Rebellion by Kid and Other Stuff

You’ve surely heard the story about the six year old suspended from school for his mohawk?  This is disturbing on many levels.  First the mother, who can read the school dress code and has been warned twice before.  Second the school – come on, I can’t believe a bunch of six year olds spend more than one second noticing anybodies hair style.  To me the real issue is the mother using her little boy to rebel against “the man” and the school determined to “get her in line”.  At six, my son didn’t even notice he had hair, much less prefer one style to another.  I feel so sorry for this little boy a human pawn in an adult game.
Julianne’s Wheels of Fire, the book I’m currently writing, is zooming right along.  15,000 words since Monday.  Granted, they aren’t all great words….but that will come later.  While the time spent just writing instead of blogging was productive.  I miss hearing what everyone’s up to.  I missed the humor, contemplation, and sometimes even righteous anger I get from reading through my blogroll.  Apparently I need to learn how to strike a balance, so I can have both things.  Just as soon as that pesky day job is out of the way.

Hmmm….What’s This Called

Whatever the opposite of writer’s block is called, I have it…back on Friday, for today Julianne’s Wheels of Fire calls like a siren….

Lost Weekend

I had an extensive project list to accomplish this past weekend and was cruising along pretty well, ticking things off like a dervish until Saturday, mid morning. Princess brought me a new book, Duma Key by Stephen King. End of progress…

My friend and fellow writer, Waldo Schmidlapt, sent me this picture.   Isn’t that the most interesting thing?   I find it so amazing that both the deer and the cat are showing nothing but curiosity.  He said the picture was taken by “a woman in Oregon”, if anyone knows the photographer, please leave me a note and I’ll credit her properly.

Professional ADD

Let’s see…three e-mails to answer, one final edit to complete, two reports to copy and mail, one agenda to create, 300 more words to write on Julianne’s Wheels, six birthday cards to buy and the bathroom needs cleaned.

Today I will…make slipcovers for the wing chairs. 

Bloggers for Charity – War Child

On a visit to Minx’s blog yesterday I learned of a writing project to benefit the War Child charity called “You’re Not The Only One” the details of which were at Peach’s blog (it’s exhausting giving credit where credit is due, isn’t it?) Peach had this to say about the project:

We would like you to submit (to us at bloggersforcharity@yahoo.co.uk) a written piece about something you’ve been through from any aspect of your life that you want to share. It can literally be about anything: your relationships, your past, a road not taken, being a parent, an illness or your regrets etc. We’ve called it “You’re Not The Only One” to reflect the camaraderie of blogging.

War Child is a UK  based charity, but they help children all around the world.  Follow the link if you’d like to learn more about the cause.

The plan is a book filled with stories as described above, either something you’ve already written in your blog, or something new.  Nothing that has been published outside of your blog however.  1,500 words or less (and they prefer less).   It will be published through lulu.com.   Cruise on over to Peach‘s place for intimate details of this project.  But do it quick, the deadline is February 29th.

I’m going to contribute to this cause, I’ve narrowed it down to three of my favorite posts (all of which need editing).  If you have some time to read today, or you remember these particular stories, which one do you suggest:

Unwelcome Guest and A Trashy Cat    An opossum invades the house and the cat puts the moves on the dog.

A Reputation Ruined  Children sell out parents propensity for swearing.

The Crappy Desk Chair Method of Advertising  Conversation with a character at the hospital.

Rejection Strategy

Have you seen that clip of the guy who proposed to his girl, mid-court during an NBA game between Houston and Sacramento?  She says no.  In front of a packed house, cameras rolling and one of those silly mascots hamming it up beside the intended groom. 

At first glance you might say “Ah, that poor guy, rejected in public, on National TV.”  I was impressed with the courage of the girl who looked like she really cared about this guy, but knew the timing just wasn’t right.  She had options, she could have taken the ring and then retract her answer off camera.  She could have decided not to make waves and been swept into a marriage that just never worked.  She could have taken advantage of this golden opportunity to really embarrass him with a diva performance ending with “talk to the hand”.  She let him down with a whisper and shake of her head. 

She left the court obviously upset and embarrassed.  He left with a beer and the comfort of the silly mascot.  Nobody ever said doing the right thing was going to be easy. 

Things That Make Ya Go – Ugh

How irritating is it that somebody is profiting (and it isn’t me or you!) from an assignment given out by High School teachers and college professors for more than thirty years?  I’m talking about The Bucket List.  Oh we all call it different things…mine is Try Before I Die and has been a page on my blog since I started a blog.  Mines been around since High School when it was a class assignment.  I see these lists all the time on other people’s blogs…and yet, none of us (and we claim to be writers!) thought to write a screenplay around these  stupid lists of things we want to do before we croak.  In my defense, I write for children and they don’t worry about time running out before they do everything they want to do.  Ugh!  I’m not going to see this movie. 

Do you ever do that?  See something and think “why didn’t I think of that?”