Moving Books

Today we went back over to my in-laws to continue packing up the room we lived in for the last ten years.  The focus today was books.  I had estimated 5 to 7 of the apple boxes Ed had brought home from where he works so had unpacked eight of the boxes we brought over on Monday.  They were quickly filled up and Ed had to bring back the lids from a few of the boxes still at home on one of  his trips over with a dolly load of full boxes.  I also had a few boxes left in the room over there and one folded box stored behind the entertainment center that served well once my FIL taped the bottom up for me.

In the end we brought home 11 boxes of books and 6 boxes of misc plus a hanging clothes bag and a few smaller bags and shoe/boot boxes.  And 4 book shelves.

Once home I was faced with wiping down a rag dampened by cleaner all of the shelves before moving them in the house.  And then shuffling the boxes and shelves around in the room until I had a configuration I could live with at least overnight for once I lost the window light all I have in my office is one desk top Ott lamp.

Now I can barely move after sitting still for five minutes.

I have decided that I want my desk to bisect the room from where the window is on the end wall and have all crafts on the closet side and all reading//writing/computer on the other side.  Eventually I want the 'desk' to be a board the size of a door but I will have to wait a few paydays for that.

So for now I put the two desk-height bookshelves in place where they would support that large board and laid a small board--the shelf out of the entertainment center) across them.

We didn't move the entertainment center over yet and it is going in my office too.  For more storage for books and crafts.  Ed has to take it apart to get it out of the room and put it back together in this room.

If you haven't picked up on it, the bulk of the stuff in that room that was not clothes, bedding or electronics was my books and crafts and writing/office supplies and all of that will be going into my office which is (maybe) a tad bigger than that room--that room shared by two adults and a cat (from 2001 to 2007 it was two cats) which also contained a standard bed.

So, with a good 50% of the volume of stuff in that room now in this room it is  no wonder I'm already starting to feel a bit crowded here in my new office--my  office that is really an office and not also a bedroom and TV room. But at least I am sitting in an actual office chair and not on the bed and wonder of wonders I can walk out the door two paces behind me into a living room that still has room for a blind lady to dance.

  

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Merlin At Home

I unpacked eight boxes and two drawers today.  One of the boxes contained Merlin's toys which had been packed away for years as there was no longer enough room in our room for him to play.

I'm afraid I overwhelmed him by pulling them all out and tossing them onto the floor and the mini-tramp.  He was like a kid with ADHD going from one to the other but ultimately always more interested in the bag or the camera in my hand than in the toys I was tossing or nudging at him while trying to get some got shots of him playing.

I was unpacking the apple boxes we packed on Monday in preparation for packing up my books over at Ed's folks house tomorrow.  Will also be doing laundry while there and more cleaning in that room.  There is more than just books and shelves left of there.  I want to get as much as possible moved out tomorrow as I don't want to have to go back again for anything but cleaning the bare room.

I was supposed to have left today for my two week trip to Longview WA to visit my family and celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday but that trip was postponed and extended.  I am not leaving until next Friday and will be staying a month to help out my sisters.

Well this is going to have to do it for tonight's post.  I'm feeling about like Merlin looks below.  The sun in our room woke me after only four hours of sleep this morning and I worked all day at unpacking and cleaning.  I also worked out gently on the mini-tramp this afternoon after hooking up the boombox and tuning in a radio station playing Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.  My feet got too happy for the floor so I got on the tramp.  Stayed on for two or three songs and only got off because of a cramp in my thigh.

 playing

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Crocheted Black Rose

I took a little break from the  unpacking and organizing in our new place to sit and listen to my news podcasts while crocheting on this rose which I started on Christmas day.  It was one of the items intended for my niece's gift bag. One of the reasons I was so late starting it was that I'd been practicing the methods and testing the patterns I found online with lighter colored threads.  But none of the patterns I found made a rose in size 10 thread any bigger than an inch and a quarter across and I was picturing at least three inches.  So I had been working out in my head ways to use the concepts in the patterns to enlarge it.  I will share my method at the foot of this post.

