The lonely life of a writer...not so much

Saturday, Rainbow Rowell's latest column for the Omaha World-Herald focused on how writers in Omaha often don't realize how many other writers are local, how it seems hard to find and feel part of a supportive community when writers are such solitary creatures. It's such a common trait of writers that it's practically a stereotype. But she did uncover one special secret:

"Nebraska's tightest-knit, most welcoming writing community has to be the romance writers. The Heartland Writers Group (the local chapter of the Romance Writers of Nebraska America) meets monthly and is open to all sorts of writers, published, unpublished or just getting started." [the correction is mine]

Cut to me with a big grin on my face - Heartland Writers Group is MY writers group!

I've never met a more welcoming group of people, writers or otherwise. I look forward to our monthly meetings and any other gatherings we can come up with and I'm really disappointed when life interferes and I have to miss one. Thankfully we have an active email loop (several, in fact) where we give and get support 24/7 between meetings.

I'm so thankful I found this group - they keep me going in so many ways - and it warms my heart when others notice what a great group it is.

So check out Rainbow's column, then come visit us at our website and blog! If you're a writer, you might even want to visit us in person. If you're not, I hope you have a community in your life that's as supportive of your goals, whatever they may be, as Heartland Writers Group is of mine. I love you, HWG ladies!

In case the world isnt high-definition enough for you:

Hey, they're cheaper than a TV :-)

How to accept your Oscar

Photo by prayitno

Highlights from Accepting Your Oscar: A Guide:

• Thank the spiritual being of your choice. Point up/over/ wherever (probably not down).

• Definitely act surprised. Practice this one in the mirror beforehand.

• Thank significant other, then blow a kiss to him/her. Have significant other practice “in love” face.

via Shoebox (they have a great blog)

A Lost Choose Your Own Adventure Book? That would be awesome!

I wish this was real:


Lost Choose Your Own Adventure by ~Hartter on deviantART

Trying Jedi mind tricks

Hey, it could work...

Christchurch earthquake on Flickr

Some amazing pictures from New Zealand, both of the devastation but also of people helping out in such a tough time:


via a search set up by Flickr Blog

Happy Presidents Day!

Pearls Before Swine

Studs of the '80s: Ooh La La or Not So Much?

Photo by Gage Skidmore

A little weekend guilty pleasure:

Studs of the '80s: Still Hot Today? - Photo Gallery - LIFE

A nice then-and-now gallery. I have to say Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis definitely hold up (Bruce was one of my first celebrity crushes and it's never faded). Jon Bon Jovi has actually improved. Some of these other guys have definitely gone in the other direction. David Hasselhoff (another early crush) just makes me shudder these days.

I'm reading: Don't Believe The "Lots Myth"

Don't Believe The "Lots Myth": "You see, money doesn’t make us smarter; it just amplifies what we already are. If you’re a mess with a dollar, chances are you’ll be an even bigger mess with a million dollars. If you’re wise with a nickel, chances are you’ll be great with a thousand nickels."

Gah! Where'd that other parenthesis go?

via xkcd

Neil Gaiman on Piracy

Neil Gaiman has an interesting perspective on piracy:


YouTube - Gaiman on Copyright Piracy and the Web

via Travelin' Librarian

Not one perfect draft, but many imperfect ones

From my evening's reading last night (boldface is mine):

Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers: More than One Draft: "Do you understand that writing a novel, memoir, screenplay involves not just writing one draft but many?...Get your ego out of the way. The more you are able to tolerate imperfection, the more quickly you can finish a draft and every draft makes the story better."

How true. As much as I think I "know" that the first, second, maybe even the final draft down the road won't be perfect, something in my head digs in its heels knowing I have to get words on the page imperfectly in order to make progress. I think this is why I did so well on NaNoWriMo in 2009 - I had permission to write a messy first draft.

I need to remember to give myself permission to write imperfectly on a daily basis or I'll never get anywhere. Just in case you need it: I give you permission, too.

Cross-posted at Heartland Writers Group

Humorous headline of the day

Police: Burglar Caught With Beef, Sausage In Pocket

I'll let you add your own dirty jokes.

