Bad Writing

My college friend Jenners has a terrific blog called Life With a Little One and More.... Right now she has a contest going called Bad Writing. Even though I'm a librarian, I wasn't a bookwork or writer as a kid. I shied away from history and English classes and much preferred math and science. I wanted a right answer, not my interpretation of some major world historical event or storyline of a classic piece of literature. How could my thoughts be anywhere near correct or even interesting? I was 16 years old and most of my intelligent brain cells were occupied with weekend plans and getting concert tickets. One time my sister and I waited more than 24 hours (yes, we slept on the sidewalk) to buy Springsteen tickets and all we walked away with was a shoe. Who waits in line for concert tickets and then goes home wearing one shoe? To add insult to injury, it wasn't even our size. See, I just got totally off track. I rest my case.

For the contest you have to write a really bad opening sentence for a fake book. Bad Writing is write up my alley! ha ha! The novel can be any genre. Hmmm. Here goes:

• I sat at my computer, willing my brain to come up with an awful sentence, yet nothing came. --From: How I Lost a Writing Contest, But Gained Some Free Time

• I sat down to the dinner table, not really hungry, but there was food in front of me, so I ate anyway. --From: Food: Take It, Never Leave It.
  

• There are days when I think to myself, "Is this really my life? How did I get to this exact spot? Where were the major turning points?", but this morning I thought, "Plain or peanut?" --From: Life Truly is a Box of Chocolates
  

• She gazed at her daughter, an image of herself at a younger age, stroked her long, chestnut hair and asked, "When was the last time you took a shower?" --From: Unhidden Thoughts
  

• An owl swooped through the dark night and delivered a letter to a boy that lived under the stairs, but this book isn't about that boy. --From: Cousin Dudley and the Kidney Stone
  

• In the beginning there was Bob and Bob begat Michael and Michael begat Aidan. --From: Biblical Beginnings, My Short Family History
  

Hey! This was a fun activity! I think I'm darn good at bad writing. I better go check to see what the grand prize is. I'm soooo gonna land that prize.

When Do You Just STOP?!?

It seemed everywhere I turned the title The Life of Edgar Sawtelle was appearing. When I went to book blogs, Amazon, and magazines there it was. It's a New York Times Bestseller. It's an Oprah Book. I was dying to read it. Now I'm dying to just get it over with. I'm 400 pages in and it's just not working for me. Perhaps the hype killed my experience. Perhaps now is not the time for me to read it. Maybe I'd love it four months from now. I don't know why I don't like it, I just don't.

So my question is, when do you give up? I feel like I can't stop since I've invested so much time into it. On the other hand, I feel like I'm throwing good time after bad and time can be more precious than money. My rule of thumb is 50 pages. If I'm not hooked by page 50, I don't continue. If I stop earlier I don't feel like I've given the author a chance. What do you do when you're at page 400 and have almost 200 pages to go and a stack of other titles that you're anxious to read?

Well, my solution is to scan and browse. I never do this, but I'm stuck. If I were on page 120, maybe I could wave the white flag, but no way can I do it on page 400. So I'm zipping through the pages. Dog training - scan - naming puppies - skim - conversation betwen Edgar and his mother - read that section - more dogs - browse... I'm I getting the story? I'm sure I'm not, but I guess I'll find out at the end. The literature isn't enough to keep my attention. I thought I craved dialogue, but Life of Pi is one of my all-time favorite books and most of it took place when he was lost at sea.

So, I should crank out the next couple hundred pages soon and then can move on to another book. If the ending blows me away, maybe I'll read it properly at another time in my life. For now, I'll skim my way to the end. Not very satisfying, but it does the job.

**Update: I finished it this morning. I didn't realize that it was a retelling of Hamlet, until someone pointed it out to me. Duh! Now I'm on to New Moon for my YA Book Challenge.

The Internet Effect

I just discovered WIRED Science and the most current article just happened to be Digital Overload is Frying our Brains. I just blogged about how my brain slowed down when I didn't have wireless at home and I've blogged about my "Adult Onset ADHD". I call it the Internet Effect and apparently I may be on to something. The whole concept scares me and I'm not sure what to do about it. Perhaps I need to concentrate on NOT multitasking. How do you do that? Maybe I need to cut back on my screen time.

I think I need to ask advice from my friend Ginny. She's an extremely talented artist and amazing person who values connecting with people and the creative process. We've had many conversations about technology's affect on society, both good and bad. She believes that every person has creativity, they just need to find it. She'll slow me down and get my creative juices flowing in no time.

Living in Shanghai

The Best Things About Living in Shanghai:
1. My friends! :o) Gotta love my peeps!
2. Living across the hall from fantastic people with a cute baby!
3. Massages
4. The food
5. Amazing fireworks all year long!
6. Convenience to everything from my apartment
7. My library
8. DVD sellers on the corner
9. The Metro (subway, not warehouse store!)

Not So Great Things About Living in Shanghai:
1. Lack of nature
2. Overcast weather
3. Bus ride to work
4. Air Quality
5. Can't get out of the city easily

Technology Woes

We've been without wireless for almost 2 months. I've tried to fix it with 9 other routers. No joke, 9! In the beginning not having wifi really bugged me, but then I got used to it. Without the lure of the Internet, I have more free time. I barely got online during the Chinese New Year vacation, but I cooked with Brenna a lot. It was really nice to just enjoy time with my daughter and the rest of the family. On the other hand, I missed all the birthday wishes sent to my friend Paul on Facebook and then totally forgot to go to his birthday party. Not good. Of course, had I written the party on the calendar in my kitchen, I would have remembered. I shouldn't need wifi to ensure that I attend parties!

I even watched movies. I made it through about 4 movies, which is unprecedented for me. Some of them were even really bad movies, but I stayed awake and focused. Not having wifi seems to slow down my brain to a less frenetic pace. I could focus on a movie without having to multi-task. The "Internet Effect" seems to be reversible for me. I like that!

I still don't have wifi up and running and I kind of know how to solve the problem. Shhh. Don't tell my family! I'm dragging my feet because I enjoy not having the computer compete for my time and attention. But maybe now that I've seen how else I can spend my time, I'll resist the computer. We'll see.