I had elected to make several smaller items rather than one large one like a shawl or afghan so I started a bunch of things and had none of them finished Christmas morning.  Many were at least as far as off the hook but still needed those finishing touches.

  

A black bow barrette the length of my hand from wrist to fingertip with a vintage button attached to middle band still needed its middle band crocheted and wrapped and then to be sewn onto the barrette.  That was finished just before we got in the car to head for the family gathering. 

Four of the bookmarks still needed their ribbons selected and woven in which was done early that afternoon..  A fifth bookmark is still on the hook.  

A black headband with lime green ribbon is still on the hook.  

A hairpin lace belt in a variegated greens and gold ribbon thread isn't even on the hook yet.  I am still having trouble doing hairpin lace being such a newbie at it and didn't want to start working with that difficult thread until I could do it right with easier thread.  So by a week into my flu I'd already let that one go.

The black drawstring bag needed its sides sewn up and the drawstring with vintage buttons for ends strung.  I used slip stitch to crochet the sides and had that done before leaving for the family gathering Sunday afternoon and had the drawstring woven in by the time we arrived but there were glitches as the decorative edging I used for the drawstring would not hold a knot and it took me another hour after arriving to figure out a solution.  

Once there I had to ask for a private place to keep working and ironically that was my niece's room.  She even served me dinner in there which I only nibbled at occasionally in my frantic haste.  The black and mint green candle doily still needed the outside row with black beads crocheted on and I was still working on that as presents were handed out and opened.  And *blush* I stuck it in the gift bag without tucking the 8 tails.

Because I was so late getting everything finished I was unable to get the usual photos of the finished projects.  I've asked my niece to do that for me and will share them as soon as she sends them to me.

_______________________

Here was my method in plain English instead of pattern speak:

The approximately 1 inch roses called for a beginning chain of 50 something so I chained 150 to triple that. (leave a long tail for sewing the bottom once rolled)

Row 1: single crochet all the way back across the chain.

Row 2: chain 3 then skip two single crochet and do 2 double crochet plus 2 chains plus 2 double crochet in the third stitch.  Do the same in every third stitch until you have 50 of these 'petal bases'  then for the rest of the row switch to triple crochet.  Same pattern: 2 triple plus 2 chains plus 2 triple in every third stitch to end.

(I think if I make another of these tho that I will switch to quadruple crochet for the last 12 petal bases in order to raise the height of those petals on the outer layer.  Either that or use the quadruple in the first 12 petals on Row 3, triple in the next 12, double in the next 12 and half double to the end.  The latter would take more thread tho.)

Row 3: chain 4 and crochet 11 triple crochet into ea of the 2 chain spaces for the first 13 petals.  Then switch to double crochet for the next 25 petals and then use half double to the end.

When fastening off you can leave another large tail for sewing the rose onto something if desired.

Roll up the strip from small to large keeping the bottom edge even sew bottom edges with long tail.  I haven't done this yet and as I rolled I had the thought that I should be tacking it occasionally as I rolled and not wait until it was all rolled to start.  I may have to unroll and start over in order to do that as I'm afraid I will not catch all the edges and then the rose will be easily deformed with any handling with petals sliding up out of the middle or out the bottom.

I'm not sure of the exact size (using size 10 cotton thread) as I can't measure it as I haven't yet found my rulers or measuring tape in the packed stuff.  It covers the palm of my hand and I'm sure it is at least 3 inched across and possibly a bit more but definitely less than four.

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Our Dish Bonanza

My in-law's neighbor (and thus ours for the last ten years) gave us a set of dishes today.  Ceramic.  Cream with pink roses and gold rims.  Pink handled silverware to go with.  I'm still not sure of the setting number.  There are eight tea cups but an empty slot like one is missing.  But only six dinner plates and, I think bowls.  I'm still confused because I've not unloaded the whole box.  I want to unload them directly into the dishwasher but it is full.

Now all we need is a table to set. :)  We're supposed to be getting one from the landlord this weekend.

