A thought for the day

Photo by denipet

"If the Christmas frenzy is wearing you out,
you've missed the point of Christmas."

from Dave Ramsey's December 2009 Newsletter

Happy Thanksgiving...Star Wars style

This was just so cool, I had to share!

From the Official Star Wars Blog via Flickr

I like pumpkin pie

View on Flickr

I spotted this sticker on the ground in my parking garage at work this morning. I have no idea who or what it's from, but I thought "Yes, yes, I do!" I think I look forward to the pie even more than the turkey.

So, what's your favorite pie to have after Thanksgiving dinner? Or, if you're not into pie, what's your favorite alternative dessert?

Martha Stewart isn't coming for Thanksgiving

I pulled this out of the depths of my email - it seems to have been making the rounds a couple years ago. I've searched, but can't seem to come up with the name of the original author of this (if you do, let me know - I'd like to give credit!)

Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving.
I'm telling you in advance, so don't act surprised. 

Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small changes: 

Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade paper bag luminaries. 

After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, 

rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect. 

Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated

with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make. 

Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them 

track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. 

The mud was their idea. 

The dining table will not be covered with expensive linens, fancy china,

or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that 

match and everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving,

we will refrain from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plates 

and the Santa napkins from last Christmas.

Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I

promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration

hand-crafted from the finest construction paper.

The artist assures me it is a turkey. 

We will be dining fashionably late.
The children will entertain you while you wait. 

I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I have made
regarding Thanksgiving, pilgrims and the turkey hotline.
 Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. 

upon discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds. 

As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play my recording of

tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I 

don't own a recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming 

sounds suspiciously like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. 

They are lying. 

We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the

start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method. 

We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. 

When the smoke alarm sounds, please gather around the table 

and sit where you like. In the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children 

to sit at a separate table. 

In a separate room. 

Next door. 

Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person 

carving a turkey in front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers.

This will not be happening at our dinner. 

For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private

ceremony. I stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any 

circumstances, enter the kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, 

unsuspecting children to check on my progress. 

I have an electric knife. The turkey is unarmed. 

It stands to reason that I will eventually win. When I do, we will eat. 

I would like to take this opportunity to remind my young diners that

"passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is it a request 

to bean your sister in the head with warm tasty bread. 

Oh, and one reminder for the adults: For the duration of the meal, and

especially while in the presence of young diners, we will refer to the

giblet gravy by its lesser-known name: Cheese Sauce. 

If a young diner questions you regarding the origins 

or type of Cheese Sauce, plead ignorance. 

Cheese Sauce stains. 

Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice

between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the

traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small fingerprints. 

You will still have a choice; 1. Take it or 2. Leave it.

I hope you aren't too disappointed that Martha Stewart 

will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. 

She probably won't come next year either.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A little nod to Monty Python for the day

I think I need to watch Holy Grail again soon...


see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Birds on a wire

I'm a sucker for birds on a wire and sunsets, so I had to shoot this as I was leaving work yesterday. I love the little loopdey-loop in the middle. :)

How to Spot a Writer at a Party

This post over at Not Your Usual Suspects made me chuckle. From the looks of the comments, I'm not the only anti-social one out there. Phew!

How to Spot a Writer at a Party

Sigh...

http://www.gocomics.com/lio/2011/11/01

This is Halloween! [Video]

Halloween preparations are in full swing at our house. I spent last evening gluing labels on little vials of poison and some bigger jars of sundry witchy/mad scientist/wizard-y things. The night before was filled with debate of what, exactly, ogre snot looks like (and then reconciling that with what I had on hand to create said snot). Strangely, none of our costumes are ready yet - they're all in various stages of "not done yet."

Besides being just plain awesome, this video reminds me that I forgot to decorate much outside! I guess I'll have to work on that tonight...

How are you preparing for Halloween?

This is me :(

I keep telling LilGirl I'm an example of what NOT to do when it comes to math. Thankfully, Hubby is a math whiz, so there's some hope for her.

Math Homework

I love Savage Chickens. It's one of my favorite web comics. Check out the site.

Great class on creating conflict in your writing

I recently took this class and I learned a lot. Cheryl is offering the class again in November. She's a great teacher!

CONFLICT MAKES THE STORY

DATES:  NOVEMBER 1 – 30, 2011

INSTRUCTOR: CHERYL ST.JOHN

REDUCED ENROLLMENT FEE: $20.

(a savings of $10.)

REGISTRATION VIA PAYPAL: http://cheryl-stjohn-workshop.blogspot.com/

REGISTRATION OPEN NOW

 

Only a little over two months left of 2011! Did you accomplish everything you wanted to over the year? Writing improvement challenges? A new story proposal? A finished project? Here’s an opportunity to sharpen your skills and be prepared for those new goals, which are right around the corner.

 

CLASS DESCRIPTION:

No matter what writing topic Cheryl addresses, she hangs the most importance on characters. Conflict is drawn from characters. It’s based on their goals, their backstory and their motivation. It is opposing forces that come from within the characters themselves.

 

Webster’s Dictionary defines conflict as “the opposition of persons or forces that gives rise to the dramatic action in a drama or fiction.” This definition is the essence of fiction, and we need to keep it in mind as we develop characters and plots. If there’s no conflict, there’s no story.

 

Conflict, of course, can be either light or heavy. In a humorous story, the problem may not be life threatening, but it still must be important to the characters. The characters’ motivations must be equally important to them. In suspense, the conflict is often life-threatening. All well-developed plots stem from creative use of conflict, and conflict is what keeps the reader turning pages.

