The Shout

By Simon Armitage 

We went out
into the school yard together, me and the boy
whose name and face

 

I don't remember. We were testing the range
of the human voice:
he had to shout for all he was worth,

 

I had to raise an arm
from across the divide to signal back
that the sound had carried.

 

He called from over the park — I lifted an arm.
Out of bounds,
he yelled from the end of the road,

 

from the foot of the hill,
from beyond the look-out post of Fretwell's Farm —
I lifted an arm.

 

He left town, went on to be twenty years dead
with a gunshot hole
in the roof of his mouth, in Western Australia.

 

Boy with the name and face I don't remember,
you can stop shouting now, I can still hear you.

 

********** 

Nothing much is new in Tallullah-land. The weather is great, though, and I'm keeping fingers crossed that it stays this way.

Still dealing with the loss. Funny how it rises to the surface, unexpected, to ripple through one's thoughts. It still feels as if she might come in the door any moment.

The past couple of months I have found myself reaching back into my past, revisiting things that somehow affected the me I was back then. Most of these things still affect me just as strongly today.

The TV show Follyfoot: that was, perhaps, the defining moment when I knew I should be living in the UK; everything about that show resonated with me, and still does.  Recently a fellow Canadian and Follyfoot fan made copies of all the episodes they had and sent them to me. I spent an entire weekend watching these shows and reliving the minute details that inspired me when I was a child.

The TV shows China Beach and Tour of Duty:  Probably because I was a child of the Vietnam war era, these shows were particularly compelling for me. Yes, they were dramatizations, but for their time they were the best examples of the soldier's experiences. They also allowed, for the first time on network television, the opportunity to actually discuss the topic openly. I finally have the DVD collection of T of D, and was able to acquire most of China Beach on DVD, albeit not the greatest recordings. It will do until the powers-that-be finally release this show on DVD.

I also learned this past week that the US Vietnam Veterans Association almost went bankrupt and would have had it not been for Bruce Springsteen holding a concert to raise funds for them. Apparently the resulting publicity also helped to raise the consciousness of the American people towards their Vietnam vets. I wasn't that big a Springsteen fan... until I learned this. He has certainly come up in my estimation. Kudos to him!

Nik Kershaw's The Riddle: Back in the 80s I was a Nik Kershaw fan because of this particular recording. I had the tape and played it so much the tape began to stretch. This week I received the CD. I wasn't sure if I'd still remember it as fondly, but once I played it a couple of times it all came back to me. If you haven't heard it, try to get hold of the songs "The Riddle" or "Save The Whales", two of my favourites.

Bob Welch's French Kiss: I had the LP once but my mother was so horrified at the title and the album cover that she made me take it back to the store -- not before I managed to make a tape of it. Haven't heard this tape in years so was eager to revisit the songs. Amazing Brother has it on CD so I popped the CD into the computer. Sadly, I am no longer that impressed with this bit of my youthful history. So glad I didn't waste my $$ on purchasing a copy from Amazon.

**********

Still taking baby steps towards a new career path. Once I get a few bricks in the wall I'll spill the beans on my plans.

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"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother..." 

 

 

 

 

THE PASSING OF ARTHUR

T. Gwynn Jones

 

Over the waves

there's a gracious country,

Where lamentation does not linger.

Whoever comes there,

no old age or pestilence strikes down,

for the clean breeze of freedom

Keeps every heart

nimble and merry,

Avalon itself is so.

 

In that blessed country, old dreams

Ease the terror of countless ages;

All ancient hopes are eternal;

There purposes make progress;

No loss of faith

can come there to scorch it,

Nor shame, nor heartbreak.

 

There's fire

in every singing inspiration!

Strength, confidence,

relishing every endeavour!

Energizing those

who strive for change,

A basis always for hope!

We shall not grow old while

that custom protects us,

There goodness

breathes life into a nation.

 

I am looking for Celtic poetry, preferrably C19, but will consider modern works as well. If you have a favourite poem perhaps you would consider sharing it with me? If it is in Welsh/Gaelic, please provide the translation as well. This is for a CD project I am working on.  Diolch yn fawr (Welsh: Thank you very much) for your assistance! 

