eclectika

by Nabih Saliba If she should smile, the Sun would shine and all the world would flourish for I am hers and she is mine to love, to hold and cherish. If she should dream, the sky would ring as all the angels cheer it then I would sing so I could bring the way that she might hear it. If she could share, she’d know we care about the world she lives in then we could bare our feelings there so she could know where we’ve been. If she should fear, she’d stop in fright––the world would shrink and bind her so I will come to bring a light and in the darkness find her. If she would cry, the stars would fall and weigh her soul with sorrow then I shall peel away the sky and bring about tomorrow. If she would love, life opens up––a realm without a border for then the world makes sense to me, the universe in order. If I could say how much she means to me and those around her then maybe she might step aside and let the world astound her. ...

Connection By Nabih Saliba To reach out in the darkness and think that we’re alone Is very often scary and chills us to the bone Yet in a world of sorrow, deep despair and solitude One simple thing connects us be it clothed or in the nude: That thing which makes us human, the quiet spark that we call life It’s the hope that we keep burning when we’re faced with pain and strife So in our isolation there is something we condone A flicker in the shadow, a thing remembered and well known It’s always all around us–far away and in our home Each friendship, love and partner that we dare to call our own Our lives are short and simple in the larger scheme of things And yet we waste time flirting with all that hatred brings Rise up and shout, “I’ve had it! I will play this game no more!” Then pull back on the curtains and unlock your brave heart’s door To build a real connection with another human soul Could be no truer purpose, or a mission or a goal For w...

Prologue The Ingrams He remained frozen in place. The small form at his feet was barely moving but he knew nothing would be the same no matter what he chose to do next. Whether it was primal instinct or basic fear that motivated the man, Frank bent down and scooped the young child up in his arms. Holding the fragile form close to his chest, he slowly and steadily picked his way across the field toward a small shed where his wife was absorbed in mending a saddle. The old farmer could feel heat radiating off the small boy pressed against his shoulder. Fevers like this rarely ended well. He picked up his pace and finished crossing the field. Frank Ingram was a simple man. Life had always been governed by the steady rhythm of routine and he liked it that way. When some of the younger men in the town would begin to wax philosophical and debate the meaning of life or ponder the true origins of the relics strewn around the countryside, Frank would usually shrug his shoulders and ...

I've enjoyed becoming a member of  The Writer's Community on Google+. There, I've found a wonderful group of people in various stages of writing careers. One of them ( Gabriela Gotay ) shared a great post about the playlist she used for inspiration when writing her book, " The Forever Maybe ." This got me thinking about the influence of sound and music on one's writing and I thought I'd begin a series of posts titled, " Sound Advice " that essentially aims to make musical recommendations around a subject or genre of writing. The posts will provide links to the music on Amazon and brief commentary on what imagery or concepts the music conjures in my mind. Hopefully there's something that sparks the imagination along the way. Today's Sound Advice  is going to tackle "The Future." Whether this is a utopian, dystopian, near, far, alternate or projected future may influence certain aspects of the following list but all tracks e...

A single recognizer moves quietly down a forgotten corridor of structs–its destination a brightly lit gate floating 200 kilocycles ahead. Inside, a program makes the proper calculations to halt the craft before virus detection scanners pick up their presence.  Once in the right place, this program sends a signal to its user. From a terminal in San Francisco, Edward transmits an electronic address and a new mission.  Several years ago, he would not have needed to sneak around and break into a system like this.  Back then, he would just have the Master Control Program do it for him. Things are different today. No longer are the resources of Encom–one of the most infamous names in the valley–at his disposal.  Today, he's lucky his parole officer even allows him to have access to a terminal at all. Dillinger is name all but forgotten now and today that suits his purposes just fine. The recognizer remains motionless as its program finishes probing the system to...

