tongfengdemao's Xanga

The Last Day by James Landis

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:34:49 GMT

Everyone seems to be comparing The Last Day to The Shack, but I find that to be apples and oranges. The Shack is a story of faith. The Last Day is a love story. It is not a study of the nature of God. Jesus is a character in the story, but the story is not about him. It's about Warren Harlan Pease's last day and return home at the end of his tour of duty in Iraq. It's about his love for the people in his life, their relationships and interactions with one another. It's about his personal relationship with Jesus (not Jesus's relationship with the whole world).

I found Warren to be a very real character. I like him a lot. Everyone was likeable, probably because we were seeing them through Warren's eyes. They were also very human. They are presented with their frailties along with their good points.

The Lat Day is a sad book. It brought tears to my eyes. At the same time, it's a joyful book because it celebrates love and life. It has hope woven throughout with love.

This was one of my favorite books of 2009.

____________________
cross posted from Airy Nothing Book Reviews

Still Playing

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:00:08 GMT

Just a quick post:
This is what I did instead of making a my January signature card:

It's good to have flowers in January! One thing I love about this Art Rage program is the texture. Traditional computer graphics don't usually have this kind of texture. I'm finding all kinds of things for the embroidery machine. It makes me want to work on something with it.

I'm also thinking of making these flowers (there are 4 or 6 more) into embroidered bookmarks. I found them at MyGraficO, which is network of designers. If you're in to computer graphics, paper crafts, scrapbooking or embroidery, check the site out.

Art Rage!

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:53:04 GMT

So, instead of doing any work, or catching up on reading books or reading blogs, I played with my Art Rage program. Actually, I started out writing a letter to my computerless friend. I always add photos and graphics. I didn't have something I wanted (I've forgotten what it was, now), so I went looking online for it. I ended up looking at gazillions of free graphics. I love graphics! I found a bunch that would translate well to embroidery patterns for the embroidery machine. I ended up spending all day yesterday searching for, looking at and downloading graphics. My creative juices were beginning to bug me, but converting a graphic to an embroidery program is not all that fast, so I ended up coloring a coloring book graphic using my Adobe PhotoDeluxe (APD). That was OK, but rather boring, so I dug out the ArtRage and ... Well, I probably could have done the embroidery pattern as quickly! Still I had fun. In fact, I had so much fun, I'm actually considering getting a paid version of the program. Making layers was a big hassle. I had to save, convert and layer it in the APD and I can see where I didn't get them all fitted together that well. Also, I'd like to try water color which is not available in the free version. (And this is one reason it takes the ADD person forever to get something done. Two days later and I still have to finish my letter.)

This is the picture after I colored it on the APD

This is the painting I made.

(They're a tad bigger than my blog has space for. If you click on them you can see the whole picture at PhotoBucket. EDIT: I changed the theme and now they show fully.)

The kitties originally had little beady eyes, but that doesn't look like cat eyes to me, so I changed them. In the painting I also changed the mouths. Over all, it's a pretty simple kidstuff kind of picture, but I'm working my way up to more advanced stuff. I can see all kinds of things I need to learn to do better in this simple painting. I like the right cloud, the pink of the ears, the tulips and the brown cat's face fur. The rest needs work.

Not much else going on around here. We'll be taking down our tree, tomorrow. Then we need to start cleaning the garage. Christmas stuff was all over the place and it needs to be together, so it's not a hassle next year. I have already started to clean up my sewing area of the family room. Schnookie will be turning another corner into his music room. The TV/sitting area just needs regular maintenance cleaning. It's not "decorated," either. I need to figure out how to make it look nice and "finished." That's not easy with the sewing area right next to it.

That's where the cats eat because the window sills are wide and too high for the dog to reach. He'll eat their food if he can reach it. Ruby, the middle cat, has had a barfing problem. Kuma eats that, too. I bought the cats canned food for the holidays. Llyan and Emily didn't much care for it, but Ruby was in heaven. Poor dear! I think she has possibly been malnourished because of the barfing. The wet food does not upset her stomach, so we seem to have cleared up two problems with canned food -- Ruby's nourishment and barf mess.

