Archive for January, 2007
I’m going to go ahead and post because we need a place to go OFF-TOPIC. And I can be the Queen of that.
It’s not the smell itself that is appealing about new car smell so much as what it represents. Novelty. Even if it’s previously owned, it’s still new to me. I don’t know how the seats flip up, where the nose ends (the garage door cringes when it sees me coming) or that the turn signal activates the rear window wipers.
It’s the same with the TV, the stereo, the new washer and dryer. All the doodads and levers are in different places, do things the old appliances didn’t. Like work. Maybe that’s why so many people upgrade as often as they do. It’s nice to have reliability and efficiency.
I remember how thrilled I was when my new laptop came in a couple of years ago. I unpacked it with quivering hands, afraid to scratch the new shiny lid. It turned on quickly, warmed up in a heartbeat and actually downloaded graphics. I was thrilled.
I’ve filled it with video clips, photographs, music, a novel and a half. It chugs a bit now. The modem is glitchy and the adapter arbitrarily disconnects from the wall whether the battery is juiced up or not. The new laptop smell is long gone.
I’ve had the car less than a week and I’m already noticing how less than perfect it is. It no longer feels like I’m driving on clouds. I’ve gotten used to it. The dashboard has been decoded. The novelty is wearing off.
Thank goodness. Now I can relax and enjoy the little quirks. I know there will be plenty for me to navigate. Like the laptop before it, the car and I can bond, learn what is our optimum speed and comfort level. I’ll figure out how long the rear is on the thing. And then the fun will start (you know Scope’s hair just turned white). Because once you know the boundaries you can push them to the limit. You know the consequences.
I coax every last second out of the laptop battery before I recharge it. (I back everything up. I’m a calculated risk-taker.) It’s the best way to maximize the life of the battery.
Novelty can be fun, but I am happiest with familiarity. It doesn’t breed contempt but rather increases comfort.
Discuss.
January 10th, 2007
Okay- I’m going to try to pop in here, not step on too many toes, and post an “on topic” post. I don’t think this can be done (this group staying on topic) but the intent (which in this case is not the same as theme) is there.
I mentioned in my test post that I’m going to be in DC this spring and was pretty much directed to have a gathering 
Works for me, and works for my sister. We’re thinking Sunday afternoon after we either participate in the 5K run that morning or spend the morning eating pastries.
By my way of thinking we need a few facts to make this happen-
Date- Sunday, April 1 (no foolin’)
Place- ???
I was thinking a restaurant that didn’t mind us camping and served dessert and wine
Time-???
Early to mid afternoon- late enough folks can hit early church, or at least kick the rest of the family out the door to church if that is part of your Sunday tradition, and early enough that folks can get home before full dark
And in regards to place- my sis will drive just about anyplace but I know a few will truly be coming from a ways out, or don’t drive in DC, so I figured easy Metro access would be a positive thing.
Now, y’all know I’m a nerd- I would be quite content to sit on the Mall, watch the carousel, drink iced tea and eat a Hershey’s bar while making conversation heavy on books and innuendo and forays into different museums. I also know that doesn’t appeal to everyone. I don’t understand why it doesn’t appeal, but I have been warned that it doesn’t which is why I was leaning toward a restaurant.
We would also consider getting together during the week since my sister is a school teacher and it’s her spring break, but figured enough folks would be working that it would be inconvenient.
So, I need recommendations (the only place I insist we hit when I’m in town is 5 Guys so I’m pretty useless here)
Is this a game plan that will work for others? (Yes, I know since I’m traveling the farthest it’s all about ME, but I’m trying to be magnanimous, it’s one of those New Year goal things.) If this will not work I need suggestions for an alternate game plan. I also need to know how to re-draw a DC map so that MCB might actually make it to the correct place by a reasonably direct route, in a reasonable mode of transportation, and without “escort.”
January 9th, 2007
dialogue, plot, timing, characters…all (though there is more) of that is very important to the world of movies. they all play their own role in the making of great movies, of not so good movies, of the horrible ones that you don’t even pretend you thought were going to be good. i’ve seen them all. you probably have to. and books, in their own way, have all of the same qualities.
i was a film student for two years, and made five short films. okay, very short. for the first three movies i worked in a group, and we were broken up like this: jonny was the editor (with me annoying the crap out of him as i looked on over his shoulder), mike was an actor and would do lighting if pressed, and i did the rest. i wrote the scripts (damn good ones too), i was the director (there’s been better), i was the producer, i did lighting, and i snowed my wonderful teacher when the need arose (yes, we spent many afternoons ditching. sue us). and we made our movies.
