Well, I missed posting yesterday because... well, I'm not sure. Just wasn't moved with anything to say. Or maybe I used up all my words writing emails to various people. I was tired after the weekend and even though it seems that I shouldn't be, I find a pattern in Mondays where I struggle to do the things "I should do."
Actually I have so many things I "should" do, I could not possibly get them all done. I think I'd hoped for a few more weeks to clean my house before the urgency of The Enclave's release hit me. Now it seems almost to have passed me by. And I haven't done the video trailer, haven't created the author page at Amazon, haven't redesigned my website and blog, though I am pretty sure I'm going to be moving the blog to Wordpress and moving/redoing my website there. There are some other technical details I have to resolve, too, but I'm closer to doing that now as well. Soon I will have only to execute. I'm thinking perhaps next week.
Then there are doctor's appointments -- mine and my mothers. And various errands and reader mail which I still haven't caught up on, though I'm getting closer on that as well.
Then today in mid morning I caught myself doing the weird, tense, things-are-bad-and-wrong thing and sat down to figure out what exactly I was feeling. Turns out it was anxiety and condemnation. Again. Because, again, I had somehow started focusing on all the things I thought I had to do, plus the things I wanted to do, a list, as I said, far too long to ever complete. Knowing it unconsciously, I became tense and anxious, condemning myself because I wasn't working enough. Getting enough done.
Weird how subtly it sneaks in and the next thing you know you're in this weird place. I needed to recall that it's God's plan that matters, not mine, that there's always time to do the will of God, and that if I'm confused about what I shoudl be doing, since I have so many options, perhaps I should stop and ask Him what He wants me to do.
Peace returned. And then tonight in the basics class the pastor-in-training reminded us... the Christian life is about falling on our faces and getting up again, over and over and over. But it doesn't matter how many times we fail, only that we get up and keep on going. He talked, too, of how when faced with a problem or overwhelming circumstances we so easily revert to human viewpoint and start focusing on how we're going to solve the thing, rather than recalling that the problems aren't ours, but God's. So that was a nice affirmation of earlier conclusions.
And look! Now I even have a blog post. Not a long one, but a post, nevertheless.
Cool.
~~~
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Updating Mundanity
Having read Matt Labosh's article about Facebook, I decided to give one of its functions a try here on my blog, just to see what it would be like. This would be a combination of FB and Twitter I guess... A running update that will keep readers, um, up to date, on all the thrilling events of my life...
9:40am Karen is typing at her computer about how she is typing at her computer for a silly post on the minutia of what she is doing...
9:50am Karen is waiting, quite a loong time, for her very slow computer to show her the save window.. tick tock, tick tock... It's up and she is now saving her post...
10:30am Karen is again waiting for her very slow computer to open the um... well, she's been waiting so long, she's forgotten what she's waiting for it to open... ah. The email...
10:40am Karen is so frustrated with waiting for her very slow computer to do ANYTHING, she is deleting the temporary files and cookies and going out to turn off the sprinkler.
1:08pm Karen just finished reading Dean Koontz's One Door Away from Heaven and writing up her thoughts about it, which on balance were not positive. To make matters, worse, the book is autographed specifically to her! She feels like an ingrate.
2:22pm Karen is figuring out the postage to mail a copy of Arena to someone and checking her email.
3:39pm Karen is again checking her email and turning to that earlier task of figuring the postage after being distracted by reading news-sites and political blogs. She is not sure how this rather lengthy distraction occurred.
5:27pm Karen is updating her website to show The Enclave as her latest release instead of Return of the Guardian-King. She is amazed to find her ancient FTP program works on Vista.
6:40pm Karen is tired of noting the "mind-numblingly dull" things she is doing and is going to stop. After which she will fix dinner, eat it, then walk Quigley around the park.
~~~
9:40am Karen is typing at her computer about how she is typing at her computer for a silly post on the minutia of what she is doing...
9:50am Karen is waiting, quite a loong time, for her very slow computer to show her the save window.. tick tock, tick tock... It's up and she is now saving her post...
10:30am Karen is again waiting for her very slow computer to open the um... well, she's been waiting so long, she's forgotten what she's waiting for it to open... ah. The email...
10:40am Karen is so frustrated with waiting for her very slow computer to do ANYTHING, she is deleting the temporary files and cookies and going out to turn off the sprinkler.
1:08pm Karen just finished reading Dean Koontz's One Door Away from Heaven and writing up her thoughts about it, which on balance were not positive. To make matters, worse, the book is autographed specifically to her! She feels like an ingrate.
2:22pm Karen is figuring out the postage to mail a copy of Arena to someone and checking her email.
3:39pm Karen is again checking her email and turning to that earlier task of figuring the postage after being distracted by reading news-sites and political blogs. She is not sure how this rather lengthy distraction occurred.
5:27pm Karen is updating her website to show The Enclave as her latest release instead of Return of the Guardian-King. She is amazed to find her ancient FTP program works on Vista.
6:40pm Karen is tired of noting the "mind-numblingly dull" things she is doing and is going to stop. After which she will fix dinner, eat it, then walk Quigley around the park.
~~~
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Down with Facebook!
Recently, yet another acquaintance recommended I join Facebook, reminding me that there is a Facebook page for Arena (while other friends recently suggested I could do a page for The Enclave, as well). I considered it. Then in processing my mail the other day I noted on a flyer urging me to resubscribe to the political magazine The Weekly Standard (only $1 an issue!) was a cover which pictured a man sitting at his workstation, a deluge of junk and garbage pouring out of his computer onto his desk and lap. The accompanying caption was "Down with Facebook!"
I wondered if since it was obviously not a new cover, the article might be available online. It was:
Down with Facebook!
What nobody bothers to mention about the social-networking site is that it's really dull--mind-numbingly dull.
Written by Weekly Standard editor Matt Labash back in March of 09 (03/16/2009, Volume 014, Issue 25), I found it quite amusing. It starts like this:
Like Mr. Labash, I'm not a joiner. Like the Amish he mentioned, I don't have a cellphone. And I just took a lot of my cassette tapes off to the used book and music store, a couple of years after I'd gotten rid of my last tape player. We do still have VHS tapes, though, and a machine that plays both VHS and DVD.
People say I should get on to market. But frankly I'm just not sure I want to interact with that many people. I remember reading about a theoretical limiting number of people with which one can maintain stable social relationships -- Dunbar's number. This is the size of a group where you know everyone, and they all relate to each other. It's posited as being around 150. After that the group tends to split and more formal rules and norms must be established to keep it stable.
Is it really possible to 600 or 800 or a 1000 "friends"? Of course, if it's about marketing, they aren't really friends, more like contacts, potential readers... I don't know. It might not be a bad thing, but I see no reason to think I would be any different than Mr. Labash's wife in my ability to resist the lure of constant Facebook checking and poking. I've already gone through the constant Amazon numbers/reviews checking, the constant email checking, the constant blog comment checking and reading... why would this be any different?
No, I think for now I'll continue to hold firm and refrain from joining. And when I do, if I ever do, it will no doubt be just as the whole thing is starting to fold...
~~~
I wondered if since it was obviously not a new cover, the article might be available online. It was:
Down with Facebook!
What nobody bothers to mention about the social-networking site is that it's really dull--mind-numbingly dull.
