Wednesday, April 30, 2008

'A certain kind of magic'

Emi YaƱez/Flickr

While going through papers in my office, I found this article from 2002 that I had printed out and saved: What Itzhak Perlman Learned at Camp; While Helping Students, His Wife Says, He Reinvented Himself.

While Perlman is a musician, some of the things said in this article really resonate with the writer in me, especially since I feel like I'm on an eternal curve when it comes to learning my craft.

Here is the part I highlighted:

Maya Shankar, a 16-year-old recovering from a hand injury received while playing the violin at camp last year, remembers a session with Mr. Perlman in which he revealed his own feelings of terror and competitiveness.

''When we got to ask him questions about his childhood, he said that for many years he was jealous,'' Ms. Shankar recalled. ''He'd worry: 'Oh, this person has learned many concertos so much faster than I have, and this person is playing concerts and I'm not performing. There's no way I'm going to get anywhere in music.' From someone who turned out the way he did, that was so comforting for me to hear.

''Then he told us that we have our own inner clock, and it ticks at a certain rate, and you're going to get to certain places at times different than everyone else is, but that doesn't make you any less of a musician.''

What he doesn't tell his students is how to play.

''For me one of the great things about teaching is not so much what to say but to know what not to say,'' Mr. Perlman said. ''If somebody is talented, they contain a certain kind of magic, and that magic is very precious, because it is on very precarious ground. It's like a very fine leaf that if you shake it too much, it breaks. You have to let the branch grow until it becomes strong enough that if you shake it, it's won't break.''

Although six years have passed since I first found this article, this section still resonates as strongly today as it did then. I think a lot of it applies no matter where you are on your artistic journey. There will always be that other person to compare yourself against who is a little more successful or is already at the place where you hope to be.

Wordless Wednesday: Ham

My nephew hams it up while taking photos after his school production last night

My nephew hams it up while taking photos after his school production last night.

Call me indecisive, but I had trouble selecting a photo today. My runners up for Wordless Wednesday this week:

I don't even know this little girl, but I love her expression and I think she looks ridiculously cute dressed as a pig.



The lonely cow.This lonely cow was part of the backdrop at my nephew's school production last night.




While enjoying laying in the grass during the cool afternoon yesterday, Loki turns to me as if to say, "Watcha doing?"




Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Life: I'm a card-carrying member...

... of the Bionic Woman Action Club.

Yes. Here's the evidence. I found it last night while sorting through some old papers.

Membership card in the Bionic Woman Action Club

I even have some autographed photos of Lindsay Wagner to prove my devotion, although the signatures are suspiciously mass-reproduced looking.



Now, if only I'd held onto my Bionic Woman action figure. :P

Monday, April 28, 2008

Life: Can we get on with spring now?

The corner supports of our old gazeboYard work and more yard work. That's pretty much all we did all weekend.

We hauled landscaping bricks, mowed the front lawn, pulled weeds, moved rocks. We took down our old, broken gazebo and started to assemble a new one.

We're waiting for the weather to break so some new landscaping can go in, but Mother Nature decided to assert her authority today and prove that winter isn't quite over yet. For about 20 minutes this afternoon, it snowed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Point proven. Can we get on with spring now?

:P

New gazebo partly assembled

Sunday, April 27, 2008

A Beacon Time Capsule -- April 27-May 3

A brief look at where this blog has been:

The lawn in a half-mowed condition

A year ago, I was blogging about:
  • Why write a novel? That's a good question... -- A link to a BBC Magazine story about why people feel compelled to write novels, even though the odds are decidedly stacked against that novel even getting completed, let alone published.

  • Two years ago, I was blogging about:
  • Funny Mike -- Where I see a former co-worker, Mike Siegel, on television and wonder what ever happened to him.
  • Lofty ambitions -- Where I pledge to take the stairs more often, which lasted for the whole summer.
  • Why blog? -- Where I try to explain to my family what a blog is and why I'd want to write one.
  • Contests update 2 -- Where I try to digest some feedback from a romance writing contest.
  • Lawn-mowing woes, The lawn continues to grow, and Mission accomplished -- About my adventures trying to remember how to mow a lawn.

  • Prior to that:
    This blog didn't yet exist, and I haven't back-posted anything that qualifies.

    Saturday, April 26, 2008

    Fables and the Imaginative Mind

    It's been a long time since I posted anything about what I've been reading. I mean, I'm a writer, so I should be a voracious reader, right?

    Yeah, but...

    I'm also a really undisciplined reader. When a fiction book captures me, it's all bets off. I'll stay up most of the night reading. I'll read at breakfast, lunch, snacks. I'm like an addict.

    So then I schedule my reading time for that rare weekend when I can take a full day to read without guilt.

