I will hug him and squeeze him…
by Lynn Daniels on August 26, 2008 at 8:19 am
… and call him George!
The AlphaSmart 3000 I purchased off eBay arrived yesterday (that’s the auction picture, btw) — much earlier than I expected, which made me doubly excited.
Before his arrival, I had fully expected to call him Alphie. I mean, come on. The name of the product just begs for that, doesn’t it? And I tried. I really tried. But when I pulled him out of the box and held him in my hands, Alphie is not what I saw. Not by a longshot. Nope, what I saw was George.
And George he became. Even though he ain’t no bunny rabbit.
I pulled him out of the packaging and turned him on. Typed some nonsense just to feel the keyboard. Read his manual cover to cover. Typed some more nonsense just because I could. Explored his functions. Then I hopped onto the ‘net to download the latest software, connected him to the computer, and uploaded. So now, since George is all updated and ready to go (he even came with batteries!), I’m going to put him to work this morning.
The kids are off to school, and I’m off to write.
And since I kind of paraphrased the quote to fit the title of the post…
Book Buzz Tag
by Lynn Daniels on August 25, 2008 at 3:01 pm
The lovely Nadia tagged me before I could run away! I’m at a little bit of a disadvantage with this one, as I haven’t been reading as much or keeping up with what’s out there. But I’m going to do the best I can. I’m also working really hard to restrain myself from adding extra comments as I usually would. It’s that constant need to explain myself, I guess.
Anyway, here goes!
Rules:
I am going to list three categories of books: 5 MUST Read Books, 5 Books on Your Nightstand, and 5 Look For These Soon.
Anyone I tag should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own.
Then they should tag at least 5 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as it goes around the blogosphere.
Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing as they go around the blogosphere.
Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.
5 MUST Read Books:
- Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
- Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
- A Mile in My Flip-Flops by Melody Carlson
- Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward
- Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
5 Books on the Nightstand:
- Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
- Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
- Crazy in Love by Lani Diane Rich
- Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey
- From Harvey River by Lorna Goodison
5 Look For These Soon:
- Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
- Evernight by Claudia Gray
- Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins
- The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward
- Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
WHEW! That was tough. And after seeing my contribution compared to the others, I feel so…pedestrian. 
Okay, now to tag five bloggers. Ummm….
Tess, Heather, Andrew, Carol, and Cynthia.
Have fun with it, y’all!
Saturday Shot 23 AUGUST 2008
by Lynn Daniels on August 23, 2008 at 2:33 pm
For today’s Saturday Shot, we’ll return to Yellowstone. In fact, this is the first photo from this vacation I’ve posted that was taken in Yellowstone. Of course, since I’ve only posted three photos, that’s no biggie… Let’s just forget about that and move on.
This is Grand Prismatic Spring, the most colorful thermal feature in the park. All the colors in the spring are caused by bacteria — every time you see a color change, that indicates a change in the water temperature, which means a different kind of bacteria resides there. Whatever the scientific reasoning, the result is absolutely gorgeous.
Look closely, and you’ll see the boardwalk behind the spring. That’s where my photos of the spring were taken from in the past. This year, though, I was determined to get a more overhead shot. Last time we visited (in 2006), we hiked a trail behind this geyser basin down to Fairy Falls. It was a very buggy day, and we were tired, and I seem to remember thinking we’d hiked all the way to Michigan with all the walking we’d done. Well. along that trail, there was a pretty high hill, and I’d heard on the forums I visit that climbing that hill will get you high enough to get the overhead shots I wanted.
I told SoundGuy we were climbing that hill. Lucky for me he was all for it.
So we got to the hill and found the footpaths many photographers (and other types of people, for that matter) before us had worn into the ground during their climbs to the top. The climb was a bit hairy in spots, and I scared SoundGuy to death because I’m not always the most steady person on my feet, but the reward, as you can see, was more than worth it.
