Monsieur Mouton's Talking Practice

A Writer's Work

2012-04-27T11:26:00.001+02:00

A writer's work is harder than you might imagine. It isn't about sitting down and writing what comes into your head. Oh no. It's about ideas and creativity and then structure, structure, structure. Then it's about editing: self-editing and then editing by A. N. Other.

Lizzie knew a theatre person (back in the mists of time) who would start out with the text of a play or some dramatic ideas, then begin to take things out as opposed to adding things in. This process of taking out meant that what was left carried more freight of meaning for the reader because there was 'space' around the signifiers. If everything is spelled out, then there is no room for the piece to breath through it's floating signifiers and no room for some creative search for meaning

I realise this is all sounding somewhat postmodern (Should it have the hyphen these days?) Most of the population prefer classic realist texts that will reassure them that life is knowable and predictable. Most TV is like this. However, I'm afraid this view of life is incorrect. We are in an unknowable and unpredictable universe and our sense that there is a foxed and knowable reality is an illusion.

Hmmm. How did I get from "A writer's work" to our sense of reality being false? Exciting stuff, eh!

Authenticity

2011-01-15T22:27:00.000+01:00

I am an authentic personage. I am a worthy sheep.

A writer's work...............

2010-08-12T10:29:00.000+02:00

A writer's work is harder than you might imagine. It isn't about sitting down and writing what comes into your head. Oh no. It's about ideas and creativity and then structure, structure, structure. Then it's about editing: self-editing and then editing by A. N. Other.

Lizzie knew a theatre person (back in the mists of time) who would start out with the text of a play or some dramatic ideas, then begin to take things out as opposed to adding things in. This process of taking out meant that what was left carried more freight of meaning for the reader because there was 'space' around the signifiers. If everything is spelled out, then there is no room for the piece to breathe through it's floating signifiers and no room for some creative search for meaning

I realise this is all sounding somewhat post-modern. (Should it have the hyphen these days?) Most of the population prefer classical realist texts that will reassure them that life is knowable and predictable. Most TV is like this. However, I'm afraid this view of life is an illusion. We are in an unknowable and unpredictable universe and our sense of reality is false.

Hmmm. How did I get from "A writer's work" to our sense of reality being false? Exciting stuff, eh!

An upward-reaching ewe........

2010-08-08T11:58:00.000+02:00

It's not that I'm in any shape
to feel myself anew.
Despite the many years of change
I'm still a sheepy ewe.

It's not that I can shape or feel
my way to peace and calm.
A fully rounded personage
of veritable balm.

I'm ovine-dwelling into shape
and burgeoning to be
a roundly upward-reaching ewe
whose almost bourgeoisie.

Mouton Potato: I don't think so!

2010-08-01T18:26:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I was really excited about the photo shoot on the terrace for my 'look & feel' in the book. Today, things have taken a serious turn for the worse as Lizzie has been trying to recreate a version of me from a potato. Yes - you haven't been seeing things. A potato, no less!

I don't know about you, but this isn't exactly the 'look & feel' that I had in mind. Not only did she make this ...... what I can only describe as a .....'thing'.......... but she actually thought it worth a discussion with some visitors, over tea.

As if that were not bad enough, these visitors referred to me - real me - relaxing on the lawn, as a "plastic sheep". Plastic! I'm too depressed to write any more............................

Photo shoot

2010-07-31T11:47:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, I was on a photo shoot for my 'look & feel' in the book. We spent some time outside with Keith and Lizzie taking photos from all angles. It was a fantastic day - very hot and sunny - and today, I'll be outside again just relaxing and thinking about the book. The creative process is a slow one, as all you artists will know. I'm not exactly sure about the theme yet but it may be something about 'identity'; with a working title: " Ah...but this is now".

I'm writing a book

2010-07-30T15:43:00.002+02:00

I'm writing a book!! Well not me on my own. It's being done in collaboration with Lizzie and Keith, my two house mates and fellow creative types. How exciting is that? We are just in the early stages of getting a feel for what it might look like and what the theme(s) might be. I feel very professional already and am really looking forward to it all.

