When I Was Small …

I used to listen to the Bee Gees. I was six and we had the soundtrack to the movie S.W.A.L.K. My favourite song was “My World”. My brother’s was “Melody Fair”. I was a big fan.

Seven years later, in the UK, I was astounded to hear “Stayin’ Alive” and all the other Saturday Night Fever songs were from the same group. Falsettos, dance rhythms like I’d never heard before. Welcome to the disco era.

But then came the backlash. Disco over-kill. But I remained an open fan despite teasing school friends and even until recently some so-called grown-ups, say incredulously: “What, you like the Bee Gees?”

In 2000, they played a concert at Stadium Australia. I refused to see them in such a massive venue. They’d be mere specks on a stage. I’d see them some other time, I told myself, at a less super-sized auditorium.

Three years later, Maurice died at 54. Now I would never see them live. C’est la vie.

A couple of years back, Robin was playing solo in Melbourne. I had tickets but then the dates changed and it became most inconvenient to go. So I didn’t.

Now he’s gone too.

Robin had a distinct soulful voice. He was a more successful solo artist than brother Barry.

The Bee Gees will be remembered most for their disco hits. But their tunes from the 1960s and early 70s still resonate for me.

There are less well-know songs too which have stood the test of time. I recommend: “Wind of Change”, “Subway,” “Greatest Man in the World”, “Fanny Be Tender with My Love”, “Come on Over”, “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down” and “Edge of the Universe”.

You’d also enjoy all their tracks from the S.W.A.L.K soundtrack.

I certainly did when I was six.

I still do.

 

Happiness – Part 2

So are you Over-Desiring?

Do you yearn for too much?

If you want to be happy it may be time to drop some of your desires. Or to put it another way, these desires may be making you unhappy.

If we’re fulfilled in life, this necessarily means that we’re content. This means that we have everything we want.

Naturally, if we’re unfulfilled, then we’re not content. That’s because we don’t have all that we desire.

Correct?

 But “Hey!”, you may well say, we really can’t lump all desires in the one basket, can we?

So here’s a way of looking at DESIRE more closely.

Some desires are mundane:

> I wish this check-out queue would move along.

> I’d like to have curry chicken for lunch.

> I wish they’d stop playing this loud music.

Some are aspirational:

 > I need to be good at writing.

> I have to hit my sales quota this month.

> I want to own a latest model BMW.

Some are benevolent:

 > I wish to end world poverty.

> I have to help my grief-stricken neighbour.

> I want to promote peace and goodwill.

Which ones do you think cause unhappiness. All of them or just some of them?

Or perhaps you might think that desires don’t cause unhappiness at all?

The important thing to note is that DESIRE comes from WITHIN. If happiness is linked to desire, then HAPPINESS comes from WITHIN.

“Hey!” you may again say. “I knew that already!”

But then pressed by the burdens, the pressures of this world, you may not agree. Or perhaps you just didn’t have the time to think about it. Or to even notice?

Happiness – Part I

You and I have known each other for a long time. Well, maybe not. Perhaps you’ve just stumbled onto my blog. But anyway …

I think it’s time we got serious. Time we talked about what’s really close to our hearts. And it’s a pretty simple but very important one.

It’s about this thing called Happiness.

We all want to be happy. That’s a given thing. We want it more than anything else.

More than Money. More than Love. Fame. Success. Prestige. Power.

Those things are secondary because we hope that Money, Love, Fame, Success. Prestige, Power or whatever else will deliver Happiness. So most of our waking hours are spent chasing these things.

But we also rightly know that Happiness is just something in our heads. The source of happiness is not external but internal.

We know fame doesn’t deliver it.

Just ask Whitney Houston. But it’s too late to question her, I suppose.

Too late to quizz Howard Hughes about being wealthy beyond anyone’s dreams, but maybe we can ask still Rupert Murdoch.

As for Love, we know how fleeting or disastrous it can be. You only have to listen to all those woeful love songs!

No, Happiness is found in ourselves. In our hearts.

But sometimes we have to admit that we’re unhappy. Often it’s because we’re unfulfilled.