 

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A friends has a new blog, www.writingup.com/blog/larocca .  Before I go further, I did mention to Michael, when I learned he was embarking on blogging, that Tabulas was a much better choice. He is hoping to make a little money with his endeavour so he chose Writing Up.com.

Michael has been writing a newsletter for, I think, three years, and the blog is his new way of reaching readers. Do check out his blog, and while there, click on an ad or two. That is the way the blogs make money. Sorry, Michael, but I hate clicking on ads. To make up for it, I'm plugging your blog here.  

Michael is a published writer, which is what his newsletter was partly about. He writes with a fresh, tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek sauciness that one might hope to find from a self-professed red-neck who lives, and teaches english, in China. He shares his life with his Australian wife, Jan, and Picasso the cat.

 

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It is winter. Considering it is January and this shouldn't come as a shock to one from the Great White North, it actually is  shocking. You see, we've had what can only be described as a weird winter so far. It has been warmer than normal with barely any snow. We had one bout of snow in December, but then it all melted and we got rain.

On Saturday winter returned, with blowing snow, high winds, and drifting. Early this morning, before my father was to leave for work, I looked out the window to discover the front of his car was buried in snow. The snow had drifted completely around his car and threatened to swallow the entire car. So, at 4:30 a.m., I bundled up in the winter woolies and braved the bone-chilling wind temperatures to crank up the trusty snowblower.

I pointed the snowblower at the drift and bravely plowed into the white stuff. The drift was higher than the snowblower! With the appropriate inching forward, pulling backward, inching forward again, I managed to plow through the drift. My face was covered in snow! My glasses, too. I couldn't see a damned thing!

I truly must be Canadian because a snow-covered face, numb with cold,  did not deter me from hauling my trusty powered machinery backward, repositioning the beast, and plunging back into the drift, snow blowing wildly around me, over me, over my dad, over his car... well, if you're from a cold clime, you'll no doubt understand the process.

Thankfully the snow didn't drift over the end of the driveway. We have a long drive, and I did not relish having to clear that out in the wee hours of the AM.

My dad was able to leave for work and I finally went to bed at 6 a.m.. When I got up later, looked out the window, the entire area had drifted in again!

I hate winter!

After donning the requisite battle armour required for winter warfare, I made short work of the drift. It was easier this time because I could position the snowblower to let the wind carry the snow away in the direction I wanted it to go.

For the uninitiated, there is a fine art to using a snowblower. It takes skill, patience, creativity, and a passionate hatred for manual shovelling of the wretched white stuff.

Whiarton Willy predicted an early Spring. He predicted that last year, too, and we had six more weeks of winter. I can only hope that this time the little prognosticating rodent's prediction will be more accurate.  

I have started a new blog.

Now before the wailing and rending of clothes begins, I have no intentions of leaving Tabulas. This is, by far, the best place for blogging on the internet. 

So why a second blog? To make money. Or rather, to see if money can really be made by blogging.

The promise is that one has the potential to make as much as $100,000 a year blogging. This easy way to the life of the rich and famous simply requires one to get a blog, get a Google Adsense account, blog daily, and have your readers click on the ads that populate your blog. 

Right.

They warn bloggers not to go clicking on the ads on their own blog, or have their friends and family go click-happy with the ads just to help them "earn" money. How anyone will know whether it is honest-to-goodness clickers as opposed to illegal clickers is beyond me, but if you are discovered illegally clicking ads your account with Google will be cancelled along with your blog.

The ad-clicker police are watching!

Apparently, if you create a blog that people like, they will come, click, and you'll make $$$. Obviously some topics will generate more traffic to your blog than other topics, so one must find the right niche if they expect to milk the cash cow.

My first post was on the obvious: is anyone really making money with this blogging thing? If so, how are they doing it? My scepticism is rampant right now, because this seems like a scam, even thought I cannot quite figure out who is really making the money here.