I still haven't finished my curtains/shades. Procrastination is my middle name. I know it's something to do with uncertainty, but I annoy myself. Why can't I just do what I want to do? Life would be so much simpler if I could. And I don't know why I can't, which is also annoying. I know this is the ADD, but still... At first it was a relief to know what the problem is, but since nothing seems to help in some things, it's just as frustrating as ever. (For some things, breaking things down into a list -- or having someone help me do that -- makes it much easier to get things done. Lists can be, but aren't always, a help.)

And, since I still feel creative, I think I'll work on a January signature card.

Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:16:27 GMT

By the time I finished reading this novel, I didn't particularly care for any of the characters. I didn't dislike them all, but I found them annoying. I was looking for a noble character -- not necessarily bigger than life. Ordinary is fine, but even those characters who showed potential to be bigger than life, in the end, were just very ordinary, interesting only in the way observing strangers is interesting.

Unfinished Desires is the story of a pivotal year in the life of Mother Ravenel. The story goes back and forth between 2001 and 1952. Suzanne Ravenel is writing her memoir of the school and we jump back to the memories she apparently is having a difficult time writing.

The school girls of 1952 are probably not unlike schoolgirls of today, though less sophisticated. In this private Catholic school, they are typically smart and self important, but no wiser than girls of the same age anywhere, any time. Unfortunately, Mother Ravenel, headmistress and former student at the school, was only slightly ahead of her students in 1952, concerning self importance and snobbishness. This is apparent as everything leads to the fateful play at the end of the school year. We see it not as Mother Ravenel would have written it, but as it happened, without the one sided emotional content.

This is a marvelously titled book. As I think on what happened in the story, it becomes clear that, the letdown and disappointment are possibly intentional. Learning about the characters at the end of the novel, in 2001, was a lot like finding old school friends on Facebook. Some turned out to be very different than expected and other were just more like they were in school. We all imagine we will end up the remarkable one, but we are lucky to live up to the modest expectations of us. Learning what happened with the play and seeing the older women in 2001 made me ask what the point was. It's something to think about. Godwin's writing is lovely and I enjoyed reading, but over all, the book was a bit disappointing to me.

Woooeeeee!

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:33:18 GMT

Don't have a clue what that means. It's just the sound that came to mind as I started this entry.

I have been annoyed by this on and off cold. I think part of it is "allergies." That's in quotes because allergies implies some kind of bio-chemical reaction to foreign bodies (like pollen, or food). What my sinus is reacting to is the changing weather. We had very cold for a while. Now it's almost spring-ish out. When it was cold, it was dry and now we have normal rainy weather. My sinuses don't like the changes. Add that to my cold and it was/is a nuisance.

On the good side, I have most of my Christmas shopping done. Not all of it, but the major portion.

One of my OCD things was to get Christmas music into the living room. To do this, I copied all my Christmas music from my computer (my "stereo") and transferred it to the computer connected to the TV. Then I found out why HoneyBear got a new one. It doesn't recognize the mouse or keyboard! However, when I tried my mouse in the USB port, it worked. I don't need a keyboard there, at least not now, so the music was transferred. Then I collected a bunch of Christmas photos and desktop wallpapers and put them on that computer, too. Now, I can play Christmas music and have a Christmas slide show running at the same time and I can hear it it someplace besides my den and the bathroom! Hardly the most important thing to do, but it was bugging me to get done.

I wish my curtains would bug me like that! I have one pair 90% done. Unfortunately, if I feel rotten, tired or frustrated, sewing is something I usually cannot do without messing up big time. I already had to remove about four inches of stitching. I have another pair to sew and then four roman shades. Gee... maybe by the end of January. Sheesh!

I'm excited about my tree this year. It's a real one for the first time in many years. I let HoneyBear put away the ornaments last year. Big mistake! We can't find about half of them this year. I had little boxes for all of them and who knows where they are. I'm sad about this because there were many sentimental ornaments that my best friend has given me over the years. I'm really hoping that they are just put away in the wrong place and we'll find them when we clean the garage again. The up side of that is that there are enough for the tree. A lot of the missing ones are heavy and it doesn't look like this tree will hold heavy ornaments. I've had to pick several off the floor... Although... the cats probably had something to do with that.

