Wow. How long do you think it took to make this 2 minute book trailer?! Gorgeous and hypnotic.
Now, what was the book about?
December 7, 2009
December 4, 2009
Drinking The Tea
I was eating an apple and reading a profile of Gregory Maguire in Writer’s Digest. He’s the author of “Wicked,” among other things.
He was talking about earning his doctorate later in life and how it taught him to be patient with difficult reading.
“I came to love and admire the work of Puritan writers in the American colonies — work I had previously detested. I saw there was something universal in all expressions of human culture, and a mature student would not pass something by as being not his cup of tea. It was the student writer’s JOB to drink the tea,” he says. “Drink the tea, people.”
And then I dropped my half-eaten apple. Not because of the gravity of his words, but because of real gravity. Also, I was lazy and thought I could bite around my thumb. But I couldn’t. Hence the bitten thumb. Deservedly so.
As I was cleaning up my dropped apple, his words resonated with me.
“Drink the tea, people.”
It occurred to me that’s what’s wrong with America these days. Nobody is willing to do or say or learn or read or listen to anything or anyone out of their comfort zone, I thought, wiping apple goo from my pants. We’re mired in our own opinions and beliefs because it’s easy to do so. It’s so much more difficult to create neural pathways that lead to potentially different, unfamiliar territory.
I swiped at the sticky on my floor and tossed the dishrag back in the sink before picking up the magazine again.
The next paragraph admonished us not to “swivel the radio dial because it’s blasting something you’re not interested in — attack call-in talk shows, fundamentalist sermons, ball game reporting, left-wing sob stories — however you define your least-favorite aural experience. There is always something to learn from paying attention to everything.”
I love it when I’m smart like that. See, I got it before he even explained it. Yay me!
My son says, with what I can only assume is hopeless and grudging admiration, “You are a very curious person.”
You’d be justified in thinking he was calling me odd, but I know it was after one of those conversations where I asked a zillion exhausting questions to which his answer was always, “I dunno.”
I remember when my kids were in elementary school and they’d come home to have this conversation:
Them: “There was a new kid on the bus.”
Me: “Boy or girl? What was his name? What grade is he in? Did he get off at your stop? Where does he live? Were you nice to him? Did you offer him a seat? Did you introduce him to your friends? Does he have any siblings? What do his parents do? Have they ever vacationed in Belize? Are his grandparents still living? What are their memories of the Great Depression? Did they have a Victory Garden? Do they like to garden? Maybe you could take them down to the community garden. Do you want a snack?”
Them, eyes crossed and ears bleeding: “I dunno.”
But I don’t always drink the tea, either. I’m going to make more of an effort, though.
I’ll read more non-fiction.
I’ll try tofu.
I’ll play Wii golf (which is hard) instead of Wii bowling (which is easy).
And if none of that hurts too much, I might even try to listen to Rush Limbaugh or read Sarah Palin’s book.
Of course, then I’ll have to drink something stronger than tea.
What will you do to break out of your comfort zone?
November 23, 2009
November 17, 2009
Fourteen Reasons Why Being a Blogger is Better Than Being a Logger
• Fewer blisters.
• No slogging through mud to get to work. All I have to do is kick piles of dirty socks, pizza crusts and newspaper clippings away from my desk chair. I don’t even need boots for that, most of the time.
• I’m only responsible for my own limbs.
• I don’t have to live up to Paul Bunyan’s standards. I only have to keep up with Xi Xue or Dawn Yang. Who? Exactly.
• We both use bull lines, but mine don’t hurt my shoulders.
• The only rivers involved in my work are Riverdance, River Phoenix, and YouTube videos of funny ways people fall out of boats.
• Bears don’t try to eat me—or my lunch—for lunch.
• I’m not required to wear plaid shirts, which is good as they make my neck look fat.
• No guilty loss of sleep due to clear-cutting virgin old-growth forests.
• I’m not called wood hick, river pig/hog/rat, or catty-man—at least to my face.
• I can work year round rather than seasonally. And if I don’t feel like working, I can cruise over to YouTube and find videos of extreme shepherding; I can close my eyes and memorize a page in my Urban Dictionary; or I can vote on entries from My Life Is Average.
• I only have one job title and it’s not whistle punk, chaser, high climber, choker-setter or tie hack.
