Resolutions - Schmezolutions!

This is not me. It's a picture of a slim, young lady using the same piece of equipment that sits in my bedroom, gathering dust. The same one I assured my husband I would use. "It's easy on the knees; low impact and will allow me to also exercise my upper body. It's perfect!

Yeah, right. Perfect. The first time I used it, I threw out my chronically bad hip. So, it sits. Gathering dust. Oh, I said that already, didn't I?

That was three years ago and hubby's mind has, mercifully, forgotten my previous declaration of vigorous, never-ending exercise and weight loss, and happily bought into my new sure-fire, motivational gimmick, er-uh...stroke of genius! Besides, he had no clue what to get me for Christmas, so...problem solved.

Wii Fit! How could I miss? Yoga, strength training, aerobics, balance exercises. It's perfect and I can do it in the comfort of my own home! We got it a few days before Christmas and loaded it into our existing Wii program. Before I can start playing, however, I have to set up my profile: Age, height, weight...WEIGHT???? This isn't good. Hubby is sitting on the sofa, watching my progress.

I make him hide his eyes while this stupid little animated Wii board shows me I'm overweight! Don't think for a minute you're going to find out the details if I won't even tell him! Let's just say if I weighed what they suggest, I'd be a walking, talking skeleton.

Anyhoo, hope everyone has a great 2010, and please, leave a comment with the resolutions you enjoy breaking the most! Gotta go. I'm making chocolate fudge and snickerdoodles!

Happy New Year!

Mary Cunningham is the author of the award-winning 'Tween fantasy/mystery series, Cynthia’s Attic. She is proud to announce book four, "The Magician's Castle," is due for release in December, 2009. Her children's mystery series was inspired by a recurring dream about a mysterious attic. After realizing that the dream took place in the home of her childhood friend, Cynthia, the dreams stopped and the writing began.

She is also co-writer of the humor-filled, women's lifestyle book, "Women Only Over Fifty (WOOF)," along with published stories, "Ghost Light" and "Christmas Daisy," a Cynthia's Attic short story.

Mary Cunningham Books
Cynthia's Attic Blog
Amazon
Kindle
Fictionwise
Quake/Echelon Press

FELIZ 2010!!!

Desejo a vocês:


SAÚDE:


DINHEIRO:


SENSIBILIDADE: Para não ficar indiferente diante das belezas da vida.


CORAGEM: Para colocar a timidez de lado e poder realizar o que se tem vontade.


SOLIDARIEDADE: Para não ficar neutro diante do sofrimento da humanidade.


BONDADE: Para não desviar os olhos de quem te pede ajuda.


TRANQUILIDADE: Para quando chegar ao fim do dia poder deitar e dormir o sono dos anjos.


ALEGRIA: Para você distribuí-la colocando um sorriso no rosto de alguém.

HUMILDADE: Pra você reconhecer aquilo o que você não é.

AMOR PRÓPRIO: Para você perceber suas qualidades e gostar do que vê por dentro.

FÉ: Para te guiar, te sustentar e te manter em pé.

SINCERIDADE: Pra você ser verdadeiro, gostar de você mesmo e viver melhor.


FELICIDADE: Para você descobrí-la dentro de você e doá-la a quem precisar.

ESPERANÇA: Para fazer você acreditar na vida e se sentir uma eterna criança.

SABEDORIA: Para lidar com todas as circunstâncias da vida


Recebi esta mensagem de uma amiga e repasso de coração a todos vocês.
Que em 2010 possamos ser pessoas melhores, capazes de tornar o mundo um pouco melhor.

"Eu aprendi que não adianta a gente querer consertar o mundo. É melhor a gente consertar a gente mesmo. Ajuda pra caramba." - Renato Russo


Feliz 2010!
Beijos!

Daily Thoughts 12/31/2009

Edward Burne-Jones (left) and William Morris (right) in the garden of Burne-Jones's home the Grange, Fulham, 1890. Scanned from Waggoner, Diane, The Beauty of Life: William Morris & the Art of Design, Thames and Hudson, 2003, ISBN 0-500-28434-2. The image is c1890. Found on Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 12/31/2009

Tonight will be New Years eve. It is snowing outside right now, so I am not planning on going anywhere. I am reading book III in the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, Epiphany right now.

Took a break and read some of Publishers Weekly online. There is a nice article on Turning Classics Into Comics. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6712404.html

I finished reading the Vulcan's Soul trilogy. It was nice light and fluffy entertainment. My favorite character in Star Trek is Spock. He is the most interesting character in the show. "Live long and prosper." I do like watching the show sometimes. It is a chance to escape away from the mundane.

