Dec 08 2023

Duly Noted

Author: Jamie DeBree

Digital Paper Everywhere
Last week, I got an email that both annoyed and concerned me, and we’ll get to that in a bit. First, some note-taking/storage history:

I’ve been an Evernote user since 2011 – a paid user, at that. Somewhere around the time they started screwing with the interface several years ago, I quit using Evernote and switched to Workflowy, because Workflowy is simpler and I just didn’t really need all the bells and whistles of Evernote, plus I *hated* the new interface (they had a lot of slow-loading issues and such then too).

But…I still paid my yearly Evernote fees, because I was too lazy to export *all* my data, and it wasn’t all that expensive in the grand scheme of things ($35 per year).

Fast forward to this past July. I’d been happily using the paid version of Workflowy for years when suddenly I couldn’t get to it from work. This is a big deal for my workflow (so to speak), and I work in our IT department, but it was being blocked somewhere higher up the chain, and there wasn’t any way to deal with that. So, remembering I had an Evernote account (and a more expensive one, as the cost had gone up to $70 just last year), I switched back to Evernote, since I could get to that everywhere.

Now we’re back to last week’s email. Evernote has changed ownership, and after last year’s price doubling, they’ve now decided that the yearly rate will jump almost double *again* to $129.99 per year.

Needless to say, that’s a lot of money for a program I use basically for text notes. It can do a lot more, but I use exactly one other feature (emailing directly from the program) that I really don’t need to use (it’s just convenient).

So I started looking at other note-taking apps, and most of them don’t have an easy way to import Evernote files. The ones that do, either don’t have online interfaces (so still couldn’t get to them at work) or they have much less user-friendly organizational structures that would require a lot of cleanup and reorganization on my part. *sigh* So, I resigned myself to paying the extra money, while still looking around at what other people are using and wishing Obsidian or Joplin had web/cloud user interfaces, even for a fee.

Then I remembered my Workflowy account, and just on the off-chance, tried to reach it again from work. And it’s no longer blocked! Hallelujah!

Needless to say, I re-upped my subscription (yearly is $49, monthly is $4.99 – I went for monthly because it’s December, but I’ll switch to the cheaper yearly after the holidays), and I’m working on migrating my Evernote notebooks and data to Obsidian for safe (and permanent) keeping. I’ll move what I need to Workflowy as I need it.

So, all’s well that ends well, and I actually prefer Workflowy anyways, so I’m very happy with this turn of events. Thank you, Evernote, for pricing me out and reminding me to try Workflowy again!

Are you an Evernote user? Will you be switching with the extreme pricing change?

Writing News
I finished the story that I’ll be sending out in Christmas cards this year! It feels good to finish…well, anything, really. So I’m excited about that. Now I think I’ll work on another short story for the season while I’m in the mood, and then I’ll get back to Magpie in January.

Or maybe I’ll set the short in Magpie. Tempting….

Recommendations
I highly recommend Workflowy if you’re more text-oriented like me (rather than graphical/image-driven). There is a free version, for those who don’t need/want unlimited space. And Obsidian or Joplin if you don’t need a web interface and have something like Dropbox for syncing (that’s what I’ll use to sync those notes between my laptop and phone).

That’s it for this week! If you have a favorite thing to share, or want to recommend a book, TV show, video or podcast, comment below, email me at jamie@jamiedebree.com, or catch up with me on Facebook or Instagram.

Nov 22 2023

All the Things…Except NaNo

Author: Jamie DeBree

Creativity Calling
It’s that time of year again, when the big Thanksgiving family gathering is just a few short days away (one, by the time this posts), and the gift-giving-est time of year looms larger. Needless to say, I have been doing everything *but* writing lately, and I’m actually okay with that. If I were focusing hard on writing 1600 words a day, I wouldn’t have gotten my dad’s birthday gift done on time (I nearly didn’t anyways), and I wouldn’t be anywhere near ready to put my advent calendars together (which I’ll have done by the time you read this) so they can be distributed and to their rightful recipients before December 1st.

I wanted to make things to include in the calendars this year (instead of buying all of it), and that takes time. So I spent the time, and enjoyed it a lot, and I’m really not sorry I prioritized that. I honestly think that being creative in these other ways is helping me want to get back to the writing. And making things always makes me feel a connection with generations past, which is the mindset I need to be in to write the story I’m currently writing.

There’s a lot going on in general, but also a lot shifting in my head at the moment, and I think it’s a good shift (at the tail end of several not good shifts). I’m not sure where everything will end up, but considering I’m not dealing with constant pain and anxiety any longer, it seems like it’s flowing into a more productive and creative state of mind.

Writing News
I’ve actually written less this month than I did last month, and now I’ve completely lost the nightly writing habit, too. Needless to say, I’m not going to win…or even finish NaNo this year, and I’m fairly certain this will be the last year I attempt it. I love the idea and the philosophy, it was a great help to me for several years, and I think it’s a fantastic way to get that first novel finished. But, it’s not for me anymore

Even though I’m bowing out of NaNo, I’m not abandoning the story I started. It comes first in the series I’m already working on, and I think writing it first is still how I want to tackle the whole thing. Madeline is the family matriarch, and her story is at the heart of all those that will come after. So I’m going to keep working on her story a little at a time, and move into the rest of the series from there.

