The Lina Lamont Fan Club

A sermon on the speed of light

2012-01-29T17:58:00.000-06:00

On The Least Read Blog on the Web, Pastor John gives a sermon about the speed of light.... among other things. It's in podcast form--- the initial part (scripture reading) is lower in quality but the sermon itself is very high quality audio.

Do visit the blog at http://leastread.blogspot.com/2012/01/tripping-idols.html

Alternate Trinities, Alternate Baptisms and the Baptism of Desire

2012-01-29T10:17:00.000-06:00

My father was a lifelong Presbyterian. But the Presbyterian churches in his hometown changed under him. In his childhood it was a solidly faithful branch of the Christian faith. In his later years, the national Presbyterian body to which both of the Presbyterian churches in his hometown belonged had gone so far over into generic religious liberalism that one commonly heard criticism of denominational religious services that invoked Sophia, goddess of Wisdom, as a non-sexist alternative to God the Father. By the time my father died, his church had a woman pastor who felt the need to explain, at my father's funeral, why we were doing something as old fashioned as reading the Bible. Not because it was the word of God, since according to her the Bible was merely a record of how people felt about God in the past. (I was not a Christian at the time, but a Norse Pagan, but I was offended, particularly since she never consulted the family before making these remarks.)

Many mainline Protestant churches are experiencing this change from Christian faith to something.... different. One of the things that is often under attack is the Trinity. The religious liberal would not accept God as Father any more than he will accept the Son, Jesus Christ, as more than a religious teacher like the Buddha. So instead of saying 'In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit', we have 'In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer' or some other alternate, non-sexist Trinity.

Alternate trinities lead to alternate baptisms, and here is where the problems come in. Many people baptized as children in a religious liberalism 'church' will at some point become Christians and want to join a Bible Christian church like the Catholic Church (or any other church which is faithful to what Christ taught rather than running after the less-sexist Sophia). Upon joining it will be asked if you are baptized. In the past it could be assumed that if you were baptized in any well-known Christian denomination the correct Trinitarian baptismal formula was used.

Now the person desiring to join a faithful church must not only know whether he was baptized but whether the correct words were used? And who keeps records of such things? Certainly not those who go to those churches where alternatives to the Trinity are even an option. People who have their children baptized in such churches are either religious liberals for whom Christ and Buddha are equals, or are naive enough to not know how far their denominational body has departed from Christian teachings--- not that uncommon in many small-town congregations where many of the people are conservative enough to walk away if Sophia-worship were to be done in their presence.

And so there will be more and more people who are sure they were baptized but are not. And since the way to being saved involved believing and being baptized, this is a problem. What happens to a person who lives as a Christian but was never baptized? Surely Jesus would have not made baptism a part of the being-saved process if it wasn't in fact necessary? But our loving Heavenly Father would not condemn someone because of a non-baptized status the did not know about, would He?

But the Bible and the Church have taught that there is something that Catholics name 'The Baptism of Desire'. This is when a person desires to be baptized but they are not able to be--- perhaps they die suddenly while they are being taught in preparation for their baptism. Such people may not have full theological knowledge about the sacrament of Baptism, but just a desire to follow Jesus and do what He wants--- as in the case of the Good Thief on the cross, to whom Jesus promised Paradise.

I would say that a Christian person who through no fault of his own was invalidly baptized and does not know it, because he desires to do all that Christ asks of him, will experience the Baptism of Desire. But an actual water baptism as taught by Christ and practiced in the faithful Church is much better and more sure.

Why not just re-baptize everyone upon joining a new church or congregation? This would show disrespect towards valid baptisms. Perhaps the only thing to be done as alternate 'baptisms' proliferate, is for Christian families to ask pastors to write a note on the back of baptismal certificates, indicating the baptismal formula used. Witnesses can sign to indicate that the written formula was in fact the one used. And of course the baptismal certificate must be carefully preserved.

Do Catholics have to worry about alternate 'baptisms'? There is far greater discipline on such things in our Church. And yet there are a significant number of way-out-there liberal Catholic priests who certainly think everything about the Church is sexist and must be changed. It's not impossible that some of them are out there performing alternate 'baptisms' in a 'just-us-liberals' environment.

The Church does teach that even a baptism performed by an unbelieving or wicked priest, if done properly, is valid. But there must be minimum standards to distinguish between a Christian baptism and, for example, a Norse Pagan baptism --- yes, there is an ancient Norse custom of sprinkling a child with water in the name of the gods. It is not at all uncommon in Norse Paganism to use nicknames of the gods instead of their names in worship--- Thor is called upon as 'the thunderer'. Suppose a Norse Pagan were to use words like 'Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer' as nicknames for their favorite Norse Pagan gods, and so baptized his Pagan child in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer? I'm sure there are religious liberals in formerly-faithful denominations who would believe the rite to be spiritually the same as their own post-Christian alternate baptisms--- much to the dismay of the Norse Pagans, who tend to reject the notion of all religions being the same when Christianity (or post-Christianity) is included.

Recipe: My Mom's Christmas Cookies

2011-12-23T15:16:00.000-06:00

3 3/4 cups sifted flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar (sifted and packed)
1 egg

Mix and sift flour (does anyone still sift flour?) baking powder, & spices. Cream butter, add sugar gradually & cream until fluffy, add egg and mix. Add sifted dry ingredients gradually and mix. Chill in refrigerator.

Roll out about 1/8 inch thick and cut with assorted cookie cutters. Bake on ungreased baking sheets in preheated 350 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for about 12 minutes. Store in covered container.

Next, make the frosting:
1/2 stick of butter or margarine
1 pkg. powdered sugar (2 or 3 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
milk to mix to right consistency
food coloring if desired

Frost the cooled cookies with the frosting and decorate with sprinkles of various kinds. Get the family together to help with the cookie decorating, and the person who does the best Star Trek uniform for the gingerbread man wins a prize.

These cookies are a family tradition in my family--- perhaps because they taste like traditional German Spekulatius cookies. But the recipe comes from the Milwaukee Gas Light Co. cookbook of 1958. (My mom's baking some right now--- so must end this post and snag a freshly baked cookie....)

Barack Obama may have Asperger's Syndrome

2011-12-23T12:05:00.000-06:00

Background sounds from the movie 'Freaks'*: the sideshow performers chanting 'One of us! One of us! One of us!

Today I was thinking about the remarks Obama recently made about his accomplishments in office, and it occurred to me that if Obama, like me, had Asperger's Syndrome, that might put the story in a more sympathetic light.

So I googled 'Obama' and 'Aspergers' and came up with this, (among many other hits):

Does President Obama have Asperger's Syndrome

Obama is not the only US president who might have had Aspergers. Thomas Jefferson is also suspected of being an Aspie. ***One of us! One of us! One of us!***

Obama, of course, has never been officially diagnosed. If he suspects he might have Aspergers he's probably going out of his way not to be diagnosed, and I defend his right to do so. Aspergers is very stigmatizing. One person I told then presumed I was mentally retarded to the point of not being able to sign my own name. (Actually, my IQ is high enough to join the 'genius' organization Mensa--- which is not unheard of among folks with Asperger's syndrome.)

While I still renounce President Obama and all his evil works and ways, this possibility has reminded me that we must not allow our dislike of someone's policies or ideology translate into attacking or mocking that person's personal quirks, which may be caused by something that person cannot help. Besides, why make fun of Obama's social ineptness when we can make fun of his policies?

*Freaks: a 1932 movie featuring real sideshow performers--- pinheads, conjoined twins, little people--- which was rather notorious in its day. I mention it because I rather identify with the sideshow performers in the movie--- though I don't condone what they did to Cleopatra, that was harsh...

Free Ebook: Cat and Mouse by Ralph Williams

2011-12-22T08:36:00.000-06:00

Cat and Mouse is a 1959 published sci-fi short story, 11,344 words / 38 pages in length. The main character is a canny old Alaskan trapper, Ed Brown who arrives at his remote cabin for a season of work only to discover a mysterious gate into another world.

As it turns out, there is a dangerous life form on the other side of the gate. The story hinges on the conflict between this deadly life form and Ed. Ed does not know it, but the guardian of the world on which the dangerous life form resides has opened the gate specifically because there is something on Ed's world that can put paid to the menace.

The questions that keep us on the edge of our seat for this story are these: What is it that the guardian had in mind, and was he right that it could deal with the deadly creature?

The author of the work was a native Alaskan, so he knew his setting. This short story was nominated for a Hugo award.

I find that not only is that is this a great adventure yarn, it is also a suitable read for Christians of all ages. There is no sinful content or ideological agenda you need to worry about if your kids want to read it.

It's available in many ebook formats and can be read on your Kindle, Palm Pilot or your home computer. Download now--- resistance is futile!

Cat and Mouse by Ralph Williams - free at Manybook.net

My favorite Reality TV show is 'Zombie Death Extreme'

2011-12-20T12:58:00.000-06:00

My normal opinion of reality TV is that all those involved in a reality show should be shot out of cannons or set on fire. Or at least attacked by brain-eating zombies. But in the reality show 'Zombie Death Extreme' the contestants at least are attacked by zombies as a normal thing, it's part of the show. Here's the show's promo.

And here's the web site: Zombie Death Extreme Official Site

The only problem with this great show is that it's fictional. I mean, even more than other reality TV shows. It's a plot device in the novel Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator by Karina Fabian. Neeta Lyffe, a licensed zombie exterminator, gets sued when a zombie she sets on fire stumbles on to a lawyer's porch. Although Neeta saved the lawyer's life the fire does some property damage and Neeta's forced to go to the extreme of hosting a reality TV show about zombie extermination to pay the bills.

The novel, which I read in its very reasonably priced Kindle edition, was not only amusing and entertaining, but one that is worth re-reading. And there is a sequel in the works-- there is an interview with Karina Fabian at 'Under the Hat', where you can learn more.

For those concerned about the content of their fiction, Neeta Lyffe lacks explicit sex, bad language other than a couple of stray f-bombs, and anti-Christian/anti-Catholic rants. All these things may have a bit to do with the fact that the author is a Christian (Catholic variety) who lives her faith enough to have written a book on it. Neeta Lyffe is not overtly 'Christian fiction', there are no appeals to accept Christ or Bible prophecy sermons which foreshadow the next action in the story. (That's too bad, I kind of like it, it pisses all the right people off. Or should that be 'all the LEFT people'?)

My enjoyment of Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator has lead me to one of my worst book purchases ever--- 'Battle of the Network Zombies' by Mark Henry. I thought it would be OK--- there was a quote from Patricia Briggs on the cover. But 'Network Zombies' features a main character who is enough of a KKK-like hater to be musing about her hate-objects when it is not relevant to the scene at hand. Since her hate-objects are not black people or Jews, but Catholics, the book managed to get published anyway. But if scene of anti-Catholic hate isn't enough to carry a whole book for you, avoid this one. The smut scenes--- excuse me, sex scenes--- are just plain vile and nasty, as compared with the more high-minded smut scenes in the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.

The plot, to the extent 'Battle of the Network Zombies' has one, is as tired as an ageing zombie, and it was actually a relief when the anti-Catholic hate musings popped into the mind of the nasty narrator so I had an excuse to quit reading this puppy. All things considered, I wish I hadn't spend the time and money on this book. I should have re-read 'Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator' instead.

Karina Fabian: Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator (Amazon.com)
Mark Henry: Battle of the Network Zombies (Amazon.bom)

So: what do you think of Zombie Death Extreme and other elements of Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator? Have you read Battle of the Network Zombies? If so, what was your opinion? And are there any other zombie lit books that ought to be on my must-read list (since I'm considering writing a zombie-war book/novella called Zekwars)?

Israel to Germany: Still mad at you for the Holocaust thing....

2011-12-19T10:28:00.000-06:00

Recent headline at The Blaze: Germany to Israel: Stop building settlements.

Are the Germans nuts? Do they really think the world has forgiven and forgotten the Holocaust? They would have been wiser to leave it to other Israel-hating nations to complain about Jews building homes in their ancestral homeland. Since after all the Israelis have a quick and easy comeback to criticism from Germany.

Are you really cut out to be a writer? Some common symptoms

2011-12-18T09:57:00.000-06:00

Ever encountered a would-be writer that was plainly not cut out to be a writer? There are the ones who've seen a report on TV about the advances paid to a top best-selling author and decide writing is easy money since you do it sitting down, and so they sit down at the keyboard and bang out something for those fools with nothing better to do with their time but read books.

There are also those who don't have the unrealistic money motive, but who think being an author would raise their status, or make them cool, or whatever. Some of these even read books, if only Harlequin romances. But what they write tends to sound like a rehash of their latest fight with their boyfriend or boss. Or else it's something that sounds like pre-teen fan fiction all about getting Harry Potter or Captain Kirk to notice a character who is suspiciously like the author.

Sometimes I think Nanowrimo brings these hopeless non-writers out of the woodwork. The premise of Nano is that anyone can write a novel. The truth is that while most people can bat out enough words or attempted words to meet the word count goal, the result may not be recognizable as a novel. And even if it turns out to be recognizably novel-ish, it may not be anything that another human being would ever care to read.

This brings out some real fears in those of us who dream of being real writers--- even those who've met with some success. It's not that these attempted writers are clogging up the publishers' slush piles or flooding the self-publishing market. It's the fear 'What if I'm one of them? What if I am in denial about the quality of my writing? What if everyone who's said something nice about my work just pities me?'

How can you tell if you are a writer-with-potential rather than a hopeless non-writer? Here are a list of symptoms that can help distinguish the real-writer from the writing-attempting non-writer:

Symptom 1: Lifelong history of making up stories One of my childhood memories involves watching a favorite television program in the afternoon--- Star Trek, Dark Shadows, Batman, Hogan's Heroes--- and then going out of the house, taking a walk, and making up stories based on the television show I'd just watched. I made up stories in my head all the time. Sometimes my real-life environment showed up in the stories, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes I did mash-ups--- a number of Star Trek characters were thrown back into time to visit Stalag 13, the prisoner-of-war camp in Hogan's Heroes. This mental fiction didn't always follow the rules for story-telling--- I'd jump around from interesting bit to interesting bit, go backwards in the story, or replay the best bits endlessly. And it was heavy on non-original characters from television or books. But it was a seed for the more original stories I make up as an adult. (My current head-story involves fighting zombies in Mexico.)

Symptom 2: Compulsive reading If you have nothing else handy to read in the morning, do you read breakfast cereal boxes? Bookcase assembly instructions from an already assembled bookcase? A 2006 goat artificial insemination catalog? The fact is, people with the potential to be writers read, all the time. They read more than one category of book, and when nothing better is available they read whatever is to hand. If you have a history of compulsive reading dating back to childhood, if you read a great deal to this day, that's a sign of writing potential.

Sympton 3: Language awareness You don't have to have had top marks in English grammar class to be a writer. But writers do have or develop language awareness--- an interest in words, their meanings and spelling, their use in comprehensible English sentences.... When you were in grade school, did you ever read the dictionary for fun? Did you ever learn to spell interesting words that weren't going to be on any test? And today, what happens when you encounter an unfamiliar word in your reading? Are you able to cope, or do you put the book down. Not all writers are the kind of people who win spelling bees and know how to diagram sentences with confidence. But the writer's tool kit is full of words and grammar and spelling patterns. If you don't know the tools, aren't interested in them, and aren't willing to learn about them, you won't be able to function as a writer.

Symptom 4: Detachment If you were popular in high school and part of the social whirl, you probably didn't observe things very well. You were too much a part of things to be objective about them. Someone who wasn't so popular, who was often an observer rather than a participant, could probably tell you a lot of things about that part of your life that you were too busy to notice. Observation is an essential skill for a writer, and accurate observation requires you to be a bit detached from the subject. This doesn't mean you have to be a lifelong social outcast (though it helps). You just have to be able to not always be at the center of things, the focus of everyone's attention.

So--- how many symptoms do YOU have? Are there any symptoms that ought to have made the list but didn't?

Commodities Distribution Day

2011-12-08T10:08:00.000-06:00

If you are in poverty in the state of Michigan, the commodities distribution program may be the first food aid you will get. But this December's distribution was a little lighter on groceries than the last one, three months ago.

The commodities program is good because it doesn't require the intimidating cart-load of documentation that many are unable to quickly produce. You just sign a sheet--- giving your name and address--- that you verify you meet the income requirements.

It helps to show up early on distribution day, since it is first come, first served, and if you are in need you don't want to miss out. At the hour when the distribution opened at the Senior Citizen Center in Daggett, Michigan, there was already a line out the building door.

Most of the people on line were in the eighty-plus age group. Enough are infirm each month that strong young people are always on hand to carry out the groceries.

The food is given out in bags and boxes, and each household receives the same items. Usually there are three to four bags/boxes of food. This time there were only two bags--- harsh news to the larger families since the distributions are only every three months.

This is the December list of what was in the bags:

1 package spaghetti noodles (2 lb.)
2 cans tomato sauce (sweetened, 15 0z.)
2 cans sweet peas (sweetened, 15 oz)
4 cans pears in light syrup
i bag short-grain rice (2 lb)
1 bottle grape juice, unsweetened (1/2 gallon)
1 quart 1% milk, ultra-pasteurized (can be stored unrefrigerated)
4 cans sweet corn (sweetened, 15 oz.)
1 lb. frozen ground beef

In previous months there have been packages of oatmeal, cold cereal, peanut butter, dried beans, frozen pork patties, canned meat and other items. There have also been unsweetened canned vegetables, and whole grain rotini noodles. You just never know what you might get on commodities day. It's an interesting variety. And I've never yet seen them give out packages of hamburger helper, which seems to be what local food pantries want most, even though one must purchase both hamburger and milk to make it (and the taste is such that I'd hate to waste good hamburger on it).

It must be hard for the people at the head of the program to decide what foods to include. The people who receive it might be elderly and single, or might be a growing young family. And they have different levels of knowledge on how to prepare home-cooked food, and differences in the number of working kitchen appliances they have--- some, for example, may have to cook on a hot plate, or have a tiny refrigerator/freezer or none at all.....

Many of the people in the line were also picking up food for a friend too ill or weak to come themselves. There was conversation in line about what to do with food items one was unable to eat--- many recommended giving it to the local food bank if one wasn't able to give it to a friend in need who could eat it.

People also seemed resigned that sooner or later the commodities program will fall victim to budget cuts. It's a pity they can't cut money somewhere else, like in salaries for state government officials. After some experience with the mountains of red tape involved in most government programs, which confuses even me, I wonder how many people just can't manage to jump through the right hoops to get on food stamps. For the commodities program, all you need to do is show up and fill out the form--- which the volunteers will help you do if you have difficulty.

Pan Demonium, part 1

2011-12-03T10:29:00.001-06:00

I sat hunched over my computer keyboard. There was a demon chained to my ankle. It's hard to write with a demon chained to your ankle.

I keyed fast, just to get it over with. The stuff I was writing was crap. I mean literal crap, as in the contents of an outhouse hitting the you-know-what. They like a little gross-out in the fiction, and I can gross with the best.

The demon yanked at my leg. “Quit that.” I don't even look at the thing when I talk to it. The effect of familiarity. You know what they say. Familiarity breeds.

I finished the crap scene and went on to do an autopsy, a gang rape, a case of diarrhea.... All in a day's work. I saved the document to a crystal which I took out of the machine.

The doorbell rang. I ignored it. The messenger girl came in anyway. “Did you finish the work for the Cruz mystery?” the girl asked me.

I grunted for yes and threw her the crystal. She caught it and handed me another. “The latest Tegan Carroll romance novel,” she told me. “They want five explicit sex scenes, two excrements, three tortures and a disembowelment.”

What, no brains splattered on walls? What kind of romance novel was this? I took the crystal without subjecting the girl to my opinion.

The girl looked at the demon, which dug its claws into my leg hard enough to make me yelp. “Isn't it hard to write with that thing chained to your leg?”

“It would be a hell of a lot harder to write with this thing not chained to my leg. They can get into stuff even the cat can't reach.” I heard a thump-thump coming from behind the couch. The cat. Braver than usual. He usually hid when visitors arrived.

The girl looked at the demon again, wrinkled her nose. “It smells like matches.” She left.

I got to work on the new project. Wished I had a match. Might be nice to see if a computer crystal could be set on fire.

c 2007-2011 Nissa Annakindt

Who is the narrator? Why does he, she or it have a demon chained to his, her or its ankle? Do the cat and the demon get along? Is the demon symbolic of something or is the author just being weird? WARNING: any response may cause Pan Demonium part 2 to be written and posted.

How I Joined Tencent Weibo, China's Facebook/Twitter

2011-12-02T17:55:00.000-06:00

Step 1: Went to the Tencent Weibo home page, English version.

Step 2: Discovered that I needed a QQ account to log in to Tencent Weibo.

Step 3: Went to QQ homepage. There, discovered I needed to go to their English version. I clicked on the 'sign up' button on the right and followed directions.

Step 4: Went back to Tencent Weibo and logged in. Tried to create an account. Found that it seemed to want me to give a real name in Chinese characters.

Step 5: Searched for site to put my name in Chinese. Found lots. Most did not include a cut-and-paste version of the Chinese name. Found one that did. It did not have the name 'Nissa' but did have 'Nessa'. My Chinese name is: 内萨

Step 6: I put 内萨 as my real name. An account was created. http://t.qq.com/nissa_katoj If you start a Tencent Weibo account of your own, you can be my friend (or 'follower').

The Dust Mouse

2011-12-01T10:58:00.001-06:00

Once there was a little girl named Demetra who never mopped under her bed. Before long, the space under her bed was full of dust. Little bits of dust clumped together into dust lumps. The dust lumps clumped together into dust balls. Finally, from the biggest dust ball, a dust mouse was born. It was about the size and color of a real mouse, but it looked fuzzier and dustier.

