Now upon a tine.

I've been meaning to do this for some time. Back in mid-spring I could tell I was approaching a fork in the road, so to speak. Normally I dawdle, hem and haw, and drag my feet when it comes to decisions. Except for this time. As I saw the fork approaching, and I made the decision before I got there. The result? Ever since then my priority has been doing what God would rather have me do. Thus I've been busy doing everything else first, with negligible time for my writing, and thats ok. Of the two main projects, and the two side projects, three were just for me, and one was for God.

You may be asking yourself, How could my God be so selfish as to demand that a writer put aside her craft and do anything else?

First off, because he gave up his only Son to die, specifically because of the things I've done, for the off-chance that I'd not only recognize his gift for me, but that I'd accept said gift.

Secondly, because he didn't ask me to put aside something I enjoy for something I hate. I put aside my writing, which I didn't do 8 hrs a day, to do other things I enjoy. My church has been through a rough patch during the past 4 years. One of the symptoms of the problem, we no longer had the funds nor ability to put together a VBS. This year we were once again able to do so. Mid spring a good friend of mine asked her if I'd help her out with the small area she was responsible. I'd helped in years past, was familiar with what was required, was able, and wiling. So I dug in, knowing I'd be handling the lion share, under her direction. Why was I handling most of the work, because my friend is getting married in Oct, secretary of our church, helping with translation work for some French Missionaries, helping her brother with his website, helping her other brother with more translation work, helping with the typesetting of the Samoan Bible, the Tagalog Bible, and consulting on a handful of other small projects. In other words, chika muy busy. Eventually, she handed the rings over to me, which I didn't mind one bit. Oh, also forgot to mention, she'll be teaching typesetting1 and 2, starting in September.

Thirdly, as I previously mentioned, I didn't spend all day, everyday writing to begin with. One of my side projects is in collaboration with another individual who is going through college. Understandably, he's got other things on his mind. Project # 3 was spurred by a series of short writing prompts that just fell into place as a story about alien invasion. I do absolutely no prep work on it. An image shows up, then characters, plot, locations, and dialogue seem to appear in my word doc. This venture comes in flashes, and is over and done in under an hour; frequently in a matter of minutes. My second writing passion is my part in the Niners Shared Universe, aka the Ninerverse. A few writers from the io9 observationdeck got together and put together this scifi epic, it has time travel, space travel, cyberspies, military security types, generation ships, teraforming, and space pirates. My part, The Adventures of the Scarlet Slash involve the life of a young woman who finds herself between a plethora of plots to take over the known, and unknown universe. When the antagonist uses the rules to tilt the balance of power in his direction, she breaks them with every trick in her bag. I have fun with this story, My protagonist is a character who's personal motto is "Cut me and I'll cut you back. I'll also do something else, but where's the fun in telling you what?" Her story flows like water from a spring. If I took the time to sit down and knock it out, I could probably get 3 or 4 more chapters in a day or two. However, her story is only part of a larger plot, and I don't want to steal others thunder by saving the day in her arc, before you know just who it is she is saving. So I set it aside, and will probably get back to it soon enough. The last project, the one that gets the majority of my time, effort, and thoughts, is City of Walls. This one is my pride and joy, yet while Scarlet flows quickly like water, this story has by very blood, sweat and tears. For all that I love this story, it treats me like a red-headed step-child. We come to blows, and I feel like I'm flailing against a wall. I stumble against writers block, and when I ask for help or feedback, I get responses for the Scarlet Slash. I know the Ninerverse tale is the most exciting, but the account of Tara Harris is one that I've been working on slowly for almost 15 years. Critical moments, characters, the ending, and beginning is what I started out with. Currently I have fleshed out the beginning, introduced all the characters, except for two, and hit one of the five major moments of the story. I try to make this one as hard on the science as I can. Interestingly, a few of the concepts that I figured were near future breakthroughs have been achieved, or are on the edge of accomplishment.

Now I find myself in a bit of a conundrum. There is no fork in the road, nor a spoon, yet all the other tasks that have been taking my time seem to be complete. VBS is done. I'm not needed to help with many of the ministries at church any more. My yard is now presentable, since my garden is complete. I have time again.

So, should I then prepare myself to do battle with my worthy opponent? I consider this essay, which sits just above 1000 words, a warm up.

Yes Virginia, there will be stories.

Vacation

So yaeh, there won't be a new ch. this week. I actually started ch 10 on Friday, but have struggled with every word past the first sentence. So I'm scrapping it, and hopefully this mini-cation will help. I get to go to Houston (which isn't far from here, but I haven't been in over a decade) to see the Johnson Space Center (but I won't see it till after Atlantis lands) then we head over to Galveston, cause I've never seen the coast.
Laters!