But first…it’s almost time to send out Christmas cards, and I always send out a flash story with my cards. I have this year’s story written, but I need to edit and polish it up a bit, so that’s what I’ll be working on for the next week or two.

Recommendation(s)
Whether you’re in the US celebrating Thanksgiving or somewhere else just celebrating a normal Thursday, I found this recipe while looking for traditional sweet potato casserole recipes, and I’m going to try it, with the small change of using both strudel and marshmallows on top, in stripes (my MIL will really want the marshmallows). I’ll let you know how it turns out, but I suspect it’s going to be incredibly good!

The recipe is by Jenn Segal. Check it out here: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/sweet-potato-casserole.html

Oct 31 2023

The Fright Night Train to NaNoWriMo

Author: Jamie DeBree

Boo!
Happy Halloween! As you read this (if you read it Tuesday the 31st), I’ll be frantically scurrying around finishing up the prep for our Halloween yard haunt. Or handing out glowing bags of toxic waste (okay, candy, but the bags will be glowing) in our bright yellow hazmat suits (thank goodness they don’t breathe – it’ll be chilly out there this year). We’re doing a Radioactive theme, so UV lights and glowing slime are the main attractions. Just the thing to make our zombie baby crew happy. I’m not sure the skeletons are all that impressed, but the campers and banjo players seem content enough.

Fingers crossed the slime turns out. As I write this, it’s still not made, and I only have internet recipes and a bunch of ingredients waiting for that sweet, sweet chemical reaction. We shall see. I really should have bought more blacklights. And tonic water. Hmm.

I’m planning to create a scrapbook layout in my journal to commemorate the event with photos, so I’ll post a pic of that online once I have it done. This coming weekend, probably.

Next Stop: The Land of Writing Madness
Wednesday is the first day of November, which is also the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or “NaNo” for short). If you’ve been reading here long, you’ve heard of it – I’ve participated on and off since 2004 – and I used to win (write 50,000 words in a month) regularly when I first started, though not so much the last few times I participated. Tempest and Desert Heat were both NaNo novels, as were several that were never published.

This year, I’m getting back to the keyboard with a fictional memoir/story prequel to the book I’m currently working on, in order to establish the backstory I need for my current novel draft already in progress (I know that might sound a bit convoluted, but it makes sense to me). If it turns out to be a decent draft, I’ll clean it up and publish it. If not, I’ll still end up with the backstory I need, and hopefully a much better daily writing habit than I currently have (and much faster than the 250 words a day I’m doing now).

Do I know what’s in the story yet? Um, no. That’s the whole point – Madeline Hunter needs to tell me her story, so I can tell her great, great granddaughter what she went through, so that Lauren and her daughter Maddie (named for Madeline) can make it through their own story. While I know some of the highlights (and low-lights) of Madeline’s story, I need all the juicy details that one can only get directly from the character as she’s moving through life while I watch and type.

I’ll be posting excerpts every Friday of my writing for that week throughout the month, so check back then (or watch your email/social media) for those posts if you’re interested in following along.

Will you be discovering someone’s story this month?

Recommendation(s)
Head over to the NaNoWriMo site at nanowrimo.org, and check it out! Even if you’re not normally a writer, you can be in November! My husband participates in NaNo whenever I do, and just deletes his drafts after…I don’t even get to see them. So, don’t be afraid, jump in and give it a try!

Already signed up for NaNo? My username is “outofwords” on the site (I don’t know if that profile link will work or not, but you can try it, if you’d like). Look me up – let’s connect!

Oct 24 2023

Life Cycling

Author: Jamie DeBree

Photo of the Week

Our latest purchase from Facebook Marketplace:

Cycling and “Cycling”
Like most people, I go through cycles in life. I do or am interested in something for awhile, then my interest turns to something else or circumstances dictate that I change paths, or I cut my hair and keep it short for a decade and change and then decide to grow it long again.

I find it fascinating that I keep cycling around through the same basic interests (so, the more things change, the more they stay the same), but each cycle takes on a bit more nuanced and focused form. I learn more about what I like, what I’m capable of, and what I want, and I bring the focus in tighter the next time I cycle into that habit/routine/interest/whatever.

For example, when I had long hair before, it was just…long. And a lot. Now, I’m conscious about keeping it cut and styled certain ways. When I kept/collected houseplants before, I bought anything that I hadn’t tried before. Now I’m quite a bit more picky about what I want to try growing, and what I want to spend money on (hopefully I’ll be even pickier next time, as I’m well and truly out of plant space).

Another cycle I go through (and this is a “we” cycle with my husband), is going to the gym. We go for awhile, then decide to workout at home, then go back to the gym (or one of us might, and the other works out at home), or we take months at a time off (the worst part of the cycle). A couple years ago, I decided we should go back to the gym, so I bought us a gym membership and off we went…except shortly after, I fell walking the dogs and really bunged up my knee. We finally went back, and then I had eye surgery and was out for a couple weeks. Then winter came and neither of us wanted to leave the house after work in minus zero degrees. Then I had surgery, and just when I was getting back to the gym, had another one.

