Obsession

You would be pardoned for thinking this is just another post about our local library closure since I've admitted to being obsessed about it and well over half of my posts in the last four months have been about it. But I've been tagged by Selena Kitt to admit to five obsessions. 5!! Now any other time in my life, I would have been hard pressed to narrow it down to five as obsession is practically my middle name. It has been suggested to me by those with expertise in the field that I have more than a touch of OCD going on with me. See my post, Hoarders R Us.

But this week, with the library closure only four days away, I can barely force myself to think about anything else and feel stressed whenever I am unable to have my eyes glued to the page of a library book or the laptop screen as it plays one of the library DVDs. The kind of stress like that experienced in a dream when being chased by the bogey man. So when I got tagged, I was tempted to just post something to the effect that I'd get back to you on Saturday when I had time to think about it. But the concept intrigued me and I decided if I could come up with four more things that I spent significant time doing or contemplating in the past month, I would go ahead and post tonight. It took me less than three minutes to make the list. In fact I came up with five besides the library. Just know that if font size indicated the ratio of attention, then the library thing would have to be 44pt font while all the rest would be in 14pt and smaller.

Following are the five things other than the library capturing a significant amount of my attention.

1. Nuzzling, cuddling, huggermuggering, teasing and playing with Merlin as we adjust to life without Gremlin. Huggermuggering is a word I use to mean mugging hugs, something I started doing a couple years ago because, unlike Gremlin who wasn't content unless she was snuggled against me, Merlin didn't care for being held or even sitting on your lap. By playing the game huggermugger I have increased his tolerance from about two seconds to almost two minutes. He comes when I sing out "huggermugger, huggermugger' and a couple of times since Gremlin's passing, he has voluntarily climbed into my lap and gone to sleep.

2. Story is the over-riding passion of my life. And my Fruits of the Spirit storyworld is one of my favorite mental playgrounds. I have discussed it in several of my Thursday Thirteen posts but especially #25 on the 22nd of last month and #13 on the 28th of last December. All three of my NaNoWriMo attempts were based in it. My two entries in the WriteStuff Creative Carnival were based in it. See: Kicking the Bucket and A Tail of a Wail.

(Oh, I totally forgot to post that I won the contest last month and received the prize Fiction Writer's Brainstormer by James V. Smith, Jr. The day I learned I won was the day Gremlin got sick and the day the book arrived was the day my 13 year old niece arrived to spend five days of her spring break with me and her grandma during which we watched about fifteen movies and walked to the library twice and chatted about stories--reading, watching and writing them.)

My niece has read several of my stories and is very irritated with me that I am not writing more. She thought I was overdoing the library thing even before the upcoming closure was announced in early December after which....oh, just scan the last four months of my blog and you'll get the picture. Anyway, it is partly because of her interest that I began to become re-enchanted with my FOS storyworld again, after a several year hiatus precipitated by the loss of my manuscripts and notes in 2001.

3. Stat watching. After I met the challenge my husband set me at the beginning of March to post five times in a single week and he followed through on his promise to start using his know-how to promote Joystory, I started refreshing my stats pages at Sitemeter several times per day. And there was a week there when it was at least once an hour. I couldn't get enough of wondering who all these people were and especially what motivated them to visit multiple pages and hang out for 5, 10, 30, 60 and more minutes.

Before I started participating in Thursday Thirteen last fall, almost no one visited multiple pages and few besides my sister and niece left comments. I'm still not getting many comments outside of TT. That didn't used to matter to me but now my curiosity is severely piqued and I dearly wish some of those who visit more than two pages or stay more than ten minutes would drop me a comment to tell me what has snagged their attention. Like, right now as I compose this paragraph someone from China has been on for over twenty minutes and visited 7 pages. Now who wouldn't be curious about that? Or when Monday morning someone from the Midwest US visited 40 pages in 31 minutes?

There is more to this obsession then just curiosity or gratification. This is part of THE obsession that will replace the library obsession beginning next week as I throw myself into content creation, design and promotion of the three sites I already have up and two more I have planned. My husband has two up with plans for a couple more too and I will probably return the favor by helping him with promotion. We think we have figured out a way to make income via the Internet by combining our two skill sets. Stay tuned for that story as it unfolds.

4. Riddles, puzzles, puns. I've always loved these but ever since I encountered Weffriddles last November, I've been obsessed in a completely new way. I gave up almost all computer gaming along with almost all prime time TV after learning of the immanent library closure. I can't wait to get back to solving the Weffriddle maze. I quit just after finishing batch 1 shortly after the New Year. I couldn't trust myself to play without getting sucked in for 3, 6, 12 hours. That probably cost me the NaNoWriMo win this year.

