Thursday Thirteen: Reading Poll

 

13 Genres: What’s YOUR favorite?

 

WordPress has a new toy, so I figured I’d try it out. And don’t think this means you get out of having to leave a comment either. Lemme know what your favorite author and book in your favorite genre are too.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Nicholas 2 FickleMinded 3 The Pink Flamingo
4 Miranda 5 YummY! 6 marcia@joyismygoal
7 perpstu 8 Stephanie Adkins 9 Tempest Knight
10 Jennifer McKenzie 11 Paige Tyler 12 Debbie
13 Robin L. Rotham 14 Cindy Swanson 15

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

That New Car Smell

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things About DH’s New Camry

He’s been off to London for a conference that didn’t quite happen the way the organizers planned. Apparently the venue doubles as a nightclub on the weekends or something and Scotland Yard was forced to close it for investigations after someone was shot there over the weekend. This was, of course, after everyone coming in for the conference was already en route. So… anyway… I’ve been driving his car all week while my van’s sits at the airport.

Here’s what I’ve found I like about our new Camry so far…

1. It’s a hybrid. It had a full tank 2 weeks ago when we bought it and it’s just below half a tank and has over 200 miles on it. Compared to my van, I fill it up for about $53 a week and go about 150 miles on that 3/4 tank of gas.

2. Not having to dig my keys out of my purse to get in it. You just get close enough to it with the key and you can punch the little button on the door and it unlocks. Ok. There’s times it plays games with me, but I think it’ll be hard to actually lock the keys inside this one.

3. The moon roof. Need I really say more? It’s a lot of fun in the evenings to open everything up and just drive. And all the teachers on the peninsula liked it when I picked David up on Monday.

4. The auto-adjusting mirror for nightvision. Everything looks a funky blue-green at night and first thing in the morning, but I’m not being blinded.

5. There’s still room in the trunk despite having the battery in there too.

6. The gas tank is on the same side as my van, no more guessing!

7. The leather interior. OK. So my van has that too, but it’s not as new and nice smelling.

8. Those funky new headlights. They’re nicer to drive with even if I don’t like seeing them coming towards me.

9. The smoothness of the ride is very nice. The kids don’t even yell when I go over that nasty intersection with the horrible bumps in it.

10. It might be longer than the Saturn, but it’s shorter than my van and is VERY easy to park on MY side of the garage. What? I have to put it back where it belongs? Eep.

11. How quiet it is. It’s very strange to not have to put a key in the ignition and when you push the power button it just turns the lights and accessories on. I had trouble at first telling if it was on or not. At least no horrible screeching if you push the button again. It just quietly turns itself off.

12. The interior dash and navigational system. Ok. So I haven’t really used the nav system, but I’ve used the bluetooth phone and it’s fascinating to watch the energy consumption. The kids like watching were we are on the nav system and get upset when we aren’t traveling by “red line” like Indy.

13. I love the doors on it. They open wide, but don’t slam into the garage wall (Ok, so it’s narrower than the van too). It’s much easier to climb in and out of than the Saturn too — it’s not as low to the ground.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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Thursday Thirteen: Reading Habits

 

13 Q&A On Reading Habits

Thursday Thirteen

I found this on Wordtrix’s blog last week and she said to feel free to borrow! So I have!

