Sunday Salon - Random shots across the bow

 

Life sometimes seems like a never ending staircase.  You either walk, run, or take two at a time up the stairs, reach a landing, remember something you forgot, turn around and go back down or forge ahead and continue upward.  Or you sit down on the landing, rest awhile and enjoy a moment.   

Did you know the Washington Memorial has 898 steps, 50 landings and 193 stone memorial tablets dating from 1849.  And one face of the cap of the Memorial truly does say "Laus Deo".   The Eiffel Tower has 719 steps to reach the 2nd level.  There are 86 flights of stairs with a total of 1576 steps in the Empire State Building.  We walked a few of those flights. 

Innocuous facts you would think, but we are in the midst of studying George Washington and get carried off on side trips by an inquisitive young boy mind.  You never really know where that mind is going to take you and we have discovered some interesting and not so interesting things.   4th grade is proceeding slowly but surely. James is finally getting math and we are both loving Saxon.  Well I am since it is scripted and each lesson builds on the next, so the repetition is working. 

I tried a new schedule this year going six or seven weeks on and one week off and we are all tired.   But I forget, February seems to be that time of year when lessons bog down.  However, since we school year round, we are switching back to three weeks on and one week off.   Both Father and I agree that we need that week to regroup and recharge, work on projects and assess where we are.   We'll still end about the same time in the middle of July and have time off before we start all over again with the 5th grade in September.   We've decided to continue homeschooling through the rest of the elementary grades.  I just hope that by the time James is ready for Junior High or middle school or whatever they are calling it when he hits 7th grade,  that we are in an area with a great school.  

Yes, I would like to move but haven't the foggiest idea where. Right now we are tied to Northern California because that is where our business is.   Father is building a new business manufacturing amplifiers and when that finally gets off the ground, it may be possible to move.  Father has lived in California all his life, while me the military brat, lived in several different states.   Most of my family has left California for Arizona and Texas, but all of Father's family is in the Bay Area.  I hated the bay area when we lived there and it was mainly because of the kids and bullying in school.  Yes, I was bullied, so I don't have to many fond memories of the area.  

Speaking of business, I have talked Father into doing a weekly blog talking about everything from tubes to tone to recording to his old job of process control engineering.  He is in the process of writing up a few posts and I will be managing the blog.  He is also the Chairman of the Sacramento Audio Engineering Society and I'm taking over the management of their forum as well.  Father and I are pretty much a unit and work together on everything.  When he became Chairman, I told him this was his baby and I tried to stay out of it.  Hah!  I took the plunge last night and offered to take over managing the forum.   I'll be handling the blog and forum on my work days from the shop since it is business related.   So, ladies and gents - if you or any of your significant others are into audio and love discussing tubes, tone, electronics, music, recording, songwriting, designing electronics, etc. etc. etc., then let them know about the blog and the AES.   I'll be going live with the blog and forum in the next few days and getting him involved in Twitter.

The next couple weeks are going to be busy with a Project Paper to write for my Art History Class due on February 7th,  then the final which will include multiple choice and a couple essays.  I've really enjoyed the class because we've been studying ancient Greek and roman history.   Which made a couple books I read "The Last Ember" and "The Forgotten Legion" very interesting, since they both referred to things I learned.   Created some "wow" moments.    Plus the annual  Blue and Gold Dinner is coming up for cub scouts and we are working on the final items James needs to get his Webelos badge.  

I would unplug but last week's unplugged week was a dismal failure.   You would think we would have gotten so much more done but we didn't.  I have a very clean house though.  Lessons ended up taking longer since we spread them out throughout the day instead of starting right after lunch and working straight through.   I seemed to have less patience than usual as well.     It seems I work better when we both have our technology time.   One hour for James on the internet means mom has one hour to write.  One hour on the Wii, means mom has one hour to do the treadmill.  One hour on the DS means mom has one hour to.....    Hmmm!

Managed to write all of about 500 words on my WIP Eyes in the Ashes.   Father is patiently waiting for me to finish the story, because he really enjoyed reading the first part of it.   Also the characters from my other WIP's Winter's Illusion and Floating on the Surface started popping up in my thoughts as well and giving me ideas for edit their storylines.   Is it possible to work on more than one novel and keep them all straight without going bonkers?



The Sunday Salon.comBooks!  Did you say books?  Isn't the Sunday Salon supposed to be about books you ask?  Well, yes now that you mention it.    I read 17 books for the month of January and managed to review two of them. 

  1. Poetics - Aristotle
  2. Boomerang - Alan Hutcheson (e-Book)
  3. Dune - Frank Herbert 
  4. Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris
  5. All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
  6. From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris 
  7. Kill for Me - Karen Rose
  8. The Mists of Avalon - Marian Zimmer Bradley
  9. Promise Me- Harlan Coben 
  10. The Last Surgeon - Michael Palmer (review book)
  11. The Forgotten Legion - Ben Kane (review book)
  12. The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
  13. A Ship Possessed - Alton Gansky
  14. Forbidden Falls - Robyn Carr
  15. Soul Catcher - Leah Bridger
  16. The Last Ember - Daniel Levin (review book)
  17. Cowboy Trouble  - Joanne Kennedy (review book)
I'm currently having a giveaway of The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer and he will be personally autographing the book, so enter to win.   


Be sure to check out Benjamin Kane's The Forgotten Legion Book tour.   The stops are in my sidebar and he'll be visiting my blog on February 16th.    Excellent, excellent book - I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Week 5 of 52 books in 52 weeks is all about E - reading eclectically

Last week I discovered some great author and group blogs geared toward science fiction and put them in the sidebar at Mind Voyages.  Among others,  I found The Way the Future Blogs by Frederik Pohl and he has some very interesting posts, reminiscing about his childhood and  friendship with Isaac Asimov.  Plus I posted a review of Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book. 

Happy Reading!  

4 comments:

  1. Holy Cow!! This past week has been very packed for you and yours!! I hope that when your little guy is older that you will have a better school for him. I understand your worries though!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very interesting to read your January list of books read. A classic amid a deluge of science fiction, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You had a great reading month -- and wow, you are BUSY!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, at least you read a lot this month!

    ReplyDelete

Unfortunately due to being spammed, all comments will be moderated and will appear after approval. At least I'm not using the dreaded captcha. Thank you for dropping by!