This little guy is stuck in a dark corner of my yard. I was going to let it go, because I inherited 12 or 13 peonies already, but then it bloomed and convinced me I should save it. I will find a sunnier spot for it.
Gardening is in full swing, which brings me to the writing group update. I think I’ll have to put a pin in the posts until late August, because my plan for the next couple of months is to be outdoors as much as possible. And I will also be traveling. I have several nice pieces saved from BJ writers that I will hold till then and Wiley Cash is scheduled for October as a guest when his third novel is published. I hope you all understand.
Here are some puppies to smooth things over.
Bixby does love his tall grass. Open thread.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Well, not gonna say that I’m not disappointed…
Nonetheless, let’s all enjoy the arrival of summer, dogs and cats, green gardens, red wines, dark beers, and the on-going implosion of all things Trump.
Keith P.
Anyone know where to buy water plants, like lotus and water lilies? Home Depot, Lowes don’t have them, and while I’ve been told “Check a pond supply place”, I don’t know of any around (and can’t say I’ve ever seen a “pond supply” store).
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I suggest a local nursery, not a big box store.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
In NorCal, such nurseries are not rare. In Nebraska, for instance, maybe they’re unheard of.
Snarkworth, short-fingered Bulgarian
I’ll miss the writing group, but approve the idea of taking a summer break. I’ll keep busy with the publisher’s edits on my first novel, and trying to outline my second.
Please try to save the little peony. That beautiful bloom is its cry for help!
Major Major Major Major
If you can’t do new interview & advice content for a writing group thread, I’m sure we would appreciate a biweekly or monthly open thread that was simply dedicated to writing.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I like that idea.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
@schrodingers_cat:
As do I.
Elmo
@Keith P.: Seriously, no shit – my wife just took delivery of several pond plants she ordered on Amazon. She said the packaging and plant health was the best she’s ever seen, and they are already starting to “take.” She planted them Friday.
jeffreyw
Mrs J’s peonies opened nicely but were immediately beaten down by a big rain. Sad!
Elmo
@Elmo:
Strike that, she planted them yesterday. She’s over the moon about what great shape they were in.
Mustang Bobby
@Major Major Major Major: I agree, and let me take this opportunity to do a little crowing. A 10-minute play of mine will be in the Odenbear Theatre’s Bench Play Festival in Taos, New Mexico June 14-25. The same play has been selected as a finalist in the annual City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting contest. It will have a reading on June 24 here in Miami. Yip yah.
J R in WV
Our pond is between a rock cliff and the front door, built to turn water coming out of the rock wall away from the house foundation. Pea gravel and sand underneath the liner with a drain to keep water from accumulating under the liner, which would raise it off the bottom.
Recently the rubber liner sprang a leak, and now it drains away. Sad for all the amphibians who used to successfully hatch eggs in the little pond. I need to tear it out and rebuild it with a new stouter rubber sheet. I hesitate to tackle the job as I’m older now, and may not have the energy to finish the job.
Where it is, the work has to be done by hand, as there’s no room to get a machine of any sort in there.
Lots of work, and there are 3 other projects to think about too.. What to do?
Major Major Major Major
@Mustang Bobby: Awesome! What’s it about?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
@schrodingers_cat:
@Mustang Bobby:
Et al:
Me, like, sixthed. Could Alain set up an auto-post on, say, the second Sunday of each month at 9:00 am and the rest of us can chit-chat while TaMara takes a break? It’s nice to have a dedicated thread just for writers once in a while, and it doesn’t need a theme.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
What exact model of Asus Flip did you end up getting? The threads last week got me interested, because I’m looking for something simple for a not very tech-savvy friend, but when I look on Amazon for “Asus Chromebook Flip” it’s not clear what’s the latest and greatest.
Also, in my related reading I found that, if you have trouble accessing Android apps for your Chromebook, you can toggle a “developer mode” that opens that up. Dunno if it applies to your Flip, or if that’s even an issue for you.
debbie
Great news about a new Wiley Cash!
@Mustang Bobby:
Congratulations!
germy
germy
TaMara (HFG)
Actually, I believe with Alain’s help I can set it up – he put in a neat feature for reoccurring posts. Let me did into it and I’ll update you as I know what’s what. As long as you’re ok with just an open writing thread, I’m happy to do it.