Mais alguns presentes de Natal que eu fiz II

Como eu já disse, coloquei todos os presentes na cama e deixei cada um escolher o seu. Só separei esse aqui, que já tinha destino certo: Luciana, a noiva rebelde!
A Lú ganhou esse kit que eu chamei de "Cozinhando com Amor" (o nome é de um livro de receitas óóótimo), apesar de a cozinha estar declaradamente a cargo do noivo. Sabe que ela mudou de idéia está organizando uma big-festa?! Sem falar no gosto que tomou pelo enxoval! Acho que o bichinho da paixão pela casa mordeu ela...Mas isso é assunto pra outro post.

Fiz esses caderninhos pensando em cadernos de receitas. Minha tia, assim que viu o laranja disse que seria o caderno das metas para 2010. Adorei a idéia; colocar no papel tudo o que se quer fazer em 2010 e ir fazendo um acompanhamento: se conseguiu, se mudou de idéia, porque mudou...
Essa almofada foi para minha prima que ama gatos. Ama a ponto de voltar pra casa mais cedo no Natal por saudades da "filha", a gata. Aos 15 anos, apaixonada pelas artes culinárias, correu pra pegar o caderninho xadrez.

E aí foi mais um pouquinho do meu Natal. Na correria, alguma coisa ficou sem fotos, outras sem fazer mesmo e acabei tendo que comprar. Mas foi um Natal alegre, com mãe, filhos, irmãos, tios, primos, sobrinho, amigos, pessoas que entraram para a família, pessoas que estão entrando... no final, uma grande festa!
Beijos!

Reading During Holidays

Christmas Eve just wouldn't seem right if I didn't read Twas the Night Before Christmas to children - just after dinner and before we open gifts. My grandgirls (7&10) know it so well, they read along with me. I truly think the adults listening enjoy it as much as the children.

My daughter surprised me on Christmas morning with a copy of U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton, my favorite author. I plan to take it with me to the KY Book Fair in April, where I bet she will be signing her newest book for fans like me. (Sue is from Louisville.)

Books make great Christmas gifts for young and old alike. Choose them well before Christmas and inscribe them with a Merry Christmas from --- inside the cover. I love to buy books from authors at bookfairs and have them signed for gifts, storing them away until the birthday or Christmas season arrives. It thrills the children to take books to school that are signed and have the teacher read them to the class. The teacher ususally talks about the author - and seeing the autograph makes the book more special.

My hubby received two nature books from our son for Christmas, and he's already planning a trip to see the California Redwoods again. Books stir the imagination and make us want to see far and distant places. I wanted to see Pompeii ever since I read a book about it when I was in high school. I wasn't disappointed when I finally got to walk along those ancient streets in 2007.

The dreary months of January and February are a perfect time to catch up on reading. I just finished Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and loved it. Now I'm reading Grave Secrets by Charlene Harris.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Marlis Day

Margo Brown Mysteries

The Secret of Bailey's Chase, 2008

Back to Bailey's Chase, 2010

http://www.marlisday.com/

JOÃO EUDES BEBO BOSTA !

Daily Thoughts 12/30/2009

Portrait of a bibliophile, half-length, seated in a library with a folio, a seal in his left hand; oil on canvas; 43¼ x 58 in. (109.7 x 147.3 cm)English School, 17th Century

Daily Thoughts 12/30/2009

I finished reading Vulcan's Soul part 1 last night. It was lighthearted fun. The formula worked for me. I like to think of Star Trek as uboats in space, one step up from Buck Rogers which is the Lone Ranger in space. I am going to give a spoiler. Chekov disappears in a transporter malfunction. Of course, this gives the opportunity for the characters to mourn Chekov. But, is he really dead? It is like Sherlock Holmes and Reichenbach falls; a way to die which allows the character to possibly be brought back at a later date. This is one of my favorite author tricks. Of course Star Trek fans can't take a May 4 trip to Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland to commemorate the death of their favorite character like the International Sherlock Holmes Society.

I've been weeding in the 800s and the storage fiction. I am looking at copies with zero circulation from fiction. A lot of them are classics like Sir Walter Scott's Waverly Novels which absolutely cannot be deaccessioned. There are also some older quality fiction like Dalkey Archive press books, and some local authors which we should keep.

I had a chance to take a last look at the Kirkus Reviews a little bit ago. Our representative came today and dropped off the latest calendars from Baker and Taylor. We currently have forty boxes of books which we requested to be expedited from back orders. We are trying to get our orders in before the new fiscal year is in place.

