This first attempt was, decidedly, an utter failure. I didn't even eat the food I paid for. Tragic. I did get to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which only reaffirmed my belief that Disney should never be allowed to do sci fi. New Lucas (Episodes I and II) is bad enough, but Disney is just tragic. Overall, it wasn't a bad flick, but I think it's a little hard to translate Douglas Adams' English written humor to the big screen, and given this, the task certainly should not have been left to Disney. Give it to those Monty Python boys, but Disney??
I did hear one interesting item to report. A new study performed by some American university has shown that email and such is not only addictive, but that it makes you twice as dumb as smoking marijuana. Apparently, it is so distracting that it actually reduces the ability of your brain to function more than dope. Party on.
I hope everyone had a good weekend.
I happened to naturally use showing words and was very good at being descriptive and fun. Somewhere in the middle of law school, I think this must have ended. It also may have resulted from all of the history papers (over 50) I wrote through undergrad. I now look at my writing and am disheartened. Where did all my flash and pizazz go? I'm so much more succinct, and to the point now ... well I'm not sure anyone has ever really accused me of getting to any point too quickly.
My weekend was again full of exciting adventure - and plenty of sun. We went to a little even called Sun Fest here. I had really wanted to go Sunday because 3 Doors Down was going to be playing, but people's Sunday plans being what they are, we had to go Saturday. It was probably the better choice though because the sun was out and the breeze was blowing and it was really just a beautiful day. Sunday was much darker.
Sunday I made a dinner inspired by Stacey. She had recommended that I use this whole wheat penne pasta I still had kicking around my apartment in a stir fry. I had been unable to obtain baby sea scallops yesterday so instead I was left with only chicken breast. However, I persevered with a wonderful marinade selected by my girlfriend, some added spicy sauce she acquired in South America to kick it up a notch, and some lime juice. Then stir fry it with the pasta in a garlic olive oil sauce. Top it all off with roasted vegetables. Good times. It did involve having three items cooking at once and a little bit of timing on all of it, but I really think the prep work on it was harder than cooking it. Cooking it is just high paced, but the prep work is ... annoying.
We attempted to find a new brunch place closer to where we live. This first attempt was, decidedly, an utter failure. I didn't even eat the food I paid for. Tragic. I did get to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which only reaffirmed my belief that Disney should never be allowed to do sci fi. New Lucas (Episodes I and II) is bad enough, but Disney is just tragic. Overall, it wasn't a bad flick, but I think it's a little hard to translate Douglas Adams' English written humor to the big screen, and given this, the task certainly should not have been left to Disney. Give it to those Monty Python boys, but Disney??
I did hear one interesting item to report. A new study performed by some American university has shown that email and such is not only addictive, but that it makes you twice as dumb as smoking marijuana. Apparently, it is so distracting that it actually reduces the ability of your brain to function more than dope. Party on.
I hope everyone had a good weekend.
I concur with your assessment of Disney's sci-fi abilities, J. Touchstone's portrayal of The Hitchhiker's Guide actually made things more confusing than British humor should be. Still processing the movie after seeing it two days ago. I suppose it had its redeeming qualities, but...far too hard to follow. That and I think they would have done better with Mr. Bean as the actor playing Arthur Dent.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, though, I'm wondering...was the title of this blog entry thrown in there to get people's attention (e.g., teaser), was it an example of this author's discourse on the use of 'showing words' in writing style to dress up the ill-referenced subject of the title, was it simply an obscure note meant for only the priviledged few who know of this person or incident, or was there really a story behind 'A girl in NY City called the "Human Trampoline"' that the author failed/forgot to add to the entry? ... Until resolution of this issue, the title is rejected for the reason(s) cited below:
Lack of Evidence
-The Examiner
The title to the blog is actually a (slightly modified) line from a song from Paul Simon's Graceland. The line was running through my head for the better part of the weekend and I often find it tremendously amusing. I also know some people that remind me of this line who have a very visual type of writing style. I am also trying to plan a trip to Memphis, Tennessee. It's a common underlying theme of my entire weekend, but unfortunately, I couldn't coherently tie it all in without using a lot more space.
ReplyDelete