Books, Cats, and Life

Life can turn on a dime

2012-02-11T09:31:00.001-08:00

People think they understand how fragile life is, but I don't think they really get it until it's pushed into their face. I sure didn't.

My husband just went to having a pain in his shoulder that we both assumed was a pulled muscle (had that before) to fighting for his life because the abscess that was causing the pain had sent bacteria and toxins throughout his entire body. He was in ICU for a week, and will probably be in a regular room for at least another one.

I went from having a raw patch on my tongue that I assumed was from stress (had that before)to a diagnosis of oral cancer. As it's related to human papilloma virus and not tobacco, I've got a pretty good prognosis. I'll know more when I see the oncologist next week.

When my father died, it was a long, drawn-out process. But I have a friend who was sitting in the living room talking to her mom, who suddenly put her hand over her heart, said "Oh, my," and was gone.

It's impossible to seriously live each moment as if it were your last. We have jobs to go to, bills to pay, and every couple and family has disagreements. I'd rather be lying on a beach drinking Pacifico with lime than going to work most days. Even though I nearly lost my husband, he still has habits that grate on my nerves. Some people have a brush with death and are completely different people, others of us just carry on in the same old way.

But maybe just a bit more aware that our lives are like soap bubbles.

Computer crazies

2012-01-30T14:35:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, when I wanted to read a news article online on one of the many news websites, I clicked on the link and read the article. Now, instead of an article, I'm frequently faced with a Bing page that lets me read what I already knew and requires me to click on five or so other links to read what I clicked on the first link to find out. On each of those links, I find more links to articles rather than the answer to the question. And on each page (mind you I've gone through at least 3 clicks just to get a piece of what I wanted to know) I have to wait for all the pop ups, pop downs, slide overs, and video ads to completely load before I can read what I came for. Takes at least 4 minutes a page, and I can read the article when I finally get at it in less than a minute.

I hate this. I'm going to stop reading news online and resubscribe to the newspaper. I can read it front to back in less time than following all the links to read about 4 articles online. This is silly.

Becoming an indie author

2012-01-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

The digital age is revolutionizing publishing. The e-book market is growing quickly, and the print publishing system has stagnated. Trying to get a book published traditonally is virtually impossible. 999 books are rejected for every book published. Were all these books badly written? No. Many just weren't what the publisher wanted at that moment. But when an author has to write a different style/length/content synopsis for every publisher queried, and publishers will reject a book because they didn't like your font, and even when they publish a book are very likely to let it languish on the shelves of bookstores for a whole month before it goes out of print.

Enter indie publishing. After a lot of searching and research, I've decided on Smashwords. (Google it.) You have to do your own formatting, but once you do, your e-book is available through just about every single e-book vendor there is. They even give you a list of low-cost, experienced e-book cover artists.

I've chosen a cover artist and sent payment. She has a waiting list, but looking at her highly professional website and her portfolio, and her incredibly good price, the short wait will be more than worth it.

Look for Blood and Moonlight, a paranormal romance, available online everywhere in February 2012. To be followed by many more. And for a preview, to to www.wattpad.com/MarlaShin.

Jigsaw puzzles

2011-10-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

Jigsaw puzzles can be a metaphor for life, especially in hard times.You start off with a big mess of what looks like unrelated pieces, and gradually find connections and make sense of it. Often, just when you think you’ll never solve it, you find a key piece or make a connection you didn’t see before, and it all comes clear.

Then there are the times you know the cat ate a few pieces, and they'll never be seen again.

Best Friends

2011-04-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

I miss having a best friend. I had one for the last 4 years of grade school,Vickie Grimm. She was three years older than me, so when she became a teenager and moved, then I moved, and we drifted apart. I had another one for the three years of junior high, Kathy Midkiff. She was a talented artist. I still have an ink drawing she made for me of Mr. Spock. But when we got to high school, we lost each other. In the last three years of high school, my best friend was Ava Nietsche (I'm sure I'm misspelling her last name). But we both started different colleges, and she got married after one semester, and I never heard from her again.

In college I hung with a constantly shifting group of girls. Some of us kept in touch by a round robin letter for a few years after college, then it stopped coming. I stayed in touch with two of them, Rosie Lindbergh and Naomi Berggren. They both got married and I didn't. I still hear from and visit with Naomi now and then. When Rosie got married she dropped me because I wasn't married and she and her husband (evidently joined at the hip) wanted to do everything as a couple. Later she dropped Naomi too, because she and her husband decided not to have kids, and after Rosie had her first she could only be friends with married couples with children, because she wanted to do everything as a family. Neither of us have heard from her since.

My best friend Mary lived with my parents and me for a while. Then she went away to school, got married, and moved away. Neither of us has money for long distance phone calls. She doesn't write letters and doesn't have a computer, so there's no way to keep in touch. I had a best friend named Diane for a while, but she moved to Colorado and I moved elsewhere, and we rarely communicate these days. In El Paso I had a best friend named Lee, but after I moved away, it didn't last long. I don't think it would have lasted much longer anyway because our values had gotten so different.

My last best friend would still like to be, but she hates my husband. I miss her, but I can't be around her because of this. I won't have anyone driving a wedge between us, no matter how good intentioned.

So, currently I'm lacking for a female best friend. My husband could use a male best friend too. No matter how good a marriage is, no one person can be everything to another one. You gotta have friends. I wish there was a match.com or harmony.com for friendship.

The Angst of Aging

2011-04-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

They say your 40s are the old age of your youth, and your 50s are the youth of your old age. I'm 57, and all I can think is, "Holy crap, it's going to get worse."

My mother, age 86, has survived the following in the last 10 years: Pneumonia, a partial hip replacement, numerous broken teeth (she now has a partial plate), and macular degeneration. Slightly before that, she survived a bowel obstruction requiring surgery.

Old age is not for sissies.

Someone once told me, "After 40 it's patch, patch, patch." I'd agree. In my 40s I got bifocals (I've always worn glasses), had my first hearing test revealing that my hearing was fading, and got the first 2 crowns on my teeth. Now I've got trifocals, 4 crowns, and am shopping for hearing aids.

My hair, which has always been very thick, began to go white in my 20s. Now it's gotten very thin, and my hairline, always high, has gotten even higher. So now, rather than wearing my hair long and off my face, which I've always preferred, I have to wear the curly mop short with bangs. Looks cute, feels weird. My neck took 2 winters to adjust to being out in the cold. I have a new appreciation for knitted scarves.

The memory loss is the worst. I've always been absent-minded, but now I'm so forgetful I'm beginning to scare myself. Twice in the last month, I've driven off without my purse. I have never done that before in my life.

My husband and I joke that we'll be sitting in the old folks' home not recognizing each other, but still flirting. This could happen.

Lesson learned

2010-11-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

On my quest to self-publish, I have just learned a very valuable lesson. When hiring someone for cover art, ASK TO SEE SAMPLES FIRST. Just because someone works as a graphic designer (!) and his mother-in-law (a distant relative of mine) says he's good, means nothing.

I asked him for a picture of a pretty, slender, short-haired 16-year-old girl with wings. Even told him her hair and wings are gold, and her skin is Anglo tanned. I had done a couple of sketches (probably should have sent them to him) but the best you can say of my art is that I'm a decent amateur.

What I get is a gray-faced robot with a cape. I am not kidding. The skin on this creature was gray. Its flat yellow hair was in a pony tail. The torso was a featureless rectangle, the arms and legs rigid cylinders. The wings looked like a cape - there were no feathers, and absolutely zero understanding of the structure of a wing.

I thought it over for a few days - he wanted to be told what I wanted to change, and I couldn't think of a polite way to say "Everything." So I told him (having said earlier that my husband was in charge of the budget and would have to clear the $100 we'd agreed on) that my husband didn't think the art was worth a hundred, and I was sorry to say I agreed.

