Offline for a while

So I moved into my new study carrel, worked a little, and went swimming. And though I thought I was being careful, apparently I worked too hard, because I woke up Monday not being able to move my neck to the right and upper back pain on the right side. I went to work but no computer work was possible after I came home. So I watched the Richard Donner version of Superman II and took the muscle relaxer and went to bed.

Tuesday feels slightly better, but still hurts. So that means yoga is out and I don't know if I will be able to work at a computer when I go home.

So the movie. This post from Celluloid Heroes is what got me to buy the movie a few months back. Same time as Doctor Who box sets and guess what I went nuts over first?

The first thing I noticed was I really need to watch Superman I and Superman II theatrical again. Other than baby Clark lifting the truck and the helicopter scene, I don't remember anything from the first movie. Superman II scorecard is worse, Lois throwing herself into Niagara Falls, the end fight in the Fortress of Solitude, and the GODDAMNED-STUPID-EVIL-SHOULD-NEVER-HAVE-BEEN-USED-AND-
WHY-THE-HELL-WON'T-SOMEBODY-GET-RID-OF-IT PSYCHIC KISS! I'm not a rabid Supes fan and his powers in the 20's, 30's, and possible the 40's were different and retroconned more than once. But when you think Superman, you think flying, bullets bouncing off, heat ray vision, and able to lift anything. Telepathy belongs to Martian Manhunter. But it has been established that Richard Lester was a dick and should have never been allowed to breath on the franchise. Bryan Singer should have retroconned it away in Superman Returns, but maybe he had too much trying to get rid of the stupidity of Superman III and IV.

Sorry, didn't mean to rant. But it bears in with a later point.

Okay, back to the lousy memory thing. Superman I came out in 1976. I was born in 1977. I've seen the whole thing, but since I'm not a huge fan, probably just once or twice. Superman II came out in 1980, and whenever I did see it, it apparently made such a bad impression on me, I was composing letter to Superman in my head as to why Lois Lane? "You could do so much better, at least find someone pretty." I didn't like Lois as a character until Terri Hatcher's portrayal in Lois and Clark. I've seen Superman III and IV and I think I can remember one scene each from both of them. Evidently, I never wanted to see those movies again after watching once.

Well, I didn't really need my memories to enjoy the Richard Donner version of Superman II, since they use flashbacks very nicely to bring you up to speed. (Which is what made me realize I have almost no memories of the films to compare to.) But I was still blown away. Here's the reasons without hopefully spoiling for someone else who wants to watch it.

1. Lois is no longer a ditzy idiot! She figures out the whole Clark/Superman thing, and how she finally tricks him into revealing it is jaw-dropping brilliant. If the writers had gone that route on Lois and Clark, I could see Terri Hatcher pulling off the same thing. This obviously is what Lois should be.


2. Lex Luthor is actually menacing played by Gene Hackman. Had the sequels not ruined the character and if his performance was like this in Superman I, I can understand people saying he was a great Luthor. I always figured him as Luthor's stupid cousin and really loved Kevin Spacey's portrayal. I would have dropped the threating to knock Eve Teschmacher's teeth out. Luthor is a criminal genius and very abusive, but I don't see it going physical. Too lowbrow for someone of his stature.


3. Man of steel, woman of kleenex problem dropped. I don't care who the hell came up with the idea, I find it misogynist and demeaning to both characters. Superman controls his powers all the time as Clark Kent, and hell, even as Superman. Otherwise, he'd be leaving a crater every time he took a step. Theatrical version had them having dinner in the Fortress of Solitude, Supes giving up his powers the Mrs. Jor-El tells him is a bad idea, and then sleeping with Lois. Donner's version: dinner, sex, and Supes giving up his powers after Jor-El tells him it's a bad idea.
   
   Personally, Lois should have said something. I know that would have thrown out their plot, but something along the lines of "You juggerhead, I'm a career woman. You can still date me and save the world." needed to be said.


4. NO MORE PSYCHIC KISS! Supes spins the world backwards again to reverse time instead, which I do have problems with because it erases the sex, but at least the first movie establishes it as something Superman can do. I don't think he should do it very often. That can't be good for the planet.
   
   Incidently, I just learned through Internet Movie Database that the first movie was not supposed to end with the spinning backwards planet, but it had been conceived as the ending for the second which were being done together.

So at the risk of incurring fandom wrath, how I would have fixed I, II, and Superman Returns. First, I never would have went with Lois losing her memory. I would have kept her having sex with Superman but not knowing he's Clark Kent. Then what happens, Superman leaves the planet for five years. She meets Richard White soon after that, I see all this taking place in a month, and not to make her a slut or anything, but her and Richard are intimate before she finds out she's pregnant. So it must be Richard's, Superman is an alien of course we couldn't have kids.

I don't mind the Superman's baby idea so much, and relished the reveal scene. But I do mind the questions racing through a memory-wiped Lois's head. We only kissed, how did I have his kid? Why don't I remember? Did he drug me? It's just not cool in today's climate.

And the drama is upped. She's a woman scorned, he still loves her passionately and can try to woo her as Superman and Clark. Also I would make the world a lot less forgiving. Superman left them for 5 years. He has to prove himself all over again. Show that along with the all the great saves. And that would have made the vigil at the hospital more poignant. Like the New Yorkers throwing stuff at the Green Goblin in Spider-Man and the train scene in Spider-Man 2.

I didn't have a problem with the airplane catch intro or Luthor's land plan because he has land on the brain when you compare I and II to Returns.

Okay, I'm done now.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Sunday plans

Catch up on homework for online class.
Catch up on chores.
Buy flea medicine for Mustard.
Take Dad to belated Father's Day movie.
WRITE!
Finish Alt. BM Site updates.
Finish scanning the box on my desk. The stack is probably 3-inches high, but Reader's Digest articles take up a lot of scanning for something that small. (Okay, now that sounded completely random.)
Write in study carrel.
Go swimming.

We saw Live Free or Die Hard, and even though I liked the last sequel with Samuel L. Jackson, this one is on par with the first Die Hard. He kills a helicopter with a car. Dude, if that part in the trailer does not want to make you see this movie, you are not into action-adventure.

Plus, the plot is based on this article: A Farewell to Arms by John Carlin. For me as a writer, I love the fact that a nonfiction article explaining the inefficient ways the government is trying to prepare for what John Carlin calls the I-war becomes a Bruce Willis action piece. Proof that everything goes into the mill.

Now I doubt updates on Alt BM Site are happening today. Damnit, because I need to get it finished. But I didn't realize how badly behind I was on homework.

The plan today: 4pm go to the Library and work there but not homework to about 6pm.
6pm go swimming for at least an hour, that depends on how much I can do.
Home, supper, sleep on time.

Which means I got now until 4pm to work on homework and only homework. Though I think I may give myself a break in between assignments and wash clothes and dishes. And if I'm good and get caught up and maybe a little ahead, I might have time for the updates. But I'm not counting on it.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Homework meltdown

Okay, deep breath. I screwed up. I did not have the time to indulge in a mental breakdown. I do not have the time an luxury to ignore the homework on weekdays.

I'm severely backlogged now, and it will probably effect my grade. And I deserve it because I knew I could procrastinate with this stuff. So I have to figure out how to crank this stuff out and pronto.

Well, that probably just solved my lapse in the 100 Words goal.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Weekend plans

Catch up on homework for online class.
Catch up on chores.
Buy flea medicine for Mustard.
Take Dad to belated Father's Day movie.
WRITE!
Finish Alt. BM Site updates.
Finish scanning the box on my desk. The stack is probably 3-inches high, but Reader's Digest articles take up a lot of scanning for something that small. (Okay, now that sounded completely random.)
Write in study carrel.
Go swimming.

I'm thinking of combining the last two. Swimming as a reward for output. They are limited to Sunday. Library is open 2pm to 10pm and pool is open 4pm to 9:30pm. So I should be able to overlap the two and not be up so late.

