They’d had a very uneven eating schedule since going on the run. He didn’t see that changing anytime soon, sadly.  Still, maybe he could have a meal ready when she woke up.  Looth nosed around near the bottom, looking for some clam shells or something they could eat.  There weren’t really any edible plants in the nearby area – at least not anything he recognized.  Then again it’d been awhile since their last ‘northern island’ plant instruction session, he thought wryly.  Like never, heh.

Tood and Muuld stayed still, watching carefully.  These two were definitely alone.  Could they be trusted?  They seemed helpless enough – almost too helpless, to be honest.  Muuld quietly mused “you know what confuses me?  They must’ve swam from that Shallower community that is just moving in, right, yet they don’t seem to be thinking twice about trying to go back and sneak in?!”

“They can’t be from that school” Tood said decisively after thinking on this for a few moments.  “Look at them, they’re exhausted and everything they’ve got with them is torn to shreds.  They’ve been on the swim for a lot longer than just a day.  They seem to have no idea what they’re doing out here though.  That bothers me.”

“Shall we introduce ourselves, or do you think we should get some racers ready in case they flip out ’n’ flee?”  Muuld wouldn’t mind a little excitement really…

My novel now weighs in at 19,161 words, or somewhere around 46 pages.  With this excerpt, I finally launched into the main arc of the story (which I only figured out on Sunday, two days ago).  This should carry me all the way to my final confrontation or climax, near the end of the book.

Thanks to my brother Bryan, who is providing these excerpts and giving me a lot of valuable feedback.  Thank you also to my other friends and family who are following along with interest – I hope it is rewarding for you.  So far this experiment, this mission, has been well worth the price of admission to me.  I’m not sure my wife quite agrees yet, so I still have my work cut out for me.

Oh, if any of you feel like designing a book cover or some related artwork, let me know.  I’d like to have some visuals to both encourage me and give all of you something for following this faithfully, and some great art would be just the thing.

Another presence was below them. They had felt the blast of bubbles, the brief shift in temperature. Someone had come up. More unsettling, He (Gooshan was sure it was a He) wasn’t even cloaking his thoughts much, which they were more than capable of doing. It was a Deeper, a large one, if young. He was practically pacing, swimming in large laps somewhere down near the elevator.
“How close are we?” Thorn called to the loaders.
“Two fins short of the close line” came the answer from one of those tasked with calling a finish on the load. Thorn and Gooshan were thinking the same thing – can we close it early and take it down? Will that upset him more? Thorn had eased off his line some. Gooshan didn’t sense it quite as near breaking now, but the side of the case was listing and swinging dangerously without Thorn there to fully damp the motions.
The next moment brought their worse fears upon them. Thorn tried to slow the pendulous motion, and his thread snapped completely. As he shot 40 meters away with his net, the load began pulling them all down. Loaders scrambled free for their lives, and everyone had given up damping their waves of panic as they all fled . They would have felt the sinister wave of the Deeper below them, were it not for his sudden physical presence. A blast of cold water rose with him as he caught both the crate and everyone near it with his forehead and upper back. Those loaders who hadn’t scrambled clear, easily 10 or more, were knocked unconscious. Some, probably worse, Gooshan thought detachedly. She was frantically moving, already 1000m clear of the area.

The Deeper was enjoying this…

Raw and unedited for your reading pleasure – gotta love first drafts.

Check out National Novel Writing Month (and my profile there) to see what I’m on about this month.

I care because Carolyn Arends was one of my early inspirations for writing. Her first songs (from I Can Hear You) were jam-packed with goodness, lovable for their hooks (both melodic and lyrical) and for their clever presentations of insights. My wife and I dated to the tunes of Feel Free, so it’s always fun to check in with one of our favorite artists a little further on and see what life has brought both us and them.

I really like the musicianship on this album.  Lots of hooks, Carolyn with her trademark voice and melodies, enjoyable and quirky production choices with everything from handclaps to brass band and beyond – and it works with very few exceptions.  Every song brings something different, but they all have Carolyn’s familiar melody style in the mix.  The album overall seems fairly subdued though.

Several songs have a gospel feel. She retains her folk and quirky way with words that first drew me in, though this album hews more traditional and simpler than her early albums.  So much of her chosen topics match what I’m learning and relearning now, so maybe I need less cleverness and more living what I’ve already learned.

Standout tracks for me: Willing, Be Still, Something Out of Us, My Favourite Lie. I’ll stop there before I find reasons to list them all.  Did I mention Willing?  If you like Carolyn Arends, or christian folk, or thoughtful lyrics, give this album a listen.  Better yet, give it several listens, this is definitely an album that grows stronger and deeper the more you listen.