I never heard from the guy again. However, his mother-in-law (my mother's cousin, I don't know if that's once removed or what) Facebooked me that it was a shame I hadn't asked for samples first, so he wouldn't have wasted his time. I should have let it drop, but was so completely apalled by this dreadful, amateurish piece of art that I replied, "Didn't look like he wasted much time. I drew better than that when I was twelve." Well, she got angry - can't really blame her. I think she's unfriended me. I don't really care - I've only seen her a handful of times in my life and would be hard-pressed to pick her out of a crowd.

The moral of this tale is: When commissioning art, even if it's from friends or family, ask for samples first so you know if you're offering your hard-earned money for something you could do better yourself. And actually, better not to commission friends or family, or anyone you'll have to see again, because if you have to fire them, it'll ruin the relationship.

Gee, I wish I could draw

2010-10-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, the cover art is going to be a holdup. I'm checking around all my assorted artistic relatives for starters, and I have plenty. The frustration I've always had with art is that I can see the picture in my head very clearly, but lack the ability to get it onto paper. And the cover is the primary advertising tool, so it can't look amateurish. I have an uncle, a couple of cousins, a niece, and a few friends who might be able to help. But oh, I wish I could do my own!

Blasted printers

2010-09-22T19:33:00.001-07:00

My husband printed out my novel for the editor. Would you believe we went through an entire new black cartridge, and then had to switch to blue? Eighteen bucks, and it wouldn't even print 350 pages! Highway robbery!

Little by little

2010-09-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I've priced local editing services - yikes! Luckily I've got a network of local writers who also do editing, and one will give my stuff a look-see for free. I'll take advantage of that while I can. Phoenix Hatching is now in her hands. I've polished it to my best ability. Basically I just wanted a fresh pair of eyes to go over it and catch anything I missed. You can't proof your own work, you think it says what you wanted it to say. She can also check for any plot inconsistencies and other problems. While she's doing that, I'm checking into options for cover art. Here's an advantage over traditional publishing: you get to pick your cover art. You don't have to have Generic Chick in short top, tramp stamp, and sword. You can actually have someone who looks like the character.

After my editor's done, and I have the cover art chosen, then Phoenix Hatching will come out on Kindle. It's science fiction, set on Earth about 1000 years after the human race has become extinct. From underground labs, a race of beings called Mutas are beginning their own civilization. One of these is a 17-year old girl named Hallia. Abused by her own people, she exiles herself and is rescued by a scouting party from another group. As they travel across the deserted country, Hallia develops from a waif into a warrior. And she'll be needed once the group returns to its home.

Here goes nothing

2010-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

Actually, I hope that it all comes to a lot more than nothing. I've had enough of form rejection slips, query packets that come back unread because I used didn't use the font the editor prefers or put two spaces after a period, or had a 5-page synopsis instead of a 4-page. I am going to self-publish through Amazon.com, first in Kindle editions and then in print-on-demand, if possible.

To make a success of self-publishing, one has to put out a good product, and has to promote the bejeezus out of it, because no one else will. You can't just let it sit.

To that end, I'm going to be logging the process on my blog (poor neglected blog) and getting some cards printed up with the cover of this novel, once it's selected. I'm going to have it edited, so a fresh pair of eyes can maybe catch what I've missed. I want to work with an artist to design the cover. This will be one thing better than traditional publishing. Those authors have zero say over what the cover looks like.

So, watch this space. I'm going to blog the entire process. That will either inspire other writers, or serve as valuable lesson to other fools, whichever. The book in question is Phoenix Hatching, a science-fiction novel. I wrote the original version a very long time ago.

Very tired old plot that needs retired.

2010-02-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

I’d like to gripe about a movie plot device that has gotten overused to the point that it’s beyond cliché. In fact, it makes a good portion of the movie that uses it so completely predictable that all suspense is gone. I’m calling it the Cassandra Syndrome.

Cassandra, for those of you whose education is either in progress or inadequate, was a woman in Homer’s Iliad who started off as a priestess of Apollo. He fell in lust with her and gave her the gift of prophecy. When she refused to have sex with him, he cursed her. Since even gods couldn’t take back gifts they’d given, the curse was that no one would ever believe her.

You’ve all seen these movies. They can be horror, sci fi, or action. Something is invented or discovered. Among the party of inventors or discoverers is a Cassandra who predicts dire consequences, which are laughed off by the person/s in charge, the main one I’ll call the Pooh-Pooh Bear. The invention is turned on, or the discovered item/creature is released. Dire consequences promptly come to pass. Big yawn. Is there anyone over the age of seven who hasn’t seen this plot a hundred times? Retire the sucker already! It doesn’t fool anyone! Are you listening, Science Fiction Channel?

You know you’ve seen it. This plot covers the main points of a gazillion cheap (and even not cheap) horror movies, science fiction, and action flicks. “Don’t let the thing out of the basement!” shrieks the Cassandra. “It’ll destroy us all!” Or maybe it’s “Don’t sequence the raptor DNA!” or “Don’t make the computer able to learn on its own!”

“But it’s the discovery/technological development of the millennium!” hollers the Pooh-Pooh Bear, and promptly lets it out, or turns it on without adequate testing, whereby it promptly destroys everyone. Except one or two of the heroes.

Ah, the heroes. These, too, remain the same from movie to movie with very few variations. Besides the Cassandra (who might be one of the heroes) and the Pooh-Pooh Bear, there’s the inevitable Main Character Trio. The Hot Chick, The Big Hero, and the Sidekick (these days, where Hollywood is trying to show how Politically Correct it is, frequently a Black Guy).

Inevitably, Hot Chick and Big Hero have a love affair going on, and Sidekick Black Guy gets killed off sometime during the movie. One notable exception was Deep Blue Sea, in which the Hot Chick bought it and the Black Guy lived. Way to throw us a curve ball, Hollywood. Yeah, change one plot element and pat yourself on the back about how Innovative you are.

Another example: Stealth. The special effects were amazing, I’ll give them that. However the first half of the movie was the same old Scary Discovery, Cassandra, Pooh-Pooh Bear, and Hero Trio. I was beyond not surprised when the Black Guy bought the farm and the Hot Chick and Big Hero (who was also the Cassandra) wound up together. The rest of the movie was good enough to almost make up for this, but not quite.

Can’t someone in Hollywood write something new? Sequels, remakes, filmed comic books and old plots rehashed with new special effects. Never mind you know everything that will happen in the movie, folks! Watch us blow shit up in new and exciting CG! Ooh, and now we have 3-D! At least for people with good eyesight. If you're blind in one eye or have other depth-perception issues, it just looks blurry.

Yawn. Pardon me, I think I’ll read a book.

Lip-synchers

2009-11-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

Frankly, I wouldn't pay fifty cents to hear Britney Spears "sing," but I'll bet the ticket for the now-infamous Australia show were upwards of $50.

I'll tell you right now, I shell out good money for a concert and go to all the trouble of going, that bitch better be singing live. She should pay everyone back their money.

Thinking of cats past: Muffet

2009-05-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

My arms remember the feel of cats past. My ears remember their purrs and meows. I can breathe in the memory of their spicy-musky scent. All of their antics, all of the fun we had is secure in my memory. No two have been alike.

Heaven for me would be a comfortable armchair, all the books I didn't have time to read - and my favorites to re-read. An unending supply of all my favorite snacks. And most important: all my past cats taking turns purring in my lap.

My first cat was a green-eyed shorthaired tom cat, inexplicably named Muffet. We had just moved to Hastings, Nebraska, and I was going to start first grade in the fall. Across the street was a ramshackle two-story house that always seemed to have dozens of cats running around. The back screen door was visible from our front yard, because it and our house sat on corners, facing different streets.

I had spent weeks watching kittens of assorted sizes running around that house, going in and out through a tear in the screen door. I'd go across the street to see if I could play with them, but they'd all run and hide. Sometimes it was like a river of cats going in that screen door.

After a month or so, I became determined to catch one. I hid around the corner of the house and waited. A little orange tabby stuck its head out, looked right at me, and went back in. Then a little black and white kitten peeked out, but only looked in the other direction. It jumped out and padded off the way it had been looking, and I tiptoed after it and caught it. I carried it across the street, went inside my house, and told Mom I found it on the porch and could I keep it.