Speaking of cats. I have a couple of cute photos of Emily with Kuma (the dog). Emily is the most typical of the cats we have. She's cuddly, sits in laps whether invited or not, and is very curious. Ruby and Llyan tolerate Kuma. Emily will chase him or even goad him into chasing her. When she gets close, he tends to growl, though. I think he picked that up from Llyan. If another cat comes near her, she growls and hisses. She's my grumpy old kitty. Anyway, I set Emily down on Kuma and she liked it there! For all of his growling, he's still friendlier than the two older cats.

I have a video of her on his back. You can hear him growling, but she's so cute. I need to lighten it up a bit. When I have/make some time I'll post it.

For some reason, I felt the need to redo this site last night/this morning. I was tired, but kept at it. Ugh! I regretted that when my sister called me at 10 this morning! It was raining last night (yesterday, today, tonight...), but one night/morning last week I snapped this picture just before going to bed.

The was the view out my den window. As you can see, I don't often get to bed early. (But you must have realized that by now.) It was awfully pretty.

I'd have stayed up to watch it, but I was tired and had to get up by noon.

Anyway, I'm not quite pleased with how this site looks, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps because I'm used to a banner at the top, rather than just the typed title and subtitle. Any thoughts? Too many colors, maybe? Too many outlines around the modules? AHA!! I just realized that I didn't change the font color. I don't know how it's going to look. This theme will definitely get some more tweaking.

Oh, gosh! This one singer drives me crazy! "Si-o-lent night" Siolent?!?!?!?!

I made me a Christmas signature card. I did it two ways. Hmmm... I forgot to put "TongFengDeMao" on it. Well, clearly I was more tired that I should be. I think I'll go to bed right now. It's early, for me. Hopefully, I won't be waked up just as I get to my REM sleep, as I was today.

I like them both. I'll let you vote for the one you prefer.

Signature card #1

Signature card #2

When I was writing this, I was listening to:
Placido Domingo - Villancico Yaucano
George Winston - Thanksgiving
Choir of East Helsinki Music Institute/Sundberg - Omnis mundus jucundetur
Stephen Bashaw - What Child is This?
Plácido Domingo,Michael Bolton,Ying Huang - Joy to the World
Vienna Boys' Choir - Holy Night
Madonna - Santa Baby
Bing Crosby - White Christmas
PVA - Good King Wenceslas
Ben Folds - Lonely Christmas Eve
Liberace - The Christmas Song

Monday, Monday

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:19:16 GMT

Either the raw garlic worked, or that was a very mild cold. I feel about 95% better than yesterday. Schnookie had his cold for about a week, so I'm happy with two days. (I wonder if I need to keep eating the garlic until I feel 100% better. I like garlic, but it's a bit strong to eat raw... Perhaps some more garlic and cream cheese on crackers are in order.)

Beyond that, it's been a rather typical Monday. I overslept. (That's OK under the circumstances.) Then I don't know what happened to the early afternoon. It was just gone. My computer was acting up, so that time was probably fussing with it, though it didn't seem that long. I started to get back to my sewing and messed up almost immediately. I have to stop if I mess up or I get frustrated and mess up worse. I wonder if I'll ever get my curtains done, sometimes.

My sister gave me all her leftover turkey. ...Well, not all of it, but all the bones on which she left a lot of meat. Mom cooked them down and deboned yesterday. Today she is making soup. It smells good!

I walked over to Roth's to get a few things. It's about a three clock walk, slightly uphill from here. I think I could easily be converted to buying my fruits and vegetables daily. I enjoy the walk and they have the best fruits and vegetables. They are too expensive for getting all our groceries, but the fresh stuff is worth it.

