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Just getting over a slight cold. Not too bad.

WHERE DID APRIL GO ALREADY!?!!? I wasn’t ready to really get into this month and half of it slipped away quietly. I confused. I guess it was all the Charmed I’ve been watching that could have tipped me off… how else could I have gotten through so much?

Work hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be… yet. Stacy being gone is weird. I keep forgetting that she isn’t going to take care of certain things and I must get them done. Fortunately, the scheduling managers seem to understand at the moment and are seeing that I get more time to actually do my job. And I think I’ll like my job more without another person to use as a crutch. I mean, it was nice to have someone to depend on, but I think it will be nice to just make my own mistakes. My first order of business was to take down the wall of pictures over the desk. I needed to take ownership visually, so it had to change. I really do think it will all be just fine.

I was hungry for mushrooms, Asian noodles, and/or eggs… so I decided I should have them together. Don’t do that. It wasn’t very good. I should have just had eggs.

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-I’m ready for meals in pill form. Food is exhausting and always makes me sick.
-David is a really helpful guy… most of the time.
-I obsess with things easily. It’s okay.
-I really don’t mind driving Daniel places.
-Work is going to be really stressful for a while.
-I wonder why it is that on good days the seed in my seedless orange is in the first wedge and on bad days it is in the last.
-I wish winter was longer, but I still miss summer sometimes.
-Sometimes I’m ashamed to be me, but usually I’m pretty proud of it.
-I love Target.
-I always come home from work with rubber bands on my wrist.

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are we nearing the end of the contents of my head?

I’ve spent a lot of time reading my old Xanga & LiveJournal blogs. I used to have a lot to say… about everything. I think I believed that when I got my website that I was required to become an adult somehow. That is surely why I’ve become so passive with my postings. It seems silly now. I’m also going to try to get all of my old posts from those sites added in here. How fun will that be!?!?

My 10 Favorite Ozites (so far):
10. Betsy Bobbin (first appears in Tik-Tok of Oz) Betsy is very similar to Dorothy, but a bit sunnier. She curious and adventurous, but has less of a tendency to argue than Dorothy does. Maybe she is just better because she is from Oklahoma.
9. The Shaggy Man (first appears in The Road to Oz) Shaggy seems to always be around, which is often useful. He’s clever and wise and carries the Love Magnet with him sometimes, which makes people love him. He is one of the kindest of the adult characters in Oz.
8. Eureka the Kitten (first appears in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz) The best thing about this little kitten is her willingness to eat another character, which she does not get away with. But she still tried. And then, she didn’t feel sorry about it at all.
7. Jack Pumpkinhead (first appears in The Land of Oz) He hasn’t been used much so far, but I like how simple he is. Ignorant, but not completely stupid.
6. The Glass Cat (first appears in The Patchwork Girl of Oz) She made of clear glass and for a while has pink brains that you can see working. Well written cat part, she never really cares about anyone but herself. She does mellow out when her pink brains are changed to clear.
5. Billina (first appears in Ozma of Oz) Originally named Bill, this yellow hen is so sassy that I immediately fell for her. All chickens in Oz are descendants of Billina and are all named Dorothy (hens) or Daniel (roosters).
4. The Hungry Tiger (first appears in Ozma of Oz) I love that this tiger wants to eat babies, but in fact won’t eat anything that is alive because he’d feel bad about it. I am really hoping he is used more, as he has only appeared briefly in the books he’s been in.
3. Tin Woodman (first appears in The Wizard of Oz). Nick Chopper is perhaps the most tender hearted character in all of Oz. He won’t even allow Ojo to kill a butterfly to save the lives of two people. He’s also one of the more level headed characters.
2. Button-Bright (first appears in The Road to Oz). At four, he is adorable, answering “don’t know” to everything. Older Button-Bright is adventurous and brave. He doesn’t complain about anything.
1. Ojo the Lucky (first appears in The Patchwork Girl of Oz). Known at first as Ojo the Unlucky, The Tin Woodman changes it when he decides the reasons for Ojo being unlucky are nonsense. Ojo is kind, he’s fair, and he isn’t afraid to break the law to save a family member. I like that.

I am on book #9 of 40, so my favorites are certainly likely to change.
Characters I DON’T care for: Scarecrow, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, The Wizard, Polychrome*, & The Woozy. Maybe these characters will eventually do something to win me over, but they really haven’t so far. *Polychrome’s role in Sky Island was great, but it isn’t an Oz book.

To Oz:

I have had a lot of related story ideas that are all just starting to come together more clearly as a single book. I think I am going to adapt them to the Ozian universe and write two or three Oz books. I like the idea of my story, but the more I read of the Oz series, the more I feel like my own fantasy book for kids would end up sounding like one of them, so I’m just going to force it. I still think they are well worth reading.