Punctuation is i'mportant

via Reality Check

Reading: 80 years of marriage

Great story!

80 years of marriage: "'They all said it wouldn't last.' But Elza and Vivian Moses surprised them all. He is now 102, and she is 97. They have become minor celebrities in central Illinois since September, when they reached an astounding milestone of marital longevity: their 80th wedding anniversary."

Less complaining. More sexy rumpus.

via The Oatmeal

We don't do Valentine's Day very big in our house. It kind of gets a polite nod more than anything. I'm impressed I actually decorated this year (if hanging a single shiny heart wreath counts as decorating). We usually have a little bit nicer dinner than usual, and that's about it (although I was just joking with hubby about having heart-shaped tuna sandwiches tonight). On top of that, I'm home with a sick kid today, which doesn't really amp up any romantic feelings.

Among the feeds I read in Google Reader today, the "I HATE Valentine's Day" variety seem to be outweighing the "I LURVE Valentine's Day" variety. I think there may be a lot of residual junior high disappointment floating around out there. Apparently The Oatmeal noticed, too, and decided to address the situation:

The Oatmeal

Though I agree in general with the entire post, I loved the final point so much I had to put it up at the top of mine (see it up there?). I think it might be a good mantra for life, not just Valentine's Day. :) 

Blackberry not working?

My Blackberry Is Not Working!

(Just in case you didn't get the Orange reference, it's a mobile carrier in the UK)

Copy editors are never not working

Cool Google Doodle today

In honor of Thomas Edison's 164th birthday:

via Google

Did you miss the Super Bowl commercials?

I did, too. Thankfully, /Film is looking out for us.

Watch This: All 61 Ads from Super Bowl XLV (2011) in 2 Minutes | /Film: "Some of us watch it for the ads. And some of us probably didn’t get around to watching it at all. For those who wanted to be in the second category but ended up in the latter, the folks at AdWeek have come up with a pretty spectacular compilation"


All 61 Ads from Super Bowl 2011 in 2 Minutes

The Heart of an Entrepreneur

Design by LittleGretchen

My friend Ann Stephens has an inpsiring post on her blog today: Esther Howland spotted a market, got to work, and started a highly profitable business

...when she was 19

...in 1847.

An American Queen of Hearts | Ann Stephens Romance

Do you remember Chumley?

Hubby has been watching Pawn Stars on Netflix lately and I find the show incredibly interesting and aggravating at the same time - I love learning the historical context of the things people bring in, but I just keep thinking "I would NEVER sell or pawn that if I had it."

One of the guys on the show has the nickname "Chumley," which triggered a memory for me. I'd completely forgotten about Tennessee Tuxedo and his pal Chumley who I used to watch when I was a kid. Wikipedia says the original show was cut up and mixed in with The Underdog Show, and that's probably how I watched it. It's funny how I hadn't thought of those characters in years until "Chumley" wandered onto the screen in Pawn Stars. I found a video from Tenessee Tuxedo to share:


Tennessee Tuxedo - Lamplighters

I love it when these little memories pop up.

Oh, be-have, Mr. Darcy!

Recently, Igor was planning to write "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Minus Zombies" until he discovered someone had already written it, so now he's got a new idea:

DORK TOWER, Friday, February 4, 2011

Some quick inspiration for your Monday morning

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

Dis-Kinect?

A bunch of WIN

I set up this post a long time ago, but never hit publish for some reason. I still like these, though, so here ya go:


see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm


see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm



see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm



see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm

Arrrr!!!

Deadheading for the future

Photo by turtlemom4bacon

Deadheading for the future (via Unclutterer): "The more you clear out and eliminate what’s “dead” in your life, the more space you create for opportunity, love, and success in the future. You have more energy to put toward strengthening yourself and blooming even more gloriously than you did before."

Ozzy. Bieber. Tron Suits. Tell me this is just a Nyquil-induced hallucination

http://m.celebuzz.com/p.p?a=vpi&postId=227545971&m=b&mfId=1100543859&sessionToken=&postUserId=1523420



Update 2/4/11: Here's a better link: http://www.celebuzz.com/2011-01-28/justin-bieber-and-ozzys-super-bowl-ad-first-look/ (and the Nyquil is gone, but the hallucination is still here, apparently)

Let other kids have those electric cars...

