Day 426: Cards for Grandma

This might be a new thing. A new thing for an old thing.

Grandma Bernita recently graced my face with hers upon Skype.
"Jackie, is that you? Well!"

Grandma Bernita recently filled me with compliments.
"I love getting your cards. With their colors and ... things."

Grandma Bernita finally doused me with guilt.
"When you come home, you'll stay forever? I'm getting really old, you know."

My only weapon is cards (love),
cards (love),
and more cards (love, love).

Card #1: Bernita -- forever fisherwoman 

www.jhakijhaki.com

Day 425: Five Happy, Ducky, Prickly, Picture-y years.

Happy FIVE YEAR Anniversary to Picture a Day and Something to Say!

You weren't what you said, but you did what you must.

Best to celebrate with a dear friend's paint-kissed tissue.

Confetti.

And so, Day 425, five years later;
just as hasty and apologetic as Day 0.

Cheers to consistency.
Cheers to the expected!
Cheers to companions!
Cheers to aPaDaStS!

Take a look at Day 0, five years ago. Here. 

Day 424: I feel pretty

Not all scraps are paper. This particular scrap will never find a home. Just a short, smudgy stay upon my tips before a sudsy stroll down the drain.

I've never felt prettier. 

Day 423: construction

Thanks to the enthusiastc rains of Sunday last, I've Internet no more. So we do what we can with limited 3G, my first mobile post, and images from a frisky selfie camera. Add a late week frolic to Romania and you can bet, after this, you won't hear from me until Sunday. But, then, THEN, 

expect a complete fast-forward, montage, review. 

Self-improvement. 

Day 422: Along the long way, fiction helps.

A less-than-seamless merger of Something Along the Way and Fiction Friday. Neither with a picture. This time I'll paint you a picture.
Nay, I'll write -- you paint.

Imagine me, along the way, reading Fiction. No, not a fantastic sentence, but a clear one. It's focused.

Me---> Moving---> Fiction.

Reading the fantastic words of The Moth Magazine.

It's got itself some quality, my friends.
(And each rejection from them stings sweetly.)
Read any, I dare promise any, piece on Moth site or on Moth paper, and enjoy.

And so, along the way, I fictioned. Merger complete.

Ah, damnit. I can't live without the picture.

Just a happily, cluttered corner along the way. 

Day 421: Buy Me.

Dearest Bloggees,

Monday's My Favorite Scrap lives in this edition of Black Scat Review. You must buy one to see it. And you must remember to support the small presses. They're the best and always will be. This issue is a seductive little number and yours truly, Jhaki M.S. Landgrebe, tries her hand at the part--in art. And Black Scat Review was kind enough to showcase my art in this (now-for-sale) issue: Seduction. 

Tuesday's Teacher Tuesday lives in the cold that lives in my body thanks to several thousand sneezes from several dozen six-year-olds.

This Wednesday's TBD is a weekly review and a link to a sizzling magazine filled with fantastic writers and artists and me.

So there you have it. Determined.

Now, if you've ever liked me (even a little), buy this edition.

Buy.
Buy.

Bye.

Picture: 

Day 420: The Sunday Review

Normally, this is the place to see what's happened in each of my trembling limbs. They are barely, if even, trembling. Yet, here we are.

So, around my world in a few lines:

The Farm Whisperer  -- sprouted to life, after a few years of drought. And thanks to some clever readers, I'll be planting a salad in my apartment.

www.jhakijhaki.com -- apart from a few publication updates (Yay!), stayed more or less the same. Look forward to 46 days of 4x6s. Coming soon. Just as soon as I'm ready to commit to 46 days of something.

http://punderstandingmyshelfandotters.blogspot.se -- you may not be familiar with this one. This was an experiment in anonymity. For a moment, I thought wasn't ready to share all of me with all of you. But, life is short. So, #$%^ it. Not sure where I'm going with this site, just yet. It started as a dark, secret literary pleasure and a declaration to my many storage surfaces. But now that we're all out in the open, mystery's sauntered out with pleasure in her palms. Perhaps, in honor of her namesake Punderstanding Myshelf and Otters could be a pun only zone? I am accepting feedback.

And of course there's the Momma that started it all A Picture a Day and Something to Say. We've completed our first week of our new life together. Thank you for coming along with us. If we are to continue at this rate, I imagine a daily FB reminder could get dreary. I'll keep it intermittent. Please follow this here blog to ensure you get each and every update--as you like it. Right?

Your Picture, My Muse:

Gemma. Not sure how I'm writing without her. 

Day 419: Fiction Friday - The debut

Fiction Friday, you may think is an attempt to nudge ya'll towards my eensy little fictions out in the big, bad world. But, no. I believe you, a big boy, can find them all by yourself.