Written by Weekly Standard editor Matt Labash back in March of 09 (03/16/2009, Volume 014, Issue 25), I found it quite amusing. It starts like this:
He goes on to chronicle his wife's experiences with Facebook and how it changed her, and has some interesting observations on the phenomenon. I think I agree with most of them. And I was amazed at how much I parallel his description of himself: "I procrastinate, shirk responsibilities, and spend much time peppering a fairly wide circle of friends with an incessant barrage of individually tailored emails, many of them lengthy.(as opposed to the abbreviated, promiscuously generic, group-blog like messages left on Facebook)." You can read the rest of the article Here.Look at the outer shell--the parachute pants, the piano-key tie, the fake tuxedo T-shirt--and you might mistake me for a slave to fashion. Do not be deceived. Early adoption isn't my thing. I much prefer late adoption, that moment when the trend-worshipping sheeple who have early-adopted drive the unsustainable way of life I so stubbornly cling to ever so close to the edge of obsolescence, that I've no choice but to follow. This explains why I bought cassette tapes until 1999, why I wouldn't purchase a DVD player until Blockbuster cashiered their VHS stock. Toothpaste? I use it now that it's clear it's here to stay.
So I'm not inflexible. But there is one promise I've made to myself. And that is that no matter how long I live, no matter how much pressure is exerted, no matter how socially isolated I become, I will never, ever join Facebook, the omnipresent online social-networking site that like so many things that have menaced our country (the Unabomber, Love Story, David Gergen) came to us from Harvard but has now worked its insidious hooks into every crevice of society.
Like Mr. Labash, I'm not a joiner. Like the Amish he mentioned, I don't have a cellphone. And I just took a lot of my cassette tapes off to the used book and music store, a couple of years after I'd gotten rid of my last tape player. We do still have VHS tapes, though, and a machine that plays both VHS and DVD.
People say I should get on to market. But frankly I'm just not sure I want to interact with that many people. I remember reading about a theoretical limiting number of people with which one can maintain stable social relationships -- Dunbar's number. This is the size of a group where you know everyone, and they all relate to each other. It's posited as being around 150. After that the group tends to split and more formal rules and norms must be established to keep it stable.
Is it really possible to 600 or 800 or a 1000 "friends"? Of course, if it's about marketing, they aren't really friends, more like contacts, potential readers... I don't know. It might not be a bad thing, but I see no reason to think I would be any different than Mr. Labash's wife in my ability to resist the lure of constant Facebook checking and poking. I've already gone through the constant Amazon numbers/reviews checking, the constant email checking, the constant blog comment checking and reading... why would this be any different?
No, I think for now I'll continue to hold firm and refrain from joining. And when I do, if I ever do, it will no doubt be just as the whole thing is starting to fold...
~~~
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Bees
Last week, right as I was finishing up the galleys, the neighbor came over to ask if we had a bunch of dead bees in the yard. No, we had no dead bees that I knew of. I went out and looked, but no dead bees. She, however, had a bunch of them on the ground near the fence that separates our properties. We looked at the bees, most of them dead, some dying, and speculated what might have happened. Maybe they'd gotten into poison...
Afterward I went in and called my husband at work. He called a friend who knew about bees, and from him learned that the temperature the night before -- in the low 40s as I recall -- was cold enough to kill bees when they are swarming. No doubt there was a swarm, and when they stopped for the night, balling up in a tree somewhere, the outside layer of bees had perished in the cold and fallen to the ground.
Well, that was interesting. If it was so, then maybe the swarm was still there, because at the time it was still pretty cold. So I went out for another look. There were only a few bees buzzing around, but nothing obvious... Wait. What was that dark blob way up there on one of the pine tree's branches? I peered at it, walked around trying to find a better vantage, thinking it looked an awful lot like wood or some sort of deformed growth of pine cones. Could it be the swarm? It looked completely solid. And nothing was moving. Suddenly I thought of the camera. I could use the telephoto to get a better look at it. So I did. And it was the swarm:
At left is the mass of bees. It was about the size of a basketball. It stayed just like this until about 3 pm when the bees began to stir. About that point the neighbor freaked because this was right above her back patio. Even though I told her I didn't think the bees would hurt anyone (they don't sting when they are swarming, only when they have a hive to guard) and that we could just wait for them to move on she wasn't interested in waiting. She called some bee removal people, who came a few hours later and dispatched them.
I thought it was weird of me to be sad that the bees died. But...obviously there were many bees around or they wouldn't be swarming and the likelihood was great that having been stressed by the cold they would look for a permanent home very close to where they'd swarmed. Like in our yard. All our bees in Arizona are Africanized now, and so you don't want them setting up house on your property, especially not in a place close to the neighbor's door or patio, so I couldn't feel that badly about their demise. As I said that was about a week ago.
Then, late yesterday, the neighbor called to tell me the bees were back. So I went out again, and this time the swarm was making its way into one of the tires in a stack of three we have out in a side yard. A carpet of bees covered portions of the tread of the tire and was moving slowly upward through the crack between where two tires were stacked. Others buzzed wildly about the area. Exactly what we were told to beware of...
Well, my husband took care of them after dark. He said even when he took the tire away, they didn't fly much, didn't try to sting, just bunched together. He thinks they might have been remnants of the earlier swarm. Could be, since there weren't nearly as many.
But... weird.
~~~
Afterward I went in and called my husband at work. He called a friend who knew about bees, and from him learned that the temperature the night before -- in the low 40s as I recall -- was cold enough to kill bees when they are swarming. No doubt there was a swarm, and when they stopped for the night, balling up in a tree somewhere, the outside layer of bees had perished in the cold and fallen to the ground.
Well, that was interesting. If it was so, then maybe the swarm was still there, because at the time it was still pretty cold. So I went out for another look. There were only a few bees buzzing around, but nothing obvious... Wait. What was that dark blob way up there on one of the pine tree's branches? I peered at it, walked around trying to find a better vantage, thinking it looked an awful lot like wood or some sort of deformed growth of pine cones. Could it be the swarm? It looked completely solid. And nothing was moving. Suddenly I thought of the camera. I could use the telephoto to get a better look at it. So I did. And it was the swarm:
At left is the mass of bees. It was about the size of a basketball. It stayed just like this until about 3 pm when the bees began to stir. About that point the neighbor freaked because this was right above her back patio. Even though I told her I didn't think the bees would hurt anyone (they don't sting when they are swarming, only when they have a hive to guard) and that we could just wait for them to move on she wasn't interested in waiting. She called some bee removal people, who came a few hours later and dispatched them.
I thought it was weird of me to be sad that the bees died. But...obviously there were many bees around or they wouldn't be swarming and the likelihood was great that having been stressed by the cold they would look for a permanent home very close to where they'd swarmed. Like in our yard. All our bees in Arizona are Africanized now, and so you don't want them setting up house on your property, especially not in a place close to the neighbor's door or patio, so I couldn't feel that badly about their demise. As I said that was about a week ago.
Then, late yesterday, the neighbor called to tell me the bees were back. So I went out again, and this time the swarm was making its way into one of the tires in a stack of three we have out in a side yard. A carpet of bees covered portions of the tread of the tire and was moving slowly upward through the crack between where two tires were stacked. Others buzzed wildly about the area. Exactly what we were told to beware of...
Well, my husband took care of them after dark. He said even when he took the tire away, they didn't fly much, didn't try to sting, just bunched together. He thinks they might have been remnants of the earlier swarm. Could be, since there weren't nearly as many.
But... weird.
~~~
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Milton Friedman -- Greed
Wow! Two posts in one day. Things are really getting strange here at Writing from The Edge...