The three of us will be working on it together (not all at the same time, you understand), so I will keep you informed of progress, both in the literary department, as well as in the 'process' arena - or how well we get on together as a creative team. Hmmm!

Other than this piece of exciting news, life is pretty much the same as one might expect for a sheep in France in the summer: lots of grazing outside and lots of brilliant thinking.

Waving at Schroedinger's Cat

2009-03-14T23:46:00.017+01:00

There was this cat. It was in a box. There was this radioactive atom. It was in the box as well. I know it's Sunday and I'm only a mere mouton, but the obvious things to put in with the cat would be some food and water. However, this is science and science is weird.

Now then.......... The fate of this poor cat is dependent upon something called a 'wave function' and an 'observer'. Oh, I forgot to mention the hammer and a flask of cyanide, which is also in with the cat. Well I did say science was weird!

So, while this atom is waiting for the observer to wave at it, both the atom and cat are said to be in a 'superposition'. What might that be then, I hear you ask. Good question. A super position for the cat would be lying down and having a kip, no doubt. But no...The superposition for this cat is next to a geiger-counter. (Stay with me.)

Anyway, it seems that if this atom (Don't forget it's radioactive.) hangs about too long, it decays. (Well don't we all!) Also, if the hammer hits the flask of prussic acid, the cat will die. (But the cat will die if it is left in the box, anyway, so why all this additional paraphernalia!) Oh, I forgot. It's science.

It seems that an important part of this experiment is the wave function of the atom. (Sorry if I misled you about it being the observer waving............) Hence, according to Shroedinger, the atom remains in a 'superposition' of decay and undecay, up until the time the observer opens the box. (The lack of a space in the word 'superposition' as opposed to 'super' and 'position' is clearly crucial, here.) Because this possible dual state of potential pertains to the atom, Shroedinger claims the same can be said for the cat: it is in a 'superposition' of being both dead and alive.

So, the question is: Should the observer open the box? No need. It isn't a real experiment. It's just a Thought Experiment.

However, if you want to know more about atoms, particles, waves and observers, go to this fantastic animation and be truly amazed.

The Never Realised Question

2009-03-03T22:02:00.008+01:00

Well hello to Mr Occasional Stirrings. How nice of you to drop in and chat.

I haven't been eating any of those magic mushrooms, (Thank you for asking.) but I can quite understand your reasoning in relation to my recent posts. As a matter of fact, it had crossed my ovine mind that I might be turning into you, now that I stir only occasionally.

I'm not sure what's going on with me, lately. The good lady of the house is busying about and is full of enthusiasm for her latest art projects which she seems to be squeezing in on top of everything else. Me, on the other hand.....................

You are very kind to draw my attention to Half Remarkable Questions. Lordy, Mr O-S. If I'm lost for words, I'll bet they weren't lost for mushrooms!

So there you have it

2009-02-25T22:02:00.002+01:00

So there it is. 'It' being anything that you choose it to be. Know that it is there and know that you have it.

If you think about this for a moment, then we have something incredibly liberating: imagine anything in the place of the 'it' and then know you have it. Some 'its' can be had in reality - actually possessed; others can be had in your mind's eye. In each case, there is some aspect of ownership, n'est ce pas?

Seeing is as seeing does

2009-02-23T22:23:00.004+01:00

The good lady of the house thought she had cataracts forming on her eyes, last night, because the pages of her book appeared to be somwhat fuzzy.

This morning, she realised that she had put moisturiser on the skin around her eyes and that it was interfering with her ability to see clearly.

But on a clear day, she can see for ever

After the Moment

2009-02-22T23:24:00.003+01:00

After my last post there has been a gap. Nothing new there......

So................... when I have a moment, I will take a moment, to be in the moment, to write a post.

On the other hand, I might disappear for a moment, up my own moment, and talk about the 'n-th moment'.

"The n-th moment of a distribution is the expected value of the n-th power of the deviations from a fixed value"

OR, if that doesn't grab you. How about a 'couple moment'?

"The moment of a couple is the product of its force and the distance between its opposing forces." Now why doesn't that surprise me?

Maybe the gaps between my posts are more interesting than the posts?

