Nutcan
July 1st, 2008
This is going to be one of those half asleep and equally confused type of posts. I have read numerous material that suggests free-writing for a predetermined length of time and then seeing what happens. This is what I plan to do. My predetermined time limit is solely gauged at the point I get bored and or dis-interested.
I am tired. I played some softball this evening as I do on every Tuesday. I am on the Eau Claire European Slow-Pitch Softball Circuit which should tell you precisely how talented the competition is.
I really miss playing sports. I miss the competition, I miss the camaraderie.
Last year, I played on a team hosted by an Outlaw biker bar. It was a Motley crew Crue (does the Plurk rock-on smiley) to say the least. I was the DJ and the manager of a house of Harleys called Fat Boys.
I have been in some rough joints before, but this place was something else. There actually was a guy that worked there named Gutter, although in true Fat Boy’s fashion he always spelled it with one T instead of two.
Our shirts for the game, chosen by a large rough biker, had the bar’s logo on the front while on the back in the world’s largest writing was printed:
“It’s what’s between your legs that counts”
Of course they were talking about motorcycles, but the evangelical townsfolk never really picked up on it.
Being a hard-core biker bar, this clean cut college student stood out like a sore thumb. The whole thing was plain embarrassing. People yelled at each other all game, it wasn’t much fun, and that was simply the Fat Boy’s trademark.
Anyway, one of the rival teams in last year’s league was a small website called Nutcan.com. After we beat them in the first game of the season, I immediately went to their page to offer up my usual dose of smack talk.
The forum was basically a bunch of dudes and a chickette from Eau Claire that had a website–well just to have one. They argued amongst themselves about the finer points of sports, politics, and anything else they could dissect and re-hash until all bases had been covered.
It was a great place to find intelligent banter and you could kind of feel the love.
I continued to troll for awhile, but eventually started to join in the discussion as soon as the found out they did a NFL Football pick-em contest each week.
This season, I got invited to play on the nutcan.com team. It has been a refreshing experience after last years surreal situations. No one yells, everyone is positive, and even when we lose it still is fun.
Someone once told me that “you are who you hang out with.” In this instance the phrase could not be more true.
Positivity is infectious. It spreads, it relaxes, it grasps the moment and owns it. It is a true pleasure to play and to have met the entire lot.
Today, I thank Nutcan.com for being well - nutcan.
Although we turned what might be the first triple-play in league history tonight, it has not always been that way.
erik said:
As a fellow writer I cannot recommend enough just sitting down and doing what I call “word vomit” every day. Just get down with a pen and paper or a word processor and just start typing. Like an athlete trains for their craft, so too should writers. Hemmingway didn’t just show up one day, right Old Man and the Sea and then leave. Drafts build up and fall down, entire sessions yield one good one-liner you can use in some other project later, but word vomit gets your brain moving. Ideally, you should do it the same time every, get your brain used to breaking out all its good stuff at the same time.
I didn’t learn much from my two semesters of creative writing in school, but I didn’t learn that and it was well worth the price of tuition.
And personal little web-communities are really fun. I far more enjoy my time on Stop That Nun than I used to when I went to established communities like Nintendorks or Something Awful.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 pm #
PackOne said:
Thanks Erik, sound advice.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:25 pm #
ALEX TO » Blog Archive » Nutcan said:
[…] Nutcan July 1st, 2008 This is going to be one of those half asleep and equally confused type of posts. I have read numerous material that suggests free-writing for a predetermined length of time and then seeing what happens. … […]
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 pm #