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 |  Daily Doings |
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This begins on April 11, 2005. I have no idea what is going to happen. Today is June 28, and I still don't know what is happening here. It's a combination of personal and not-so-personal. Some say I just put it all out there. Others comment that it is LOL. Read and hopefully enjoy! Thanks to Writerchic for the Awardicon on WDC's 5th Birthday. |
| Florida is in line for a hurricane, and this is the fourth named storm this year. This is the first time in history there have been four named storms this early in the season. Tell me the weather patterns aren't changing drastically. I was listening to NPR, and they said a pattern of 20 million years of ice age, then melting, then ice, then melt, etc., you get the idea, has been reversed. We should be in an ice age now, but the earth is heating up, and guess why? Because man has built cities and polluted the atmosphere. This can be looked at two ways - at least. It's all a part of the Great Design, or humans have killed the planet with its greed. Take your choice. Yesterday the bombings in London took place. I think there are alQaeda cells everywhere, not just in Europe, but in the United States as well. It's impossible to keep track of all of them. My prayers go out to those in London, and to all the innocent Muslim people. There will be more of this. I was not at all surprised. They raised the security level to Orange here, but how long will that last? I guess Bush has to do something. He sticks to his guns: "We will not negotiate with terrorists! We will stay the course in Iraq!" Tony Blair stands by him, as a loyal friend and co-world leader. Blair, I hear, is in big trouble with his people. I was surprised, however, by my email this morning. (Notice how nicely I segued into my own problems?). I won third place in Tammy's Monthly Short Story Contest for THE SEASHORE and won lots of GPs, but then got two reviews of DARK SONNET where I {/u}{/b} I think there are free verse sonnets, besides mine; I mean I don't think I made up this form. I'm going to have to Google around and see what I can find. These two reviews sure brought my point average down, and knocked the wind out of my sails with it. Guess my skin is not as thick as I thought. Why can't I dwell on the 3rd place win? No, I have to obsess about the low point average on the sonnet. I liked this sonnet. It's so me!  %$#^@$!This is just a short morning grumble entry. I have to take a friend to the doctor this morning, and run some other errands before the heat index hits a hundred, which it will. Ah, the joys of living in Paradise. Beware all ye who enter Florida. If you like condos and rain, then you are in the right place. Be back in a while. |
| What do you all think about the New York Times journalist, Judith Miller, who has been ordered to jail for refusing to reveal their sources? She got up to 4 months. If you were a journalist would you protect those who tell you "secrts"? I think it is almost as sacred trust as the attorney-client relationship. With the corruption in government at all levels that we all know is going on, how else to try and keep it under control? Any thoughts on this? I'm reading {u{ The Secret Life of Bees. People have been trying to get me to read this for a long time, and I finally started it. It is a very tender (so far) coming of age story written in the South (South Carolina) in 1964, when all the "Freedom Riders" were signing blacks up for a vote. The narrator's mother died when she was 4, her father is a mean, mean man, and she has a black-as-night "Nanny" who she finally runs off with in the end. There are lots of new contests around, if anyone is interested. Gee, I barely looked and found three. I hardly ever win but I keep entering. I did win one -- The Best of Forms -- and I seem good at winning raffles, but the regular contests, I have had my problems. But I'm going to keep trying. Looks like we're getting a Class 3 hurricane. This is the first year in recorded history that there have been so many tropical storms and hurricanes this early in the year. I think this is now scheduled to hit the Keys and come straight up the state. But maybe it will change course. A class 3 is pretty windy, with lots of rain. Fortunately I live in a strong building. (Famous last words.) When is the convention? Does anybody know? I'm trying to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and for me, it's not easy. I can see how it holds so much charm for the younger readers however. It is really a work of the imagination, and so is Rowling's story. She has inspired so many people. Many of the "newbies" I read have stars in their eyes because of her success, much, I might add, to their parents' chgrin. I've a son whose model was Hunter Thompson for a while, and I shuddered. Thank the Lord he got over it. Raising children is the toughest job ever, I really