Undecided

I'm blogging on Vox right now. It will probably stay my personal blog. Keeping this one for something. Just not sure what.

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Location: Orem, Utah, United States

Silly, odd, weird, bibliophile with delusions of grandeur. One of the lunatics at large.

Friday, June 30, 2006

More on writing.

Perusing Sara Gran's blog I found some more ideas apropos to what I was writing yesterday. She is a writer that has written a couple novels, Come Closer and Dope.

...I think the meaning is clear in any case. It's great to hang out with other writers and be part of a scene; that's fine (Algren disagrees). But that's not writing. Writing is a solitary act not just literally--that's obvious--but emotionally. You don't run around worrying about what the nighbors [sic] or your fellow writers or your editor or your workshop instructor are going to think--not if you want to produce anything worthwhile. Instead, you will follow your obsessions, even if that leads you against the tide of your own time, against the current that surrounds you...

When you love books as much as I do, the life of a writer seems to be this idyllic land of cafes and intellectuals. In a word: Coolness. But being a real writer means work and work and yet again work. And that's work without the usual watercooler talk to keep it from becoming too oppressive. At least it's not mind numbing but in a way it seems to be worse. You have to be hyper-mindful, wrenching your guts out and smearing them across the blank page. Then you are left naked to be ripped apart by agents, editors, critics, Joe the guy at the at the 7-Eleven selling you a cherry Slurpy telling you that his mop water was better than what you wrote. Why would anyone, such as myself, with the skin of a grape and a spine of mush even DREAM of doing this?

Why? Because when I force myself to actually write I feel I'm using my talents they way they should be. Of course I'm constantly thinking, "This is crap why am I wasting my time?" But when I get the right words there is a contentment I don't get from much else. Like the poem wrote here last week. The contentment express there partly came from the expressing the moment and not just the moment itself. So who cares if anyone but me ever really likes this stuff.

But in the long run, if you're not expresing [sic] your true obsessions in your writing, you might as well just get an easier job.

Maybe not a job for me. Probably not. A method of keeping sane. Definitely.

Harper Lee, writing, and the art of being lazy.

Here I go again traipsing down the electronic highway find ever more bits to fill my head with. On a blog called Wild-Mind I came across this quote by Harper Lee:

You know, many writers really don't like to write. I think this the chief complaint of so many. They hate to write; they do it under the compulsion that makes any artist the victim he is, but they loathe the process of sitting down trying to turn thoughts into reasonable sentences.

I thought hey that's me. I feel this great urge to write and create but then when I'm in front of the computer I can't seem to force myself to flesh out the ideas spinning around. I went to the interview that this quote comes from and found a couple others that apply to me:

It takes time and patience and effort to turn out a work of art, and few people seem willing to go all the way.

Well, the first advice I would give is this: hope for the best and expect nothing. Then you won't be disappointed. You must come to terms with yourself about your writing. You must not write "for" something; you must not write with definite hopes of reward.

It takes work. Work that may well go unrewarded. BUT...BUT I WANT REWARDS!! So hard to let that go. I do know I feel better when I write, even if it is this silly blog. Is that a reward? Probably but I'm taking it.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Their melting! What a world, what a world...

Just got off the phone with Mom. She and Dad are on their way to visit Sarah and Tyler in San Diego. Apparently there was an accident in Barstow that had the freeway backed up to Baker. They spent three hours in 115 degree heat driving from Baker to Barstow. The worst part was just before getting stuck in traffic they had eaten some chips and jerky, but they didn't want to drink anything for fear their "bladders might explode." So they tortured themselves with salty mouths and intense heat for three hours. The car they rented had a thermometer that showed the outside temperature, and Dad qua Dad had to announce every few minutes what the temp was. "It's 113, now it's 114, now 115, oh now it's down to 113 again" and so on. Mom was laughing the whole time she relayed this, so it didn't sound like the typical Bolt family road trip. Much more calm prevailed. Maybe because they didn't a gang of unruly kids screaming "are we there yet?"

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The Branding of Children.

