If I were to say I saw an O’Malley cat, only three people would know to what I’m referring: my brothers, Nathan and Kyle, and our mom. People who hear me make the comment might try to understand the reference; if they’re in my age range, they might think of The Aristocats. Those people would be drawing closer to the meaning behind “an O’Malley cat,” but they wouldn’t be certain in that knowledge. In fact, they would be wrong. An O’Malley cat is a large, gray tabby. My younger brother had such a cat. His cat was named after the O’Malley found in The Aristocats, but his cat bore no similarities to the Disney one except in name and possibly in temperament.
Archives for June 2012
Tell Your Audience a Story
People like infographics for a reason. Infographics are fun. They share data without overloading a person (erroneous and misleading though they may be at times). Images and words converge in them, often resulting in a delightful sense of play. Infographics sometimes display humor. They even, at times, tell some sort of story. They aren’t the same-old, same-old bar graphs and pie charts.
Cherish the Basics
I took my first Krav Maga class the other day. It was fun, albeit a little simplistic. I have a background in Japanese jujitsu, and many martial art forms and self-defense classes borrow from Japanese jujitsu in some form or fashion. Krav Maga is no different. The names for stances and defenses may have been altered, but the techniques are similar, if not the same ones that are found in Japanese jujitsu.
This is Sparta: Inspiration, Creativity, and the Writing Life
One of the most memorable scenes in 300 occurs when King Leonidas yells, “This is Sparta!” He then promptly kicks the Persian messenger down a cavernous well. Chaos ensues; the Spartans kill the remaining Persian messengers. The scene seems somewhat illogical unless one is a Spartan (Shouldn’t the Spartans have allowed one of the messengers to survive?), but the sentiment of the king’s cry and act is all too familiar.*
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Write What You Love
“Write what you love.” It seems like simple advice. It probably is, but people have a way of complicating the simplest things.
Writing during the Dark Times
When my world imploded on a personal level last September, I found myself incapable of writing about it. I had no words, just an ache that kept me awake at night and threatened to reduce me into a sobbing mess during the day. It took all my strength and energy not to think about that ache so that I could function like a normal human being.