I'll get mine a dalek!



Unfortunately, judging by the kids in the commercial, I'm afraid mine's too old for one of these. Darn. Maybe I could just get one to sit in the corner.

It's Groundhog Day...again?

Photo by Robbert van der Steeg

I know Groundhog Day is over (or is it?) but I didn't come across this until late last night as I was about to go to bed, and I didn't have a chance to read all the way through it until lunch (and I read the WHOLE thing - feel free to skip to the end if you want), so here it is, better late than never: 

Just How Many Days Does Bill Murray REALLY Spend Stuck Reliving GROUNDHOG DAY? (via /Film)

I'm just glad it was Simon Gallagher, and not me, who spent all the time it would take to figure this out. Phew!

Star Wars: Tron Legacy

This is an interesting mashup:

How rejections have changed...and how they probably haven't

I came across a link to this rejection slip from the company that produced many of Charlie Chaplin's flms at Nathan Bransford's blog. I had to chuckle over some of the comments about the slip at BoingBoing:

"It seems to have been mistaken for some form of checklist on how to make a successful movie by current day Hollywood."

"Isn't this the set of Apple App Store guidelines?"

"Now I want to fill this form out for every horrible new movie that comes out. There's gotta be a movie that completely fills the sheet. "

#16 is my favorite.  I wonder how many possibly great movies were passed over because the screenwriter had bad handwriting.

Darth Vader vs The Volkswagen

Hubby just sent me this video. Love it!

Winter Break: Catching the waves...in photos

Here's a nice (virtual) break from the cold and snow.



Some time ago, a friend forwarded me some pictures by Clark Little and I've been saving them for a day like this. Little photographs waves as they come ashore in Hawaii, giving "unique and often dangerous perspective of waves from the inside out, captured in photos for all to enjoy from the safety of dry land." This video from his YouTube channel gives an idea of how he gets these amazing shots. A handful of his photos are included in the video, but his online gallery is full of his amazing work.

2010 Slideshow

I'm having trouble dealing with the fact that this is what you're having trouble dealing with

Twilight.png by mdesive on Aviary

Remembering the Challenger Disaster

photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

I was doing my spelling.

I remember that clearly to this day. I can even see the spelling workbook. Despite years of rearranging and sitting in all sorts of places, facing all different directions in that one-room school I attended,  I remember specifically where my desk was that day.  I remember that the phone rang out in the coat hall and the teacher went out to answer it. A moment later, she rushed back in, saying "The space shuttle blew up!" I don't think that really made much sense until she turned on the tv. We could only get one or two channels on the antenna (no cable service for a tiny school house miles from town) but it didn't matter. In those  days before CNN was ubiquitous, every channel had turned to coverage of the tragedy.

I don't remember crying at school. I mostly remember shock that morning. I know I cried later. I think it was a long time before I could think of that day without a tear.

Space flight seemed like such a "given" until then. It was something the adults had all figured out and it would only be easier by the time I was an adult, I thought. The Challenger explosion cast doubt on that for the first time for me.

I still hold my breath every time I hear "throttle up."

Friday Fun: The Norton Antivirus Online University Bowl

My friend Cheri La Claire posted this on her blog yesterday. It was so funny, I had to share:


Online College Bowl

It’s Winter in Nebraska

Someone sent me this poem a long time ago. I googled the first few lines, without a state name, and apparently it's been used for pretty much every state that gets any snow. :) Unfortunately, I wasn't able to track down the origin of the poem.

It’s Winter in Nebraska

Its winter in Nebraska,
And the gentle breezes blow.
Seventy miles an hour,
At twenty-five below.
Oh, how I love Nebraska,
When the snow's up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter,
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave Nebraska,
My ass is frozen to the ground.

Facebook Facepalm: I'm going to go cry into my huge pillow now

Update: Spammers have now jumped in, so it's gone from funny hoax to actual scam: WARNING: Don’t Click On ‘Facebook Will Shut Down’

The other night, I came across a link claiming that Facebook is closing down on March 15. Since it was in the Weekly World News, and since I'm such a big fan of So I Married An Axe Murderer, I couldn't resist posting the link along with a reference to the Weekly World News Garth Brooks Juice Diet.

