Dog in the moment

Cold and snow have come at last.
Jasper loves to run and romp in the snow. He plays with it, he plays in it.
At my end of the leash, load of dull thoughts: iffy status of Thailand trip, things that must be done today, things I’d like to do instead, tomorrow’s schedule, state of health, unresolved [...]

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Don’t tell Jasper

There’s a shih tzu with her very own blog. And occasional serious attitude problems.
I think she’s on Twitter too.
Sounds like way too much work.

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I’m just not feeling the love here

(Sign displayed at closed-down and occupied Bangkok international airport, BKK, by People’s Alliance for Democracy (Thailand) which has seized it.)

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Foiled again

I hate Christmas. Never was much on it and have come to dislike it more each year.
I once bought a big artificial tree (half price) because, well, if you’re a grownup with your own home you’re sort of supposed to. The happiest I have felt about Christmas in decades? Was when I dumped the tree [...]

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Beyond ugly, beyond words

I had no idea that something like this would really happen again, with such tragic results, even as I was writing my last post about the conspicuous consumption orgy known as Black Friday.
But it did. Story below the fold if you have the stomach for it.
To hell with Walmart, Long Island thugs, Visa, MasterCard, Discover [...]

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Where macro hits micro

All this talk about the economy is scary, but I have often thought “WTF?” when reading or listening to some of the news coverage.  Especially the stories about today, aka “Black Friday,” that dubious American institution when retail stores compete for shoppers’ dollars with early opening hours and crazy loss leader specials.
For our foreign friends, [...]

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From Mumbai with love and grief

Thanks to twitter I found the blog of Arun Shanbhag, who took his camera out onto the streets of Mumbai as the dawn rose, and has posted many of his photos on his blog.
Warning: some of the pictures are graphic, no mangled human bodies, but still disturbing. However, if you think you are up to [...]

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Sick and sleepless: it’s not all bad

 
Because in one of my wakeful times during the wee hours this morning I was able to go to the NaNoWriMo site and using the validator function that was activated as of midnight, get my winner status made official. 
Well, actually, except for that, sick and sleepless is pretty bad.

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Winner

Just passed the 50,000 word count for my NaNo Novel. This has been a 12,600 word count day. I am pooped and my throat is still sore, but I am a winner. A NaNoWriMo winner.
A week early no less.
Thanks to all of you for all the moral support. It has meant a lot to me.
Oh, [...]

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Milestone

Forty thousand words.
Just now I paused in my work on my NaNo Novel to note that I’ve passed the 40K mark in the word count.
I have felt like cr*p since about bedtime on Friday and didn’t write at all yesterday although I’d planned a couple of serious writing sessions, one here at home and the [...]

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Too many opportunities to count

 . . to have fun with the word “turkey.” 
This editorial cartoon ran in our newspaper the other day. Really, I think it might have been Tuesday or Wednesday. I loved it:

Little did we know that a couple of days later, she really would.
OK, not that she would kill a turkey herself. But that she really [...]

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Antidote

OK, I admit it. I’m an obnoxious besotted dog-owner. In case there’s any doubt about that after I posted that professional portrait of Jasper the other day. Where he’s lounging on a pillow looking alertly at the camera, and looking way too sweet for any real life dog. Including Jasper himself.
Leave it to FurGirl to bring us [...]

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Seventy-five percent

It’s not over till the NaNoWriMo word count validator says I have written 50,000 words, or midnight on November 30, whichever comes first.
But I’m pleased to note that my current word count is 37,644. Which is 75.2% of 50,000.
My first draft novel is a mish-mash of dreck with a few decent scenes, and not something [...]

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Too good not to share

Today’s editorial cartoon in the Denver Post by Mike Keefe, is so right on:

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Of all the things I had not considered

At least now I know this:

Another sign of my lack of intellectual curiosity? That I haven’t been contemplating my aging hulk in the mirror and assessing its recyling potential?
But, peeeeeple! I’ve been writing a novel, OK?
Thanks to everyone for the moral support in my NaNoWriMo second-half push to the finish line. I’m at something like [...]

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Halfway point

I’m writing and posting this just before 11 pm MST on November 15.
I am halfway through National Novel Writing Month.
The NaNoWriMo goal is to write 50,000 words during November.
My current total word count after pounding out 4,787 words this afternoon and evening is, TA DA: 25,617.
Halfway there as to both days and word count. That [...]

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Ten point five months old

Jasper was born on Christmas Eve last year and came into my life four months later. He’s sweet, smart, and loves to run and play the whole time he’s at doggie day care. When we are out walking he’s calm and confident and ready to go forever, except at night. When it’s dark outdoors he [...]

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Pop Quiz

I have never been an excessive partisan.
Which politician said this, with a straight face, in an interview aired just now on the Today show on NBC?
Click this to find out:

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Not so fast about the teeth liberation

I enjoyed just exactly a week of teeth liberation. No braces, no plastic tooth coverings, no foreign objects in my mouth all the time.
Well all that’s over. Yesterday I was fitted with upper and lower retainers at my orthodontist’s office. I’m supposed to wear them 24 hours a day for six weeks, and each night [...]

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What to do with the old ‘puter?

If you live in the Denver area and you have any computer equipment to donate or recycle, check out Tech for All. Your old stuff may help a kid or family. Don’t bother “continue reading” as it’s words to help with search results.

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Real America

After the snarky red/blue humor in yesterday’s post, here’s a more unifying statement about the “real America.”
There are no real or fake parts of this country. We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this nation – we all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from. [...]

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A little harsh post-election fun

I got this in an email yesterday. It’s just snarky fun, and payback in kind to all that yak yak during the campaign by The Alaskan Beeyotch about some people being “socialists” and some parts of the country being “REAL America.”  (And Sarah? I’m inclined to be as charitable and sympathetic to you as you [...]

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Never happier to be wrong

I had always figured that we would not see this during my lifetime. No matter the quality of the candidate or the good ideas in the platform. Americans would not elect an African-American as President. Wasn’t happy about it, but I thought that was a river we were far from crossing in our journey of [...]

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Liberation Day

Nothing to do with politics, that title, although it is also Election Day.
Nope, the liberation is immediate and physical.
I just got home from my orthodontist’s office. Where they took my braces off.
Woot!!
They had to numb my entire mouth to do it (my poor mouth is sensitive to all the air and cold water involved in [...]

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Dr. Wicked’s Writing Lab

Thanks to a post on the forum at the Official NaNoWriMo site, I discovered “Write or Die” at Dr. Wicked’s Writing Lab.
W-or-D is an ingenious – and maybe devious – little web application that just may help you blast through a writer’s block.
It works like this. You choose your time goal, your word goal and [...]

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Word count

My goodness, all these years using word processing software and I’ve rarely used the “word count” tool.
Until yesterday and today. Until I started my first ever National Novel Writing Month.
Now, the word count tool is frequently consulted.
I didn’t start writing until about 4:00 o’clock yesterday afternoon, at the Tattered Cover store where a write-in event for NaNoWriMo [...]

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