I Wonder

a casino called ilani¹ is just north of where I live. even its literature skips a never to broken rule we learned who knows when, but a long time ago.

a capitalization site, one of which is tells most of us what we were taught, oh so carefully taught, when we were young.
if the aforementioned as a sentence did not follow said rules, would you not understand it?
i cannot dispute that reading, “red rock, mt, may be named for red rock in the area,” could be confusing if not for an understanding of context; or if written, “there is red rock near red rock, mt.” Nah! Capitalization makes it easier.
However, should words starting in lowercase be continued in uppercase like iPhone… if so, ilani would be iLani, and a new rule would be included in the sight cited above. Right?

”What a new rule,” or “What, a new rule?”

Wont is a habit.

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to sing in the Cowlitz language

Sound of Music

Does your car have a radio? That was a common question when teens drove twenty-year-old cars in the 1950s.

So, what does that have to do with today’s title?

Nothing except to help you understand my speaking of the sound of music is from octogenarianism and other syndromes related to having been a teen in the 1950s.

Remember the T-shirt with the saying, “If it is too loud, you are too old?”

I was too old when I was a teenager! I liked music, but I wasn’t a priority in my life at that time, so a radio in any of my many junkers of those days wasn’t all that important.

Radios and cars was not the thought I started with, but you know I get off track.¹

And I’m not taking a poke at “your music” whatever that may be. Everyone has a right to like or dislike.

I thought about this during the Super-Bowl half-time show. I didn’t pick up on more than a few of the words in Rihanna’s presentations. I’m sure she has a pleasing voice, but it doesn’t make sense to me that the instruments were many decibels over her volume.

Rock and Roll was expanding during my teen years, but when a vocal started, the instrument volume went down. Well, that’s the way I remember it – so there!

🎶 🎵 🎶

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I don’t mean eight track.

But First

Octogenarianism: the state¹ of being an octogenarian.
I spent several minutes looking for the coffee mug I filled earlier. I found it in the microwave. My but-firsting² must have been a short project because the coffee was still hot.

I’ve recently had some thoughts about but-firsting and had more than one thought about writing my thoughts about such thoughts or actions. But first, I decided to finish the grocery list.

I started this post on the day after the big game-not the Phoenix Open-but first had to do the “Now What” post (02/13/23).

So then, as my octogenarian memory serves me, but firsting didn’t start in my eighties. As a teen or earlier when I asked to go out and play, or just said I was going to do so, Mother sometimes said, and that’s a long time ago, “But first, you need to…”

No! I am not blaming my mother.

But firsts are well related to should haves, could haves, must haves, but not pear or peach halves. Pear halves, peach halves or pineapple slices are best suited for name your fruit upside down cakes the baking of which could be a but firster.

There I go drifting away from my first intent. Perhaps I’m just a drifter. But wait, The Drifters were an American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group formed in the early 1950s. I couldn’t be a Drifter because I couldn’t sing then or now.

I need to get back to my dissertation about but firsting, but first I need to find my coffee cup again. I hope it’s not cold or I’ll have to conceal it in the microwave again.

But first, I…

However,³ my octogenarian mind wonders if but firsting a symptom of octogenarianism or do others also suffer from it.

1
Some have said it’s Florida; others say Arizona.
2
Loosely defined as doing something before you start something or interrupting a task with another.
3
Often substituted for but.

Letting It Rest

I don’t usually watch celebrity interviews on TV, but this morning I listened to Fredy Prinz Jr. talk about WWE and show business in general. I can’t quote him, but I paraphrase, “Producers’, actors’, and writers’ jobs are to convince the audience to stay for the next scene, show, season, or chapter.”

About two years ago, I drafted of several chapters of “Doughnut Shop” loosely based on people I know. Even with composite characters and fictious events, the story wasn’t working for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my subconscious was telling me I didn’t have enough to keep most readers into situations and seeking the next.

I dropped any resemblance to people I knew and built backgrounds for several doughnut shop characters and injected a connecting character, in first person, with multiple experiences somewhat related to those he’d met in the doughnut shop. I renamed it “Deep Vaulted” as a clue to hidden secrets of the CC and others.

The characters I developed were of my generation, octogenarians +/-, so I realized my audience was probably limited. I re-aged the CC and others to be a half generation younger, but that required re-dating vitals and even more difficult, resetting actual world events to give the CC a different narrative for his finding commonalities of their deaths.

My next difficulty was having a dozen doughnut shop patrons¹ who died investigated by a man with no life events outside the self-assigned investigations. This added more characters and the CCs relationships to them. I struggled with some of the same issues when I wrote Echoes of Nam until I developed Hacker Lee Goor as the observer/participant writer.

I remember hearing John Grisham tell an interviewer he often wrote the ending of a book before starting or starting a second chapter. I wrote an ending and set the CC into it. I back tracked from there and exposed a solution to each of the issues he and others faced in the story. One of the characters, a key player involved in the ending, needed more development within the core.

The time setting started in March of 2000 which meant Covid-19 was an issue in the lives of my characters. Most of the physical setting was in or related to the northwest side of Vancouver, WA. With none of the doughnut shop characters or the CC native to the area, I had to work in how and why they got to Vancouver.

Well most of the issues were or maybe are worked out, and I’ve subconsciously had what Fredy Prinz Jr. said in mind. I’ve tried several openings to get the reader into the story. If a reader gets into the story a poor segue might kill interest. At this writing, I’m not yet sure my segues are not interest blockers.

So, as hard as it is, today I’m putting over 450 hours of work in a hold but remember file.

Segue

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the fictious ones

AI

Aartificial
Iintelligence is in the news. So I must say AI content generator(s) are not used on this site! I’m sure you would know that, but I had to say it anyway.

I can envision¹ the chief abbot coming into the candle illuminated room and saying, “Buckle down lowly scribes. That Gutenberg guy is endangering your jobs.”

And no, I did not develop the bouncing code that makes it move side to side on this site.

A later generation scribe, possibly a descendant of Gutenberg or grandchild of a linotype operator, used God given intelligence to help people like me do what is demonstrated below.

A printing press didn’t give us linotype machines, linotype machines didn’t give us…

.marquee6 {
position: absolute;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
line-height: 50px;
animation: marquee6 5s linear infinite alternate;
/* Apply the animation */
}

Does this octogenarian fear AI will make his greatgrandchildren unemployable? Nah!

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I say envision because I wasn’t there.