Last night i visited a church service. This was very interesting as it gave me a chance to mediums in action and do a recce of the location. I was also able to start creating a shot list from this visit.

Hi folks!

I’m writing a novel that’s set partly in present day small-town North Carolina and partly in the Pacific during WWII.  It’s not a war story, per se, though there are several combat scenes based on Okinawa.  However, the heart of the story lies with my female protagonist, an 85-year-old southern bell who receives a long lost letter from her husband, dated 1945, and begins an investigation into her husband’s past military career.

My question is, can y’all recommend any novels (war novels even) where the narrative shifts between two settings, one in present day and one in past?  And perhaps any which deal with similar subject mater, i.e., war, the unearthing of secrets, old folks (older romance),  memory and memory loss (male protagonist has Alzheimer’s), shame, forgiveness, etc.  WWII Pacific Theatre would be helpful too.

Seems like so many war novels either  center around the combat, or else they harp on about bravery and/ or the futility of war… themes which might come into my story but are not the focus.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

Of all the “greener”, more “climate friendly” crap initiatives dumped in place by the UK Government, this particular measure has all the makings of a danse macabre, performed with relish by countless civil servants, to the sinuous music of Saint-Saëns.

The faceless mandarins have decreed that no car user (he or she using their car on civil service business) will do more than one hundred miles worth of journeys within a given time scale; this to reduce the “carbon footprint” of these government departments.

So what’s wrong with that?

In theory, nothing. In practice, staff are using hire cars, courtesy of the UK Tax Payer, to carry out these journeys. The rental vehicles mileage doesn’t count towards the civil service carbon footprint. True, some of the journeys are expedited by rail; others by air; but such trips seem to be in the minority . Huge amounts are being paid to Car Hire firms simply to help “doctor the figures” and show a much reduced carbon footprint for the civil service.

In actual fact with the car rentals being delivered by the hire agents, the CS carbon footprint is significantly LARGER than was previously the case; the delivery and collection journeys are in addition to the journey the vehicle is required for, and, with collection, a second vehicle (and its emissions) is used to bring out the “collecting driver”.

I’m sure whichever genius in the corridors of power came up with this world beating idea, he or she must be in line for a knighthood!

New idea. Series of close ups of faces that appear on any form of advertising. Efforts will be made to geotag each one (though obviously most types of advertising change) in the effort to build a record across (mainly) Greater London.

All photos will be delivered to this set on Flickr. (You can follow it on RSS.) many will be posted on Twitter with this tag: #advertfaces.

Here’s a selection of where I’m up to so far (new ones every day):

Planning to hit the stores on Black Friday? Check out the these websites that publish Black Friday sales circulars before they are scheduled for release: bfads.net, gottadeal.com and blackfriday.info.
Happy Shopping!

Natti went through some magazines and sketched some ideas for possible band logos, and for loosewire Productions too, good work Natti!

Una de las cosas negativas de tener un teléfono 3G es que en cualquier momento y lugar te puede llegar un email de esos incomodos que te deja perplejo tras terminar de leerlo.

He de admitir que yo también he caído muchas veces en ese error de creer que escribiendole un correo electronico a una persona, o entidad, mi opinión va a ser valorada. Y desgraciadamente hace muy poco aprendí que generalmente suele ser una perdida de tiempo para ambas partes (mirándolo desde una perspectiva económica-laboral)…

El otro día en mi nuevo trabajo, de profesor, me llegó y leí un mensaje incomodo en un momento delicado… Tenía que estar concentrado para mantener el ritmo de la clase entre mis alumn@s y me esperaba una reunión personal con mi “nuevo jefe”.

Entonces intenté aplicar una de las cosas que enseño, esto es: que las criticas ajenas no detengan nuestro proceso de creación de “marca personal”, y que la vergüenza al “que dirán” no se apodere del rumbo de nuestro trabajo…

Al final supe afrontar el reto y borré el email (sin llegar a leerlo del todo y contestar enojado) tras haber coordinado mis exigencias laborales y tomarme un descanso mientras me fumaba el último cigarro que me he propuesto saborear en mi nuevo espacio laboral.

Por cierto, las increíbles vistas panorámicas de las que disfrutaba (ver foto de este “post”) me ayudaron mucho a tomar estas rápidas decisiones!!!