But I wanted this to have its own post. I love what economist Milton Freidman has to say about Greed when it comes to politics and economics. (Is that Phil Donahue? He looks familiar but it's been so long, I'm not sure)
~~~
But I wanted this to have its own post. I love what economist Milton Freidman has to say about Greed when it comes to politics and economics. (Is that Phil Donahue? He looks familiar but it's been so long, I'm not sure)
~~~
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Heaven Forbid! Bibles in Barnes & Noble
I was in the Barnes and Noble today, looking for a new journal and as I was examining the various offerings I overheard one of the clerks say to another, "Boy, some of my customers are really going to get upset about these."
Curious, I looked over at what he was doing -- hanging up new bookmarks with a large, decorative cross on them, these amidst the fluffy white puppies, cute kittens, nature offerings and various bookish and avant garde designs. Hmm. Did he really mean what I thought he did? Did people really come into the Barnes and Noble and complain that they are selling cross bookmarks?
I stayed around in the adjacent aisle even though I'd already determined it didn't have what I wanted and continued to eavesdrop.
The other clerk came over to see what the first one was talking about and offered a story of his own. Apparently elsewhere in the store they had some teen study bibles displayed on an endcap that had set customers off, as well. They didn't think those bibles should be there at all, but especially not in the nonfiction section. If anyplace,they should go in the fiction section.
"Well, I think they have a case, sort of," said the first clerk.
From there the conversation continued but I couldn't follow it -- the first clerk said something about why the bibles were on the end cap, and added the fact that some people (not sure who) couldn't see the sign that said 'study Bibles.' I'm not sure what effect their seeing that would have had on the situation, largely because I'm not sure what situation he was referring to.
Was it the one where people looking for the bibles couldn't see the sign and so couldn't find the bibles, thus necessitating the end cap which offended the other people who apparently don't think bibles should be sold in a secular book store?
Or the one where people objecting to the bibles couldn't see the sign and so didn't know that they were study bibles and as such really did belong in the nonfiction section.
What was of greatest interest to me was that it was an issue at all. I was astonished to learn that people actually go into a general book store and complain about the sorts of books it sells. Of course I could see complaining about pornography, so maybe I shouldn't be so astonished. It all depends on your scale of values. And sadly more and more people in this country seem to be holding to a scale of values that not only excludes the Bible, but actively opposes its principles.
This was recently illustrated for me by a "much forwarded" email of an editorial piece on Sarah Palin written by Indian spiritualist Deepak Chopra. In it he took many of my values and turned them around as being evil. Small town values = "petty, small minded parochialism"; family values = "code for walling out anyone who makes a claim for social justice"; patriotism = "the usual fallback in a failed war."
Oh, yeah and Sarah Palin is the evil shadow of Barak Obama.
Wow. If you want to read this editorial, it's here. Not that I recommend it, since in my opinion Deepak Chopra is heavily influenced by and promoting doctrines of demons. But I think there are many who apparently adhere to the viewpoint, so from that angle it is interesting.
~~~
Curious, I looked over at what he was doing -- hanging up new bookmarks with a large, decorative cross on them, these amidst the fluffy white puppies, cute kittens, nature offerings and various bookish and avant garde designs. Hmm. Did he really mean what I thought he did? Did people really come into the Barnes and Noble and complain that they are selling cross bookmarks?
I stayed around in the adjacent aisle even though I'd already determined it didn't have what I wanted and continued to eavesdrop.
The other clerk came over to see what the first one was talking about and offered a story of his own. Apparently elsewhere in the store they had some teen study bibles displayed on an endcap that had set customers off, as well. They didn't think those bibles should be there at all, but especially not in the nonfiction section. If anyplace,they should go in the fiction section.
"Well, I think they have a case, sort of," said the first clerk.
From there the conversation continued but I couldn't follow it -- the first clerk said something about why the bibles were on the end cap, and added the fact that some people (not sure who) couldn't see the sign that said 'study Bibles.' I'm not sure what effect their seeing that would have had on the situation, largely because I'm not sure what situation he was referring to.
Was it the one where people looking for the bibles couldn't see the sign and so couldn't find the bibles, thus necessitating the end cap which offended the other people who apparently don't think bibles should be sold in a secular book store?
Or the one where people objecting to the bibles couldn't see the sign and so didn't know that they were study bibles and as such really did belong in the nonfiction section.
What was of greatest interest to me was that it was an issue at all. I was astonished to learn that people actually go into a general book store and complain about the sorts of books it sells. Of course I could see complaining about pornography, so maybe I shouldn't be so astonished. It all depends on your scale of values. And sadly more and more people in this country seem to be holding to a scale of values that not only excludes the Bible, but actively opposes its principles.
This was recently illustrated for me by a "much forwarded" email of an editorial piece on Sarah Palin written by Indian spiritualist Deepak Chopra. In it he took many of my values and turned them around as being evil. Small town values = "petty, small minded parochialism"; family values = "code for walling out anyone who makes a claim for social justice"; patriotism = "the usual fallback in a failed war."
Oh, yeah and Sarah Palin is the evil shadow of Barak Obama.
Wow. If you want to read this editorial, it's here. Not that I recommend it, since in my opinion Deepak Chopra is heavily influenced by and promoting doctrines of demons. But I think there are many who apparently adhere to the viewpoint, so from that angle it is interesting.
~~~
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Dr. Horrible
I really enjoyed Joss Whedon's Firefly TV series and the movie it spawned, Serenity. So when I came across the link to his new project on Robin McKinley's blog, I went.
http://drhorrible.com/
It's weird. Funny. Off color. Odd. Interesting. Has Nathan Fillion in it. Has some decent singing in it... but it's very, very weird. Still, what would you expect?
It's part of a plan that you can read about here:
http://drhorrible.com/plan.html
But if you don't go by Sunday, midnight, it will vanish and then you'll have to pay. Later. Maybe. If it ever shows up again.
So go now and watch. Go.
---
http://drhorrible.com/
It's weird. Funny. Off color. Odd. Interesting. Has Nathan Fillion in it. Has some decent singing in it... but it's very, very weird. Still, what would you expect?
It's part of a plan that you can read about here:
http://drhorrible.com/plan.html
But if you don't go by Sunday, midnight, it will vanish and then you'll have to pay. Later. Maybe. If it ever shows up again.
So go now and watch. Go.
---
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Where is Matt?
I got this off one of the Hero Arts Blogger's sites (Jennifer McGuire, Ink). It's good for a smile, she says, and I believe it is. At least it got a smile (or two) out of me. Silly, but fun. Make sure your speakers and sound are on. And if it doesn't come through on the Feedblitz, check the website itself.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
Enjoy!
----
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
Enjoy!
----
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Masdar -- Dharma
Yesterday's blog included an embedded YouTube video -- first time I ever tried it on Blogger and while it worked online, I wasn't sure what would happen when it went out through the Feedblitz email. Sure enough, the email I got this morning did not include the video because I don't have Active X something or other installed or functioning (and don't want to). If that happened to you and you'd like to see the creepy promo video for "The Masdar Initiative," you'll have to go to the blog itself.
This morning I figured out one of the reasons the name "The Masdar Initiative" and logo are so creepy to me. To any Lost fans out there: Isn't it an awful lot like "The Dharma Initiative?" Just add an s and switch the syllables and you've got "Masdar." (okay and take away the h, but you don't pronounce that) The Masdar logo is even vaguely reminiscent of the Dharma one. Is this a coincidence?
