This is NOT a New Years Resolution post (Blog Post)

I really hate New Years Resolutions. They're easy targets for humiliation later on. Nevertheless, I am setting some goals for myself, though, and primarily they include spending more time with my family and revitalizing my job. Not so much VS. 

Really there are two issues here:

  1. I got too involved in an online community once before and it jeopardized real-life. I'm not going to let that happen again. 
  2. Most of my online stuff these days is centered around my work blog and professional networking.

So...the good news is that I've got a clear, goal-oriented approach to the New Year. I intend on being a better person at the end of it. The bad news is that I won't be spending so much time here.  I'll be around, just not as much.

Happy New Year and  black eyed peas for everyone!

 

Has Been (Blog Post)

This post in honor of Zifnab's upcoming rise to the top of the Sifter's list. Now I'll get to go on Celebrity Fit Club or Dancing with the Stars, right? Cool!

 

Seen in our Christmas Parade (Blog Post)

Santa's 18 Wheels

Also: Antique tractors decorated with tinsel, lights on the gun rack of a truck pulling some boy scouts, and matching horses with thier manes and tails strung with lights, ridden by Barbie twins.   [Que: banjo]

Field Trip to the Old South (Blog Post)

Below are some pictures I took on a recent field trip with my daughter's high school literature class to Franklin, Tennessee. A local newspaper reporter tagged along and wrote a very nice piece:
In 1866, John and Carrie McGavock created a monument to the soldiers who died at the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee. They moved to a cemetery on their plantation nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers who died during the five-hour battle on Nov. 30, 1864 . Today, rows of limestone-marked graves rest within sight of the Carnton home where many of those soldiers died.
The Confederate army took over the Carnton Plantation as a hospital, and Carrie McGavock helped nurse the soldiers. That story and the McGavocks are real, but "The Widow of the South," set at Carnton, is a novel that a group of Hazel Green High School students have read in their Literary Explorations course.

  It was an awesome trip. We had all read the book, a best-selling historical fiction title about the Battle of Franklin and Carrie McGavock. The author did the tour - he wrote the book to help fund the restoration of the house...and it is definitely immaculately restored. It's also (supposedly) one of the ten most haunted places in the country. If you're into Southern architecture or history it's defintely a trip to make. Read the book first...and watch out for the Confederate general who can sometimes be seen pacing the back upper porch!

Carnton Plantation
Carnton Plantation

Carnton Back Porch
Carnton Back Porch

McGavock Living Room
McGavock Living Room, done in the Greek Revival style of the period.

McGavock Cemetery
McGavock Military Cemetary. We were there the week of Veteran's day, very touching.

Robert Hicks on the Back Porch at Carnton
Widow of the South Author Robert Hicks on the Back Porch at Carnton

Carter House
These are bullet holes made during the Battle of Franklin in an outbuilding behind Carter House, the Union headquarters in Franklin. It was on the north Side of the battle, Carnton on the South.

Antique Doll at Carter House
Many original family items are preserved at both Carnton and Carter House. The tour guides told the stories of the families that lived there during and after the battle. Chilling stuff.

 

http://www.carnton.org/

http://www.carter-house.org/

http://www.widowofthesouth.com/

 

I want to be cloned (Blog Post)

I've been saying for a long time that I want to be cloned. I want a Marianne to be the wife. I need one to be Mommy. And of course there's Marianne the Career Professional...then I want one who's just me. 

But the thought just came to me...I need a clone to be MLx, too. I just got home from a very long day: 9 hour work day hunched over my computer trying to write the materials for a class I'm teaching next week and ended up at a board meeting. Then I had to take my daughter to horn lessons, finally came home to a messy kitchen and laundry to be done. And I see all these videos I want to watch! And blog posts to respond to! I want to finish up some CSS code!  And I need to find a submission!

But I'm pooped.  Ya know?

Spam Haiku (Blog Post)

keyboard jerkin' off
desperate for attention
spammers self-combust

now even worse than
The New Media Douchbag
gang ban the spammer

call me a post whore
but flooding sites with that crap
you'd blow for page hits

Chrissy the Wonder Dog (Blog Post)

Chrissy

Meet Chrissy, our 5 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. This is her pitiful look, as in "Please don't make me get off the bed!" She's just a great big 100lb baby.

A Damned Good Read: Heartsick (Blog Post)

I read the scary stuff: Mysteries, thrillers and suspense. The stuff that makes you squirm and think "ewwwwwwww."

As a Librarian I have access to, well...alot of books. I can get advanced reader copies of new titles, but since I'm not in charge of Collection Development anywhere, I just pluck the ones that look like they'll make me have bad dreams. If they do, I recommend them to Acquisitions. I'm also a slave to the NYT bestsellers list, but it's got to be a mystery...I do have my principles. Dean Koontz probably tops my list of favorite authors: his books are intelligent suspense, not just gore.

Lately I've been into crime stories, especially Robert Crais' Elvis Cole mysteries. Robert Crais was a principal writer on the old cop show Hill Street Blues: you see his work more than hear it as you're reading. Elvis is smart, sarcastic, funny, and not living up to his potential. Kind of like me. So as I wait for the early Elvis novels to come in from the branches, I noticed a new mystery author getting a short spot on the NYT list...

''Chelsea Cain is an Oregon reporter who has just released Heartsick. The main characters are punk noob journalist Susan Ward, sharing a toke with the high school kids during the interview; Gretchen Lowell, beautiful serial killer who can make a man do anything; Archie Sheridan, damaged detective in love with the monster who killed him. This is a great read, a really surprisingly excellent first novel.

The story line switches between Gretchen and Archie's memories of his kidnapping and torture with Susan's all-access invitation to cover the new, brutal murders of three high school girls. Archie's just back from medical leave, heading the Beauty Killer task force. He visits Gretchen in jail every week: she offers the location of her victim's bodies for his cooperation in her sick mind games. Archie had been victim number 200.

I was kind of spooked at how much I cared about these people. Susan is making all the wrong choices in her life, Archie is wallowing in self-pity and pharmaceuticals...Gretchen is the sickest character I've seen in a LONG time, perhaps even rivaling Hannibal Lecter. Her capacity to inflict pain and kill is bone-chilling.

So anyway...as I mentioned before I'm not much of a blogger but did want to talk about this book. I did try to find the "What are you reading" thread in SiftTalk to spare you this post, and couldn't. If you're into Crime Drama, do check-out Heartsick. It's a damned good read.™

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