This entry showed up on my friends page today. And while I expect the train is the main subject of the video, my eyes were just glued to the Chipette doll. And I got that, "OMG! I've just got to have that!" feeling that I used to get at least once every Saturday morning throughout the 80's.

I can't tell if the doll in the video is one of these, or if it's something new, But if I saw it in a store I'd just wouldn't be able to leave it there.



Now I'm sitting here wondering why I didn't buy these way back when. I honestly don't remember seeing them. Was I too obsessed with Monchichis and The Get Along Gang to notice them?

Looking at the Chipmunk toys they have on Amazon, I realize it's been far too many years since I've seen the inside of a Toys R Us. It's like being lonesome for home.

The first Spectral Shadows episode of 2010 is out on time. Well, actually it's a month late. But we'll see if this will be the year I actually put out 52 episodes.

I only got this one in just under the wire, and I had to stay up all night to get it finished. I didn't have time to go over it as thoroughly as I try to do for most episodes. So I'm probably going to be hearing about some mistakes that need fixed. Don't be afraid to tell me.

Oddly, there was no great revelation that made this episode come together after a month of not being able to envision it. It was just a matter of waiting for the signal to clear from my Theater Of The Mind. Once the characters got their roles together and started playing it was just a matter of listening and writing down as usual.

I know there's a lot more that could be done with this episode. Actually, I could extend it to the length of two episodes if I wanted to. But it seemed more important to get to the cliff-hanger. So I decided that if two conversations were going on at the same time we would only hear one, while the other we would just hear about in narrative. Otherwise things would get really complicated and hard to read.

I hope no one's disappointed that this didn't quite come out to be the episode I've been describing. It very often happens this way that the characters will tell me my ideas are no good, and they're going to do it they're own way.

Actually, I think that's what hangs me up a lot of the time. I try to tell the characters how I want the scene played, and they just go off to the pub and laze around until I agree to let them have their way.

Also, we have a new character called Rick, played by Hunny Bunny's hubby. This is the second time I've been invited to include someone's personal character in the saga. I hope he likes the episode and finds it worth the wait.

The Planet Of Genetic Misadventure. Episode 106: Driving My Life Away

I can't believe I did this! For the first time in all the years I've known him, I forgot to wish kieranalexander a Happy Birthday on the 31st! Being sick was no excuse!

Happy Birthday, my friend. I miss you. May 2010 bring you much joy and love.

May strange relations eat your lunch
And your feet, and you don't mind!
And swathe your den in styrofoam
And pray for old Ben Stein!

That codger in the tiny specs
Stole my feet, one at a time!
He's crazy, and he stole Tim's hips
That crazy old Ben Stein.


Happy 2010, friends.

...to 2009 and say hello not only to a new year but a new decade. I can't say that I'm sorry to see the "oughts" go. It wasn't a bad decade, and I did sell two books, but even though it means I'm getting older, I think I'm ready for something new and hopefully, different. If you are headed out tonight, enjoy but stay safe. If you are staying in, like me, enjoy and stay safe. :D

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May the New Year bring you health, wealth (in all its many forms), and wisdom.

I changed my LJ theme. Again. LOL. Change is good, right? I figured since I was living in a Winter Wonderland(tm), I'd have my LJ reflect that fact. Yes, it's snowing. Again.

Christmas is over and the New Year looms. We still have snow on the ground from the Christmas Eve Blizzard. Trust me...with 14 inches of snow and 40 mph winds, it was a blizzard. It's snowing again, though we're only supposed to have 1-2 inches of cover. Of course, they are predicting freezing rain for tomorrow morning which will make the roads even uglier.

I have my writing plan outlined for the first few months of the new year. First on the list is to finish FAERIE FOOL, the third in my trilogy, and get it submitted to Ms. Editor. Next up is a continuation of the on-going revisions of SEASON OF THE WITCH. I have plans to submit it on agent queries this spring. In the midst of all this, I have the unique opportunity to enjoy an eleven-day cruise around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico with G, Justin, and Stacie. The kids will be in class. Too bad, so sad. LOL!

Of course, if TOR options PROPHECY OF THE BLOOD, all bets are off as I get it revised, etc. for publication. :D Keep your fingers crossed! With my luck, I'll hear from them while I'm incommunicado for eleven days! That's okay. The Only will have specific instructions should The Call come.

