Things I Know I Know

I was at the park today eating lunch and as I was getting ready to leave I saw a 'missing pet' poster. It turns out it's a dog I know--a pitbull. He is a young, big, goofy, strong happy dog. And he is lost.

It breaks my heart. He's a very good dog and people will stay away from him because he is big and a strange dog--and who would trust a pitbull. I want his life to be happy and I don't want him to be hungry or scared or hurt. I want to rescue him and I can't and the whole thing bothers me more than it should.

This year has been very mean to dogs I know. And I want it to stop.

Posted by debco at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was my quote of the day on Google:

I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always tell them you're seventeen and insane.

--Ray Bradbury

Posted by debco at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I saw the movie, Serenity today. Mostly because I wanted to see it in the movie theater before it went to DVD. It didn't blow me away, but I didn't expect it to. It had good dialogue and it had characters I liked and it had a decent story. Some of it is moving, some of it is--eh, could have been better, and some of it is fun. Inara, who I disliked quite a bit in the series, is considerably less annoying this time around and Nathan Fillion fits his character much better--in the series I kept trying to picture other people playing the part of Mal and whether they'd carry it better. Zoe and Jayne and Wash and Kaylee and River were their regular swell selves. Simon was his regular annoying but necessary self and Shepard Book didn't get much screen time. I may post something more spoileriffic about Serenity and the series and what I like about them later when I get the chance to think it through more.

Posted by debco at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

McSweeney's gives us "The Names of the President and the Members of the Presidential Cabinet according to their Etymological Backgrounds of their First and Last Names and of their Middle Names when Available"

Also, Dealing with an ex-Nazi Neighbor:

Unless we're very lucky, most of us at some point have to deal with that most unpleasant and awkward of situations: the neighbor who turns out to be a former Nazi. It can be disconcerting to learn that the kindly old gentleman who always smiled at you on the sidewalk once oversaw the brutal degradation and murder of thousands of people. This knowledge can cause stress and interfere with your enjoyment of home life and with your productivity at work.

Posted by debco at 07:58 PM | Permalink

John Henry had his fifth chemo treatment on Thursday. He has just one more to go.

Billie had three seizures in just over 24 hours starting early Thursday morning. Although they were all major seizures they were relatively minor seizures of the major variety (if that makes sense). She seems to recover fairly quickly. But it's still very worrying. She started KBr (Potassium Bromide) on Thursday, but it takes a while for the blood levels to get high enough to make a difference. The neurologist suggests sticking with the plan as long as things don't get worse. At the moment, she has not had a seizure for almost 30 hours.

I finished revisions to 'Chainsaw on Hand' and sent it out for feedback (thanks, chance!). I am sort of working on 'In the Aftermath of Rain' but I know I need to do actual research for this one so I'm mostly puttering. It has a complicated--for me, anyway--structure with storylines that converge from different points in time--and different directions.

Posted by debco at 10:39 AM | Permalink

the Scarlet Letters has notes on making art:

• "Get through your first 50 failures as fast as you can." I don't think that we should be shooting for a place where we no longer make crappy art. A good artist is one who's in motion making lots of art -- you only think they're so much better because they produce so much quantity that their pile of "good art" has also been able to accumulate. For every piece of crap you create, you're one step closer to getting something you really like.
• Work fast. Creativity is exciting. If you're not judging while you're making, then you can just throw things together as fast as your mind can move. You're smart; if you don't like what you've made, you'll know immediately. You might not know what to do about the problem you perceive... Don't "think", standing there cogitating -- try things. If your hands are in motion, you can be generating new permutations. The one that you want to pick will come out on its own time.
• Let your level show. Let the world know that despite having years of investment in your art form, you're still a beginner who doesn't know it all. Rather than hide your thought process, let your questions be present in your work. You are a fundamentally more interesting artist if people get to see what it is that you're struggling with, rather than just your final answers. Show your work. Talk about what you still can't understand (unapologetically).

...via 43 Folders

Posted by debco at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

UFOMaps links reports of UFOs with GoogleMaps.

I find it interesting that there are almost not sightings in the Great Plains states, but Indiana looks like a veritable hotbed of unidentified flying objects.

...via BoingBoing

Posted by debco at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Billie had a CT scan today (yes, it is expensive, thanks for asking). She has a normal brain and a normal spine as far as anyone can tell--no significant abnormalities anyway.

This means that her seizures are idiopathic, which drives me crazy because I want a 'why.' It seems only rational to me that there be a 'why.' There are lots of things that I except there is no explanation for. But for this, I expect a reason.

This doesn't mean that I can't live with what I have. I'm glad there are no brain lesions or suspicious masses or other acute and bad things.

I take the day I find. But I hope for better days.

Posted by debco at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are the things I like about tracking:

• I get to be outdoors
• I get to be outdoors with my dog
• Every week I make advances in human-animal communication that researchers can only dream of
• Every week I fail at human-animal communication in ways that researchers can only dream of
• Tracking is a thinking girl's game. The dog never fails. Weather and language and your own mistakes all pile up against you. Some dogs, sometimes, might say 'to hell with it,' but that, at least, is pretty clear. Everything else is just a problem to be solved.

