Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Author Archives: kayewer

• No No Wri Mo?

  Posted at 1:39 am by kayewer, on November 4, 2012

  I’ve been having bad luck with attempting to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  Each year, starting the moment November begins, intrepid writers attempt to complete a novel of 50,000 words by the last second of November.  That entails some time and devotion.  Time is my enemy, and my devotion gets put on hold.

  One thing I’m trying this year is to use voice software to leave my hands free to do the things I would have to ignore if I’m typing a novel.  The software has turned out to be a bit too human: it doesn’t understand me, often ignores me and keeps asking stupid questions.

  This morning, while waiting for some friends to show up, I channeled my inner J.K. Rowling and drafted some details from my planned NaNoWriMo novel on a napkin.  It works rather well and travels lightly in my already bulging handbag.  Somebody had a fingernail issue and I offered my clippers, prompting another friend to ask what I don’t carry in my purse.  I confessed that I don’t have a kitchen sink in there.  I also don’t have a novel.

  Over the years I have had attempts at making my novel goal that came close to being tangible successes, but that 50,000 mark has escaped every year.  One would have to write 1,667 words daily to achieve the goal.  Maybe it is best achieved by folks who are on vacation, retired or write for a living.  That doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying.  Wish me luck, and if I’m not back next week, you’ll know that I’m cranking out words on a napkin somewhere.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged National Novel Writing Month, NoNoWriMo, writing a novel

• On the Storm Front

  Posted at 2:08 am by kayewer, on October 28, 2012

  The coast is due for a pounding from a hurricane.  I’ll be back after the dust has settled (or the water recedes).

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• Proper Postal-age

  Posted at 1:33 am by kayewer, on October 21, 2012

  Today I was in the queue at the post office.  The good old reliable mail system has lost some luster lately because of the prevalence of email, so staffing is lighter than usual.  In this particular case there was one employee on duty, and the line for customer service for this real human being was ten people long.

  Four people had packages to send, two of which were pre-paid returns which needed no additional work on the clerk’s part, but he did suggest that they obtain a receipt just in case.  They stayed on to do that.

  This clerk managed to juggle one woman with a complex mailing issue (involving standing aside at the counter twice), two of the package senders and a lady who swore she had been in line for a half hour (he said it wasn’t quite that long, and I think it was more like ten).  She noted that she didn’t want to be a bitch about the situation, but she had places to go and things to do.  Perhaps she supposed that the other nine of us in line didn’t have anyplace to go.  However, the gentleman behind the counter was cool under pressure, polite beyond reproach, and whittled down that line as if it were an everyday picnic.  He mentioned to one customer who noted how calm he was that he had survived a childhood in Camden, college and a family with kids, so he obviously felt prepared for anything.  It brought smiles to our faces.

  I didn’t catch the fellow’s name tag completely (it was glare or his ultra-white shirt or something), but he was a breath of fresh air in customer service.  I don’t know many post offices with staff that pleasant in the waning business hours of a Saturday.

  I was there for stamps, and I don’t like to have mine dispensed from a grocery store cash register or an ATM, so I don’t mind the minor inconvenience when I have time to spare waiting in line.  When my turn came I asked politely what small stamps were available, and I noted that he probably gets asked such questions fifty times a day?  “Fifty?” he asked good-naturedly.  I’m sure it’s more like two hundred.

  So the post office does have nice people, and I felt it was beneficial to note that.  Customers waiting in line, however, are often still as sour as ever.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged audubon nj post office, postal clerks, us postal service

• The Veep and Size Which Does Matter

  Posted at 1:42 am by kayewer, on October 14, 2012

  I have already commented on the presidential debate and President Obama’s small flag pin.  The contender, Mitt Romney, had a larger lapel pin.  Well, the candidates for the number two position did the same thing.  Vice President Biden wore a small American flag lapel pin, while Paul Ryan had the large one.