As soon as the dust mouse was born, she was hungry. Luckily, dust mice eat dust, and there was plenty of that under the bed. The dust mouse ate dust and grew bigger and bigger. She got as big as a cat--- she knew because sometimes Demetra's cat came under the bed to play with her. Before long, the dust mouse had eaten all the dust, and she didn't fit under Demetra's bed any more. She was too big.

The dust mouse decided it was time to find a better place to live. She chose the closet under the stairs. There was more room there, and there was plenty of dust to eat in the dust bag of the vacuum cleaner. Sometimes Demetra's mama wondered why the vacuum cleaner's dust bag never got full, but she was happy she didn't have to empty it any more. The dust mouse grew bigger and bigger with all that dust to eat. Before long, she didn't fit in the closet any more. She was too big. And there wasn't any other good place in the house for a dust mouse to live. The dust mouse was sad. She liked living in the house with Demetra and her mama and papa. She liked it when Demetra's friends came over to play. Demetra was the sort of girl who only played with children who were kind to dust mice.

But the dust mouse knew it was time to find a new home. Someplace with a lot of room, and where there was enough dust to eat. The dust mouse remembered Demetra talking about the city dump. That was a very big place. And all the dust from all the vacuum cleaner bags in the city was taken to the city dump by the garbage trucks. There would be lots of dust to eat. So the dust mouse got a ride to the dump on one of the garbage trucks.

The dump was a nice home for a dust mouse. There were hundreds of garbage bags with vacuum cleaner dust bags in them, so she had a lot to eat. There was plenty of room to grow. And the dust mouse did grow. She grew bigger than a garbage dumpster. She grew bigger than the garbage trucks that came every week bringing more bags of dust. Soon she was even bigger than the little house where the dump man lived.

But the dust mouse was lonely in her new home. She missed Demetra and the other children who played in Demetra's house. There were no children playing at the dump, and that made the place seem sad and quiet. After a while, she decided to go back to live at Demetra's house.

But getting to Demetra's house was not easy. Maria and Rolf, the garbage truck drivers, tried to give the dust mouse a ride to Demetra's house on the garbage truck. But the dust mouse was too big to ride on the garbage truck any more. So she had to walk the whole way. She walked through farmers' fields, and got all covered with dirt. She walked through the fishing pond, and got all covered with pond mud. She walked through the park behind Demetra's house, and got all covered with grass seed from the grass seeding machine. Finally she came to Demetra's backyard fence. But she was too big to fit in Demetra's backyard.

The dust mouse was tired from all the walking she did. She wanted to take a long nap before deciding what to do next.

The dust mouse slept for a long time. She slept when the leaves fell from the trees in fall. She slept when the snow fell in winter. She didn't wake up until after the snow melted in spring.

When the dust mouse woke up, she found out she couldn't move from the spot where she'd been sleeping. She thought maybe the mud and dirt and grass seed on her outside had got stuck in place over the winter. But she didn't mind. She liked being outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine. She even wished she could stay there for always.

The spring rains soon made the grass seed sprout. Soon the dust mouse was covered with growing green grass.

"Look, a big green hill! Let's play on it!" said a voice the dust mouse knew well. It was Demetra. Soon all the neighborhood children were playing on the big green hill. They came back every day to play. Before long, grownups donated playground equipment to be put at the top of the hill, so even more children came to play. And the big green hill, which had been born a little dust mouse under Demetra's bed, was happy and stayed there for always.

c 1994 Nissa Annakindt
The moral of the story--- never mop. Ever.

My Nano novel isn't failing badly enough.... yet

2011-11-23T09:15:00.000-06:00

My nano novel Bakoun has been stalled for some time, as readers can see from my lack-of-progress meter. But that level of failure isn't good enough. If I'm going to fail, I want to do a good job of it! So I have the following plans:

1. Everything I have written so far is to be junked. Yes, there is a character or two I can keep--- well, one character, anyway. But all the actual word count is to be zeroed.

2. I'm changing the time in which the story is set. Well, actually, the story starts in the Victorian era and then goes to 1984, 1994, 2004 and so on until the actual near-future invasion starts. I'm thinking of setting the whole thing in the Victorian and or Edwardian era.

3. The setting gives me the chance to go all steampunky. Though anything I write could never be true steampunk. According to my sources (random internet sites) steampunk has to be correctly punk by being in rebellion against a prescribed list of things. I never rebel against the correct things in the correct manner.

4. My new plans require me to write up a brief timeline of Esperanto history, and of the eugenics/euthanasia movement. There are lots of cool quotes about the need for 'lethal chambers' which I can work in.

5. Another research requirement: I must throw together an outline of an alien invasion novel (Worldwar: In the Balance) so that I can see how a real writer handles a global story with multiple groups of characters, including alien ones.

6. The Korean characters I was planning to introduce will now be living in the American West, and running a Chinese restaurant (which serves Korean food, since Americans of the time can't tell the difference.)

7. There will be a boy named Alf from Linz, Austria who might be Hitler. There is a man who may be a time traveler who wants to kill him.

8. There will be robots. Big ones. And steampunky computers. Perhaps the result of alien technology being leaked? Perhaps also a steampunky 'blood-reader' machine that scans DNA?

9. Given these plans, by the end of NaNoWriMo, my word count should be around zero. Is it too early to think about National Novel Finishing Month???

Can you give a baby shower for a pregnant cat, part deux

2011-11-14T14:34:00.001-06:00

Chachamaru, stolen kittens Jess and Tess, son Joel

I blogged about my cat Chachamaru several times before. The first one was entitled 'Can you give a baby shower for a pregnant cat?'

Today I brought Chachamaru in the house to spend the day with lonely house-kittens Kitten Jack, Gwen and Myfanwy. I'd had to remove the kittens' foster mother/thief Psychokitty as Psychokitty has health problems that her stolen babies don't need to deal with.

As I carried Chachamaru into the house, I noticed that she's pregnant. This is NOT okay! Outdoor cats are NOT supposed to get pregnant at this time of year!

I guess Chachamaru thinks she's owed some kittens because she had a litter of six this spring with no survivors. But she stole Sarah's 3 week old kittens Jess and Tess, and I thought she was fine with it. (Sarah's also the real mom of kittens Kitten Jack, Gwen, Myfanwy, and their brother Ianto, who passed away.)

Chachamaru must have been listening at the doors to those EWTN shows that talk about being open to life. I've tried to explain that this doesn't apply to unwed cats, but she doesn't buy it.

Alien invaders as a parasitic class

2011-11-14T13:18:00.000-06:00

One thing we humans like to do when we are feeling uncharitable is to cast some group of people that we are NOT a part of in the role of a parasite class. It can be the parasitic rich people or the parasitic poor people or the parasitic telephone sanitizers. It's better to keep this as just talk because when you try to take action based on this viewpoint, you will end up like the old Soviet Union who essentially got rid of their parasitic class of telephone sanitizers and then died from a disease contracted from a dirty telephone.

But the idea of alien invaders as a parasitic class on the backs of the human race is quite a useful one. It certainly provides a possible motive for an alien race to go to the trouble and expense of conquering Earth.

Conquering aliens with an advanced enough technology to keep themselves in the saddle could live on Earth in vast numbers without having to trouble themselves with dirty jobs such as farming or factory work. Their entire workforce could consist of supervisors and military/police members--- higher status jobs, in Earth cultures at least.

Aliens desiring to create a slave-owning colony are a bit more logical than aliens here to ship food, mineral resources, or edible humans back home. The expense of the travel is likely to make such trade wholly unprofitable. But creating new colonies --- especially ones with a native population to do all the menial jobs--- is something that might be worth a great deal to an alien race.

Creating colonies might be something that alien races would do because it helps things at home--- the colonists and soldiers they ship off might be dissidents or potential dissidents, or the whole enterprise might prove stimulating to a stagnating culture.

In my (stalled) NaNo novel 'Bakoun', the aliens also have the motive that their current primary planet--- also a conquered world--- suffers from some problems. The natives of that world, after some thousand years of captivity, have rapidly falling birthrates, and are increasingly less efficient workers. In the experience of the Bakoun, this is an expected thing, and they have a cure--- conquering a fresh world. And the world that they have chosen is Earth.

While the aliens may plan to let the Earth folks do all the heavy lifting, one must be careful not to make them too much of a 'parasitic class'. In the real world, when one looks at things more closely, even a person who seemingly consumes resources without producing, such as a retired senior citizen, may be making highly valuable unsung contributions. Our future alien overlords, likewise, are going to be making some contributions to our society whether they want to or not.

Alien invaders might introduce beneficial advances in technology and medicine. They may end warfare and tribal fighting among humans, if only by giving humans a more tempting target than one another.

In addition, aliens may be more beneficial for some Earth cultures than others. In Harry Turtledove's Worldwar/Colonization series, the alien Race liberates the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto from the Nazis, becoming the Jews' liberators. The Race doesn't care much for the Nazis, however, and, among other things, nukes Berlin and other German cities just to show off their power. The result is that other humans reject the Jews for sucking up to the alien invaders, and make nice with the Nazis in the common cause of fighting the Race.

Question--- if you were writing an alien invasion story, in what way would the invaders be 'parasitic'? In what way would they be beneficial? Which human groups would suffer more under alien rule, and which ones might benefit?

La Sankta Biblio: My personal world mission apostolate (ministry)

2011-11-07T11:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I started a new Facebook page, La Sankta Biblio. It's similar to Facebook pages like The Bible or Jesus Christ or Soldiers of Christ, only it's in the international language Esperanto.

The mission of La Sankta Biblio is to encourage study and reading of the Esperanto translation of the Bible by Esperanto speaking Christians and Jews, and to encourage international religious fellowship using Esperanto.

It is also an outreach to Esperanto speakers who would NOT normally touch a Bible or be receptive to what the Bible teaches, but take an interest in the Esperanto translation purely for cultural and linguistic reasons. (The Old Testament of the Esperanto Bible was translated by Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, and has been used as an example of good language usage.) Can not God use this to touch a soul?

What I'd REALLY like is for all my blog readers to run out, buy an Esperanto Bible, spend a couple weeks to learn Esperanto, and volunteer to become co-admins of the page.

What I'll settle for is if a few kind souls would visit the new page, like it, perhaps even share it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To get an Esperanto Bible:

You can usually buy one through ELNA at their site:
http://www.esperanto-usa.org/

You can try Amazon.com
La Sankta Biblio [The Holy Bible In Esperanto]

Or you can read online:
Jesus Army Multilingual Online Bible
La Sankta Biblio on steloj.de

Nano 2011 - Novel stall, or losing sight of the goal?

2011-11-07T08:52:00.000-06:00

My Nano novel is stalled, at least as far as true forward motion is involved, ever since I realized a chapter wasn't working in a way which would affect the other chapters.

The official Nano cure for that situation is to pretend you had already fixed it an move on. But what if you won't know exactly what the fix is until you actually make it?

The whole Nano thing is about piling on the word count, which is good for new writers to develop good writing work habits and learn to finish their projects.

But the goal is also to have a novel when you are done. Or at least most of one. I believe if you find yourself piling up random chapters, it is perfectly legit to junk some of them, to re-plan, to re-write, if it means that you come up with 20000 words of some one novel rather than 50000 words of scenes which will never make up one novel.

I realize that saying this might encourage some to re-write when they need to be pushing forward. If you have not tried writing a novel before, I'd say DON'T re-write, just push ahead until you meet the word count goal.

But if you are a person who has written before and has a certain degree of experience with how your own writing self works, I'd say feel free to do some needed re-writing--- IF that re-writing is the re-visioning of a key point of the novel and not just re-arranging the novel. (Yes, I know I have an over-active hyphen this morning.)

My novel Bakoun is based on a set of ideas that became my Nano 2005 novel Viridian (uncompleted). It's gone through many changes of characters--- it's more of an idea story than a character story.

I guess it was inspired by the Worldwar/Colonization series by Harry Turtledove. He has his aliens invade in the midst of World War 2. In his story, the humans succeed in standing up to the aliens (but not driving them off Earth) because the humans are more innovative and scientific progress comes more quickly to us, while the Race (the aliens) moves forward at a glacially slow pace.

I was inspired to a story in which the human advantage is not in technology development, but in language. Humans have many languages, and can continue to learn new languages throughout their lifespan. The Bakoun (aliens) can learn language only during an imprinting period in infancy and early childhood. It IS possible for a Bakoun child to be imprinted with two languages, the Bakoun language and an Earth language, but that increases the risk that the child will not learn any language at all (and be killed as defective). Adult Bakoun can learn to say personal names derived from other languages, and perhaps laboriously memorize one or two simple words, but they can never get to a point where they can construct sentences in the language. A nice contrast to all those fictional aliens that can learn Earth languages in twenty minutes or less.

So, my goal for today's Nano work is more to make a simple road map of some of the early chapters, add a few needed chapters and perhaps junk a few others.

Another goal involves my chapter headings. Each chapter begins with a Bible verse in Esperanto, and ends with a repetition of the verse, the English versions, and translations of the key Esperanto words involved. Yes, this is a plan that only a few language geeks could love.

My problem with it is that I wanted the verses to be both faintly relevant to the chapters, and progressive--- that is, the easier verses at the beginning. This is not working, so I have to go through and plan the verses a little better. I think what I'm going to end up doing is rough out a few chapters of something I've had in mind for a while 'Esperanto through the Bible' --- an Esperanto textbook teaching basic Esperanto through Bible verses. And use the first few example verses as my new chapter headings for 'Bakoun'.

What I need to do about that today is collect a massive list of very short Bible verses. I had a good source in an old catechism book that was my mother's (or perhaps it's just the same as my mom's but bought second-hand), but I can't find the book for love or money. I welcome any short-verse suggestions, or links to short-verse websites, from all my readers the public at large. They needn't all be uplifting memory verses--- I plan to use 'Judas went out and hanged himself' at some point, but I hope no one's going to 'go thou and do likewise.'

NOTE: 'Esperanto through the Bible' is going to be one of those 'Creative Commons' things so that anyone so inspired can translate the English bits to their own language.

Andy Rooney: 4th Grade Atheist and 60 Minutes Man

2011-11-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

Just heard this morning of the death of Andy Rooney, who formerly worked on the television show 60 Minutes. Note to my mom--- NOT THE SAME DUDE as Mickey Rooney.

Andy Rooney was also a well-known advocate of the belief system I like to call '4th Grade Atheism' --- atheism for rebellious Bart Simpson-type children.

The tenants of 4th Grade Atheism seem to be as follows:
1. There is no God and the Bible is bogus.
2. God is a mean old sociopath and the Bible proves it.
3. The words 'logical' and 'rational' are stripped of their traditional meaning and are now merely terms of praise for fellow atheists and their remarks, no matter how illogical and irrational those remarks might be.

I remember one episode of 60 Minutes where Andy Rooney really let his 4th Grade Atheism out to play. He was all upset at the sheer numbers of churches of various denominations he saw around them. They only use those buildings one hour a week, he whined. Shouldn't those nasty Christians have to all share a very few buildings instead?

Forget being appalled that any middle-aged man could remain so culturally illiterate as to think church congregations only use their church buildings one hour a week. Doesn't he realize that until the Commies come and abolish private property, we still have the right to dispose of our funds as we see fit. If folks want to pool their funds to build a building that's only used one hour a year, we have that right until all rights are abolished save those of the Central Committee members.

The 4th Grade Atheist in Andy Rooney was appalled, evidently, any time his delicate eyes had to focus on things like churches, synagogues, mosques, crosses, menorahs, yarmulkes and anything else that reminded him that he had to share the planet with people who didn't agree with him on the religion thing.

Rooney was canny enough, however, to confine his remarks to Christian churches. He never did a companion piece calling for shutting down mosques or synagogues, because if he did, he would have been called an anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim bigot, and he'd have been about as welcome at 60 Minutes as the Grand Dragon of the KKK.

Rooney's remarks on that occasion crossed the line from mere non-belief in God to actual hatred and intolerance of Christians. What harm does it do any of us to see churches, mosques, atheist club-houses, Wiccan groves or any other thing, that would justify taking away the rights of Americans to build and maintain such structures from their own private funds?

And when you take on Christian churches, you are taking on the number one engine for both fundraising and in recruiting boots on the ground for the charities that give aid to the world's poor and disadvantaged. Until atheist charities are created and atheists find some reason to give in the same proportion as Christians do, society depends on the existence of a significant percentage of Christians in the population.

NaNo 2011 - The case for NOT finishing your chapters

2011-11-02T11:19:00.000-05:00

All too often as I write a chapter I reach a point when I get fatigued and discouraged with the chapter in question. Or I start thinking the chapter needs to be re-written in a way that will also require re-writing all the previous chapters.

This kind of thing is fatal to forward progress. So today instead of finishing the first chapter, I wrote a second chapter all the way through (I love short chapters) and began a third. I also went back to the first, inspired, and wrote some more so now the end is in sight.

So I've decided that's how I'm going to do this year's Nano--- each new day, start a new chapter. I can finish the unfinished ones at the end of a writing session. After all, when you reach that certain point in the chapter you know the rest of what is going to happen in it, and you can wrap it up at any time.

Word Wastage Department:
Some days I just can't think of words of my own to start with. So each chapter is starting with a more-or-less relevant Bible quote. In Esperanto of course. Which requires me to repeat the quote at the END of the chapter with a translation. Well, actually, 2 translations, one is DRV (Douay-Rheims Version, a Catholic translation) and the other is KJV (King James Version, the traditional Protestant translation.)
Also at the chapter-beginnings, I give a few clues to understanding the Esperanto version--- give the meaning of a few key words. It's like each chapter begins with a word game, and the reader can see how much he can figure out on his own, or cheat and turn to the chapter-end.
For those of you who are my friends on Facebook (or are willing to become my friends), the explanation behind the foreign-language Bible quotes I've been posting is that they are the Esperanto Bible verses I've been using in my chapters.

yWriter update:
Yes, I'm using the free writing software yWriter to write this novel. It works very well, it's available for PC and Mac, and, did I mention it's free? The advantage of it is that you can move chapters and scenes around, and it does word counts for you at the bottom of the page, both total count and today's count. I'd very much recommend it to all NaNoers (Nanites? no, that's something else altogether.)

NaNo 2011 - 50 most important words when aliens invade

2011-10-29T17:09:00.001-05:00

This is the situation: the aliens are going to invade. They do NOT speak English. But there IS the possibility that some of them and some of us will have some words in common. What do we want those words to be? I mean, we can probably do without things like 'Which way to the sauna?' and 'Is this cantaloupe organic?' We want to concentrate on the IMPORTANT words.

For reasons known only to me and/or my Muse, the words in question will be in Esperanto. However, words do translate and I'm open to suggestions in any language. (However, if you write your comments in Thai I won't be able to use them. But the writing's really pretty so go ahead, write it in Thai.)

Now, I think we all know what the number one most important words are: Ne pafu (don't shoot) And the second most important words: Kie estas la necesejo (where is the toilet)? But I'm open to suggestions for the rest.

50 Most Important Words when Aliens Invade
1. ne = no, not
2. pafi/pafu = to shoot/shoot
3. kie = where
4. estas/esti = is/to be
5. necesejo = toilet
6. bonvolu = please
7. sinjoro = sir, Mister
8. mastro = master
9.

NaNo 2011 - Will the Earth Survive?

2011-10-25T18:30:00.001-05:00

It's NaNoWriMo time again! NaNoWriMo? No, it's not the Esperanto word for collective bargaining. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, where amateur writers push themselves to the insane daily wordcount limits reached by most prolific published novelists.

My very first NaNo story was an alien invasion story called Viridian. I didn't finish the story, but the experience did cause my conversion from Neopaganism to Christianity, which in my mind counts as a BIG win.

This time I'm thinking about doing a new version of this long dead novel, junking all the characters but keeping some essential things about the aliens, who are now not the Viridians, but the Bacoun.

Why are the Bacoun invading us? Because the native population on the previous world they invaded are dying out, and the Bacoun culture is based on the idea that the Bacoun are the masters of a servant-race who do the boring jobs like growing the food and building the spaceships.

The Bacoun have always been rather isolated from other species of the galaxy by their language. It consists of two parts, the actual spoken syllables and telepathic tones which enhance/change the meaning--- a little like the tones in the Chinese language. But the telepathic tones of the Bacoun language can only be perceived by other Bacoun, and so most Bacoun must depend on the rare members of their species who have been trained from infancy as interpreters.

But the Bacoun may have a hard time coping with the frightening mind powers of the inhabitants of the Earth --- a people noted by their hundreds of highly complex languages and their strange ability to learn new languages in adulthood--- something the Bacoun and the species known to them are biologically incapable of doing.

I haven't quite decided how the story will end but I have one rule--- it can't be the kind of ending where we drive off the bad aliens and things go back to normal. Things will NEVER be back to normal. The Bacoun will be a new fact of life on Earth, the question is how we will manage to deal with it.

My new project: Reading Leviticus in Esperanto

2011-10-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

I've actually been blogging a lot lately. Just not here. One other thing I am doing is participating in a project to read the entire Esperanto translation of the Bible onto mp3 files on the internet.

Esperanto is an invented language (created in 1887) used for international communication and spoken by 2-4 million people around the world. The Old Testament of the Esperanto Bible was translated by Esperanto's creator, L. L. Zamenhof, who was Jewish. There is also a New Testament.

The Esperanto Bible is not just used by Christians who speak the language. It's also used as a language learning tool. The mp3 files we are making will make the Bible even more attractive to the non-religious Esperanto speaker or student. I hope the Lord will touch many hearts through this project.

My page for the project is Audioboo/nissa_amas_katoj. As you will see, I've already gotten started in the book of Leviticus. I chose it because it's an under-appreciated book of the Bible. There is a Bible study on it starting here.

The leader of the project is Ken Caviness. His page is Audioboo/keneto. He's doing the book of Acts lately.

Please, we need a lot of prayer warriors who will pray for this project. Please pray, and pass the word on to other Christian friends.

