NaNoWriMo 2011

This past weekend I attended the Colorado Romance Writers annual Fall Retreat, this year held in the Galena Street Mountain Inn in Frisco, Colorado. What a lovely place! If you get a chance, do stay there.

The retreat was wonderful, full of helpful presentations by Those In The Know and informal chit-chat by fellow CRWers who want to help. Also, there was wine (LOTS of wine) and all around good times!

One thing that really got me going (apart of the scheduled two-hour writing sessions) was the wonderful talk by Margie Lawson. There were several wonderful bits of advice, but one of the exercises is a way to set up attainable goals by setting up a list of items sorted into two categories: "WINNER" (which can be achieved within two hours or so) and "SUPERSTAR" (which is all the next in line stuff). I applied it to my plans for Saturday and it worked! The Winner list included "Write down possible storylines for NaNoWriMo 2011" and I got not one but TWO skeletal outlines for stories from start to finish.

I am going to FINISH NANO this year!

Wish me luck!

MemDay Weekend

I've drawn a complete blank about additional wisdom from my mother, and the WAG #25 assignment has left me uninspired to the topic, so I thought I'd post a photo I took this past weekend while chasing steam locomotives down near Chama, New Mexico.

This image was captured lying in a ditch near a grade crossing. Believe me, I checked carefully for rattlers and bullsnakes before settling in. Also, I was certain that a young man, who had set himself up by the RR crossing sign was going to be in my photos, but the train was kind enough to obscure him while still allowing the RR sign to be seen. Timing is everything. :)

Graphic distractions

Sorry to have not kept my promise of posting every day, and I might as well admit now that my idea of Motorcycling Monday will not be developed as stated (simply because it's a case of "Well, you just had to be there" regarding the adventure stories).

The reason I'm been so lax in posting is that I've been collecting fonts and graphics to enhance my ability as a graphic composer. Apart from the Graphic Worm I'm participating in, and the flyers I do for the state park, I'm also trying to work up something interesting for my website www.SusanOShields.com, whether it be background or 'signs' or whatever.

Any way you slice it, I'm learning lots and making great strides to releasing my creative tendencies.

But you'd like to see more writings, no doubt. Excuses be damned! My distractions will be overcome.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Posting

I've been wearing myself out as a couch potato the last couple of days. My husband put on the DVD for Long Way Round with Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman. When it was done (nine broken hours later), I had an urge to watch Long Way Down.
It reminded me so much of the different adventures David and I have had on our bikes and makes me want to get on them and take off. Life is too short to always play it safe.
If possible, I'd like to post a motorcycle themed entry on Mondays, just to get the week started out with fun and excitement. We'll see how that goes.

The Desert

Someone on the NaNo forums was asking what it is like to be in the desert, so I posted this reply. I hope it helped him/her to understand how special they are.

My husband and I have spent a lot of time in SW Utah, in Capitol Reef NP, Arches NP and Canyonlands NP, as well as the San Rafael Swell and Cathedral Valley. What has been said before is true - very good advice - but one thing I wish to stress; the desert is a beautiful, amazing, humbling place. It can be so very harsh, with the dryness and winds and extremes in temperature, but when you find a lifeform in the desert after spending a little time there, you realize that if this being has survived so much just to exist there. Not just exist but also thrive enough to spare energy to reproduce and bring more life to such desolation, even if it takes surviving five droughts and seven record-breaking winters to get up the reserves.

One of the most humbling visits for me was when we camped in Bentonite Hills, Cathedral Valley. Because of the almost cement-like characteristics of dried bentonite, there were no plants and no water where we'd set up for the night. It was perfectly still; no insects and no birds of any kind because they had nothing for which to be there. The only light (other than our headlamps) was from the stars and later a crescent moon . Things were so quiet I could hear my own blood running through my ears. I felt like I was on another planet where the vacuum attenuated all sound. I'd never experienced anything so foreign in my life.

The coolest part was, when we returned to "civilization", I felt like I had been reunited with long lost friends. There was a gush of gratitude for the birds chirping in the sky and wind rustling through leaves with commonplace familiarity. I was actually grateful for the buzz of insects. Nothing makes me appreciate my senses like the feeling of having them robbed from me. I came to love the Bentonite Hills because they reminded me of what I have; life.