Mom was watching Heston and Porter (two of my nephews) today and she told me this story about Heston. He had been taking a nap, got up and ate some crackers. After eat the crackers:

Heston:(points at the can of soda on the coffee table) Is this Fresca? It looks like Fresca. (picks up the can, drinks from it, holds it up smiling) It IS Fresca!

She said she wished she had a camera at that moment. She could have made a million bucks. I assume selling it to Fresca.

I thought it sounded cute and very Hestonesque but then it got me about the ubiquity of brands in our world. Heston, who's three, can't read yet but he can recognize the brand Fresca, and probably many more if you tested him. Whatever happened to Sesame Street brought to you by the letter B? Wait Sesame Street is a brand now too. Sigh. With the state of education in the US we should make everything educational brand-like:

Crisp! Clean! Clear! Calculate with Calculus and you'll never be sorry!

PI! The dessert for the mind.

Know where you are, know where you are going, Geography!

From Ancient Asian to Zippy Zanzibar History has it all!

Philip Seymour Hoffman loves Philosophy. Shouldn't you?


Not really sure Hoffman likes philosophy but we could pay him to say he did. Branding educational stuff might make it cool. Or maybe not. It would be fun to try with a few million dollars to spend on the ads.

Weird, just plain weird.

Microsoft has come up with a demographics predictor where you can type in an item/idea or URL and get the target audience. This very website gets a 50/50 split among men and woman with the highest age group being those under 18. Who knew you all were minors? Turn back that clock. The Baze was 66/34 in favor of men, 24-34 being the dominate age group. Guess I shouldn't make that Baze Perfume like I wanted to. Baze Cologne on the other hand...

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

It seems eHarmony is not so harmonious.

I did a google to see if I could find any of that 20% the rejection mentioned. There were a lot of sites complaining about the service. Matches not matching, customer service a joke, not being able to cancel. One site listed a bunch of complains. I only got about a third of the way down and found a couple cool quotes.

Susan of Telford TN (04/10/06)
After a long time of filling out a questionaire, I was told I was rejected. Now that I have read other people's woes about the site, I am not so heartbroken...


Rob of San Diego CA (02/13/06)
...I'll bet the other rejects from eHarmony are very cool people.


You got that right Rob! The coolest.

eHarmony cannot match me!

So I'm tooling around the net as I want to do when I see this link for the eHarmony site. I'm sure you've seen their ads on TV. I thought "hey I'll take their profile for fun" and this is what I got back:

eHarmony is based upon a complex matching system developed through extensive research with married couples. One of the requirements for successful matching is that participants fall within certain defined profiles. If we find that we will not be able to match a user using these profiles, we feel it is only fair to inform them early in the process.

We are so convinced of the importance of creating compatible matches to help people establish happy, lasting relationships that we sometimes choose not to provide service rather than risk an uncertain match.

Unfortunately, we are not able to make our profiles work for you. Our matching model could not accurately predict with whom you would be best matched. This occurs for about 20% of potential users, so 1 in 5 people simply will not benefit from our service. We hope that you understand, and we regret our inability to provide service for you at this time.


After saying AMEN, and laughing very hard I looked closer at the statement. Twenty percent can't use this site? That seems like a lot to me. Can't they match me with the 20% of women that get this message too? Guess not. The creation of that much chaos could sent the Earth spinning into the Sun. So to all my relations (especially Mom) out there, if a COMPUTER can't match me up with someone, please, please don't you try.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Food to die for.

Some of you have heard of the Deep Fried Twinkies. Well now there are more heart stopping food. Let's have a big hand for the Beer Battered Deep Fried Bacon Double Quarter Pounder and his tagalong friend the Deep Fried Brats. Mmmm mmm fried goodness. Warning: Sane people have determined that this stuff will kill you. Enjoy at your own risk.

Some Pictures Stolen from Dustin.


It's the whole crew here, minus the parents, spouses, and younglings. So it's far from the whole crew but it's a nice shot of my siblings. For those that don't know left to right it's Tyler, Melissa, Me, Ryan, Dustin, Cassandra, Matt. This picture was taken on Grampa's (my Mom's Dad) 80th birthday last summer. We are a large group in many differant ways.



A smaller gang of us at Cassandra's wedding last April.



Since we are sharing wedding pictures might as well share this one. That hot hunk of man love is Cole. What a cute couple of kids.