• Blogging isn’t voted one of the worst, most dangerous jobs. Although time will tell.
• No scooping up after Babe, the Blue Ox.
On the other hand, there are no chainsaws, log rolling, or flumes for bloggers. And no BloggerJack Picnics where we compete in various bloggy events. There’s no jaunty Monty Python song about me, and I’ve never seen a school Blogger mascot.
Hmm. Maybe I should look into being a logger instead. After all, they’re practically required to eat loads of flapjacks and wear those cool suspenders. Besides, I’d probably look awesome in a beard. As long as it’s not plaid.
Do you think being a blogger is better than being a logger?
November 16, 2009
Awful Books
My son lamented the practice of ‘weeding’ outdated or unused library books. He said it felt like they were killing his friends.
I tried to explain it was a necessary evil to make shelf space for new books but I don’t think he cared. Then I stumbled upon a funny blog written by librarians Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly.
Now I have proof some books are downright evil and deserve to die.
But lordy … wouldn’t you hate to see something you wrote on there!
Watch them on Jimmy Kimmel … (it’s not really 7 minutes long)
Loved “Knitting with Dog Hair.” It reminded me of when my mom knitted (knat?) a sweater using yarn from my aunt’s buffalo herd.
And “Do-It-Yourself Coffins.” The bonus is that you get to use it as a table until you need it. I guess that makes it a coffin table. This would be your coffintable book, perhaps.
Now go visit their blog for more fun and hijinx! The comments are funny too. I’ve added them to my “Just for Fun” file in my sidebar too, so you can visit them whenever you visit me. It’s true. I’m a giver.
What outdated books are still on your shelves?
November 13, 2009
Holiday Mail for Heroes
For the third year, the American Red Cross has joined with Pitney Bowes and thousands of volunteers to deliver holiday mail to active duty service members, veterans and their families.
As a newly christened Navy Mom, this feels very personal to me. My son is not deployed to a war zone but he will be in Japan for at least two more years. It’ll be his first Christmas away — very far away — from his family. He has a big, loving family, but many do not.
Please consider taking ten minutes to write a card to someone in the military. As I write this, Veterans Day has just passed and many of us expressed the profound wish that our Armed Forces and those families who have sacrificed so much could be honored more often than one day a year. This would be another way for you and your family to express your good wishes and thanks to them.
READ THIS FIRST because there are specifics you must comply with so your card gets delivered. And HURRY because you must get them your card by December 7th.
At the bottom of the Red Cross page is a “share” button. Please post to your social media sites too. Feel free to forward my blog post to your friends and family if that’s easier. The more the merrier!
The direct link to the Red Cross is … www.RedCross.org/holidaymail
And to this blog post is … http://beckyland.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/holiday-mail-for-heroes
Thank you!
Have any of you been offered something tangible like this or simply a kind word from a stranger that helped ease your burden?
November 10, 2009
25 Years
Today is my 25th wedding anniversary. By coincidence, it’s also my husband’s. It’s like we planned it or something.
By tradition, 25 years of wedded bliss is celebrated as the “Silver Anniversary.” Neither one of us is very romantic — we have a much more practical bent plus we’re lazy. So very lazy. But this year I thought I’d try to surprise him with something different so I hopped online to find some ways to celebrate.
These are some of the ideas I found:
• Use sparkly silver glitter on flowers, cards, centerpieces, gift wrap, balloons, etc. Set the table with a paper silver tablecloth, rent china and crystal with a silver or chrome trim, use silver looking votive candles, place flowers in silver colored vases.
…. Or I could sprinkle glitter on the four-day-old pile of newspapers that has become our centerpiece. Maybe lighting them on fire would add a cozy, romantic touch.
• Toast one another with Champagne.
…. We already do this one. A lot. But mostly just when we toss another beer bottle in the trashcan, causing a lovely clinking sensation. Or is that when an angel gets its wings?
• Plan a picnic with paper silver-colored plates and cups.
…. Maybe, but neither one of us actually wants to go on a picnic in November in Colorado. But I’ll certainly consider planning one. The gift, I suppose, would be when I laid out the plans, saw his horrified face, then told him he didn’t have to go. Priceless.
• Purchase tickets for a movie, sports event, concert, theatre, etc. and wrap with a silver ribbon or place in a silver box.