Knowing in the Moment

2009-02-03T13:30:00.012+01:00

The good lady of the house has been discussing the notion of 'presence' with her friend. (Why she can't just talk shopping and hairstyles.......... ?) They were musing on 'context', and the present moment set in linear time.

Let me explain:
Let's say that you are going through old papers, selling things that you have owned for a long time or having a clear out of accumulated 'stuff'. Will the experience of the present moment, doing each of these activities, be different from... say.... creating a new garden or furnishing a new home or choosing a new car? The former list could be framed in terms of 'dealing with the past', whereas the latter could be thought of as 'creating the future'.

Her question was: when doing the doing, does the fact that it might be contextualised as either past or future focused, actually impact upon the experience of the moment of doing?

Now there is some research that suggests that humans can't envision the future without being able to access the memories from their past. If this is so, then notions of past and future are connected in the brain. So where is the present? Is it lost, somehow, between the past and future? I have also heard told, that the whole idea of linear time is a human construct involving a miss-recognition of consciousness. Also, that neither the past nor the future exist at all; that humans live only in the present but are not 'conscious' of it, living 'as if in a dream'. (Try Eckhart Tolle)

So there you have it. The future/past, thing isn't important. Only the present moment can be experienced and that is all there is. The problem for humans is that you are rarely 'there' to appreciate it! (See interesting discussion.)

Deep for me, or what!!
I'll be tackling Cosmology and The Second Law of Thermodynamics next.

Motoring in Moutonland

2009-02-02T02:00:00.008+01:00

Motoring in Moutonland
All is going well
Inner landscape getting there
No need to rebel

Motoring in static mode
Trying to be here
In the present moment
Nothing else to fear

Motoring within myself
That's the place to be
Then the world is easy
Happying as me

Motoring Mouton

2009-02-01T15:59:00.016+01:00

It seems that the good lady of the house has a new computer. She is very excited by all the new and bigger accoutrements: memory, screen, mega thingies and more up to date programmes. Then there's the size of the Ram! Now there is something to grab my attention this cold winter's morning!

That's the good news. The not so good news is that, having looked at my blog on this all singing all dancing computer, she and this new (big) ram have discovered that my title box (with photo and Monsieur Mouton's Talking Practice in it), has a sort of red section on the right hand side that we hadn't noticed before. I kind of assumed that the photo went right up to the right hand side of the frame. It does on mine. I suppose it will be her new screen being more oblong. When she gets back I will be asking her to have a look at this and perhaps help me change the photo to reflect my current thinking and interests.

As my regular readers are aware, I am contemplating a bit of a reposition of my blog to reflect my reconstituted self. (I know................... makes me sound as if I have taken on copious amounts of fluid.) Funnily enough, I certainly feel more flowing and less stuck; more of a 'motoring mouton' than a melancholy one.

I'm good enough

2009-01-26T00:45:00.003+01:00

I think I'm good enough at talking practice, now.

Now there's a statement made with confidence!

So ........ I'm looking to spread my wool and take on another challenge. The question is ............ do I continue with this blog or do I start another one?

Knowing

2009-01-15T17:25:00.005+01:00

Knowing. There's a big difference between knowing in your head and knowing in your body. Did you know that? The good lady of the house is trying to experience herself from the inside out at the moment through a sort of body knowing - whatever that means! I don't have a problem with either knowing in my head or knowing in my body. I just do them both at the same time because I am, and that is me being me. I suspect that it is this latter - beingness - that she is concerned with.

I seem to be a frequent flyer into my head, she said. And what about your body? I queried. Ah....... she said.

Now how can you not feel yourself from the inside. That's what is giving me pause for thought, today.

Where to go from here?

2009-01-14T21:38:00.005+01:00

Q: And where have you been, Monsieur Mouton?

A: Hibernating. It was minus twelve last week.

Q: So are you ready to pick up the reigns of your Blog, M M?

MM: That depends.

Q: On what, M M?

MM: Well, I'm contemplating moving away from talking practice (Me being so good 'n all) and branching out.

Q: Into what?

MM: Ah.......... bit difficult to be precise at this moment in time. I can't decide whether to adapt this blog, or to start again with a clean sheet, so to speak.

Q: And how will you know MM?