Waffles are "baking" in the waffle iron. The kitchen smells of Blue & Gold sausage and bacon. Time for a comfort food dinner on this snowy winter's night.

This has been one of the most inactive Christmases ever for my clan. There are no kids around anymore. Just me and the old folks. All of us being way too worn out from just keeping up with regular life to do much for Christmas. So, no decorations this year.

Also, no guests for Christmas dinner. Just me and the old folks gathered around . . . Gee, I guess we can't even call it "The Tube" anymore. "And gathered around the LCD" just doesn't sound as catchy.

But, what to watch? There was surprising little on with any Christmas appeal. 400 or so channels of stuff for everybody else but us, it often seems. So we dug around in the old video tapes and came up with a Perry Como Christmas In Ireland special from 1993.

This I quite enjoyed, as much as the old folks did. And it reminded me of a couple of things.

First of all, back around 1980 there was a song by a hard rock band called Hellfield which was about a young rocker having an argument with his father about music, and one of the lines the father shouts is "Why can't you listen to some nice Perry Como?"

Also I remember hearing a discussion on the radio back in the 70's where some commentators were speculating if age would ever mellow the hard rockers of the day to the point where they actually wouldn’t mind listening to their parents' music.

Well, honestly, hard rocker though I've always been, I never had that much of a problem with my parents' music. Though, even at that, I'm partial to the more loud and risqué tunes of Phil Harris and Ruth Wallis than the laid back sounds of Frank Sinatra. But I always did kind of have a soft spot for Perry Como. Can't really say why.

Probably a good half of you out there are thinking, "Perry who?" Young people today have a good shot at having heard of Bing Crosby or Tony Bennett, but I don't think Perry Como's memory has been so prolifically passed on.

Anyway, Perry Como used to be just as much a fixture of the Christmas scene as any of the old timers who popped up every year to do a Christmas special. And certainly someone you could look on as knowing wherefore he spoke on the subject of Christmas. So, there got to a point in this show where Perry Como said, in a very profound and reverent tone of voice, that he would like to reflect on the true meaning and purpose for the season - the thing for which he felt was of the most significance about it all.

And I was thinking, "Oh, boy, here it comes. He's in Ireland, surrounded by religious people. He's surely about to launch into some suite of nativity tunes." But, you know, he surprised me. Perry Como didn't think Jesus was the reason for the season. He said the reason for the season was the children, and then he launched into about as heart tugging a version of Toyland as you ever heard. And there was not a dry eye in the place.

This year, all I have heard from the outside world is this War On Christmas business. Suddenly folks seem to think Christmas is a thing that can be owned and used to the advantage of one platform or another. It's either got to be about money, politics or religion. It's become a needle some people want to use to jab the arms of people they don't like. And I think what that says is that we live in a very unChristmassy world filled with very unloving people who wouldn't know true value if it jumped up and slapped them in the face.

Christmas minus children, or children at heart, adds up to a big fat zero. I don't care what any pretentious person might say about religion, without the capacity of childishness that allows us to believe in fairytales, religion in all its forms would have been left on the trash heap ages ago. And that is the reason Christmas is so important. Because the innocence of childhood, which Jesus himself proclaimed as an essential virtue to the heavenly, is not something we can do without if we expect our lives to have any relevant meaning at all.

In today's world you have a choice. You can be a hate filled little troll and go around hating everyone who dares not to be you. Or, you can take advantage of this strange era in which you may find acceptance should you choose to never slip the borders of Toyland. You may, if you choose, keep that precious, Godly, childish love in your hearts all the year through, throughout all the days of your lives.

That we should be reminded of this. That, my friends, is the reason for the season.

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We survived the Christmas Eve Blizzard in mostly good shape. I'll post pictures after the holidays. For now, Santa is on his way, and I don't think I'll ever dream of a white Christmas again! Instead, I shall concentrate on sugar plums.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas, friends.

Despite what we think, despite the little darkness that sometimes creeps into life, we have it pretty good.

With a cat curled up under the comforter, a glass of Drambuie and my favorite movie on the TV, life is good.

Merry Christmas, folks! However you may spend it I hope the night treats us all well.