    The other problem is that when I started to study the craft of writing, it changed how I read fiction. I get too easily distracted by the mechanics of the storytelling and the writing. I get too easily bored. So when I do reserve precious time to read, sometimes what I'm reading fails to capture me and I move on to some other activity.

    When it comes to non-fiction, I have bookshelves full of books that I've collected on all sorts of subjects. But they serve mostly as occasional reference, since I don't have time to read them cover to cover. My solution lately has been to designate a book for the office that I take to lunch with me and read during that time. It might take several weeks or so to get through a book that way, but when I do it, the system works for me.

    The best solution, though, was when I discovered courses on CD. Then I could listen to them during my hour of commuting time every day, blowing through college-level courses in a few weeks. Bonus: No studying, tests or term papers.

    Which leads me to my current post -- what I'm reading and listening to now -- because, truthfully, the two tie together so well.

    What I'm reading is a series of graphic novels called Fables, and what I'm listening to a Teaching Company course titled Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Fantastic Works.

    MASTERPIECES OF THE IMAGINATIVE MIND


    The Brothers Grimm, Tolkien, the fantastic, science fiction, the universal structure of orally composed tales. It's all here.

    Strangely, if you were to ask me what I've learned so far? The two facts that stick out in my mind are these:

    1. Flowers are the sex organs of plants. (Remember that the next time you give or are given flowers.)

    2. In fairy tales, they don't say "I love you", they give you food, and they don't say "I hate you", they poison you.

    Really, there's a lot of good information in this class, but those are the two things that jump out at me right now.



    FABLES

    It took me until Snow White and Bigby Wolf went on a camping trip together in the middle of book 3 to officially get me hooked, and now I've been pouring through the remaining books. [Yeah, yeah, I know Dave and Marriott have been telling me for weeks, no months, that I would love this series, and I resisted. I'm confessing now: You were right.]

    Basically, the setup is this:

    A great dictator, the Adversary, has taken over the magical kingdoms where the characters in our beloved fables and folktales live. Snow White, Prince Charming, The Big Bad Wolf and many of our favorite fairytale characters have had to flee their magical world and are living in exile in New York City in a secretive community known as Fabletown, while those fables who can't pass for human, such as the Three Bears, are living in upstate New York at a place called The Farm. There's romance, political intrigue, mystery, and a war to fight against the Adversary.

    It's definitely a series for grownups, as it has adult situations. But it's very well written and entertaining, weaving in lots of storybook references.

    Friday, April 25, 2008

    Life: These kids and their wacky technology

    My husband doesn't get the appeal of a blog or blogging. Nada. Zilch. Especially a personal journal-type blog such as I'm writing.

    He only reads it when I specifically send him a link and say "Read this". I don't call on my "Read this" strategy all that often, because it loses its impact when over-used. Every once in a while, though, the fact that he doesn't read the blog becomes ... awkward?

    For example, here's a conversation (as I remember it) that happened a few months ago:
    Dave was telling a friend (Hi Chris!) a story about how we were learning to snowboard.

    "I thought Haley's version was funnier," the friend said.

    "Haley's version?"

    "The one she posted to her blog."

    Dave turned to me. "You wrote about this on your blog?"

    A moment of silence passed during which I felt like I've been caught leading a secret life (using my name on the very public forum of the Internet).

    "Of course."
    In order to prevent future conversations like that, a few days ago, I decided to subscribe my husband to the email feed for this blog (offered through Feedblitz, see the lower right column of this page).

    Now while my husband doesn't seem to get the appeal of blogging, I personally don't get the appeal of instant messaging. The conversations are too slow for me. Because my husband uses instant messaging all the time, though, I try to remember to sign in while I'm at work so we can exchange an occasional few lines of conversation.

    Apparently, his subscription to my blog finally kicked in today. Here is a snippet of an instant-messaging conversation we had:
    Husband: Wordless Wednesday?
    Husband: WTF?
    Me: It's a blog thing. Some bloggers post a photo on Wednesday and call it Wordless Wednesday. :P
    Husband: :P
    Husband: This is all too wierd
    A moment later he'd moved down to the next post titled A Steamy Romance Novel.
    Husband: DH's Rogue?
    Husband: DH?
    Me: dear heart, dear husband
    Husband: Ew
    Husband: STOP
    Husband: Seriously
    Me: LOL
    Husband: this is just TOO WIERD
    Husband: Will you be text messaging soon?
    Yes, we're both typical Americans of our generation who have never caught on to the international fascination with text messaging.
    Me: DH has been around for a LONG time
    Husband: And you never told me you read the novel
    Husband: You just posted it to your blog?
    Me: I did it right after you told me it was clickable
    Several minutes passed while my husband doesn't say anything. I started to worry. (This is one reason I'm not a fan of instant messaging, BTW.) I picked up the phone and called him. No answer.
    Husband: Are you calling me?
    Me: yes
    Husband: On a conf call. What's up?
    Me: sorry
    Husband: That's OK. What did you need?
    Me: Just trying to get a read on you -- you seem upset about the blog
    Husband: Not upset
    Husband: I just do not in any way understand it
    Husband: :)
    Me: LOL
    Me: OK
    So that's where we left it. I'll continue to try to draw him into this "secret life" that is my blog. He'll continue to remind me to log into instant messaging every day. And we'll both stay in continued agreement that we have very limited uses for text messaging.

    Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    Wordless Wednesday: Kerfuffle

    Birds stir up the water, fighting for food in the DuPage River in Naperville, IL

    Note: This is my first Wordless Wednesday. I've just tracked down and installed the Mr. Linky box below. Sorry a few of you visited before I could figure that out.

    Tuesday, April 22, 2008

    A Steamy Romance Novel

    Screen print of A Steamy Romance Novel in World of WarcraftMy DH's rogue, Ghidoraah, found this as a world drop on World of Warcraft and sent this in-game to Lasaire, my hunter.

    Lasaire found it humorous, but was disappointed in the ending.

    Being a romance novel and all, I had to share it.

    Screen print of A Steamy Romance Novel in World of Warcraft

    Sunday, April 20, 2008

    A Beacon Time Capsule - April 20-26

    A brief look at where this blog has been:

    Haley and her nephews as Mario characters

    A year ago, I was blogging about:
  • That elusive chemistry -- a link to an article about what makes for good chemistry in fictional characters.


    Two years ago, I was blogging about:
  • A forte for comedy? and What's next? -- Where I discover that, in my acting class, some people think I'm funny, then I try to figure out what my next step will be. Spoiler: I haven't yet, two years later, signed up for another acting class.

  • A place to collaborate and Playing with the PBWiki -- I discover a site called PBWiki and try to use it to collaborate on a writing project. Spoiler: Ultimately, we didn't use the site to its potential.

  • Romance appreciation -- About my writers group's annual dinner to network with booksellers and librarians.

  • Contests update and Keeping the Golden Heart in perspective -- Where I talk about some of my results in some romance-writing contests.

  • I just don't get it -- Musings on my first experiences using MySpace, and why I chose to cancel my account there. Spoiler: I end up opening a new one because I do, ultimately, figure out a use for the site.

  • Cute overload! -- A link to a site with really cute dog and cat photos.

  • I'm watching you -- My first reactions to using SiteMeter to track website traffic, and for some reason I try to scare off all my readers with ominous-sounding threats. As a random update: I don't know why, but I stopped getting hits based on the "Next Blog" button on the Blogger NavBar. Anyone else notice that too? Does no one use the "Next Blog" feature anymore or did I somehow blacklist myself?

  • Mario Kart Racing -- Where I go out and have some fun with my nephews.

  • Mini fantasies -- Where I contemplate how I can stuff two big Bernese Mountain Dogs into the back of a little, ity-bity car.


  • Prior to that:
    This blog didn't yet exist, and I haven't back-posted anything that qualifies.

    Saturday, April 19, 2008

    Life: 8 Random Things About Me

    Thanks to Periapex at Life's Context for tagging me. I think. (That's an "I think" for the tag. I'm not in doubt about who did the tagging.)

    The Rules:

    1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
    2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
    3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
    4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’ve been tagged, and to read your blog.
    So, what are the eight random things about me?

    1. I have had job titles with both "chief" and "engineer" in them, but not at the same time.

    2. I own two custom-made ballroom-style corsets, but I haven't worn them in a few years because I've gained a few pounds and they no longer fit right. You can find photos of me wearing them (and 20 pounds lighter) on this page and on this page and on this page. The site and photos are totally G-rated.

    3. I once won a Magic: The Gathering card game tournament at a local comic book shop. I sold all my Magic cards shortly afterward and recouped my investment. If you gave me Magic cards now, I'd be clueless what to do with them.

    4. I hate crunchy vegetables. Over-cook and puree them, and you might get me to eat them.

    5. Because of dust allergies as a kid, my parents had to take the carpeting out of my bedroom and get rid of my stuffed animals.

    6. I have a 60-gallon fish tank in my family room. The fish tank has not had any fish in it since 2000; instead, it's full of stuffed animals. It kind of looks like a broken carnival game. It's been like that for so long, I hardly notice it anymore, although I'm starting to get embarrassed by it.