Finally, our contract has been ratified after three years. We had been without a union contract for many years and now we have one. Needless to say, it means a nice year end sum for me and many people where I work.

A bunch of books are here for me to read, Finch by Jeff Vandermeer, In The First Circle The First Uncensored Edition by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn which is a story of imprisonment of scientists and intellectuals, The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood-- a kind of a sequel to Oryx and Crake, Tours of the Black Clock by Steve Erickson -- Steve Erickson edits a literary noire magazine called Black Clock which is supposed to be quite good, Retro Pulp Tales Edited by Joe Lansdale-- For a while Joe Lansdale wrote western horror, he wrote several stories for the comic Jonah Hex, and finally E.C. Segar's Popeye, Plunder Island printed by Fantagraphics. This is a lot of early Popeye newspaper strips both in color and black and white printed in a coffee table size book.

An article from Wired Magazine, Study: Rumors of Written Word Death Greatly Exaggerated http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/reading-expands-study/ I rather like the idea that reading is not just about books. We read on the internet, on computers, in newspapers, in magazines, and even on signage around the street. We are reading more, not less. The less may be in terms of books. But, even video games have written content in them now. I think we read all the time to do everyday actions and sometimes it makes people less interested in long form books. People are losing their sense of attention with so many words everywhere.

While I was on Twitter, I occassionally find books that are worth reading. Today, I found Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. I often find things that authors want to promote on their own.

On the way home, I finished reading book II of Star Trek Vulcan's Soul Exiles. The authors use another device in this series, a coronet which records beings memories. The story includes the recorded memories of Karatek, a Vulcan on a generation ship exploring the stars as they sought a new home far from war torn Vulcan. These Vulcans would eventually become the Romulans. The use of an object to create memories is a fairly common literary device. You could compare it to the ring in the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, or the Silmaril (elven jewel) in the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien which is used to describe the creation and history of middle earth.

Fat, Broke & Failing?

by Pam Ripling

Resolutions are about resolving things, right? Do you know what the top resolutions are, every year? I’ll bet you could guess. Number one: LOSE WEIGHT! Yep, there’s a reason why all the health clubs, gyms and weight loss centers advertise so heavily in January. Turning that December calendar page is magic, doncha know? Now, now that it’s finally January (the month you’ve been waiting for all year while you stuffed your face), you can finally STOP EATING! Magic. I tell you.

Number two: MONEY PROBLEMS. Make more, spend less, get out of debt! This, just as those December holiday credit card bills are starting to land in everyone’s mail boxes! Or when you realize you’ve just spent your entire year’s allowance and next year’s too! Yeah, that makes sense.

Number three: Get a better job ~ or ~ do better at school! It’s January. Why not. December is over, when you get all the bonuses from bosses and treats from teachers. January offers nothing to distract you, so it’s nose to the grindstone, matey!

You get the picture. Me? My last resolution was a few years ago, and I’m managed to stick to it just fine: Do not make resolutions! How easy was that? FURGEDDABOUTIT!

But if you must, if you simply cannot let a New Years go by without resolving to fix something, let it be the kindness you show others. It doesn’t cost anything, you won’t starve or break the bank!


Pam Ripling is the author of middle-grade mystery, LOCKER SHOCK! Buy it at Quake, Fictionwise or Amazon today! E-book version now available for your Kindle! Visit Pam at www.BeaconStreetBooks.com.

Think Again Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How To Keep It From Happening To You by Sidney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell

Think Again Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How To Keep It From Happening To You by Sidney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell

This book is about decisionmaking. It describes many examples of how and why leaders fail. The focus is on recent discoveries about neuroscience. There are many descriptions on why past experience and emotional attachments are central to decisionmaking. Often experience and feelings can be misleading and it is very hard for an individual to think differently. Safeguards outside of a person in a leadership role are often needed.

This book describes how past experience by leaders often led to disastrous mistakes. Some examples are hurricane Katrina, Admiral Yamamoto's loss at Midway during World War II, and Samsung corporations failed foray into automobile manufacturing. These and other examples are analyzed from the viewpoint of creating checks outside the leader to prevent mistakes.

What is described here in detail is how people fail. Appendix I The Database of Cases is all examples of how people failed because of misleading experience, prejudgments, excessive self interest, and inappropriate attachments.

All of the solutions are presented in the second appendix in hypothetical form. I have a bit of a hard time accepting that the solutions given will work. The authors would have done better to also include some case studies of how things go right. It is very hard to know if the solutions presented will work.

If you want to learn why people fail because of excessive reliance on past experience or emotional attachments this book is excellent. This really is the main focus on the book. It will help a person catch their mistakes and maybe, it might help create safeguards against disaster.