If you're not familiar with the movie, here's a clip. The relevant bits are at 2:00 min. for the juice diet reference and at about 3:25 min. for the discussion of "The Paper."


My brother was the only one to reply to my Facebook post and he obviously got the joke. However, Tuesday I was horrified to hear on Net@Night (the link may not work until the episode is posted) that many people thought the story was true!

Huh? Who were these people? Maybe Charlie Mackenzie's parents aren't so unusual. Since I didn't see any of my friends post this on Facebook, I hope I can rest assured that they're all smarter than the average user. (Good for you, friends!)

However, if you know any of those gullible people, you can point them to this informative video which may make them feel a little better:


(via cnet)

Awesome use of Google Goggles

I'm awful at Sudoku (it's numbers! Gah!). In fact, Google Goggles might be the only way I ever solve one of those puzzles:

YouTube - Google Goggles Sudoku Demo (via The Travelin' Librarian)

I had to try it to see if it works (it does!) but I had a little bit of a problem in the process:

Love in the Mist

by cocytus69

This photo was included in one of Flickr's Your Best Shot 2010 posts and I can't get over how gorgeous it is. There's a surprising amount of detail in the shot when you stop to look (and do you see the bright orange tree?)

Why I'm not a coder:

The last code I wrote from scratch was on a TRS80, I think, and I don't even remember what the program did, just that it was frustratingly unresponsive when I tried to present it as a school project.

via xkcd: Good Code

Angry Birds...the BOARD GAME!

The Consumer Electronics Show is going on right now, and so far, I haven't seen or heard of any gadgets that really make me go "oooh, shiny!" However, I am excited about the Angry Birds board game - it's an analog take on a highly addictive video game. Here's a preview via CNET:

The Doctor to marry his own daughter...sort of...

This news is awesome and geeky, but it kind of makes my head hurt.

photo via BBC America

Doctor to Marry His Own Daughter, Create Rift in Time and Space | GeekDad | Wired.com: "David Tennant is engaged to Georgia Moffett. Tennant very popularly played the 10th incarnation of The Doctor on BBC’s long-running Doctor Who. Moffett played his daughter (actually a quasi-clone based on his DNA) in one episode during his tenure. As if that wasn’t strange enough, Moffett is also the real-life daughter of Peter Davison, who played the 5th incarnation of The Doctor."

What is your desk like?

This is a great video about the connection people have to their desks. Whether messy or minimalist, everyone seems to need a desk, a small place that is theirs and only theirs.

Desk - Music and Sound Design from Aaron Trinder Film:Motion:Music on Vimeo.

(via Unpluggd)

Once upon a time, I thrived on a messy desk (or thought I did). Somewhere along the line, I evolved into someone who works best with a desk cleared of as much as possible.

I keep my desk pretty clear at work. Although a few sticky notes find their way to the bottom of my monitors, I try to keep those at a minimum. If I could clear the CPU, inbox and phone off, I would. I used to have the CPU on the floor, but it just wasn't practical there. The inbox could probably be eliminated since 90% of the time it holds my timesheet and nothing else. The phone, well, I'd love to get rid of it altogether (Hate phone calls! Love email, instant messaging and text messaging!) but that's not likely to happen since this is still the real world. I keep a sticky note pad, a small pile of scratch paper, and a pile of forms for taking payment information on my desktop since I often need to grab them in a hurry, otherwise they'd be in a drawer. In fact, even the drawers are mostly empty now.

I'm currently a bit of a desk nomad at home. A few months ago, I cleaned out "the office slash guest room" to make it just a guest room, so the big desk has moved downstairs to the room I'm currently using as a sorting and staging area for "The Great Purge." At the moment, the room is still full of boxes from cleaning out closets, the garage, the guest room and LilGirl's room. Once I'm done purging all the stuff, I'll have the desk (under a big south-facing window!) to write at and a table at a right angle to that for sewing and other crafts. I promise pictures when it's ready. For now, I work at a little folding table in front of the couch (my big sound-cancelling headphones are a godsend), at the kitchen table, or at hubby's desk for a few things I can only do on his computer. This digital nomad-like existence is part of the reason I work so much in the cloud. I don't know where I'm going to land, but I still need to access all my stuff and get to work as quickly as possible. In a way, the internet (especially my Gmail) is my desk. In fact, I finished up this post at my daughter's basketball practice. I keep working toward the day I can "settle down" at a single desk at home.