Notes by song (or just go buy it and listen yourself):

Be Still – Great, bouncy start with solid lyrics.  I’m glad this one is on first, it’s full of energy.

Standing In the Need of Prayer – Rework of a classic, but if you sung this growing up, I think you’ll like the plaintive version created here. The spirit of the original spiritual is captured fully here.  If you are in the car, it’s ok to sing along.

My Favourite Lie – I really like the pace of the verse lyrics.  She does it without getting breathless.  I can’t explain it so much as just say that I really enjoy it.

Something Out of Us – brass/big band sound, initially thought maybe a little cheesy – but then a minute later caught myself bobbing my head, jamming, enjoying the happy, bouncy tune.  Try to listen without whistling or humming along, I dare you.

Willing – This is the standout track for me.  Artists have the freedom to say out loud with their songs things that we don’t always dare even think.  Sometimes they succeed at capturing something that many people feel but don’t have words to express.  This is one of those times, where the lyrics and the music will resonate deeply with almost anyone who stops to listen.   A contemplative song steps out into the chorus willingly.

Roll It – funky production of a gospel song with lots of country thrown in. Fun, nothing really new here but if you like her style you’ll still enjoy it.

The Last Word – Slower song, but with a really strong chorus.  I so love the message and mental picture – Love was here first.  So good to remember this after being inundated with the news these days, all the pain and sadness and terrible things in our world.  Love’s gonna have the last word.

According to Plan – slow, carries me along.  Great unwinding music, really puts me at peace. Backing choir and vocals, electric guitars and strong licks give it a bigger feel than some of the other tracks.

Nothing Can Separate – Straightforward, nice melody. I liked the musical interlude on this as on many songs.  I’m not a musician but I definitely enjoy the talent of the players on this album.

Never Say Goodbye – The instruments on this track are quite a departure, as is I guess the subject (dealing with someone’s parting).  The melody and vocals are still the lovely, distinctly Carolyn, but the production kind of caught me off guard.  It seemed to distract from the chorus for me.  I’m going through this right now with someone in our church though, so this was a strange song to evaluate.

Love Was Here First is a mature outing.  It is contemplative, and doesn’t feel the need to be clever in every turn of phrase.  There are some great surprises, and the strong upward pull that excellent music has.  I look forward to listening to this on repeat for awhile.

Full Disclosure: I was given the album in exchange for the review. The only request was for 200 words, a link to the album, and my honest, unbiased review, which I’ve tried to provide above.  Not sure this disclosure is necessary but I admire transparency.  I can’t write under 200 words anyway, ask just about anyone.

She was sure they had been here. And she was not going to stand for it. No, she was going to catch them, if it took her all summer.

Where to start? She had never caught a raccoon before. Fireflies, roly poly bugs, and ants were pretty easy. Star (her cat) was easy to catch also – if mom and dad weren’t around. But that’s cause he doesn’t run much, she thought.

She thought about catching, and thought about cages. “That’s what I need!” she exclaimed to herself. “A cage made out of wood. With a trap door. And maybe some food inside.”  She spun, ran towards the garage.

Wham!

She forgot to look first.  Again. The howling started immediately, and thunderous footsteps let her know mom or dad – or both – had heard the collision.

These are things we tell our kids. But I bet your first reaction on reading those words was negative. Did they excite you, or did you brace yourself, grit your teeth subconsciously?

I have a 9-month old. He figured out crawling a little while ago, but last week he learned something new. He learned he could stand up on this little rocking chair we have.

Elijah uses rocking chair for standing practice

For the last several days, Elijah has spent most of his time at this chair. It’s really quite adorable. He crawls over to it, pushes, pulls, and works until he gets to a standing position holding on to the chair. Then he stands there until he falls over. Lately he has begun moving his feet. For some reason he really wants to climb on the chair, but he doesn’t have the skill. Still, he’s learning the skills he will need to walk, even if he doesn’t realize it.

For those of you who’ve been around young children, I don’t have to tell you how adorable this is.  Inspiring too – he doesn’t know how easy or hard this whole thing should be, that he should give up, or that he’s working towards something he’ll need for a life skill. But he does know how to be persistent in working toward something he wants.

Maybe we forget this later on, maybe we get distracted by too many goals, shiny things, activities. But there is no substitute for “crawl before you walk”.  I unreasonably expect to stand up, and even start running, when I haven’t been practicing or training.  I expect success and perfection when I haven’t worked through the failures.

I enjoy and admire watching my children work hard to – slowly – gain new skills.  Maybe I need to learn to enjoy and admire walking through that process myself.

Should we be quicker to learn as adults rather than children? Or do we expect to many shortcuts and quick fixes?