THE MASSASOIT WAS OUR KENNEDY CENTER

On the steps of the Massasoit. July 1931.

Shadow Dance

Every now and then, one has a favourite painting which replaces the previous favourite painting!

This one was taken from a pic posted on Dana Marie's Inspiration all Around Us blog - she really takes the most amazing photographs and I would encourage everyone to have a look!

There was something so peaceful about this photo and the colours were so appealing.  Hope you like it.

Have a fabulous 2010 everyone!  Winter Olympics in Canada, FIFA World Cup in South Africa - should be a funfilled year!

Daily Thoughts 12/29/2009

Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

Daily Thoughts 12/29/2009

New and Creative Leniency for Overdue Library Books, article from New York Times. http://bit.ly/72KGbt Our library did a Food For Fines drive where we collected can goods in exchange for library fines which we donated to local food pantries. It is an excellent way to both help the hungry and generate positive publicity.

If a person checks out five dvds at a maximum and has a $2.00 a day late fee per dvd if they are returned late, it can very quickly add up to a considerable amount of money after a few late days. Sometimes people can forget very easily. With more expensive items like video games and even preloaded thumb drives, the fine amounts tend to be higher than books.

Where it can get difficult is with teenagers who are absent minded with videos or video games from the library. They can easily add up very high fines which are difficult for them to pay back. Sometimes libraries do "Read Away Your Fines" programs where they reduce a persons fines for every hour they spend reading in the library. Ths program is especially good for children and teenagers.

There is also the option of doing an amnesty for fines for books and materials. Some of the dvds and oversize books can be quite expensive. It is nice to just have the books back sometimes.

I was looking through Locus Magazine and decided to put The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington on hold. I also saw a book which looked interesting on Linked In,
Choosing civility : the twenty-five rules of considerate conduct by P.M. Forni.

I had a chance to walk up to my local library. It was very cold out. I still try and walk a little bit every single day as a form of exercise. I picked up a trilogy of paperbacks, Star Trek Vulcan's Soul, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz. Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz wrote two other novels based on Vulcan, Vulcan's Forge, and Vulcan's Heart. They have been writing for the paperback series for a very long time and have the formula down pat. This story features Ambassador Spock.

Reso-what?

I'm making a resolution this New Year to not make any resolutions! I could plan on working out—but talk about booooring. If they made jogging in one place entertaining, I might change my mind. (Wii fit might work—but heck, the kids wouldn't let me near that thing. Why bother?)

And why in the world would I want to give up chocolate?

No thank you, I'll pass. Instead, I'm going to celebrate the New Year like any sane person would. Yummy dips and chips. Staying up late watching movies. Calling all the relatives as the clock strikes midnight (you've been warned! ;) ) Then I'll sleep in and make a wonderful brunch the next day.

There isn't any resolution I couldn't make today that I could make for the New Year. If I'm gonna do a thing, why wait? Right? Besides, that way, I get to celebrate reaching my goals all year round!

Warmly,
J.R. Turner

J.R. Turner is the author of the Extreme Hauntings series. The first book, DFF: Dead Friends Forever is available at Amazon.com, Kindle, Fictionwise, and Echelon Press.com

Mais alguns presentes de Natal que eu fiz

Todos levaram marcadores para livros... Recebeu o seu Ida???? Que feio, não apareceu nem pra buscar o presente...
Porta-controle para a sogra.
Para minha irmã que vivia reclamando de perder as chaves...

Estes são alguns dos presentes que eu dei neste Natal. Infelizmente não consegui fazer todos, principalmente os masculinos... Para não correr o risco de errar levei tudo sem embrulhar, abri em cima da cama e cada um escolheu o seu. Assim, tenho certeza de que gostaram e que será útil.
Meu olho ja está melhor, apesar de ainda não conseguir usar as lentes. Amanhã tenho retorno e vou saber como realmente está a situação.
Amanhã tem mais uma sessão presentes de Natal!
Beijos!

Daily Thoughts 12/28/2009

This was the Picture of the Day for December 28, 2009. It is also a featured picture on Wikimedia. It is of Oscar Wilde.

Daily Thoughts 12/28/2009

I requested the 2010 Baker and Taylor cat calendars from Baker and Taylor. Baker and Taylor uses two cats as its mascots, Baker and Taylor. Found it on our representatives blog. I am also updating my subscriptions to their review magazines.