What's your desk like? Messy? Clean? Somewhere in between (is there such a thing in anyone's head?)  Let me know in the comments!

I didn't think anything could make this scene better

...but adding lightsabers sure did the trick.


Star Wars meets The Princess Bride - The Chatty Duelists [The video isn't embeddable, so you'll have to click through, but it's worth it!]

How to succeed? Get more sleep

My new year's resolution is to get more sleep. Coincidentally, this TED Talk by Arianna Huffington popped up in my Google Reader this morning. It's so nice when the universe seems to support your plans, even in a little way.

Arianna Huffington: How to succeed? Get more sleep | Video on TED.com

The pressure of thank you notes...relieved

By ralph and jenny

I'm horrible at writing Thank You notes. Okay, not horrible, but I usually wind them up in my head until I'm paralyzed. I feel horrible about not having written the note yet, but can't actually write it because it has to be just perfect, and then I feel even more horrible, and theresjusttoomuchpressure! "Mary, you're a writer, your note should be better than the average person's!" is what that evil voice in the back of my head says, and I've never been able to just tell it what BS that is.

What I need are some tips to guide me and mostly bring me down to earth so that I can actually just write the darn things, and whaddayaknow, I found some. John Kralik is the author of 365 Thank Yous: The Year A Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life, and he lists "10 Tips For Writing The Perfect Thank You Note" in a feature on his book at NPR: Perfect Thank You Notes: Heartfelt And Handwritten

The first eight points really got me to breathe again regarding thank you notes (sometimes I just need a guide for my thought process, and that's what these points are). The final two points really jumped out at me, though.

Point 9 is "Try writing a first draft, perhaps in a spreadsheet. Not only will you benefit from the second draft, but you will always have a list of the most generous people in your life, and the reasons why you should be thankful for them." As a self-proclaimed Queen of Spreadsheets, my ears (eyes?) perked up when I read this. Ooooh, an excuse for a spreadsheet! (A future post may be about facing my spreadsheet addiction...or not.) This would have the added benefit of reminding me that I can write thank you notes, because I have written them before, and here's proof...in a spreadsheet! 

Point 10 is "Write a lot of thank-you notes. You'll get better." A great point. Writing many notes will also wear down the pressure of making each note perfect. The note itself is the point, not the "deathless prose."

Some thoughts for the new year

YouTube - 45 Lessons

Thanks to Tonya for emailing this to me (long ago) :)

Little things that improve my life

Often, it's accomplishing little things that make me feel the best about myself and my life. I came across this post at Real Simple yesterday and it's almost as if I wrote the list myself. These are things I aspire to, just as listed, but never do consistently. When I do them, life goes more smoothly and feels better. I've cut the list down to the basics; for details, see the original post. I'll keep working on these in 2011:

1. Nightly: change into pajamas an hour before going to bed. [This supports my main resolution of getting enough sleep]

2. Daily: put dirty dishes into the dishwasher immediately after a meal

3. Nightly: make and pack lunches for the next day while making dinner.

4. Daily: shred, recycle, and/or trash junk mail immediately upon entering the house.

5. Daily: hang up your coat immediately upon entering the house.

6. Every Sunday: Plan out meals for the week and create a grocery list. 

Hanging 2011 on one resolution

Photo by Béni Rivière

Happy New Year!

I have one main resolution this year: Get enough sleep. 

Sleep deprivation affects your health, your weight, your looks and your happiness. I feel like all my other goals for 2011 hang on getting enough sleep.

Mainly, those goals are to continue the projects I focused on in 2010. Last New Year's Day, I cleaned out the garage so that we could finally get BOTH vehicles in out of the winter storms and that started a domino effect of cleaning out, purging and rearranging that is still going on. I've made a lot of progress (I keep having to remind myself of that) but I've still got a lot of work to do.

