SPAM ON A STICK

2:46am: Yea, I spend more time on LJ still, then here: regardless, it's always nice to have an alternative that few of my friends visit.
( Of no interest to anyone in particular )

1:22am: O. M. G! It's April Fool;s Day!
April Poem A Day Challenge


Lucky! That reminded me, it's jsut in time for April Fools! Spam on a Stick is back in business (I hope)!

Think it was fourteen years ago today that Iwas sitting in the ER with a broken leg, cracking jokes because the whole scenario was so surreal.

3:29pm: Just because I ain't been here in a while does not mean that I have ceased to exist.

1:01pm: [Review] Beyond Dancing: A Veteran's Struggle, a Woman's Triumph
Beyond Dancing: A Veteran's Struggle, a Woman's Triumph (Hardcover)
by Anita Bloom Ornoff

Hardcover: 311 pages $23.95
Publisher: Bartleby Press (November 2003)
ISBN-10: 091015550X
ISBN-13: 978-0910155502


It's taken me a while to figure out how to approach this review. See, I'm used to reviewing fiction, and not autobiographies.

Anita's story helps to bring to life aa period during WWII, and circumstances of which I was only peripherally aware of one, and that was the WAAC's mainstreaming and transition to the WAC. For the uninitiated, that's from the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps to the Women's Army Corps. Injured in an incident in boot camp, which I've taken to thinking of as a case of "friendly fire" (and medical malpractice), and disabled as a result, this book takes us through Anita's struggles to be recognized as a disabled veteran, injured in the service of her country. It's her story, but it happened during that period, and her life, and the transition, and the struggle for the rights of those women veterans disabled during the transition adds a dimension to this story. It's one woman's struggle, and ultimate triumph, that illustrates the struggle, not only for women veterans, but for all veterans. It's an important part of history that should not be overlooked, and brings to life the period in which it transpired. Anita was also the first woman to pass a drivers license test using hand controls. Considering that this period was WWII, that point also shows that civilization was not quite so barbaric as some of the medical methodology was, for that period. ;-)

I have to admit that I was looking at the story and thinking about how different it was fro mthe America portrayed in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, which was more about a depressed economy than about the child of a business owner. A different economic strata is portrayed, and this book, unlike that one, is not fiction. Still, I could relate to Anita's story. I never was in the military, but...

I would recommend this book to both historians, and to people who like to read human interest stories. Other folks might find it interesting, too.

The author will be doing a book signing in Orlando at the Urban Think Bookstore this Saturday, on the 15th of December.

5:08pm: [Review] GOBLIN HERO, by Jim C, Hines
( No, this is it. Seriously. )

8:57am: Sevens, apparently. It's the Endless Meme.
( Sevens, apparently. It's the Endless Meme. )

1:09pm: Of course, I would have to test drive a new icon. ;-)

8:44pm: Time Tatters?
( Thoughts On What I Am Currently Writing: A Record )

10:41am: Post The Second
          Huzzah! Nobody here but us chickens. LiveJournal is speaking to me again, and all is well with the world: but then, I have not written or drawn anything which could be considered a Pornish hen, so...
          Gah. I know what I want to, have to, write, so why am I not writing it? Maybe it's just advice overload, or something. Maybe I should go back to my novel for now, and take notes on the short later. After all, I have at least a year till the next anthology,and plenty of time before they ask for any stories, since it's only in the talking stages now.
          I like the mood icons that I'm using here. It's very different, with the big square instead of the cute, fluffy animals (I use bats on Blurty, foxes on GreatestJournal, and cats on LiveJournal—and yes, bats are fluffy, some breeds of them).
          Speaking of bats... I'll be writing dragons into my novel/series. That's one of the reasons I have been reading up on them. Many dragons are portrayed graphically with bat's wings, though dragons themselves are said to be reptilian in nature. Bats aren't reptiles, so I've been cogitating that a bit. Not up to 'em yet, though I'll have to put 'em somewhere in the first trilogy, since they are major characters, some of them. I figure there are at least two distinct draconic varieties, and I guess I'm still pondering the phenomena, if it is one, though in the series it's going to be a matter of course.

11:27pm: Ha, ha!
          Why in Hades did I start yet another blog here? I must be terminally sane.
          I did have the three things they recommended for my friends list on there, but I took them off again. I would prefer to find my own friends, under my own power. Some of them have come here from LiveJournal, and perhaps I want to stay in touch with them. I shall find other friends with common interests, the longer I reside in this place. I shall commence within the next few days by posting reviews that I have done and posted elsewhere, and then we shall see...