A few thoughts
So, for the last few days, while the rain was falling I am a little ashamed to admit that rather than curling up with my favorite books and the new ones, too, I have been binge watching TV shows through Amazon Prime and Netflix.
And it started me thinking a little bit about how much things have changed even as they have stayed the same. We hardly ever think about the constant access we have to one another these days or how much information is shared constantly between us.
Another concept occurred to me as well. I have a little bit of an obsession that I’ve had since my early teens. That obsession is a comic book series called elfquest and the way that I got involved with that comic book series was kind of a fluke. I was on a road trip with my best friend’s family to Hilton Head and once we got there I took my book that I was reading in the car and had brought with me to read it the beach and read it at the beach while we were sunbathing. This had an unintended consequence, since I was reading I was laying on my stomach all day while we were at the beach and by the time that we left my back had passed the color red and it’s sunburn on the way to the color purple. I took an ice bath once we got back to where we were staying but that wasn’t enough for this particular burn and aloe and laying on my stomach was not cutting it either So eventually the decision was made that I was going to return home and so I had to ride from where we were staying to the airport I had finished my book that I had brought with me for the trip and it was a pretty long drive to the airport so I looked everywhere in the car and found the first graphic novel for elfquest that my best friend’s little brother had brought along to read on the trip. I didn’t really like comic books and I couldn’t imagine that anything could possibly dull the amount of pain that I was in but it was a long ride and I decided to give this graphic novel a chance. I got to page 87 in the book and as soon as my parents picked me up at the airport I demanded that we stopped at a bookstore and pick up the book so that I could finish it. As I convalesced from my own stupidity in getting burned so badly I entered the world of Two Moons and voraciously ate all eight of the graphic novels that has been released at that point. this started my love of elfQuest and through the years I’ve enjoyed every single comic book manga book poster figurine t-shirt and anything else that you can think of that is involved with elfquest. Were that trip to happen today I do not know that I would have ever discovered elfquest because I would have been able to download a different book to entertain me on that drive to the airport and I would have missed out on one of the few things that have been consistent in my life my love of Elf Quest
But I started thinking about TV shows. These days there are a few different ways we get our TV. There are the network (public, cable, and premium) shoes that we still watch as they are released weekly. There are the entertainment providers like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu that release an entire season at once. Add in that the way we have watched TV has drastically changed and the younger me would have been shocked at all if it.
When I was a kid, we had family dinners that had to be over in time for my dad to watch a business show. And then depending on the night, we would either all go our seperately ways, sometimes watching TV sometimes not and then we would come together to watch certain shows as a family. Sometimes we watched Dallas although that was not one of my families staples. We watched Dynasty and LA Law religiously. It did not matter what else was happening in the world outside our living room. This was family time and we would discuss these shows in between episodes too. They were a part of our lives, one without a pause or rewind function and if you missed an episode you missed it.
Today you can watch any episodes of any show on any device. If there is a show we all watch, like Game of Thrones, we discuss it on social media almost immediately… Some of us talk during the episode.
Even if there is a show we all watch, the experience is of our choosing. We choose whether to watch it live on the tv or later on a dvr–we choose whether to binge watch over a weekend or closer to each series shows broadcast. We choose who to watch with or even how we will watch together.
I remember when the Disney Channel was first to be added into the world and Nickelodeon and HBO. I remember when it was questioned what these Channels could possibly offer that wasn’t already out there. Now the most basic of television packages comes with more channels than we know what to do with.
The question is are we better off? And my answers are as esoteric as they are necessary. I love being able to communicate with my family and friends 24/7 and yet we are far less connected to each other. We don’t have much anticipation or time for speculation these days until we get to the end of the season and our waits for answers are much longer.
As I watch my kids with their headphones and tablets. I think of how much things have changed and I wonder if our interconnectedness is a gift or a burden…
And then I turn on the read to me function in Google play books, put my headphones on and travel to whichever world I have chosen.
But in the back of my hand I wonder how many of those unexpected Treasures my children have missed simply because they have a hub of entertainment in their hands and thus no reason to read a friend’s little brothers comic book. And then I wonder how many I’ve missed in The Last 5 Years since I too carry my library of thousands of books around with me.
A Few Products that I Happily Endorse Without Incentive
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In addition to being a book nerd, I am something of a more traditional nerd too. In that aspect I find myself trying a lot of new products things like Bluetooth speakers and headphones and external Chargers and other things that make my phone / tablet easier to use both at home and on the go. In that vein I recently purchased a device that is hands down the most useful of these products I have tried and it is not all that expensive!
As an unrelated issue, I have stumbled upon another product that is clearly above any other products in that industry and I wanted to share that as well. I am talking about the products produced by the company the Coldest water. Their ice packs are impressive retaining flexibility when frozen and staying cold longer than other reusable ice/heat delivery systems. I use them for my migraines and am a huge fan
That’s all for now. Stay safe and dry out there…
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Book Giveaway (one of my favorites too!)
