A Final Wrap-Up Post Before The Madness Begins

As for the madness . . . I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. The A-Z April Blogging Challenge begins tomorrow--the day 865 (or so) people post starting with the letter "A".

865. If you divide that by 30, you get 28.8333333. So to keep up with just 865 and comment once on each, you'd have to visit 28+ blogs a day.

My plan is to get to around 30 blogs per day, keep up with as many bloggers that I already know as I can, (I probably won't get around to everyone--if you don't see me, no, I haven't forgotten about you!), and finish scheduling posts. I had wanted to have all 26 done by today, but instead I have something like 17. Now my goal is to finish them by the end of first week. Thankfully, I have Sunday to type like crazy.

And now, wrap-up time!:

• The Powerful Woman Writer award

. . . from Tyrean Martinson. Thank you so much for this award, Tyrean!

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• OpenOffice.org.

Coolness. It's free (free, everyone!) software from Oracle, with Writer, (MS equivalent: Word) Base, (Access) Calc, (Calculator) Draw, (Publisher) Math, (Equation Editor) and Impress (PowerPoint), and available for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Solaris, and some others. My mom wanted to download Base for database management, and the whole pack came with it. Basically, OpenOffice has fewer options, looks like an old version of Microsoft--but it works. Hurray!

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• Death by PowerPoint. I couldn't help posting this. It's just too funny (and kind of disturbing).

Apparently, Death by PowerPoint can also be called "PowerPoint Poisoning" and "PowerPoint Hell". Retired Marine Colonel Thomas X Hammes called it "hypnotizing chickens" when the program is used to make presentations that are overly-complicated and tedious, such as during press briefings. (Guess he doesn't enjoy the press.)

The Wikipedia article also says there is even such a thing as a "PowerPoint Ranger"; i.e. "a military member who relies heavily on presentation software to the point of excess". In addition, a Colonel was fired for criticizing the dependence on the "presentation method". One Russian said "If we ever had a war, while you are working on your Power Point, we would be killing you."


Yeah . . . is there something fishy there, or is it just me?

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For those participating in the Challenge, I hope you all have fun, and I look forward to reading your posts!

For those not participating in the Challenge, (hey, you can still sign up, if you haven't been terrified by that huge number of blogs) I also look forward to reading your posts, which I will do my best to keep up with while I tackle the aforementioned list!

See you in April, everyone!

-----The Golden Eagle

400th Post And The Versatile Blogger Award

Yes, this is my 400th post!

*takes a moment to grin and dance about in happy circles then realize how ridiculous that looks and regain composure*

I thought about what to do to celebrate the occasion, but nothing spectacular really came to me . . . there are a lot of awesome blogfests happening already, and I'm afraid I have no brilliant ideas at the moment (why do all the good ideas come to me when I don't have paper around on which to write them down?).

So I have decided to ask YOU to ask me questions on anything (well, almost) you'd like to know about me.

Old trick in the book, but I always find it fun to know more about the bloggers in the 'sphere, so it seemed to me like something to try.

They can be all kinds of questions from writing-related to silly to philosophical to complicated to . . . well, you get the picture. You have 7 days to ask (and you can come back with more in case something strikes you) since I'll be answering everything one week from now.

(If you don't feel like asking, no worries. This is for your benefit, you awesome readers who have suffered through hundreds of my posts by now. :P)

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I would also like to accept the Versatile Blogger Award from Trisha at W O R D + S T U F F.

Thank you so much for awarding me, Trisha!

I've already listed 7 things about myself before, and awarded people . . . so I hope you'll forgive me if I skip that part of the Versatile Blogger Award.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!


-----The Golden Eagle

The Great Blogging Experiment Blogfest begins tomorrow! There were 153 entries last time I checked--those are a lot of blogs to read, but I know I'm going to be visiting at least a few! I might have to do a lot of it on Saturday, but I'll at least be visiting the people I follow. :)

You can still join if you haven't yet! *gasps* Just go HERE.

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I have been invited to celebrate Icewolf's 200th Post Party! Thanks, Icewolf!

The rules are to pass it on to three people, then have them pass it on to three others. (If you're not familiar with Da Lovely World of What-Not, then here's the explanation: Icewolf sets up situations and you and your characters type out scenes; those scenes are built on by other readers and the story expands into what's usually full-blown action!)

Choosing only three is going to be difficult, but here are my picks:

Caroline
Katie/Popular Joker
and
Brena

-----The Golden Eagle

Soap and Education Are Not as Sudden as a Massacre But are More Deadly in the Long Run*

I really don't like starting off posts that are more personal than book reviews and/or posts with a theme. Like, what do I start off the darned thing with--me, writing, stuff I'm doing 'round the blogosphere, or just some random fact? I usually go with the random fact option . . . but today I'm going to start off with the fact that my characters just turned a year old today!

You're probably thinking: HUH? but you see, I started writing my current story exactly a year ago. I think it was a year ago; for some reason this date reminds me of something. I know I started it in September sometime. Not all of my characters have reached a year yet; I only introduced some a few months ago when I was rewriting.

But Combat Chief Neodvisni (I didn't know his last name at the outset--I should have since that's what everyone calls him) and Esperanza, (no last name anyway), the two main characters in the story have been in my mind almost every day for the past year.

Question here: how often do YOU think about your characters? I do a lot. Like daily.

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Guess what? I signed up for Alex J. Cavanaugh's Top Ten TV Shows Blogfest set for September 20th. I don't watch any TV beyond PBS (I'm not kidding!) but I since I love a bunch that they show I decided to put my name up there. I only have tomorrow to write it though since I put it off--panic attack! I'm going to have to make up that list pretty fast. :P But I don't mind--go sign up yourself!

I'm also participating in Alex, Jennifer Daiker, and Elana Johnson's Great Blogging Experiment. I love that title. I'm really going to hit the blogging world on September 24th to see what everyone thinks is the best way to write compelling characters. Again--SIGN UP.

Watch out for my posts, too! :)

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The trees are starting to change here. They're turning orange, yellow, red, fading to brown . . . it's pretty, but it's also getting colder to point where I need a jacket. I don't like wearing jackets--anything bulky just gets on my nerves. The temperatures are dropping at night and in the day, 80s are unlikely and 60s are common, it's been in the 40s . . . but I love fall. It's my favorite season.

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I know I was going to say something else but I can't remember it now . . . hrrrmm. What was it? Eh. Never mind. I'll think of it tomorrow and probably forget it again . . . you know, it seems like whenever I start writing my posts the thoughts I had fly out the window. It's same with my story--the computer seems to dash everything I had in mind.

Ah well. I usually wing it successfully enough. Don't you think?

Here's a random fact I just noticed: I have a total of 458 tags.

458!? I don't use that many very often! I'm glad I don't have one of the lists of all the tags I have. It would take up the whole sidebar. I have such things as "Angels and Demons" "American Experience" "iPod" "Kenneth Feinberg" and all sorts of miscellany. Including "Zippidy-do-dah".

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Oh, hey, I just realized PBS is showing Victor Borge.

VICTOR BORGE. THAT GUY IS HILARIOUS. It's too bad he died. It's the Falling Leaves one--ever seen it? LOL.

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*Mark Twain quotation

-----The Golden Eagle