Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Thu, Feb 28 2008
The March 2008 issue of Deb's Monthly Review has been uploaded. Go and enjoy the list of celebrations and events coming up across the U.S. in the month of March. There will be no blog entry tomorrow (Friday). I have an outpatient procedure that will leave me groggy and unable to type, which leads me to ask how we'll know that's it's unlike any other day...
posted at: 10:55 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Wed, Feb 27 2008
Killer icicles
The story of at least six people being killed by falling icicles in central Russia surprised me a bit. If the icy chunks are that much of a hazard it would pay folks to beat them off buildings before they get to a melting stage. Some folks see a lot of beautiful art in icicles so it's sad to think that this feature of nature can result in peoples' death. It might be hard to avoid falling icicles beneath skyscrapers, but icicles on a one-story house should be easier to get rid of before they become deadly. Maybe some enterprising kids can take this on as a way to earn extra money, much the same way kids hire out to shovel walks in the winter.
posted at: 05:59 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
The story of at least six people being killed by falling icicles in central Russia surprised me a bit. If the icy chunks are that much of a hazard it would pay folks to beat them off buildings before they get to a melting stage. Some folks see a lot of beautiful art in icicles so it's sad to think that this feature of nature can result in peoples' death. It might be hard to avoid falling icicles beneath skyscrapers, but icicles on a one-story house should be easier to get rid of before they become deadly. Maybe some enterprising kids can take this on as a way to earn extra money, much the same way kids hire out to shovel walks in the winter.
posted at: 05:59 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
Tue, Feb 26 2008
Words that once were
I was certain I had written (and saved) a blog entry for February 26, but it seems to have been sucked into some black hole of cyberspace. Where do the bits and bytes of life's moments go when they are sure in our minds and then they suddently vanish while they are being conveyed across the internet? It's almost as though these events never happened at all when our writing of them is lost. If life is a comic book waiting to be pulled from a rack and read, does what we do really happen if no one ever bothers to read it?
I really should not attempt these kinds of thoughts in the evening. I'm far too tired to make a point and far too annoyed to let the matter drop, rather like a drunk who keeps repeating herself everytime she is roused from her drunken stupor. The only cure (for me) is to leave this topic and go get some sleep. And so I will.
posted at: 19:13 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I was certain I had written (and saved) a blog entry for February 26, but it seems to have been sucked into some black hole of cyberspace. Where do the bits and bytes of life's moments go when they are sure in our minds and then they suddently vanish while they are being conveyed across the internet? It's almost as though these events never happened at all when our writing of them is lost. If life is a comic book waiting to be pulled from a rack and read, does what we do really happen if no one ever bothers to read it?
I really should not attempt these kinds of thoughts in the evening. I'm far too tired to make a point and far too annoyed to let the matter drop, rather like a drunk who keeps repeating herself everytime she is roused from her drunken stupor. The only cure (for me) is to leave this topic and go get some sleep. And so I will.
posted at: 19:13 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Mon, Feb 25 2008
A backward glance at the weekend
We had rain with high winds forecast this past weekend, so we prepared for power outages that never materialized. I made a note to watch the Academy Awards presentation on TV, but still managed to miss it. Sometimes it really does come down to life being what happens to you while you're making other plans. Monday has been going by at speeds approaching that of a cheetah before dinner. And speaking of dinner, we've been suddenly invited out for a bite with a dear friend and we're going to go and enjoy every minute of it. I'll try to blog with more finesse on Tuesday.
posted at: 14:27 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
We had rain with high winds forecast this past weekend, so we prepared for power outages that never materialized. I made a note to watch the Academy Awards presentation on TV, but still managed to miss it. Sometimes it really does come down to life being what happens to you while you're making other plans. Monday has been going by at speeds approaching that of a cheetah before dinner. And speaking of dinner, we've been suddenly invited out for a bite with a dear friend and we're going to go and enjoy every minute of it. I'll try to blog with more finesse on Tuesday.
posted at: 14:27 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Fri, Feb 22 2008
ADRA's success as a charitable organization
I was still in the throes of post-surgical slowness on February 14, so I missed the story on ADRA's 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, a rating they have maintained for three years in a row.
For more than 50 years Adventist Development and Relief Agency has been helping people all over the planet with food procurement and production, water quality, disaster relief and other issues.
posted at: 09:19 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
I was still in the throes of post-surgical slowness on February 14, so I missed the story on ADRA's 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, a rating they have maintained for three years in a row.
For more than 50 years Adventist Development and Relief Agency has been helping people all over the planet with food procurement and production, water quality, disaster relief and other issues.
posted at: 09:19 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
Thu, Feb 21 2008
Brave Alexis Goggins
Did you hear about the brave little girl who put herself between a gunman and her mother in December of last year? She's recovering nicely from her injuries.