Needless to say, our gym attendance has been extremely sporadic this “cycle”.

So, we’ve canceled our membership again, and last weekend, we bought a used recumbent exercise bike off Facebook. Our “workout” last night was to rearrange the workout room downstairs to fit the bike in with the treadmill, the total gym and our weight set, and to make sure the TV still works so we can watch while we workout at night.

Moving a couch, table, exercise equipment and a bunch of zombie babies around is a pretty good workout, incidentally. Especially when your muscles have atrophied from nearly 6 months of inactivity.

We now have a nice place to workout at home, and as soon as the TV remote dries out (corroded batteries, etc), we’ll make sure the Fire Stick still works and have entertainment while we’re getting in shape. Cycling, in more ways than one. Hopefully this one sticks for awhile – I actually much prefer working out at home, even though the motivation is still just as difficult to find some days.

Writing News
The good news is, I’ve been writing. Steadily. Nightly. I’m getting a good 250-300 words a day, but the key is that I’m doing that on a very routine basis now, which is awesome. It’s not a good enough pace for NaNo, but it’s a start, and I feel good about it.

My goal is to bump that up to 500 words per day over the next week. Training, as it were. I’m working on a short story that I’d like to finish by the end of the month. I think I have a decent shot at it, if I can bump up the volume.

The bad news is, I’ve gotten nothing more done on the publication side of things, which means there’s no way my alter-ego’s DBV collection will be out in print in time for Halloween. Someday, I’m going to have all the bits and pieces falling into place at the same time, but…this is obviously not that time. Or point in the writing cycle, if you will.

Recommendation(s)
We have a very thick mattress, topped with a 4 inch mattress pad and even deep sheets don’t really stay on well. I finally ordered some elastic sheet clips a couple of weeks ago, and after looking at all sorts of them, I decided on the cheapest $6 clips from Sopito to try.

I wish I’d have done this sooner! They’re a little hard to get on due to our frame, but once they’re on, the sheets (and the mattress pad) stay put! Woohoo!

I got these from Amazon, but I’m sure they sell them elsewhere if you prefer. If you’ve been on the fence like me though, just do it! I haven’t been so excited about elastic and clips in…well, ever. LOL

Oct 03 2023

Filling the Creative Well

Author: Jamie DeBree

Creativity Begets Creativity
Have you ever felt like you have to justify a purchase, even just to yourself?

If you’ve ever wondered if Facebook ads are effective, I can tell you right now – they certainly can be. Not because I run FB ads (at the moment), but because I can’t even count how many times I’ve bought something based on a good FB ad. Books, clothes, tools, plants, and most recently, craft items. I didn’t need *any* of this, but there’s very little I regret.

I will say though…the crafting items I bought recently? I really, really didn’t need them, don’t have a place to store them, and don’t currently have time to do anything at all with them. I just really, really love pretty papers and stickers and all manner of scrapbooking/journaling items (even though it’s been ages since I made a scrapbook, wrote in a journal, or even printed out a picture).

While my husband is kind enough not to say anything when these things are delivered, I still felt the need to justify my completely frivolous purchase to myself, because I really could/should have used that money for more pragmatic and responsible things. So, I decided I would have to *make* time to use at least some of the items, and preferably a fairly large chunk of it. I thought about what might be the best use of my time, since it will have to be a day off work, and I just started looking for papercraft ideas online.

That’s when I came across art and junk journaling (you know, when I was looking up card-making ideas). A lot of the layouts are far, far too busy for my taste, but I still looked through pages and pages (and pages) of them, noting techniques, cool new tools that weren’t available the last time I made cards, and pretty soon my brain was just swirling with ideas. I even found myself wanting to journal again, and trying to come up with ways I can work that into my schedule along with creating journals and things for other people.

And that’s the interesting part. For awhile now, I’ve been thinking that I needed to rest my mind because I use it a lot for problem solving at work, and I often feel completely drained mentally when I get home. I thought the “cure” for that was to rest and just “take in” entertainment, where my mind wasn’t having to work so hard.

But looking up all those ideas for crafts, and then deciding what I wanted to try, what might work for me, what I might be able to do with limited time, and just thinking about all the creative possibilities…that actually energized me, and made me feel more like crafting and being creative overall!

Apparently the cure for “day job brain” isn’t “resting”, but rather gleaning ideas for creative endeavors. Who knew?

In any case, I now have plans (and a plan for making time as well) for plenty of fun gift crafts that will use up a pretty big chunk of the supplies I bought, and keep me creating into the future as well. I was so inspired that I got out the needle felting stuff while watching TV last week, and started making small items for the advent calendars I do every year. I’ve now scheduled set nights for needle felting and crochet projects, and I have several days set aside for paper crafting in the near future.

his has helped my writing too, because when I’m focused on creating things at night (or even just finding ways to be inspired), when I get to my writing desk, my mind is in “creative mode” and it’s easy to just start writing.

I feel like this is kind of a game-changer, honestly. I love making things, and I’ve wanted to do more crafting, but felt trapped by the fact that my job is often very demanding mentally. It never occurred to me that I just needed to switch gears to something oriented more toward being creative than constant problem-solving to get a second wind. I like it. It’s working for now, at least. Hopefully it keeps working long enough for me to get some gifts finished!

