Na na na na Star! Ray: Na na na na Star! Na na na na Star! Me: What are you doing? Ray: I wish a star. Me: What do you wish for? Ray: I wish presents Christmas. Me: Good choice.

Writing stuff. It’s been a while… I finished the third draft of the story, and I still have a lot of work to do. Some things are going much better, some things are the same, and some things I still can’t figure out at all. Why? Why why why??? The problem with giving your characters

Sheesh. (Writing stuff.) It’s been a while… I finished the third draft of the story, and I still have a lot of work to do. Some things are going much better, some things are the same, and some things I still can’t figure out at all. Why? Why why why??? The problem with giving your

Weight. (Forgive me if I screw this up.) 1 lb = 16 oz. = 1 pint 1 c = 8 oz (2 c = 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon) 1 gallon = 8 pints = 8 pounds. So a gallon (of beer) is 8 pounds. According to my

Badge. You don’t get badges for being a parent, but you should. Like “My Child Survived to Adulthood Only Because I Didn’t Kill Him (or Her).” Like “Did the Sex Talk.” Like “Made it through Flu Season with a Two-Year Old without a Direct Hit.” Here’s the badge I want: The “Fox In Sox Adult

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum! I talked Lee into helping us put up the tree today. He may have had fun; I’ll ask him after he’s had time to think about it. Of course, after three years, putting the actual tree up is pretty much a science, this snaps together with that, this goes here, the

Review: The Brothers Karamozov, by Fyodor Dostoesvsky As it turns out, this is a fun book. It has many of the features of an epic fantasy, except, of course, for the fantastic and epic elements. There’s the same sense of world-saving importance, the same philosophical digressions on good and evil, the same psychological themes turned

Quote: “They’re thirteen. The boogeyman is no longer in the closet or under the bed. The boogeyman is inside you.” — Alfonso Cuaron, probably not an exact quote, from the Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban interviews on the DVD. He said it in such an offhand, matter-of-fact way, too.

Ideas. I’m writing this down so I’ve written it down. Some people have eidetic memories. I have the kind of memory that remembers what I’ve written, at least the general gist of it. (I don’t have to use bookmarks for most books.) The next time I stare at a blank page and try to talk

Recommend: “Author of a highly acclaimed series of mystery novels, world traveller, former Zen student, and former police officer Janwillem van de Wetering brings an unusual perspective to the detective genre. His novels and stories feature a diverse and richly drawn cast of characters and settings that range from the streets of Amsterdam to the