think. Raising them to be good people; I'm not talking about the ones who are abandoned, mistreated, etc. It's not an easy job, except for the first year. The famine in the Sudan is horrible, and I wish I had the credentials and the funds to go there and do a story. All I can do is look at the photographs and feel my heart tear in two. We may have given the most money in amount, but by far NOT the most in percentage of our wealth. Sorry, those of you who do not live in the United States. This remark does not apply to you. It hit a hundred here today with the heat index, and there is nobody outdoors. It's unbearable, of course, but I guess the hurricane will take care of that. Trust me, please. Florida living is not the paradise you hear about! It is probably the most highly overrated state in the continental 48. Beware all ye who enter here! I've gotta work on a sonnet tonight, and do a little reviewing before I get too far behind. I seem to be very busy doing nothing, and I hate that in myself. Also I need to get to Chapter 2 of SECRETS. Gotta go. |
| Whew, I had a series of mishaps over the long weekend, including my PC crashing, and I'm glad the world is back to it's summer schudule. I did read See Jane Dieby Erica Spindler, a real page turner (sorry Paige) and I was enthralled. I had not heard of this writer until someone who reviewed one of my stories recommended her, and I got the book from the library. Kept my mind off my troubles, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable roller-coaster who-don-it right to the last page. The fireworks came and went, the windows in my house shook as they are won't to do because I am only three blocks from where St. Augustine displays the Fourth of July mandatory sparkles over the water. Some people were hurt at a beach about 25 miles South of here, but no one fatally injured. I'm glad it's over. My PC still is nor completely right, but I sure learned a lot "fixing" it with little help. I think everyone should have at least two computers, one for back up. I'm also trying life without television. Two people I know well do not even have one these days, especially with the intense mistrust running through our society, mistrust of the media, and for me, the commercials seem to increase in bad taste and frequency by the week. So if I seem somewhat in the dark about current events, please forgive me. I'm reading novels, or some other equally "waste of time" as many put it, but that is what I do. Read and write. I know that many in this country are illerate, and I have offered to help them. I know that another large number are semi-literate having dropped out of high school. That is their choice. My life took other paths, and since I can read and write I shall, thank you. I am, alas, not a wealthy woman and cannot contribute aid to those who need it, but I do what I can. I am not a medical doctor, so I cannot join Doctors without Borders. Am I trying to justify what is for me a "normal" thing to do. I must be. I am continuallly amazed at how many people see reading and writing as a waste of time. I try not to do it in public, not in St. Augustine anyway. It's early in the morning, and I've had a good night's sleep, am hopeful about the day. I want to get started on the second chapter of my "book", and a few other things. I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! It seems like an entirely new season after the Fourth to me. Always does. So I'm just being myself. I've been this way for decades. Labor Day is the next hurdle, then we're into Autumn. Not much else to say right now, but if you need diagnostics run on your PC, I'm the woman to call!! |
| I've been trying to help a very young lady through her early days of Writing.com, and she is taking a class in writing through "Kids in College" (?) and her teacher has told her she has talent. I told her she has talent. She wonders what talent is, and why some have it and some don't. I thought that was a very good question/subject. My trusty dictionary defines it thus: "the natural endowments of a person";"a special often creative or artistic aptitude";"general intelligence or mental power: ABILITY"; see GIFT. I find this a very unsatisfactory definition, but it may prove to be one I have to live with. I guess "creative or artistic [NOTE - What is the difference?] aptitude" is not too bad. I am tempted to say define creative, define artistic. I think these things have been debated by people for years. There are some not very good writers, creative people, artists. There are some very very good ones. And, to my eyes, ears, and way of thinking, some awful ones too. I certainly don't think the Best Seller list is necessarily indicative of great talent. Great cons, maybe, (read The DiVinci Code anybody? Ron Brown very cleverly did this, and my goodness what a run away best seller he found in his lap. J. K. Rowling hasn't done a bad job, either; I think she is truly talented, creative, and besides being