Saturdays were clean-the-house days when I was growing up.
My mother worked a 40-hour job and her evenings were filled with fixing dinner, helping my brother and me with homework, and doing laundry or other activities. So the weekend meant time to clean.
Mom liked a clean house but she did not care much for cleaning (a sentiment I inherited, I fear). My brother and I had chores - cleaning our room, dusting, etc., which increased as we aged. But some weeks things seemed to get out of hand - maybe we had too much homework to help out, or we were just especially sloppy for some reason.
You know, those moments when it seems the dirt has taken over even though you know you just cleaned up a week ago.
On those days, my father would find me in my room or in front of the TV. "Your mother is on the warpath," he would warn. "I'm going out." And he would vanish to cut wood or ride the tractor - anything but stay around the house.
Because Mom could get a little crazy. She'd start yelling at us to clean our rooms, or clear the table, or whatever. Sometimes she threw things. I think she woke in a mood and it just spilled out. "You're nothing but pigs! Living in slop!" she'd yell. "I work all week and you're the most ungrateful bunch! I have to clean up after you all the time!"
This was unfair and not true - I did my share, for sure - but when Mom was on the warpath there was nothing to do but hunker down and find something to do that involved cleaning. You surely did not want to talk to back.
Fortunately this did not happen every Saturday. Generally we all rose and performed our chores. But sometimes, that warpath came along. Then everybody had better watch out! I was well into adulthood before I realized she wasn't angry at me; she was just having a really bad day because she was tired and didn't want to be cleaning. It is tough to be grown up and have to deal with all of those responsibilities sometimes.
Last night I told my husband I wanted to sleep late. I did not set the alarm.
At 6:30 a.m. this morning he woke me to kiss me goodbye as he headed for the cattle lot. "Go back to sleep," he said.
Um. Yeah. Of course, I could not go back to sleep and when I sat up, my head throbbed. I had a day of housework ahead of me, and I needed to study, too. I did not need a headache. But I had a doozy.
Then the toilet stopped up. With my husband safely out of earshot, he could not hear my curses while I hunted up the plunger and proceeded to unstop the commode. Nothing kills my morning like dealing with poo, I must say.
Then the handle fell off the closet door. I put that back on. Grumble. Grumble.
He had left the coffee on the kitchen counter and when I went to put it in the cabinet, it slipped from my hand. The lid wasn't secure and coffee went everywhere.
"Nothing but a pig," I said aloud. "Living in slop!"
I opened the refrigerator to find an empty mayonnaise jar. "Can't he at least put this in the trash?" I huffed. I hurled the jar into the trash can with a satisfying thump. "I have to clean up after him all the time!"
And then I was on the warpath.
The next thing I knew, I had tossed practically everything in the refrigerator in the trash. Old apples and grapes, leftovers from earlier in the week - it all went. Thump. Whap. Clank.
My ire not yet sated, I proceeded to clean the oven. Then I opened the cabinet where the coffee was stowed and threw everything in there in the garbage - packs of Jello gelatin, spices, pudding, fudge brownie mix, soup mixes - it all hit the trash can. Thump. Whap. Thump. Thump.
When I finished, I wiped my brow. The aspirin was kicking in; my headache was lessening. That cabinet had needed cleaning out for sometime and it felt good to have that little chore off my back. There was more to do, but now I could do it with a little less force.
Still, when my husband came in, I scowled at him for dirtying up dishes for lunch. I informed him the toilet had troubled me yet again. I didn't stop to eat with him but proceeded to run the vacuum. My warpaint had faded but I still needed to scrub some of it off, I think.
He said little, but went back out to the barn. And then around 4:15 p.m., he called to tell me he was in Daleville. He'd stopped at the grocery and bought a pre-cooked chicken and some potato salad so I wouldn't have to cook.
Warpath gone.
I try very hard not to channel my mother, but I think every woman must have days when she feels like she is the only one who cares if the house is clean and she is tired of cleaning the bathtub. Housework is never ending. No wonder it drove my mother crazy.
I guess if I'd had kids, they would have those times when they would say, "Mom is on the warpath." I'll have to ask my brother if that happens at his house.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday Thirteen
The other day I was looking through someone else's photo album. It made me recall that I did a few things when I was a youngster and I thought I'd see if I could remember 13 things about K-12. Here goes!
1. I was a classroom spelling bee champion in the 6th grade. When it came time to be the school champion, I missed the word "haunted." You can bet I have never misspelled that word again.
2. The library and I were fast friends, and in elementary school, I brought home certificates every year for being a good library helper.
3. I played flute in band beginning in the 6th grade. One time the music teacher asked me to accompany her to Eagle Rock Elementary School, where we put on a performance together for the lower grades.
4. I sang in the school chorus in middle school (at that time middle school was 7th & 8th grade). The songs I remember singing are Black and White, by Three Dog Night, and Morning Has Broken, by Cat Stevens.
5. I battled for first chair in flute every year. The contest was always between me and Angie, and it seemed we'd alternate semesters as to who was the best. It was quite an honor to be named first chair flute, as that meant you were the best of the flute players. It also meant you were the one who played the piccolo sometimes. Everyone wanted to play the piccolo because it was cute.
6. I was an A student but always received a B in gym. If I hadn't had gym, I'd have been a straight A student every year. However, I was sickly and I missed 30-40 days of school annually. Apparently participation counted the most in gym class. I could make up other homework but I couldn't make up for missing out on climbing the rope.
7. I played guitar in a Top 40 band. We started the band when I was a sophomore in high school and stuck together until I was a senior. The band was called Almost Famous. We played cover songs, mostly. We earned some spending money doing this, if nothing else.
8. When I was in the 7th grade, the bus driver went off and left my brother stranded at the elementary school. I cried all the way home, and when we arrived at my stop, I laid into the driver and told her what I thought of her. The next morning I marched myself down to the principal's office to turn in the bus driver (who had, in the meantime, turned me in for telling her off). The principal did not punish me, but did suggest I not do that again.
9. When I was in the second grade, the teacher would sometimes leave early. When she did, she left me in charge of the entire class. I had to read a book about dinosaurs to everyone. Of course the teacher next door had her door open and was looking in on us, but I felt very special to have been chosen. It meant, of course, I was the teacher's pet and the other kids hated me but at the time I didn't realize that. Ignorance can indeed be bliss.
10. I was an honor student in high school. Mostly, that meant I had a gold tassel at graduation.
11. I was on the debate team for a year. I was not very good at it.
12. My Spanish teacher took several us to Madrid, Spain, and Paris, France, in 1980. It is the only time I've been overseas. It was a fantastic life lesson.
13. I had string puppets from Mexico and wrote a play for them in Spanish. My Spanish class put on the play and somehow we ended up on TV. We put the play on twice, once in Spanish and once in English, and it ran on a local show.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 179th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
1. I was a classroom spelling bee champion in the 6th grade. When it came time to be the school champion, I missed the word "haunted." You can bet I have never misspelled that word again.
2. The library and I were fast friends, and in elementary school, I brought home certificates every year for being a good library helper.
3. I played flute in band beginning in the 6th grade. One time the music teacher asked me to accompany her to Eagle Rock Elementary School, where we put on a performance together for the lower grades.
4. I sang in the school chorus in middle school (at that time middle school was 7th & 8th grade). The songs I remember singing are Black and White, by Three Dog Night, and Morning Has Broken, by Cat Stevens.
5. I battled for first chair in flute every year. The contest was always between me and Angie, and it seemed we'd alternate semesters as to who was the best. It was quite an honor to be named first chair flute, as that meant you were the best of the flute players. It also meant you were the one who played the piccolo sometimes. Everyone wanted to play the piccolo because it was cute.
6. I was an A student but always received a B in gym. If I hadn't had gym, I'd have been a straight A student every year. However, I was sickly and I missed 30-40 days of school annually. Apparently participation counted the most in gym class. I could make up other homework but I couldn't make up for missing out on climbing the rope.
7. I played guitar in a Top 40 band. We started the band when I was a sophomore in high school and stuck together until I was a senior. The band was called Almost Famous. We played cover songs, mostly. We earned some spending money doing this, if nothing else.
8. When I was in the 7th grade, the bus driver went off and left my brother stranded at the elementary school. I cried all the way home, and when we arrived at my stop, I laid into the driver and told her what I thought of her. The next morning I marched myself down to the principal's office to turn in the bus driver (who had, in the meantime, turned me in for telling her off). The principal did not punish me, but did suggest I not do that again.
9. When I was in the second grade, the teacher would sometimes leave early. When she did, she left me in charge of the entire class. I had to read a book about dinosaurs to everyone. Of course the teacher next door had her door open and was looking in on us, but I felt very special to have been chosen. It meant, of course, I was the teacher's pet and the other kids hated me but at the time I didn't realize that. Ignorance can indeed be bliss.
10. I was an honor student in high school. Mostly, that meant I had a gold tassel at graduation.
11. I was on the debate team for a year. I was not very good at it.
12. My Spanish teacher took several us to Madrid, Spain, and Paris, France, in 1980. It is the only time I've been overseas. It was a fantastic life lesson.
13. I had string puppets from Mexico and wrote a play for them in Spanish. My Spanish class put on the play and somehow we ended up on TV. We put the play on twice, once in Spanish and once in English, and it ran on a local show.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 179th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Do It In Style
I am always very honored when people think enough of my blog to link to it or mention it on their own blogs in some fashion or another. It is the highest compliment.
Apparently I am to list seven things that contribute to my personal style. So here we go.
1. I'm eclectic reader and if it's written down, I likely will look at.
2. I've been up in a hot air balloon and buzzed Botetourt from a small airplane. I will sometimes try something even if it scares the beejesus out of me.
3. When I was about 10 years old, I looked up from the local newspaper I was reading and informed my mother that one day I would write for said newspaper. And do it better. And I did.
4. Jack of all trades, master of none. That seems to be my lifestyle. I know a lot about a great many things, and have done a good deal, but, aside from writing, I've mastered very little.
5. When I was in elementary school, I thought I'd go for my Ph.D. I'm still working on that. Even when I am not back at college, I am a student of learning.
6. Blue jeans with a t-shirt has always been my favorite outfit. It still is.
7. Sometimes I still bite my fingernails. I will go for months and not touch them, and then wham, there they are. Back in my mouth.
****************************************************************************************
If you would like this award, please feel free to take it. If you're reading my blog, obviously you're stylish, too!
In the meantime, I will pass this along to a few of my favorites. Colleen's blog would be on this list if she hadn't sent me the award!
The Blue Ridge Gal is another local blogger whose work I enjoy. I don't think she accepts awards, but go check her out if you haven't. She puts up photos and video and changes her blog look about as often I change my clothes!
Lenora over at Journal of Days offers up a unique way to look at your world: a daily diary in three sentences. I love it!
Writers might want to check out Peevish Pen; Becky takes on writing spammers and reminds us of the simpler life on the farm.
If you haven't seen Shenandoah Gateway Farm, check it out for an interesting look at farming and working in a library.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Another Eye Exam
I can hardly see to write this, what with my eyes dilated and all.
This was my fourth eye exam in a year, though only the second one that included a full comprehensive examination.
Yet another new prescription for eye glass lenses. This will be the fifth one since January 2010. I can only pray that this time I will be able to see.
And all of this because my eye doctor retired! Didn't he know he was supposed to keep working?
It's tough being half blind, I tell you. Expensive too. The cost of these lenses runs in the hundreds.
It'll be worth it if I can only see well again.
Not seeing well has affected me in many ways. Have you noticed I haven't been posting as many pictures? This is why. I can't see well enough to use the camera.
I'm not reading as much because my eyes tire easily. I had wanted to return to creating counted cross stitch pieces but found I simply can't see well enough to do it (this is with my glasses on). I can't thread the needle.
Hopefully this new doctor and new lenses prescription will do the trick.
This was my fourth eye exam in a year, though only the second one that included a full comprehensive examination.
Yet another new prescription for eye glass lenses. This will be the fifth one since January 2010. I can only pray that this time I will be able to see.
And all of this because my eye doctor retired! Didn't he know he was supposed to keep working?
It's tough being half blind, I tell you. Expensive too. The cost of these lenses runs in the hundreds.
It'll be worth it if I can only see well again.
Not seeing well has affected me in many ways. Have you noticed I haven't been posting as many pictures? This is why. I can't see well enough to use the camera.
I'm not reading as much because my eyes tire easily. I had wanted to return to creating counted cross stitch pieces but found I simply can't see well enough to do it (this is with my glasses on). I can't thread the needle.
Hopefully this new doctor and new lenses prescription will do the trick.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Books: Brava, Valentine
Brava, Valentine
By Adriana Trigiani
Copyright 2010
Audiobook read by Cassandra Campbell
11.5 hours unabridged
I've read (or listened to) almost every one of Trigiani's books, and she has it figured out. This is an author who can produce and put it out without losing her integrity in the process.
I fell in love with her Big Stone Gap books a very long time ago, and her books about Valentine Roncalli are just as good.
Val is a cobbler who must take over the family custom shoe-making business after her grandmother marries and retires. She is also in love with Jean Luca, the son of the Italian leather tanner her grandmother recently married.
While on the face of it on might dismiss this as a romance, this is a book with integrity. It explores family relationships, race relations, business, and life in general. This is a book about character, not a stereotype racing around the world for love and sex.
The author brings the world of New York to life, something a poor little hick like myself really appreciates. I haven't been to New York in 30 years. Additionally, I enjoyed learning about other cultures - particularly the Italian ones that seem foreign to this Appalachian Irish girl.
Strong writing and good characters. What more could one ask for in a book?
By Adriana Trigiani
Copyright 2010
Audiobook read by Cassandra Campbell
11.5 hours unabridged
I've read (or listened to) almost every one of Trigiani's books, and she has it figured out. This is an author who can produce and put it out without losing her integrity in the process.
I fell in love with her Big Stone Gap books a very long time ago, and her books about Valentine Roncalli are just as good.
Val is a cobbler who must take over the family custom shoe-making business after her grandmother marries and retires. She is also in love with Jean Luca, the son of the Italian leather tanner her grandmother recently married.
While on the face of it on might dismiss this as a romance, this is a book with integrity. It explores family relationships, race relations, business, and life in general. This is a book about character, not a stereotype racing around the world for love and sex.
The author brings the world of New York to life, something a poor little hick like myself really appreciates. I haven't been to New York in 30 years. Additionally, I enjoyed learning about other cultures - particularly the Italian ones that seem foreign to this Appalachian Irish girl.
Strong writing and good characters. What more could one ask for in a book?