I doubt the Masdar people copied Lost, but maybe the Lost people copied Masdar... nah, probably not. (though I just read of two actual incidents in the non fiction book I'm reading now (The Biotech Century) which Michael Crichton used to model plot elements in his genetics gone awry novel Next after.) Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Dharma means the "underlying order in nature and life (human or other)...which makes the cosmos and the harmonious complexity of the natural world possible."
Spiritually it's said to refer to the 'right way of living', 'proper conduct', 'duty' or 'righteousness'. Which really kind of fits with the whole Masdar thing, especially if you look at it from the "environmentalism as religion standpoint." Living in Masdar will save the world, save mankind, be the pure and pious thing to do. Yuck. Masdar, by the way, is Arabic for "source." That's creepy, too. Especially as it echoes the "order that makes the natural world possible" part of dharma.
And since the source of all things is God, who is the source and orderer who makes the natural world possible... these both seem like words that express kingdom of darkness sorts of concepts.
Enough of the creepiness. I am working on chapter 19 of my newly titled book today (having skipped over chapter 18). Didn't get very far. Lots of sitting and staring and shuffling of notes. Or maybe I did get far, I just can't tell.
Tomorrow: the new title.
Grace,
Karen
This morning I figured out one of the reasons the name "The Masdar Initiative" and logo are so creepy to me. To any Lost fans out there: Isn't it an awful lot like "The Dharma Initiative?" Just add an s and switch the syllables and you've got "Masdar." (okay and take away the h, but you don't pronounce that) The Masdar logo is even vaguely reminiscent of the Dharma one. Is this a coincidence?
I doubt the Masdar people copied Lost, but maybe the Lost people copied Masdar... nah, probably not. (though I just read of two actual incidents in the non fiction book I'm reading now (The Biotech Century) which Michael Crichton used to model plot elements in his genetics gone awry novel Next after.) Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Dharma means the "underlying order in nature and life (human or other)...which makes the cosmos and the harmonious complexity of the natural world possible."
Spiritually it's said to refer to the 'right way of living', 'proper conduct', 'duty' or 'righteousness'. Which really kind of fits with the whole Masdar thing, especially if you look at it from the "environmentalism as religion standpoint." Living in Masdar will save the world, save mankind, be the pure and pious thing to do. Yuck. Masdar, by the way, is Arabic for "source." That's creepy, too. Especially as it echoes the "order that makes the natural world possible" part of dharma.
And since the source of all things is God, who is the source and orderer who makes the natural world possible... these both seem like words that express kingdom of darkness sorts of concepts.
Enough of the creepiness. I am working on chapter 19 of my newly titled book today (having skipped over chapter 18). Didn't get very far. Lots of sitting and staring and shuffling of notes. Or maybe I did get far, I just can't tell.
Tomorrow: the new title.
Grace,
Karen
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Six Non-Important Habits or Quirks
Well, even without the comments operational, I've been tagged again for one of those blogger memes. (For more on this see my blog post the last time I was tagged: I've been Tagged -- Twice ) This time Tim Waters, a regular reader of this blog, emailed to let me know he'd tagged me on his blog, The Abiding Life, to list six non-important habits or quirks about myself. Why anyone would want to know that, I'm not sure.
Of course there are meme rules which you're supposed to copy out and include, and then you're supposed to tag six others, but being the hermit-writer that I am, with no time, who rarely reads other blogs (though I did enjoy Tim's) I'm not going to do either. You'll just get the six, non-important habits or quirks.
1) I have tea and cookies every afternoon around 4:30 or 5. I also have tea along with breakfast a few times a week. I only like Twinings English (or Irish) Breakfast tea. I strongly dislike Lipton, yuck!, which my favored (nearest) grocery store suddenly decided to carry shelves of while it discontinued all the Twinings teas as it remodeled and "expanded" its selections. Now you can get all sorts of Mexican cheeses and refrescas, prickly pear pads, other weird vegetables, but you can only get Lipton black tea and some Celestial Seasonings blends (which I also don't like). They even discontinued my Stash chai brand.
The cookies are almost always brownies or chocolate chip.
2) I chew my fingers -- not my fingernails, but the little bits of skin that come up from around the cuticle and fingernails. It's combination of a skin quirk I have with a writer's tendancy to be orally fixated. Or so I'm told. When I was first reading about "How to tell if you're a Writer," one of the characteristics is that writers tend to want to stick things in their mouths -- they chew their pens, fingernails, the ends of pencils, straws, gum, etc, or they are smokers, which is also related to oral fixation. If you believe in that sort of psychobabble. I'm not sure I do, but it's a convenient excuse for my habit.
I do it mostly when I'm thinking or reading, so I'm not usually aware of the fact that I'm doing it. It gets worse when I'm under stress. Attempts to break it have been futile. Putting bad tasting stuff on them doesn't stop the urge to chew and always ends up in my eyes, where it burns. The best thing is to keep my hands out of water and constantly slather lotion on them (I mean like every hour or so) but that's not something I can remember to do either. When I do, I always find myself ready to type next and don't want to get lotion all over the keyboard. Or worse, after I've rubbed the lotion in, circumstances conspire to where I'm immediately putting my hands in water again.
3) I think I might have an almost habit or maybe a quirk (a peculiar habit, mannerism or aspect of somebody's character) of eating avocado melt open faced sandwiches with Chai tea at least three times a week. I've been doing this for ... a number of years. Could be something like seven years. I started doing it when my favorite place for lunch, The Native Cafe (which served the avocado melts on sour dough bread) closed down.
It's one slice of 12-grain bread toasted, cream cheese, sprinkle of garlic, avocado, sprinkle of onion, sliced tomato, longhorn cheese, melted in the oven. I throw in some tortilla chips to heat along with it and have to eat it with the chai tea. Nothing else will do.
4) Speaking of "nothing else will do," I have to drink my coffee with my waffle or breakfast crepes when I'm in a restaurant. If I run out, I won't continue eating. I just sit there and let the food get cold until the waitress comes to refill the coffee cup. That definitely qualifies as peculiar, I think.
5) When writing in my journal, I alternate ink colors -- black one day, blue the next, then black again. This is "important" enough that I have spent ten or fifteen minutes searching for the appropriate pen so I can write.
Well, last time I listed one more than the meme stipulated, so it's only "right" that this time I list one less. Besides, I can't think of any other non-important habits/quirks. Housework routines (as per Flylady), Bible class and exercise habits are important. My life is too filled with surprises for me to establish very many non essential habits. Even using the routines is sometimes a challenge, especially now with Quigley and trying to write a book at the same time.
Speaking of Quigley, I brought him into the office today and he lay beside me, chewed his chew and finally fell asleep while I worked. It was very cool.
Have a great weekend
Karen
Of course there are meme rules which you're supposed to copy out and include, and then you're supposed to tag six others, but being the hermit-writer that I am, with no time, who rarely reads other blogs (though I did enjoy Tim's) I'm not going to do either. You'll just get the six, non-important habits or quirks.
1) I have tea and cookies every afternoon around 4:30 or 5. I also have tea along with breakfast a few times a week. I only like Twinings English (or Irish) Breakfast tea. I strongly dislike Lipton, yuck!, which my favored (nearest) grocery store suddenly decided to carry shelves of while it discontinued all the Twinings teas as it remodeled and "expanded" its selections. Now you can get all sorts of Mexican cheeses and refrescas, prickly pear pads, other weird vegetables, but you can only get Lipton black tea and some Celestial Seasonings blends (which I also don't like). They even discontinued my Stash chai brand.
