Enjoy The Day

Athabasca Lookout, Sandhills, overlooking Horseshoe Bend

Come on over. Rest a while. The view is good. The weather's fine. Enjoy the day.

Gone With The Hard Drive

Ruins yield treasures.

I dug out the hard copy of a manuscript yesterday. I had no choice as I'd only backed up half of it and the hard drive it was on is ruined. How it got physically damaged is a mystery. It will stay that way.

It may turn out to be a blessing in that I have to retype the story.

Retyping leads to rewriting.

Said manuscript had lain dormant for several months.  It had gone to a beta reader whose taste and opinion I trust. 

Beta advised. Beta is right. Betas words are gone with the hard drive, but I recall the gist and it is on a closed loop in my mind as I write.

Writing feels good. Rewriting does, too, because I am re-imagining. It's similar to starting from scratch, but with a good well of ideas from which to draw.

Yesterday's output was a few hundred words, but it included shuffling of chapters, perking up of dialogue, scene punching, all manner of good stuff that happens in the first excited blush of creation.

I'm still waiting to hear back on a manuscript I've submitted to agents and publishers. This will keep my mind occupied while I wait.

***

The photo is part of the house my granddad built. I live there the first year of my life.

 

Gratitude Monday--Meeting the Challenge

There's always something to be grateful for, even when it doesn't seem so on the surface.

Last Monday afternoon the hard drive went on the computer. Nothing could be saved.

Much was lost as I had gotten sloppy with back ups over the years. The emails are gone, my recipe file, some general work.

And many, many pictures.

But I'd copied all our big trip photos, South America, Cuba, Egypt to either a flash drive or disk. In some cases, both. They're okay.  Various other photos including my visit to my home hamlet, Fort Assiniboine, and our visit to Kootenay Lake B.C. were on Facebook.  Those I copied back one image at a time to my computer and backed up. We still had some photos on our memory cards, too, so we've got those back and backed up.

My manuscripts were on diskettes with one exception. I've only got half of one of them. But, I also have all my manuscripts in hard copy. I can re-type the missing portion. It needed rewriting anyway. This is my excuse to start from scratch and not be tempted, out of sheer laziness, to think a passage is good when it could be better.

We've got a bigger, faster, and ultimately cleaner hard drive. My zeal to back up work is renewed. I will probably get an external hard drive for storage fairly soon.

I am grateful I'd backed up what I did. It appears I have most photos up to summer of 2008. I am happy my manuscripts are in hard copy and that the missing portion can be easily rebuilt. All it will take is time and a bracing cup of tea now and again. Time I have.

This is an annoyance of the first water, but that's all it is, an annoyance, and for that I am grateful.

No point being a bear about it.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Fort Assiniboine

Here's an overview of my home hamlet, Fort Assiniboine.

Gratitude Monday -- Gratitudinal

I've been getting shed of things I don't need. I found the following  amongst some old writings of mine.  I used to write quite often to the Universe and its assorted denizens.  On occasion one would write back.
I suspect this is from one of those times.
#
That which must be...is.
That which is meant to be...is.
That which comes to pass...has been.
That which is willed...will be.
That which is desired...becomes.
That which we believe it to be...is.
We become what we believe.
We are who we believe we are.
We become what we think.
We are what we believe of ourselves.
That which is...is.
We believe that which we perceive ourselves to be.
What we think we are... we are.
We are all we can be. It is inside. When we believe this we are it.
That which we believe to be ... is.
#
I believe in gratitude, therefore there is always something for which to be grateful.

Do you?

Winter 2012

Crimson Lake, Ab.

It's supposed to be winter.
Frankly, I'm a little disappointed.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Pretty Birds

A pair of Trogons in a tree.
We came upon them at the crest of a very steep hill on a walk in Cuba two years ago.
The Trogon is the national bird of Cuba.

Gratitude Monday -- A New Year

Sunrise near Abu Simbel

The year is new and fresh and, to paraphrase Anne Shirley, has no mistakes in it.
It's a Leap Year, too, so we have an extra day to enjoy, make mistakes and learn from them,  rise out of bed, put one foot in front of the other, and get after it.
I am grateful for another year. Anything can happen.
The very best of 2012 to all of you.