Well, I would never have a career as a con artist. Besides the fact I've always been a transparent liar, my Mother had watched the whole thing through the picture window. Amazingly, she told me that if I asked the lady who lived there if I could have the kitten, and she said yes, I could keep it.

Pathologically shy, I looked down at the kitten who looked back up at me, and went back across the street and knocked on the back door. When the lady answered, I murmured my request.

She answered, "Why, of course! Are you sure you want that one? Come on in and pick another one if you want." So I went inside.

I will never forget that room. It reeked of cat pee. The only thing in there besides cats was a brown sofa, laying on its back, shredded. You could see the springs. There were cats and kittens everywhere. I looked at them and then back at the kitten who had settled into my arms and begun to purr. He had little white mittens and boots, a white chin, and half a white mustache on his little black face. The mustache gave him a rakish look. I thanked her kindly, and said I'd keep this one. She ushered me out and told me to come back anytime.

Muffet (where did I get that name?) and I had a seven year relationship. I'll tell some of his stories in the next few blogs.

What is this Jon and Kate crap, anyway?

2009-05-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

I don't watch reality TV so I may be missing something here. From what I can tell, these people are famous and have their own show because they have 8 kids. Evidently the first two weren't sufficient, so they did in vitro or fertility drugs or whatever and added sextuplets.

So they have 8 kids under the age of 10, and decided it would be a wonderful idea to put their family on national TV. And now, big surprise (I mean that in deepest sarcasm) are having marital trouble.

Ya think?

Why anyone should be famous for having a lot of kids is just plain beyond me. My great-grandparents raised 13 without the aid of fertility drugs, in vitro, or national television. And they did it on one salary without nannies/au pairs/day care. Crap, they deserve medals!

Curly hair has become endangered!

2009-05-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

Oh, my natural-curly sisters and brothers, it is time to band together as the vagaries of fashion have once again swung against us. As it was in the 1960s, the Gods of Beauty have decreed that all American hair must be straight.

I had seen that many celebrities with beautiful natural curls were straightening their hair, and sorrowed. Hollywood forces its women into such a narrow mold. But today I read an article on msn.com by a woman who says she went to a job interview with naturally curly hair, and didn't get the job because the interviewer thought she was too lazy to blow dry it straight. She went on to detail her frightfully expensive beauty-shop procedure - one that will only last until the next time she washes her hair - and how having Straight Hair changed her life. Lies, I tell you, lies.

Once again, my sisters and brothers, we have gone from being the envied to being the pariahs. Those of us who are old enough to remember the Dark Days of torturing our hair and ourselves to fit the straight-haired mold know what is coming. My sisters, you will spend hours and days of your lives trying to maintain a style that is artificial and harmful to your hair. I spent my entire adolescence keeping my hair straight. It was my only hobby, taking up nearly every moment I wasn't in school. Sisters, straightening your hair will steal your life.

Never again, I say to you! We will not let this happen again! Band together, oh curly ones! Resist the evil that once again stalks America. Wear your curls proudly. If anyone gives you grief, tell them straight hair is boring.

NEVER AGAIN WILL WE STRAIGHTEN!

Religion has nothing to do with it

2009-02-26T19:08:00.001-08:00

The Octomom is all over the news, and true to form the right-wing nutjobs are all behind her. "The government paid for her in-vitro," they say. "Oh, the goverment will pay for anyone's. You don't need a job or anything."

Yeah, right. Anybody out there who's struggled to find a way to pay for in-vitro won't know whether to laugh or cry over that.

Octomom got 160K from worker's comp, which paid for her in-vitro AND all her plastic surgery. She showed up on awfulplasticsurgery.com, where her own family members offered the before and after shots. The woman is obsessed with Anglina Jolie, and has had her nose shaved and lips plumped to attempt to look like her.

Why all the babies? Well, the "religious" right would have you believe that she thinks like they do, that every fertilized egg has a soul, and she didn't want her "babies" thrown away. Bullshit. If she really thought that, she'd have made her babies the old-fashioned way, or gotten artificial insemination.

Now the important part: the babies, who didn't ask to be born to this lunatic. There is no earthly way one woman can even begin to parent fourteen children under the age of 8, eight of them babies, by herself. She wants a four-bedroom house, and to get a million dollars for an interview, and thinks everything will be just fine. Good God. My cousin had triplets, and they had to hire an au paire until the kids hit school. And that's with two homebody parents! These kids, in a best-case scenario, will have to be raised by a half a dozen nannies. That's not going to fit in a 4-bedroom house, and her million is going to dissolve fast - if she gets it at all - paying salaries of nannies and medical bills for her litter. One of the older ones already has major health problems. Just wait till they sort out the younger eight. I'll bet each of them will need his/her own specialist. Not to mention psycho-analysts.

Antichrist? Hitler? give me a break

2009-02-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

I've been around a while, through a lot of elections, and this is the first time the lunatic fringe of the losing party has set out to literally demonize the new president.

Obama is being called everything from Hitler to the Antichrist by these nut-jobs. This is so outrageous I hardly know how to reply. When a woman who came once to my writing group said he reminded her of Hitler, I thought it was just one weirdo. But then I heard the same thing from a woman in my knitting group, who said Obama wants to take everyone's children away and raise them in state-run institutions, and I put it down to another weirdo. This same woman doesn't believe in dinosaurs because they aren't in the Bible. What are all the bones, I asked? Dragon bones. She believes in dragons because they're mentioned in the Bible.

But now I'm seeing this same crap spouting from mouths on TV, from people with actual educations. There are evidently a buttload of weirdos out there, and I find that very frightening. Obama has called for all Americans to pull together, to work with each other to get through this difficult time in our history, and these people are saying this is Hitler, the most evil man of the twentieth century? Do they not know what Hitler actually did?

And what's with this Antichrist stuff? The Antichrist is supposed to come from the East. Obama was born in Hawaii, for pity's sake. Now everywhere is east of somewhere, but you've got to stretch it an awful lot to make Hawaii the East. And have you read the description of the Antichrist in Revelation? So where's he hiding the tail? And the spikey scales? Get real!

I find it very typical of the right-wingers that they simply are incapable of trying to work for the common good. Not one of them will be happy until every person on earth thinks exactly like them.

I hope they stay unhappy for eternity.

Guess what? Humor is frequently offensive.

2009-01-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

The movie Tropic Thunder has been getting press for being derogatory to mentally challenged people. I saw the movie, and frankly found it hysterical. Yes, the characters in the movie had several scenes in which they spoke badly of the mentally challenged, calling them 'retards.'

Was the sole purpose of the entire movie to be insulting to the mentally challenged? NO.

Were the men voicing these offensive opinions supposed in any way, shape, or form, meant to be role models? HELL NO.

The men offering the disrespect were a bunch of self-obsessed, self-indulgent, not terribly bright or talented actors, playing in a comedy in which they showed themselves to be plenty mentally challenged themselves. Not to mention morally, spiritually, and common-sense challenged. they were stereotypes, meant to poke fun at ACTORS.

Comedy pokes fun - at people, at situations, at life. Am I bent out of shape because blondes are frequently portrayed as stupid? Of course not! In the words of the immortal Dolly Parton: "I don't mind being called a dumb blonde, because I know I'm not dumb, and I know I'm not a real blonde."

Everyone needs to get a sense of humor and stop taking everything so personally.

Life begins at conception? I very much doubt it.

2008-11-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

This last election saw, in several states, a proposal by anti-abortion factions to legally declare life to begin at conception. I'm sure they saw this as a means to prevent what they see as a great evil.

Here's why declaring life to legally begin at conception is a really bad idea.

First off, with all the new technology available, a woman can find out she's pregnant very, very early. And with this has come the discovery that an estimated half of all fertilized eggs (which would legally be equal to babies under the above proposal) simply don't implant, and pass out of the woman's body unnoticed. If God puts a soul into every fertilized egg, that's an awful waste of souls. I don't think God would be that wasteful.

