Tis The Season...For Graduations

 My daughter participated in her graduation yesterday.

When she woke up hours earlier, she had no idea she'd be involved.

Such is life sometimes.

It was sort of a fluke for her to participate. She knew when graduation was being held, but due to confusion with her and the school, she just thought she missed the opportunity. As chance would have it, she was at the school with her boyfriend and her boyfriend's family. They had a son graduation from the same collage as my daughter.

That's when they had an idea...why not borrow her boyfriend's brother's cap and gown and walk with her fellow graduates? It tuns out, that's exactly what she did. My daughter worked her tail off for that degree, the last year driving over 200 miles round trip 3x a week to attend classes. I didn't have to do anything like that when I went to school.

I'm glad my daughter got to participate in her graduation. She didn't know until she got down there that she'd be doing it, so my wife and I were not able to be there. She texted us before she walked to make sure it was okay with us. Of course, we said it was--we just wanted pictures and/or videos of the event. They will be forthcoming.

Years ago, my son participated in his graduation and I missed that one too, not because of a school mix-up, but due to an infection that sidelined me and I couldn't go. That's two graduations I've missed. 

God willing, I'll be able to attend next time.

Life-Giving Water...

 The thought of having canals full of water in a desert is a miracle. From what I understand, when those who settled this area arrived back in the mid-1800s, they chose a spot that no one else wanted. I'm no historian so I could be not completely correct on that, but I think I'm close.

As a place to live, well...let's just say, it took a lot of work for the area to sustain life.

Fast forward one-hundred and seventy-five years and it still takes a lot of work to sustain so much more life than ever before. Systems are in place to bring the water from the mountains, down the rivers and lakes and pumped into our irrigated water lines.

Today, the city turned our our secondary water.

It's sort of a miracle.

Living in the Western United States as we do, we are living through a drought, and it's not your usual "water levels are a little less than last year" drought. No, it's a "way bad" drought. We've been asked to limit our water usage and in some areas of the state, new home owners are not allowed to put in a yard. Those restrictions may reach us some day, but I don't think it'll be this year.

Tomorrow, I'll go and check our lines, make sure the system survived the winter. I'm sure I'll be visiting the local hardware store more than once to pick up this and that (and more of this because I forgot I needed it...). I'm thankful for the life-giving water. Time to bring life back to the yard.

Sorry Burt Brothers...We've Moved On (Literally)

 In days past, the message that hit my phone at 3:43 a.m. might have been welcomed (not at three in the morning, but you get the idea...).

Those days are past.

I understand the process. To the company, I'm a small bit of data, a few lines of code that tells their computers to spit out an e-mail to notify me of rewards and promotions that are available to me.

If' you're not familiar with the tire company, they're a local concern with several facilities available to service people's vehicles--they focus on tires, but they can do most other repairs as well. They built the Farmington branch years--even decades--ago. I used them. My in-laws used them. They were local and convenient. My nephew even worked there many years ago.

Were they good?

For the most part. 

I know people who swear by them, and others that swear at them. Like most relationships, there's good and bad, ups and downs.

Many months (possibly years...) have passed since we showed up at their front door. They reached out to me in the middle of the night, asking me to return, to re-kindle whatever flame that once existed, to remind me of what I was missing. Yes, breaking up is hard to do, and in the end, I terminated the e-mail as we have the relationship...

With closure.

LightStickFX...A Product The Geek In You Will Love

 It was a chance meeting...years ago I decided to take the train to the FanX convention so I wouldn't have to pay for parking. It was more for convenience and the fact that I was cheap more than anything. I got off the inner-city train and hopped aboard the light rail line. 

Taking the train to the convention is interesting, because you can immediately spot everyone who is also going to the convention--mostly, because they're dressed up as their favorite fictional character. I spotted a tall person--normally dressed--but it was his luggage that made me think he might be going to the convention, too. We struck up a conversation.

Turns out I was right.

His name...Spencer Brinkerhoff III. We chatted. I decided to check out his booth during the show. I'm so glad I did.

Since first meeting Spencer those many years ago, I've learned more about him. He's one of those rare people who is not only creative, but his personality is infectious. He's written books on writing, given presentations at conventions, and has been invited to corporate events as a guest speaker and presenter.

