Chances are you’ve seen this somewhere on the Internet, but just in case you haven’t, I don’t want to deprive you.
When you’re doing some world class diving, you probably have other things on your mind than smiling for the cameras. I think this also speaks to just how fast these people are actually moving through the air. Nonetheless, tell me this isn’t hilarious:
You can see more here and here.
I’m sure they’re all so happy to have these hi res photos on the Internet.
I posted awhile ago about whether blogging helps with author voice or not. Lately it has been occurring to me that blogging might be able to help me with another aspect of craft: the speed at which I write.
I write *so* much faster when I blog, but how do I engage that for fiction writing? It would be a huge jump in productivity for me. Basically, I think that when I’m blogging I am writing more directly from my stream of consciousness, and when I’m writing fiction I spend more time thinking about every little word choice. Occasionally I tap into my subconscious and write faster, especially when I know a scene very well or I get close to the end of the story where all the little threads are starting to come together. So I think that it is possible, but for some reason it just comes more naturally to me when I’m blogging.
I have to think that a lot of it is just practice. I’m so used to writing in my own voice that I can do it seamlessly, but when I’m out of that head-space all of these other little things start to creep in and slow me down, moving me from the deep “feeling” part of my brain to a more frontal “thinking” part of my brain. But as I write fiction more and more, I’m hoping to break through into “writing beast mode” more and more often, until I can slip into it at will. Like a dislocated shoulder, the more it happens, the easier it is to do it again, right?
It’s kind of like when I was learning how to play the guitar. At first it seemed *impossible* that I would ever be able to get the fingering right. Many times I thought to myself, “I’m just not meant to do this, in fact, maybe I am physically unable do it.” And then I practiced and practiced and then one day I found that I was just doing it.
Lately I’ve been thinking about writing some non-fiction, or at least some literary fiction that is closer to home. Perhaps I can “trick” my brain into slipping into Blog Brain often enough that it becomes a permanent habit.
Now all I need is all that practice.
Evie: “Hey, forget all of this! I’m 5, I can do whatever I want!”
Me: “Aren’t I so nice? Who’s your favorite person?”
Oliver, without a millisecond of hesitation: “Mama.”
Evie: “Mama is my favorite person!”
Ollie: “No, your favorite person is dada, my favorite person is mama.”
Evie, starting to cry: “Don’t say that! My favorite person is mama!”
Me: “Can we *please* not have a fight about which one of you has to like me?”
Ollie: “I don’t want to go shopping!”
Evie: “Life is tough.”
Evie: “The ballet is going to perform donkey-hotay.”
The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.
This recipe actually came from Sara’s mom, who made it for dinner one night at our house, but the reason we really picked it up and ran with it was because of all the delicious kale we have growing in our garden this year.
In fact, the best part about this recipe is that we usually have everything we need to make it on hand at any given moment. There have been many a night where we say, “We have nothing to make for supper,” and then we remember this recipe and go from having absolutely nothing to eat, to having a fantastic gourmet meal.
And if you need another reason why you should make this delicious, yet vegetable-filled dish, I present Exhibit A: 
(Stock bacon photo…you’d be surprised at how many of these I have)
It’s hard to say whether this is a hard or easy dish to make. It’s pretty simple, but at the same time it’s sort of a pain to remove all the stems from the kale. Also, we usually make the bacon ahead of time (you’d be amazed at what you can do when you have pre-cooked bacon easily at hand). So if you already have cooked bacon and you have a sous chef to de-stem the kale, it’s a piece of cake!
I should also mention that, while you can eat it by itself, we usually serve it over rice, pasta, or quinoa. It’s plenty flavorful, and the addition lets it stretch far enough to have some leftovers for lunch the next day.
You know, when I originally put a section for “the verdict” I kind of imagined I would use these First Friday Food posts to try new things. Instead, I usually select from our cadre of favorite recipes. So I always just end up saying, “Yeah, the verdict was it’s awesome!” because otherwise I wouldn’t have put that recipe up there.
So, the verdict is, it’s awesome.
I am well on record saying I do not enjoy the combination of salty and sweet, and yet that is exactly what this is. What can I say, I am a man of many inconsistencies. The sugar combines with the balsamic vinegar, which combines with the saltiness of the bacon and makes something totally new and delicious.
I think this is the best recipe we have for kale, I like it even better than kale chips. If you have kale lying around, like we do, then this is the perfect way to use it (says me — the kids mostly just try to pick out the beans and bacon — oh well, what are you gonna do).
Recipe from Weight Watchers.
Shane Halbach 