While I was milling about the kitchen pulling out the full setting pieces to set up this shot, Merlin was dogging my feet like a just hatched duckling.  I kept trying to get a pic of him but he kept walking out of the frame by the time I could press the button.

But finally by backing up in circles and figure eights until he was confused and I was dizzy I managed to catch him.  His doggedness exudes off him in this shot.  You can see how determined he is on following my feet.

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My Sister's Excellent Adventure

My sister got to go to Hawaii this month.  If I had been given the choice between moving into my own home for the first time in then years or going to Hawaii I might have paused before choice...for a very long time.

But I'm sure I would have come to my senses and opted for the home.

Meanwhile I get to dream over the pics she took while there.  It was a working visit not in any sense a vacations.  She went over as an aide working with troubled kids.

I don't know any details about these pics I just liked them and filched them from her fb album.

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Home Again, Home Again

A Temporary Workstation in my new office.  Where I am sitting as I type this.

The other end of that room--behind the chair.

The Living Room.  I have to move the office chair out here when I watch TV or eat dinner  as the extent of our livingroom furniture is in this picture

Our bedrrom. My side of the bed.  There's our Merlin on the foot of the bed.  I didn't see him there when I took the picture as the room looked like a black cave to me and I trusted the flash to give me something useful.  Ed was already asleep

To give you an idea of what we are schlepping from there to here and what we have been living in for the last ten years:

Ed's side of the bed in the room we shared since August 2001

My side of the bed over there in summer 2009.  
I had crammed much more books and
craft stuff into that space since then.

We still need to move all of the books and the shelves they are on.  The entertainment center and boxes and bags of non-clothes stuff out of the closet.

Also left three large bags of laundry I still  need to do.  We are going to have a dryer courtesy of our landlord but no washer for awhile.

The TV sitting precariously atop an
entertainment center a bit too narrow for it.
There was about ten inches between the foot
 of the bed and that entertainment center

I won't even try to describe what was under this bed when we move it out of there today. You might be eating as you read this. The bulk of my day was sorting the garbage from the good stuff.

It had been 2008 the last time I cleaned out from under the bed and a lot of stuff had fallen between the mattress and the shelves to either side and if it wasn't worth moving a ton of stuff to retrieve it it stayed put.  And other stuff shoved under from the foot until it was so compact under there Merlin could no longer get under the bed.

I found two of Ed's lighters.  A crochet hook.  dozens of pennies and a few other coins.  A fork from my MIL second best set.

Most of the books and shelves seen in these pics will end up in my new office which is a room about the same size as our room over their.  So this space i am sitting in tonight that feels so roomy might not feel that way once all those shelves are in place.

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Sunday Serenity #259 Merry Christmas

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The Night Before

Is always hairy.  Still got too much to do before we leave for the big family gathering tomorrow.  I probably won't sleep as it is so I can't spend hours on a post tonight.  So I've captioned a new Xmas related LOLcat and added a couple I captioned for previous years.

Our big move day is scheduled for Monday which means two more nights in this room and I'm probably not going to sleep at all this  night.  Too many stitches yet to stitch...

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Home Sweet Home

Ed presenting the key to our new place after returning from cashing his check and paying the new landlord this morning

After 10 years and 9.5 months we will be moving into our own place next week. I can't begin to put into words what this means to us.

Later we walked down past two trailers to see our new place together for the first time.  Ed had seen it several times this past month but I was either not awake or not well enough to make the walk.

The shade tree behind the carport in our back yard.  I've forgotten what it is.

The shade tree's gift!  They're about 8 inches deep over half the back yard.  This will be one of Ed's chores that go towards our rent.  There is lots of work to do inside and out and that is what made the price right.

This is near where Ed wants to put in a small garden next spring

The front porch looking towards back fence

The front door.

The front room taken while still standing in doorway

Standing inside my office looking out at front door

Standing inside my office doorway looking across front room at kitchen

Ed fell in love with this tile work done by our landlord.  I don't blame him.  It is gorgeous.

The left side of the kitchen.  Taken while standing against back wall.

