This Page Intentionally Left Blessed

Alternatives to "The Examiner"

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:12:13 GMT

Since the person who asked if I had other suggestions to avoid the slave-labor sweatshop rates that one has the potential to make writing for "The Examiner" system has opted to hide the comments with sound advice I gave after s/he realized how foolish it is to write for "The Examiner", I figured I'd put this up here in the hopes it can help other people.

First things first, why not write for The Examiner or other pay-per-click sites? To expand on what I said to this individual, pay-per-click sites pop up every now and again, recruit large numbers of "associates", set conditions by which only a fraction of the people ever get paid, and when people start actually nearing the threshold for payment, the company goes out of business, owning the rights to your copy for life and not paying you a dime. In most cases, you are usually working for around 30 cents/hour (although some people might make a whopping $1/hour!). You aren't paid for the quality of your work, but by how many people you can spam to look at your site. If you don't spam enough, you won't be paid, as there is a minimum amount you have to achieve before they send you a payment.

Can you think of any other job where it is acceptable to legally pay a fraction of minimum wage and also have the option not to pay your "associates" anything at all?

So why do people opt to do this? I have four theories about that:
1. They lack self confidence. Because there's no fear of rejection from a company that doesn't review articles (except to make sure they don't violate the site's TOS), one can pretend to be a "real writer" and not actually do what is necessary to be a real writer (and yes, to be a real writer means that you have a file cabinet of rejection letters).
2. They do it because, even though no one else is paying the bills with this, they'll be different. It's the same principle that gets people to buy lottery tickets with grocery money.
3. They get conned in because they are told that you can "get paid to write what you like". As a professional writer and editor for more than a decade, I've made a living writing (and editing) what I like, with some extra gigs added in for more fun money to allow for the lifestyle I like. The whole reason why many of us become writers professionally *is* to write about what we like and to get paid for it. Writing about what you like and making a living wage do not have to be mutually exclusive.
4. They honestly don't know that there are other options out there to get published. And for that reason, I provided the following information to the individual in question.

Behind the cut... resources for those who are looking to make money writing for "the pagan scene"....

Now, for the topic of making money as a freelance writer, a lot will depend if you want to do this as a hobby or if you're actually serious about making a living or supplementing your income with writing gigs. Thanks to the downsizing of local media outlets (especially the newspaper industry, and in particular the "Faith Beat"), newspaper editors frequently will look for people to cover events of interest for their religious section regarding news-type topics. My advice is to look up your local newspapers (both large city daily presses and smaller weekly human-interest publications) and make a pitch to them. Write up something that an editor can sink his/her teeth into and propose it. If you can provide good quotes and photographs, you'll be more likely to sell an article first-time out. There's a great article in this year's Writer's Market about Freelance Newspaper Writing 101 that can give you great hints about how to break into that market.

For pagan-specific works, I highly recommend BBI media's publications for a way to break into the paying market. They pay by the word, with a minimum payment of $15/accepted article.
http://www.bbimedia.com/

Llewellyn also buys articles en masse every year for its various almanac series.
http://www.llewellyn.com/about/author_submissions.php

If you haven't searched for publishing firms on Witchvox, that's another route to go. There are several listed there.

Also, if you're not on the Professional Pagan Writers mailing list, that's a great resource for leads.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProfessionalPaganWriters/

There was a New Age Publisher's directory a while back, but I only have it in hard-copy and am not sure if there's a web site for it anymore.

Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt blog has recently started a new project called the Pagan Newswire Collective that may also be of interest for you:
http://www.pagannewswirecollective.com/

I can't recommend enough getting a copy of the Writer's Market. It's an annual publication with almost 1200 pages of information about where and how to get published. It is worth its weight in gold.

And, if you're still sold on the idea of working for pennies per hour, I'd suggest going with Associated Content and doing the Upfront Payment program. For accepted articles, you'll make around $1.50/article (or around $4/news story) plus the potential for click-to-pay bonuses. Although $1.50/article is still profoundly low, at least you don't have to worry about not getting enough clicks for an article to receive any pay.

I also wrote for Suite101 for a few years, and although in a year I made enough to buy a dinner, they did pay fairly regularly for a while (they then fell apart and stopped paying briefly, but have reorganized and I assume they pay again, but fool me once, shame on you....).

About.com is also another resource you might look into. I've not personally worked for them (the pay is too low at this stage in my career), however I've heard more good or mediocre things than horror stories.