Vacation

If any Niners are reading this, sorry for the delay in City of Walls, I'm going on vacation. Its really more of a fact finding mission, so its for science! Hence you can't be mad at me. I've let it be known in a few places that I may be moving to Chicago. Hubby and I are going up there for a week to scope it out.
If you're religious, pray that we do that which is God's will. This could affect the next decade of our lives. My gut reaction is, I don't wanna go!, but I do want to follow where ever God takes me. If you're not religious, I pray for you.
Signing out.


Not gone just yet, I've been going back and forth on my use of the word religious. It doesn't bring across the thought I want it to. Mainly because religious is so bland anymore, and because most people who only label themselves as religious are not how I want myself to be seen as.

What I would rather use is saved. Saved by the blood on Calvary, i.e. belief that Christ died, made a sacrifice of himself, in order to save me and you. And so as I was trying to say, If you're saved, pray that we'll find God's will for our lives, that the way will be made painfully clear for us. And if you're not saved, I am praying that someday you'll know the same man that I know, who loves you incredibly, and does not want you to spend an eternity in hell.
If you have any questions for me about being saved, please feel free to email me.
archnemesis_goldenhair at yahoo dot com.

Stardate Twentyten

So last night was a blue moon. It was the first occurrence of such an event on 19 years.
In case you didn't know, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. An old Indian tribe (forgot which one) named each full moon, and the term "Blue Moon" applies specifically to the 13th fill moon of the year.
I got out in the cold last night to tale a pic (I want to start the 365 again). Something about the full moon ringing the New Year felt cool. Thankfully, that ball didn't drop!

Happy Fourth of July.

Hope for peace.

Hope for pride and honor.

Hope for yourself.

Hope for your neighbor.

Hope for change.

Photo and poem by Piper H in flickr. Better view here.
I love this Holiday. Sometimes (frequently acctually) it shocks me how little it means to other Americans. My husband for instance, his family grew up only occasionally celebrating. He is very patriotic, but his family just doesn't a high emphasis on this day. I on the other hand, grew up just about revering this day. My family put a lot of focus on this day, and as I grew up, on my own, each year my mind turns to those who served and died for our country. To they original ones who fought in the revolution, and I think of how enough thanks can not be given. Our country is completly FREE. I don't know if it has to do with how close I am to citenzenship coming into my family. On one side, it was just 1 generation ago (my ma). On the other side, it was 3 generations ago (my dad's grand mother- interesting story, I should tell it one day). With the way things are in Mexico, and with visa rules and such changing, if I where on the other side, I'm not sure I'd make it over. I'm very thankful and grateful to be an American.
God bless America!

Mission Status: Accomplished

Well I'm back. This time I really did go somewhere. Colorado. Vacations are great! Hubby had to work the first half, otherwise we probably wouldn't have gone. I've already been putting up some pics on Flickr gonna put up more soon. Its gonna take a while however, I took over 700 pics. Gotta luv 'em didital cams.This shot is from the first leg of the trip. (Pic #46) Let me tell you, the Texas Panhandle is flat!
But even there, the unmistakeable beauty of Texas shines through...

Pic # 47

This last one is acctually from early in the second day, still in Texas. (click on the pic for a larger view)

A, last but not least, say good buy to shaggy little Shorty. Pic #48

No, he's not leaving. Gotcha goodd didn't I? Nope, its all the extra hair thats leaving. He's getting shaved next week. I wonder if it'll be easier to tell what mix of dog he is?
See ya later.

I'm sick :P

I'm supposed to be at our church's VBS today, but I got stomach problems. This really stinks, I was having such a good time, the kids seemed really interested, and comprehensive(zat spelled right?) of what we where talking about. Hopefully God will plant his word deep in their heart, and it'll grow into a longing for him. I pray that what they hear today propels them into a desire to be saved.

Here's a child's point of view of the parking lot as they first approach the church. Pic #45

Thank You!

Thank you to all the veterans of D-Day. So many acts of heroism started on that one day. Yet that one day was merely the start of a huge invasion to rid wrest Europe from the grip of German Nazis.

P.S.
Summer officially started at 4:08 P.M. today!
Yay!

News Flash!

There is another dog in the house. That makes three. Hubby came home from the store Friday, and as he opens the door of his truck, this little dog tries to jump in it. When he checks for its collar, it started licking his face. The dog didn't have any tags, or a collar, but looked recently groomed. Hubby put the dog back on the ground and took the food back in the house. 'Bout 30 min later when he came out to pull the truck into the garage the dog followed him in. We've taken him in for now. I made fliers and put them all around. Already other people who want the dog are calling, but no word from the original owners. I'm afraid that he may have been dumped. He is a cute little bugger. I almost want to keep him, in fact every day it gets harder to think about letting him go. But if his family calls for him , thats a different story.

Pic #34

Where to start?

So I've been behind. I have been taking pictures, and thinking of things, and scribbling things, just no typing. Its been well over a month, probably best to start where I left of. Letsee, there was a beautiful sunrise...