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday Thirteen
Today, a completely random Thursday Thirteen.
1. Adjectives and adverbs are considered "bad" in the realms of good writing, but I rather like them (and am more partial to adjectives). Of course, saying "She raced to the phone" reads better but sometimes people really do just "go quickly." And colors are important.
2. For anyone who might not remember, an adjective modifies a noun; an adverb modifies a verb. In this sentence, "The clouds moved slowly across the pale, blue sky," slowly is an adverb, pale and blue are adjectives. English 101. Actually, I don't use a lot of either modifier in my writing, but when I do, they're there for a reason.
3. Harriet Martineau, born in 1802, is considered the mother of sociology. She was also a feminist and radical thinker for the times. Though she was from England, she studied American society and wrote a text called Society in America. According to my textbook, "she believes that Americans will eventually renounce their consuming pursuit of wealth and that equalization of property will occur. But she insists it will not happen by revolution: it will happen, rather, "[w]hen the people become tired of their universal servitude to worldly anxiety, -when they have fully meditated and discussed the fact" that this pursuit of wealth is a source of pain rather than joy." I wonder if 150 years is too long to give her for her prophesy to come true? Because it obviously hasn't. We're consumed by our fetish for the dollar.
4. Often I see things online and wish to comment, but I don't, even if I might be able to comment anonymously. I know that what I might say will bring down lots of comments from snarling, vindictive "Christians" or righteous others who would just as soon eat me for breakfast and leave me prostrate on the floor or huddled in a quivering lump, so I simply keep my mouth shut. I find these to be very scary times, and people who do not acknowledge that the atmosphere is cruel and evil are simply not paying attention, or are part of that misogynistic segment and not its victims.
5. I like chocolate. Is there a diet that allows chocolate? Because that is the one I need.
6. Warm weather in February is like a gift of chocolate covered cherries. I've spied my first robin, always a sure sign of spring, and daffodils are rising from the ground to reach for the sky. Surely the forsythia will soon bloom and the grass will turn green, and all will be fair and frolicking.
7. I bought a primrose at the grocery store yesterday. It was marked down to next to nothing, but it was green and had dirt around it and so I brought it home and stored it in the garage. I have no idea what I will do with it, but for a while, anyway, I will consider it a good $1 spent.
8. Going back to college has been an eye-opening experience. For one thing, I can't focus like I used to and am not retaining what I read as well as I once did. For another, I find I am old when compared to these young women who are in class with me. They are just babies with no idea of how the world really works, and how mean and vicious it can be. These girls, of course, think they are old and mature and know everything. I used to be like that, once. Now I know better.
9. Yesterday I discovered I am missed in the nearby town where I once prowled the streets searching stories and news. I stopped into an office yesterday and was greeted cheerily and with fondness. It was nice, if a bit sad. Will I ever stop missing my work as a newspaper reporter?
10. My husband's hands are calloused and ingrained with permanent stains from dirt and grease. He has a working man's hands. His small finger is as long as my middle finger; one of his hands can hold both of mine. His touch is gentle when he is with me, though he could crush me in an instant.
11. I don't care what the glittery and rich idiots are doing, but the media must think it important that I know that Lindsy Lohan is not appearing on David Letterman and Paris Hilton turns 30 today and received a $375,000 car from her boyfriend. These people do not matter, except for use as symbols of much that is wrong with this country. So I point to them here and say, "See? These people are shallow and self-centered. They are wealthy but they are miserable. Do you not understand that money does not buy happiness, that as a country we are going backwards? Do we really want to be breeding this kind of thing?" Read #3.
12. The economy is supposedly improving but I haven't seen it yet. Our area was slow to be hit with the recession, so perhaps we'll be slow to come out of it. Some times I wonder if we should come out of it, though, especially since things remain unregulated. If the economy improves now, it'll just happen again in a few years until someone in charge finally realizes that deregulation is the problem, not the solution. Might as well get used to being poor; unless you're charmed and privileged (and apparently most people believe that they are even if they aren't), that's your permanent status.
13. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up and I am firmly middle-aged. I bet I still won't know when I'm 90, if I live that long. Maybe I need to meditate on it. How about you? Do you know what you want out of life?
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 178th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Burning, Already Burning
I grabbed the phone, recognizing my brother's cell number as I picked up.'
"What's up, bro?"
"Look out the window toward my house and tell me if you see any smoke!" My brother's voice crackled with anxiety.
"Oh no. Yes I do. What's on fire?"
Turns out one of my brother's neighbors had a brush fire on his place. A brush fire on a dry day with a high wind advisory is never good news.
As my brother sped home from his Roanoke office, I watched from my window as the smoke plume grew larger. I found the Botetourt dispatch on the Internet and listened as volunteer firefighters responded to the blaze.
"10-4, it's jumped the road down here."
"We need the tanker from Station 4."
I own property over there, too, and called the people I rent to in order to be sure they were aware of the fire and were safe.
That fire is out now, thank goodness, but another burns in nearby Craig County. Over 200 acres are burning there; the smoke rises high above the mountains.
We're about 5 inches short on rain this year . . . are we headed toward another year of drought? Let's all be careful when we're playing with fire, shall we?
Here's a story about the fire near my brother's place from The Botetourt View.
"What's up, bro?"
"Look out the window toward my house and tell me if you see any smoke!" My brother's voice crackled with anxiety.
"Oh no. Yes I do. What's on fire?"
Turns out one of my brother's neighbors had a brush fire on his place. A brush fire on a dry day with a high wind advisory is never good news.
As my brother sped home from his Roanoke office, I watched from my window as the smoke plume grew larger. I found the Botetourt dispatch on the Internet and listened as volunteer firefighters responded to the blaze.
"10-4, it's jumped the road down here."
"We need the tanker from Station 4."
I own property over there, too, and called the people I rent to in order to be sure they were aware of the fire and were safe.
That fire is out now, thank goodness, but another burns in nearby Craig County. Over 200 acres are burning there; the smoke rises high above the mountains.
We're about 5 inches short on rain this year . . . are we headed toward another year of drought? Let's all be careful when we're playing with fire, shall we?
Here's a story about the fire near my brother's place from The Botetourt View.
Monday, February 14, 2011
I Heart My Readers
Dear Gentle Reader,
Whoever you are, you are dear to my heart. I see you there on my statistics page and it is nice to know that I'm not writing in a vacuum.
So Happy Valentine's Day to you, sweet reader. Thank you for taking your precious time to look at my work, to read my thoughts, and to visit for a moment. I am humbled and most grateful.
If you are a regular reader and you have a blog and you're not on my list of blogs and would like to be, do leave your URL. Eventually I'll add you to the list (but be patient with me as my college courses are taking up my time).
Go eat a piece of chocolate, kind reader. You deserve it!
Thanks again,
Anita aka CountryDew
Whoever you are, you are dear to my heart. I see you there on my statistics page and it is nice to know that I'm not writing in a vacuum.
So Happy Valentine's Day to you, sweet reader. Thank you for taking your precious time to look at my work, to read my thoughts, and to visit for a moment. I am humbled and most grateful.
If you are a regular reader and you have a blog and you're not on my list of blogs and would like to be, do leave your URL. Eventually I'll add you to the list (but be patient with me as my college courses are taking up my time).
Go eat a piece of chocolate, kind reader. You deserve it!
Thanks again,
Anita aka CountryDew
Sunday, February 13, 2011
I'm Not Carrie Bradshaw
Recently I have been watching reruns of Sex and the City on E! because I missed the show when it originally appeared. I had never seen an episode when I caught the first movie on HBO one evening. I greatly enjoyed that (though the second one deserved the thumbs down it received) and after the viewing I was sorry I had missed the series.
Carrie Bradshaw, as most of you know, is a freelance writer who pens a sex column. Apparently she is paid well for this, well enough that said column is all the work she does.
In an episode last night, she discovered that she had a total of $1,600 to her name and needed to step up her freelance efforts (apparently the column did not pay all that well after all). At the end of the show, she said Vogue had agreed to pay her $4.50 a word.
I've never made $4.50 a word at anything I've ever published. The best I've ever done is $1.00 a word. Locally the going rate is about $0.05 cents a word. Yes, that's right. A nickel. A nickel a word. A few places may pay double that but they are few and far between and hard-sought as well. Those gigs are hard to come by.
At $4.50 a word, Carrie Bradshaw is making $4,500 for 1,000 words. That's just a few paragraphs longer than the average op-ed column in The Roanoke Times, which, I assure you, pays nothing close to that.
One thousand words is about four double-spaced 8 1/2 x 11 pages in MS Word.
With 1,000 words, you can describe almost anything. In four pages you can bring a character to life. You can write a really long blog entry. You can talk about politics, religion, your mother, and your dog, or all of them at one time (wouldn't that be an interesting read?).
And you can get paid $4,500 for those words, if you are good, lucky, connected, and Carrie Bradshaw.
Which I am not.
Lately I have been mulling over how to become a more prolific freelance writer. I don't write about sex so I am not going there. I write about more mundane things - history, local government, features on the lady dentist or the female airplane pilot or some such. I don't live in New York where things are happening, so I have no idea about best restaurants. Food is out as I am a mashed potato and baked chicken kind of girl who doesn't even know what creme brulee is, much less how to write about it.
I also am not a fan of writing about health, though I think that's a hot topic to pursue if you like it. However, writing about it makes me nervous as I am afraid I will write something like, "experts advise taking Vitamin D-3 every day now because as a society we receive too little sun," and someone will read that and swallow too much D-3 and then sue me for it. People do that, you know. Also, when I have written about health in the past I have found doctors to be real assholes when it comes to interviews or offering up information. Maybe I should have interviewed proctologists.
This little blog entry should come to a point here, wrap itself up neatly, and refer back to the first paragraph, maybe. However, it's a musing, it's 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and I'm still wiping sleep from my eyes even though I've been up for two hours because that's what farm wives do. They rise and shine, though I don't shine all that much at the crack of dawn. It's more like I glimmer. Or maybe go off and on like a broken switch.
Anyway, to make a long piece even longer, I have practically stopped freelancing and am focusing on school. My masters level courses are a lot of work, rather like tearing apart a water pump and trying to put it back together when you don't know how. It takes a lot of grease.
I still miss writing for the local newspaper - so much that it's like a little mini heart attack sometimes when I stop and think about it - but that's getting easier. However, I had to stop writing for newspapers completely to ease the pain.
To become Carrie Bradshaw, I need to do a lot of things (besides lose weight and about 20 years). Mostly, I need to come up with ideas and send out query letters to magazine editors, if that is the way I want to go. And this I do not do. And do you know why, dear reader?
Because I'm terrified they'll say no. And I'm terrified they'll say yes and I won't be able to produce. So isn't it better then, to do nothing at all, says the little timid mouse as it hunkers down in its little house?
So to become Carrie Bradshaw I must overcome this fear, even though I am highly published, with my byline under several thousand articles (really!) and move on, yes?
Maybe.
Carrie Bradshaw, as most of you know, is a freelance writer who pens a sex column. Apparently she is paid well for this, well enough that said column is all the work she does.
In an episode last night, she discovered that she had a total of $1,600 to her name and needed to step up her freelance efforts (apparently the column did not pay all that well after all). At the end of the show, she said Vogue had agreed to pay her $4.50 a word.
I've never made $4.50 a word at anything I've ever published. The best I've ever done is $1.00 a word. Locally the going rate is about $0.05 cents a word. Yes, that's right. A nickel. A nickel a word. A few places may pay double that but they are few and far between and hard-sought as well. Those gigs are hard to come by.
At $4.50 a word, Carrie Bradshaw is making $4,500 for 1,000 words. That's just a few paragraphs longer than the average op-ed column in The Roanoke Times, which, I assure you, pays nothing close to that.
One thousand words is about four double-spaced 8 1/2 x 11 pages in MS Word.
With 1,000 words, you can describe almost anything. In four pages you can bring a character to life. You can write a really long blog entry. You can talk about politics, religion, your mother, and your dog, or all of them at one time (wouldn't that be an interesting read?).
And you can get paid $4,500 for those words, if you are good, lucky, connected, and Carrie Bradshaw.
Which I am not.
Lately I have been mulling over how to become a more prolific freelance writer. I don't write about sex so I am not going there. I write about more mundane things - history, local government, features on the lady dentist or the female airplane pilot or some such. I don't live in New York where things are happening, so I have no idea about best restaurants. Food is out as I am a mashed potato and baked chicken kind of girl who doesn't even know what creme brulee is, much less how to write about it.
I also am not a fan of writing about health, though I think that's a hot topic to pursue if you like it. However, writing about it makes me nervous as I am afraid I will write something like, "experts advise taking Vitamin D-3 every day now because as a society we receive too little sun," and someone will read that and swallow too much D-3 and then sue me for it. People do that, you know. Also, when I have written about health in the past I have found doctors to be real assholes when it comes to interviews or offering up information. Maybe I should have interviewed proctologists.
This little blog entry should come to a point here, wrap itself up neatly, and refer back to the first paragraph, maybe. However, it's a musing, it's 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, and I'm still wiping sleep from my eyes even though I've been up for two hours because that's what farm wives do. They rise and shine, though I don't shine all that much at the crack of dawn. It's more like I glimmer. Or maybe go off and on like a broken switch.
Anyway, to make a long piece even longer, I have practically stopped freelancing and am focusing on school. My masters level courses are a lot of work, rather like tearing apart a water pump and trying to put it back together when you don't know how. It takes a lot of grease.
I still miss writing for the local newspaper - so much that it's like a little mini heart attack sometimes when I stop and think about it - but that's getting easier. However, I had to stop writing for newspapers completely to ease the pain.
To become Carrie Bradshaw, I need to do a lot of things (besides lose weight and about 20 years). Mostly, I need to come up with ideas and send out query letters to magazine editors, if that is the way I want to go. And this I do not do. And do you know why, dear reader?
Because I'm terrified they'll say no. And I'm terrified they'll say yes and I won't be able to produce. So isn't it better then, to do nothing at all, says the little timid mouse as it hunkers down in its little house?
So to become Carrie Bradshaw I must overcome this fear, even though I am highly published, with my byline under several thousand articles (really!) and move on, yes?
Maybe.
Friday, February 11, 2011
I'm Not Like You - or Am I?
Earlier in the week, my husband and I attended a lecture by Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, at Hollins University. (He also runs a news site called The Daily Yonder, about rural living.)
While much of the information wasn't new, a few things surprised me. For one, the author pointed out a significant drop in higher education in this country and changes in where those folks live. Thirty years ago, people with higher education degrees were spread all over the country. Now, people with higher education degrees are congregating in areas, sorting themselves into neighborhoods and communities of folks who are "like minded." There are also fewer of them.
