Fail

:/ Missed the self imposed deadline I had set for myself. While, I typed about 1100 words on Thursday, work and a track meet prevented any writing yesterday. It's 4am on Saturday, and I'm up. Guess I'll get out of bed and try and work. The day is shaking out to being busy, even though I have no real commitments.

Fully Engaged

So, since I traded up and purchased a nook I havn't been reading many IN-Print books.  It's not that I don't enjoy them, its just that it is so much easier to just download and go.

I went to a conference with the company, THRIVENT.  They handle financial matters with a Lutheran flair.  They are changing their business model and are now accepting NON Lutherans.  This is besides the point of this blog. 

At the conference I received some really nice SWAG.  It was held in Hershey, PA so besides the Chocolate aspect I received a book titled, Fully Engaged: How to DO Less and BE More by John Busacker.  The book is a motivational book and I'm usually not into this type of genre to read, must admit I really liked it since I read it. 

On Page 46, the author is trying to get people to tell their stories.  This was extremely poigniant to me.  The type of stories he is encouraging people to write are personal histories.  However, my stories will fit this too, as The story itself is what is important.  He has a great quote by Oliver Wendel Holmes, "Most people go to their graves with their music still inside of them."  As the author points out this is "like having the library burn down."  I recommend this book especially if you are struggling with the question of what to do with your life.  It really puts your choices into perspective. 

FAMILY

It was a busy weekend here at our house. I volunteer for a lot of causes. This weekend was a major fundraiser for a cause near and dear to my heart. My family drove over 2 hours to come stay with us and help out. It was an Awesome weekend. I got to spend some time with my nephews and we even released the snapping turtles we had kept in an aquarium over the winter. I love my FAMILY and am so happy they love me too. :) Check out the photos of the great Snapping Turtle Release of 2012.

My father is an exterminator of sorts. The mama snapping turtle had invaded a pond that the owner had stocked with trout. He was called in to diagnose the missing trout problem. She died, but he was able to save the eggs and bury them in some sand. When they hatched he released most of them. These two spent a nice time being fattened up at our house over the winter. We released them into a really nice lake with plenty of food.

The Dreaded REVIEW

O.K. I've come to a rather raw conclusion. It's hard to accept reviews from people who have read your works. I know they are being honest. Some people will like your work, some people won't. This is just a fact of life. I myself have critiqued some works rather harshly. Recently, an author published a work on Smashwords that had an error I could not overlook. Let me explain. I make some pretty silly gramatical mistakes myself, so I shouldn't judge. But, this author didn't know the proper there, their, or they're to use. This is one of my pet peeves with students at school. A couple of days later I logged into Barnes and Noble only to have my own scathing critique posted. I read it and couldn't believe the review, because out of all the stories I have written this one probably had the least amount of mistakes. Secondly, I had a critique partner. This means that someone other than me read through it and helped me fix those mistakes. I couldn't help but think that I had a retribution review. If you are insecure don't become an author. What I mean to say is that authors bare their souls when they write. Bad reviews are like attacks on those souls. Even the slightest insecurity can lead to a rehashing of the work itself. For me as a writer, I just had to put my proverbial foot down and say, "this is out of my hands." Either they will like it or hate it. Done.

New Short Story

I recently read a post by someone who says they are trying to write a story a month for 2012. I thought that was a noble goal. Since 2012 began, I too, have published a short story a month. So in honor of my NEW goal. I started a story last week that I'm happy to say had over 2000 words added to it yesterday. The only problem is that I wanted to publish it tomorrow... So So So NOT going to happen. The theme is of course St. Patrick's Day. Do you think it will still be good to read after the holiday? So far everyone who has read the Valentine's Day Short Story, "Cooking Naked," has been o.k. reading it after the fact. I'm glad to say some of my early works are some of the most downloaded erotic/adult fiction on Barnes and Noble. Ich, better delete that last comment. Sounds too much like bragging. Well, it does doesn't it. I am very councious of how the books are being received by the public, so I read the reviews (YES, PLEASE LEAVE REVIEWS). I check the download counts, and I watch where my books sit when I log in to find NEW reading material for my own NOOK. My husband has noticed a severe drop off in reading lately however, because I was able to figure out my apps feature and I downloaded some games. :)

FB Photo I had to elaborate on...

I liked this Photo on Facebook. I think this needs to be made into a poster So I can hang it at school. Some of the kids I work with need to have an eye opening. I see more of step one than anything. ;)Adelaye

health scare

Last Thursday I again went in for surgery. Though it was minor, it was to remove some growths that could have been cancerous. I held off posting about it until the results were in. Dr. Says they are not cancerous. Thank goodness for insurance. Without it we would be in trouble. Anesthesia both times, surgery 2 times and its only March. Still made me evaluate some changes id make. Will keep you all posted :)

Special Speaker

Often our minister at church asks other people to come in and share a message. I am for this, but also against this. I am for it because I love to have the opinion of new speakers and hear a NEW message. I'm against it in that we pay our minister more than my husband and I make in a year and he gets out of preaching a lot. I mean if there are 52 weeks in a year he should at least attempt to preach at a mojority of services. The speaker today was a from out west in California. It wasn't a message just a jumble of statements and musings from this pastor. One of the best bits of his teaching was in a little insert in the bulletin.

"Situational Listening" or as I changed it to "Spiritual Listening"- 4 ways to practice listening in small increments:
1. Do not interupt. This gives the other person the feeling that what they are saying is not important.
2. You DO NOT need the last word. There is no reason to feel the need to ONE-Up others.
3. Silence the mind. Not every thing someone says needs a reply. Stop trying to think of witty combacks.
4. Do NOT give your opinion unless asked. Sometimes people just need to say what's on their minds. Instead PRAY for the other person to make the right choice on their own.