View Original Article

A photo that I have taken was picked as a photo of the week by the Calgary is Awesome Blog! It was great and inspiring news…. Someone out there is paying some sort of attention! Awesome!

♥The link to my pictures: http://www.flickr.com/people/pasadea
♥See Calgary is Awesome at http://calgaryisawesome.com!

Tirar las cosas por la borda al vacio.

Olvidar los daños.

Embolsar el mal polvo muerto e irreconocible.

Vaciar las botellas rancias y amargas.

Cortarse las barbas, las uñas, las palabras.

Estrellar los vasos sobre en las paredes.

Un cigarro.

Romper los cristales.

Regalar la ropa vieja.

Olvidar los olvidados.

Romper los malos capítulos.

Quemar los pésimos capítulos.

Insultar  al chofer del autobús.

Renunciar alguna vez a un buen trabajo.

Escupir al cielo.

Tirarse de los puentes.

Robarse los besos.

Desnudarse en los sillones.

Dejar un todo por una nada.

Recordar  tan fácil como se olvidan las cosas.

Melodías para la memoria.

No escatimar en hoteles ni distancias.

Llegar tarde  en el último momento de uno sin pedir disculpas.

…|Asi de facil es tejer un paracaídas para un futuro alzhéimer|…

ALGUNA SUGERENCIA FAVOR DE ESCRIBIRLA:

If you believe in Creation – you have been created with the ability to bear fruit.  You have been created with the ability for more.  Birds were created to make more birds.  Whales were created to make more whales.  Apple trees were created to make more apple trees.  Pretty much, I can keep going and list every single thing and it has the potential for creating more or creating something.

Man and woman were created to procreate, but men and women were also created with the ability to create as well – maybe not to create out of nothing – but definitely the ability to create from things already created.  You and I have the capability and ability to create and even enjoy creation.  You and I have been created to create – art, music, ideas, and so many other things.  You can do things with rocks, paint, twigs, logs, sticks, and whatever you can get your hands on to create.

In Genesis 1 and 2, everything was created and it was all considered good.  There’s nothing in the creation story that says that it became bad.  There was a relationship in the creation story (chap 3) that ends in emnity between God and man, but there wasn’t anything in the story that says that creation has become bad.  Tell me if I’m wrong, but it is still good.  Your experience of creation is good.  The whole earth is filled with his glory.  The rocks cry out in worship.  The heavens declare the glory of God.

You have been created to create, and you need to do so with the goodness of all that is created.  Hang out in the goodness of creation.

There

Estaba revisando el itinerario para mi viaje a México por Internet y me acordé de Sarah, una chava que ahora vive en San Francisco pero que antes de eso vivía con Kate. Sarah estaba pidiendo una pizza por Internet y por alguna razón el servidor de Dominos Pizza no estaba funcionando. Después de conectar y desconectar el router e intentar accesar a la página de Dominos Pizza de diversas maneras, se le ocurrió una solución para su problema.

Hablar por teléfono a la tienda.

Pareciera broma que el simple hecho de pedir una pizza, lo cuál era una actividad que se hacía primordialmente por teléfono, ya es una actividad que también hacemos por Internet sin pensarlo. Pedimos una pizza y vemos en la computadora que John tomó la orden a las 3:18, que Abishek puso la pizza en el horno a las 3:23pm y que Mike la subió a su carro a las 3:34pm.

Cuando tenía 15 años, nunca me imaginé que iba a depender tanto de la tecnología. Me pongo a pensar y al día de hoy uso el Internet para hacer reservaciones en un restaurante, comprar comida, pagar mi recibo de luz, mi celular, comprar flores y pagar multas. ¿Tendrá razón mi mamá cuando dice que dependo mucho del Internet?

Alguien escribió en una ocasión…

“Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation. Not only do people become dependent as individuals on a new item of technology, but, even more, the system as a whole becomes dependent on it”.

Esta persona no terminó ahí, ya que también pronosticó el momento en el que las maquinas dominarían al ser humano.

“If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can’t make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decision for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better result than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide”.

¿Suena lógico? ¿Se parece a la realidad? En caso afirmativo hay que pensarlo dos veces ya que estas palabras provienen del famoso Unabomber; un terrorista de Estados Unidos que entre 1978 y 1995 mandó 16 bombas a universidades y aeropuertos. El Unabomber (Theodore Kaczynski) al parecer era un matemático de Harvard (con doctorado de la Universidad de Michigan) que publicó un manifiesto que contiene todas estas ideas. Si les interesa ver el manifiesto completo, pueden hacer click aquí. Si quieren ver la historia del caso pueden hacer click aquí.