Feel numb and drained. Haven't decided if it's in a good way or bad way yet. It's not depression because otherwise I would feel like doing anything, and feel confident that I will get something off my list this weekend. Even if it's nothing but homework and the movie. LOL

Part of it is that now I have a new observation (not originating from me this time) to go along with my writing now. I have no desire to copy my personal family dynamics in fiction. I don't want to be published and have the Extendeds try to claim any character as themselves. And maybe it would be catheric to get it all out. "It would hurt like hell. What does it matter if it makes a good book?" But it wars with me. I don't want pain, and my raising has been too much of turn the other cheek. Ignore the problems and avoid the people as much as possible. To knowingly go to the past to recreate it on paper; am I giving it more power or less? That's different than mining experience and feelings.

Besides, ultimately, in the grand scheme of obsteclues people have overcome, it's only family drama to me because it's mine. I was never beaten almost to death, never sexual abused, and my parents did a good job shielding us from the worse of their families when we were vulnerable. Now that I am an adult, most of the time it feels like "my life is separate, they have a connection, but they have no power over me." If I can manage that position for 3 weeks out of the month, am I healthy? (The fourth week has other issues, which gives lives to all the issues, and I never know what my position is then.)

And I have used family dynamics that I want to share. I mined my sister's and mine sibling jealousy and competiveness with my great-grandmother talking sense into us, but nobody wants to publish a one-act play.

:P I was going to talk about the second observation, right? All my heroines are distant and sarcastic and shove their loved ones away.

Zy and Cynthia, and to a certain extent, Tala were all born/shaped during a time when that was my mode of defense. There is no cutting it from them now; it is part of who they are.

Storm-blown Kate: I don't see it. But that universe needs a lot more world and character building, which is why it's set aside for now.

Allie: is a tough nut. She has the inner banshee, but she can unplug it (which is something I have never been able to do with my own). She doesn't unleash it on Mike. She never turns the rage at Mike. Okay, how the hell does a fictional baby figure out how to do what the creator mommy can't?

Peggy and Peg in Strix: again I don't see the sarcasm or the pushing away. But they are still very nebulous.

Okay I think that's currently everyone in my head. I don't know what to do with it. Though I think I should stop making everyone orphans. Any way I have to get to the vet's before they close.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Good news

I got a study carrel! I think I can use it best Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights according to the Library's open hours.

I'm typing the post about the family and my perfectionism problem tomorrow. It's a dosy and I'm not finished with it yet.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

My epiphanies are never lightening bolts

I wish they were. You see the problem with "well duh" epiphanies is that I forget them and fall back into the habits that led to needing an epiphany in the first place.

For example, my first epiphany for today: my blog is my writing practice. I'm rereading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, and feeling a little defeated that I can't manage the simple writing practice everyday in a notebook. I'm getting dressed and a quiet voice says "You write your blog just about every day."

Which is true, even when I don't get to type them, I'm writing almost everyday. It's not the free form craziness that Goldberg recommends and that's probably why I had trouble making the connection.

Now pushing myself from complacency with writing practice to diving into writing with a purpose is a different problem.

Second epiphany: I don't write family dynamics. As I was pondering the status of epiphanies that led to this post, what I wrote yesterday came to mind. I was exploring how family influnced my perfectionism streak (I will be typing it up; it had good points in it) when I realized it was reflected in my fiction. My protagonists are orphans or estranged from blood kin. If they have a family, it is one they created with a bond beyond mere genetics. If there is blood kin of non-estranged type, it's siblings. I realized the only exception to this was in the Legend of Zelda fanfics. There's probably more to mine here, but I feel it goes better with the other post.

Third epiphany: My parents were not abusive, so where did my sister and I get our shared self-esteem issues? I guess the epiphany is more that we share them. The third kid got all the social abilities that skipped me and the middle kid, and I have never noticed her have these problems. But Kai feels she was an ugly baby who eventually got better and since puberty I changed from an adorable child to a hideous fat blob with boobs. I felt that was in high school; I feel that way now.

I think a lot of it stems from high school. Sure I had boobs but I also had brains and glasses, and the cute boys I crushed on dated the stick-thin cheerleaders with none of the above (though I am doing them a disservice--most of them were in the top ten percent of our class). Dating-wise things didn't get better in college.

Chad puts up with a lot of shit from me over these issues. Because it cuts me hard when he calls me "cute." With size D knockers since the onset of puberty, I deserve to be stunning, sultry, femme fatale, Jessica Rabbit with the slit to the clevage. But my face, my stature, and my personality only add up to cute. How the hell do you equate cute with sexy?

Fourth epiphany: My gender has been assaulted. This particular epiphany is about a month old. I was reading through a feminist blog entry and all the comments it generated thinking how lucky I had been to have never experienced any of that harrassment. Then a memory clicked into place and I realized I had been. Just once, groped and made to feel like a puny small thing until I kicked out. Literally, I was grabbed up by a guy twice my size and where do you think his arms stopped? I didn't do any permanent damage and he put me down real quick and the other boys didn't grab me. And I had always put a size ratio to it. I wasn't going to let some guy twice my size toss me around. The gender fears never entered my head, even though I spent the rest of the party in view of the adults.

I seem to spend a lot of my memories like that, thinking one thing and never realizing the bigger picture. I always thought my great-grandfather had a "shaking disease"--that must have been how it was first described to me and it is what I observed. Mom tells me last week he had Parkinson's and then acted like I should have known all along.

Fifth epiphany: My ego (Freud not Vinnie) needs to get out of the way. The source of my perfectionism streak that blocks me to protect me and all the other armor quirks I have. I'm so deeply flawed but it can't let any of that out.

Yeah, I got to get through, over, around, or under that.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

In other news

The reason why I was distracted and not really available this weekend:




Atticus is not 1 until July 26, but since his parents had vacation now, and came this way, we celebrated.

The party went pretty well, and the Extendeds didn't give Chris a hard time. (Oh, I might start always referring to them that way--the Extendeds.) Ender was when poor Atticus who knew something was up and didn't take a nap had all his attention on the cake and everyone in the room said "Atticus look up!" for the picture. Tears insued. I blame his mother *wink.* She's always telling him "No Atticus, not off the floor, No Atticus." He approached the whole cake thing expecting to be told "no." You could see it all over his face.

So between all that, I worked on the office. Mostly rearranging, so the projects aren't looming over me. I got three classes papers all scanned in and made headway in the torn-out magazine articles. So even though I didn't finish the box I started on, I made visible progress.


Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Weight Loss Week 2

I decided to make Mondays the weigh-in day. Why not? It already sucks, so adding weight gain can't make it worse and weight loss can only make it better. That's my theory; it will probably not work that way in practice. And Sunday made a week of being on the prescriptions.

Week 1 saw me start with 205 pounds according to the home scale.

Week 2: 199 pounds

It's hard to get worked up about 6 pounds. It could all be water weight since I just had my period last week. I need to take my measurements and keep track that way as well, but I'm procrastinating on it. I know it's better way to keep track, especially while working out. My only reason for procrastination is because I got so disgusted with the lack of progress the last time I measured.

Stupid reason to be stupid. I couldn't lose the weight with exercise and diet alone, so I should measure now. But it will have to be next week; I had not time to measure this morning while getting dressed.

I shouldn't be too hard on myself for only 6 pounds. A) Women don't lose weight fast. B) I didn't do portion control this weekend with the party. C) My exercise regime is non-existent.

If traffic cooperates, I can make it to the gym for a mile walk before yoga class. I still haven't made it to the pool for my one day of swimming. Don't know if this week will be any different.

The extra caffeine didn't cause any side effects Saturday and Sunday, even though I was drinking it like water. I did have a dizzy spell this morning, but I had taken a muscle relaxer last night. I hadn't taken any last week and the dizzy spell didn't last long.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Got One Thing Accomplished Today

The update to the BookWorm's Library is done.

Here's to the next week going better than the last.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

You are the Dash

You scored 30% Sociability and 47% Sophistication!

There's no denying that you have a certain flair. You don't mind being around others, especially your little brother, the hyphen, but you rarely emerge except when needed. You respond well to those who know how to treat you, but have only contempt for those who don't--you tend to embarass them every chance you get. Your only enemy is the colon--he will sometimes try to move in on your turf.