MM: I'm waiting for inspiration.

Q: Oh.......................................

Boswell's Radiation Rag

2008-11-20T12:53:00.016+01:00

It's not so hard. It's not so far
to get your head inside the jar
When you're asleep, it's not that bad
to do the radiation rag

I'm getting on. I'm doing fine
I'm on TV and on cloud nine
I've had my scan. I have to brag
about the radiation rag

The nurses say that I am hot
by radiation (and by blog)
And in this hotness, I am cool
No flapping radiation fool

Mark reads to me. I stand about
I'm getting well without a doubt
My nursing friends are very kind
to write me letters when inclined

So bring it on and let me be
a blogging goose, all well and free
I think this cancer's in the bag
All thanks to radiation rag

Boswell: from Gosling, to Goose, to Celebrity

2008-11-16T13:32:00.022+01:00

Regulars who have been with me for a while will remember that, back in May 2007, I first met, and introduced to my readers, Boswell, when he was a mere cute gosling. In the months following, several poems were written to, and for him, by my good self. The Goose Engine (repeated below) was the first, and took its title from the work that Mark, Boswell's owner and IBM programmer, had been doing on a site for the music of Philip Glass, called The Glass Engine.

However, after a short time, Boswell became ill with a rare form of cancer and had to go into hospital for an operation. I kept in touch with Mark and wrote Boswell a poem of encouragement followed by a welcome home poem for after his operation. (I must admit to penning one in case things didn't turn out well but, thankfully, haven't had to use it.)

Then in November of 2007, I received a photo, from Mark, of Boswell all grown up and penned another update, followed by more news about Boswell's sister, Woglinde. Finally, in August 2008, Boswell began his own blog, over a year since I had spoken about him being a budding blogger in The Goose Engine

Now, Boswell has become quite a celebrity in his own right. He has been featured on TV, with Mark of course, so I will be posting this video tomorrow.

I hope you will forgive a swelling of pride in this old Mouton's breast, when I remind you that I had predicted, back in May 2007, that Boswell would be a very fine blogger. I have taken the liberty of reprinting it below:

The Goose Engine

Boswell is from IBM

(leaning to the left)
Trying hard his height to gain
but isn't very deft.

Wants to be a blogger
when he's tall and straight
Fears he will discover
he's developed late.

Listens now to Philip Glass
in wood and leafy glade
(But is he just inertial mass
sitting in the shade?)

The IB-MUS guys think he's cool
and never fly-by-night
He's not just anybody's fool
despite his challenged height.

So don't go goofing off outside
with old Canadian geese
Let cool programmers be your guide
where music's the set piece.

Keep growing tall and filling out
so you can blog with ease
And be the smartest goose, no doubt,
to have web expertise.

Taking my Eye off the Ball

2008-11-10T21:01:00.004+01:00

One of my followers has been in touch with the good lady of the house to say that she thinks I've taken my eye off the ball where my blog is concerned. There may be some truth in this, I suppose, because the words 'daily', 'mouton' and 'post' haven't been appearing in the same sentence for some time.

However, although it may come as a surprise to some of you, I have a life outside blogging, you know! And what's with all this eye and ball business. All that 'keeping your eye on the ball' means, is that you are giving full attention to what you are doing. That's just my point. My eye never drifts from what I'm doing. It just isn't the blog ball at the moment.

I'm Theoremed Out

2008-11-04T21:33:00.001+01:00

I'm theoremed out
There is no doubt
I'm x-d and y-d and z-d
For Wiles he is the real deal man
For taking Fermat's seed

It grew and grew
before he knew
And years had flown away
But elegance was what he sought
to prove it, in his way

The first attempt
was a preempt
for what was sure to come
He thrilled the world and humbly knew
he'd conquered that old sum

Fermat's Last Theorem

2008-10-28T18:15:00.003+01:00

I like the video so much that I have kept it but put it in my sidebar under 'Other things I like'

Fermat on his Plinth and the rest.........

2008-10-25T12:18:00.004+02:00

Watch this video, if you haven't already, and feel good about life. (The good lady of the house recommends watching it again even if you have seen it before.)

This is some plinth........

2008-10-24T11:34:00.006+02:00