Esperanto factoid: at Christmas and Easter the pope traditionally gives an 'Urbi et Orbi' message. At the end, the pope greets the people in many languages. Pope John Paul 2 started including Esperanto in these greetings--- perhaps in part because Vatican Radio has a twice-weekly Esperanto language service.

Esperanto: to learn more, go to my blog in Esperanto and related languages, kaj la hundo iris kun ili. Don't worry, there's English. Sometimes.

There's also a link in the sidebar to a website called 'Lernu' which gives free Esperanto lessons, not just for English speakers but in a great many languages.

Happy Birthday to Who?

2011-10-06T07:32:00.000-05:00

Amanda Borenstadt shared this with me on my birthday yesterday. The Doctor and Weird Al--- totally the best present I got! Way better than the mammogram that my new doctor's office inflicted on me on the day (that's why you should never get poor, they schedule your appointments without asking you and then get huffy when you say you have plans....)

Jimmy Akin on last 2 Doctor Who episodes

2011-10-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

Jimmy Akin.org: Doctor Who: The God Complex and Closing Time

Here are my thoughts on the two most recent episodes of Doctor Who:

1) The God Complex: WORST. EPISODE. EVER.

It wasn't the most poorly produced. The production values on numerous first generation Doctor Who episodes were far worse.

It wasn't the most un-scary episode ever. In fact, it was quite creepy.

It wasn't the stupidest episode ever. There have been far more stupid ones.

And it wasn't the most poorly scripted episode ever. Many aspects of the script were far tighter and better crafted than in other episodes.

What it was was the most offensive Doctor Who episode ever.

Read more....

Since I didn't have the energy to blog about Doctor Who lately I thought I'd share something from someone who did.....

All My Children: Stuart Chandler no longer dead

2011-09-28T18:26:00.000-05:00

I used to watch the soap opera All My Children, but pretty much stopped watching due to dull story lines. But when I heard the soap was canceled, I did tune in for the final episode.

It seems that David, the show's mad doctor who keeps using experimental drugs on people but never loses his hospital privileges for long, has discovered a cure for death. And as a result a number of killed-off characters were brought back for one last turn in the old show before the end.

One of the killed-off characters was Stuart Chandler, kindly twin brother of the evil Adam Chandler, who died in one of the big murder mystery stories.

Another highlight of the series ender: Jackson Montgomery finally told Erica Kane "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

And the last moment featured a gunshot--- fired by J. R., Adam's son, at an unknown target.

I'm going to miss All My Children, but not as much as I'll miss the other canceled soap, One Life to Live, which I watched since the first episode. And now I'm worried about my sole surviving soap, General Hospital, which I watched since childhood. Some people claim it's reality TV that killed the soaps, but I'm thinking it may be in part the fact that they've been pushing Gay marriage story lines at a time of day when a significant part of their audience is Christian homeschooling moms and retirees. Kind of think they needed to go for the broader audience if they wanted ratings success.

The universal disability/food stamps answer: 'Die, you lazy dirty bum!'

2011-09-28T17:18:00.000-05:00

As a conservative, I don't agree with the whole Nanny State philosophy of the government being nursemaids to us all. But sadly, I've reached the point in my life where because of my autism and my life history of being unemployed/unemployable, I've had to apply for disability (which my Christian pastor therapist says I am more than qualified for), and for other programs such as food stamps.

Even though I'm quite an intelligent person I find some of these programs difficult to understand, so I google the various questions that occur to me. Like today, I wondered if I could use my Michigan Bridge card (Food Stamps card) in the Walmart in Marinette, Wisconsin, since the prices are cheaper there than at the big grocery in Menominee, Michigan.

Usually, the questions I pose have already been asked on something like 'Yahoo Answers'. And there is a universal answer, always approved by the majority, something along the line of 'why don't you get off your lazy, dirty, allegedly disabled ass and get a job?'

It's one thing when a welfare malingerer reads something like that. But for me, it's like I had lost my legs and people were nagging me to get off my lazy butt and walk. It's not just the 'I would if I could' factor, it's being poked in a very painful wound.

It's hard when you grew up thinking you were normal and could have a normal life and a job, to face the realization that you have autism and that a normal life is not in the cards for you. It's hard to even want to stay alive when your only choices are either to apply for SSI disability and Medicaid, or let your life-threatening health problems go untreated.

And going through all that, it's double tough to feel that you have to explain yourself, your work history (or lack thereof) and your disability to hostile strangers just in order to get answers to your questions about whether you can use your Food Stamps in a neighboring state (you can, by the way).

I think conservatives are taking a major wrong turn when they let their very logical concerns about government over-spending on social programs turn into hostility against the poor and disabled. Without Christian charity (or its Jewish or Muslim equivalent), conservatism turns into something nasty like the old eugenics movement that proposed a 'lethal chamber' because there were too many 'defectives' and the time of normal people was wasted in taking care of them.

Some people think that private charity should replace things like SSI, Medicaid and Food Stamps. But right now there are no charities that send a disabled person a monthly check for their living expenses or provide health care coverage for them. It would be a difficult and chaotic transition and I can't help but feel that a lot of people would end up homeless as the new charities got started. I think the most likely to be affected would be people like schizophrenics and the profoundly mentally impaired, who don't know what's going on around them.

Folks must realize that there are no easy quick answers to problems like that posed by social welfare spending. And no Christian should ever forget to show Christian charity to the real life people who are affected by poverty and disability. Not just because it ticks God off. It's also that if we conservatives are foolish enough to lose the poor and disabled voters to the Dumbocrat party because we just have to call poor/disabled person a lazy bum who's just working the system, we'll have four more years of Obama and then we'll ALL be on Food Stamps....

How to write a fantasy/sci-fi series: types of series

2011-09-03T13:25:00.000-05:00

Most sci-fi and fantasy writers don't write just stand-alone books, but series. Readers, writers and publishers all tend to prefer them. Publishers like them because each book in the series after the first already has a built-in audience. Writers may like the fact that they can re-use the world-building work from the first book in the others in the series. And readers enjoy reading about familiar worlds and/or characters.

Some series aren't planned as series. Marion Zimmer Bradley at first thought it was a sign of laziness when she set a second novel in Darkover rather than inventing a new world. In other cases the author has planned all the books in the series before the first one is even written.

If you have read a lot of series, you may have noticed they come in different types. In order to plan your own series, you will need to know which type yours might be.

One Big Book series--- like Lord of the Rings, this series comes out in several volumes merely because it is too long to fit easily in one volume.Except for the length is is the same as an ordinary one-volume novel.
Overarching Story plus smaller stories --- similar to the Harry Potter series. There is an overarching story about the conflict between Harry and You-Know-Who, plus each book has a story which comes to a conclusion by the end of the book. When the overarching story ends, the series is over. But the smaller plots to each book give the reader the feeling that they've read a story which has a conclusion.
Cliffhanger series--- Each volume has a story which is concluded in the book, but the individual book ends with a cliffhanger--- a dilemma which won't be resolved til the next book. This can be unpopular with readers, however. This type of series is open-ended and can continue as long as writer and readers are interested.
Episodic series, same main characters--- Think of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The mystery in each story is different and unconnected, but the main characters are always present in each novel. Another open-ended type. In some series of this type, the main character undergoes little change throughout the series. In others, the main character will age, change jobs, move to different cities, marry, have children and grandchildren, and other realistic touches.
Episodic series, main character group--- This is a variation in which there is a group of main characters. Each novel will have main characters from this group, but different novels will have different main characters, but always drawn from the set. Piers Anthony's Xanth series, at least in the novels I've read, worked that way. The main character in one book was the son of the main character in the first book, for example. In this series form, the main character from one book will turn up as a minor character in another.
Episodic series, same world/setting--- Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover works like this, as does Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth/Valdemar series. The same fantasy and science fictional world is always featured in books in the series, but some books may be set in different time periods with an all-new set of characters. In this type, there may be mini-series within the series--- three books featuring the same characters, for example.

Each of the different series types has its own appeal. As a writer, some may seem better than others to you. For an unpublished writer who is aiming at working with a mainstream royalty publisher only, the first two types may not be a good bet as you will be asking the publisher to stick with you through a whole series--- something he will not want to do if the first book sells poorly. Better to start out with something more open-ended for your first effort. (If you are going the self-publishing route, you can please yourself--- but be sure you are really willing to stick with a story in several volumes even with little reader interest before you commit to types 1 or 2.)

When I started my own series Taliesin, I was actually inspired by a mystery series rather than a fantasy, Anne Perry's William Monk series. That series featured William Monk, an amnesiac police detective, and a woman he meets in the first volume who assists him in his later cases. This gave me the idea of a supernatural fantasy series featuring a vampire and a girl with Dissociative Identity Disorder who together get involved with a series of unfortunate supernatural events in a series of novels.

Free software for organizing your novel

2011-09-02T11:32:00.002-05:00

My project for today was to get together a method to organize my current web novel, Taliesin: Vampire Dreams. I was googling around for something on the Snowflake method and instead I found an article which gave links to free software for organizing your novel. There are 3 different free software options given.

Storybook: Open Source Novel Writing Software for Novelists, Authors and Creative Writers --- tried this. They are really big on trying to sell you the paid version, which is the only version that lets you export and print out the outline you create with it. I'm not sure the free version is all that useful if you can't print out your work.

yWriter: Free novel writing software to help you write a book. Very good software and it really is free, not just a demo.

PageFour: Novel writing software - software for creative writers --- includes a tabbed word processor and outliner This is actually just a demo of the paid version and has restrictions.

After looking all three over I've decided to download Storybook and use it to organize Taliesin and perhaps my other writing. I'm not sure if it will help--- or if anything will help. Being disorganized is my worst failing as a writer. I'd love to hear from other writers who've tried one of these free resources--- has it helped your writing?

NOTE: there is software for the Snowflake Method, but it costs $100, which is $100 more than I can spare this month or any month of the foreseeable future. Besides which I thought the free software, being of more general interest, was worth a mention. But if you have the money and like the snowflake method, you might consider getting that software.

Is it ever okay NOT to kill Hitler?

2011-08-29T22:23:00.000-05:00

In honor of the recent Doctor Who episode 'Let's Kill Hitler', let's talk about the classic values-clarification type question: if you went back in time, would it be morally justifiable to kill Hitler?

Before we get into the timey-wimey aspects, let's look at the question. It's not just Hitler--- there have been loads of heads-of-state who have, like Hitler, given orders that lead to the deaths of large numbers of innocent people. Joe Stalin and Mousey Tougue (all right, Mao Zedong) both killed many more millions than Hitler.

Even in earlier ages we had heads of state who caused mass death, though not on quite the scale of those who had both industrialized methods and far larger populations to work with. Caligula and Nero Caesar were both very notoriously violent emperors. Tiberius, though not as insane, was also prone to solve state problems by ordering numerous executions. Even more respected emperors like Claudius and Augustus had a number of wicked deeds to answer for.

But in spite of all the misdeeds of the Caesars, nowhere in the New Testament is it written 'render unto Caesar a sword to the heart'. Indeed the Caesars were as far as Christ and the early Church were concerned, the legitimate bearers of the sword of authority, to whom taxes ought to be paid.

One problem with the assassination of heads of state is that there is disagreement on the exact nature and quantity of evil deeds that a head of state must commit before being an acceptable assassination target. Abraham Lincoln, while alive, was blamed by many for the bloodiest war in American history to date.

The act of assassination does not get rid of the policies of the assassinated one. The policies of Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were carried out after their deaths, in part because their deaths made them martyrs which made it more difficult to argue against them. And even rulers seen by most as wicked during their lives may be considered martyrs should they die by assassination.

But this is a time-travel question, so we must get to the timey-wimey aspects. At what point would one kill Hitler or Stalin? At the very end of their historical life-span, it may be considered very justifiable, but does it do a sufficient amount of good to be worth the effort? All or nearly all of their victims are already dead.

If on the other hand you go back to ever earlier points in the historical career of your target, though you are perhaps saving more lives you are killing a much more innocent Hitler or Stalin. Go back to the career-beginning--- as when Hitler, a World War One veteran just released from service, made his first political speech--- and you will be killing a Hitler who has not yet been implicated in one wrongful death.

Can you justify killing a person based, not on what he did, but what he will do in the future? More precisely, based on what you assume he will do in the future? If you can change history by going back in time to kill Hitler, then history is not fixed. Which means that there is no certainty that the young Hitler before you will now go forward to have the career you remember from the history before you went back in time.

I cannot help but think that such a killing would be unlawful murder. It's somewhat similar to the eugenics movement claiming that certain persons because of the criminal history of their parents are doomed to lead a life of ever worsening crime. Even if that were true, it is still unjust to punish a person for crimes he will commit, but has not yet committed.

Another time-travel question: perhaps your time-travel machine is not good enough to get you past layers of security that any head of state would have. Suppose it is also not that precise about the time of arrival. You land in the home town of Adolf Hitler, walk to the home that Hitler grew up in, and find a small boy crying in the street because his drunken father is beating his mother again. That boy is Adolf Hitler. The gun is in your hand. Do you pull the trigger?

Stolen Goods as Yard Decorations

2011-08-26T18:22:00.001-05:00

Today while driving home from Menominee, I saw a yard with a large yellow sign depicting a moose (or elk). Below it said 'Night Danger', and below that, the same thing in French. (I have since forgot the French.)

Obviously the last time those folks went to Canada they stole themselves a souvenir. And they were so unashamed of the theft that they set the stolen sign out in the yard for all to see.

This moral problem is not just a concern for the US. In Libya, one of the rioters/rebels stole dictator Gaddafi's hat. Instead of hiding the stolen hat away, the thief decided it was a cool fashion statement and called in the international media.

Now, Gaddafi is an evil murdering dictator who deserves to be executed, brought back to life, and executed again. But that doesn't make it OK to steal his hat! 'Thou shalt not steal' is not just a good idea, it's the law.

Writing prompt: Tomorrow morning the whole human race wakes up believing that 'thou shalt not steal' is no longer a moral absolute but a vague suggestion. Write a story that shows some of the consequences. Extra credit if the story includes a talking frog wearing a fez.

The Spiritual Status of Vampires in Bram Stoker's Dracula

2011-08-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

I've been reading Bram Stoker's Dracula lately. I was never really able to get through the book so I went back to a childhood method I used as a very young girl to read 'Gone With the Wind'---- I started reading in the middle.

The portion I started with dealt with the illness and death of Dracula-victim Lucy Westenra. What particularly drew my attention was how vampire expert Van Helsing (the one Catholic in the book) described Lucy's spiritual fate once she died and rose as a vampire.

When alive Lucy was described as good and pure and kind. Everyone who knew her loved her. But as a vampire Lucy attacked young children--- drinking their blood, but not yet killing them.

Van Helsing said that in time Lucy would kill, and at that point her soul would be damned to hell. Her only hope was for Van Helsing and his allies to drive a stake through her heart and release her from her vampire state.

I found it troubling that a good moral girl, presumably a Christian, would be damned for something she could not help--- becoming a vampire. She did nothing to court the attention of Dracula, neither she nor anyone near her knew she was being preyed upon by the undead creature until it was too late. Against her will she was turned into a creature whose fiendish appetite for blood would in time make her into a murderer. Is it right for her to be consigned to hell's flames for that?

Possibly what Bram Stoker had in mind was his impression of Catholic doctrines--- during his lifetime a Catholic would have feared very much to die without a visit from a priest for the last sacraments. Catholics unlearned in the doctrines of their Church might well believe that if some accident deprived them of the chance for this priestly care, their souls would be consigned to hell. (Actually, the desire for a saving sacrament is enough in an emergency--- as in the Good Thief on the cross, who had no opportunity to be baptized, but who was promised Paradise by our Lord all the same.)

Perhaps also Stoker was somewhat influenced by the Protestant doctrine of predestination--- the idea that mankind is so wicked because of Original Sin that only the elect--- souls chosen by God without regard to their merit--- were able to repent and turn to God. Another version of this doctrine--- double predestination--- has it that the non-elect are predestined by God to hell fire. (Not all Protestants believe in predestination.)

Whatever Stoker's inspiration, he has created a fictional universe where a Christian person might be preyed upon by a vampire-fiend and turned into a similarly damned soul. The unfairness of this may be what bothers the modern Christian reader. But it also serves to make Dracula a far more fearsome monster--- one which not only can kill the bodies of the innocent, but can arrange for their souls to be consigned to hell. That ramps up the horror considerably.

One thing this brought to my mind was Dracula himself. As horrible as he was in the novel, could he have started out a bright and shining soul, a young person much like Lucy, beloved by all? And some cruel vampire preyed upon him, taking his life and consigning his soul to hell. And what was THAT vampire like, before he became a vampire?

Of the many writers that have written about vampires since Bram Stoker, few have given much consideration to their spiritual status at all. Of those that have, some have written of vampires who are like humans in that they can choose between good and evil. In other stories the vampires seem demonic, and it is not explained to us if they are corpses animated not by their original human spirit, but by a demon, or if they are human souls wholly corrupted as in Dracula.

New Catholic Flash Fiction site

2011-08-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

There is a new web site/blog for Catholic flash fiction.

What's flash fiction? Like this blog post, only fictional.

River Song's Wedding and Female Doctor Who poll results

2011-08-23T09:35:00.000-05:00

Life, Doctor Who & Combom reports that the episode title for Doctor Who 613 is The Wedding of River Song.

It also features the lines:
I don't want to marry you.
I don't want to murder you.

Question: if the Doctor marries River Song will he have to call Amy and Rory Mum and Dad?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The poll we had on a female Doctor Who was most undecided: 3 happy, 3 unhappy, 3 wouldn't care. I was one of those who voted 'unhappy'. It's not that I can't accept an alien life form that can be male at one point and female at another. I liked the character of the Trill, Jadzia Dax, from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and the fact that Sisko had first known Dax as the old man Curzon Dax, and called Jadzia 'Old Man' as a result--- perhaps to remind himself that the young comely female known as Jadzia Dax was in large part the same person as Curzon Dax. I liked Dax enough I named 2 dogs after her--- one Jadzia, one Ezri.

The problem I have with a female regeneration of the Doctor is that the Doctor has been around through 11 regenerations, all male. Fellow Time Lord the Master has always been male. When Time Lady Romana regenerated, it was female-to-female. In a very recent episode the Doctor has mentioned a Time Lord who had been both sexes. I don't know if this possibility had ever been mentioned in an episode before.

If the next Doctor is a chick, it won't be about anything established in the series about Time Lord nature, but a result of lobbying by cranky feministas. It will have a faintly medicinal taste to it--- we won't be expected to like the taste of it, but it's GOOD for us.... at least according to those same feministas who brought us abortion on demand and have taken away the marriage/motherhood option from the average woman.

More importantly, it's likely that a female Doctor will be handled poorly enough that even the feministas among the fan base won't like it--- though they'll blame the actress involved of course.

I read something on the Tea With Morbius blog that made me feel it was possible for them to write a female Doctor Who I would like. He suggested, before the reveal of River Song's identity, that River Song might prove to be a future Doctor, and that this explained a remark the Doctor made about self-marriage.

I would accept River Song as the Doctor. I would also accept if she had pulled out one of those Time Lord pocket watches, opened it, and remembered she's really Romana. It would be great if the Doctor could have discovered another living Time Lord that WASN'T his mortal enemy. But I'd also accept it if River Song turned out to be just some gal who was conceived on the Tardis. In a bunk bed.

"Hello, Sweetie, I'm the Doctor!"

Spain is now an Ex-Catholic/Ex-Christian Nation

2011-08-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

Protesters burning Youth Day flag in front of pilgrims

The Catholic World Youth Day is being held in Madrid, Spain--- a financial boon for that economically troubled nation. And yet there are those who are not merely not grateful, they are hate-filled enough to hold angry protests at this Christian youth event.

This is not freedom of speech. This is intimidation designed to make people too frightened to exercise their freedom of religion in a public place. If this harassment is somehow alright, what's to stop them from picketing Vacation Bible Schools, church camps, Sunday school and catechism classes, and Christian music concerts?

And yet I'd bet my bottom dollar that if these protesters were to hold an event for progressive socialist youth, they would not for a moment accept Christian protesters intimidating participants at their events.

This is particularly sad in that Spain for many centuries had a flourishing Christian civilization and was the home to a great many saints.

For more on this story go to: Photos of Martyrdom: Anti-Catholic Protesters taunt Pilgrims in Madrid

Apostrophe Atrocities

2011-08-17T18:10:00.001-05:00

"John has three cat's, a mother cat and it's babie's. One of the kitten's is real cute but the other ones face looks like the hind end of an as's."

This is an all too common example of apostrophe atrocity. As a peaceful prolife Christian, I think people who write like this should be killed. With wood chippers.

Well, that might be a _bit_ harsh. But there is no excuse for anyone who is an aspiring writer to write like this. Not even in an email or Facebook post. Not even if you are dyslexic or don't speak English or just had your brain eaten by a zombie.

If you think you may have committed an apostrophe atrocity, get thee to the English grammar confessional at once. Your penance will involve an intimate encounter with the first page of your Strunk and White.

Strunk and White? That's short for 'The Elements of Style' by William Strunk and E. B. White. Every household that doesn't have a copy wedged next to the other household essentials (The Bible, Webster's Dictionary, The Catechism of the Catholic Church (or your denominational equivalent), and The Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble) is probably inhabited by sister-marrying illiterate hillbillies, rather than the literate cousin-marrying hillbilly type that most of us strive for.

Correct version of above sentence: "John has three cats, a mother and its babies. One of the kittens is real cute but the other one's face looks like the hind end of an ass."

And now, for no apparent reason, a picture with cats.

David Tennant and Star Trek Actor Anton Yelchin in Fright Night

2011-08-16T13:18:00.000-05:00

Whether you are an insane obsessive Whovian or an insane obsessive Trekkie, the movie Fright Night will be of interest. The Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, is one of the stars. Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the Star Trek movie, is also in Fright Night. So there are 2 reasons to see this flick that have nothing to do with the movie.

