Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

Charlaralotte wrote: "Wow! I'm glad I'm not a moderator. More power to you all. That's a ton of work. Thanks for doing it.
:)"

now that you know you can be a moderator who just wants a sexy title, does that change your mind at all? :)

hey shel:

i think the guidelines you've suggested make a lot of sense! that being said, i'm not sure everybody who has moderator status actually wants to be a moderator -- i was just making people moderators willy-nilly for a while there, since i wanted to give everybody zany titles. :) so before we get to sharing emails and what not, we should probably see who actually wants to do what.

also, if it turns out that everybody who has been made a moderator wants to be a moderator (which would be lovely) then we might be able to split into small groups: for example, i'm an organizational freak, so i would be inclined to want to manage the taxonomy, but if dan and patty, or others wanted to help then we could make sure amongst the three of us that somebody would always be covering that.

so i guess what i'm suggesting is first getting a list of people who want to be active moderators, some who could be back-up moderators if they like, and some who just want sexy titles, like cosmic love muffin. :) even though the group is expanding nicely, it's early days yet, and it would be good if we could keep the relaxed atmosphere that our dear skipper brought to the original group.

okay, so here's something interesting: i went to check out the page for people to find groups, and it turns out that we're on the first page for books and literature. why? because of frequency of posts -- doesn't hurt us that we're signing on from all different time zones. in this case, it helps because being on the first page means that people will find us, and our intro is by far the most intriguing on that first page, let me tell you. :)

Dan wrote: "Pavel wrote: "Well this looks like a good place to put this. Anyone else think 50 posts per page a bit rough? Any way to change it? 25, 20, or 15 like old Jon's basement?"

You know Pavel, I was ki..."

i had a look around and no, that option doesn't seem available. i haven't noticed it, either because i'm clicking into threads because of email notifications or because i've got a wheely mouse, so i just zip down but i see how it could be frustrating if i didn't have that.

i wrote an email to goodreads making the suggestion that they add this functionality to the groups, and got a response saying they will try their best to answer my question in a few days. it will be interesting to see how responsive they are. i never quite got over the fact that jonathan had to start the fiction files over again after the great BLACK OUT and that none of us were ever contacted about the emails we sent in distress when it occurred. so this will be a good test. i probably should have replied in the testing the environment thread, but anyway. let's wait and see shall we? i have seen posts by otis, the chief architect in other threads so i think he is fairly active in trying to improve the site for everyone.

hey skip:

if you use the "add event" option to set this puppy up you can have a running tally of everybody attending in one place, plus everybody who is attending will have a pretty little event on their page to look at longingly until the time comes. meanwhile you can use this thread to scheme, and conspire and plan. :)

i think the books are choosing you, brian. these particular editions sound very bloodthirsty.

i don't really have a method of choosing books beyond the initial choosing in the bookstore. quite often i just browse the used bookstore around the corner and see if anything jumps out of me, and quite often it does: it could be a book i've seen recommended by my friends on the ff, or one i'd seen on a must-read list. several years ago i found it easy to choose books that were referenced in other books, i.e. my reading of the way of the pilgrim because it was mentioned in franny and zooey. of course then i bring them all home and put them on my to-read shelf, and when i need a new one, i just scan the shelves and pull. i never start a book and not finish it but if i am not getting into it right away, i might put it back on the to-read shelf until i can bear to pick it up again. like that abysmal hangsaman that i can't even admit to be shirley's. :)

obviously none of that is going to help you, but i thought bumping the thread might get you some useful replies. :)

i don't really set myself any goals -- i usually read more than 50 books a year but i don't force myself to read them just so i can say that. it's usually at least 50 fiction with some some biography and reference thrown in -- last year i read a lot of books about making dictionaries for example, and all for nought. i guess this year i should be reading reference books on how to get a job in a terrible recession. ;)

great to see new faces like melody and old young ones like that of the cream cheese angel. i'm happy to see we have over 50 members in the first week of trying goodreads out! and it's great to see people making an effort to make this space their own, not waiting for me, or jonathan or anyone to get talking! pretty soon i will be able to slip away and you won't even notice. :)

and canadians say y'all rawk, but it doesn't sound very convincing, i imagine. we think it sounds cool though. :)

Moderators and the Side Bar

just wanted to let you guys know that only five people show up on the side bar as moderators but we have many many more - click on the members link and you can see who has moderator privileges. if you would like moderator privileges, feel free to contact one of the people already listed as moderator and say so. the order on the side is based on who joined the group first -- it is not order of importance, if it was, obviously jonathan would come first. :) i hope that clears up any confusion about the side bar.

Jennifer wrote: "Shel wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "what an impressive assortment - i didn't know many of these! i'm about to order some tom waits.

Oh no you don't! He's mine! ALL MINE!!!

