In Memoriam : Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck dead at 91 - chicagotribune.com:

A Jazz great. R.I.P. Dave Brubeck

'via Blog this'

Thursday 13 - NaNoWriMo

Thursday Thirteen #80

13 Reasons I Participate in NaNoWriMo

Well it is November! And it is NaNoWriMo time. For you thaht don't know National Novel Writing Month is a mad dash to write 50,000 words in thirty days. Thousands of aspiring writers worldwide take on the challenge. Some go on to publish their work (after a massive edit). So here are 13 reasons I participate every year.

1. Everyone has a great novel in them. I just have to work through the thirty or forty crappy ones to get to it
2. I want a character to survive the Game of Thrones
3. I want to document the location of every Starbucks and Panera Bread in NE Ohio
4. I plot the messy deaths of real people who annoy me and carry them out through my characters
5. How hard can it be? look at that Twilight stuff
6. In my literary world you can be married to Condolizza Rice AND Halle Berry. In fact you can combine them into one person.
7. Someone has to write "The New Adventures of Harry Potter"
8. I thought of another dozen shades of grey
9. I can make teenage vampires and werewolves spontaneously combust
10. I can justify the purchase of a new laptop for my art
11. I get to write-in with real people whom I only see once a year
12. It is more fun to rewrite history than it is to study it
13. I think I can score a big hit with "The Hunger Games: More Fiber"

NaNoWriMo is a wonderful exercise in literary abandon. Nad nothing beats the feeling of reaching that 50K word goal before November 30th.

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New Journey

Well I will be two years post surgery in August. And while I feel and look better than I have in decades, I have lost a battle. Despite my weight loss my diabetes never got under decent control. as a result my kidney function has dropped to the point where I need to start dialysis and consider a transplant. When my nephrologist told me I almost fell out of the chair. I thought that once I had lost weight my diabetes and high blood pressure would just disappear and I would live happily ever after and look great doing it. And yet here I am two years later facing dialysis and my BP is still all over the map. I start my dialysis education class next week. after that we begin serious discussion about transplant. A blessing I recieved during this time was when I told my family about my kidneys, several members volunteered to be tested as donors. I cried and thanked the Lord for such wonderful support. Now we just need to wait and see where the next leg of the journey leads.