    Is it a fishtank or a toychest?detail of the stuffed animals in the fishtank

    7. I've had 24 teeth pulled by an oral surgeon. Because my teeth were too big for the size of my jaw, when I was 8 years old, the oral surgeon pulled 10 baby teeth, and when I was 10 he pulled 6 more baby teeth and 4 permanent teeth. When I was in college, he pulled my 4 wisdom teeth. Bonus: The tooth fairy paid double for the pulled teeth. Don't worry -- I have a full set of teeth now. :)

    8. I'm good at keeping secrets, which sucks when you're a blogger.

    My victims? I'll tag:

    Catherine at Sharp Words, Cromely, MamaFlo, Monique, Brady Frost, Don at Driving to Oahu, and Tina at The Creative Nerd. For some of you with writing-specific blogs, consider this a challenge to keep the list of 8 facts writing related.

    You may have counted only seven tags. That's because I'm leaving the last spot open for you non-bloggers. If you want to participate, feel free to post it to your page at a social networking site, or leave it in a comment, or email it to me. Whatever makes you happy.

    Friday, April 18, 2008

    At Large: That photo again!

    Haley and JC at Paintbrush Ball 6-2-07Several weeks ago I wondered why this photo kept leading people to my site because it keeps showing up in my SiteMeter report. It seems that people are finding it through Google image searches.

    It's a low-quality, unflattering photo, I think, but the consensus among a few of you readers was that it was all about the *ahem* the cleavage.

    Imagine my puzzlement yesterday when I saw the photo again in my SiteMeter report. This time it had the search phrase "fighter pilot helmet" attached with it. Fighter pilot helmet?

    So, I went to Google images and did a search for "fighter pilot helmet" myself, and what did I find? My photo on page 8 of the search results.

    that same photo again

    And why was it associated with a "fighter pilot helmet"? Because the event I was blogging about in relation to the photo involved a raffle for a fighter pilot for a day prize! And on the same page is a story that my nephew wrote about The Super Flying Screaming Monkey vs. Godzilla, which mentions a helmet.

    Ironically, the photo that goes with The Super Flying Screaming Monkey vs. Godzilla post is also one of my most searched for images. Go figure.

    Thursday, April 17, 2008

    Life: Where no eardrums were damaged, I think

    Dave and Paul singing, while Haley plays DJ

    I'm a little late with this karaoke party rehash. I know that most have you have been biting your nails in anticipation. Sorry. :P

    Overall, I'd call the night a success.

    Here's a link to the photo evidence, and here's the short version of what happened:
    We had about 25 guests.
    Many dressed in '80s inspired clothing.
    Party ended at 5 a.m.
    The police were not called.
    I played DJ until 3 a.m.
    Between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., people requested and performed to at least 60+ songs.
    We bought 25 songs on the fly through iTunes.
    From 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. was the open-mic, all-sing, free-for-all.
    From 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. you couldn't pull me away from the mic.
    No, I was not drunk.
    My husband and I were out of bed the next morning by 10 a.m.
    The house was clean again by 1 p.m.
    Kelly performing.Here's the playlist as I logged it at the time. There are probably errors of omission and errors in song titles. This is exactly as I wrote it down. And it's a good thing I wrote it down, too, because there were a few times as I was typing this when I said to myself, Really? I sang that? Oh, yeah, I remember now!

    Stars (***) denote an award-winning performance as determined by our panel of judges. Awards were for '80s songs performed before 11:30 p.m.

    Erasure -- Dave and Kyle
    Walk Like an Egyptian -- Haley and JC
    Rock this Town -- Mark
    Welcome to the Jungle -- Lara***
    Just a Girl -- Ladyknyght
    Love and Affection -- Tom
    Superstitious -- Hilly
    Like a Virgin -- Joanne
    The Logical Song -- Haley
    Tainted Love -- Mark and Kelly
    Let's Go -- Kyle
    Ballroom Blitz -- Lara
    True -- Ladyknyght
    Stop Draggin My Heart Around -- Mike and Kelly (aka M-elly) live
    Every Rose Has Its Thorn -- Dave and Paul***
    She's Out of My Life -- Tom
    Just a Gigolo -- Hilly and Wook***
    Stray Cat Strut -- Hilly, Mark, Mike, Paul and Mario
    White Rabbit -- Lara
    Careless Whisper -- Joanne
    {Something I failed to log} -- Dave and Kelly
    Devil Inside -- Ladyknyght
    Jesse's Girl -- JC, Haley and Kelly
    I Won't Back Down -- Hilly and Mike
    Cracklin Rosie -- Mark
    Green, Green Grass of Home -- Mark
    Killing Me Softly -- Mike and Kelly (aka M-elly) live
    Sharp-Dressed Man -- Hilly
    Candy-O -- Paul
    A Piece of My Heart -- Lara
    Kiss Me Deadly -- Ladyknyght and Haley
    Semi-Charmed Life -- Dave and April
    Rock Me Tonight -- Kyle
    Ring of Fire -- Eric
    Alicia Keys If I Ain't Got -- Joanne
    She's Like the Wind -- Tom
    I've Had the Time of My Life -- Mark and Kelly
    Purple Rain -- Hilly and Mark
    Love Vigilante -- Mario
    Bring Me Some Water -- Ladyknyght
    Black Dog -- Lara
    Verve Pipe Colorful -- Paul
    Fun, Fun, Fun -- Haley and Paul
    Brian Wilson -- Dave and Mario
    Money for Nothing -- Mike
    Leather and Lace -- Haley and Mike
    Why Georgia -- Dave, April and Paul
    Come Monday -- Mark
    Coin-Operated Boy -- Ladyknyght
    Can't Hardly Wait -- Mario
    For What It's Worth -- Lara
    Du Hast -- Mark
    Landslide -- Haley
    Like the Way I Do -- Ladyknyght
    Overkill -- Dave
    Coldplay Trouble -- Wook
    Luck be a Lady Tonight -- Mark
    Laid -- Mario
    No Sugar Tonight -- Lara
    Centerfield -- Mike and Hilly
    Only the Lonely -- Ladyknyght
    Bennie and the Jets -- Paul and Santos (with Mike and Hilly)