The thing you need to know about flying is that it takes less effort than you might think. Just like swimming, most of the work is done by the stuff all around you. In a pool, that stuff is the water that holds you up if you want it to. When you're flying, the stuff you float in is air. Danny had just discovered this secret to flying not more than five minutes ago. At first, he tried to fly by flapping his arms as fast as he could. If you think the sight of a seven year old boy flapping his arms up and down is funny, you're not alone. All of the people who noticed Danny would stop and watch for a moment, giggle and then walk off to wherever they needed to be. It wasn't going very well. Tired and feeling very silly, Danny was about to give up when he heard a quiet voice say, "Don't fight the air. Maybe you should make friends with it instead?" Danny spun around to find the owner of the voice but there was no one standing there. "Make friends with the air...

Not long ago, a good friend of mine had me over for dinner. He kept going on and on about a better way to cook meat and how I had to try it. I'll admit that I had serious doubts that he could boil  me a great steak. I stepped back from him waiting for the gods of beef to strike him dead where he stood. I cringed further when he showed me the amazing cuts he had procured for our culinary adventure. My friend was trying to convince me that sous-vide, a method of cooking vacuum-sealed foods in a vat of temperature-controlled water, would be worth the wait. I decided to look it up to see if it's legit: First discovered in the late 19th century, the sous-vide (pronounced "soo veed") really became popular in the mid 1970's when a restaurant in Roanne, France began preparing foie gras with the technique. Later in Virginia, the chief scientist of Cuisine Solutions conducted a series of experiments to determine the ideal temperatures at which to prepare different ...

Prologue I’ve always tried to keep things simple. You could say that my gift to the world was to simplify the many things we’ve made so complicated. When a family member or a friend had trouble with one of their gizmos, gadgets and whatnots, I’m usually the one that fields the call. Most of the time I can decipher where their problem is and explain the solution clearly and generally quickly—it really all depends on how well they listen. Imagine how difficult it must be for me now to relay the events of the past few months to you, as they have been anything but simple. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that I am somehow responsible for the giant purple ‘hole’ in the sky that now looms over Denver or the strange glowing orbs now present all around the Flatirons. Though I will explain these phenomenons, I can assure you that neither was directly caused by me. The strange reports of the creature now referred to as “The Gravel Man” are, I assure you, greatly overstated and not at all ind...

Remember... Captain Kangaroo , Sesame Street , Mr. Rogers , and The Electric Company ? Or how about waking up as early as you could to view the adventures of Mighty Mouse ? What about warming up your eyes to early Sunday morning cartoons? 'Toons such as The Groovy Ghoulies , Drak Pack , or The Robonic Stooges ? A Sunday morning may have also included clips from the Skate Birds , The Magic Door , HR Puff 'n Stuff or maybe even Dirty Dragon's Gigglesnort Hotel --that odd little show which took place in a unbelievably tall hotel steered by an old captain living in the penthouse and powered by a dragon who kept the broiler working in the basement. Nothing ring a bell yet? How about the good 'ol afternoon agenda? We start the line up watching Tom & Jerry or Bugs Bunny . Then things got real with  G-FORCE ! And as I recall it, the totally uncool alternative was the Mickey Mouse Club or the Banana Splits (I personally always loathed the perpetually happy Bra...

The Key to Happiness | by Nabih Saliba | In every soul there is a door Behind which lies that something more From friends to lovers, husbands and wives, We search for meaning in each of our lives This world moves faster every day With work to do and bills to pay It’s hard to keep our heads held high To smell the roses, touch the sky In all the noise we lose our self We place our dreams up on a shelf Our childlike wonder often goes To where, nobody really knows And so for those with everything, I bring no cash or diamond ring Instead I’ve come with something more The key to that forgotten door Be chained no more for you are free To be more than you sought or see For in you there will always be A world of possibility

Like so many of the streaming services today, Amazon has become a production house to provide engaging content for its subscribers. One of the things that Amazon does differently than the others is test the waters with limited runs of a show or just create a pilot to gauge interest and see where things go from there. Oasis is currently just a single pilot episode designed to generate interest for the show and, if a full-scale production run looks as promising as this pilot, I'm in. Not only does the pilot introduce us to a rogue's gallery of interesting characters but it somehow manages to make us care about them in very short order. As I mentioned earlier, Amazon releases shows like to this to test if there's an audience willing to watch. When you're done, you can write a review on their site or (in some cases) even fill out a short survey about what you saw to more formally gather data. Out of 12,000 viewers/reviewers on Amazon, 85% of them rate it five sta...

