Casey's Just Sayin'

I really like salt. No, that's not strong enough. I love salt. Um, almost. I am IN LOVE with salt. That's it. Madly, deeply, completely in love with salt. I like regular salt. I also like iodized salt, although I can't tell you which tastes better or is better for me. I think iodized salt is supposed to help protect me from some disease. Sea salt is nice. Kinda chunky. Rock salt is something I used to steal from big bags in the carport. Seasoned salt. Garlic salt. Kosher salt. Black salt. Pickling salt (oh dear yes). I found this: Salt tastes good for a few reasons. 1: It's necessary for your survival. Salt is sodium and chloride, both of which are crucial for the functioning of a lot of your body's systems. 2: It's rare in nature, so we have evolved to crave it. It's the same reason why fat (butter, oil) and sugar taste good. 3: It's been part of the first world's food culture for a while now, and something we come to expect from some fo...

Socially - George hears that Suzy has hooked up with Greg. George tells this to Marty, who tells Andrea and Bill. Of course they've all been sworn to secrecy. The next day George finds out that Suzy has not hooked up with Greg. George doesn't want to seem stupid to Marty, or more likely he has forgotten who he told, including Marty and maybe ten other people, so he doesn't say anything. In the mean time, Andrea and Bill have told everyone. Poor Suzy. Greg's not very cute and she like's Bill. Social Network-ly - George sees a meme. It supports his viewpoint and snopes.com would take more keystrokes than share... so share. Suzy, Greg, Marty, Andrea, Bill and 327 other friends see it and many share as well.  Because, you know, keystrokes. Fast forward five years and George's meme is still going strong and the 14 year old kid who created it just started his first semester at community college. He's majoring in IT chicanery.

For the ultra-passive, simply scroll past unwanted posts. For the semi-passive, press the little caret and select "Hide Post". By itself this action is completely worthless of course, because the chances of coming across that post in your feed again are nearly zero anyway. It's the online equivalent of saying "I don't like this and here's what I'm doing about it."... to an empty room. (Seinfeld reference.) For the not quite aggressive, after you "Hide Post" you can often (but not always) select "See Less from -----." In this case the ----- is the source of the meme that is causing all this selecting in the first place. This is useful, eventually. The meme factories are so vast in number, however, you have to really work to reduce the noise. You can also get a tiny bit more aggressive and select "See Less from *****." In this case the ***** is the friend who is posting the meme. This works a little faster than the p...

I came across this list today: Improvement for 12/31/13 1. Lose 20 Pounds, or hit 215, whichever is less 2. Drink less (less than once a week) 3. Ride more (at least once a week, with 2 centuries) 4. Golf more (twice a month) 5. Write more (finish novel, write a short story each month to submit) 6. Read more (at least a book a month) 7. Improve Home (one project each weekend) 8. Budget Spending Coincidentally this was the writing prompt for today: “To boldly go... An impending new year gives rise to reflection and goal set- ting. What will your goals for 2015 be? It’s never to early to start thinking about self improvement!” Universe kicking me in the hindquarters perhaps? Well, let’s look at the list first… grade my progress on the items I forgot about by January 31st. 1. I didn’t lose 20 pounds or reach 215. In fact, since my last century I’ve gained about 10 after losing about that much. So, yeah. Gotta work on that. C 2. Depending on the week, I thin...

When I was leaving my previous life in radio and looking for something new to do in late 2001 and early 2002, a job came up that I really wanted. On a qualification scale of 1 to 10, I probably ranked a 4. In fact the only listing I was less qualified for at the time was business services officer at a bank, a title I didn’t even understand. But this other job, the manager of the Redding Convention Center, that was a real job. It would be a big job in town, one I could throw about at dinner parties and get immediate admiration and recognition. I never went to dinner parties, but I could imagine being at one and really hitting it out of the park with that job title. I wanted it. So I got a suit. The interview had three parts. The first leg was a one-on-one with Vicki Wilkinson, the events coordinator for the city in an office next door to the convention center itself. Then there was a panel interview (to be my first and only) at the new city hall, followed by a written exam at th...

Why are you taking the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman so personally? The answer is I'm not really certain. Over the years, there have been many tragic deaths of public figures around my age (Philip was just under 8 months my senior) and I don't do heroin. And to be fair, the idea of me taking the death of a total stranger personally, of absorbing his passing into my own little narrative is both disrespectful to him and his son and two daughters, and Mimi for that matter, and frankly a little rude. But here I am doing it any way. I keep swinging back and forth, back and forth. On the one end I am profoundly sad at the loss of such a wonderful talent and a loss (almost a hole in reality) of the future performances he would have most certainly given the world. When the pendulum reaches the other side I feel this deep panic for my own life and a deep need I can't quite identify. A need to appreciate? A need to be more diligent? A need to work harder? A need ...

Just over 2600 words, completed this morning. It's a good start and I liked where it ended. I personally prefer to hit the chapters at around 2500 words or less, but this is close enough. After rewrites it'll either be three chapters or it won't appear in the novel at all. So I've got that going for me. But Talise's life has definitely taken a turn, a heavy, terrifying turn. Although at this point neither she nor the reader - nor the author for that matter - know exactly how sharp that turn is going to be. It's kind of exciting. Thanks for reading. Off to do other stuff... then write. Casey Posted with Blogsy