Writing News

I wrote a story last week. A whole flash piece, start to finish, that will go with my Christmas cards this year (I always send a story with my cards). It needs editing and some revision, but overall, I’m happy with it, and even happier that I actually started and finished a writing project – something I haven’t done in what feels like *ages*.

Even better, my new writing setup is working perfectly – I go back to my office, I don’t even open my laptop, I just open the Freewrite and off I go. My writing output has increased in five days from 150 words per night up to nearly 300 words in the same time frame. Things are going really well, and I feel good about that.

This week, it’s back to working on a short story for my alter-ego. I’m holding off on MS for a bit, since I’m trying to work out something with the plot, and also, I’m going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year with a backstory story to MS that will undoubtedly help with the main plot. So…short story. Maybe I can even finish it in time for Halloween, which would be great fun!

Recommendation

I really enjoyed watching this Easy Envelope Journal Tutorial on YouTube. What a great idea, and a great way to repurpose old envelopes too (she uses new, but considering they’re all covered up, I bet used would work just fine)!

Sep 26 2023

On Plant Sharing and Habit Switching

Author: Jamie DeBree

Give It or Toss It?
That was the question weighing pretty heavily on my mind this weekend as I repotted and trimmed a couple of plants. Ironically, just two days before, someone was looking for moss on a local plant FB page, and I offered some up without too much hesitation.

But Sunday, as I cut off strands of my N’Joy pothos, divided my spider plant and took several runners with babies off that as well (I was repotting them both), I had a bit of a quandary. On the one hand, no one likes wasting good plant material, or just dumping living things (except duckweed – I don’t know anyone who doesn’t mind dumping that, preferably somewhere it will dry out and die). On the other, I didn’t want to use any of my own resources (soil, paper towels, water, etc) to keep those cuttings/baby plants alive until I could pass them on, much less the space it takes to simply store them until someone picks them up.

And then of course there’s the posting a notice online, connecting with actual people and coordinating times and days and all that jazz…sometimes, it’s nothing.

Sunday, it felt like too much.

So, after probably twenty minutes of going back and forth with myself, I finally just wrapped up all the extra plant material and tossed it in the garbage. After which I realized I should have just tossed it in the compost pile, of course, but it was so much work just deciding not to offer it up that I really don’t regret just getting rid of it.

Sometimes, that’s the right choice. I prefer to be generous and give things away when I can – not just plant material, but anything that’s still potentially useful and has some “life” left in it, but some days, I just can’t. And I think ultimately, that’s okay. While it’s good to share, and good to pass things along so someone else can continue to use or get joy from them, I think I need to be easier on myself about those times when I just can’t bring myself to go to the effort.

As long as it’s not every time. Because I do think passing things along and sharing what I don’t need anymore is an important part of participating in “community” as a whole.

Writing News
Last week, I sat down and really thought about why I was having trouble writing at night. I knew the problem with dictation is that I keep dropping the writing, so then it’s harder to pick up the thread if I try to dictate. But what was my problem with writing?

Paying attention to my current habits, I realized that my brain is trained for work – the day job. I work in IT, so when I sit down at a computer (any computer) the very first thing I do is check email. And I don’t write fiction at work, so I’m “trained” not to write on the computer. Which means I have a pretty steep battle when it comes to getting my mind to realize that my laptop at home is not my computer at work, but being a creature of habit and routine, my brain just doesn’t want to accept that, and will do anything it can to distract me from writing fiction at the computer. I can format books, do budgeting, do image manipulation, social media, even plotting – my brain is good with all that at a bright, color computer screen. Writing fiction? Not so much.

I have the tools to combat that, though, now that I know what’s going on. So the first thing I did was cleaned off my writing desk – which is a small rolltop (seen to your left below) that doesn’t even have space for my laptop or a normal monitor. It can’t be confused for a computer desk at all.

Then I charged up my Freewrite Traveler (on the rolltop above) which looks like a tiny laptop, but is really just a nice keyboard with a tiny e-ink screen. No backlighting, no application capabilities, no browsing, no email…it’s purely a word processor. That set the stage for *writing*…not work, not work or admin type projects.

The only thing left after that was to change my routine, which I did the next night. Instead of going into my office and immediately sitting at the computer, I went straight to the writing desk (which is right beside the computer desk, so it’s just a turn to the left, as you see above). With my reMarkable (e-ink tablet) at the side, I opened my Freewrite, opened a new document, and started typing. Fiction.

It was pretty weird and amazing how my brain got clued into the different environment so quickly. I didn’t have the urge to pick up my phone and check email, or anything like that. It was like my mind recognized the space and the reason we were there, and reacted accordingly. Which is pretty amazing, when you think about it.

After I finished that writing session, I closed the Freewrite, opened a new “scene journal” document on the reMarkable, and wrote a short paragraph summary of what I’d just written, so I could easily pick up the thread the next day (whether dictating or typing). I always wonder if it’s just going to be a “this worked one time, but never again” sort of thing, but it worked the next night and the next night too. And that’s how I ended up with a good half of my Christmas card short story done last week.