Only I couldn't find the code to post it all pretty. That's weird.
Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

It was a bad week

Yeap, I'm admitting. A totally bad week, and while I do regret my outburst, a chunk of my discontent needed to be aired. Now to get the boyfriend in one location long enough to discuss it.

While admitting things, I totally flopped on doing any real work, could only manage enough oomph to get to the paying job and discovered that Yoga takes away my homicidal rage.

That's the part of all this that frightens me. I don't consider myself a violent person; if I fight it's because I have to. But to have fantasies of knocking someone's teeth down their throat when they have done nothing to deserve that... sometimes I fear I'm going to go on a postal rampage. And this would be the cue for the guilt-ladden part of the irrational phase.

But I'm not going to give into to it. I fucked up, but it's not the end of the world and I'm not going to Hell because of it. The boyfriend is still talking to me--even though the methods of communication are strained due to circumstances out of our control. I didn't kill anyone. The worst thing to happen is I didn't work on anything and my schedule is now more behind. What else is new, I'm always behind.

What is more disturbing is my lack of focus. What has been bothering me in a way I could not define--suffering from the lack of focus--and Mez put her finger on it and hit me with a sledgehammer. It doesn't really matter when it started, though I could probably trace back the evolution from mentions in my blog posts. I have to fix it now.

One of Mez's good idea is to claim another office space. My campus library offers study carrels, but I didn't know you had to apply each semester. We're going into the third week of the summer semester; they might not have any left. Which will mean a new plan, but I will worry about that after I'm denied. The Tangipahoa Parish library doesn't offer any private space, but I don't know what the new Springfield/Albany branch of the Livingston Parish library offers. If all else fails, find a coffee shop. But I need a place where I can set up one thing and only one thing and work on it.

Second observation actually came from me. I practice Feng Shui in my home (I probably need to export it to my paying job cubicle too, but that's another project) and a big warning sign is clutter. Clutter stiffles chi (the vital energy of the universe that connects all things both inanimate and animate), can and create sha (negative energy). Since the outer environment influences the body and mind, it can create or reflect illness in the body and unhealthy attitudes in the mind.

Go ahead and say hogwash and get it out of the way. But if you replace chi and sha with psycho-babble, what do you get?

Now for the evidence: inside my home office.


The north wall, not too bad. Books and binders are shelved. Files in the file drawers are labeled and not crowded to the point of exploding out.


The west wall more specifically, the front of the computer. The tape player for the stalled tape transfer project. Papers and reference books for the website update projects.


Corner of the desk as we move to the south wall. You can see more of the papers for the website updating projects.


The south wall view. The stacks and box of tapes for the tape transfering project. Mail that I haven't dealt with. More papers and a binder on the website updating projects.


My way out on the south side. Stacks of books that need to be entered and shelved. More notes and papers pulled out for some project I must still be working on otherwise I would have put them back. The stack of plastic boxes is papers to file or scan project.


The east wall. The table that should be free for me to lay stuff out on is covered with papers and my meal plan binder.


End of the circle. I'm not sure where the bag should go, but it doesn't belong here.



Two pics from the outside of the desk. Most of this stuff is for the scanning project.

I surround myself with multiple projects and then wonder why I can't commit to working on just one. For the body connection, the office is in the center of my house. If you overlay a stick figure with it's head in the main doorway, the office area corresponds with my torso. And all of my fat that I need to lose is on my torso.

Saturday is supposed to be my day off, and I will have to spend time with Atticus and the rest of the family. At the same time, I need to make massive headway and banish the clutter. So I'm going to concentrate on scanning today and only scanning to decrease the piles.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Not available tonight

I didn't sleep good, the pills are making me wonky, and I'm in no condition to try to work.

Food, LotR film appendixes, and early bed time.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Current State of Health

Weight: 205
Measurements: I'll deal with later.

Saturday: Start jotting down blog notes while waiting to do my baseline bloodwork this morning. Once that's done, I can start taking my prescriptions. The problem is offically Metabolic Syndrome, of which PCOS is a symptom of. Not a full-blown diabetic yet, but at the rate I keep gaining weight, I will be in a decade or less. So I get to take metformin to counter the high sugar levels in my blood and phentermine to suppress my appetite. And then I get to create a sensible diet out of all the diet paperwork I was given.

No wonder I've been chugging the caffeine. I hate needles and I hate that my body has betrayed me.

Feeling better now that I'm eating breakfast. I mentally understand that genetics played me a crappy hand. But if I could go back to my stupid 1995, 18-year-old self who thought her size 4, 120 pounds body was so fat and ugly, and bitch slap me, I would. "This is your future! 200 pounds in 5 years! Switch to diet soft drinks, eat more salads, and for goddess dake, avoid the mashed potatoes with every meal! And go take weighlifting or other aerobics classes at least once every semester!" Forget about going to witness history with a time machine, I want self intervention.

Sunday: My first time taking phentermine. The doctor did warn me that I might need to take half a pill, but I had to know what a whole pill would do to me. Buzzed almost out of this world. Driving wasn't an option, leaving the house didn't sound like a good idea, so I worked on computer stuff all day long. And the dose finally wore off when I started snarling in frustration at the computer stuff.

Monday: Only took half a pill this morning, and I seem to be functioning normally.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Sometimes, I'm just plain spooky

I actually wrote the second poem before getting called on the carpet for my evil multitasking ways. Because I don't multitask with work I'm obviously not doing any work. Course exactly, how much am I supposed to get done, when I get called to help someone almost every five minutes?

But now we can work on lawsuits, so at least I have another office function to do now when the program is being a bitch.

I don't how much I'm going to be on at night, so you should probably only look for me chat-wise on the weekends.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Goofed Up by the Weekend

Had too much caffeine Sunday to combat the leftover muscle relaxer and my sleep schedule isn't right yet. I will be going to yoga tonight and I need to add something to it. Weightlifting is still out and I'm feeling blah about walking. Swimming sounds good, but at the same time I want to wear myself out to sleep good--not be revved up from the exercise.

Updated Discipline Under Fire to get ready for 100 Words. Need to update my numbers for the stuff I have worked on in the past couple of days. Need to put the right files on the flashdrive so I can work on them. Need to read more poetry for class. Need to finish website updates, but the electricity has to stay on. (A storm knocked it out from 4pm to 9pm last night.) Need to catch up on writing group stuff. Need to catch up on emails. Need to work on everything.

Need more caffeine now!

Answered the call for more caffeine. Hopefully, I will exercise it away. Now I'm going to work on Educators' Guide.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

First yoga class!

Yeap, I finally made it. It went well, I didn't damage anything, and will go back next week. Hopefully, next week won't be anything like this week. Anyways, I feel good only my neck is tight and that's a big improvement from all down my back.

I was planning on going swimming Saturday, but there's no money for gas until Monday, so I better save the driving for Sunday and work. Which, is really a good thing, because I need to work on the Educator's Guide that I didn't get to tonight since I had to cook lunch for tomorrow.

So finish websites and make headway into the Educator's Guide. And hope beyond home that the constant calling my name is almost over at work.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Wednesday hopefully will be better

The universe does not want me to go to the gym. Sunday: it pours down raining and I don't want to drive in that. Monday: physical therapy appointment. Tuesday: a wreck on the Interstate snarls up traffic so bad that even though I take back roads, I miss the class and pretty much the hours of operation.

Today the online class technically starts. Three essays to read every week, and we're supposed to write 5 - 10 poems along with a paper by the end. *Gulp*

I also figured out yesterday that raspberry iced tea--while good--is not good at 6pm when trying to reestablish the sleep routine. No chores this morning since I got up late. An hour in the morning used to be enough time. Is my house that filthy? Am I moving slower? Is it just readjusting my daily schedule? Regardless, Tuesday left me with two rooms left to vacuum and daily chores uncompleted. But nothing is piled up like it was on Sunday.