And one final word for those people who think that writing for The Examiner is a good idea. Although you technically retain the copyright to your work, take a look at this clause from the contract:

However, by uploading, posting, transmitting or otherwise making any User Content available on or through this Site, you are granting Examiner.com, and its parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, an irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free license to copy, modify, publish, distribute publicly, and prepare derivative works of such User Content in any medium or form, without any obligation of notice, attribution or compensation to you. (emphasis added)

If you value yourself and your craft so little that you're okay with that, well, there's one born every minute. Sadly, you are harming all of us legitimate writers out there who make a living off of our art. This is why I will not click on links to articles put up by The Examiner and encourage others to boycott them as well. A hard-working individual should earn a fair wage, not payments that even sweatshop workers would balk at.

For more information, you can also check out the article from Writer's Weekly about this topic:
http://writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/005364_05132009.html

In case I want to play

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:40:56 GMT

Thanks to beltanelady for this one. It's too good to lose.

Appears that LJ is not working to allow one to insert images this morning, so I'll just toss the link here and fix it later.

http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f208/kedawen/?action=view¤t=flounce-bingo.jpg

Totally random quote

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:52:36 GMT

Comedy comes from truth revealed suddenly.

--Margaret Kerry, original model for Tinkerbell

My generic med Ocella hell

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:30:32 GMT

Some of this may be TMI, but if you're a woman who takes birth control pills or if you're on medication that you get through an insurance company, it's stuff you might want to know...

I've been a very lucky and healthy woman. From the very first time I got my period until the present day, I've been absolutely regular. Once I entered a stable relationship, but had no desire to have kids yet, I went on Yasmin, and it worked very well for me. A couple months ago, my insurance company required me to switch to the generic...Ocella. And that's when problems started. Massive mood swings. Severe headaches. Insane bloating. Insomnia. Out of control appetite. I've put on 10 pounds in the past 45 days.

And then the kicker....a skipped period. For someone who has been like clockwork for nearly two decades, this was more than a bit surprising. Just to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary, I did take a pregnancy test, and not surprisingly, it came back negative. Because this was so odd, I did some research on the Internet to see if other people had similar issues and made an appointment to see the doc.

http://boards.webmd.com/webx?THDX@@.89a1e9db!thdchild=.89a1e9db

If you don't want to read through all 150 or so posts in that single thread, I don't blame you. Suffice it to say, since August when people were forcibly switched to Ocella by their insurance companies that automatically require generics instead of name brands, almost every post in this thread mentions things like what I'm going through and worse.

So today I talked to my doctor. She has a friend who works in the pharmaceutical industry as a quality assurance supervisor. According to FDA regulations, a generic is only required to be 80% of the original. In most cases, that means that the active ingredients are the same but the inert ingredients can vary. In the case of items that are very, very touchy in their dosages (i.e., any sort of hormone-based medications such as birth control or something like thyroid medication), this can cause problems for the people who have sensitive bodies.

In essence, name-brand drugs are required to have consistent dosing between batches. In other words, the package that I pick up for January should be the same dose for February which should be the same dose for March. For generics, as long as it is 80%-ish the same, it's fine for use. Well, that 20% difference has horribly, horribly harmed my body.

Thankfully, the damage isn't long-term in my case (and because I had good folks in my life, I didn't act on the severe depression that the hormonal flux caused), and I've got a new prescription in to go back on the original medication with no substitutions permitted. Also, thankfully, I can afford the more expensive stuff. Not everyone can.

I don't know what could be done to change the way things are. The doc pointed out that because she doesn't have a lobbyist, there's not really anything she can do aside from what she is doing... compiling records about the numerous cases like mine. People who have had their health, their sanity, and potentially even their life put in danger due to generic substitutions required by the insurance companies.

So if you're on a medication where even the slightest change in composition of the meds could cause problems, please please please talk to you doctor about the dangers of generics. They aren't the same stuff as the name brand. And if you're on a generic and notice side effects that you never had with the original, get to the doctor ASAP.

The one's I'll miss

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:51:56 GMT

Yesterday, I read over Time magazine's list of the people who crossed in 2008 that they will miss. Some of them are people I will miss. There's also a lot of people who, although I never met them, are people who have influenced my life in one way or another. Some of the names won't be familiar, and yet you might actually know their work. Some of them won't be familiar at all to some people here, but they have each made a mark on my life. So yes, they'll be missed. Here's my list, in alphabetical order:

1. Cora Anderson
2. Robert (Bob) Asprin
3. Harriet Burns
4. George Carlin
5. Ollie Johnston
6. Harvey Korman
7. Don LaFontaine
8. Kermit Love
9. Mildred Loving
10. Randy Pausch
11. Tim Russert
12. Tasha Tudor

And, my "person of the year" this year would have to be Shadow. Miss ya, babe. But thanks for stepping back so that we could bring a new little Figment into our home and family.