I didn’t know what else to call it.  I’m not even quite sure I know how to write down what I want to communicate, but I guess there’s a fine line between self-promotion and being a pharisee.  Okay, so I guess back in the day, being a Pharisee was quite an honor.  I mean, you were the spiritual one.  Today, we kinda use it in a negative light – because we simply don’t know that culture.  We tend to use Pharisee as a fraud or a fake – well, at the very least someone that’s doing it more for show and himself than for God.  That’s how I’m using the term here.

Now, I’m all about self promotion – especially when you’re pushing your brand or business.  I get that.  Millions of people tweet to promote their hustle – whatever it is.

But then every now and then you just come across some tweets that is about self promotion but it just comes across as Pharisaical.  I mean it just comes across as self righteous and “look at me and what I’ve done.”  Now, it’s totally completely subjective.  I’m sure that someone might read some of my posts on this blog and might call me a Pharisee for my bold claims and the my self promotion.  I guess it goes both ways.  I think someone’s tweets like a Pharisee, and others might think that I post like one.

Twitter has allowed us to tweet like a Pharisee.  It has allowed us to be self-righteous.  It has allowed us to self-promote, but to take it a step farther and show off.  I guess some people just need the recognition.

Today I was fortunate enough to meet Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Jerry is not only a smart guy, but a nice one too. I asked him one simple question for entrepreneurs and here’s what he had to say:

(More detailed insight will be the topic of subsequent blog entries)

Your characters are having a feast. On some unusual dishes:

Pickles and peanut butter

Cold tomato soup with tuna chunks

Mince meat pie with vanilla ice cream

Beef Jerky and Poptarts

How do these items get to the gathering? Who brings them? Are they homemade or store-bought? Are the dishes filled with secret ingredients?

No se porque, pero no creo que no sea nada que no leas en un "how to"

Me llego esta imagen en un correo hoy por la mañana, y no se porque se me hizo absurdo.

La vida es una noria que gira y gira y nunca deja de girar,
como una locomotora que corta el viento sin que llegue a descarrilar.
La vida no tiene ni principio ni final; es el espectáculo de nunca acabar.

Little Colorado River from Homol'ovi Ruins State Park

Some of the most important work on the origins of the kachina cult is that done by E. Charles Adams of the Arizona State Museum, particularly his 1991 book focusing specifically on the subject. In this book he summarizes the available evidence for the origin and early development of the kachina cult, and based on the distribution of the archaeological manifestations of the cult that he identifies he concludes that it originated in the Upper Little Colorado River area of east-central Arizona in the period between AD 1275 and 1325.

Wall at Casa Malpais, Springerville, Arizona

Adams’s reasoning for this conclusion is based on his comparison of the distribution of four types of evidence that he presents as reflecting the presence of the cult: rock art, pottery, plaza-oriented village layout, and rectangular kivas. His summaries of the distribution of all these features in space and time are very useful, but his conclusions about the origins of the kachina cult go well beyond the evidence he presents and are not very convincing. His method for determining the origin of the cult is to look at the distribution of the four features he identifies and find where they first overlap. This seems reasonable enough.

Petroglyphs at Puerco Pueblo, Petrified Forest National Park

Unfortunately, there does not turn out to be any place where the features all overlap sufficiently early to be associated with the initial development of the cult, so Adams has to resort to finding a place where three of the elements overlap. The three elements he uses are pottery style, plaza-facing village layout, and rectangular kivas, which he finds present together earliest in the Upper Little Colorado River area in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century. He therefore concludes that this is when and where the cult originated and proceeds to describe its rapid spread to the north and east over the course of the fourteenth century. Unlike many other researchers, including Polly Schaafsma, he considers the cult to be fundamentally indigenous rather than Mesoamerican in origin, although he concedes that some elements of it were probably subject to influence from groups to the south such as the Hohokam and Salado.