So I knew that I had to let it alone until after the library closure, if I wanted to get as much as possible of the essential research and movie watching done before the library closed. I quit playing but I didn't stop thinking about it. And I began to notice that everything I encountered during each day became inspiration for a riddle, puzzle or pun and I began to itch not only to play Weffriddle but to create my own levels and batches and dare I admit it? To put up my own riddle site loosely modeled on Weffriddle but imprinted with my own passions: story, wordplay, reading, writing, thinking, movies and more.

Watch for this before the end of spring. If this concept interests you, leave a comment; with contact info if you would like to be notified when it launches.

5. National and World News. I get almost all of my news online and more than eighty percent from non MSM. I used to read news and editorials and political blogs for several hours per day. I dropped it down to one the past four months. I do a lot more thinking about it than that. Many of the library items I have spent time with in the last four months were first encountered while reading news online.

~~***~~

OK that about covers it. Now I am supposed to tag five people. This is going to be harder than writing the post. There are only two that I feel comfortable tagging without checking with them first.

1. My sister
2. My Niece
3. My Husband.
4.
5.

I'll have to get back to you with three more after I check with them first. But anyone who sees this and wishes to play, consider yourself tagged. Leave a comment with your URL and I will post your link above.

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Hey Diddle Diddle, The Cats and Weffriddle

I've been following with amusement the affect of certain of my posts on my stats.  As I'd hoped, my involvement with Thursday Thirteen gave a regular boost to my visits and page views every week since I began last October, and I wasn't too surprised to discover that the ones in which I discussed my two cats, Gremlin and Merlin, were the most popular of those since other mentions of 'cats' or 'pet' in a post or post title would bring in more than the usual visitors.  But I was flabbergasted at the response to my post, Nurlo!, the week before Christmas. It has more than tripled my weekly visitors because somehow that post has catapulted me to near the top of a Google Search page for that query.  Sometimes the query is just the one word, sometimes it is for a definition for the word and sometimes it is for the Nurlo T-Shirt proffered by the creator of Weffriddles.  I thought I might as well write a post that would direct those visitors to the best answer to their questions while simultaneously updating my progress with Weffriddles.  Not to mention giving another shot in the arm to my stat!  Hey, whatever works.

So.  Updating my progress on Weffriddles:   I solved the one I was agonizing over shortly after posting my wail.  It was while writing that post that I got the idea that led to the solution.  I'm not telling.  I don't do spoilers.  I kept meaning to update that post or post again to announce that but never got around to it.  I am now on level 39.  But I haven't played for over a week.  Although I am itching to return to the game, I am currently denying myself the pleasure because I spent over ten hours on it each of the three times I played and I don't want to succumb to that temptation again until after the local library locks it's doors at the end of March.

Looking for the definition of Nurlo?  The best one is found in The Urban Dictionary:

A vocalization of frustration, an interjection of one who is failing to understand, the groan of realization when one realizes he or she had been making something that is fairly easy way too hard.

I am still unclear as to whether this word was in use before the creation of Weffriddles or was coined by the riddle master or the players.  Can anyone enlighten me?

As for the T-Shirts:  The best place to find them is on the Weffriddle forum where the players and Weff Jebster himself hang out and discuss the levels of the game and of their frustrations.  Hints and nudges are available here too.  But don't try to find or deposit a spoiler.  Not cool.  Leaving a spoiler can get you banned from the forum.

I am so into the whole concept of Weffriddles that I am already thinking of starting a similar web site.  One in which the clues and answers are on themes that reflect my special interests.  I'm thinking that not only would that be fun but it would exercise my budding HTML skills while also taking advantage of the obvious interest in riddle solving evinced by the over 20,000 members of the Weffriddles forum.  One of the players posting there got impatient while waiting for a new batch of riddles to be prepared and started one of his own. I've bookmarked it but don't dare start to play.

Meanwhile, I've got twelve weeks left in which to finish up with as many of the books and movies and other library dependent projects as possible.  If only there were a way to eliminate the need for sleep!  My insomnia seems to have deserted me when I most need it.  It hasn't really returned since I had the flu during the first three weeks of December.

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Nurlo!

Echidne introduced me to Weffriddles in a recent post I just found Tuesday and now my brain is full of weird chants: Alf, I bet. The answer is waiting in the dark. 16 + 1. Google Eyes...

Weffriddles is not a typical riddle or maze game. Answers to the riddles advance you through the maze. But the maze is the website and the idividutal pages are the riddles. The answer to each riddle provides the url to the next level.