This week, I’m working dictation back into the mix. With any luck, by November I’ll be back in the daily writing habit, and will just need to speed up the word count!

Recommendation(s)
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of devices that do one thing well. The Freewrite Traveler is one of those devices, and I’d feel confident recommending the entire Freewrite line. If you’re a writer who’s used or still uses an AlphaSmart to write (I have a couple around here somewhere), the Freewrite crew is coming out with an updated version simply called “Alpha” here soon that I think is going to be cheaper than both the original Freewrite and the Traveler (which is what I have).

Anyways, check ’em out for distraction-free writing. The links are non-affiliate, as always.

Sep 20 2023

Scratching the Itch

Author: Jamie DeBree

Just One More….

I’ve been on a plant-buying spree lately (watch for a jungle post coming soon). I love plants, and as with all hobbies, I tend to go a bit overboard when on a stocking/buying spree, and then sort of level out as I realize my time, budget and energy for the “projects” (plants, fish, yarn, drafts….) has either waned or is needed elsewhere.

But there’s always that “itch” to get “just one more”, and I always thought it was a “collector” mentality, until I was reading through a thread on the fish-keeping forum I mostly lurk on. One of the members, responding to a thread on the desire to get another tank after finishing the last one as a project, said (and I’m paraphrasing, obviously) that the “itch” is curiosity, which is a very good thing. I think that’s a very reasonable assessment, and people tend to deal with it either by slowing down and learning more about what they already have (turning it into a longer “project”), or they get another project to work on and either find a balance eventually or…not.

I find that if I force myself to slow down and really focus on learning everything I can about what I already have, I tend not to get so “itchy” about getting new things. With fish, it’s improving the setups I currently have, and ensuring the health of my current wet pets. Aquariums are something that tend to turn over every few years too, depending on what occupants they have, so going more slowly means I’ll be ready to re-scape and switch things around as fish reach the end of their natural life spans. I have four tanks at the moment, and I thought I wanted more for awhile, but focusing on making sure life is good for my current fish and plants has cooled my desire to add anything. I do want to get a larger tank to *replace* the 40 gallon next year, but it will be a replacement, not an addition. And it will fit on the stand I have now, so space isn’t an issue.

It’s easier to let that itch take over with plants, because I buy them all small (I have to remind myself they will eventually get bigger if I’m growing them “right”). I used to want to own *everything*, but this time, I’ve been pretty picky about what I’ll spend money and time on. I know myself, and I know my interest in plant care waxes and wanes, and during the waning season, needy plants are likely to perish. So with the exception of a few, my plants are mainly succulents and cacti, or hardy tropicals. Those few that aren’t, I give the best chance of survival by keeping them in places that are easy to get to when I’m doing aquarium maintenance, so I have to make an effort *not* to just give them a quick drink when I’m cleaning tanks (and several are sharing aquarium lights with the fish, which is handy). Work smarter, not harder, I say.

In any case, it’s time to slow way down on the plant buying, too. My house and office are pretty full, and I’ve decided to focus on learning as much about the plants I have as possible, and work on good cultivation practices to get everything growing as well as I possibly can. Watering, pruning, repotting, and dividing all remind me that I only have so much time and energy for such things, so focusing on what I have is satisfying enough on its own.

That’s not to say I can’t replace a plant if I lose one, of course. That’s reasonable, right?

One in, one out. That’s another thing I’ve found helps “scratch the itch” while keeping things manageable. Want a new plant? One has to leave. Want new fish? Gotta wait until the one (or a group) dies (I mean technically, I could trade them in at the local fish shop, but I’m not that person – an animal comes into the house, it’s here for life). The only thing I haven’t been doing that with is books, and really, I should do that too. There are plenty of books on my shelves I’ll never read again, and really don’t need to keep around. And yarn…well, I’m on a “no buy” restriction until I use up a fair amount of what I already have.

Do you get “itchy” when it comes to all the fun things available in your hobby/hobbies? How do you scratch that itch? Use up what you have first/wait until something dies? Keep to the “one in/one out” rule? Or just keep stocking those shelves and cabinets, hoping someday it will all sort itself out?

Writing News

I have been trying (and failing) to get back into the daily writing habit. It’s not going well. I want to write, I have ideas and plots and stories that need to be written, but actually making the time to do it just isn’t happening. My dear friend Carol pointed out that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – November) is coming up, and while I certainly don’t need another novel sitting around awaiting revisions, I have several that need to be rewritten, and obviously one that needs to be finished. I’m not super-keen on starting with something I’m in the middle of, because that isn’t really the “spirit” of the exercise (note: others can do as they wish with no judgement from me, this is just my own thing), but a complete rewrite of something I’ve been meaning to do anyways…I think I might be able to talk myself into that.

Until then, I will continue working on Magpie Shiny and the next DBV story as I can, and I’m also working on getting the DBV collection into print in time for Halloween.

Recommendation(s)

Are you a fish-keeper (or do you want to be)? Check out Tropical Fish Forums. There’s an amazing amount of knowledge there, and a great community too. I lurk, mostly, but more because I don’t have the time or energy to post often. If I did though, I’d definitely be more active. It’s a great place to hang out and chat about all things fishy (and aquascaping, too)!