popular, she is a determined person, and would not let go of her goals. She has a great web site if you haven't been there. One of my reviewers recommended that I read See Jane Die by Erica Spindler, whom I had never heard of, but I got the book from the library and I started it, and it's my first "thriller" in years and I'm loving it. Can hardly put it down, etc. She has over a dozen books out, and she looks to be a chipper 35. Is this talent, or good software?What is the "Write a Novel" software like? Does anyone know? It must be pretty good, or they'd take it off the market. Help, anybody! Subject change: Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation from the Supreme Court. I think this surprised most everyone. Now Bush has a job to do: fill it. I wonder who will be nominated and who will be appointed. This is chance, and I do believe he will jump on it. Rhenquist will die there. I hope not too soon, but Bush has a while to go, longer than Rhenquist, I suspect. That'll give Dubya two appointees. [groan]. It's going to rain on the fireworks here in Paradise, Florida. It's been raining for days, mostly starting late afternoon until about 8 or 10:00 p.m. Lots of rain. At least I probably will not have to listen to 15 minutes of noise. I far prefer the thunder and lightening. nature's fireworks. I'm going to go read Erica Spindler now, and will probably finish most of it tonight (I peeked at the ending!) but we'll see. It is a page turner, but it holds my interest. I wonder why. I am such a lover of Kafka, Kierkegaard, the Greek and Roman classics, and poetry, why does this page turner (no offense, Paige, if you read this) intrigue me? Part of it is because I do come down off my high horse every now and then. But I remember Susan Sontag saying that it good to have an interest in Pop Culture (no offence to Erica Spindler here) along with what is known as "high culture". Keeps one well rounded in brain. Is there "low culture"? If so, what is it? Between Liz's asking me about talent, and my first introudction to Erica Spindler, thanks to someone who reviewed me (wish I could remember who), my head's abuzz. I must to rest, after the rainstorm, and languish in the balmy breeze. Perfect night for a good best seller! Ciao. |
| Whew! This has been quite a day. Something horrible is wrong with my computer and I spent hours with Tech Support, both AOL and Dell. It's still "not right", but then neither am I. Are you all as sick of hearing about Tom Cruise as I am. Is he going bonkers or is he just "in love"? I am also tired of hearing about how we are going to "stay the course" in Iraq. I listened to Bush's entire speech, desparately waiting for him to say something new, but he didn't. His popularity is alarmingly low, but he does not seem to care. The people I know who voted for him really wish they hadn't. I also wish they hadn't. I'm part of the "make-love-not-war" generation and still believe that, and I hope I do for the rest of my life. He did not say one word about the 17 young American men (all Navy Seals) whose helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan yesterday morning.The Taliban has claimed responsibility. Is something wrong with me? Is there a side to this that I am not seeing? I learned today that Ireland now has the largest GNP of all countries. They are part of the increasing trend toward globilazation which is also true of the Scandanavian countries and a few others, while rance and Germany twiddle their thumbs. Guess which way we are going. Ha ha. The article was in today's New York Times, if anyone else is interested in these things. Two journalists who refuse to reveal their sounces are going to have to do jail time! I can't believe this is happening. Remember the woman who went to jail because she would not say what "they" wanted to hear about Bill Clinton? I thought we have freedom of the press in this country. Sorry to go so political, but these kinds of things really frighten me. "They" lied to me again...it's all Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny, those stories. I no longer understand what we can and cannot do anymore. Maybe I'm getting too old and losing my wits, and should just shut up and write my poems, and leave politics to the politicians. Yes, I'll try to do that. I wish I could. A lot of people are able to ignore what's going on which is why Bush is still in the White House. I will spend the evening listening to the welcome rain, and dreaming dreams of lofty things, not listening to any news, and concentrating on my writing. It's going to rain for at least a week, so I'll have no excuse not to write. No beach-going or park walking for me. eBay is now the fastest growing company ever, and they are considered the first big Globalized market. Mr. David Faber is one happy man. I am pretty sure I think Globalization is a good thing. I shall stop ranting about politics, and go to my writing. My computer is having major problems, and I can't get the printer to connect, and many other such things. I don't know if I'll be able to get on line from one shut off to the next turn on and I'm too impatient and old to play life-on-the-edge. My how get attached and obsessive about our PCs. What did we do before we had them? St. Thomas Aquinas said "The beautiful is that whose apprehension pleases." is that the same as saying beauty is in the eye of the beholder?  VerySara |
