Tweaking the Universe

Holiday Adventures

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:16:50 GMT

I make a serious rum cake, and I know to stand well back when opening the oven door. But today, I forgot. I still have my eyebrows. But I'll pay a visit to Supercuts, to get all the singed hair trimmed away. I sit at my desk and occasionally stop and say, "What is that charred smell?"

Happy Yule!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:34:35 GMT

Did you pound drums? Sing and dance? Turn on all the lights and lay a fire in the hearth? The longest night of the year was once again turned aside, and the light has returned.

Such fun.

We went to a party, and the biggest indication that all my friends are - well, not as young as they used to be - is that we sauntered off to our homes by about 7 p.m. Monday is a work day, after all.

But a good time was had by all, including the cat, who fell in love with my fluffy sweater, and kept poking me all night.

Today, I remembered to back up my files by posting all WIPs to my OfficeLive account. I'd like to put them on my thumb drive too, but I can't find the dern thing.

I am making Chocolate Bourbon Balls. Wish you were here!

The Reading Continues

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:06:10 GMT

I just finished "Voyager," the third book in Diana Galadon's "Outlander" series.

Loved the book. Love the series and plan to keep reading. But... there is maybe a touch too much coincidence. Even in the middle 18th century, there were too many people in the world to keep running into the same ones in country after country after country. And bringing back a character thought safely dead? This can be done, but added to all the other coincidences in the book, I felt it was just too much.

And it fell into one of my biggest peeves, usually reserved for action/adventure films: the hero somehow survives thousands of injuries that would kill most people the first time.

Over and over and over...

I guess I want too much realism in my fiction. This is possibly a character flaw for a writer. I end up not putting my characters through enough "bad things" because I don't believe a real person could survive it. Thus, I end up with books that don't have enough "conflict."

Books that don't get published, ye ken. Unlike Ms. Gabaldon's.

I'm working on that.

In Other News, I'm going to a cookie exchange tonight and must get to baking. But first, I must exercise. I haven't felt exactly excellent this morning, so I'm behind on the day. I also need to hit the grocery store, being out of milk for Rick's cereal, and half and half for my coffee.

The essentials of life, eh?

This and That

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:28:22 GMT

Movies: We watched "Bolt" last week. I laughed my head off. Cute movie. Yeah, it's for kids. So what?

Last night, with thanks to Jarucia for pointing it out, we watched "Alice," on SyFy. I love Alice in Wonderland, and this was a fun version of it. It was cool watching Colm Meany and Kathy Bates rip it up as the King and Queen of Hearts. Both of them are good at playing casually cruel people.

We also watched "Wolverine." Eh. I really like the X-men movies, but this one never got above the level of noise, lights, and explosions. It did, however, have Hugh Jackman, so I'm not complaining very loudly.

Books: I am, at last, working my way through Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. You'd think I would've gotten to this sooner, considering her agent favorably compared my writing - and TTJ: Shipbuilder - to it. This was about 2007 or something. But while I had read "Outlander" several years ago, I never got to the rest of the books.

Until now. And I'm quite happy with them. I wish I was that good. Something to work toward.

Exercise: I've been consistent with the new Wii Fit. 'Course, we've only had it a week - I *should* be able to last that long. It's fun to do. I might be doing too much - I'm a bit sore. But it does provide a way to move around and burn some calories. I'm never going to lose weight any other way. I already watch what I eat and keep my calories pretty low. But at my age, metabolism is nearly non-existent, so I need to kick-start it.

That means exercise. Must. Burn. More. Calories.

My weight has been on a steady increase for years, and the rate of increase shot up this year. My BP is getting higher and cholesterol has creeped up a bit. These are genetic problems for me and I'd be an idiot to ignore them. So the Wii is one more attempt to get it under control.

And I'd like to wear my clothes.

It is the holidays, though. I have cookies to make. But I know I can be sort of good, and the exercise can only help, right?

Yoga and Aerobics

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:05:43 GMT

We got a Wii Fit last week. This should explain where I've been...

I got one (1!) chapter written in TTJ: Returning. Yet, despite all my determinations to do more, that's all I got done this week.