• Pic # 20
  

• An Origami Money Bird with a large tail, #21

• The Lunar Eclipse, #22 & #23

• A sign with good advice, #24

• Sending off a friend to Iraq, #25

And that was Febuary (Izat Spelled Right?)
Now March.

• A flat tire outside Bennigan's, giving lots of time to take pics of the Roadhouse, #26

• And experiments with macro, on the same day, #27.

• A largish brown spot appeared below my eye, # 28.

• And then it snowed in Texas! #29

• The next day school opened late, and my dog refused to touch the snow, #30

• A few days later buds appeared on our tree, #31

• Then I saw some longhorn cattle on a detour home, #32.

Its a lot to one in one day, but I might be getting a second dog, so it was either catch up now or wait for an even longer period of time. Hopefully soon I'll get these up on Flickr, so that the larger size is available for viewing.

Yay!

Go Giants! Go Eli Manning!
I didn't get to see the game, I was sick in bed all day with a temp ranging from 101-104. And that was with meds. Hubby DVR'd it for me, but my DVR wont play it now! And what a game it was! But, I DID NOT SEE A SINGLE THING! Wish I could see it. Oh well.

Guess What?

I've been thinking about getting Flickr account for sometime now. So I go looking around to see just what the difference is between the free and Pro accounts, and discover that I have a free account already. How is that?, you ask. I have a Yahoo! email, ans since Yahoo! owns Flickr, I have access to Flickr. So this is what I've come up with, http://www.flickr.com/photos/archnemesis_goldenhair/ I hope you like it.

Ooooh, almost forgot, picture # 16.

Cable Orginazation Redux

I don't know why I had to put Redux into the title, it just sounded good. So the other day I straightened up the ALL the wires behind, beside, underneath, and between our computers. By the way we've got two of them on our living room. I forgot to get a before picture, but trust me, it was bad.
By attaching some peg board to the back of the computer's shelf, I could run cable ties around the cables and hold them in place. I also used cable clamps. The clamps have an adhesive tape that allows them to stick anywhere. The plastic loop that holds everything can open on one side, it's generally best to have that side aimed upwards. Behind this computer are printer cables, speaker cables, monitor cables, router cables, and wireless mouse and keyboard sensors.I set up the pegboard on the side of my computer desk. Here I have the router itself, modem, ethernet wires, internet cables, wireless mouse and keyboard sensor, plus power cables for modem and router.
This is the finished result. Only two cables viewable. Both of them are power cords which attach to the wall, it's a pretty sweet setup, which allows for the dual viewing I posted about last time. Picture #14.

You've gotta be kidding.

Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) - Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.

But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed.

For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event.

A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee.

"As usual the cleaning of the church after Christmas is a cause of problems," Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he has offered to help ease tensions.

"For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less calmly," he said. "It's all finished now."

The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.

The Church of the Nativity is built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago after Mary and Joseph were turned away by an inn.

My thought-Since when has anyone heard of a man fighting over NOT having enough to clean?!? But seriously, its ashame that this happened, and for the morbidly curious here's a pic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/anandamurti/2141712171/

My Firefox is busted.

So I recently made the change over from IE to FF. I even found a really cool skin of the NASA Night Launch. It's supposed to look like this.

But instead, it looks like this.
Where's the gnarly (zat spelled right?) rocket blast? Hopefully it gets corrected soon.

Another picture, added at a later date.

NaNoWriMo

So autumn leaves are falling, children are coming in from outside sooner and sooner everyday, the critical christmas crunch is gearing up. For me, in Texas, fall is but a weekend, a week if lucky, after the last day in October (in honor of J http://amarylandgirl.blogspot.com/2007/10/photographic-evidence.html).

Because of our luxuoriously warm temperatures, I don't ever get a real fall season, and I end up not caring much, NaNoWri Mo gives sme something to get excited about. So here we go again.

Day 3, or old friends

So I can't do the post every day thing, or a pic every day, but I'm still gonna do 365 pics. They'll just be spread over 2 yrs instead of 1 :):):) Well, some old friends from Maryland came by Texas for a visit. I got to spend one evening with them chatting for a while, The church I went to in MD is changing, without and within, so its all good. J- Say hi to Mrs. H. and Mr. H when they get back.

So I messed up.

I didn't get a picture of anthing yesterday. Why, you ask? Because I went housse shopping and didn't feel comfortable of taking pictures of someone else's house. Well we found one that we like, don't have a pic of it, but we might actually get it. The excitement is tingling.
the 365 will start over on another day, maybe tommorow.

News Flash!

I got a Digital Camera!

My mom got it for me as a Birthday and Christmas gift.This is great! I'm really excited ( I know, I hide it well don't I?).

National Novel Writing Month

Thats "write", pardon the pun but I could not help it :). I decided that since this page is all about me scribbling down the little bit of stories or what not and I've begun work on something thats been kicking around in my head for a while, that this may be the thing for me. During the month of November writers are challenged to come with 175 pages ( a lot of words). So wish me luck!