Thursday 21 July 2011

No Grace

I don't say grace at meals. I don't mind if you do, just don't ask me to. Part of it I suppose is the endless chuckling at my name when it comes up, though I have gotten used to it. But mostly I just don't see why we should make a religion out of thanking the Man Upstairs for food and not for anything else.

Imagine if it were a cultural norm to say a prayer of thanks before using cosy socks, a hot water bottle, a cup of tea, a friendly cat, thick curtains, fleecy blankets (it's the dead of winter here! can you tell?). Or for the phone line, the modem, the computer, and the cables that run under the sea all around the world to enable these connections. Or my favourite shirt, the old car that still runs well, my jobs that pay me money, good books (oh BOY, good books!!), the beach...

I know food is the first prerequisite for survival, and I don't take it for granted. But I'll say my silent thanks for these other things too, because they make life what it is.

Virtual Glue

Virtual glue is a term that's come up in my conversations quite a bit lately, in connection with creating a full book manuscript out of 26 different story files and I think about ten edit files, too. To say nothing of the contributor pages which have to be filled in with author photos and bios and book blurbs and cover images and links and ISBNs. I have often felt like I'm all gummed up with virtual glue all over my hands from all the copy-pasting.

But it will be worth it. Aquasynthesis has been an awesome project to work on, and the end result is shining through the disparate parts. It's going to be great.

Meanwhile, the blog I've left up for days now is this one: http://christinakatz.com/how-to-be-the-most-productive-person-you-know/ - lots of wisdom in there. I guess I left it open in the hope that some of it would stick in my head. No, I don't leave my computer on all the time - it hibernates overnight, retaining my working windows and tabs. I hate it when I have to restart for updates or program crashes, but who doesn't hate that? Oh well. A reboot is healthy now and then, same as for people :)

Sunday 17 July 2011



Lookie here what just came in the mail for Paul Baines! The perfect reason to celebrate my blog's spacey new layout for a space travel book that is going places :)