That's just sad.

Lessons from the Nutcracker

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:04:55 GMT

No, not the ballet. The actual nutcracker, which in our house, looks like this:

See, we got a package in the mail from some friends who always send us some kind of food for Christmas. Usually lots of dried meat. This year, it was a 5-pound bag of pecans.

I had not given it any thought, but faced with all those shells, I realized it's been a long time since I had to crack a nut. I guess I've gotten spoiled with all the bags of already-shelled nuts in the store.

And the only nutcracker I could find was the monster you see above.

Rick and I both had fond childhood memories of a bowl of nuts in the house, with a normal hand-type nutcracker and those little "picks" that you used to get out the stubborn pieces of nut-meat. It was a set: a kind of tray with sections for various nuts, and spaces for the nutcracker and the picks.

It was probably a 50s and 60s kind of thing. I haven't seen anything like it for years.

We decided to give our nutcracker a try. This one belonged to Rick before we got married, and I can't remember ever having used it. But we placed a pecan in the middle and whacked away. Being me, I gave it a good, solid one on my first try.

There are shell pieces all over the house.

It takes a gentle hand and several taps, but even then, the pieces tend to fly around. So my To-Do list includes a trip to BBB for a nutcracker that lets us control things.

But the biggest lesson I learned?

Fresh, just-cracked nuts taste GOOD. As usual, we sacrifice quality for convenience when we buy our nuts already shelled. And as usual, we don't even realize anymore what we're missing.

Yes, I'm Venting

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:00:14 GMT

Dear Humane Society of the United States:

My husband and I give an annual donation to your organization. We love doing this and want to continue. But -

I completely detest the junk you send us. T-shirts, blankets, umbrellas, nickels...

How do I get you to stop? I'm quite serious about this. I realize you probably have hired an outside vendor to handle your fundraising. I realize it's a huge endeavor. But I really do not want to receive any more junk.

Today, the mail deliverer had to carry your extra-large red envelope to our front porch since it would not fit in our mailbox. How many people did she have to do this for?

I had to make a special trip from the mail box to the porch to retrieve the stupid thing. And I do not want the blanket. I have to throw it away. Or worse - make a special trip to the Goodwill Store or the local animal shelter to give it away.

You should know - I'm not making any special trips. I do not want to have to deal with your junk.

Please - let us donate to your organization without receiving anything at all, in return (beyond the tax deduction we take on our 1040).

Oh Yeah - the Movies

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:05:55 GMT

The movie roundup continues. In the last couple of weeks we've seen (all Netflix rentals):

The Taking of Pelham 123 - where everybody's favorite word was "motherfucker" - John Travolta seemed especially enamored of it. I'm not a prude, and goodness knows I do my share of swearing. Maybe it's my Baptist background tripping me up, but I'm always uncomfortable when people who claim to be "religious" (Travolta, for instance - Mel Gibson is another one who comes to mind, and George Bush is another..) use certain language. Hey, if you're going to brag about how much you love Jesus, keep the 'fucks' under control. It's not my rule.

Ghost Town - actually made me giggle. Not many movies do that.

Knowing - not as bad as I'd heard it would be, but darn depressing. oh, and it requires a huge suspension of belief.

Rick and his Dad watched Rush Hour 3. I tried, but after two minutes of those silly fights, I gave up. I had a book to read.

We've missed a couple of movies I wanted to see in the theater, such as Men Who Stare at Goats and Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe that one's not out yet. December's a pretty busy month, but we're planning on seeing Avatar when it comes out. Anything else will probably have to go on the rental list.

Anybody got any favorites they've seen lately?

Out on Limb - Science Fiction or Science Fantasy?

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:02:59 GMT

Let me jump (in my slightly foggy-not-quite-awake-state of mind) right into one of the topics I threatened to talk about yesterday. What is Science Fantasy?

Gio's post brought out a lot of discussion along the idea that it's a sub-genre in its own right. Not science ficiton, not fantasy, but a combination. She talked about the notion that a lot of science fiction is really science fantasy. If you take the definition that science ficiton must be based only what is actually possible, anytime a writer steps over that line, we're in the realm of fantasy.