ETA: And I should have known that by putting this list up here someone else would cross between now and the end of the year who needs to be added. And she crossed today....

Farewell Majel Barrett Roddenberry, First Lady of Star Trek.

Book Memeage

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:10:28 GMT

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Conference drinks

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:27:39 GMT

Just so I don't misplace this post-it note again. These were "inspired" by the drinks I had at Disney, but were my own little twist.

Poolside Lemonade
1 pt. Triple Sec. (original recipe calls for Bacardi O, but you do what you have to with what you got)
1 pt. Bacardi Razz
2 pt. Sweet and Sour
Sprite to taste

Sunken Treasure
2 pt. Coconut Rum (we used Bacardi Coco, but my coconut rum of choice is Parrot Bay)
2 pt. Melon liqueur (okay, technically supposed to be Midori, but that was a bit pricey, so we ended up with Dekuyper melon and noticed no ill effects)
2 pt. Orange Juice
1 pt. Pineapple Juice
Sprite to taste

Decadence: defined

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:27:55 GMT

A very wise elder once somewhat jokingly called me the diva of decadence.

Tonight, it is 25 degrees outside and we have snow on the ground. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the back enclosed porch, sipping a caramel hot chocolate loaded with enough whipped cream to make a stripper blush, more caramel on top, and red sugar sprinkles while sitting in the hot tub. If that doesn't define decadence, I'm not sure what does.

But just to keep reality in place, it was shortly after I got out of the hot tub that I realized from the sound of a can rolling across the laminate floor that I left the whipped cream out. Which is more decadent? The gal who just got out of that hot tub of relaxation or the kitten who has finished off the RediWhip?

Random tokens and thoughts

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:04:28 GMT

This morning, I had planned to fuel up my car. As I drove up to the gas station, I saw two fire trucks in front with lights on and firemen all geared up out in front. Needless to say, I did not fuel up this morning.

One of my coworker's daughters was murdered this week in a case of domestic violence. It reminds me to give thanks that I got out of my first marriage before I became a statistic like that.

Watching the "Big Three" potential buyout deal and hearing the line once again that these folks are "too big to let fail", I wonder when we adopted a "No Business Left Behind" policy of fiscal planning in this country.

Just some random thoughts for today.

Please respect the caviar

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:06:57 GMT

Okay, putting this in here so I remember why I'm using the tag phrase "please respect the caviar" years from now. I know I won't remember.

Here's the video. NSFW (mildly).

And for some reason, I'm going to be giggling and singing this song all night.

Expose this!

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:15:00 GMT

Got another message from a well-meaning but horribly misguided "publication" today. Again, the same ol' line about "We can't pay, but we'll give you exposure", which we're sure means something even though we're a publication that no one has ever heard of.

While I was poking around to find an article I read years ago about why writers should never work for free, I came across this video clip from Harlan Ellison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

If the documentary ever gets distributed, I'd love to see it. Although I don't agree with everything that he stands for, he's a genuine person, and that's a rarity in this day and age. (Oh, video is NQSFW if you're offended by adult language.)

A sign of the economy

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:10:48 GMT

I know that this will mean more to some people on my list than others, but it is pretty shocking.

INATS (the International New Age Trade Show) East has been cancelled for 2009 due to the economy. According to their web site:

In light of the current worldwide economic situation, we've decided to postpone the INATS East show until 2010. By waiting out these hard times, we feel we'll be better able to provide the buyer attendance that is crucial to exhibitor success.

I have the potential to be doom and gloom about some things from time to time, and about a year ago I had made a prediction that the pagan economy would be hurting pretty bad, however I thought at least the new agers could keep the coffers from running dry. But this.... wow. This is big. (And, as a sad note, if they do go on schedule for the 2010 conference, it's in Clearwater and not Orlando. Bah. Again, a sign of "going cheap".)

Do you know the real reason for the season?

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:51:22 GMT

If you haven't seen the Onion's video about Halloween, I rate it as a must see:

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_has_halloween_become

'Tis the season

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:17:43 GMT

Cut so as not to mess people's pages:

more animals

Thank you Jeopardy!

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:23:40 GMT

Lately, because of some things that happened on a quickie trip to the World with some very special folks, we've been thinking and talking a lot about the magickal influences of Walt Disney on the world. So, tonight as I've got an article on screen about people using faith-based stuff to try and pray Satan away from Wall Street (by praying in front of a golden bull... too funny in its own right), there was a clue about the use of the Walt Disney Silly Symphony of the Three Little Pigs using the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" as an anthem against the Great Depression.

Could it work again?