The cookies are almost always brownies or chocolate chip.
2) I chew my fingers -- not my fingernails, but the little bits of skin that come up from around the cuticle and fingernails. It's combination of a skin quirk I have with a writer's tendancy to be orally fixated. Or so I'm told. When I was first reading about "How to tell if you're a Writer," one of the characteristics is that writers tend to want to stick things in their mouths -- they chew their pens, fingernails, the ends of pencils, straws, gum, etc, or they are smokers, which is also related to oral fixation. If you believe in that sort of psychobabble. I'm not sure I do, but it's a convenient excuse for my habit.
I do it mostly when I'm thinking or reading, so I'm not usually aware of the fact that I'm doing it. It gets worse when I'm under stress. Attempts to break it have been futile. Putting bad tasting stuff on them doesn't stop the urge to chew and always ends up in my eyes, where it burns. The best thing is to keep my hands out of water and constantly slather lotion on them (I mean like every hour or so) but that's not something I can remember to do either. When I do, I always find myself ready to type next and don't want to get lotion all over the keyboard. Or worse, after I've rubbed the lotion in, circumstances conspire to where I'm immediately putting my hands in water again.
3) I think I might have an almost habit or maybe a quirk (a peculiar habit, mannerism or aspect of somebody's character) of eating avocado melt open faced sandwiches with Chai tea at least three times a week. I've been doing this for ... a number of years. Could be something like seven years. I started doing it when my favorite place for lunch, The Native Cafe (which served the avocado melts on sour dough bread) closed down.
It's one slice of 12-grain bread toasted, cream cheese, sprinkle of garlic, avocado, sprinkle of onion, sliced tomato, longhorn cheese, melted in the oven. I throw in some tortilla chips to heat along with it and have to eat it with the chai tea. Nothing else will do.
4) Speaking of "nothing else will do," I have to drink my coffee with my waffle or breakfast crepes when I'm in a restaurant. If I run out, I won't continue eating. I just sit there and let the food get cold until the waitress comes to refill the coffee cup. That definitely qualifies as peculiar, I think.
5) When writing in my journal, I alternate ink colors -- black one day, blue the next, then black again. This is "important" enough that I have spent ten or fifteen minutes searching for the appropriate pen so I can write.
Well, last time I listed one more than the meme stipulated, so it's only "right" that this time I list one less. Besides, I can't think of any other non-important habits/quirks. Housework routines (as per Flylady), Bible class and exercise habits are important. My life is too filled with surprises for me to establish very many non essential habits. Even using the routines is sometimes a challenge, especially now with Quigley and trying to write a book at the same time.
Speaking of Quigley, I brought him into the office today and he lay beside me, chewed his chew and finally fell asleep while I worked. It was very cool.
Have a great weekend
Karen
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Blog Friend Forever
One of my long time blog readers (and former frequent commenter, when I had the comment function turned on) notified me today that she had chosen my blog along with four others to receive a Blog Friend Forever Award. This award is given "to awesome BLOG owners who keep their readers excited about their posts. Their blog posts are interesting (NOT spammy) and worth reading and keep their subscribers looking forward to each and every post." Thanks so much, Michelle! . I'm honored and I appreciate the encouragement.Michelle lives in Phoenix, and is the sister-in-law of a friend I used to homeschool with. Michelle also homeschools and has recently completed her first novel, Eldala, a fantasy/romance which she has published through Lulu.com. You can find more information about it on her blog sidebar, including early reviews and an excerpt from the book.
Grace,
Karen
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
CE and BCE
In researching the Maya today, I discovered that BC and AD are no longer the terms of choice for historical reckoning. Instead we have... CE. That stands for Common Era or Current Era or (if you really must) Christian Era. Years previous to that time are said to be BCE -- Before Common Era. I had to look it up. Wikipedia says...
"The term "Common Era" is preferred by some as an alternative to the overtly Christian "AD" and "BC," since "Common Era" does not use religious titles for Jesus such as "Christ" and "Lord," which are used in the BC-AD notation. Andrew Herrmann, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, observes, "The changes — showing up at museums, in academic circles and in school textbooks — have been touted as more sensitive to people of faiths outside of Christianity."
After 2000 years of reckoning our years based on the life of Christ that is now coming to an end. Yet another indication that we are in the end times. Which seems weirdly apprpriate since once the rapture comes, it isn't going to be the "Christian era" any longer. The kingdom of darkness seems to be getting a head start on that now.
Karen
"The term "Common Era" is preferred by some as an alternative to the overtly Christian "AD" and "BC," since "Common Era" does not use religious titles for Jesus such as "Christ" and "Lord," which are used in the BC-AD notation. Andrew Herrmann, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, observes, "The changes — showing up at museums, in academic circles and in school textbooks — have been touted as more sensitive to people of faiths outside of Christianity."
After 2000 years of reckoning our years based on the life of Christ that is now coming to an end. Yet another indication that we are in the end times. Which seems weirdly apprpriate since once the rapture comes, it isn't going to be the "Christian era" any longer. The kingdom of darkness seems to be getting a head start on that now.
Karen
Thursday, August 16, 2007
New Cast
Tuesday was a great day -- the swelling down, almost no pain. I got a lot done. Wednesday I paid for that. The swelling returned full force, and with it the pain. I could do nothing but lie around and ice my arm. I guess that is a common scenario. Today I saw the doctor and he removed the splint and replaced it with a light blue cast. It's great.I saw the x-rays and things are coming along as they should be. I have three pins and they each looked about 4 inches long driven into the bone lengthwise. Now I know why I kept having pin pains in more than one place.
My fingers are still hampered by the swelling (they won't bend enough to type) and it is too painful to rotate my arm enough to get them lined up with the keyboard so I'll be doing the 1-handed method for awhile yet. And now it's time to go ice my arm.
Grace,
Karen
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Graying Heroes
I heard this story on the radio today when I was driving over to Cartridge World, and thought it was such fun, I wanted to share it. I found it on www.boston.com through Rush Limbaugh.
It's about how Bob Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander and his fellow, unnamed passenger, a retired US Marine, helped flight attendants subdue two men who had terrorized passengers on a three-hour Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with their weird behavior. "Your lives are going to change today forever," one of the disrupters was reported to have said early on in the flight.
Hayden told to the flight attendant he was a retired policeman and offered to assist in subduing the men, at an agreed upon a signal. But when he stood up and looked around for someone to help, all the younger men looked away, refusing to make eye contact. Finally he asked a gray-haired fellow sitting nearby "if he was up to it." The man's reply was, "Retired captain. USMC."
"You'll do," Hayden said.
Thus as the plane was about to land, and the wild men leapt up shouting, the flight attendant gave the signal, and Hayden and his marine bounded down the aisle to subdue the guy and his brother. For this the two grandfathers "received an ovation from fellow passengers." Hayden's wife Katie, however, (also on the flight) was more occupied with the book she was reading than with her husband's heroics.
When a scandalized fellow passenger asked how she could just sit there reading during all this, Katie Hayden said, "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."
I love it! You can read the whole story here.
Karen
It's about how Bob Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander and his fellow, unnamed passenger, a retired US Marine, helped flight attendants subdue two men who had terrorized passengers on a three-hour Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with their weird behavior. "Your lives are going to change today forever," one of the disrupters was reported to have said early on in the flight.
