Happy Digital Christmas

This video is awesome (thanks to my friend, Liz). I found a few social media things referenced in this video that I actually use:

Google
GMail
Instant Messaging
Twitter
Foursquare
Facebook
Amazon
YouTube

What about you?



Hope you enjoyed the video. Happy Holidays!

I Have the Best Kids - Relatively Speaking

This year has been a bit difficult for me. Work has been demanding and so has my personal life. I was having a hard time getting in to the Christmas spirit due to the ever-growing list of things I need to do plus the challenge of not having enough funds to buy presents. I was getting depressed and feeling a bit like a failure as a mother.


Last night, my kids did such an awesome job cleaning up the house, finishing the Christmas decorations and just taking major items off my home to-do list. I’m one of those people who are not in to big presents. Of course, I appreciate anything I get but my love language tends to be more on acts of love than anything.

I am so grateful and proud that my children know me well enough to have picked the best early Christmas present EVER for me. It’s exactly what I needed to finally get in to the holiday mood. So, thanks Luc and Xira. You guys are awesome!

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way – you can tell Mommy exactly what you need, how many parties are you planning in the house, and how much food am I required to cook? Come on, I’ll be okay with it.

Sharing Some Original Work

As some of you may know, I frequently write fictional short stories or poems all over the inter webs. I decided to park some of those stories here so you can get a chance to sample my work.

I've posted my first sample here. You can also find a list of them as I add more on the sidebar to the right, under the heading "Original Fiction". My work is usually dark and sometimes filthy. I'll leave the filth off of here but I don't think I can get the dark out.

Hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think. Critiques are also welcome - so if you have suggestions for improvements or other comments, leave them on the story page. Thanks.

This is Ridiculous!

Okay - I'm revising the order of my 2010 Summer Reading List. I can't seem to get psyched-up about Stephen King's new book. And, he's my favorite author!

I could be just jonesing for other things right now. I've read 19 books since I've finished The Passage when I should've been reading Under the Dome. With that said, maybe I need a new tactic. So, in an attempt to make better progress, here's the new order:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (done)
The Passage by Justin Cronin (update: finished on 7/15/10)
Insatiable by Meg Cabot (update: finished on 9/2/10)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (update: finished on 9/8/10)
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (update: finished on 9/14/10)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (update: finished on 9/21/10)
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (update: finished on 10/7/10)
The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (giving up - maybe for fall)
Under the Dome by Stephen King (giving up - maybe for fall)

Summer 2010 Reading List (Maybe Even Fall)

Summer 2010 Reading List (Maybe Even Fall)
Originally uploaded by DrSilver

I'm a bit ambitious with my reading list this summer. Considering how busy I am, I doubt if I can really tackle all of these by the end of August. Realistically, I think I can finish by October-November. We'll see.

Here's the list (in order of when I will read them):

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (done)
The Passage by Justin Cronin (update: finished on 7/15/10)
Under the Dome by Stephen King (update: in progress on 7/17)
Insatiable by Meg Cabot
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin
The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Wish me luck!

What’s been on My Mind?

I know I’ve been terrible with keeping up my blog. Unfortunately, things have been quite hectic the last few weeks. I did, however, manage to finish a short story (a very short one) couple of weeks ago and was a bit surprised with the responses I’ve received.

Without having to explain myself (and please don’t ask me), I posted this short story under a pseudonym that is special to me. The story is written with a male bend on the point of view, although it was never really clarified in the story. But I digress…

I was completely surprised to find 8 direct messages from women responding to my short story quite enthusiastically. Some of them contained very graphically persuasive words, while others had personal information that is deemed “unsafe” to share with a stranger. I did not know how to respond to them since they were clearly responding to who they think is a man.

So this got me thinking about a whole lot of things but three things prevail over all the others:

1. Women on the internet are very aggressive, desperate or both
2. I make a better guy than I do a girl (since I’ve never elicited such zestful responses as myself)
3. These people could possibly be men pretending to be girls responding to a girl pretending to be a guy

Needless to say, all these things depress the heck out of me. I guess that serves me right for not being truthful with my readers about my identity, but what’s the fun in that.

To see a copy of the short story, click here.

Mexico Vacation - Photos and Narratives

Sorry, I was too lazy to post photos and really blog about my vacation in Playa del Carmen last week. I've finally posted the photos at Flickr and if you're interested in seeing the daily narrative for what I did, check out my Twitter feed (read from the bottom up for the correct sequence). I'll post more details about the vacation later this week.

Calistoga Trip Summer of 2008

I've finally decided to upload my photos to Flickr from last year's trip to Calistoga. Here are some of the pix but head on over to my Flickr "Calistoga '08" to see all of them. Be kind - these are completely unedited shots, straight out of the camera.

I probably won't be able to post any new entries for a couple of days. We're leaving for Playa del Carmen tomorrow (woohoo!!) so I'll be a bit preoccupied with getting there. I will try to post photos of our trip as soon as possible, depending on connectivity from where we are and how enticing the beach will be. See you all soon!

Summer Reading List 2009

First part of summer anyway. Would need more books to fill up the rest of July and August. Here's the list (from the bottom):

How to Be an Explorer of the World (Keri Smith)
Other People's Love Letters (edited by Bill Shapiro)
Drood (Dan Simmons)
Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith)
20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill)
Disquiet (Julia Leigh)

Dance with Me

Back from oblivion - after a few weeks of intense work, I'm finally getting some good news. I'm going on vacation next weekend so I'm totally excited. Don't worry, I promise to keep up with my posts. Also, I got really, really good news on Thursday about future opportunities (can't talk about it here though). So in honor of these two great "things to look forward to", come dance with me.

Here's how: turn up the volume on your speakers and clear a good space around you. Then, imagine me doing the following - dancing around in my pajamas, eyes closed, flailing my arms, biting my lower lip, bobbing my head and twirling around like a warped 33 record. Got that in your mind? Then you're ready - play this video and dance to Pet Shop Boys' new single "Did You See Me Coming?". I looooove this song!

Don't let me down - I need someone to dance with.

Been Neglecting My Musical Interests

I haven't been listening to good music for a while (long story and very boring). My kids have been exposing me to really interesting things in the last couple of years and, yeah, they're good - some are even great (particularly Rilo Kiley and Whispertown 2000). But, as we all know, music gets embedded in your soul only if you discover it on your own.

I'm still very grateful that I have people that constantly put me in touch with all the great things out there. It makes getting the exploration started a lot easier. Now that I've reawakened my interest in music, I'm totally amazed at the sounds I'm hearing.

Here are three old albums I've recently resurrected out of my collection. Man, oh man - why did I stop listening to these in the first place:

Black Celebration - Depeche Mode
Two Ring Circus - Erasure
The Whole Story - Kate Bush

And, here are the bands I'm discovering right now. I know some of them might be old news to others but they're new to me and so worth it:

Phoenix (I love, I love, I love this one)
Glas Vegas
The Sounds
Rock Kills Kid

Any music you want to recommend, let me know. I'm totally open to suggestions right now.