  What’s up with this?  I’m certainly not going to argue the issue of patriotism in relation to pin size, but was the choice part of the overall effort to steer public attention or opinion?  Don’t think that every aspect of the candidates’ outfits is not over-thought down to the last detail.  Somebody came up with the idea.  I’d like to know why.

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• It’s Debate-able

  Posted at 1:22 am by kayewer, on October 7, 2012

  I sat through some of the presidential debate.  It was, after all, the first one, and when trying to decide which button to push at the voting booth when “None of the Above” is never available, one must pay attention to determine the lesser of two candidates and select the other one.  Eenie meenie miney mo doesn’t work, because we all know that once you select eenie, the one you’ll wind up with is meenie.  Miney and mo are just along to balance out the count and make it look like you have control over your choices.

  The candidates didn’t surprise me much.  Sure, it took guts for Mitt Romney to tell the well-known PBS moderator that he would cut funds to public television.  President Obama stayed cool under fire (and maybe too cool for the matter at hand).  The debate amounted to too much back and forth and not enough about the real issues.  They always do.

  What bothered me the most, though, was the candidates’ choice of lapel pins.  Was it just me, or did the President wear a smaller American flag pin than Romney?  It sure looked like a token piece rather than a conscious show of pride.  I just hope neither of the lapel pins were made outside the country.

  We still have more debating to go, with the veeps going at it next.  The networks want us to watch and get involved in our right to vote based on how the candidates’ words move our choice.  I still don’t feel I have one.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Obama, presidential debate 2012, romney

• If De Cit Fits

  Posted at 1:48 am by kayewer, on September 30, 2012

  This article heading from a respected local newspaper proves that being lazy, using your instincts or a spelling checker program doesn’t work any better for the news media than the rest of us:

  

  I always thought the “fit cit” was San Francisco, but I could be wrong.

   

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• In Praise of the American Teenager (and Adults)

  Posted at 1:34 am by kayewer, on September 30, 2012

  I was in the bagel joint this morning when I witnessed something extraordinarily rare and wonderful: a young man thanked the preparer of his breakfast sandwich and wished them a good day, and when his passing through the queue caused an overhead sign to swing, a woman in line raised her hand and stopped it.

  On an ordinary day, any other kid would never raise his eyes from the ground or speak, and a woman would back away from a swinging sign.  This was a positive experience.

  I felt so good seeing such things, I left my change as a tip for the bagel staff.

  Things should happen like today more often.

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• Take Five & Pass It On

  Posted at 2:27 am by kayewer, on September 23, 2012

  Life sometimes gets too complicated.  Right now it looks like people are up in arms about several different things at once.  We’re occupying Wall Street here in the United States (again, it seems), and overseas it seems some people (well, countless people) are upset about an issue with religious sensibilities and whether somebody made a joke or really wanted to push emotional buttons.

  At least I didn’t know the person responsible for the controversial film at the center of all this, and I’m not interested in seeing it or in making people of any religion feel uncomfortable.  Most of us probably feel likewise.

  I normally follow the Peanuts character Linus’ philosophy not to talk about religion when I don’t know enough to say anything of value.  I also don’t talk about politics, and since all I know about the Great Pumpkin is what appears in the animated special aired every Halloween, I guess I’ve struck out on all three.

  Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to just take a break for five minutes and not get involved in anything.  Go sip some water.  Take a micro nap.  Clip coupons.  Just stop for five minutes and settle the torrential mind for a bit.

  It’s so easy to get het up about everything.  Life is tough.  We don’t always behave humanely.  It will never not be that way.  But throwing more logs on the fire of our emotions only makes the experience more painful than it should be.

  Just take five and settle down.  This, too, shall pass.

  And pass it on to somebody else who could also use a break from it all.