Hayden told to the flight attendant he was a retired policeman and offered to assist in subduing the men, at an agreed upon a signal. But when he stood up and looked around for someone to help, all the younger men looked away, refusing to make eye contact. Finally he asked a gray-haired fellow sitting nearby "if he was up to it." The man's reply was, "Retired captain. USMC."
"You'll do," Hayden said.
Thus as the plane was about to land, and the wild men leapt up shouting, the flight attendant gave the signal, and Hayden and his marine bounded down the aisle to subdue the guy and his brother. For this the two grandfathers "received an ovation from fellow passengers." Hayden's wife Katie, however, (also on the flight) was more occupied with the book she was reading than with her husband's heroics.
When a scandalized fellow passenger asked how she could just sit there reading during all this, Katie Hayden said, "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."
I love it! You can read the whole story here.
Karen
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Some New Reviews
Over the past month or so I've been saving up the links to a new interview, and a few reviews to share. Before the time passes further, I thought I would do so.
The first, which I'd intended to post back in April during the Blog tour -- and completely spaced -- is at The Young Ladies Christian Fellowship blog. I did an Interview there and one of the Young Ladies, Natalie Nyquist blogged about Light of Eidon.
Then, Return of the Guardian King was reviewed at Christian Fiction Review here.
Most recently Australian Narelle Mollet reviewed it at her blog, Relz Reviewz. Bethany House has chosen an excerpt from this review to post on the RotGK page at their home website: "Return of the Guardian King is engrossing, entertaining and challenging. The message at it's heart is powerful and not to be missed. This is a landmark series to be enjoyed more than once."
And regarding that "too revealing review on Amazon," the Bethany House conclusion was that its positives outweighed its negatives, especially in light of the fact that due to its length most potential readers would likely only skim it and thus miss many of the details. From what I read recently about Internet reading habits (no one likes to read computer screens, so you should keep it short and sweet) this seems a good point. Also, even if readers don't skim, they may not remember any of the details by the time they get around to reading the book anyway.
Actually, if I were reading a series, I wouldn't even read the reviews on the last book until I'd read it myself (I just did that, in fact, with Fool's Fate) so maybe that's more the rule than the exception in Return of the Guardian King's case.
Today I had to go to the rubber stamp store to pick up the last of the special orders I'd made in the spring. I thought it only made sense to go on the same day as they were having a one day, invitation only, Going Out of Business sale at 25% off of all merchandise. What I didn't expect was that there would be so many other specially invited customers that would have shown up not at 10:15 like I did, but, it would appear, at 10am sharp! The store was packed. I bought a bunch of cool stamps and for the first time in my life stood in a tiny, crowded store with a bunch of ladies I'd never met before and actually had fun! (Usually I avoid such things like the plague)
Unfortunately, I was there until noon (not my plan) and when I came home was too jazzed about the stamps and the things I'd learned to settle down and write. Then there was a phone call and... now my printer is out of black ink and so tomorrow I'm going to go have the cartridge refilled -- a process I've never done before so things are... as usual... weird. Printer instructions warn about not letting the ink tank go dry or it could ruin the machine... (cue scary music) so I can't print up the stuff I did actually work on today. If it's not one thing, it's another. (Which, not surprisingly, was just what Bible class was about today.)
Speaking of things, I spent the weekend unable to write because my wrists and arms were being weird -- sore, cramping and tingling. When I tried to sleep at night they'd either go to sleep or else I'd lie there and they'd throb. I had to take Advil and ice my right wrist on Saturday. Couldn't write longhand for more than a minute or two and using the mouse wasn't good either. It's not so bad now, so I don't know what that was about -- some sort of tendonitis, I guess, and one of the reasons I decided sitting at the table reading a book all Saturday night might not be such a bad idea... but I guess I'd better not push it and stop this now.
Besides, I don't want to get too long here and tax my reader's attention spans or strain their eyes or whatever it is that causes people not to read things on the Internet...
Grace,
Karen
The first, which I'd intended to post back in April during the Blog tour -- and completely spaced -- is at The Young Ladies Christian Fellowship blog. I did an Interview there and one of the Young Ladies, Natalie Nyquist blogged about Light of Eidon.
Then, Return of the Guardian King was reviewed at Christian Fiction Review here.
Most recently Australian Narelle Mollet reviewed it at her blog, Relz Reviewz. Bethany House has chosen an excerpt from this review to post on the RotGK page at their home website: "Return of the Guardian King is engrossing, entertaining and challenging. The message at it's heart is powerful and not to be missed. This is a landmark series to be enjoyed more than once."
And regarding that "too revealing review on Amazon," the Bethany House conclusion was that its positives outweighed its negatives, especially in light of the fact that due to its length most potential readers would likely only skim it and thus miss many of the details. From what I read recently about Internet reading habits (no one likes to read computer screens, so you should keep it short and sweet) this seems a good point. Also, even if readers don't skim, they may not remember any of the details by the time they get around to reading the book anyway.
Actually, if I were reading a series, I wouldn't even read the reviews on the last book until I'd read it myself (I just did that, in fact, with Fool's Fate) so maybe that's more the rule than the exception in Return of the Guardian King's case.
Today I had to go to the rubber stamp store to pick up the last of the special orders I'd made in the spring. I thought it only made sense to go on the same day as they were having a one day, invitation only, Going Out of Business sale at 25% off of all merchandise. What I didn't expect was that there would be so many other specially invited customers that would have shown up not at 10:15 like I did, but, it would appear, at 10am sharp! The store was packed. I bought a bunch of cool stamps and for the first time in my life stood in a tiny, crowded store with a bunch of ladies I'd never met before and actually had fun! (Usually I avoid such things like the plague)
Unfortunately, I was there until noon (not my plan) and when I came home was too jazzed about the stamps and the things I'd learned to settle down and write. Then there was a phone call and... now my printer is out of black ink and so tomorrow I'm going to go have the cartridge refilled -- a process I've never done before so things are... as usual... weird. Printer instructions warn about not letting the ink tank go dry or it could ruin the machine... (cue scary music) so I can't print up the stuff I did actually work on today. If it's not one thing, it's another. (Which, not surprisingly, was just what Bible class was about today.)
Speaking of things, I spent the weekend unable to write because my wrists and arms were being weird -- sore, cramping and tingling. When I tried to sleep at night they'd either go to sleep or else I'd lie there and they'd throb. I had to take Advil and ice my right wrist on Saturday. Couldn't write longhand for more than a minute or two and using the mouse wasn't good either. It's not so bad now, so I don't know what that was about -- some sort of tendonitis, I guess, and one of the reasons I decided sitting at the table reading a book all Saturday night might not be such a bad idea... but I guess I'd better not push it and stop this now.
Besides, I don't want to get too long here and tax my reader's attention spans or strain their eyes or whatever it is that causes people not to read things on the Internet...
