Uhm...yeah

The weather is finally starting to warm up and Mother’s Day was spent bbq-ing at my folk’s place. Lots of hot dogs with plenty of mustard and ‘kraut. Yum!! I don’t go near the burgers because my family makes them so well done that they may as well be charcoal bricks. Bleck! However, spicy sausages helped mitigate that loss.

Now it’s back to work and I can’t stop yawning and sneezing. Allergy season is upon us full force. I tried getting up at 5:30 this morning so I can spend some time writing…but it didn’t work. I couldn’t stay up long enough to feed my cat much less work. I sat up at the edge of my bed and looked out my window. It just so happened that it was a grey cloud covered morning and that’s all it took for me to turn around and go back to bed for another hour. I have to get myself back on a schedule…it will help me get back on track. Easier said than done.

The one thing I have been doing is reading Kathe Koja’s, Under the Poppy. Her language is elegant. She manages to extract the psychology of her characters therefore the actions they take ring true. I can’t get enough and I’m almost done with this book. The other writing aspect that I admire from her work is the way she’s able to handle the past (relevant to the characters) in snippets during the present conversation between two characters. This is not easy by any means. In fact, I find that I struggle with giving away too much information in these large meandering paragraphs and then when I go back I have to scale it all back down. Koja manages to say so much in a few precise lines about what each is capable of and why. This method is so uniquely hers that I couldn’t emulate it even if I tried. There was one short chapter that I couldn’t quite follow because she was introducing too many voices at one time. But for the most part, she does it so well. Her skill is genius. *sigh*

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. No news on my novel since *eyes downcast, toe kicking up dirt* I haven’t been working as diligently as last month. I’m going to go home tonight and work on it. No excuses.

Peace,
L~

All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.

Here's what irks me...

So….Matt Dean (MN politician) apologized for calling Neil Gaiman a thief.  Well Dean said more than that about Gaiman but no need to repeat verbatim since its utter nonsense. Here’s what irks me about this interchange.  Why is it that if a creative person receives $45K for a speaking engagement he is considered a thief?  But if a CEO receives a million dollar bonus (after all these bailouts) there is NO outcry?  Gaiman replies that he’s given most of the money away to charity.  Very noble indeed.  HOWEVER, even if Gaiman had kept every red cent so he can continue to do his creative work, why is that wrong?  Gaiman happens to be one of the more successful creative types, which I think is great, rock on dude!! But goodness I want to throw up my hands in utter dismay at the complete lack of respect from Dean.  Even his apology rang false.  Good thing Gaiman can respond to the criticism in such a cool proper British way.  My fiery Mexican blood would not have handled it quite so coolly. 

All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.

“Resistance is Futile"

Today, I forgot my iPhone at home and it made me realize how addicted I am to being connected via email/text and phone. All my contacts are on that little contraption so I can’t call anyone from work without it in my hand. It’s also been awhile since I had a phone number memorized. At the moment, I have two numbers memorized, my own and my parent’s house. Hehehe. Who else do I need to talk to? The only reason why I know their phone number is because they’ve had it for the last 25 years. Anyway, now without phone in hand, I can’t call up or text my friends when I’m having a slow moment at work. Hmmm. What’s wrong with this picture?

I grew up without a cell phone attached to my hand. I come from a generation where cell phones were a luxury item but now that we’ve entered upon a generation of on-call /instant messaging/twittering communities…gosh, it’s really hard to go back. I’ve been saying to friends and family that I’m going to scale back from this high tech reality and just go back to a cell phone that only makes calls, nothing more. But truth be told, it’s a lot harder than I thought. This online presence is all-encompassing and without the technology, I feel like I’ve unplugged from the hive. “Resistance is futile.”

I work at a company that limits internet access because of compliance issues so I relied on my iPhone to check e-mails. And now I’m antsy because I haven’t checked e-mail all morning. What kind of twisted nightmare have I allowed in to warp my brain circuitry so that without internet access…I can’t sit still? Hmm? This is one of those moments where all this time on my hands has me thinking too much.

Funny, thinking about this has me recalling something Jeff Vandermeer’s wrote in Booklife about how all this access fragments us. Yes it does!! Dag it!! And now I have 4 and a half more hours before the day is done. I was supposed to go to a gallery opening tonight but unfortunately all the info is on my phone. Argh! I was going to slip the postcard into my book this morning just to have written details but I was running late...so much for a swanky party. Who says swanky in this day in age?
All for now….it’s time to unplug.

Peace,

L~

All artwork, photos, and text © Copyright 2008-2011 Liliana Almendarez unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Liliana Almendarez.