While standing on the corner waiting for the light to change, I had a feeling of the season like when I was a child. Well! That's awkwardly put! Hmmm.... I grew up in a city (Rochester, NY), not to far from Main Street. Four or five other busy streets converged into the same two block area. I remember late autumn evenings, coming home from school or running errands after school. It often snowed by this time in Rochester, but just as often, it was merely cold and rainy. Tonight is like that. Cold, cloudy and foggy. It could rain any time. The street I had to cross is one of the main business roads here in Salem. So, as I stood there, it just took me back -- the weather, the sounds, the light, even the smell. I was 16 again.

I ended up picking up The Lovely Bones and read about half of it last night. It's different. I should have gone to sleep sooner, but dozing off and on all day didn't lend itself to that. (If I didn't have to do other things, or think I have to do them, I could probably double my reading, easily.) I probably won't get to read it tonight since I told Schnookie that I'd watch a TV show he has on DVD. He want's to do six hour marathons all week so he can return it when he goes back to Portland this upcoming weekend. I don't even know what the show it -- only that it's supposed to be very good and it was on HBO, originally.

I wrote the above yesterday. Then my computer froze, so I turned it off. Firefox restored it when I turned on the computer, today.

There is nothing new, today. I'm down to 75% with this crappy cough. It's the same thing my son had. Time for more garlic... and the DM.

I stayed up too late with TV and my book. I finished The Lovely Bones. Between the book and the TV show (Carnivale) I had some fascinating dreams this morning. Remarkably philosophical and metaphysical. So I may do some writing, tonight, before watching more Carnivale. It will be in my notebook, though, not on the computer. I don't heve the energy to keep sitting here. I'm not sure why I'm here in the first place.

Odd thing about this TV show is its familiarity. I don't think I've ever seen it and I can't say exactly what's going to happen, but it is still as if I almost know what's going to happen. Maybe I saw an episode of it back when it was on the air. I don't know. Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes comes to mind and Schnook says there are similar elements. I only barely remember the book, though. Well, I'll see how it plays out and maybe I'll figure it out.

I don't know what book I'll pick up next. If I have any sense, I won't read until 5:30 a.m. again. I don't always have that kind of sense, though. And even though the body feels a bit crappy, my mind is waking up again (at 6 p.m.!).

Stay well, everyone.

Buggy

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:13:20 GMT

Ugh. I have some sort of bug. Worst part is a tickle in my throat. Cough medicine helps keep me from actually coughing, but the tickle remains. Also have a nasty headache, but a mix of headache medicines help with that. I also don't have any appetite. That's OK. I did eat a little. One thing I ate was Alice Sebold half a clove of garlic. I've been reading recently where that will lessen if not totally relieve various bugs. I certainly hope so! I like garlic, but it's rather nasty to eat raw and alone. I had to have som4e cream cheese and crackers with it. I also put some in my soup, along with a large dowse of hot pepper. I'd like to feel better by tomorrow. I don't know if I caught it soon enough, though.

So I slept in until about 2:30 this afternoon and have been half dozing, half reading in my recliner since then. I finally finished Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin and also read The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz. I wrote a quick review of the Koontz novel at LibraryThing, but the other will have to wait until I can think better. Right now I'm looking for something light/easy to read. Much as I love the literary stuff, I'm in no mood for it right now. Literary is usually ponderous and I'm too out if it for that, now. Also, I'd like to reach my goal of 50 books and with 9 more to go, at this time of year they need to be easy reads. I also have three reviews promised, books still to be finished, so I'm torn (though the tiny print of EISJ easily rules that out for now).

And I wonder why it's so hard to read 50 books in a year when I know others read many more than that. It's not like I don't like to read. I do! A lot! Like it a t lot, that is. Obviously I don't actually read a lot. I don't know why. I suspect my disdain of chick lit and romance genres is part of it. I probably should snag some Star Trek novels. I used to read them like eating candy. Not sure If I'd like them better than the chick lit or romance, though, any more. I was going to read more in the Twilight series, but one of those was enough. The first one was OK, though not well written, but even the previews of the movie for the 2nd is so unenticing. I think badly written teen lit is worse than badly written romance or chick lit... maybe. Maybe not.

I guess I will read either Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King or The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I've already started both of them. It would be good to clear up my "currently reading" list. I can't sit upright here any longer. I'll check back tomorrow. (I need to catch up, again.)

