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The Air is Full of Spices

03 May 2013 by KRAG

Simple LivingI used to pooh-pooh spice blends. Yes, I was that stupid.

My reasoning was three-fold. When I was growing up:

  1. Most “spice blends” were just with some seasonings tossed in to bump up the price.
  2. I never knew what was in a pre-packaged “spice blend.”
  3. They were pretty awful.

In addition, nothing bugs me more than a recipe that tells me to go out and buy something I can make at home. Like all those chicken noodle soup recipes that say “add 16 ounce can of chicken broth.” Come on! I want to cook, not assemble! And so, swathed in my righteous purism, I eschewed any and all “spice blends,” casting them out into the wilderness where the lesser creatures could partake of them.

Then I went to live overseas, and my world changed.

(Hint: There’s a recipe after the jump.) Continue Reading »

Posted in Food, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

XX vs XY

02 May 2013 by KRAG

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiWhen I build my characters, I like a full picture. As I practice this craft, I get better at it. My pictures are more complete each time, and one reason for this is Observation.

Observation teaches two things. First, it shows me actual characteristics, physical and mental, that I can use to build my characters. Appearances, mannerisms, vocal traits, behaviors, they all add to a complete portrait. The second thing observation teaches is types. Yes, I’m sorry to say, but people generally can be classed into types.

Understanding types is important because, when I go against type, I want to know it.

Example: by and large, men are more into sports than women. Yes, I know…some women are sports nuts and I’m not saying they aren’t; I’m saying that, in general, men are more likely to have an interest in sports than women. So, will I never write a female character who’s into sports? No, I might do that in this next book. But if I do, I need to know that the characteristic puts the character in the minority. Why? Because if a character is in the minority of her peers, that might shape her, one way or another.

To this point, an interesting characteristic has been discussed on a couple of boards. It’s a characteristic I hadn’t thought of before, but it’s an important one. I’d like to share it with you, and get your feedback.

It has to do with men and women and the friends they have. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

My Chariot of Fire

01 May 2013 by KRAG

ChariotOfFireToday, the buzz in Seattle is not:

  • The NBA kibosh on moving the Sac’to Kings to Seattle
  • The Anarchists arriving for their annual May Day (aka Loot&Pillage Day) festivities
  • The opening of Boating Season

Today, the buzz in Seattle is the possibility of a warm, sunny weekend in Spring.

Yes, the news is That Big.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Seattle | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Doggerel Day Afternoon

30 Apr 2013 by KRAG

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiOver the weekend, I experimented with the “clustering” technique, with mixed success.

It is a great idea generation tool, and similar to Ray Bradbury’s morning word association ritual, can seemingly bring something out of nothing. It needs a seed, a kernel from which to grow, so it’s not literally “from nothing,” but that kernel can just be the first word that pops into your head. I’ve had success before, born of this sort of free-wheeling (my Ploughman Chronicles started from just such a random idea generation technique), but what clustering provides is a definite method.

Another way I found it of use is in focusing and honing an idea I already had. I used it when I created “25 Hz,” posted yesterday. I already had the idea, born of a crappy mood and a little cat therapy, but didn’t know exactly what I wanted to say. Clustering around the word “purr” gave me a page of word associations and–to my surprise–almost all of them appeared in the short poem.

However, there was one area in which I found clustering to be of no use whatsoever: Rhyming.

Yesterday, I got the bit of doggerel stuck in my head. I knew the start. I knew the finish. I just needed help with the in-between bits, all of which needed to fit in with a strict meter and rhyming scheme. Here, clustering failed me, utterly. To finish, I had to resort to an old school method; I slept on it.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

25 Hz

29 Apr 2013 by KRAG

the number on her breath—
inward, louder
outward, gentler
my scent pulled in
peace exhaled
jewel eyes half-lidded
surrounded by safety
in this moment
my hand along her fur
—is a purr of love at 25 Hz

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

Artistic Temperament

29 Apr 2013 by KRAG

A recent episode of “The Good Wife” made me laugh out loud. (In case you didn’t know, “The Good Wife” is not a comedy.)

In the episode, the management at a (rather ill-defined) software development firm referred to their staff as “artists.” Yes, that’s right; we were supposed to believe that this firm not only believed that the job I do–variously titled Programmer, Developer, Coder–is highly creative in nature, but that this firm also chose to encourage that by building an atmosphere that was conducive to the artistic temperament.

It’s not that software development isn’t creative. It is.

I spend my day solving problems. As a software developer, you bring me a problem and I create a solution for it. That’s it in a nutshell. I create a solution. Oh, sure, there’s a bunch of other bushwa in there, like translating your problem from Business-talk into Tech-speak, like translating it from Tech-speak into something a machine will understand, like trying to break the solution through testing, but the kernel of this job is highly creative in nature.

What I found laughable is the idea that corporate management would recognize this. Anywhere. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Dear Left Brain: STFU

26 Apr 2013 by KRAG

Yesterday I tried the “clustering” technique for the first time. I was not pleased.

“Clustering” is an idea generation technique where you start with a core idea in the center (the nucleus), and start jotting other notions around it. This sort of random, free-association is what the right-brain does best, and clustering is a way to do that without the left-brain getting in the way.

In the book (Writing the Natural Way), Rico tells of how easily people fall into the technique of clustering, how even second graders are able to generate story ideas using it. It’s the “rare individual,” she says, who has problems with it.

Meet a “rare individual.” Continue Reading »

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

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