Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 124

Another Lay Off

I got laid off from my day job today, which I find unsettling. I don't think I want to write more.

Between Patrick's lay off and mine, we have just taken a 50% cut in household income.

There is one good job on the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Jobs Listing right now. I guess I will update my resume tomorrow.[image error]

Lay Offs

A couple of days ago I was riding home on the bus, and I heard a woman talking about her brother, who had just gotten laid off. Then I changed buses and heard a guy on his cell phone, saying he had just made it through the second round of layoffs at his job. Then I got home, and Patrick told me he had gotten laid off.

Pat is not too upset about it now. He worked really hard at the current legislative session, trying to get bills through that would help homeless people. Most of what he cared abou

Story

I was in Barnes and Noble a few days ago, checking the science fiction and fantasy section. One of the books had a title in an elaborate, almost unreadable font. I thought it said The Hatter of God.

When I took a second look, it said The Hammer of God, which was a less interesting title. I liked The Hatter of God.

Jane Yolen was at Minicon this past weekend; and I bought one of her books, a collection of her fairy tales and fables.

Influenced by her and the misread title, I have written a story

Nightmare

I had a nightmare the night before last. Patrick decided he wanted to visit downtown Minneapolis at 3 a.m. I accompanied him on the drive, though I didn't think it was a good idea. There was something scary downtown – maybe a serial killer. I don't remember that part of the dream.

Anyway, the downtown was completely dark – no lights in the buildings, no streetlights, no stop lights. There was no traffic, nothing except the completely dark buildings and streets.

We started home. Somehow we en

Union Heroes (with Union Training)

From Firedoglake:

American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship have regained control of the vessel hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia Wednesday...

...At least 12 of the Americans aboard the Maersk Alabama are members of the Seafarers International Union, spokesman Jordan Biscardo said.

...And as I just heard on Fox News (and confirmed with the SIU), crew members of the Maersk Alabama received anti-piracy training from (where else?) their union.

[image error]

Looking Backward 2

I ran across my comments on the Republican National Convention...

Patrick told me recently that the businesses on West Seventh next to the Xcel Center, where the convention was held, are still angry about the business they did not get, because the tight security meant the delegates could not move around freely.

And he says the St. Paul Police officers he's talked to are still upset. They feel they could have handled the convention by themselves. Instead, a bunch of cops were brought in from other

Looking Backward

I was pretty sure I had printed my "Dinosaur" poem here before, so I went back and looked. I quoted it in 2007. That's a ways back. I don't see a problem with quoting it again.

I noticed two things...

How repetitious this blog is... weather, my moods, what Patrick and I are doing, the writing I am planning to do...

I do get a fair amount of writing done finally. But boy is it a slow process. And boy do I spend a lot of time planning to get things done.

Many of the entries are like the journals farme

Writing

The Brer Rabbit story is done and ready to go to my workshop. Next Monday I plan to do the final line edits on "My Husband Steinn," a fantasy set in contemporary Iceland. It was written before the banks collapsed, so it's already out of date. But what the heck. I like the trolls in it.

After that I have two stories that are finished, but need a final revision: "Tomb of the Fathers" or "Iridium." In the case of "Tomb" all I have to do is input line edits. "Iridium" needs some rewriting.

I go to t

Blogger Sign In Problem

I went onto the Blogger forum. There were plaintive and angry posts from people who are having the same problem. I assume Google will fix it.

In the meantime, enjoy the feathered dinosaurs. All previous feathered dinosaurs have been therapods. These belong to the other great branch of dinosaur evolution, the one that led to Triceratops (among others) and not to the therapods.

This means feathers go way back into dinosaur history and must be more wide-spread than we have realized.

Calloo! Callay!

Feathered Dinosaurs

[image error]