Now: with a fertilized egg the equivalent of a full term baby, women who are having sex could easily be required to test once a week to make sure they aren't pregnant. Women who miscarry or have a stillborn baby would be under investigation for murder, adding to the terrible grief and guilt they already feel. Proposals have already been under way to equate smoking, drinking, and not eating properly while pregant to child abuse. How long before pregnant women are locked up and monitored for the entire nine months, if this amendment comes to pass?

If a fertilized egg is given equal rights with the woman who must allow it to grow inside her until birth, women will be reduced to walking wombs with no rights at all. Think this over, please! I don't want to be a slave.

Book review: "To Pleasure a Lady" by Nicole Jordan

2008-10-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm in the mood for a real trashy novel. So I picked up "To Pleasure a Lady" by Nicole Jordan. Man, be careful what you wish for!

Nothing was wrong with the plot: Aristocrat Marcus Pierce becomes the guardian of three sisters, though all three women are over twenty-one. They're all marriage-wary because their parents hated each other, and their mom created a reputation-destroying scandal by running off with a commoner. They have started a finishing school for wealthy tradesmen's daughters, who are being snapped up by impoverished aristocracy for their money, but shunned in Society for their lack of the intricate manners. Marcus falls in love at first sight for the oldest daughter, Arabella, and sets out to convince her to marry him.

Then it starts getting a bit extreme. They set up a bargain. Marcus gets two weeks to woo her, and if Arabella turns him down at the end of the two weeks, the sisters have their freedom. She agrees. But rather than Regency-style wooing (yep, this is supposed to be set in the Regency) he sets about seducing her. And it's easy! One touch from the super-stud and she's a quivering pile of lust at his feet. They go at it like monkeys, in her home, at her school, out in the countryside where anyone could chance upon them. So much for being worried about scandal! Not to mention pregnancy. For someone who's very concerned about the reputation of her school, which of course is completely dependent on her reputation, she seems quite a little slut.

And then the descriptions of the sex scenes! They are so completely over the top they made me laugh, rather than turning me on. Rather than "ooh, that's good," and I read it to my husband, my reaction was, "oh, geez, you're kidding!" and laughter.

There are, of course, two sequels. Arabella has two sisters, and Marcus has two friends. Will I read them? Maybe, but I'll have to read some other books in between. Too much marshmallow fluff just isn't appetizing.

I still can't believe this woman best-sells. Yikes.

Bailout

2008-09-25T18:30:00.001-07:00

I have a simple solution to who should pay for the bailout. All those CEOs whose bad decisions caused this mess should do their own damn bailout of the companies they ruined. And, if they have more than one home apiece (are you listening, McBushCain?) they should give them to people whose homes were foreclosed because of their bad management.

Republican Lie Machine Grinds On

2008-09-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

There are no less than two books on the bestseller list that are nothing but long anti-Obama rants. The Republican Lie Machine is working its butt off. They had to really crank those suckers out, considering it usually takes a year from the time a book is accepted for publication and the time it's actually available.

In fact, the Republicans are beginning to go far enough in their dirt-slinging that they're actually turning off other Republicans! Locally, the chairman of the Bernalillo County Republican Party, Fernando C de Baca, said this: "The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors. African-Americans came here as slaves. Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president."

He's been asked to step down as chair. Of course he's telling everyone that the remark was taken out of context. Can anyone give me an example of a context in which thost last two sentences aren't monstrously offensive? He claims he was speaking about the past. But note: "consider themselves" isn't past tense. Neither is "They won't vote." That's indicating the future.

Here's another thing predictiing the future: If McBush is elected, we'll get four more years of the erosion 0f our rights, the robbing of the poor to make the rich richer, and yet more Supreme Court justices who ignore the Constitution to support their lobbyists' agendas.

Vote Obama!

Parent's rights versus child abuse

2008-09-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

In some beliefs I’m quite liberal, in others quite conservative. I support a woman’s right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, but I believe teenage girls ought to give their babies up for adoption, since they are unable to support themselves, let alone a child. That’s what birth control’s for, girls. Can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em. High school dropouts make lousy mothers and even worse breadwinners.

I support gay marriage, but my philosophy on marriage is “for better or for worse, till death do us part.” With a few exception clauses, such as physical or emotional abuse or chronic infidelity (if infidelity bothers the other party). Choose your partner carefully and then work at making your marriage into what you both want it to be, whether it‘s traditional or not.

I could see multiple marriage, trios or quartets, as long as women have equal rights to have more than one husband. What I can’t wrap my brain around is the rash of polygamous sects that seem to be organized very much like lions’ prides. In both cases, the Master Male basically fucks every female around, and drives out most of the young males. Since the gender ratio of babies born is only slightly more female than male, they have to push out most of their own sons to keep the female-to-male ratio high so they can have twenty teenage brides.

And that’s another argument against polygamy the way it is currently practiced in America: teenage girls, underage in fact, being told It’s God’s Will that they marry men old enough to be their father or grandfather. I guess the polygamists’ god really LOVES pedophiles. Of course the girls born into these sects think that’s perfectly natural, and evidently just can’t wait to Fulfill Their Destiny by popping out a baby a year.

This brings the argument around to a real hard one. Few people would argue that parents have an absolute right to bring their children up as they see fit, teaching them the values they hold dear. And everyone’s against child abuse. So where’s the line? Bringing up daughters with the value that their only purpose is to serve men and pop out kids is their family value. To me, that value equals child abuse. They also believe the biblical line of “spare the rod and spoil the child” and therefore beat their kids as punishment. Few would argue that beating a child is child abuse. But if your family value says that every word in the Bible is true?

Of course, atheists bring their children up to believe Jesus is as mythological as Santa and the Easter Bunny, and Christians think that’s child abuse. Christians teach their children to love/fear Jesus (depending on their denomination), and the atheists think THAT’s child abuse. Muslims bring their daughters up to believe their femininity is inherently sinful, and their body isn’t their own but belongs to the husband they will one day have, and Westerners think that’s abuse. We bring up our daughters to be independent and own their own bodies, teaching them how to be attractive, and the Muslims think we’re abusing them.

So, where do we draw the line between parent’s rights over their children, and child abuse? Hey, don’t even get me started on cutting up little girls’ vulvas to “prove they can stand childbirth” and “keep them pure.” Again, family values versus abuse. An accepted custom and traditional rite of passage to millions, the very thought it horrifies everyone else.

Even practices that were once common in America now sound abusive, such as putting children in “stays” (corsets) to keep their posture good. I can’t help wondering how, a couple hundred years down the line, what our descendents will think about some of our current beautification customs? For example, having bags of plastic poked inside the skin of our chests to turn our lovely soft breasts into giant hard globes, or injecting poison into our faces to reduce our laugh lines? At least we don’t do that to children. Yet. So far, we just let them have nose jobs.

Hair color and identity

2008-09-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Like most women, I've always had a love-hate relationship with my hair. I hated the natural curl for a long time. When I was little, older women always gushed over my hair and usually mentioned Shirley Temple at some point, despite the fact that my hair was dark brown and I didn't have dimples. I always wanted to kick them in the knee when they did that, but I was brought up to be polite.

Then when I got older, the sixties hit. All of us with curly hair had years of bad hair days as we fought to get it straight enough, in an era when straight-haired people were ironing theirs to make it even straighter. I discovered chemical straighteners at the age of twelve, and straightened my hair until my last year of college. By then, Afros had come into style for African Americans, and I rebelled. If they could wear theirs natural, why couldn't I? So I grew it out, cut off the straightened part, and had the best damn white-girl Afro you ever saw.

Then, two weeks after my twenty-first birthday, I found my first white hair. Coarse and stick-straight, I thought it was some foreign object that had wound its way into my curls, and yanked it. To my total shock, it was attached. I looked at this white, straight hair in my hand, and thought, "My God, I'm going to look like a dandelion." Fortunately after the first couple of dozen - all of which I pulled - they began coming in the same texture and curl as the brown hair.

First I put a henna rinse on. It gave my blue-brown hair a lovely chestnut cast, and disguised the white hairs. For a while. Then one day, someone asked, "What are all those orange hairs on your head?" I took a good look in the mirror under fluorescent lights, and my jaw hit the bathroom sink. It looked like a halloween wig.