The left side of the kitchen

The hallway.  Kitchen to left.  Ed's office door just past thermostat on the left.  Pics of that room did not turn out.  Back door across from his door.  Bathroom next to his room and laundry room across from bathroom.  Master bedroom at end of hall.

Tiny tub!  But all ours and the room is well lit which is huge plus.

Laundry closet.  I may be a few months before we get machines tho

Master bedroom.  I'm standing with back to large closet that covers the length of the room.  That shade tree is directly across from the window.  The door to the hall to the left

Standing on the edge of the kitchen floor looking towards opposite wall of front room.  Front door and door to my office in view.  That monster on the floor is the air conditioner which will be moved out onto the porch or into the shed before we move in.  We will need it next spring!

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Storify with Social Media

 Storify

This is an interesting concept. Storify is a site that allows you to collect multi-media items from many of the social media sites into a single coherent 'story' that you can share via email, fb, blog embed and more.

 Whether you wish to tell the story of your year for a holiday newsletter, the aftermath of an earthquake or severe weather, the protests in  Cairo, London or Oakland, the breakup of a marriage overheard in a fast-food restaurant or a top ten list on any theme, you can collect the relevant tweeets, youtube vids, fb photos, and more, add comments and post on Storify then share.

I'm anxious to experiment with this but I have no time for it before mid January.

The example I'm sharing here--of a delivery of a computer monitor being made by a toss over a fence and the repercussions after the recipient of the monitor posted a video of the incident that went viral--I chose because it is tangentially holiday related and loosely related to my husband's job on the shipping docks of a major catalog retailer so besides personal horror stories I've heard a number of Ed's job related ones.  I would not single out any one service either as the blame is spread almost evenly among them.

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Writers and Their Kitties

Writers and Their Kitties

cheeseburger.com had an interesting post the other day featuring pics of authors with their cats.  There must be more than a dozen but only three or so are featured on the front page.  You have to click the 'more' to see the rest.  It is worth it if you are into either writers or cats.  Among them are Twain, Faulkner, King, Capote and Gaiman.  I would have embedded the post as usual but I couldn't choose the pic that way and I wanted Joyce Carol Oates who is near the top of my lists of fav writers and most influential to my own writing.

As for the cat who had the most influence on my writing--sleeping inside my jacket when I typed in the wee hours of cold nights, sleeping on my shoulder as I read in the easy chair, performing antics that got written into scenes--that would have been Gremlyn, my Siamese/Tabby/Abyssinian cross who never got bigger than your typical six month old kitten. We were constant companions form August 1993 until I lost her on St Patrick's Day 2007.  And I mean 'constant' literally.  She was never far and often in actual physical contact.  Even riding on my shoulder as I walked around the house and sleeping in my (at the time very long) hair.  She followed me around crying for me to sit down to be her bed.  She carried on reciprocal conversations with me that were often as inflected as human dialog.  I'd lost all the pictures taken of her and of us together in our 2001 move and no more had been taken before she died. Sometimes I'm startled by how much I still miss her.  Other times I'm stunned to realize I've gone days without remembering her.

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Update on Jamie

About ten days ago I posted about my sister, Jamie, being in the hospital and enduring complications.  She is home now.  But instead of trying to tell her story here I'll just leave the link to her blog's fb page where you can follow her story in her own words.

Be warned, the pictures she posts of her trach and incisions are graphic and not for the squeamish.

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Smashwords

I had to download some review copy books from here today and then spent hours exploring and downloading free books, short stories and samples.  Not everything is free of course.  On most things it is possible to read online or download a sample that tends to be 30% of the complete book even if it is a 300 page novel.  The theory behind that is that most people investing in a hundred pages of a story will pay to see how it ends.

I joined as I am thinking about putting some of the stories  I've already posted on Joystory in snippets on here as free ebooks to make it easier for anyone interested to read them beginning to end.  It might also serve as promotion for future novels once finished which I could sell via Smashwords. Based on what I've seen today, I like the atmosphere and attitude at Smashwords better than Amazon.

It is free for authors to publish ebooks and they get over 80% of every sale.