There is something about puzzle-solving that is so addictive. I love puzzles and riddles and puns and braintwisters. Partly because they usualy make me feel smart. You know, that rush that comes when the answer lights up your brain. I thought I was smart but now I feel stupid.

Echidne implied she was barely fazed before Batch 3! I was off to a roaring start when i solved Level 1 and 2 of Batch 1 in, like, 30 seconds. But then I was stuck on Level 3 for more than 4 hours!

So maybe I am stupid. I must be. My head feels like a brick it just knocked out of the wall!

Knock Knock. Who's there?  404.

And this after just two days. Well, just 16 straight hours. I haven't dared to go back since I ripped myself away Wednesday afternoon having reached Level 16 whose clues are in the form of mathematical equations of the sort that glaze my eyes and raise the hackles on my neck as though I am feeling the piercing gazes of three dozen classmates fixed on it as we all wait for that inevitable moment when the teacher, voice oozing with contempt or pity, commands me to hand the chalk over to someone who has been paying attention.

Maybe the math formulas are red herrings and the real clues are something else, somewhere else in the make-up of the page. In the text, in the title, in the text formatting, in the colors....

I can hope!

But how likely is it seeing how the creator claims to be an engineering student. And only 19!!  Yeah, he's probably the son of that kid in my sixth-grade math class whose hand was always threatening to wipe the light fixtures off the cieling like so many cobwebs as he vied for the honor of grabbing that chalk out of my sweaty hand.

Arrrrgh!

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Thursday Thirteen #12

Thirteen Web Gems I've gathered for you. From useful to fun. Either free or with a free trial. Merry Christmas! 1. Chaos Manager 2 Besides To Do lists and other jottings, I use the notebook function as a clipboard for shuffling info between applications. Indispensable! Not to mention free! 2. Open Office Suite six gifts in one. Free and open source. Write is a powerful word processor and desktop publisher that can save in HTML and PDF. Impress with presentations and side shows. Draw and edit graphics including photos. Base excels at organizing data and generating reports. Calc manages money, time and tasks with spreadsheets, analysis and calculations. Math allows you to create and edit scientific and mathematical formulas. I can't use this yet but would like to learn. 3. WhizNote Organizer I used this for NaNoWriMo the last two years. It is ideal for organizing large projects like novels. This older version is free but it will probably make you want the upgrade. I know I do. 4. Literary Machine Similar to WhizNote in some ways but very different in others. You can store info in a less formal manner that almost seems disorganized but as the cross-linking among the data matures you will find patterns that inspire. It works with a creative mind instead of making it conform to a formulaic application. I was going to do NaNoWriMo with it this year but did not learn my way around it in time. This version is free but there is an upgrade that I already drool over. 5. Windows Live Writer Free. Can't imagine blogging without it. It lets me create hover messages for links. Be sure to check them out on all thirteen items here. 6. The Psychedelic Screen Saver Free trial. Have to see it to believe it. 7. Gnod. The Global Network of Dreams Free hangout with other music, movie and book lovers. Find out what else is liked by others who like what you like and you might find something new to like. Is that clear? No? Spend an hour or so on the maps and it will come clear. I, of course was especially fond of the literary map: Gnod Books 8. My Way Games No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Play most of your favs online for free. (Hint: For those on dial-up, some of the games will continue to play after you disconnect if you don't close the game window) 9. Pretty Good Solitaire Free trial. So many games! Multiple player profiles under which you can personalize backgrounds, card backs and favorites lists. You can also use a wizard to create your own games. 10. Moraff Games graphics are always candyland for the eyes! There are both freeware and free trials on this page. I am most familiar with, and thus wholeheartedly recommend, the mahjongg games--some of which are free. 11. Sokoban Free. You can push but you can't pull so watch out for those walls. 12. Jigsaw Puzzle Lite Free. Sure they want you to buy packs of stunning digital photos to turn into jigsaw puzzles and I would if I had the discretionary income for it. Meanwhile it allows me to input pictures from my own files. 13. Weffriddles. Free online riddle maze. Each page is a riddle the web site is the maze. Don't leave your mind behind. I just discovered this Tuesday HT to Echidne one of the blogs I haunt. Warning: highly addictive for anyone who is into puzzle solving. Um. I meant the game, not Echidne. Tho, come to think of it, if the puzzles you are into solving are sociological in nature, then yeah, Echidne is addictive too. Finally, I feel as though I have done something in the Holiday Spirit. It didn't cost me anything but time but if any one of you finds half as much value in any one of these web gems as I have then I have given gifts that will keep on giving. If you fall in love with anything you find here, pass it on. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Chickadee 2. Caylynn 3. Cindy 4. Tink 5. Candy Minx 6. Rashenbo 7. Jamie (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here!)

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