People always say they're willing to die for the ones they love, as if nothing else they could do would be so hard. But it is harder to keep living for someone else, doing everything in your power to keep that person safe and breathing. I know. All these past weeks I have been living for my sister and her son, battling everyone else in the world, or so it seems, to keep Annie and Kinnon alive. I have defied my father, broken my mother's heart, traveled in secret, gone without sleep, gone without food, and hidden from violent strangers trying to kill all of us because of the magic in Kinnon's veins.
Most days it would be easier to be dead.
"When Winter Comes" seems to be set in the same world as the Shinn series that begins with Mystic and Rider, and I enjoyed this novella enough that I'll probably pick that up as well. Those sneaky writers keep pulling me in! ;) I read the Samaria trilogy by Shinn years ago and loved them, but for some reason, I haven't kept up with her more recent work.
Well, the not-so-good fanfic mentioned in my last post was really the ending. Bah. Still didn't like it, but the rest of the book was fairly good. I'm keeping this a spoiler-free zone for a bit longer, so that's all for now. :)
Other Harry Potter fans are probably a little smarter about this than I am, but just in case, I suggest that you not read any Harry Potter fanfic from new sources for the next few days. My cousin emailed me a link to a "great new fanfic", and it was not great. It also had a little note at the end that what I'd read was actually the epilogue from the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Lovely.
My cousin claims she actually didn't read the story and just forwarded the email to me, but the email didn't look forwarded, so that's strange. And if I'm really spoiled, then I'm irritated as heck, and I'm now tempted to check the last page just to see if I really was spoiled, which irritates me too. (I'm not going to do that, but the temptation is still there.)
I know there are photos of the book pages supposedly floating around, so I guess it's possible that someone typed up the ending and disguised it as fanfic, but what I read is not what I want the official ending to be. It was just too wrapped up, and that's all I'm going to say because I don't want to inadvertently spoil someone in case I was really spoiled myself.
Maybe it's silly that this is coloring my mood so much, but I'm not as excited about getting my book now as I was. Whoever put that "fanfic" up stinks whether it's really the ending or not.
This video by Robbie Dingo highlights for me some of the appeal of SL as he recreates one of my favorite paintings - "Starry Night" by Van Gogh . I just wish the area still existed to explore. Exploration has been so much fun in SL even when I'm just exploring new shops for clothing that works well for amply proportioned avatars. Being fat in SL is a bit of an adventure in itself!
For anyone else in SL who admires Van Gogh, check out Virtual Starry Night if you haven't already done so. It's one of my favorite spots. That link will take you right to it in SL, and if you don't have SL, then the link won't do much for you, but you can check out a promotional video of the area. See, I'm trying to take care of all of you. :D
I've gotten up at 5am two days in a row, and it feels incredible to have so much done before I even eat lunch! Seriously, my mom and the pope could invite themselves over for afternoon tea, and I wouldn't panic a bit. The apartment is the cleanest it's been in months, and I walked to the store this morning to stock up on all the items I need for this week's meals.
I'm back to doing a weekly meal plan, and it's kind of crazy how happy that makes me even when we don't stick to it 100%. Structure is such a good thing for me. I know it suffocates some people, but having structure gives me a nice solid base from which I can do the things I want to do without so much worrying. Knowing that the basic things are definitely taken care of is such a nice feeling, and it keeps my afternoons free for all my other projects like organizing all my domains, putting together a portfolio for my grad program, and adding the rest of our books to LibraryThing.
We're also planning a couple of trips in the next month or so. One is just a short trip to hang out with my grandmother and give my mom and dad a chance to take a breather from spending so much time at her house. Her health is actually fairly good, but she gets a little nervous when she's by herself, so she likes having company. She likes card games, so I'm taking my Star Trek Uno and Fluxx to try those out with her, and we'll definitely be playing a lot of rummy because that's her favorite. Then next month, we're going somewhere for our anniversary. We're trying to decide between somewhere along the Blue Ridge Parkway and Charleston, SC.
And I'm also finishing up my second summer session course and looking forward to my fall schedule. I'm signed up for courses in human-computer interface design, multimedia instructional development, and a seminar on virtual reality and education right now. I might add a media literacy class in there too, but that depends on if my advisor can get it added to the schedule this week. Lots of good stuff going on!
I've never talked much about my job on my blog, but I've spent the last few months working on the Vox Help team. It's been a real pleasure getting to work with people I'd known through their blogs for years, and I've enjoyed being a part of helping Vox live long and prosper.
Lately, I just realized that I was trying to do a little too much at once, and nothing was really getting as much attention as I felt it deserved. It was time for me to make some decisions about my time and energy, and it came down to deciding to leave my job at Six Apart in order to focus more on grad school and my family.
Today was my last day as a Six Apart employee, but I'm still going to be around Vox. I was a Vox member before I started working on the support team, and I'll continue to be one for years and years to come. :D
Thanks to everyone that made working with Six Apart such a great experience!
Kristine shared a library meme a few days ago, and I've had it on my list of things I want to do since I read it. Yay libraries!