Sign at Puerco Pueblo Showing Plaza-Oriented Layout

Adams theorizes that after its initial spread the cult was greatly elaborated at Hopi, where it acquired its strong association with rainmaking and began to be reflected in elaborate kiva murals, and that it subsequently spread in modified form from Hopi to areas that had already adopted the initial cult directly from the Upper Little Colorado, such as Zuni and the Albuquerque area of the Rio Grande valley. It is only at that point, after AD 1400, that Adams sees any influence from the Jornada Mogollon coming up the Rio Grande, and he sees this influence, reflected in the Jornada rock art style and a similar style in some kiva murals, as secondary to the Upper Little Colorado and Hopi kachina cult influence already present in the Rio Grande valley. He even speculates that the Jornada influence may not have affected the kachina cult itself at all, and that it may have had more to do with other societies present among the Eastern Pueblos having more to do with war.

Warning Sign at Edge of Little Colorado River, Homol'ovi Ruins State Park

This theory is problematic for a number of reasons. For one thing, Adams relies very heavily on the distribution of pottery styles as evidence for the spread of the kachina cult, but he never establishes the association between the cult and the styles he mentions. He focuses on the so-called “Fourmile style” (named after Fourmile Ruin in the Upper Little Colorado area), a style of polychrome decoration that affected pottery types throughout the Southwest in the fourteenth century. Among the features of Fourmile style that Adams emphasizes are its use of asymmetrical decoration on the interiors of bowls, its extensive use of bird and feather imagery, and its occasional use of obvious kachina cult symbolism, particularly masks or whole anthropomorphic masked figures. It is the last aspect of the style that is clearly most associated with the kachina cult, and the presence of this sort of imagery on ceramics is certainly as clear a sign of the presence of the cult in a given area as the presence of similar motifs in rock art, but Adams goes beyond this observation to associate any use of the Fourmile style with the spread of the cult. This is not something that can just be assumed, however. It is important to note that the Fourmile style was very widespread, including in areas without any other evidence of kachina cult imagery, and it is quite possible that the distribution of the style is completely independent of the distribution of the cult. That is, the Fourmile style may just have been the style of decoration that was popular at the time that the kachina cult happened to be spreading throughout the northern Southwest, so that groups that adopted the cult may have used its imagery on their Fourmile-style ceramics without there being any particular association between the style in general and the cult. Thus, while Fourmile ceramics with kachina imagery would clearly be evidence of the distribution and spread of the cult, Fourmile ceramics without it would not necessarily be, and Adams’s extensive use of them undermines his conclusions significantly.

Petroglyph Panel Showing Mask at Puerco Pueblo, Petrified Forest

Another major problem with Adams’s approach is the way he largely disregards the rock art evidence. When he realizes that there is no place where all four of his lines of evidence come together at the proper time, it is the rock art evidence that he ignores. This is why he is able to conclude that the cult originated in the Upper Little Colorado area, where rock art evidence for the presence of the cult is very slim (probably due largely to the limited study of rock art in this area). Rock art, however, is the most straightforward and obvious evidence there is for the presence of the cult. Unlike Fourmile style ceramics, Rio Grande style rock art is full of kachina imagery, and it is very different from earlier rock art styles in the area where it appears. Schaafsma’s theory linking the cult to the Jornada Mogollon depended largely on the rock art evidence. Recall that her argument for transmission of the cult up the Rio Grande via the Jornada depended largely on the lack of rock art evidence for the presence of the cult in the Mogollon Rim and Upper Little Colorado area. Adams, although he argues for the transmission (and, indeed, the origin) of the cult in this area merely assumes that the Rio Grande style originated in the Upper Little Colorado area along with the cult and that it is unrelated to the Jornada style, which he sees as a late introduction to the Eastern Pueblos after the Rio Grande style was firmly established.