Sep 12 2023

Keeping Time

Author: Jamie DeBree

“Watch” Me!

A friend and I were recently chatting about time, and being on time (or not), and we segued into the subject of wrist watches. Said friend is like my husband – which I tend to refer to as “time-fluid”. I am far more “time-strict” naturally, though I’ve chosen to become more fluid to avoid the stress that comes with trying to convince a time-fluid person that being late is actually a thing that should matter more than it does to them.

In the grand scheme of things, I decided it wasn’t worth fighting over, so while I’ll never be “comfortable” with it, I have gotten used to not worrying so much about when I get where. Though I can assure you if left to my own devices, I am generally a fairly prompt person overall.

I attribute this to my dad, who bought me my first watch around the time I went to first grade or so. It was plastic with a cloth red, white and blue band, and large numbers so I could learn to tell time, and it needed to be wound once per day. This was in the days before cell phones, of course, and I was expected to be in certain places (like home or school) at particular times, so learning to tell time and knowing what time it is was an important part of that.

There was a big hulabaloo, of course, when I wanted to wear my watch on my right wrist. My dad explained to me that right-handed people wear their watch on their left wrist, and vice versa, so they can look at the time more easily while writing and doing other tasks. Which didn’t make sense to me, because my eyes were already on my right hand – why not have my watch right there on my right wrist?

Needless to say, I still wear my watch on my right wrist to this day, and occasionally someone will ask if I’m left-handed. Funny how ingrained some things are in our society, isn’t it?

In any case, I developed an affinity for watches, and have worn one pretty much non-stop ever since. Before smartwatches, I used to get a new watch every year or two, and often several so I’d have both fun and more professional looking timepieces. Some of my favorites were a Pepe le peux watch, and the Timex Indiglo line (seriously – a light up watch in a movie theater or concert? It was revolutionary at the time.). I have one that’s solar powered too, which works great when I’m on vacation in Florida. Not so much here in the north, especially in deep winter when our days are very short.

I’ve carried pocket watches, and pendent watches as well. I have a decent collection of favorites that I’ve saved over the years, and I have a giant Smurf watch hanging on the wall of my dining room (yes, it still works).

My daily watch now is a Galaxy Watch 6, which is for time keeping, of course, but also for message notifications, task reminders, workout tracking, timing tea and aquarium water tests, and a calculator which is surprisingly handy and easier than expected to use on such a small screen. This watch is probably capable of more than my first computer was, which is kind of mind-blowing when you think about it.

Do you wear a watch, smart or otherwise? Is it for punctuality, or just notifications?

Writing News

I’ve been involved with a couple of work projects lately that pretty much leave me completely drained by the time I get home. Between that and still dealing with some pain, I haven’t felt comfortable dictating while driving (though I’m feeling quite a bit better this week, so we’ll see). I did do some plotting and planning, and I think I finally nailed down the story line for Alex’s next DBV story, so all was not lost last week, but I’m sincerely hoping I can make some actual “getting words down on paper” type progress instead this week.

Recommendation(s)

The last season of Disenchantment is on Netflix now, and we finished it this past weekend. If you’re looking for a light, funny, upended fairy tale in cartoon form, check it out. I thought it was great, though honestly, the first few seasons were the best (as usual).

Aug 29 2023

How About Surgery…Tomorrow?

Author: Jamie DeBree

About six weeks ago, the pain I’ve been having on and off in my groin for the past two years (the pain I’d hoped surgery would fix last spring), came back with a vengeance. It wasn’t bad enough to require emergency care, but it kept getting worse until I couldn’t even sleep on my side anymore, and I feared that my bowel had partially twisted, as the surgeon who took out my gallbladder and appendix in April said it probably would.

I’ve been pretty focused this year on finding and fixing the source of my groin pain, and I was not excited to go back and have half of my bowel removed, as the “spring surgeon” stated would be necessary. So when the pain started up again, I asked my primary what to do, she said to call general surgery again, and I did, only this time, I asked for the surgeon who had saved my appendix a couple years ago when I went to the emergency room for the same frickin’ pain. She declined to take my appendix at the time, and honestly, I wish I’d gone to her last spring too, because I’d probably still have it even now.

Anyways, an appointment with her happened to open up on Thursday, the 10th of August, and I went in expecting her to confirm the other surgeon’s findings and tell me I would be losing half my bowel. Instead, looked at my chart and asked some very pointed questions (two things the previous surgeon didn’t do), and then went out into the hall, got an ultrasound machine, and said she was looking for a hernia.

I told her I had one in the groin area, but that the other surgeon had said it was too small to cause problems, and that I shouldn’t worry about it. She scrunched up her nose, did the ultrasound, showed me the hernia, and said she’d bet that was the cause of my groin pain right there (she also said women should always have these hernias fixed, because they can cause bigger problems rather quickly and we don’t notice as fast as men do).

She did not think I had a twisted or even partially twisted bowel.

She did have a surgical opening the very next day, and offered to fix my hernia right away. She also offered to do a diagnostic to check out my entire pelvic area, and see if my bowel could even twist or not.

Tired of being in pain, knowing I had another 6 week recovery ahead, and just wanting it all over with, I said yes, and Friday the 11th, I went in for my second surgery this year.