    {Then the free-for-all, open-mic started}
    Don't Stop Believing
    3 a.m.
    Bohemian Rhapsody
    American Pie
    Sympathy for the Devil
    If I had a Million Dollars
    Switchin to Glide
    {log stops here...}
    If you read my pre-party post last week, you'll know I was really nervous about my two duets.

    Mike and I were supposed to sing Leather and Lace live with Mike playing the guitar, but, fortunately for me, he broke a string before we had a chance to perform, so we just sang along to the Stevie Nicks/Don Henley version. People said that if we'd sung it earlier in the night, we might have been up for an award.

    Mark and I had talked about singing Suddenly together. I knew it was going to be a disaster for me because Olivia Newton-John's part is too high for me. When I asked Mark about it at the party, he said the male vocal was a little challenging for him, too, and he hadn't practiced much. We were going to let it slide, but then some time around 3-4 a.m. we decided, What the heck!, and sang it anyway. At that hour of the morning, it didn't matter how atrocious my singing was.

    Oh, yeah, in case you're wondering why we quit at 5 a.m.? One of our friends suddenly remembered that her alarm clock was set for 6 a.m. and she wanted to make sure she was home to turn it off before it woke up her son. Their departure turned into the signal to shut everything down. Otherwise, who knows when we might have stopped...

    Wednesday, April 16, 2008

    At Large: My American accent

    This result was dead-on accurate for me.

    What American accent do you have?
    Your Result: The Inland North

    You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

    The Midland
    The Northeast
    Philadelphia
    The South
    The West
    Boston
    North Central
    What American accent do you have?
    Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

    Sunday, April 13, 2008

    A Beacon Time Capsule - April 13-19

    A brief look at where this blog has been:

    A year ago, I was blogging about:
    I was on a blogging hiatus.


    Two years ago, I was blogging about:
  • Acting class = surprisingly fun -- about my attempt to shake things up in my life by taking an acting class.

  • 'Shout out for my homiez' -- my first attempt at link love.

  • Dead trees with print on them? -- about the future of newspapers.

  • Family outing and Parking (?) at the outlet mall -- about an excursion with my mother and sister.

  • Remembering the Great Quake -- about the anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake.


  • Prior to that:
    This blog didn't yet exist, but I back-posted an article from April 13, 2004, titled Frustration with contests, about my results in a love-scene writing contest.

    Friday, April 11, 2008

    Found on the Internet

    ~Random ramblings from the last week or so~

    You Suck at Photoshop
    What's so addictive about this tutorial series is the drama happening in the background. Even if you don't own Photoshop or don't even edit photos at all, follow this series from the first episode for the humor alone.



    New Episode of The Guild
    I love this series. I think I've said that before, but no matter. I love this series. Check it out from episode one. Here's episode eight:



    Blogger in Draft
    The coolest feature I've found so far? The ability to schedule my posts. If I sit down and write several at one time, I can space out their appearance on my site. (Yeah, I know, nothing new to some of you non-Blogger-hosted bloggers, but it's new to Blogger!)

    Book Mooch
    Saw this on Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff and registered. Looks like a good way to clear some books out of my personal library.

    Life: GooglegƤngers

    Do you know what a GooglegƤnger is?

    If you've ever Googled yourself and found that there is someone in the world with your exact same name leaving a document trail on the Internet, you've found your GooglegƤnger.

