I ran all five days this week! It was 32 degrees this morning. That should count for some kind of physiological bonus point. Here’s the rest of the update- (I hope to have a newsletter out soon. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up in that box at the right. If you’d like to get these posts as they’re written, click on the Subscribe bar.)
What am I writing? This week I’m finishing up another read thru and proof on Contingency. When it didn’t place in the most recent contest, that was another occasion to back-up and rethink it. I admit, this time it was difficult to get back to writing. So to entertain myself mostly, I wrote out Chuck and Tracy’s first encounter, and sent it to Amanda. She said it needed to be in the book. So we sat down and hashed out a series of ‘flashbacks’ that allowed me to deepen Chuck’s character and give us a greater sense of where Bobbi and Chuck have been, as well as, give some background about how Chuck ended up where he did. You can check a few of them out here. Next week, it’s headed out for a thorough critique. Maybe now I can finally get back to Claire and Mike.
What am I reading? School stuff. We did the Taming of the Shrew. I think Lauren is more of a nerd than I am (if that is possible). She loves Shakespeare, and we haven’t even read the good ones yet. I am so glad to leave the poetry unit behind. Now we’re on to short stories. Some of these I’ve read before. “The Lottery” is still unsettling and “The Monkey’s Paw” still creeps me out. I got some great books in the mail and hope to get into them over Thanksgiving. *crossing fingers*
What have I learned? Nerd stuff- I switched all my programs around. I’m using Google Chrome as my browser. (I love Firefox’s add-ins. I do. But my computer is slow when it runs. A new computer has been requested for the 2010 capital budget. We’ll see what management says.) Chrome is fast, but no frills. I also switched to Postbox for my email client. Same reason. I like Outlook a lot, but it is so confounded slow… Postbox is built on Mozilla’s technology, and it is so much faster. The Lightning add-in gives me the Calendar functions like Outlook. The only complaint I have is that I can’t change my “view” fonts, and message formatting is limited. However, leaving Outlook meant I had to leave my Twitter client- TwInbox. Tried TweetDeck. Like it, but uses a ton of resources, and slows my old computer down. This week I’m trying out Twhirl. It’s okay.
What has God taught me? We had revival this week, great preaching, great music… Here’s a question or two- Would anybody want what I’ve got? Is my salvation infusing my life and bringing the fragrance of life with it? Or like the preacher said, do I look and act like I’ve been soaked in pickle juice? Is my salvation changing my life now and not just my eternity? Am I interfering with God’s working in my life?