Michael Seidel's Blog
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Apr.19.2013
I've managed to become an island yesterday and today.
Writing and working both frequently leave me alone in a swirl but my bubble seems larger today. My cold still lingers, mucking with my appetite and eating schedule. I wasn't hungry but smelling toasting bread, crisp bacon and melted...
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Apr.18.2013
The Jodi Arias trial has Ashland's population sending each other e-mails and darting to cell phones. It's a tenuous connection but that's how we live now, with tenuous connections to major events.
Bombing in Boston and disaster in Texas? How does it affect the local people?
We're not...
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Apr.17.2013
Ahhh....
Wrote today.
Well, mostly edited and revised a short story and novel, the first time at the keyboard in days. Went out and had coffee for the first time since last Friday. Drove, though, as remnants of the cold hordes keep trying to reclaim their previous empires in my throat...
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Apr.17.2013
I am so feverishly, joyously happy that I don't need to date. Further, I'm grateful that I'm not a woman.
Not that being a woman is wrong. I probably wouldn't be here if not for women (rimshot).
No, I'm thinking about that from the image, primping, dating, presenting point of view....
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2 comments
Apr.16.2013
It's hard to describe how the writing days have been going. I've been out sick so I've not been typing. That doesn't mean I've not been writing.
In the beginning, my writing process was about sitting down and putting words in order in a computer or on a piece of paper. More often...
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Apr.16.2013
A diabolical head cold took me down. So embarassing and humiliating. "I can't go out. I have a cold."
It's not up to my cultivated macho image.
I wanted to be macho and keep doing things but I grit my teeth and told myself, "It's better not to go out and spread the germs. It...
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Apr.12.2013
Just a brief - brief - rant. I swear I'll keep it short. I just need to vent over the ____________ computer.
I may need to channel the retired senior non-commissioned officer residing in me. Please indulge the voice.
I'll also put in a few words about my_______ “smart” phone...
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6 comments
Apr.11.2013
April 12th is National Grill Cheese Day. We are ready at my house!
We've decorated the house. Sprayed Cheese Whiz on the windows, hung string mozz from the ceiling, and put out a cheese plate with some slice green apple for the Big Cheese. Every year the Big Cheese goes around the...
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Apr.11.2013
Standing on Crater Lake's rim, I gazed around the scene and played imagine.
Imagine this land without people and our roads and conveniences. Strip away the wires and cast the world back to when humans were just another species foraging for food.
It's a favorite game, one I often play, even...
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Apr.10.2013
The #Number One Ladies' Book Club is meeting tonight. This month's book is The Sense of an Ending. Written by Julian Barnes, it won the Man Booker Prize in 2011. My wife is moderating tonight.
I haven't read The Sense of an Ending. K has told me about it and her impressions...
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5 comments
Apr.10.2013
National Equal Pay Day came and went in America. We didn't celebrate at my house. No decorations were hung. We had vegetarian black bean chili with brown rice for dinner. Dessert was skipped. We didn't skip it because of National Equal Pay Day. Dessert items were...
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2 comments
Apr.09.2013
Just finishing up Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. She delivered another riveting read.
What fascinates me most is how much she seems to have grown as a writer. Her prose and plotting is sharper than her earlier work - assuming that this is actually the 'latest'. Writers often know...
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Apr.09.2013
Finding the root cause can be important, should you want to do something about fixing the problem. I'm assuming that you can do something about the root cause. Maybe it's not always possible or so close to impossible's postal code that everyone exclaims, "Oh, forget that." Suspecting...
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Apr.08.2013
I dreamed I colored the world.
There was no end to my crayons and talents. My paper was limitless and textured. I saw the land and the sky and gave them shape and hues before whipping my black crayon deftly through and around edges, adding lowlights and shadows, bringing the world to...
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4 comments
Apr.08.2013
I'm out of sorts today, an expression that I like because it seems descriptive. When I hear others say they're out of sorts, I picture them as disheveled, with uncombed hair, mismatched socks and shirts buttoned wrong. If it's a man that's out of sorts, they're unshaven. If they're...
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Writing is exploring myself and discovering the stories and characters that managed to burrow into me. It's a trek, a space shot, an endurance race, a transcendental existence and a dark, worrying tunnel.”
About Michael
1956 - I was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Some other things happened that year, too. Moved around the country as a military brat before finding anchor in Pittsburgh, PA. Lived there 8 years, moved to southern West Virigina, graduated high school and...
Connections
Causes Michael Seidel Supports
Kiva, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Propublica.org, Doctors Without Borders, GreaterGood.com
Michael’s Favorite Books
Catch 22, Catcher In The Rye, Ender's Game, Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Lonesome Dove, Children of Men, The Handmaid's Tale, The Left of Darkness, The Cancer Ward...
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