October 25, 2006

The Queen of Mute

I hate commercials. I hate the way the TV gets louder as soon as the commercial breaks start. I mean how many times have you seen a commercial for a product and gone out and bought it? Okay, it happens on occasion, but it’s rare. So when TV’s started coming with mute buttons, I was thrilled. It drove my parents so crazy when I was growing up, they rarely let me be in charge of the button. And now it bugs The Professor. I just can’t help it, they’re so annoying. And don’t even get me started on the prescription drug commercials - I mean if these stupid things weren’t on TV, then they wouldn’t have to charge so much for them at the pharmacy. It irks me that we’re paying their advertising bills. Okay, that was a quick soap box. So The Professor allows me to hold the remote on occasion and use my mute button. There are times, though, when I’m not in charge and one will slip through and I’ll enjoy it, as much as I hate to admit that. There has been one on recently and I have to admit it’s so darn catchy. So we succumbed to the advertising last night and “WENT OUTBACK TONIGHT…” I mean seriously, how catchy is that song? It’s ridiculous. I’ve been singing it for weeks. I’ve got to get back to my muting because Outback is pricey.

So speaking of annoying things….what’s going on with the new sidebar?

October 24, 2006

I’m not asking for the moon…

So I went out looking for my favorite revision pen because I’m down to my last one, and so I started at Staples cause that’s an office supply store, and the only one in my town. And do you think they had it? Nope. They had no red pens except for those cheap BIC ones that your 3rd grade teacher used. Do people still use those things? So then I went to Wal-Mart and they had the brand I wanted in blue and black and purple, but no red. But purple. Now I don’t have anything against purple, I love it, I sign my books in purple, but I do not do revisions in purple. I admit it, I’m persnickety about certain things and my red pen is one of them. I need a medium tip, gel pen, is that too much to ask? Needless to say I came home empty handed. The good news, we’re leaving Thursday morning for Ohio (The Professor’s brother is getting married) and we’ll be in a bigger town with real office supply stores and hopefully I can stack up. Grrrr…just had to vent!

Warning: Diatribe Ahead

There was an article on cnn.com yesterday about the male candidate running against Hillary Clinton for the senate seat in NY. A reporter rode with John Spencer (the candidate) to a debate, and quoted him as saying, “You ever see a picture of her back then? Whew.” He was referring to a college picture.

OK, this is not about Hillary Clinton and whether she should run for office - any office - but about why some men feel it’s necessary to comment on a person’s - a woman’s - looks. As if that had anything to do with anything! Certainly not her job qualifications or her credentials, because they’re probably equal to, or even better than his.

From the CNN article: “The Daily News also reported that Spencer, 59, the former mayor of Yonkers, a New York City suburb, said Clinton had undergone ‘millions of dollars of work — plastic surgery’ to help improve her appearance. ‘She looks good now,’ Smith [the reporter] quoted Spencer as saying.”

Oh, for Pete’s sake!

Naturally, John Spencer’s spokesman said that that is not what he said … yes, he’d remarked on how much Hillary had changed since college (judging by her pictures) but never said anything disparaging. Yet the reporter has not retracted or rewritten his article. He stands by his quotes.

Which brings me to the point of my diatribe. Can you imagine Hillary (or any other woman candidate) going after her opponent in this way? “Wow - you should see the wrinkles on John Spencer’s face. You’d think he’d do something about that!” Or how about this … “Check out my opponent’s pot belly. Don’t know how he manages to see his feet!”

This is no doubt one of those Mars/Venus things, but it really irks me when guys go after women based on their appearance. In years past, I heard a number of men go on about Madeline Albright’s looks, as if these guys had even half that woman’s smarts! Did I ever hear anything about Henry Kissinger’s looks? Or what about Dennis Hastert’s? No doubt Nancy Pelosi could have a field day if she wanted to. The point is, that it probably never crossed her mind to disparage someone based on their looks.

Guys need to read romance novels. Then they’d see what heroic behavior is … Ever notice how the villain is always nasty to the homely little sister, the maid or the unattractive gal pal? The hero is always kind, never making his character judgment based on what she looks like. I think we need a little more of that.

And the winner is…

Ladydawgfan! Congratulations!

Let me know where you’d like me to send your signed ARC of my December release, CONFESSIONS OF A VISCOUNT, and I’ll get it in the mail.

Everyone, thanks for your comments. Most of the suggestions were common sense and courtesy, but there were some ideas I hadn’t given much thought to until now. Hmm…

There’s still a chance to win an ARC, through the contest on my web site, www.ShirleyKarr.com — I’ll draw that one on Tuesday, Nov. 7. One more thing to look forward to, besides the end of political ads!