The Empty Frat House:

The guys who lived above me for a year are gone. David & Denis have been furiously working all month to get the place ready for someone new to move it. I’m actually looking forward to seeing who takes it. Those guys were pretty darn rude most of the time. Meanwhile, the silence has been rather nice. Although a sinus infection has been keeping me rather lethargic, I’ve been able to write into the evening without a party starting overhead at midnight. It is nice. The new folks might be night owls like I tend to be, but as long as they don’t pack the place with 20 extra people each night, we should get along just fine. I hope it rents out quickly. I don’t like for Denis to have to worry so much about it.

SaveSave

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Once upon a time, things seemed simple.

Of all the book sites out there, I’ve found Shelfari to be the easiest to use. That is all changing rapidly. They keep “improving” the site, which apparently means complicating every tiny detail. It is still the best out there, but really that now only means they are the least crappy of several really crappy sites.

Any book site I’m missing that is wonderful??? Apparently, it isn’t going to be Shelfari for long… and it certainly isn’t GoodReads.

I’m not looking for a new MySpace. That already exists.

Frustrated…

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Why is everyone the same?

Each time a customer comes in and asks me for a book I’ve been asked for a thousand times, I want to say “yep, you are just one of the sheep.” There is a world of overlooked books out there! No, you don’t need to read The Shack or Twilight or Marley & Me.

I am looking for the next great novel to read. I’m greatly enjoying my trips to Oz, but I’m really searching for something different. Any suggestions?

Night before last, I had a series of nightmares, which is fairly unusual for me. In one, I was walking up to the house where Daniel lived (actually my grandparents’ house) and was really scared because the screen door was open and knocking against the house. Inside, I could see Daniel pacing back and forth. Okay, so in retrospect that isn’t much of a nightmare, but at the time it felt like one.

In another I was visiting some walruses in a marine park where there were several dozen in a rather warm pool of water. They were all really quite happy to be there and were jumping into the air and doing tricks like dolphins. One almost hit me with his tusks, but it was an innocent mistake. When playtime was over, we went into the nuclear plant where they worked with an assemblage of rather cantankerous penguins and taskmaster rock monsters. The walruses went into cubicles off to the side for a safety drill and demonstration for my benefit. Only the rock monsters could be out during the drill. During the video demonstration of what might happen during a bombing, a bombing actually occurred. Everyone was safe, but downstairs at Mardel, several employees were killed. Since I was the HR manager of the plant, I met with some of the others to put our plan into motion. I’d overheard one of the Mardel managers saying that they would not be taking any precautions, which I brought up to decrease our liability. As I read over the procedures for handling a bombing from corporate, I started to cry. And then I woke up. There were a lot of things going on in this dream, but the impending sense of doom was constant. And maybe I’ve retained a deep hatred for Mardel stores.

There were others. I don’t recall the events, but several woke me up. Last nights dreams also woke me up several times, but they were altogether more pleasant… too much so in the case of one I just won’t go into details on. I promise it didn’t mean anything though. 😉

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My brain seems a bit more in order than it had in a long while. I’ve felt scattered for a few months. Well, if I’m honest, I’ve felt like a huge screw up. But no matter, I’m feeling a bit more sorted out. After a relatively long dry spell, I’ve been writing again. It is nice to have the words return when it happens. It is a feeling that almost makes those blocks worth it. Scratch that, let them stay this time.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading again too. It seems that with my brain functioning fully, I can do a great many things. I’ve discovered L Frank Baum. What a fantastic imagination he had! For a few years now I’ve wanted to read the original 40 Oz books, the first 14 of which were written by Baum. I’m on book #5 right now, The Road To Oz. They are such fun books and keep interesting even without any violence. There is a little bit of conflict in each book, but it isn’t typically a murderous villain. The foes are thoughtful characters who explain themselves and the position they are in. I wish I’d found these books in childhood. I tend to create worlds in the way Baum did. I’ve secured 12 of the 14 of his books and I’ll find the final 2 I need this weekend. As is typical, they all seem to be between printings. Ruth Plumly Thompson, the second and most prolific Oz author will take me a lot more time. 15 of her 19 books are still in print, but somewhat expensive. I’ll have to buy them slowly and may never get to read the last few unless they are reprinted. The cheapest copy of one of them I found was $150… I don’t need to read it that bad!Continue Reading

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Literary Debris

The deities are losing cellular cohesion, gasping desperately for breaths as they become liquid and evaporate.
The poets have been usurped by melancholy memoirists,
aching to have original lives.
Every story seems to be told, despite repetition
despite repetition
despite repetition,
despite…
repetition.
I keep sweeping up the dried remnants of fallen giants:
Thoreau, Dickinson, Whitman, O’Hara;
I even find Baum and Steinbeck and Spyri in the wreckage.
I collect the bits I can in a beautiful vessel where they remain safe, more pieces having been spared than expected.
Few search for the treasures, worried they’ll cut themselves on the old words of masters.
Picking through the pieces still brings me joy
even if I’ve no one to share them with;
I wish I could be as beautiful whole as they are in shards & residue.

Notes

Written 16 February 2009 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Brian Fuchs, “Literary Debris” from Okie Dokie (Scissortail Press, 2019)