Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 25

APOD: The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble

 

 

 

APOD: 2011 November 13 – The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble.

Largish wingspan for a butterfly!

Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: butterfly nebula

changes…

changes…, originally uploaded by vdaaccord06.

First draft, page 12. This is what it's like to begin: with hope and trepidation.

Filed under: Miscellany

Happy Tears–the Horsie Runs

This is one of those wonderful stories that give you faith. I won't say anything about it but let you watch for yourself and provide a link to all the details.

Via Wonderland.

Filed under: Interesting, Uplifting Tagged: animal stories, prosthethis for animals

Translate Chinese Lady Gaga

And if you're curious about what they were singing in my previous post…

LAO LAI QIAO GAGA – "Old Folks Going Gaga"

Oh, oh oh…. beloved son…

Oh, oh, oh… 'go Gaga' & perform a song…

Lalala… 'go Gaga'

Lala…lalala

We're performing, don't [pass it off as unimportant] (? Hunanese)

(x2)

Your working days are too many, you hardly ever come home

At the other end of the phone, you're always busy with no end in sight

Busy with no end

Busy, busy, busy without end.

Your old folks pass their days learning and finding ways to amuse themselves

Cut back on the little details, but HOLD on to those grand occasions

Have to HOLD on,

Hold, hold, hold, have to HOLD on.

Beloved son, watch the singing on TV

Your father and mother didn't make any mistakes, did they?

Tonight, HOLD on as you see Mum & Dad within a second GO GAGA!

If you're satisfied, please stand up and applaud

Don't make us too nervous

If you're happy, sing along with us

Give us our moment on stage (?)

Lalala… 'go Gaga'

Lala…lalala

We're performing, don't [pass it off as unimportant] (? Hunanese)

(x2)

Hey, hey! The joy of being OLD!

'Gaga' can show you something: I'm so happy!

(x2)

via Lao Lai Qiao GAGA.

Filed under: Fun Tagged: Gaga translated from Chinese

Only in China: retirees singing Lady Gaga

Filed under: Fun Tagged: China and Lady Gaga

Happy Publishing Story

A novel that, less than a year ago, was without a Canadian publisher has won the country's most prestigious literary prize. Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues, about a jazz musician who disappears in Nazi-occupied France, was awarded the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize Tuesday evening, capping an unlikely run that has seen the Calgary-born novelist rise from obscurity to become one of the season's most buzzed about authors.

via Quillblog | Quill & Quire.

Half-Blood Blues was supposed to be published by Key-Porter, whose parent company went bankrupt. There was Edugyan's second novel, in limbo. She faced a writer's nightmare, re-acquiring her rights and starting again. But talent paid out, and so did luck as the novel was quickly picked up by a smart and independent Canadian publisher, Thomas Allen. A 2nd big print run is in the works.

And I'm so glad, though I bought Half-Blood Blues before the Giller win–occasionally I peg it right.

Filed under: CanLit, Literary, Uplifting Tagged: Half-Blood Blues, Nazis and Black History

Church of Lies by Flora Jessop

My reading plan was derailed when Church of Lies by Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown came in from the library. I put down The Book Thief and picked up Church of Lies, just to have a look at it. My look ended when I finished the book.

This is a non-fiction memoir of Flora Jessop's life in the polygamous FLDS (fundamentalist Mormon) cult, her escape, recovery from the brainwashing of that group, and efforts to assist girls and young mothers in getting away. It's a ripping yarn, but more seriously it exposes a Taliban-like group right here in our midst:

After I turned fourteen, I had something else to worry about; being assigned a husband. Every FLDS girl understood that as soon as she turned twelve, she could be married off at the whim of the Prophet. At age fourteen, I was prime predators' meat, and every man–no matter how old–was a potential spouse. And what was worse, the majority of the men already had more than one wife. The Prophet's council of old men had been secretly kicking teenage boys out of town for years, fearful of competition for wives and places in the celestial kingdom. The numbers of those poor "lost boys" would only increase as the years went on. (p 73)

Polygamy isn't an adjunct but the reason for being within this group. They believe that a man gets into the highest level of heaven by marrying at least 3 wives (though recently I heard an interview where one of the leaders indicate that number was now 7). At that level, after he dies he gets to be god of his own planet just as "God" is the god of earth (and "he" has his own god.) His wives get into heaven and become queens of the planet through him.

A woman's only value is in reproduction. Abuse is rampant in crowded households where 30 children or more are squeezed into a handful of bedrooms, dirty diapers sit untended in pails, food and other resources are scarce while teenage mothers compete with older, used-up wives for what is available for them and their children. Education is limited to the Prophet's religious teachings. Depression is common in these circumstances, skills few. Violence, fear of the "evil" outside world, and religious brainwashing is used to control the members of the cult.