The man accused of the shooting was out on parole at the time. If he is convicted of these crimes, I'm sure Alexis and her mother will breathe a lot easier. I don't know anything about the alleged shooter's background, but whatever he's gone through he still has no right to hurt others when he doesn't get his way.
If you love kids and you'd like to help Alexis with her medical expenses, make out a check to Alexis Goggins Hero Fund and drop it in the mail to Campbell Elementary School, c/o Alexis Goggins Hero Fund, 2301 East Alexandrine Street, Detroit, Michigan 48207. She deserves our support. She may be technically classified as developmentally disabled, but she already has more character and compassion at her young age than many of us could muster after living many years.
posted at: 06:04 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
Did you hear about the brave little girl who put herself between a gunman and her mother in December of last year? She's recovering nicely from her injuries.
The man accused of the shooting was out on parole at the time. If he is convicted of these crimes, I'm sure Alexis and her mother will breathe a lot easier. I don't know anything about the alleged shooter's background, but whatever he's gone through he still has no right to hurt others when he doesn't get his way.
If you love kids and you'd like to help Alexis with her medical expenses, make out a check to Alexis Goggins Hero Fund and drop it in the mail to Campbell Elementary School, c/o Alexis Goggins Hero Fund, 2301 East Alexandrine Street, Detroit, Michigan 48207. She deserves our support. She may be technically classified as developmentally disabled, but she already has more character and compassion at her young age than many of us could muster after living many years.
posted at: 06:04 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
Wed, Feb 20 2008
How to think and feed people at the same time
I spent a few minutes this morning stretching my mind and doing a good deed at the same time. Care to play?
posted at: 07:08 | category: /Food | link to this entry
I spent a few minutes this morning stretching my mind and doing a good deed at the same time. Care to play?
posted at: 07:08 | category: /Food | link to this entry
Tue, Feb 19 2008
Would you like plagues with that?
So now, is Canada really where the dead satellite debris will go? Or will it, as some commenters suggested, fall later and fall closer to the vicinity of the planet's Eastern nations? It's all very strange to me that this is happening around the time of a lunar eclipse and that a Space Shuttle is also being brought home in time to avoid any conflicts with the Navy's launch of the missile. I wonder how many agencies got together and worked on the logistics of scheduling events? The whole thing, if considered for clearly shock value, almost sounds like some show of control and powerful manipulation of both nature and man-made flying objects. It's all enough to get a writer's imagination stoked into churning out the likes of a four-horsemen-and-a-beast sort of apocalyptic soap opera.
posted at: 14:06 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
So now, is Canada really where the dead satellite debris will go? Or will it, as some commenters suggested, fall later and fall closer to the vicinity of the planet's Eastern nations? It's all very strange to me that this is happening around the time of a lunar eclipse and that a Space Shuttle is also being brought home in time to avoid any conflicts with the Navy's launch of the missile. I wonder how many agencies got together and worked on the logistics of scheduling events? The whole thing, if considered for clearly shock value, almost sounds like some show of control and powerful manipulation of both nature and man-made flying objects. It's all enough to get a writer's imagination stoked into churning out the likes of a four-horsemen-and-a-beast sort of apocalyptic soap opera.
posted at: 14:06 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Mon, Feb 18 2008
Humans getting mad about cows
The mad scramble to point fingers at those who mistreated the cattle that led to the recent beef recall has been interesting. What people don't seem to realize is that the whole idea of killing in slaughterhouses is cruel in the first place. Most of us who enjoy a juicy burger have decided to turn a blind eye to the fact that we know little or nothing about the way the cows lived up until the time of their death. Most of us buy meat in cute little cuts that are packed in foam trays with plastic overwrap. We're so far removed from the idea of killing our own food that we have little compassion for the animal that someone had to kill in order for us to eat the meat. I'll be the first to say that if I had to kill a cow in order to eat beef I could not do it. But I have eaten beef that came from cows someone else killed and I have eaten it with no assurance that the cows were treated well and killed without cruelty. I have a feeling that much of the tirades we're hearing on TV and seeing in other media are tinged with a bit of guilt at our own insensitivity to the plight of animals. I could be wrong, of course. But I believe we should each check in with our conscience on this one before we go trashing the folks who do our dirty work for us.
posted at: 08:07 | category: /Food | link to this entry
The mad scramble to point fingers at those who mistreated the cattle that led to the recent beef recall has been interesting. What people don't seem to realize is that the whole idea of killing in slaughterhouses is cruel in the first place. Most of us who enjoy a juicy burger have decided to turn a blind eye to the fact that we know little or nothing about the way the cows lived up until the time of their death. Most of us buy meat in cute little cuts that are packed in foam trays with plastic overwrap. We're so far removed from the idea of killing our own food that we have little compassion for the animal that someone had to kill in order for us to eat the meat. I'll be the first to say that if I had to kill a cow in order to eat beef I could not do it. But I have eaten beef that came from cows someone else killed and I have eaten it with no assurance that the cows were treated well and killed without cruelty. I have a feeling that much of the tirades we're hearing on TV and seeing in other media are tinged with a bit of guilt at our own insensitivity to the plight of animals. I could be wrong, of course. But I believe we should each check in with our conscience on this one before we go trashing the folks who do our dirty work for us.
posted at: 08:07 | category: /Food | link to this entry
Fri, Feb 15 2008
Bus-sized diplomacy
The whole saga of shooting down a failed satellite certainly does sound like the makings of a disaster movie. The difference in this case is probably size. If someone were to make a movie I would imagine that the bus-sized satellite would turn into something much larger and capable of wiping out half the planet.