Petroglyphs at Casa Malpais, Springerville, Arizona

It is not hard to see why Adams puts so much emphasis on pottery and so little on rock art. He is trying to determine the time as well as the place of origin of the kachina cult, and to do that he needs evidence that can be securely dated. In the Southwest pottery styles are very well dated by association with tree-ring-dated contexts where they appear, and they therefore give quite precise dates even for sites that have note been excavated or dated in any other way. Rock art, on the other hand, is notoriously difficult to date. Pictographs, which are painted onto the rock surface often using some sort of organic paint, can sometimes be carbon-dated by samples of the paint or other associated organic artifacts, but this technique has rarely been used in the Southwest, and the much more common petroglyphs, which are pecked or incised into the rock surface, cannot be directly dated at all and can only be assigned very general dates based on their style and/or proximity to dated sites. Thus, associating the spread of the kachina cult with the spread of the Fourmile style, which does seem to have occurred around the same time, gives Adams much more chronological control than Schaafsma has with her rock art styles, and it even allows him to argue, in direct opposition to Schaafsma’s interpretation, that the Jornada style in the Rio Grande valley is later than the Rio Grande style rather than ancestral to it. His justification for doing so is very shaky, being based on similarities between the Jornada style and the style of kiva mural found at sites such as Kuaua, north of Albuquerque, but it is not possible to prove that he is wrong. Nor, for that matter, is it possible to prove that he is wrong to associate the Fourmile ceramic style with the cult, although he does so on similarly shaky grounds.

Casa Malpais from Above

Nevertheless, despite all these problems with Adams’s theory for the origin and spread of the cult, his model for why the cult was adopted so quickly and easily throughout the Pueblo world is quite convincing and useful. The explanation is basically the same as Schaafsma’s: the kachina cult, being a non-kin-based system with the potential to integrate whole communities easily, was very attractive to the rapidly aggregating villages developing throughout the Southwest at this time, and it was therefore adopted as a way of dealing with and resolving the many conflicts that inevitably develop within diverse and rapidly growing communities. He defines the model more rigorously and in more detail than Schaafsma, however, and presents a four-stage process for adoption of the cult, with corresponding correlates that should be identifiable in the archaeological record:

1. Immigration: Starting around AD 1275, when major environmental changes occurred throughout the Southwest, locations that either maintained their attractiveness for settlement or became newly attractive as a result of the changes saw massive influxes of population from the many areas being abandoned at this time.
2. Aggregation: In the locations seeing large-scale immigration, the new immigrants coalesced into large, aggregated villages, either joining previously existing populations or, in sparsely populated or previously unattractive locations, developing their own aggregated villages. These villages are often but not always plaza-oriented.
3. Appearance of kachina cult imagery: Shortly after initial aggregation, the plaza-oriented villages begin to show signs of kachina cult imagery, either in nearby rock art or on locally produced pottery. This demonstrates the adoption of the cult by the village, perhaps in part to deal with the problems caused by rapid aggregation.
4. Continued aggregation: As a result of the usefulness of the kachina cult in integrating the new communities, new immigrants continue to join them and are able to be successfully integrated. This part is important; previous attempts at forming large, aggregated communities in the Southwest had not lasted for long, probably because existing religious and social systems were not able to successfully integrate populations on that scale.

Adams applies this model to the cluster of sites at Homol’ovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, Arizona, where he has conducted extensive research as part of a long-term project by the Arizona State Museum. He finds that the model fits the history of the sites there quite well. Adams’s model can also be used to evaluate the impact of the kachina cult and the development of plaza-oriented village layouts on aggregation in other parts of the Southwest during this time period, and perhaps during others. Adams sets the beginning for his model at AD 1275 to correspond to the environmental changes in the northern Southwest associated with the so-called “Great Drought” of AD 1276 to 1299, and this does correspond to the onset of major aggregation in many areas, but in other areas aggregation began either earlier or later than this, and the adoption (or, perhaps, development) of the kachina cult may have played a role in these contexts as well.

Masonry at Homol'ovi I

Adams’s model may be an effective way to address the relationship between aggregation and the spread of the kachina cult, but it still leaves open the question of why people were aggregating in the first place. This has been a matter of much dispute and argument over nearly the whole history of southwestern archaeology, and many theories have been proposed. Many of the recent theories revolve around changing environmental conditions and the need for changes in subsistence systems, and they address this idea from varying perspectives, often focusing on the need for more centralized decision-making and/or more efficient land use as the result of less reliable or more difficult conditions for agriculture. In his discussion of this issue, particularly in relation to the case study of Homol’ovi, Adams seems to endorse some version of this idea, with a particular focus on the decisions of community leaders. Unlike many archaeologists who study the ancient Southwest, Adams does not present prehistoric Pueblo society as egalitarian, and he assumes throughout his discussion the presence of a two-tiered society with a small priestly class making decisions at a community level and deriving their authority from their control of ritual knowledge. Importantly, however, he notes that this elite never managed to amass the sort of surplus wealth necessary to transform Pueblo society into a truly stratified society with significant economic inequality. Adams attributes this mainly to the marginal nature of the Southwest for agriculture, but it is likely that another major factor is the communal ideology of the Pueblos, which strongly discourages individual gain and encourages leaders to put the needs of the community above their own desires.

