Heard from the team's sideline at Soe Moe's soccer game: "I'm beginning to question the validity of those calls!" That has to be the politest way I've ever heard a coach issue a challenge. Then again, this is a sport where they call the officials "sir".

To announce my new blog I sent certain people--the privileged few--an email with the subject line "I blog, therefore I am," to which Russ Eplett replied:

I blog, therefore I am. Translated to Ciceronian or Caesarian Latin this, of course, becomes – Bloggo ergo sum – as "seize the blog" becomes carpe bloggo – and "I came, I saw, I blogged" becomes – veni, vidi, Bloggi. Of course, there is Caesar’s now famous commentaries on the Gallic Blog that opens with "Omnia Bloggia in Partes tres divisa est." (All blogs are divided into three parts). Latin is so revealing!

Russ, non sum dignus!

The project I plan to pursue for my ENG C625 course is to help someone who I believe has had a very interesting life tell her story, as either a biographical work or an assisted memoir. This is an idea I've had for quite some time, and am grateful for this impetus to pursue it now.

For this week, we are to lay some groundwork for our project. I don't know if these qualify as research questions, but they are issues I've wrestled with while determining whether to pursue this project:

> How do we decide whether a person's life story is "worthy" of being told?
> Who deems whether or not a life is "interesting enough" to record?
> Must a writing project necessarily be potentially publishable or of commercial interest in order to be pursued?
> Will readers only care about a person's story if he/she a celebrity, or can the uniqueness of a life generate others' interest?
> How can I best help my friend elucidate her story while keeping the writing uniquely mine?

> Will this in-depth ethnography stand alone with its qualitative aspect? In such a project where might I find quantitative aspects? (Perhaps the latter will come from accompanying genealogical research.)

I dozed repeatedly during the 3rd quarter of Colts/Vikings today. A Sunday afternoon football game snooze would not be remarkable, but for the fact that I was AT the game. Yesiree, high up in section 637 of the engineering marvel that is Lucas Oil Stadium, in a hard seat, in person at a live NFL game for only the second time in my life, and I kept nodding off.

I was rudely awakened at one point when a groan moved through the crowd like the wave--not a reaction to something that happened on the field, but nearby patrons commiserating with the guy who tripped while coming back up the stairs with a beer in each hand. At $7.50 a pop, they were very sympathetic. Only one person asked if he was okay, the rest were counting how few drops he spilled and congratulating him on a remarkable save.

Okay, so, HumorMeDaily because I love to laugh. Laughter is vital to our overall well being. I'm always on the lookout for humorous comments and situations. I hunt for them, listen for them, and, more often than not, instigate them. Each time I post I'll try to include a funny, in the hopes that you will be able to share the mirth. 

Today one of my laugh-out-louds was courtesy of Charlie Pierce during the final "Prediction" round on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (the NPR news quiz). The question: What will be the next You Tube video to cause protests? The answer: Catholics protest as Clint Eastwood reenacts the Council of Trent with an entire dining room set.

Having a new, first-time blog is the 21^st century equivalent to sitting down with an empty sheet of paper and a pen, or a blank page in a typewriter. What to write? 

This blog was launched as a result of the IPFW course Research Methods for Professional Writers, so my first post will be an homage to the short assignment that got the proverbial ball rolling: "When did creative writing begin in your life?" And my response was...

One of my early literary offerings, at age eight:

FROSTY THE SNOWFLAKE

Once upon a time, I came from a sky. I blew and blew until I almost blew into a church. Wow that was a close one! Then I started to fall. “Oo now I’m falling again! Wow! A church steeple with a cross on top!” It’s pointed, o know! I better turn, o know, I forgot. I can’t turn! O help, help help. O thank you wind! I have had a scary day, I better go down and stick to the ground. Good-by.

I still have this because, like my father, I loathe to discard anything sentimental, which is just about everything. Items that sprang from my creative self are especially difficult to part with, which explains the walrus head of yarn glued to cardboard that is probably still lurking in a drawer somewhere. 

Drawing, painting, crafts, ceramics, calligraphy, jewelry making, and other art projects have come and gone through the years. But always there was, and still is, writing. Diaries, journals, notebooks, poems, devotions, stories, essays, interviews, research papers, letters…a lifetime supply of words scattered across the pages of my life.

My creative writing began with, or probably even before, that first snowflake fell.

An aside: I speculate that the use of "O" instead of "Oh" was directly related to the fact that I was frequently in The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) at age 8.