1. What are you reading right now?I’m smack dab in the middle of this one:The Edge of Desire (a Bastion Club Novel). I’ve had it over a week, so you know how busy I am.
2. Longest book you’ve ever read:That would be Tad Williams’ The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Book 1) 785 pages
I was extremely frustrated after reading the first two books that it took ten years to get the third one. I didn’t want to go back and reread the first two before trying to tackle that one after so long. 🙁
3. Strangest title of a book that you’ve read:The Oversoul Seven Trilogy: The Education of Oversoul Seven, the Further Education of Oversoul Seven, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time. Really, any one of those would suffice, right? Then you get to the books. If you treat it as fiction, it’s not bad and the first one is really kind of interesting as it follows the lives of three people through different ages in time. When you come to understand that she thought she was channeling her own “oversoul”‘s words and not just some anthropological muse, then things get a bit more bizarre.
Ideas exploding from head 4. Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction?Fiction, because I like to escape and think of possibilities. Non-fiction has it’s place, but it’s not usually entertainment. Although we do have some fascinating non-fiction coffee-table books.
5. Did you have a series of children’s/young adult books that you once enjoyed?I absolutely loved the original Nancy Drew Series. I used to read them like candy. I never got in to the Bobsey Twins, Hardy Boys though. I reread several of them regularly. I loved the Ghost Ranch once and the one with the old mansion surrounded by trees dripping with Spanish Moss.
6. Can you enjoy reading the source book after seeing the screen adaptation?Usually, I like filling in all the details and seeing how it was supposed to be. I usually prefer to read it before seeing it though.
If I’d read The Bad Beginning before seeing A Series of Unfortunate Events, I probably would have read all of them. Not sure why this one didn’t click. I suspect hype. Then there’s Tolkien. I’m just convinced that Tolkien may have had great ideas, but dang, the execution is not to my liking.
7. Have you ever read a novelization of a movie or TV show?Several: The Keep, Close Encounters, Star Wars Trilogy, A Cinderella Story, Lots of Disney movies from the 70s. Some details were better, some not so much. I hate the ones where they manage to condense the story even further.
8. Book that everyone’s read but you:J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I tried. I really did. Several times. No go. Thank goodness for Peter Jackson!
9. Favorite “classic” writer/novelist:ShakespeareSomehow I managed to take a class intended for jr/sr level college students as my freshman english class. I’d read a couple of the plays and sonnets before in high school english class, but never really had much appreciation for the bard then. I remember sitting on the steps by one of the dorms on a lovely fall afternoon and laughing out loud as I read Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’d never had the words jump to life from the page like that before. I still prefer to see the plays performed, but have a much greater appreciation for the work even though I HATED dragging that Riverside edition around with me 3 days a week.
10. Favorite contemporary novelist (let’s say 1950s on):I’m going to have to go with Anne McCaffrey and not just her Dragonriders of Pern series. Some of her blatant science fiction, like the series with Damia weren’t necessarily my favorites, but when you consider books like Crystal Singer, Killashandra and Crystal Line (Crystal, Vol. 3) and her sentient ship/city series together with her romances like The Lady, Ring of Fear, The Mark of Merlin, The Kilternan Legacy, (which we have bundled under one cover as Three Women), Stitch in Snow and The Year of the Lucy I’ve found way too many greatly crafted tales. I’ll always have a special place for the inhabitants of Pern though. I may not have liked all the different retellings, but the characters definitely came alive for me.
11. Favorite short story writer:That would have to be Isaac Asimov. The three sets of his that I most enjoyed were:I, Robot (The Robot), Azazel, Casebook of the Black Widowers collections. So much packed into so few words, but they really make you think.
12. Favorite columnist/journalistic writer:Dave Barry can make anything funny. I’ve laughed so hard I’ve cried at some of his tellings.
13. Favorite poet:I’ve never been big fan of poetry, but read correctly (and preferrably by the poet), the words can sing and the meanings become clear even to me. In college I had the opportunity to hear some of the best poets in the world read, I think one of the most moving was Maya Angelou. But, I’m afraid DH is going to beat me, because my all time favorite has to be Dr. Seuss. And don’t even try to tell me those are just stories and not real poems. *grin*

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Paige Tyler 2 Munchkinheads (Cancer) 3 Sheri (Cookingmom)
4 Stephanie Adkins 5 Nicholas 6

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: Habit Forming

 

13 Things to Avoid When Changing Habits

 

As you can tell from Monday’s post, habits and routines have been on my mind alot.

Leo Babauta from Guam has a great blog titled: Zen Habits where you can go see his comments on these pitfalls. He gives permission to reprint his posts, but in what follows below are his pitfalls, followed by my own thoughts them. You should go explore the real thing if you have any interest in the topic.

I also love the quote he has on this post: “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” by Jim Ryun.

