Thinking More Positively
I get so wrapped up in the work chaos that I often forget to LJ the good things:
Papaw has been doing so well since he went home on hospice (put on a bunch of weight) that his regular doctor is making an appointment for him to at least meet with an oncologist in Texarkana about chemo possibilties. Papaw wants to give it a try if he is strong enough for it because he said it is better than sitting around doing nothing and waiting for the cancer to spread. He has been going fishing regularly; Mamaw's niece has a pier out into the lake and he can wheel his wheelchair out there and fish to his heart's content. Aunt Faye said one day he was catching lots of fish and they weren't and he was teasing them about what were they eating for supper? Then a day or two later, he wasn't catching anything and wanted to go home, and Aunt Faye threatened to smack him with the big catfish she'd just caught. I'd bet that would have made the nightly news if someone had had to fish two nearly-80-year-old siblings out of the lake with a catfish-thwacking involved... Obviously he is in good spirits.
Coincidences are rather funny. I had found instructions online on how to grow your own avocado plant (aka alligator pear) and copied them down, but hadn't done anything with them because I'd hate to waste the avocado since I won't eat it. When we were at my sister's last weekend, she had an avocado seed growing. She'd seen it on Good Eats and thought it would be fun. My bro-in-law was telling her not to move it to a big jar because that hadn't worked the first time they'd tried it. She finally admitted it hadn't worked because she'd had the seed upside down. To make it even more of a coincidence, Panda brought home an avocado yesterday and gave me the seed (I was right, NO ONE around here will eat them... even J1 and he tried because Panda likes them). Unfortunately the seed met with misfortune in the way of hard contact with the kitchen floor this morning, so I'll have to get another one. The nice thing is that I know exactly which side is which now, because when it cracked in half, I could see the mini-seed inside the big one.
I've been reading like crazy. In addition to the Michael A. Stackpole DragonCrown series I previously mentioned as being A+, I just finished a book called Accidental Creatures by Anne Harris. That's a definate must-read for folks who like sci-fi without being too overly technical for a layperson to read. It reminded me somewhat of cyberpunk, but a little less high-tech and more character focused. I need to get my booklist together and online.
One of the things I want to "redo" for my portfolio is the semi-writing-community forums I've had running for Fiction Nook. Rather than just be forums, I want to build a dynamic, database-backed website for FN. Forums would still be a strong part of the site. But I need some writerly friend input. I know a lot of you have browsed and used the writing sites out there. What features and interactivity would make the "perfect" writing website for you? Forums, challenges, prompts, grammar rules, quizzes, critiques, market list etc. What really drives you NUTS about other sites that ended up making you not use them? Do you prefer genre oriented sites (like s/f/h ones) or more general sites? Opinions wanted!
Papaw has been doing so well since he went home on hospice (put on a bunch of weight) that his regular doctor is making an appointment for him to at least meet with an oncologist in Texarkana about chemo possibilties. Papaw wants to give it a try if he is strong enough for it because he said it is better than sitting around doing nothing and waiting for the cancer to spread. He has been going fishing regularly; Mamaw's niece has a pier out into the lake and he can wheel his wheelchair out there and fish to his heart's content. Aunt Faye said one day he was catching lots of fish and they weren't and he was teasing them about what were they eating for supper? Then a day or two later, he wasn't catching anything and wanted to go home, and Aunt Faye threatened to smack him with the big catfish she'd just caught. I'd bet that would have made the nightly news if someone had had to fish two nearly-80-year-old siblings out of the lake with a catfish-thwacking involved... Obviously he is in good spirits.
Coincidences are rather funny. I had found instructions online on how to grow your own avocado plant (aka alligator pear) and copied them down, but hadn't done anything with them because I'd hate to waste the avocado since I won't eat it. When we were at my sister's last weekend, she had an avocado seed growing. She'd seen it on Good Eats and thought it would be fun. My bro-in-law was telling her not to move it to a big jar because that hadn't worked the first time they'd tried it. She finally admitted it hadn't worked because she'd had the seed upside down. To make it even more of a coincidence, Panda brought home an avocado yesterday and gave me the seed (I was right, NO ONE around here will eat them... even J1 and he tried because Panda likes them). Unfortunately the seed met with misfortune in the way of hard contact with the kitchen floor this morning, so I'll have to get another one. The nice thing is that I know exactly which side is which now, because when it cracked in half, I could see the mini-seed inside the big one.
I've been reading like crazy. In addition to the Michael A. Stackpole DragonCrown series I previously mentioned as being A+, I just finished a book called Accidental Creatures by Anne Harris. That's a definate must-read for folks who like sci-fi without being too overly technical for a layperson to read. It reminded me somewhat of cyberpunk, but a little less high-tech and more character focused. I need to get my booklist together and online.
One of the things I want to "redo" for my portfolio is the semi-writing-community forums I've had running for Fiction Nook. Rather than just be forums, I want to build a dynamic, database-backed website for FN. Forums would still be a strong part of the site. But I need some writerly friend input. I know a lot of you have browsed and used the writing sites out there. What features and interactivity would make the "perfect" writing website for you? Forums, challenges, prompts, grammar rules, quizzes, critiques, market list etc. What really drives you NUTS about other sites that ended up making you not use them? Do you prefer genre oriented sites (like s/f/h ones) or more general sites? Opinions wanted!