I'll just drop the info direct from their FAQ:

What does Smashwords offer authors?Over 30,000 authors around the world collectively publish and distribute over 78,000 ebooks with Smashwords.  Smashwords makes it fast, free and easy to publish and distribute your ebook to the world's largest ebook retailers and mobile phone apps. Authors control the pricing, sampling and marketing of their books, and receive 85% of the net sales proceeds from their works (70.5% for affiliate sales) for sales at our Smashwords.com retail operation, and authors earn 60% of the list price for sales though our distribution network of retailers including the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and the Diesel eBook Store.

I have got to get control of my obsessive collecting of free ebooks that started in late October.  I've now got over 2000 which is ridiculous as even at the improved speed that reading ebooks gives me I couldn't read them all in under a decade as it is unlikely I'd be able to maintain a book a day pace which would still take at least 6 years!  I'm a hopeless hoarder.

In the case of the classics tho, I just like knowing they are there for the whim that may take me.  Many of them I have read tho decades ago.  And then there is the nostalgia factor for those children's classics I read as a child or YA.

Ah, well I might as well accept I am who I am.  Collecting ebooks seems one of the less malignant of my hoarding proclivities.

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Sunday Serenity #258

My sister Jamie introduced me to this this morning. I got the impression she has taken it as a personal anthem upon getting home from her ten day stay in the hospital yesterday. 

I kind of needed it myself as this virus is kicking my butt and discouraging me as to how far behind I've gotten on all my projects.

The sun will rise.  Yes.  it always does.

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Wonderfalls

It's always the ones I love that get cancelled before the story plays out.  Quirky, eccentric, surreal.  A 20-something named Jaye living at Niagra Falls, is given Delphic messages from inanimate animals--stuffed, drawn, plastic, wax, etc. and when she obeys events work out for the best for all involved.  Of course Jaye is always misunderstanding the meaning of the cryptic commands and trying to fulfill them inappropriately.  It is funny, charming and full of wonder.

I just discovered this show via Netflix DVD and have watched all but two of the 13 episodes this week.  I would have watched the last two as well but got sleepy as has been happening a lot this week because of the virus.  Then I slept until midnight and by the time Ed and I got dinner prepped and cleaned up he was ready for bed and I couldn't watch the last two episodes on the TV in the room.  I have the option of pulling the disc out of the player and taking it in the living room but that room is an icebox as the heat has been off since 9pm.  

I could also play it on my netbook.  But I think I will leave it where it is and wait for Ed to wake up (if I even last that long myself) for I have plenty of other options--things I could or should be doing that are already within reach of where I sit.  One of which is the full set of Bones Season 6 discs from the library.  I could also stream Netflix or watch some of the weeks of accumulated new pods.  I list video options first as they are things I can do while crocheting which is one of the 'shoulds'.  So next in line would be audio books of which I have several out of the library and several more onboard my netbook.

But I also have dozens of ebooks on board of which one is a review copy--another of the 'shoulds'.

I could also continue work on the file organizing and maintenance on my netbook.  I've been plugging away at it over the last several months.  Have finally got everything I wanted off the old laptop hard drive which can now be reformatted to serve as backup for my personal files, ebooks and music

I could also perform the same organization tasks on my fiction writing files.  Or better yet I  could write in them.  Haven't written anything put posts since NaNo ended so that is another strong 'should' as letting it slide too long makes getting started again harder.  Watching Wonder Falls this week though has made my fingers tingle for the keys.  My ideas aren't related but something about the show has inspired me.  It sets a certain tone that draws me and which I'd like to emulate.

Whoever the idiots were who decided to cancel it have no business in show business as they have no idea when they have a great thing.  I wonder what they were making room for when they pushed it out.  Probably more American Idolatry or Brainless Bachelors and Babes surviving without hair product on breezy beaches.

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No Access

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, 

and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I was unable to get online all Friday evening and unable to resolve the issue sometime after Ed got home which was 1am.  It happened again a few minutes later and since I've no idea what is causing it I can't be sure it won't happen again so I'm going to post this as is while I still have a connection.