It was at that first show Spencer gave me a set of LightstickFX Lightsticks. They're awesome! Basically, you use your cellphone camera to snap a picture. Using the lightsticks, you can have people holding a lightsaber or you can use the lightsticks to create a laser blast. It's simple. It's ingenious. You can check out the Spencer's Lightstick site by clicking: HERE. You can see examples of the Lightsticks in action by clicking: HERE. Check out the photos on the site.

This is not the first time I've blogged about about Spencer or the Lightsticks. But, since it's May the 4th, I thought it might be a good time to highlight them again. Hopefully, I can meet up with him at another con in the future, but until then, I'll just have to keep using my own set of Lightsticks and sharing the fun.

Flocks...

 We've spent a lot of time outside this spring. That's interesting (for me...) because most springs I usually spend inside. Last year and this year we've had several projects that need doing and those projects are outside.

Funny the things a person can see when outside.

Sure, when you're inside, you can watch a million hours of videos of nature and natural things. You can also do interent searches and pull up pictures, articles, and videos of nature and natural things. Yesterday, I spotted a single bird. Unfortunately, it was far away. That didn't stop me from taking out my phone and snapping a picture.

A few minutes later several birds flew overhead. Once again, they were too far away to identify (for me...). If I were a bird expert or knew the species better, I might have been able to say, "Hey--a bunch of _____!" Or, if I had binoculars I might have determined those in the flock and the one that few solo.

As the days get longer, many people spend more time outside. My history is just the opposite. When it get warm and then hot outside, I retreat to the comforts of an air-conditioned environment. But, just as the past two springs I've spent more time outside than usual...maybe the summers will change, too.

If so, I might see more birds...

In person.

Still Have That "Back An Author's Kickstarter" Mood? If So...Give Ramón Terrell's A Shot

 

This spring the writing world was rocked by a kickstarter event. If you're a writer, you've heard about it. If you're not, you may have heard about it because it became the most successful kickstarter in the history of kickstarters.

This post is not about that particular kickstarter, but another one...

This one's launched by fellow writer Ramón Terrell.

Years ago I had the opportunity to work a booth at our local FanX comics convention with Ramón and several other authors. It was only a three day event, but standing together, talking to whomever would stop and chat (whether they wanted to or not...), you share an experience. I've also been fortunate enough to read some of his work and it's very very good.

Now, Ramón has started a kickstarter to promote his next project. Shadowlancer: Heart of a Darkdancer: Book One. You can check out the kickstarter by clicking: HERE. If you'd like to know more about the author, you can access his website by clicking: HERE.

Watching his video, Ramón's passion for this project is infectious. And listening to him talk about the story's inspiration, I know that feeling. It's an even better feeling when you've put in the hard work and created the story and want to share it with the world.

If you like epic fantasy and you'd like to help out a good writer and an even better person, check out Ramón's project. He's one of the good ones.

Give Thanks...For Spring

 I'm not a fan of Spring. In fact, it's probably my least-favorite season of the year.

Something about this spring is different...

I might be changing my mind.

This year, we've watched as the fruits of our labors from last fall literally blossom before our eyes. When started to put in our yard last year, we made a conscious decision to have less grass than more. The front yard has a sloping area from the street to the front door. We could have planted grass and dealt with mowing on an incline, but we thought it might be cool to put in flower beds.

Last fall we ordered some top spoil and planted a lot of bulbs. Interesting thing about fall planting--you have no idea if your plans or ideas will work out. We found out a few weeks ago, it was a huge success. And, from what I've been told, the plants will multiply each year so hopefully, in a couple of years, the effect will be magnified many times over.

Like so many other families, we've put in a lot of work on our little slice of heaven on earth. We also understand most of the hard work happens in the beginning. Hopefully, we'll be "upkeep-ing" from here on out.

Even though it's been hard hard work, I'm thankful for what we have and that we're trying to make life as good as we can. I'm thankful for this time of year to see the effects of that hard work. There's more to do (there always is...), but we're happy for where we're at and how it's going. Now, all I have to figure out is, if spring is no longer my least-favorite season, what is...?