No More Privilege

I remember reading a story in elementary school I thought ridiculous. Who on Earth would think the way this story was written? And yet, I see my society growing closer to that way every day.

The story revolved around two dancers and a middle-aged couple. The dancers were a young woman and man who danced very, very well. The young lady was also very attractive. The middle-aged couple was a woman of average intelligence and the man of above average intelligence.

The dancing couple were forced to wear heavy weights so they couldn’t jump higher than the average dancers. The girl was forced to wear a mask so she wouldn’t be more beautiful than what was considered the norm.

The man in the married couple had an implant which pinged his brain every minute or so, preventing him from having deep thoughts, preventing him from being “smarter than average”.

We live in a society where anyone with better grades and a better job or lifestyle are called privileged, bad, favored, unfair. No, it’s not fair. Life’s not fair. I have a higher IQ than normal. I have a passion for writing. I work a deadend job in a terrible place that sucks the souls of its employees. I’m doing what I can to get out, but I still won’t be doing what I love for a living, writing, acting, singing, things like that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the best singer, and I don’t want to get back into acting, but writing? I’d jump on that moving train barefoot. But under no circumstances whatsoever do I sit back and say, “You shouldn’t have a better life than me. It’s not fair!” Why? Because I’m not a five-year old.

Oh, I used to think that, when I was more immature and silly, but not anymore. I help others down on their luck and study those more successful than I.

I had a conversation with a few people who thought anyone going to a private school was clearly “privileged”. That private schools, quite frankly, shouldn’t exist. That if your school didn’t have starving children with a crappy homelife, well it just wasn’t worth going to! Seriously? You want children to be hungry and have no parents? For the record, most people don’t send their children to private schools to avoid “dirty” children, they send them to get a better education, which they do get. I have both taught and attended private schools, and trust me, the education there is better. If you don’t like the schools, don’t send your kids there. Bam. Problem solved.

So please, stop blaming rich people, smart people, talented people, people with better networks than you for your life. I would never ask a person more beautiful or more talented than I to wear a mask or be crippled so as to never outshine me. That is both petty and ridiculous. Life may not seem fair right now, but requiring those of “privilege” to step down, to make less money, to live differently than how they can afford, isn’t fair either. And trying to make them feel guilty for having a better life than “average” is wrong. Stop.

Magiquest in Mason, OH

We recently visited another Magiquest, the one in Mason, OH. I took my dad’s Gopro, but sadly haven’t been able to figure out how to access the files. You have to download and use an app or something. Anyway, while he spends the next decade working on that, I will say the water park was nice, not great, nice. And the one thing keeping it from being amazing was the lack of an adequate signalling system.

Most water parks, at least modern ones, have a signalling system of some sort, be it a monitor to watch the bottom, a person at the bottom giving a thumbs up when it’s safe, or little green and red lights at the top to tell the sliders to go. In fact Dollywood’s Splash Country has just the lights and they will tell you, “When it turns green go.” But here, at Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, OH, they have one attendant with four slides. He will go to one slide, set it up, very very slowly, let them go, wait, mosey, wait some more, set up the next one. It took FOREVER to get on a slide because the attendants were sooooooo slooooooowwwww, and they were being slow on purpose because for all I could tell, there were no signalling devices.

That being said, the lazy river was nice, and the slides were nice, I just wish I got the enjoy the slides more.

But let’s be honest, I was there for Magiquest. Aren’t I always? Pretty much everything was the same as my previous posts save two. The first is that Shadowquest had two screens down, making several of the quests impossible, causing you to have to go to the shop and get those specific quests marked as “done” by their little computer. The second was the most frustrating, Remember Compassquest? Remember that one quest, I think the last one, that causes you to visit every single podium in a specific order? Yeah, this location randomizes that quest. It’s impossible. No, seriously, especially since this location was in even worse shape than the Magiquest locations no longer considered pet projects by the main company. (Still irked about that because they RUINED a wonderful culture and several businesses, and they did it on purpose, kind of like walmart, but I digress.) I was running through all five hallways in all three stories, sweating. I was in great shape at the time, running and working out regularly, and my son and I both tried to do it, racing each other, at times when it was as sparsely populated as possible. Still no. I wound up having the merchant have the computer say I did it.

That was far from the only glitch. One poor child had tried to finish the fairy quest so many times she was almost in tears. I came up and tried to help her, it still didn’t want to work. I think it could have been her wand, but a LOT of people were having trouble there, more so than any location I’ve ever been to. Shadowquest was so bad, it had to be rebooted for me to finish it.