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Yarning

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, 

and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I'm seeing yarn and thread everywhere.  Eyes open or closed, awake or asleep.  With Xmas closing in (and the birthdays in January) and my several fiber art projects still far from finished I'm a bit panicked so it is no wonder it invades my dreams.  I did get a few small things off the hook but I can't call them finished until tails are tucked and seams are sewn and this and that attached.  Many will need to be laundered and blocked as well.  I think as usual I bit off more than I could chew. But I didn't count on being sick for a week either.

Meanwhile, the ideas for my stories are flooding in and I can't take time to do more than jot a word or phrase down. I guess I should have been crocheting more during NaNo.  Then maybe I'd have had more success with the novel and also not be so far behind on the fiber art gifts.

So as I ply the yarn with hooks and needles into gifts my mind plies memories and images into yarns and as I tuck tails in the this that and the other I'm plucking tales out of the ether.

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Youth and Other Fiction by John M. Cook: Review and Giveaway

Youth and Other Fiction
by Jonathan M. Cook

Youth and Other Fictions
by Jonathan M. Cook


This was a very difficult story to read.  Difficult because so disturbing.  And I'm no stranger to disturbing nor even shy of courting it.  I've talked at length before of my fondness for Stephen King and how it once caused me to defy the edict of a Christian pastor from whom I was receiving free consultation regarding a severe depression in my mid twenties.  When he demanded that I forswear any further contact with Stephen King stories and in fact insisted that his continuing to work with me depended on my willingness to run past him all of my encounters with media from books and magazines to movies and music and agree to stay clear of anything he did not approve, I did not return for another visit nor to another service at his church.

I believe instincts I was unable to articulate at the time were at work in that decision and a few months later I was enrolled in college and reading more challenging stories than Stephen Kings' and infinitely more disturbing--Tolstoy, Kafka, Poe, Dostoevsky, Camus, Mann, Goethe, Shakespeare...  And it was during those 2.5 years that I began to be able to articulate that instinct that protected me from turning my mind over to the men in white coats with straight-jackets and a cell with walls padded with cotton balls.

What I could not articulate then has evolved into the meaning behind the subtitle of this blog:  Story is my joy.  I believe that story is how we encounter the world, each other and our selves.  I believe that story is how we discover meaning in our lives and that it is through story that we explore the questions most relevant to making our lives about more than the biological requirements for staying physically alive.  And though I respect all types of stories and the roles they play I believe that stories that disturb have a special role to play in showing us our true selves, holding a mirror up to our soul and making us look at the shadow we wish to deny.  I believe it is necessary to look straight at and acknowledge that shadow before we can integrate it and live our lives with integrity.

That is all by way of preamble for my strong recommendation for reading John Cook's Youth and Other Fictions.  It is hard to talk about this story meaningfully without giving away too much that needs to be left to unfold in the proper order.  This is the kind of story that would lend itself well to being dissected in a college lit class.  I'm sure Mr. Cook was striving for literary and in my estimation has hit that mark.

I will do my best to provide a synopsis that doesn't give too much away while still providing an answer to the question what is this story about and why should I care?

Youth and Other Fictions is divided into two parts approximately in half.  The first part is confined to the point of view of high school senior Greg in the late 90s who is bullied and alienated from his peers and we are privy to his innermost thoughts as they become more and more disjointed and we are forced to watch helplessly as he encounters his own shadow but instead of integrating it is possessed by it and sets out to exact revenge on his tormentors--the students, the school, the town and life itself.  He enacts a Columbine type shooting at the school leaving many dead and wounded before shooting himself in the head in the presence of the one boy he considered a friend, his last words a demand that Jason carry on and complete his mission.

The second part of the story is Jason's and begins ten years later as he returns to the same high school as a temp English teacher in the months before the tenth anniversary of the tragedy.  He finds the town of Freedom has both staked its identity on that tragic event--welcoming the media interest, allowing the story to be told to the nation and world from many angles and in many formats even serving as extras in a made for TV film--while at the same time repressing the story among themselves, refusing to look at any shadow but the shadow that was Greg and acting as if Greg's actions had arisen in a vacuum and thus no cause that had originated outside of Greg's mind had played any role.  Because of this refusal to look at the truth there can be no integrating and thus no integrity.  Hypocrisy, arrogance, and ennui abound from boardrooms to class rooms. The shadows are festering and brewing another tragedy.

http://jonathanmcook.com/

Giveaway:

I'm authorized to giveaway one ebook copy and since it is ebook that means this is open internationally.  The ebook is available in several of the most popular formats.