Somehow, there's something to the magick for that. Thanks to the remnants of a cluster headache, I'm not quite sure what would be done with it, but there's something to that. It feels like it, anyhow.

On the issue of marriage

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:47:20 GMT

Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

To put it in perspective....

My first marriage lasted less than six years.

My husband's first marriage lasted less than eight years.

Most gay partnerships that I consider marriages (although sadly not permitted to be legally ordained as such) among the folks I know have lasted longer than those two "proper" marriages put together.

Restricting which gender of consenting adults can marry each other makes the institution of marriage a peculiar institution indeed.

ARRR!

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:46:07 GMT

It's TLAPD. Google doesn't have a special header for it. Grr.

Better update coming this weekend or next week about where I am going and where have I been. (Was I traveling in Majorca? No, I still have a Kia... This TLAPD-related pun brought to you in honor of P&S.)

Anyhow, happy TLAPD to one and all!

What I've been doing the past couple days

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:52:03 GMT

Things have been considerably busy in the household, with all sorts of interesting (but ultimately positive) stuff going on.

And even though the most recent (and likely the last interestingness for a little while) event was the most painful, it was a huge blessing in so many ways.

So here's to Shadow... we'll miss ya, babe.

Read more about Shadow's life here: http://ardenfox.livejournal.com/11630.html

Laptop update

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:05:23 GMT

According to the Mac Geniuses... it was a hard drive failure. So, they're pretty much gutting the innards of the unit and giving me a new one (new hard drive and new case due to an issue with case crack that happens frequently and happened on mine).

What a great opportunity to do some spring cleaning. I've decided not to migrate everything from my eMac, but just pick and choose specifically what to copy so that I have a nice, clean unit....

...and then back up the whole system before I do anything else!

Computer poof poof

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:28:31 GMT

Sneaking a few minutes of "me time" to rant.

Well, not really rant. More like "Huh... grr." (Why does that remind me I haven't grabbed breakfast yet? Oh. Duh.)

So this weekend, I was working on a half dozen projects. No, seriously... a newsletter layout, a video game strategy guide that is falling behind because the author has run into delays from the game company, my educational tests gig, my "day job", getting the house in order (although credit for the house being squeaky clean really goes to A for being an insanely good house husband among other things!), prepping for an event yesterday, and making sure that I don't go insane in the process. Part of the stuff listed above included me downloading a demo of InDesign to make sure it worked the way I want it to for the newsletter before I drop $700 on the software. (Provided it wasn't what caused what happened below, it appears to be well worth the money.)

We went out to dinner (new Chinese buffet in town... for the local folks, it's where the steakhouse used to be on Restaurant Row). Came home, opened my laptop from sleep mode, and launched Safari. The page loaded about 3/4 of the way, and then I got the spinning beach ball of doom. Tried to force quit, no luck. Total hard lockup. Hit the power button and then turned the unit back on. And waited.... and waited... and waited. Pfft. Yup. Pfft.

So at this point, I get a gray screen with a file folder icon and a blinking question mark. My guess is that something happened and it can't locate the startup disk. Here's where things get weird. We ran to the mall and made an appointment at the Mac store for tonight (yeah, tonight...did I mention that my car's check engine light meant that it needed to be in the shop since Thursday while they wait for parts?). When we came home, we played a bit with potential fixes.

Trying to boot into safe mode caused a kernel panic.
Eventually we got the disk utility to launch, however it won't let any repairs be done on the hard drive (it shows the hard drive and specs for it, but it is grayed out).
We ran a hardware diagnostic from the system utility, and it said there were no hardware problems.

I've got a couple theories, most of which don't involve total hard drive failure. But it got me thinking... if I did lose the whole hard drive, would I be out a whole lot?

Most of my mail is backed up on the Gmail servers. Most photos and such are either on CD/DVD or are still on memory cards. A $20 piece of software allowed me to back up the stuff on my recently-sync'd iPod (so no loss of music and movies, aside from a handful of things that I had Hijacked but not transferred). Software is all backed up. The computer is fairly new (October 1 of last year), and I haven't wiped my old computer... so everything prior to October 1 is still on the old unit.

All total, I guess I'd be out maybe 200 files (mostly Word docs and PDFs)? All things considered, that's not bad at all.

Got VPN working on the megamachine (bless you again, A for being the techie!), so I'm not even out of the loop for work. Hopefully I can get everything restored, but if not... Apple is gonna have to fork over a new laptop (muhahah).

Because I'm doing the "share the 'puter" thing until mine is fixed or replaced, I won't be around much. (Not that I'm around all that much in general, aside from a couple communities.)