But cleaning Sunday went well--as in I made headway into the pile ups. I also made a decision to use natural cleaning products. I could say that I researched and decided it was better for my health and environment, but why lie? Truth is, I ran out of chemical degreaser that wasn't doing jack on my stove crud. I didn't want to go to the store and remembered vinegar was supposed to work. It worked, but lemon juice got my teapot unsticky from greasy ick. Looks like new now. So now I'm getting empty spray bottles and researching to see what I should mix up.

So while I have a free minute, it's time to start on homework.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

And just that quickly

I'm off schedule again. It must be some sort of talent, or a curse. I haven't decided yet.

Good news: I think we're caught up with the switch over to the new system at the paying job. Just a word of advice, next time bringing a new system online and changing how three divisions work, log in some weekend hours so you don't have to worry about new stuff piling on top of the old stuff waiting. I think I would have liked earning my 6.5 hours of overtime on a Saturday or the Monday we were off, rather than every day last week.

Other news: I think the schedule may have opened up enough to let me go do exercises. The gym at SLU offers both Tai Chi and Yoga 3 to 4 days a week during the Summer schedule, and when I can be reasonable sure I can get there for the classes. I don't want to start anything high impact and I'm not well enough for weightlifting, so I think even one of these two classes would be a good start.

Bad news: My house is practically and completely upside down. I really need to get it into shape so I can concentrate on other projects like writing, the tape migration, and remodeling the bathroom.

Actually I'm not being fair to the house. Most of the chaos is limited to the kitchen and office; the other rooms need tidying that is normal. It's just I got off my cleaning schedule back in March and haven't managed to get back on it. And the massive doses of caffeine the past week haven't helped. Another reason I want to go to the gym today, to wear my ass out to sleep good and wake up on time.

So looking at the writing schedule, I'm supposed to work on Alt. BM Site today, which I never got a chance to start. I think the Library's changes are done for this update at least. I will need to spend some time on the Alt. BM Site, mainly because I haven't yet, and changing things with Drupal always makes me antsy.

So I guess the plan for today is to the list the house chores, and work on the Alt. BM Site between them until about 5pm when I go workout. *Shrug* At least it's a plan.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

New system

*Glomp Jazz* JAZZIE!!!

And we started the new system at work Tuesday. The only reason I'm home now is because of physical therapy appointment. I probabably won't get cauht up on everything else till the end of the week if then.

Read Free!
The BookWorm


Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Weird three-day weekend

My real plans got shoved aside, so I ended up at the house. I took my mother to see Georgia Rules for a belated Mother's Day present and she enjoyed it. I kept having to go back and forth to the store twice before I got the right equipment to transfer cassette tapes to the harddrive. I have 5 recorded now that need further editing to split songs apart and shrink to mp3s or burn to CDs.

I was going to work on Alt BM Site, but the hosts email me today and ask not to update because they are moving both sites to a new server. So I try to work on the Library's update and get hopelessly confused over the state of the Writing Tutorials. But I have officially canceled the newsletter now, and I'm not sure how many I have to add to the archive.

The Educator's Guide just wasn't grooving. I don't know if it was just the not being used to working on the laptop (since the desktop was busy with the recording) or if what I was recording just not conductive to writing.

Paperwork I did get some progress on. I have one box of various things to deal with, the receipts to go into Quicken basket, the papers to scan are in one place instead of five, and writing related stuff is in one pile. Now that last pile probably needs me to go through it again and see if some of it can be filed in binders or shelved. I don't really know how much clean space I acquired since I filled it with audio tapes.

So I don't know why I just feel so blah and I wasted the whole weekend. I think I'm going to watch some Perry Mason and just veg until bedtime.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

This week

Not a good night last night. I've done some changes to offline copy of "Blue Man" and some changes to the online Google version. I tried to get all the changes to one version, which I will upload. The highlights transferred as background patterns and I had to take them off one paragraph at a time. I started screaming at the computer and decided it was time to stop. Muscle relaxers and back pain must make me surly. Today, I changed it to colored text. Maybe that will work better.

I did too much this weekend and have suffered for the past two days because I didn't take any muscle relaxers. So last night was my first one this week, and I still feel sleepy. I probably need to take another one tonight after physical therapy.

No bomb threats at work since Wednesday. No, we STILL haven't been told anything. So here's all I know:

Monday: 3 emailed bomb threats in the morning. The second one said something along the lines: "You're not taking me seriously since I see you haven't evacuated the building." The third was "I'm going to blow up the building in 10 minutes." After that one it was a mandatory evacuation, and the building was closed for the rest of the day.

Tuesday: 1 emailed bomb threat around 10:30 and mandatory evacuation. I left my car keys on my desk. Came back at 1pm, not to do any work, but to get my keys and go home if they were opening the building. They were doing an intensive mainframe search and didn't want us on the computer system. Building closed again. A cop brought my keys down to me.

Wednesday: Second-hand news. Mom was freaking out, coupled with stress from my grandmother's health, so I stayed home. Bad decision because I didn't get anything I wanted to get done, done. :p Another bomb threat at noon, they didn't close the building. And eventually took a co-worker's son who worked in the Mailroom in for questioning.

Thursday: Rumor mill has the son arrested. Rumor mill also says the cops took a laptop from the training room--that was were the emails were being sent from. Suspect was returned to work because all they had on him was the fact that he owns a Blackberry and somebody reported him.

I really couldn't see him doing it, not with his mother's health the way it is and his aunt undergoing cancer surgery during all this.

And nothing has happened since then, including no reassuring prattle from our bosses. A lot of people's nerves are still shot.

To change subjects, I miss my CD store. I have no idea if it moved from the mall or just closed up entirely. I went to Wal-Mart looking for female rockers. I found an Alanis Morisette and already have Garbage, so that's the type of stuff I'm looking for. It's for Zy's soundtrack incidently. The problem with Wal-Mart and Taget and stores like that, the clerks are not there to help you make music decisions but only to keep you from shoplifting merchandise and getting the heavy items. I'm staring at CDs covers and they don't tell me anything about how the woman sings. So you can rule out by covers as being hiphop/R&B, but a lot you can't distinguish. And it doesn't help that the only two catagories seem to be "country" and "everything else." I don't always want to shop with a clerk over my shoulder, but when I want to ask someone for recommendations, I want one and now.

I'm sure I'm probably going to be yelled at by someone for buying CDs and supporting RIAA and not looking into Internet radio. A lot of it boils down to I listen to music in my car, which doesn't like mp3s. I don't have an mp3 player. And I can't keep up with my best friend's podcasts or any others people point me too. I can't download things to my paying job computer and I'm usually busy with something else when I get home. CDs actually fit my life, even though I don't agree with the policies of the RIAA.

That's all I've got for today. Working at trying to stay awake.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

W.W.T.D.D. ?

ROFLOL!!!!!!!

Home on the Strange: Who is Your Savior? and Who is Your Savior? (Regeneration Remix)

The Doctor if you please! LOL!!! I'm so with Tom on this. Let's start a new religion! What Would the Doctor Do?

And I've been trying to look sexy in my sneakers like 10. (That's my cover story anyway. I really just need to buy some new work shoes.)

Course I'm limited to who I can share this with. My office is out. I get to giggle in my cubicle again.

Also reminded of Neil's essay on the Doctor: The Nature of the Infection.

I'm going to have "Who Is In Time" song in my head all day. And that's not bad at all. :D

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Nothing has really gone to plan today

My deposit is still pending so no buying things or paying the electric bill. I can't get into cPanel for Alt. Biker Mice Site to get the backup done. At least I got my summer semester financial aid award letter in the mail. And the weather's nice.

So modification of plans, work on the Library instead. I have a lot I want to do, but it's really a lot of little things. But to start I have to clean off the computer's desktop so I can find out if the new stuff downloaded last night.

Update: SQUEE! I have embedded music the user can control! *Insert maniacal laughter here* Yes, I know it's been out for a while, but I got it to work without having to call for help.

Now hopefully the editing and ripping programs will be so accommodating.

Update: Okay, you know how I said today nothing has gone according to plan and it was looking like a really bad day? FORGET IT! I can USE the editing and ripping programs! Yes, this is a big deal because I usually trip over my feet when it comes to new programs.

