Wednesday, September 16, 2009

how to get smart and retain knowledge

Laughable that I'd even joke of such a thing. I have little knowledge and retain little of what I have. Nevertheless.
You need to read. Read a lot. But more importantly read the right stuff. What's "the right stuff" is up to the reader.
History, law, science, these subjects matter and have far reaching reciprocal value.
Talk to people who are much smarter than you. Do it regularly.
Take a week and spend just an hour a day on a single subject. Anything - Frank Lloyd Wright, local economy, iphone apps of interest, photography, whatever.
But before all that, go to the park. Go to the cemetary and go to the nearest urban downtown. thoughts and silences and snippets of life you'll see there are not quantifiable.

Monday, September 14, 2009

how to write the great american novel

How would I know? If I did, I'd have done it instead of typing that in a blog that no one will ever see. Type "how to write a novel" in a google search. You'll see hundreds of links. Different procedures and methods. Those are all crap. The way to do it is to simply do it. The beauty is the simplicity. First you have to find your voice, your writer's voice. You need to tell the story, but in your writer's voice. How to find the voice? By writing. Just sit and write. Doing so will bring out that voice and eventually the story will come. So simple a moron could do it.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

how to get hit in the head with a bike chain

This one's simple. Walk through my front yard, half way to my house, smoking a cigarette, talking loudly on your cell phone at midnight. Then show up an hour later and throw a tomato at my front door. Then come back forty-five minutes later looking for more trouble. That's when I sneak out from the bushes and sling a bike chain at your face. Then your knees, then your back as you begin to crawl away. Consider reading or video games rather than skalking through a peaceful neighborhood.