My friend in our #bandofsketchers group asked me to come up with some drawing prompts. This is my reply. The list could be a poem!
“Sorry I’ve not been doing much again. I’ll try again soon! New prompts:
Ideas and dreams Sugar Black and white Green and red Purple and yellow Orange and blue Blurred Stitches Games Holding on Silly Ripples Fish Floating Suspended Itch Hobby Strap Festival Flop Book or booking African South American Asian North American Australian Shower Sunny Slope Feed Fright Parrot Hold Amphibian Resting Testing Opera Bulge Seaside Steps Happy Miffed Splatter Gold Metal Chomp Sold Smell
I think these can be quite open? Hope this helps.”
I once had a long argument with someone who told me that my way of speaking was not complax enough. So I deliberately changed how I was talking, I spoke about the method of communication I used and that while I understood his phrasiology I preferred clarity. In the end we came to an agreement that each of us had our own styles, but I did feel he had been condescending and patronising.
I still feel the same way about communicating with people. Yes you can be elitist, but what is the point? A teacher or expert might try and share information but if they don’t use explanations and analogies how can they pass it on. Simplification can help, visualising data using illustrations is a way of showing how things work. Teachers may assume you already understand the basics of a subject but you might not have attended the right courses. I never did Physics at A level, but did a course that required some knowledge of it. I had to resit the exam at the end because of that.
As far as I understand dumbing down isn’t simplification, it’s not even sharing correct information. It is using less knowledge and making it sound plausible, effectively cutting off dissemination (sharing) of any number of subjects to the detriment of civilisation. Instead of the sum of information growing and people’s lives improving, whether it’s in medicine, or finance, understanding the weather or geology, we seem bent on causing harm to people and places. An attempt to keep the masses down?
This post is a bit odd, I wanted to explain what I thought but I’ve been a bit verbose. I don’t know if I’ve achieved clarity, I just think dumbing down is not good for the world.
When I was little I thought Mal-la-band meant the bad band in French. I convinced myself that it meant the bad band. Although that perhaps would have read “La band mal?”
I imagined myself as a part of a band of pirates, sailing the seven seas, looking for buried treasure and adventure.
Mal and Mer mixed up in my mind, I was quite young and I also thought it meant a bad sea or stormy sea.
As I learnt to spell my name I became aware that other children were taking the micky out of me. There was a type of margarine called “Blueband” and guess what exciting word kids in my school would call me? Yeah, you got it.
But when I got married I kept my original surname along with my hubbys. I didn’t want to lose it. I’m attached.
And it’s meaning? I don’t want to know. I just like my ideas.
I’m in a writing group and I hand write stories and poems. But our latest challenge has me worried. It calls for us to write a piece 2000 words long! I suddenly feel like I’m back at school or college writing essays.
You need to understand that my computer is bust and I type all my blogs on my phone. My Parkinsons makes my hands and arms shake and my hands cramp up, so my jottings are usually brief, maybe too brief. But I like to be concise.
I find hand writing suits me more because I can place a note book on the arm of my chair and write things down as I think of them. But 2000 words? I can’t do a word count unless I add up say every 20 or 50 or so of them. Then total up the numbers at the end.
The other thing is reading out. I stutter now. My speaking voice is affected by Parkinsons, it’s frustrating when I want to get a good delivery of my words.
A song I love. We are re-learning this soon, I’m used to the unison version, but this has harmonies. I don’t read music well. But we will learn it by repetition and copying.
I love the Simon and Garfunkle version.
I’ve been to Scarborough and it’s an old Victorian resort and fishing town although the majority of it’s trade is mainly tourism these days. It is South of Whitby in Yorkshire. As you come down towards it from the North you can see it’s castle standing on the headland. There is a north and south bay on either side of the castle. The town is mainly old Victorian terraces which are 3 or 4 storey and either hotels or bed and breakfast properties.
We stayed outside the town in a caravan site. There are plenty of places to visit, like an old museum set back from the coast which has information about the local geology amongst other things. A lovely park that feels sub tropical and I think I remember a car and motorbike racing circuit at a place called Olivers Mount.
What a hot day to get up early and go to a poetry writing workshop. Hosted at BArts in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent.
Our writer had come up from Birmingham for the day. She beat boxed the sound of a thudding heart as she talked about nerves and performance anxiety. Then we did a series of tasks. First of all we split into groups of two and interviewed each other about our personality and likes and dislikes. I came up with things about whistling my cats or that I would fight off zombies with an umbrella!
Then we made up a poem with the phrase he/she/they are then the words we had answered with… It was interesting.
She is sponge
She is fighting with a brolly
She is fish and chips…..
It was strange but funny a bit bizarre.
We did more but I’m too tired and hot to remember!
I read the book this quote was in, I think it’s got the character Granny Weatherwax in it, (who often holds a sign when she’s possessing another animal and leaves an apparently lifeless body, “I ain’t dead yet”) but I can’t for the life of me which Terry Pratchett book it is in, (he wrote so many). I recommend him as a funny fantasy writer.
He died a few years ago of a form of alzheimers disease. I miss his cheerful and intelligent books so much I just wanted to share his words.
Mallaband-Brown 