it was after jonny finished moving this here and that there and being a general surgeon with the blade as he trimmed edges that were already beautifully trimmed (i love this guy), we realized what every great film knows: it’s nothing without music. there is no way to truly show how much music makes a difference unless you take it all out. i don’t mean sound. leave the dialogue (even if it is bad). leave the background noises of birds singing and chainsaws humming. you can’t just press mute and read subtitles, because that creates a different kind of movie (which brings up a whole other topic of deaf people watching films). after all, silent films can be great (don’t hold your breath on an example from me, i come from the age of LOUD). but music tells you who the people are and what the mood is and what’s going to happen and even what you should be feeling. and if it doesn’t tell you, it sure as hell helps you feel it. take Cruel Intentions, which i was watching earlier. in the last scene, as Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) gets distracted in the church and then walks out, the music makes it. watching her get pissed at her rude classmates (especially knowing what you know about her) is good. but the power, the passion of the music, just makes your heart pound. because with the music- and what a great song!- you know something is going to happen.
sorry, i was having a moment. but you should get the soundtrack.
anyways, i’ve been thinking of music in movies. or, to be more specific, what music is in books.
any ideas?
yes, that long rambling thing really was an introduction to that one simple question. what is it that enchances the mood you feel? i get what creates the mood- the characters, the writing, the plot, whatever floats your boat. but what is it that makes you feel more than sad- what makes you cry? what makes you laugh outloud? is there something that enchances it or is it the mood is created by *mumble mumble* and that does it?
so, what’s the music in books? just the music the author listens to when they write? just that one line of oh god that’s so sad/funny/scary? is there even music?
and on a completely other subject (because i can’t even stay focused in my own post), does anyone know what the rules are for priests and drinking?
January 7th, 2007
Have you ever thought about how the front doors of our houses open in? If I’d ever considered it, I probably figured it was a kind of welcoming thing - I step back and open my home to the person on the outside. But it’s odd, too, because from a security standpoint, once you’ve opened that door, you’re at a disadvantage.
Not rampant paranoia, just thinking about how many things in our lives came down from the way people lived in the past, and defending your portals would have been a major consideration. What got me thinking about this is my mother’s home. She’s like many elderly people, frightened, paranoid, and unwilling to throw anything away. She worries about people breaking into her home, so she barricaded the front door with boxes of junk, which I am now trying to sort through so we can actually use the door again. Would she feel more secure if the door opened outward? Although, I suppose it would be easier to push the door closed from the inside if you felt threatened than to try to pull it closed if someone on the other side were trying to yank it open.
This reminds me of a bad experience I had when I lived in Baltimore. I and two women I worked with lived within a block and a half of each other. We were all used to getting up early for work, so it wasn’t unheard of for any of us to be out and going to the grocery store Sunday morning at 5:30 or 6. I was up, in my robe and slippers when the doorbell rang. My first thought was that it was one of my friends wanting me to go shopping with them or, maybe, they’d already been out and realized they’d locked themselves out. No biggie.
I lived in huge row house that had been converted into three flats, one on each floor. I had the groundfloor, so I opened my door on the inside entry of the building. There was a man standing in the outside entry of the building, i.e., inside the front door, but not in the building. When he saw me, he held up the rolled newspaper, saying it was for the people on the third floor. We went back and forth with me telling him to ring their bell then, him saying they weren’t answering, me telling him I wasn’t letting him in the building, then…he held out the paper and said, in a disgusted tone, “Well, just take it then, and give it to them when they come down.”
Now, I know just the same as anyone else does that it would be really dumb to open the door to a stranger, but there’s some reflex that causes us, when something is held out to us, to reach out and take it. Of course, I had to open the door in order to take it. Yeah. He pushed his way in and pulled a big, ugly gun out of his jacket. I know I have never in my life, before or since, been that frightened.
When I gasped, and I sounded like someone who had nearly drown dragging in a huge lungful of air, he chuckled. The bastard laughed to know I was so afraid of him and he was in the power seat. Are y’all on the edge of your chairs??? This next bit was surreal.
I was gaping at him, too frightened to think anything but I’m going to die, when I saw something in my periferal vision. I dragged my eyes away to see what it was. He turned to look, too. No, it wasn’t a ploy on my part. No, it wasn’t someone coming to my rescue. It was my hands. That reptilian brain that takes over when we are grievously threatened had me moving my arms toward him, and it was just the break I needed. Before he could react, I had pushed him back out the door.
He threw himself against it from the outside, but I threw myself against it from the inside. He was down a step from me, so I had extra leverage. I got it closed and locked, all with us still staring at each other. The doors had glass in the upper 60% of them, but he never thought to shoot through it or even threaten to.