When we got to the top, there was already another photographer up there with his tripod. He left soon after we arrived, leaving us the whole hill. All four of us took shots — well, MiniMe, LittleDude and I took shots. SoundGuy shot video. Sadly, on his video you can hear me stumbling around, and you can also hear my shutter just going a mile a minute.
When we finally thought we’d captured the view as well as we could, we hiked back down. Just in time, too, because on the way down we came across at least a half dozen people headed for the top. When we got back down, we did the geyser basin walk, but soon had to abandon it — we could see a pretty nasty looking storm rushing in. Not long after we got back into the truck, the rains came, and the thunder came, and the lightning came.
And then came the hail.
Relief! Ahhh….
by Lynn Daniels on August 22, 2008 at 2:28 pm
You have no idea how nice it is for me to have all my stuff back! I can go upstairs and find my processed pictures, my writing, crochet patterns… It really is a relief. After a morning of running errands with SoundGuy, I’ve spent this afternoon moving Photoshop and running my hand across the hard drive with my recovered pictures. My pretty…
Got my Alphasmart 3000 ordered this morning and already received shipping notice (love the quickies!) — I’m feeling so damn good right now, I might actually do some writing tonight. 
But first, I think I’ll try to convince SoundGuy to catch a UGA women’s soccer game. Opening night! And it’s free! 
Free is good. Tomorrow night, I’m sure we’ll hit the races again. Not free, but still good ol’ redneck fun. And Sunday…who knows what Sunday will bring.
If we have any luck, it’ll bring rain. We need rain. My lawn is dead. 
(Seriously, I just wanted a chance to use that smiley.) What are your weekend plans?
ETA: Downloaded FreeMind yesterday (thanks for the link and info, Jane!), and am playing with it to try and work out the plot for my new untitled WIP. So far, so fun!
Tsk, Tsk.
by Lynn Daniels on August 21, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I’ve been lazy today.
Laid in bed all morning (after the kids went to school and SoundGuy went to work, of course) sleeping and reading on and off. Didn’t shower until noon. And you know what?
It was AWESOME! 
Then SoundGuy came home and ruined it all. But at least I had my morning!
Yesterday, our data retrieval guy called and reported he was able to get everything off our crashed drive. If I had a whew! smiley, I’d insert it here. The recovery of this data means I have everything I’ve written in the computer again. All the photos I’d processed (vacations, hikes, soccer…) have returned. My photo editing software installation files are back. All the original files for my website are close at hand. Yeah, life is good.
We had a scare with my truck on Tuesday. LittleDude and I got home from TKD, and when we got out of the truck, there was smoke coming out of the driver’s side wheel well. And it smelled. Then I realized there were puddles under my truck. I’d been parked less than a minute and a half and there were puddles. So I called SoundGuy.
Based on puddle locations and the color of my finger after I stuck it in the puddles, it looked like I was leaking transmission fluid. Unfortunately, the dealer could take my truck in, but had no loaners available. For three days. Even though the service department offered me a shuttle ride home, that shuttle wouldn’t take me to the grocery store or the kids to TKD and soccer practice, so I was stuck. With a truck I couldn’t drive for fear of burning up the transmission. 
Next thing I knew, SoundGuy had me on my back underneath the truck.
Wait. 
That didn’t come out right. Let’s put it this way. I called SoundGuy back, and he had me looking for the source of the leak. I was taking camera phone pictures of what I saw under the truck and sending them to him. At one point, I’m sure I muttered something about over-the-phone auto repair. To make a long story short, it turned out that something had come up from the road and damaged my oil filter, which SoundGuy replaced that night when he got home. No more leak. No transmission problems, I can drive me truck again without leaving a trail, and all is right with the world.
Tomorrow, I’m going to hit eBay and find a used Alphasmart 3000. Won’t cost me as much as a new Neo, and if I discover it’s not as helpful to my writing as I think it’s going to be, I won’t be out as much money. I’m still excited, though.