I am an exceedingly obsessive fangirl of the REAL Star Trek, the original series, and Chekov was my favorite character. I was surprised when I liked the new movie and decided that the actors in it Did Not Suck. (To get me to say that required Godlike acting powers).

I have not seen the movie, and by the time it rolls around to a television channel I can get I will have forgotten why I wanted to see it. But there's a review up on Life, Doctor Who & Combom, that most obsessive of obsessive Doctor Who blogs. It features a picture of David Tennant WITHOUT a sonic screwdriver. But in spite of that it's pretty interesting.

Life, Doctor Who & Combom: A Review of Fright Night

Free Ebook: Moni the Goat Boy by Johanna Spyri

2011-08-13T12:45:00.002-05:00

Moni the Goat-Boy follows the story of Solomon, nicknamed Moni, a Swiss lad who's convinced he's got the sweetest job ever--- goat-boy of his home village. Every day he collects the one or two goats owned by each village household and leads them up the mountain to find fresh grazing. He loves the goats, and he trusts in the Lord to help him when he has to rescue a goat who's gotten in to a dangerous place on the high mountain.

One day Moni's friend Jörgli confides that he has found a valuable piece of jewelry lost by a tourist, and that he intends to sell it to a hotel girl. Moni insists that it would be wrong to do so. Jörgli assures Moni's silence by telling him that his very favorite goat is to be butchered, but that Jörgli will save the goat if Moni keeps silence.

Moni agrees, but his usual cheerful manner is gone because of the oppressive secret. When he realizes that he will from now on be unable to ask the Lord for help if he needs to take risks to rescue a goat, on account of the burden of his sin, he begins to think that he will have to tell the truth even if it does cost him the life of his best goat-friend.

The conclusion of the story tells of Moni's decision and its consequences. The story, filled with local color of the Alps, is a delightful one for all ages. The Christian content of the story is very natural and beautiful, not in the least intrusive to the story. Moni the Goat-Boy is available for free both in English translation and in the original German.

Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) was a Christian author best known for the book 'Heidi' which was filmed several times, including one version with Shirley Temple in the starring role. No movie version has yet done justice to the profound Christian orientation of that book.

Johanna Spyri was one of six children born to a doctor and a Pietist poetess. When she married, she suffered depression after the birth of her only child. She was encouraged to begin writing, and wrote many stories of faith with rural Swiss settings. While Heidi is the only one of her works known in the English-speaking world today, many others are still available in German.

Johanna Spyri in German Wikipedia

Download Moni the Goat-Boy from ManyBooks.net
Download Moni der Geißbub (German edition)
Other free ebooks by Johanna Spyri, in English and German

Mother Teresa: Don't say homosexuals, say 'friends-of-Jesus'

2011-08-12T08:21:00.000-05:00

I just found this out, when some reporters asked Mother Teresa about the homosexuals in Calcutta, she said she didn't like the word 'homosexuals' and went on to insist that they use the term 'friends of Jesus' instead.

I just love this! Imagine if this term became more widely adopted. Some guy coming out to his parents at Thanksgiving dinner: "Mom, Dad, I'm a friend-of-Jesus." In some families there would be this moment of horror before the parents realized with relief their kid was only Gay and not about to join some socially unacceptable conservative church.

And when some people wanted to say 'Gay people just creep me out' they'd have to say 'Friends-of-Jesus just creep me out'. When someone wanted to say 'No Gay person will ever be allowed to join our church because if they were real Christians they'd be cured', they would have to start out 'No friend-of-Jesus will ever be allowed to join our church....' which sounds about right, actually.

And when some Gay activist says 'All Gay people must leave the Christian church and fight to destroy it because they won't accept same-sex marriage', they'd have to say 'All friends-of-Jesus must leave the Christian church....' which would sure as hell wake people up to the fact that the Gay activists DON'T have the authority to speak for all 'friends-of-Jesus'.

The best part of the phrase 'friends-of-Jesus' is that since all Christians are friends of Jesus, it is a reminder to faithful Christians that friends-of-Jesus are not a 'them' but part of 'us'.

Recently I watched an episode of Johnette Benkovic's show which made me feel like I'd turned into a 'them'. It was on the topic of friends-of-Jesus, excuse me, homosexuality, which she said, we might need to know about because we might have friends or family members who are dealing with the issue.

She went on to give out all the grim statistics about Gay couples not being faithful to one another, breaking up with one another, and so on. And then she said she was 'speaking the truth in love'. I detected some missing truths and a lack of love.

I do get it. Christians are fighting the battle against acceptance of Gay sexual sin and Gay marriage, most of the friends-of-Jesus they encounter are on the other side and are actively hateful toward faithful Christians. They're kind of burned out. I'm willing to forgive, but I expect some learning to take place.

Question: would it make sense for us as Christians to marginalize those straight people who are living a chaste life, just because sex immorality and cohabitation are so common? Of course not! Then why are Christians marginalizing Gay people who are living according to God's chastity laws? Such people are the best advocates for the Christian position on these things. It's a lot harder for a left-wing straight politician to justify his pro-gay marriage vote when it's a chaste Gay person voicing the Christian position. Imagine the bumper sticker: 'I'm here! I'm chaste and Queer! Get used to it!'

Homework: find a way to spread the use of the friends-of-Jesus phrase on your blog, facebook page or wherever, and encourage friends to do likewise. So we can find out how many obsessively blogging eccentrics it takes to change the world, or at least a tiny piece of it.

How Vampires Happen

2011-08-10T12:27:00.000-05:00

How did that vampire with his fangs in your neck right now get to be a vampire? In case he's too busy sucking your blood to give you an answer, here are some traditional explanations:

1. Bit by a vampire
A person who dies after having been bit by a vampire rises as a vampire. The problem with this is that if a vampire feeds every night and kills, say, three times a week, in a year's time you have a vampire population explosion. So either it is only a rare vampire bite that causes vampirism, or vampires typically behead or stake their kills to prevent this.

2. The blood exchange
Vampire drinks from victim, victim is allowed to drink from vampire = new vampire. This seems to be the most common method among modern literary vampires. This limits the number of new vampires created and makes accidental vampire procreation pretty much impossible.

3. Suicide
The person who commits suicide rises as a vampire. We might exclude from this number psychotic persons who are clearly not responsible for their own acts who commit suicide. But a person who is not delusional who rejects God's gift of life by suicide is said to rise as a vampire. In Taliesin: Vampire Dreams, vampires are people who attempted a suicide that would have been successful except for the whole vampire thing intervening.

4. Heresy
Yes, Virginia, Protestantism causes vampires. Or Catholicism, in a Protestant or Eastern Orthodox region. Among the peasants in areas of Europe where the vampire myth is known, a person perceived as being a heretic in life might become a vampire in death. Probably this is because they thought the heretic was intentionally rejecting God's truth, rather than accepting that the heretic was simply honestly mistaken.

5. Sorcery
Sorcery--- evil magic--- can cause vampires in two ways. In traditional peasant culture the person rumored to practice sorcery in life is almost sure to become a vampire or some other troublesome creature after death. Also, a sorcerer might know a spell to cause an enemy to become a vampire. In the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, the witch Angelique, after being shot by her new husband Barnabas on their honeymoon, cast a spell on Barnabas which turned him into a vampire.

6. Improper Burials
In peasant culture failure to carefully observe all the traditional rituals associated with death might lead to the dead person becoming a vampire. This connects also to #3, since a suicide was not buried in hallowed ground, and to #4, since a heretic might not observe the same rituals as the majority community.

7. Born that way
Some vampire authors conceive as vampires as a separate race, like elves or fairies or Vulcans, that are born as vampires, mate with other vampires, and give birth to baby vampires. Very non-traditional, but an interesting notion.

These are the ones I could think of. Have you heard of any others? What implications of the different methods can you see? How do your fictional vampires (if any) come into being?

St. Joseph Cupertino - Patron Saint for those with Autism/Asperger's

2011-08-08T11:17:00.000-05:00

In the Catholic Church we have the custom of asking other Christians to pray for us, even if those Christians have passed away and are in heaven. (It's God who has the power to answer of course.) There are special saints that we ask for prayers over certain issues: patron saints.

While there is an official patron saint of mental illness/nervous disorders, there isn't one officially for the autism spectrum. But it's been suggested by Sister Mary Martha that St. Joseph Cupertino may have had an autism spectrum disorder. She writes:

Everything about his early life was unfortunate. His family was dirt poor and there was just something...not right...about Joseph. He couldn't learn to read or write. He couldn't concentrate long enough to finish a sentence. He became a burden to the family. He was given to fits of temper. In the town of Cupertino, no one wanted to be around him. Even his mother had had enough.

He was apprenticed to a shoe maker, but he never learned to make or fix a shoe.

He was taken in at a Franciscan monastery, but they didn't know what to do with him either, because he would stop whatever he was doing and just stand in a stupor. He couldn't even pass out the bread at dinner time, because he couldn't remember the difference between white and wheat bread.

Read the rest over at Sister Mary Martha's blog. For me the most striking proof that St. Joseph Cupertino had autism is the fact he could fly. Well, levitate. Which is of course a classic symptom of autism spectrum disorders (at least in the parallel universe I'm from).

I got the cool icon of St. Joseph Cupertino from the Why Become a Catholic blog, which has more stories of St. Joseph Cupertino.

I'm very inspired by reading about this saint. If I had any artistic ability I'd love to write a children's story book for kids with Asperger's/Autism about St. Joseph of Cupertino. I could get it published through Lulu.com, I've used the form one would use for a picture book/photography book for doing a poetry book once. Maybe I could find an illustrator??? Any ideas??? (I have all these spare question marks I need to find homes for.)

Author Holly Lisle's gone Indie

2011-08-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

Holly Lisle, author of 32 sci-fi and fantasy books, has announced she is quitting Big Publishing to go indie.

This will without doubt be a success for her, as her blog has a large following and she's been self-publishing her non-fiction for a while now. But I think it will also be a good thing for all indie authors as it will bring more attention to the fact that indie publishing today is quite different than the old school vanity presses.

I remember years ago reading the author Laurence Block's advice to young writers. He said that in his early years, writers got started writing short stories for the many paying markets that then existed. He said that though the publishing world had changed since then, young writers would continue to find venues in which to serve out a writing apprenticeship.

Publishing has changed again. Now the unpublished writer will be serving out his apprenticeship in the world of blogging and indie publishing--- perhaps publishing early novels and short stories through Smashwords, or novels in real-book form through Lulu.com--- both free options. A blog, I believe, is essential for such an indie writer. It provides proof to the potential reader of your book that you are indeed able to write the English language without a net. It also provides immediate feedback.

I have reasons that have nothing to do with writing that make it essential that I be an indie writer. I have one poetry book out, Where the Opium Cactus Grows, which is published by Lulu.com. I had said I was going to publish most or all of the poems from the book on this blog. I still intend to do that, and I also want to provide at least most of 'Opium Cactus' as a free ebook through Smashwords.

I also have my new web fiction novel Taliesin, and may be publishing some short fiction on this blog and/or in ebook form.

Through my blog and related activities I've had the opportunity to meet other indie authors such as:
Amanda Borenstadt: Syzygy
Tracy Krauss: And The Beat Goes On
Michael Anthony Lee: Horker's Law (The Six Books of Magic)

One advantage of indie publishing is that you can create your own little niche-genre, and that actually will help you out in gaining a readership. Christian science fiction, especially that with hard science fiction elements, is not welcomed at major Christian publishers (or secular SF ones), but is a natural for indie publishing.

One thing you can do to help your indie writer friends is to purchase/download your indie fiction from Amazon.com. This helps the book climb in sales on that site. Reviewing and tagging indie books is also a mitzvah you can do for your indie writer friends.

Can a Christian Vampire live from Communion Bread alone?

2011-08-05T15:43:00.000-05:00

Barnabas Collins, vampire

Did you know that in the novel Dracula, one of the weapons used by Van Helsing against Dracula was consecrated Communion Bread? OK, he kind of MISUSED the consecrated Host, but I thought that was interesting as in later vampire lore it is crucifixes and holy water that are used instead.

What's the big deal about Communion Bread that makes it effective against the undead? Jesus Christ. Consecrated Communion Bread contains the Real Presence--- the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. Not only Catholics, but some denominations of Protestants believe in the Real Presence. And other Christians believe that the Communion Bread and Wine is a potent symbol of Jesus Christ's Body and Blood.

I've kind of been wondering for awhile about the idea of vampires who are Christians, who have repented of their sins, taking Communion and having it fully satisfy their hunger for blood.

I've wondered if anyone else had had thoughts running along those lines. Do you think this would be an acceptable, or even an interesting, plot element?

As an aside--- I know that it's the wine at the Lord's Supper that more directly represents the Blood of Christ. And particularly among Protestants/Evangelicals who disagree with the Catholic Church allowing Communion where the person receives only the Bread and not the Wine, perhaps there would be an idea of vampires living on Communion Wine alone.

But as Bela Lugosi says, "I don't drink... wine."

I'd also be interested in what vampire fiction readers/writers from the LDS church might make of the concept.

My newly launched Christian vampire web novel Taliesin features Christian vampires taking Communion. Don't know whether that is a idea respectful of Christ and the Church or something I'm going to have to go to confession over.

Another question that springs to mind--- when a vampire receives Communion unworthily, what happens? Does the fire department have to get involved?

Some links you can really sink your fangs into:
Canterbury Tales: Twilight, Vampires and the Holy Eucharist
Reading to Penguins: On Undeath: A Review of One Foot in the Grave
Pushkin, the Oratory Cat who met the Pope Not about vampires. Myfanwy the kitten made me post this link.

Free Ebook: Fantasy and Sci Fi Digest

2011-08-05T11:21:00.000-05:00

The digest version of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine is now available free for Kindle.

Fantasy & Science Fiction , Free Exclusive Digest

The magazine was founded in 1949 and is published six times a year. The free digest includes all the non-fiction content of the magazine, one full story, and descriptions of the other stories from the full version.

I have not yet read this digest version but the magazine version has had some pretty good stuff in it.

Taliesin, Christian/Catholic online vampire novel, launches Aug 4th

2011-08-03T23:46:00.000-05:00

My new online novel, Taliesin: Vampire Dreams, launches Aug 4th 2011 with the publication of chapter one, which introduces the the title character Taliesin, a vampire.

This novel is kind of an experiment, to see what the interactivity available on a blog might do for the process of novel writing.

The story is set in modern-day Los Angeles features a Welsh vampire, Taliesin, a girl with over 100 multiple personalities, a murder, and a priest/psychologist dealing with an epidemic of delusional female patients.

The planned schedule is that a short chapter will be published each Monday and Thursday. The first two chapters are ready to go. Since I am writing this as I go along, they will not yet be polished chapters when they first appear--- and reader reaction will influence how the chapters are re-written.

The first several chapters will introduce several important characters, and the origin story of vampires will be revealed--- at least it will be when I hammer out the details, one of which is found in a verse in the Gospel of Matthew.

Free Ebook: The Planet Savers by Marion Zimmer Bradley

2011-08-03T17:37:00.000-05:00

The Planet Savers, published in 1958, is the first of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books to be published, though she had previously written about Darkover in a book later published as The Sword of Aldones.

What is it about guys named Jason with memory problems? There is Jason Bourne of The Bourne Identity, and on General Hospital we have the amnesiac mob enforcer Jason Morgan. In this book we have Jason Allison, who discovers, while leading an expedition into the mountains to gain the aid of the alien Trailmen, that a chunk of his own life--- the most recent bits--- is missing.

The truth is that Jason, the adventurous mountain-climber, is a mere personality fragment of the sour middle-aged Dr. Jay Allison, brought out into independent existence by hypnosis. Advanced futuristic hypnosis, of course. Yes, in the future they will discover the cure for NOT having Multiple Personality Disorder.

Dr. Jay Allison has rejected his childhood, when he was raised by the primitive Trailmen. He claims to barely remember how to speak their language. But the Terrans need to send someone in order to prevent an epidemic. So a more suitable man, Jason, is created.

The expedition is a mixed Terran/Darkovan one. Among the Darkovans is Regis Hastur, whose story goes on in many of the other Darkover books. Another of the team is Kyla, a Free Amazon girl--- a member of a society of women who have rejected the option of marriage and dependence on a man.

Along the way to the Trailmen's city, Jason falls for the girl. But he finds out his surly other personality is able to pop out if provoked. He also comes to realize he is a temporary man--- to be sent into a state of non-existence when the mission is over.

Will Jason succeed in getting the Trailmen to aid in preventing the epidemic? Will he find a way to continue existing, and if so, will he get the girl?

Download The Planet Savers and find out!

I find this book, like most of the Darkover series, endlessly re-readable. Though it's the earliest Darkover story published, it has the seeds of many of the classic Darkover themes.

The treatment of women in the story will seem old-fashioned, but remember at the time it would have been considered rather excessive in its rejection of traditional gender roles. The Free Amazons are forerunners of the tough women in later science fiction and fantasy from Xena the Warrior Princess to Captain Janeway.

It's also got some interesting themes about the personality, and the changes the personality goes through as one grows older and, perhaps, more mature.

Fifth Doctor Peter Davison to join cast of Law & Order UK

2011-08-02T21:26:00.000-05:00

Is Law & Order UK turning into a Doctor Who spin-off? The series started off with Freema Agyeman as a cast member. And now they are adding a former Doctor.

One might take this addition as simple coincidence--- actors, even ones who've portrayed the Doctor, need work. But they've been running a promo on BBC America for the new season of Law & Order UK which mentions the actor as the Fifth Doctor.

I'm beginning to think the series is in serious trouble. The Law & Order franchises are petering out in the US--- only Law & Order SVU is left, and it probably won't survive long since actor Chris Meloni is moving on. Perhaps Law & Order UK just got in far too late in the game.

Of course the UK television market may well be less saturated with Law & Order episodes than we are in the US. But then again since the series originated in the US they have to overcome a bit more resistance over there.

I thought Law & Order UK was quite bland and didn't enjoy it in spite of the setting which was, to me, somewhat exotic. I thought they should have livened it up with SOMETHING--- having Chris Meloni over as a guest star reprising his Elliot Stabler role would have worked for me.

But adding the Fifth Doctor is an intriguing notion. The question is, how many Doctor Who veterans do they have to add to the cast to make it a hit?

Asperger's Syndrome and Homelessness

2011-08-02T09:04:00.000-05:00

Did you know there are homeless people on the internet? Some currently homeless, and some who no longer are.

I was googling for information on homelessness *just in case* and I came across a number of homeless pages and blogs and a homeless forum.

Today, when I decided to blog and googled again, I found The Homeless Guy's blog, and he has a post about Asperger's.

I guess it only stands to reason that there are a lot of homeless people with Asperger's. If you can't FULLY pass as neurotypical, folks won't hire you. As you get older and still don't have a solid employment history, they REALLY won't hire you. And if you get hired and don't act normal enough on the job, you won't last long, and if you are pressured to resign and do, your unemployment is All Your Fault. (So if you are an Aspie and you have a job but you think they want you to quit or they are constantly dissatisfied with your work, tell them you have a disability, Asperger's Syndrome, and DON'T QUIT! Even if you hate your job. And if they fire you, get a lawyer and file a discrimination suit, you'll need the money. I wish I'd known these things when I taught at a Christian school and it 'didn't work out'.)

One problem with Asperger's is that on a very superficial glance most of us look different than the severely autistic head-banging person who can't speak. People with Asperger's are articulate, often intelligent, and we try to *pass* as normal to avoid the shame of being lumped together with the severe autistic kid in diapers or the out-of-touch-with-reality schizophrenic.

So folks think we aren't *really* disabled. The first time I, out of extreme desperation, applied for SSI, I was sent to a shrink who asked me who the president was and to name some other prominent people, and to multiply some numbers. I was denied. But for some reason there are not a lot of jobs for folks who know how to multiply and name presidents, but can't look folks in the eye, don't dress right because of sensory issues, can't keep their oddball ideas to themselves, and for a host of other reasons just strike their co-workers and the public as being oddballs, loners, and potentially dangerous.

Another problem is that Aspies have a 'lack of executive function'. In my case that means I have 100% of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD, ADHD), and lately in a very severe way. So I'm perennially disorganized. And applying for and keeping up with disability aid programs is a full time job requiring organizational skills I don't have, and if there are any disability advocates out there that help folks with this, someone like me would be last on their list because I seem like I ought to be able to do it without help.

But the great thing about reading blogs and other internet writings by homeless people is that it shows that even if the worst happens to you, there is life, hope, and the internet.

Comments: People with Asperger's/autism, have you been homeless, or feared it? What about the rest of you? Have you thought about what you would do if you became homeless? Would you still be welcome in your church if you became perceived as a 'bum'?

And: I know someone out there is going to tell me I am a lazy pig-dog-bum for applying for disability and not having a job. It's easy enough to verbally abuse me for my disability. How about offering me a job in Menominee county, Michigan, USA? Or buying a copy of my book?

Buy my poetry book!
Where the Opium Cactus Grows

Links in the chain:
The Homeless Warrior: Helping the homeless one person at a time
The Homeless Guy: Why do people become homeless
Girl's Guide to Homelessness
and a break from the depressing homeless thing
Tea with Morbius: Why Romana is more interesting than River Song personally I like them both
Tea With Morbius: Doctor River Song and Self-Marriagea most excellent theory about River Song's identity

Blogfic/Webfic: What I really shouldn't do but probably will--- join me!

2011-08-01T10:35:00.001-05:00

Webfiction? Blogfic? Writing a novel on a blog? This is something I really, really should NOT do. Don't I have enough neglected blogs and enough unfinished novels? If somebody actually reads it, won't it bring the story to a crashing halt?

This is how I'm going to do it: I have a fresh story idea--- one about a (unsexy) vampire and a girl with Polyfragmented Dissociative Identity Disorder (actually, it's just one of her alters that's in the story). I'm going to get my notes together to figure out what to call the blog and start it up. Though the actual URL is likely to be something like linalamontblogfic.blogspot.com or annakindtblogfic.blogspot.com. At least at first. I think....