But you, big boy, may not stumble upon this one without the help of your master, me.

Mole in Swimming Pool by Joe Mungo Reed -- For Fiction Friday.

A big, 'hoo-ah' to Gigantic magazine for scooping this furry delight out of the wriggling pool of desperate writers.

Me, however, scoop they did not.
Me, breathe easy, bitter I am not.

Read it. Read into it. Live it. Or don't. Isn't fiction lovely?

Find it here, if you didn't notice the title-portal. From now on, always notice the title-portals. 

And if you really want to find my eensy, little friends of the world click here or here.  No shame.
Even big boys need help every now and again. 

Day 418: Something Along the Way - The Debut

Something Along the Way (SAW), is well, something I saw, yes, along, yep -- the way. The way is the many ways I go to and from and around and between on Thursdays. Here, the Something Along the Way of today:

Of note, all photographed somethings along the way are snapped with a "smart phone." This smart phone has a stupid camera. A broken camera. Forcing photographer to take each shot from selfie. 

Day 417: Teacher Tuesday - the debut

What Teacher Tuesday means for Tuesdays shall vary. I see already. What I thought may be a nice place for cute stories and teacherly delights could also, very easily, become a venting ground filled with all things stressful and bleak. So, today, Teacher Tuesday will not use my words of worry, but another's words of light.

Oliver Sacks is something of a hero, or idol, or role-model, or friend-crush of mine. In his brilliant little book, Seeing Voices, covers of which I have the pleasure of being squished between at the moment, he quotes a few of the [many] riveting words of Joseph Church, on language:

"Language opens up new orientations and new possibilities for learning and for action...[it] is not just one function among many... but an all-pervasive characteristic of the individual such that he becomes a verbal organism...

Language permits us to deal with things at a distance, to ... manipulate symbols ... arrive at novel and even creative versions of reality... juxtapose objects and events far separated in time and space ... we can, if we will, turn the universe symbolically inside out." 

So, ELL/ESL/EFF, and teachers of any language in any capacity: Curriculum redesigns suck. Administrators don't always know best. The days are long and frazzled. But, you have to admit, empowering a student to turn the universe inside out is pretty cool. Ey?

Sources:

Church, Joseph. 1961. Language and the Discovery of Reality. New York: Random House. pp. 94-95
Sacks, Oliver. 1990. Seeing Voices: A Journey into the world of the deaf. New York, New York. HarperCollins. 

Day 416: My Favorite Scrap - The Debut

Here we are in Day 1 of our new Line Up. Perhaps you're wondering about the meaning behind "my favorite scrap." Well, I won't give you much. Because, on this Day 1 of the New Line Up - 2014, I've also endured Day 1 of School Year 2014-2015. Day 1s aren't always fun. But we smile, don't we?

Let's see if we can turn this 1 around.

In collage, hoarding is rewarded. Layers, pieces, colors, scraps and time keep the artwork organic and the work never finished. This never-ending project-process is exciting and also a bit orphanage-y. I love my scraps and I want them to all know the comfort of home. Sometimes it takes scraps a long, long time to fit in and settle down. Sometimes it takes several smudgy almosts before a good night's sleep. This is the story of those scraps. Those beautiful pieces that are just waiting, pleading, yet patient as can be--to be welcomed by other scrap pieces into their canvas forever home.

This Monday's featured scrap Untitled (as most of them are):

Day 415: The Line up

Thanks for waiting. And what were you waiting for? But to learn you'll wait some more!

A Picture a Day & Something to Say (aPaDaStS) has certainly undergone changes. Perhaps the biggest, its late-in-life tendency for the stubborn disregard of modern units of time. A quick walk down the previous posts shows a single aPaDaStS "day" was sometimes a few months of human days.

This might change, if ever so slightly.

You see, over the [human] months and years, my fingers have lusted. And when we lust we wander. Fingers do the same. They've strayed to blogs and sites and portals far beyond (okay, that sounds much too impressive, but go on, be impressed) only to come crawling back to aPaDaStS for a sense of structure, of belonging, of home, of base--safe!

Maybe you've traveled with me and my digits; then, this return is little more than a loop. If you have not you'll get to meet my various selves and their various limbs strewn and splattered across this Web of ours.

And so to kick-off this raking of appendages, a line up:*

Monday: My Favorite Scrap
Tuesday: Teacher Tuesday. (Yes, I'm a teacher. We'll see what that means for Tuesdays.)
Wednesday: TBD
Thursday: Something Along the Way
Friday: Fiction Friday. (Though my fingers keep writing Friction...We'll see which one sticks.)
Saturday: TBD
Sunday: Limb Reunion  (Farm Whisperer, JhakiJhaki, Punderstanding,...)