1. Taking on two or more habits at once.
Yep. Guilty. Baby steps, one at a time.
2. Not committing a plan to paper.
The Accountability Corner thread at Romance Divas is especially helpful with this one. It’s semi-public accountability and forces me to look at least a week in the future.
3. Being half-committed.
Very Guilty. Repeatedly. Just wanting to establish a good habit or break a bad one isn’t enough. You have to actively work on it. Whoddathunkit?
4. Not having support.
This requires admitting you want to change to someone else too. Ewwww.
5. Not thinking through your motivation.
Because it’d be good for me isn’t enough. Goes back to that commitment thing.
6. Not realizing the obstacles.
Plan ahead.
7. Not logging your progress.
Again, I can look back at my Accountability Corner thread on Divas and see just when I stumbled, but I can also see the long runs of success as well.
8. Having no accountability.
Sick of hearing about the Accountability Corner yet? Too bad it’s just writing, although Bria and I talked about adding another category besides Writing Time and Writing Life to it next round.
9. Not knowing your triggers.
Logging your progress can help identify these and will help you plan ahead.
10. Not doing your reading.
Hmmm… my highly theoretical self is skeptical of this one. I guess it could be reinforcing motivations, but honestly I’ve never found it much help before.
11. Changing focus too soon.
Focus? Whazzat? I swear I’m related to gnats somedays.
12. Not being consistent.
Ooh. This one and the next sound familiar.
13. Quitting after failure.
This one is often too tempting and I can see where I’ve beaten it with some habits, but not others. Guess we better check that motivation thing again. Sigh.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 SandyCarlson 2 Tamy ~ 3 Sides of Crazy 3 Candy Minx
4 SJ Reidhead 5 Juliadamus 6 Jennifer McKenzie
7 Ava Rose Johnson 8 9

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: Morning Delays

 

13 Ways My Kids Make Us Late

 

I hate to be late. I hate to feel like someone else is waiting on me. I hate to sit around waiting for someone else. My kids drive me nuts in the mornings before school. I’d had a nice relaxing stretch of sleeping in well past 6:00 am and I’m sure DH appreciated the silence that reigned for the nine weeks of summer. Anyway, here’s 13 ways in which my kids drag their heels and when they all pile up in a single morning, it’s a disaster on all fronts.

The elementary school starts at 8:15, but they don’t open the gates until 7:55. This means 700+ kids have 20 minutes to get into the school. The middle school starts at 8:30, but the first bell rings at 8:20. Did I also mention that they’re also about 4 miles apart with about 8 stoplights between them? DD has a lot farther to walk from her drop off point and DS complains if he has to walk from the street up the hill from the school.

13. I’m tired and/or cold!
I hate this one. It makes me sound exactly like my mother. At least I haven’t turned their mattress up on end so it’s perpendicular to their beds with them in it. Get up, get dressed, get moving.
12. Lost Clothing
Socks, shoes, clothing, glasses — either the favorite, must-have-nothing-else-will-do item is gone forever or everything is dirty — did I not ask them to bring them down Saturday morning, afternoon, evening and again on Sunday?
11. I’m sick. No, really!
Popular symptoms at our house: headaches, dizziness, sore muscles and nausea. Then they try to take their temperature as many times as possible even if they’ve already eaten, just to make sure it hasn’t miraculously crept up over the magic 100.4 degrees that will keep them home.
10. Sudden Breakfast/Lunch Indecision
Why, when they’ve eaten the same thing day in and day out for months, as soon as they’re running the slightest bit late, do they decide they don’t want the usual? This heading also covers the “But I want _______” when that’s the one thing I didn’t buy on the last trip to the grocery store because someone left the box on the shelf and I didn’t realize it was empty.
9. Screens and Other Shiny Objects
Televisions, nintendo games, youtube videos… so much more interesting than whatever mom’s going on about.
8. You never told me to do that!
Yes I did… see previous entry for why you tuned it out.
7. Breakfast/Lunch Refusal
This is tied closely to the one about indecision. After you make what they asked for, or at least didn’t object to when you asked, they pitch a fit about it and refuse to eat it. In the case of lunch, the answer is “Ok, it’s either this or a yogurt plate. It’s too late to make a second lunch now. Perhaps you’d like to make your own from now on?”
6. Lost School Supplies
Backpacks, books, homework, important papers that must be returned today, and did you write that check, Mom? Why do we ask if everything’s together the night before and then believe them when they say “Yeah.”
5. Shrinking Backpacks
Not everything under the sun will fit in it, trust me. It really won’t kill you to carry your lunch in one hand, really.
4. What do you mean you’re out of insulin?!
This is DD’s specialty. It always seems on the mornings I oversleep or get distracted by shiny objects myself, that her insulin pump needs changed. This usually is realized when she goes to bolus for breakfast.
3. Where’s my _________? I need it today.
This goes along with Lost Items, but it’s more specialized because it can occur after they’ve found the item in question. Standard answers are: I don’t know, it wasn’t my turn to watch it. The last place you had it? The master bedroom is not your personal locker. The bathroom is really not an appropriate storage location either.
2. Never-Ending Sibling Argument, Round #1298708912345
It really doesn’t matter who’s stupider, Fred or Josh, they both are annoying. If you spent more time worrying about what you’re supposed to be doing, instead of stopping to argue about stuff that doesn’t matter in the grand scope of life, you would be ready on time and you wouldn’t have woken your father up.
1. Wait, I forgot something!
Once you finally get in the car… or even get the garage door closed once you’ve back out of it… one of them invariably remembers something they needed but forgot to grab on the way out. Shoes, lunch, books, papers, you name it, they’ve spaced it.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 SandyCarlson 2 Savannah Chase 3 Bernie
4 Nadia Lee 5 Stephanie Sullivan 6 Tempest Knight
7 yasmin 8 Nina Pierce 9 Inez Kelley
10 Jennifer McKenzie 11 Paige Tyler 12 Jenny
13 Kristi 14 Savvy 15 Kelly
16 jenn 17 18