When I came to, my sister came in with full color photos the surgeon had taken during surgery for me, pointing out the not one, but two hernias she’d fixed, as well as both sides of my bowel being adequately affixed (so, not twisted). Photos and a note telling me how the surgery went, what her findings were, that everything else looked good, and wishing me a smooth recovery.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was to *not* loose half of my bowel, and also that the pain I’ve been living with for the past two years hasn’t come back since the surgery. I think she was right, and the hernias were causing my pain. Something the other surgeon just told me “not to worry about”. Considering my bowel is attached properly, I’m guessing the other surgeon just used the “folded bowel” as an excuse to take my perfectly good appendix out, which is both annoying and infuriating. Aside from removing a perfectly good piece of me, it also caused me a great deal of stress and anxiety, wondering if or when I’d eventually end up in the emergency room with a completely twisted/blocked bowel. Shame on him!

Of course I couldn’t just have a smooth recovery this time either. About a week after surgery this time, I developed a reaction to the surgical prep that left me covered in hives all across my abdomen and itching like *crazy* for the entire second week. Fun times. That seems to be resolving, finally, and all that’s left is to let my body heal, and get on with my life. I have a final appointment with the surgeon later this week, and four more weeks of recovery, but things are looking up, and I have no intention of letting go of any more major organs, thank you very much.

How did I get the hernias? Well, two years ago, Apollo-dog jumped on me. He put one big paw straight in that groin area I’ve had all the pain in, with all his weight behind it. I dropped to the floor, it hurt so bad, and it pretty much hurt ever since then. So my guess is, at least one is his fault.

That makes him the most expensive dog I’ve ever owned (surpassing Gabriel, who caused me to need a root canal in college). Thank goodness for good insurance!

Now that the pain I’ve been dealing with is finally resolved, maybe I can actually focus on the things I want to do (like, say, blogging and writing, among other things), rather than being constantly distracted and anxious about what’s going on under my skin.

That is a serious relief.

I have to say, I’ve been thinking a lot about those people who have to live life with constant unresolved pain. I’ve always had sympathy for them, but I’m truly amazed at what so many of them are able to accomplish while dealing with that constant distraction and no real relief in sight. Hats off to you, if you’re one of them. I know I’ve been far less productive in the past few years just dealing with these issues.

Writing News

The writing has been on hold a bit while I deal with this whole hernia surgery thing. However, before all that happened, I did get MacKenzie Saves the World formatted for print. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, and print copies are available to order now from any bookstore you care to order it from.

Ready for the bookstore!

My local bookstore (This House of Books– link below) will have a few copies soon as well (as soon as I get there – sometime today, I hope). I love this story, and whether you’re reading it for the first time in print, or if you’ve already read the ebook, I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

As for getting back to writing, Magpie Shiny is calling my name. And so are two drafts I’ve written, and not gotten around to editing. I think it might be time to pick one or the other up again and see what I can do with it. They’re both set in Meadowlark, which is my fictional Montana town just down the road/out of the valley from Magpie (my other fictional town). My goal is to create a whole little alternate world in that little fictional Montana area, and it’s coming together quite nicely in my head, though still a bit jumbled. Hopefully I can manage to put it out on the page in a more organized manner.

And of course I started something new last week. Ideally, it will be done for my horror alter-ego by Halloween, but we’ll see.

Recommendation(s)

My husband and I were looking for something to watch the other night, and decided to try The Diplomat on Netflix. It was totally not what I expected – it was much, much better. The dialogue between the characters is so, so, *so* good! The chemistry is right there too, but it’s the dialogue that makes everything work so well.

If you have a Netflix account and are looking for something to watch, I’d highly recommend this series. Not only for the entertainment value, but as a study in dialogue and interpersonal relationships, too.

Aug 04 2023

Library Maintenance – Yay or Nay?

Author: Jamie DeBree

Photo of the Week

A friend of mine from work was giving away this bookshelf. Look how perfectly it fits on top of the one we already had in the bedroom! Yay more book storage! I need to add those shelves to the indexing program, now.

Bagging & Boxing & Shelving…Oh My (Books)!

I know some readers who “read and release”. That is to say, they get a book, they read the book, they give the book away (or turn it in to the nearest library or used bookstore). My mom does this, and she seems perfectly happy to have read the material and passed on the actual object. She does have an ereader, but she doesn’t really use it much. My dad, on the other hand, reads ebooks almost exclusively. It’s easier for him, as he’s dyslexic and the digital text allows him to adjust settings for maximum ease of reading.

I, on the other hand, am a collector. While I do read ebooks occasionally, my physical library brings me joy just by existing, the sight of all those books on the shelves (and piled up…uh…everywhere) makes me feel calm and peaceful. Unfortunately, I don’t have room for all the books (there’s never going to be enough room – it doesn’t matter where I live), but I have a hard time parting with any of them, so…cleaning out doesn’t happen often.

Books recently liberated from a storage unit, waiting for shelf space.