October 23, 2006

Catster

My friend just adopted two kitties. The other day she sent me links to their Catster pages, inviting me to join the madness. Well, I did. It’s actually an adorable site. If you haven’t checked out Catster, click on the links for Bob and Pounce, and then browse the menu to look at newbies, kittens, breeds or mutts - or stick it on random to randomly browse the online cat population. There are many fine examples of cats in outrageous outfits. There is also a sister site called dogster, so if you have pooches, no need to feel left out!

Here are the pages for Bob and Pounce on Catster:
http://www.catster.com/pet_page.php?i=403480&j=t
http://www.catster.com/pet_page.php?i=403511&j=t

Has anyone used Catster or Dogster? What about MySpace, Facebook, Friendster or any of the other online social communities?

If you have cats, come join the madness.

October 22, 2006

Contest time!

I just received extra ARCs of my December release, Confessions of a Viscount, and I’m feeling generous. Besides, we can’t let Anne have all the contest fun!

No, I don’t expect you to write poetry. No, no, no. Instead, what I’m looking for is feedback about author web sites. In general, not just mine.

Some of you may be aware that my web site had technical difficulties the last couple weeks. I won’t go into details because I don’t want to raise my blood pressure again. Suffice to say, it will be a bit longer before the fun new changes that have been in the works for a long time are available for public consumption. I did manage to get the site working again, and have added some critical updates like the cover of my December book and tidbits about the story, a new photo of my kitties, and a contest. (A different contest from this one!)

Since I’m still making changes to my site, I want to hear from Internet-savvy readers like you. When you go to an author’s web site, what are you looking for? What do you want to see? What do you not want to see? Do you have any pet peeves about sites? Do you want to cheer about a feature at someone’s site? And what makes you go to their site in the first place?

Every reply enters you in the contest. I’ll draw the winner’s name at midnight PST Monday night, October 23rd. To reward those who read my blog the day I actually post it, your Sunday comments count double.

So, give us Quills some feedback about author web sites for your chance to win an ARC of Confessions. And go to my web site for a different contest and more chances to win an ARC and other cool prizes!

Okay, I have to share this. Saturday, October 7, Johnny Depp was among four people given the Courage to Care Award from the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. JD has quietly been involved with kids’ charities like this and Make-A-Wish Foundation since his Jump Street days. Pirates 3: At World’s End had delays when filming moved to Palmdale earlier this month, so rumor has it they’ve gone to six-day work weeks since the film’s opening day (Memorial Day weekend 2007) is set in stone. Conjecture was that JD went straight from the set to the banquet, changing clothes in the back seat during the 90-minute drive. He’s still wearing Captain Jack’s eyeliner. A friend has an avatar that’s this pic with two others in rotation, each taken years apart, of JD sporting long hair. Her caption reads:

October 21, 2006

Boss’s Day

According to the radio, last Tuesday (October 17) was boss’s day. Supposedly it was invented by some woman who worked for State Farm who felt there should be a day where she could show her appreciation for her boss.

It got me to thinking about the best–and the worst–bosses I’ve had since I started working at age 14. The worst was actually early in my working career. When I was seventeen I was working at a tearoom as a waitress and we got a new manager. She had a lot of strange ideas, like once you set the food down on someone’s table you could not take it back, no matter what the reason. She’d scream (literally) at us if we did. So, one day, I had this guy who’d ordered some pie, had it on his table for about ten minutes, then told me he didn’t want it. I told him nicefully, with much regret, that I’d still have to charge him for it. Personally if it had been up to me, I’d have taken it off his bill and tossed it out. But I knew the wicked witch, er my manager, would throw a fit. Well, instead this guy gets all upset, goes to her, who then proceeds to tell him she didn’t know where I got such an idea and starts yelling at me in front of him! Although I had worked at this place for over two years, I gave my notice the next day.

The best boss I ever had was the one I had up until he retired two years ago. His name was Chuck. Some people in the company thought he was lazy because he did so much delegating, but what he did was empower his employees. By the assignments he’d give, he challenged those who directly reported to him to grow and achieve their potential. And, I always appreciated the fact that if there were ever any problems I knew I had his support.

So, even though the day is past, my hat (if I were to wear one) would be off to Chuck.

How about you? Any horror stories to tell about your workday adventures?

October 20, 2006

Anybody Have an Ark I Can Borrow?

It’s great to live in Houston. We’re the 4th largest city in the nation. We have museums, theaters, festivals, culture. We’re close to the beach. We’ve got NASA. Yes, it’s hot here, but all that humidity keeps your skin looking young.

So what doesn’t rock about living in Houston? The rain. When it rains here, it’s a problem. Did the news in your area cover all the flooding we had earlier this week? Yeah, well, that was me in all that water.

I woke up Monday morning at 1:30 a.m. because the rain was pounding down. I went to the bathroom and shrieked when I stepped in water. Dirty water had seeped in from the outside and was rapidly pooling on the floor. Other rooms were taking on water as well. So USF and I started mopping and plugging and unplugging, and we had a pretty good handle on things until about 3 a.m. when USF looked out the front window at the bayou across the street. The top of the usually low bayou was level with the street.