Oh yeah, this update to the Library is gonna kick some rock 'n roll ass.

Read Free!
The BookWorm


Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

This ain't good

It's gotta be resistance that I hate the outline. I think it's a stupid outline and shows no sensitivity.

It's a bloody outline. It's not supposed to show sensitivity! And it's what the boss wants.

Okay, where to stick falconry is an honest question. I don't think it really fits with "Knights and Jousting" but it has nothing to do with the other topics either. Maybe bump it up to its own section until we get more stuff like it?

And only one title on the outline doesn't suck.

Yeah, that's resistance again.

And I have a page count (20 - 30), which is making me twitchy cause I'm so used to working with word counts. But just judging by the preliminary numbers, I have to slash the Educator's Guide in half for starters. Plus add in the characters.

My new haircut was a big hit with everybody.

YES! I found my missing notes from the History of the Book class. Or at least one of them. Didn't I make notes on the second turn in? *Go digging again* No, that would be just too damn easy. ARGH! I remember doing it. Proof yet again that I need to handle the piles of paperwork crisis because I can't find anything.

This week has been hell and I'm cranky. I'm going to coddle the cranky by going to bed early and really do it tonight. Notes are in a safe binder that I need to relabel. I have an official outline that sucks, but gives me a great excuse of what not to include in the 2008 version. I'm going to count that as a victory, and look forward to my plan of attack.

Plan of attack: 1). move only the files that will be included as text to the 2008 folder. 2). Match AMF characters with sections. 3). Divide out the cookbook as a separate file from the guide and activity book, but worry about making it pretty later.

So after that my question would be, do I write the intros first and then chop? Or chop and then write? And if I cut each sections' previously written word count in half, will that get me to 30 pages of end project?

Now the brain is just being silly. Off to bed.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Writing schedule

Monday: off
Tuesday: Blue Man revision
Wednesday: Blue man revision
Thursday: Educators guide
Friday: Updates to the library
Saturday: day off
Sunday: updates to BMFM

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

How do you type when a cat lays on the copy?

You don't. *Sigh*

Anyways, I was getting through the pile creative writing class comments made on Blue Man, so I could through away the six or seven copies of the story (draft 2 version I think). Mustard refuses to let me have them back. Yeah, I could force the issue, but he looks so cute.

I've been told it's safe to go back to the paying job tomorrow and I might as well. I don't think I accomplished anything today between appointments and trying to see MawMaw in the hospital. She's moved to the rehab center now.

So I'm off to bed early and hopefully tomorrow will make sense.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Repeated on Tuesday

Only they evacuated us with the first email threat this time. I really don't know if it is worth wasting the gas to go in tomorrow.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

So what has to happen before we make the local news?

700 people blow up? The building gets destroyed? I saw the news van, but it is too much to ask for a notice on the websites I can link to. Or at least see if I need to go to work.

It's Monday, but I get to work with no problems. The morning routine goes according to schedule. Typing lawsuits while waiting for the mail and making notes on website changes. Then two DPS (a section of the state troopers that handle security for the state government buildings) officers head to the mailroom's supervisor's office. (The reason it is in our space is a long and boring.) I hear "mail" before they shut the door.

There's only two problems you can have with mail that would involve the cops: anthrax and a bomb.

No email notices are sent out yet. Scarlet (my immediate supervisor)went down for breakfast and came back with the news that the first floor is swarming with cops. "Have you shit ready to grab when we have to hit the doors. And I'm ready to evacuate now."

We get an email telling us to turn off our cell phones. People are starting to get really jittery now. Then Cathy (mailroom supervisor) comes out of her office. "Just a drill, but you have to evacuate." Followed with the fire warden for our section coming through. "GET OUT THIS IS NOT A DRILL! GET OUT OR BLOW UP!"

Down the stairs, across the parking lot, where we wait. Three emailed bomb threats, and the cops are now searching everything. Fine by me: "Can I move my car so concrete won't hit it? I just bought it." The answer was no.

Neighboring Livingston building let us in, but the entire building didn't fit. Down the road but within walking distance, Claiborne Building opened up for us too. It's now sometime after 10am. 2 people have to leave by EMS.

By 11:40 am, I convinced some of my coworkers we needed to get food at Claiborne. The only words we were getting was sign a legal pad and don't go home. We just got our food and sat down, when we're told to move to another room, the Commissioner has news.

Early dismissal, the cops are checking cars to rule out another Oklahoma City, so you may have to wait until yours is inspected. It is a credible threat "but if Homeland Security can't catch this nut, we got other things to worry about." Yeah, that didn't bring up any bad flashbacks of "Good job, Brownie" *shudder*. "Come back tomorrow and if it isn't safe, they won't let you in."

It was a good thing I was sitting in the back, so my boss of bosses didn't hear me mutter: "You live here. I'd like to know before I drive a fucking hour at 6am."

Went home, got my Hammond errands wrapped up early, was getting everything all caught up with Mom, and the electricity goes out so I can't see the 5pm news. My uncle got it on his battery powered TV and says I have to go in.

But I'd feel a whole lot better about it knowing the arrested the kook.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Reading Diary

After a year's break, I've rebooted my Reading Diary blog. Basically, I'm just offering reviews of books I have read and Amazon links to buy them. It also encouragement to me to read stuff I have on my shelves that I haven't yet.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Why yesterday was a bad day

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/7454366.html

I spent 4 hours in the car yesterday between going to my coworker's mother's viewing and trying to get to work.

Another coworker tells me I shouldn't send a driver's manual to the hospital as a get well present because the commuters there are probably doing a much better job tormenting her.

Read Free!
The BookWorm


Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Monday Assessments, Tuesday Tweaks, and Wednesday I Actually Get To Type It In

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. And I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop visiting Mom. It's 7pm before we eat and by that point, whatever I had planned to try to do that night is shot.

• My bedroom - clean


• Living room - clean, but get rid of the getting rid of stuff


• Bathroom - clean


• Backroom - clean, but look in the patterns for "Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince" book


• Kitchen - clean


• Office - paperwork piles

*Sigh* Most of what is now on the To Do List is writing and odds & ends. Like dealing with paperwork. I work in an office for crying out loud. I know how fast paperwork piles up. Why don't I deal with it on a weekly basis?

Probably for the same reason I don't do anything else I'm supposed to do. Say it with me, Procrastination.

Anyways it's time I got serious about it. So if I get a good chunk of the To Do list out of the way (mostly the stuff I have to leave the house to do and the bulletproof corset. I want to finish it before PotC3) this week, it should be a weekend of writing and filing.

Unless I go kidnap Chad. Damnit I want to see Spider-Man NOW! I could see it without him, but this dating thing... I've heard it's nice. I got him to agree to Sunday. So it looks like one day of mostly writing and filing. Which is okay. After three weekends in a row cleaning house, I'm ready to leave.

I have two good barrets that hold up my hair. The one I'm wearing now is not one of them. Okay, it's gone now. Time for a haircut; I can do the Brooke Shields Blue Lagoon hide the boobies manuever. I think I got at least ten inches of length to donate to Locks of Love. That will probably have to be added to Saturday too.

A coworker's mother died; it's employee appreciation week, and mail is in like it's a deadline: paying job catch-up complete.

Moday I had a bad headaches due to muscles spasm and me not packing the painkillers for it. Tuesday my head was clear and I had planned to sit down with the calender and everything I need to do. The three-hour visit with Mom ruined that. Then I stayed up too late comparing the movie version of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" to the print version I'm rereading again. I had considered sewing on the corset, but the book wasn't clear on how to handstitch. For the record, all my sewing has been done and taught for the machine, so I have no clue what I'm doing on hand work beyond sewing on a button. And now I just remembered that's why I bought Sewing for Dummies, which I forgot I owned last night.

Tonight is the final, so I probably won't get anything done at the house tonight either. But I should be cleared out to do some planning Thursday and Friday. I need to set up some deadlines so school work and other writing gigs don't interfere with each other.

I'm very tired of having a brain that is bouncing all over the place, and I think I've allowed it to do that for much too long. I think it developed as a defense mechanism to my submission fear, because I never had a problem with focusing until I told myself "I have to get serious about being published. I have to make that extra step."