I will post each chapter as rough drafts as I write it. I may even post starts of chapters and finish them later. I'm also going to have entries of notes---- like about how the vampires work in my world.

If I actually have readers I can employ some interactivity. I might even put up polls on things to get reader opinion. Mind you I'll reserve the right to go my own way with it. The first thing I've thought of doing--- my female MC needs a name. She's actually an alter--- a multiple personality--- of a girl named Carol Bannerman. I've thought of calling this alter Piece or Pieces, since her function, as an alter, is to do jigsaw puzzles, thus proving that the core person Carol is normal enough to have a hobby.

I will do rewrites online. And readers are welcome to help with things like continuity errors and typos.

If I ever finish the novel I'll put it together as a free ebook on smashwords, and have a print version available on Lulu.com.

Yeah. I think I'm going to do this. It's stupid, I know. But my writing's kind of gone nowhere for a while--- I think it's because my ADHD's getting worse lately--- and I guess it can't hurt to have one more failed blog. And I do seem to write in my blogs more than I do on my fiction.

By the way, if you are a writer: I DOUBLE-DOG DARE YOU to start a blogfic of your own! (If you do, provide links, please.)

By the way, my VERY FIRST Blogger blog, on a different and now lost account, was a blogfic from the POV of a woman who had been murdered (by Jack the Ripper). Didn't last long.

QUESTION: Have you ever considered/tried writing webfic/blogfic? Did you manage to resist the temptation? If not, tell how it went. Provide a link, if possible.

Links:
Web Fiction Guide: Submissions
Web Fiction Guide: Blogfic
Blog Fiction: 8 Strategies to Avoid Abandoning Your Blog Fiction

Miz not Ms: Creating a less discourteous courtesy title

2011-08-01T08:17:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time there were courtesy titles: Mister for men, and Mistress for women. Mistress was shortened in various ways, including Miss, Ms. and Mrs., and in time Miss and Mrs. became the common forms. Miss, like Master for boys, indicated youth, and also might indicate an unmarried girl. Mrs. was for the more mature woman and might indicate the married state.

Then the hardcore abortion-loving, anti-family form of feminism arose, and they created a new title, Ms, from the abbreviation for manuscript. Ms was not a courtesy title. Ms advocates called all women Ms right down to Ms Elizabeth for Queen Elizabeth and Ms Joan of Arc for Saint Joan of Arc. It didn't matter to them if a woman chose not to use their new title. Yet if you dared to call such a woman Miss (few could believe such creatures might be a Mrs.), all hell would break loose.

This is not courtesy. So Ms became the world's first discourtesy title, often used with particular contemptuous tones when referring to women who rebelled against the modern feminist code (like Ms Schafly).

So the dictionary definition of Ms is that it is a political title, as Comrade is among traditional communists, but also that there is a contemptuous note when the title is used for political opponents. (Unfortunately most dictionaries have been lobbied to use a feminist-written definition designed to impose Ms on all women.)

Ms only entered general usage as a way to replace the word Miss when referring to younger spinsters (yes, that's the word for an unmarried woman). The thought seemed to be that being unmarried was something to be embarrassed about and so one could hide behind Ms.

One problem with Ms besides politics and rudeness is that it can't be pronounced. One can imagine that the pre-feminist Ms--- the abbreviation for Mistress--- was pronounced Miss (if not Mistress, as Mr is pronounced Mister). Yet if the feminist Ms is pronounced Miss, feminist heads explode. Try it, it's fun! So they have to say Muz or Miz, Miz being more common in the US.

But Miz is also a dialect form, as in the US South, of Miss and Mrs. So one can never be sure if a woman is humbly and obediently using Miz, or secretly meaning the feministly forbidden terms Miss and Mrs.

Isn't it time to rebel against the absurdity of imposing a politically charged discourtesy title on a woman? Let's fight back against Ms! Never use it unless someone absolutely insists, and in that dire circumstance, pronounce it 'muz'. In writing, use Miz as a courtesy title to replace the rude Ms, when you do not wish to use Miss or Mrs.

You may think this is a silly thing to make an issue of. But the road to brainwashing is made up of a million silly little things not worth arguing over. And if we meekly go along with all the little things we end up compromising on the big things--- like abortion and same-sex and plural marriage.

Sign the Miz not Ms pledge
I promise never to voluntarily use the discourtesy title Ms, replacing it with Miz or the traditional titles Miss or Mrs. I promise to spread the word about Miz not Ms in any way I can.

(signed) Nissa Annakindt

Sally Apokedak: Incoming links and search engine placement

2011-07-31T17:07:00.000-05:00

Sally Apokedak explains about Incoming links and search engine placement

Which is a fancy way of saying it helps if other blogs link to you (in the post, not the sidebar). Which is why some blogs will have links to other people's blog posts at the end of their own blog post--- to help people out in hopes that other people will do the same.

Like This:
Links:
Biblical Evidence for Catholicism: Anti-Catholic TAO Sez I am a "Loose Cannon" Who is "in Violation of Canon Law" and Needs to be Shut Up by "Rome"
Adventures in Fiction: Newest Episode of Thieves' Honor

So, everyone that reads this run out and write a blog post that, like this one, links to three other posts, and in time the gravity from all those posts will create a black hole which I can use to jump-start my warp engines.

Weekly Poll: A Female Doctor Who?

2011-07-30T22:02:00.001-05:00

On a recent Doctor Who episode the Doctor mentioned a male Time Lord friend who had regenerated as a female. Which makes it a possibility that the next Doctor will be female. To express your view on that, please vote in the poll in our sidebar, and you may also explain/defend your vote in the comments. And, please, let others know about the poll so they can vote too!

Last Week's Poll

Winner of the Favorite Harry Potter Character poll was a tie between Sirius Black and Severus Snape. The results in detail:
1. (tie)Sirius Black
Severus Snape (4 votes each)
2. (tie) Harry Potter
Hagrid
Fred Weasley (2 votes each)
3. (tie) Ron Weasley (1 vote each)
Hermione Granger
Dumbledore
Luna Lovegood
Dobby
Molly Weasley
Tonks
Bellatrix
Remus Lupin
George Weasley
Wormtail
Barty Crouch Jr.

Characters with zero votes:
Dudley Dursley
Lord Voldemort
Neville Longbottom
Ginny Weasley

A Haven of Free Kindle Ebooks

2011-07-30T16:24:00.000-05:00

Ever had one of those weeks when you are REALLY jonesing for a book you haven't already read, but your finances are such that Ramen Noodle Day has been 7 days a week?

If you have a Kindle--- or else if you download a free app to your computer to read ebooks--- you can find a load of ebooks for free at the web site Ereader News Today. There are also bargain ebooks. You can also 'like' them on facebook, so you will see their latest free ebooks on your news feed.

They have a feature, Book of the Day, with reviews. The books on this that I saw were not free, but were quite cheap.

One fault I have with the site is the books are not tagged for genre in some way that is easy to use to find all the science fiction, or all the fantasy, or all the Christian fiction or Catholic fiction.

But it is a good resource. Here is a link to 2 fantasy books: Free Kindle Books: 2 Free Books for 7-30-11. I'm thinking of downloading Horker's Law. If I do and it's any good I'll review it.

NOTE: if you are an author and have a book out on Kindle/ebook which is:
1. science fiction, fantasy or horror and/or
2. written from a Christian (evangelical, Catholic, LDS) perspective
3. available free
Let Me Know!

NewTorchwood: Dead is Dead absurdity

2011-07-30T11:32:00.001-05:00

The Torchwood episode Escape to LA had a lot to like about it. For example, we the viewers were not required to participate in any character's sex life. And the new Torchwood team moving to Venice Beach was pretty cool. I used to live within walking distance of Venice Beach myself. I liked the way we got to keep in touch with Rhys--- I think he, and now the baby, are what keep Gwen grounded. And we made another slow step forward in figuring out what's going on.

Here is the problem: OK, human beings have stopped dying though many remain with severe horrifying injuries (like the guy who blew himself up). It's only natural that people who were raised in today's culture of death, for whom it's second nature to look at a brain-injured person, or a person with profound disabilities, or a person with Down's Syndrome or low-functioning autism, or a person in the last stages of a terminal illness, and say, eew, ick, I don't want to look at that! That's not a real human person with a Life Worth Living. Turn it off!

So it's not surprising that given the miracle day scenario a movement like the Dead is Dead movement would arise, demanding the segregation of those people who ought to be dead but aren't, since it's no longer possible to euthanize them.

But what is wholly absurd is when the Torchwood writers peg the leader of this movement, not as a part of the euthanasia/assisted suicide/death with 'dignity' progressive/liberal movement, but as a member of the Tea Party with connections to Fox News.

OK, this is how human beings work. In a crisis, you DON'T have staunch prolifers leading the charge for a cause based on the opposing side's philosophy. Yes, weak souls will change their views, but they--- and their observers--- will experience it as a change. To put a conservative(and I'm sure the writers meant phrases like 'Tea Party' and 'Fox News' to indicate extreme conservatism, that's what the progressives want those terms to mean) in charge of the Dead is Dead movement without anyone, not even a critic, to point out the inconsistency, makes no sense.

Of course in the real world the Tea Party started out as a protest regarding bad economic policy and included liberals as well as conservatives, but the MSM has never admitted that. I doubt that by now there is a single pro-euthanasia person who would identify herself as a member of the Tea Party as the sole political identifier.

I think though that the writers wanted this character not only to be a villain, but to be such a bad villain that her final fate would be accepted (and it was pretty bad). And in their tiny little minds, the only way to make her a villain that evil was to brand her a conservative and ignore the absurdity of it.

Now I DO realize that the main reason for the existence of television dramas is to feed us our little doses of progressive/socialist/liberal propaganda. But not only is it annoying, when it is this heavy-handed and illogical, it's probably less effective. You don't want the conservatives in the audience switching channels in disgust before they've had their full brainwashing dose, do you?

A question for the audience--- when the writers/producers make their partisan beliefs this obvious, does it affect your enjoyment of the series? Or are you easily able to tune it out and enjoy the story?

Satan blogs about abortion

2011-07-29T22:49:00.000-05:00

Didn't you just know Satan had a blog? If you go on over to Satan's Blog, you can see the original Dark Lord's musings about how his abortion agenda may be quite literally in the crapper.

Looking over the Prince of Darkness's blog, I wonder, if I add it to my favorites do I gotta go to confession? Worse, will it cause the Mark of the Beast to sprout on my forearm, kind of like the Dark Mark in Harry Potter?

Writers: How important is character naming to you?

2011-07-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

Over at Faithwriters there is an excellent article called Seven Tips for Naming Characters. It set me to thinking about how character naming is more important to some writers than to others.

I'm sure there are some writers that could just pluck a name at random from a name book and use it for a character--- if they came up with 'Carol' that would be just as good as any other name and they'd have no problem with it.

Other writers agonize. I have one character who commonly goes by the name 'Mina Bayern'. Some time ago I came up with the absolute perfect name for her actual family name (which is also the name of her House, a clan-like grouping). But I don't know where (or if) I wrote it down and it's driving me crazy and I can't just pick another name because it won't be the right one.

Because of this name-obsessiveness I collect a lot of name books. I have one or two ordinary baby name books, 2 baby name books in German, a book of Esperanto names, and a book of Celtic names. I also have an encyclopedia of the Saints. I also have a hand-written list of Korean names gleaned from Korean dramas over the last 4 years.

Some writers have a real talent for coming up with appropriate names. J. K. Rowling comes to mind. Think of the names of Hagrid, Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, or Lord Voldemort. Aren't they just-right names for the characters?

Romance novels tend to have romance-y names for the heroine and her love-object. Some realistic writers make a point of using the most commonplace names they can find, one almost might think they derive the names from common-name lists. Science fiction names can include the weird, the unpronounceable and the randomly hyphenated. (like F'nor in Dra'gonride'rs of P'ern)

It's also possible to use temporary names for minor characters--- like Mr. Alpha, Miss Beta, Senator Gamma--- to keep the flow of your writing going rather than stopping for an hour to name them.

So--- how do YOU handle the name thing? How important is the just-right name to you? Do you have naming methods that you use? Please let us know in a comment!

A NAME GAME:
Here are eight Korean female names: Namju, Haebi, Dohui, Chunja, Boksun, Sunok, Juri, Sojin
From these, pick the names of:
1. a young main character from a poor family, who loves a rich boy, Taemin
2. an older woman at the market who sells dumplings
3. the maid of the rich family
4. a hateful over-the-top female villain (think Bellatrix from Harry Potter)

What do people want from this blog? According to this blog's stats, what people are looking for on this blog is mainly Billie Piper pregnant (all time most popular search terms), David Tennant naked, and Torchwood Miracle Day nudity. Just in case you were curious.

If you were in the musical Chicago, who would you be?

2011-07-28T11:19:00.000-05:00

They are running the movie Chicago all the time on the Starz channels, which I get because they are giving it away for free (some people have love lives like that, I hear.)

So I've seen the movie about ten times lately, and of course I fantasize about being in the play and playing all the roles--- isn't that what musicals are for?

Ignoring all realistic considerations, the role I'd most like to play in Chicago is Billy Flynn (the lawyer), played by Richard Gere in the movie and Jerry Orbach on Broadway.

Or else I'd be the gal in the Cell Block Tango number who says: "So I took the shotgun off the wall and fired two warning shots.... into his head."

So I thought I'd throw the question out to the readers--- if you were in the musical Chicago and could play absolutely any role you wanted and be brilliant at it, who would you be? (Inquiring minds want to know....)

God and Cosmic Evil (Christian Doctor Who fanfic)

2011-07-26T20:40:00.000-05:00

One of my blog's best friends is Tea with Morbius, a Doctor Who blog written by a Christian gentleman. A recent blog post he's written is an original Doctor Who short story. Normally I'm to antsy to be able to read stories online, but I read this through and liked it.

I highly recommend that you give it a try too:
God and Cosmic Evil by Matthew Clarke

Holignes! I lost my notebook of cool word verification words!

2011-07-26T20:24:00.001-05:00

When I am writing and a new character, place, or alien species pops up, I often take out a small notebook of word verification words I've encountered, and pick one more-or-less at random.

It's better for my writing than stopping the writing process to search for the perfect name for an hour and a half. And some of those word verification words are worth keeping in the final draft.

But today, alas, in between trading kittens around to different cat mommies and feeding a newborn kit milk with a spoon (she won't take a bottle), I discovered that my little word verification notebook is missing in action.

This is doubly tragic as I have started work on a writers' naming book. It will have a section on German names, one on Korean names, one on Welsh names, one on Esperanto names, and a list of word verification words as a source for alien and other odd names and words.

So--- I've had to start a new notebook. Luckily I have a spare one that's the same as the one I use for Korean names. I'm also going to start files on my computer and enter the WV words into that whenever I have a page or so. I already have similar files for Korean names.

But it's an ednesh lot of work, so if you have a cool WV word to share, mention it in your comment and it will be added to the list.

K-Drama 'The King of Legend' (근초고왕) ends on KBS-America

2011-07-24T18:36:00.000-05:00

The Korean drama 'The King of Legend' (근초고왕, King Geunchogu) came to an end last weekend. It was the story of the famous king of Baekje (an ancient Korean kingdom) who enhanced the power of his kingdom, largely by fighting the neighboring kingdom of Goguryeo.

The main character, Prince Yeogu (later known as King Geunchogu), underwent a lot of ups and downs. His father the king was murdered by one of his queens, who blamed Yeogu and Yeogu's mother for the crime. The wicked queen led her sons to fight against Yeogu taking the throne as the king had wished. Later, she ordered one of her non-traitor sons to sacrifice his own life to save that of his traitor-brother (and he did it, too.)

Yeogu repeated his father's mistake by having two rival queens, who naturally produced rival sons. But according to the last episode his reign was highly beneficial for his nation.

The King of Legend on Wikipedia

If you want to watch the series, it may be available on DVD on Ebay. Be sure to check that the DVD has English subtitles and can be viewed in your region.

Or you can try watching online at koreandrama.us.

No More Asperger's Syndrome!

2011-07-24T09:14:00.005-05:00

After 2013, there will be no more Asperger's Syndrome. No, they haven't developed a cure. They are just removing the Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis from the official manual. People who now have Asperger's Syndrome will be moved over to the category of 'Autism Spectrum Disorder'.

People who have Asperger's Syndrome have an 80% unemployment rate, in my opinion largely because it is perfectly acceptable in our culture to discriminate against people who don't make eye contact properly, who are not 'outgoing', and who don't read non-verbal cues correctly, even if this is not essential to the job at hand.

This is tragic enough, because lots of folks with Asperger's are not merely competent, they are capable of being brilliant in their areas of special interest.

I've tried out the new diagnosis, Autism Spectrum Disorder. When I told a woman that was what I had, she asked me if I was able to sign my name. The assumption seemed to be, of COURSE I couldn't read or write, but there was some slight possibility I was able to sign my name.

Since I have a genius level IQ (I could join MENSA, but I'm too smart to want to), I'm not thrilled about any new diagnosis that will leave folks like potential employers think I am suffering from mental retardation instead. (I know, you are no longer allowed to use the words 'mental retardation'.)

By keeping the term Asperger's Syndrome, perhaps as a subtype of Autism Spectrum Disorder, it will help with the employability of people with Asperger's. Though I guess some folks aren't concerned about that. They think we should just subsist on government services until we are mature enough for our assisted suicides.

Personally, I think persons with Asperger's Syndrome--- NOT parents of little kids with Asperger's Syndrome--- should be asked for their input. If the majority of them prefer the possibility of the less stigmatising diagnosis, it should be retained. After all, the DSM-IV doesn't contain diagnoses with names like 'sexual perversion disorder' or 'absolute idiot disorder' or 'serial killerosis'. Why not have a less stigmatising name for those of us autistics who have some ability to pass as human, and who thus might be able to live a normal life?

New Weekly Poll: Favorite Harry Potter characters

2011-07-23T20:16:00.003-05:00

In the sidebar you will find a new poll, this week it's on favorite Harry Potter characters, you can vote for more than one. Please VOTE FIRST in the sidebar, then you can defend your vote and persuade others to vote the same in the comment section.

Voting will end in one week's time (unlike the previous poll) and winners will be announced some time thereafter.

I have added a LOT of characters, yet I'm sure I've missed a few favorites. There are just so many! I didn't add Nearly Headless Nick or Moaning Myrtle or Mrs. Norris or Fleur or Viktor Krum or.... well, the list could go on forever. I did include Barty Crouch Junior, who was played by David Tennant. (Note: Moaning Myrtle was played by the actress who was Ursula in the Doctor Who episode Love and Monsters.)

David Tennant as Barty Crouch jr.

Note to the first smart aleck to vote for Lord Voldemort: I plan to throw cats at you. And I have lots of cats--- see the previous post.

Note: I now have a 'LinkWithin' widget which generates links to related blog posts for each new blog entry. Works pretty good so far.

Fresh Kittens!

2011-07-23T16:38:00.000-05:00

Why is it lately that whenever one of my cats goes into labor the first thing she does is steal a kitten? At first only Psychokitty was doing it, now they all are....

New kittens plus the stolen one.

None of the kittens born this year have names except for one that was named Tesseract. So I've decided all the boy kittens are named Ianto and all the girl kittens are named Myfanwy, after killed-off characters from Torchwood. (Myfanwy was the pterodactyl.)

As for the mama cat, I'm not sure she has a name either. I'll have to look up my kitten pictures on facebook. If she doesn't have a name I'll have to come up with one. Maybe Ursula (Love and Monsters episode, Doctor Who?)? I'd name it after the Racnoss empress but I don't think she has a name....

The Massive Character Tag: Interplanetary Edition

2011-07-23T12:14:00.001-05:00

I found this over at The Pen and Parchment, who found it at Hidden Doorways.

The rules:
1. I pick three characters
2. I make my characters answer these questions
3. I tag three people

So--- I've picked 3 characters from a work-in-nonprogress:
Colonel Natalia Oblonskaya (Lady Natalia, head of the Oblonsky Organization, also a homicide cop.)
Raoul Oblonsky (son of Natalia, actor, spaceship pilot)
Jamison (the manservant)

Question 1: Do you want a hug?
Natalia: Do you want a kick in the [bleep]?
Raoul: No thank you.
Jamison: Anytime, sweetie.

Question 2: Do you have any kids?
Natalia: My twins Raoul and Ellie--- Ellie was murdered eight years ago. And my foster daughter Mina. I guess you have to count her though I never intended her to be a child of mine.
Raoul: Kids--- I hope not. I'm only sixteen, and I don't fool around with girls. Mind you I do know my genetic material is preserved in the family genetics lab and if they did something with it I'm not sure they'd tell me.
Jamison: Had four kids, but they don't speak to me at all no more. Which I pretty much understand. I wasn't much of a father during my drinking days.

Question 3: Have you killed anyone?
Natalia: Loads! The funniest time was when I was pregnant with the twins, and I summoned every enforcer, hitman and deleter in the Kassavi Sector to a convention--- offered 'em free booze and hot and cold running hookers. When they got there, I turned out the lights, locked the doors, and when the shooting stopped I sent in the morgue wagons.
Seriously, as a homicide investigator, prime class, with zeta-level telepathy, I am fully authorized to kill any murderer I encounter. Mind you, I prefer taking my serial killers alive. Adds to the sport.
Raoul: I don't want to talk about it.
Jamison: Leave the boy alone! He don't want to talk about them kind of things. Don't want to talk about the incident myself, there was blood and broken glass all over the hallway. But far as I'm concerned anyone who'd try to kill kids had it coming.... Me? No, course not. I never killed nobody, don't even want to see pictures of it, like I keep telling the Lady, if she'd only keep them crime scene holos of hers locked up stead of spread out all over the kitchen tables, maybe the cook wouldn't have quit.

