Sunday, December 28, 2008

Workin' the Spice Souk

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Men With Plans #1

copyright graft 2008

Idea

Self analysis is luxury.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Just the facts please M'am.

This input really makes me want to write. Green characters on a black background. There are less distractions and I feel like I could write anything I want, with impunity!

I need to focus my thoughts when I write. My tendency is to be efficient and short, to a fault. I feel like I do not have the patience for writing. However I send many emails every day, and I take care when I write them. Writing emails to me feels like technical writing. I'm good at it. Writing prose is my challenge today.

This will be my first real blog post is a long time. I thought for a while that I could present myself with only pictures. Why am I writing again now after so long? I don't know the answer to that question, but writing seems comfortable today.

I said "prose". Here is poetry instead.

PROSE
By Oliver Armstrong

This is hardly prose I suppose.

That's the first poem I've written in years! And it only took me seconds!

I turned 31 a few days ago. I feel good about my age. I wonder sometimes if I was always 31... like when I was 11 years old I was a 31 year old trapped in an 11 year old's body. I've heard it said that every person has a real age and a "natural" age. Like when a 35 year old feels young enough to run in the rain, and clap their hands, and act goofy and naive like a 17 year old. Or when someone's 8 year old daughter says something very sensible and wise, like she would if she were 64.

Other people's perceptions of age are fascinating to me. I notice it especially when I talk about guys I like, who are usually younger than me. Believe me, if I hear "Wow, you like him? But he's so young!" one more time, I'm going to... well I don't know what I'm going to do.

Nothing I suppose, except say "Yeah, I guess, but that doesn't bother me."

Lately I've come to understand that attraction, instant attraction to another person, is often a two way street. It's called the "electric current of attraction". What I take that to describe are the intangible vibes that seem to cross through space between you and the person that you are cruising. The person that is the entire focus of your attention for that moment, however brief. The other person may be looking back at you. You may nod, or smile. They may smile back, or whisper to their friend. But for a moment, there was a connection. It wasn't electricity or radio waves, or infra-red. It was the beautiful body language that humans have developed over millennia on this planet. It was flirting, communication, an involuntary response or maybe even a little show. When you detect that a connection has been made with another person, your body and your brain take over. A little shot of endorphin there, a little pulse of past memory bursts in your cerebral cortex. You record everything. Scent, lighting, how you are feeling about yourself and your surrounds. You and the other person have sent messages to each other, and that message is curiosity, self expression and yes, attraction.

And now that you've experienced this moment, what do you do next?