Lie Down Sally

ne of the only times I am not in agreement that Eric Clapton is superior in his musical efforts than am I falls to my obligatory issue of grammar over artistic expression. When I compose a lyric, the language must be exact; more exacting, in fact, than the musical structure. That the reader has never heard any of my pieces while nearly everyone has familiarity with the work of Mr. Clapton obviously shows I am in the minority with this concern – but that is another issue.


oday, I am looking at another grammatical usage puzzle that has gotten the better of me too many times. The doubt and uncertainty associated with this has been humbling. The question is simply this:

When is it appropriate to use “lay” and when to use “lie”?

In addition to “getting happy” with comma usage, this one gets irritating for me in a hurry. Yes. I really do need a life as this matter inflames my passions . . . but, I digress. At least this one time I am able to smugly “instruct” one of the greatest guitar virtuosos of all time.


e are excluding the definition of telling an untruth from our concern. The use of “lie” will simply be in relation to placement of an object, such as a guitar, upon a table. The easy application will be addressed first. The fundamental consideration is that the word, “lay” requires a direct object – To lay the guitar on the table. The word, “lie” does not require a direct object – To lie on the bed. When framed in the present tense, what needs to be kept in mind is what action is occurring – what is being done, NOW. So, the doctor is standing before you this very moment and he instructs you to lie down on the examination table. Concurrently, you notice he is going to lay down your chart on the table. As it so happens, this plays nicely into my misanthropic view of humanity and allows us to remember proper application by a simple thought: People lie / objects lay.

Again, “I lay the guitar on the bed as I lie down to get comfortable.”

For those that have noticed the world is a messy place because of people (present company excluded, of course) all simplicity goes out the window when one considers “lay” as the past tense of “lie.” Not being one to let sleeping dogs lie I shall endeavor to lay hold of the difficulty.

       Present Tense: lie       Past Tense: lay       Past Participle: lain

Let’s “lay it down”, now . . .

Past Tense: “Eric lay down to nap on the recording studio sofa during the exhausting session.”

Past Participle: “I have lain around for days and this is the only effort I have to show.”


       Present Tense: lay       Past Tense: laid       Past Participle: laid

And a one, and a two, and a three . . .

Past Tense: “When Eric Clapton laid down the tracks for ‘Layla’ it was to cover the lie of the depth of his relationship with Patty Harrison.”

Past Participle: “He has laid that demo tape on the PR man’s desk.”


here. I have laid it on the line. You will not be able to lay any charges at my feet. Had I lain about, avoiding my responsibility only then would you have cause to lie awake.

The Insane Little Lunatic's Lovelorn Life

This memorable piece fell out of some recess, in my recollection, just now. I was surprised to remember it in its entirety as I wrote it, instead of paying attention in class, when I was sixteen years of age. Being that was thirty years ago and that it unfortunately proves as true today as it did, then, should at least garnish me the welcome pity and perhaps sympathy I so covet. Yeats, would find it amusing. At least, I would like to believe that to be true. I leave it to you to decide for yourself.


There should be a celebration
In regard to population
Because, for every man, there are more women

So even, then, if some should horde
And some get less (while others more)
There still should be: for every man a woman

But, somehow there is a mistake!
For every attempt I try to make -
For every man (but me) there is a woman

Sure there may be more fish in the sea
But all I have for bait is me?!
Starkist, wants tuna that tastes good; I, want a woman

Still, I'm hoping that things will change,
That, Cupid's arrow will have better range . . .
If she's got a big enough bullseye, he'll get me that woman!

Practiced Abandon

She wants me to be myself and pass me on to someone else
Always someone else; that special, somewhere else
She loves my attention but she does not love me
Wants to enjoy who I am but not completely
There's someone else, to be sure, loves me
I am told this to reassure me but really to exonerate herself

Oh she loves to hear my voice and the words that it bears
That flatter her ears and soothe her hurts and cares
She loves my intent but she does not love me
Wants to find love but apart from me
Promises someone else so I'll let her be
All this in hopes to spare me from the nothing that is there

She wants me to find what I need but once she's had her fill
Once my words seem empty and her heart has stilled
She loves my time but she does not love me
She is now satisfied so I am left in need
Of that special someone else awaiting me
I have been abandoned but I must applaud her for her skill

Code of Conduct

t has taken approximately one week longer than anticipated to publish the "simple" watch movie I programmed and illustrated using Macromedia Flash. The original post explaining my effort is here.