1. How old were you when you got your first library card?
My mom loves to tell this story for some reason, so I guess this is for her. My family went to the library at least once a week, and I got it in my head when I was four years old that I needed to have a library card of my own. I asked the librarian at our local library, which was a small country library that was absolutely wonderful with the most awesome librarians, how I could get my own library card. She told me that I needed to be able to write my name on the little paper card.
I could write parts of my name but it was in that big scrawl that kids have, and that wouldn't fit on the library card. I went back to my mom and told her that I was going to get my library card the next time we were at the library. Over the next few days, she and my dad must have helped me write my name hundreds of times, and each time, it got a little clearer and a little smaller. And I did get my own library card the next week.
It ended up being a little embarrassing because the librarians put up a little display with my photo as the youngest person in the county with a library card. (I did mention that it was a tiny little country library, right? LOL) I probably still have that little yellow card in my one of my keepsake boxes at my parents' house.
2. What’s the first book you can remember reading from a library?
Wow, I honestly don't know. I was really into kids' books from the 1940s and 50s for a while like the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books by Maud Hart Lovelace that Kristine mentioned along with the Eddie and Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood and the Borrowers series by Mary Norton. I loved series (and still do) because I liked going back and seeing all my friends again, and I probably got hooked on older books because my library had a lot of those.
3. Did you ever participate in a summer reading program or other kids’ event at a library growing up?
Of course! I participated every summer I was eligible. We had a limit of 20 books per person out at a time, and I was checking out and reading 20 every week, which made some people think I was lying to get to the top of the list of participants, which really upset me, so then I really did start lying and halved my weekly totals. The librarians caught on to what I was doing and were so sweet in talking with me and letting me know that they knew I really was reading those books and that it wasn't anything I needed to be worried about.
4. Do you remember when card catalogues weren’t computerized?
Yep! Sometimes I miss digging through that big cabinet with the little stepladder that I had to pull out in order to be able to reach the top row of drawers. And related to that, I loved seeing the history of all the names that had checked out a book before me on the card inside the book. I kind of miss that too even though I love being able to browse and reserve books online like we can do now.
5. When was the last time you went to the library?
This is really sad to me, but it's been a long time. The libraries closest to us have some funky hours that seem to change all the time, and they're not that convenient to where we live. The last couple of times that Matt and I have seriously looked at buying a house, I've been focused on neighborhoods within walking distance of one of the good libraries. Heck, it wouldn't even need to be one of the nice ones with all the inter-library loans you can do now. I could sign in online and request whatever I wanted and then just walk to the library when I got the email saying they were ready for me. That sounds like a little slice of heaven right now.
6. How many books do you usually check out of the library at one time?
It varies, but I usually get a good stack of maybe 5-10 books at least.
7. Name one great author you’ve discovered at your library.
I became really hooked on the Castle series by John DeChancie years ago because those were shelved near the Charles de Lint books, and one of his covers caught my eye. I read the whole series in a week or so, and then decided it was one of those series that I really needed to own, so I spent a few months looking for them at used bookstores to find just the ones I wanted. Some of the editions had better covers than others, and I wanted ones in good condition that looked like they belonged together. I'm a little obsessed with details at times.
8. What was the librarian at your elementary school like?
I could never ever in a thousand years say enough good things about Ms. Wilma Greene. She was seriously like another grandmother to me, and she always had book suggestions for me. She talked to me about books like she really cared what I thought and what I liked. As I entered the upper grades of our school (4th and 5th grades), she let me help her select books for the younger classes, and I'd write up reviews to share with teachers and parents. I felt like such an important person! She did wonderful things for my self-esteem, and I just loved her.
I saw her for the last time right before Matt and I were married in 1996, and we had a huge love fest because we each had some happy memories of the other. I heard that she died a few years ago, and I've looked for confirmation of that here and there, but I've never been able to find out for sure. She was one of the most influential people in my life as a little girl, and I was so lucky to have known her for all those years.
9. How many times a year do you go to the library?
As I mentioned before, we don't go nearly as often as I'd like, but we usally make it there 15-20 times a year.
10. If you could change one thing about your library, what would it be and why?
I'd pull it a few miles closer! :D
I started craving a tuna sandwich on 7-grain bread with provolone, sprouts, and cucumbers from our local deli around supper time, so I thought I'd give Matt a call to see if he was heading home from work yet. I got his voice mail, which is typical when he's driving because he knows I'd rather him wait until he's somewhere safe than be scrambling for the phone while he's driving. I figured I'd missed my chance to get the sandwich, which wasn't a big deal.
He called a few minutes later to see why I'd called him, and I told him that I'd just been wanting a sandwich and that it wasn't any big deal. We got off the phone, and he walked through the door about 5 minutes later with a tuna sandwich on 7-grain bread with provolone, sprouts, and cucumbers. He'd actually been in the deli ordering sandwiches when I called. He had a feeling that I'd be in the mood for a sandwich, and he even picked the right one out of a selection of likely possibilities.
Being married long enough that you develop super powers is a really good thing! Maybe we'll get some more powers when we celebrate our anniversary next month. :D
