This is What a Police State Looks Like

Policestate
I'm sure you're wondering why I posted a photo of a boring old house. Well, this is the house where the gentleman who refused to come out back in December lived. It's still being worked on and I'm not sure when it will be habitable again, but the interesting part is that someone wrote a little message on the side of the house. I know it's hard to read, and I tried to blow it up here:

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If you still can't make it out, it reads:

This is what a police state looks like. 

Apparently someone is unhappy with the way the entire situation was handled.

NaBloPoMo January 2012


Photo Friday: Day's End #holidailies

I don't know why this short week was so hard. Maybe it's because I went back to Kennedy after two weeks or so without seeing my trainer (ow! ow!), or we were down people at work, or the moon is getting puffy again so all the crazies are coming out, or I blew my eyeball out again (the right one this time, though, not the left like the last two months) so I get to look like a goddamn freak for another two weeks. I don't know. It shouldn't have been bad at all. Sure, I had another birthday, but it was nice and I got a great prezzie which I'll introduce later - oh, heck, it's a new iPhone 4s!! - but, still, it wasn't that bad a week. And yet I'm exhausted, and I'm annoyed at the world.

And, I absolutely cannot WAIT to sit down with a lovely glass of wine tonight!  Cheers!

NaBloPoMo January 2012


Teaser Tuesday: Bumped by Megan McCafferty #holidailies #2012readingchallenges

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

BumpedWelcome to my first Teaser Tuesday of 2012! This week I've started reading Bumped by Megan McCafferty, a book which will count towards my goal of reading 20 books for the 2012 YA Reading Challenge. My teaser comes from page 12 on Nicky the Nook:

Angel screamed, swerved, screeched the breaks, and screamed some more. We are blessed that there aren't too many cars on the road at sunrise. 

 

NaBloPoMo January 2012


2012 Reading Challenges #holidailies

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Once again I have signed up for some Reading Challenges for the coming year. I'm hoping to keep it down to just a few so I don't get totally overwhelmed, so I've chosen the Off the Shelf challenge, 2012 Debut Author Challenge, and 2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge

For the Off the Shelf Challenge, I've randomly chosen six books from my bookshelves:

  1. Montana 1948  by Larry Watson
  2. Mariel of Redwall  by Brian Jacques
  3. 5th Avenue, 5 A.M.  by Sam Wasson
  4. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby - Scary Fairy Tales  by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
  5. Waterfall  by Lisa T. Bergren
  6. Hunter Brown and the Consuming Fire  by The Miller Brothers

I've chosen to read 20 books for the 2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge, and most of them will just be added as the year goes on. For the 12 Debut Author Challenge books I've chosen:

  1. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
  2. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
  3. Above by Leah Bobet 
  4. Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard 
  5. Storybound by Marissa Burt 
  6. The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbet 
  7. The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers 
  8. Unbound by Emily Goodwin 
  9. Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown 
  10. May B. by Caroline Starr Rose 
  11. The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
  12. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman 

There is sure to be a lot of crossover and I'll probably change my mind on some ofthe books I choose to read, but those are the lists for right now. 

 

NaBloPoMo January 2012


Atascadero Lake Walk #holidailies

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This morning after watching the Rose Parade, mom and I went down to the Atascadero Lake for a walk. It was brisk and cloudy, but not too cold. There were a few birds out - mostly coots, geese and ducks, but there were also some egrets and herons. The two swans were there, too, but they were always on the opposite side of the lake, so I couldn' get a shot of them.  We haven't had any rain for along time and the water level was really low, and kinda stinky on the back side of the lake, but it was nice to get out and get some fresh air and exercise anyway.

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NaBloPoMo January 2012


Top 10 Photos of 2011 #holidailies #youcapture #top10picsof2011

For this week's You Capture I present my Top Ten Photos for 2011 (in no particular order):

1. Perfect Shell 1, Avila Beach, CA,  June 2011

2.  Atascadero Lake Sunset, Atascadero, CA,  June 2011.

3.  Dolly Portrait in Sepia, Atascadero, CA, July, 2011.

4.  Monorail, Seattle, WA, August 2011.

5.  Wolves, Seattle, WA, August 2011.

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6.  Old Boots, Seattle, WA, August 2011.

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7.  Morro Bay Sunset, Morro Bay, CA, September 2011. 