am generally satisfied and came to the crossroad of whether to fiddle and tweak it endlessly until I had exhausted all refinement or actually release something to the public. The latter is a drastic departure for me. As I am generally pleased that the movie is not "clunky" and awkward and simulates the sleek and smooth functioning of the real watch made by Breitling to a fairly high degree I have taken a bold new step for me and published. I hope to continue in this vein from here on so that my writing and other creative efforts will be seen by their intended audiences. I have a tendency to want something to be perfect before allowing others to be involved. The consequence of that has been that essentially nothing I begin ever is completed or allowed to sink or swim on its own merits.

any of my creative and artistic friends suffer from the same malady. We are also often confronted with the reveal by someone else of many ideas which we had and, frankly developed further, but stand by helplessly because they profited from exposure while we merely wrestled with our demons. I am trying to break that cycle. Thus, warts and all, I have made myself vulnerable to criticism by posting my less than perfect work in the right sidebar. I had to remind myself that my desire to create this small work was for the express purpose of sharing it. For once, I have not lost sight of the main objective. All of the stopwatch functions work. The clock shows the date and time of day where I live. In this way, regardless of where you are in the world or no matter the time of day or night of your viewing my posts you will be made a little more intimately involved directly with my life experience. That's really a goal in my writing in the first place. I want to connect more directly with my readers. I consider my desire to make contact with you was more important than making the perfect watch simulation. But, in my communication as well as future program tweaks I will always strive to improve both.

Three Bolts, Two Clamps, and One Hose

hree bolts, two clamps, and one hose were all that prevented me from simply getting in my car and heading in any direction to any location I wished. How much does one need to prepare and concern oneself with such trivial things? Much more often and with greater care, it would seem. Most of the events of our lives are dependent upon items so common that they seldom catch our notice until they oppose our desires. Then the simple element with a simple function complicates the course of our day, consumes our hours, squanders our minutes; frustrates our plans. The details overlooked seed the clouds of circumstances that overwhelm. The smallest thing demands its due recognition. There are no skipped steps and no details so insignificant that may be neglected.

t is the same with writing. All of the rules of style and format and spelling and grammar and punctuation are only the foundation. If one is to write a truly human work there can not be the luxury of skimming over the little things. One hose failed and confined me to a two day sentence of imprisonment. Not only did I have to contend with the failed component but also the failed maintenance schedule, budget, preparation, grocery shopping, and attention to the little details of cause and effect. Then there was the assessment of the ways and means to navigate a problem that had been the result of another human being’s imagination. Every method that could resolve the failure had to satisfy the conditions inherited by me from the design and assembly of some unknown hand.

here is always trial and error, and despite the naturally great distaste for failure, it must be given its due. There is a part of me that recognizes – that actually knows and has admitted – that I do not learn much at all from success. My tuition has been in the failing. I need to remind myself of these things as I write. I need to make certain in my stories that I plan for failure more than the characters realize success. All of those elements of anticipation mingled with denied gratification are necessary to bring that delicious tension to the work which draws in the reader. Like the necessary uncertainty that comes as a stringed instrument is strained and tuned to pitch as to whether it will break or hold, I need to slowly give the work that one, last, critical twist. I think I am going to strive to bait the reader with the false belief held by the whole human race that mankind is fundamentally good and that good always prevails. Then I shall let the details rip that fallacy to shreds. The truth I would like to confront my audience with is that mankind is basically flawed and all good comes from concerted strain and effort against the natural order of chaos.

ven after I had bled and bruised myself from the strain and contortions that I had no choice but to go through in order to replace that hose there was no assurance I had been successful. Sometimes, doubt, is a powerful motivator. Was the replacement secretly flawed? Had another of those little details escaped my view and was it possible I had damaged the very thing I had endeavored to mend? Were those clamps positioned to maximize their effectiveness in securing that hose to its couplings? Did I tighten those three bolts in any combination of too loose or too tight – anything other than correctly? Was it all for show or was it good to go?

hat uncertainty is the very thing I want my readers to feel when they risk driving off in the work of my hands and the vehicle of my imagination.

