Fore! Timber! Fun Words to Yell!

Yesterday Dru Ann asked if anyone yelled "timber!" when the tree fell. Yep, I did. *G*

She also asked why they yell timber, and though I wasn't able to find out the exact origins (I did find a site which asked "Why don't they yell 'hey move!' instead of 'timber'?", lol) basically it's a way to say "look out there's a tree falling!" a lot quicker.

I also stumbled across the origins of "Fore!" in golf, which is essentially the same thing, but at least the explanation was more interesting.

Speaking of interesting, the other day Tori mentioned something about the RMS Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic and the only one of the three ships in its class that didn't sink) and I did some looking up and found that one woman was on ALL THREE sisters ships (Olympic, Titanic and Britannic) when they either crashed into something or sank.

Her name was Violet Jessup, and I find her story very interesting.

Yes, I do tend to gather trivia. Why do you ask?

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. DD did get her first EVER school pictures. She hates them (of course ... didn't we all?) but, though I don't love how her bangs look, otherwise the pix are fine. I'm sorting through them and deciding who gets which sizes now.

I also have my first ever parent/teacher conference this week, though I'm not sure what they'll talk about. They keep everything on the computer in a "portal" I can login to. I can see DD's scores for everything: homework, quizzes, tests and overall grade. I can see her deportment scores (they give +1 or -1 depending on various behavior). There probably aren't going to be any surprises.

She had me help with Algebra last night and it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was supposed to do. She said, "Mom, I thought you loved algebra!" to which I replied, "I did ... thirty years ago."

I had to help her make a scatter plot. Fun times were had by all.

How was your day?

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You Are Passionate

You are magnetic and passionate. You are good at rallying people around a cause. A true charmer, you subtly influence people into seeing things your way. You are intense and over the top. You are more likely to overdo things than to underdo them. You are definitely a whirlwind of excitement. When you're around, nothing is boring... that's for sure.

The Italian Food Test

Don't know if this is me or not ... this is one of those answers you need to ask people who know you about. Does this fit?

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Pet Peeves

"Start early and work hard. A writer's apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he's almost ready to begin. That takes a while." - David Eddings

I was editing a first draft for a friend the past few days, and was reminded of some pet peeves I have. I also just read a comment on another blog and auto-edited it in my head for the same reason.

One of my biggest pet peeves? Repeated words. Drives me wonky. And once I've noticed a particular word being used several times, at that point I'll see it EVERY SINGLE TIME it's used, even if it's pages and pages since the last time. It's especially bad when it's a pretty unusual word. If you describe your heroine as "effervescent", you can't keep saying that! Or, if you always add a particular adjective to anything: the brown couch. They sat on the brown couch. Walked around the brown couch. ARGH! I know it's brown, don't beat me over the head with it.

IMHO, it's particularly difficult not to repeat words in any sort of a clinch. I mean, if a H/H are kissing, only a few body parts are being used. And if you don't want to just say, "They kissed." (and who does?), it's hard to not use the words "lips" or "mouth" over and over.

The fact is, though, as a writer it's your job to use words skillfully. And, I like the challenge of it. I repeat words in my first drafts, too. You just need to get the scenes down. But, when I go back to fix the mess, they need to get edited out. And the challenge becomes: How can I rewrite the sentence, how can I turn the words around, or whatever to make this a great sentence that not only makes sense but doesn't beat the reader over the head.

Not always an easy task.

Thursday: POV pet peeve. (Are you bored yet?)

What about YOU? What are some writing pet peeves you have when you're reading something? Or, for the writers, what is a bad habit you know you have, but can't seem to break (at least in the first draft)?

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It was sunny but cold yesterday. Not much snow melted (darn it), but there is rain forecast for tonight and Thursday. Provided it is really RAIN, the snow will melt significantly and usher in Mud Season. The joys of LOTS of water on still mostly frozen ground. Blech.

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You Are Mayonnaise

You tend to be a very quiet, introverted person. You're happy to sit back and let stronger personalities shine. You value loyalty and harmony. You try to bring people together. Your taste in food leans toward simple comfort foods. You love holiday meals as well as old school favorites like mac and cheese. You get along with mustard and ketchup personalities. You have an unlikely alliance with hot sauce personalities.

What Condiment Are You?

The first part? Not at all... but the second is pretty close!

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Friday Free-For-All

The feeling of sleepiness when you are not in bed, and can't get there, is the meanest feeling in the world. ~Edgar Watson Howe

I'm seriously sleep-deprived this week, so bear with me as I ramble and frighten you with the inside of my brain.

This was at the top of my gmail inbox today:

Dictionary.com Word of the Day -
dissever: to separate into parts

I have to be honest and say it really puzzled me. I stared at it for a good thirty seconds. I mean, I'm sure Dictionary.com is correct, but I always thought that the prefix "dis-" meant to NOT do something. Like if you disrespect someone, you DON'T respect them, right?

So... following that, "dissever" should mean to NOT sever. Yet... it doesn't. It means to sever, so why have two words (one of which has a misused prefix) to mean the same thing?

Yes, folks, these are the sorts of things that keep me awake at night.

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I've been trying to decide what to work on for JaNoWriMo (either the sequel to "One Love For Liv" or the sequel to "Kitchen Matches" are on the top of my list -- I've been brainstorming both, though I have also been trying to figure out how to fix Camilla's story) when it occurred to me that I CAN WORK ON BOTH. Really. You know, it's cool when you can make up your own rules. JaNoWriMo is about 50,000 new words. Period. They can be on a new story, and existing (but incomplete) story... whatever. It's very freeing.

I think I will skip NaNoWriMo and do JaNoWriMo every year from now on...

Of course, that may change come next month.

We have ten folks signed up so far, in all types of genres ... so feel free to join us. I imagine it's going to get a little crazy.

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I can't believe it's only 3 weeks until Christmas. I'm so behind. I don't have my cards done, I don't have my shopping started (unless you count the bunch of "in honor of" gifts I purchased at Samaritan's Purse yesterday -- my in-laws don't allow gift giving, but will tolerate charitable contributions in their name, so I went to town, lol ... I love giving stuff). I'm trying to figure out how to get what I need, especially for DD, when I am with her 24/7. I did discover that Target.com has free shipping on most of their toys, so that's something.

And, yes, I'm giving books... but I gotta get off my duff and order those, too. I wish Amazon or BN.com did gift wrapping.

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It's a strange thing when a family celebrates the absence of dog vomit and runny poop -- but, yes, that's what we did yesterday. Now, if only today will be vomit and runny poop free... :::fingers crossed:::

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Judy and I are (once again) revamping the entire LASR site -- in the hopes we'll be ready for relaunch on January 1st. So, I'm a little crazy-busy, but the new site is seriously gorgeous. I can't wait to share it with you guys. I need to clone myself, though, because it entails rebuilding all of our interviews, stories and reviews since the last relaunch as well as creating all new webpages (which are really, really pretty...)

I'm a little acorn brown, lying on the cold, cold ground... everybody steps on me, that is why I'm cracked you see...

Points for anyone who knows what song that is!

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Your Mafia Name Is Dina "The Butcher" Capelli

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

What's Your Mafia Name?