Now I’m off to watch the rest of this morning’s gold medal soccer game between the US Women and Brazil. I missed it on TV (I thought it was tonight 
), so I’m watching the video at NBCOlympics.com.
Hope you’re having a wonderful week!
Mmmmm…Chocolate….
by Lynn Daniels on August 19, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Another one blognapped from Heather…
|
What Your Taste in Chocolate Says About You |
 You are sophisticated, modern, and high class. Your taste is refined, but you are not picky. You are often the first to try something new. You are lively, goofy, and a total blast. You love being around people. Friendships are important to you. |
Hm. I could pretty much go with most of it (although I’m not sure anybody would describe me as sophisticated), but that last line — a total bust. I actually love my alone time. 
Of course, now I’m craving chocolate. 
Holy Cake Wrecks, Batman!
by Lynn Daniels on August 18, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Thanks to Heather for this link — I haven’t laughed this long and loud in– Gawd, I can’t remember the last time I laughed this much at something on the internet. Maybe the first time I read “Steve, Don’t Eat It!” over at The Sneeze.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present
Word to the wise: make sure you’re sitting down and not drinking anything when you visit.
tuh-MAY-toh — tuh-MAH-toh
by Lynn Daniels on August 17, 2008 at 8:53 pm
How do you research settings?
In the past, my stories have been set in fictitious places, usually in an area of the country I’m familiar with. It’s easy to make up your own cities and towns; nobody can point at your story and say, “That would never happen in [insert city name here]!”
In my current as-yet-unnamed WIP, I wanted to set a portion of it in a city I’ve never been to, but many people would be familiar with. Problem is I’m stuck on the research. I can ferret out business names and types, I can order literature from their Chamber of Commerce, I can even interview people who live or have visited there. But how do I get the feel of a place? The atmosphere? The nuances of an area you might not consciously notice but always subconsciously recognize?
A great non-writing example occurred for me during an episode of “The West Wing”. One of the main characters was supposed to be flying into Atlanta for a quick airport meeting. The fact that the airport in the episode clearly wasn’t Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport didn’t bother me a bit; I didn’t figure they’d actually come down here to film. But what did bother me was the character’s repeated mispronunciation of one of metro Atlanta’s counties. He was supposed to be talking to somebody from DeKalb County, but he kept pronouncing the “L”, like they do in Illinois (dee-KALB). Here in Atlanta, the “L” is silent, and the county is pronounced dee-KAB. And the character he was meeting with never batted an eye.
If I were interviewing somebody from here, I wouldn’t think to ask about that specific pronunciation, but as an area resident, I immediately registered the error. So my question is how do I avoid those errors? How do you avoid them?
Saturday Shot-Free
by Lynn Daniels on August 16, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I’m sorry to say there won’t be a Saturday Shot this week. We’re still waiting to see if the company we brought my storage drive (the one that died) to will be able to retrieve the data. They needed a drive to transfer the retrieved data to (if they’re able to retrieve it), and SoundGuy brought them the drive I had all this year’s vacation pictures stored on. But he didn’t give them the picture files; those he transferred to our second computer — the one he does all his video editing on. A great idea, since that computer has tremendous drive space.
What it doesn’t have is any photography programming. My pictures are there, but I can’t do a darn thing with them. Can’t even view them! One of the hazards of shooting in the RAW format instead of JPEG. But you don’t want the technical details, do you? 
This week, I’ll be backing those photos up to DVDs, and then I’ll be able to work them on any of the computers. Which means the Saturday Shot will return next week.
Right now, I’m going to go grab a beer and enjoy a little Andy Griffith after seeing the weirdest night of dirt track racing I’ve ever experienced.
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
That Dernded Overlord Strikes Again
by Lynn Daniels on August 15, 2008 at 9:56 pm
How are you spending your Friday night? Me? SoundGuy and I are sitting here watching the Olympics, and I’m considering transcribing some of my handwritten writing into the computer. If I can actually read it, that is.