Code Violations

y current audience consists of two people other than myself. That's fine. This is not one of those blogs where you go to get entertained by a broadcast of telling moments from someone's day. Hopefully, at some future date, it will become a little more like that. Should I have any success as an author, I may be able to tell little anecdotes about meetings with publishers or publicists. I secretly desire to travel to certain spots in the world as inspiration for my work. So, those experiences would be enjoyable, I think.

or the present and foreseeable future, however, I will be mostly journaling about my meandering thoughts and maybe I'll glean some insights from my own conclusions. I'm not expecting any amazing revelations but I am leaving the door open to be surprised. I've really been distracted and uninspired this week. I chased after some email conversations, diverted my time and attention with focus on my other blog (an alter-ego rant festival) and jumped into a little exercise in frustration trying to develop a widget for decorating the sidebar column of this blog page. No. You needn't get caught up in looking for it as it hasn't materialized, yet. I am extremely close but I'm working out flaws in several people's reasoning, including my own. Suffice it to say that if I complete the little gizmo, and execute the presentation properly, there'll be no celebration by anyone seeing it. It will most likely be taken for granted. I suppose that will represent success to me because although the idea is simple the development has not been.

will insist it is a valid exercise because programming is another form of writing that takes practice and skill and is not for everyone. To be able to code, in any programming language, is akin to being able to compose a musical score. That's another pursuit of mine but we'll save that for another day. The challenge in writing software is that the success or failure is much more readily on display than in other forms of authoring. There are only a few places where one may cheat or fall back on comfortable crutches in technique or presentation. Even plagiarism does not work easily with software code. It really requires focus, discipline, and a willingness to be found wrong again and again without losing heart and giving up. Syntax is hugely significant. Spelling accepts no mistakes and there is no spell checker in most debugging tools. It is a great exercise for developing concentration, reason, and determination. Sometimes the discovery of the "right way" to bring your imagination to life is a work of art. There's beauty in the math and structure of the code. It's very intimate and very personal and no matter how much you gush over it while explaining enthusiastically to a non-participant it is going to remain a private affair. This may carry over positively into my novels and other forms of literary constructions. I suppose one really must enjoy what they are doing exclusively and finding anyone else to enjoy it is just a happy coincidence.

hat is an odd thought because I always have a unique someone or special group of someones in mind when I am writing. I am writing to please them and writing to them and writing for them. If I feel I am reaching my intended audience I grow enthusiastic and energized to continue. That's a weak motivation. One bad day or an off impression or even a misinterpretation of a person's reaction has the power to deter or detain or detract from my writing. I'm only realizing that at this moment and thinking how many days have gone by without an entry because I let my imagination of someone else's approval or disapproval interfere with my love of writing. I will need to make that realization a law not to be violated and set writing for the sake of writing as a precedent. There are rules to be broken and there are rules to embrace. I think I find fewer rules need to be broken than habits and attitudes, though. There must be an inviolate code that an author subscribes to in order to create and continue to create with purpose. Like any pursuit it is obvious that one can not allow them self to be diverted from their goal by negative and opposing influences. It 's just important to realize that the really negative and disingenuous notions most often are found from within and not from external sources. Ah, the suffering artist.

A Yawn, in Three Acts

he last thing I need to do is find another vehicle to reinforce my excuses for what I’m not writing. That’s not stopping me from exploring the cause and effect, here. I’m all hung up about the 3-Act format. I just don’t have the sort of contiguous mental processes that submit to a rigid structure. I am much happier just letting it fly and seeing if I can bring it in for a safe and satisfying landing. I can’t schedule the orderly flow of the story because I have only bits and pieces of knowing the personalities of my characters and only vague notions of an average day in their world.

y own story isn’t helping, either. I am dead smack in the middle of my own monotonous 3-Acts in real life. Well, not so much real as it is my life. I’m all about dreams and visions for select and specific details but I’m not the sort of person that daydreams about the happy world I’d like to find myself. I should have all the fodder I need if my motivation was to imagine an escape from my day-to-day. Many great stories have been birthed from that impetus. I just am not one to look back and wonder what-if I had taken another course. I know me too well. I took the course I would have taken nearly every time. I’m not a person that makes coin toss decisions. I assess the risk and go ahead and stomach the consequences. Then I whine about it ever after.

o I have a fundamental theme as far as a plot convention for my tale. I have given the nod to at least three characters as being caught up in the story. All of them are just too resigned to, more than content and accepting of, their circumstances. I think they’re behaving too much like me. I’m not getting a handle on two very critical elements. I am able to introduce the cast without any problem. Their basic drives and lifestyles are easy enough to present. I do not have a significant cause for them to champion. I don’t have any great challenge for them to surmount. They are all going about their business in the same clueless condition as me. That does not make for good reading. I don’t need a model of futility. This is unfortunate since the antagonist of my story is supposed to be so ordinary as to blend into the background but he is more dynamic than any of the other players. This wasn’t set out to be a clichéd accolade of the disturbed mind. Instead it’s becoming a loosely assembled map to my disturbed mind.