So anything involving time travel, for instance, or FTL, is fantasy.

That's an interesting idea. It means that even Jules Verne and Orson Wells - the grandfathers of science fiction, and the roots of our genre - wrote fantasy. Not science fiction.

But I think that's hog-wash. And darn limiting.

Many things in science ficiton seem like fantasy when they are written, yet at some point, the ideas really come about. We may not have a space elevator yet, but we probably will, someday. That's not fantasy. Shooting a guy to the moon in a catapult? Maybe that was fantasy, but only partially. We did eventually "shoot" a guy to the moon.

Our esteemed Victorian scientists and writers were imaginative and intelligent men, but they also believed that as white, European men, they were the pinnacle of creation. Better than black men, than Chinese, than Muslims, than Indians, than women of any color. Now, social Darwinism is not the point of this essay. I simply want to put forth the idea that the founders of our genre had the flaw of believing they were, to a certain extent, infallible. Blinded to their own limitations.

We need to be sure we don't fall to the same fallacy. Yet, I hear it all the time - that such and such is "impossible" according to the laws of physics, and is therefore, not really science ficiton.

But how do we really know that? Isn't it true that the universe constantly shows us something new? That we don't have it all figured out? Is there really ANYTHING we can say with certainty?

I'm willing to remain skeptical about everything - even FTL. How do we KNOW that someone won't figure out a way to get around the universe and side-step the effects of relativity? Because, after all, the ability to travel from one planet to another and establish an interstellar civilization is a longing deep in the psyche of most SF fans. It's why we ARE SF fans. It's been at the root of nearly every science fiction story since the beginning.

Don't scoff at it. There's too much we don't know.

How do we know, really, that Anne MacAffrey's dragons can't exist on some planet? That Frank Herbert's spice can't lie buried on a desert planet somewhere in our galaxy?

See, science can only say, "I don't know." Science is the continual pursuit of Finding Things Out. We don't know that there aren't dimensions we can't see, or energies we can't sense. Even magic could be nothing but physics we haven't explored.

The only limits to finding out, are our imaginations and the state of our technology.

And our bigotry.

Still Here

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:05:31 GMT

I didn't drop off the face of the earth, honest. I did, at times, feel like I wanted to, but...

I have many topics of interest I'd like to write about, but no time, at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow. Such as:

Gio Clairval's great discussion about "science fantasy" over at http://bit.ly/7GjLWI.

rolanni 's chat about the "what-ifs" and "if this goes on" of writing SF.

President Obama's Plans for the War

Community as self-preservation - taken from an editorial blog on Mamapedia. I can't put the link here, but I'll try to do it on Facebook.

So maybe tomorrow I'll get around to talking about one or more of these things. For now:

I had a great Thanksgiving with all the friends and kids. I hope all of you did, too (with your own friends and kids, of course). And because you KNEW you couldn't get away without seeing it:

Van - 5 months old, and the Center of Everything at Grandma's this Thanksgiving.

The Week - Day 2, con't

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:28:29 GMT

I added the stuffed squash to today's prep list. More Family Things are going on, and I'll be lucky to have even a few hours to cook, tomorrow. I think what I've left are the pies (4 of them) and prepping the turkey. I have a couple of last minute items to pick up at the store, and I'll get our CSA box at 4:00.

There's something else... but my list is downstairs. Anyway, I think I'll make it, now that the squashes are done.

They look properly pretty, too!

The Week - Day 2

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:15:45 GMT

I overslept. This is a minor miracle. Weird dream, too, but it was kind of cool.

Today: turkey delivery from Wind Dancer Ranch. I'm babysitting two of the turkeys until their owners can get here to pick them up. I wonder if I need ice to keep them cold? They're fresh, not frozen.

Do I want to brine my turkey? I haven't decided, but I'm leaning toward doing that.

Food Prep:
Freeze the second batch of pumpkin ice cream
Make cornbread, break it up and toast it until dry and crunchy. Set aside for Friday.
Make the cranberry-zinfandel salad dressing. That's for Thursday.
Make cranberry sauce, for Thursday AND Friday.