*-as always, never a promise promised from the fine dependable folks at aPaDaStS. Line Up is free to fluctuate, flip, or completely flop. 


And as promised, your picture:

Get comfy

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Day 414: Waiting Room.

Dear Patients,

Thank you for your patience. Look forward to lots of new fun.
But, don't look too far forward, for it is close and coming soon!

Until then, while you wait, a little whiff of where I've been.

Click here to sniff.

www.jhakijhaki.com 

Day 413: Chair for Thought

Get your head out of the clouds.

And sit on them. 

Day 412: The Sweet, Sweet.

Process:

It's sweet.
And sometimes it's
[the end.] 

Day 411: some things change

Some things change.
Some times don't.

Someone said, "yes" to words

Someone said, "yes" to art

I said, "ok" to me and me

We word and art on. And on.

Day 410: The Mascots

Otter, Orange Chalk, and Scrap of Red Ribbon Appreciation Post

Let's say I'm "supposed" to have 26,666 words today, according to http://nanowrimo.org.
Let's say I'm sufficiently behind.
Let's say I'm okay with that.
Let's say I have 22,183 words.
Let's say that's the most I've ever had.


Thank you Otter, Orange Chalk, and Scrap of Red Ribbon
for your proximity and placement.

This has been an Otter, Orange Chalk, and Scrap of Red Ribbon Appreciation Post. 

Day 409: Tuesday Adventure Night

It's not Tuesday.
I know.
It is the sixth day of this thing they call something like Novel Month.
It is the fourth day since I've joined.

I was caught up.

I was caught up until I lost it.

My laptop.

I was caught up until I left it.

My laptop.

I left it on a bus. Bad news, ey? But it wasn't just a bus. It was a regional bus. And it wasn't just a laptop. It was a new laptop. A new treat I didn't quite deserve and definitely didn't shelter.

I can't tell you the whole story (maybe it's in the novel…). But I can give you a play by play.

0545-1958: Exhausting Monday
1958: Board the bus for some sweet, commuter relaxation
2025: Exit the bus for a chilly walk home
2032: Realize I don't have my laptop
2032.45: Panic
2032.87: Sprint to next bus stop
2045: Knock on every resting bus's window. Attempt to relay my desperation, if my tears weren't doing the job
2046: Call Skånetrafiken (Attempt relay again…)
2200: Knock on the right guy's window
2210: Obtain a secret phone number
2230: Begin trek to Malmö Outskirts
2300: Find where busses sleep
2310: The tattooed exchange. "This yours?" "Yup." (Thanks, Magnus)
23:12: Manic Rejoice
0033: Home in PJs

TODAY 19:58

1,376 words behind. Terribly Happy.

Day 408: On top of it.

I have no words left. But I have 44,910 words to go--should I succeed.
I started the http://nanowrimo.org challenge a day late (typical);
I caught up and am now on track to finish on time (atypical).


Nikon is back in the gang.
We are happily making memories the old-fashioned way.
Because it's a respectable device. It focuses on what's important.
It doesn't chat, Tweet, or post.
It's a camera. It takes pictures. And I love it.

Ok. I guess I had 79 words left. Lucky you.

No time to pose. I haven't quit my day job. 

Day 407: Somethings never

Back.
Back and ready for use.

And although we've said this before,
We're ready to stick around.

A slippery, slimery, gimmicky gadget woke me:

http://nanowrimo.org

It's November.
The month of mustaches, novels, [maybe] blogs, Nikons--

And so, I'll write.
And I promise not to shave.

somethings never change

somethings do

Day 406: Things in front of things

Things in front of things to keep anyones from anythings.

Day 405: Before places. A love letter.

A soft, plushy grip on the before places with enough places before to hold off now until later.
Thanking you, thanking there, then

Love, 

Me, here, now

Day 404: Grass grows over.

Use it. Whatever it is.

Grass grows over.
Another lesson [later] from a before-place.
Thanks Poland.

Day 403: The Key.

Keys: places, to things--probably.

The key to ______ hangs wherever it damn well pleases. 

Day 402: Sunrise. SUB: Snowlight.

And it does not disappoint.  

Day 401: Happy dangles

It's not much, but it lights

It lights, but it dangles

Happy, in this shape and that shine

It dangles and it's mine

Day 400: My 400.

I never thought even numbers deserved more "ah" than odd.
Never more than now.
I never thought the word "should" was nice to "you" at someone.
Never more than now.

And so

I don't expect you'll offer: "You should have done something special for 400."