Unfulfilled because we don’t have what we want. We don’t have what we desire.

So it might be a good time to ask yourself:

What do I desire?

Perhaps you can come up with a list.

We’ll talk again, you and I, about these items.

We’ll talk about your DESIRES …

Because. the fact is, your desires cause UNHAPPINESS.

Don’t you agree?

(I know this is all very deep. But I did say we were going to get serious!)

Is he a Bad Dad?

“This is for you!” declared a father proudly to his eight-year-old son.

“Wow, that’s huge,” said the boy as he stared at the pile of journals and magazines, standing four-foot-tall in the corner of his bedroom. “It’s taller than me!”

“Sure it is, son. It’s all for your education. So you’ll do well at school and know what’s happening in the world. There’s tonnes of information there, all for you.”

“Was it expensive, dad?”

“No, I didn’t buy it. I just found in outside our front door. I looked through some of it. Lots of great stuff there. Magazines, journals, books, newspapers …”

The eight-year-old thumbed through the top few magazines. “So you want me to read all of it, huh, dad?”

“Well, not all of it. Just some. I’ve only had a quick glance at some of the stuff.” He glanced gravely at the pile, knowing that there were some pornographic magazines, racist and other hate material there. “Well maybe I should get rid of some of the stuff. They’re just not be appropriate. You know, grown up stuff.”

“Ah, dad. I won’t read those.”

“You sure?”

The boy shook his head. “No way, dad.”

“I’m going to trust on this one, okay son?”

“Sure you can trust me. I won’t read the stuff that’s not right for me.”

“That’s good then. The pile is all yours. I know you’ll spend many great hours over it. All for your education, okay?”

“Sure, dad. Thanks!”

“See you later,” said the father as he closed the bedroom door and left with an uncertain look on his face.

So my question is: Is he a good dad or a bad dad?

This story is about parental control. And what I’m getting to is parental control over the internet. The analogy is pretty clear to me.

Do you know that you can change the settings on the computer (1) to restrict access to inappropriate sites or (2) allow our children to visit certain sites only. Alternatively, there’s software available to restrict access.

Parental control over the internet is important. It’s hard for us parents because we didn’t grow up with the net and so didn’t have parents to tell us what to do. We know not to let our young kids out at night because our parents didn’t let us do so.

But now it’s different. So it’s up to each parent to determine the sort of control that’s needed. This will vary with each child’s age.

But if there’s no control then maybe we’re no different from the father in my story.

iPad 3, Kindle or plain old book?

Certain things lead to promiscuity.

Beholding a gorgeous woman or a particuarly handsome man does not per se lead to one being involved with many partners, but it most definitely helps.

So it is with the iPad.

With the huge selection on the iBooks app, with now with even sharper stunning covers (due to its new Retina display), I must confess to being rather greedy in my downloading.

Which is better?

This had led to my reading more than several books at the moment. Such promiscuous reading is certainly a new habit for me. I jump around from Tolstoy to Joyce then to King and T.S Elliot not to mention a raft of non-fiction books on subjects I never thought I had the remotest interest in.

So you’d like to know which is better as an ebook reader, right? The iPad or the Kindle?

I’ve read a heap of other bloggers on this question. They all go for the Kindle.

Yes, the Kindle (and I really love mine still) is not a distraction machine. It’s made for reading. You’re not liable to start playing Angry Birds on checking the latest news, downloading yet another app or seeing who’s updated their Facebook status.

Also, the Kindle hardly weighs anything. You can wield it dexterously with one hand.

I’ve now discovered though that the iPad trumps this advantage in one place. That’s when we’re lying in bed together. Just iPad and I.

With the iPad in a stand up case, I prop her delicately on my stomach and we’re in action.

Now, head upon a soft pillow, I’m reading hands free!

I occasionally stroke her, just to change pages. But other than that, only my eyes (and sometimes my brain) are doing the work.

So, yes, the iPad wins over the Kindle.

Only in bed, of course!

The Kindle still triumphs if you’re reading elsewhere.