…. We do this all the time. We tend to wrap them up in credit card receipts, though.
• Plan a trip to Silver Springs in Maryland or Florida, Silverstrand Beach in California or Ireland, or to a Silver Mine.
…. Or we could find everything on Netflix with Ron Silver, Sarah Silverman, Alicia Silverstone and Phil Silvers and have a marathon.
• Put together a CD with songs from the era of the marriage date.
…. Um … that’s pretty much all the music we have.
• Assemble a memory photo album with pictures highlighting 25 years together. Include the wedding, children, grandchildren, friends, trips taken together, homes lived in, etc. A nice addition is to include stories from children and friends.
…. Feeling smug about this one as we’ve been making photo albums for more than 25 years. We never look at them, however, because if you disturb the dust you sneeze for a month. (And really? People need to be told what to put in a photo album??)
• Create a poem, write it in silver ink, and display it in a silver colored frame.
…. I tried this one, but I’m not sure —
There once was a couple from Denver
Who loved to watch Netflix like “Ben Hur”
They secured a good date
But the mailman’s too late
And they couldn’t quite find a new vendor
• Put together a family quilt comprised of each square done by a family member or close friends.
…. Okay, just let me get started. Probably won’t take too long. I have a couple hours till dinner.
• Make a wish tree. You can use a big branch that you paint silver and decorate with silver ribbons, ornaments etc. Fill the branches with pictures of major events in your life, people who love and cherish you as well as tickets for a trip, travelers checks, gift certificates for different events and restaurants you could use on a trip, etc.
…. This one baffles me. What exactly would you be wishing for? That your life was different and didn’t have all these icky events and people who love you? That your anniversary was closer to Christmas so you wouldn’t have to haul yet another big tree into your house? That you could actually spend the travelers checks and gift certificates instead of impaling them on a dead branch in your living room? Pass.
None of these really speak to me as the best way to celebrate our 25 official years together.
Instead, I think I’ll find a shiny quarter — so simple, yet so symbolic — and we’ll flip it.
Heads does the laundry, tails cleans the kitchen.
Bonus photos!
This photo doesn’t do it justice, but see this enormous train and veil? It weighed at least 75 pounds and took 14 festively dressed Guatemalan children to wrestle it into place. But it segues nicely into the next photo, one of my favorites ….
That’s me and my dad trying to squeeze through the church doors without wrecking the dress or any of the Guatemalan children. Our hearts weren’t bursting with love for the photographer just then. It makes me laugh every time I remember it. I’m just glad the music was loud enough to cover our cursing.
What do you think makes for a worthy 25th Anniversary celebration?
November 4, 2009
The Zen of Stupidity
Normally I’d waste this space with my self-described hilarious blog antics but I’ve decided to try something different this time. I’m going to waste this space with a hilarious story about my extreme stupidity.
Lest you worry about my self-esteem, rest assured I am intact. Gorged and oozing, in fact, with self-esteem. I shouldn’t be, but there it is. One of life’s many mysteries.
I did something recently that is quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, as long as we agree to overlook the 10th grade perm and the red pleather coat I begged my mother to buy me. (That’s when I learned that despite its delightfully shiny redness, pleather coats consistently fail to keep the Wyoming chill from blowing right through a skinny girl. At least I was smart enough not to complain to my mother who was itching to launch a well-deserved told you so.)
The perm and the coat don’t rise to the top of my Stupidity Scale, though, because I didn’t know any better. But I do know that hard drives crash and one should obsessively back up all computer data.
Duh. I know that. Third graders know that. Heck, even the squirrel on my deck knows that. Why else would he be twitching his tail in that holier-than-thou manner?
Do you see where this is going?
Did I obsessively back up all my files? No. No, I did not. Most of them, but not all of them. I have — and use — an FTP site … I have a million little USB drives … I email things to myself.
I know better, but I’ve never — in the 20+ years I’ve been computing — had a computer problem. I became complacent.
Here’s a weird karmic twist to the tale, befitting a BeckyLand story. My husband recently bought me an external hard drive so I could start using Time Machine which automatically backs up stuff every eighteen seconds. If the Broncos would have played at 2:00 instead of 11:00 that fateful Sunday, then I might have dodged a bullet. We would have set it up in the morning instead of waiting until after the game.
Guess when it crashed.
