Re: mystery email #42

Hi Sheryl (and Gary too!),

Not sure how much time you have/will have to play with computers, so
I'll understand if you're quiet for a while. But I'll be even happier
to hear from you!

In your note, you wrote:

> ...in our spare time, i think it would be interesting if
> we each wrote 'our story'.

Great idea! I'm just not sure what "my story" is. Or, rather, I have
so many stories, that confining myself to one or even combining them all
into one is daunting. So here's kind of a table of contents for some of
my stories ideas (I don't know that these will be usable by you, but I'd
be curious on what you thing of the approach).

I think these subjects could be expanded pretty much just by narating
events from my life.

So, how would you organize the telling of your life?

Curiously, with love and great expectations,
Russell.

===========================================

Stories on music in my life, in which I remember lessons, noodling on
the piano, dance, concerts and rhythym.

Stories on poetry in my life, remembering the rhyme and rhythm, the
exuberance of Walt Whitman, and venom of Phillip Larkin, my Commonplace
Books, writing sonnets. Becoming educated to some emotions and ways of
expression by reading different poems at different times.

Stories on books and bookstores in my life, not merely what books when
through my hands, but how and maybe why I felt drawn to reading.
Bookstores and libraries probably could tell the better part of my first
20 years!

Stories on bike rides and car trips, alone on the road or confined with
a dysfunctional family for 2000 miles.

CP. 'nuf said.

My life through the seven deadly sins of Lust, Gluttany, Greed, Wrath,
Pride, Envy and Sloth. I'm sure there's a chapter for each of those.

Life on the outer edge of Religion.

The motivating power of Shame.

Stories on career and work - how a simple misunderstanding can change
your life.

Attitudes toward learning, education and school - passionate indifference.

Depression and senseless happiness.

Grandparent's houses: Orangegrove Ave and The Orange Grove

Chess playing - unbearable tension, beating Dad, clubs and malls.

Vietnam, dinner-time politics, hippies, beards and hair.

Coffee, beer, drugs, IHOP, Denny's.

Obssessed with control.

So, what happened to my posts??

They seem to be all gone. So sad.

My stories (a table of contents)

In your note, you wrote:

in our spare time, i think it would be interesting if
we each wrote 'our story'.

Great! Except, of course, "our story" probably should be "our stories".
After reading your note, I started (yet again) on a table of contents,
this time on My Stories.

Here are some thoughts on some of the stories in my life:

• Stories on music in my life, in which I remember lessons, noodling onthe piano, dance, concerts and rhythym.

• Stories on poetry in my life, remembering the rhyme and rhythm, the
  exuberance of Walt Whitman, and venom of Phillip Larkin, my Commonplace
  Books, writing sonnets.

• Stories on books and bookstores in my life, not merely what books when
  through my hands, but how I felt/feel drawn to reading. Bookstores and
  libraries probably could tell the better part of my first 20 years.

• Stories on bike rides and car trips, alone on the road or confined with
  a dysfunctional family for 2000 miles.

• CP. 'nuf said.

• My life through the seven deadly sins of Lust, Gluttany, Greed, Wrath, Pride, Envy and Sloth.

• Life in the outer orbits of Religion and Dogma.

• The motivating power of Shame.

• Stories on career and work - how a simple misunderstanding can change
  your life.

• Attitudes toward learning, education and school - passionate indifference.
  

• Depression and senseless happiness.

• Grandparent's houses: Orangegrove Ave and The Orange Grove

• Chess playing
  

Note to my wife on our 16th anniversary

Dear Cakes,

This has been another great year with you. Your enthusiasm for life and family is electrifying and energizing.

And with that enthusiasm, we've created a happy, safe and fun place to be - a home with a great family.

We've played a lot over the years. Sometimes our play is goofy, sometimes tender, but full of laughter.

Sometimes we've needed to take care of each other, and we've done that with tenderness and love.

We've brought two girls into the world who make this world a better place to be.

With the laughter, the love, the tenderness and our girls, the next sixteen years are going to be very nice indeed!

I love you Cakes,
RL.

Poetry

One thread that is part of the fabric of my life has been poetry.

I think the earliest poem I remember would be either "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" or "The Highwayman". Probably the latter. The rhythms and drama would certainly appeal to any kid. I remember reading them (and studying the pictures) from the Childcraft series of books my mother bought (and which my dad blew up over when he saw the expense).

I remember coming back to them over and over, with a feeling of comfortable anticipation boarding and excitement.

There really was excitement in those stories and romance and the rhythm and the rhyme. Some of Edward Lear's nonsense or Lewis Carroll were mixed in there too, but they didn't grab me in quite the same way. Perhaps the humor was too sophisticated for me then (I'm not sure just how old I was, but certainly younger than 10). Even such blatent nonsense as Jabberwocky or "The Courtship of the YongyBongyBo" takes some experience with epic poems to understand their twisted natures.

In middle school, I started keeping a mommonplace book. At that time, I didn't know the term or even really the idea of a diary. And this was before the popularity of Journalling in teaching. I only really knew that some poems and aphorisms resonated so strongly with me that I wanted to keep them. Yet I wanted to keep their importance to me private. They put into words so many of my feelings and thoughts that I was afraid that I'd be literally and open book to anyone who read my notes.

I remember having lost my notebook once. I was crushed. But I think I might (at the time) have perfered that feeling to the chagrin of having one of the more popular kids ask if it was mine and hand it to me, with an odd expression on his face. At the time, I probably just snatched it, mumbled thanks and took off. But I wonder to this day what his thoughts were. Probably just thinking about lunch or his next class.

Thoughts on a Personal CMS

I'm accumulating a lot of documents (from the web, from scanned bills,
from digital pictures, etc). I'd like a convenient way to manage and
access these, including:

Presenting attractive "albums" of pix,
Searching and accessing my bookmarks,
Searching and accessing scanned documents,
Low level of admin attention,
Some measure of security.

There are things like Blogs (hence this site), Zope/Plone,
MoinMoin/Wikis and hand-rolled systems.

But they all fall down in one way or another, either not presenting
attractively, requiring too much work, low security, etc.

Still thinking.