Without any reflection on its screen, the Kindle is perfect outdoors. When I lazed about at a beach resort several months back, I counted at least four people reading Kindles on their deck chairs.

The iPads were used strictly in the restaurant.

Oh, and what about the good old book?

I still read those too.

I’m reading a particular large hardback at the moment. Whilst in bed (well, so far I’ve only been reading it in bed), I find that a cushion on my belly helps soften its rather heavy spine.

I like the feel of its dry crispy pages on my fingers.

And after I’ve finished it, I’ll place it on my bookshelf for myself and all my family and friends to admire.

So which to I prefer?

Well, all three, of course!

Writing is Like Playing the Piano

That’s right. It’s all about practice.

Like most things, the more you do something, the better you are at it!

If you play the piano but haven’t done so for many months, you might find yourself a bit rusty when hit you hit those keys again. It’s the same for a guitarist, harpist or for anyone that plays a musical instrument.

It’s the same with writing. If you haven’t done it for awhile, getting back to writing isn’t going to be so easy.

If you’re just starting off as a writer, then my advise is to keep practising. Write as much as you can because this will inevitably improve your writing. Tap away on the keyboard. Write by hand. Use your journal.

But read as much as you can too both in the genre you’d like to write it but read widely too, to expand your horizons. Reading provides a huge portion of the experience which writers need to write. It’s the input, so that you can create output.

Of course, the other input is life experience. This not only includes what this world has thrown at you but what you hear from others. Stories, gossip, observation, a conversation you overheard. It’s all part of life.

But back to the piano analogy. Reading and life experience is the sheet music which you play to. What you create from it is your own expression.

Yours will be the music of words!

How to Turn Your Idea Into a Novel

So you’ve got an idea for a novel. It’s a wonderful idea. It excites you. You’ve imagined the characters. The intriguing plot. The dramatic scenes.

You’ve even started thinking about how the cover would look like. Even imagined yourself signing copies at your local bookshop!

But the only problem is that you haven’t started writing your novel yet.

Why?

There may be several reasons:

1. You haven’t any idea how to start (other than typing “Chapter 1”!)
2. You’re still mulling over some of the characters or parts of the plot.
3. You need to do some, perhaps lots, of research.
4. You’re just too busy right now.
5. You’ve no idea how to write creatively.

Which one do you think might apply to you?

The last item can be addressed in a straightforward way. If you’ve had no practise at creative writing, then get a book to teach you how and start practising with short stories.

As for the other items, my recommendation is to just start writing.

Don’t worry about what you’ve written. Just get the words down, put those letters on the page. The idea is to create a first draft without getting bogged down in detail. Without worrying about inconsistencies to begin with. Forget spelling. Forget grammar.

All the issues that you have can be addressed as you write your novel. Writing the novel is in many ways researching it. As you write new ideas may form, other ideas discarded. You’ll have a better idea on what areas you’ll need to research. Those items can be filled in later. Just move on the with the novel.

New characters may come. Other characters may go. The main character’s nemesis may end up as the main character. The main plot may become the sub-plot. Scenes you had planned may drastically change. The entire genre may change!

This is all explored as you write your first draft. But you’ll never get to do that until you start!

Even if you think you’re too busy at the moment, most people can find 30 minutes a day to to something they’re passionate about.

That’s the key thing. Passion.

You’ll needs lots of it to write a novel. This desire will be your driving force as you put in the hundreds of hours needed. You’ll spend all this time in isolation. There’ll no doubt be sacrifices. There may be heartache and despair. There may be elation and a deep sense of satisfaction like no other.

But you won’t know until you start.

Once you’ve got your first draft then you’ve got the foundations of the novel.

Now you’ll rewrite it. You’ll do several rewrites. You may do scores of them.

Writing is re-writing.

That’s where you’ll correct stuff. You may replace characters. Even amend the plot. Change the setting. Perhaps even the genre.

Chapters will jump around. Whole sections excised. Sub-plots introduced.

Writing your novel can be ardous. Perhaps there should be a warning label for those wanting to begin the journey.

But, if you have the passion, then it’s one well worth taking.