So I washed out the henna and began having it professionally dyed back to brown. This was good for ten years. At that point, watching the white roots come in was very depressing, as well as unsightly. My hair grew very fast still, and it only took 2 weeks for the roots to show.

Being a low-maintenance kind of woman anyway, and having a mom whose hair has been pure white since she was 50, I decided I'd grow it out and have a look at it. When I couldn' stand the roots, I went and had the rest bleached, figuring blonde wouldn't look so extreme.

Yikes. It looked ghastly. Doggedly I left it, until I noticed that the bleached part had turned ORANGE. Ugh!!! By then I had a good bit of root, so I picked up a pair of scissors and cut off all the orange hair. It came out shorter than I usually wear my hair, but looked pretty good. Now I had a salt-and-pepper Afro. By then I was 38.

I left it alone for over ten years. And then I had a midlife crisis of sorts. And one cute man too many told me in a bar that I looked like 35 from the front and 65 from the back.

"Hmmm," I says to myself, "I've never been a blonde." Again, I figured the light color wouldn't show the roots so badly, and this time I wouldn't have to bleach it. So for the last four years I've been just about every shade of blonde offered in home coloring kits. I wanted Marilyn, but that color didn't look good on me. Actually, none of them really did, but I persevered. Now, I'm very tired of the upkeep, and tired of the color. I'M A BRUNETTE, DAMN IT!

And there's the rub. In my heart, and in my dreams, I still have dark brown hair. Since I can't have that any more, I'll go with the natural silver. Even if I do double-takes in the mirror for the rest of my life.

Sarah Palin Hates Native Americans

2008-09-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

This is just to show you, this woman is just a typical republican who wants to stomp on the poor to make the rich richer.

Sarah Palin’s Record on
Alaska Native and Tribal Issues
1. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Fishing
Perhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoples as the right to hunt
and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence
way of life for future generations.
Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those rights.
Once in office, Governor Palin decided to continue litigation that seeks to overturn every
subsistence fishing determination the federal government has ever made in Alaska. (State of
Alaska v. Norton, 3:05-cv-0158-HRH (D. Ak).) In pressing this case, Palin decided against
using the Attorney General (which usually handles State litigation) and instead continued
contracting with Senator Ted Stevens’ brother-in-law’s law firm (Birch, Horton, Bittner &
Cherot).
The goal of Palin’s law suit is to invalidate all the subsistence fishing regulations the
federal government has issued to date to protect Native fishing, and to force the courts instead to
take over the roll of setting subsistence regulations. Palin’s law suit seeks to diminish
subsistence fishing rights in order to expand sport and commercial fishing.
In May 2007, the federal court rejected the State’s main challenge, holding that Congress
in 1980 had expressly granted the U.S. Interior and Agriculture Departments the authority to
regulate and protect Native and rural subsistence fishing activities in Alaska. (Decision entered
May 15, 2007 (Dkt. No. 110).)
Notwithstanding this ruling, Palin continues to argue in the litigation that the federal
subsistence protections are too broad, and should be narrowed to exclude vast areas from
subsistence fishing, in favor of sport and commercial fishing. Palin opposes subsistence
protections in marine waters, on many of the lands that Natives selected under their 1971 land
claims settlement with the state and federal governments, and in many of the rivers where Alaska
Natives customarily fish. (Alaska Complaint at 15-18.) Palin also opposes subsistence fishing
protections on Alaska Native federal allotments that were deeded to individuals purposely to
foster Native subsistence activities. All these issues are now pending before the federal district
court.
2. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Hunting
Palin has also sought to invalidate critical determinations the Federal Subsistence Board
has made regarding customary and traditional uses of game, specifically to take hunting
opportunities away from Native subsistence villagers and thereby enhance sport hunting.
Palin’s attack here on subsistence has focused on the Ahtna Indian people in Chistochina.
Although the federal district court has rejected Palin’s challenge, she has carried on an appeal
that was argued in August 2008. (State of Alaska v. Fleagle, No. 07-35723 (9th Cir.).)
In both hunting and fishing matters, Palin has continued uninterrupted the policies
initiated by the former Governor Frank Murkowski Administration, challenging hunting and
fishing protections that Native people depend upon for their subsistence way of life in order to
enhance sport fishing and hunting opportunities. Palin’s lawsuits are a direct attack on the core
way of life of Native Tribes in rural Alaska.
3. Palin has attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty
Governor Palin opposes Alaska tribal sovereignty.
Given past court rulings affirming the federally recognized tribal status of Alaska Native
villages, Palin does not technically challenge that status. But Palin argues that Alaska Tribes
have no authority to act as sovereigns, despite their recognition.
So extreme is Palin on tribal sovereignty issues that she has sought to block tribes from
exercising any authority whatsoever even over the welfare of Native children, adhering to a 2004
legal opinion issued by the former Murkowski Administration that no such jurisdiction exists
(except when a state court transfers a matter to a tribal court).
Both the state courts and the federal courts have struck down Palin’s policy of refusing to
recognize the sovereign authority of Alaska Tribes to address issues involving Alaska Native
children. Native Village of Tanana v. State of Alaska, 3AN-04-12194 CI (judgment entered
Aug. 26, 2008) (Ak. Super. Ct.); Native Kaltag Tribal Council v. DHHS, No. 3:06-cv-00211-
TMB (D. Ak.), pending on appeal No 08-35343 (9th Cir.)). Nonetheless, Palin’s policy of
refusing to recognize Alaska tribal sovereignty remains unchanged.
4. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Languages
Palin has refused to accord proper respect to Alaska Native languages and voters by
refusing to provide language assistance to Yup'ik speaking Alaska Native voters. As a result,
Palin was just ordered by a special three-judge panel of federal judges to provide various forms
of voter assistance to Yup'ik voters residing in southwest Alaska. Nick v. Bethel, No. 3:07-cv-
0098-TMB (D. Ak.) (Order entered July 30, 2008). Citing years of State neglect, Palin was
ordered to provide trained poll workers who are bilingual in English and Yup'ik; sample ballots
in written Yup'ik; a written Yup'ik glossary of election terms; consultation with local Tribes to
ensure the accuracy of Yup'ik translations; a Yup'ik language coordinator; and pre-election and
post-election reports to the court to track the State's efforts.
In sum, measured against some the rights that are most fundamental to Alaska Native Tribes –
the subsistence way of life, tribal sovereignty and voting rights – Palin’s record is a failure.

Lipstick on a pig

2008-09-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

For anyone to take that elderly slang phrase personally is flat-out stupid. First off, the entire statement was as follows:
'We're really gonna shake things up in Washington,'" Obama said, mocking McCain's claim to offer change. "That's not change. That's just calling something the same thing, something different. But you know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.
"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing! It's time to bring about real change to Washington. And that's the choice you've got in this election," Obama said.

A direct slam to Palin, calling her a pig? Gee, does that mean McCain is the old fish? Get real.

This is just more Bushite b.s., drawing attention away from the real issues. The economy, for one. And that's a biggie. Anyone with a fourth-grade education in history should be shocked and disgusted about that.

Mind you, I'm not advocating war. But war, like it or not, stimulates the economy. Every single time in history, except this one. Gee, I wonder why? How can we have a war and a recession at the same time? Do tell us, McBush.

VOTE OBAMA! In the words of Hillary Clinton, "No way, No how, No McCain." He didn't fool me by appointing a woman, because he picked one who's against every woman's issue I'm for, and for every issue I'm against. Eight years of this drek is enough. We want REAL change, not just lip-service to fool the republican/conservative sheep.

2008-07-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

Here is new kitty, Renee. Will you look at that tail? Her nickname is squirrel.

Here's sweetie Kira.

What price youth?

2008-05-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Checked out a book from the library, "How Not to Look Old." Some of the advice it had was interesting, some of it was so unrelated to my lifestyle I had to laugh. I can see where tight, knee-length skirts and four-inch spike heels look good, but get real. I'm a librarian. I have to do a LOT of walking, plus bending and getting books from low shelves, climbing on stools to get books on high shelves. Low, stable heels and longer skirts just work better for the physical aspects of my job. Now if I worked in an office, and the most energetic thing I did all day was type and answer the phone, that look would work.

