robertcday

well.. being as how I don't have any idea what Tumblr is at the moment, I'm kinda drawing a blank. Hope this will change soon! It's changing! I'm me!

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Friday Gratefulness

Here are three things that I feel grateful for today (Friday):

It’s Friday! Need I say more?

It’s been a really busy day at work today and so this has given me the opportunity to get stuck in to some really complex stuff and so not let my head wander off into all sorts of other stuff that has the potential to take over an idle mind and proliferate. Damn, but it’s good to have a sentence that I…

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Thursday Gratefulness

Here are three things that I feel grateful for today (Thursday):

I got the opportunity to be up at 6 am so that I could feel so very deliciously tired now.

The Open Uni assignment is done and has been submitted. And it is fab!

I fell in love with myself over and over and over and over again today. Boy, do I feel loved.

As you can see, I have very little time left in the day. But it’s been full…

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Wednesday Gratefulness

Here are three things that I feel grateful for today (Wednesday):

I managed to persuade myself to catch the bus to work instead of walking to work in the rain and getting soaked to the skin. I’m not usually as self-serving, so this was rather a triumph for me. I usually like to make myself as uncomfortable as possible so that I have something to kick back against in my efforts to become a better…

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Tuesday Gratefulness

Here are three things that I feel grateful for today (Tuesday):

I got a letter this morning to say that I was successful in the interview I had last week and so – the position is mine. Sure, it’s the same job I had before (the company had some sort of a reorganisation and as a result had to drop their numbers by one) but it’s a re-grade, and so a promotion, and it gives me more holidays and,…

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Monday Gratefulness

Here are three reasons for me to feel grateful today, which is Monday:

I have not eaten anything with cinnamon in. I’m not so keen on cinnamon. I once bought some chocolate chip cookies from the Spar (a supermarket). Later that evening, we opened them and found that they tasted funny so Mum made me take them back the next day. I explained to the manager that there was something wrong with them…

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In Support of Fridge Magnets

In Support of Fridge Magnets

There are lots of things in the world that are unpleasant or onerous but which seem to be around just to teach us a lesson. Examples are: losing almost a third of our lives sleeping, which, let’s face it, is like being dead; having half of our time blotted out by something called night, which is quite inconveniently filled with darkness; and a system that, whilst it admittedly rewards good acts…

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Visualisation

I was thinking today about how good it is to find a book where you can actually visualise the ideas, concepts, experiences and exercises as you read. It adds an extra dimension to the words – an experiential dimension.

Then I was wondering how much of a challenge it would be to write prose in such a way that the scenes and people could be brought to life in the mind’s eye of the reader.

This is…

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That's Silly

That’s Silly

Twenty minutes of the first things that come to mind:

Hardly have I unicorns where the sun does not shine and the place of the angels sleeps not in the dark lest the light wakes the sweet nine noses of the gorgonzolas in the dish of non-cherries when the plates come out to play. Rap the popsicle in the verdure place. No, not that place. Another place. This where the teddies don’t need nice…

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Lost Word - Arrivee

Lost Word – Arrivee

I’ve lost a word. I’m sure it was there before. I’m quite certain that I’ve read it and perhaps even used it at some point. The word is arrivee (/əˈrʌɪviː/), meaning someone who has arrived. I can’t find any trace of it using the most popular search engines, except as a French word that means arrival in English, and that’s not what I mean.

Do you know this word? Have you spotted it anywhere? Any…

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By My Hand

I know he’s dead. I killed him myself. Stabbed the knife into his heart. Felt the blood as it gushed over my face, surprisingly hot, salty to the taste, viscous. I watched the life drain from his eyes. Saw the horror turn slowly to incredulity and then, an unexpected acceptance. I know he’s dead.

I saw him two nights ago. I was brushing my teeth and I glanced up towards the window. I clearly saw…

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Cooked

There was this big fire what looked like a mushroom. I was a long way off … ’cause I was. My bidness. But I was heading on back to my sweet cowboy. I know he was there ’cause his leg was brok. I know that that there mushroom landed smack in the middle of town because know where stuff is. Was.

I could feel the heat from a long way off. It was hot enough so that I knew if I went closer, I would…

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Genre Thoughts

This is an exercise in understanding how Genre Fiction is put together.

Terms used in fiction:

Style – an expression of thought, using language that is characteristic of an individual, period, school, or nation

Genre – a dynamic classification system to help the readers make sense of unpredictable art

Content – the material dealt with in a piece of writing as distinct from its form or style

Pace

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Stroke

I wake. Short sentence. No meaning. Words come from nowhere and go into nowhere else. More souffle than the muffin I was.

Something missing.

Some whole lots of somethings are gone.

I watch closely for them, but they don’t come back.

Just an expanse in front. Like being three inches away from whipped cream. I want to taste it. I stretch out. Can’t reach. Too far to be three inches. The thought of

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Hello, I'm Sheena

Hello, I’m Sheena

Hi, my name is Sheena. You might remember me from a story that that Robert wrote called Breathe.

To cut a long story short, I had a fling with Mark that didn’t end well. It was bad enough for me, but far, far worse for him I suppose.

Anyhow, the reason I’m writing to introduce myself today is that I got some feedback saying that I was not a sympathetic characterin that story, so I want to set…

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Rhetoric Devices in Prose

Rhetoric Devices in Prose

Being an analysis of Rhetoric Devices used in the first four pages of Wise Children by Angela Carter:

We are confidants in this story of twin 75-year-old sisters, whooping it up in the house that their grandma left them all those years and memories ago. They sound like wild children more than old dears, but ever so engaging for that.

The narrator seems to be one of the sisters and we are…

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Dystopian Utopias

It’s a mad, bad, dangerous world. People are violent, unpredictable and remarkably prone to unhappiness considering the opportunities available to us for material comfort.

One might observe that if madness and the other sources of discomfort were removed, one would be left with sanity and happiness. But at what cost?

I’m watching a movie called Equalsat the moment. I just broke off to type this.…

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Dinosaurs

Did you know that dinosaurs were the “dominant terrestrial vertebrates from 231 to 66 million years ago”*?

Kinda makes our nascent ‘civilisation’ seem sorta weedy, don’t it! *Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs – Lisa Randall

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