Grace,
Karen
Monday, June 04, 2007
Marathon Reading Binge
Well. I'm not sure what exactly happened to me this weekend, but I suspect Saturday night had something to do with it. I went to Barnes and Noble Saturday morning and bought Fool's Fate, the last in Robin Hobb's Tawny Man Trilogy. I planned to make myself wait a bit to read it. But that night my hubby was off at a track meet and about 6pm I was finishing dinner and it was sitting there on the table and I picked it up, just to see how it started.Which was a silly excuse even for myself, since I'd already read how it started at the end of Golden Fool. Nevertheless, I picked it up. It's a 900+ page book. I soon realized that the things I wanted to know would not be swift in coming and almost from the start I began my skim reading mode -- leaping over descriptions, exposition, and all the little historical excerpts that begin each chapter. I didn't get up from the chair at the dining room table once I started it. Not to turn off the cooler when it got too cold, not to go to the bathroom, not to go eat when I got hungry again sometime around midnight. That's also when my hubby came home from the track meet. He had brought dinner, and I ate one of his french fries, conversing distractedly with him about the meet as I kept going back for more of the story.
Finally he gave up on me and went to do his after the track meet assessments on the computer. Sometime later he came and told me we were probably not going to be very happy with ourselves in the morning. By then I'd reached the 700s and glanced at my watch: 3am. I'd read for 9 hours straight!
When I stood up, I got dizzy, and for a moment my eyes wouldn't focus on anything beyond arm's reach. I have no idea how I did that, but... I guess I can get pretty intense when I'm engaged with something. And we had communion Sunday the next morning. Or, well, that same morning, I guess.
Amazingly, it didn't go too badly. We went to Starbucks on the way and I had no problem staying awake for the lesson. Not until that afternoon did I crash and take a two hour nap, which is very unusual for me. Then I read the remaining 200 pages and overall thought I'd gotten off well. Even as I seemed to recall that perhaps it was the second day after such an excess that was the worst...
And yes. It was. I was good for nothing but mindless chores today. And not even much of those. I didn't really sleep, but I couldn't get myself to pay attention to anything. And midafternoon I got a pretty nasty fatigue headache. But at least the book is read more or less, and though I plan to read it again from the start thoroughly, I hope that I've taken the extreme edge off the need-to-know-what-happens.
I'm really going to have to do a few blog posts on these books. Not reviews, per se, just reflections. They always spark a lot of thought.
Anyway, that's the reason there was no post Sunday night. I was reading and even if I hadn't been, I was completely wordless.
Grace,
Karen
Thursday, May 24, 2007
What American Accent Do you Have?
This was fun. A friend sent it to me a few days ago and I only got around to taking it today. I love accents, even Northeast accents now that I've gotten used to them! But I always wondered what kind of accent others would think I had. I thought maybe I had no accent at all, and apparently, if you can believe this quiz... that's true.
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta. | |
| The Midland | |
| Boston | |
| North Central | |
| The Inland North | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The South | |
| The Northeast | |
| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
Have a great day
Karen
P.S. The Kiriathan and King Fan Forum which has been temporarily offline, has been reopened.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
A Too Revealing Amazon Review?
Yesterday I discovered a new review for Return of the Guardian King on Amazon. It's a very nice review but unfortunately I think is a bit too revealing of major plot points. If you feel inclined, I'd welcome opinions on whether you agree with me. You may have noticed that I've turned off the comments (it's an experiment -- more on that later) but you can always reach me through the email address in my profile. Also there is a little button at the end of each review on Amazon called "Report this". I clicked it, but then a window opens with "Report this review as inappropriate" and another button to do so. That's as far as I went (I'm trying to get hold of the Internet Marketing manager at BHP but he is out of town for a week...)
Amazon's guidelines do ask reviewers not to reveal "crucial plot elements". If you believe this review does that, then I think it would be okay to report it as "inappropriate." Unfortunately, as I said, it is a very positive review overall. It's just better suited, I think, to discussions with friends or in book clubs where everyone has already read the book. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or if it really would compromise a newcomer's reading experience.
Thanks
Karen
Amazon's guidelines do ask reviewers not to reveal "crucial plot elements". If you believe this review does that, then I think it would be okay to report it as "inappropriate." Unfortunately, as I said, it is a very positive review overall. It's just better suited, I think, to discussions with friends or in book clubs where everyone has already read the book. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or if it really would compromise a newcomer's reading experience.
Thanks
Karen
Monday, May 07, 2007
I've Been Tagged ... Twice
Today (It'll be "yesterday" by the time many of you read this) in the comments section on my last post, I learned that blogger Heather Hunt, (who wrote a very kind review of Return of the Guardian King for Title Trakk, parts of which have been used by Bethany House at their site and also on Amazon and CBD) had tagged me for Eight Random Facts about Myself.
Tagging is a phenomenon where a blogger writes up a list of some sort like "Eight Random Facts About Me" and then tags eight other bloggers to write up their own lists on that subject. They each then tag eight more bloggers. Kinda like those email forwards that tell you to forward this to ten friends or else your computer will blow up, a dog will come out to pee on it (my most recent experience with those) or you will have bad luck forever -- but without the threats. This is the first time I've ever been tagged...
Oh, wait, I was tagged before, but it was only in the process of looking around at the others who were tagged with me today that I discovered Rebecca Grabill had tagged me a week ago Sunday. Or, should I say -- ahem -- bestowed upon my blog a "Thinking Blog Award." I think that could be a post in itself. I didn't know my blog thought. Why doesn't it write itself then? I'm going to have to look into this, because really, when I have those hard days and end up with the turnip head, I think it would be very helpful if my blog could carry some of the load...
But nevermind about that. I discovered this very nice nomination/award/tag and through that learned that all this tagging activity is, in fact, a result of blog memes. Or maybe it is a blog meme. Or blog meme-ing
Or something.
The word meme, though, caught my eye because I'd been reading about it in an article on Richard Dawkins a few weeks ago in Wired Magazine on the New Atheists (out to do away with religion -- yet another post.) It also caught my eye because it linked to Wikipedia where I could read more about these memes. (For some reason in the US the word meme is pronounced "mem") The word "refers to a unit of cultural information which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes. Examples would be tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots, or of building arches. A meme, [said Dawkins], propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution and diffusion -- analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene.
So these little cultural units -- blogger lists -- are now propogating themselves about the blogosphere. Thank you to Rebecca for the kind notice that my blog thinks, and also to Heather for the prompting to post Eight Random Facts about Myself. Eager to play, I wrote out my list before I realized I hardly read any other blogs (which is why I missed out for a week on the Thinking Blog post). Of those I do, most were also tagged along with me. Which means I can't tag them.
So that means I can't play, unless I start randomly tagging folks who comment here and that doesn't seem the thing to do (especially since there's a curious corrolation between them and the others who have already been tagged). But I do have this list I made, so I guess I will content myself with posting it without further tags (this, alas is the same fate that meets many of those threatening, cajoling, bribing emails that find their way into my inbox. They almost never get forwarded, I don't copy out all the names into a new message and add mine to the end and send it to ten friends and I don't care what threat an email hangs over me, I probably won't pass it on.
Do you have to post the tagging rules if you're playing outside the bounds? No.
Thus, without further ado, Eight Random Facts About Me:
1. I share my office with a bearskin (complete with head and claws) and a rattlesnake skin.
2. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and up again all in one day (Kaibab down, Bright Angel up -- something like 21 miles. I've forgotten the exact figure).
3. I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo and love it! My dream car. In fact, driving a Jeep was one of my criterion for a mate! My husband actually drove a Toyota Land Cruiser at the time. I decided that would do, but now that we've moved on to Jeeps, I'm happy.
4. I've had one of my favorite paintings accepted into the Rocky Mountain National Watercolor Exhibition in Denver and it sold. A bittersweet blessing, since I got the prestige of getting in but lost the painting itself.