 

In order to understand conflict and how to develop it, we must first understand what conflict is, what conflict is not, and what conflict can be. The elements that make up a story are so closely meshed that at times it becomes difficult to dissect and make a firm delineation between them. In a masterfully developed story, characterization, plotting, and conflict are all intricately entwined.

 

Cheryl will explain opposing goals and how to create conflict that will sustain a story. She’ll give practical advice on:

• Motivating characters
• Creating characters with built-in conflict
• Revealing emotion through conflict
• Internal and external conflict
• Simple and complex conflict

 

More info here.

One of my favorite Halloween books

Or, really, one of my favorite books, period.

I don't know what happened to my copy of Popcorn by Frank Asch (I hope one of my brothers has it) but while I was searching for a replacement copy recently, I came across Frank Asch's site, where he will read the book to you (and your little ones):

Popcorn by Frank Asch

Wait, I need to read this...

"Cultivating a regular daily practice of actually showing up and creating is the only way you will ever progress your talents, your ideas and you ambitions in creating."

From Theorist To Artist: Why You Need A Lot Less “How To” And More “Just Do” | A Big Creative Yes

Yes, this is me. Just one more article...one more grid to fill out...one more sticky note to put on the board...one more...Hey, where'd my time go???

via @thecreativepenn

The Stanford speech + LilGirl's tribute to Steve Jobs

Of course, this will be played over and over in the next few days, but it's a great speech and you'll only hear snippets on the TV news. Here's the whole thing:

 

Last night, when we first heard the news (via Twitter) we then turned to TWiT and watched their Tribute And Remembrance Of Steve Jobs, which was sort of a techie wake. It's worth watching - more heartfelt and in-depth than mainstream media's coverage, I think.

LilGirl didn't act interested and disappeared into my office where she seemed to be digging through the craft drawers whenever I checked on her. But after she had gone to bed, I found this on the kitchen table:

From Random

Sometimes she finds the best way to express her emotions is by creating things. In this case, that's superbly fitting.

Talk like a pirate, walk like a pirate...rap like a pirate?

I heard these guys for the first time on this week's NSFW (which isn't really "Not Suitable for Work" except that you might get in trouble for laughing too hard).

Cluck! Er, I mean, Arrr!!!

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day and the Savage Chickens never let me down:

Lots more here: Pirate Cartoons | Savage Chickens - Cartoons on Sticky Notes by Doug Savage

(Yes, I had to sneak Star Wars in)

Awww, isn't that sweet...wait...what?

When I look at photographer Trey Ratcliff's blog, I usually skip to the photo at the bottom, then go back up and read the stuff at the top which explains the photo, thus my initial reaction to this photo was "Ooooh, that's just the most perfect old French cottage!"

Click through for full size

Then I read the photo description. Of course it's "the most perfect old French cottage," that's what it was painstakingly designed to be: It's part of the “Hameau de la Reine," Marie Antoinette's own sort of Disney-fied version of a French hamlet. I'd heard of it, but had never seen a picture before.

Anyway, it's still a nice photo, so here ya go.

Tiny House in France

Ghostbusters is coming back to theaters

I'm actually kind of excited about this. It's not a reboot, and as far as I know it's not having 3D added, it's THE MOVIE in all its unadulterated unaltered-ness (yes, I'm looking at you, George Lucas). WooHoo! (So maybe "kind of excited" is an understatement. Sosueme.)

‘Ghostbusters’ to Get Theatrical Rerelease (via /Flim)

Movie Night: Your Highness

We watched Your Highness last weekend. I had pretty low expectations for this movie, and even those weren't met. I love screwball comedy, but when it seems to have been written by a bunch of horny 14-year-old boys, that just doesn't cut it. Done right, this could have been something like the Spaceballs of the sword-and-sorcery genre, but it was just a bunch of  bad accents, puerile jokes and sexism hung on a flimsy plot.

Normally, if I don't like a movie, I can still see where someone would enjoy if they were "into that sort of thing" like war movies, horror movies, or whatever other genre I don't usually go for. I can usually pull some redeeming value from even the worst movies, or at least come away with a "well, they tried, it just didn't work" sort of attitude. But with Your Highness, I really just want those 102 minutes of my life back. I really can't recommend that anyone rent it.

I wrote this review on Sunday, but let it sit for a few days to see if I still felt this way before publishing it. Yep, still do, even though I think said review has a "You kids get off my lawn" feeling. Maybe I'm just getting old, but man, I was really disappointed in this movie.

Following weather events with a Twitter list

Hurricane Irene, August 26, 2011
by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

I've been curating a list on Twitter for weather events for some time, but it just occurred to me today that I should make it public (I usually make my lists private by default) and let others know it's there. It's been great for following the progress of Hurricane Irene without having to be glued to the TV (or even the computer, since I can check the list using my smartphone).

The list is by no means exhaustive and it's constantly growing. I've tried to throw in nationally known meteorologists (from the networks, for example), some government agencies, and some storm chasers. I add more as I come across accounts which are relevant.

The few locally-based accounts I included are mostly focused on eastern Nebraska. This is really all the list was when I began, but I started adding accounts with broader coverage after the tornado in Joplin, MO this summer.

I've also added some earthquake-related accounts. I didn't feel like making a separate list when I only had a couple accounts for those and there's quite a bit of overlap in reportage. (On a side note, did you know that you can Google "earthquake" and Google will put a list of the most recent earthquakes at the top of the search results? It's handy.)

The great thing about Twitter lists is that you don't have to be following the accounts you put in there, so if you don't want a lot of extra noise in your main Twitter stream, but you want to be able to check on what's going on with a certain subject, you can throw the relevant accounts in a list and then check it from time to time. You also don't have to have a Twitter account at all to view the list, just follow the link.