I need to take the time to delve into this fear and drag it kicking and screaming into the light. It's no good talking sternly to myself, making deadlines to submit, because I will just cave when it comes to meeting them. I ALWAYS cave. I have to deal with this or hire somebody to do submissions for me. And there's no money for a secretary, unfortunately.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

I don't believe it, even though I should

Remember the most aggravating thing in the world?

I just found the sheet. After I gave it up as a lost cause and started to recreate it.

*Shoving the papers in the proper binder* I swear it is laughing at me!

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Done in by technology

*Sigh* Recent events--namely getting stuck in Denham Springs with no way of knowing how to get around the traffic mess and no atlas or maps in car--made me realize I need to put some of that stuff on my phone. Unrelated email from a friend made me go look at the other things Google offers. Mobile maps! Yeah!

Now, I have added "going to cell phone store so they can show me how to use my browser properly" to the To Do list.

Also Google Calender is present a learning curve. Apparently my calender and the link with Gmail aren't connecting. *Sigh*

And I'm hoping that upgrading to the next version of BookCAT clears up those problems.

In other news, housecleaning is still going but I think I will finish today. Actually, I'm not giving myself much of a choice. I want to do full on writing next weekend or go get my tent from Lafayette (long story).

"The Harder They Come: Writing Woes" by J.A. Konrath is spot on BRILLIANT! I used to be much better at shutting that question voice up, back when I didn't put so much on the line with the story. I'm working on that.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Project Updates

Let's see: housecleaning and writing are going as well as can be expected. I have a lot of both, but I think this weekend--if plans don't change--will wipe out housework and dent the writing. School work is practically over; just the final left. So now it's time to consider what else needs updating: the websites.

I started listing things here and realized it was getting too long and moved it to Backpack instead. 12 items so far for Alt. Biker Mice Site, and 5 for the Library.

The biggest issue for Alt BM Site after getting the Drupal upgrade is the Tortures. Okay, I can accept that they don't understand which numbers have been used. To a certain degree I was willing to work around that--namely finding out if there was a way to get them auto-titled with the next number whenever someone clicked on it. BUT when a user creates a torture which is a plot bunny to share with the rest of the fandom to advertize a Geocities site with new series Rimfire pics on it for the sole purpose of complaining about the look, I want to borrow Miss Snarks' clue cannon and let them have until they are vaporizied.

*Calming down from Klingon battle rage* So it's obvious Tortures is not working as intended. And I really don't want to go back to vetting and adding the content. Lord and Lady, all that typing sucked. But I am at a lost of what to do with it.

Idea 1: Make it a forum under Red Planet. Users can post, they can discuss, they can vote on what gets added to the list at Alt. BM Site.
Idea 2: Make the Tortures a forum on Alt. BM Site for the same reasons. I don't really want to add a forum to Alt. BM Site because the fandom already has places to talk.
Idea 3: Keep the set up as is only figuring out how to make it number automatically, but new ones are moderated and aren't added until the moderator approves the post.
Idea 4: Make it a static page that no one can add too. I don't really want to do this either because the new series needs Tortures too.
Idea 5: Some solution I haven't thought of yet.

And that's where I am tonight. And finding notes. I didn't want a right-hand column on the content pages. I wonder if I can fix that with Views. Anyway, bounce some ideas to me while I go find Krug and see if he is any help. And get some sleep.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Quick catchup

Started physical therapy. Muscle spasms, no bone damage.

And I'm now the proud owner of a 2006 Dodge Stratus, which I will post a picture of as soon as I figure out why the picture transfer from my camera to harddrive isn't working.

Off to work on the to do list and try to go to bed early.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

The most aggravating thing in the world

To remember what the damn notes looked like. To remember whiting-out things that didn't fit and rearranging them.

What so aggravating about that?

TO NOT FIND THE DAMN NOTE SO YOU CAN GET THE DATES IN YOUR NOVEL STRAIGHT BEFORE TURNING IN THIS CHAPTER FOR THE CLASS PROJECT!

And knowing that it is hiding somewhere laughing at you.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Shopping for a new car hell

I try to keep an open mind. I don't care about color as long as the price is right, it has cargo room, and the gas mileage is good. Used is still new to me. So it ought to be easy to find me a damn car, right?

Course it doesn't help when I start getting cranky and ill because my neck and back hurt. And my pecs but that usually doesn't happen unless I use those muscles.

I didn't get to pick out the Hyundai Accent. And the plan was to drive it till it dropped after I had it paid off and had saved up a down payment. So I would actually enjoy car shopping the second time around.

It's the oh-god-I'm-spending-too-much and the it-costs-how-fucking-much all rolled into one. And I have to call the bank and the insurance guys tomorrow. So looks like I'm going back to work Tuesday.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

How Do You Really Do It? Project

Okay, time for the project I kept say I would explain later: "How Do You Really Do It? Living the Writing Life" over at Discipline Under Fire.

Basically, I want an autobiographical how-to that's more concerned with the living part rather than the writing part. Comments are turned on for those entries, and I'm looking forward to see what develops.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Pain is bearable

So what happened yesterday. I was running late, but was not tailgating. In fact, I had just congratualted myself on leaving lots of room in front of me. Had already called work and said I was running late. Car to the left in the median between interstate lanes, corner damaged, must have clipped the light pole. Brake lights. Me slam on brakes. Airbag in face.

Airbag defaltes and I get the car to the shoulder. Get out to get away from gritty airbag dust. Five or six people all asking if I was okay. Arms felt scraped, chest hurt, back and neck don't hurt yet but they will. Other car has only bumper damage and that mostly looks like my white paint. A Motorists Assisstance Patrol guy sees us from the Eastbound side and soon joins us. It's about 7:40 am.

Call work, call home. Mom calls Dad. Wait for cops. Wait for on-duty cops (yes, off-duty ones stopped and got our hopes up). Two sets of firefighters and a set of paramedics stop to see if we needed to go to the hospital. Later we find out that the radio traffic people say ours is an accident with injuries. A state trooper finally shows up. Oops you are ten feet too close to O'Neal Lane, you need city police. He forgets to call them in. M.A.P. guy has to do it.

Dad shows up. I call insurance, city police show up about 9:30 am. No ticket for me. Finally eat breakfast, and finished talking to insurance, have to go to the wrecked yards and sign a release so the body shop can get car. Arrange for the rental, get a doctor's appointment, starting to hurt.

Call Chad. At noon, Dad's gassing up at Denham Springs and we run into M.A.P. guy at the same gas station. Get rental car. Go to doctor. Muscle relaxers and ibroprfen and x-rays and appointment for next week.

Muscle relaxers make me loopy but I'm going back to work tomorrow. Go to bed at 7 pm, don't hear the phone next to the bed when Chad calls. Still going to work until I wake up at 2 am and can't move my neck without pain. Call in sick.

Today I picked up the living room mess Mustard had made by knocking over the table filled with board games and books. I have never seen anything scatter in a circular pattern before. And I finished shelving and correcting the BookCat database of obvious errors. I think I need to send them an email to find out how I can break my fiction into genres and create a printed report from that.

I also discovered I have two projects I want to do: How do you really do it? (which I will explain later) and resurrecting the Reader's Diary. I just reshelved 1247 books and found plenty that I haven't read yet. Also I need to be honest, if I don't reread them, do I need to keep them? And some of the nonfiction is just bizarre. Will I ever do anything on the Biodome project?

And the insurance called and my car is a total loss. So now I have to go buy a new one. Luckily, the settlement will pay off my car loan, so I'm not in the hole. But I don't have much of a down payment.

So tomorrow: call insurance, double check their figures. Call bank and get pre-approved for car loan. Then maybe go car shopping.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Not what I had in mind for when I got back here

But I had another wreck, me at fault. Front-end smooshed. Hopefully repairable. Sore and also on muscle relaxers.