Questions on best way to deliver Palm Pre apps

Earlier today Andrew Shebanow, a developer with Palm, posted an intriguing set of questions for potential developers.  How would they prefer their applications to be distributed on the Pre platform?

A popular and influential Mac Blogger, John Gruber of Daring Fireball, linked to this post and caused the usual huge influx of traffic.  Unfortunately this was apparently more than Andrew and his bosses had bargained for.  As of now the post has been removed.

I think it was reasonably (though maybe not perfectly) clear from the original post that this was a developer being allowed to have his own voice rather than speaking for the company.  It also was a refreshing break from Apple’s absolute control over messaging (even if that control was considered partly responsible for their success now).  It was even more refreshing since this topic, app distribution and control, is the sorest subject for Apple devotees right now.

Here is a chance to capitalize on Apple’s mistakes, Palm.  Think carefully, but think quickly.  Don’t let this opportunity get away.

Highway Lights In Motion

There’s been a song on the radio lately, with the lyrics:

“I used to sing about love and stuff, maybe cause I want it so much, but I’m not who I was.”

(Brandon Heath, “I’m Not Who I Was” iTunes link Amazon link lyrics )

Very recently, I gave in and joined Facebook.  There’s a lot I can say about that (and don’t you worry, I will) but maybe the first thing to hit me was the reality of establishing contact with people who, until now, were essentially part of my past.

They had gone on with their lives, I had gone one with mine.  When we had crossed, years or decades ago, the intersections might have been pleasant, encouraging, life-giving – or they might have been abrasive, tempest-tossed, fraught with misunderstandings.  Now we’ve “all grown up” as the saying goes.  At least, my first thought and hope is that those I’ve contacted have matured as I have, that there is not some long-held grievance out there against me.  Of course some of this is silly thinking: I don’t remember nearly as much what these people did as what I did; it is probably the same for them; And even what is remembered I wouldn’t hold against them now.  We all make mistakes, and most of us grow, learn from them, change for the better.

Another thing that struck me this morning: I don’t “do” memories.  I don’t live in the past much, nor look back.  In fact, I don’t remember most of my childhood before age 10, and I’m not sad about this at all.  (It is something I don’t care to remember anyway.)  But I do greatly value the many wonderful people I have met, known, and cared for over my time here on earth.  I’m just not a person who spends much time remembering or reminiscing – at least not anymore.

I have been looking to the future lately, realizing it is important for my children that I have a clear vision.  For me, looking forward also requires looking back.  I began to see how decisions (both mine and others) shaped my path through life.  I realized that I’m not who I was.  I’ve changed, grown up, moved on.  Yet so much of who I was still remains in various ways – habits, old goals unfulfilled and unforgotten, even reactions to certain smells all come from where I came.  I can’t move on from things in my past by ignoring them.

How have you changed?  Who are you now, compared to who you were?

Today I want to ask for one more thing.  I know many of you plan to face very lean Christmases, with all that has happened over the last year.  But it’s easy to forget that most of us don’t really know lean.  Our kids have clothes, will go to nice schools.  We drive vehicles of our choice, and eat food of our choice.  When was your last meal chosen – REALLY chosen – by the dollar in your wallet?  When it wasn’t a choice of “not eating out” but of eating at all?

A new church is starting in my home city of Atlanta.  Before this church has even opened, they are hoping to help the poorest school in this city for Christmas.  It’s not much to ask – one uniform and one toy for each student in the school.  There are only 500 students.

Please help.  You can do something, however small, that will make a real difference for a child that needs it.  But action is needed now – not next month.  Please consider giving to 500uniforms.org.

Thank you for your time.  We now return to our regularly scheduled (Ha!) broadcast.

Also, relish the fact that the election onslaught of the last few weeks will be reduced (in volume and tone if not eliminated).

I’ll leave you with this good reminder: chill a bit.  The last few years have been startlingly bitter and hateful, divisive.  Let’s get back to respecting our neighbors (yes, even those we disagree with) and our president – whoever it will be.

Peace.

http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2008/08/hack-olympics.html

Here are the caches:

Cache 1

Cache 2

Here are the screenshots, in case the caches get pulled:

So, sadly but not surprisingly, it does appear China is lying about the ages of at least one of their gymnasts.  I don’t care about the medal count, don’t really care about gymnastics, but I am sad that this cheating incident is being ignored by the Olympic commission at a time when drugs and cheating are such a huge issue.

Update: Fixed links, and want to note that now the IOC is investigating.  Let’s hope we can move on – all countries have athletes that have cheated at times, and there is the very good point that it is sad to see such young girls (whether the allegations are true or not) having to go through such a public trial.  Let’s hope the sports governing bodies do their job and the rest of us can get back to enjoying the stories, performances, and successes of the Olympics.