Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

What estarla said. And Mike. Thinking for myself, I'd say that it's important to pay close attention to your children's use of social networks -- weirdos are out there too.

So, in my family, I just say "no way" when my children ask. And anyway, they're not going to want to be on facebook, because I've beat them to it. I recently joined Facebook, because someone I like asked me to be their friend and it seemed rude to say no. Still, I'm finding the whole thing a little weird, as though there's some point I'm missing. One thing I've liked is reconnecting with people I went to college with. And it's another way to e-mail someone. Other than that, though, I'm not so sure.

But I only have 16 friends, so maybe something amazing happens when you have, say, 1600.

Wow. Mrs. Sitler sounds like somebody from a book my kids would read! I love the part about organizing your tray... what a lunatic.

My favorite teacher was Mrs. Topel, in the third grade. She'd read to us for hours and hours it seemed like, and she was incredibly kind and patient and took no crap either. I used to lie in bed at night and pretend that she was my REAL mother, and that she'd just sort of lent me to my family for the time being.

The bad teachers? I guess its only fair that I don't remember any of them.

I think daylight savings time might be behind my feeling that I'm about to collapse. It's been busier than usual at home and work and I keep forgetting to breathe.

It would be better if I could emulate Scrivs (not to mention my dog Archie) and focus on what I'm going to eat next. Therein lies happiness and peace, I'm pretty sure.

Scrivs, You'd be a great dad. Don't forget to do that someday, okay?

I'm just guessing you've had to deliver this kind of news more than once yourself Tyme, and not just to Scrivs and Mike.

I am not working at this exact moment because I just arrived in my office, having spent most of the morning delivering the news to my 12 year old son who has been sick all week and so has missed five days of homework that he still has to do the homework and, no, he cannot go to the skate park today because he HAS HOMEWORK.

As you might imagine, I'm so tired right now that nothing but a little 9rules will cure what's ailing me.

OOO. Very nice, Cooper. Apparently, you are I are the geeky word people around here!

Aw. Thank you!

My amazing shoe collection.

The fact that so many things crack me up.

Oh, my eyes. They are blue and green and grey and brown. All at once. My children have them. I tell them that when I'm dead and gone I'll still be there, every time they look in the mirror into their own eyes. (*I just re-read this and realized how scary it is! Poor children, they're absolutely stuck with me forever.)

The fact that I am so in love with life and not in the least afraid of dying.

Did I mention my shoe collection?

(Are we allowed to answer this twice? Last time, I was so not loving myself.)

*Hands Mike a shiny Power Rangers lunch box containing chicken soup in a thermos and a package of doritos, and no sympathy whatsoever for being such a young 'un.*

(Now I have to head over to the lunchbox clique and find out what you're REALLY having for lunch.)

48! Today is my birthday -- I love being 48.

*Takes a big bite out of (dark) chocolate gavel.*

Ahem. As the entertainment chair, and while Lorri, who I think proclaimed herself queen, is away napping, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you creaky oldsters to the ... wait a minute... I forgot what we were calling ourselves.

I vaguely remember that last year I gave myself a chocolate gavel. That's looong gone, by now.

I'd just like to say that although I'm a year older than I was last year, my memory is still sharp. Sharp-ish, anyway.

So welcome.

Good things that, back then, seemed like bad things: We didn't have a television. We went to the library a lot. I raised my hand and said whatever weird thing I thought. I had a bike my parents bought me when we lived in Germany that actually folded in half (it had a little hinge). I loved that bike until we returned to the states and kids made fun of it.

I think sexual attraction and compatability are also very important in a marriage and sometimes that doesn't come in the same package with "best friend." So, I'd just say yes, by all means marry your best friend, but make sure you also like sleeping with them too.

Because I live in Berkeley, where a lot of things go, the girl you describe sounds pretty run of the mill. However, I do agree wtih the observation that many people have made in this thread, which is that we are all guilty of generalizing from appearance to interior and that's probably never going to change. Certainly, teenagers do this with adults as often as adults do this with them, because teenagers seem to often jump to the conclusion that a great gulf separates them from those who are really not that much older than they. We do this to our detriment, of course, missing out on interesting people and ideas because of it.

Oh, Sarah, when I see very young women with babies I generally feel sorry for them, but that's most likely because I would have been a terrible parent in my twenties. Parenting is just a really, really difficult thing to do and as Auburn says, nobody can really be prepared for that. It puts a huge amount of strain on a marriage (as well as your bank account and your body) to have children. Having been a mother for twelve years -- and with three boys -- I am so glad I waited until I was emotionally and financially secure before I had children. For me, that turned out to be when I was 35. That's a long time to wait, but I was really not ready until then. But I am not you! I think you're smart to ask other people about their own experience with this, and wish you well in finding out what is right for you.

The two things I did that helped me grow as a writer are

(1) I took several creative writing classes through the University of California extension. I learned an enormous amount and only wish I'd done this sooner. Some of these classes did indeed encourage writing exercises. Nothing wrong with that. Often the exercises taught a certain writing skill -- one I was happy to work on. Or they encouraged you to reach pretty deep, where the unexpected and good material lives. The thing that struck me most about your question is that the subjects you've set yourself to write about all sound very interesting. Why not write about all of them? As you push yourself into these subjects, you will surely learn new things about writing and about yourself.

(2) Every week, I got together with a couple of people I really admire as writers to read and critique our writing. The critiquing followed a certain kind of formula that made it more likely you would get helpful feedback and less likely that the conversation would devolve into bickering about personal preferences in writing. I finished an entire novel with this group, partly because I felt obligated to have something to read to them every week. I think you should consider getting your stuff out there for feedback -- that pushes you in new directions too.