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: New Wheels

 

13 Reasons DH Needs A New Car

 

1. The fabric on the ceiling is coming loose and attacking anyone in the back seat.

2. The rear passenger side door won’t open. This means he can’t easily drop the kids off at school.

3. It’s older than DD. (Ok. It’s always been older than her, but she just started middle school. C’mon!)

4. Owning his own company now, he needs a better status symbol than a ’97 Saturn sedan, yes?

5. The insurance will be cheaper on a new car now that he’s over 35 and married.

6. DS wants him to get a Lamborghini or at least some kind of fancy sports car.

7. It’s paid off!

8. My van’s also paid off! It’s his turn, he’s actually past due.

9. The A/C’s dead… ok not such a big deal that we’re no longer in Texas, but still.

10. It doesn’t have a CD/MP3 player just a cassette player.

11. The second engine we put in it is still running, but doesn’t have the pick up and it always sounds like it’s in performance mode even if it’s not.

12. My keyfob doesn’t unlock it and I’m tired of setting off the car alarm trying to get into it if I have to drive it anywhere.

13. The electrical system is going. The other morning he couldn’t buy coffee because the power windows wouldn’t go down and he didn’t have time to walk into Starbucks instead of driving through the little Cappucino Cottage on the way to work.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

tvg

1 Juliadamus 2 Nicholas 3 On a Limb with Claudia
4 Alice Audrey 5 YummY! 6 SJ Reidhead
7 Qtpies7 8 marcia@joyismygoal 9 Paige Tyler
11 Pamela Sweet 12 Alice

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View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: Middle School

 

13 Middle School Differences

 

My oldest child starts middle school in less than a week. I’m not a big fan of new situations or unfamiliar ones, but luckily DD is much more like her father in this respect. She spent yesterday morning at orientation camp, where they “played dumb, boring games” and took a tour of the campus which was “useless because the tour guide was being lazy.” She’s growing up so fast and luckily for her has no problem meeting new people. Most of the kids she went to elementary school with will be going to a different middle school because of the boundary lines and the fact that we’d been bumped from our home school when we moved here almost five years ago.

I never went to middle school. My elementary school was K-6, and for 5th and 6th grades, we had those classes from the other feeder elementary sharing out school because of renovations to theirs. Then we were all dumped straight into one of the smallest public high schools in the state even with grades 7-12 in it. They built the middle school the year I graduated from high school. We also had real hallways and the cafeteria was inside too. What a difference 30 years and the other coast makes.

1. Registration: hour and a half longer. We had to turn in the same paperwork as for DS and then also buy gym clothes, get her ID and school picture taken, check out her textbooks in the library.

2. Campus: The middle school is way bigger, but close enough to walk to in half an hour instead of 5 miles away.

3. Parking lot: It was also designed by a man who hates children and never had any of his own — BUT, shares the space with the high school, making it twice the fun! At least they stagger start and end times.

4. Office Staff: Lots more of them and if possible, the waiting area is even smaller.

5. Attendance: They have a completely separate window for signing in/out of when you’re late. And I don’t just call the health tech to report absences.