Instead: A re-run. A sad, wet  NYC good-bye. My 400.

Day 399: This is not a resolution.

O!  Lady away. Laid Away. [Led] Astray.
(Do not blame Away)

Yet, I found her. With hints of light.

Day 398: Re-Begin Again.

Again I begin.
new Beginning. 
beginning Again is not new, 
it's Againing.

 

Day 397: Demonstration for Daddy

I demonstrate on this Fathers' Day.
Yes Fathers'. Not Father's. Not because I have many.
But, because there are many. All having this day.
I have one. The best one.
I love you Daddy!

My offering to you? Two things I've been avoiding:

1. Blogging.
2. Exposing my camera in NYC.

All for you, Papa!

storefront and a half un-cropped, umbrella-ed

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 396: Over and Jump...

...into all things smile
---into all things project
,,,into all things worthwhile
forever-and-evermore!

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 395: Thes-is the start of

Somewhere at six something.
Is something more than nothing.
Is a thing after that thing.
That thing that seized everything.

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 394: apologies and promises

Dear Suicidal Plant and Unfortunately Placed Banana Milk Notebook,

Suicidal Plant, 
I apologize for ignoring your cry for help.
I apologize for leaving your two-week-old remains scattered so.
I promise to attend to them respectfully, eventually.

Banana Milk Notebook,
You are my one and only.
I apologize for treating you less.
I never should have left you alone, especially there.
I promise to write all over you
[just how you like it], eventually.

My neglect unjustified. My apologies unworthy. My promises too late.

In forever shame,
Jacquelyn 




Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 393: Modesty is Success

Wednesday.

Wednesday's Goal: Set Humble Goals. 
Whoever accomplished greatness through resignation?
Whoever finished a thesis otherwise...?


Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 392: April Weather

April Weather depends on whether
10:06 or 11:06
April Weather depends on whether
before or shortly after
April Weather depends on whether
or not

 

"10:06/before"

 "11:06/shortly after"

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 391: brain control

When I can't write, I read

When I can't speak, I Emily Dickinson. 

The Brain - is wider than the Sky -
For - put them side by side -
The one the other will contain
With ease - and You - beside - 

 

The Brain is deeper than the sea -
For - hold them - Blue to Blue -
The one the other will absorb -
As sponges - Buckets - do 

 

The Brain is just the weight of God -
For - Heft them - Pound for Pound -
And they will differ - if they do -
As syllable from Sound -

 

Emily Dickinson

"make[in']cense of it all."

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller

Day 390: Breakfast of Champions

I found an eye in my morning oatmeal.
No metaphor.

I'm not one for omens,
but I've also never eaten one.


Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 389: out like a lion

Another celebratory click from ol' Nikon.
She counts to 9,999.
Some milestones all but peep their passing, 
This anniversary roars.

 "9,999--monumental"

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 388: Backin' up

Blogging! easy as backing up.
Budapest Back-up, upload.
Now up, & Back out. Budapest.

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 387: it takes two to 'series'

the return of...
Somewhere at Six Something
sleepless sleepless sleepless

"fresh morning air"

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 386: Monday Lingers

 Forever recycling week 10. And Monday.

Pine cones are good. Friends are better. Pine cone Friends are best.

"Pinecone goes to Malmö"

 Pine cone as a proper noun is one word: Pinecone. I say so.


Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 385: week 10 muse

 

 week 10 mews

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 384: So--Thes'is the blues, 'ey?

in the clouds
is not where I should be.
should
in the book of another?
should 
[f] should*

 

'transcending...'

 'transcended.'

*phrase & lifestyle courtesy of one special, stunning individual. privacy protected.






Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 383:

A brimming last week.
A weary now.

Week 10 overfloweth.
Week 11 slumbereth. 

 Monday Motivation: 1

Monday Motivation: 2

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 382: Snow Problem

Surprise snow.
Snow problem.
...
little problem-
resisting the urge to pun it.
[there]snow escape
[there]snow way out.

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 381: Somewhere

Somewhere at Six Something: a series. not a promise. 

Conquering jet lag.
Writing [a] thesis.
One gimmick at a time.

6:44 am

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 380: Window Abuse

Window shots. 

Lazy but true. 

Lazy butt. True. 

Shadows. It's best not to think of them.

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.

Day 379: Okay okay.

Heightened responsibility
relocation
graphing paper

unleashes distorted hearing
manic project armies of photo, paint, & print
and a new medium
25lbs of low-fire white clay and a killer sculpture...blueprint.
imprisoned in my skull.
(the design, not the 25lbs of clay)

M:  I like silhouettes.

J: Why were your pants wet in the first place?

Copyright © 2011 Jacquelyn Marie Schneller.