avoid comparing
apples to oranges in
algebraic forms
A is for apple. Or algebra.
#AtoZChallenge: 26 posts in April, topics to proceed alphabetically. Creating a theme for one’s blog challenge is optional. My theme for 2017: a three line poem each day (5-7-5, haiku-ish) with the first letter of each line the same as the letter of the day.
Last year I took part in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge using a secondary blog that I was maintaining at the time. The challenge, as described on the A to Z site, is,
“Can you post every day except Sundays during [the] month [of April]? And to up the bar, can you blog thematically from A to Z?”
In other words, on April 1st, the topic for a post would be something beginning with the letter A, and so on ‘til the end of the month when you reach Z. Some bloggers use themes to tie their posts for the month together. I didn’t do that last year, since I only learned of the challenge on April 1st, and was scrambling to come up with the requisite posts, let alone something thematic. But this year…
I decided that if I’m going to barrage readers with daily posts, I’ll keep them short and sweet – well, short anyway. So my “theme” is to write a 5-7-5 poem each day (a poem in the form of three lines with corresponding syllables per line of 5, 7 and 5). Some would call it haiku, and haiku purists would be aghast if you called it haiku. So I’ll just leave it at 5-7-5.
And in keeping with the alphabetical theme, each day’s poem will be on a topic beginning with the assigned letter, AND — just to make it even more challenging — each line of the poem will also begin with the letter of the day.
Confused? Yeah, me too. But with April just around the corner, it will all become clear. I hope.
Bottom line: One month (April), short posts, alphabetical, haiku-ish.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I must
attempt
being
competently
diligent
effecting
future
gaity
here
in
jovial
keeping
like
many
notable
other
posts
quite
recently
such
that
understandably
visitors
won’t
eXit
yawning
Zzzzzzzzzz’s
seed of light in dark
seed of dark in light
sowing
interreliance
Y is for Yin-Yang.
The letter X is a toughy for the A to Z Challenge. Even Sue Grafton, in her alphabet detective novel series, “A is for Alibi…” etcetera, had a challenge when it came to X. Instead of following the pattern of titles, and having an “X is for ___,” the book title for the X installment is “X.” Simple. Succinct.
Works for me. And I really didn’t want to read a detective novel titled “X is for Xylophone.”
So what does one do with a blog post based on the letter X?
Here are 10 ideas (or X ideas):
1. X is the Roman numeral ten.
2. X-Acto knives: They do have their uses in stained glass work. I could have pulled it off.
3. X marks the spot. Maybe too obvious?
4. Sign your X on the line. Yes, a line from the song, “Santa Baby.”
5. Ex… ex-spouse, ex-employee. That sort of thing.
6. Ex as the sound in the beginning of a word: eXactly, eXcellent…
7. X out something, as in draw a line through a word. I guess an X would actually be two lines.
8. X. Just X. If Sue Grafton can do it, so could I. Or so could X.
9. X as the 24th letter in the alphabet. I don’t know… there must be some fascinating details about the letter X.
10. Malcolm X. The activist or the movie. It’s kinda scary that when I did a Bing search on Malcolm X, the first six entries were about the movie, not the person.
So many blogging options, after all. Too many, in fact. I guess I just won’t write a post about the letter X.
Oh, wait! I just did!
Xquisite!
X is for X.
W is for White.
Vapid
Vague
Vivid
Vibrant
Vivacious
Vavoom!
V is for Volume.
You know about Tiffany and his lamps, and how the lamps are put together with copper foil? Well, before Tiffany came along and foiled everything, there was came. Here’s a little description of came. Came 101, if you will.
Came
(noun)
1. a slender, grooved bar of lead for holding together the pieces of glass in windows of latticework or stained glass.
Close, Dictionary.com, but not quite. Came now comes not only in lead, but also in zinc, brass and copper. Maybe other metals, too. I’m not sure. But yes, came has grooves – or channels – that hold pieces of glass together. Or, as in the case of U-came, it can be used as a border to frame stained glass panels.
Came comes in an assortment of styles. There is H came that has two channels and thus looks like an H when viewed from the end. The exterior (face) surfaces can be either be flat or rounded.
U came has one groove and thus looks like a U when viewed from the end. Both H and U came come in varying sizes to allow for different thicknesses of glass, and for different face widths, depending on how you want your seams to appear, and on how much support your glass needs in the case of larger, heavier panels or windows.
Lead came can be cut with nippers, but more rigid material, like zinc, needs something stronger to cut it. I use a hack saw. The panel is soldered together at the joints where one length of came meets another.
Okay, that’s all I came here to explain. I hope U got what U came for.
U is for U came.
Sometimes you’re the artist,
and sometimes you’re the canvas.
Tattoo by artist Jessica Helmke.
Participatory art? I think so.
T is for Tattoo.
I’m going to make a hole in a window
You’re going to break a window?
Not break a window. Just put a hole in one.
So smash it, you mean.
Yes, it might look smashed.
What will you smash it with?
Does it matter what smashed it?
If you want to smash a hole in a window, you have to hit it with something.
What would you use, if you were to smash a window?
Me? I’d use a baseball. Maybe smack it hard with a bat. You could hit it from clear across a field and no one would know it was you.
People will know I smashed this window.
See, that’s why you use a baseball or something. Make it look like an accident.
So, an unfortunate baseball incident?
Exactly.
“The Unfortunate Baseball Incident”
S is for Smashing.
Round moon makes its
rounds around the
round earth that moves
‘round the bright,
round life-giving sun.
Cyclical seasons grow the
round bulbs of spring into
round flowers in summer that
round out colorful bouquets.
‘Round about autumn we
round up fallen leaves into
rounded piles to jump in and play.
Round snowballs fly as
round-faced children run
‘round in the wintry cold.
Cyclical seasons
round out our years as we
cycle through ages and stages in the
circle dance of life.
R is for Round.
What Rhymes with Stanza? 