"
i think lara might ha..."

i think at this juncture i might need to pull out some muscle relaxants, and drop them in your drinks. nothing like a muscle relaxant and some red wine, to mellow things out. :)

Kerry wrote: "Speaking of Zeppelin, doesn't Stairway to Heaven have a bunch of Tolkien references?"

i just sang the song in my head and then pulled the album to confirm and it's got some mythic stuff, and a mention of looking to the west for rest, so i would say no. however another song on this same album, the battle of evermore definitely has allusions, and ramble on for led zep II has out and out references to gollum and mordor. :)

i knew the pilfering of my brother's record collection would come in handy some day. :)

Ben wrote: "well, ozzy's "mr. crowley," for instance... where do you come down on that? i don't know if ozzy read him or not, but he certainly gives the impression he did.

i'm sure jimmy page read crowley. i'..."

i'm pretty sure ozzy has never read crowley. as much as i love ozzy, i'm not sure he's a reader -- i know he was a dismal student, and some people have accused him of being illiterate. pretty sure he wasn't writing the lyrics to his songs at that point, if ever. i mean, he mispronounced crowley's name in the song! :)

as for jimmy page -- you're probably right about him actually reading crowley. i remember him being right into the occult for a while, if he isn't still. :)

Ben wrote: "but i'll leave you with two words: aleister crowley.

these two words occurred to me as well but then i got bogged down with wondering whether it was really his literary influence on the music, or his mysticism -- i've never read any of his novels, myself. if you know which ones influenced what artists, i'd be interested. i guess i always thought they read about aleister crowley, not books by him. :)

and i thought of another one: tales of brave ulysses by cream based on the odyssey.

okay so it's been a while since i've welcomed anybody and there have been lots of new people to join us, among them our good friend smarty kate!!!!!!!!!

i can't keep track of all of us any more and when who signed on when but i just wanted to say thanks to everybody for making such a great effort. we may not be able to recapture old golden ages but we may very well be able to find a new one -- with new friends and new books!

y'all rawk. :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adrian wrote: "Maureen wrote:

"well i just made you a moderator so we can be the first in the arena. i want to be spock, and you be kirk! :) "

This ain't the time of Pon Farr, honey. You don't stand a chance! ..."

i am pouting now because you are using star trek lore against me.

how about you be gorn and i be kirk? won't you scuffle? i love a good scuffle. especially in a snow bank. :)

Jennifer wrote: "i just realized i'm a hot tamale! :D"

hee hee. thought you might like that. :)

wuthering heights! by kate bush

"heathcliff, it's me, it's cathy, i've come home now!"

i used to sing the pat benatar version at the top of my lungs and wake up my housemate every morning. she told me she missed it -- later. :)

pretty sure moon over bourbon street by sting is inspired by the anne rice vampire books. he also punned on the canterbury tales for one of his albums, and of course, don't stand so close to me was inspired by lolita, while roxanne was inspired by cyrano de bergerac.

there's the relationship between the doors and huxley, jefferson airplane and alice in wonderland if we're going for super obvious. :)

i pulled out bloodletting last year and gave it a listen. still sounds pretty darn good. i remember first getting it in high school when joey became a hit single, and people saying is that a girl or a guy singing? ;)

the event function

what do you guys think if we try to use it for group reads? i tested it out with shel's first short story date, and it shows up nicely. i'm really excited about us all being here but i'm worried we're bottle-necking all these group reads, and that will frustrate some of us. so maybe try to schedule the group reads? see what else is listed in our events, and plan accordingly? of course groups can overlap but maybe just now at the beginning not overlap too much?

of course, if we plugged in 12 events, it could get messy. maybe i will plunk in all of shel's confirmed date stories later, and see what happens. just now i have some reading of my own to do. :)

hey you guys:
thanks for keeping me company today! i was worried for a while there. just got back from birthday dinner -- i am stuffed with burrito goodness. and judging from this thread, i think i have been too free in my ecstasies over junk food. you're going to think i'm homer simpson! actually at one point several years ago i was worried i was turning into homer simpson: i got up in the middle of the night, murmured, "cookies", and went rummaging. not quite the same as staying up all night to eat an entire block of kraft singles (yes canadians call american cheese "kraft singles" in the same way we call macaroni and cheese "kraft dinner") due to my neurosis regarding brand names however i usually just choose to call them cheese slices. and since it's my birthday i hope it's okay that i rambled on for several sentences about nothing of much consequence. :)

hi abi:

you've found the group's achilles heel. i think you are the only one of us who has read the entirety of remembrance of things past, among us (anyone who has read it, please feel free to correct me) and it's been a topic of discussion for some time. i think we all want to read it but we're daunted by the size of it. last year some of the group took on war and peace, and i was supposed to moderate, but got bogged down in trying to read two copies at the same time -- the group's chosen edition and another one i had on hand. your post here has me thinking about it again. i've got a lot of books on the go just now, but i think i will put on my list for this spring/summer. if it ends up being something that others would be interested in, maybe you could lead the discussion? otherwise, look forward to messages from me asking you all kinds of inane questions. all i know is he loves madeleines. :)