Now, despite all the glitches, and there were a LOT of glitches, Marcus and I wound up getting the top 10 for several leaderboards: runes collected, gold collected, points for the month, etc. I haven’t included all of them so as not to bore you, but here are a couple (I’m Stormy, he was Sniper).

So, my main reason for writing this was to tell you that particular level of Compassquest is randomized at this location. Don’t bother with the list. And although this wasn’t part of the original post, I’m going to add, we’re pretty much done with Great Wolf Lodges. We may visit a Magiquest location if we travel there, but as far as the walmart versions known as Great Wolf? Not anymore. We’ll stick to the good stuff.

Lucy and Ethel at the Cash Machine

We closed today at 6PM, which meant some of us, such as yours truly, stayed until 7 closing down registers, etc. The self-checkout registers are recyclers. That means they recycle the money people put into it and give that money back out as change, etc. So every night when they are shut down, we print out a little slip that tells us what they need to be “topped off”, we get that money from the main recycler, and we put that money in the self-check out register. We literally dump the coins in the same slot you do when paying. It sorts the coins slowly, and sometimes (OK, alot of times) it doesn’t like the coins. This is when it spits them into the well at the bottom-that place you normally pick up your change. We then take all the extra money (bad bills/coins, coupons, etc) and turn it into the cash office. In order to get to those bad bills/coins and coupons, we have to open the front door.

So here’s the story. But before I start, bear in mind this is the first time Katy has done this.

Katy, that’s not her name of course, is standing in front of a self-checkout register with the door open. It starts shooting quarters out like a cannon. She screams, “Debby! What’s happening? What do I do?”

I, while miraculously not falling over laughing, yell, “You’ve got the door open! Shut the door! Shut the door!”

Three co-workers getting ready to leave run to her. “Katy! Katy! Money!” Although it was more like, “Sputter! Words! I don’t know what to say!” They ran around stomping coins to stop them from rolling away. Meanwhile, I stood on the other end of the chain (I was actually too far away at the time to be of any physical use) laughing my head off, pointing, and trying to tell everyone left in the store what was happening.

Katy, still in shock, manages to find her legs again and use them. They pick up all the money, but by this time they’re laughing too hard to be of much use. I wish-I had this- on camera. O. M. G. It was like Lucy and Ethel on the chocolate belt. It. Was. Hy-sterical.

Y’all have a good night now and enjoy yourselves.

Ratchet and Clank … The Movie!!!

We first heard about them making this movie  I think in 2014. We were so excited! We couldn’t wait for it to come out. For those unaware, Ratchet and Clank first came out on the PS2, where I loved playing it every minute. It has since grown along side its console, even being updated from time to time. Meet the characters—

Ratchet

A cute little booger known as a Lombax. You play the games to try and discover what he is and where he came from. He believes he is the only one left in existence. Although you start out with nothing but a wrench to fight with (still my favorite weapon), you soon get your buddy—

Clank

Even cuter than Ratchet, no seriously-he’s adorable, Clank attaches to your back like this—

This allows you to hover, fly, and do other amazing things thanks to upgrades and abilities you purchase/build for him. Although he is usually attached to you, later games allow him his own freedom—

Told you he was adorable. Anywho, the games’ cutscenes were so loved, that the makers decided to put them together to form a movie. Yeah, that was my first reaction too, but it wasn’t like that. Although there were scenes from the game, there weren’t a lot. Most of it was entirely new material, and the original scenes were redone, only the script remained the same.

One of my favorite character is—

Doctor Nefarious!! (insert ominous echo)

You can’t help but love this guy. Look at him! He’s hilarious! Take the quirky funny aspects of the Alan Rickman villains (sheriff of Nottingham, Snape) and multiply them times 5, no 12! And now you have Doctor Nefarious! (btw, he’s played by Armin Shimerman-you know, Quark!)

The movie shows his beginning. The movie show everyone’s beginnings. I had never seen him as a living person, just the robot. It was interesting to see his birth, and absolutely hysterical. “I’m not a robot! Stop fixing me!”

I will tell you that there were a few changes from the game to the movie, the method of the making of Nefarious for one. But imo, it didn’t stray too much to make it enjoyable. I’ll be honest, I haven’t sat and played a game in years. I just don’t have the time anymore, so I’m not as into the story as I used to be. But my husband and child were, and they said that the changes didn’t matter to them, so we’ll go with that.