I literally talked myself into my flat, closed and locked that door, and called 911. If the front door had opened outward, I’d never have been able to shut it on him. Makes you think. Makes you glad whoever decided doors should open inward had that brainstorm.
Anyone else have a harrowing tale to share? Anyone else have some thoughts on how things we take for granted got to be the way they are? Anyone else want to come help me dig my mother’s house out. ;+))) Nah, I wouldn’t ask that of my worst enemy. Well, maybe my worst enemy. Just think of the possibilities for torture.
January 6th, 2007
There’s a forum elsewhere that is discussing, Queen of Swords, by Sara Donati, AKA Rosina Lippi, over the next number of weeks. She asked me to be the moderator (Don’t even ask whether I’m qualified!). Rosina writes both contemporary romances and historical adventures with romance thrown in. Queen of Swords is the fifth novel of the Wilderness series. It takes place in New Orleans in 1814 and 1815 during the War of 1812 (I didn’t name the war!). It’s written so that you don’t need to read the previous 4 first.
Historical novels rarely are funny like Crusie’s romances are; so don’t expect contributors to have the CB craziness. Over there I have a different alias, unpronounceable, only 5 letters long since Blooger wouldn’t let me have it at J&B’s.
With J&B starting up their 2007 Online Writing Workshop, this might be a good opportunity (Hint! Hint!) to delve into a different genre from theirs for comparison. Some of my questions will have to do with Rosina’s purpose in doing things for the sake of structure, foreshadowing, character developing (arcs, I hope), and POV. Of course, many questions will be more mundane.
So why invite you all? On accounta you all are really literate in a writerish sorta way and could make some fine contributions. And, no, I won’t be deserting the CB Bar & Grill. You can take a peek without registering (you’ll be a GUEST), but must register in order to add comments. http://tiedtothetracks.com/forum/, then to Sara’s Stuff: The Wilderness Novels, then to Queen of Swords: discussion group.
Joining in after the study has already begun is not a problem since I designed it so that people could join in later and begin at the beginning or the middle or the end. (She blushingly pats herself on the back and makes a curtsy.)
Why such a web name? The forum started when Rosina’s contemporary novel, Tied To The Tracks first came out.
If you’re interested, check out Queen of Swords from the library; a lot interested, Amazon lists at $18.
January 5th, 2007
There are over 100 comments and the next scheduled post isn’t until tomorrow. Sounds like time for Captain Random. Since Captain R got about 2 hours of sleep last night, I suggest a random theme.
What’s one fact that no one on the blog knows about you?
For example, I don’t think I ever mentioned this before, but I come from a fairly large family. 5 brothers, 2 sisters, 7 in-laws, 14 nieces & nephews, 4-1/2 great nieces, and 28 first cousins. And a dog.
Another piece of trivia you might not want to hear: the Siskiyou Summit is the highest point on the main road between California and Oregon. Though only 4200 feet, it’s currently chains only and even then travel is not recommended. Did I mention that my original plan was to drive over this pass late Friday night? I don’t even know where my chains are. I’ve never put them on. Pray for me. 
Link to one of the Siskiyou Summit live webcams (no haggis, alas):
http://www.oregonlive.com/traffic/I_5siskiyousummit/index.ssf
Or another one
Click here
January 4th, 2007
Oh, just relax. I am not really going to talk about Probability and Statistics. Well, I am, sort of, but there won’t be any math involved. I promise. Like the rest of you, I too have been ruminating lately about the past year, but I’ve been weighing the probability that certain unlikely events would happen as they did.
For instance, one year ago I had never read a blog and would have been hard pressed to even tell you what one was. Yet here I am today, writing posts on not one but two blogs. And doing so with the expectation that more than five people will read what I write. What was the probability of that happening?
Had you told me a year ago that I would be one of the dozen or so people writing on this particular blog, that most of us would have never met, that we not only live in different states but different countries, that we’d have very little in common except our affinity for each other, that many of us would not even know each other’s real names, I would have accused you of writing bad fiction.
If you had told me that before the year was over I would feel the need to apologize to two New York Times Bestselling Authors for outrageous comments I would make on their blog, my horrified response would have been something along the lines of, “There is no way in hell.”
If you had told me that during the past year I would engage in conversation and debate with people all over the world whose opinions I would come to respect deeply, learn new and interesting things about their cultures while trying to disabuse them of their perceptions about my own, and realize that while humour is a universal concept it is often distorted by translation, I would have said that was not even possible, let alone probable.