This drawing will be open until Dec 31 2001 As usual I will be using random.org to choose a winner.  

Enter by leaving a comment expressing interest on this post.  Extra entries can be had by:

Following Joystory on Twitter  if you already do leave a separate comment saying so

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For each one you do leave a comment here with the identifying url and/or your username.  Remember leave a separate comment for each task as the individual comments will be the entries that I assign numbers to in the order they are made.

Tour Host: Date of review: (GP)Guest Post, (I)Interview, or (G)Giveaway?

Butterfly-o-meter Books Dec.1 GP & G Dec. 2 (G will be separate post that week)

Frugal Experiments Dec. 2 G Dec.2

Mother of Insanity Dec. 5 I & G Dec. 6

Carabosse's Library Dec. 7 G Dec. 7

A Casual Reader's Blog Dec. 8 GP & G Dec. 9

From the TBR Pile Dec. 9 G Dec. 9

Book Zone Dec. 12 I Dec. 12

Reviews by Molly Dec. 13 I Dec. 13

Telly Says Dec. 13 G

Joy Story Dec. 14 G Dec. 14

The Phantom Paragrapher Dec. 15 GP& G Dec. 16

Sugarpeach Dec 16 None

Hopelessly Devoted Bibiophile Dec. 19 GP Dec. 20

http://www.virtualauthorbooktours.com/

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Too True

My life feels like this at times.  Hurry up and wait.  Meanwhile distract yourself by chasing the bouncing light or be mesmerized by the spinning light.  But especially time on the internet has been like this lately.  It takes three times longer than it should to get tasks done.  Meanwhile in an effort to make use of the waiting time I switch to an 'on board' task and thus distracted forget to return to the original task.  I end up with ten tasks begun and none finished.

I'm also considering the possibility that I'm too addicted to the distractions online, which is why the things in the rest of my life get so neglected.  Duh.  You thinks so?

Well it became an issue especially during NaNo.  And looking back over the last year, I realized that a significant element in the 'writer's block' I'd been suffering was the temptation of the internet.  Being so intimately a part of the very same tool with which I write it is hard to set appropriate boundaries between using the web and getting writing done.  Sometimes I kid myself by calling it research but research without boundaries becomes a distraction itself.

I'm seriously thinking about creating another desktop dedicated to the act of writing and only writing.  By setting it up as tho for a child with no administrative permissions with access to the net and to certain applications denied, with only a handful of directly related icons on the desktop.  No games, no ebooks, no browser. 

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Getting Into the Spirit

Between my sister being in the hospital and this virus I'm fighting it is hard to tap into the Christmas spirit.  Two of the things helping me do that are the 25 days of Catmas at cheezeburger.com and the 25 days of free Christmas MP3 songs at Amazon.com.

At icanhascheezeburger.com they present the calendar image which you must click on to see the image of a cats or kittens in some holiday related context.  The image comes up in the builder all ready for you to caption it.

Try it, click on the calendar:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures,

At Amazon.com there is a page where the links to the free songs are accumulating.  I just discovered this one today and was glad to find that the twelve songs presented since the 1st are all still free so I can still collect them all.  I stopped to prep this post which by the way too me hours because my browser conspired with whatever dark spirits have been haunting me and when to the dark side, deciding to spend five minutes loading pages then reloading them for no reason and finally crashing taking half of this post with it.

Ah well, I'm sure I'll find that uplift which prompted the theme of this post again as soon as I load a few of thhose songs and listen to them.   Click on the caption of the image below to go collect them yourself:

Amazon 25 Days of Free Xmas MP3

Even my blues were penetrated by a grin and a giggle by this GIF

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