So go see the movie! No seriously, go. It’s amazing. You’ll love it.

 

Food Museum-Chicken Mole Bowl

Hello All, and welcome to another episode of the Food Museum.

For the previous installment, please visit here. For the next one, visit here.

This episode, we bring you:

I love both dried cranberries and dark chocolate. These sound wonderful!

These aren’t actually labeled. I know zucchini fries are the new fad right now, I can only hope that’s what these are. Oh please let that be what these are!

I’m sure this is supposed to be Chicken in molé sauce, but there’s no tilde. So, the result sounds a bit less…appetizing. Ew.

I’ve never heard of uncured bacon. And why is love written backwards? And lastly, though certainly not leastly at this point, potatoes!? This whole thing just screams, “Run!”

Now this is just stupid. No one wants a piece of chocolate that you’ve had your fingers all over. Just make two pieces and be done with it.

We bought these. Don’t See below.

As expected, these are deep fried chocolate things. Supposedly brownie bites, they’re really just cake. This is what they look like cooked.

And this is what the inside looks like. Yup, that’s raw. I guess it could’ve been supposed to be like lava cake, but it’s not. It’s raw cake batter. While I may enjoy raw cake batter most don’t, and even this was too much for me.

That’s it for today! Join us next time for another exciting adventure down the aisles of The Food Museum.

Food Museum

It’s time for another episode from the Food Museum.

To see the previous episode, please go here. For the next one, click here.

This time, I bring you:

Fiesta Pringles! I mean, I like Pringles. I like tortilla chips and dip, but, why would Pringles make this? What could they possibly do to a tortilla chip to make them better? I don’t think they can. I personally think it would be worse, and definitely not worth the extra money, so I just walked on by.

This is probably a really good mixture of flavors. But… Banana water?  Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaa!

That might actually be good. Shame they ain’t Kosher.

Ewww… We made the mistake of purchasing a bunch of candy corn flavored cupcakes that were 27¢ a dozen and stuck them in the freezer. We had no idea they made this flavor at the time, and hope they never make it again. It was beyond disgusting!

Oh that is just wrong!

Really?

Well that’s it for this episode, folks! Check back next time for more weird food from the Food Museum 🙂

Happy Book Birthday!!

My first book, Anya and the Secrets of Cupola, came out last Saturday. I was able to have a launch party at The Art Circle Library.

It’s a really nice library. When you first go in, there’s a balcony and all sorts of coolness. The children’s library is off to the side and separated with double doors. It has a computer area, a sitting area (where they often do presentations and things), a homeschool area, and the carousal reading room. That’s where I was.

 

A LOT of people (to me) showed up!

 

I had the necessary swag for give outs. Bookmarks-

stickers-

tattoos-

I also had refreshments. I brought some potions cubes for Cupola. I let people serve themselves the cubes into a plastic cub, and then pour 7-Up over the iced potion. It was a big hit!  But it takes so long to prepare, I don’t plan on doing it again.

I also brought the actual wand used by Avaline herself (pictured below) and my feather pen (made it myself). And then I got to sign books! I made a reasonable goal of sales, and surpassed it! Yes!

And then the coolest thing ever happened-a woman and her daughter came in. She said, “Hi. This is Anya.”

It took me a while, and then I realized that her daughter was named Anya. I ran and signed a book. And then I took a picture because it was so cool!

All in all, a pretty successful evening. Thank you everyone for coming and supporting me. I loved it!

The traditionally published world on Anya

My first book, Anya and the Secrets of Cupola, is set to release this Saturday. But let’s take a look at what the traditionally published community had to say about it.

Firstly, I got a lot of rejection letters. That’s good. In other words, they didn’t think it was so beneath them that they didn’t even respond. They actually responded.

Which brings me to the secondly. I got personalized responses. Now, for those of you who aren’t aware, a personalized response is a BIG deal. Here’s one from Cate at Corvisierio:

“Thank you for thinking of me and Corvisiero Literary Agency, but this is going to be a pass. While I think you have a unique voice, I just wasn’t drawn into the story the way I needed to request more pages. For me, I felt we are introduced and experience “a day in the life of” a character who is not really the main character. While a whimsical, and well crafted passage, for me it felt like backstory explanation for what really happened to Anya’s father. I would have like to start with Anya and learn about her father through her memories and thoughts. Remember that this is only one opinion and your work may be just what another agent is looking for.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking, but let me translate. This means she liked it.