Who clicks on these ads? I avoid ads like the plague unless I'm seriously looking for something and then I google it, find a website, and go there. I even ignore the ads on Google's seach pages unless I am absolutely certain they hold just what I am looking for. I am sure that hordes of spam awaits me once I click on the ads.

Ads, especially situated as they are on my new blog, are aggravating. If it ticks me off to have them prominently situated on a page I am trying to read, I certainly will not be clicking on them.

I don't even like advertisements on satellite television. I figure, with all of us paying good money for satellite TV, we shouldn't have to sit through advertisements, too. That should only be for regular televison because they can't afford the programming without ad sales. At least, that's the way it should be, according to Tallullah. 

My task, then, is to come up with a theme for this new blog. What sort of topic/topics would bring the unwashed masses to read my blog and then click away to their little hearts content? It is a truly daunting task! Any suggestions from my gentle readers here will be thoroughly considered. 

All the writing books and courses say to write about what you know -- Good heavens! That might explain why I am not making any money writing! With the vastness of the internet, what sort of topics do I know that will appeal to a wide berth of readers?

I do not want to cross-post. My Tabulas blog is special to me and deserves it's own, fresh, quality posts. The new blog must be unique in its own right. 

I figure once I've found a good topic/topics to ply my poison pen, I will give this blog six months trial and see if I make any money. 

**********

Just a little reminder that I am looking for Celtic poetry. If you have a favourite Celtic poem  I would love to read it. Thanks.

**********

Ooooh! I just discovered all the lovely smilies that Roy has given us! Thank you, Roy! New toys!

So much for making money with Writingup.com. The site has been down for two days now! Certainly can't make money if no one sees the ads. Too bad, really, because I had hoped to at least make enough to keep a little money in my Paypal account.

I changed the title of the blog to "Looking for Lola". Not really sure where that was going, but I started with talking about my goal for losing weight. Even listed my starting weight and measurements. That took courage!

If the site is not going to be reliable, it isn't worth wasting more time there. I do not relish spending time at an endeavour that isn't going to reap any rewards

**********

I have been melancholy today, well, for the past week in fact. Last Saturday marked seven months since Momma died. Today (14th) marks three years since my Aunt Edna died. She was my mother's eldest sister and the first of the eight siblings to pass away. Remembering her, and Momma, has left me very sad.

Too many goodbyes, not enough hellos. 

**********

Just checked my Google AdSense, which is how I "earn" money with Writingup.com. I "earned" a whole 8 cents!! At this rate I'll be able to afford a coffee -- sometime next year.

Excuse me for one moment...

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you.

The above mini-meltdown was a direct result of yet another problem with Writingup.com. More glitches again today. I thought perhaps the problem was with AOL, since that can sometimes be the case. I tried accessing the site via Firefox and the same error message appeared. 

Maybe I lack the proper amount of patience, or I have been spoiled by Tabulas, but this sort of repeated glitchy service is getting on my nerves. The piddly amount of pennies to be earned is not worth the repeated attempts to access my blog, or anyone else's blog on that site. If the blogs cannot be accessed we cannot expect to earn our meagre pittance, can we!

I have no way of knowing if others are as irked about the latest issues, but this is no way to gain followers of the site. I am thisclose to dumping that blog.

Besides, I am bored already with the topic. Just how much does anyone really want to know about my weight loss progress! It was a bad topic choice and if I continue with this little experiment a new topic must be found.

Shall give this a wee bit of thought... after I do some work. 

Has anyone visited Globe of Blogs.com ? It is a place where you can register your blog and see oodles of other blogs. Kind of a United Nations of Blogging. I spent way to long skimming through the UK blogs and bookmarking some worth taking a closer look at. I only skimmed the UK ones so I don't know if any Tabulas users have registered there. I did, and have the code to put a lovely little icon on my blog. Problem is, I didn't design my template and am not sure where to insert the code. So, I'll save the code and when Tatsu is a little less busy I'll ask him for assistance, seeing as he is the artiste that created this lovely piece of cyberspace.

I have tried many times over the last week to access my WritingUp blog but it is often on the fritz. Hopefully the glitches have been sorted and things will improve. I am definitely changing the name -- again. Have decided to haul out some of my older writing and re-do it for publication there. Maybe make a bit of change. If the problems persist into the new week I am definitely finished with it. 