Read more of That Dernded Overlord Strikes Again
The Pickle and the Otter
by Lynn Daniels on August 14, 2008 at 11:15 pm
So we left off in the last post at the Bear Hollow Wildlife Trail with Dill Pickle and the aardvark. Across from their enclosure is the cute little opossum. Many people don’t find these creatures cute, but this one just captured our attention. It could be the expression on his (her?) little face with eyes that reminded us of one of our dogs. That and the fact he/she stumbled around the cage as though drunk. MiniMe and I stayed and watched it for a while before SoundGuy and LittleDude joined us and we were ready to move on.
Read more of The Pickle and the Otter
Eagles and Bobcats and Bears…oh, my!
by Lynn Daniels on August 11, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Six days a week, I get my kids up in the morning and we all drive to our local high school to walk two miles around the track. It’s been good for me — I’ve dumped five pounds so far. But a couple days last week, we skipped our walk in favor of trips to the zoo.
Read more of Eagles and Bobcats and Bears…oh, my!
Saturday Shot 09 AUGUST 2008
by Lynn Daniels on August 9, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Read more of Saturday Shot 09 AUGUST 2008
Feed Me!
by Lynn Daniels on August 8, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Just a quick note, folks. If you normally read Lynn Daniels.com through a feedreader, you need to update your link. The new feed link is http://lynndaniels.com/feed/. If at any time in the future you find yourself in need of that information again, it’s accessible in the “Meta” section under the sidebar.
Thanks a bunch to Tess for the heads up on this. I don’t read my own blog through a feedreader, so I’d had no idea the link changed until she e-mailed me about it.
Also, I just made a discovery that dern near broke my heart. I was going back through old posts (some picture links had changed because I’d moved files around, and I wanted to make sure all the photos would still display) and discovered that my old audio posts, from back when I used Audioblogger, are gone. When Audioblogger shut down, they’d assured their users that the files would remain on the servers, but I guess they were wrong.
I wish I’d known about that ahead of time — I’d have downloaded them and stored them on my own servers. All those old audioblog posts from my vacations are gone forever. *sniff* 
Ah, well. Live and learn.
New and Improved!
by Lynn Daniels on August 6, 2008 at 5:50 pm
It’s taken a little time and a lot of headache (doesn’t it always?) but the new Lynn Daniels.com is up and ready to go! There are lots of changes, some you can see and some you can’t, so let’s get started.
First, I’ve moved the entire site to WordPress for easier updates. And I’m sure you’ve noticed the site has an entirely different appearance. This time around, I’ve opted for a more magazine-like homepage, and a blog that’s a bit sleeker and more … minimalist is the best word I can come up with off the top of my head. I had started to feel like the old site was becoming too cluttered and trying to be too many things. So I scaled it back.
Kinda.
Even though the sidebar is much lighter in the load, most of the stuff is still around the site. My writing progress bars now greet you from the front page. And all the links? Those are now on my links page.
Some things were doing double duty and have been removed from the site entirely. My playlist, what I’m reading, and the CDs shuffling in my truck can now all be found on my MySpace profile. And the Flickr badge? Gone. I figured I shouldn’t be pointing people off-site when all my pictures are here in my gallery (which has now been fully integrated with the site — hope you’re iframe compatible!). Clicking that random photo in my sidebar will take you right to the gallery.
My Punkymoods and random tv quotes are gone now, although I’ve kept the plugins in case I figure out a way to re-add them later. They just didn’t fit the look I was going for.
You’ll see a change on the post page too — I’m taking advantage of WordPress’s Gravatar integration. If you don’t have a Gravatar yet, why not? Signup is free at Gravatar.com.
There are a couple little bugs I’m still trying to work out — my smilies and live comment previews don’t show up when you’re commenting in Firefox, although I do believe they’re still there in IE.
I hope you enjoy the new site. I’m really looking forward to some of the features in WordPress I hadn’t been able to take advantage of in the past.
I’ll make the same request I always do — if you spot any typos, broken links, or layout problems, please let me know!
Random Photo
