Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Not that you've seen much of me anyway...
That pesky novel is taking up my writing time, but I will be traveling with the Family to the Wilds of Los Angeles for Thing Two's (final?) ear surgery soon. I will have my cell from which I can upload pics to the other blog. So, if you want to watch the fun, keep tuned there.
More soon!
More soon!
Monday, December 01, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Goodreads | find quotes
Goodreads | find quotes
Why I love Neil Gaiman:
Why I love Neil Gaiman:
"Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft were written by men. "
— Neil Gaiman (Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch)
"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it."
— Neil Gaiman (American Gods)
— Neil Gaiman (Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch)
"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it."
— Neil Gaiman (American Gods)
In Case You Have 10$ to Spare
I already donated. If you care about writing in schools (as I do) this may be something for you to consider.
Read on:
Read on:
Dear NaNoWriMo Writer,
As we head into the last few days of NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program, I want to reach out and say: Thank you. NaNoWriMo draws so much from the spirit of its participants. Your can-do attitude, inspiring helpfulness, and great sense of humor have made this the best NaNo ever.
As I look at our current finances, I also want to reach out and say: Eeep.
Thanks to proceeds from merchandise sales and donations from 5% of this year's Wrimos, we've raised $283,000. This is a whopping number, but it doesn't cover our 2008 expenses, and leaves nothing in the bank to launch NaNoWriMo or the YWP in 2009.
Eeep. Again.
Running NaNoWriMo is a little crazy. The closest analogy I can come up with is that it's like setting out to cook and serve a meal for an unpredictably enormous number of people. We turn away no one, we charge nothing, and we try to feed everyone at exactly the same time. The service can be imperfect. Sometimes we run out of chairs. Sometimes we dump your soup on your head (and we still feel horrible about that soup).
But at the end of the day, you can count on the Office of Letters and Light to ensure that you will have a bustling, warm, and friendly place in November to come and find the encouragement you need to pull off something grand.
Building and maintaining that encouraging place for 119,000 adults and 21,000 kids and teens takes a tremendous amount of work and money. If you believe in NaNoWriMo, please donate to the Office of Letters and Light today. A $10 donation from 10% of our participants will mean we can meet our 2008 expenses, keep the sites open year-round, rent a heck of a lot more servers, and make dozens of exciting and much-needed improvements to NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program.
Free things are fragile things, even if they appear solid or inevitable from the outside. Please join the 10% group of SuperWrimos whose donations will help us bring NaNoWriMo and the YWP back for another year of bookish adventures in 2009.
I thank you mightily for your support, and wish you a wonderfully wordy final weekend of NaNoWriMo!
Write on! Chris Baty
Executive Director, the Office of Letters and Light
Program Director, NaNoWriMo
Author, 43,501 words and counting
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Think I'm Gonna Do It
Not to jinx it, but at 49,555 words on Saturday the 29th, unless I suffer a sudden and pretty immediate coronary (knocking on wood, etc., etc.) I think I'll make it to the finish line for NaNoWriMo this year!
Let's hear it for Winning in '08!!!
And, UPDATE: I got a piece in Spin-Off. It's little (second down under FEATURES), I know, but DAMN I'm happy!!!
And, UPDATE on the UPDATE:
As of 9:02pm 11/29/08
I DID IT!!!!
And me? Now?...
I'm gonna go have some pumpkin pie.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Grading/Skyping with Far Flung Students
Gotta thank the Ol' Man for the headphones. They're build for Elluminate but they're great for Skype...and far more portable than my podcast headphones!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Writing Saturday
Post Flu Shot.
There were complaints that I didn't look happy while writing. Not unhappy. Just FOCUSED.
HA!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Saturday, November 01, 2008
'reward'
It reads:
"REWARD"
Lost dog
Chihuahua coloring...
yada yada yada
Heather via Centro
Don't forget! The NEW 8-Way Multi-Blog! You'll find more prose there, more pics here for a bit anyway...
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday Night Live: Don Draper's Guide
O
MAH
GAW
SNL is FUNNY AGAIN!?!
And they didn't need to exhaust Tina Fey to do it!
MAH
GAW
SNL is FUNNY AGAIN!?!
And they didn't need to exhaust Tina Fey to do it!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Taliesin West
Still and all...I'm glad to live where I live and have the roof that I have.
Heather via Centro
Heather via Centro
Some Reality. Some Aaht.
Clearly, I was closer to the stone structure than when I snapped the pic on my way out. Paintings were done on my way in, photos on the way out...bad idea...
I tried to get back to where I was sitting in front of the fountain to take that picture after our tour but (a) the sun had moved and (b) there was a very large man who clearly didn't like me at all sitting in my chair...so...I Kinneared the fountain and kept moving.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Day 3--Less tired...more jazzed...then more tired...
Reality
Aaaahhhhttt
Reality
Aaaahhhhhttt#1
Aaaaahhhhttt #2
Reality
Aaahhhhttt
Lunch
Reality
Aaaaahhht#1
Aaaahhhh#2
all Heather via Centro
Aaaahhhhttt
Reality
Aaaahhhhhttt#1
Aaaaahhhhttt #2
Reality
Aaahhhhttt
Lunch
Reality
Aaaaahhht#1
Aaaahhhh#2
all Heather via Centro
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Day two—Code Name: Tired Day
Today was still lives and humans...and very hard on the brain!
Whodathunk?!
Whodathunk?!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Painting Class
Here's the progression of work in my Pocket Sketching class--a three day course in how to train yourself to do 25 minutes or less sketches of one's surroundings. Not unhappy with the first day's progress at all.
Monochromatic Wash
Sedona
12 MInute Sketch
10 Minute Sketch
Rocks and Water
First try at "editing"
Last 10 minutes of first day
Monochromatic Wash
Sedona
12 MInute Sketch
10 Minute Sketch
Rocks and Water
First try at "editing"
This was hard. Of the three picture choices we had this seemed the easiest to me--and I think it was--but picking what to paint of the much larger pic was not easy...I'm still not sure I did it "right"...
Last 10 minutes of first day
It wasn't NEARLY as hard to edit this one...
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