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"Scrooge's third visitor," by John Leech (1843) My grandfather read "A Christmas Carol" every year at Christmas, and I've inherited his love for it. The following scene is one of my favorite parts of the story. To me, it sums up what Christmas is all about. Or what it should be about. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas to all! And may everyone, regardless of creed, experience peace and happiness today, at the very least. "Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." "Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you don't keep it." "Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!" "There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!" Happy Halloween everyone! To celebrate, here's part of one of the best vampire movies ever made: The Hunger. Please excuse the poor quality. Somebody ought to post a descent version of the opening. Shesh! Steve Jobs, 1955-2011 Where was I when I found out Steve Jobs had passed? I was at Costco picking up my car. It was there getting a slow leak in the tire fixed. As I waited, as I am wont to do, I pulled out my iPhone 2G and opened up my Twitter app. It saddened me and I remember thinking that it should not have saddened me as much as it did. I'd never met the man. I don't own stock in Apple. What was it to me? Back in the 1800s, they called Thomas Edison the "Wizard of Menlo Park." People would travel from from far and wide to Menlo Park to see what Edisin was working on, to see what he would come up with next. Deep down, I think that is why I, and many people like me, are sad that Steve Jobs has left us. We've lost our wizard, the "Wizard of Cupertino." We're afraid that we will no longer be amazed at what Apple releases. We will no longer be able to marvel at the vision and foresight Jobs displayed with each new device Apple released. Gone are the days when he will conjure up such magic as the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. Think about it. Before Jobs and the iPod, people wondered if file sharing would destroy music. How could musicians afford to continue to make music if they couldn't make any money doing it? Could any of us, besides Steve Jobs and his team at Apple, imagine a world were we would carry thousands of our songs around in a device smaller than a cell phone? How quickly we forget our massive CD racks. When the MacBook Air came out some scoffed. "What, no CD/DVD-ROM drive? Is Apple crazy? I have to buy an external drive to upgrade my computer?" they asked. In the video for the MacBook Air, Apple showed how the Air could be updated wirelessly using Apple's Airport. Just a few days ago I saw a commercial for an Android smart phone. The newest feature being touted on this ad? You can update your Android apps wirelessly; you never have to plug in and sync your smart phone again! When Jobs announced the iPad, people scoffed. "Tablets have been tried and they failed," skeptics said. Former Mac Evangelist Guy Kawasaki expressed doubts about the iPad's success, citing the fact that it didn't supposedly allow users to create anything. Last month, Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire, with its full-color screen, its "Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more." If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Steve Jobs and Apple have been highly flattered. Some will say that Steve Jobs didn't see the future, that he created it and made a lot of money in the process. Perhaps, but regardless of whether Jobs was a visionary, or a Tom Sawyer creating demand where none existed, I will miss being marveled by his new creations. His creativity is beyond dispute. But in the end, we shouldn't be too sad. Instead, we should focus on how lucky we were to share the same time and space with such a genius. Over the past few week I've spent my free time writing educational materials. It was fun, but quite a challenge. I have a new respect for textbook writers. The last time I wrote history was in graduate school where nuance and depth were the currency of the realm. This past month I had to shoehorn the Renaissance and Reformation into 40 Power Point slides! Oh, the pain of leaving out so much good stuff. It is a talent to distill an historical period down to its essential characteristics. I shall try to bite my tongue the next time I have the urge to criticize a textbook author.