Iowa State is looking for people to participate in a study on outdoor exercise. What they want to know (what they say they want to know, which may not be at all the same as what they actually want to know) is when and where you walk or run. Do you prefer places with trees? It's the design school that's doing it so I suppose trees have to come up somewhere.

Here's what I like:

In parks--no bikes or at least a minimum number of bikes none of which are trying to pretend they are mad racing bikes and the only things on the trail; not too many people; not too much traffic noise (though some traffic noise can be allowed to substitute for fewer people and no fast bikes); water and quiet shady places to sit are also very nice. Good long trails that have lots of options--one mile, three mile, five mile walks should all be possible.

In town: a good walk for a fair distance with minimum crossing of major streets. Trees. Garbage cans, water fountains, places to sit and watch the world pass by. Friendly people are a plus, but apparently you can't just ship those in. In winter, I like people who do not shovel their sidewalks when there's a layer of ice underneath the snow.

Posted by debco at 07:50 PM | Permalink

Jeanne at Body and Soul, Amanda at Pandagon, and Trish at The Countess talk about the pursuit of happiness and the role that money plays in being happy. They're riffing off an article in the New York Times that says that after a certain point money doesn't make us happy (well, duh!).

I actually think about this sort of thing a lot, especially this year. I have a low mortgage. I just paid off my car. If the price of gas goes through the roof, I can walk to work, to the grocery store, to the library. I have someone to clean my house once a week.

I have spent a lot of money this year but it's money I've been able to afford. And I am lucky enough to live within five miles of the vet school (which since I've lately been there four or five times a month, is definitely a good thing).

On the other hand, I have a job that is not challenging, has lots of stress, uses up vast amounts of energy, and forces me to spend my time on petty maintenance details, which I loathe. It also pays well and has good benefits. It pays for the person to clean my house once a week and the visits to the vet school and other important things. And there are worse jobs out there--less flexible, worse bosses, less secure.

The things I want that I don't have--except for power, which I would actually like a lot of--are only somewhat related to money. I want a bigger yard and a bigger bedroom. I want a job that actually uses the skills and knowledge I've acquired over the last twenty years, something that, as I told my boss once, couldn't actually be done by a bright high school student. And I want more time.

I don't have any answers/plans for this (obviously, or I wouldn't be spending hours of every day in my current job), and I'm grateful that the basics--food, shelter, medical care--are not what I'm worrying about at the moment. But I also know I have to keep looking. No one has perfect happiness, but then, that's why we talk about 'pursuit of...'

Posted by debco at 06:52 PM | Permalink

First lines from the five things I've worked on most recently:

In the Aftermath of Rain:
For years afterward, they called it the 'Explosion,' though nothing had actually exploded.

The untitled Spicy Slipstream Story I won't finish in time to sub to the anthology:
On Thursday, Rosemary woke to find a ghost in bed with her.

In Lieu of Flying Monkeys
"What are you doing? What the bloody hell are you doing?"

"I'm fixing lunch," Zen replied imperturbably. Everyone said Zen was imperturbable--well, they didn't use that word usually. They said things like 'so calm' or 'quiet' or 'who?'

Later, There will be Fireworks
Every Friday morning, Tillie has a seizure.

Revolution
I once slept with an Irish revolutionary.

I was twenty-one and I don't know how old he was. For ten years afterward, on the anniversary of the day he left, I'd get an unsigned St. Patrick's day card in the mail

Posted by debco at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm going to try to get back to more regular posting...meanwhile, it'd be cool if anyone who does actually read here were moved to mention that they read...it would inspire me to heights as yet untrod--or something.

John Henry flunked his blood test this week so instead of getting chemo he'll go back next week and most likely get it then. Billie has had another couple of seizures so I also took her to the vet school this week. She's going to go back next week and get a CT scan and, assuming all looks normal (which is what we suspect will be the case, but if we were sure, then we wouldn't be doing it), she will start medication to control the seizures.

I had a physical too this week (because you can never spend too much time in doctors' offices) and...so far so good.

I have been writing fairly regularly, but have had two stories go south on me in the last week or so. One of them looks to have a very complicated structure that I'm not sure I have the skill to pull off yet. The other...well, I have no idea what it's about. which makes it tricky to finish.

The weather is beautiful here, though it went from 85 to 40 overnight one night this week so I had the pleasure of going from air conditioning to heat in the course of 24 hours.

There's a first lines meme floating around and I'll try to post a few of the first lines of things I'm working on in a bit. Not everything I have in progress, you understand, because that would constitute, like, 36 stories (yes, I'm pathetic, but you knew that already, right?) Meanwhile, I'm looking for a story I can actually finish and mail out.

Oh yeah...house hunting. I had a dream house and someone else bought it. Then I had a compromise house and the owners didn't care to sell it to me. Then I found a really pretty nice house for a really pretty decent price, but the back yard was 60 percent concrete. Now, I'm a tad discouraged. If I could move my current house onto a big interior lot with no shared driveway, I'd be so tempted to do it. My current house is too small, but it's very nice. The woodwork is amazing (the thing I will most regret losing in this house is the fireplace with its built-in bookshelves). I can, (though I don't often do it) walk to the grocery store, the library, the coffee shop, lots of other stores, and work.

Posted by debco at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)