I've travelled alone and I've never had any trouble -- well except for once in Greece when some weirdo at the hotel I was staying kept phoning my room and asking me to sleep with him. Ick. But as I've gotten older, I've confined my solo trips to travel to and in countries where I have friends and family more or less available if I need help. I love being alone, because I almost never am, and I think with some care, you will be fine.

I often find myself saying to people I really like and am happy to see, "how are you?" and then wish I hadn't because I don't actually want an answer to that question yet. More I want to say, I'm so glad to see you, because in a little while we're going to have a great conversation and then I can find out how you are. It's a small, silly thing, but something I'm going to get rid of in my conversational habits.

I'm with Nils -- make it all count!

I'm so looking forward to the coming year. I've gotten so much accomplished in the last decade -- I love my job, I know how to do it well, my children are a source of great happiness, my husband is a good guy, I have wonderful friends and decent relationships with my family. It surprises me sometimes to discover that all this took me so long -- I'm 47 after all, and you'd think it would have come together sooner. But some of us are slow learners, or change just comes slowly. It still comes, though!

My goals now are all about the fiction writing I've been slowly gathering steam with -- I've begun to send out stories consistently and I want to continue to do that; I'd like to finish my second novel by the end of the year, and I plan to find an agent for my first novel, someone I like who can place my book with the right publisher.

Everything else, good health, good financial habits, good relationships with my community and loved ones, those are the things I continue to try to keep on the straight and narrow -- the things that you never really finish doing.

"With all due respect" -- usually followed by something that's anything but.

"I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but" -- usually followed by some nasty observation.

What a wonderful question! The early part of the year was the worst, having radiation therapy for cancer, and feeling like a target in a video game, a very, very tired target. Didn't like that!

The best? Finding out my first novel was a finalist for a literary prize -- I didn't win, but I was so jazzed to discover that someone other than my mother liked it! Now, I've got to sell it to somebody, but it's a lot more fun to try that knowing that at least one objective observer thinks it has a lot of commercial potential.

Next year is going to be wonderful. I've got novel number two clearly in mind, I'm sending out a lot of stories to literary journals, and we are all in good, rude health, which is what I wish for everyone on 9rules.

Happy New Year!

If I'm going to be late, it's generally no more than ten minutes. I'm never late to things I love to do -- like the movies, to outings with my friends, or lunch dates! I think when I'm late it's usually when I'm trying to do too many things, or when there are too many things that aren't in my control. (Like children -- if you want to get someplace on time, and they don't know where their shoes are, you're going to be late, even if your own shoes are on your feet.)

Because I am myself often late, I cut people a lot of slack within about a fifteen minute window -- longer if they are travelling or have told me that their arrival time is approximate. But if someone's late for something that has a certain start time -- like the theater or a movie -- I am not happy.

Well, if one needs must, Rich, then one needs must.

And what a lot of really good recommendations -- not to mention the unexpectedly weird and disturbing double fisting thing. Someday, I will figure out what smells like mocha and pine and mail it to you, Gnorb.

For a long time, RightOn, I was with you on this subject. But lately I've been noticing how truly lovely some scents are -- and what interesting histories many of them have. I also think that scent gets a bad rap because people wear it so badly -- they bathe in it, when they should be so much more sparing. And there are some really wonderful perfumes that aren't "chemical" but are natural and quite nice. Maybe it's a generational or cultural thing, but I do like good smelling things on men.

When I was a teenager, I worked in our local library, putting the books back on the shelves, so I've always organized my library to look like the Parkland Branch of the Pierce County Public Library.

Now, though, it's chaos. When I had children, they started pulling the books off the shelves and chewing on them, so I put them all away, and then I never got around to putting them back up. I have thousands of books, and have discovered that if I want something I've read before, I can check it out at the library, borrow it from a friend, or even (gasp) acquire a second copy, usually used. And the many new books I've acquired since I put the books away -- 12 years ago -- are stacked everywhere in my house, although I have to say that I give a lot of my books away. Especially around Christmas, when I take the best books of 2007, wrap them up along with other books I think people will like, and make book stacks -- the best present of all time, in my opinion -- for my loved ones.

Oh, I do like that nutmeg one! That's holiday-ish enough for me.

Santa, aka my husband, took my little imac into the independent computer store in Berkeley where the most wonderful, and geekiest, mac guys in the world work, and had them put in stuff that makes it faster and better. I think they are also cleaning the crumbs out of the keyboard.

I love this present because it does not involve buying anything new, or ditching something that is perfectly servicable.

And RightOn -- that is a bummer, being without power. I hope it's not terribly cold out there, and that it gets back together soon. In California, we had these weird rolling blackouts a few years ago, but I missed them because our house is a few blocks from a firestation, so was exempt, and my office is in a state building, so it managed to be exempt too. But that is different from the unexpected denial of something you rely on so much. Hope it works itself out quickly!

I just went over there and checked out the challenge. I wouldn't do something like that because you're required to use a bunch of words most people will have to look up to understand. Good writing doesn't shy away from tough words, but it doesn't use them just because someone tells you to.

If the point is to improve vocabulary, then people should all be over at free rice (http://www.freerice.com/), which I really love.

Woot, Rich! Quixotic is such a fabulous word, and even more fabulous if it gets anyone to pick up Edith Grossman's wonderful translation of Don Quixote and actually read it.

I had no idea "woot" had anything to do with owning anything or anyone. Around here, it just means yippee. Only sillier than that.

Oh, I thought it meant they were giving you a present -- in this case a movie but also the gift of a note topic that once again helps humanity be a little clearer. In these tiny ways, Rich, you are improving the world.