But call this a helpful PSA. Back up your files often. It's the right thing to do. And the more you know...the more you can sing the GI Joe theme song. Or something like that.

Back to riveting discussions of infections diseases. Whee.

Work is torture... no really, they admit it

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:26:47 GMT

So we have a company picnic coming up next week, and the company put out a memo about it. Unfortunately for them, line breaks didn't quite convey what they wanted....

COMPANY WILL CLOSE AT 1:30 P.M. (YES…CLOSE).

THERE WILL BE GAMES AND PRIIZES.

GAMES WILL CONSIST OF:

HULA TOSS SPONGE TOSS BALLOON TOSS DRESS UP

TORTURE

Is that truth in advertising or what?

Wow...didn't see that one coming

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:58:26 GMT

For those who haven't heard yet, Tim Russert died at work today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080613/ap_on_en_tv/obit_russert

Friday Rumi-nations

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:12:12 GMT

Was doing a bit of bibliomancy when cleaning up, and this one jumped out at me:

Something opens our wings. Something
makes boredom and hurt disappear.
Someone fills the cup in front of us:
We taste only sacredness.

Because this is important enough to say twice

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:54:03 GMT

http://ardenfox.livejournal.com/10407.html

Weekend update

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:18:20 GMT

Put behind a cut for those who really don't care how I spent my three-day summer vacation... :)

I guess it is telling when you sit down and remember how your weekend went based on the things posting to your check card statement! ;)

Saturday
Got up, hit Panera for breakfast. Made a sacred Target run, and then out shopping...Lowes, Staples, Michael's, Best Buy, Modell's (sidewalk sale on shirts...spontaneous shopping moment). Went back to the house, got some cleaning done. Grabbed some lunch, food for the kitties and then off to Benke's for herb shopping. We picked up some tomatoes and a handful of herbs to plant (rue, hyssop, oregano, sage, spearmint, peppermint, vervain, and rosemary).

Our copy of Fantasia 2000 arrived in the mail, and so it sounded like the perfect opportunity to have hot tub movie night. By far, I like F:2000 better than the original Fantasia (gasp!). There's one skit in there that leaves me in awe every time. There's one that makes me laugh every time. There's one that makes me cry every time. And there's one segment that is so profoundly speaking to my spiritual path's core doctrines that I'm never able to talk about it.

We also had decided that cheap Chinese food would be the appropriate meal for a night like that. Ironically, we ended up at Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro for one of the more pricey Chinese meals we've had in a while.... $50 without drinks and only soup as an appetizer, plus "middle-of-the-road" entrees. Good stuff... a bit pricey for what you get, though.

Sunday
Hit Eggspectations for brunch and walked over to Whole Paycheck Foods to see if there was anything appealing. Got some veggies to go with dinner and, most importantly, ended up with a paper shopping bag for the cats.

Did some more work around the house and then headed off to see Prince Caspian. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the Narnia series...have been since I was a kid. This movie was extremely impressive, and although they added some stuff to the book, the added material was exceptionally well placed and fit beautifully.

After a jaunt around the mall in which we bought a thistle seed feeder for our little chickadees and (hopefully) to attract some goldfinches, we headed to Ritas for Italian ice and then home. I did a little work on one of my freelancing gigs, took a nap, and then dinner....

Holy heck. There's not words for how good dinner is, so I'll just describe what it was. Grilled cedar plank Pacific King salmon marinaded in olive oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, dill, and rosemary. Inside, I made some rice and stir-fry veggies in olive oil and a bit of soy sauce and garlic. Now, I've had cedar plank salmon before....but this was exceptional. The plank was marinaded in Jim Beam, which caused it to sear more than "normal" and pretty much used up the whole board, but the resulting smoke made the salmon have an incredible flavor.

That evening, I made some fresh lemonade (with agave nectar for sweetener... a new vice of mine) and we had some unaged (i.e., soft and somewhat spreadable, slightly firmer than brie) asiago cheese and crackers.

Monday
Weeded the front flower bed, put the bird feeders back out, opened the house up and have been lounging. Made up the first set of info/goodie packets for those going on the Disney trip with us, and we'll get them in the mail this afternoon. Made french toast my way (rum extract, vanilla extract, orange extract, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom food-grade oil on potato bread). Now we're pondering lunch...

Most importantly, we did a lot of cleaning this weekend to clear out old dross from the house. This is the first weekend we've had in ages where we've had nothing that we *have* to do. I don't regret the life we live at all, however it is very busy...often.

Off to enjoy the rest of the weekend. The only other thing I have planned for today is to lighten my hair color at some point to more of a golden blonde instead of it's normal dark brown. Ah, summer.