For my part I know nothing with any certainty,
but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
~Vincent Van Gogh

It never fails. Like clockwork, the cold December evenings and the enormous presence of the constellation Orion in the winter night skies ignite within me the desire to return to my literary first love, Science Fiction. Last year at this time I described it thus:

“Science Fiction as a genre and the art of reading have been inextricably linked together as far back as my earliest solo reading memories. It is a bond that the passage of time and my own growth as a reader has not severed. In fact it is quite the opposite. As my length of days stretch out before me I find the ties to my own past growing ever more strong and ever more important.”

The awareness of this phenomenon in my own life caused me to wonder if perhaps others had similar feelings about the science fiction genre and so I personally declared the first two months of the new year the time for The Sci Fi Experience 2008 and encouraged others to read and share their love of science fiction. That Experience spawned what was arguably the greatest single month of reading that I have ever had in my life (something I will share more about in my forthcoming Year in Review post). I enjoyed this experience so much that I want to share it with you again.

And so with great pleasure I announce The Sci Fi Experience 2009, which will run from January 1st through February 28th, 2009.

Continue reading The Sci Fi Experience 2009 →

It is the final day of the Blog Advent Tour 2008, hosted again this year by Kailana. Kailana had a very fun idea that we did not really have time to execute together fully and so I used the framework of her idea to come up with this bit of Christmas nonsense that she also joined in. Perhaps catering to my own brand of humor wasn’t the best idea. Ha! 😉 Please forgive me (us).

Continue reading Blog Advent Day 24: The result of too much eggnog? →

“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A little over a month ago I was privileged to be able to share with you an interview with artist Lisa Snellings. The last comment (currently) in that post was from someone named ‘Coraline’ that read, “Hi there! I’ve got a question for you – can you please email me at [email address removed]”. The link to Coraline’s name took me to a website featuring information on the forthcoming film of the same name based on the beloved contemporary children’s classic by author Neil Gaiman.

With great anticipation I sent off an email and quickly received a response from one of the members of the Coraline Team, the group of animators who worked with director Henry Selick to bring Neil Gaiman’s book to life.

Continue reading An Unexpected Pleasure →

The combination of early decorating, surrounding myself with the melodious voice of Mr. Christmas himself, Bing Crosby, and intermittent chilly weather put me in the Christmas spirit fairly early this year. And then it was stolen from me. Stolen by an extremely frustrating state audit that took back a great deal of money from my agency. It is week’s like that, and the weeks leading up to it, that rob me of rest, sanity, and my normal routine. Hence the ghost town this blog (and my presence online) has become over the last few weeks. I don’t say this for an ‘oh woe is me’ reaction because the reality is that this very difficult period has pointed out things at work that do need to change and probably always have. It has also generated a spirit of cooperation amongst the leadership of the agency that encourages me and gives me hope that the present pain will lead to great things.

Over the weekend I was lamenting the fact that December seemed to be rushing by and my Christmas spirit had went into hiding. I determined then and there that I was not going to sit idly by but was going to make sure I enjoyed this time of year, and then it happened…the one gift that always manages to put me in the right frame of mind: snow during a work day. Yes folks, the snow fell yesterday, traffic was a nightmare, and I was in heaven! There is something about snow during the work week that puts things out of their normal order. A hush descends over everything and it just feels magical. Add in a bit of lunch hour shopping and Christmas music on the radio and all is right with the world. My Christmas spirit has returned, and I am embracing it!

Continue reading May Your Days Be Merry… →

(Photo by Marianne Lecarrour)

“At the age of 20, we don’t care what the world thinks of us; at 30, we worry about what it is thinking of us; at 40, we discover that it wasn’t thinking of us at all.”
~Anonymous

Well, here I am. It is cool, crisp Friday morning in November and I am 40 years old. I’m not sure the reality of that has sunk in. I’m not entirely sure what the reality of being 40 really even means, other than that I’m not dead yet. If all goes according to plan I am only a third of the way through my life. ( 😉 ) Then again I’m probably right at the start of middle age.

Other than occasional aches and pains that I don’t recall having I’m not sure that I feel any older than I did when I was 20. I like myself more now than I did then. It isn’t that I didn’t like myself at 20 but the ‘me’ that I have become is a ‘me’ that I am much more comfortable with. And yet 40 still feels like the awkwardness of adolescence in some cases because I still feel that I have a lot of growing up to do.

In honor of this momentous day in my life I decided I would avoid getting all maudlin and instead would answer a couple of memes that I was tagged with. The first one I was tagged with fairly recently and (proof that I am indeed getting older) I cannot for the life of me remember who tagged me. If it was you, please own up to it in the comments and accept my thanks. The second is from Annie who tagged me with the Six Random Things meme a long time ago.

In what may or may not be a coherent way these things will tie into the looking back/looking forward mood that the approach of age 40 has had me in.

Continue reading Age is just a state of mind →