And when did pantyhose go out of style? I hate the damn things, but most office and store clerk jobs require them. Besides, what nut is going to wear a skirt and bare legs in the winter? Not this one.

Where the author lost me completely was the pantie advice. Evidently anything but thongs is "old lady."

Not gonna happen. Give up my comfy cotton granny panties for butt floss? If that's what it takes to be young and hip, then call me an old lady and give me my walker! I tried on a pair. It felt like a permanent wedgie.

Just goes to show, when reading beauty advice, use your common sense and take it all with a grain of salt.

Here goes nothing

2008-04-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to sell a novel since I was twenty. I'm now 54, and my file of rejection slips is over an inch thick. I think I'll burn them. Of course, it's entirely possible that my writing just isn't good enough. I think it's just bad luck and the increasing shrinking of the publishing world.

I was going to self-publish with my income tax refund, but thanks to my husband, all that money just vanished. I'm not sure what happened to it, but I sure didn't see any.

I have 5 finished novels, and am rough-drafting a sixth. I guess I'll attempt to write synopses and get them in the mail again, though I just don't think it's going to help. And it takes half a year to hear back! What's up with that? Do all the publishers think writers are immortal? Geez.

Moving sucks

2008-04-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

My dad wasn't in the military, yet I once figured out that by the age of 21, I had lived in 17 houses in 5 states. If you count that I lived in Kansas twice, that's six. That doesn't count the college dorm rooms. I moved from one room to another during my freshman year, and again had to switch rooms my junior year. Each year, of course, I had to pack up everything and schlep it home, then schlep it back the next year. Let's see, that's six more moves. At least they were only a roomful, not an entire household.

Then, after college but when I was still living at home, my folks moved again. Okay, 17 + 6= 23. So that was my 24th move. At the age of 23. Yikes!

Then my first apartment, move 25. Then back with my parents when my dad was dying, 26. Then to graduate school, 27. Then to El Paso: 2 apartments and one house, bringing my moves up to 30. Then to Albuquerque: 2 apartments, 1 house, and 2 duplexes: my grand total of moves at age 54 is 35.

Sweet God in heaven.

Every single move, stuff got lost, stuff got broken. Friends vanished into the past, favorite places are seen no more. But you get new stuff, new friends, and new favorite places, so it balances out.

I'm still damn sick of packing.

Able-bodied? Ever park in a handicapped spot?

2008-01-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

There is a special place in the afterlife for able-bodied people who park in handicapped spots, and it isn’t a good one. Those of you who’ve done it know who you are, and SHAME on the lot of you! I don’t care what your excuse is. “I was only going to be a minute.” Sure, and in that minute a handicapped person got there and couldn’t use the spot. “I’ve never seen anyone park there.” So you’ve been there 24-7 since the place was built, huh? “I left my wife/husband/kids in the car so it doesn’t count.” Oh, yes, it does, and the fine is upwards of a hundred dollars. “I didn’t park in the space, just the cross-hatched area between spaces. That’s just wasted space anyway.” Not if you’re trying to deal with a wheelchair, it’s not. “Most people who use them aren’t REALLY handicapped. They sure don’t look handicapped. Why do they need the best spots?”

Many reasons. I doubt you’d argue with someone in a wheelchair or using a walker, would you? Just realize that a lot of mobility impairments are invisible. Someone with crippling arthritis wouldn’t be immediately recognizable. Someone with an artificial limb might not be able to walk far without pain. Someone with a heart condition might just be able to shop, but if they had to walk farther from their car, might not be able to manage.

At any rate, the judgement isn’t yours to make. Laziness isn’t a handicap, neither is being in a hurry. Park somewhere else, and look on the extra steps as exercise. I’ve seen some of you schmucks, and you need it.

Ignorance is not not knowin' - ignorance is knowin' what ain't so.
--Mark Twain

The worst news I've had this year

2007-12-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

For most of my l ife I couldn't pick one author for my favorite. I could give a top five, or top ten, but not one single author whose work I loved above all others. This year I found one: Terry Pratchett. His Discworld series should live forever. It has a seamless blend of subtle social commentary, humor that ranges from the wry to the laugh aloud, and dazzling, character-driven fantasy. I can reread them a hundred times and always find something I missed, and laugh at the humor all over again.

Just before Christmas, I read the 59-year-old Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's.

There aren't enough swear words on the entire planet to express how I feel about this. This horrible disease, which steals the mind and then the personality long before it kills the shell of the body, has come to one of the best minds on the planet. His brilliant books will cease, long before their time. It makes me sick. It makes me want to scream. It fills me with rage that has no outlet.

There's no punchline here, folks. No resolution for this one. Just sorrow and anger, and helpless frustration.

A solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.
Maya Angelou

Not often do I stop reading a book before it's finished

2007-11-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

...But once in a while there's one that's just so completely god-awful that I just don't want to waste my time. This time, the culprit was Real Vampires Have Curves - I forget the author.

Now, I barely read chick-lit anyway. The variety with vampires or other occult characters is mildly more interesting, but frankly I just can't relate to big-city twenty-somethings with fluff for brains who spend 1K on designer shoes on a regular basis. They just have absolutely no relation to my life, now or when I was twenty-something. I find them pea-brained and annoying. I picked up this one because it had a vampire, she wasn't living in New York City, and she was a Large-Size woman. As she was 500 years old, I figured she'd have her shit together.

Not so. Even though as a vampire she'll look like she does forever, and she had men telling her constantly how beautiful she was, and she had 500 YEARS to come to terms with her body - not to mention that size body has been stylish up to the last century - she whined and moaned and obsessed on every single page about her weight. Over and over and over. Yawn city. Hell, if I can accept the fact I'll never be smaller than a size 18 for the rest of my life in less than a century, how come she couldn't do it in five? Especially since she had plenty of men telling her they liked her body! That's just stupid. And I don't read books about stupid people. There are enough of them walking the streets.

I read 40 pages, and put it on the freebie shelves at the library I work at. What a waste of paper.

Quote of the day: Of course truth is stranger than fiction – fiction has to make sense.
Mark Twain

Who do they think they're kidding? Themselves, of course.

2007-10-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

I thought a Mennonite came into my place of work. She had the dress, the hose, the shoes, and the little white cap. I was pleased, having grown up in a state where lots of them live, and having had some as friends back in school. Knowing they're unusual here in New Mexico, I went to ask where she was from, intending to ask if she was enjoying her trip here. "Oh, I'm not a Mennonite," she said. "Just a Modest Christian Woman." Yep, I could hear the capitals.

Excuse me?

So I go online and do a little research. Evidently the newest fad among some "fundamentalist Christian" women is to dress like Mennonites, and call themselves Modest.

Honey, you're not being modest. You're being a show-off. And frankly, adopting the garb of a religion and culture you do NOT belong to is offensive.

Mennonites dress the way they do, not only to be modest, but to establish a community. If you aren't part of that community, following that religion, you have no right to wear their clothes. And modest? If all you want is to wear plain clothes that don't show skin, there are a lot of clothing choices that will do that, while blending into the community you do belong to.

Modesty also means not drawing attention to yourself. For a non-Mennonite to wear the garb is to be screaming "I'M a better Christian than YOU are! NEENER neener NEEner!" Otherwise, why aren't you just wearing a plain suit and high-necked blouse like the nuns do when they're out of habit? Because modern modest clothing wouldn't get you noticed, of course. You WANT to make a spectacle of yourself. And that is the exact opposite of modest, even if you don't show any skin.

To quote the Bible they claim to follow perfectly (and we all know what complete BS that is): Matthew 6:1: "Do not make a show of your religion, or it will be in vain." You might not be showing skin, honey, but you're definitely making a show.

Fundamentalist religions are deadly to civilization

2007-09-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

I am not singling anyone out here. History has seen the following happen in every modern religion.

