Save Everything, Everywhere

Ever get that feeling of cold fear in your heart when you’ve typed out the best chapter ever, putting the cap on 5k words, clicking save and having your computer crap out on you? Or worse, going to turn on the computer to start your morning work and seeing a black screen?

As authors, we should do things to protect ourselves and our work. If we lose wordage, that sets us back, steals our time and our creativity. Yes, we can type it over, but we’ll never get those hours nor the the unique quality of our words again. That can drape a wet blanket over the next chapters that we try to write.

I know we’ve seen the posts about the hard drive that failed, the thumb drive that failed, the CD that failed and I truly sympathize. It’s a terrible, terrible feeling.

Never fear, there are cures for your ills.

Most of us have ~~sold our souls to Google~~ a Gmail address, right? Perhaps more than one depending on what we do online. Well, this Gmail address is a goldmine of free services just there for the taking.

I’ve used Google Docs for years. You might call me an early adopter, or a geek who is so excited about the next best thing I’ll stick my hand in a bear trap to get in on a beta. Maybe not a hand, because I’ll need that to type with, but you get the idea.

Google Docs is, for lack of a better term, good. Behold, the reasons why:

It’s

available for file types such as spreadsheets, documents, drawings and web forms (such as surveys)
available to multiple users at once (authors working on a project in real time, at the same time)
in the cloud (not tied down to one computer)
FREE

I’m typing this right now in Google Docs – while it doesn’t have the full functionality of a Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, it gets the job done. Plus, there’s a lot less distractions.

So come on over to Google Docs, sit next to me on the couch. Try Google Docs for your work – you won’t be sorry. Or if you are, it’s not my fault, okay?

If you have any questions about Google Docs, leave a comment or send me an email dahliadewinters @ gmail.com.

Become a Cookie (making) Monster

sugar cookies — Don’t be fooled. My cookies did not look like these.

Yes, it’s 90 degrees outside, or at least it will be by the time noon rolls around. However, by the time you start thinking about making cookies, holiday time will be staring you right in the face, telling you that you’re a terrible cookie maker.

Avoid the shame. Do what I do. Make the dough now, keep it in the freezer. Then, become a cookie maker extraordinaire!

One year, I made cookies for all three of my children’s classes – that’s 65 cookies AND hand painted them red and green….with sparkles. I must have been out of my mind.

Sugar Cookies

2 cups of pure, snow white sugah

1 ½ cups of butter (softened)

4 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon extract (optional)

5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

Frosting:

Blend confectioner’s sugar and milk until it reaches the consistency you like. Paint onto the cookies with a paint brush. A few drops of food coloring in different shades will give a festive look to your cookies.

Directions:

Cream together softened butter and sugar in a large bowl. Then, beat in eggs and vanilla. In separate bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder until combined. Add to creamed butter/sugar mixture a cup at a time.

Chill dough for at least one hour. (Or it will be too sticky and annoying to handle and you will curse the cookies.)

When you are ready to make the cookies, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Let dough soften, then roll it out on a floured surface. You can use cutsie little cutters or simply a juice glass with a floured rim.

Place cookies one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. For best results, use parchment paper. Yes, it is expensive, but your cookies will not stick. Please, learn from my frustrations.

Bake 6-8 minutes, let cool before removing from cookie sheet.

If you freeze the dough – wrap it in freezer paper NOT ALUMINUM FOIL. Again, learn from my mistakes. You may also be able to wrap it in wax paper, but I have not tested that personally.

Football Friday – The Season Begins

Broncos vs Ravens

And football season is upon us with a vengeance. Super Bowl champs the Baltimore Ravens paid a visit to the Mile-High City for a rematch. If you remember last year, the Ravens bested the Broncos in overtime to move on to the Super Bowl. Mind you, the NFL Channel never let us forget it – I have seen enough replays of the end of that game to last me a lifetime.

I would venture to say that Peyton Manning and the Broncos gave the Ravens a bit of “get-back” last night.

Yes, the first half was slow. A thirty-minute rain delay coupled with the slow saunter of the Ravens onto the field didn’t bode well for the Broncos, especially when it started to rain. When the Ravens drew first blood with a touchdown, Broncos fans may have thought that the Super Bowl champs were back stronger than ever.

However, Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning and despite the absence of Von Miller on defense, Manning more than compensated with his passing game. Wes Welker showed his total catching abilities with nine catches for a total of sixty-seven yards and two touchdowns.