I've signed up for my writers group's Finish The Damn Book Challenge. That means my writing goal this year is to have a book ready to land on an agent's or editor's desk by the end of the year. I also have plans in the works for a second (focused, less personal) blog - more on that later.

I also want to be less of a grumpy unhealthy hermit. (We all want that, really)

I think the key to all of this is getting enough sleep.

Once upon a time, before I "grew up" I went to bed at 10pm pretty much no matter what. Short of a real emergency, if stuff wasn't done by 10, too bad. It didn't get done. (This is where my mother points out that I may have gone to bed at 10, but I often read until after midnight. Fine, if I'm awake enough to do it, but now I'm lucky to read two pages at night before my eyes droop shut). Too often these days, I stay up way too late just wasting time on trivial things that don't further any of my goals, simply because I'm desperately looking for "some relaxing time, dammit!" That time would be better spent getting some real sleep (or at least reading a book), so I can get some real things done the next day.

I also have an "anti-resolution" of sorts: I'm not going to plant a garden this year. It's one of those things I think I should enjoy, but I don't have the time and energy to commit to it. I get delusions of grandeur when planting every spring, which goes from "a couple tomato plants" to tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, celery, cucumbers, melons, and on and on. The first really hot week of summer sends me inside to hide and before I know it, the garden is over-run with weeds and I spend the rest of the summer in futile attempts to get ahead of the weedy onslaught. This doesn't really hang on the more sleep thing, but it will take away from the guilt of the "things not done" at the end of the day.

Let your kids watch YouTube too much & they'll try to copy what they see *gasp!*

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. After watching Numa Numa Lego more times than I care to count, LilGirl decided "I could do that!" and is now making her own Lego stop-motion movie.

Once she's done, I'll post the video. I love it when she gets these ideas and acts on them.

New York Blizzard time-lapse video

Wow. I've got to give kudos to the photographer. When we have a blizzard, my instinct is definitely NOT to keep digging a clock out of a snowdrift, even in order to create something so cool.


December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

via Boing Boing

Did you get an e-reader for Christmas?

Whether you got a Kindle, or one of the other e-readers, or even an iPod, iPhone, iPad or an Android device, you probably want to start filling it with books. I don't have an e-reader, but I've put the free e-reader apps on every compatible device I've got, and I found Books on The Knob to be very helpful in finding free and bargain books to (over)fill my virtual TBR pile.

Just pay attention to which format the book is free for - sometimes it's free for one type of reader, but not another (e.g. free at B&N, but not at Amazon) or sometimes it's only free in a certain country. And she usually updates when something she listed is no longer free, but I've missed it & accidentally paid for a book before (Darn 1-click! My husband just nods and goes "Yeah, 'accidentally,' suuuure"), so there's that to look out for.

I love finding free books. I've found some great stories through BoTK I wouldn't have picked up otherwise. I've also grabbed one or two which I didn't care for and then removed from my collection, but since they were free I was only out some time, not cash.

Photo by goXunuReviews

Christmas Countdown: The Christmas Story by Kids

YouTube - The Christmas Story by Kids:

Christmas Countdown: Story of the Nativity 2.0

My friend Cheryl posted this on her blog the other day. I have to wonder how Joseph has time to play Farmville, but then, I wonder that about everybody...


Story of the Nativity 2.0 - Inspirational Videos - GodTube

via Cheryl St. John 

Christmas Countdown: A Very Zombie Holiday

Christmas Countdown: Nobody liked caroling with Yoda

via Shoebox

Christmas Countdown: Why we put an angel on top of the tree

Another funny story that finds its way to my email every year:

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the pre-Christmas pressure. Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which  stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered. So, frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum.

When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door,  yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. The angel said very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?"

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Try your hand at making electronic snowflakes!

Christmas Countdown: Boba Fett's Letter to Santa

See more at 52 Weeks with the Fetts.

All I want for Christmas is a Cr-48...and, look, Christmas came early! #ChromeOS

Remember how I said I was getting off my Google fangirl soapbox in yesterday's post? I had no idea how fangirly I would be by the end of the day...