When a fundamentalist religion takes control of a country, here's what inevitably follows:

Science and medicine first grind to a standstill as new developments and discoveries are deemed anti-religion, then begin to regress as old ones are re-evaluated in increasingly strict religious lines. First birth control, then vaccinations, then most surgeries are deemed ungodly.

Education in general becomes devalued, then softened as religion restricts and censors science and literature. Education of women is first deemed a luxury, then unnecessary, then anti-religion. All fundamentalist religions marginalize women. At best, they are kept in their "place" which is the home making babies. At worst, they aren't even considered human, just a dirty necessity to propagate the race.

Other cultures and religions in the country are first discouraged, then demonized, and then God-mandated to be wiped out.

Wars increase in frequency as the new state-mandated religion looks beyond its borders to wipe out or convert the rest of the world.

We've seen this happen in the Middle East, as the Arabic countries went from world leaders in science and medicine to third-world countries with huge illiteracy rates and virtually no science or medicine. We saw it when the Catholic church set out to convert the world by sword, and during the Inquisition when so many women and men were put to death for being "witches" that many villages were left with no women alive. We are seeing the beginning of this in America as the increasingly strident evangelical Christians are attacking science education by insisting creationism (or its new euphemism "intelligent design") be taught next to evolution despite the fact no one has devised (or can devise) a scientific test for the hypothesis (not theory, because it hasn't been tested and there are no data or hard evidence to study) of an intelligent being who created the universe. We are seeing it happen in medicine as fundamentalists seek to outlaw not only abortion but birth control, as if microscopic cells have souls.

Do we want America to regress to the point where half our children die before the age of ten? If the rollback in medicine continues, that's what will happen, as increasing numbers of parents are refusing to have their children immunized against the once-common killers such as diptheria, whooping cough, and polio. An epidemic is just around the corner.

Why fundamentalist religions appeal to some people:

People who are weak of mind want to be told what to do. They can't cope with gray areas and conflicts of ethics. They want a rule book and must have everything laid out for them in black and white. Fundamentalist religions do that. They relieve their followers from having to think for themselves. Many fundamentalist Christians haven't even read the Bible they think is infallible. They just parrot phrases taken out of context without understanding them, and only obey the parts they want to. The only people who are even close to obeying the whole thing are the Amish.

Poor people are easily converted to religions that promise "pie in the sky by and by" to anyone who just toes the line. As the fundamentalist religions devalue education, they're increasingly appealing to people who can't afford it anyway. Uneducated people are less able to recognize the inconsistencies in their religion and are more likely to have larger families. Not surprisingly, fundamentalist religions value large families and regard birth control as sinful and unnatural.

As the lack of science, medicine, and education send the culture back to a primitive status and the economy fails, the fundamentalists look to a reason for their misery. It cannot be their religion, which is perfect and infallible. It cannot be their lack of faith, which is extreme. So they look outside the true cause for a scapegoat and blame anyone not practicing their religion, anyone of their faith who isn't as rigid as they are, believing if they can only rid the world of all unbelievers, their god will make everything perfect.

And here comes terrorism. It's already started in this country, from 'Christian' fundamentalists who beat up gay people who have hurt no one, who kill doctors and bomb abortion clinics, who set up compounds for The Faithful loaded with ammunition, and one who bombed a building in Oklahoma City. There are fringe groups gaining power who want to establish the law of Leviticus, where a man can kill his own children for talking back, and it isn't regarded as murder, and people are stoned to death for adultery or being gay. Am I the only one who thinks this sounds exactly like fundamentalist Islam?

"Thou shalt not kill." Period. It doesn't have clauses for disobedient children, gay people, adulterers, or anyone you happen to disagree with. If you call yourself a fundamentalist, you should at least obey the Ten Commandments, or you're one hell of a hypocrite.

And for those of you who are thinking, well, I wouldn't go THAT far, but a Christian country could only be a good thing, right?

Well, which denomination? And what makes you think that after all the non-Christians are 'removed' from America, that the denominations wouldn't begin fighting for supremacy just like the Sunni and Shiite Muslims? Only instead of two factions, we have hundreds. Now wouldn't THAT be a civil war for the history books, if anyone survived to write them.

Recommended reading : speculative fiction books Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Nonfiction: American Fascists by Chris Hedges, and It Can Happen Here by Joe Conason.

Quote of the day:
The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world’s ills or one solution to humanity’s needs has done untold harm throughout history.
Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General

State Fair time

2007-09-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

I love the New Mexico state fair. I've gone every year I've lived here. It's pretty much the same every year, but in a way that's comforting. There's the African American area, the Native American area, the Hispanic Arts building, the Fine Arts building, and all the old-fashioned 4-H and traditional state fair exhibits of animals and crops. In the animal building is a vendor that sells the absolute best cotton candy - one of my favorite things, that now you can only rarely get fresh. That drek in the bags isn't worth eating. This place, you pay for a small, medium, or large, and get a ticket to take to the man making it. He rolls it onto the paper cone and hands it to you, warm and fragrant. I always get the medium. It's bigger than my head and darn near as big as my torso, and takes an entire half an hour to eat, slowly. Best stuff on the planet. When I was a little girl I'd pretend I was eating a cloud.

The other traditional must-eat is a corn dog. This year I tried the spiral fries, which weren't as good as I thought - kind of like potato chips. Not bad, though. I also love funnel cakes, with only powdered sugar and cinnamon on them. In the Native American area you can get a delicious, enormous Navajo Taco. I didn't get one this year. We didn't have much money, and I don't have enough appetite to eat all that.

We did go through the huge indoor sales area. This has vendors from everywhere, and people doing demonstrations of household gadgets like on informercials. Most of these, when you get them home, don't work very well. Exceptions were the sushi-roll molds and the salsa chopper, both of which we bought in the past. And yes, we eat a lot of sushi and salsa. Not together. I lusted after a cheese grater that would even grate hard-boiled eggs, but no money. All I bought were six finger puppets for $5, made in Peru. There were some clothes I wanted, but couldn't afford. Maybe next year.

As the sun goes down and the vendor/animal/assorted cultures parts close, the lights come on at the Midway. A lot of Albuquerqueans won't go there, especially at night, because in the past there's been problems with gangs. I haven't been bothered at all in the years I've gone. There are a LOT of cops walking around, and such people who looked rather gangy were with their families, and didn't look like they wanted to make trouble. I'm wussy about the rides. I can't take being whirled around in circles too fast, and have no desire whatsoever to be shot from a giant slingshot or dangled upside down. There's a hang-glider ride I like, and the ferris wheel, and a roller coaster if there is one. There wasn't this year. I like the scary-house rides, too. But as Dear Husband has a handicap and can't go on any of them, and it's no fun to go alone, we just looked. Believe me, watching people get cranked up a 20-story pole and then dropped is much more fun to watch than to experience. We didn't try any games this time because of lack of funds, but I usually will try a couple. Never win anything larger than the small prize.

Every year there's one stuffed animal at the games I fall in love with, and I never get it. This year it was the dragons.

The bumper cars always make me think of my Dad, who passed in 1983. Once when I was little, he took me on the bumper cars, laughing his head off. Someone hit us from behind, and his false teeth flew out and (fortunately) landed on the floor of our car! He loved a joke on himself as much as anyone and we both laughed our heads off.

We listened to parts of a couple of concerts, and watched one animal act with bears, and considered the day enough. They have these foot massaging machines all over, that cost a quarter. I used three of them during the day. When it starts, it tickles mercilessly, but then it really does stop your foot from hurting for a long time. We just plain wore ourselves out, but it was worth every minute. I don't have pictures, because our blasted cheap camera decided to die on us.

Today's Quote:
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. ~~G.B. Stern

Britney Spears train wreck runs over fan

2007-09-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Alas, Britney, who is just another victim of the fame machine. Self-serving promoters take a talentless, not-too-bright beauty and put her on the treadmill, overdubbing her vocals on albums, dieting her into a size zero and promoting the bejeezus out of her. And then when she cracks, abandoning her to a nervous breakdown and the worst "comeback" of all time. I don't think she looked fat. She looked normal. Her post-baby curves would have been lovely in pretty much any other costume. The glittery bra, undies, and fishnets just made her look like an overage showgirl squeezing into a ten-year-old costume. At least now I can tell her from the rest of the bleached-blonde mechanical singer pop-tarts.