OK since we are on wedding pictures here is a picture of Tyler kissing his lovely wife Sarah last summer at their wedding. I promise this will be the last of the mushy pictures for awhile.

Man I love my family. =D BTW thanks again Dustin for the pics.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Something for the kids of the 70's!



Stevie Wonder lays down this rift in '73. Though I don't remember it, I was only four, but being the Streetophile I was as a young lad I'm sure I saw it.

The NetMind is sucking me into its vortex.

Well after much cajoling and threatening by my siblings I final made a MySpace account. Mainly I made it so I could harass them on their sites. The older brother still tormenting the younger ones. My profile pic as donated by Dustin. Thank you brother!As you can see I'm super excited to be part of it all. Or is just the NetMind taking over my will? Fear the NetMind it will destory you.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Yard Sale!

If any of you are going to be in the Orem area between 8 am and 12 pm tomorrow you should stop by the yard sale at Casa Bolt. No es me casa. It's the folks. Mom had me moving some cra...I mean wonderful items at low prices around. One was a crib I think I slept in. Maybe not me but I know a few of my siblings did. She called it an antique. What's that make me?

By the way, the yard sale will not be mocked!

Me: Are you going to sell this dirt too? (pointing to the potting soil nearby and grinning)
Mom: (with some heat in her voice) Why do you kids have to mock all my projects?

Mocking is fun? Sorry Mom.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Robert Carter-Something to think on

While over at Mom's today I stumbled on an anthology of essays. In thumbing through it I came across an essay entitled The Anti-Jefferson (Levy, Andrew. American Scholar. Spring 2001) The author has now written a book on the subject. What is the subject you ask? Well one Robert Carter III who soon after the Revolutionary War freed all his slaves. In fact it was the largest emancipation by a single person in the antebellum South, over 450 slaves. The title of the article comes from the fact that Carter lacked the luster of Jefferson, but in the end was more committed to the idea that freedom should be universally applied. It was an interesting read into why what a seemingly great act has largely been forgotten. I'm compelled to read the book now.

I'm really not sure why I'm posting about this. It's just a "hey look at what I found cool" I guess.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Oh look there's a picture!



Mark took this looking east from our front yard. Nice huh?

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I'm feeling a poet...ere poetic.

I don't know if it was because I put poem up yesterday or it was just a good moment. While over at the folks sitting in the back yard I got this line running in my head. So I wrote it down. That lead to another line and another until I had written the poem below.

On the porch

The fading orb
Dapples trees with light.
A gust
And multihued green
Shimmers in the slacking summer sun.
Chimes tinkle
The blowing breeze.
Morning dove coos
Mourning the coming night.

Alone on the back porch
I sit
Witness.
And for a moment,
A single moment
I am content.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Old bits and weird finds.

I was going through old Word files today and came across I love letter I wrote to my ex-wife while we were broken up (long story). If you think it's a little impersonal to write a love letter on a computer you haven't seen my handwriting. Anyway the letter isn't what struck me but the poem I put with it did.

Beautiful Uncertainty

Write and wrong word put in place of thought
Babbling ink down the book
Stretching hand across the dead tree
Painting page with the matter that grays the mind
Wipe away the fears falling before eyes
Visions find flow to show

Blind men leading bound tongue
“We must have the sure
Varying verbs not needed here”
Logarithm jams stifle creation
Effective causes sought
Imposing order on orderless beauty
Doubt lost by theory thinkers
With it awe-struck naive idea
No one to wander with wonder?

But see science lose certainty
Whispering words wear coat of comforting confusion
Singing symbols slide against dull dots
Find end to string as firm foundations fall
Understanding through controlled chaos
Only the lost discover the New
Rejoice in the unclear!

--December 1996

It is actually older than the letter it came from. It's from an old journal that I can't seem to find now. Pretty rough I know but I like the imagery. To stop trying to know everything and let go. He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing. So much for old bits.

Anyone every just type in their name to a search engine to see what they would find? I did that and came up with some funny stuff. Jason Bolt dreamed of trees. A lumber jack! Leaping from tree to tree. I believe the site is a story based on the TV series Here Comes the Brides, which you will notice started the fall before I was born. Mother swears I wasn't named after the oldest brother but I have my doubts. I'm also a student at LSU. At least I finally got into the right party!