6. Health Tech: She’s very nice too, much more easy going about everything. “You can keep your meter with you and test your blood sugar wherever you want. Just not in the bathroom. They’re DIRTY…”

7. PE: They have a real PE class now. Including lockers and showers and everything that made HS PE a nightmare.

8. Cafeteria: There’s even fewer walls it looks like and I didn’t see a roof at all. Lots of scattered tables with umbrellas and an ampitheatre-like set of steps and a grassy quad. Think Veronica Mars or really any SoCal lunch area on tv or in the movies. This will suck come February when it actually does rain.

9. Lunch: menu changes each month, but every meals rotate on a day of the week basis. Cost: $2.50 for most of the stuff she’ll want to eat compared to $2. Choices to be made are potentially even worse. Pizza 5 days a week: M/W/F cheese, T/TH Pepperoni. I really dread this next year with the boy.

10. Books: You get to pick them up early. They’re heavy, but at least you don’t have to carry all of them every day because of the block schedule for classes.

11. Block Class schedule: Classes you have rotate based on odd or even days. Or maybe it’s a minimum day where you have all every class. Then there’s also a late start on even Fridays called Collaborative Days just to make things even more confusing. DS gets out early on Fridays.

12. Dress Code: The dress code is much stricter and more strictly enforced. The biggest change for us will be that pants need to be hemmed so they don’t drag on the ground and get walked into tatters.

13. Independence: DD wants to walk to school. She is reveling in the fact that this means she gets a cell phone. DS is pestering to get one. This is one of those times I really feel the difference the 14 months between them makes.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Sue 2 yasmin 3 SavvyOne
4 Jennifer McKenzie 5 Elaine @ Commotion 6 Paige Tyler
7 Alice Audrey 8 9

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: LB&LI

 

13 Online Virtual Workshops

 

Romance Divas had their own Not-Going-To-Conference Conference last week during RWA Nationals and there was a lot of good information to be had, but I also found out Lynn Viehl hosts her own virtual workshop deal (Left Behind and Loving It) on her blog PaperBack Writer. Lots more to explore there! Here’s some of the highlights from the workshops that I enjoyed last week. Even more are listed at the end of the PWB workshop posts.

Lynn Viehl’s workshops:

1. VW#1: Power Plotting
2. VW#2: Eff the Editing
3. VW#3: World-Building I & VW#4: World-Building II
4. VW#5: Styling
5. VW#6: Brand Me
6. VW#7: Writing Life

Lynn Viehl’s LB&LI 2008 e-book containing her workshops from this year is available to read online, download and/or print on Scribd here.

Other Left Behind & Loving It workshops on the net included:

7. Worldbuilding with a Wiki by Sandra Barret — “Architecting your world using a free wiki.” This workshop explains how to use TiddlyWiki (the one I use as well) to keep track of interrelated links between information for your world.

8. The Anatomy Of Sex Scenes by Jaci Burton — “Writing sex can sometimes be the most uncomfortable part of writing the book. But it doesn’t have to be. A few key pointers that may help charge up your sex scenes and drag the writer out of their ‘discomfort’ zone.”
Part OnePart TwoPart ThreePart FourPart FiveQ&A

9. Creating Great Beginnings – the Why and How by Sherryl Clark — “If your beginning works, the rest will follow. We’re going to look at why it’s crucial, what is the contract with the reader, Dos and Don’ts (and why/why not), story questions vs hooks, situating the reader, and writing backwards.” Sherryl also invited readers to send in their first 200 words for feedback.
Day OneDay TwoDay ThreeDay FourDay Five

10. Writing Effective Description by Karen Duvall — “A week of workshops on how to write vivid description using all the senses, covering one for each day of the week.”
SightSmellSoundTasteTouch

11. WRITING PROCESS: Conceive, Develop, Write by Jamal W. Hankins — “An overview of my writing progress from story concept to actually writing a story.” — This one looks like it will continue at a slower pace over a longer time period. I’m definitely following this one with interest. I’ll try to remember to update with new links as they’re added.
OverviewStory Concept – Chapter Summaries – Character Development –
Organization Development

12. Balancing Motherhood and Writing by Dawn Montgomery, Kim Knox, and Michelle Hasker — “How to write a 1000 words in the zen of toddler meltdowns. Motherhood is a full time job and holding a family together is only half the battle. How do you find *your* time to write without losing your mind?” — I hope this one comes back. I really enjoyed it and it was down when I wrote it.
Day One – Day TwoDay ThreeDay FourDay Five