But that performance! She was always more of a dancer than a singer, and she just sleepwalked through that routine. It was clear she felt uncomfortable and absolutely did not want to be there. She was more interested in keeping the fake hair out of her face than dancing, and after covering her mouth when she forgot the words to lip-sync, gave up and just didn't bother. She basically walked back and forth among the frantically gyrating dancers who, rather than distracting from her non-performance, just called more attention to it. Her career is very likely over, as she hasn't got the talent or the cajones to pull off a real comeback. I hope she saved a lot of money, but I'd bet not.

The saddest thing about all this is the poor kid whose tearful myspace video is now the laughing stock of the nation. We've all been that age, people, and we've all had crushes on celebrities that made us do embarrassing things. Back before anyone had access to media, the worst we could do is mail our idol embarrassing letters and poetry, obsess till our best friends and parents were sick of the topic, and gush into a paper diary that eventually got lost or destroyed. No one else ever knew. Think back, and thank God that you didn't have myspace!

This poor schmuck has filmed his angst and unrequited love, and put it out there for millions to laugh at. He will regret this the rest of his life, and never know when it's going to come back to haunt him. He is very likely to be the Britney Boy long after we've all forgotten who Britney was. That clip will assume a cyber-life of its own, and now even if he erases it from his myspace site, it'll never be gone.

Unlike, and again I thank God, my diary from the David McCallum (Man From U.N.C.L.E) or Mark Lindsey (Paul Revere and the Raiders) crushes. I remember them well.

Today's Quote:
Once we give up searching for approval, we often find it easier to earn respect.
Gloria Steinem

The word for that isn't marriage

2007-09-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

There's another Mormon fundamentalist who believes in what they like to call "plural marriage" in the news, for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry some old fart. Sorry, dude, that's child abuse, not religion. I have no quarrel with any individual Mormon. Most of the ones I've met have been perfectly nice people. Although I'll admit I could never believe in a religion that decrees you have to be married to get to heaven, and that promotes overpopulation.

On one hand, it'd be nice to have a second wife to handle all the housecleaning and cooking while I attend my career. The main problem I have with "plural marriage" is that it seems inevitably to lead to sexual abuse of young girls. If you believe the only purpose a female has on earth is to service men sexually and incubate babies, then what's the point of sending them to school, and what's wrong with shoving them into their life's purpose the moment they hit puberty? This seems to be how the reasoning goes. And that's what all these "plural marriage" colonies seem to wind up doing. As the girls are raised from birth to believe this, they're pretty much brainwashed into believing they have no choice. Arranged marriage is a world-wide custom, after all, with the women/girls rarely having any say in the matter.

But this is America, not Iraq. Women here have a say, and girls have the right to grow up and choose their own mate without any religious coercion. And so, every time we catch these abusers, we are going to try them. May they all be found guilty and have the book thrown at them. They deserve every single bit of abuse they'll find in jail.

And by the way, the term "plural marriage" is a crock. There is a word for that practice, and it isn't marriage. It is HAREM. Practitioners are only a veil away from becoming the thing we're fighting overseas.

Today's quote: Trying to build a marriage without respect is like trying to build a home on quicksand.
~~ Kerry and Wayne Horton

Cat Shows

2007-09-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

Cat shows are a lot different from dog shows. You can't get a bunch of cats on leashes to parade in rows. Here, the cats are in rows of cages until they are judged, plush cages with food, water, litter box, and bed. Toys, too, and the breeder standing by to talk to people. Most breeders have cards and brochures to hand out, because a great deal of their livelihood comes from selling purebred kittens.

Below is a GORGEOUS rosetted Bengal in a glass case. Next is a Household Pet in a lovely cage, and the last, a satin-black Bombay in a hammock bed. His cage was more of a tent.

To show the cats, their number is called, and the breeder takes the cat to the showing ring. It consists of a U of cages, the showing table front and center. Each cat is put in a cage, and as two males can't be next to each other, it's boy-girl-boy-girl, with empties if there aren't enough girls. The males are usually intact for breeding purposes, and if two are next to each other, they'll pick fights or spray.

Above you see a judge putting a cat back into her cage. The second picture is the judging process. They feel the cat all over to make sure that it conforms to breed standards, and swish a toy in its face to get a hint of its personality. Between cats, the table, the cages, and the judge's hands are all disinfected. That's what the bottle is, on the left of the table.

Above is another judge. As this was an international cat show, there were dozens of judges. There are also people selling cat-related merchandise. I bought some cat toys. I have in the past bought jewelry and clothing, for me not the cats. Below is a long shot of some of the vendors.

This lovely girl had the most gorgeous blue eyes. The picture doesn't do her justice. Her breeder is holding her .

The last three pictures are of the handsomest Maine Coon kitten I ever saw. I just fell in love with him. As he won second best kitten in show, I'm not the only one to be enthralled. I don't know which kitten won first. Just look at that noble face, those tufted ears, and that incredible fluff of a tail!

Only cat lovers know the luxury of fur-coated, musical hot water bottles that never go cold.
~~Susanne Millen

To knit or not to knit

2007-08-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to put the pictures after the text, but it inserted them and I can't seem to edit their location. C'est la Vie.

This is the turtle I knitted for a baby gift. The mom said she loved it.
I knitted the above sweater for myself. Love it, get compliments on it whenever I wear it. Below is the doll I knitted for another baby gift. I haven't had the nerve to send it yet.

I love knitting. I've never been sure, however, that when I give the things I've knitted away as gifts that anyone really likes getting them. Usually they thank me, and seem to like the item, and I've seen most of them use it. There's one notable exception, but she never liked anything I ever gave her so I wasn't really surprised, and we're no longer friends. (Not for that reason.)

But then I see an article on msn.com, about the 10 worst Christmas gifts. One was a hand-knitted sweater.

Now, sweaters aren't the only thing I knit. I have given away tons of mittens, scarves, hats, dishcloths, shawls, and have begun knitting stuffed animals. But after seeing that article, I'm hesitant. I'd been thinking of these things as special because I made them especially for the person, but maybe they see them as silly. I also saw handmade gifts as a way to avoid the intense commercialism and spending frenzy Christmas has turned into. But maybe I'm just a joke, and I should give in and conform.

This year I've knitted one pair of mittens for a Christmas present, several dishcloths, a stuffed turtle for a baby gift, and a doll and her dress for another. I'm working on another pair of mittens, and some heavy-duty leg warmers for my husband - pajama bottoms, really - because his legs are always cold in winter. When I finish that, I might just knit a sweater for myself. This is a slow year, knitting-wise.

Quote of the day:

Before plastics, only rich people could afford to have poor taste.
Donald Featherstone, creator of the pink flamingo lawn ornament

The first entry: August 24, 2007

2007-08-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

My two favorite things in the world are cats and books, not necessarily in that order. I've been trying to get a book published for decades - not the same one, a lot of different ones. Either I've had wretched luck, or I'm a real slow learner, or I'm just a crappy writer. Pick one. At any rate, I'll keep trying. What else am I going to do? If I just let all these people and stories sit in my brain I'll go nuts.

Currently I'm struggling through the first draft of a romantic suspense novel, called Against Her Will. It's going fairly well. I have a finished fantasy, called For the Seven Kingdoms (though I really don't like the title). I'm running through my writing group. I've finished several novels, but as soon as I get them done I'm convinced they're no good. I think I've just gotten too many rejection letters. Now I can't bring myself to send them out.

I tend to read several books at once. I just finished First Warning by Anne McCaffery and Elizabeth Scarborough. Before that, Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, and Red Lily by Nora Roberts. Right now I'm reading Wyrd Sisters by my favorite author, Terry Pratchet - that book lives in my purse. On the dining room table is Affaire Royale by Nora Roberts.

Quote for the day:

A writer is like a bean plant – he has his little day, and then gets stringy.
E.B. White