That's enough of my insanity for one day. Take care all.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

My nose itches

Not so much itches as annoying me. Someone is twitching a blade of grass in my nasal cavity. With all the lawns getting cut around here it's probably not far from what is actually happening. Ah summer. At least my eyes aren't irritated. Just as I write this my right eye gets a little tickle. Psychosomatic? More than likely, but my rubbing it will make it more than real. Wheeee!

Much later today (is it really 4am?) is the Orem Summerfest parade. Being the big ole stick in the mud I am I doubt I will be viewing it. The fireworks however I can see from the front porch. So long as the entertainment comes to me I'm all for it. Been thunderstorming a bunch the past couple days, hopefully it will be clear tonight. If not, lightning can be as cool as fireworks and the rain sure is nice.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Told any good Fibs lately

Whilst wandering the sphere of blogs I came across this story on Fibs. The creator's blog describing them is here. Basically you use the Fibonacci sequence as a guide for the number of syllables per line. I thought it was kinda cool. Mark however was unimpressed and I wrote a Fib on what happened when I got all excited and told him about them.

Mark!
Yes?
I saw
This thing called
Fibs, what do you think?
It's not exactly poetic.

Anyway there it is for you to enjoy or not.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Fun with the folks

Cass and Cole came down from Ogden so there was much rejoicing. They brought with them these huge steaks from Costco which we cooked over Cole, I mean coals. Too punny? Well tough it's my blog. Ashley and Matt also came over with their two boys. Melissa and Tony were invited but had to go to friends. Too bad they missed some fine meats and salads.

It was the usual good time with the usual pre-party nerves by hostess Mom. She thought Cass had said they would be there at two but when they final got there at a little after four Cass said they had told her between two and four. Between two and four there was a lot of "Where are they?" but everything settled down after they go there, for the most part. Heston did throw a bit of tantrum when he couldn't play with the neighbor girl until after he ate.

Everyone: You can play with her after you come eat something.
Heston: I can't! I can't!

They way he yelled it you though we were asking him to lift an elephant or drive 55 ala the Red Rocker. He just couldn't eat before playing. Not until his dad took him inside for a bit to calm down.

After we all consumed much food and drink Matt and Ashley took the boys home while the rest of us sat around in the cool of the evening talking. We went from favorite PBS shows and the physical impossibilities of Dan Browns Angels and Demons to sharing hospital/surgery stories. Conclusion: some of us have a hard time suspending disbelief, at least if it's suppose to be in the real universe and not a magical one, and that an anesthetic can be nice before an operation but it's a real pain post-op.

Typing this whole thing I wonder should I say who all these people are or should I just assume that anyone coming here will know me so have an idea. I really can't imagine anyone that didn't know me reading more than a sentence but hey who knows.

One final anecdote, while waiting for C&C to appear, Mom visited this wondrous blog. She clicked on the Other Nutty Bolts link whilst I was wandering around upstairs. I then heard confusing about what was going on.

Mom: Jason what's going on?
Me: Huh? (I descend the stairs to see what's wrong now)
Mom: See I click this (Mom clicks the link) and it goes to Shannon's blog. Why does it do that?
Me: Ah, because I put the link there.
Mom: Oh.

It was almost as if she believed somehow the blog had mystically put it there on it's own. Maybe she needs to start a blog to learn more about how things work around here. Of course I would be the tech guy for her. Hmm yeah no blog for Mom.

Friday, June 02, 2006

First Posting

A blog? For me? Who knows? I was talking to my roommate Mark about blogs,

Me: I was thinking of doing a blog.
Mark: A blog is perfect for you!
Me: Why's that you think?
Mark: Its writing and pictures and stuff.

Still it seems dubious to me. Not blogs per se, just me writing one. I do like to write (when I'm not being lazy, and I'm lazy A LOT) but mostly esoteric nonsense that I can't imagine anyone but me being interested in. But with all the nonsense on the net and otherwise, hell why not add my scream (whimper?) to the masses. Hi I'm Jason Bolt, just some guy.