In addition, Demaryius “Only winners get wings” Thomas and Julian Thomas (no relation) combined for 181 yards to push the Broncos over the Ravens.

The most exciting second half I’ve seen in a long time.

And thank goodness, football season has begun!!

49-27 ……Broncos

Note: Peyton Manning ties NFL record with seven touchdown passes.

Train Your Brain

Train your brain and live longer.*

“A body at rest tends to remain at rest”,the old saying goes. The same can be said for the brain. When you do the same thing over and over again, it affects you. Falling in to a disliked or boring routine can render you brain-dead, an automaton who lives for Fridays and hates Mondays.

What kind of existence is that? I don’t buy into that psychology. Every day is a gift, to be heralded, valued and used.

I keep my brain active by being on the lookout for learning something new. “Oh, Dahlia,” you might say, “as a woman of a certain age, with children and a husband, you’re much too old and busy to learn something new.”

Oh, but dear reader, how I disagree. It’s a pleasure to wake up in the morning with a new skill under your belt.

Knitting, crocheting, bracelet-making, origami, WordPress, sewing, gardening, fantasy football, re-upholstering dining room chairs – these are all skills that you can learn and have fun doing so. Why not take some time out of your busy television-watching schedule (where you are viewing other people’s creativity) and do some creating for yourself?

But learning something new? That takes work, time, dedication. It also puts your brain into high working gear, which in turn may give you the joie de vivre that we a look for.

For example, earlier this year, I worked with my daughter on making bracelets. They were pretty simple things, a little plastic rope, some beads and a dab of super-glue. Not quite so simple and easy if you needed to figure out a pattern that wouldn’t render the bracelet too large or too small. Or to tie a knot that wouldn’t slip apart when you stretched the bracelet to slide on your arm. Even the “look” of the bracelet: did you make something you would want to wear?

Between the online tutorials and our experimentation, I think I learned quite a bit. Now I can add “bracelet-making hot mama” to my list of “hot mama” accomplishments.

What have you accomplished today? Make a promise to learn something new this weekend…and put it in the comments.

Keep that brain working. Learn something new everyday.

*may or may be true, but if it is…you don’t want to miss out, right?

Born Under a Bad Sign…With a Blue Moon in Your Eyes

In light of the death of James Gandolfini, I wanted to take this time to write how much I enjoyed HBO drama, The Sopranos. To begin, let me say that I am a huge fan of dramas. Back in the day, I wouldn’t miss an episode of Hill Street Blues or L.A. Law. Later on, it was Law and Order and E.R. Lately, I have drifted to the cable dramas, albeit rather late in the game. I watched The Sopranos when it first came on HBO, because I am a huge fan of Mafia-inspired dramas and movies, plus it took place in New Jersey, so what could be better. However, between getting married, having children and having a love/hate relationship with premium channels, The Sopranos and I parted ways. A couple of years ago, after the huge hoopla over the series finale was over and done with, I sat down and watched the seasons that I missed.

What a remarkably awesome show. Actors, writing, character arcs….it still renders its impact to this day.

The Sopranos is a thinking person’s show. The writing is excellent, no one is a good guy and there are only small satisfactions along the way. Don’t expect this show expecting the good guys to win or the bad guys to get their comeuppance. It ain’t happening here.

Even the FBI, usually the people on the white horses that come in and save the day, are painted in dubious colors. They are responsible for a few deaths and beatings on the show, that’s for sure.

It is definitely a male-oriented show. You delve so deeply into Tony Soprano’s psyche that you know for sure this is not someone you want anywhere near you or your family. The rest of his cohorts and the women who hang around them….there were times when you might have shed a tear, but when you elevate yourself from the spell of their highly insulated world, you can’t feel sorry for them…they chose this life, right?

Though you may feel that these people selected their own fates and must pay the consequences, the show still somehow makes you feel for them, shed a tear for them and silently urge them not to turn their back on that guy in the Members Only jacket.

But what sold the show wasn’t just the good writing, the well-written characters (and the awesome actors that portrayed them) , it was James Gandolfini and his character’s troubled relationship with his mother that permeated his very being, that kept you tuning in, despite months between seasons.

Thank you, Mr. Gandolfini and Mr. David Chase for providing us with such an excellent character study within the “walls” of the New Jersey mob scene. The Sopranos is a show that can be watched and rewatched again – every time I watch an episode, I see new things. That’s very rare.

Broncos vs Ravens

49-27 ……Broncos

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