A question for the readers out there, especially those who read a lot (50 or more a year): When do you read? How do you manage to read as much as you do? What are you not doing when you are reading (TV, projects, computer)?

(Not cross posted anywhere)

Hurray for Solar Power!

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:29:32 GMT

I am definitely a solar powered person. I woke up with energy, this morning. (Yes! Morning!) I had about five hours of sleep, but I did a lot, for me, today. I haven't had any energy for about a week with full eight hour nights. I know it's the sun. I can tell you the sun is shining even before I open my eyes. It's been normal Oregon weather until today. I wish I knew how to get my solar energy during the normal cloudy/rainy weather.

I don't know if FlyLady would approve or not, but I spent two hours cleaning, today. The fifteen minutes at a time just doesn't work for me for most things. It's a great way to sort through stuff that needs to be taken care of, but I'm too ADDy to get anything done in fifteen minutes, most of the time. It takes me that long to get focused. I may switch all her missions or flight plans to 30 or more minutes. Well, not all. Some things really don't take even fifteen minutes

Anyway, I accomplished what I wanted to do. Yesterday we rearranged the living room furniture a bit. Today, I got the floor steam cleaned. Everything is dusted and the cobwebs are gone. The window sills are cleaned off. HoneyBear helped me put the furniture back. I also tried to get everything out that doesn't belong in there and put away the extra decorative items that just looked cluttery.

It's still not where I want it to be, but it's better. I need to re-do the pictures on the walls. I don't like how they look right now. I'm not sure where everything will go, but the Chinese shell pictures will be flanking the fireplace and the black and white painting on rice paper will be take down. It just doesn't go.

With any luck of energy, I will deep clean the kitchen, tomorrow. We're not having guests, (going to Whimsylady's for T-day), but I want this house ready for them, anyway! Next weekend I want to be able to start my Christmas preparations.

After dinner, I will work on my curtains (except for an hour for House). I might be able to get one pair up before I go to bed (which I hope will be considerably earlier than last night!). I have the one pair cut out. It's just a matter of doing the hems and rod sleeve.

And that's been my exciting day.

(Posted everywhere)
[Should have been posted on Monday, 11/23/'09, but my computer was being cranky.]

When I was writing this, I was listening to:
張國榮 (LESLIE CHEUNG) - 愛有萬萬千
 陳奕迅 (Eason Chan) - 新曲+精選
 Yo-Yo Ma: Silk Road Ensemble - Trad: Blue Little Flower
張學友 (Jacky Cheung) - 祝福
 劉德華 (Andy Lau) - 峰迴路轉
 成龍 (Jackie Chan) - 這個晚上
 張國榮 (LESLIE CHEUNG) - 當愛已成往事

Last Week & This

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:57:12 GMT

I'm not at all thrilled when programs I have taken out of start up get back in. It over crowds my computer and some of them are things I only use occasionally. On the other hand, the icons for some things I need often, like my sound icon, don't bother to show up at all! Bah!

I didn't get much done today. I slept a couple of hours longer than I intended to. In my defense, I didn't sleep well once I finally got to bed, and I have had a back ache since sometime in the night.

When I started this post, I had a purpose. Beats me what it was, now.

Last week, I spent most of my time going to and from Portland and helping to pack and unpack. It was a beautiful week, for which I am grateful because I hate driving in rain. My car's defogger doesn't work well and until it gets fixed, it's a nuisance to drive in rain. I would have liked to have gotten my garden cleaned up. I need to thin out the iris and I'd like to cut the dead tops of flowers, but it'll get done eventually.

Traveling was beautiful. I took my camera with me a couple of times and took some pictures. This was done as I was driving, so it was just a quick point and shoot (this is on I-205 around Portland), but I did manage to get a shot of each of the big mountains I passed each day.

(Click for larger views.)

It's easy to tell Schnookie is here. This was the living room the day after he moved in:

Great view from the front door. It's a little better now, but things still aren't in order, yet.

