Day: January 23, 2020

It’s Alarming

Last year I indulged in a new alarm clock. An atomic clock, which means I never have to set it again. The numbers are enormous, making it easy to read without my glasses. It not only shows me the time, but also the temperature and humidity of the room, the day, the date, and the moon phase. It also has a USB port for charging my phone. How could this be a bad thing?

The moon phases are always off a little. I should have realized this before I purchased the clock. The clock runs on a man-made calendar, while the moon phases itself on a (shocking!) lunar calendar. This is not a deal-breaker.

My phone started acting up whenever I plugged it into the clock to charge. Every day at 1:08am, 2:08am, 3:08am, 4:08am, 5:08am, 6:08am, 7:08am my phone vibrates twice. I am a light sleeper. This seriously impacted my sleep.  I checked every alarm, alert, etc. on my phone. I asked my co-workers, most of whom are much more tech savvy than I when it comes to smart phones. Nothing.

After months of frustration I finally figured out why my phone was vibrating at eight past the hour every hour. For some bizarre reason, the clock face goes completely black on the hour in the AM. It comes back on eight minutes later, which causes a power surge in my phone, making it vibrate. That mystery solved.

Now if only I could figure out what’s going on with the eight-minute blackout.

 

MJ Monday: MJ’s Manuscript-Besieged by the Moon

Phoebe was silent for another couple of blocks. “I heard all the lycanthropes in the area were gone.”

“Most of them,” Parker said. “There was a purge.”

He would never forget the stench of rotting bodies. Never be able to unsee the corpse of a child who’d tried to hide in the same bush Parker puked on. He was an EMT. Those sights and smells shouldn’t have bothered him. But they had. They would have upset anyone with a soul.

“A few survived. Because Ethan mated with Selena, our alpha sent a contingent here to help with . . . the aftermath.”

“Of a massacre?” Her voice cracked.

“I said purge.” He noted the vampires that had guarded the corner of Oak and Ash Streets hadn’t returned, thank the Ancient Ones.

“Purge. Massacre. Slaughter. It’s semantics.” Phoebe stared out the window.

“But I said purged. Ethnic cleansing.” Parker pulled to the curb in front of Ethan’s funky orange house.

“So it’s still going on.” She spoke softly, almost as if to herself.

“It’s still going on.”

MJ’s Musings: My Obsession with the Sky

I have been obsessed with sky nearly all my life. I blame my dad. When I was very young, he woke me up in the middle of the night, carried me outside and pointed to a light in the sky and told me it was Sputnik, a satellite. When I didn’t understand that, he explained it was like a big basketball in the sky.

Whenever a jet contrail appeared in the sky over the house, he would point it out to me and my sibs. It was years before I realized the contrails were a miracle to him, because they didn’t exist in his childhood. My own children looked at me oddly and said, “so what?” whenever I point out contrails to them.

Then there was a solar eclipse for which he made a “viewer” out of a cardboard box one wore over one’s head. There was a pin hole in the back that let in the light from the sun. One watched the eclipse projected on the front of the inside. He let all of the neighborhood kids take turns wearing the box so they could “see” the eclipse.

I once bought a child’s book on the constellations, allegedly for my children. I still use it for me.

One Labor Day weekend, there was a gorgeous full moon. I took my son’s toy telescope outside for a better look. A few hours later, a derecho blew through town, becoming one of those weather events that are legends in your area. I remember waking up in the middle of the night with lightning strobing like a rock concert of my youth. Foolishly,  I went out on my upstairs back porch to watch, not realizing it was a derecho and what that meant. People died that night.

Then the Internet came along, and I found a site that would tell me which star I was seeing every morning before my family and life descended on me. I used my link to that site for years.These days,  I can’t even remember the name.

Now I have an app on my phone: Sky View Lite. It’s an amazing app. The first time I used it on a writing retreat, while we were sitting around a fire pit, my fellow authors were blown away by the way we could “see” the constellations and stars, even through the cloud cover.  Several of them downloaded it then and there.

My obsession with the sky continues.

 

Female Quest Stories

Many years ago, when I first got on the Internet and was hanging out on AOL, a discussion came up about quest stories for children where the searcher was a girl. We came up with two: The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass.

Since that time, I’ve come up with another:  A Wrinkle in Time.

One of my writer friends says the Narnia series also has a female protagonist. I never read the books. I tried to get my children to read them, but they didn’t care for them.. If she says there was a girl protagonist, I believe her.

Can you add to this list?

#UpbeatAuthors: Boost Your Optimism Quotient

Sometimes it feels as though the world conspires to keep us down. But remember: the only thing over which we have total control is our attitude.

Here are a few tips to bolster optimism:

Revisit long-term dreams: You dream of being a New York Times best-seller? Imagine yourself on that list. How would being on the list change your life? Change you?

Get enough sleep: Drowsiness promotes pessimism.

Breathing & Hydration: Drink water. Lots of it. The human brain is 77-78% water. Drinking water keeps it healthy and gives it a boost. Same for deep breathing. Oxygen allows the brain to think more clearly. Clear thinking leads to positive thoughts.

Meditation: The practice doesn’t have to be fancy. There are plenty of free apps out there to get you started. Meditation really can help. I’ve used both the Calm and the Insight Timer apps.

Me Time: I’m an introvert, so I fiercely guard my down time. Doing something for yourself isn’t selfish. It’s self-nourishing.

Avoid negativity: This is easier to suggest than to practice. News about the state of the world bombards us; a downer person may be a co-worker, a spouse, a child. The worst thing in your life might be your job, but you have to work. I’ve developed little “tricks” to help me. When a co-worker goes on a rant, I hum Vangelis’s “Hymne“, sometimes to myself, sometimes under my breath. I try to look for the humor in any situation.

Smile: Forcing a smile can lead to a genuine smile.