Category: Life in the United States
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Musings & Thoughts for Monday, May 15, 2023, or Weekend Update Wrap-Up…& a SITREP on ‘The New Story’
Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s late afternoon here in Lithia, Florida, on Monday, May 15, 2023. It’s the first hot early wet season day this year; outside, the temperature is 91°F/33°C under mostly sunny conditions. I have not stepped out – not even to check the curbside mailbox – so I can’t vouch for how…
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On Writing & Storytelling: A Late Start to My Workday – and the Weekend is Nigh
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Blogging, CreateSpace Independent Publishing, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Life in Florida, Life in the Tampa Bay area, Life in the United States, Personal Thoughts, Reunion: A Story, Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss“Let’s get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.…
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On Writing & Storytelling: Some Days, the Story Doesn’t Flow…Other Days, It Does
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft It’s early morning – as I begin to write this, it’s still a half hour before sunrise – here in Lithia, Florida on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. I…
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Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, April 9, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the Second
“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Sunday, April 9, 2023. It’s also Easter Sunday 2023. It’s a somewhat cool and cloudy day here in the Tampa Bay area, and the house is quiet and peaceful, with only…
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Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, April 8, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the First
Well, it’s early afternoon on Saturday, April 8, 2023, one of my two days off from working on Project X. I’ve been up since 7 AM, but I’m only now “clearing the cobwebs” from my brain and tap-tap-tapping at my desk while I listen to music from Cinema Serenade, a 1997 Sony Classical album featuring…
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On Writing & Storytelling: Before I Start….
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” – Madeleine L’Engle It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Friday, March 24, 2023. It’s a warm, sunny spring day, the kind of Florida day that makes…
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Tempus Fugit: On the Occasion of My 60th Birthday
“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” ― Andy Rooney So, today I turn 60 years old. On the day I was born: “I’m not ready to let the youthful part of myself go yet. If maturity means becoming…
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On Movies & Movie Watching: ‘Devotion’ – If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again
Last night, I attempted to watch Devotion by playing the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc; I have the option of choosing either the physical disc or the digital copy I redeemed on Vudu on Wednesday, but I prefer the former playback method. Streaming is fine most times, but it does have limitations and is highly dependent…
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Tempus Fugit (Countdown to the Big Six-Oh Edition): Songs, Schedules, & Off-Campus Lunches…My High School Experience in February 1983
“I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed.” ― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems With less than 18 days before my 60th birthday – the first such recurrence of a “landmark” birthday since my mother’s death nearly eight years ago (and the ensuing physical as well as the emotional…
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Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, February 12, 2023, or: Hey, Look! I Wrote a Regular Blog Post Today!
It’s midafternoon here in Lithia, Florida, on Sunday, February 12, 2022. It’s a cloudy, chilly day here in the Tampa Bay area (64°F/18°C), and unless I have to take some trash out to the garbage bin by the garage, I have zero intention of going outside. I should, but I don’t feel like doing what…