| Gee, I just read through my last answwer to Rebecca. "Angers"should have been "Angels" and I learned I can't go in a correct it. Then I started thinking wow, that's really strange - only one letter difference from angers to angels. Hummm...seems to me someone should be able to make something out of this. Angry to Angelic won't work, but Angers to Angels sounds like a good prompt to me. You are free to use it, one and all. My gift to you for reading this. Dreams, thanks for advertising my blog in your WDC "handle". I really appreciate that! It is truly a wonderful way to help someone get publicity, and show your enthusiasm at the same time. Many thanks. It's a hot humid summer in Florida, as it is every year. I have a screened in porch, with many plants in pots around. There are lady bugs and tiny snails on the screen this morning, and I don't recall seeing that before. We have these small geckos which somehow manage to get into my porch, and sometimes their throats bulge like frog throats. They do this when it is reallly really hot (100 degrees) and I put water out for them. Often they sleep in the leaves of a ficus or rubber plant during the day. They are curious little creatures, and once in a while one will get in the house. They don't live long inside however, so if I spot one in here I do my best to help him/her out. They eat insects, which is one thing I like about them. I don't like mosquitoes much, and they help with that problem, and I thik they work better than Mosquito Control which sprays the streets when the atmosphere is hot and damp and a growing habitat for mosquitos. Now we have West Nile here in Florida, as well as Mad Cow disease. A little further Northwest of where I live, there were two shark attacks in three days. One girl died, and the other young man had a leg removed, but he will be fine. The food chain is something else. Pelicans will find fish when fishermen can't. Their instincts are keener. It's a dangerous world out there. Everybody be careful! The Fourth of July weekend is coming up. Fireworks galore. St. Augustine sits on the coasts and sends the fireworks up over the water. I live close enough to where the ocean meets the Intercoastal that I can see it from my porch. For about l5 minutes the sky contains these loud but beautiful bursts of light. Then the traffic starts. A lot of people come to the waterfront to see the firewords, and it takes three hours for the traffic to clear. Would you stay in stop-and-go traffic for three hours just to see some fireworks? Not me. Guess I'm just not patriotic enough. Haven't been for quite a while either. &%^$@#%! The police are using stun guns on children now. I guess that's better than shooting them. But really, a six or seven year old can't be doing anything (u)that{/u} bad, can they? Parents are enraged, and the Sheriff of St. Johns County is in the hospital after being hit by another car and he (the Sheriff) didn't have his seat belt on!! I find this very ironic. I mean, I'm sorry that he's in critical condition, but he broke the law. Corruption has many levels, and kharma has a way of boomeranging too. This is a perfect example. Be careful what you do! . I think I have lived in the South too long. I long for snow filled pine trees, fireplaces, homes with basements and attics. There's good and bad in everything. Except for George Bush. Us non-evangelicals get a bit ticked off at the current situation.Meanwhile, back at the shop, J. K. Rowling has yet another book coming out, something like "Harry Potter meets the Princess". Hers is truly a success story of unbelievable proportions. (Did I already mention my take on this? I'll have to look.) OMG, I'm getting too confused, I wrote so many emails on WDC yesterday. I think I need a break, and you probably do too. But before I go, do screenplays have punctuation? This is the question of the day for one of the workshops I belong to. I say yes, others say no. I've never seen a real screenplay, one that was actually made into a move. I know that plays, as stage plays, have punctuation and directions about lots of things. Tennessee Williams is well-known for his elaborate directions. They are beautiful reads in themselves. Whatcha think? The weather channel shows it's raining in St. Augustine. Not where I am, I can assure you. This happens a lot. How can they do that? I sure can complain about nothing, can't I ? I need a little more gratitude in my life. I'm going to go practice, that and see what I can do with angers and angels. See ya' later. |
