I kind of exhausted myself, by accident, writing what was supposed to be an inspirational post Monday. And it indeed was inspirational, especially for the people who had been there to witness the events I described. But as for me, it was emotionally draining to write. Then, yesterday, I pulled together for BeTheStory.com a post on how to write sex scenes, which was a lot of fun to do, but way more work than I had expected. So I have little energy left over today for a long, drawn-out, opinionated, issue-oriented blog post about a topic I care deeply about. Sorry.
(Or maybe you’re thinking, Wonderful! Maybe he’ll actually write something worth reading for a change!)
However, there is one little tidbit that popped up this past weekend, while we were flipping between the NFL playoff game and one of the Star Trek movies. Every time it pops up, I feel an irresistible need to comment on it. And it’s popped up frequently enough that even my Little One understands exactly what I mean by “interpersonal utility comparison.”
Yesterday was the last Sunday that Pastor John preached at CPC. It was a very emotional occasion. He’s leaving, and not because he or his family really wanted to. That’s a different story, which I hope to tell someday. For now, I’m too close to it to see it clearly. I will say, however, a number of the pages from my Dad’s memoir seem strangely apropos.
Now that it’s a new year, Fridays I’ll still post something that is (supposed to be) humorous. These posts are furthermore still tagged “Friday Fun,” even though I’m no longer including the “Friday Fun” tag in the subject.
There’s a game I play sometimes while I’m driving, called “SUV, Not SUV.” Because I bet there’s some sound, psychological explanation why people who drive SUV’s are more likely to be assholes behind the wheel.
The rules of the game are pretty straightforward: whenever another vehicle cuts you off, you say “SUV” if it was an SUV, or “Not SUV,” if it wasn’t. Then you count how many of each you got and marvel at how many Not-SUV’s there were.
I have a dream, in which millions of people start posting messages like “1 #SUV, 3 #NotSUV” on Twitter. I’m such a geek.
Of course, even in a game as simple and straightforward as this, there are edge-cases. The rule is that “cut off” means that the other vehicle pulled in front of you, or threatened to do so, in such a way that you had to apply your breaks or swerve to avoid a collision. And it only counts if you yourself were not breaking traffic laws at the time, like running a red light, or going 50 in a 25-mile-an-hour zone. And you can only blame the other driver if he’s really doing something that he could be cited for, were there an accident.
Back when I was but a teenager, working at the local Shaw’s Supermarket, I was promoted from bagging groceries, to ringing them up behind the cash register, to working behind the front desk. Shortly after this last promotion, I happened to have an argument with another of the employees who worked back there. I don’t remember what the fight was about, only that she yelled at me and made me feel like crap. Later on, she told me she wasn’t mad at me, but she believed it was better to let anger out rather than holding it in and letting it fester.
Uh huh.
At the time, I was way too young and naïve to know what to think about that.
More recently, I’ve wondered (and I’m probably not the only one): why do people write angry emails in response to blog posts? I mean, it doesn’t really accomplish anything. There will always be people online who say things you don’t agree with. And you can’t fix them all. So why would you want to go on record as an intolerable egomaniac? And in print, nonetheless! Then I wondered, maybe they do it for the same reason she yelled at me behind Shaw’s front desk: just to vent.
Your new year might have begun this past Saturday, on 1/1/11–as though there were something significant to that date. But my new year officially began today, on the first day the kids went back to school. (Yay!) There really is something significant to this day.
I began by driving my Firstborn to school this morning. Then I returned home and went back to sleep. Ah, it felt so good to sleep in!
And sleep. And sleep.
(Which is only one of the reasons this post is so late today.)
This year, I have no resolutions about eating better (I’m already doing that) or losing weight (I’ve already lost 2 inches around the middle, but the third is the hardest) or working a certain way (I think I’m on a good track regarding my work processes and methodologies). Rather, this new year simply feels like the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of another. Whether it will turn out that way, only the new Father Time will be able to say. Even so, as I look back on the past year, I see the promise of great change in my personal life. Continue reading “Today Is My New Year”
Actually, the coolest gift I got this Christmas was from my brother, a set of red-wine glasses. No, not red-wine-colored glasses that distort everything you see so that you think you’re drunk. But rather wine goblets, stemware, specifically designed for drinking red wine out of them. It was exactly what I wanted!
I’m not a wine snob. Really. I’m only a wannabe wine snob.
Now, you might not think that it matters what you drink red wine out of. After all a glass is a glass, right? Anything more is just for decoration. But you would be incorrect. You might think that those beautiful white wine glasses that a friend gave me years ago, they’d be just as useful to drink red wine out of. But that wouldn’t be quite right. You might think that the generic cheapo wine glass that I’ve been drinking my red wine out of, the only one left that hasn’t been knocked off the counter and shattered into a million pieces, that I wouldn’t be able to tell one bit of difference whether I used that old glass or one of these new goblets. But if you were to see a good wine poured into this crystal chalice, if you were to inhale as its delicate walls funneled the bouquet toward your longing olfactory organs, if you…
I’m just now recovering from my Christmas gluttony, as well as the work that’s backed up. But I wanted to post this quick announcement of who won the book giveaways this month on this blog.
I emailed the winners over a week ago, when the giveaways ended. And most of them received their prizes last week, as well as a little something extra: I’ve included a copy of one of my books in each package, in the hopes that it will be read and enjoyed and that it will make a positive difference in someone’s life.
These are not just books I happened to have lying around. On the contrary, I picked them up while browsing the Used Book Superstore (all except for the red one), specifically because I enjoyed them. They aren’t necessarily my favorite of favorites. (For that, see the Talyn giveaway, which is at least one of the favorites of my favorites.) But I rated each one at least 4 stars strong. And each one has vibrant and memorable characters, which is the most important element in a story.
These four books come from a range of genres: romantic comedy, sci-fi comedy, autobiography, and classic mystery.
See at the bottom of this post for how to enter the giveaway.
Here’s another from my archives, a book I’m giving away as part of a small box of previously read books, the famed Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
If you’ve never heard of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, give up now: you have no hope of avoiding the destruction of the world. If you’ve just never read it, don’t panic, not yet anyhow. If you’ve only ever seen the movie, you’re missing most of the jokes.
Today’s teaser, from page 103 (randomly selected by Random.org) of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (also randomly selected by Random.org–no joke):
“Do we go through?” mimicked Marvin… “I was told to take you to the bridge. Probably the highest demand that will be made on my intellectual capacities today, I shouldn’t wonder.”
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just follow the directions at the “Teaser Tuesdays” post.
Here’s a quick-n-dirty video I made for this year’s Big Book Giveaway, showing off some books by Julie Carobini (Christian romance), Holly Lisle (fantasy romance), Jess C Scott (teen romance), and Sharon Cathcart (historical romance).
(I’m sorry that I forgot to bring Jen Knox’s excellent memoir with me when I did the video. But she is giving away two copies, hosted on this blog.)