5. I've been bitten by a grebe. Also a seagull and a scoter...
6. While we were homeschooling, my son and I dissected a cow's eyeball. The retina is really cool -- opalescent like abalone shell! I was quite excited, but he thought the whole thing was slimy and gross.
7. I once lived in an apple orchard and sold apples. Also made apple pie, apple butter, applesauce, apple bars, apple jelly, dried apples, apple bread, apple salad, apple crisp and during one very long day, gallons and gallons of apple cider.
8. I used to think mothering was the hardest job I ever did but now I think it's writing. I don't remember ever getting as drained from mothering and homeschooling as I do from writing. Or maybe I'm just getting old...
9. (Yes, I know it said 8, but I'm not following the rules, remember?) I think I have a broken toe. The fourth one on my left foot which I jammed full speed into the doorjamb about three weeks ago and is still red and swollen and hurts far more than it ought to when I move it wrong.
So much for that. But if any of you are inclined to post 8 Random Things About Yourself on your own blogs, even without being tagged, leave a comment so we can go read it!
Grace,
Karen
Tagging is a phenomenon where a blogger writes up a list of some sort like "Eight Random Facts About Me" and then tags eight other bloggers to write up their own lists on that subject. They each then tag eight more bloggers. Kinda like those email forwards that tell you to forward this to ten friends or else your computer will blow up, a dog will come out to pee on it (my most recent experience with those) or you will have bad luck forever -- but without the threats. This is the first time I've ever been tagged...
Oh, wait, I was tagged before, but it was only in the process of looking around at the others who were tagged with me today that I discovered Rebecca Grabill had tagged me a week ago Sunday. Or, should I say -- ahem -- bestowed upon my blog a "Thinking Blog Award." I think that could be a post in itself. I didn't know my blog thought. Why doesn't it write itself then? I'm going to have to look into this, because really, when I have those hard days and end up with the turnip head, I think it would be very helpful if my blog could carry some of the load...
But nevermind about that. I discovered this very nice nomination/award/tag and through that learned that all this tagging activity is, in fact, a result of blog memes. Or maybe it is a blog meme. Or blog meme-ing
Or something.
The word meme, though, caught my eye because I'd been reading about it in an article on Richard Dawkins a few weeks ago in Wired Magazine on the New Atheists (out to do away with religion -- yet another post.) It also caught my eye because it linked to Wikipedia where I could read more about these memes. (For some reason in the US the word meme is pronounced "mem") The word "refers to a unit of cultural information which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes. Examples would be tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots, or of building arches. A meme, [said Dawkins], propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution and diffusion -- analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene.
So these little cultural units -- blogger lists -- are now propogating themselves about the blogosphere. Thank you to Rebecca for the kind notice that my blog thinks, and also to Heather for the prompting to post Eight Random Facts about Myself. Eager to play, I wrote out my list before I realized I hardly read any other blogs (which is why I missed out for a week on the Thinking Blog post). Of those I do, most were also tagged along with me. Which means I can't tag them.
So that means I can't play, unless I start randomly tagging folks who comment here and that doesn't seem the thing to do (especially since there's a curious corrolation between them and the others who have already been tagged). But I do have this list I made, so I guess I will content myself with posting it without further tags (this, alas is the same fate that meets many of those threatening, cajoling, bribing emails that find their way into my inbox. They almost never get forwarded, I don't copy out all the names into a new message and add mine to the end and send it to ten friends and I don't care what threat an email hangs over me, I probably won't pass it on.
Do you have to post the tagging rules if you're playing outside the bounds? No.
Thus, without further ado, Eight Random Facts About Me:
1. I share my office with a bearskin (complete with head and claws) and a rattlesnake skin.
2. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and up again all in one day (Kaibab down, Bright Angel up -- something like 21 miles. I've forgotten the exact figure).
3. I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo and love it! My dream car. In fact, driving a Jeep was one of my criterion for a mate! My husband actually drove a Toyota Land Cruiser at the time. I decided that would do, but now that we've moved on to Jeeps, I'm happy.
4. I've had one of my favorite paintings accepted into the Rocky Mountain National Watercolor Exhibition in Denver and it sold. A bittersweet blessing, since I got the prestige of getting in but lost the painting itself.
5. I've been bitten by a grebe. Also a seagull and a scoter...
6. While we were homeschooling, my son and I dissected a cow's eyeball. The retina is really cool -- opalescent like abalone shell! I was quite excited, but he thought the whole thing was slimy and gross.
7. I once lived in an apple orchard and sold apples. Also made apple pie, apple butter, applesauce, apple bars, apple jelly, dried apples, apple bread, apple salad, apple crisp and during one very long day, gallons and gallons of apple cider.
8. I used to think mothering was the hardest job I ever did but now I think it's writing. I don't remember ever getting as drained from mothering and homeschooling as I do from writing. Or maybe I'm just getting old...
9. (Yes, I know it said 8, but I'm not following the rules, remember?) I think I have a broken toe. The fourth one on my left foot which I jammed full speed into the doorjamb about three weeks ago and is still red and swollen and hurts far more than it ought to when I move it wrong.
So much for that. But if any of you are inclined to post 8 Random Things About Yourself on your own blogs, even without being tagged, leave a comment so we can go read it!
Grace,
Karen
Sunday, April 01, 2007
2007 Garden Tour
Every year about this time, my mother and I spend a Saturday attending the Tucson Botanical Gardens Home Garden Tour. There are usually from 7 to 8 homes sprinkled about the city that have been selected as part of the self-guiding tour, and they span the gamut from low cost to high, whimsical to contemporary, low-water use to lush and tropical. It's always a fun time, seeing all the different ways people have designed their gardens, both for beauty and for food.
The picture above is from the first house we visited which boasted an incredible cactus garden on a patio/veranda overlooking spectacular views of the city and the mountains. You can get a partial sense of that view from the picture at right.This year's tour was one of the best we've been on. In fact, because of a usage conflict I had to bring a regular film camera and ran out of film in the front yard of the third house. Unfortunately that was also the one whose owners had transformed the back yard swimming pool and spa into a koi pond.
I had no idea how mesmerized I would be with those fish. They were huge! At least two feet long -- about 17 of them, many of them award winning fish -- and obviously quite weighty. They were drawn to people standing at the pool's edge, weaving back and forth through the water in an intricate dance with a powerful, even regal sort of grace. Mostly they were red-orange and white but there was also among them a golden one. I've read enough about the magical and rare golden carp that it had to have been added on purpose. After I'd stood there awhile, the owner came up and offered me a couple of handfuls of food to feed them with. Boy was that a kick, watching them rise out of the water with gaping, toothless mouths to shovel up food and water both.
I got no pictures of the koi, but I did get at least get a couple of the hedgehog type cactus (echinocereus) blooming near their front driveway. (The huge pink and yellow flowers in the shot at left)
At a different house, I got a big kick out of this entryway with a bright red gate and bright blue post foundations (there has to be a better name for those -- pilons?) Inside is a quiet courtyard with chairs, fountain and flowers. Oh, and the front door, too.
The weather was beautiful (as must be obvious from these pictures), and we had a fine time. You'll be seeing more shots from the various gardens from time to time in this blog. For now I'll end with this shot of the mountains to the north of Tucson, the Santa Catalina's (where a 40 minute drive takes you from saguaros and paloverde trees to aspen and spruce). Note, in particular the cloudless blue sky!
Grace,
Karen
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