Steeplejack
@TaMara (HFG):
That sounds like overkill. Is it that hard with FYWP to write up a short post a little ahead and give it the appropriate drop time?
Paula
Hey: I’m adding my vote for an open writing thread if/when can.
Hope everyone’s doing well!
Jeffro
Between Kelly’s comments today about leaking being “almost” treason, Trumpov’s reality-altering tweets this morning, and the plan to start holding rallies weekly around the country…it feels like we’re entering a new, and more dangerous phase of getting this useful idiot and his gang of thieves out of the White House.
I’m glad there’s going to be a summer of protests. I think it’s time to really ramp up on Congress (perhaps most especially by unmasking their donors and their agenda?) to do their duty. Otherwise, they have to be called out and branded as the collaborators that they are. None of this is normal; none of it should be even slightly acceptable.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Ironically, I ended up getting the smaller (iPad-sized) one, the C100PA, instead of the latest-and-greatest. After playing around with the machines at Best Buy, I ended up preferring the portability of the smaller one. I realized that if I wanted to carry around something the size of a laptop, I would just carry my MacBook around. I’m going to take the Asus out on a field trip later this afternoon and try some portable writing.
The one thing I would say is that the keyboard on the C100 is VERY small. I can make it work, because I have fairly small hands, but if your friend is a man, the keyboard would probably drive him insane unless he has Trump-sized hands.
Also, the mere fact that you asked TaMara if she couldn’t just do a timed post on her own with FYWP indicates that you’ve never tried to schedule a post on FYWP. It’s way more of a pain in the ass than it should be.
ETA: The full-size Asus is the C302. I also liked the Samsung flippable Chromebook but, again, it was more like a laptop than the super-portable iPad-sized machine I wanted
Mustang Bobby
@Major Major Major Major: An elderly father with dementia and his son share memories during a moment of clarity.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Also, my particular model does allow downloads directly from the Android store, I just haven’t tried it yet.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (HFG):
Yay! I think we all have projects that are far enough along that an open writing thread would be nice just to chit-chat. It’s great to have a topic and a discussion about it, but we don’t really need to have one every time.
? ?? Goku ? ?
Reposting from down below:
I’ve thought about getting a tazer in response to this (Portland slayings). I know I’m a loud mouth who would get involved in a situation like what happened in Portland. I would like to protect myself and others in the event something like this happened to me. Good idea?
Major Major Major Major
So, on the writing front, I’m going to start doing a comic strip now that I’m up to speed on my new drawing tablet. I fleshed it out over the weekend. It’s urban gothic/world weary young adult snark, about a young man in New Mexico who’s just finishing two years in community college. He inherits a house from his aunt in Denver and transfers to university there to finish his school. New college, new city, new job, new friends. There’s also some unfinished business that comes with the house that nobody told him about, and he’s introduced to the world of ghosts and goblins while still trying to keep repairs up to date on his used 80’s Volvo. I drew a cover.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I just sent you an email.
Paula
@Major Major Major Major: Cool!
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: 240 estate? They’re the best. I loved mine. Perfect car for a cartoon. Draw a box, add tires.
Off soon to teach, but somewhat annoyed that I noticed a tat on a student yesterday. III.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: yep! Well, it’s inspired by the one my friend had in high school, but I’ll admit the shape wasn’t not a consideration.
What’s wrong with a little ink, though? Incidentally, my character has a tattoo that he doesn’t know is a protection ward yet.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
I follow him on FB, so I knew it was coming! He’s a wonderful writer — I’m really looking forward to the new book (The Last Ballad). Have pre-ordered it for the October 3 publication date, and hope I’ll be able to read it before he comes back to chat with us. Thanks to TaMara for setting up a guest BJ spot for him.
Yutsano
@TaMara (HFG):
Coming to the Seattle area by chance?
Speaking of, will be around town again come mid July. More details forthcoming as the appointments approach.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Ink is fine. Several of my students have them. Just the one he had (III) is not something one expects in polite society.
OK, really off now.