Meanwhile, folks who have particular religious or other types of lifestyles (the example he used was those who use lawn fertilizer and those who do not) have done the same, sorting themselves into areas where everyone else is most like them.
I kept comparing my own locality, which has changed dramatically over the last 30 years, to the nationwide information as it was being presented. My community is now a place I hardly recognize. Oh, it's still rural, and I have lot of friends here and people and places I love, but there is also a different brand of people, folks who don't care about many of the same things I do. History is a good example. I have a seven-generation connection to the area; my family's blood and sweat has watered the land. But many folks don't have that connection and look at me oddly when I try to explain it, and don't understand why a building shouldn't be torn down.
So anyway, according to the author, people are moving themselves into little groups not according to race so much (though of course that still goes on) but by lifestyle. The author showed pictures of different neighborhoods and how right away you could tell what sort of people lived there.
Some neighborhoods sport flags and well-trimmed lawns, while other neighborhoods had book stores and yard art. People, maybe subconsciously, move into neighborhoods that fit their lifestyle. In turn, it's created a schism; no one tries to understand the other side.
Additionally, the author claimed that more than half the population believes their opinions and thoughts are the correct ones and that there is no need to listen to anyone else. I find that rather scary, because I know for sure I don't know everything. And then again, most of these same folks want someone just like them to run the country. Not me. I want someone who's a heck of lot smarter than I am up there making the calls.
There is so much information out there now with the 24/7 TV and Internet, that people just tune it all out and only listen to what they're comfortable with, excluding everything else. So new ideas and thoughts on subjects never reach their ears. This adds to the schism.
The author, unfortunately, had no solution to the problem and doesn't see one until there is some exterior crisis that forces people to pull together. If 9/11 didn't do it - and it didn't - I am not sure what it will take.
I wonder how we might end the radical, loud, brutal meanness that permeates a lot of life these days. I used to think everyone wanted to be kind, gentle, and nice, but I have decided that this is not the case: many people like being angry, they enjoy being mean, and they want to be vicious. I find that sad.
Apparently the last time the US was this divided, with neighbors so estranged from one another, was before the Civil War.
Are we headed toward a Civil War? If so, how may we avert this? Any ideas? Or are we too far gone?
Articles about this book may be found at the following links if you want to read more:
Are Evangelicals Too Republican?
Here's an Audacious Idea: Let's Reason Together
Communities of Exclusion: The Costs and Benefits of Diversity
While much of the information wasn't new, a few things surprised me. For one, the author pointed out a significant drop in higher education in this country and changes in where those folks live. Thirty years ago, people with higher education degrees were spread all over the country. Now, people with higher education degrees are congregating in areas, sorting themselves into neighborhoods and communities of folks who are "like minded." There are also fewer of them.
Meanwhile, folks who have particular religious or other types of lifestyles (the example he used was those who use lawn fertilizer and those who do not) have done the same, sorting themselves into areas where everyone else is most like them.
I kept comparing my own locality, which has changed dramatically over the last 30 years, to the nationwide information as it was being presented. My community is now a place I hardly recognize. Oh, it's still rural, and I have lot of friends here and people and places I love, but there is also a different brand of people, folks who don't care about many of the same things I do. History is a good example. I have a seven-generation connection to the area; my family's blood and sweat has watered the land. But many folks don't have that connection and look at me oddly when I try to explain it, and don't understand why a building shouldn't be torn down.
So anyway, according to the author, people are moving themselves into little groups not according to race so much (though of course that still goes on) but by lifestyle. The author showed pictures of different neighborhoods and how right away you could tell what sort of people lived there.
Some neighborhoods sport flags and well-trimmed lawns, while other neighborhoods had book stores and yard art. People, maybe subconsciously, move into neighborhoods that fit their lifestyle. In turn, it's created a schism; no one tries to understand the other side.
Additionally, the author claimed that more than half the population believes their opinions and thoughts are the correct ones and that there is no need to listen to anyone else. I find that rather scary, because I know for sure I don't know everything. And then again, most of these same folks want someone just like them to run the country. Not me. I want someone who's a heck of lot smarter than I am up there making the calls.
There is so much information out there now with the 24/7 TV and Internet, that people just tune it all out and only listen to what they're comfortable with, excluding everything else. So new ideas and thoughts on subjects never reach their ears. This adds to the schism.
The author, unfortunately, had no solution to the problem and doesn't see one until there is some exterior crisis that forces people to pull together. If 9/11 didn't do it - and it didn't - I am not sure what it will take.
I wonder how we might end the radical, loud, brutal meanness that permeates a lot of life these days. I used to think everyone wanted to be kind, gentle, and nice, but I have decided that this is not the case: many people like being angry, they enjoy being mean, and they want to be vicious. I find that sad.
Apparently the last time the US was this divided, with neighbors so estranged from one another, was before the Civil War.
Are we headed toward a Civil War? If so, how may we avert this? Any ideas? Or are we too far gone?
Articles about this book may be found at the following links if you want to read more:
Are Evangelicals Too Republican?
Here's an Audacious Idea: Let's Reason Together
Communities of Exclusion: The Costs and Benefits of Diversity
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Valentine's Thursday Thirteen
Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought it appropriate to offer up 13 wonderful things about my husband. He is wonderful man and I am very lucky to have him. We will be celebrating 28 years of marriage this year. I can still remember our first Valentine's together. I had mono and it was his first day on the job with the fire department. Even though I told him to stay away because I didn't want to give him what I had, he came over and brought me a bouquet of artificial flowers (because I have allergies). As he came to the front door, flowers in hand, the whistle in Fincastle, which called volunteer firemen to emergencies, sounded loud and strong (you could hear it from my parents' house if you were outside on a clear day). He thrust the flowers at me, gave me a kiss, and went off to fight the fire.
He came back a little later.
This is what he looked like when he was a toddler!
This is what he looks like in his dress blues as a Battalion Chief with the city Fire Department.
And here are 13 great things about him (though there are many, many more).
1. He is a kind man. My husband can be very tender and loving, a rare quality in this day age when meanness seems to be rampant.
2. He is a hard worker. He gets up at 5 a.m. and leaves the house by 6:30 a.m. almost every morning. He then either goes to the fire department to work or he works on the farm or he goes out to do work with the backhoe.
3. It doesn't matter what I do so long as I am happy doing it. He doesn't try to micromanage my life.
4. He loves his family and is very considerate of his mother, sister, nephews, aunts, cousins, etc.
5. Accompanying me to lectures, poetry readings, or other cultural events is not something he minds doing. All I have to do is ask.
6. He doesn't snore (too much). He sleeps better than anyone I know, actually. I wish I slept like that.
7. He is fanatical about keeping the car clean.
8. He cheers me on when I am working on projects.
9. Sometimes he will put a load of clothes in the washing machine. Every now and then he volunteers to fix dinner (particularly if I'm sick).
10. Mowing the lawn and keeping the exterior of the home looking good is important to him, and he does a fine job of it.
11. He never forgets a birthday, anniversary, or other holiday.
12. He loves living on the farm and being a farmer. He is happiest when he is working with the cows, cutting hay, or down at the barn.
13. He loves me and only me. And I love him and only him. It's a mutual exchange.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 177th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
He came back a little later.
This is what he looked like when he was a toddler!
This is what he looks like in his dress blues as a Battalion Chief with the city Fire Department.
And here are 13 great things about him (though there are many, many more).
1. He is a kind man. My husband can be very tender and loving, a rare quality in this day age when meanness seems to be rampant.
2. He is a hard worker. He gets up at 5 a.m. and leaves the house by 6:30 a.m. almost every morning. He then either goes to the fire department to work or he works on the farm or he goes out to do work with the backhoe.
3. It doesn't matter what I do so long as I am happy doing it. He doesn't try to micromanage my life.
4. He loves his family and is very considerate of his mother, sister, nephews, aunts, cousins, etc.
5. Accompanying me to lectures, poetry readings, or other cultural events is not something he minds doing. All I have to do is ask.
6. He doesn't snore (too much). He sleeps better than anyone I know, actually. I wish I slept like that.
7. He is fanatical about keeping the car clean.
8. He cheers me on when I am working on projects.
9. Sometimes he will put a load of clothes in the washing machine. Every now and then he volunteers to fix dinner (particularly if I'm sick).
10. Mowing the lawn and keeping the exterior of the home looking good is important to him, and he does a fine job of it.
11. He never forgets a birthday, anniversary, or other holiday.
12. He loves living on the farm and being a farmer. He is happiest when he is working with the cows, cutting hay, or down at the barn.
13. He loves me and only me. And I love him and only him. It's a mutual exchange.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 177th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Fire on the Mountain
Yesterday we ventured to Roanoke to run errands. As we drove into Daleville, which is some 12 miles from where I live, I pointed toward a plume of smoke and noted that something was burning back toward the house. As we drew closer, we saw that Caldwell Mountain was on fire.
As I noted yesterday, we're in a mild drought, so this fire is not surprising. It is a little early in the season for such fires, though, particularly with snow still in the hollows.
Around 7:20 a.m. I walked outside in my robe to see if the fire still burns. Across the way the rising sun created a rose-tinted reflection on the windows of the old Sprinkle house, making it look like it was afire itself. I started three deer browsing in the small patch of woods in the backyard, and they trotted off with an air of disgust at having their breakfast interrupted by this interloper in blue. They did not move quickly enough to indicate they were scared of me and so I was sure they simply wanted a little distance between us. I hadn't had a shower yet, so who could blame them?
More deer grazed off in the distance in the field beside the house. Yesterday we saw lots of does; nine of them lay in the field in front of the house, simply resting there. They stayed for a long time. I thought about shooting video of them but figured if I went outside I would rouse them and so I just let it be.
Either the fire is out or it has moved down the mountain where I cannot see it because of the tree line. The news reports from last night indicated two acres had burned and the forest service was having trouble reaching the blaze. But perhaps overnight they were able to put out the flames.
Mountain fires fascinate and horrify me. They are scary because they are uncontrolled, and they leave behind a blackened, charred mess. However, fire also brings about life, for Mother Nature quickly steps in and returns things to green. Sometimes this brings in different wildlife and changes in habitat. So fire is an agent of change.
Change is not bad, but it not something many folks easily accept (myself included). Change can be fascinating and horrifying, too. Sometimes, like fire, it is all-consuming, taking everything in its path. Other times it is like the aftermath, looking like a moonscape, foreign and cold. And other times, change is welcoming and creative, offering new growth and bounty.
Burn, baby, burn.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
The Unmelting Snow
This patch of snow has been on the ground since it snowed December 17.
The old folks say this snow is "laying around waiting on some more." I don't know about that but it is in no hurry to leave.
It is a chunk of ice now, of course, not snow, what with melting and refreezing. The patch gets a little late evening sun but apparently not enough to make it disappear. It does grow a bit smaller with time.
When the hollows keep snow in them, something's up with the weather, that's for sure.
However, I am thinking spring is not far off. The world looks just a little less dreary out my window, even though I see nothing growing or blooming. Still, there's a thin tinge of green, nearly invisible, that makes the grass and trees more vibrant.
I looked closely at a few trees and could see the life in them. There's something there, waiting, and it will soon come forth in great abundance.
Even if we are in a little drought.
One thing about living on a farm - the change in the seasons has a real meaning other than a change in wardrobe. I see it all the time in the way the fields grow and change, the difference in the horizons as the trees leaf out, the way the cows move about, and how the deer roam. There are also many changes in my husband's routine as he goes from having to feed the cows a role of hay to allowing them roam to graze on the emerald grass. And then he has to cut the hay to prepare for the upcoming winter. It's nonstop.
Soon, I will plant our small garden, filling it with tomato plants, beans, and kale. It's a small plot and while sometimes I stuff it so full one cannot walk among the rows, this year, thanks to my school schedule and the tennis elbow issue, I am thinking it will not offer up a great bounty simply because I won't plant as much.
But I am anxious to get out and plant seed. Sounds like it is time for another experiment with seedlings. I've tried this several times and always fail but perhaps this will be the year I succeed.
I should not wish my life away, but I really am ready for Spring.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Thursday Thirteen
I am a person who tends to see the negative more so than the positive sometimes, so I thought I might take one of my Thursday Thirteens each month and recount the good things that happened in the previous month. So here are the 13 good things from January!
1. I registered for two classes at Hollins University and will work this year to complete my master of arts in liberal studies degree! Classes begin this week and I am very happy to be going back to school.
2. I did not have mono even though I had all the symptoms. The sore throat finally went away this past weekend, and my energy level seems to be slowly returning. This is very good news because I'd been ill since Christmas.
3. My husband is doing very well with his job as battalion chief for the city fire department. He has been in this position for a year and has settled in nicely. I am very proud of him.
4. I walked on the treadmill 16 out of 31 days in January (I keep an exercise and blood pressure log at my doctor's request). My goal was to walk at least every other day and I succeeded at this statistically. When I add in the fact that I was ill, I am pleased with this.
5. I finished watching every episode in Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager.
6. I have read (or listened to) these books: 1) Still Procrastinating, the No-Regrets Guide to Getting Things Done, by Joseph Ferrari 2) Mosaic (Star Trek: Voyager) (audio), by Jeri Taylor 3) True Blue, by David Baldacci (audio), 4) Heart's Blood, by Juliet Marillier, and 5) The Good Daughter, by Jasmin Darznik.
7. I did a little writing for one of my Internet clients!
8. My brother called me a few times during the month to check on me while I wasn't feeling well. I appreciated this because he is busy running a company and has a wife, two kids, two puppies, and bunch of chickens and peacocks to keep up with.
9. I had a massage early in January and felt a lot better for it.
10. I went to lunch or breakfast with a friend three times during the month (two different friends). Friends are good.
11. The results from my mammogram (also taken in January) came back negative. No problems detected. Every woman should have a mammogram (at whatever time frame they now recommend; I know they keep changing that.). It's an important part of taking care of yourself.
12. My book club read The Blueberry Years, by Jim Minick (which I read in September so didn't count in my January reading), and the club held a phone conference with the author. I had written a review of his book that was published in The Roanoke Times and I was happy to be able to tell the author I was there and hear him praise me for praising him. Plus our book club meetings are always lots of fun. What a great group of women.
13. Three citizen input meetings held this month by the county in preparation for its upcoming fiscal year budget (two of which I attended) were my idea. A year ago I asked the Board of Supervisors to make changes in their process so that the citizenry might be more aware of potential changes (particularly cuts to services) before the changes were done deals. The supervisors agreed that the process was flawed and as a result implemented changes. See, a single voice can make a difference!