Question Four: Love anyone?
Natalia: I love my kids and my brother Remi. My brother Danton? Well, I don't actively want to kill him, does that count as love?
Raoul: There was this girl--- she'd been Mina's girlfriend but they broke up, and I was trying to get them back together because Mina was just miserable and so she was making everybody around her miserable, and, you know, well, things happen but I did NOT steal my foster sister's girlfriend. I mean when she's screaming at the top of her lungs how she wants to wrap an anchor around the girl's neck and throw her in the sea, I presumed that meant it was over between them.
Mina: What part of 'evil soulless phrag-eating bitch' did you interpret as me recommending you go out with her?
Jamison: Kids! Cut it out! And Mina you're not even supposed to be here. Love? Well, I must of loved my wife--- ex-wife--- or thought I did.
No, I do NOT love Lady Natalia, or have a crush on Lady Natalia. I prefer gals who DON'T kill five men before breakfast. I'm just not a morning person.

Question Five: What is your job?
Natalia: Homicide cop. The acting thing was just a kid thing. Plus I'm the same dress size as my brother Remi and sometimes I'd get to keep the costumes which of course I shared with him.
Raoul: Actor. And manager of the Company B theatrical company. Or I would be if my grandfather hadn't stolen my theatrical company out from under me. I'm kind of between gigs until the lawsuits over that get finished. Oh, and my foster sister Mina thought it would be a kick for us to join the military, so now I'm a pilot with the Fleet and she blows stuff up for a living--- excuse me, she's the weapons officer--- on the Fleet ship Lina Lamont.
Jamison: I'm NOT the butler. People just say that because every time someone rings the door bell folks say 'Jamison if you want to be the butler answer the [bleeping] door'. But I'm not the butler. Not even close.
Raoul: I tell people you are the manservant.
Mina: I thought you just lived in our house.
Natalia: He started out as a stalker, but I promoted him from stalker to nanny. Temporarily.
Mina: But we don't need a nanny anymore!
Jamison: What makes you think it's you kids I'm nannying?

Question Six: Your favorite season?
Natalia: I don't care. Serial killers are always in season.
Raoul: There are no seasons in space. And when we land on a planet, it's always bad weather.
Jamison: Any season I don't have to shovel or sweep up's fine with me.

Question Seven: Who's your best friend?
Natalia: Don't have one. Want to hear about my mortal enemies?
Raoul: My sisters.
Mina: Thanks.
Ellie: But you like ME best, right. You probably only include her because you're afraid she'll shoot you with a laser cannon or a mass torpedo, right?
Mina: She's saying something, isn't she?
Jamison: All the world's my friend. But the Lady is the one who saved my life.

Question Eight: Hobbies?
Natalia: Besides collecting serial killers? Collecting historical royal DNA. That's how my daughter Ellie was conceived--- and I passed along some DNA to Mina's mother as well.
Raoul: collecting James Cagney memorabilia, and making telepathic contact with inanimate objects.
Jamison: I play a little cards every now and then. That's how I won my pet elephant.

Question Nine: What are you going to do when this tag is over?
Natalia: I've got to see a man about a corpse.
Raoul: When my duty shift is over I'm going to sit back, relax, watch a James Cagney movie and file more lawsuits against my grandfather.
Jamison: I'm going to cook a little dinner, seeing as how the cook's quit. But anyone that don't treat the kids right, they can go cook their own damn dinner.

Question Ten: What is your eye color?
Natalia: You mean right now? Pulls out mirror. Sort of orangy-yellow. But then I'm in a bad mood.
Raoul: Usually sort of metallic gold--- it's not my mood or anything, my eyes just kind of got stuck on that color when.... But sometimes they're back to normal and change with my mood like everyone else's.
Jamison: Brown. Always brown. And beautiful.

Question Eleven: Are you good or bad?
Natalia: Yes.
Raoul: I try not to kill people any more.
Mina: We think he's allergic to killing people. But I'm not.
Jamison: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
Natalia: That's no answer.
Jamison: YOU should talk.

Question Twelve: What is your greatest fear?
Natalia: That people will be killed because I didn't act fast enough.
Raoul: What I fear most has already happened.
Jamison: That I ruint my kids permanent by how I carried on during my drinking days.

Question Thirteen: What do you think of your parents?
Natalia: I hate my father. But that's all right. Everyone who knows my father hates him. I'm amazed every time I see him and notice that no one has as yet chopped him up into seventeen small pieces. My mother, on the other hand, was a saint. She'd have to be to have married my father.
Raoul: I admire my mother. As for my fathers, Seraphim is a saintly monk, Gianni is a mob boss, and my third father, according to my mother, is none of my business.
Jamison: My parents were fine Christian folk. Feel like I really let them down, and I'm sorry that they didn't live to know me as I am now, cured of the drinking and all.

Question Fourteen: Any siblings?
Natalia: Two brothers, five sisters, and Remi. My sisters don't like it if I count Remi as a sixth sister, and if I count him as a brother he'll run off in tears and lock himself in the nearest women's restroom. So--- two brothers, six sisters.
Raoul: My twin Ellie, and my foster sister Mina.
Jamison: None of them have spoken to me in years.

Question Fifteen: Was it fun to answer all these questions?
Natalia: No. It's about as much fun as filling out a 'shots fired' report. Speaking of which, Raoul, you are about two years behind on filling out my 'shots fired' reports.
Raoul: You never tell me why you shot them.
Natalia: Because I [bleeping] felt like it.
Jamison: Can't you get a rubber stamp with that on it and fill out your own damn reports?

Question Sixteen: Do you have any weaknesses?
Natalia: No.
Raoul: None I care to talk about.
Jamison: I have a weakness for a good chicken fried steak.

Question Seventeen: Your favorite element
Natalia: The element of surprise.
Raoul: Molybdenum.
Ellie: Molybdenum's an element? I thought it was a brand of absinthe.
Raoul: It's an element, look it up.
Ellie: How am I supposed to look it up? I'm DEAD. And mama won't let me use the computers, it messes them up somehow.
Jamison: You talking to one of them ghosts again, huh? Not sure I'd even WANT that special gift, seeing ghosts. Ain't natural.
Ellie: If you think SEEING a ghost is tough, try being one.

Question Eighteen: Do you care what others think of you?
Natalia: No.
Raoul: I just hope they don't want to harm me or anyone I love.
Jamison: I'm just so used to folks being disappointed in me, I try not even to think about that any more.

Question Nineteen: Your Theme Song
Natalia: Another One Bites the Dust
Raoul: I Fought the Law and the Law Won
Jamison: I'll Fly Away. Not that I hold to that Rapture stuff, but it's a pretty song.

Question Twenty: What's Your Species?
Natalia: I'm from the Old Families, a Psion. Which some people don't count as human.
Raoul: Unsure, since mama won't even tell me who all of my fathers are.
Natalia: Raoul, my private genetic life is none of your business.
Mina: I'm the rightful Queen of Bavaria. Does that count as a species?
Ellie: I was the rightful Queen of Bavaria FIRST.
Raoul: Mina, Ellie--- Bavaria is no longer a monarchy so who cares?
Mina: Is Ellie still here? Tell her she's not the Queen anymore because she's dead so she's a ghost and doesn't count. Otherwise our father would still be king or his father or.....
Jamison: I'm just a plain old normal live non-psion human, thank the Lord. I'm not no sort of queen, I don't even wear dresses--- except to costume parties of course, and only if I can borrow a pair of nice fake titties from Remi.

Wow--- it comes out to be twenty questions. Isn't there a game like that? But I've had some fun playing with my characters even though I've pretty much given up hope on using them in an actual work of fiction that other folks might read.

So--- if you've read this far, you are tagged. Answer the questions from the point of view of your own characters. Not a writer, don't have characters? Make some up, it's fun!

Torchwood: Miracle Day: too draggy, too naked

2011-07-23T08:27:00.002-05:00

I have by this point watched three episodes of the new Torchwood series on Starz network. Here are some of my reactions.

The concept is a little like if, after the 3 year run of the original Star Trek series, they had destroyed the Enterprise, killed off all the crew except Kirk and Sulu, and then decided to film a new Star Trek series set in 1970 London (and filmed there) where Kirk, Sulu and their new British companions solve mysteries. I might watch it but it wouldn't have been MY Star Trek.

The new series Miracle Day seems to be like the last season 'Children of Earth'---- one big long dramatic global story. It seems to be throwing away the one advantage of series television--- the ability to do small stories as well as big 'save the galaxy' stories. I've always liked episodes such as 'The Trouble With Tribbles' episode of Star Trek which are NOT about saving the galaxy (or a whole planet at least). Or like the Doctor Who episode Love and Monsters.

The main plot of Miracle Day is that suddenly, no one is dying any more. The horror! Yes, it's just your basic 'death takes a holiday' plot. But it gives the creators of the show a lot of chances to show off the fact that they are a loyal part of the Culture of Death. They even wrote in a scene where the hero-doctor is listening to reports on the crisis on how unborn babies who are 'nature's mistakes' are no longer dying in the womb like they are supposed to. One (evil Catholic) doctor takes exception to the inhumane way in which they refer to these children only to be slapped down by a bit of anti-Catholic hate speech from the hero-doctor. (Remember the good old days when the good characters weren't allowed to be bigots?)

In the most recent episode for no apparent reason the writers had Captain Jack and the male American character go out and commit some random sex acts for no real reason. Jack's sex partner was some guy he picked up in a gay bar. FAR TOO MUCH of these sex acts were shown, especially the one involving Capt. Jack which as an act between two men, makes a LOT of straight males very uncomfortable and sets back the process of creating more compassion for people with gay identity/same-sex attraction.

Of course when Capt. Jack gets romantic with a guy it is only an apparent Gay relationship. Capt. Jack is an alien dude who at one point admits he has given birth in the past (and in the future when he's the Face of Boe he gets pregnant again). So in the whole 'girly or the freak' question it looks like the answer, as far as Capt. Jack's concerned, is a definite 'girly'.

But in any case the whole sex scene was TMI. I've never, in real life, had a pair of friends decide to commit a sex act in my presence. Why should my TV friends be doing it? I don't need to see it and they could be using the time to forward the plot.

Another flaw in Miracle Day is that since they are only telling one story this whole season, the plot D-R-A-G-S terribly. Many of the lighter moments they could have had can't happen since Gwen is in the US and her hubby Rhys and the baby are back in the UK.

I will continue to watch Torchwood: Miracle Day--- at least as long as Starz is giving me their channels for free and I still have access to satellite television. But I will continue to miss MY Torchwood--- the Torchwood of the first few seasons before the bloodbath. And I'll continue to miss Owen, Tosh, Ianto, Myfanwy the pterodactyl, and the unnamed Weevil, who all perished in the course of six episodes to take Torchwood to the next level (which I will never like as well as the old level.)

Law & Order's Lenny Briscoe sings in his underwear.....

2011-07-22T19:21:00.000-05:00

My mom told me that the actor Jerry Orbach, who played the cop Lenny Briscoe in Law & Order, was a song-and-dance man in Broadway plays.

Didn't know that but found out some proof when I was googling about the movie and the musical 'Chicago'. Here is a video of Orbach as Billy Flin in Chicago:

Damian Spinelli: Does he have Asperger's?

2011-07-02T16:02:00.008-05:00

One of my favorite characters from the soap opera General Hospital is Damian Spinelli, AKA The Jackal. He's a computer geek who shows a lot of eccentric behaviors, such as giving people odd nicknames. For example, he always refers to his best friend Jason Morgan as 'Stone Cold'.

It's been suggested that Spinelli has Asperger's syndrome but that hasn't been officially established on the show. It probably shouldn't be, in my opinion. In the TV series 'Bones' the main character is written as if she has Asperger's but the word isn't used by the show, which paradoxically allows the character to be more like a real aspie than like an aspie stereotype.

I think that if there were a major storyline on GH of Spinelli having Asperger's or an autism spectrum disorder, the character of Spinelli would end up changing radically for the worse. Various advocacy groups for Asperger's and autism would complain greatly about anything Spinelli did which was inconsistent with the group's take on Asperger's. The character would either be written off the show altogether, or just come on for a minute or two once or twice a month to do something Asperger-y.

Spinelli video:

Related blog post (this blog)
Fictional Characters that might have Asperger's Syndrome

Related blog posts (off-site)
Anna's Blog: Spinelli and Asperger's
Marlena De Lacroix: On the Soap Shrink's Couch: General Hospital's Spinelli
General Hospital's Spinelli: Asperger's Syndrome - BA's Response

A Perverted Vermin defends traditional marriage

2011-07-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

Moonbattery blog posts the following (Emphasis Added):

Dem Senator: Defenders of Marriage Are On The Wrong Side Of History

Moonbat Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) informs us that those who defend the sanctity of marriage from defilement by militant degenerates and creepy politicians are on "the wrong side of history":

Holy matrimony has been revered around the world for thousands of years, as has the awareness that homosexual depravity is an obscene abomination. With or without DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Obama Regime refuses to uphold), marriage will endure. Whether America endures depends on how quickly we can take back our country from the perverted vermin who control the political/media establishment.

Perverted Vermin! Wow! Maybe I should change my internet name from nissa_loves_cats to Perverted Vermin Nissa. Maybe this blog should become the Perverted Vermin Fan Club. Maybe I should declare an annual Perverted Vermin day when we can exchange Perverted Vermin Day cards, eat Perverted Vermin Day cakes, and use the tag 'perverted vermin' in our blogs. What a cool phrase!

But what a great way to convince the public at large that defenders of traditional marriage are hate-filled creeps who are likely to do harm to every person with same-sex attraction.

This is what one Bible-based church teaches about Gay people:
2358. The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

If you support traditional marriage but not anti-Gay hate
Please visit Moonbattery and drop him a polite comment to that effect. I believe it will be a most effective way to defend marriage by filling up his comment page with thoughtful, non-hateful comments. Thank you.

My comments on Moonbattery's blog (which may not be there for long:

Even perverted vermin like me (I am a CHASTE Catholic Gay woman) can recognize that traditional marriage is something to be defended.

Even ancient Roman emperors who married their underage and possibly castrated boyfriends did not succeed in changing marriage from what it is.

Question: are lawyers and clients 'unequal' because we don't use marriage to mark the lawyer/client relationship? Are best friends 'unequal' because we don't use marriage to mark friendship relationships? If no, then why must we use government recognized marriage to mark same-sex partnerings?

The state has no vested interest in recording same-sex partnerings or best friendships because these relationships aren't going to produce biological children from within the relationship. Same-sex couples can have commitment ceremonies, and even call them 'marriages', without government approval and permission.

I guess some of us Gay people have been so hurt by people calling us 'perverted vermin' that we want government-approved Gay marriage which people will be forced to recognize just to avoid being bullied by society at large.

But as a loyal Christian when I am given the choice between my faith, and being better protected from bullying, I'll have to choose my faith.

Blog posts on the topic:
The Gay Question
Keeping the Riff-Raff Out of Heaven

Comments welcome. Please read this blog post before commenting. Comments which show the person has not read the post will not be deleted, they will be laughed at.

The Diet that Cured Type 2 Diabetes (Warning: Science Content!)

2011-07-02T08:23:00.000-05:00

Recently there have been news reports of a British study in which patients were cured of their diabetes by following a strict 600 calorie diet for 8 weeks. There is a lot of buzz on this story and curiosity about the exact diet used--- curiosity which I am about to satisfy after a little warning:

I am not a medical doctor! If you have diabetes and you are lucky enough to have less-than-horrible health care access, you MUST consult with your doctor about your diet. The very strict diet in this study was under very close medical supervision. If you are already on some kind of medication for your diabetes, changes to your diet can cause problems!

OK, warning over! The news story I consulted had a link to the journal Diabetologia in which the study was reported in a paper called 'Reversal of type 2 diabetes: normalisation of beta cell function in association with decreased pancreas and liver triacylglycerol'. Catchy title, ĉu ne? You might want to print out an extra copy to give to your diabetes doctor when you go in for permission to try the diet for a brief period.

The patients in the study, after 1 week on the diet, had blood sugars in the normal range. After 8 weeks, their bodies responded normally to insulin and their beta cells were better able to make insulin. (Note: they were type 2 diabetics, and had not had diabetes for long.) After 8 weeks they went off the strict diet.
After four more weeks three of the 11 patients in the study had their diabetes come back, as measured by an increase in their fasting blood sugar level. Others were able to discontinue pills (metformin) and stayed off them over the longer term (18 months after the study).

THE DIET: Three portions of a liquid diet formula (Optifast)
Three portions of non-starchy vegetables (salad-type vegetables)
Total caloric intake: 600 calories.
The Optifast is 46.4% carbohydrate, 32.5% protein and 20.1% fat.
The diet was continued a maximum of 8 weeks.

As you may have guessed, I'm trying the diet, at least temporarily. In two days my blood sugar has improved and I've lost 6 pounds. Since I can't get the Optifast where I live, I've modified the diet as follows:
Three meals consisting of 1/2 can of Slimfast and one cup of salad vegetables (no dressing or other additives). This comes to 105 calories per meal.
Plus: three 95 calorie portions of other nutritious food, either as part of a meal or as snacks. I've had vegetable soup, canned spaghetti and meat balls, and rye-crisp crackers with Laughing Cow cheese.

When I go off the diet, perhaps before the end of week 1, I plan to go on the diet in this book: Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars. This is a low carbohydrate diet developed by a diabetes doctor who is himself a diabetic. Unlike the very temporary 600 calorie diet above, Dr. Bernstein's diet is one you can stick to for years.

Asperger's, empathy deficits and serial killers

2011-07-01T23:01:00.002-05:00

'Lack of empathy' is on the list of symptoms of Asperger's syndrome. (This list of symptoms is very important because once you are diagnosed, you stop being a person and are seen as merely that list of symptoms.)

'Lack of empathy' is a particularly dire symptom because everyone knows that's what sociopaths and serial killers have. That's how come a serial killer can enjoy torturing victims to death--- he doesn't have any empathy for their suffering.

Having Asperger's and being told, ever so nicely of course, that you have no real future other than subsisting on the government dole and having no friends, is bleak enough but find out you are allegedly kind of like a serial killer is especially dire.

I think the problem is the 'lack of empathy' observed in Asperger's Syndrome and that observed in sociopaths is not the same 'lack of empathy'.

Empathy means vicariously sharing in the emotions of others--- as when you wince when someone else is hit in the head with a volleyball, you are sharing that person's feeling of pain.

In Asperger's Syndrome, the person cannot so easily read the non-verbal clues given off by others. This lack is not absolute, and the aspie's abilities in this area improve over time. But when the aspie is not aware of another person's feelings, he cannot empathize, not because he is a heartless monster, but simply due to unawareness of the other's feelings.

The sociopath usually knows full well what another person is feeling--- or at least, knows as much as a normal person does--- he just doesn't give a flying 'eff' about it.

So you might say that the sociopathic empathy deficit is a lack of concern for others, while the aspie is suffering merely from a lack of informed empathy.

My own experience as an Aspie is that I don't lack empathy in any way. In fact, I could never enjoy the kind of sitcom plot in which one person lacks a key piece of information and makes an utter fool of herself, because I empathized too much with the character's embarrassment and humiliation to think it funny.

I suppose that as an aspie I am supposed to plead guilty to missing the non-verbal cues given off by others to a greater degree than normal people would, but quite frankly a large part of the normals I have encountered haven't been all that sensitive to other people and miss even more non-verbal cues than I do.

Of course when I do empathize with a real person rather than a TV character, I don't know the correct way to show that empathy in a way the other person will recognize. It's either too much or not enough and since the too much version makes people think I'm self-centered and trying to make everything all about me, I tend toward the not enough so they will think I'm merely uncaring and heartless.

I guess it ticks people off to say that most people with Asperger's have no friends. And it may not be true: I'm not absolutely friendless--- I had a friend in 2nd grade and didn't lose touch with her until we moved out of state a year later (it's the one whose brother I kissed, causing him to be transformed into a Gay Latino Elvis impersonator.) But the fewer friends and social contacts you have, the fewer opportunities you have to trot out your empathy skills. (The abject poverty so many aspies live in keeps the social contacts to a minimum since it's hard to be friends with someone who can't afford to drive to your house or go to the movies or a restaurant with you.)

I suppose this would be an off topic post on this blog except for the fact this blog doesn't really have a topic other than whinging about the last season of Torchwood.

Presidential Candidate Harold Saxon announces economic plan

2011-06-28T10:20:00.001-05:00

Presidential candidate Harold Saxon, AKA The Master, announces an economic plan to fix the US economy that will actually work--- read about it on the Harold Saxon campaign blog

Have any good smart-a@@ ideas for the Saxon campaign? I hear they are looking for new staffers/co-bloggers. Knowledge of Doctor Who is essential, knowledge of anything else is optional.

Jon Stewart's racist rant about Herman Cain

2011-06-28T07:52:00.000-05:00

Isn't this special? Lefty propagandist Jon Stewart did a bit on his show which has been described as follows:

mocked Cain in an offensive, racist bit on his comedy show, saying, "No bill will be longer than three pages, treaties will be on the backs of cereal boxes. I'm Herman Cain, and I don't like to read."

On several occasions, Cain had attacked Congress' propensity for excessively lengthy legislation with the quip bills should only be three-pages long. Herman understands Stewart is a comedian, but his racist remarks were offensive:

from the Post Chronicle

Jon Stewart did his best Amos-and-Andy voice to imitate Herman Cain and implied that the man wasn't smart because of his racial background, but that's OK. Since Cain favors the Republican party--- the party that freed the slaves--- rather than the Democrat party who was cool with slavery, he doesn't deserve fair treatment according to the code of the dinosaur media.

Here is the Daily Show clip:

NOTE: if Herman Cain is elected he will go down in history as the first black president of the US since Obama is actually a Time Lord called 'The Master' from the planet Gallifrey. Since Time Lords can regenerate into any race they like, Obama/The Master's being black at the moment doesn't count. I mean, he was caucasian when he was Prime Minister of Great Britain.