Mustard made living room mess worse. Not a good day at all.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Getting back to normal

Things are returning to what passes for normal at my house. Saturday saw me get a great word count (4101) while crossing other things off the to-do list until I hit upon "clean office." That gave me the brainwave of moving the black metal shelves so I could move the tall filing cabinet so I could put a set of tall shelves where the filing cabinet once was. So now I need a new set of shelves for the living room.

Second point to moving shelves is moving books and putting the piles of unshelved books back in order. That ate up the time on Sunday, once I figured out how to get a report sorted by Dewey Decimal numbers out of BookCAT. Actually, shuffling the books around is the easy part, correcting the BookCAT database when I founf errors took time. I still have the 000s and fiction to do. The clean the living room and kitchen messes. At least the kitchen mess is unrelated to the rest of the mess.

Course it didn't help I found a new website to distract myself with: Cat-Tales. It's Batman universe fanfiction that takes the stance that the comics are tabloid versions of the characters. Selina and Bruce are together and know each other is Catwoman and Batman. Hysterica ensue, but they are good for each other. Some of the male Rogues Gallery descending to tell Bruce Wayne how to deal with Catwoman is still my favorite scene. COurse they all think she's toyinh with Bruce and Batman, and it's not really fair. Gaslighting the Joker so bad he checks into Arkham was a good story too.

Back to the word count, apparantly the contract is finally showing some effect. I finished a scene in Zy's Novel and then breezed through a scene in Strix, even typed up background notes and worked out what the vampires were doing and who they pretended to be timeline. I have to go back to Zy's Novel, but it doesn't seem too bad.

I also have a third project semi-started but I'll go into that later.

Read Free!
The BookWorm


Progress Bar from Writertopia

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Son of Indy?

I've long said that would be a good idea for the fourth movie, unless they did something with the "Young Indiana Jones Adventures." And now they've cast a 20-year-old. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/13/people.shialabeouf.ap/index.html

Not that I try to second guess movie choices. I'm just happy that Speilburg and Ford are involved so the dialogue won't suck like it did in three recent Lucas films.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

How Much Is Slander Worth?

Or does email fall under libel laws? Not that I'm planning to sue; it's more satisfying to watch things explode from a distance. And I don't know how entertaining this will be with how much background info I have to put in.

May 17, 2005: Vacation From RenFaire My posting on quitting Louisiana Renaissance Festival. Notice I never said anything bad about anyone, choosing to say it was my burnout. Burnout caused by becoming increasing demoralized by working for LRF and most of it I put on not being supported as management by the owners because I'm female. There was bickering and clicks and high turnover among the cast that never seemed to stop. It had stopped being fun long before I quit, but I stayed out a sense of obligation and I enjoy reenacting. Though by May, that joy wasn't enough to keep me going.

Chad's final straw was when there was a masturbation/flashing incident on one of the School Days, and at least one of the owners refused to have any of the rennies ("rennies" are people who travel from festival to festival to be hired on for whatever jobs are available) checked out by the witnesses or the police. And tried to put the blame on the chaperone because she didn't find a cop and it had to be someone from the outside. General public isn't allowed in on school days.

That was 2004. And it was what prompted Chad to start his own faire--an idea he's always had in the back of his mind. School Days was Chad's invention and the public would eventually hold him responsible should something worse happen. Katrina at the end of August 2005 started the ball rolling for what became Acadiana Medieval Faire. Population shifted across the state of Louisiana; Chad moved to Lafayette. Chad finished the 2005 season for them, including two School Days, because it was the professional thing to do. Chad quit very diplomatically, and was upfront about his plans, so we could all work together in the future.

Renaissance Living History Center was a group Chad help found with other LRF cast members who wanted to preserve LRF when it had looked like year 2002 was going to be its last and to promote a more historically accurate reenacting. They didn't want to start a new faire in a medieval period, so Chad resigned from the group, too, so there would be no legal questions over the ownership of Acadiana, hoping they would come play too.

I'm still annoyed they cheated Chad out of his paycheck for 2005. I think I'm supposed to drop it, since Chad is happy with the used desktop computer system and software compensation--but there should have been cash to make up the difference. Yet, I should have remembered this is the same group who said they were not paying me to write LRF's 2005 Educators' Guide because the deal was between Chad and me. That's fine now because Chad put a down payment on it out of his pocket, and they have no legal rights to use it. And I will litigate over that if it ever is used without my permission.

So the six months sped by with the Acadiana posters I and the others on cast put up at SLU torn down, and some complaints from our Yahoo group members of getting spam from LRF. It was rather low on our priority list with everything else we had to do, but odd. Even more odd when everyone in Acadiana was spammed for the independent film shoot at LRF's site April 1st--our opening day. We didn't miss them with 1700 people to worry about.

They showed up in mass Sunday to scope it out. And yes, it was a spying mission because if you are supporting a new Faire, you ask for permission to come play--i.e. work on the street cast--and you show up in garb. Everyone in one travel group, including ones we thought were our friends in RHLC and just didn't like the medieval period showed up in LRF T-shirts. Only five people showed up in either garb or street clothes.

Since the lawyer didn't name names, I guess I won't either. A representative of LRF came back on Monday, our school day and wondered around the parking lot. I think he told the schools we had complaint issues with exactly what to say about our Faire because it was the same stuff that he brought up Sunday to all our merchants--like calling the board of health because we didn't have enough port-a-johns, Chad over booked the space, there was no way we'd have over 2000 kids in this site, there was false advertising claiming rides that we're there. When a stranger from Lake Charles (on the Texas side of the state) starts spouting off the same stuff, you have to wonder. Yes, I know who the representative is. I'm the one who alerted the cops that he was trespassing. Not that they did any good; Hannah (Chad's mother) threw him off that day, and told him to grow up and end it.

Here's the post I made publicly about our first year: April 6, 2006: Acadiana Medieval Faire Year One. I didn't bring any of that up at the time because I figured they showed their colors and there was no point in pointing out depressing human behavior.

After all that in April, Chad caught them trying to impersonate him via email accounts in May. After Isaac's drowning accident, we were informed we could only go to the memorial service on LRF's site as long as we were escorted. We didn't go because a) other plans and b) weirded out by having the service at the site of his death.

There's more I'm forgetting, but I had other things to worry about with Chad's health, my grandmother moving in with my parents, my sister having a baby, school work, the Thanksgiving crisis, and building a new Faire site for year 2. Which brings us to the end of March 2007, AMF's second season. With a lawyer's legal input, we drew up a behavior contract for LRF/RLHC management to sign. All it said was a representative on LRF acted like an ass last year and we wanted a signed promise that the signer wouldn't repeat the behavior and would act like they would at any other Faire but ours (translated from the legal-ese). Yes, there was a scene on Sunday caused by those who refused to sign. But by not signing, you only proved you were there to cause trouble for us.

Then the mudslinging through an email group was brought to our attention. Granted they weren't happy about the behavior contract, but no one asked why we had one for them. The one who called us troublemakers and accused us of having "egos, swollen heads, and hurt feelings" has apologized for that outburst, but it hurt to see what my five years of hard work for them was reduced to. And I worked hard. I stage-managed the joust for four years and kept drunken patrons from getting hurt by draft horses. I organized the crew of squired and helped build a new stable for the joust team when everyone else said, "let the knights do it." I did tear down a fence with good intentions for a better one that did not happen and replaced it. I helped build benches and move them around stages. I suggested using King James I for year three and four because they needed a tie-in with Shakespeare. I helped RLHC build on the Inn, and helped build the gypsy vardo and the pirate camp. I never asked for money or recognition beyond the little bit given out on awards night each year.

But I was there at year one for LRF. I signed a contract not to play my character at any other Faire, when the closest competitors were in Texas and Mississippi and nobody had a school day. So that does not match what was said in this email.

Clearing Up the Contract Hoopla Email dated April 6, 2007

Many people have worked years to develop LRF into the quality event it
is today. We spend a lot of time and effort choosing merchants,
entertainers, and training volunteers. We provide professional
training for our cast. We teach many skills such as: character
creation, character development, acting, and how to make garb, etc.
We all volunteer a lot of time, we invest a lot of effort, and we want
to protect our investments.