Tomorrow night, I have to deal with some of that family disturbance. But I think I have plenty of time during the day to do the rest of Thursday's prep work.

The Week - Day 1

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:07:12 GMT

Today is lunch with out-of-town friends. The menu is

Sun-Dried Tomato Tapanade with Crackers
Antipasto Vegetable Platter
Roasted Pepper, Kalamata Olives Pasta
Pumpkin Ice Cream with Graham Cracker Bits and Whipped Cream

Wine? Dunno yet.

So far, I've steamed the veggies and they are splashing in the marinade.
The peppers have been roasted and are resting in a plastic bag.

I did the breakfast dishes, too.

Complications

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:59:23 GMT

It rained today!

*Happy dance*

Yet - disturbing news on the family front has me worried and distressed.

Rainy Day Blues (but it's not what you think)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:58:13 GMT

Last week, the 5-day weather forecast showed three days of rain coming. Then it went down to two days. Then the rain forecast disappeared, replaced with sunny days.

Yesterday, the 5-day forecast showed rain starting on Tuesday and going through Thursday. Today, it shows sunny days until Thursday. Tomorrow, will we see that the whole week will be sunny?

WHEN is the rain going to start???

Weekends

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:27:01 GMT

I'm tired and sort of out of it, right now. But let's see...

The writing workshop went well - in fact, it was delightful. The speaker was Janis Cooke Newman, a local writer who works at www.sfgrotto.org.

She's the author of :

and:

I bought "Mary" - an historical fiction based on Mary Todd Lincoln. I'll let you know how I like it, but it sounds fascinating...

I didn't learn anything earth-shattering during the workshop, but did pick up some motivation to do things like daily writings from the perspective of my characters. I'm desperate to get my books electrified, and this is one way to do it.

I hope.

So I'm going to try devoting ten minutes a day to a character - tell me what you want, what you think, what you feel... make me want to write about you, damn it!

Unless it turns out to just waste time, this kind of exercise can only help. I'm a very character-driven author. I'm either in love with my characters, or I'm.... not. If not - or if I get bored - I have trouble writing. So spending a bit of time each day with someone should be a way of recharging the relationship. Or will convince me to end it altogether.

In other news, we saw "2012" today. Go just for the special effects, suspend all disbelief, and have fun. There's no other way to see it.

This reminds me that I'm trying to keep track of movies we've seen, but I keep forgetting to mention it. But this weekend, we watched "Pi" (Netflix) - do yourself a favor and NEVER watch that...

While in Missouri, we watched "Astro Boy," which was a lot of fun. Kid movie.

Four adults, one kid. We went to see the kid movie. You know how it works.

In Virginia, we watched "The Invention of Lying." You have no idea how hard it was to remember the movie - we could remember going to the theater and sitting there with popcorn... the day we went, who went with us (my sister-in-law), the route to the theater, even where the bathrooms were... but we could NOT remember the movie we saw.

This either means we are truly losing our memories, or the movies just are not that memorable. The jury is still out.

We plan on seeing "Men Who Stare at Goats" next weekend. Rick's dad is visiting and he thinks he'd like that movie. We think we'll like it, too, so it's on the agenda.

In the meantime, I have lots of cooking to do.

Running in Circles

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:07:29 GMT

I have spent the week dedicated to Catching Up. Not quite there, yet. But I don't really care, either.

I have managed to create two sets of calendars for family Xmas presents. These have become a tradition that the recipients seem to to look forward to every year. They are family photo calendars that I make on Shutterfly, using Events from the Current Year. It's always a lot of fun. I never have enough photos of my husband's nephews - I think this both-parent's-working, two-kid family is too busy to take many photographs and upload to the computer and email off to people. My stepson and his wife are not any better about taking pictures of their daughter. I end up using the pictures that Rick and I take during our visits to everyone. This year, we have the photos from the vacation just ended, and last year's Xmas pictures.

I am amiss myself this year - I was in San Diego in June and we did spend some time with Rick's family. But the visit was mostly to help my daughter when her son was born, and I simply never thought to take pictures of the nephews when we saw them. I'm not happy about that.