| It's been a week since I've been in here, in my blog. I was a bit under the weather, and couldn't sit up long enough at a time to get everything done. I did what I could, and then went to bed. Have moved a ways spiritially. I'm not blissed out, but I am grateful for all that I have (which isn't much, and for WDC, and the friends I have here. I did make friends with a newbie this week and now I'm her confidante. She is very young and very talented. I truly am old enough to be her mother. I think I did a good thing. So I'm into gratitude, helping others when I can, praying for them when I can't help them in other ways, and working on staying sane. Another member came up with the slogan Writing First which I think is a great idea. I could make bumper stickers, tee shirts, coffee mugs, etc., and sell them on eBay. This is just another one of my little schemes I thought up. I have outlines of stories, topics for poems and write because I want to stay semi-sane at least. I hate the part where you send things out for publication and they come back with a short and cold rejection slip. The day an acceptance letter comes, with a check, it makes it all worth it. I won't stop until I'm in The New Yorker, and then I'll start pushing my books. Which I haven't written yet. Oh to be in my early 20's again. Actually I would have liked living in the 1700s. I think I would have made a good pioneer woman. I definitely can't take this 21st Century stuff. But we wouldn't have technology in the 1700s, so I guess that's a compensation. Big on Globalization this week. Why should somebody make a gazillion dollars a year and live in a mansion while somebody else works in the hot sun all day for $2 a week so he can maintain his shack and feed his kids? It's not fair. Life is not fair, but then I'm not in charge of the planet earth let alone the universe. Somebody else is, and that's just fine with me. Just, please, keep my PC from crashing and my health okay and let me love my friends. I'm happy. Just a simple girl from Ohio, not really a worldly, over-educated, semi well-traveled wannabe writer. Who smokes cigarettes, soaks up the sun, and drinks coffee with caffine in it. God, but I do ramble on. It's 2:00 in the morning. Anyone remember the song "I'm only passing through"? I think it's an old time spiritual. I gotta go Google it. |
| Gee, I haven't written here for a while. Am starting to feel almost normal, health wise, so I can't use tiredness for an excuse. Just busy doing nothing. Using up too much energy letting little things upset me. It's not worth it. Some stuff on WDC, some stuff in national politics, some international. Nothing I can do about it. At least I'm getting better and not worse, and my kids are fine. Entered another contest. And bidding in Intuey's Raffle. Hope to have three entries for Lexi's poetry contest this month. I can't figure out why the Sci-Fi and Mystery and Romance gentre people have been emailing me to join their groups; I have no interest in any of these genres, so I think wires got crossed somewhere. I just keep saying no, and sking to be removed from mailing lists that have to do with those genres, and I think they will realize they are wasting time and energy on me. I'm a peacenick, a tree-hugger, I live in the NOW as much as possible, and everything is mysterious to me, so I don't care to write "mysteries." Tales from the darkside, maybe, but I think that was the name of a TV show (Rod Sterling maybe?), and I know it's a book {suser:Starr*} is working on, so I wouldn't use that title but I do like those twisted endings that seem to come from our dark sides. I've been reading this week, mostly because I didn't feel well enough to sit up at the PC for long periods of time, so I read. Mostly religious books -- Thomas Merton, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Thomas Aquinas, Graham Greene (!). Merton is soothing and makes a lot of sense; St. Theresa of Avila is out there, a mystic and a Saint; St. Thomas Aquinas is difficult I find, and Graham Greene is just so Catholic in every possible way it shows between all the lines. I'm going back to living writers now. Been listening to a lot of music too. Chopin, Debussy, Bach. But Velvet Revolver (over and over), Leonard Cohen. Nirvana, Bob Dylan. And whatever else streams in. Music is changing a lot again, not because of rap, but rock is changing, and that, on my experience, has been symptomatic of a change in the general attitude of a culture, of the culture (American and Western European). I've long debated within myself who influences whom here...do the lyrics predict or pick up on the "vibes" in the air, and put them into words, and then in turn the music and the lyrics influence an entire generation. A lot of people believed and still believe that John Lennon helped a great deal in ending the Viet Nam war; I don't know of Bono and U2 will end the famine in the Sudan but I hope so; and eventually the Anna Jolies will do what they have to do in