Since LRF is six weekends long the public can attend any other weekend
event in Louisiana and still attend LRF on a different day. School
fieldtrips are different. Schools can only take one fieldtrip a year
to an event like ours; if a school takes a second fieldtrip it will be
to a different kind of event where students can learn something
"different". In other words schools have to choose between LRF and
AMF. This makes us competitors to each other, and only because of
school days. The Acadiana Medieval Faire is the only event that
prevents students from attending our student days. Therefore, most of
the people we train must refrain from contributing to the competition
for a short period of time. Although we have made quite a few
exceptions for our participants when they have a valid need, or
hardship.

Having the cast play improv at more than one event only improves the improv. Many Faires allowed cast members to play at LRF in 2005 because we lost so many people with Katrina. We are two different eras as well as two different geographical locations.

Course this is only addressing participants here. Vendors and acts come up later.

Clearing Up the Contract Hoopla Email dated April 6, 2007

Apparently this past April AMF made some people entering their faire
sign contracts saying they would not "hurt" their faire. I was not
asked to sign such a contract. I can only speculate as to how or why
they would do this.

IN MY OPINION: it doesn't make sense to make customers sign a contract
limiting their freedom of speech (and yes they can legally do that if
you sign the contract).
I'll break this down:
1. A malicious person doesn't need to visit to say hurtful things.
2. Slander is illegal, a contract doesn't help prevent it.
3. It would only limit one from telling the truth, if "hurtful" to AMF

Of course there could be a completely valid angle I don't see.

"ANY TIME YOU GET ONE SIDE OF THE STORY IT WILL BE ONE-SIDED." (Alvon
Brumfield 2007).
Consider the sources of your information; if a company/politician
makes a Negative claim about a competitor, can you trust it?
Please base your opinions on the evidence you see, not on rumors or
one sided stories.

The only thing we asked participants to sign is paperwork for the insurance company. And nobody asked why the behavior contract was necessary. I suppose they think we should give out comp tickets to those who want to sabotage us, but I think our piece of paper that says "we know what was said last year and we won't stand for it" works better. But I do admire the attempt to try to say, "oh something must be wrong with AMF look at what they are doing. Let's use "A Few Good Men" quote."

I actually agree with the last line, view the evidence.

However, this is where it is no longer agreeable. Someone expressed regret over the state of things in the first part of the following email. It is marked with the standard more-than signs. My responses to the emailed response are highlighted in blue.

Festival Rivalry April 7 and 8, 2007

> I just want to say it's so sad to hear all this dissention between two
> faires that are a good distance away from each other (around 3
> hours?), and in a state still crippled by the devastating effects of
> two hurricanes, almost 2 years ago. Lots of people are still hurting
> and I wish we could all just work together to iron our our
> differences. Many of us trained together at one faire and have become
> friends and are now branching out into other realms. Most of us need
> money, and more of it (who's insurance didn't go up since the
> hurricanes??) Anyway, I wish all faire vendors, entertainers,
> merchants and volunteer (unpaid) cast were free to do ALL faires they
> want to, to contribute to as many or as little as they desire, and not
> be restricted by a 'contract.' I don't understand the whole school
> days problem--how many schools are involved? It can't be more than a
> few as these faires are in different geo. areas.
> Like I said before, this whole situation is SAD.
> :(
>
Before AMF everything we did went into providing more education, more demonstrations,
and better facilities; everyone volunteered.

I wish greed would not have caused a second faire and all this animosity. I wish they
would have talked to us before the split, or after.

GREED? We're greedy bitches? Oh nothing about the fight every year for being more historical and us being told that "you're trying to turn LRF into a museum and nobody likes museums." I pretty sure Chad emailed LRF owner 1 and I was present at the meeting with owner 2 and Chad. We had it at the Green Leaf and Chad hoped we could all work together again.

But yes, for a paycheck. We're greedy because my writing time is precious and Chad is trying to make this his freelance career. We're greedy and we want to eat and have a house together someday.

I have tried dozens of times to communicate with AMF, I have yet to get a single phone
call. I agree its sad: Its sad they broke away to compete. Its sad they refuse to work with
LRF.

I really don't want to cuss, but that is a sad attempt to call it forth. Chad has told me he has talked to you on the phone; maybe not recently but certainly since we started last year. And gee, we're supposed to work together after a representative from your Faire spent his entire Sunday trash talking us to our merchants? Yeah, our time and expertise is really valued and desired by you. Well, it probably is as long as it is free and we don't try anything like financially breaking even.

Its sad their greed got in the way of doing good. Its sad we have no choice but to
protect our school program. Its sad that this even has to be explained. And, It's a tragedy
that our students are being deprived of educational opportunities.

If a faire is providing ADEQUATE entertainment, demonstrations, and facilities to students
there is a very narrow margin to cover expenses. Adding more faires limits the variety of
educational information each one can provide. Example: If students were evenly divided
between fifty faires, it would make each school program very weak. As a merchant you
would have to work fifty faires to reach the same number of customers.

Most companies do not allow you work for their company store and one of their
franchises, at the same time. They don't let you work for the competition either! This is
common practice and common sense.

Oh BULLSHIT! Louisiana is a right-to-work state. NOBODY can tell you who you can and cannot work for. But if you are working full-time, you usually don't have any more time available for a second job for a competitor or not.

As for the students argument, schools have to make field trip choices all the time. Just by providing a school day, you are stealing education time away from the zoo. Many schools pick something different every year to deal with that issue. The problem is I don't believe you have the students' best interest at heart. See the pedophile issue at the beginning of this post.

Now let's talk about the vendors and acts. You refuse to let your vendors or acts work at AMF (despite that I'm pretty sure this is illegal in Louisiana). To quote a letter Chad sent out:

I wasn't sure that I should forward this to you guys, but it is pretty indicative of the problems that we have been having with the faire in Hammond. If you know of any craftsmen who may be interested in joining on us I would appreciate it if you would pass the word on to them and that we would never do something this unsavory to them.

>Chad,

>Some how or another someone told Rick and Alvon we were discussing me coming >over there also, and they sent me a copy of my contract and a nice little letter >about the "other fair clause" that you had mentioned. So until I can find a way >around that, I think I will have to wait. I will discuss it with them, but it will not be >until after the new year.

>Sorry for the trouble.

I'm not entirely positive but I think the "other fair clause" threatens not coming back to LRF and losing any permanent booth a vendor has built with their own money. These vendors travel from faire to faire, pretty much on what they make at each one. I'm glad AMF will not exploit them that way ever.

Performers fall under this too. Not that we can use many of the acts LRF hires--Renaissance theme doesn't work with a medieval theme--but you threatened the one act we did share despite the fact he wrote a completely medieval show for us totally different from what he performs at LRF. But again hurting people's livelihood so you can maintain an exclusive status; this is a good thing how?

We're three hours away from you. So is Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Are these games played with them despite the state line?

Thank you for slogging through all that patiently. I wish I had a funny payoff at the end. I wish I hadn't seeded to write all that out. I was raised with the principle: "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." But I'm also not a victim and I refuse to take abuse any longer. If demanding that children have a safe environment to play in while learning hands-on history and everyone makes a little money and has fun during it makes me a greedy bitch, I'm PROUD to be a greedy bitch. But I'm also not taking any of this personally. The writers of the emails--especially the hurtful ones--have to answer for that just as I must answer for my actions. Karma is slow but fair, and the wheel of fortune acts on us all in turn. Yet the truth shall set you free.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

I'm home again

2000 - 2500 in attendence this year. It rained Saturday and Sunday which hurt us, but everyone that came stayed until the rain drove them away. And the paying public didn't complain.

I'm still debating on how to report the connected but not so good stuff. On one hand, I don't want to participate in mudslinging--or anything that looks like mudslinging. On the other hand, I want the facts to be told and to respond to allegations made.

So let me know what you are in favor of, and I'll see to it.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Literary Meme

Look at the list of books below.
* Bold the ones you’ve read
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave unchanged the ones that you aren’t interested in.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austin)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

What's scary is how many of the want-to-read list I already have. I think I may need to join LibraryThing so I can share my library better.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/