Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 104

Scanning: So Needed, So Tedious

About a month ago, I wrote about buying a scanner to reduce the paper in my house. I would love to ditch some of my filing cabinets and free up the space, but OMG, is this a long, drawn-out process.

It's not only the scanning itself, although that certainly isn't the most fun ever. It's the getting everything ready to scan. For example, I'm scanning things I wrote on spiral-bound notebook paper. That means the frizzy side of the paper needs to be cut off so it doesn't mess up the internal part of the scanner.

I also have to organize files where I want to store the scans, and the most fun of all ::heavy sarcasm::, getting the document ready to save.

Theoretically, it should be scan and done, but it's not quite that simple. It's a duplex scanner. It's not supposed to scan blank second pages (and it mostly doesn't), but I've clipped a lot of stuff from newspapers and magazines that I want to hold onto. Like cartoons and quotes and stuff. Well, it scans the back of these things because they aren't blank, but I don't want those, which means going into each PDF and deleting them.

On Saturday, I spent nearly three hours working on this and only got a fraction of the files done. I expected to make multiple trips to the filing cabinet. I didn't. And I didn't get everything done in that first batch of files I grabbed either.  Sigh. The project isn't one I can drop--I seriously need to lose this paper--but it's going to be a long haul.

Review: Inside Out

Inside out is a movie from Disney's Pixar Studios. The story revolves around an 11-year-old girl, Riley, who moves from Minnesota to San Fransisco with her parents. But the main characters are Riley's emotions: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear.

Her different emotions try to help her cope with the move, but then the unthinkable happens--Joy and Sadness have an accident that tosses them into long-term memory. They have to get back to headquarters before Riley loses all the islands that make up who she is, but they're met with setback no matter what they try.

The movie is geared for kids, but Inside Out captured my imagination and I enjoyed it. The movie was clever and it managed to be meaningful too. Joy had to learn that Sadness is part of life, too, and that no one can be happy all the time.

I'll admit it. The ending had me in tears. It sealed the deal for me and I'm giving the movie a highly recommend. 4.5 stars.

****I received no compensation for this review. The movie was part of a channel I subscribe to via my cable package and I saw it there.****

Why You Go Deaf When You're Reading?

Inattentional Deafness. I also think this is why we turn the radio down in the car when we're driving and suddenly need to concentrate.

The Magical Number

Did you imagine there would be some magical age where you'd suddenly be grown up? I always kind of imagined that turning 13 would make a big difference. It didn't. Then I thought maybe 16. But yeah, no change then either. Okay, the magic number must be 18.

It wasn't.

Then I thought it would happen after I left the teens behind or when I turned 21 or when I finished college. But all those milestones passed without my ever feeling like an adult.

I still don't feel like an grown up. I used to think it was only me, that I was just faking it as a responsible adult, but recently I realized that maybe I wasn't alone on this. On Facebook I've seen a couple of memes that made me think there were others.

One was about seeing a situation that required an adult and looking around for an older adult, an adultier adult. Someone with more experience adulting.

And there's another one

So it turns out that being an adult is just mostly knowing how to Google stuff.

I think there's another one or two as well, but I can't remember them. You know, it's kind of reassuring that other adults don't feel as if they're grown ups either.

I Gave Up Coffee

I gave up coffee for 9 days. I know, shocking! It was part of a detox. I also didn't eat meat or bread. Those were actually fairly easy to survive. The coffee, though? Totally different story.

I knew I was addicted to coffee--or at least the caffeine jolt--and that I'd been hooked fast. I started drinking coffee later than most people do, but it only took a few weeks to reach a point where I couldn't function without it. That day stays etched in my memory. It was Saturday, so I decided I wouldn't bother with coffee since I'd had enough sleep. Only to spend half the day on the couch, feeling lethargic. I went, had coffee, and returned to a functioning human being.

You can imagine how rough giving up coffee now would be. It was twice as bad as you're imaging. Not only lethargic, but craving it like crazy! For six days, all I could think was coffee, coffee, coffee! And of course, people at work are drinking coffee all around me. Torture!

But on day 7, the need wasn't so great, and  by the time day 9 ended, I was like, well maybe I won't go back to daily coffee again.