My 6-year-old hand-me-down laptop died the day before Thanksgiving. It's not in the budget to buy a new one right now, and anyway, all the post-holiday (or even post-CES) sales are coming up later, so I've been biding my time with our little netbook (which is difficult to type on) and hubby's desktop computer (which has its own obvious time-sharing issues). I was still sniffing around for a replacement (read "hand-me-down") laptop when Google came along with their Chrome OS Pilot Program on December 7th.

For those who don't know, Chrome OS is Google's (until last week) mythical operating system. It basically looks like the Chrome browser, but it's your operating system, like Windows or OSX. Beta testers in the pilot program receive a free laptop, the CR-48, in exchange for "kicking all the tires you can find" and sending feedback to Google. Before the live-streamed announcement was even over, the moment Google revealed the site to apply for their pilot program, I clicked over and filled out the form...and did it wrong.

When I'm over-excited, I don't follow directions well (who does?), plus I took a phone call halfway through. After I clicked send, I IM'd hubby to see if he'd applied and when he mentioned the 140-character limit for the answer to "What would make you a unique Pilot user?" I just about fell over. 140 characters? The length of a tweet? I had completely ignored that bit of the instructions and written a four-sentence paragraph the length of about five tweets! Gah! I quickly went back to the page, re-did my application and hit send once more, but with little hope. In a last-ditch effort, I visited the Google Chrome fan page at Facebook and filled out the survey there which would also enter my name in the running. Feeling I'd done the best damage control I could, I sat back to wait (and drool) and wait.

By Friday, reports that some people had received their Cr-48 via FedEx excited me. I came home, eagerly looking at the front step for a box. THERE WAS A BOX ON THE FRONT STEP! Alas, it was not from Google. Expecting a mostly unexpected package turns out to be extra torture when we're in the only time of year we regularly receive boxes on the front step (we do most of our Christmas shopping online).

The weekend passed. I checked the front step on Saturday, despite being almost certain FedEx doesn't deliver on Saturdays (I did keep myself from actually checking that fact) and despite not hearing the doorbell even though we were home the entire day. No box. The mistake in my application haunted me.

On Monday, I looked when I got home. No box.

Tuesday, no box.

Sometime on Wednesday something happened without my really noticing. I accepted that I would not be getting a Cr-48. I'm not really sure when that came to be, but it was sometime before This Week in Google started at 3pm. As I listened to the show, it hurt a little when the hosts discussed their Cr-48s, but looking for a box on the front step when I got home later didn't even cross my mind.

I had to run an errand on the way home, so hubby picked up LilGirl and was home before me. The latest storm was on the verge of hitting us (in a matter of minutes, it turned out), so I didn't think much of it when hubby texted me to ask where I was. I stopped for the mail on the way up our street (another box, not from Google) and got home just after the storm hit (nasty little ice pellets, not even snow).

When I got inside, hubby was cleaning the stove, which seemed a little weird, since I knew he wouldn't be cooking - we had an entire leftover pizza in the fridge from the night before (now I realize he was just keeping himself distracted). Hubby sat down to go through the mail and asked me to turn on the Christmas tree lights. I did, and came back (in hindsight, I can only imagine now how frustrating this little action must have been for him) and we had the following conversation:

Hubby: I should call [my friend] & see if he's still coming to pick up [his daughter]'s gift.

Me: He doesn't need to come in this weather. Don't worry about it.

Hubby: But it's getting crowded under the tree.

Me: Crowded? There are two presents under there.

Hubby: Didn't you see that there are more now? Go look.

I looked and found a shipping box with a curly ribbon stuck to it, shoved behind the other two presents (I was supposed to see that?). Figuring it was something he'd ordered for my birthday (after all, it wasn't even a Christmas ribbon) I lifted an eyebrow, shrugged and headed back to the kitchen.

Hubby: Aren't you even curious what it is?

Me: I can wait.

Hubby: You need to look more closely at that box.

I went back to the tree, picked up the box, and realized the shipping label had my name on it, not hubby's. Odd. The name on the return address was someone I'd never heard of, in Kentucky, and it came via UPS. Even more odd. I hadn't ordered anything that I could think of.

