Phoenix.
Just got back from a trip to Phoenix to visit family.
Gollee, Phoenix!
I lived there for a couple of years and could never decide if I liked it or not.
I hated the heat, of course. That's a huge deal for me. A place gets major bonus points for not being hot.
BUT, I loved the FOOD! The food in Phoenix is wonderful. Fantastic! I miss it every day. We made our rounds to the various eateries throughout the visit - had to eat enough Mexican food to last a whole year you know! Not really possible, but we made a valiant effort and had some really amazing culinary adventures.
We went to Ponchos Mexican Buffet.
We went to The Burger Shoppe on 27th and Van Buren. An unassuming little place with seriously huge breakfast burritos and hot hot pico!
We went to 2 Hippies Breakfast Joint.
Also to the Texaz Grille. I had the chicken fried steak. I tried to make sweet tea using unsweet tea and sugar packets, but it just tasted like funny unsweet tea.
We went to Chuy's and had fish tacos and chicken tortilla soup.
We went to Rubio's and had fish tacos with guacamole.
We ate chips and salsa from Garcia's.
On our way out, we went to Panda Express - fast and tasty, as usual! The guy who took our order offered us a calendar with Panda coupons in it, and when I said we don't have a Panda Express in Alabama, he said he was sorry for our misfortune! Said it exactly like that - "I'm so sorry for your misfortune." !!! I appreciated the dramatic effect as I do consider it a GREAT misfortune. (Are you listening Panda Express? Did you get my emails?)
Oh yeah, we also stopped at Carl's Jr. for a quick steak breakfast burrito. I'm no elitist when it comes to breakfast burritos! It was surprisingly good, but small. The fresh salsa in it complemented the flavor of the steak quite well.
So, anyway, the food in Phoenix was always a major plus. Moving to Birmingham totally flip-flopped the food - now the menu is excessively bland. I love the barbecue, don't get me wrong, but I have to have my pico de gallo and my fish tacos and my yakisoba to feel whole, so Birmingham just doesn't cut the mustard. I have to go to Atlanta to eat well, how sad!
Had Enough Vampires Yet?
I want to thank you, Stephenie Meyer.
I want to thank you for making vampires such a visible and inescapable part of my life.
I want to thank you for dreaming a pretty dream one pivotal night, and then introducing me to the sweetest "vegetarian" vampires the world ever knew.
I also want to thank you for inundating book racks I frequent with stunning art-on-black covers, and for having your own section of the book aisle in Wal-Mart.
What's the temperature, Kenneth?
On a recent trip to Washington (the one known for its cranberries, not its crooks), I noticed an interesting phenomenon. I'm not sure what the phenomenon's name is, but I'd call it something like climate-centrism. Loosely defined, it's the irrational belief that the climate where one lives is the most extreme climate in the world.
For instance.
When I arrived in Seattle the temperature was in the low 60s. The sky hung low and gray, completely shrouding Mt. Rainier from view pretty much anywhere you went around the area - even, well, up the roads in Mt. Rainier Park. For four full days, the temperature stayed in the 50s during the day and the 40s at night.
Mind you this was mid-August.
Is it time for you to think BIGGER?
"God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible; what a pity we plan to do the things we can only do by ourselves." - A.W. Tozer
Great first lines from my bookshelves
The first line of a story can make it or break it. The first line is the best opportunity a writer has to reel readers in - to instantly pull them into the story that is already happening, a story that the reader really wants in on, or should, after reading the first sentence. The reader is like the frog in Frogger, jumping into the action. The first line may not necessarily be action-packed - the idea is that the first line sets the tone of the whole story. A good one may shock us a little bit, maybe jolt us, pull us by the collar into a new world and zip up the seam behind us. To put it bluntly: screw up the first line and you're already on tenuous grounds with your readers. Knock it out of the park, and you'll score major points.
I rummaged through my bookshelves to find some good first lines. Here's what I came up with.
"'I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.'" - Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. One of the greatest books ever. This first line strikes the reader with several questions: who is this person seeing through somebody else's eyes? Who's "the one"? What is the implied task "the one" must accomplish? And of course we find out that "the one" is not exactly what we would expect.
"Alexander Democedes Amandinus stood at the Door of Death waiting for the chance to learn more about life." - An Echo in the Darkness, Francine Rivers. The conundrum is obvious - how will dying teach us about life?
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic vermin." - The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka. We've got an unsuspecting guy waking up as a bug. Need I say more?
"Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." - Waiting, Ha Jin
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." - Neuromancer, William Gibson. The best way I've ever heard anyone say "gray."
"None of them knew the color of the sky." - The Open Boat, Stephen Crane. In this sky, the color is blank. But why? Are "them" underground? Are they blind?
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." - 1984, George Orwell. It's quirky, it throws you off a little. The feeling is cold - both the temperature and the clocks. Clocks convey a sense of coldness, I think, not of warmth. Add to that the "striking thirteen." It just doesn't seem right, and that's exactly the point.
How to remove background colors with the GIMP
I ran across this tutorial a while back and saved the link in case I might ever need it again. The process shown in the tutorial came in handy for me when I wanted to remove a white background on an image really fast. Lots of images that you find on stock image sites have background colors that you may not want, and this handy tutorial shows you how to use Gimp to remove them. Also a side plug - if you're looking for free stock images, check out SXC. I've been finding great photos there for years.
Check out the Tannehill Trader online
I write fairly regularly for this fantastic little newspaper in my town called the Tannehill Trader. It's a completely homegrown operation that was started a couple of years ago by some fearless women who figured our town ought to have a voice. The community, which is a stark blend of country and city folk, old and young, progressive and traditional, has responded in an incredibly positive way to the Tannehill Trader. People have embraced it as their paper.
I think one of the reasons it's got such appeal to people is that it doesn't exclude anyone. It's not a young person's paper or an old person's paper, though there are articles that appeal to young people and articles that appeal to old people. It's not a political newspaper or a religious newspaper, though religion and politics both pop up here and there. I've seen articles on the environment, on NASCAR, on local artists and musicians, on "the old days", on a road trip to New Orleans, on red velvet cake and football games and Rhodesian Ridgebacks and, well, a whole lot more.
It's exciting to read because of the diversity, and because you know when you read it that people in your own neighborhood are reading it too, and people you know personally have contributed articles. The Tannehill Trader conveys the feeling that home is alright. That home is where we belong. That relationships with our neighbors matter. It's a refreshing and uplifting thing. In an age in which happiness seems harder to come by than ever, it's nice to be reminded that life isn't about money or stature or stuff, but rather it's about the people we know, about sharing in each other's successes and failures, good news and bad news, needs and wants and desires. I feel privileged to write for the Tannehill Trader. I know they'll continue threading bonds through this growing community for years to come.
Check 'em out: www.tannehilltrader.com.
Like old motorcycle and car racing photography?
I designed a website for a friend who wanted to sell his racing photography online. Following in the footsteps of his photographer dad, my friend, Dan Mahony, has been shooting since 1966. He's got thousands of photos in his collection...not all of them are online yet, but I'm building the catalog on an almost daily basis. It's pretty cool stuff. My husband is a dirt track motorcycle racing fanatic, so he's in love with the project of course. If you're into classic racing photography, check out my friend's life's work at Mahony Photos.