New Torchwood starts July 8th on Starz network

2011-06-27T15:34:00.000-05:00

Great news for those Torchwood fans who are able to get Starz network--- the new version of Torchwood is going to start July 8th.

Not that there's much left of Torchwood after they've gone and killed nearly everyone off including Myfanwy the pterodactyl. They've got Capt. Jack and Gwen and I suppose she's got Rhys around somewhere. But everything else including Cardiff is gone.

The new Torchwood will likely acquire some new fans. But how many of the old fans have not been scared off by all the carnage? For myself, I feel more than a bit betrayed by what was done previously. There is a kind of contract between a storyteller--- whether on television, in the movies, or in a book--- and the audience. We are invited to identify with the characters, take a wild ride with them, but we feel secure that the characters we've come to love will only be killed off very seldom, and that with very good reason.

In Torchwood, the killing of Tosh, Owen and Ianto weren't like the deaths in the climax of Harry Potter, which were very well foreshadowed and part of the plot. It was more like they had to do SOMETHING to make it more exciting and had run out of ideas, so, oh, let's kill someone who won't come back in ten minutes.

Worse, Torchwood never bothered to replace Tosh and Owen as members of the Torchwood crew--- so it's almost like they weren't really necessary if Torchwood could function without them. And Ianto also probably won't be replaced directly as the whole operation moves to America (for what reason? don't we have our own native alien-hunting agency, the Men in Black?)

I hate hate hate what they've done to Torchwood. I can't wait for July 8th to see the new episode. Not so much because I'll feel like I'm seeing a new Torchwood episode, it's just I'll be seeing what Capt. Jack and Gwen have been up to. That's all I want. (If they kill off Gwen or Rhys, however, I'm hiring a hit man.)

david tennant naked

2011-06-27T10:47:00.002-05:00

Someone actually found this blog by googling 'david tennant naked'. What kind of joint do they think this is? We don't have any naked pictures of David Tennant here. We may have a candid snap of Matt Smith without his fez, but that's as far as I'm willing to go in the nudity department!

Oh, and we did have that Obama naked on a unicorn thing.....

Perhaps our next poll should be which Doctor Who you would most/least like to see naked (on or off the unicorn.)

Update: we now have 2 blog viewers this week who found us by googling 'david tennant naked'. Perhaps I ought to include those words in every blog post? Or defenestration. I love the word defenestration.

Hitler/Doctor Who video

2011-06-27T07:36:00.001-05:00

From the upcoming Doctor Who episode 'Let's Kill Hitler': the Fuehrer discovers how long he will have to wait for the next Doctor Who episode. (It's funnier if you don't speak German.) It's enough to make him consider watching a certain sci-fi series created by a Jewish man.

Poll: Who is your favorite Star Trek captain?

2011-06-26T11:55:00.002-05:00

A lot of people think I'm a Whovian. Actually, I'm a Trekkie from childhood, I just find it easier to blog about Doctor Who. But in honor of my Trekkie roots I've decided to conduct a poll on who is the favorite Star Trek captain.

The rules--- I've limited myself to those who were the primary Federation captain in a Star Trek series or the original pilot, which rules out Captain Sulu or Captain Kang or the Gorn captain.

Voting is open for the next hundred days, so spread the word throughout all known quadrants and the entire space-time continuum. If you blog about this poll, post a comment here to that effect. You might also explain why you voted as you did and what dire things you intend to do to those who don't vote your way. (Death threats are a no-no unless they are really, really funny.)

My take on the captains:

1. Captain Christopher Pike. He was the captain in the original Star Trek pilot, which was later cut up into the two-part Star Trek episode The Menagerie.
2. Captain James Tiberius Kirk. As a kid I thought he was WAY too bossy. But I guess being bossy is a captain's job, and perhaps his captain was a bit more realistic as a military officer since at the time the original series came out, a great many folk either had military experience in WW2 or Korean, or had read a great deal about military matters, and this was reflected in how the character of Kirk was written.
3. Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I named a cat after him. Never did figure out why a Frenchman like Picard had a British accent.
4. Captain Benjamin Sisko. He's unique in being a space station rather than a starship commander. In addition, he started off with the rank of Commander and was only promoted later.
5. Captain Katherine Janeway. Kind of reminded me of Katherine Hepburn. The first girl captain.
6. Captain Archer. I did not get the channel that Star Trek Enterprise was on during the initial run of the series, which is why I don't even know Captain Archer's first name. Or his dog's name. My real question is, what was the rank of the officer in charge of cleaning up the captain's dog's poop? Can you get a medal for that kind of assignment?

The Irresistably Sweet Blog Award

2011-06-26T10:48:00.001-05:00

This blog is sweet? Really? I mean, I could understand winning an inconsistent blogger award, or a weird blogger award, or obnoxious off-topic ranting blogger award, or mentally challenged blogger award, but sweet?

I got this award from Amanda Borenstadt, author of the urban fantasy novel Syzygy, whose blog is A Fortnight of Mustard, which is the best condiment-titled blog of all time, easily beating out Catsup Dreams and Where's the Soy Sauce.

The Rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 8 deserving blog buddies.
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.

The one scary part is passing the award along. The last time I passed out an award, one of my awardees was Operation Counterstrike, who as it turned out was not available to pick up his award due to being in jail for the death threats he kept making (which were no surprise to his blog readers.) So now I'm puzzled--- do I try to find bloggers who WON'T get arrested to award them, or should I consider it a challenge to pick another potential trouble-maker? I'm torn....

SEVEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME:

1. My cats steal one another's kittens. In fact, that's how I found out my cat Psychokitty had given birth this year because I couldn't find one of Willow's three-week-old kittens which had been stolen by Psychokitty and stashed with her own newborns.
2. My favorite condiments are soy sauce and chocolate syrup. I put one or another on everything except communion wafers.
3. I swear too much. I had a dog who wouldn't come when called unless I said 'come [effing] here!'
4. In 1881 two loggers were lynched across the street from what became the site of my grandmother's house. (My brother lives in the house now.) My great-great-grandmother's cousin-in-law may have supplied the rope. [See Song of the McDonald Boys, my new blog, for more details.]
5. I have an unnatural obsession with ampersands. &&&&&&&
6. Mi amas lerni lingvoj, kiel Esperanto, Germana kaj Korea. (I love learning languages like Esperanto, German and Korean.)
7. I am totally in love with the following fictional characters: Angelique Collins from Dark Shadows, Pavel Chekov from Star Trek, Tracy Quartermaine from General Hospital, Niki Smith from One Life to Live, Romana from Doctor Who, Kes from Star Trek Voyager, Trance Gemini from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Annie and George from Being Human, Thomas Kincade Brannigan from Doctor Who, Rose Tyler from Doctor Who, and the Racnoss Empress from Doctor Who (the sexy red spidery alien with all the eyes). Because fictional people are just cooler than boring old real people.
8. I'm smart enough to join the genius organization Mensa but I'm too smart to want to.

DESERVING BLOG BUDDIES WHO ARE NOT IN PRISON (YET)
1. Letters for George: I just discovered this blog which has a lot about local history in the town of Menominee, Michigan, among other things.
2. Happy Catholic: I added this blog to those I follow some time ago. Visit to find out why to boycott Nestle and what Saint Ambrose wants you to do when you're insulted (hint: it doesn't involve chainsaws.)
3. Bluegrass Pundit: conservative news, video and comment from the Bluegrass state. Visit the blog to find out which state that is, and to read about the complete and utter destruction of Al Gore.
4. Tracy Krauss-Expression Express, a blog by a Christian writer and artist who is author of My Mother the Man Eater and And the Beat Goes On....
5. Dragons in our Midst & Echoes from the Edge: how can you go wrong with a blog with an ampersand in the title? The blog by author Bryan Davis has a press release for his daughter's new book, do check it out.
6. WORD up! offers Bible study and book reviews.
7. Reviews from the Heart: a Christian blogger who does book and product reviews.
8. IT CAME FROM ALLEN'S BRAIN! Check out his job interview questions for the position of assistant. I particularly like #6:

06. I am capable of making:
__ Plutonium from common household items
__ Repairs and modifications to both atomic- and lightning-powered machinery
__ Flimsy excuses
__ Eleven different death-rays
__ Decent coffee
__ A mess

GETTING A BLOG AWARD IS TIME CONSUMING
I mean, I could have spent the time blogging about how Richard Nixon is one of my favorite Doctor Who companions, or providing proof that US President Barack Obama is the Doctor's arch-nemesis, The Master AKA Harry Saxon. Or doing laundry or returning stolen kittens to their real mamas or the mamas I want them to have. I guess that's why some bloggers don't accept these awards. But not me, I want all the awards I can get. Just because.

If YOU want all the awards you can get, add your name and blog address in a comment and I will add you to the list next time I get an award, or I will completely forget about you. One or the other.

Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) dies at 63

2011-04-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

Sad news: actress Elisabeth Sladen, who played the part of Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith, died on Apr. 19, 2011 of cancer at the age of 63.

Her character, Sarah Jane Smith, was a companion to the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and has appeared in 2 spin-offs of Doctor Who, most recently The Sarah Jane Adventures. She has also guest-starred in the new Doctor Who series.

Sarah Jane is one of the first Doctor Who companions that I remember, and I think she was one of the best. I enjoyed seeing her again in the new series and in her own show. The popularity of the character is in no small way due to the talents of Elisabeth Sladen as an actress. She will be missed.

Opium Cactus: imperceptible lint of the masses

2011-04-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a poem written at an early stage of my life when I couldn't afford capital letters.

imperceptible lint of the masses

the committee is about the

service groups of marmosets who

contribute to the reaches of their class

in repairing the

john henes park production

with its grubby sweat and

$5000 the environment

improvement of the few and

the correct structure of the masses

underneath

the pens that confined the eighties have

a US department of important production

inspectors of the growth of artifacts

who are being outlined now

in a caste where the

councils grow workers in jars

when the committee struggles have

intended to purchase south korea

and put up a chain link africa

the extension cages for the

construction of a bear around the world will

be separated for

aide cleaning

OK then. This is another juxtaposition or mash-up poem. The source materials included some socialist thing, and a local newspaper article about the proposed construction of a new bear cage at John Henes Park in Menominee, Michigan. (I don't really keep up on local news stories, but I'm fairly sure they never managed to purchase South Korea, but they may have managed to put up a small chain link Africa for the bear before it was eventually given to a local private zoo.)

For me a large part of the interest of the poem is in phrases like 'service groups of marmosets', 'growth of artifacts' and 'where the councils grow workers in jars'. It shows a strange world in which the normal distinctions between inanimate and animate, and animal and human, do not quite apply.

The ending of the poem I see as quite ominous--- 'the extension cages... will be separated for aide cleaning'. What is this separation thing? Does it hurt the cages? Will they cry? And what about this aide that needs to be cleaned? Is he an aide to the committee or to the bear? And why doesn't he just clean himself?

The poem 'imperceptible lint of the masses' is found in my book Where the Opium Cactus Grows. Buy a copy! Buy two or three or more, they make great gifts, especially for insane people.

BBC Being Human: In mourning for [spoiler!]

2011-04-11T21:51:00.000-05:00

The season 3 series finale was last Saturday. You get used to all those promos that threaten dire things for all our favorite characters, and you also get used to things working out for them.

But this time they've really gone and done it. Someone got dead, and it was.....

[SPOILERS! Don't read further if you don't want to know!]

...Mitchell. Well, yeah, being a vampire he was dead before, but since he got staked, he's deader. He actually asked to be staked, as he's fearful he's going to just keep on killing.

So now instead of our beloved series about three single night-creatures sharing a house, we've got a domestic drama of a werewolf couple and a ghost couple?

I mean, it's pretty well established that in the Being Human world, everyone who dies is a ghost, at least for the time it takes them to walk through their door. And while they haven't explicitly shown vampire ghosts, why are they an exception? I'd imagine their ghosts might appear at the site where they originally died--- where they became vampires.

One doesn't really know whether Mitchell's staking is the end of him on the series, or a way for he and Annie to grow closer together.

I must say though I don't really like the Being Human of this third season. They bugged out of their old pink house and moved from Bristol to somewhere in Wales. It turned far darker and Mitchell turned into a mass murderer. It stopped being fun.

But then on the other hand we can always turn to the SYFY version of Being Human. It's not the same, but it has a lot of the spirit of the original, and perhaps will grow into a less gloomy direction than the BBC version has.

Still, I do look forward to the next season of BBC's BH. Can't wait to see what George and Nina's cub will turn out to be. And I also can't wait to see how Josh and Nora get on in the SYFY version, either. Werewolves in love--- my favorite thing....

Go ahead, write something shocking!

2011-04-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

We are surrounded by a sea of bland, flavorless fiction, non-fiction, blog posts, bathroom wall graffiti.... The mucky waters of conventionality are rising and we will drown if we don't fight back.

How did we get to this point? Most of us learned to write in school. The purpose of a school is to homogenize us, to turn each of us from individuals into part of the school collective. *You Will Be Absorbed* says the school.

The school does the work so well that the child learns to rigidly conform even when proclaiming himself a non-conformist. All the non-conformists conform to a rigid non-conformist code.

As a result we are conditioned to see the bland and ordinary sentence as the safe and correct and grammatical sentence. And our readers drop with soft little thuds as they die from boredom.

So: write something shocking! Don't do what they expect you to do. Instead of 'she went to work as she did every day', write 'down! down! down! she fell, into a vat of melted lawn furniture'.

Don't write about some accountant who can't get the girl, write about the guy in purgatory who just found out Adolf Hitler is moving in to the purgatory-cabin next door. Write about the guy who sees fairies in the back garden--- then calls the exterminator.

If you are afraid to shock people with your writing, you may well end up seeing your writing coming to a screeching halt. After all, even if everything in your novel seems bland and inoffensive, something in it will offend somebody somewhere.

I am finding lately that my best writing in years is coming from a project that has an element in it that would shock the secular publishers silly, and another aspect that would put off Christian publishers as well.

Doing this is not safe. It's not practical. But at least it's not boring.

we kissed when I was 8 and he was 7....

2011-04-06T12:45:00.000-05:00

...and now he's the Gay latino Elvis impersonator, El Vez. Maybe it's just as well I quit kissing boys...

Using Babelfish to write poetry

2011-04-05T16:04:00.002-05:00

I have an unnatural obsession with machine translation. I have a great time using the various internet sites that provide computerized translation from one language to another, like Babelfish.

Since I am a person that actually knows about languages (during my Pagan days I translated a Pagan booklet from German into English) I know that computer translations usually suck. They are helpful if you already know the language you are translating into well enough to catch mistakes, but otherwise they can be trouble.

But while Babelfish and her sisters may not be able to solve the world language problem, they do have another use. They can write poetry.

You see, one day I was testing Babelfish to see how well it could translate into Korean. I know next to no Korean, so what I did was I wrote a test sentence: "My cat Claudius has a neurological disorder", translated it English-to-Korean with Babelfish, and then cut-and-pasted the resulting unknown Korean sentence into Babelfish and did a Korean-to-English translation.

This is what Babelfish spit out at me:

To my cat Claudius
there is a military force
at the nervous crane.

Who knew Babelfish could write a haiku? So, anyway, I slapped a title on it ('catpoem/claudius') and added it to my collection of poetry written. It is now included in Where the Opium Cactus Grows.

In this first case I liked what Babelfish did enough to keep it pretty much as it was, I just arranged it into three lines.

Most of the time Babelfish poetry is more work. You might have to run it through a couple of languages (Asian languages seem to work best), and pick-and-choose the best results and do a lot of rewrites. But it produces some pretty cool imagery and can help to fire up those creative juices on days when you just don't feel like writing anything.

Here is today's poetic rough draft:
1. (original sentence) The werewolf's girlfriend is now pregnant. When will the puppies be born?
2.(after translating into Korean & back) werewolf' s girl friends now are pregnancy. The pup when will be inherent?
3.(after translating 2 again into Korean & back) werewolf' s girl friends now are pregnancy. The pup of the case which will be characteristic?
4. (tranlation of 3 into Dutch and back) werewolf' s the little girl friends pregnancy now its. The young of the case which characterising will be?
5. (translated 4 into Japanese and back) werewolf' s now pregnancy of the friend of the girl. The young person when is the fact that it characterizes?
6. (translated 1 into Japanese and back) werewolf' The girl friend of s now becomes pregnant. Is the puppy when born?

1. (original sentence) How many puppies, how many? Only one, says the ultrasound machine. How odd, how very odd.
2. (1 translated to Korean and back) How many many pup, how many is many? 1 revealed the supersonic machine only. How many is odd, is quite odd and is how.
3. (1 translated to Chinese and back) How many puppies, how many? Only one, said the ultrasonic wave machine. How strange, how is strange.

These are the raw materials.

The werewolf's
little girl friend
now becomes pregnant.

The puppies of this case
when will they be inherent?
which will be the
characteristic?

How many many pup,
how many is many?
how many is odd
is quite odd
and is how.

the pregnant little girlfriend
and the wolf
will have one

Not really happy with that--- you don't get a military force at the nervous crane every day--- but will print it out and bury it in a file for awhile, then do some revision and reworking, add and subtract a bit.

Janey DeMeo falls down a well--- in Haiti

2011-04-05T09:33:00.000-05:00

Janey DeMeo's blog tells the story of how she fell down a well during her trip to Haiti. (Don't worry, she lived.)

She went to do work with a charity called Orphans First working with children in Haiti. Please do read the story at Janey's blog and pray for her work--- and contribute to the charity if you can.

Here is a picture of one of the Haitian children who was helped.

Get your Hamlet On! David Tennant as Hamlet available on DVD

2011-03-29T09:55:00.001-05:00

David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who and was also in league with Lord Voldemort in a Harry Potter movie, has also played Hamlet, in a production which also featured Patrick Stewart--- Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And now that performance is available to anyone who has a DVD player. So if you'd always wanted to see the Melancholy Dane played by a Sci-Fi icon, here is the link: Hamlet (DVD)

If, on the other hand, you'd rather just read the book, you could try: Hamlet (Ignatius Critical Series). Yes, Hamlet is now available in an Ignatius Critical Edition. The Ignatius Critical Editions are annotated editions of Great Books where the annotations are from a Christian (Catholic) point of view, rather than the traditional hard-core Marxist POV.

Featured Posts:
Doctor Who Video: Best Thing in the History of Ever
Cool Guys don't Look at Explosions

Featured Item:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Widescreen Edition) (Harry Potter 4)(David Tennant is in this one. Briefly.)

Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Reddit up to 10 Subscribers

2011-03-29T08:52:00.000-05:00

There is a very new Reddit subdivision dedicated to Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy. It's a great place to share your favorite blog-posts on the topic, and to promote your own blog.

Find the new Reddit at: http://www.reddit.com/r/christianSFF/

Once there, you can:

1. Join Reddit, if you haven't already.
2. Subscribe to the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy sub-reddit. Don't worry, it doesn't show up in your in-box, it's just available when you visit Reddit.
3. Read the articles shared at the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Reddit.
4. Vote the articles up (or down, if you must).
5. Comment on the articles.
6. Post your own favorite blog posts and web sites relating to Christian science fiction and fantasy.
7. Promote one or two of the Very Best of your own blog's posts.

Reddit can be a great way to promote your blog content--- ProBlogger has a good article on how to use it. The main problem is that you need to submit your material to the correct division of reddit to find good readers.

I'm hoping that the new Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy reddit will soon have many more subscribers--- please blog about it or spread the word on FaceBook if you can.

You can even add a reddit button to each of your blog pages which will add the page to the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy subreddit.

Diana Wynne Jones dies

2011-03-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

Just discovered over at the blog 'Happy Catholic' that author Diana Wynne Jones has died. Go to the blog for some more info.

I was not a big reader of Diana Wynne Jones, but I do have a few books of hers. The one which I really enjoyed enough to read again and again was Howl's Moving Castle.

The story begins with a young girl who is cursed by a wicked witch to instantly become an old woman. She leaves her home and gets a job as housekeeper in the strange household of the wizard Howl (Howell), and, in her new form of a crochety old woman, even manages to bully the fire-demon Calcifer.

It's a delightful book and I highly recommend it to all lovers of fantasy fiction. It was also made into an animated movie which was fairly nice as well.

How to Write a Juxtaposition Poem

2011-03-28T08:11:00.001-05:00

When I write poetry I like to write what I call juxtaposition poetry. It's a little like found poetry, except that you 'find' the raw materials from three different sources--- books, newspapers and the like. It's not only interesting of itself, but is something that can get your writerly juices going when you have writer's block.

Your three sources need to be very different from one another--- in 'nuclear sainthood profits' from my book Where the Opium Cactus Grows I used a Catholic prayer book, a book about nuclear war, and something by Karl Marx.

What you do with your sources is 'point and click'. Open each one at random and point, without looking, at the text. Copy out words or phrases from that point. Do this one after another until you have enough material for the poem at hand.

A pure juxtaposition poem just uses this material as you found it. But the secret to writing a good juxtaposition poem is to cheat like hell. Fudge a bit when you are pointing to select your source material, and add, subtract and re-arrange the material to help it make more sense. Or less sense, depending on your writerly goals.

I might point out that my 'nuclear sainthood profits' is not an average example of my juxtaposition poems, but one I feel is one of my best efforts in that direction. Most juxtaposition poems are choppier and don't have unified themes (whatever themes are, I try to avoid them). 'nuclear sainthood profits' is what happens with juxtaposition poetry when your Muse is in the building.