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• Why There is Poo in Shampoo (and a Sham)

  Posted at 2:02 am by kayewer, on September 16, 2012

  Why does shampoo take up an entire aisle in the store?  Shampoo is designed to cleanse hair, so it shouldn’t be a twelve step process to find one that works effectively at a good price.  They don’t all have travel sizes so you can sample them, so the expense to find the right one can be daunting, and it shouldn’t be so.

  Dish detergent comes in different scents, which can make the kitchen a more pleasant place to be when washing dirty dishes, and some of them even soften hands at the same time.  They only take up half an aisle in the market.  Hand soaps come in liquid or bar form, with a few foamy varieties thrown in, and they take up less space than shampoos.

  Of course, the argument is that one’s hair is one’s crowning glory, so it has to look right.  That involves styling, not what it’s cleaned with.  So why are there so many products on the market?

  I remember when shampoo was easy:  kids had Johnson & Johnson, women had Clairol and men seemed to go for Head & Shoulders.  Clairol came in formulas with a letter to designate dry hair, normal hair or oily hair.  The letter was scrolled beautifully on a golden bottle.  Then there was Prell, which always advertised that their formula was thick and rich, and a pearl dropped into the bottle would sink luxuriously at a slow pace.  The bottles never even came with a fake pearl for experimentation, but nobody minded.  The folks at Head & Shoulders made their product basic enough for manly hair, with no funny perfumes.  Also, in those days, men wore suits and didn’t want to be concerned about dandruff, so that was their two-in-one solution.

  Today we have formulas balanced for this problem, fortified for that problem and boosted to do something else.  None of us go about our lives looking like the models in the commercials, no matter what we use.

  The bottles are getting strange, too.  Pantene has bottles in which the shampoo stands on its bottom as usual, but the conditioner (does anybody remember when we used “cream rinse?) stands on its head.  The formulas come with terms like “Shine,” “Classic,” “Anti-Breakage” and “Daily Moisture Renewal.”  They all cleanse hair, supposedly. 

  No matter what shampoo you use, the bottles all have the same problem:  they slip out of your hands in the shower.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged clairol shampoo, head and shoulders, pantene, prell

• Anarchy, Discipline & Respect

  Posted at 3:11 am by kayewer, on September 9, 2012

  This week I was annoyed by some of the little inconsiderate things I saw just doing everyday things in life.  For example, boarding a train I sat down and spent the trip watching an empty bottle of Gatorade rolling up and down the main aisle (up when the train slowed down to stop, and down when we departed the station again).  What types of neanderthals do we share a train with, who can’t carry an empty bottle a few feet to the nearest disposal point?

  I have always wondered about the “useful to gross” ratio which seems to be extremely short for some people.  The moment a container is emptied of its contents, it seems some people can’t wait to simply drop the item to the ground as if it had gained cooties, even if a trashcan is inches away.

  Somebody threw a bag filled with uneaten leftover food into a recycle container at the office, and due to the humidity, it was attracting flying insects.  The maintenance crew had to empty that mess later on, and the recyclers who would have sorted out the bottles and cans get bogged down by such thoughtless actions.  The issue is that a regular trash container sits at each desk in the building, and there is a pantry for more trash disposal.  There was no excuse.

  Maybe some people think that, when they’re grown men and women, it’s okay to just not care.

  The problem with not caring is that, eventually, nothing is left to care about.  Taking the easy, lazy way out does not keep this world nice enough for people in which to be lazy.  In one of the Star Trek movies, the ever-logical Mr. Spock brought up the fact that it is always easier to destroy than to create.  Obviously some folks never learned that.  They hawk and spit, drop their napkins and cheeseburger wrappers anyplace they choose, and smile when they say they are free people.  Free is not irresponsible.  Freedom is a privilege earned by setting good examples.  We may be Americans, but we’re still responsible for the land we live in.  If we don’t keep it neat, no other country will come in and sweep up after us like they’re our parents and we’re six-year-old brats.

  That is a problem with us:  we don’t have the discipline we used to.

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