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 |   Thoughts destined to be washed away by the tides of life. |
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I've been studying my cover photo for a while now, and it seems to me that it is more than just a photo of what is there that can be seen, more than just three white rocks stacked on a beach. It contains an important question about the future, about what happens long after the photographer has gone. What will happen to our pile of stones when the tide comes in? Will it topple or has the architect built this structure at a safe distance? I don't know what will happen to these words that I stack here on the sand. They may prove safely distant, or they may be swallowed up by a rush of self-doubt. They may be here for a season. They may lose their balance and be scattered by the shoreline, or be hidden away under shifting sands. Perhaps someday, the tides of life will reclaim them. Or maybe that's just a bunch of poetic, romantic nonsense. After all, this is just a blog. |
| Henry's gone. Spiders are clever little things and hunting spiders are downright scary smart.  They will watch you to see what moves you are making and adjust their routes and moves accordingly. They also get into tight little spots that may be extremely comfortable for them but are highly inconvenient for you. A couple of years ago, a spider crawled into the area of the digital clock on my stove and refused to leave. He just stuck his body in front of whichever bright green numeral he liked and got in the way of accurately timed baked goods. We got rid of the stove, but not because of him.The other night, I glanced at the thermostat in my bedroom because I wanted to know the temperature in the room. I often check it these days when it might be chilly  one night and warm the next  . The addition or removal of blankets and the opening or closing of windows are all subject to the vagaries of October weather. I know everyone thinks of October as cool and crisp but that's true only part of the time. November is a much nicer month but that's an argument for another day. I glanced at the thermostat. It was close to 70 in the room, so the window needed to be opened. But in the mostly darkened room, I couldn't figure out what that blob was on the face of the thermostat. I didn't think about it for long, as I was anxious to get to dreamland. The next day I looked more closely and discovered a very dead-appearing spider lying upside down INSIDE the thermostat, behind the tiny, clear circle of plastic where the temperatures are chosen and measured. I thought about how I needed to get that dead spider out of there but it didn't seem urgent. Later, when the upside-down, dead spider had returned to life, righted himself and moved within his tiny space, it began to feel urgent. I didn't know if he might accidentally change the setting and turn on the heat or possibly short something out. I called my son and DIL-to-be to look at it. He pulled off the front ring of the thermostat to see if we could get the spider out. We couldn't. There didn't seem to be any way into that space. Son tapped on the plastic face trying to urge the spider to move. DIL-to-be named the spider Henry. I don't name spiders. I either ignore them or kill them depending on where they are living, building webs or dangling.  Perhaps because he became shy and disliked being the center of attention or perhaps because the Son chased him round and round with the thermostat red temperature arrow ("I made him run laps," he said), the spider found the way out, the mysterious route than no human can find. I noticed his absence the next morning. "Henry is gone," I announced. The damn spider now has a name. That's going to make it harder to kill him when next I see him. But I definitely will kill him. It's too dangerous a precedent to set. |
| I've heard it many times: Don't complain about a review. Don't disagree with a review. Swallow your protestations. I do all that. I even tuck in my sarcasm. But there is one thing I have become aware of that I think is important, and that is when the review of a book entry affects the whole book's rating. I guess that it has to do that, based on the structure of a book, etc. But when someone reviews just one item in a book and rubbishes it, that low rating affects the whole book's rating. It is something that I will ever keep in mind when reviewing book entries. Not that I would ever treat anyone's writing with such disdain and never would I review anything that I felt deserved a very low rating. I try to point out the good not the bad. I look for the shiny bits, the parts that make me smile or cry and thank the author for having done that. So, that's all. I am more determined than ever to write uplifting reviews. Now if someone wants to publish and they need a professional editor, I think they should find one. That's not me. I want to find those wonderful, shiny bits of people that they put into their writing, and then tell them how much I appreciate them sharing. |
When Rockwell wrote this song in 1984, it was a bit of a fun poke at the type of paranoia that we are all given to at times. Because it’s about a common feeling, the song didn’t tread into the area of making light of real mental illness. But if Rockwell felt like he was being watched 36 years ago, what sort of song would he write about 2020? We have all grown used to the way that our web browsers track us and how they tell Facebook which products we were interested in looking up yesterday so that we then face multiple assaults by ads aimed at selling us that very product. Twenty years ago, when I was first venturing out into the internet, the very thought would have freaked me out. But now, I just murmur discontentedly about unsolicited ads on Facebook and keep going. There’s a lot to do and it’s easier sometimes to ignore the privacy issues because getting the job done requires the systems that present these issues. Free stuff often comes at a high price. If we paid for Facebook or Google or Zoom, then we would and should expect high priority given to protecting our personal information. But, can you imagine how many people would sign up for a paid Facebook? Right, not many. And Facebook would cease to exist with a pay to post model. Big companies don’t use free conferencing programs, because they need privacy and not Zoom bombing. The reason that Facebook and other social media programs are free to use is because they are not the product. You are. The user supplies personal data, interests, shopping habits, feedback on purchases, location and a list of their friends and family. All of this data helps the tech giants to sell ads, and to sell you. And still, we continue to sign in and sign up for data mining. The other day I was watching a YouTube video on my laptop. It was a knitting pattern for a slipper and the audio was in Russian (with video instructions and rudiments of language like numbers, it’s quite possible to follow a pattern in another language). Suddenly, the Duolingo language learning app on my phone sent me a notification, reminding me that I still had goals to meet in my Russian lessons. So yes, we are all definitely being spied upon by our technology. Somebody is watching us, and listening to us, and even knows when what they hear is in Russian. Freaky. But I am still using all this free social media and taking my chances. I guess convenience has won out over paranoia. I am not sure that is a good thing. |
| Yesterday was the last day of September and suddenly, I found myself facing a set of deadlines that I hadn't intended to try to make. I was under no obligation to write two stories. But, I decided to give it a go and I am glad I did. It's not all glory, however. I am already wincing at needed edits I wish I had time to make on one of stories. I am too fearful to re-read the other story I wrote. It's probably worse than I remember. Actually, I wrote it so fast yesterday that I don't really remember it very well, at all. The point of the exercise was to try to write two stories in genres I don't usually write it at all. I was not sure I wanted to write in these genres. I had no ideas and both had to be written before midnight. As it turned out, I did it all in one crazy busy day that included receiving several long phone calls, a visit from a relative and the usual various interruptions of family and cat. Of course, I was a bit diverted from my original weekly goals, but in the long run I will have accomplished more. And I wrote a blog post. |
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