Now that that project is completed, I'll hopefully be able to get back to blogging and writing fiction. The Detroit Arsenal Factory – Warren, Michigan Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of World War II movies on TCM, but I have decided to pick The Arsenal of Democracy, aka Detroit during WWII, for this month's writing prompt. The Challenge: Write a short story that takes place during WWII, and is set somewhere in metropolitan Detroit. Genre: This prompt is wide open. One could really spend a career writing fiction set in Detroit during World War II. However, here are a few ideas: You could write some literary fiction: This was time period filled with drama as sons, brothers, and husbands went off to war; and those left behind had to adjust to a new world. You could write a tale of wartime espionage or a story focused on a hard-boiled detective. Perhaps German agents and fifth columnists are seeking to sabotage one or more of Detroit's factories. Thinking of this summer's Captain America, you could write a pulp adventure complete with masked avengers and Nazi super-science. Of course, you could also write a mash-up of a hard-boiled detective story and Lovecraftian horror as exemplified by Jack Yeovil's, aka Kim Newman's "The Big Fish." Word Count: Short stories are generally no more than a few thousand words, but the length is up to you. If your idea turns into a novel, post the first chapter. If you'd like me to give you a hard number, here you go: Write a story about 1000 words long. Accepting the Challenge: Post your story on your blog. In your post, include a link to this post. Next, put a link to your story in the comments section below, and when I post the next challenge, I will post a list of all the stories. Finally, if you are on Twitter and tweet about your story, please include the hashtag #narrows. Let's share with the world what an excellent setting Detroit makes. Just a short update today. Work continues on our walk-up attic (added a new light fixture as seen to the left). Sadly, I won't be done before I go back to school, but it is a lot further along than it was in June. As far as this blog goes, I'll be starting my "school-year blogging schedule" this week. Instead of posting on Wednesdays and Sundays, I'll only be posting on Sundays. I can't honestly say I'll be able to post twice a week what with working, catching up on a serious backlog of books I've "been meaning to read," and my desire to turn out a regular word count. In the future, I may find that I'll be able to post twice a week, but more than likely, it will be every Sunday until next summer. Of course, I'll still be tweeting fairly regularly, so you can always see what I'm up to via my twitter feed. See you next Sunday! This is the last week left before I start my teacher meetings, and I'm spending it turning our walk-up attic into a bedroom. This of course means I have little time for writing and reading. Fear not, once I settle into my normal school routine, I'll be able to get back to writing and reading! In the meantime, here's a work-in-progress picture :-) My first volume of Lovecraft What else can be said about H. P. Lovecraft that hasn't already been said? Perhaps nothing. However, since he's one of my favorite writers, I feel compelled to write something , since yesterday was his birthday. I guess the best thing I can do is relate some of my personal experiences reading Lovecraft. After a friend introduced me to Lovecraft, I immediately became hooked. I began with The Lurking Fear and Other Stories, and then I picked up The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. I hadn't planned on it, but I ended up reading late into the night to finish it (I tend to avoid reading Lovecraft at night, and I wouldn't read "The Lurking Fear" during a thunder storm for love nor money). It was a warm summer night so I had my window open, and just as Willett confronted Curwen, two cats decided to have a fight under my window. The sound of a catfight is blood-curdling by itself, but hearing it while reading the denouement of a Lovecraft story...I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack. Another memorable read occurred while flying to England. I'd bought The Best of H. P. Lovecraft from Del Rey specifically for the long flight. After the in-flight dinner, I cracked open the book and turned to The Call of Cthulhu. In the darkened cabin, I read for the first time of the sunken city of R'lyeh, and of Cthulhu, who was sleeping under the waves and dreaming of his return. As I did so, I glanced out of the window at the vast ocean beneath the plane. The ocean really was big enough to hide a sunken city and a monstrous, malevolent alien. A distinct feeling of uneasiness swept over me. That ability to evoke dread and fear is Lovecraft at his best and the reason why we're still reading him today. His intent was not to make you jump out of your seat, but rather to make you uneasy looking out at the ocean. Despite his sometimes florid prose, Lovecraft created a very believable world that has the power to haunt our dreams and our waking hours. Do you have a favorite experience reading Lovecraft? Have you ever read "The Lurking Fear" during a thunder storm? Ever read The Call of Cthulhu while on a boat in the ocean (or any body of water)? I just posted a new story, Reflections, on my stories page. Click on over and check it out!
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