Walls at Homol'ovi II

I’m slowly coming to the end of my story and while tying everything together I have to make sure all my backup documents are in order. You know, make sure I have all my ducks in a row.  I don’t want to leave any loose ends or dropped story lines.

I do very little prep before I start writing but a few things I do faithfully. I thought I would share these things with you. You may find them helpful.

First: I write two mini-bios. Below are the questions I complete for each main character. Both these examples came from the book “Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints by: Nancy Kress.

********

Mini-Bio for Key Characters

Name:

Age:

Birthplace:

Marital Status:

Children and their ages:

General appearance:

Living arrangements: (i.e., lives with wife and three young children; rents ramshackle apartment alone; has tent in nomadic tribe with three concubines)

Occupation, including name of employer: (if applicable)

Degree of skill at occupation (loves it, hates it, regards it as “just a job,” has mixed feelings, is actively searching for other employment)

Family background (whatever you think is important: ethnicity, siblings’ names, parents’ names, social status, clan affiliation, total repugnance toward everybody he knew before the age of twelve)

********

Emotional Mini-Bio for Key Characters

Name:

What three or four things does this person value most in life?

(i.e. success, money, family, god, love, integrity, power, peace and quiet)

What three things do they most fear?

What is this person’s basic underlying attitude about life?

What do they need to know about a person in order to accept that other as “all right” and trustworthy?

What would cause this person more pain than anything else possible?

What would this person consider the most wonderful thing that could ever happen to them?

What three words would this person use to describe himself or herself, accurate or not?

********

I try to have a firm grasp on my characters when I start writing even if I don’t have a firm grasp on the story. I also come up with a list of key phrases that they most often say. Expletives or common expressions, for example, Sarah says “Dammit” and Ali says “Oh hell.”

I’ll write a couple of journal entries from the characters point of view just to get an idea of what they’re made of. I try to focus on their history and their current state-of-mind so I can accurately portray them in my writing. This is very helpful in making them real individuals and not just a random picture in my head.—which brings me to my next step. I look for pictures of people I think most resemble my character. Sarah happens to look a lot like Keri Russell, when I think of Mark, Chris Pine comes to mind but with darker hair. Brian looks similar to Eric Bana or Brody Jenner, Eric is slightly too old and Brody is too young but they both resemble him in looks-yes, he’s very hot!

In addition I make a list of all characters, which often changes by the end of the story. I list their names, ages and occupations. Then tie together how they’re all related to each other.

I make a timeline highlighting important events in the lives of my main characters. Births, marriages, divorces, birth of their children, etc.

When starting a new story I pick a date on the calendar, like September 22^nd. Then I print a calendar for September through whenever—however long it takes to finish the story. Dangerous Embrace starts on September 22^nd and ends mid-January. I use the printed calendar to mark current events. For example, one entry under November 10^th might say “Sarah’s attacker arrested” or under October 18^th, “Sarah and Mark fight—break up” or “Sarah and Mark’s first kiss”. (It is a love story after all )

In Dangerous Embrace I had to list the marriages of Sarah’s parents because both had been married numerous times. I couldn’t keep them straight so I had to make a list of wedding dates, divorces and last names. Every time Sarah’s mother divorced she moved to another state so I had to track each move by city and Sarah’s age at the time of the move. As you can imagine the timeline for Dangerous Embrace was very long.

I’d be curious to hear how you all started, besides the typical outline.

Since I love coffee and everything about it, I thought it was a good thing to experiment with. I wanted to take a progressive approach and get away from the mundane ‘cup of coffee’ and do something that was a little more unexpected. So, as i have been messing around with spherification, I thought, ‘why not try to do something with coffee’. After a few trial and error sessions I finally was able to get a stable sphere of coffee that was able to stand up to high amounts of heat. (i.e. blowtorch). By torching the coffee spheres you can still get the same great taste of the coffee and it is still piping hot. I needed something else though to compliment the coffee so I decided to froth some milk and go with a type of cappuccino approach. Soon enough that lead to some chocolate powder using maltodextrin and voila! Cafe Mocha was created. Overall I was happy with the end results and the flavors of all the components but it still needs some refining.