the so-called Third World Countries, and help any way they can. The world really responded to Tsunami relief, and I think that is one of the kindest outpoutings of money I've seen. There are so many orphans left, so much to do. If I were 10 years younger I swear I would go. Easy enough to say, huh. My usual BS...along with "if only." It was Michael Jackson week here in the States. Acquitted on all ten counts. I wonder if the Jacksons will sue the mother for slander, extortion, and child abuse, teaching her child to repeat atrocities by rote on the courtroom floor. Whatever happens. I think Michael will calm down a little, and realize he really is no longer a child. We all miss out younger years -- with me, it's my 20s and 30s -- with others it's their childhoods. It is so sad to see his videos from '85 (Moonwalk) and see him now. It's amazing what life can do to someone. Why don't they tell us this in the beginning instead of throwing in The Golden Years along with Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny and other various myths that we are led to believe. Then the shrinks can make a fortune trying to figure out why we have "issues" with trust. I was talking with some people about wolves last night (because as you may know they breed with German Shepards often and make wonderful pets as well as dogs for the blind). Anyway, I have a paragraph I would like to share with you about wolves, and also about the animal kingdom with whom we share this earth. "We need a wiser and perhaps more mystical concept of wolves. Man surveys the wolf through the glass of his knowledge, and he sees a feather magnified, and the whole image is distorted. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err. For no animal shall be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethern, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with our selves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." This was written by a one Henry Beston, and I do not have the name of the article or book. If I find it I will insert it here. I think what he said is profound, It has given me a great deal to contemplate, and ponder. You all know that I love to ponder, and am darn good at it. soon. |
| Busy day. I am concerned about genre listings within certain of our "groups". Here is what happened. I am very interested in perfecting my short story writing, as well as my poetry writing, of course, but since I have written few short stories, I want to work harder on those now. I belong to many many groups on this site and I think three are writers' workshops, in addition to the Going Pro! group. Most of these workshops subdivide into different categories or genres in order to have small special interest groups who can critique and help each other, usually under the auspices of someone well recognized on the site as being excellent in that field. For example, there will be beginning poetry, advanced poetry, beginning short stories - mystery and sci-fi, or advanced short stories - romance, or novel writing, etc. I do not seem to fit in many of these categories and there is one group in particular that has me in four categories and I really do not understand what happened. Should I drop out of the umbrella group, try to talk to the co-owners, or try to seek out my own help from writers whose work I admire greatly. I think I went into the serious versus non-serious writing problem (my problem) earlier, and I had some very helpful responses assuring me that there were many people on here who were serious. I was grumbling off site about a couple of other minor things that irritate me, and was told by someone who I admire a lot (but also kid around with a lot because we really are into different genres) that I should lighten up. Why am I going through this now? Flu, hurricane weather, and an inability to write a good sonnet? All at once. Goodness, many people go through much worse than that and don't fume about. Michael Jackson was acquitted on all charges. This brightened my day, since I had thought it odd that the main accusation of child molestation occurred some l9 days after the suit was filed, but everyone else kept saying that he was guilty. I think this is a case of Guilty by the Media if I have ever seen one. This fantastic Moonwalker in the mid-80s has become a shred of his former self, is pale, frail and walking it seems to me through a dark day and night of the media without collapsing or going nuts, under a doctor's care for his back (even the judge refused to hear any more about this as an excuse after speaking to his doctor), -- I must admit I am lost in the middle of this sentence because I am so wound up about these people who have tried him in the press. I have to get rid of my TV. I am also ashamed of myself for not writing more than Jay Leno and asking the, to knock off the Michael Jackson jokes. Why has this case gotten to me so? My sympthies were with Robert Blake and OJ (because I watched the trial and