    Almost two years ago I confessed to Googling my own name. I even wrote a post on it:
    Doesn't everyone Google her own name? In the post, I documented a few other Haley Hughes's out there in the world.

    I've often wondered if I was being strange and creepy, but decided I wasn't when I noticed searches for "Haley Hughes" showing up in my SiteMeter reports. I figured not everyone could be looking for me specifically.

    Then, this morning, I read a New York Times article on the very subject titled Names That Match Forge a Bond on the Internet. When I read it, I laughed to myself and thought, "Hey, more people do that than I realize! Cool!" Then I bookmarked the story to share in my Google Reader Shared Items (see the right-hand column of this blog), and thought little more about it.

    Then, about 15 minutes ago, I actually communicated with one of my GooglegƤngers!

    "This may seem a bit random, but I googled my name which is also Haley Hughes, and found your blog," my GooglegƤnger wrote to me in an email. "I don't email strangers like this, I just thought I'd introduce myself. It seems like such a small world!"

    I was instantly charmed and wrote her back immediately.

    I have to confess to having some near-introductions with other Haley Hughes's via misdirected email -- a grandmother trying to contact her granddaughter, a friend trying to arrange a gathering -- but I never actually talked with the Haley Hughes in question.

    To me, what is so startling about meeting and seeing other Haley Hughes's out in the world is that I spent the first 20 years of my life without meeting a single other "Haley" (regardless of the last name or spelling). I predate the "Haley" trend in baby naming by a long shot. Growing up I constantly heard, "Oh, Haley, that's an unusual name! I've never heard that before!"

    Now the name has gone through a few phases of popularity, but it still startles me to be out someplace and hear my name being attached to someone else.

    So, now, when I see someone named "Haley Hughes" (or Hayley or Hailey or Hayley or Hayliegh, but especially Haley), I feel an instant connection and curiosity.

    So if you're reading this and your name is Haley Hughes (or any other variation of Haley), feel free to drop me a line.

    On a side note, there's a romance novel titled The Cowboy Finds a Bride with a heroine named "Hailey Hughes". I know this because Cathie Linz, the author, is a friend and she borrowed my name for the character (although she changed the spelling). :)

    Has anyone else met or tracked their GooglegƤnger?

    A Beacon Time Capsule - April 6-12

    Photojojo has this really cool feature where, twice a month, they email me a photo time capsule of photos that I posted to my Flickr account a year prior.

    As they explain on the Photojojo time capsule website:
    "Now everyone and their aunt Sally's got a digital camera, and you don't take a few photos at a time, you take a few dozen. You may even take a photo every day. But every photo's still precious. And it's kind of sad that when you take so many photos, you tend to forget that. That's why we made the Photo Time Capsule. Photo Time Capsule won’t let your best photos be forgotten."
    It seems to me that something similar could be said for blogging. So, I thought it might be nice to implement a time capsule for The Beacon starting this week, and then running every Sunday.

    Unfortunately, I didn't pick the strongest week to start, as I was on a blogging hiatus one year ago and focused on my Dad's death the other year. But, no matter, I have to start somewhere.

    A Beacon time capsule

    A year ago, I was blogging about:
    I was on a blogging hiatus.

    Two years ago, I was blogging about:
  • Where Fiction Meets Reality -- about a company's efforts to bioengineer real mythical creatures.

  • Haley's Dad
  • Then I got all serious and blogged extensively about the one-year anniversary since my Dad's death with Fathers and Heart Attacks, 'Aneurysm Tests Urged in Older Men Who Smoked', One year on since Dad's death, Grief and journeys.

  • Prior to that:
    This blog didn't yet exist, and I haven't back-posted anything relevant.

    Thursday, April 10, 2008

    Writing: Creating romance novel book covers

    screen capture from better.tv romance novel cover segmentBetter.tv, which is part of Better Homes and Gardens, has a video segment about how a cover for a romance novel from Dorchester publishing is created. The segment features an interview with a cover artist and footage from a modeling session.

    The book that's featured looks interesting. It's C.L. Wilson's Queen of Song and Souls, which is due out late this year from Dorchester.

    Life: The karaoke train-wreck to come

    Haley singingTwo years ago I did something I never thought I'd have the courage to do, I got up in a bar and sang a karaoke song solo. And I didn't suck.

    People who know me in real life were shocked that I got up and sang. I have a well-deserved reputation as being the quiet/shy/reserved person in the group. In fact, shortly after Marriott first met me, she expressed concern that I was being left out of conversations because I wasn't talking much.

    "Really?" I said. "I don't feel left out. I'm participating in my head."

    And it was true, I had all sorts of comebacks and comments swirling in my head, but I don't always like to compete to be heard. Plus, sometimes, truthfully, all I'm doing is listening and there's not much else going on at a conscious level. Just processing. (Sounds a little vegetative, I know, but sometimes I just don't have anything to say.)