Here is the complete text of 'nuclear sainthood profits' from 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'.

nuclear sainthood profits

wages after the labour, we beseech you, o limited nuclear war
a son is given to us, testing increasingly smaller warheads
if this limit is overshot, ground zero will accumulate debris
o mary conceived without sin, detonate a nuclear weapon
in the presence of mine enemies

behold, a virgin shall declare war on the soviet union and china
the market price of our pope, our bishop, and all true believers
includes mutual assured destruction when wages and prices are high
and large numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles
now and at the hour of our death

This poem was written 21 years ago--- wow, a poem that's old enough to drink! At the time I wrote it I was NOT a Catholic, and I WAS a Marxist. But I never meant it as in any was anti-Catholic. It was more like a nuclear-war-drives-us-all-to-pray thing. And of course there was the 'blame-capitalism' reish going on as well. (Did you know that capitalism is responsible for the lack of life on Mars?)

The sharpness of this poem is a result of using sources with high emotional impact. You don't have to do that all the time--- I've used a local newspaper as a source many times, both for juxtaposition poetry as I've described it here, and for single-source found poetry.

These blander sources are essential for school teachers using juxtaposition poetry in the classroom, since in a school setting one WANTS a bland result. In homeschooling, a wider variety of sources are possible, whatever the homeschooling mother thinks is acceptable.

In my experience, some juxtaposition poems are finished after the first day's work, and others need more work. In addition, any type of poem benefits from being 'aged' in a file for a few months and then being given a bit of polishing if needed--- or even a complete re-write.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: write a juxtaposition poem of your own. (If you post your poem on your blog, do post a link to it here in a comment.)

Related Post:
Blogging 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'

Featured Books:
The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets
Modern Korean Poetry
Where the Opium Cactus Grows

Seven Ways You Can Help The Lina Lamont Fan Club:
1. Pray for me and for the readers of my blog.
2. Share this post on FaceBook, using the button below.
3. Link to this post on your blog.
4. Comment on this post.
5. Buy a book from links on this blog or the Amazon.com search box.
6. Consider taking the Holly Lisle 'How to Think Sideways' course through the links on this blog.
7. Cuddle a cat for me. Any cat. Except maybe a surly tiger. They bite.

Mommy Aborted Me and All I Got was This Lousy T-Shirt

2011-03-26T08:30:00.001-05:00

NARAL Prochoice America is peddling T-shirts! This is what their e-commerce site says:

NARAL Pro-Choice America's official t-shirts for the April 7 Pro-Choice Lobby Day in Washington, D.C. are here. By buying one or both of these t-shirts, you'll do more than just stand up for a woman's right to choose. In fact, your purchase will make it possible for thousands of pro-choice Americans to flood Capitol Hill and visit face-to-face with their members of Congress.

Add your name to the list of other pro-choice Americans making a strong statement in support of women's freedom and privacy today. Now is the time to show politicians attacking legal abortion and other reproductive-health care that their War on Women must end.

NARAL's War on Women (and their children) continues, but at least they're making good money selling T-shirts about it....

Cross-posted from Inglourius Ranterz

The Silent Scream DVD - Eight Languages
The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind

Seven Ways You Can Help The Lina Lamont Fan Club:
1. Pray for me and for the readers of my blog.
2. Share this post on FaceBook, using the button below.
3. Link to this post on your blog.
4. Comment on this post.
5. Buy a book from links on this blog or the Amazon.com search box.
6. Consider taking the Holly Lisle 'How to Think Sideways' course through the links on this blog.
7. Cuddle a cat for me. Any cat. Except maybe a surly tiger. They bite.

Strange Blog Wins Second Award

2011-03-24T07:47:00.003-05:00

Amanda Borenstadt of A Fortnight of Mustard has awarded The Lina Lamont Fan Club the Stylish Blogger Award. Maybe it's because of the fetching nightgown and ratty blanket I'm wearing right now?

Amanda claims I now must tell seven things about myself. But then again she's part of some weird cult that worships Playmobil people, so what does she know? But I'll do it anyway as I promised I'd finish this blog entry before I have breakfast and I'm hungry....

1. There is a two-day-old kitten in the room making weird kitten noises. His name is Other Joel 2. Last year his mama had 5 kittens, 4 survived and were named Joel, Other Joel, Girl Joel and Other Girl Joel. This year his mamma had 5 of which Other Joel 2 was the only survivor. It was a narrow thing since he chose to spend his first night on Earth making kitten-racket all night long.

2. I used to have Asperger's Syndrome but I gave it up for Lent.

3. I am addicted to Facebook games, chiefly FrontierVille, and, lately, PriestVille (which is kind of like Mafia Wars but with less whacking people. Too bad, I like whacking people.)

4. My role model and secret crush is the Crazy Cat Lady from the Simpsons. Like her, I also enjoy screaming gibberish and throwing cats at people. I'm throwing one at Barack Obama right now, for interrupting the soap operas 2 days in a row. (It's a really bad tempered black-and-white cat named Sarah Palin. Yes, my cats are all Republicans. One is even named after Dick Cheney. Cheney is the mother of 5 kittens, by the way.)

5. My third favorite character from Doctor Who is The Master (Harry Saxon version). My eighth favorite character from Star Trek (The Original Series) is Khan Noonian Singh. I'm writing a story about The Master and Khan. It's a romance.

6. Is it seven things yet? I lost count. I hate mathematics and counting and crap.

7. I'm older than dirt, but I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. I'm thinking 'cowboy'.

Now I'm supposed to pass on the award to seven other bloggers. Which ones to pick? I'll just have to pick out the top seven from my Best Blogs Ever list. Or maybe I'll just throw darts at the wall--- or cats--- to pick seven at random.

1. Fabianspace, by author Karina Fabian
2. The CHASTITY Ring, which is about my favorite alternative lifestyle.
3. Operation Counterstrike, by Melvin 'Operation' Counterstrike. Hey, he's got style, it's just not a very civilized kind of style. His blog has gone all by-invitation-only, so someone please tell Mel he's won an award?
4. The Least Read Blog on the Web by John, a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor.
5. Tea with Morbius , a Doctor Who blog by Celestial Fundy.
6. Expression Express by author Tracy Krauss
7. Biblical Evidence for Catholicism by apologist Dave Armstrong

And now, The Game. I'm not going to tell the award winners that they won just yet. That's YOUR job! So, go to the blogs on the list and drop the authors a comment that they won an award.

UPDATE: Celestial Fundy is the first award winner to have discovered his award, so as a prize, he gets one of the NEUTERED cats. The hard bit is sticking enough postage stamps on the cat to get it to the UK.

Operation Counterstrike (real name Theodore Shulman) will probably not be picking up his award as he's been arrested for making death threats. When he gets out he will probably have to give up his blog, or at least refrain from making death threats there, which means he's going to have to find a new theme for his blog. Please folks, pray for Theo!

And Other Joel 2 the kitten has passed away. His mamma has also had 1 other dead kitten for a total of 6. Luckily there are other kittens around here who will volunteer to dispose of her milk supply.

Related Post: Prolific Blogger Award goes to Crazy Cat Lady

5 Weird Things in Mike Duran's The Resurrection

2011-03-23T10:24:00.001-05:00

Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour

1. Mr. Cellophane - Mr. Cellophane is a ghost. Not a demon. In a Christian novel. That's as much against the rules of the Christian genre as having a non-evil KKK member would be against the current rules of secular fiction. (If you have a KKK member in scene one, he must be fired by scene three--- or was that a gun, I can never remember....) Duran gives an explanation of the theology behind his use of Mr. Cellophane at the back of the book.

2. Those Weird Catholics - The boy resurrected in the book is a Catholic. But not an ordinary one. The author mentions Latin being used at the funeral Mass. They don't have Latin Mass all over, and even when they do I'd imagine that nearly all funeral Masses are conducted English (or whatever the preferred language of the region/people is). So that kid and his family must have been major league Latin Mass geeks.

3. Questions not Asked - The early part of the story is largely concerned with the raising from the dead of a local boy. But there are questions that just screamed to be asked that weren't mentioned--- number one being: 'Was that kid embalmed?' Most people are embalmed these days, in some states I believe it is required. Embalming has nearly done away with the event of people being buried alive since people don't survive being embalmed. Yet it wasn't mentioned in the book.

4. The Church Ladies' Visit to the Pagan Stores - As a former Pagan myself, I took an interest in the fearful attitude the three Church Ladies had when going in to the local Pagan (occult, demonic) stores. It was realistic --- I had similar fears myself when I, during my Pagan years, had occasion to go into a Christian bookstore or a church. I might point out that the Pagans in the book are very evil and demonic compared with the wimpy tree-hugging sweetness-and-light (except during Witch Wars) Pagans and Wiccans one meets in real life. (Of course Christian authors have the same right to depict Pagans as demon-influenced as secular authors have to depict Christians as violent haters.)

5. Mike Duran compared to Peretti, not King - I've never liked Peretti's Christian horror books. I was a Pagan when they first became popular and at that time was concerned that some of Peretti's plotlines were vilifying Pagans as Satanists. And the one Peretti book I read cover-to-cover didn't impress me in the writing quality department.

But Mike Duran--- well, if Stephen King gave up Christian-bashing and compulsive cussing for Lent, he might manage to write at Mike Duran's level. Duran's fiction just does not have the flavor of books written for the Christian-fiction ghetto. I think he'll go far....

Blog Tour Links:

Buy the book at Amazon.com The Resurrection

Author's web page: http://mikeduran.com

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BBC's Being Human: George and Nina expecting Werewolf baby

2011-03-12T14:15:00.000-06:00

First George accidentally turns his girlfriend Nina into a werewolf. Then Nina becomes pregnant, and after considering killing the baby for most of an episode (and poor George dare not say anything to defend his child's life), Nina decides not to abort, but then the werewolf couple have to worry about whether a preborn child can handle the stress of its mamma turning into a dog once a month.

Of course, my worry would be that since the baby was conceived while mamma and daddy were in wolf form, that Nina's pregnancy would take a course typical for canine females and she will give birth to a whole litter of werewolf children. That would be so cool, except the poor werewolf kiddies will never be invited to slumber parties on full moon nights....

Bone Fires of Kaalaa: Excerpt

2011-03-11T09:11:00.004-06:00

Imagine landing on an alien planet and finding yourself surrounded by 9 billion skeletons...

"You must know," Natalo told his officer, "that Terra is not the only world the Logua have attacked as, almost, a side effect of their war with the Sposeni.

"According to the Loguan records the most recent world they attacked was Eorahal, homeworld of the Kaal. The Loguans won a decisive victory, and decided that Eorahal would make an ideal colony world for them.

"So they packed the entire Kaal population into cargo ships and took them to a world they knew of which was too far away from their own network of permanent Gates to be of any use to them.

"The Loguan records don't say, explicitly, what happened to the Kaal. But ever after this planet has been called Kaalaa--- Loguan for 'graveyard of the Kaal.'"

"Nice," said Emilina Danubo. "The lesson for us is, don't lose the war."

This is a little taste of my current work-in-progress, and I'm sharing it in celebration of the fact that there HAS been progress...

The Word Cloud is from http://www.wordle.net/, which I learned about from the blog of Amanda Borenstadt (author of Syzygy)

NOTE: this month's Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour is coming up--- watch this blog

Read the Bible in a year--- and the Catechism

2011-03-10T16:14:00.001-06:00

There are a lot of plans out there for reading the Bible in a year, and now that I am a Bible Christian instead of an Odin-worshipping Neopagan, I see the value of them. It's harder to get in the discipline of Bible-reading if you always are wondering which part of the Bible to be reading on any given day.

Today I found a Bible reading plan with something extra--- it's based on the complete Bible, not one that omits the books tossed out of the Bible by most Protestants after the Reformation. And it ALSO includes daily readings of the Catholic Catechism, so that you will also read THAT in a year (if you so choose.) Read the Bible and the Catechism in a Year

The daily reading includes a chapter from 3 different books of the Bible each day. It's in PDF format and if you print out the 2 pages onto the same sheet of paper and fold it in quarters, you have a little leaflet you can keep in your Bible.

Some people might assume that only those Bible Christians who are Catholic would like this scripture reading plan. But nowadays Protestants and Evangelicals are often less than fully convinced that Martin Luther was inerrantly inspired by the Holy Spirit when he treated the Deuterocanonical books (the 'Apocrypha') as not really Biblical, since Luther also wanted to kick the epistle of James out of the Bible altogether (the Deuterocanonicals were included in the Luther translation of the Bible, but grouped together between the Old and New Testaments).

Even Pastor Arnold Murray of the Shepherd's Chapel TV Bible study program is not against reading the Deuterocanonicals and says good things about them, though he doesn't preach on them as he does with other books of the Bible. So this Bible reading plan meets the needs of many Bible Christians who are Protestant/Evangelical as well as the Catholics.

I'm starting with the Bible reading plan today. Another nice thing about it is that it doesn't have the months and days listed so you can start any time, and if you skip a week, you can just keep going with where you left off--- and you can read ahead when you are energetic. I challenge anyone out there to do likewise.

Kindle Bible (KJV with Apocrypha) (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump)
Kindle Catholic Bible (D-R) (best navigation with Direct Verse Jump)

Blogging 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'

2011-03-08T11:15:00.002-06:00

My book 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows' will soon be available not only at Lulu.com, but also at other booksellers such as Amazon.com. Soon anyone with 7.76 to spend will be able to own a paperback copy. It's totally worth it just for the cute kitty-picture on the cover.

'Where the Opium Cactus Grows' is a collection of all the offbeat and non-sane poems I have written over the past couple of decades. Some of them have actually been published. Many are from my infamous Youthful Marxist Phase, most are weird to very weird, some are semi-comprehensible, all are in English (more or less) and none have any themes, deep meanings or any of that other sh&t you had to learn about in English class. It's all 'just for funny'....

In honor of the publication I will be blogging the book, one poem at a time, over the next couple of months. I hope it makes you laugh, cry, pray, scream obscenities, or all of the above.

In other news: Sarah Palin has just given birth to 2 kittens. Film at 11. Kitten daddy unknown but could be John McCain.

(No, not THAT Sarah Palin and John McCain, I mean Sarah Palin and John McCain my cats. And John better not be the daddy because Sarah's his sister.)

Video: Planned Parenthood's Racist Founder

2011-02-24T07:59:00.000-06:00

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, considered herself part of the eugenics movement. Certain people, in her opinion, were genetic 'weeds' whose genes needed to be eliminated from the human garden. One group of 'weeds', evidently, was black people.

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Questions about Alien Flatware

2011-01-10T11:41:00.000-06:00

When the aliens invade and destroy our cities and enslave and/or eat our people, the first question on my mind will be, what kind of flatware do they use?

We are so used to our own cultural norm of eating tools that we may forget, when we sit down to dinner, that not everyone uses chopsticks. Some folks use odd implements like forks and spoons instead. And the things aliens use would be even weirder.

What kind of tools do YOUR favorite aliens eat with? Tongs, forceps, basket-rakes, needles, chainsaws? Or maybe they just use their fingers/tentacles.....

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Well, actually it's a kitten. And she's so wild you'll have to come here and catch her yourself.

Free Kindle Ebook: Born to Run by Mercedes Lackey

2010-12-31T08:19:00.000-06:00

If you have an ebook reader such as a Kindle or even if you just download some ebook reader software to your home computer, there are a lot of books you can download free from the Baen Free Library or ManyBooks.net.

Mercedes Lackey's Born to Run is available at the Baen Free Library. Mrs. Lackey likes to write about unhappy if not abused children and those who make it their mission to help them, and Born to Run has its unhappy children in the form of three runaways and underage prostitutes, Tania, Jamie and Laura. Tania ran away from a wealthy home because her wicked parents forbade her to read fantasy fiction--- the ultimate sin to a fantasy writer. But she is now trapped in an unpleasant life, and in danger from an evil elf-woman, Aurilia, who has a business making kiddie porn and snuff films for a select and perverted clientele.

But there are also good elves-- who race cars for a living--- and a mage, Tannim, who sees Tania and decides to help her out. Tannim has a thing for helping people--- and ex-people. We first see Tannim rescuing an 'earth-bound spirit'--- the ghost of a man who does not realize he is dead. The ghost, Ross Canfield, has been standing for a couple of years on the side of the road near the place where he died in a car wreck, unaware of time passing until Tannim performed a magical ritual to make contact with him. Ross begins to learn the ropes of being a ghost and later in the story is able to help Tannim out.

Tannim's elf friend Keighvin has a mortal enemy in the evil elf Aurilia and her allies, and a small elf-war ensues. The war convinces Tannim to delay helping Tania and her friends, which gives Aurilia time to kidnap them. And so the elf-folk must ride to the rescue--- an exciting ride all the way to the book's end.

For concerned persons I would like to point out that even though the villain of the piece may be in the porn business, Mercedes Lackey isn't, and we are thankfully not expected to read any explicit accounts of sex acts in spite of three of the characters being prostitutes.

This book is part of Mrs. Lackey's urban fantasy series involving racecar driving elves, and meshes up with one of her other series involving the good witch Diana Tregarde. The Tregarde series was very popular with Neopagan kids, and many of them became convinced that some of the things in the book were real and that Mrs. Lackey could hook them up with REAL magick and REAL witchcraft that worked the way it does in books. This forced Mrs. Lackey to discontinue the Tregarde series.

There are also a couple of instances of anti-Christianism in the book, and one is rather troubling. Young runaway Tania is discussing with Tannim the different shelters she might use to get off the street, and she dismisses the Christian shelters out of hand because she doesn't want to hear the Christian message. The impression is given that Christian charity is all but useless to street kids. In the real world, the majority of charities available to the down-and-out are Christian charities, and these charities help all regardless of their faith. One hopes that no kids at risk, reading this book, decided to pass up help from a Christian charity in the hope that they'd find some Neopagan charities opening up any day now....

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Well, actually it's a kitten. And she's so wild you'll have to come here and catch her yourself.

How many of these books have you read?

2010-12-27T08:37:00.000-06:00

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

I found this over at Fabianspace, Karina Fabian's blog. Read her post here: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-many-of-these-classics-have-i-read.html

Instructions: Bold those books you've read in their entirety.
Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

TAG! YOU'RE IT!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 1984--George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - boring, then I found out it was written to teach kids atheism. Still boring.

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch-22 --Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - I like Titus Andronicus the best.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - one of the first grown-up books I read as a child.

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - I read the first paragraph or so in Russian when I was learning Russian.

25 The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - I thought the ending was really, really funny....

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (All 7 of them!)

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - very dull, at least if you've already read the book Brown used as his source for the wild theories.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - liked it in spite of the hysterical anti-Christianism

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (and Seamonsters?)

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - is that the one about the kid with Asperger's Syndrome? if so it's on my must-read list.....

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - I only read it for the smutty bits.

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - I keep thinking of it as the Count of Monte Crisco....

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - my mom made me watch the movie because Colin Firth was in it and she has a crush on him.....

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - did you know Melville is believed to have Asperger's Syndrome?

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - must have read it a hundred times in school (if I had admitted I was finished with it, I'd have had to write a book report.)

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - I like the Doctor Who version better....

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazu Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Nearly as funny as Anna Karenina.

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - I'm betting one of them won't be Mitch Albom.

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - I want to have a lackey just like D'Artagnon does.

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

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Well, actually it's a kitten. And she's so wild you'll have to come here and catch her yourself.

Do Klingons really sing Silent Night?

2010-12-25T08:01:00.001-06:00

I can imagine the Klingons gathering in celebration. They have a vat of blood wine big enough to drown a Ferengi in--- not that they'd ever drown one in perfectly good blood wine when they have daggers handy. And Klingons always have daggers handy--- which explains the sticky mess on the floor.

Then the Klingons start to sing:

wa’ ram tam ram Dun
Hoch jot Hoch wov
Sos’a’Daq je puq’a’Daq
roj ghaj ghu Dun ‘ej tam
yIQong ‘ej roj jot yIghaj
yIQong ‘ej roj jot yIghaj

But the tune--- wait a minute, isn't that Silent Night? Yes, friends, someone has gone to the trouble of translating Silent Night into the Klingon language. I just can't imagine Klingons ever singing it--- not unless they added some bits about eating your enemies' hearts on toast which kind of wouldn't go well with the theme....

To see the rest of Silent Night in Klingon, go to: http://silentnight.web.za/translate/klingon.htm

To see Silent Night in a host of other languages, go to:
http://silentnight.web.za/translate/index.html

Bringing hope and God's love to homosexuals

2010-12-25T07:41:00.001-06:00

This is a lonely time of year for those with same-sex attraction (homosexuality, Gay identity). While the rest of the world goes off to church to celebrate the birth of Christ, if you have same-sex attraction you are very likely to feel that you are not welcome in any church, anywhere, no matter how chastely you have been living your life.

But there is hope for us in Christ, Whose coming we celebrate today. ALL of us, Gay or straight, have sinned
and so have alienated ourselves from God. But Jesus, even though He had full knowledge of all the bad stuff about us, chose to come to Earth, and to give His life that our alienation from God could end.

Today God is calling all of us home to be reconciled to Him, no matter how long we have been away from His church. It is true that some people in churches everywhere will be uncharitable to the person with same-sex attraction seeking to come home to the church. Even when such people are being nice to us, we can tell they would be more comfortable if we would declare that we had been once-and-for-all cured of our Gay tendencies and will never speak about it again. This can be incredibly painful and make us feel like we will never be welcome among God's people.

To be charitable to such people I suppose I must admit that in today's culture, Christians are constantly being pressured by the progressive movement to accept things that no one who believes what the Bible and the church teach could accept--- under threat of being called a hater just like a KKK member is a hater. This may account for the cold shoulder so many seem to be giving to even the most chaste of their Gay fellow Christians.

I have a video to share with you here today--- please watch it and tell me what you think of it, and if you find it useful share it with others. I found it a very hopeful thing, and found especially intriguing the concept of the victim soul, and the idea that I and others with SSA are called by God in a special way.

A useful blog for those dealing with SSA (same-sex attraction) is The CHASTITY Ring.
A great book on the subject is: Beyond Gay.

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Well, actually it's a kitten. And she's so wild you'll have to come here and catch her yourself.