Tomorrow, I'm attending a writing workshop for a few hours, on the topic of plotting and character-building. I'm looking forward to that. Hoping that SOMETHING will give me ideas on how to do that elusive thing: finish a novel.

Next week, my father-in-law comes to visit for a couple of weeks. My daughter in San Diego is coming for Thanksgiving. Yay! We get to see the baby again! And I've finagled my son-in-law into tending bar and creating a special cocktail for us. He's a top-notch mixologist.

No, I'm not doing NaNo. Never have. I do understand the appeal, but I'm generally underwhelmed with the idea. Life is stressful enough.

Home at Last

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:31:27 GMT

We got in late Monday night. I was so happy to see my bed.

Yesterday, I cleaned the frig (since it was practically empty), unpacked, did laundry, and ate lots of vegetables. Veggies are a rare thing when visiting the family. I have to catch up.

We had travel issues with Delta, who kept changing our flights and forcing us to stand in four different lines to get tickets canceled and reissued. Very strange. And don't even talk about baggage fees. We've GOT to learn to travel light.

Did I mention that there is a grandchild in Missouri? The only girl:

She gave Rick a run for his money in a pillow fight. I got it all on video.

She'll have a brother in a couple of months. It never slows down around here.

So what did everyone think of V? Will you keep watching it? I haven't made up my mind, yet.

Here's Joshua

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:07:59 GMT

His first Halloween:

I caught a fish!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:05:42 GMT

Virginia Chronicles III

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:14:21 GMT

Goin' fishin'...

Van's First Halloween

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:18:34 GMT

You probably won't get the thrill I experienced when I saw this, but I dare you to say he's not adorable:

The whole family did Wizard of Oz:

I'm still waiting for the OTHER grandson's Halloween pictures.

Virginia Chronicles II

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Shenendoah was amazing. Here's proof:

It wasn't all color and joy. But I think this is just as beautiful and incredible:

Anyway, it was lovely, and we got to hike in the rain and fog.

Sigh.

Yesterday, we hopped over to Shirley Plantation and I got to meet kitsch_witch who was signing her book. I love meeting LJ friends. Hi Beth!

This Virginia humidity does strange things to my hair.

You might remember our Australian Shepherd, Cissy, who died about a year ago. Cissy had the most amazing ability to injure herself every time something major was happening. Weddings, company, whatever... she'd be there with a bandage on a leg and a collar on her neck. For our wedding, I tucked flowers into the collar, so she'd look pretty.

Well, my sister-in-law's collie managed to carry on the tradition, by breaking her toe a couple of days after we got here.

You might notice her bandage has her all ready for Halloween.

Tonight is spaghetti and a Monopoly game.

Go ahead, laugh. I know I'm old.

Happy Samhain!

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:21:21 GMT

I'm off to visit a haunted plantation and meet kitsch_witch, who is signing her book on - wait for it -

Haunted Plantations of Virginia.

Virginia Chronicles I

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:54 GMT

We've arrived safe and sound in Virginia, and have proceeded to play with the dogs, avoid the bird, and hang out in the backyard in our barefeet, sipping wine and chatting with the relatives.

Yes, The backyard.

In Virginia. In late October.

See, that's weird to me. But I'm an East Coast neonate, so whatever I think I know about it is probably wrong. I always thought it got COLD in the Fall, with rain and the threat of snow.

But nay. At least, not this year.

Temps have been in the 70s, and the humidity is even higher. That could be downright uncomfortable, but it HAS been breezy, and that's helped. In fact, yesterday was quite lovely. We took the dogs (a collie and a german shepherd, both come to above my waist), for a walk in a neaby park, with a reservoir and lots of trees. The trees were in their showing off stage and it was wonderful.

Today, we head up to Shendandoah National Park, and we have some slight hope for more autumn-y weather up there. Should be in the 60s at least, and we have a good chance of seeing spectacular color. We're staying overnight at a lodge somewhere, and will do all we can to get in a couple of hikes.

I love the mountains, I love autumn, and I can't wait.