What?

No really, she did. In fact, if I had rewritten the first chapter and resubmitted, she would have probably requested more. Now that was no guarantee she would have taken me on for her to be my agent, but she did like it.

But see, that’s just it. Agents (and possibly publishers, I don’t really know) have what I call the “cookie-cutter mentality” for first time authors. This mentality states that the first chapter must be the main character in an exciting scene. Period. No if, and’s or but’s. (see the “prologue” for Twilight and you’ll notice that it was more than likely added in because it need an “exciting” beginning. But for me, personally, I enjoyed the original beginning and hated the prologue.) But Anya’s different than that. Anya is an ease-into-it book that absorbs you into the world itself instead of bombarding you with flashes of characters you couldn’t care less about because you know nothing of them.

I HATE this mentality. In fact, I hate it so much, that I often skip the first few pages of a book that has it. It’s over done and annoying. Some of the best books in the world don’t do this, and in my opinion, THE best books in the world don’t do this. Take Harry (yes, overdone. But I use it because it’s so familiar to everyone out there-so I don’t have to explain anything). Harry isn’t even introduced until the second half of the first chapter, and even then he doesn’t do or say anything. Take The City of Ember. It doesn’t mention a character at all in the beginning. These books tell the environment that the main character is going to be thrown into, and I love them for it!

And that’s what I wanted for Anya. I was more than willing to change most, if not all, of my work on my other books if an agent wanted me to, but not this one. This one was different. I can only hope others feel the same way I do.

PS-I actually came across this e-mail again by accident this morning while looking for an invoice. I had been concerned about the boring aspects of the first bit of the book (for when I read it aloud Sat.) and couldn’t tell if it was truly boring and I didn’t notice it before, or if it was just where I’ve read it 14,000 times-give or take 1000. But this e-mail made me feel better. It may not have been cut by her cookie cutter, but she still liked it. Called it “whimsical”, “well-crafted”, and with a “unique voice”. Warm fuzzies for everyone!!

Taming Your Anxiety

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor. This post is not medical advice. It is of my own experiences and you should discuss anything you want to “try” with your doctor. Period.

For those who have followed along, you’ll know I have issues. Mainly anxiety issues, but issues. And here’s what I’ve learned:

First, let’s start with what people told me:

1. You’re perfectly normal
2. You’ve tried to handle too much for too long
3. You’re not weaker than anyone else
4. You’re faking it
5. There’s nothing wrong with you
6. Buck up or shut up

1-None of these are the exact wording of what I had been told, but that’s OK, because none of them are true. Let’s start with “normal” – No one really know what “normal” is, but when you can’t show up at work due to tunnel vision and vomiting, that’s not normal. No, I was not (and potentially am not) normal.

2-Just what is too much? I worked 32 hours a week and homeschooled my child. Yes, that’s a lot, but I didn’t cook and rarely cleaned. So just where was the too much part? Honestly, for me, it was the job itself, my own personal problems, and not having a set schedule. If my schedule had been set, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. I would have had a routine in my life. So no, I don’t think I tried to handle more than others have. I think it was something else entirely.

3-What about being weaker? Well now if any, that one, was true. I wasn’t weaker than anyone else, except that I succumbed to things allowing my anxiety to grow instead of having enough courage to face it. Maybe if I had just marched down to the poor excuse for a school and straightened them out for the third time in a row. Maybe if I had just found a way to switch his school. Or maybe, if I had simply told my dad that I wasn’t paying for any more of his stuff. See, I had originally planned on working long enough to pay off the storm shelter and recoup our savings. That turned into 2 years because by then, we needed more land, and it would take two years to build up enough credit to get a loan to get the land. Then it turned into infinity. Every time I paid off something, and I mean down to the week it was paid, I came home to a new truck, or a new trailer or something else I didn’t ask for or need. I then had to work another year to pay it off, and then it happened again. Finally I told my husband I wasn’t paying for any more stuff my dad bought. And I didn’t. But it was too late. I was already broken.

4-6 – I wasn’t faking it. Wish I were. Same goes for the next part. And the latter, if I could have, I would have.

But I’m better now, not perfect, but better.

How?