know how the police made the shadow of a doubt possible if not necessary), but in Jackson's case I was in tears listening to that not guilty verdict being read on all ten counts. His fall from stardom is so sad, what the media has done to him is so sad, I just can't get over watching this incredibly talented performer destoyed like this. I've seen rock stars OD, but that was their doing. Not the medias. What is happening in this country? The liberal left cries that The Patriot Act is taking away our rights, while the media is serving up bullshit every waking moment, whether it be the Ten Downing Street document or Michael Jackson. Is it true we are no longer a free country but on the verge of falling as have other Great Empires (now called Superpowers) because we are too corrupted absolutely by our power. Then there are the homeless in the park downtown, and the shelter that is the soup kitchen several blocks from me, and there are more millionaires than ever, and more poor. Why oh why do I even care? What can do? Sit here and decide whether to move a comma from here to there? What good will that do? I;m too old to go to Tsumaniland and help out, and too poor to donate money. And to think I started out asking about genres, and what to do? I think I shall go and quietly pray among my budding fica trees and other potted plants. There is no rain yet tonight, and perhaps I can get a small walk in to the corner before the wee hours bring out the predators, and my safety is a thing no more. Peace. Please, O Lord, bring us peace. Hundreds of white doves released into the rooms of policy makers and those who dictate genre rules alike. Amen. |
| It's been raining all week and will probably rain all week. There is a tropical storm in the Gulf which is expected to be upgraded to a hurricane. This is the earliest I have ever seen this. Usually it's September by the time those waters and winds start to roll. Does this have to do with Global Warming? Why do I let people talk me into doing things I don't want to do? This is about the Foxfire Browser. I tried it one other time and it didn't like it. Now, PC magazine has recommended, as well as a cazillion other people. I do not like it any better than I did before. The print is too small. It pages things peculariarly. I just don't understand why it is supposed to be so great. What's wrong with IE or AOL? Security? I have so much security and span filters and scanners that my next door neighbor couldn't get through. She got a new HP and was sending me E-cards for a week and she finally asked me if I was getting them. I said no. Then, light bulb head me, I thought hummm, you'd better check spam. And there were all my e-cards. Is this an advantage? Also, does anyone know how to figure out how things work around here at the "top levels"? Who gets what when and why? I have had laryngitis for two weeks now. I'm refusing to see a physician. They cost money, and the drugs they tell you to take cost more money, if you take them. The drugs may or may not work; they may or may not be the correct drugs. The doctors are "practicing". They are infuriating. No wonder Canadians don't want to move here. I can't imagine why anyone would want to move here. Education, health care, the price of housing, etc. My usual rant. Let alone our foreign policies. I'll stop, because it's boring for the most part. Most people do not like political discussions. I may start my own web site! Now there's a goal. I add that on after the first five short stories have been published and the first novel's been on the best seller list for at least 20 weeks. I come from a line of late-dying Germans, so the next 50 or 60 years should be full. That's if the electricity and the PC's don't go out. Then I'll have to go back to quilt making and knitting and things like that. I'll move out west and work in a frontier museum. Beats television! But in this day and age (2005) almost anything beats televison, unless you're into "Law and Order", "CSI", and/or reality and ridiculous talk shows like Dr. Phil. I heard today that Sesame Street may get the bye-bye. I found a whole new list of places to submit short stories and poems too, and now have to get the information. Also, this month's Going Pro! newsletter has some great tips in it if you are looking to make money from your writing. If you do it as a hobby, I count you among the lucky. In my case, ambition did not hit me until I was almost 40. I hope it's not too late. I have a very long list of things I want to get written and published so that the world will have the benefit of my wondrous experience and thought. I've 60 years to go at best, and everyone around here is traveling. Out of Florida for summer! Hurricanes and 90 degree weather, plus humidity, plus tourists, and everybody goes to Italy, Vermont, Maine, Prince Edward Island, Iceland, etc. Me, I'm still trying to figure out where to put that comma. |
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--Elana