The only reason I am persisting with this new blog is for the chance of making a bit of cash. Maybe with a fresh focus I can entice some happy clickers to my page.

Gotta go make the changes. Cheers!

A comment was left here regarding www.blogexplosion.com and I checked out the site. Perhaps it is because I am a bit thick, but I cannot fully appreciate what this site is offering. If anyone has experience with this, please share it with us. If this site will help to promote Tabulas blogs, that will help Tabulas grow and maybe help Roy earn a bit more $$.

**********

In attempting to earn a few shekels for my blogging I actually considered placing a "Feed A Starving Artist" button for donations to a Paypal account. Hey, it could not  earn less than the Adsense stuff, and I wouldn't have to subject my gentle readers to the bourgeois adverts that pepper my other blog. Plus, I could focus on one blog only. Not sure I have enough to say to keep two going (no comments from the peanut gallery. )

I suppose one might say that is begging and perhaps it is. It could also be construed as showing a little love for the enjoyment gleaned from reading my blog. Asking readers to click on pathetic advertisements seems mercenary, too.

Maybe I should offer items for sale on my blog. Have a nice read, then check out the stuff I'm flogging. Artists must be flexible if they hope to keep the wolves at bay.

However I decide to line my pockets with pesos, the truth is I really appreciate this blog more than the others I've checked out. The ability to control entry formatting is really important to me. I want my entries to look good as well as sound good. I enjoy the artistic expression available here.

I have touted Tabulas to bloggers and hope once they have tried the other blogging sites they might give this one a chance.

The only disadvantage is that we don't seem to attract enough people. I don't know if Tabulas is that well-known and that is my sole reason for listing my blog as I did. There is, at present, no monetary gain for increasing traffic to my blog, but Tabulas could use an infusion of new blood.

Oh, and I changed the name of my other blog to The Daily Grind. I like that much better.

Okay, enough procrastinating. Work is calling.
 

Whilst out for a little Sunday afternoon surfing, I decided to register with Blog Explosion.com. Now I must wait to see if the two blogs I listed will be accepted.

Not accept MY blogs? How could they fail to notice the exceptional content and style! Of course they will accept these quality blogs! They would be fools not to!

This afternoon I also checked out a few interesting blogs and came across some posting about RSS. After reading what was posted I still do not understand what that is all about, or whether it can be used with my Tabulas account.

If anyone can provide me with information regardng RSS and whether it can be used here, I would be most appreciative. I'd offer you a prize or something, but as I am a starving artiste, you will simply have to be happy with a warm handshake and a "Cheers, mate!" from moi.

**********

The weather here has turned decidedly winter-like in the past couple of weeks. Today was a balmy -9C, with a windchill making it feel like -16C.  You know, of course, my feelings on winter so I will refrain from expressing them -- yet again. Suffice it to say this:

 

I have registered this blog with Blog Explosion. Not sure about adding the little icons here, though. That will have to wait awhile as I do not want to mess with this template and I know the moment I start poking about I'll accidentally screw things up.

They turned down registering my Writing Up blog. Guess it didn't fit their criteria. Too bad, really, because that was the blog in which I was keen to increase traffic.

Speaking of that blog, I have earned a whole 21 cents! Two people have clicked on ads. Thank you, to those two people. Hope the ads were worth your time. I suspect, though, that they clicked on an ad by mistake. 

Thanks very much to Roy and MikeyMike for their info on RSS stuff. Feel free to read their comments to the entry prior to this one. I'll add a link later. Suffice it to say I am not certain I need to utilize this right now. If you google my name you can find my journal so is it really necessary to invest the extra steps for more traffic? Do I really want more traffic? Not sure. Need to think on this a bit more.

Haven't had any comments on my other blog -- guess I should start calling it by name. The Daily Grind. I love that name. Anyway, no comments in a couple of days. Must not be writing anything people want to read or comment on. Will keep looking for that ellusive blog-topic-that-grabs-them-and-makes-them-stay.