13. When Only the Right Word Will Do by Shannon Stacey — “Using word choices to add humor, help you show instead of tell, strengthen your voice and heighten characterization in deep POV in your second draft.”
IntroPart OnePart TwoPart ThreePart Four


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Nicholas 2 On a limb with Claudia 3 SandyCarlson
4 Tempest Knight 5 Nina (Things in General) 6 marcia@joyismygoal
7 Jennifer McKenzie 8 Gwen Mitchell 9 Stephanie Sullivan

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View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: Diva-versary

 

13 Things I’ve Learned as a Diva

 

I’ve been a member of the Romance Divas for a year now. I was looking for information on writing and found this place last summer as I was just starting to get serious about trying this writing thing again. I knew I had a lot to learn and I needed someplace that was going to be supportive yet honest. The forums are active and the group of people there are amazing. All the Divas (and the DivaDudes too) are creative, funny, thoughtful people who believe in the pay it forward principle. The site is one of those rare entities – a strictly enforced flame-free zone.

1. Pink feather boas are an attitude and pink isn’t ALL evil.
2. Bria‘s right, Flantastic is a perfectly good word!
3. Cup o’ Noodles is very good at making me think.
4. The dark side has cookies, but they just might be (theoretically) burned. Just kidding, Dana!
5. I’m not alone. Or if the chat room’s empty, just wait a bit someone will show up.
6. I can write around 40k words in a month if I put my mind to it and if I know EXACTLY what I’m passionate about, I can write 1200 words in a half hour.
7. We’re all a little unhinged in our own ways and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
8. Nothing is written in stone and you can’t fix a blank page.
9. Hitting refresh doesn’t help people post faster.
10. Back up more often and in more places than you think you need to.
11. Just sayin’… covers a multitude of situations.
12. Plotters and pantsers are very different critters.
13. “What Gwen said.” is always a good answer no matter the question.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Nicholas 2 Tink 3 On a limb with Claudia
4 SandyCarlson 5 Carol 6 The Pink Flamingo
7 Nadia Lee 8 Alice Audrey 9 Tempest Knight
10 Nina Pierce 11 marcia@joyismygoal 12 Talk About My Favorite Authors
13 Jennifer McKenzie 14 Paige Tyler 15 Chris
16 Moondancerdrake 17 18

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen: Grrrr!

 

13 Things That Irritated Me Today

 

Sorry, no pretty pictures today. I’m stuck on my old, slow desktop and I now get why my kids complain when I tell them they can use it to look up something instead of commandeering my laptop when I’m trying to use it. *grumble*

1. My laptop refuses to boot.
2. This meant I couldn’t do my morning rounds of checking email, sites, forums to wake up.
3. I also couldn’t jump straight into my journal entry for the day and save it in the usual spot.
4. Getting to camp and realizing DD forgot a towel for their water games today and that I’ve already put 230 miles on my van since Monday. Good thing I got those new tires, huh?
5. When I tried to make a restoration CD, the DVD drive on my desktop went AWOL.
6. After several hours of not doing anything different (yes, I tried reseating the cables earlier too) it worked fine.
7. Realizing that the restoration CD that finally burned was the wrong one.
8. Realizing that MAX speed isn’t most reliable speed. Anyone need coasters? AOL doesn’t send any these days.
9. Getting screwed by the guy at Staples (Yeah… that was EASY!) because he doesn’t know what specials they’re running in their weekly flier. He gave me $3 back for 2 recycled ink cartridges that I was replacing, but when I argued it was supposed to be $15 each he got confused and left the original $6 credit and gave me one more for $15 and realizing I won’t see that $21 anyway, because it was on DH’s company rewards card.
10. Getting whined at that I didn’t rip the desired Pokémon songs all day because of the stupid DVD drive.
11. Apple’s crappy support forums and troubleshooting guides are just sad. And unhelpful.
12. Wasting several hours on all this and having to pick up my office and do dishes instead.
13. My laptop still refuses to boot.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1 Talk About My Favorite Authors 2 SJ Reidhead 3 Tempest Knight
4 Paige Tyler 5 Jennifer McKenzie 6 Alice Audrey

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