Wow. That’s a moment when you panic, and it’s also a moment when you take stock. We both looked at each other and discussed the possibility of evacuation. Most importantly, what we’d take if we had to evacuate. The funny thing was that we’d been discussing that very topic in our Sunday school class the day before.

Hypothetically, we’d been asked to choose 5 things we would take, not counting each other, if we had to evacuate.

Ours were
2 cats
wedding album
my computer hard drive
insurance papers

Have you ever been in this situation? What would your 5 things be?

October 19, 2006

Must-Have Movies

In the past few days since I completed revisions on Devil’s Temptation, I’ve been taking a short break from the computer and catching up with some things around the house that I have let get a bit out of control in recent weeks. I tackled those dishes in the sink that looked like the leaning tower of Pisa, the pile of laundry that rivaled the Sears Tower, and even managed to get around to Pledging the inch-thick layer of dust coating all of my furniture. (My allergies didn’t thank me for that one!)

One of the other things I’ve been doing is going through my cabinet of movies to see which ones I might be interested in purchasing on DVD. Unfortunately, I’m a bit behind the times in more ways than one. I’ve only had my DVD player for about 4 years and have only been buying movies on DVD within the last 2-3 years. Most of the movies I have are on videocasette, many of them recorded rather than actual copies. Needless to say, some of them are in pretty bad shape, since I’ve been recording movies since I was about 12. (Yesterday I found a recording of several old Saturday morning cartoons that must have been around since I was in sixth grade. Dungeons and Dragons. Cool! I always loved Presto. )

Of course, I already have some of the more recent must-have movies: Titanic, Phantom of the Opera, the X-Men trilogy, Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, and all of the Walt Disney classics that are available on DVD. I also have the recent remakes of King Arthur, King Kong, and Peter Pan. But there are definitely some older movies that I don’t have that I would love to purchase for my DVD collection. Some of the choices are obvious no-brainers for me. Childhood favorites, like The Karate Kid, The Goonies, Adventures in Babysitting, Stand By Me, The Outsiders, Young Guns, The Breakfast Club, etc. I also want to make sure to scoop up some of my favorite romances, like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Kate and Leopold, and Picture Perfect. (I just ordered Lorna Doone and Persuasion through Amazon a while back.) I’m also dying to get the second seasons of Lost and The Office to join the first season of Lost on my shelf. I just picked up season one of Supernatural this week in preparation for a Halloween marathon and can’t wait to get started. (All Dean and Sam, 24/7, makes Kim a very happy girl. Yum!)

So, do I hear any suggestions from the peanut gallery? Any movies–old or new–that you consider must-haves that I simply must add to my fast growing DVD collection?

October 18, 2006

The mystery continues…

We have done everything we can to uncover the identity of the mystery quill, to no avail. And Mr. Jaunty P. Quills is not helpful. This is what we get for allowing a porcupine this kind of power. Shana warned us not to give him access, but Kim and I were just so certain he’d do a good job. So alas, now we’re in a bit of a pickle.

But as it so happens, I know some amateur sleuths and I’ve enlisted some assistance at uncovering the mystery quill’s identity. They are pretty busy, but they worked me into their tight schedules, which is nice considering I created them. But whatever.

I gave them the clues and off they went. They’re back with their information now so without further ado, I give you the Ladies’ Amateur Sleuth Society.

We were rather excited to be given such an important task and feel most honored that you thought of us. It was a most difficult mystery and to be completely truthful, we could not agree on a single thing. In fact, Willow believes Meg and I have had complete leave of our senses. And Charlotte refused to participate all together, something about being denied a happy ending. Needless to say it was a difficult tast, but we were up for the challenge. We attempted first to put ourselves in the mindset of a porcupine, which admittedly is rather difficult. We have photographs of our findings and submit to you our proposed Mystery Quills.

Thank you to the Jaunty Quills for giving us this opportunity, I do hope we’ve been of assistance.

Um….thanks, Amelia. I can’t believe Charlotte wouldn’t cooperate. That certainly doesn’t bode well for her upcoming book. Wow, I’m not really sure what to do with these suggestions. I mean they could certainly be right, we are talking about a porcupine here. But I’m fairly certain we’re really looking for an actual author here. Granted Jane Austen was an author, but unless some of the other Jaunties have skills I’m unaware of, I’m fairly certain none of us can speak to her. And I don’t have the heart to tell Amelia and the others that Jane has been gone for many years now. Well, it was worth a short, but I guess we’re on our own to solve this mystery. We need your help though, so keep the guesses coming because we’re just at a loss.

I do have it on good authority that with the unveiling of the mystery quill will come a great contest with a fabulous prize. So stay tuned for more clues and details as they become available.