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 176th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
1. I registered for two classes at Hollins University and will work this year to complete my master of arts in liberal studies degree! Classes begin this week and I am very happy to be going back to school.
2. I did not have mono even though I had all the symptoms. The sore throat finally went away this past weekend, and my energy level seems to be slowly returning. This is very good news because I'd been ill since Christmas.
3. My husband is doing very well with his job as battalion chief for the city fire department. He has been in this position for a year and has settled in nicely. I am very proud of him.
4. I walked on the treadmill 16 out of 31 days in January (I keep an exercise and blood pressure log at my doctor's request). My goal was to walk at least every other day and I succeeded at this statistically. When I add in the fact that I was ill, I am pleased with this.
5. I finished watching every episode in Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager.
6. I have read (or listened to) these books: 1) Still Procrastinating, the No-Regrets Guide to Getting Things Done, by Joseph Ferrari 2) Mosaic (Star Trek: Voyager) (audio), by Jeri Taylor 3) True Blue, by David Baldacci (audio), 4) Heart's Blood, by Juliet Marillier, and 5) The Good Daughter, by Jasmin Darznik.
7. I did a little writing for one of my Internet clients!
8. My brother called me a few times during the month to check on me while I wasn't feeling well. I appreciated this because he is busy running a company and has a wife, two kids, two puppies, and bunch of chickens and peacocks to keep up with.
9. I had a massage early in January and felt a lot better for it.
10. I went to lunch or breakfast with a friend three times during the month (two different friends). Friends are good.
11. The results from my mammogram (also taken in January) came back negative. No problems detected. Every woman should have a mammogram (at whatever time frame they now recommend; I know they keep changing that.). It's an important part of taking care of yourself.
12. My book club read The Blueberry Years, by Jim Minick (which I read in September so didn't count in my January reading), and the club held a phone conference with the author. I had written a review of his book that was published in The Roanoke Times and I was happy to be able to tell the author I was there and hear him praise me for praising him. Plus our book club meetings are always lots of fun. What a great group of women.
13. Three citizen input meetings held this month by the county in preparation for its upcoming fiscal year budget (two of which I attended) were my idea. A year ago I asked the Board of Supervisors to make changes in their process so that the citizenry might be more aware of potential changes (particularly cuts to services) before the changes were done deals. The supervisors agreed that the process was flawed and as a result implemented changes. See, a single voice can make a difference!
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 176th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Books: True Blue
True Blue
By David Baldacci
Audiobook - Abridged
Copyright 2010
Read by Ron McLarty
Approximately 8 hours
I was a long time warming to Baldacci, mostly because I don't read many cops, robbers, terrorist/CIA books. I finally picked up The Christmas Train simply because Baldacci is a Virginia author, and I enjoyed it. So I moved on to books featuring former Secret Service characters Michelle Maxwell and Sean King.
True Blue brings us Beth Perry, chief of the Washington, DC police department, and her sister, Mason "Mace" Perry. Mace was a police officer but she was framed for something and ended up a felon in prison. The story opens with her release. She then manages to involve herself in an ongoing crime investigation in hopes of clearing her name and earning her way back onto the police force.
I love reading about women who are strong and able to take care of themselves. Mason and Beth fit this bill but truly some of the story line was so unbelievable that it made it difficult to continue with the book. In the first place, would the police chief have allowed her felon sister near a crime scene? I think not. Would the chief forensic officer let a felon have a file of information on the case? I think not. Would a gangster called Psycho who ruled the area agree to let Mace and her boyfriend go because of a basketball game? Would a professional Russian killer/spy on assignment for the CIA (?!?) agree to a game of knives before she skewers her victim? You get the idea.
Additionally, this book had a number of loose ends. Since I was listening to an abridgement I can't be sure that wasn't the reason, but in looking at the reviews I see others complaining of the same issue so I suspect it was the story line.
Baldacci is a good writer and I hope that this is an aberration. If there are other books planned with these characters, perhaps next time the plot will be a little less unbelievable.
This is not a bad book, but I think the author can do better.
By David Baldacci
Audiobook - Abridged
Copyright 2010
Read by Ron McLarty
Approximately 8 hours
I was a long time warming to Baldacci, mostly because I don't read many cops, robbers, terrorist/CIA books. I finally picked up The Christmas Train simply because Baldacci is a Virginia author, and I enjoyed it. So I moved on to books featuring former Secret Service characters Michelle Maxwell and Sean King.
True Blue brings us Beth Perry, chief of the Washington, DC police department, and her sister, Mason "Mace" Perry. Mace was a police officer but she was framed for something and ended up a felon in prison. The story opens with her release. She then manages to involve herself in an ongoing crime investigation in hopes of clearing her name and earning her way back onto the police force.
I love reading about women who are strong and able to take care of themselves. Mason and Beth fit this bill but truly some of the story line was so unbelievable that it made it difficult to continue with the book. In the first place, would the police chief have allowed her felon sister near a crime scene? I think not. Would the chief forensic officer let a felon have a file of information on the case? I think not. Would a gangster called Psycho who ruled the area agree to let Mace and her boyfriend go because of a basketball game? Would a professional Russian killer/spy on assignment for the CIA (?!?) agree to a game of knives before she skewers her victim? You get the idea.
Additionally, this book had a number of loose ends. Since I was listening to an abridgement I can't be sure that wasn't the reason, but in looking at the reviews I see others complaining of the same issue so I suspect it was the story line.
Baldacci is a good writer and I hope that this is an aberration. If there are other books planned with these characters, perhaps next time the plot will be a little less unbelievable.
This is not a bad book, but I think the author can do better.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Thursday Thirteen #175
Last night I spoke aloud during a dream. "I can't break the spell! I don't know the words!" I cried. My body was paralyzed and it took my husband a while to break through my dream state and wake me to the point where I was no longer shouting and back in control of my thoughts. The dream left me tired and shaken.
Power words. In business, they're buzzwords like profit. In religion, they're words like Jesus, Amen, and om. They're magic words like abracadabra and hocus pocus. They're names, like Tawanda in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. Some words make you feel good, some make you feel bad. Words that call you names would be example of power words with negative impact.
Power words are used everywhere. You see them in advertising, in politics, and in daily life. Often we don't know we're using a power word but some people (those folks who excel at the Dale Carnegie way of life) use them exclusively and excessively, sometimes to good effect.
It's not quite 7 a.m. as I write this, still half awake from a fitful night, but I want to list 13 words that mean something to me. I think everyone's list would be different and to be sure I am struggling with this. But let's see what I can come up with. These are in no particular order, except the first one.
1. Love. What a great word. To be loved is to be cherished, honored, and needed. It's opposite is like being condemned. Many people do not use this word enough. I wish we would all make a point of saying it to someone every day. It would change the world.
2. Safe. Next to being loved, feeling safe is very important to me. Without safety I am not free to move about, to explore, to create, to be. This is a basic need, and something we should all strive for. When one no longer feels safe in life, then something must change.
3. Encourage. I encourage you to ... can anyone be more helpful and more empowering, than to offer encouragement? To assure you that they have faith in you, believe in you, and know you can move forward?
4. My name. Hearing my name is powerful. Do you know that if you refuse to use someone's name, or call them something other than what they wish, you are attempting to control or disenfranchise or diminish that person? I learned this from my mother, who once asked me if a particular person knew her name. "He never calls me anything," she said, frustrated by what she perceived as a lack of acknowledgement.
5. Friend. My friends mean so much to me; if you're in my circle, you are someone I cherish. To be called a friend is a high honor. I strive to be a good friend.
6. Health. To have good health is to be blessed. To be free of pain, to enjoy movement, to have rosy cheeks and a hearty laugh. What an image this word brings!
7. Creative. To create is to be godlike. To paint, to write, to carve - whatever you do to give a new vision to something is to bring forth a greatness from inside yourself that cannot be staved off. The urge to create is strong and glorious and something to be nurtured.
8. Faith. To have faith is to have a deep-seated inner knowledge, unshakable and abiding. You can have faith as in religious faith, and you can have faith in yourself, in other people, in the ability of a tree to grow toward heaven. I have faith in you is another way to tell someone how much you believe in their abilities.
9. Dream. To dream is to envision, to see beyond, to look into the future. I dream of a better tomorrow where we're all kind to one another.
10. Freedom. This word has great power over the American people, and I am not immune to its power. To have freedom of speech, freedom of worship, all of which really means the freedom to be me, is to have the ability to dream unencumbered. We are all weighed down by many responsibilities and thoughts which hinder our freedom in one way or another. To be truly free in the spirit and soul is a great ideal.
11. Justice. This is, unfortunately, a concept that has lost favor in the last 30 years, for we now seemingly seek vengeance instead of justice. To be just is to be fair, to be impartial, to be unbiased. Those who are just are honorable, principled, moral, and upright. What would the world be like, I wonder, if we all sought justice?
12. Write. How could this not be in my list, this thing that I do and love to do and live to do and could not be without? To be able to write is to be creative, to express, to endure. The things we write last long after the thought or the verbal expression. To write is to add to our existence, to procreate, to bring forth. It is to breath without lungs, to see without eyes, to hear without ears. The ability to write and to communicate is one of the greatest gifts.
13. Magic. To experience something as magical is to see the wonder in it. It is be enchanted by the things going on around you. Snow on Christmas is magic; a summer flower is magic, a deer in the field is a magical moment. To be magical is to be extraordinary. I wish all of us could experience a little magic in our days.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 175th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Power words. In business, they're buzzwords like profit. In religion, they're words like Jesus, Amen, and om. They're magic words like abracadabra and hocus pocus. They're names, like Tawanda in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. Some words make you feel good, some make you feel bad. Words that call you names would be example of power words with negative impact.
Power words are used everywhere. You see them in advertising, in politics, and in daily life. Often we don't know we're using a power word but some people (those folks who excel at the Dale Carnegie way of life) use them exclusively and excessively, sometimes to good effect.
It's not quite 7 a.m. as I write this, still half awake from a fitful night, but I want to list 13 words that mean something to me. I think everyone's list would be different and to be sure I am struggling with this. But let's see what I can come up with. These are in no particular order, except the first one.
1. Love. What a great word. To be loved is to be cherished, honored, and needed. It's opposite is like being condemned. Many people do not use this word enough. I wish we would all make a point of saying it to someone every day. It would change the world.
2. Safe. Next to being loved, feeling safe is very important to me. Without safety I am not free to move about, to explore, to create, to be. This is a basic need, and something we should all strive for. When one no longer feels safe in life, then something must change.
3. Encourage. I encourage you to ... can anyone be more helpful and more empowering, than to offer encouragement? To assure you that they have faith in you, believe in you, and know you can move forward?
4. My name. Hearing my name is powerful. Do you know that if you refuse to use someone's name, or call them something other than what they wish, you are attempting to control or disenfranchise or diminish that person? I learned this from my mother, who once asked me if a particular person knew her name. "He never calls me anything," she said, frustrated by what she perceived as a lack of acknowledgement.
5. Friend. My friends mean so much to me; if you're in my circle, you are someone I cherish. To be called a friend is a high honor. I strive to be a good friend.
6. Health. To have good health is to be blessed. To be free of pain, to enjoy movement, to have rosy cheeks and a hearty laugh. What an image this word brings!
7. Creative. To create is to be godlike. To paint, to write, to carve - whatever you do to give a new vision to something is to bring forth a greatness from inside yourself that cannot be staved off. The urge to create is strong and glorious and something to be nurtured.
8. Faith. To have faith is to have a deep-seated inner knowledge, unshakable and abiding. You can have faith as in religious faith, and you can have faith in yourself, in other people, in the ability of a tree to grow toward heaven. I have faith in you is another way to tell someone how much you believe in their abilities.
9. Dream. To dream is to envision, to see beyond, to look into the future. I dream of a better tomorrow where we're all kind to one another.
10. Freedom. This word has great power over the American people, and I am not immune to its power. To have freedom of speech, freedom of worship, all of which really means the freedom to be me, is to have the ability to dream unencumbered. We are all weighed down by many responsibilities and thoughts which hinder our freedom in one way or another. To be truly free in the spirit and soul is a great ideal.
11. Justice. This is, unfortunately, a concept that has lost favor in the last 30 years, for we now seemingly seek vengeance instead of justice. To be just is to be fair, to be impartial, to be unbiased. Those who are just are honorable, principled, moral, and upright. What would the world be like, I wonder, if we all sought justice?
12. Write. How could this not be in my list, this thing that I do and love to do and live to do and could not be without? To be able to write is to be creative, to express, to endure. The things we write last long after the thought or the verbal expression. To write is to add to our existence, to procreate, to bring forth. It is to breath without lungs, to see without eyes, to hear without ears. The ability to write and to communicate is one of the greatest gifts.
13. Magic. To experience something as magical is to see the wonder in it. It is be enchanted by the things going on around you. Snow on Christmas is magic; a summer flower is magic, a deer in the field is a magical moment. To be magical is to be extraordinary. I wish all of us could experience a little magic in our days.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 175th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Evil Toy Soldier
This image is on a large shopping bag that currently sits in my garage. I see it every time I pull the car in (and will until I figure out what to do with the bag's contents).
I think this fellow looks really mad. In the headlights he looks like he is going to come out of that bag and get me.
Just sayin'.
Anyway, this image makes me wonder about the power of objects and images. For example, in Lord of the Rings, there is one ring to rule them all - the ring is a powerful object.
Swords and wands are generally very phallic male symbols.
The pentagram is a powerful symbol, as is the cross and a crown of thorns.
When I was small, I saw images in everything. Clouds, tree branches, designs in the carpet or tile - anything I could find a picture in, I did. Some of these images stuck with me literally for years.
For example, when I rode the bus to school, there was a dinosaur down one of the back roads who greeted me every day for years. It was really a pile of brush with a large log in it. And then one Autumn I returned to school and the brush pile - and my dinosaur - was gone.
My grandmother's bathroom linoleum was made of speckles, but I could see a knight and a castle in it. I visited them every time I sat down to pee.
The monkey face on three-pronged electric outlets always disturbed me, so when we built our house I asked that they be placed upside down so I wouldn't see the eyes and nose.
I have found images in curtains and in bedspreads. I have rid myself of things in which I find images that seem somehow ominous or scary.
Which means that soon that evil toy soldier will be finding his way to the landfill, once I can figure out what to do with that ol' wedding dress that is stowed in that bag.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Ode to a Sore Throat
The painful swallowing I can hardly bear
along with the throbbing in my ear.