The stages of grief whooshed through my psyche at warp speed, so I was fairly calm by Monday morning. Waiting to talk to the Geniuses at the Apple Store was nerve-racking, until they told me it was hopeless and sent me home with a new computer for free. (Note to self: Apple Care ROCKS!) They even gave me my old hard drive and the name of a local data recovery place, Datatech Labs.
I visited them on Monday to tell them my sad story, one I’m sure they’ve heard a million times. Clearly, these are people who’ve been extensively trained in grief counseling. They spoke softly. They made no sudden movements. They even offered butterscotch candy and hugs …. Wait. I might be thinking of my grandmother. But they were very soothing. Never once did they mock or jeer or snicker behind my back.
My new best friend, Stephan, took my broken and battered hard drive into his softly cupped palms and carried it lovingly to the clean room to check it out. When he came out, he was smiling. “Looks like we can recover all the data.”
But then the bad news. $300 to repair the hard drive enough that they can get the data, then another $1700 to recover it. But only if they recover it. No recovery charge if they can’t get it.
[Despite the cost — and my ultimate decision not to pay for the recovery — if you ever find yourself in a similar pickle, you’d do well to call Datatech. They come highly recommended and they won’t mock you. They’d probably even give you a hug if you looked like you needed one.]
I’m not really into self-flagellation, but I do think I need to be punished. If you simply throw money at a problem, then you won’t really learn anything, right? That might be how Wall Street works, but we’re better than that, kids.
Realistically, nobody died, the sun keeps coming up every day, and I didn’t lose anything irreplaceable. I am much more fortunate than others. Everything I lost I can recreate, should I accept that challenge. It will be time-consuming, but not impossible. Some of the stuff I’ll probably never need again. As I tried to list everything I knew I lost, I’m sure I didn’t remember half of it. It was there because I had the space for it. So it seems like a good time for a purge.
Less like a tragic house fire, and more like a healthy, ruthless cleaning of my closets.
But the lesson is important … back up obsessively in several different ways because thumb drives can fail, large external drives can fail, software can fail. And always — always — blame the Broncos.
How do you back up your work?
October 22, 2009
Going Rouge
This was in my Publisher’s Lunch newsletter yesterday. (If you don’t already subscribe, you should. Tons of interesting publishing insider info.)
OR Books Goes Rogue with Initial Release
The direct-sale start-up OR Books, founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson, announced their inaugural title yesterday–which just happens to share some striking similarities with another prominent forthcoming release. OR Books is issuing GOING ROUGE: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare on November 17, the same day when HarperCollins publishes GOING ROGUE: An American Life by Sarah Palin. Comprising essays assembled by Nation editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, it promises “progressive perspectives on Sarah Palin’s political career” by writers including Naomi Klein, Jane Mayer, Katha Pollitt, Jim Hightower, Christopher Hayes, Gloria Steinem, Joe Conason, and Tom Frank.
Harper had no comment on the OR Books cover, so we asked Ned Himmelrich, head of the intellectual property department at law firm Gordon Feinblatt, for an assessment of whether the cheeky new cover crosses legal lines. “Although the first instinct is to believe that the “Nightmare” book has to be infringing” the publishers “may have found a seam in Palin’s protection.” He added: “Titles of books cannot be protected as trademarks (a clear rule); trademark protection does not accrue until the mark is used (no sales yet); both books would be “in use” on the first day (Palin cannot claim first use); “Trade dress” does not exist unless the graphics are inherently distinctive (doubtful) or well recognized (too soon); and the “Nightmare” title may even be a valid parody (a good defense). Each of these theories has a countervailing argument, but on each, the legal arguments might be a nightmare for Palin.”
I thought it was extremely clever of the editors of Going Rogue. What do you think?
October 21, 2009
Changed My Mind
I decided not to move my blog so just ignore the indecisive blogger waving her arms like a madwoman behind the curtain there. It wasn’t because it was too difficult … well, it might have been, but I didn’t get that far. I’m starting up a new enterprise which you’ll hear about in due course and I thought it would make sense to move this blog to practice with all the bells and whistles at the new place.
Not so much.
So I’ll just wait and start up the new one in the new place.
Curious about my traffic while I wasn’t posting, I checked my stats. Imagine my surprise that I get just as many readers when I post as when I don’t. About 100/day.
What might that mean?