Clouds surround me as I navigate the currents in the sky. My gondola turns into a headwind and I strain against the oar vainly trying to steady the only thing between me and the distant ground below. I steer left, then right, looking for a pocket of clean air. The clouds surge toward my little craft and I brace for the worst until a ray of sunlight to starboard. Pulling hard on the oar, the gondola swings quickly in the wind and enters the gap in the clouds. Carry speed from the storm behind, my craft slips easily out into open sky. Down below me, green rolling hills shoulder small towns and the arteries that connect them. I imagine settling down in one of them and begin to scour the countryside for a piece of land to call my own. Off in the distance, there seems to be a golden shimmer just before the horizon. Using my spyglass, the shimmer seems to be composed of many smaller objects moving together. As they get closer to a small town, bells begin to ring. The melody that greets me ...

Long overdue, I've decided to add another post to my paltry collection on musings. In the years since I last published anything here, may things have happened in my life. While there have been my share of missteps, I've had quite a few personal victories too. I think the break from writing has been a good one but now I believe that it's time to start things up again with this blog. Life has a way of moving quickly whether or not you're watching it go by. It doesn't seem as if a great amount of time has passed but simply looking at the last time I posted anything here tells a different tale entirely. My children have grown significantly and I'm inches away from losing my "cool" status with them–I suppose that cherishing any status with the label "cool" automatically invalidates my worthiness. I've changed careers, lost loved ones and even adopted a small dog. With so much going on, there should be plenty to share in the coming posts. ...

“Head down this road until you come to street with a large metal sculpture on the corner,” she said with a comforting sense of certainty in her voice. “Don’t turn there but keep going about two more blocks and you’ll see it on the right,” she finished with a smile. I repeated the directions to her and began driving down the road looking for what turned out to be a three-foot bronze piece obscured by a newspaper box—truly a marker for where not to turn. We’ve all received or even given directions like this at one point or another: clear and simple directions based on what not to do. It got me wondering about all the other types of journeys we convolute in a similar fashion. How does one find their way physically, emotionally and even spiritually in a world where tangents are easier to follow than the road itself? I was headed home from the printer ( Colorstep ) after approving poster designs for Madcap Theater . The air was crisp with Fall and the sun was beginning another glori...

Christmas is often described with many extremes—the happiest time of the year, one of the most emotionally difficult days for many who suffer depression, a controversial affront to the politically correct and even a giant commercial ploy to extract cash from all of the aforementioned. My Christmas day is finally coming to a close and I’m sitting here thinking to myself, “If today isn’t the reason for being…what is?” Perhaps I should elaborate the origins of that last statement before rambling forth with incoherent drivel about The Season, Holiday cheer and other such clichés… As evidenced by my lack of activity here [on this blog], my life has been filled with many competing demands for my time. During the past few months, I’ve become very involved with an Improv comedy club called Madcap Theater , helped my wife design and establish GreatIdeasForKids.com and enjoyed watching my children grow up into precocious little challenges. It has also been a time of soul-searching. I’ve bee...

“Life’s too short” is a phrase often used to begin arguments for seizing some opportunity or another. I know, I’ve used this well-worn phrase myself on numerous occasions. The most curious thing to me is how often opportunities flutter past me un -seized. It isn’t until the moment is well beyond my grasp that I notice how beautiful it would have been in my collection of life experiences. Each time this happens, I promise myself that I’ll catch the next one as I set my gaze firmly on all the things that could have been—this myopic perspective setting me up to miss another dozen or so opportunities most efficiently. Recently, I rustled the neat and stagnant rhythm of my life only to be surrounded by many new choices. At the end of each choice I could see exciting and frightening new directions for my life. Some of the opportunities, while beautiful and enticing were impractical for my current role as a husband and father. Others, however, danced ahead of me in tempting circles of r...