    One thing that I have been vocal about with friends, though, is a fear of public speaking. It's kind of a nuisance, actually, because I'd like to be able to present workshops and the like some day, so every once in a while I do something totally scary just to shake things up. Like taking an acting class, or allowing myself to be brought up on stage, or singing karaoke.

    Yes, back to the karaoke.

    A few weeks after that first karaoke experience with our friends, we were having a party at our house. At some point, our friend Mike brought out his guitar along with an amp and microphone, and Dave brought out the iPod, and the evening turned into an impromptu sing-along night.

    We had so much fun that two months later we planned an official karaoke party. Our friend Rod brought over his mixing board and speakers, we had two microphones, we set up the computer to play iTunes along with a scrolling lyric program called MiniLyrics. There was a lot of good and bad singing, and everyone seemed to have a blast.

    A year ago February, we did it again, and all I can say that at 3 a.m., when most people had gone home, I was at the microphone attempting some Fleetwood Mac while Rod disassembled the set-up. And I was 100 percent sober.

    Truthfully, I don't have much of a voice, but evidently I enjoy singing. (The church youth choir and the middle school swing choir didn't develop my voice so much as make me acutely aware of when I am flat, which is often.)

    Which brings us to today. Less than 48 hours to go until our next karaoke party. Same setup as previous parties, but this year with a theme -- Awesome '80s. Instead of repeating songs from previous parties, we're encouraging everyone to try new material (that was Hilly's idea -- thanks Hilly. I think.)

    Unfortunately, I didn't start thinking about what songs I want to sing and practicing until this week. And here is where a few problems come into play.

    No. 1 -- I like to sing along to songs by male vocalists, and sometimes that comes across as strange. Past efforts on my part have been Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen, Here it Goes Again by OK Go, Mona Lisa by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger, and Love You Madly by Cake. See, all those have been male. Sure, there was the Bree Sharp song, but that falls under problem No. 2 below.

    No. 2 -- Some of my favorite songs are more obscure. Did you see the list above? Not many crowd-pleasers in that group. Someday I might have the right crowd for Metallica's version of Astronomy, but I'm pretty sure that only my car upholstery will ever get to hear me sing that. Way too long and niche.

    No. 3 -- My favorite bands in the 80s were Rush, Pink Floyd, Guns N'Roses, Rush (again), Yes, Queen, Rush (again) -- you get the idea. Not necessarily the easy-to-sing, karaoke crowd-pleasing favorites, especially when sung by someone of the wrong gender. :)

    So what am I preparing and practicing?

    I tried to go for a fun song, so I'm working on Walk Like an Egyptian, which might come out OK. And my rendition of The Logical Song isn't so bad (yeah, it came out in 1979, so sue me). And just this morning, my husband talked me into doing Fun, Fun, Fun as a prelude to his Brian Wilson (both not '80s, but that's fine).

    Then why do I say that karaoke is going to be a train-wreck?

    Two reasons: Leather and Lace and Suddenly.

    Leather and Lace is a Stevie Nicks song that I told Mike I would sing with him as a duet. No real recording backing us, though. Nope. Mike's playing his guitar. It's all us. Gulp. Let's just say this song is challenging for me. But that's not even the real train wreck.

    The real train wreck waiting to happen is Suddenly. I was dying to sing with Mark (who has a to-die-for Neil Diamond voice) and for some reason agreed to do Suddenly with him. But I am definitely no Olivia Newton-John. It's way out of my vocal range and so far my practice sessions in the car have produced voice-cracking abominations that not even my upholstery appreciates being exposed to. Ugh. I definitely need to call Mark and bag on this -- or drink a lot at the party.

    OK, so 48 hours of practice to go. Pray for me. :P

    I'll let you know how the party turns out, and whether I bagged on Suddenly. In the mean time, in writing this post, I discovered Last.fm. I made a handy-dandy widget of the songs I've been talking about, plus a few extras that might show up in a sing-along/karaoke post in the future.







    Wednesday, April 09, 2008

    At Large: Creativity

    I just saw this on Cheaper by the Half Dozen and had to try it. I'm not quite as creative as Rene, but I'm certainly not complaining about my score. :)


    You Are 84% Creative



    You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity.

    Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

    Tuesday, April 08, 2008

    Life: No more cold and drafty nights

    Finally. After six months we have new windows in our bedroom. I probably wouldn't even bother mentioning it on this blog, except it took *six months*.