For those of you who know me quite well, I am forever interupting when others are speaking. It's a habit that is a hold over from childhood. To this day when my family gets together we all talk, very loudly, all at once. Very little actual listening goes on. Its frustrating, but normal to us. My husband HATES it. When I had my surgery in January I became quite a listener. However, a few weeks later I'm back to my old tricks of interupting. Shame on me :(

For those of you who do not know it, My husband and I spent about a year in England when he was getting his Masters Degree at the Unversity of Leeds. We lived in Harehills and I commuted everyday to a job at the White Rose Shopping Mall. One thing we have always missed is the Indian curry place that would deliver. So when a good Indian Grocery store opened up about a 45 minute drive from us, my husband and I were there on Opening Weekend. Since then we get into town to do some shopping about once a month. This was the haul from yesterday's shopping trip. It's as close as I can get to Indian Fast Food. The best part is it doesn't come with a layer of grease on top. :) Adelaye

PS: I also like that I can get Blackcurrent Ribena in a 1liter bottle. In fact I think I'll make myself a cup now.

Afghan Women VS Censorship

I subscribe to several RSS feeds. So this morning I'm catching up on BBC news and there is this article on how social networking sites like facebook give the afghan people living around the world a way to share their frustration at recent "Laws" put forth by Karzai and his Conservative Clerics.

If you do not follow international news this is very big. For Karzai to publically endorse seperation of the sexes is very bad for women in general. It's like saying that we go back to segregation here in the USA. Seperate water fountains and all. Unfortunately, women in that country have very little say, so MEN will continue to treat them like second class citizens. We thought the 1960's were bad. Try being segregated in 2012.

In this instance I'm glad I live in the USA. We do have many problems of our own. Take all the Censorship things I have been writing about, but segregation is not one of them. This makes the censorship issue a small cause instead of a BIG one as I made it out to be.

Adelaye;)

Being Consumed

Last night I sat through a really good message at chruch. Yes, It is the Easter season and Lent makes an appearance at church weekly a necessity. If fact we have a great time at soup suppers. It's quite nice to sit down with friends and eat like a big family. We joke, we tell stories, and just eat really good "soul" food.

When dinner is done we go upstairs for "The Message." The speaker this week stressed the things that Jesus did in his final days leading up to the cross. She pointed out that to be true Christians and follow in his footsteps we need to turn the other cheek. Only not just turn it, live it. If I were living a "Christ Centered" life I could just allow the things that irritate me to go on by. Christ knew he was going to die on the cross. Yet, he didn't fight his captors. He accepted the fate they handed down willingly.

I hear(heard) the message. I'm just not sure this leopard can chnage its spots over night. I mean its taken me 35 years to get this way.

Adelaye

8 Hours in a Car for a Birthday Party

My Nephew had a Birthday today at Medieval Times. It took us 4 hours to get there, then a 3 hour show and another 4 hour drive home. The kids loved it.
Still was a little too long for us. Are we getting old?

New Rant(s)

O.K. I'm still stewing over the Paypal issue. However, time moves on and I don't feel as inclined to vent. I'm glad some authors have decided to pursue the avenue of Censorship and even hire counsel to represent them. I still don't understand why the main stream media has not gotten into the act yet. Waiting for BBC or MSNBC or for that matter MSN to run some print articles about it. (Yes, I'm a news junkie and my RSS feed has a plethora of news on it)

My NEW rant is actually a long request for people to boycot H&R Block. My husband and I had one of the worst experiences ever at H&R Block the other night. Our saga starts with being insulted by the tax preparer. She insulted my organizational skills. I have always kept every receipt for an entire year. Then after taxes I throw out what the preparer deems unuseful. (Sorry environment, I actually burn it) I meticulously organize it so that when I'm asked questions by the preparer, I can find everything within a few seconds. This has helped immensly in the past, especially, if we itemize. She spent less than 1/2 an hour with us. She treated me like I was an idiot, and I guess I am for subjecting myself to H&R Block in the first place. She then decided she needed to spend some time looking over our information and would call me to set up a time to sign. I get this call the NEXT day. Your taxes are done, that will be 250$. My husband and I were like WTF. So we went back to the office to pick them up. Then the Preparer on duty tells me. We can not give you an itemized list of your bill. WTF you charged me $250 I'd like to know why. So here is the List H&R Block refused to give me untill I became an unruly client.

$67 base federal form
$21 W2 Calculation of wages
$7 Educator expense Deduction
$12 Interest and Dividends Review
$53 SCH C Profit and Loss of Bus.
$27 8880 Credit for Retirement Cont
$5 Married Filing Joint
$44 PA 40 Tax Return
$5 PA Sch C
$14 PA Sch UE Bus/Ed/Depr
= a Load of Bull SHit

I can understand some of the expenses, but she didn't calculate anything. The computer did. She even complained because I work so many jobs, when all she had to do was type in the amounts my employers provided. I have a business, but I have a computer program that figures everything out before hand all she had to do was again enter the figures. My husband said that he will definitely do them next year. At the rate we were charged he could work 12 hours just on our taxes and we would save money.
So the moral of this story do your taxes yourself. Even if H&R block has a pretty sign and good advertising they are still a business in the habit of thinking they can screw with the little people. And we as Americans wonder why we have so many businesses in trouble. Chalk another one up to corporate greed. If they had charged me half of that amount I probably wouldn't have batted an eye. Sometimes greed does not pay.

I applogize to any one who may work for H&R Block. Maybe all offices are NOT the same. My experience may be a fluke. However, I really don't think so.