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8.  Perfect Shell 2, Avila Beach, CA, June 2011. 

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9.  Sepia Sailboat, Morro Bay, CA, September 2011.

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10.  Under the Pier, Avila Beach, CA, June 2011.

NaBloPoMo January 2012


2011 Year in Review #holidailies

Amazingly it's time for the End of the Year Meme I've been doing since 2004.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before? Moved over to the Family Law Department and started helping customers over the counter and on the phone.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't recall making resolutions last year (and I can't find them in my archives), so I think I'm exempt from this one!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  My cousin, Jess, had an adorable baby boy earlier this year and a couple co-workers had babies, too.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my grandma died in September.

5. What countries did you visit?  Sadly, despite getting a passport, I didn't make it out of the country this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2010?  Courage.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? September 27 - the day my grandma died (though we didn't learn about it until the following day).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Being promoted to Family Law and working counters. (It was no more money, however, just the new experiences and ablility to update my resume!)

9. What was your biggest failure? Not finishing my NaNoWriMo novel.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No injuries, but several illnesses - just the usual colds and flus, though, thankfully nothing serious.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I bought a new computer, a nook colour, and stock in the Green Bay Packers.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Pretty much all my friends simply for being awesome.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? A relative of a friend of mine behaved very, very badly, but I won't mention which friend to protect his (or her) feelings.

14. Where did most of your money go? Travel - I vacationed in San Francisco and Seattle this year.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Visiting Seattle with one of my besties! I hadn't seen DeeDee in ages and I haven't been to Seattle in forever and we saw and did tons of awesome stuff, so it was very, very cool!

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Galaxies by Owl City.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? a little sadder because I miss my grandma.  

b) thinner or fatter? thinner, but only by about 10 or 15 pounds.
c) richer or poorer? poorer due to the once-montly unpaid furlough days.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? I wish I'd spent more time at the beach, did more rubber stamp art and did more writing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Laying around on my fat ass doing nothing and/or watching stupid things on television.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas with my mom and grandpa. We had a lovely dinner and celebrated my grandpa's birthday with chocolate cake. 

21. Did you fall in love? Oh, hell, no!

22. How many one-night stands? None.

23. What was your favorite TV program? I totally love "Glee", "Doctor Who", "Fringe", "Terra Nova", "The Big Bang Theory", and "Chuck".

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Yes.

25. What was the best book you read? That's a loaded question, as I read over 40 books this year and really enjoyed several of them, but here's my top 5: Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan, Diary of a Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan 

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Owl City - I absolutely LOVE the fun lyrics and the great beat of their songs.

27. What did you want and get? A nook colour. 

28. What did you want and not get?  A new cell phone, but I'm working on that now, so perhaps I'll have one very soon!

29. What was your favorite film of this year? I think I only saw one new movie this year and that was Breaking Dawn Part 1. And, yeah, it was good!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 45 and didn't do anything special. 

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?  Attending Weetacon VII. 

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?  Absolute and total comfort.

33. What kept you sane?  Music. 

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?  I've wound up with a slight crush on Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory". He's hilarious!

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Meh, I don't want to get into politics. 

36. Who did you miss? My grandma. 

37. Who was the best new person you met?  Liam - my adorable second cousin.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. Everything can be fixed. 

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. 

Dear God, I was terribly lost,
When the galaxies crossed,
And the Sun went dark.
Dear God, You're the only North Star,
I would follow this far.

Oh telescope, keep an eye on my only hope,
Lest I blink and be swept off the narrow road.
Hercules, you've got nothing to say to me,
'Cause you're not the blinding light that I need.

For He is the saving grace of the Galaxies!
He is the saving grace of the Galaxies!

Galaxies by Owl City

 


In With the New #31photosin31days #holidailies

New

Well, there she is: my new computer. It's a Sony Vaio all-in-one, so there's no tower, just the screen, keyboard and mouse. So far I'm really enjoying it - mostly I'm enjoying having a computer that works!! My old computer started dying last summer - July or August, I think - and finally gave up the ghost around the beginning of November, taking a majority of my NaNoWriMo novel with it.  (sad face!)  Anyway, it took me a while to look into different computers, but I kept coming back to this one. I loved the sleek look of it, the large screen that is a touchscreen, too,  as well as the reduced desktop clutter. I'm hoping the two of us will be very happy together for years to come!