This one is frazzled and troubled    This one is hopelessly muddled
   
These two have flair
   
These two make a pair

New blog project is at: 80 pages, 1 subject

Challenges:

Needed to move away from typical blog display
Hunted around in themes to find something that matched the nature of the project
Found SG/Dark, a theme that seemed to highlight the individual fragments in a pleasing way, less quotidian than the typical blog chronological vertical scrolling
Uh-oh, the fragments have to display in reverse chronological order – start at the beginning, not the end!
Found a plugin Default Sort Ascend that accomplishes this
Removed the “previous posts” link because it will not go backwards (forwards) properly
Wanted a tag cloud, found a template tag wp_tag_cloud
Tried tag cloud in the footer, center column; looks squashed
Modified the footer to display the categories in two sets and the last 15 posts for archiving purposes
Added page for the tag cloud; created tag page template
Added page for the archives; created archive page template
Modified the styles of everything accordingly

Now I think I will have to redate everything to 2006; there are large gaps in the journal and I would rather have the posts display more regularly in the current time

Very geeky.

Meanwhile, this blog is boring. Needs some color. Hmmm.

It’s Thanksgiving. The sky is blue, the trees are yellow and brown. Earlier the sky was orange fog color. The birds were singing. Now the pumpkin ginger pie is cooling and the butternut squash/black bean chili is heating. The kids are awake and getting ready to start their cooking projects: squashes stuffed with pomegranate rice and barley mushroom risotto.

Should I go down there or not?

title of spam but it catches
my eye seems to fit
tonight traffic jam all the way
to Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Word
where we still arrived in
time to catch Jennifer’s reading
punctuated by the rambunctious
boys and sweet faced innocents
of everyone there – catch the
word crystal in domesticity
and then a meal on Bedford
fortuitous Avenue –
Wild Ginger –

high way home

catch first snow

Bianwen:
Translated by Victor Mair as “transformation text,” Bianwen represents a prosimetric form of storytelling popular from the 8th to the 10th centuries, thus is regarded as the earliest extended vernacular and fictional narrative in Chinese. While most of the Bianwen texts are clearly fictional, many are believed to have been written to create some sort of “imaginative reality.” Among some famous Bianwen texts, the Mulian jiumu bianwen ( Mu-lien chiu-mu pien-wen), or Transformation Text on Mahamaudgalyana Rescuing His Mother from the Underworld, which is based on Budhist scriptures, represents religious legend and is entirely fictional. The Xiaozi Shun bianwen (Hsiao-tzu Shun pien-wen), or Transformation Text on the Boy Shun’s Extreme Filial Piety, is based on Shima Qian’s historical account.

Pinghua:
Literarally “plain tale,” is usually translated as “expository tale.” Based on a relatively longer form of storytelling popular in the Southern Song and Yuan, it can be seen as “novelettes.” The pinghua texts are considered early attempts at composing full-scale novels. Of a score of pinghua texts produced in the Yuan dynasty, only six of them are still extant. Incidentally, all of these six texts are based on historical accounts. The Wuwang fazhou pinghua (Wu-wang fa-chow p’ing-hua), or Expository Tale on King Wu’s Expedition Against Zhou (Chow) is among these six extant texts. The Sanguozhi pinghua, another extant text, is believed to have anticipated the emergence of the Sanguo yanyi (San-kuo yen-i), or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Literary and Historical Memory in China, Useful References

• CRASH CONTROL ZONE (flashing in lights)
• LIFE IS WORTH LIVING (twice on the approach to the Tappan Zee bridge)