Just STOP Already

As of right now I am unfollowing anyone on Facebook who posts disturbing pictures. This week I’ve seen twelve dead babies, countless abused animals and one snapshot of two thugs hanging a terrier puppy. I neither want nor need these things in my mind.

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Fall Of Giants: Book Review

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett My rating: 3 of 5 stars I should first say that two of my favourite books of all time are _Pillars Of The Earth_ and _The Winds Of War_. I had hoped that Follett would do for WWI and the Russian Revolution what Wouk did for WWII. I love [...]

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This Little Stiggy

I just got hit with the most random realisation ever. The places I hurt the worst and most frequently are my hands and feet–thanks to arthritis–and my abdomen on the upper & lower left quadrants. It’s been this way for years but just now it occurs to me that I have a sort of bloodless [...]

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Your Excuse Is Invalid

I don’t know what’s happened to Facebook in the last two weeks. Around Christmas time it was a place where a lot of dialogue was happening. Now it’s bumpersticker-funny picture central. I think most people are probably too downcast to be comfortable sharing what’s in their hearts and so they resort to the constant recycling [...]

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And I Am Telling You I Am Not Showing

It hasn’t been very long since I first heard the “Show, don’t tell” criticism that is so pervasive in creative writing circles now. I honestly wasn’t quite sure what was meant by it, and had to ask here what my readers thought it meant. Their responses made sense, and I came to understand it more [...]

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Nashville–The Toilet Where Civil Liberties Are Flushed Away

It’s been a couple of months and a few major holidays since the Occupy Nashville fracas. Just in case you need a memory refresher, the governor created a new law out of the blue which made it illegal to protest on state property after hours. He then employed the TN State Police to arrest and [...]

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UPDATE: Personal Information

A while back I posted on some personal information of a sensitive nature. If you are squeamish about medical details or don’t wish to be knowing various things about me, feel free to skip ahead to the next scintillating thing I write about books or TV or whatever.

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What I’m Reading Now–Downton In The Library

It’s been an odd week, reading-wise. I can’t find within myself the will to stick to any story I haven’t already been through once before. As a general rule I don’t like surprises–more often than not they are unsettling and disorienting. So: no surprise parties, no drop-in visitors and above all else no twists in [...]

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Pirates!

Wednesday was for protesting SOPA and PIPA, both of which are bad solutions.    Bad solutions to a good idea.     Because as unpopular as it is to say so, the Internet has more than a little of the Old West taint to it. That lawlessness that seems charming to some, romantic to others…but [...]

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SOPA Opera

Today is the big Go Dark Against SOPA/PIPA day, and every corner of the internet is up in arms about this huge, corporate-sponsored mess. Me included. Internet Piracy is a bad thing and I’m against it. But I’m also against corporations demanding that the Federal government write new laws for them to conduct their business. [...]

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