First rush of self-empowerment now muted

After the first rush of enthusiasm I achieved from reading the Self-Defeating Behaviors book, I'm back to wondering if I actually do have the strength (or whatever it takes) to make significant life changes or even to finish my current novel. Rick tells me that this is simply the human struggle for enlightenment and that it is very difficult. True.

He suggested that I continue tapping (the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)) on all my issues and sub-issues, and I made a list of them. Then, he suggested I simply release my attachment to accomplishing things that seem well-nigh impossible, to not be neurotic or anxious about things. That, of course, is the exact opposite to ways I normally deal with problems, and I suspect it is for others, too. But there might be ways to redirect my focus to healthier issues that would serve to help me accomplish the same goals. I don't know. All this is rather abstract for me, but I'll think about it.

When I checked the bank balance this morning, I had a wonderful opportunity to apply detachment and refocus. We had less money than I expected (of course!) but after momentary panic, I thought of ways to cut back next month and the problem didn't seem so insurmountable, after all.

Recipe for salmon pate - we loved it!

Salmon Pate

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons onion, grated
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke seasoning
1 16 oz. can salmon, drained, cleaned and flaked

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese, parsley, lemon juice, onion, horseradish, salt, black pepper and liquid smoke seasoning. Add the salmon, mixing lightly. Chill for 1 hour. Serve on a non-salty carrier, such as melba rounds, toast quarters, or--our favorite--Ezekiel pocket bread.

How easy this is, for such a treat.

Self-Defeating Behaviors

Just finished this book, Self-Defeating Behaviors: Free Yourself from the Habits, Compulsions, Feelings, and Attitudes That Hold You Back.

Amazing! I now feel very empowered in my personal life and goals.

Obama's new populism is simply window-dressing

There is this:



Furthermore, if Obama expects the middle class to grovel at his feet and bless him for a token $5 or so financial break, he will have an attitude adjustment in store for him.

I'm not even going to comment on what the Supreme Court has done to us, now, by taking away all restrictions on corporate election contributions. Except to say how wonderful it would be if people wake up and boycott the corporations who run political ads.

In the meantime, I'm focusing on things in my own life that I have control over.

Book progress is very slow

After working on the narrative for a grant proposal for the past couple of weeks, I'm having real problems working on the narrative of my novel. Only finished one scene today ... hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Rain, rain and more rain. It will be good to see the sun again next week, but then it's going to rain again for another week. The backup power grid is out in our county and will not be fixed for another three months, so we're suffering power outages. Fortunately, Rick and I have solar backup, but we're limping along on that until we can get our generator serviced. We also learned that the trackers collect a bit of daylight energy for the batteries, even without sun.

After losing Ted Kennedy's Senate seat to a Republican, it has finally dawned upon our infantile president that the long-suffering populace may be unhappy with his lack of progress on reforms, so he is shaking his rattle at the banks again ... at least until Goldman Sachs brings down the stock market enough to teach him who the real masters of the universe are. In the meantime, GS will rake in another fortune on short sales. Where are the Lords of Karma when we need them?

No gossip about friends

What I am NEVER mentioning on this blog are names and information about friends, contacts with friends, or any kind of gossip. So friends who come here can be assured of that.

The only exception to that rule is Rick, my husband, and I have his permission.

Just discovered hula.com

Since we refuse to get cable TV, we miss out on the good things, like documentaries, but DSL costs enough and we don't want to pay the price for cable, when we spend most of our time reading.

Especially since I just read an article about cable prices going up to make up for revenues lost to free places like hula.com.

Hula.com? Thanks, folks, for telling me about it. I watch DVDs on my laptop already.

I just watched my first 22-minute documentary and muted the commercials. Love it!

http://www.hulu.com/documentaries

(My ergonomic setup is a recliner with an upright back and leg-rest up, the laptop on a rolling table, the external keyboard on my lap, and the mouse on the chair arm. Got rid of backaches that way.)

A quick break

Taking a quick break from a very productive fiction-writing day, and still have the whole evening ahead of me.

In the next couple of days, I'm going to have to tunnel out to work on an Arts Council grant proposal. Had the most marvelous brainstorming session with Donna B. yesterday.

How to save pensions

This article

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20603037&sid=aHFCE999fWR0

seems to support the supposition in my previous post that the Fed has manipulated the stock market, creating a bull market to artificially regain wealth for retirement funds (and the oligarchy, too, of course). If that suspicion is true, then it would be natural for the Obama administration to try to create a mechanism to "lock in" that increased wealth to the common folk, lest they revolt. Transferring 401K money to a different annuity fund (as discussed in this article) would be one way to freeze those profits. (And what insurance companies might profit from those annuity funds, might I ask, knowing the ultimate benefit of any economic decision is conferred on the rich elite.)

Also see this mainstream article:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/time-for-fed-to-disprove-ppt-conspiracy-theory-2010-01-05

Time for Fed to disprove PPT conspiracy theory -- Commentary: Analyst charges that government is manipulating markets

Simon Johnson Decries Influence Of Wall Street Oligarchs,

This article ties in with another piece I read this morning about the Federal Reserve manipulating the stock market. Boosting stocks so they trade higher is just another way of enriching the corporations, banks, and pension funds, thus covering up a lot of bad investments and artificially boosting GDP.

The catch is they cannot do it much longer, just like they cannot spend taxpayer money to buy mortgage-backed securities from the banks much longer. I suppose when that time comes, the powers that be will have to actually fix things, rather than continuing to rob the society blind.

Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market

This book was published in December 2009 and I read a great review on it today. The local library ordered it for me on interlibrary loan. Sure looking forward to reading it. The review can be found at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-first-huffpost-book-c_b_412999.html

First twelve pages

My, that doesn't sound like very much, does it, but I have been on 'vacation' and also doing other things. Rick read these first twelve pages this morning and liked them better than any of my previous work. It's nice to know my novel-writing skills might be getting better.

The next cluster of scenes is set in the Taverna Mediterranea and after writing just a tiny bit, I had to go off and research interiors for places such as I envision the Taverna Mediterranea to be. Unfortunately, I found very little on the web I liked, but captured several images anyway and will simply have to design my own setting. Most of a day spent on research for narrative that will probably take only an hour to write! Oh well!

I wonder how much of this was just avoidance of a rather intense interplay of characters coming up. In the first twelve pages, I developed the leading characters and in this next scene the three main ones will meet and interact. The fur will fly. A 'pissing contest' will take place between the hero and the villain, which will be a lot of fun if I can portray it properly -- did write some of that narrative today.

I am sure glad I have an annotated outline already built. It is working out so well to be able to write by a script, but yet it's not locking me into predetermined ideas, as I feared it might. For example, today I modified the next scene to not have Jack there and instead work the scene from Ravi's thoughts. I think that will be more effective.

Oil prices

This is my first attempt at embedding a post. Well, here goes ...

A really haunting picture is on Kunstler's site, which we must navigate there to see.