Lewis and Clark

I received my daily email from The History Channel with the "This Day In History" information and was delighted to see acknowledgment of the great voyage of The Corps of Discovery.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?bcpid=1184539009&bclid=1213915745&bctid=1119234422

However, upon reading the text accompanying the video, I was disappointed to realize it was so incomplete and actually misleading. One example: "On May 14, the "Corps of Discovery"--featuring approximately 45 men (although only an approximate 33 men would make the full journey)--left St. Louis for the American interior." They never explain that 33 men made the journey (not 45) because at the Mandan Village in North Dakota, there were men sent back to take one of the big boats (along with some of the found specimens and new maps) back to Saint Louis in order to start the process of populating the newly acquired territory. Also, that beginning leg of the journey was a bit of a 'shakedown' run, intended to test the men to find out who would make the grade. The men sent back to St Louis either didn't want to or couldn't handle the trip. The History.com site could leave you open to assume these guys died. The truth of the matter is that only one of the expedition members died, Sergeant Charles Floyd, and it is suspected that it was from a ruptured appendix, something he would not have survived even if he had been a guest of the home of Dr Benjamin Rush, a leading physician at the time.

Can you tell I'm a big fan of Lewis and Clark?

This Day in History-Transcontinental Railroad

Short explanation of the Transcontinental Railroad courtesy of History.com

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=4989

Been There, Done That, Got The Soot

On this day in history in 1869, the Golden Spike was driven, completing the Transcontinental Railroad.

Okay, so in reality it was four ceremonial spikes and only the last one was gold. Well, really it wasn't pure gold; if you hit a small rod of gold with a sledgehammer, it would become the small pancake of gold in very short order.

How do I know this stuff? Because of my great education in the Chicago Public School system, of course! Didn't everyone get taught this stuff? Why would I need to travel to the middle of a God-forsaken desert in Utah to find out something that my grammar school teachers had already drummed into my head?

Because my teachers hadn't given me the whole story, that's why! Did you know that the president of the Union Pacific Railroad was so reviled, his trip to the ceremony site at Promontory Point was sabotaged by his own employees! And he (along with many of other celebrants) was drunk during the driving of the spike. On top of that, he missed!

David and I really enjoyed our visit to the National Historic Site. Apart from the titillating little scandals that make life interesting, it was simply a wonderfully alive park in the middle of complete desolation, with great displays (including reproduction, live operating steam engines), and very caring and knowledgeable park staff and volunteers. We can't wait to go back!

Oh boy, I'm going to hell, now!

While in Utah, we stopped for a picnic lunch in the town of Lyman. We pulled into the parking space and made our tortilla/honeymustard/lunchmeat sandwiches on the tailgate of the truck. As we were tossing away our trash, I spotted this sign and remembered that we were in Mormon country. After shooting this photo, we got back into the truck, closed the door, and I promptly spilled a small remnant of my soda on the floor.

Glad the windows were rolled up because I thoughtlessly dropped the "F" bomb...

Interesting Example of Governmental Idiocracy

I don't know if you've heard of an ancient piece of rock art in Utah called The Harvest Scene in Nine Mile Canyon, but if you have, you've probably heard that there's been some difficulty lately in preserving this panel particularly but the whole area generally. The problem specifically is that the 800 year old artwork is being covered with dust stirred up from the commercial oil/gas trucks driving through the area.

The local county's solution to the concern about the dust? Yes, you guessed. They sent a crew out to wash the panel. With soap and water, you guess? No. Try guessing "a pressure washer".

I wonder if they'd have been allowed to wash The Last Supper with a pressure washer because it was starting to look a little soiled? Heck, it's a newer piece of art by at least 300 years; it can stand it.

New Photo!

No, the title is not a typo. Claret Cup cactus are starting to bloom throughout Utah, and not only do they produce the loveliest flowers but also some of the most ferocious needles! I took a couple of scratches when I set my lens cap next to the plant for personal "scale cues" snapshots. That's the price extracted for the reward, I guess.

There truly is beauty in the beast!

Hello! We're back!

Hello, everyone/anyone! We had a short trip to Utah to get a Rock Art fix, courtesy of the ancient peoples of this continent. I'm certain I shot almost four hundred frames in three days, so I have a bit of sorting to do before I can post to Photo of the Week or put up a link connecting to my photos on Picasa.

Oh, and for those who don't know about me and my photographic habits: four hundred frames will easily get pared down to twenty that I feel are presentable.

Please stay tuned!