    It's mostly my fault. The windows should have been a simple decision, but I complicated it.
    How many windows in the house should we change now?
    Should the windows stay white on the exterior side?
    Should they stay stained on the interior side?
    Should we rethink the molding in the house, and starting transitioning away from the colonial trim toward something more in keeping with the architecture of our house?
    Does our split-level suburban house even have an architectural style?
    I hemmed and hawed and got multiple quotes. I consulted different books. Meanwhile, the casing on one of our 30-year-old bedroom windows continued to rot, until we had almost a centimeter gap where nothing but the screen separated us from the outside elements. We plugged it up with towels and put plastic on the window. I'm sure the neighbors thought it looked lovely.

    I placed the window order before the New Year. But then we had to wait for the windows to be made. Then we had to wait for them to be stained. Then we went away on vacation.

    So, finally, they were installed last week. The stainers came by this morning to complete any touch-ups to the woodwork following installation. The project is complete.

    /happy dance

    We now have six beautiful new windows in our bedroom and guest room, and a gorgeous new trim scheme to start phasing into the house. See?

    our old windowsour new windows

    Thor naps by the windowsEven Thor likes the new windows. :)

    We have nine more windows in the house to get changed at some future date, but that's not in the budget right now. We have other priorities. Check back in a decade. The way my husband and I move on some of these things, it could take that long. Seriously.

    Sunday, April 06, 2008

    Life: Angie, I hardly know you

    At the day job that I hardly ever write about, I work with a woman whom I would nickname She-with-the-infectious-laugh. But for the purposes of this post, I'll call her Angie.

    Angie's cube is right next to mine. We're both technical writers on the same project -- two of three women on a team of men.

    We're not best friends by any means, but we do enjoy each other. Of course she won a lot of points with me shortly after we met when she told me, "You look like someone who works out" and then later insisted that I had to be 10 years younger than I really was.

    One thing that never comes up, though, is her dating life. Despite the fact that only a thin cubicle wall separates us, I'm really good at tuning out her phone conversations.

    Anyway. So, I hadn't seen Angie in almost two weeks because we had back-to-back vacations. Thursday, I was working from home and had to call in for our biweekly team meeting. We're a small team -- fewer then 10 people -- and we've all worked together for a while, so we tend to be very casual at times.

    "Haley," one of my co-workers tells me right away. "Go to Howard Stern's site and find the episode for April 1."

    I'm at home. I'm on my computer. Sure.

    "April 1?" I ask. "Is this an April Fool's joke?"

    "No."

    So, while my boss is going on about project timelines, I'm trying to scan the synopsis of Howard Stern's April 1 show.

    First I notice Angie's photo. Then I notice several photos with Angie. She's with some guy 20 years older than her called Evil Dave Letterman. Doing a Howard Stern gameshow called "The Newly-weird Game", which is take-off on "The Newlywed Game", along with George Takei of Star Trek fame.

    As my boss is trying to talk about goals and upcoming reviews, I hear background mumbling as the team passes around photos of Angie on the show. As best as I can hear, Angie is doing very little talking, but she is doing some laughing now and then. It's mostly my co-workers obsessed with her appearance on the show.

    After an hour-long conference call, I was left with only those tidbits of the story. I guess I could have called Angie's desk to get the full scoop, but, instead, I waited for Friday.

    It turns out, Angie hadn't told anyone at work that she was planning to be on the show, but word somehow leaked out. And when you work with a bunch of computer geeks who know how to use the Internet, recordings will turn up. Especially when it's Howard Stern and most of the questions involve sex.

    Angie was surprised I didn't know about Evil Dave Letterman -- in fact, she was sure I must have met him at one of our impromptu volleyball games last summer. But no. I hadn't. Needless to say, we've had several conversations about her relationship with Evil Dave ever since.

    Here are YouTube links the show. It's in five parts because it's long. This video is safe for work, but the audio gets really adult by the third video. Angie doesn't come in until the second video. If these links die, try searching YouTube for: "Howard Stern Newlyweird".

    Part 1:


    Part 2:


    Part 3:


    Part 4:


    Part 5:


    If you heard the show live or made it through any of this audio, are you at all surprised that my team lost a bit of productivity over Angie's appearance?

    Tuesday, April 01, 2008

    Life: Back to the Real World

    The suitcases are unpacked. The laundry sorted. The dogs are already starting to get bored with us again. Even my snowboarding bruises are fading.

    Vacation is over. I've blogged everything I'm going to blog about it.

    (Thank God, you say?)

    Now it's back to the mundane world of everyday life.

    Speaking of which, according to the following analysis, if you are reading this site, you can read at a high school level. Congratulations. :)

    blog readability test

    Oh, and since it's April 1st, and this World of Warcraft announcement was released today, this has to be an April Fool's joke. It's Guitar Hero for World of Warcraft. Check out New Hero Class Revealed: Bard.