A year ago, I had not yet decided whether to attend the RWA National Conference, my first. Had someone told me that I would not only attend but make many new friends there, I would have agreed that was probable. But had you told me I would make a new friend with whom I would form an instant bond, with whom I would soon be exchanging rambling late-night long distance phone calls filled with laughter and ranting emails with subject lines that were one-word profanities yet also filled with laughter, I would have told you that you obviously did not realize to whom you were speaking. As if.
And if you had told me that I would also become friends with a large group of people I had never met and likely never would meet, male and female, ranging in age from 18 to 80-something, from all different walks of life, residing in places all over the world, and that with them I would:
- engage in virtual road trips while evading virtual law enforcement,
- travel backward through time and blame HS for the glitch,
- encourage someone to lay in a stash of chocolate in the event of future such travels,
- offer advice about decorating a bedroom in a seashore motif,
- engage in conversation ranging from cake frosting to Latin declensions to favorite books to archeological digs to vibrating beds,
- take over the CBC network as a step to Taking Over the World,
- argue about hockey without knowing or even caring all that much about the sport,
- hold back someone’s hair while she contemplated the perils of joining RWA (no, you silly dear girl, you will never live that down),
- encourage someone to move to Scotland and then be so proud when she did even though she still hasn’t finished that dissertation,
- watch a beach cam of someone else’s vacation in Hawaii,
- plan a cross country trip via misappropriated bi-plane and borrowed-without-permission kayak to join said persons in Hawaii,
- try to convince unknown and perhaps non-existent “others” to come down from an imaginary attic and play…
Is this list ridiculous enough yet? Well, let me tell you, it is a vast understatement to say that a year ago all of that would have sounded highly improbable. Maybe even statistically impossible, but that would involve doing math and I promised I wouldn’t. I’m tempted to say you can’t even make up stuff like that, except that we did.
We all have made a lot of noise lately about owing what we are to the people who wrote The Blog From Whence We Came, but I don’t think we’re giving ourselves enough credit (or maybe blame) when we do that. Yes, Him and Her created an environment where fun was possible, but we accepted the invitation and made the party our own. It was by our actions — our interactions, our asking questions and listening to the answers, our lending an ear or a shoulder or a shovel, our sharing of both laughter and tears, our faith in and caring for and teasing of each other — that we became a group of friends.
The internet is a strange and wonderful place. But it is clearly not subject to the laws of probability and statistics any more than is this eclectic group of extraordinary people. I’m not making any assumptions or predictions about what might be probable in the coming year. But I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.
And I am so glad last year did not turn out the way I thought it probably would.
January 3rd, 2007
1. If I have not already assigned you a regular posting schedule, and you want a regular posting schedule, let me know what sort of schedule you’d like. I already have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wednesdays assigned, as well as 1st and 3rd weekends. We have 2nd and 4th weekends available. We can also toss in Monday posts, payday posts, the 23rd of every month posts, fifth week posts for those that only want to post now and then, and completely random whenever the heck you feel like it posts.
Author schedule page has been updated. Check yours to see if it’s okay. And please keep in mind that this is more like “guidelines” than rules. If you have a hankering, post. Just try not to step on somebody else’s post. Those of us who are Random will pick up the 5th week, the 4th weekend, and anytime things seem to slow down, or we have too many comments on a single post. — Bryan
2. If you want a bio page, send it to me. I will link to it off the Author page. I do not plan on checking references, so anything goes.
I need to get a few things worked out before I start the bio pages. If I do it now, there will be too many links on the navigation bar for the main page. I’m still trying to get some of those sub-pages un-displayed. — Bryan.
3. I know we need instructions on how to post pictures. Some of you might even want instruction on how to post in the first place. Any other how-to’s will come when somebody asks questions like “How do I …?” So send me e-mails with what you want to know.
January 2nd, 2007
Seeing as we haven’t finalized the schedule yet, I’ll continue the free-for-all and upload the photo Glamour-Geek sent me of the dessert bar.
I’ve modified the picture to make it clickable. Lessons on how to do this coming soon in the Author How-To’s. - Bryan
Help yourself. Hmmm, delicious.
January 2nd, 2007
Yes! I found my way to the secret room in the new house. Thank you to the numerous people who supported me along the way. Why my family calls me when they want to know something about their computers says a lot about my family. Or my ability to dazzle them with BS about my ability to know what I am talking about.
I am watching my last football game for the day with DH. My sons keep calling and talking with their dad from states away about this play or that play. Would daughters call about a bargain they found in a store? I’ll never know. But give me just one granddaughter……..!
I’ll check in tomorrow and see what the schedule is. Now that I know my way.
January 1st, 2007
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