Skip to main content

Alphasmart, take one

Captain’s Log, Stardate 10.10.2006

Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is The Wedding Caper by Janice Thompson.
My Monday book giveaway is Thanks for the Mammogram! AND Reconstructing Natalie, both by Laura Jensen Walker.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on the blog posts above. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for The Wedding Caper and post the title for another book I'm giving away.

Pick my title! I’m still holding a poll for the title of my book! Go to this blog post to cast your vote!

My Alphasmart, how I love thee! Let me count the ways...
(Okay, so I wrote this a few months ago when I was being silly)

** Sitting in bed with a bedside lamp, taking advantage of the middle of the night brainstorm.

** Out in the backyard on a picnic blanket, while the dog runs and chases squirrels across the back fence.

** In front of the TV, taking notes while SportsCenter is playing (Those guys have the neatest metaphors! They’re more hip than the high school kids in my church youth group.)

** Typing all my comments as I read an entry for judging in a contest. Especially useful as a safeguard in case the entry gets lost in the mail.

** The lack of a mouse makes me keep writing even when I misspell a word, because it’s too much of a pain in the petootie to go back with those darn arrow keys to change “tath” to “that.” This total lack of left brain work keeps me in the right brain creative zone.

** Taking notes as I read a book, remembering plot events and my impressions as I read so that I can write a terrific, in-depth review.

** Writing in the car—on the passenger side, NOT while driving, in case any of you doofuses were going to make cracks about my stellar car handling—without getting a headache since the screen is too small to see anyway and I never correct my typos because there’s no mouse.

TMI:

Writing: Neck deep in revisions. I’ve finally figured out how to organize my plan of attack so that I’m not too overwhelmed. Please continue to pray for me. I’ll be going over to Dineen’s house today so we can both work.

Diet: I’m not doing too badly. I dropped a pound as of yesterday morning. Of course, I’m still two pounds up from my bad eating the entire month of September.

I also exercised for an hour yesterday, and managed to control my portions throughout the day.

I discovered how to pop popcorn on the stovetop. It’s very easy, very fast, and even though you use a little oil, it’s not too much AND I can use olive oil. And it tastes hecka better than air-popped—crispier and lighter. And since there’s a little oil, the salt actually sticks to the popcorn better than if it’s air-popped. I also like the taste of the olive oil.

And the biggest plus? It curbs my craving for potato chips.

Comments

Just Nancy said…
I love my poor AlphaSmart that died recently. I'm debating on whether to send it to be fixed or figure out if I can afford a Neo.
PatriciaW said…
Forgot about stove popped popcorn. Mom used to do it. Have to try it. Two bags of chips (grocery store size bags) in last 5 days.
Trish Ryan said…
Oooo...anything that helps with the chip cravings is a beautiful thing! And you're right, stove topped popcorn tastes better than air popped!

Popular Posts

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...