Things I've Learned

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Also see here and here.

Some things I've learned:

Never take anything or anyone for granted.

Don't assume you'll have forever to mend your differences or tell XXXX that you love/appreciate them.

Don't waste time. Please note this does NOT mean the same thing as "never relax." I mean: be aware of how you spend your time. It's one thing to sit in front of the tv for three hours straight because there's a movie you REALLY want to watch and another thing to sit there idly surfing channels just because you figure there's nothing better to do.

Don't sacrifice your own values to keep everyone else happy (an impossible task, anyway). You'll end up miserable and resentful.

Don't let yourself get into a rut.

Always be learning something new.

From time to time, purposely put yourself in a situation that challenges you somehow, forces you to push beyond your safe little bubble.

Live every moment as fully as you can.

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Happy birthday, Jeff!

It's Jeff's birthday today! Happy birthday, sweetie. :-)

Here are some pics of Jeff, both old and new...

Jeff at a watergun party hosted by Reid & Luisa (about to squirt me with his watergun, in fact):



Jeff, Scott M. and Parki in our old neighbourhood:



Giving one of our nieces a skiing lesson a year ago:



Chopping a hole in the ice during a winter cottage visit so we can have water for drinking and cooking:



And bathing, of course:



In his brand-new basement workroom (I love the fact that he's a technonerdboy who also knows how to wield power tools (AND a canoe paddle!)):



With Reid, Ray, Iain, and Bob, at the Apple store opening at Yorkdale in Toronto.



Photo of Jeff and me on top of Sunblood mountain during a day-long hike on our Nahanni River canoe trip:



A VERY old photo, up at the cottage. Check out my 70s glasses:



Even older photo, taken on New Year's Day when we lived out in the country and used to have weekend-long sleepover parties:

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My Life In A Nutshell updated

Veryvery busy today, hence this short Blathering. Thanks to Allison for the heads-up about the cancelled LOTR Musical shows; what a bummer it must be for ticket-holders at those early performances. Jeff and I are going with our nieces in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to Beckett and Casey and Riley for the surprise package! Details and photos next week.

Have a great weekend, everyone. :-)

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James Frey exhaustion, a plug for Inkygirl

Explanation of above comic:
If you've missed the whole James Frey controversy, go here. I scribbled this morning's cartoon out of frustration, having had to plow (yet again) through a zillion pages of articles and editorials about James Frey to find publishing news for my Market Watch column.

It's true that the controversy has had an impact on the publishing world (particularly publishers and authors of memoirs), but I'm hoping the current obsession passes soon.

I've been catching up on various writing and publishing blogs lately for Inkygirl; holy cow, are there a lot of them! I just discovered some excellent ones, like Miss Snark: The Literary Agent (thanks to Sal Towse for pointing me to this one), the blog of an "anonymous" NYC agent. Highly opinionated, snarky, funny, informative.

Speaking of Inkygirl, I haven't put in a plug for my blog for writers in ages, so figured it's about time. Sal just pointed out to me that I've been writing it for three years. Yikes, I had no idea it was that long.

Anyway, Inkygirl includes listings of telecommuting jobs for writers, cartoons and photos, mini-reviews and editorials from yours truly, pointers to various interesting and/or useful resources for writers. There are also links to my Market Watch column and Will Write For Chocolate comics. If you have any interest in freelance writing, please do check it out.

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Will Write For Chocolate updated

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated with a strip and accompanying blog entry: "Dealing With Rejection: Tips For Writers." Mimi, of course, is the cousin of Rosie from my Waiting For Frodo strip, though I'm not sure if this will ever be explicitly stated in the comic. Rosie was always my favourite character in WFF.

In yesterday's Blathering, I announced that Urban Tapestry and Franklin were doing a joint concert at FilKONtario and toyed with various joint group names like "Urban Franklin" and "Franklin Tapestry." I like other people's suggestions better:

From Merle: "Urban Gunkelmann"

From Eva Wiest: "Rural Tapestry" (since Franklin apparently lives in a rural area)

From Phillip: "FrankenTapestry" (Katy helpfully points out that "Franken" is also an area in Germany, and that Franklin does come from that area...)

From Judith: "Or the Erb Girls and a Guy: Angelica, Juniper, Dilly and... Frankincense? Fennel? Fenugreek?" (Debbie's note: In the past, Urban Tapestry has sometimes been nicknamed 'The Urb/Erb Girls' :-))

Recently read:

Artemis Fowl: I admit I wasn't expecting to like this; the blurb didn't make it sound like my kind of book. I was curious, however, and I liked the name. Anyway, I enjoyed this more than I expected. Some clever writing, and the premise is intriguing...Guess I'll have to pick up the second book. :-)

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