I realized a few things:

1. Anxiety is an emotion
2. You can control your emotions
3. Medication doesn’t and won’t help
4. I push myself too hard
5. I’m lazy
6. I’m afraid

1-Anxiety is an emotion. Recognizing it is the hardest part. Not all emotions are easily recognized. You may not realize you’re depressed until your friends ask you what’s wrong. Why? Well, when you’re a baby and watching Sesame Street or you’re parents are teaching you smile=happy, tears=sad, there is no “this face=depressed” or “this face=anxiety”. For one, those emotions don’t have faces, and are thankfully rare enough that children don’t often ask what’s wrong with someone to learn. For example, if Mommy cries happy tears, little Bobby may ask what’s wrong. It is then that he learns that sometimes tears mean happy. But when Mommy mopes due to depression or cries due to anxiety, he assumes or isn’t answered truthfully because she doesn’t know herself. She thinks she’s tired, sick, worn out, etc.

So first of all, I had to teach myself what anxiety feels like. It wasn’t easy, and I still have trouble sometimes. Have you ever been angry about something permanently? Like a political issue or something horrible someone did? It can set you in a bad mood by smell, a song, a word someone says, and you may never realize you’re in a bad mood and getting short with people. Same goes for anxiety. That feeling snowballs in you and grows because, let’s face it, anxiety is a primal feeling. And primal feelings often feel good, at first at least. By the time it’s grown out of control, it’s too late.

2-Once I learned what it felt like, or how to recognize its imminent birth, I stopped it. I told myself to stop feeling that way. How? Ever made yourself calm down when you’re angry? Ever try to stop crying? Sometimes it doesn’t work, but with practice, it gets easier.

3-Medication did nothing to help me and everything to make matters worse. Period.

4-I expect perfection from myself. That’s bad. No one’s perfect.

5-Yet I’m lazy.

Now wait, how can you be both? Simple. I don’t want to do things, and when I’m forced to, I get anxiety, so I wind up doing anything but to keep from having the problem. This inevitably makes the problem worse, for the thing never gets done, causing the anxiety to grow. But by golly when I do do something, I DO it. And I don’t stop until it’s perfect. This is especially true with physical fitness. In fact, the only reason I’m not working out right now and am overweight is because I was killing myself eating 1200-1500 calories a day and working out 1-2 hours a day, 4-6 days a week. I was still at least 10-15 pounds overweight, and 2 sizes too big. Finally one day, my husband looked at me and said, “Stop. You’re killing yourself.” I wound up having iron deficiencies and had to stop. My levels still aren’t where they need to be, so I’m still not working out. Hopefully, in the future, I can control myself in my workouts. So like I said, I push myself too hard.

6-And finally, fear. I was afraid of things that hadn’t happened yet. One of my biggest fears is getting fired. Long story. But whenever a supervisor wanted to talk to me, I knew it was to fire me. They talked to me a lot at my last job, and it was never to fire me. But my fear made me react differently than best, and caused anxiety that didn’t need to be there.

So what can be drawn from this?

• Recognize what triggers your anxiety, not so you can avoid it, but so you know when to expect it.
• Learn to recognize the feeling
• Then stop the feeling. Say, “I don’t want to feel this way.”
• Stop analyzing. Stop trying to figure it out. You’re anxious. Big deal. Now make yourself stop being anxious just like you would make yourself stop crying or calm down.
• Understand that it takes time. A lot of time. When anxiety has infiltrated every aspect of your life from getting up in the morning to going to the bathroom to even checking the blooming mail, it’s going to take time. Do you cry when you answer the phone? How about when you have to write an e-mail to someone? No, of course not, but these are common anxiety sources for people. You will feel anxious 100X more in a day than sad or angry. So it’s going to take time.
• Stop being afraid. Are you afraid that you said the wrong thing in the e-mail? What’s the worst that could happen? Probably not life threatening. Usually the worst that could happen isn’t as bad as you think. For example, I’m having a launch party coming up. I have one relative coming. As far as my fears go, that’s all that’s going to come. So what? How is that any different than if I didn’t do it at all? It’s not what I hoped for, it’s not a good thing, but it’s not a bad thing. I got a review from someone that I thought would love my book but didn’t, and I haven’t heard back from any of the other reviewers. Therefore, in my mind, my book is a flop. So what? Well, yes, that could mean I will never recoup my investment. It may be so horrible that I don’t even finish the series. But my friends are still going to be my friends. I know that much. And my family will still love me. I will have pursued a dream to learn the outcome. Better than not ever trying and never knowing.

You can do this.