That scratchy feeling, so unkind
The beating drums within my mind.
A rundown ache down in my chest
and a burning feeling inside my breast.
Pressure builds behind the eyes
which water much, like little cries.
O sweet physician, can't you cure
how much more must I endure?
***
I have had a sore throat now almost constantly since Christmas. I went to the doctor prior to New Year's and received an antibiotic. A few days after finishing the antibiotic, the sore throat returned (this is a sore throat complete with blisters; it's like swallowing a cactus constantly). I phoned the doctor and received a different antibiotic prescription. The sore throat cleared up and I finished the antibiotic about a week ago, and on Saturday the blisters and sore throat returned.
The doctor saw me again yesterday and I asked for a strep test, which was negative. She suggested I might have mono! So she took blood to test for that and I am waiting on the results. I guess they'll look for other things, too, if that is negative.
I must say, looking at the list of symptoms, mono does seem a likely candidate. But I suppose it could be any other virus, too.
I did not know you could have mono more than once. I had it when I was 19 and was very sick with it for nearly a month. Of course, this sore throat has been going on for about a month now so maybe whatever this is is nearing the end of its course.
Additionally, I have wondered if this is some weird allergic reaction, because I have many allergies. I don't have a lot of food allergies, though I do have some. In thinking back, I believe if it is an allergy, it might be shrimp, because I had shrimp Christmas Day and woke the next morning with a bad sore throat, and I had sweet and sour shrimp right before I woke up with the second round of sore throat, and again this Friday night and woke Saturday with a sore throat. However, I don't know how you check that other than by staying away from shrimp for a while and then eating them to see if you get a sore throat.
A shrimp allergy would be new to me, and I don't know if that would translate into a new allergy to shellfish or all fish or what. Which would be terrible because I really like fish.
However, I don't have hives or anything like that, just this sore throat, so I am not at all sure this is an allergy. Guess I'll let the doctor sort it out.
along with the throbbing in my ear.
That scratchy feeling, so unkind
The beating drums within my mind.
A rundown ache down in my chest
and a burning feeling inside my breast.
Pressure builds behind the eyes
which water much, like little cries.
O sweet physician, can't you cure
how much more must I endure?
***
I have had a sore throat now almost constantly since Christmas. I went to the doctor prior to New Year's and received an antibiotic. A few days after finishing the antibiotic, the sore throat returned (this is a sore throat complete with blisters; it's like swallowing a cactus constantly). I phoned the doctor and received a different antibiotic prescription. The sore throat cleared up and I finished the antibiotic about a week ago, and on Saturday the blisters and sore throat returned.
The doctor saw me again yesterday and I asked for a strep test, which was negative. She suggested I might have mono! So she took blood to test for that and I am waiting on the results. I guess they'll look for other things, too, if that is negative.
I must say, looking at the list of symptoms, mono does seem a likely candidate. But I suppose it could be any other virus, too.
I did not know you could have mono more than once. I had it when I was 19 and was very sick with it for nearly a month. Of course, this sore throat has been going on for about a month now so maybe whatever this is is nearing the end of its course.
Additionally, I have wondered if this is some weird allergic reaction, because I have many allergies. I don't have a lot of food allergies, though I do have some. In thinking back, I believe if it is an allergy, it might be shrimp, because I had shrimp Christmas Day and woke the next morning with a bad sore throat, and I had sweet and sour shrimp right before I woke up with the second round of sore throat, and again this Friday night and woke Saturday with a sore throat. However, I don't know how you check that other than by staying away from shrimp for a while and then eating them to see if you get a sore throat.
A shrimp allergy would be new to me, and I don't know if that would translate into a new allergy to shellfish or all fish or what. Which would be terrible because I really like fish.
However, I don't have hives or anything like that, just this sore throat, so I am not at all sure this is an allergy. Guess I'll let the doctor sort it out.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Books: Heart's Blood
Heart's Blood
By Juliet Marillier
Copyright 2009
400 pages
Marillier is one of my favorite authors when I want to escape and relax with a good, solid read, and Heart's Blood did not disappoint. This was a little heavier on the romance than her Sevenwaters series but I was okay with that.
Caitrin is an adult-aged runaway whose ill fortunes have left her penniless and trying to get away from the man who would beat her. She ends up at Whistling Tor, a remote place filled with ghosts and secrets.
The crumbling fortress belongs to Anluan, a chieftain who is not well-liked by those he rules. His family, they say, is cursed, and his woods are guarded by an unseen force.
But Caitrin has been trained as a scribe and Anluan hires her to help with his family's historic journals, transcribing them from Latin. She quickly learns that all is not as it seems at Whispering Tor and things that go bump in the night, while scary, sometimes have explanation, even if a mystical one.
Sorcery and the black arts hold the entire land in thrall. It is a calculated evil, and a chilling one.
As expected, Caitrin and the chieftain take a fancy toward one another, but can they tame the ghosts of Whispering Tor long enough to see if love will grow?
One of the things I like about Marillier is that she takes familiar legends and turns them into something more. This book is a take on the beauty and the beast legend, for sure, and probably others that I may not be familiar with. I greatly enjoyed reading this and recommend this author to fans of fantasy or Gothic romances.
By Juliet Marillier
Copyright 2009
400 pages
Marillier is one of my favorite authors when I want to escape and relax with a good, solid read, and Heart's Blood did not disappoint. This was a little heavier on the romance than her Sevenwaters series but I was okay with that.
Caitrin is an adult-aged runaway whose ill fortunes have left her penniless and trying to get away from the man who would beat her. She ends up at Whistling Tor, a remote place filled with ghosts and secrets.
The crumbling fortress belongs to Anluan, a chieftain who is not well-liked by those he rules. His family, they say, is cursed, and his woods are guarded by an unseen force.
But Caitrin has been trained as a scribe and Anluan hires her to help with his family's historic journals, transcribing them from Latin. She quickly learns that all is not as it seems at Whispering Tor and things that go bump in the night, while scary, sometimes have explanation, even if a mystical one.
Sorcery and the black arts hold the entire land in thrall. It is a calculated evil, and a chilling one.
As expected, Caitrin and the chieftain take a fancy toward one another, but can they tame the ghosts of Whispering Tor long enough to see if love will grow?
One of the things I like about Marillier is that she takes familiar legends and turns them into something more. This book is a take on the beauty and the beast legend, for sure, and probably others that I may not be familiar with. I greatly enjoyed reading this and recommend this author to fans of fantasy or Gothic romances.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Aunt Jenny Goes to Heaven
I am sad to let you know that my husband's aunt, whom we called Aunt Jenny, passed away Saturday just after midnight. She fought a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 78 years old.
I cannot speak for my husband, but I know he has fond memories of his aunt, who lived on the family farm just as he did. She raised her three sons there and they played together. The family spent Christmases together at his grandparents' home, also on the farm, and I know he will feel her loss keenly in coming days.
Aunt Jenny was one of the first to welcome me to the family some 28 years ago, telling me in her gravely voice that she was glad to see her nephew marrying me. We had actually known one another for many years, Aunt Jenny and I, for she was a substitute teacher when I was in elementary school. I remember her from the second grade, so I have known Aunt Jenny for 40 years. Her middle son and I went through school together, so I have known him just as long. I now call him cousin.
I often thought Aunt Jenny reminded me of Bea Arthur, particularly in voice but also in looks and body type. Aunt Jenny was tall and willowy, a striking figure and somewhat daunting as a teacher at the lectern. She doted on her three sons and on her husband. I know she spent much time caring for older folks in the family, ranging from cousins to her mother. In particular she took care of Aunt Lenna for many years.
She inherited her mother's ability to arrange flowers and create art but she did not pursue it as her mother did. But in her home I spied creative flower arrangements and other spots of beauty that indicated to me that she had this wonderful creative bent that she used sparingly but well.
Others who knew her better would have many other wonderful things to say about her, I am sure. Her children and grandchildren will miss her very much.
Aunt Jenny was always nice to me, and in a world where niceties are at a premium, I will always remember this about her.
I know she is at peace and her pain is gone. God bless you, Aunt Jenny, and I thank you for your kindnesses to me over the years.
I cannot speak for my husband, but I know he has fond memories of his aunt, who lived on the family farm just as he did. She raised her three sons there and they played together. The family spent Christmases together at his grandparents' home, also on the farm, and I know he will feel her loss keenly in coming days.
Aunt Jenny was one of the first to welcome me to the family some 28 years ago, telling me in her gravely voice that she was glad to see her nephew marrying me. We had actually known one another for many years, Aunt Jenny and I, for she was a substitute teacher when I was in elementary school. I remember her from the second grade, so I have known Aunt Jenny for 40 years. Her middle son and I went through school together, so I have known him just as long. I now call him cousin.
I often thought Aunt Jenny reminded me of Bea Arthur, particularly in voice but also in looks and body type. Aunt Jenny was tall and willowy, a striking figure and somewhat daunting as a teacher at the lectern. She doted on her three sons and on her husband. I know she spent much time caring for older folks in the family, ranging from cousins to her mother. In particular she took care of Aunt Lenna for many years.
She inherited her mother's ability to arrange flowers and create art but she did not pursue it as her mother did. But in her home I spied creative flower arrangements and other spots of beauty that indicated to me that she had this wonderful creative bent that she used sparingly but well.
Others who knew her better would have many other wonderful things to say about her, I am sure. Her children and grandchildren will miss her very much.
Aunt Jenny was always nice to me, and in a world where niceties are at a premium, I will always remember this about her.
I know she is at peace and her pain is gone. God bless you, Aunt Jenny, and I thank you for your kindnesses to me over the years.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday Thirteen
Today I offer up a list of 13 things you should do if you are an adult.
1. Make a will. Even if you have just a little estate, a will is an absolute necessity in order to bring peace and closure to your loved ones as well as to ensure that things go as you would like. I know no one wants to think about dying, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and be a grown up. Remember, if you have no will, your estate is ruled by the laws of your state. You might not like them.
2. Appoint guardians. If you have children, I cannot imagine not doing this. If you are killed in a car wreck today, who will look after your kids? Again, the state prevails if you do not have things already in writing.
3. Take care of your health. No one else is going to do it, and you have other people depending on you. The least you can do is visit a doctor every now and then. Take up yoga, learn to relax, reduce stress, take a Geritol, eat your vegetables. Don't drink too much, stop smoking, put down the root beer and ditch the bag of chocolate candy. Whew. Being an adult is tough.
4. Register to vote. And then vote. Yeah, I know it's all smoke and mirrors and democracy is a joke now that people think capitalism and democracy are the same thing (they're not), but vote any way. Who knows, maybe one day we will sneak someone in with some common sense.
5. Establish a relationship with a banker. Most people need to borrow money at one time or another. Unfortunately, who you know plays a big role in most things in life and this is one where it matters, too. So get to know the loan officer. Go in and ask a few questions, of nothing else. Be nice.
6. Obtain a lawyer. Ideally, you will never need one to bail you out of jail but there are other things (like making that will) that require a little bit of expertise. During uncertain times, it helps to have this one already figured out. What lawyer would you use if you were in an accident? If you don't know, think about it. The guy who is advertising on TV might not be your best choice.
7. Establish a home. I hope everyone eventually owns their own home, though I must say that renting and having someone else take care of things has its upside. However you decide to keep a roof over your head, make it yours and embrace it as a place of possibilities.
8. Find your passion. This one can be a tough thing for many people to do - we're so busy struggling to pay the bills, who has time to figure out what her passion might be? But I submit to you that having something to look forward to beside the drudgery of everyday life is an important part of being human, not just being grown up.
9. Learn to manage money. This is harder than it ought to be, but in this day and age of credit and plastic, it's very easy to overspend. Keep track of where your dollars go and you may be surprised how much you spend on lattes or cigarettes or clothes or books or whatever you like to purchase. For example, I tend to blow around $500 a year on books. Good? Bad? I don't know, but at least I know that's where I spent it.
10. Learn to have fun. Yes, have fun! Enjoy your life. Be spontaneous. It's not all about paying the bills and wiping noses and ironing. Go see a movie, for heaven's sake.
11. Find your god. Spirituality is both over rated and under rated, but finding your own personal spiritual core and belief system is definitely worth taking the time to do. Examine the values you were brought up with and accept or reject them as you will. Take a look at different religions and see if something fits better. You may go right back to the doctrine you were raised in and that's fine, but embrace it thoughtfully and with contemplation.
12. Remove the bad things. This is also a very difficult project to undertake because it requires a lot of inner prodding. But if something or someone in your life isn't working for you, and has absolutely no redeemable features, then you must figure that out and then toss them. Maybe you have a good friend who is a real downer. You must still get something from that relationship, and maybe that good thing is enough to keep the person around. But do take the time to examine it and figure out what is worthwhile. Maybe your job is the pits. Can you do something else?
13. Embrace the good things. This is also hard, because the bad things sometimes can be overwhelming. But good things are there all the time - you are able to read this. You are up and awake and not in a coma. Sometimes you have to be grateful for the mundane in order to appreciate your existence, but do give it a try. Grace is wonderful and we all have it in our life, even if we forget to look for it. So be grateful. At least you don't need that will just yet.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 174th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
1. Make a will. Even if you have just a little estate, a will is an absolute necessity in order to bring peace and closure to your loved ones as well as to ensure that things go as you would like. I know no one wants to think about dying, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and be a grown up. Remember, if you have no will, your estate is ruled by the laws of your state. You might not like them.
2. Appoint guardians. If you have children, I cannot imagine not doing this. If you are killed in a car wreck today, who will look after your kids? Again, the state prevails if you do not have things already in writing.
3. Take care of your health. No one else is going to do it, and you have other people depending on you. The least you can do is visit a doctor every now and then. Take up yoga, learn to relax, reduce stress, take a Geritol, eat your vegetables. Don't drink too much, stop smoking, put down the root beer and ditch the bag of chocolate candy. Whew. Being an adult is tough.
4. Register to vote. And then vote. Yeah, I know it's all smoke and mirrors and democracy is a joke now that people think capitalism and democracy are the same thing (they're not), but vote any way. Who knows, maybe one day we will sneak someone in with some common sense.
5. Establish a relationship with a banker. Most people need to borrow money at one time or another. Unfortunately, who you know plays a big role in most things in life and this is one where it matters, too. So get to know the loan officer. Go in and ask a few questions, of nothing else. Be nice.
6. Obtain a lawyer. Ideally, you will never need one to bail you out of jail but there are other things (like making that will) that require a little bit of expertise. During uncertain times, it helps to have this one already figured out. What lawyer would you use if you were in an accident? If you don't know, think about it. The guy who is advertising on TV might not be your best choice.
