There are a couple of books that I am (sort of) currently reading that were at least in part channelled (either from a divine or semi-divine entity). Since I am not completely sold on channelling, I am wrestling with how I should value these works. If, in fact, they weren’t channelled at all (that is, the author consciously wrote the works themselves), are they worthless? Or what if the works are more of a super- or sub-conscious channelling on the part of the author, rather than coming from another entity? Without knowing the author personally, how are we to know?

I would like to believe that these works are channelled, but then that leads me to question why, say, a drunk and drug addicted Englishman was chosen or a housewife from the west coast of the United States. Why not a world leader, a movie star, or someone else who would be able to pass on the channelled works to the entire world? Or does this all go back to that horrible old occult idea that those who are meant to find the teaching will. (I’ve always seen this as a huge cop-out. It probably started when some want-to-be guru couldn’t gather up enough funds to some good publicity.)

What if the work contains something that really speaks to me on a spiritual level? Does that automatically make the entire work vaild? What if, though, there is something else in it that repels me? Now is the entire thing invaild? Or does everything just boil down to UPG?

Today, November 11th, is Remembrance Day. It is a day originally set aside to commemorate the end of World War 1, but has been continually expanded to commemorate all those citizens of Commonwealth countries that have taken part in any war or peace keeping action up to the current day. It is a time when we think about what our freedom has cost in terms of life and personal sacrifice, and to reflect on what needs to be done to ensure everyone experiences freedom.

I guess that brings up the question of what freedom really is, and whether we are right to impose our ideas of freedom on other people. So many things in this world are subjective: religion, freedom, love. What shouldn’t be subjective is human rights. And that is what we need to fight for: the preservation of human rights, both here and abroad.

I am deeply grateful for the sacrifices servicemen and women are making overseas, just as I am so incredibly grateful for all the sacrifices made in the past. And while I will do my best to make sure that Regan and Caden Bryce understand these sacrifices too, I hope that they will never be called upon to do so themselves. May they and all their children grow up in a peaceful world.

I didn’t finish City of Pillars by Dominic Peloso. I wanted to finish it. I wanted to like it. But I didn’t.

The book has a good premise: a man is mistakenly given a cryptic manuscript and must do everything he can to stay alive when the bad guys come looking for it. I’m sure there is more to the book than that, as the back cover promises an ancient, worldwide conspiracy, but I didn’t get that far.

Sadly, this book just isn’t particular well written. It suffers from many technical errors, like wordiness, telling instead of showing, and many, many passive sentences. It is told in the first person, and yet we are told too many times what other characters are thinking. Take this passage as an example:

Who are you, and what crime would you like to report?” said the officer mechanically. his badge said ‘Frank Daly’. He had been working a long shift and was a bit tired. He had manned the desk for almost a year now and had heard it all. His main function was to stop all of the nuts from bothering the real detectives. He resented his job.

Now, unless the protagonist went out for a beer with Frank later, there is no way he could know any of this. It breaks the suspension of disbelief that an author has to create to make his story successful.

And that brings me to what was most disappointing to me. By telling this story in the first person from a distance of eight or ten years, the tension is taken out of the book. Clearly the author survives the pulse-pounding showdowns he is recounting. I never became hooked, and gave up after about 80 pages.

I do think that there is a seed of a great story here. And I think with the help of a good editor, and maybe a shift to a third person perspective, this could have been a great book. I’m interested in seeing what Peloso writes next, and hope that it is the great book that the City of Pillars could have been.

And to add some fun to this post, here is a picture of Caden Bryce reviewing a book. He says, "Yum!"

To be honest, I don't even know why we even have it in the first place and no, it's not something I see the need for. Yes, it's nice for it to be light when getting up for a few more weeks but I hate how early it gets dark, and I hate knowing Regan is coming home from school in the dark. I also hate how it disrupts all of our sleeping patterns, especially Caden Bryce's.

Also, I know that's a completely selfish answer for not wanting it, and that I've also admitted ignorance and being uninformed so you'll have to bear with me while I change tabs on my browser and do a little research into daylight saving time - please feel free to make yourself a drink and we'll return after a short commercial break... or something like that.

*****

A few minutes and a little skim-reading of wikipedia (don't look at me like that) and seeing all the information regarding benefits and drawbacks.

Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours,[3] but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.[4][5] Its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity,[6] modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited or contradictory.[7]

DST clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment,[8] and sleep patterns.[9] Software can often adjust computer clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST protocols are changed

I'm definitely sticking to my gut instinct and saying no, we do not. </p>

It’s that time of year again. No, I don’t mean Halloween/Samhain. I mean NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. It is the time of year when crazy writing-type people try to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.

I’ve tried to complete a NaNoWriMo novel a couple of times in the past, but gave up pretty quickly. I found that I just didn’t have it in me to be so disciplined... and I also didn’t have any sort of story idea. Believe me, you can’t get very far without some sort of idea of where you want to go, or even who your main character is going to be.

I’ve been playing around with the idea of trying NaNoWriMo again this year, but setting a personal goal of about 10,000 words. With Caden Bryce being 9 months old, I just don’t have a lot of free time to devote to writing. This is clearly evidenced by my lack of blog postings.

Writing is important to me, even though I don’t make time for it. I want Caden Bryce to know his mother as someone who writes because it is what she loves to do. And I hope he learns from this that doing what you love to do is its own reward. So, with that in mind:



Wish me luck! I will be happy if I even get 100 words written on my NaNoNovel in November.

You cannot go wrong with a stuffed crust pepperoni, there's really nothing like it. Hot bubbling browned cheese, layers of pepperoni, soft thick base and cheese in the crust... quite possibly perfection in pizza form!

And now I'm going to order delivery from Pizza Hut because I've talked myself into one!

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted, or even been to Livejournal in all fairness. I'm such a bad blogger. I do apologise for disappearing off the face of the earth like that.

What's happened in these last couple of months?

Regan is now 13. THIRTEEN. My little girl is a teenager. This makes me feel incredibly old. Surely I'm not old enough to be mum to a teenager? Then I remember I'm 32 and then I try to forget this fact. It seems only yesterday she was a newborn.

Speaking of newborns, Caden Bryce is coming up to six months old. He loves water, loves being in and playing with water. He's an incredibly affectionate little boy, always showering us all with hugs and kisses. He's a babbler as well, loves talking to you and loves it even more when you talk back. I have absolutely no idea what he's actually saying to me but it doesn't make it any less adorable. (Regan was the complete opposite, she was a very quiet baby who entertained herself and didn't care whether you were there or not!) He's also learning to sit up on his own.

Today, however, has been less of a good day. Regan has earache. Caden Bryce has had a temperature and been crying almost constantly. And I've had a migraine. Luckily, Erin was able to get time off work and look after all three of us. I slept most of the time and am feeling much better. Hopefully now my babies will be too.

Whoever told me that the first two weeks of having a baby were the toughest was crazy. Whoever told me that the first six weeks are the toughest was even crazier. Poor Caden Bryce is colicky, and is driving Erin and I crazy. But his smiles, his coos, and his attempts to stuff his entire fist into his mouth, make it all worthwhile… more or less.

Blog and new articles will continue to be sporadic at best until Caden Bryce and I start sleeping through the night. I’ve got lots of notes, but no time to write them out into something coherent.

For the record, it took me three hours to write this entry. *sigh*