A bit of hope sparked back to life. The box was the right size...It was about the right weight...

Me: Nooooo [in a long, disbelieving gasp]

Hubby: [chuckling]

I pulled open the box. Inside was another box featuring a design I'd grown painfully familiar with through the many social media posts I'd seen over the last few days (that's the box at the top of this post).

Google, how could I ever have doubted you?

Christmas Countdown: Broken Glass Jello

Once again, as I do every year, I was having little panic attack about what to bring for the staff holiday lunch/meeting (as I do for every party where I'm supposed to bring food). Here's where you get my usual disclaimer of "I am not a cook!" (Can you hear the Nixon impersonation?) Luckily, Monday morning I popped into Google Reader and someone had shared an entry from The Food Librarian with instructions for Christmas Broken Glass Jello and I thought "This, I can do!"

First, I'd like to show you that, yes, I did manage to make something that looks good as well as tastes good, and I even put a little thought into presentation (though not up to Martha Stewart's standards, I'm sure, but I was also limited by the fact that I have to be able to walk about a block with this dish, presents and my purse, so it needed to be in something sturdy and not too elaborate or unwieldy). I hope it goes over well at the lunch today.

From Mary's Ramble

Second, I would like to point out how much I looove Google Reader. The recipe came from a blog I didn't even know existed, but because Google Reader has a sharing option, a librarian hundreds of miles away who does read The Food Librarian saw the post, thought it was cool, shared it, and I saw it just when I needed it. If you're looking for a good RSS reader, I don't think you can do much better. Okay, off my Google fangirl soapbox for the day...I'm off to lunch!

Christmas Countdown: I'm Dreaming of Christmas Music

I tend to forget the existence of The Rat Pack and their ilk the rest of the year, but it just isn't Christmas without them. I need Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole (those three at least!) or something is just off about the season.

Here's one of my favorite Christmas songs, and it's just not right unless Bing sings it:



What's your favorite Christmas song, or which song is it just not Christmas without?

Christmas Countdown: Carols for the psychologically challenged

Another email. This one seems to be all over the internet, but I couldn't figure out where it originated:

1. Schizophrenia: Do You Hear What I Hear, the Voices, the Voices?
2. Amnesia: I Don't Remember If I'll be Home for Christmas
3. Narcissistic: Hark the Herald Angels Sing about Me
4. Manic: Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants And...
5. Multiple Personality Disorder: We Three Queens Disoriented Are
6. Paranoid: Santa Claus Is Coming To Get Us
7. Borderline Personality Disorder: You Better Watch Out, You Better not Shout, I'm Gonna Cry, and I'll not Tell You Why 
8. Full Personality Disorder: Thoughts of Roasting You On an Open Fire
9. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells 
10. Agoraphobia: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn't Leave My House
11. Senile Dementia: Walking In a Winter Wonderland Miles from My House in My Slippers and Robe
12. Oppositional Defiant Disorder: I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House 
13. Social Anxiety Disorder: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas While I Sit Here and Hyperventilate
14. Attention Deficit Disorder: We Wish You..... Hey Look!! It's Snowing 

And to one and all, a very Merry . . . wow! It IS snowing!!!

Christmas Countdown: Doggy ornaments

I hadn't planned on buying any new ornaments this year, but when we found these two together (and half price, to boot!) we had to get them. They're a Pomeranian and Dachshund, just like our dogs.

Christmas Countdown: Simon's Cat!

Christmas Countdown: Please Share Alike this holiday!

I saw this on TWiT Live between shows the other day and had to share



via BoingBoing

Christmas Countdown: Fruit Cake recipe

Here's another recipe someone emailed to me. I think I sense a theme here...

Photo by Matthew Bietz 

• One cup water
• One cup sugar
• Four large eggs
• Two cups dried fruit
• One teaspoon baking soda
• One teaspoon salt
• One cup brown sugar
• Lemon juice
• Nuts
• One bottle whisky

Sample the whisky to check for quality. Take a large bowl. Check the whisky again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whisky is still okay. Cry another tup. Turn off the mixer. Break two leggs and add one to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the whisky to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cup of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whisky. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window, check the whisky again and go to bed.