7. Establish a home. I hope everyone eventually owns their own home, though I must say that renting and having someone else take care of things has its upside. However you decide to keep a roof over your head, make it yours and embrace it as a place of possibilities.
8. Find your passion. This one can be a tough thing for many people to do - we're so busy struggling to pay the bills, who has time to figure out what her passion might be? But I submit to you that having something to look forward to beside the drudgery of everyday life is an important part of being human, not just being grown up.
9. Learn to manage money. This is harder than it ought to be, but in this day and age of credit and plastic, it's very easy to overspend. Keep track of where your dollars go and you may be surprised how much you spend on lattes or cigarettes or clothes or books or whatever you like to purchase. For example, I tend to blow around $500 a year on books. Good? Bad? I don't know, but at least I know that's where I spent it.
10. Learn to have fun. Yes, have fun! Enjoy your life. Be spontaneous. It's not all about paying the bills and wiping noses and ironing. Go see a movie, for heaven's sake.
11. Find your god. Spirituality is both over rated and under rated, but finding your own personal spiritual core and belief system is definitely worth taking the time to do. Examine the values you were brought up with and accept or reject them as you will. Take a look at different religions and see if something fits better. You may go right back to the doctrine you were raised in and that's fine, but embrace it thoughtfully and with contemplation.
12. Remove the bad things. This is also a very difficult project to undertake because it requires a lot of inner prodding. But if something or someone in your life isn't working for you, and has absolutely no redeemable features, then you must figure that out and then toss them. Maybe you have a good friend who is a real downer. You must still get something from that relationship, and maybe that good thing is enough to keep the person around. But do take the time to examine it and figure out what is worthwhile. Maybe your job is the pits. Can you do something else?
13. Embrace the good things. This is also hard, because the bad things sometimes can be overwhelming. But good things are there all the time - you are able to read this. You are up and awake and not in a coma. Sometimes you have to be grateful for the mundane in order to appreciate your existence, but do give it a try. Grace is wonderful and we all have it in our life, even if we forget to look for it. So be grateful. At least you don't need that will just yet.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 174th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Ice & Snow
I woke about 3 a.m. and saw out the window that the ground was white. Daybreak showed that we had a small accumulation of ice and snow.
It is just past noon as I write this and the snow and ice have vanished. While I am not fond of the brown grass, I prefer that to the ice and snow, I think.
A fog lays across the mountains, a white mist veiling the Blue Ridge that I love. Deer graze in the field beyond my window, a small herd of does. They munch without looking up and I wonder if they are hungry.
My office clock ticks steadily, a rhythmic reminder of the passage of time as I stare and daydream and do not work on the bookkeeping and end-of-year tax information that I have scheduled for this day. Work, work, work - that's its charge. I wonder why I don't hear "play play play."
I an anxious for green, for shoots of hycianth and yellow forsynthia and the trumpet of daffodils. I yearn for the healthy color of emerald in the stalks of my roses and the delicate unfolding of the leaves of the oak tree. I ache for the jade sea of alfalfa as it reaches for a June sun.
I have had too much of winter. The chill has moved in and taken hold. O Time march on, and bring me a bright Spring day.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
I Don't Play Tennis
It has been several months since I mentioned problems with my arm. In September I noted I had received a cortisone shot along with a diagnosis of tennis elbow. I injured my arm in late June when I tore wallpaper from the kitchen wall and painted.
I am sorry to report that the cortisone shot worked for about six weeks. By Thanksgiving my arm was about as bad as it was prior to the shot and now it is even worse than that, if possible. It is swollen today.
Tennis elbow is an overuse injury, and from everything I have read it is exceptionally hard to cure. Upon reading many different websites, I am not surprised the cortisone shot didn't take. The doctor, at the least, should have given me physical therapy that I could have taken while the cortisone was working and perhaps I wouldn't be suffering now. But alas, he did not do that but instead gave me a shot and sent me out the door.
The pain and weakness in my arm makes it difficult to do a number of tasks, like pouring water, holding a cup, squeezing something, attempting to use anything with a spray nozzle, and forget vacuuming. That has become the most painful thing I can do, which is unfortunate because I rather like to use the vacuum.
In any event, I can't take anti-inflammatories well and that leaves ice for swelling and inflammation. I need to rest it so I plan to try to do that this week and see if makes a difference. I think it is a bit soon for another cortisone shot but perhaps I might need a visit to the doctor in the near future.
Anyone else have this issue? How did you cure it, if so?
I am sorry to report that the cortisone shot worked for about six weeks. By Thanksgiving my arm was about as bad as it was prior to the shot and now it is even worse than that, if possible. It is swollen today.
Tennis elbow is an overuse injury, and from everything I have read it is exceptionally hard to cure. Upon reading many different websites, I am not surprised the cortisone shot didn't take. The doctor, at the least, should have given me physical therapy that I could have taken while the cortisone was working and perhaps I wouldn't be suffering now. But alas, he did not do that but instead gave me a shot and sent me out the door.
The pain and weakness in my arm makes it difficult to do a number of tasks, like pouring water, holding a cup, squeezing something, attempting to use anything with a spray nozzle, and forget vacuuming. That has become the most painful thing I can do, which is unfortunate because I rather like to use the vacuum.
In any event, I can't take anti-inflammatories well and that leaves ice for swelling and inflammation. I need to rest it so I plan to try to do that this week and see if makes a difference. I think it is a bit soon for another cortisone shot but perhaps I might need a visit to the doctor in the near future.
Anyone else have this issue? How did you cure it, if so?
Friday, January 14, 2011
A Plausible Story
I am a reader of fantasy and science fiction and I enjoy this genre on screen, as well. I tend to lean toward fantasy (Lord of the Rings) but I do like Star Trek and Babylon 5 and other shows of that genre.
Presently I am watching Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager. When Voyager first came on the air, I saw the first two seasons of it and then the programming switched to an unavailable time. This was before Tivo and while I think I may have videotaped a few episodes, generally if I have to go to that much trouble to watch something it vanishes from my radar. I simply don't watch that much TV.
At any event, while I trudge along on the treadmill in the mornings I need something visual and interesting in front of me, and right now it's Voyager. Yesterday I watched an episode called Threshold.
In this episode, Tom Paris, the hot and cocky pilot, flies a shuttle to Warp 10, something that has never been accomplished. Warp theory indicates that Warp 10 is infinity and theoretically at this speed you are everywhere at once. Tom makes a successful flight and reports this is indeed the case: he could see all over the universe.
Unfortunately, this has side effects and Paris begins an evolutionary process that has him fast-forwarding into lizard, which apparently is what a human will turn into in a few million years. Paris kidnaps Captain Janeway and takes her aboard the shuttle, where he goes to Warp 10. The crew find the shuttle on an uninhabited M class planet and discover Paris and Janeway are now large salamanders and they've mated and had three offspring. Chakotay decides to leave the babies. Paris and Janeway are transformed back into people and all is well.
The story has some good points. Paris as hero offers up a tragic lead. He feels inferior and unaccomplished and believes this flight will make him a real man. Instead it turns him into something other than man.
However, this particular episode brings up a lot of questions about story plausibility. Having to leave your world behind is one of the great things about fantasy and science fiction. To read or watch these genres, you must be willing to suspend what you know about the world and entertain the idea that you don't know everything and that the unimaginable is possible. In these worlds, magic, space flight, vampires, werewolves, and talking plants and animals come true.
However, the things that take place within this imagined world must have a little plausibility within that world. I had trouble with the Threshold tale because of the implausibility of transforming Paris and Janeway back into people. The evolution (or maybe it was de-evolution?) of them into salamanders was a little over the top but semi-plausible. But even though Starfleet medicine is fantastic, I had a lot of trouble with the reversion process.
To my mind, this would have been a better story if two red shirts (throw away characters) had turned into salamanders and Janeway would have had to decide whether to leave them and their offspring on the planet. An examination of the moral issues of this would have been interesting. Instead, in a voice-over Chakotay acknowledges he left the offspring but there is no acknowledgement of any moral dilemma within Starfleet protocal and the prime directive, which is to not interfere or meddle or make significant changes to any world visited. How can leaving a new species not make a significant change?
Of course, there is also the morality of playing God at Warp 10. To be infinite is to be godlike. What are the ramifications of this knowledge? Now that this ability has been achieved, how long before someone finds a way to limit the unfortunate salamander side effect? What then? Should this achievement even be noted in the annals of Starfleet?
Story plausibility has many implications. Even writers of contemporary fiction must be aware of actions that take place within the world of their story that may not seem plausible to the reader. If someone falls from a five story building and survives, then the explanation for that has to be very plausible. If someone has her heart broken and it leaves no scars, then that person's personality had better reflect an ability to endure that trauma.
Make things happen. Make the reader believe they can happen. Be creative, and be plausible.
Presently I am watching Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager. When Voyager first came on the air, I saw the first two seasons of it and then the programming switched to an unavailable time. This was before Tivo and while I think I may have videotaped a few episodes, generally if I have to go to that much trouble to watch something it vanishes from my radar. I simply don't watch that much TV.
At any event, while I trudge along on the treadmill in the mornings I need something visual and interesting in front of me, and right now it's Voyager. Yesterday I watched an episode called Threshold.
In this episode, Tom Paris, the hot and cocky pilot, flies a shuttle to Warp 10, something that has never been accomplished. Warp theory indicates that Warp 10 is infinity and theoretically at this speed you are everywhere at once. Tom makes a successful flight and reports this is indeed the case: he could see all over the universe.
Unfortunately, this has side effects and Paris begins an evolutionary process that has him fast-forwarding into lizard, which apparently is what a human will turn into in a few million years. Paris kidnaps Captain Janeway and takes her aboard the shuttle, where he goes to Warp 10. The crew find the shuttle on an uninhabited M class planet and discover Paris and Janeway are now large salamanders and they've mated and had three offspring. Chakotay decides to leave the babies. Paris and Janeway are transformed back into people and all is well.
The story has some good points. Paris as hero offers up a tragic lead. He feels inferior and unaccomplished and believes this flight will make him a real man. Instead it turns him into something other than man.
However, this particular episode brings up a lot of questions about story plausibility. Having to leave your world behind is one of the great things about fantasy and science fiction. To read or watch these genres, you must be willing to suspend what you know about the world and entertain the idea that you don't know everything and that the unimaginable is possible. In these worlds, magic, space flight, vampires, werewolves, and talking plants and animals come true.
However, the things that take place within this imagined world must have a little plausibility within that world. I had trouble with the Threshold tale because of the implausibility of transforming Paris and Janeway back into people. The evolution (or maybe it was de-evolution?) of them into salamanders was a little over the top but semi-plausible. But even though Starfleet medicine is fantastic, I had a lot of trouble with the reversion process.
To my mind, this would have been a better story if two red shirts (throw away characters) had turned into salamanders and Janeway would have had to decide whether to leave them and their offspring on the planet. An examination of the moral issues of this would have been interesting. Instead, in a voice-over Chakotay acknowledges he left the offspring but there is no acknowledgement of any moral dilemma within Starfleet protocal and the prime directive, which is to not interfere or meddle or make significant changes to any world visited. How can leaving a new species not make a significant change?
Of course, there is also the morality of playing God at Warp 10. To be infinite is to be godlike. What are the ramifications of this knowledge? Now that this ability has been achieved, how long before someone finds a way to limit the unfortunate salamander side effect? What then? Should this achievement even be noted in the annals of Starfleet?
Story plausibility has many implications. Even writers of contemporary fiction must be aware of actions that take place within the world of their story that may not seem plausible to the reader. If someone falls from a five story building and survives, then the explanation for that has to be very plausible. If someone has her heart broken and it leaves no scars, then that person's personality had better reflect an ability to endure that trauma.
Make things happen. Make the reader believe they can happen. Be creative, and be plausible.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday Thirteen
Since it's a new year and everything is fresh and peachy smelling, I thought I'd sort of wander backwards and list 13 things that have changed since 1981. Why 1981? It was 30 years ago. It was the year I graduated high school. It has a nice sound to it.
1. Portable technology. I can remember when a Walkman was a big deal; look around now at the iPods and IPads, MP3 players, cellphones, Blue Tooths (Blue Teeth?), and laptops. It used to be we went to the world. Now we take the world with us. Better? I don't know.
2. Hair. Remember the Farrah cut? I had one of those, along with 3/4 of the girls in my class. Boys had longish hair then, too, sometimes it feathered! No crew or bowl cuts unless you had decided to join the Army.
3. Dress code. When I graduated high school it was blue jeans and a little skin. Now it's all skin. Girls in particular look like they're 26 when they're 12. It's a little scary. Guys now wear their pants down around their knees and show their undies. That's just weird.
4. Music. As I ended high school, disco was close to coming to screeching and crashing halt and the beginning of punk, metal, and hip hop was on its way. But I think the biggest change in music has been the absolute disintegration of it as a way of bringing people together. Since no one listens to the same songs anymore, there will never be another Elvis. Why do you think older bands like The Rolling Stones can tour and bring in 100,000 people. Will the new bands do that? Maybe a break-out like Green Day, but I seriously doubt that there will ever be music that touches as many people as the sounds of earlier generations. Even my young-adult-aged nephews admit that "those old songs" are better - and that's what they choose to hear.
5. Poverty and class. The gap between those who have and the rest of us (those who don't) widened significantly in this last 30 years. Unlike some who think too much government is the problem with the economy, I peg this as the major source of ills. The downturn of the middle class will one day be looked upon as the death knell of the nation, I fear.
6. Loss of privacy. I remember when no one knew where I was and it didn't matter because they knew I'd turn up eventually. I miss those days.
7. McMansions. I think this trend may be going away because no one can afford these big houses anymore, but watching these things spring up like mushrooms on what used to be farmland about broke my heart in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I'm really glad I don't have one to clean.
8. Job descriptions/vanished trades. I used to be a secretary. I don't know that "secretary" even exists anymore. I used to run a transcription machine and take dictation. I suppose these jobs may still be around in some places but they are not high on anyone's radar. It used to be a goal, to be a secretary. I wonder what has taken the place of that?
9. The rising cost of health care. A very long time ago, you paid the doctor with eggs from your chicken. Now you sign over your soul to some nameless corporation and hope for the best.
10. The computer. My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20, which came out in 1980. My mother bought it and I quickly confiscated it in the way that children do. I soon graduated to a Commodore 64, then on to a Tandy T1000 (Radio Shack brand). These were all DOS based computers. I didn't move up to a Windows version until about 1992, with Version 3.1. I really hated that because while I understood DOS I found that I had less control over Windows. When Windows messes up, I can't fix it.