As for the dimplomacy aspect of this whole matter, I think we're used to the U.S. Pentagon and White House personnel telling other countries what they should and shouldn't do with their weapons, while U.S. weaponry exercises are rationalized as necessary and reasonable. I believe that the best plan would be for us to join hands with other countries now to talk about how to prepare together for anything bigger than a bus that might come hurtling toward us in the future.
posted at: 08:43 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
The whole saga of shooting down a failed satellite certainly does sound like the makings of a disaster movie. The difference in this case is probably size. If someone were to make a movie I would imagine that the bus-sized satellite would turn into something much larger and capable of wiping out half the planet.
As for the dimplomacy aspect of this whole matter, I think we're used to the U.S. Pentagon and White House personnel telling other countries what they should and shouldn't do with their weapons, while U.S. weaponry exercises are rationalized as necessary and reasonable. I believe that the best plan would be for us to join hands with other countries now to talk about how to prepare together for anything bigger than a bus that might come hurtling toward us in the future.
posted at: 08:43 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Thu, Feb 14 2008
Let's blog!
It's time to resume a more steady schedule with this blog, so let's begin with a mini-update. Abdominal surgery is a very strange experience that leaves you with a "sleepy" bowel and stomach. Beginning a day or two after surgery you're routinely quizzed about whether you have passed gas. The resumption of flatus is apparently a much-celebrated signal that the bowel is waking up and doing its job again. Solid foods can be tough to ingest for several days. Even after I came home I didn't experience true hunger pangs until more than 2 weeks after surgery. Up to that point I had to just keep an eye on the clock and note that it was time to eat something. (If I could bottle and sell that last symptom, minus all the other discomfort, I could become a woman with impressive monetary means.)
The difficulty at the moment is that I'm feeling much better now but I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting or chores such as vacuuming. And so, I'm trying to ignore any foreign matter that appears on the carpet. My spouse has taken on quite a few chores in the kitchen, but he is also trying to go to his job outside home, so I'm not pushing him for any extras on the housekeeping. He has been a gem in every way during my hospital stay and my recovery here at home. The dust and lint will be there when we get around to it. If ever a man deserved to be declared my favorite Valentine, my husband is that man.
posted at: 06:07 | category: /Health and Fitness | link to this entry
It's time to resume a more steady schedule with this blog, so let's begin with a mini-update. Abdominal surgery is a very strange experience that leaves you with a "sleepy" bowel and stomach. Beginning a day or two after surgery you're routinely quizzed about whether you have passed gas. The resumption of flatus is apparently a much-celebrated signal that the bowel is waking up and doing its job again. Solid foods can be tough to ingest for several days. Even after I came home I didn't experience true hunger pangs until more than 2 weeks after surgery. Up to that point I had to just keep an eye on the clock and note that it was time to eat something. (If I could bottle and sell that last symptom, minus all the other discomfort, I could become a woman with impressive monetary means.)
The difficulty at the moment is that I'm feeling much better now but I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting or chores such as vacuuming. And so, I'm trying to ignore any foreign matter that appears on the carpet. My spouse has taken on quite a few chores in the kitchen, but he is also trying to go to his job outside home, so I'm not pushing him for any extras on the housekeeping. He has been a gem in every way during my hospital stay and my recovery here at home. The dust and lint will be there when we get around to it. If ever a man deserved to be declared my favorite Valentine, my husband is that man.
posted at: 06:07 | category: /Health and Fitness | link to this entry
Mon, Feb 04 2008
(A wee bit bigger than a mini) blogging break
I really did not intend to take such a long break from blogging. I went to a local hospital on January 24th to have some diagnostic tests and ended up being admitted and having surgery. Blogging will resume as I get back on my feet a bit more. In the meantime, do continue to enjoy writings from the blogs listed on the right side of this page.
posted at: 08:14 | category: /Health and Fitness | link to this entry
I really did not intend to take such a long break from blogging. I went to a local hospital on January 24th to have some diagnostic tests and ended up being admitted and having surgery. Blogging will resume as I get back on my feet a bit more. In the meantime, do continue to enjoy writings from the blogs listed on the right side of this page.
posted at: 08:14 | category: /Health and Fitness | link to this entry