How have I done on this? Not too badly, actually, but I have had coffee three days in a row and I'm already thinking about having it again tomorrow, so it's looking like I'm sliding right back into my coffee addiction. Maybe I can still stay on track, though. I guess we'll see.

30 More Life Hacks Debunked

This saves me from trying any of them.

Plot Thread I Always Wanted to Write

For years, I've wanted to write a character who was adopted. I know why. I was adopted. :-) Throughout my life, I've met many, many other adoptees and it's interesting to me is how every single one of them has a different perspective. Seriously, there's not just two or three attitudes out there. Every person I've met has their own, specific one. Sure, the argument could be made that they're different points along a spectrum, but I don't look at it that way.

I've also met a woman who had a sibling given up for adoption, so I was able to talk to her, get to know her thoughts about that event. And I've met parents who've adopted children (as well as my own adoptive parents) so I've seen perspectives there as well. Added into all this was when I met my birth mother and how that impacted me.

This has been bubbling in the back of my mind for years, but I never had a character who was an adopted child show up. Until recently.

His name is Ryan. He's reached a level of success in his career that he hadn't expected to attain and he's enjoying it--and his life--to the fullest. And then, out of the blue, his birth mother contacts him and wants to meet him. To say Ryan is shaken is an understatement. It's while he's avoiding his personal turmoil that he meets his heroine. Heh!

I'm not actually writing his story yet because Ryan is the third story in a trilogy idea and I'm still working on story one, but I'm both looking forward to this chance and dreading it. The dread comes from the fear that I won't manage the complexity of emotion that adoptees have. I want to do this story, but I want to do it right.

I guess the only way my fears are laid to rest is when I'm actually writing this story. That's when I'll know one way or the other if I can pull it off.

The Light Bulb Moment

Writing is a series of progressions when it comes to learning the craft. Most of the improvement/changes are only noticeable in hindsight. Like when one rereads something they wrote three years earlier. Occasionally, though, there's a light bulb moment. Mine came while reading a book.

I'd heard for a while that Goal, Motivation, Conflict by Debra Dixon was a tremendous book about writing, but it took me a little while to buy it and then read it. It was worth the cost. GMC light up my brain like fireworks. I finally got it.

Looking at my characters and their words and actions this way helped me figure out growth arcs. It helped me figure out some general plot stuff. It flat out helped me focus and it made a difference for me. What was the first book that I wrote after reading GMC? Ravyn's Flight. This was also my first published book. It wasn't perfect and there are things I'd definitely do differently if I was writing it today, but it was a marked improvement from my previous efforts because of the focus.

I still reread GMC from time to time to remind myself of the principles. I also took time to work out the chart electronically so I can fill it out when I need to get my brain to home in.

Different writers need different things to make a difference for them. This was mine.

***I received no compensation of any kind for this post. Everything here is strictly my own opinion with no influence of any kind.***

What Did We Learn From Landing on a Comet?

I've been wondering about this.

Defining Moment

Continuing with blog ideas from online searching, today's topic is name one of the defining moments of your life. This is actually easy. Although I know there have been more than one defining moment, the biggest one involves writing.

I always had stories in my head. Believe me when I tell you that my Barbie and Ken dolls have really involved scenarios when I played and that my friends would be done long before I'd finished the scene (for want of a better word). They'd always be waiting impatiently for me to stop so we could go do something else.

I also was always interested in writing of some sort. As a grade-school student, I tried to create a neighborhood newsletter. I was on the student newspaper in junior high. Despite this, it never occurred to me to match up writing and my stories. I know, big duh, but I was a kid.

The turning point came in eighth grade. One of my best friends at the time started writing a book using everyone in our class as characters. I hated what she did with my character and asked her to change it. She refused. That's what prompted me to write my own story where I would have control (hah!) only I didn't write my classmates, I wrote fictional people.

I can't remember the characters names ::blush:: but I can remember the story. All full of teenage angst and a romance between two teenagers. Natch! The writing wasn't great. The plot wasn't great. But this is when I knew I wanted to write stories forever.

Of course, being practical, I decided to major in journalism while I was in college, which later turned to advertising copywriting. But that was never the kind of writing I really wanted to do. It was always novels. My dream would be to earn enough money writing that I could do it full time. That's all I've ever wanted to do.

But this was the moment in my life that became a driving force from then on. Fiction writing.