I also read comic books, and unlike novels, they don’t tend to stay in tall stacks very well. I also can’t just shelve them, though I do keep some of mine shelved in binders. The rest have to be bagged and boxed, to keep them in good condition and stored away efficiently. It’s the one place in my life where I don’t balk too much at using plastic, mainly because I expect the plastic to be in use protecting the books for a very, very long time.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my “finished” comic book stack was getting too big for the space it was in, and decided it was time to bag, board and box a bunch. I bought some new boxes and bags at the comic shop, and that Saturday night, I spread everything out in the living room to work on while I watched a movie with my husband (The Out-Laws, for anyone curious…it’s mildly amusing, but not something I’d choose to watch again).

This year, I’ve been reading one issue per day (I got way, way behind for a few years, and kept buying, but wasn’t reading, so..it’s catch-up year), and because I do that before work, I don’t have a lot of time to keep things organized. So I just toss each issue on the “to be indexed” stack, and call it good. This results in a stack of mixed issues that are in backwards numerical order (apparently it’s too hard just to turn them upside down before I toss them on the stack). So my process when storing them is to grab the bottom of the stack, sort by issue and series, and then bag one, scan the barcode, index it, and then put it in the respective box or binder.

It’s not a difficult process, but it does take time, and tends to be a bit tedious. And if I wasn’t using an indexing software to keep track (I use CLZ Comics – link below in the Recommendations section), I’d be totally lost when I have to stop for any length of time and then try to remember which issue I left off with (especially since comic series are notorious for spin-offs and “series within a series” type stuff, resulting in odd issue orders here and there).

In any case, I got about 50 issues bagged and boxed in that session (I had to do a lot of sorting before I started), and then I ran out of boards. For those not familiar, the “boards” are just a piece of thick stock placed in the bag behind the comic book to keep it flat while it’s stored. So, I’ll need to grab more of those before I can continue my archiving project – I’ll do that in a couple of weeks after payday.

More TBR books – that get moved from this vanity chair to the bed every morning, and back at night. *eyeroll*

A few years ago, I decided I also should index all the “normal” books…which is a project I still haven’t even come close to finishing. But I do try to add any new book that comes in to the index, along with a general idea of which shelf it’s on in case we need/want to find it again. Which is why you’ll see labels with numbers on most of the shelves in our house. Those numbers correspond to a number in my library indexing program. I use CLZ Comics for my comic books, and CLZ Books for everything else. Currently I only keep subscriptions for the phone apps ($15 per year each, which isn’t unreasonable, IMO), because that’s the most useful – I can just scan the barcode to enter a book, and unless it’s something really obscure, it’s generally already in the database. And then I have a good chunk of our books in my pocket all the time, so when we’re shopping we can avoid buying something we’ve already read or bought.

On the occasion I get into a heavy indexing phase of older books, I’ll pay for a month or two of the web app as well, so I can enter the books a bit easier with the larger interface, since those barcodes are less likely to actually be found in the system. It all connects to my same account, so all the data is going to the same spot, it’s just the different interface I’m paying for in that case.

Then there’s my Kindle and ebook library. I used to keep my Kindle books organized into folders and such, and then just sort of gave up, but I really wish they were more organized. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my Paperwhite to the new version (just for a little faster processor), but I also use the Kindle app on my phone, so…it would behoove me to get things organized one of these days.

The rest of my ebooks (non-Kindle/Amazon), are all sitting on a folder in my Dropbox account, loosely organized by non-fiction and fiction, and since I get so few PDF books anymore, it’s not really worth my time to organize them any further than that. I really should go through my crochet/knit ebooks though. I often get those in PDF so I can load them on my reMarkable and keep track of my stitch counts as I go. One of these days. Maybe. Sounds like a winter project, doesn’t it?

So, do you keep your library organized/indexed? Or do you prefer the excitement of a hunt every time you’re looking for something to read or reference?

Writing & Publishing News

It’s been a bit slow-going lately, but I’m still moving forward. The biggest news is that MacKenzie Saves the World will finally be out in print August 11th! So for anyone who likes romance in print (ironically, I read most of my romance in digital form), I’ll have links up then, and it will be available at our local bookstore soon too (whenever the shipment gets here). So that’s fun. Personally, I think it’s the best romance I’ve written yet…until I finish the Magpie stories, anyways.?

I’m working away on Magpie Shiny, slowly but surely, and I also got started on a hopefully fall release for my horror alter-ego this past week as well. So, aside from getting distracted by health issues here and there (stupid body), I’m feeling pretty good about hopefully having some fun new releases coming soon(ish).

I’m also going to take advantage of Ingram’s new mass market paperback size, and work on formatting some of my alter-ego’s short stories into MMPs. I love that size book, and while the preference for trade size seems to be trending, I think MMP is still perfect for shorter stories. That’s my next print project.

Recommendation(s)

For anyone interested in indexing your personal library, I highly recommend CLZ Books, and CLZ Comics. They also have modules for movies, video games, etc – check ’em out!

Screenshots of my indexes…I thought I had more covers in the books one…

Jamie DeBree

Writer | DBA | Dog Wrangler

Writing Notes

Duly Noted

All the Things…Except NaNo

The Fright Night Train to NaNoWriMo

Life Cycling

Filling the Creative Well

Scratching the Itch

Keeping Time

How About Surgery…Tomorrow?

Library Maintenance – Yay or Nay?