Looking at Libriloop which is a closed loop recycler for libraries. It takes discarded library and publisher stock and turns them into different products which it is attempting to sell back to libraries. The objective is to take discarded stock from a specific type of company and recycle it back into the company where it came from. http://02ee0e2.netsolstores.com/about-us.aspx

Took some time to look at Suvudu which is a blog for Bantam Spectra. They are reviewing childrens graphic novels this week. Today, they have an article on Babymouse whihc is one of the better childrens comics. It is lighthearted fun. http://suvudu.com/

If you want to see an interesting set of alternative comics by Jordan Crane, they are available for free at whatthingsdo.com . These can be a bit ironic. There is some mature content, but the quality is very good.

Sometimes, you find things that seem interesting but don't really have a particular place. I saw an event on March 16, 2010 called The Future of Publishing. It looks like one of those things where they are creating something new and random and are not quite sure what will happen. http://www.iirusa.com/futureofpublishingsummit/future-of-publishing.xml?utm_source=FutureofPublishingPostToolsChangePublishingLIGroup&utm_medium=Traffic122209&utm_campaign=Traffic

Today has been a day for wandering on the web. This is an interesting article called Books You Can Live Without from the New York Times. Maybe it is time to cull my personal library again. I don't keep a huge amount of books. Only things with practical value. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books-you-can-live-without/

FRANK MAHER ON HIGH ST. (c.1910)

.

MASSASOIT HOTEL FIRE January 12, 1982

Daily Thoughts 12/27/2009

Portrait of Emily Bronte by her brother Branwell Bronte

Daily Thoughts 12/27/2009

I was at Barnes and Nobles near my house. I bought a copy of the childrens book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See by Eric Carle. Eric Carle is a wonderful childrens author. His illustrations are full of color and his message is very simple.

I looked at the science fiction and fantasy section, but did not see anything which I wanted to get this time. A lot of the books are about demons and vampires with a touch of noire. Occassionally I don't mind fantasy noire, but most of the time I like my fantasy to be a little more lighthearted with princes and elves and such. I also like original military science fiction. Most of the stuff I am seeing coming out is long winded series. The Charlaine Harris section in the fantasy area is huge. She is very much a writer about vampires.

I took a look at the sample section of Baen Books yesterday and read the first few chapters of Live Free or Die by John Ringo. It reads a little bit like Heinlein, more so than his other military science fiction novels. http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1439133328/1439133328.htm?blurb There is more of a plot line with intrigue and trickery than his other books. The book is coming out in February of 2010. If they have an Electronic ARC, I will probably get it.

I had a chance to briefly look at the graphic novels section as well. Something I saw which looked really excellent was an oversize book called The Art of Osama Tezuka by Helen McCarthy. It is a big, beautifully illustrated book.

I read some more of Think Again while having a quiet day. I like to read on the couch. The book has a lot on how we make mistakes based on our past experience, prejudgements, self- interest, and in general how we tend to confirm our own biases at our own expense. It demonstrates lots of examples of this kind of behavior. I can easily see it in all kinds of situations.

I just learned that Year of the Flood is a sequel to the novel Oryx and Crake which means that I must read it. This surprises me a little bit, maybe Margaret Atwood will write a science fiction trilogy.

Her writing is literary enough that some people don't consider it science fiction. They like to call it "speculative fiction". This is the nice term for fiction that plays with reality. You can throw in William S. Burroughs, Doris Lessing, George Orwell, Lewis Carroll, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez in speculative fiction. It speculates about reality. Magical realism speculates about reality. Of course Robert Heinlein and Neil Gaiman are here as well. The joy and semantics of fantasy literature.

PARK THEATER SPENCER, MA

Before she was the Champ, she was a Contender.

Union Depot with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Blondell, opened here on the first week of April 1931.

MY LITTLE TOWN

Ecole Sainte Marie (les premiers 1950)

PAPERBOYS 1950

BOSTON BRANCH STORE 1919

This store was at the corner of Elm St. and Main St., in Spencer, MA
It was owned by E.B.Honey and run by my uncle Frank Maher who's seen in the middle.
Flanking Frank are meatcutter Fred Arsenault and customer Bill Thibeault.

Daily Thoughts 12/26/2009

Miniature books, including Pushkin and Eugene Onegin

Daily Thoughts 12/26/2009

Right now, I am reading Think Again Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep It from Happening to You by Sidney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell. The book opens with the decision making process that led to the disaster at Hurricane Katrina. So far the focus has been on pattern recognition and emotions in the decision making process. The examples are quite good; Operation Market Garden during World War II, and Quaker's acquisition of Snapple are two interesting cases they cover. In addition to strategy it also covers the neuroscience of decisionmaking.

I put Retro Pulp, edited by Joe Lansdale on hold for me to read later.