11. Progressive lenses. Changes in vision correction might not make many people's list, but when you have trouble with your eyes it's a great and wonderful thing to be able to put on a pair of glasses and see. Contact lens improvements, light-weight frames and lenses - these are the kinds of small changes that make a huge difference in my world.
12. Polarized partisianship. To be sure, the bickering has always been bad in this country, and I know this because I'm an amateur historian who has spent time in newspaper archives reading letters to the editor from folks who would be akin to Limbaugh and Maddow in this day. Everybody has a gripe and everybody is right and the middle ground is always the first thing to die. The Internet and 24-hour TV has made this squealing louder and much more insane, and it's not very good for the country or anybody's sanity. I don't see it changing for the better any time soon.
13. The loss of books. Well, we still have books and probably always will, but the days of books like I knew books are gone. Books will be on little machines and the machine will house 30,000 titles, giving everyone the equivalent of an entire county library at their fingertips wherever they go. The scary thing about this is that some giant corporation can swoop down and yank the words back, so people will soon begin self-editing for fear a diatribe about something will cause the company to retaliate. It's human nature to feed the beast, not oppose it. It's highbrow censorship and we won't even know it's taking place.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 173rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
1. Portable technology. I can remember when a Walkman was a big deal; look around now at the iPods and IPads, MP3 players, cellphones, Blue Tooths (Blue Teeth?), and laptops. It used to be we went to the world. Now we take the world with us. Better? I don't know.
2. Hair. Remember the Farrah cut? I had one of those, along with 3/4 of the girls in my class. Boys had longish hair then, too, sometimes it feathered! No crew or bowl cuts unless you had decided to join the Army.
3. Dress code. When I graduated high school it was blue jeans and a little skin. Now it's all skin. Girls in particular look like they're 26 when they're 12. It's a little scary. Guys now wear their pants down around their knees and show their undies. That's just weird.
4. Music. As I ended high school, disco was close to coming to screeching and crashing halt and the beginning of punk, metal, and hip hop was on its way. But I think the biggest change in music has been the absolute disintegration of it as a way of bringing people together. Since no one listens to the same songs anymore, there will never be another Elvis. Why do you think older bands like The Rolling Stones can tour and bring in 100,000 people. Will the new bands do that? Maybe a break-out like Green Day, but I seriously doubt that there will ever be music that touches as many people as the sounds of earlier generations. Even my young-adult-aged nephews admit that "those old songs" are better - and that's what they choose to hear.
5. Poverty and class. The gap between those who have and the rest of us (those who don't) widened significantly in this last 30 years. Unlike some who think too much government is the problem with the economy, I peg this as the major source of ills. The downturn of the middle class will one day be looked upon as the death knell of the nation, I fear.
6. Loss of privacy. I remember when no one knew where I was and it didn't matter because they knew I'd turn up eventually. I miss those days.
7. McMansions. I think this trend may be going away because no one can afford these big houses anymore, but watching these things spring up like mushrooms on what used to be farmland about broke my heart in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I'm really glad I don't have one to clean.
8. Job descriptions/vanished trades. I used to be a secretary. I don't know that "secretary" even exists anymore. I used to run a transcription machine and take dictation. I suppose these jobs may still be around in some places but they are not high on anyone's radar. It used to be a goal, to be a secretary. I wonder what has taken the place of that?
9. The rising cost of health care. A very long time ago, you paid the doctor with eggs from your chicken. Now you sign over your soul to some nameless corporation and hope for the best.
10. The computer. My first computer was a Commodore Vic 20, which came out in 1980. My mother bought it and I quickly confiscated it in the way that children do. I soon graduated to a Commodore 64, then on to a Tandy T1000 (Radio Shack brand). These were all DOS based computers. I didn't move up to a Windows version until about 1992, with Version 3.1. I really hated that because while I understood DOS I found that I had less control over Windows. When Windows messes up, I can't fix it.
11. Progressive lenses. Changes in vision correction might not make many people's list, but when you have trouble with your eyes it's a great and wonderful thing to be able to put on a pair of glasses and see. Contact lens improvements, light-weight frames and lenses - these are the kinds of small changes that make a huge difference in my world.
12. Polarized partisianship. To be sure, the bickering has always been bad in this country, and I know this because I'm an amateur historian who has spent time in newspaper archives reading letters to the editor from folks who would be akin to Limbaugh and Maddow in this day. Everybody has a gripe and everybody is right and the middle ground is always the first thing to die. The Internet and 24-hour TV has made this squealing louder and much more insane, and it's not very good for the country or anybody's sanity. I don't see it changing for the better any time soon.
13. The loss of books. Well, we still have books and probably always will, but the days of books like I knew books are gone. Books will be on little machines and the machine will house 30,000 titles, giving everyone the equivalent of an entire county library at their fingertips wherever they go. The scary thing about this is that some giant corporation can swoop down and yank the words back, so people will soon begin self-editing for fear a diatribe about something will cause the company to retaliate. It's human nature to feed the beast, not oppose it. It's highbrow censorship and we won't even know it's taking place.
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 173rd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Blue Toboggan
When I was about 10 years old, Santa brought my brother and I identical blue toboggan sleds for Christmas.
They were constructed of a hard, durable plastic and made in such a way as to be hollow in the middle. A yellow rope allowed you to tow the sled up and down the hills and also gave you the option of sitting up and hanging on and hopefully steering, though there was nothing to steer.
These sleds moved like lightning, zipping down the hills so fast that the ride was over before the next breath. They were so easy to carry and handle that they made a Flexible Flyer obsolete, to my mind.
The farm where I grew up, being in these southwestern Virginia hilly and mountainous lands, contained many slopes. Some of the rises ended at the creek; others were cut by fences or paraded upon by cattle. Finding the best sled run was a never-ending quest and one by one we tried them all.
Those adventures frequently ended with us careening without direction into trees, barbed wire, stopped automobiles, mailboxes, buildings, and whatever else lay in the general direction we pointed the toboggans. All it took was a run and a belly-flop onto the plastic and whoosh! we were off.
One of our favorite runs was on the property down the road (though I daresay it was the neighbor's kids as much as the slope that was the draw). Unfortunately, cattle roamed that particular hill and it was filled with bramble bushes, stick weed, and thistle. Circumnavigating this course took a special feat of skill and in general was not accomplished without injury.
So it was that we had a huge snow and we trudged up to the neighbors for our slipping and sliding in the wet stuff. The climb up the long hill took forever, and at the bottom of the run was a creek. The thrill of rolling off at the bottom or getting very wet added to the general excitement, fear, and exhilaration of the event.
It would be a race to the finish, with the last kid standing the winner.
I belly-flopped onto the plastic and zoom! I was off, trailing in the wake of one of the neighbors. He crashed into a brier bush and I flew by, headed down, down, faster and faster, with the knowledge that I was moving quickly toward the creek.
Blam!
The toboggan came to a dead stop and I flew off, landing in the snow, the creek still a distance away. I gasped for air as my chest crushed against me, for the wind had been knocked from my lungs. Finally, I sat up and wiped snow from my face with my mittened hand, then went in search of the sled.
It had scooted beyond me and was dangerously close to the icy water. I fetched it and then went in search of the obstacle.
I had been done in by a frozen cow pile.
And I did not win the race.
They were constructed of a hard, durable plastic and made in such a way as to be hollow in the middle. A yellow rope allowed you to tow the sled up and down the hills and also gave you the option of sitting up and hanging on and hopefully steering, though there was nothing to steer.
These sleds moved like lightning, zipping down the hills so fast that the ride was over before the next breath. They were so easy to carry and handle that they made a Flexible Flyer obsolete, to my mind.
The farm where I grew up, being in these southwestern Virginia hilly and mountainous lands, contained many slopes. Some of the rises ended at the creek; others were cut by fences or paraded upon by cattle. Finding the best sled run was a never-ending quest and one by one we tried them all.
Those adventures frequently ended with us careening without direction into trees, barbed wire, stopped automobiles, mailboxes, buildings, and whatever else lay in the general direction we pointed the toboggans. All it took was a run and a belly-flop onto the plastic and whoosh! we were off.
One of our favorite runs was on the property down the road (though I daresay it was the neighbor's kids as much as the slope that was the draw). Unfortunately, cattle roamed that particular hill and it was filled with bramble bushes, stick weed, and thistle. Circumnavigating this course took a special feat of skill and in general was not accomplished without injury.
So it was that we had a huge snow and we trudged up to the neighbors for our slipping and sliding in the wet stuff. The climb up the long hill took forever, and at the bottom of the run was a creek. The thrill of rolling off at the bottom or getting very wet added to the general excitement, fear, and exhilaration of the event.
It would be a race to the finish, with the last kid standing the winner.
I belly-flopped onto the plastic and zoom! I was off, trailing in the wake of one of the neighbors. He crashed into a brier bush and I flew by, headed down, down, faster and faster, with the knowledge that I was moving quickly toward the creek.
Blam!
The toboggan came to a dead stop and I flew off, landing in the snow, the creek still a distance away. I gasped for air as my chest crushed against me, for the wind had been knocked from my lungs. Finally, I sat up and wiped snow from my face with my mittened hand, then went in search of the sled.
It had scooted beyond me and was dangerously close to the icy water. I fetched it and then went in search of the obstacle.
I had been done in by a frozen cow pile.
And I did not win the race.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Books: Still Procrastinating
Still Procrastinating?
the no-regrets guide to getting it done
By Joseph R. Ferrari, Ph.D.
Copyright 2010
237 pages
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
It is no secret that I have trouble with certain projects, most particularly some of my own work such as book writing, querying, etc. You know, the things I am supposed to be doing as a writer.
I am not late for appointments or meetings (unless there is an emergency), I return phone calls, and don't miss deadlines on assignments. I always turned in my schoolwork on time, too. Still, I consider procrastination a problem for me because of my inability to stay focused on my personal tasks.
I have read a number of time management books and other ways to boost productivity and end procrastination. A few have helped but nothing has been a full-scale saving grace. That goes for this book, too.
Here is a Guidepost article which quotes the author of this book. If you have any interest in this topic at all, I suggest reading this just as an FYI.
Still Procrastinating, written by a "distinguished professor of psychology at DePaul University," was the first book on procrastination that I actually found insulting. The author's writing reminded me of the attitude Jillian has on The Biggest Losers; i.e., she absolutely loathes obese people and has made it her life's work to eradicate them from the world in whatever mean way she possibly can. The author of Still Procrastinating apparently feels the same way about people who are late for meetings.
Additionally, I had a lot of trouble getting past a single sentence: "I try never to be late (eg., I leave my house at 5:15 a.m. for an 8 a.m. class, and it is only a thirty-five minute ride from home to campus - but you never know how bad the traffic will be, which could prevent you from getting to Chicago.). Okay then.
Maybe that is normal for you, but leaving three hours early for an appointment that is 35 minutes away seems like some other kind of personality issue to me - unless the appointment really is 2.5 hours away.
Anyway, the author uses words like "maladaptive" to describe procrastinators and blames this segment of society for most of the ills of the world, right down to the Christmas holiday sales and the way the government runs. Wow. I had no idea.
Additionally, he finds absolutely no validity in procrastination, even though his studies have determined that fully 1/5 of the world population has a serious procrastination problem, and that everyone procrastinates at some point in his or her life. He dismissed notions that procrastination is a part of the creative process although he did concede that many people in the arts are procrastinators.
I had a difficult time getting past the author's attitude but read the entire book hoping for some kind of hint that would help me with what I perceive as my procrastination problem. Unfortunately, while there were one or two good ideas in this book, the main message was "just do it," as if we all are Nike commercials waiting to happen. I do believe I've gotten more out of a good time management book.
One of his discussions talked about "minding the gap" and this was one I liked but he offered little in the way of solutions. The idea is there is a problem between intention and action; i.e., I set about to write something but never complete the action, or even move into performing the action. I have this trouble with longer creative works in particular, and according to this author, this is because I see the whole and not the parts. The whole is scary but the parts are doable, but the breaking down of the project, or the inability to do so, is the issue. While the author acknowledged and accurately described all of this, his only solution was to break it into parts and "do it." Well, I am pretty sure that anyone who acknowledges they have an issue knows that this is what needs to be done; there is still a gap there that went unaddressed, and inaction to action for some people takes a little something more. Or at least, it does for me on some things.
The author writes that people who claim to be night owls really are procrastinating, that people really do not work best under deadline pressures - pretty much every belief or myth one may hold about procrastination he considers an excuse not to perform. Perfectionists are really procrastinators in disguise, by the way. Perfectionists need to get real and go for 80 percent perfect or right; anything more is overkill, according to this author.
Procrastinators also have as much time as everybody else; their perception of it is different, though.
Basically, procrastination boils down to a self-esteem issue. Doesn't everything?
Some of the information in this book sounded correct and I readily concede that procrastination is a problem for me and many others. I am not arguing with the correctness of the information. I do take issue with the tone in which it is delivered, though. If you wish to learn about procrastination from the point of view that it's a terrible problem and maybe gain a little understanding about that, then I recommend this book. If you don't like being called "maladaptive" for being human, and obviously I took offense at this, then I recommend you leave this one on the shelf.
Here are some of his tips for getting organized:
Create a sense of time urgency for the tasks you need to get done.
Figure out how long the task will take
Jot down a to-do list
Hold yourself accountable for getting things done
Keep your desk and workplace decluttered
Throw away the trash
Recognize the times in your work plan when you must focus on other tasks
For unpleasant tasks, give yourself 15 minute blocks of time to accomplish them
Prioritize
Don't be a "people pleaser".
Reward yourself if you accomplish 80 percent or more of your to-do list. (107-109)
Here are a few other quotes from the book:
"Popular theories would have us believe that procrastinators are unable to engage in strong self-control or to delay their gratification. In other words, they experience a failure to self-regulate." (86)
"do the difficult tasks before the easy ones" (86)
"Knowing the difference between what is important to get right and what is less important may save you lots of time and countless headaches." (94)
"...procrastinators delay just about any task - it doesn't matter what it is. They perceive the tasks that they delay, however, as unpleasant and possibly revealing of their level of skills and abilities." (133)
"learning to deal with procrastination means taking ownership of your strengths and your weaknesses. Change occurs when you realize that you must conquer your challenges. . . . Don't blame others, don't blame yourself - just take ownership of your life and move forward." (158) (Just Do It, damnit!)