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155093419487632&id=136225597631
[Top]In Response to the Recent RWA Controversy, I am Reposting this Article from April
For me, the Holocaust is a real emotional thing. I had no grandparents growing up, but we spent lots of time in our apartments in Miami in a Jewish enclave, I guess. It was a gated community on North Miami Beach with three towers, a little convenience store, a restaurant and pool, and Dock slips for boats. And so my babysitters were retired Jewish retirees, most of whom were holocaust survivors. I was 2 or 3, the first time I heard of the Holocaust. I was spending the night with the Fusses, whom I called Grandma and Grandpa Fuss. I had taken a number and written numbers on my arm, to be like them. I didn’t understand why it horrified these two Holocaust survivors. I still remember the tears pouring down Grandma Fusses face as she scrubbed my arm with a sponge from the kitchen. Eventually, I learned their story. Two people who were the only survivors of their families who found love after the camps. I heard about their parents and siblings who died in the camps. I remember that one of their sisters was a ballerina. She was a teenager when she went into the camps and she ade it through the initial separation because a guard thought she was beautiful. As an adult, I know what that meant but as a child I remember thinking it was so beautiful that she gave the food to her sister. He would take her to his office and have her dance for him. She would come back with extra food for grandma Fuss and cry herself to sleep. She never made it out of the camps. And though it hurt, Grandma Fuss to tell me that story, she did it in whispers and with tears. She told me it was my job to remember her sister, the ballerina, always and forever a teenager.
I was in 1st grade before I thought of it again, in a meaningful way. I went to school in our temples basement in Dunwoody, Georgia. and one Monday we didn’t have school. Over the weekend someone had broken in and defaced desks, couches and chalkboards with swastikas. I saw that symbol and remembered Grandma Fusses tears. And I knew that it was evil and I was hated. I never understood what those teenagers were thinking as they painted a symbol of hate or scratched it into surfaces.
I am shocked and horrified at the news today that Hitler never gassed his own people. I know that is not true. I am one generation removed from the survivors. Their children were my parents generation. As we remember our flight from Egypt this week, so too do Jews remember the Holocaust. Last year, Elie Wiesel , a Holocaust survivor, and Nobel Laureate author, died. He has many quotes…too many to list about why Jews wrote down their memories for my generation and forward. Read his Nobel speech, or even just the quotes that come up on google. We remember the generation lost. All 6,000,000 of them. Men and women, Mothers and Fathers, Children and Artists, Brothers and Sisters.
But I want to be real here. These are the approximate numbers:
Number of Deaths
Jews: up to 6 million
Soviet civilians: around 7 million (including 1.3 Soviet Jewish civilians, who are included in the 6 million figure for Jews)
Soviet prisoners of war: around 3 million (including about 50,000 Jewish soldiers)
Non-Jewish Polish civilians: around 1.8 million (including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish elites)
Serb civilians (on the territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina): 312,000
People with disabilities living in institutions: up to 250,000
Roma (Gypsies): 196,000–220,000
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Around 1,900
Repeat criminal offenders and so-called asocials: at least 70,000
German political opponents and resistance activists in Axis-occupied territory: undetermined
Homosexuals: hundreds, possibly thousands (possibly also counted in part under the 70,000 repeat criminal offenders and so-called asocials noted above)
But, Hitler never used chemical weapons on his own people, Right?!?
Does Anyone know if This was Resolved or Has it Become an Underlying Issue That Still Exists Within the Community?!?
Jaymin Eve…A trailer! (Definitely worth checking out these books!)
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[Top]A Quote…
This excerpt from the book I am currently reading made me think of all my shifter series books, but most especially Anita Blake. When I read this my first thought was Anita needs this and then I realized that most of the shifter packs could use it to cement their bonds…
“As I pulled my eyes from the view, I finally noticed the bed. Oh my. A rush of heat flushed out my cheeks, but I seriously didn’t even care. The bed was massive,ike the size of three king sized beds all pushed together, and twice as long. Jessa rushed to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “This is where we sleep when we pack bond. This is what strengthens our love and ties. This is where we cry and heal and support one another.” I was blinking, unable to take my eyes off the lush mountain of blankets and pillows. Suddenly I felt exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to crawl in the middle there, burrow myself beneath the warmth, and stare out into the forest. Without warning, supes around me started to undress. Not all the way, but shoes and jackets were being thrown to the side. I was guessing there was other furniture in this room, things I hadn’t noticed and didn’t care about right now. Right now was all about this moment with my pack.” Jaymin Eve Broken Compass
[Top]Weather and the Mayhem it Creates
I live in a state where the start of hurricane season is marked on a calendar and the end of it is a cause for celebration–we have survived one more year without the big one washing us away.
Katrina and it’s devastation shocked even those of us who live in Hurricane zones. And while there are certainly a number of places where we all know that we are one bad storm away from losing it all, there is far more of our country succeptable to a bad hurricane then we ever think about as it is the whole Atlantic coastline as well as the Gulf of Mexico’s coastline that has to face storms and their aftermath.
As Harvey hits, and rain and it’s wide variety of consequences are being felt in Texas and all along the gulf coast, I urge my friends who are affected to stay safe, stay together And batten down what hatches you had yet to get to.
And, selfish as it maybe, I thank g-d that this one has passed me by with little but rain in an unending supply, thunderstorms that rattle the house and the quite strange experience of standing on my front porch watching every low spot on my five acres turn Into a lake. But that’s the price of living in a hurricane zone… And every part of our great country has it’s drawbacks, hurricanes or tornadoes, earthquakes or volcanos… Let’s just hope that g-d has decided we need some Terraforming…
[Top]Wishing All My Friends A Great Dragoncon!
Hopefully, next year this blog will be established enough to support me going to Dragoncon to give updates but for now, I am wishing all my friends lucky enough to be able to attend a great time! And in an attempt to be helpful, I will publish Laurell K Hamilton’s Dragoncon schedule…
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[Top]Karen Chance has Released a few more Q & A to go with the release of Ride the Storm
http://www.karenchance.com/news/2144-2/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-61/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/q-and-a-63-2/
http://www.karenchance.com/news/qa-64/
Fiction
Penguin
2017-08
608
Cassie Palmer can see the future, talk to ghosts, and travel through time--but nothing's prepared her for this. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...