And all of this is happening not in some third world, but right here in Canada and the United States, primarily Utah, Arizona, Texas and British Columbia. The democratic principle of freedom of religion is manipulated by the leaders of this cult to hide the reality of what they are doing: forcibly marrying close relatives, abusing children and keeping them from access to basic education and information. Books, tv, internet, movies are all forbidden. Medical care is practically non-existent. Welfare fraud is also rampant as families "bleed the beast," the term used for that practice within the FLDS.

Even those who are sincere within the FLDS struggle to maintain these huge families. Money is always an issue. Some of the leaders are extremely wealthy, but their families are commensurately larger, as status comes from the numbers of wives and children and hence there is still struggle for space and food. Women typically bear 10 or more children each, and with over 7 wives–you can picture the rest.

Warren Jeffs, the latest Prophet of the FLDS is in jail for marrying children as young as 12. But the abuses continue even as the Canadian Supreme Court is investigating Winston Blackmore. (The Canadian community split into two factions when Blackmore, an FLDS bishop was excommunicated by Jeffs in another power play). Tens of thousands of people live under their domination, assisted by their henchmen.

Memoirs like Church of Lies are critically important to exposing the reality. The members of this community are skilled at putting up a front. Children from very young are taught to show no emotion but obedient cheerfulness, called "keeping sweet". One of the ways that this is taught is by spanking a baby, then putting the baby's face under running water when the baby cries.

That is the beginning of the child's sweetness. Are you as outraged as I am?

Filed under: Concerning, Literary Tagged: FLDS, Flora Jessop, polygamy

Sunshine and Skating

I know that Sunday isn't the best time to post but I'm too happy to care. There is sun and blue sky today, and there was sun and blue sky yesterday. I skated with my family this morning and I walked with A yesterday, just the two of us, hand in hand, for 3 hours. I love those big walks.

Our goal was Parkdale, a west-end area of downtown Toronto that was once a well-heeled village. It's an interesting place that ran down at heel when it was cut off from the lake by an expressway, and again when psychiatric institutions released their patients to the streets about 35 years ago. Landlords took advantage of the need for cheap housing and tenants who didn't have means to complain about conditions. But the northern edge has been long gentrified by Eastern European immigrants, and the south end is becoming host to artsy types who've fled the ever more gentrified (and more expensive) section of Queen Street.

I've never walked right to the end of Queen before. Right there at the end, it abuts King Street, which has ambled north until it's separated from Queen by the smallest corner, like the royal couple on their thrones.

The shoreline of the lake, too, ambles north and here is the view (click any photo to enlarge):

The view of the city just to the west where the shoreline dips down again:

A 19th century mansion, now a nursing home:

And last, it speaks for itself:

Filed under: Fun, Personal Tagged: King Street Toronto, Parkdale

Site Meter

I must be the last blogger on earth to know about site meter and to install it. I learned about it from Emily's blog. So just just in case there is someone else out there unfamiliar with it, I want to pass along the favour.

Site meter tracks visitors to your blog or website. WordPress has built-in stats, which are easily read and fun to see, but what I love about site meter is that it tracks visitors as well as pages, and most fun of all, their locations and how long they've spent at your website.

Warning: do not install this if you're the sort of person who gets elated and then depressed by fluctuations in site stats. However, if you are (and most of us get on that bandwagon at least sometimes), maybe I can help a bit there.

In my younger days, before I could write novels for a precarious living, I was, as some of you know (cough) an accountant. (That is a long story which I'll someday blog about.) Because I did a lot of work with non-profits, I learned to analyze numbers and not take them at face value. I wanted to know, for example, how sending out a hundred thousand letters (later phone calls) translated into actual donors.

Because I have a website and I'm an author, I have a similar interest in blog stats. In other words, how many people who come to my blog follow through to my website or my books. I've been watching this now for several years and it's astonishing.

The number of people who click through to my website does not co-relate to the number of people visiting my blog. There are times that the stats go way up. There are times the stats fall flat. No impact. About the same number click through every day.

Common sense would advise otherwise, but in this case it's wrong. So my friends–enjoy the strange wonders of blog stats, and don't get caught up in them. I will try to take my own advice because site meter is so much fun.

I was thrilled that someone in Okanawa, Japan spent ten minutes on my blog. Today a visitor in Rumania looked at 3 pages. This is the best of the internet, this connection. Site meter is a way to see the light spreading out from your work so freely given.

Love to all.

Filed under: Fun Tagged: blog statistics

Today's Work

Tõkestatud / Obstructed – Landscape & Rural Photos – Vaido's Photoblog.

There weren't any rainbows while I wrote today. (Well there were, while I was thinking, but then they vanished when I got to my desk.)

It was much like this. Obstruction. Fallen bits in the stream. It didn't seem to go well. But that's the nature of the writing process. Now I look at this photo and see the beauty in it and believe that there is beauty in writing even on a day when it seems to be all fallen logs.

 

 

 

Filed under: Beautiful [image error]