We are taking loads of "stuff" to the storage place. He has furniture that we simply have no room (or need) for. I'm also taking some of my stuff and will return it bit by bit and either find a proper place for it or get rid of it. I'm also putting the chairs I want to fix (reupholster) there until I can get to them. The fewer things here taunting me to get them done, the better I will be able to get to what is here. I figure that by the time Schnookie moves out again, I will have my things dealt with.

Before I can get to my kitchen curtains, I have to finish his bedroom curtains. For the bed and windows. I got the first one for the bed done today.

It's not completely adjusted, yet, so it's a little crooked at the top. I have the other end curtain almost done and the front curtains cut. I now have all I need and I don't need to rush out to Jo-Ann's to get something, so, hopefully, I will get them done tomorrow and plain window curtains are easier than this. Then, finally, I can get to my kitchen curtains.

This is a loft bed, but he decided that, while his room in Portland was so small, he needed to use the floor space under it, he really prefers not to hit his head every time he wakes up at night. Right now the mattress is on the floor under the bed. He will use the top for storage and eventually make a platform about 4-6 inches off the floor for the mattress. The curtains will go around the bed to enclose it. This is (or will be) his "bed fort." He's 25, but still a kid at heart. Takes after his Mom.

It was pouring rain when I woke up, but by the time I headed up to Jo-Ann's the sun was out. Although I didn't really want to go out, I needed the black grosgrain ribbon for the curtains, and the sunshine made it totally worth it. I might not have noticed it if I'd stayed in. I also took advantage of a 70% off sale and got a couple of decorations for my door.

I may hang the scarecrow on the deck door (in the kitchen). Right now it's on the inside of the front door. The orange flowers are on the outside of the front door. My plan is to have different decorations for every month -- all kept in the same place. On December 1 I will put out the December/Christmas decorations. I think January should be snowmen, even though we don't get much snow here

We're back in Oregon, tonight... rain, rain, rain!

You can't really see it raining, but those aren't just shiny leaves, they are wet leaves! The garden wall is wet and shiny, too.

I should go try to finish my book.I'll leave you with this:

Currently Reading...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:25:18 GMT

	Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin					This was a free book from LibraryThing and although a review isn't absolutely required, I'd like to keep getting free books, so I will review it. (Actually I'm trying to review every book I read.) Good, so far.
	Everybody Is Somebody's Jew by EminemsRevenge					This I Xanga's own ER. I'm about ¼ through it and I like it very much, but it's not exactly light reading.
	Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King					I picked this up for diversion a while ago. I think I've read one or two stories. It's King. Of course it's good.
	The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson					I got this and started reading it a year ago. I read a little now and then.
	Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions by Robert McDowell					I started this on Aug 19, 2008. I don't think I picked up again since then, but I like the title.
	Refuse to Choose!: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love by Barbara Sher					I started to read this because I'm always trying to do too many things and she says that's OK. It was not easy to read. I may or may not get back to it.
	How to See Yourself As You Really Are by His Holiness the Dalai Lama					I thought I had finished reading this one. I like how the Dalai Lama thinks, although I'm not so sure about Buddhism. I tend to ignore anything that doesn't fit in with my Christian beliefs. I will get back to this.
	The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold					My son has been nagging me to read this. I started it last night. I will get to this after I finish the first two on this list (or sooner if I need something easier to read).
	1984 by George Orwell					I started this for a book club back in '06, but it was just too depressing to continue. I don't know if I'll finish it or not. Part of me wants to.
	Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf					This is another I picked up a while ago. I got distracted and didn't get back to it. I want to read soon. I'm sure I'll need to restart it.

Originally I had a reason that I was putting all of this here, but I got so caught up in just getting it here (had to make a table and it kept messing up) that I've forgotten my reason. Oh, well. All that work is done, so I'm going to leave it. Maybe I'll remember why another day. I probably have other books that I started and forgot. These are the ones I have on my LibraryThing's "Currently reading" collection. My book sites are getting as numerous as my blogs sites (well, not quite that many!).

Right now I'm going to read some more of Unfinished Desires. I need to try to get to bed early, since Schnookie will be calling me at about 9:30 to go up to Portland and help him move. I have a feeling I'll be dragging tomorrow. Getting to bed doesn't mean getting to sleep.