Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 101

So...Writer Peeps!

My writing group doesn't meet in November. We used to do a retreat, but for various reasons we don't anymore. But...my lovely critique partners and me love each other so much and enjoy our after-the-meeting meetings tremendously that we've decided to get together this month anyway.

One lovely peep is opening her home tomorrow and we will gather, visit, chat, brainstorm and just enjoy each others company.

And like the many flavors of Peeps now available, we are unique and crazy and fun!



Hope you have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend.

It's Suddenly Gotten Busy!

Not that I mind too much, it just means I have to pay attention to my time and keep track of my projects. I now have two series bibles on the books, as well as two critiques. There's also my cross stitch project, which I'm thankfully ahead of schedule on, and a writing project due the 23rd.


And just because the above note is boring, here's this...


Hope you're having a good week!

It's a Misty Moisty Morning and Foggy is the Weather...

NANOWRIMO!

Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month...I signed up. The premise is to join millions of others around the world and spew 50K or more unedited words on the pages during the month of November.

I couldn't find the stats, but I'm sure you've heard them before. A lot of people say they want to write a book. Most people never start and, of those who do, they give up at some point.

NaNoWriMo is supposed to be a fun, no pressure way to find accountability and support to write a book. I've heard about it for years, but never felt the draw. I mean, up until recently I didn't really have the time I thought it would take to write that much. And this year I still don't because I have a couple of series bibles to work on as well as my special cross stitch project to make progress on, but...

The friends I hang with online all day every day are all signed up, so I thought what the heck--I can be a cheerleader. I'm good at that. And while I don't have a book I want to write, but I do have a fan fiction assignment due Nov. 23rd, so I will be writing.

What about you? Anyone else doing NaNo? Even their own modified version?

American Fun Facts!

With 6640 miles of coast, Alaska has a longer coastline than all of the other forty-nine states put together!

 Imaged with unrestricted permission from the USGS.

Monday, Monday...

Friday's tree pictures were taken Thursday afternoon...which was probably a good thing because it rained Friday and rained and rained. Then it rained Saturday and rained and rained. Sunday was just cloudy, but the moisture just hung in the air.

Saturday, I watched TV pretty much all darn day. First I watched some documentaries with DH on Netflix, then we watched NCIS, then ST: Voyager. Then DH had to go down to his mom's house so then I watched an episode of Highlander and several of Mad Men. Yeah, it was a very lazy day.

Sunday, after grocery shopping, and around laundry and other random tasks, I cross stitched. All day. You know that special project I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? I had to play catch up and since the weather was conducive to just staying holed up inside,it seemed logical.


I finished the R, though I actually had more complete than what shows in this picture, and started the first letter of her middle name, C... It's actually close to being done since its image is fairly simple. Thank goodness!

How was your weekend???

Happy Fall Y'All

Yeah, it's technically been fall for a month, but sometimes it's hard to tell here in Texas, since our summer is so long it starts a bit early and tends to go a bit long.

But now we've got the wonderfully cool overnight temperatures which means we can sleep with the windows open for a few weeks.

The the most obvious harbinger of fall is of course the changing colors of the leaves, and so for a few weeks, I'm going to watch and share the changing colors of the leaves on my trees.


The one on the right is the maple, but I'm not sure about the one on the left. Apparently there are quite a few trees that use samaras ("helicopter" pods) to sow their seeds, and I didn't care that much to do the research to figure it out. Needless to say, it's already begun changing color and dropping its leaves. The oak is just dive bombing me with acorns right now.


Now this is the neighbor-across-the-street's oak. I'm sharing it is because the leaves on my tree just turn plain old brown. But if I remember correctly, the leaves on this one turn a maroon/burgundy color.

Are you a fall lover?

Happy Back to the Future Day!!

How does the reality of 2015 measure up to the future 2015 from the first Back to the Future movie released in 1985?

The new fall TV season...

Since I don't have access to "live" TV, I am rarely subjected to commercials of any kind, including ads for new TV shows. I hear the occasional ad on the radio, but without visuals, it's not quite the same. But due to my trips to Seattle and Omaha at the right time along with time spent in hotel rooms with live TV, I saw ads for a couple of contenders...

Quantico, Blood & Oil, and Code Black...

I started Quantico, which I'm liking for the most part. It has a flash forward/flash back feature that I'm not sure I want to deal with for a whole season, but I'll keep going for now and see what happens.



The show opens with a group of new recruits at the FBI Academy--an eclectic mix to be sure. Then at some point we fast forward approximately nine months to the site of a terrorist attack. Alex Parrish, one of the recruits--now a newly minted agent--is the prime suspect. Her escape is orchestrated by the assistant director of the academy as she knows Alex (in the image above) is being framed. Alex has 24 hours to clear her name. In order to do so, she flashes back to the her time in the academy and the things she was taught.

I read the description on Blood & Oil, but ultimately decided against watching. Just seemed to soap opera-ish for me.

Code Black actually came across my radar via radio. The premise is an ER in probably the poorest and most violent area of Los Angeles that finds itself under code black night after night after night. The opening sequence alerts viewers that the average ER calls code black approximately five time a year. This particular ER calls code black three hundred times a year... Oh, what's code black, you ask? That's when an ER is overrun with more patients than they have resources (personnel, space, medical equipment/supplies) to handle. So, yeah, sounded intriguing. So far, I'm enjoying it.



Anyone else watching either one of these (or both)?? What do you think?

Hamlet!Ben

I saw this!!!
Okay, not in London at the Barbican, of course, but at my local theater where the most recent performance was beamed around the world.

I admit right now, Benedict Cumberbatch was the draw for me, not the play itself. I know who Shakespeare is, of course, but I've never had to read one of his plays for school. I know vaguely the story of Hamlet and I struggled a bit following the nuances of the plot, but it as I said, it was all about Ben.

And I confess this is not an objective critique. I thought he was beautiful and brilliant. Seeing it live would have been lovely, I think, but seeing it through a camera and being able to be right there rather than stuck up on a balcony or in a back row behind someone six foot two was marvelous. We could get up close and personal with the story and with Ben.

And we were in the theater with the roomy seats that turned into recliners, so, yeah...

Here are a few my awful pictures, taken with an iPhone in a dark theater with no flash.

Images of the live audience.
 Bene doing a special interview prior to the performance.




This is one of the bows at the end.