Mnemosyne
@Mike J:
I’m assuming it’s a white supremacist or similar criminal tattoo?
schrodingers_cat
@Mike J: What does it mean? Does it have to do with the German man with the funny mustache?
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: don’t know what that means either, but I thought you were saying you were ill.
ETA: but it might be gun nut militia bullshit. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/USMC/comments/4rygwo/roman_numeral_iii_tattoo/
Another Scott
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, probably the 3%, Molon Labe, etc., stuff that was popular among the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge folks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I am in love with a couple of the commenters on that thread now:
HinTN
@SiubhanDuinne: (& Steve in the ATL) OT, but we’ve eaten dinner at Wisteria and brunch at One eared stag and been at Piedmont Park sampling good food and fine jazz. Sorry the emails Adam sent didn’t result in a meet-up
Brachiator
@Steeplejack: You might take a look at the info on Chromebooks at the Wirecutter site. Very clear, jargon free recommendations. I have an older, discontinued Toshiba Chromebook that I love. It has a 13 inch screen, but I think that the 11 inch Chromebooks are fine.
Personally I would not recommend the 10 inch Flip to a person looking for a general purpose machine. The chips and components are actually inferior to those of an iPad or good Android tablet. The trade-off between portability and usability is too great if this would be your primary or strong secondary machine.
Asus and Samsung make good Chromebooks, slightly better values than HP or Dell.
You might also look at the Chromebook Unboxed videos on YouTube. Again, good brief discussion without a lot of tech fluff.
Kayla Rudbek
@? ?? Goku ? ?: I’m considering getting a tactical umbrella e.g. this. Not sure whether to get the telescoping or the regular one.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
@Steeplejack:
If it helps, the purpose of my new 10″ Flip is to be a portable, distraction-free machine that I can take almost anywhere. I’m not even going to let myself read Balloon-Juice from it. I’m going to do my best to keep it 100 percent for writing and research.
For someone who wants a more general-purpose Chromebook, the 14″ Flip has pretty rapturous reviews, plus a much larger on-board hard drive. Samsung also has a couple of Chromebooks around 14″ that have the fold-back screen and very good reviews.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne, @Brachiator:
Thanks for the feedback.
My friend is older and (I think—I am filling in the blanks somewhat) wants to move up from browsing and doing e-mail on her smartphone, now that she is comfortable with that. I think she’s a good candidate for a tablet, but she really wants a keyboard. She hates thumb-typing on her phone and feels like she “abridges” herself because of that.
Like Mnemosyne, I think that fewer pieces to keep track of are better. I was thinking of an Android tablet and a case with built-in keyboard, but I had Chromebooks in the back of my mind. The threads last week prodded me to update my research, and I have to say I like the 10" Flip. I found myself looking at that one even before I got the exact model number from Mnem.
The price is pretty good for the functionality. I think she would use it mostly in tablet mode, but the keyboard is there—and not lose-able—if she needs it. And I like the (relatively) idiot-proof Chromebook interface. Not that she’s an idiot, heh. She used to use computers at work—mostly Office-type apps, I’m sure (she’s now retired)—and still occasionally has access to one when visiting friends and family. I think her mindset was “desktop computer or big laptop sitting around taking up space” and now she’s had some sort of “a-ha!” moment around “Hmm, if only my phone were a little bigger.”
I think I’ll swing by Micro Center or Best Buy and fondle one in person. Then see if she wants to check it out.
P.S. to Brachiator: I have to be extremely careful with The Wirecutter (and its sister site, The Sweet Home). I will go on there to look at one specific thing and suddenly wake up four hours later seriously contemplating the purchase of a holographic artisanal air purifier or some such. Ngrr!
workworkwork
@Steeplejack: I got our new dishwasher (Bosch) based on a review on Wirecutter. I love it.
If I don’t know much about a product category, I usually go to Wirecutter to learn more about it. Occasionally it has influenced a purchase, mainly when I don’t want to settle for cheap crap that breaks down constantly.
Steeplejack
@workworkwork:
It’s a good “catalogue porn” site, but I do like to check their reviews against other sources.
PaulWartenberg
I apologize for the lateness of this post. This has been a busy weekend for me. And not as much writing as I’d hoped. :/