Testing the phone app

Please disregard this post as being anything significant. I'm just testing the Android app I downloaded.

Let's hope it's awesome.

The Muffin Muncher

First edition, signed by the author. 1978. I was eight. It became my favorite book immediately.

I was thrilled, even as a child, that I had an author signing inside the front cover. Books were the coolest thing ever, other than blowing up Cylons which I planned to do when I grew up (after marrying Buck Rogers or Han Solo or Bo Duke). I didn’t understand first editions at that age, but I had the signature and that was still the most amazing thing ever.

The story itself may or may not be where I got my love of dragons. I know I was already into Vampires and Werewolves at that age. It is possible I was a fan of dragons, but I really think it was this book that did it for me. Maybe that’s why I see them as powerful but reasonably decent creatures.

The Muffin Muncher really gets at the heart of a dragon who terrorizes villages for their food. But before that he sets up camp and brushes his teeth and puts on his pajamas and displays his photograph of his beloved (pony? It’s been 17 years since I read it – but I think it’s his pony.) How amazing! The “bad guy” has a soft spot. Maybe this shaped my love of anime. So many of the characters have these quirky soft spots.

I hated that I had to leave it behind when I fled my marriage. (I won’t get into it because this is an entry of things so precious.) Of all the things I lost this book was one of the most precious to me. I had had the book for 16 years and it was really dear to me. It was not only a cute story of dragon redemption, it was a story with so much depth.

It should arrive in the mail to me next week. I am so excited to read it once more. It isn’t my original copy, but at this point I am just glad to have any copy. I’m a writer, but not of children’s books. I admire people who can write stories in such a small amount of pages and with such simplistic language. It is so much harder than it seems to be. If you don’t admire those people, you should.

As a side note (with a touch of humor) I never realized how the title sounded until I was well into adulthood. I was in my middle to late twenties (days when the interwebz were so new that most didn’t know it existed) and had gone to the book store. I asked for assistance in finding the book called The Muffin Mucher. The worker took me to the erotica section. It was only then that I ever clicked with the alternate implication of the title. I carried it like a bible as a kid. I had such an innocence about it.

Do you have a book that you hold so dear from childhood? Am I alone in this attachment?

Don't give the squirrel Pepsi!

Sometimes I journal in my head while driving “I’ve got to open this next blog with ‘Trust me when I say don’t give the squirrels Pepsi.’ Because they HAVE to know how bad that idea is after what happened in the back yard.” And I write it all out in my head.

Then I get home. Dinner. Homework. Big Bang Theory. More homework. Shower. Read myself to almost asleep “CRAP! I didn’t journal about the squirrel! I’ll do it tomorrow.” Fall asleep. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

The problem with not blogging (or as it was called in the old-school days – journaling) in a while is that there is this need to make excuses. “Sorry everyone. I’ve been up to my eyebrows in homework.” Or  “So much over time. I didn’t mean to neglect you all for so long.” The list goes on and on.

I used to be one of the people who felt the need to explain to the world why I haven’t journaled in 5 weeks. I quit doing that (most of the time). I still apologize sometimes, but mostly I decided it was not required. I should never feel obligated to update a journal (aka blog). It is there for me to say things I want to say when I want to say them.

Now, if this were my profession or if I were heavily networking then I would A) blog more regularly or B) when I did miss a week I would try to offer something in exchange for my absence. Neither of those apply.

I know some of you don’t know me personally outside of the cyber world so you are here because you are genuinely interested in something I have to offer (Spazzing out in excitement over the newest Star Wars announcement? Photos of my Spiderman bathroom? My Pepsi addiction?). I freakin love you guys for being here! I’m just a big geek girl like any other. Your dedication means a ton. I feel like I do owe you guys something more regularly. I am assuming (if you are still reading) that you know I am not a regular journaler. I seem to be feast of famine here. Blog blog blog blog.. silence. Silence. More silence. Blog blog blog!

At any rate. Thank you all for your patience. Lazy bloggers need love too. Thank you guys for the love you show me.

How about my fellow journalers/bloggers? Do you guys apologize for being absent??

(And incase you wondered. Yes, I blog/journal in many places. Often these entries are written and then posted several places. Live Journal, Blogspot, sometimes Facebook, sometimes Gaia, sometimes my other Live Journal, sometimes TheOtaku, sometimes DeviantArt. I’m everywhere.)

About my hearing issues..

After all these decades I have answers. So dear Dragon*con friends (and other friends who deal with me in places of non-quiet)- maybe you will forgive me when you have to repeat yourselves 30 times.

I have to admit, I didn't know other people didn't have the problems I have. I thought a lot of my "problems" were normal. I only recently found out that other people don't hear the way I do. How surprising for me! But now that I know what's wrong, I know I can work actively to try and create situations where my issues can be overcome and handled properly. My hopes are that this will create a better hearing life for me. My doctor told me I am working too hard to communicate. I honestly thought everyone worked that hard. I just wanted a hearing aid. But it is far more than my physical ear that is the issue. Who knew. 


I drew a little comic to try and explain the problem. It is much more complicated than I can explain, but it should help give you the general idea. Read the description and then read the comic - it makes more sense in that order. 

Passions vs Paychecks

I have come to enjoy the luxuries in life such as food, electricity, running water, the interwebz.. and of course I need a roof over my head to have these things. In order to have the roof over my head I need a paycheck. That means a job.

I love my job. Let’s be honest here – I have worked many many jobs in my life and this is really the only one where I didn’t dread dragging out of bed at 6:05 in the morning. I sometimes even look forward to going back to work after the weekend is over. I truly and honestly adore my job. It pays the bills so I try not to whine about salary. I come home happy at night and we have plenty to eat – a lot of people are not as lucky as I am.

Still, there is something else in me that itches to get out. My passion for writing. I AM a writer. I am constantly writing – even if it’s just in my head. See me staring out the window looking like Homer Simpson? I’m working on the novel right up there in the ole noggin. My mind is NEVER quiet. Well, it was quiet for about 20ish minutes on that cruise I took last week but that’s a teeny teeny part of a 4 day “relaxing” cruise. My mind is too loud for relaxing.

When I do have time to let my brain free onto paper I will find myself in any number of lands with any number of people. Basically, it’s write or die.

Being a full time student again (gotta get that Masters degree!) and a full time employee has really put a damper in my writing time. I still have some, but not nearly as much as I wish I did. I enjoy learning in these classes, and let’s be honest about me.. I just love learning. I would be a full time student if I could get paid for it. But it’s really cutting into my writing time. Most people whine about their social life suffering. Lucky for me my social life doesn’t exist. But my starving novelist life does.

Some people risk it all and run off to Hollywood with $28 and the clothes in their backpack hoping to make it. Some people do. Most of them don’t. I can’t run off to Scholastic Press and camp out hoping some agent will hear my thoughts and sign me up to write a novel.

So I plug along in the freetime I find. Write today, edit tomorrow, do nothing for 3 weeks because papers are due and an event is coming at work and whatever else life thing is happening – then I write again and don’t write again.. it’s a never ending cycle.

Some day I know I will finish an editing.. and then.. then I begin camping out and pimping my books all over town.