"Prevention, not procrastination, is the message I am asking Americans to adopt. Let's postpone procrastination as a nation! ... As a culture, as a society, we need to focus on getting things done. We need to have new systems to promote people's meeting deadlines. Incentives need to be created for folks to act." (215-216) (I thought we were human beings, not human doings; guess I was wrong.)
the no-regrets guide to getting it done
By Joseph R. Ferrari, Ph.D.
Copyright 2010
237 pages
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
It is no secret that I have trouble with certain projects, most particularly some of my own work such as book writing, querying, etc. You know, the things I am supposed to be doing as a writer.
I am not late for appointments or meetings (unless there is an emergency), I return phone calls, and don't miss deadlines on assignments. I always turned in my schoolwork on time, too. Still, I consider procrastination a problem for me because of my inability to stay focused on my personal tasks.
I have read a number of time management books and other ways to boost productivity and end procrastination. A few have helped but nothing has been a full-scale saving grace. That goes for this book, too.
Here is a Guidepost article which quotes the author of this book. If you have any interest in this topic at all, I suggest reading this just as an FYI.
Still Procrastinating, written by a "distinguished professor of psychology at DePaul University," was the first book on procrastination that I actually found insulting. The author's writing reminded me of the attitude Jillian has on The Biggest Losers; i.e., she absolutely loathes obese people and has made it her life's work to eradicate them from the world in whatever mean way she possibly can. The author of Still Procrastinating apparently feels the same way about people who are late for meetings.
Additionally, I had a lot of trouble getting past a single sentence: "I try never to be late (eg., I leave my house at 5:15 a.m. for an 8 a.m. class, and it is only a thirty-five minute ride from home to campus - but you never know how bad the traffic will be, which could prevent you from getting to Chicago.). Okay then.
Maybe that is normal for you, but leaving three hours early for an appointment that is 35 minutes away seems like some other kind of personality issue to me - unless the appointment really is 2.5 hours away.
Anyway, the author uses words like "maladaptive" to describe procrastinators and blames this segment of society for most of the ills of the world, right down to the Christmas holiday sales and the way the government runs. Wow. I had no idea.
Additionally, he finds absolutely no validity in procrastination, even though his studies have determined that fully 1/5 of the world population has a serious procrastination problem, and that everyone procrastinates at some point in his or her life. He dismissed notions that procrastination is a part of the creative process although he did concede that many people in the arts are procrastinators.
I had a difficult time getting past the author's attitude but read the entire book hoping for some kind of hint that would help me with what I perceive as my procrastination problem. Unfortunately, while there were one or two good ideas in this book, the main message was "just do it," as if we all are Nike commercials waiting to happen. I do believe I've gotten more out of a good time management book.
One of his discussions talked about "minding the gap" and this was one I liked but he offered little in the way of solutions. The idea is there is a problem between intention and action; i.e., I set about to write something but never complete the action, or even move into performing the action. I have this trouble with longer creative works in particular, and according to this author, this is because I see the whole and not the parts. The whole is scary but the parts are doable, but the breaking down of the project, or the inability to do so, is the issue. While the author acknowledged and accurately described all of this, his only solution was to break it into parts and "do it." Well, I am pretty sure that anyone who acknowledges they have an issue knows that this is what needs to be done; there is still a gap there that went unaddressed, and inaction to action for some people takes a little something more. Or at least, it does for me on some things.
The author writes that people who claim to be night owls really are procrastinating, that people really do not work best under deadline pressures - pretty much every belief or myth one may hold about procrastination he considers an excuse not to perform. Perfectionists are really procrastinators in disguise, by the way. Perfectionists need to get real and go for 80 percent perfect or right; anything more is overkill, according to this author.
Procrastinators also have as much time as everybody else; their perception of it is different, though.
Basically, procrastination boils down to a self-esteem issue. Doesn't everything?
Some of the information in this book sounded correct and I readily concede that procrastination is a problem for me and many others. I am not arguing with the correctness of the information. I do take issue with the tone in which it is delivered, though. If you wish to learn about procrastination from the point of view that it's a terrible problem and maybe gain a little understanding about that, then I recommend this book. If you don't like being called "maladaptive" for being human, and obviously I took offense at this, then I recommend you leave this one on the shelf.
Here are some of his tips for getting organized:
Create a sense of time urgency for the tasks you need to get done.
Figure out how long the task will take
Jot down a to-do list
Hold yourself accountable for getting things done
Keep your desk and workplace decluttered
Throw away the trash
Recognize the times in your work plan when you must focus on other tasks
For unpleasant tasks, give yourself 15 minute blocks of time to accomplish them
Prioritize
Don't be a "people pleaser".
Reward yourself if you accomplish 80 percent or more of your to-do list. (107-109)
Here are a few other quotes from the book:
"Popular theories would have us believe that procrastinators are unable to engage in strong self-control or to delay their gratification. In other words, they experience a failure to self-regulate." (86)
"do the difficult tasks before the easy ones" (86)
"Knowing the difference between what is important to get right and what is less important may save you lots of time and countless headaches." (94)
"...procrastinators delay just about any task - it doesn't matter what it is. They perceive the tasks that they delay, however, as unpleasant and possibly revealing of their level of skills and abilities." (133)
"learning to deal with procrastination means taking ownership of your strengths and your weaknesses. Change occurs when you realize that you must conquer your challenges. . . . Don't blame others, don't blame yourself - just take ownership of your life and move forward." (158) (Just Do It, damnit!)
"Prevention, not procrastination, is the message I am asking Americans to adopt. Let's postpone procrastination as a nation! ... As a culture, as a society, we need to focus on getting things done. We need to have new systems to promote people's meeting deadlines. Incentives need to be created for folks to act." (215-216) (I thought we were human beings, not human doings; guess I was wrong.)
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Thursday Thirteen
It's a new year, and thus it's time for New Year's Resolutions. What do I hope to do with myself in 2011?
1. Go back to college. This week, I enrolled in two courses at Hollins University in hopes of finishing up my Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree. I can be finished by December with a little luck.
2. Along with the return to school comes the writing of a thesis, subject as yet unknown, though I have some ideas. Fortunately I won't have to deal with this until September.
3. Write more. Write more blog, write more articles, write fiction, write poetry, write in my journal. If nothing else, consider it all practice for the day when it's real again.
4. Reduce clutter. I have been slowly trying to rid the house and our living space of stuff, but it is an ongoing fight. Seems like the drawers and cupboards and closets are magnets for things and, like critters with feet, the items keep finding their way back onto the shelving.
5. Work on websites. I have several websites that I piddle with and this year I would like to do more than just mess with them; I'd like to get serious about utilizing them as money-makers without compromising my integrity. This is harder than it sounds, especially the integrity part.
6. Learn to cook better. My idea of cooking tends to involve removing frozen somethings from the freezer and heating them up. I do a few decent dishes "from scratch" but I'm the first to confess I am big on convenience cooking. A few years ago I did a "new dish every month" and enjoyed that so I will try that again. Surely I can manage one new recipe a month.
7. Return to counted cross stitch. A very long time ago, I learned how to do this bit of crafty work and enjoyed it. I found it comforting and calming, not to mention productive in a less frenzied sort of way. I have a few pieces that are in a basket awaiting my attention and I hope to pick them up soon and begin working on them.
8. Lose weight. Notice this isn't high on the list. I do wish I could figure out how to get my diet under control but I seem to have very little willpower. My neural pathways are simply designed so that putting food in my mouth is the thing to do, apparently. This is a long-term project that will require a great deal of work.
9. Along with that weight loss comes exercise. I already spend about three hours a week on a treadmill but need to increase that. I would like to take up yoga in earnest and improve my Tai Chi (which I do about 20 minutes a week), too.
10. Get a mammogram. Yep, it's that time again and I'm a little overdue, so I need to fast-forward it to the top of my git-er-done list.
11. Keep my blood pressure under control. After struggling with this for almost two years, I don't want to lose my momentum and let this slide, knock wood.
12. Read more. I already read a lot but would like to increase this. I think 60 books sounds like a doable number; that's just over one a week.
13. Worry less. I am a compulsive worrier who worries about everything under the sun and then what's under the dirt and what's in the heavens and everywhere else. I would like to stop this and worry less and live more. To do this, I probably need to take up meditation and prayer with conviction instead of playing at it. Perhaps a little attention to the spiritual side of life is in order for this resolution to see progress.
There you have it. A list of things for me to work on in 2011. I wonder how I'll do?
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 172nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
1. Go back to college. This week, I enrolled in two courses at Hollins University in hopes of finishing up my Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) degree. I can be finished by December with a little luck.
2. Along with the return to school comes the writing of a thesis, subject as yet unknown, though I have some ideas. Fortunately I won't have to deal with this until September.
3. Write more. Write more blog, write more articles, write fiction, write poetry, write in my journal. If nothing else, consider it all practice for the day when it's real again.
4. Reduce clutter. I have been slowly trying to rid the house and our living space of stuff, but it is an ongoing fight. Seems like the drawers and cupboards and closets are magnets for things and, like critters with feet, the items keep finding their way back onto the shelving.
5. Work on websites. I have several websites that I piddle with and this year I would like to do more than just mess with them; I'd like to get serious about utilizing them as money-makers without compromising my integrity. This is harder than it sounds, especially the integrity part.
6. Learn to cook better. My idea of cooking tends to involve removing frozen somethings from the freezer and heating them up. I do a few decent dishes "from scratch" but I'm the first to confess I am big on convenience cooking. A few years ago I did a "new dish every month" and enjoyed that so I will try that again. Surely I can manage one new recipe a month.
7. Return to counted cross stitch. A very long time ago, I learned how to do this bit of crafty work and enjoyed it. I found it comforting and calming, not to mention productive in a less frenzied sort of way. I have a few pieces that are in a basket awaiting my attention and I hope to pick them up soon and begin working on them.
8. Lose weight. Notice this isn't high on the list. I do wish I could figure out how to get my diet under control but I seem to have very little willpower. My neural pathways are simply designed so that putting food in my mouth is the thing to do, apparently. This is a long-term project that will require a great deal of work.
9. Along with that weight loss comes exercise. I already spend about three hours a week on a treadmill but need to increase that. I would like to take up yoga in earnest and improve my Tai Chi (which I do about 20 minutes a week), too.
10. Get a mammogram. Yep, it's that time again and I'm a little overdue, so I need to fast-forward it to the top of my git-er-done list.
11. Keep my blood pressure under control. After struggling with this for almost two years, I don't want to lose my momentum and let this slide, knock wood.
12. Read more. I already read a lot but would like to increase this. I think 60 books sounds like a doable number; that's just over one a week.
13. Worry less. I am a compulsive worrier who worries about everything under the sun and then what's under the dirt and what's in the heavens and everywhere else. I would like to stop this and worry less and live more. To do this, I probably need to take up meditation and prayer with conviction instead of playing at it. Perhaps a little attention to the spiritual side of life is in order for this resolution to see progress.
There you have it. A list of things for me to work on in 2011. I wonder how I'll do?
Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 172nd time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Meme for Nothing
Picked up this meme off of Facebook and thought, why not?
1.You can ONLY answer Yes or No!
2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you & Asks!
Now, here's what you're supposed to do... Copy and paste, delete my answers, type in your answers & tag as many of your friends as you'd like to. I don't tag anyone but if you want to play along, feel free.
Marched in a protest? No
Slept past 5 pm? No.
Fallen asleep at work/school? Yes
Held a snake? Yes
Ran a red light? Yes
Been given detention in school? Yes
Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? Yes
Been fired from a job? Yes
Eaten your kid's Halloween candy? No
Sang karaoke? No
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Yes
Kissed in the rain? Yes
Cross dressed? No
Sang in the shower? Yes
Sat on a rooftop? Yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? No
Broken a bone? yes
Shaved your head? No
Played a prank on someone? Yes
Felt like killing someone? Yes
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? Yes
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? Yes
Been in a band? Yes
Shot a gun? Yes
Donated Blood? Yes
Eaten alligator meat? No
Eaten cheesecake? Yes
Worry about the future? Yes
Believe in love? Yes
Like to cuddle? Yes
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes
Talk in your sleep? Yes
Daydream? Yes
Laughed until you peed your pants? Yes
Spend too much time on Facebook? Yes
Play a musical instrument? Yes
Been to Canada? No
Been to Mexico? No
Been to Europe? Yes
Been to China? No
Been skinny dipping? No
Gone sky diving? No
Killed an animal without hunting? Yes
Gone snowmobiling? No
Been on TV? Yes
Dated someone longer than you should have? Yes
Given the wrong person a second chance? Yes
Adopted a stray animal? Yes
Climbed a mountain? No
Taken to the hospital in an ambulance? Yes
Been bungee jumping? No
Knitted? Yes
Miss someone every day? Yes
Speak a second language? Yes
Passed out when not drinking? Yes
1.You can ONLY answer Yes or No!
2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you & Asks!
Now, here's what you're supposed to do... Copy and paste, delete my answers, type in your answers & tag as many of your friends as you'd like to. I don't tag anyone but if you want to play along, feel free.
Marched in a protest? No
Slept past 5 pm? No.
Fallen asleep at work/school? Yes
Held a snake? Yes
Ran a red light? Yes
Been given detention in school? Yes
Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? Yes
Been fired from a job? Yes
Eaten your kid's Halloween candy? No
Sang karaoke? No
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Yes
Kissed in the rain? Yes
Cross dressed? No
Sang in the shower? Yes
Sat on a rooftop? Yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? No
Broken a bone? yes
Shaved your head? No
Played a prank on someone? Yes
Felt like killing someone? Yes
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? Yes
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? Yes
Been in a band? Yes
Shot a gun? Yes
Donated Blood? Yes
Eaten alligator meat? No
Eaten cheesecake? Yes
Worry about the future? Yes
Believe in love? Yes
Like to cuddle? Yes
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes
Talk in your sleep? Yes
Daydream? Yes
Laughed until you peed your pants? Yes
Spend too much time on Facebook? Yes
Play a musical instrument? Yes
Been to Canada? No
Been to Mexico? No
Been to Europe? Yes
Been to China? No
Been skinny dipping? No
Gone sky diving? No
Killed an animal without hunting? Yes
Gone snowmobiling? No
Been on TV? Yes
Dated someone longer than you should have? Yes
Given the wrong person a second chance? Yes
Adopted a stray animal? Yes
Climbed a mountain? No
Taken to the hospital in an ambulance? Yes
Been bungee jumping? No
Knitted? Yes
Miss someone every day? Yes
Speak a second language? Yes
Passed out when not drinking? Yes
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