A bit of #randomness to round out the holiday season

One of my favorite things about working at a university is the nice little chunk of paid time off I get for the winter break each year. It’s a little less than two weeks for office staff, but it’s just what the doctor ordered this time of year. Extra sleep, a chance to get over my annual sinus infection, family time, good eats, and a little extra writing time to boot, if I don’t let myself get too lazy!

I don’t use Twitter much, but I found myself yesterday with the urge to narrate my time off on Facebook, where I already probably post a bit too much. So, I got the idea to dust off my Twitter account and started tweeting. Oddly enough, my random posts have netted me several new followers and even a retweet from a Tweeter with more than 3000 followers of science fiction. It will be interesting to see if that generates even more followers. Perhaps I should check out Twitter more often! Check out my Twitter profile to see what I’ve been up to!

At any rate, I’ve been up to random randomness the past two days and am feeling rather accomplished. I literally just ordered my first set of proofs for the print edition of Valley of the Bees! This seems like a good time for a cover reveal, so… TA-DA!

And now… well, I’m just sitting here waiting for the family to show up for our annual cousin cookie baking party and face-stuffing with our favorite finger foods.

Something to think about this holiday season

Is it that time already? Yesterday, I noticed workers were hanging lights downtown in my town. Are you ready for this? | Christmas lights on Aleksanterinkatu. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you are the type of person who believes you *must* buy your children every single over-priced item they wrote on their Christmas lists, think again.

Wanting builds character.

If you do not provide opportunities for your children to want for something, then you are depriving them of the opportunity to build character.

Just think how much money you could save this year with an attitude like that.

Crafting for Christmas

Hot Pads: $12.50 + S&H per set of 2

I’m a crafty writer. In fact, I probably spend a bit too much time making stuff when I should be writing. But, crafting gives me a good excuse to sit in front of the TV once in a while. Anyway, I’ve been working on a lot of crafts for Christmas lately. I like to have a good stock of little things put aside each year, and I pretty much used up my stash this past holiday season. 

Just say no to holiday madness

Image via Wikipedia

It’s that time of year. Once again, Tom Turkey is eclipsed by that one word that seems to be on the lips of everyone I know: Christmas. If you read any current online or print media at all, I’m sure you’ve already noticed the usual holiday how-to headlines this year: “How to keep from gaining weight over the holidays,” “How to avoid stressing out this holiday season.” But if you ask me, the answer to these questions boils down to one, simple, little, teeny-tiny, two-letter word: NO.

First of all, if you really want to avoid the holiday madness, your first assignment is to just say no to the Black Friday-starting-at-midnight craze. This is one of the worst ideas that have ever ripped through retail. I always thought Black Friday (the other two words on everyone’s lips) was stupid anyway, but the past few years, this trend has gotten completely out of hand.

How would you feel if you had to sleep through most of your Thanksgiving Day because you have to be at work by midnight that night to work a 12-hour shift? Would this stress you out? I don’t know about you, but I would be thoroughly pissed.

In case you haven’t already figured this out, Black Friday is manned by an army of thoroughly stressed and pissed off, not to mention underpaid, workers who probably couldn’t afford to take advantage of the so-good-I’d-totally-step-on-your-head-if-you-fell-down-in-front-of-me deals their employers are offering even if they did have the day off.