Kurt Vonnegut Archives • DAVIDPDX

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HUMAN PROJECT OF YOU

August 16, 2025 by David Gillaspie

A human project is easy to find. They’re all around because everyone is a project in some stage of completion. The secret? It’s never complete, but there are signs of progress.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, better performance, BOOMER, future, good times, grace, granddad, helpful, human, human project, husband, joyfully, kids, Kurt Vonnegut, memory, Moana, movie night, nice, normal, parents, remember, sharing, Social media, today is the day, wife, work in progress

THE EASY WAY, OR THATAWAY

August 10, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The idea of the ‘easy way’ is a problem. To those who know how to do everything, it’s all easy. For them, not you. Anyone else who tries doing what they do would screw up. For example:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: annals of history, Army, army shirt, belligerent, community, community march, conductor, daughters, decisions, dishonest, easy way, emotional, emotional meltdown, first class, first class story, good story, history, honest, kind, kindness, Kurt Vonnegut, march, meltdown, nice, protest, secret mission, that way, thataway, ticket to ride, turbulent times, undisclosed location, user instructions

GIVING UP THE FIRST TIME

November 1, 2024 by David Gillaspie

I don’t remember giving up, quitting, rising the white flag. But here we are, and I’m not alone. There’s the rocking chair, the TV, the food delivery. As long as everything lasts, why not rot away quietly? Why not? Here’s why not with Kurt Vonnegut:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blog, blog post, blogger, bloggers, books, boomerpdx, Death, Internet, Kurt Vonnegut, memory, mistakes, reading, remember, saul bellow, writer, writers

BETTER MEN? BETTER THAN WHAT?

October 11, 2024 by David Gillaspie

The idea of better men is different than Best Man. If you’ve ever been selected as a Best Man, you know what better feels like. Somehow, someone valued your friendship, in spite of how you might value yourself. Can anyone be a better man? Let’s not get carried away.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: accountable, allen ginsberg, American President, athletes, author, best man, better, better man, better men, blog, blogger, Blogging, boomerpdx, community, current author, dependable men, failure, fence, good, good man, inspired children, JFK, Kurt Vonnegut, old men, Patrick DeWitt, plan, public, public good, public service, responsible, sports, value, vote, voter, voting, writer, writers, young men

WRITING TIME QUESTION: WHAT’S THE POINT?

March 1, 2024 by David Gillaspie

Writing time is running out? Now you tell me. But I don’t agree, or believe it. My writing time will run out one day, but that doesn’t let anyone else off the hook. Unless you’re dead. Then maybe.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blog, blog posts, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, education, family people, history, king's advice, Kurt Vonnegut, memoirs, novels, off the hook, pages, poems, Stephen King, time, time management, time running out, writer, writers, writing, writing time, writing tools

LIFE LESSONS: FIRST DO NO HARM

December 6, 2023 by David Gillaspie

Life lessons start early and never stop. But, and this is a tough one, people do look away. “But Blogger D, aren’t older people a repository of life lessons?” Not always, but who am I to judge? If you need to ask, this might not be the place for you.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, Army, army medic, blogger, boomerpdx, caduceus, college, David Gillaspie, do no harm, education, English translation, germany, harm, history, japan, Kurt Vonnegut, latin, life, life lesson, life lessons, MARRIAGE, medical school, mental health, no harm, normal, not normal, writer, writers, writing, WWII

FART AROUND LIKE KURT VONNEGUT, IT’S GOOD FOR YOU

August 4, 2023 by David Gillaspie

Fart around like you mean it: Kurt Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope: “Oh, she says, well, you’re not a poor man. “You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?“ And so I pretend not to hear her.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: best father, caring, circle of life, cook park, dance, dog, dog walk, dogs, fart around, father figure, Kurt Vonnegut, Love, move, move around, strangers, worries

HOBBY BLOGGER EXPLAINS: WHY BOTHER WRITING?

November 6, 2022 by David Gillaspie

Hobby blogger here, busy counting vanity metrics. Google analytics reports traffic from Seattle, not so much from Portland. West Coast readers show up more than any other region in the country. Call me a West Coast hobby blogger? I’ll take it, but . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, hobby, hobby blogger, improvement, inspiration, Kurt Vonnegut, literary structure, movie structure, Oregon, Portland, Seattle, story structure, west coast, write, writer, writing, writing room, writing space

RECOMMENDED READING: T.C. BOYLE’S ‘GOING DOWN’

October 29, 2022 by David Gillaspie

Recommended reading for writers? Common advice is to read everything, whatever that means. Do I read everything? Everything in a bookstore, or library? No, I read for inspiration, I read for cause, and my cause is writing.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: blogger, book, books, boomerpdx, common advice, education, experienced teacher, inspire, Kilgore trout, Kurt Vonnegut, read everything, reading, reading books, recommended reading, TC Boyle, teacher, twitter, writer, writers, writing

END TIMES, OR JUST A BAD DAY?

July 29, 2022 by David Gillaspie

End Times is a notion that we’re not long for this world. The American History Channel time slot filler called “How The World Ends” includes End Times ideas. It’s pretty bleak, but there’s reason for hope. The people predicting the end of the world all have something in common:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: chronic illness, covid pandemic, Death, doom scroll, end times, history channel, Kurt Vonnegut, prepper, survivalist, world ends