The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

[Fedora]

> At least the Vikings aren't permanent bottom-dwellers, like the Lions.

LOL!

[JenB]

Sounds like an interesting book!

I'm not really sure how church is affecting my writing. It seems to be making me more... deliberate, you might say. And I'm actually working with predestination to some extent in my story though I still haven't figured it out entirely (one of my main characters is mildly precognitive - this is the magic/SF story - and I'm trying to figure out how she handles it).

Also I want my writing to have Meaning and Depth and stuff, but I don't know how to do that so it's probably best I don't even try.

[Fedora]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1080860/posts

Stored Bullets Explode in Wis. Oven

AP ^ | 2-18-04

Posted on 02/18/2004 7:29:27 PM CST by Dan from Michigan

Stored Bullets Explode in Wis. Oven

15 minutes ago Add Strange News - AP to My Yahoo!

HOWARD, Wis. - A man and his wife ducked behind a refrigerator when bullets began exploding in their oven, authorities say.

Capt. Craig Kohlbeck of the Brown County Sheriff's Department said the husband had put the ammunition and three handguns in the oven before the couple left on a vacation.

He told officers he thought the items would be safe there in case someone broke into the home while they were away.

After returning from their trip Tuesday, the wife turned on the oven to prepare dinner and the bullets ignited, Kohlbeck said.

[Professional Engineer]

That guy looks vaguely like Ecurb.

[HairOfTheDog]

OK.... We might as well admit it....

Ecurbh has been secretly noodling catfish for years.

[Wneighbor]

Hi there. I'm at school just waiting a few minutes for the security locks to engage. This was the first night of the new quarter and even though I'm overrun with work a really cool thing happened tonight.

UNPLANNED - 3 former students came in to visit me and let me know how they are doing and tell me what's going on in their lives. They had all 3 been in classes together also so were very glad to catch up with one another. My students tonight were already gone when the first ex-student arrived so we had a really nice visit - the 4 of us!

Kinda made teaching worthwhile again - at least for tonight. :-)

[Wneighbor]

Security is in place now. I'm heading home.

[JenB]

How cool!

I'm going to bed early. See you tomorrow!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

That sounds vaguely disreputable...

Good evening!

[Fedora]

> I'm not really sure how church is affecting my writing. It seems to be making me more... deliberate, you might say.

Not sure if this is along the lines of what you mean, but one thing I've found is that church attendance/theological reflection affects the themes of my story, and also the symbolism I use. For instance one thing I sometimes do is look at the symbolism used in medieval Christian art and try to envision how to express the same thing in literary form. I have a theory--inspired somewhat by Tolkien's subcreator theory of comparative mythology--that there are certain archetypal Christian symbols which appear in Scripture that are to Christian spiritual/psychological experience as Jung's symbols are to secular psychological experience. Got a number of other ideas like that I try to work into my writing--or at least into the stories I plan in my head to write, LOL!

> And I'm actually working with predestination to some extent in my story though I still haven't figured it out entirely (one of my main characters is mildly precognitive - this is the magic/SF story - and I'm trying to figure out how she handles it).

Sounds interesting--hadn't thought to relate predestination to precognition before, but that makes sense. I have some characters like that in my story, with precognition as well as other stuff along those lines. I try to approach it from a SF perspective by developing a "mechanics" of how such things work. Of course this raises the problem of how to work the explanation into the story without too much expositional digression--that's one of the things I'm finding challenging.

> Also I want my writing to have Meaning and Depth and stuff, but I don't know how to do that so it's probably best I don't even try.

I'd have to think about how to define how one goes about doing that, but I think one of the keys is to make your characters/settings/plot conflicts symbolize the psychological/spiritual meaning you're trying to convey. For instance in LOTR, you can think of the ring as symbolizing sin, and the struggle between sin and the forces of good is symbolized by dichotomies between good characters and "fallen" characters--the Orcs are fallen Elves, the Wraiths are fallen Men, the Trolls are fallen Ents, and Gollum is a fallen Hobbit. The main characters are all Christ figures--Frodo is the priestly function of the Messiah in that he sacrifices himself, Gandalf is the prophetic function of the Messiah, Aragon is the kingly function of the Messiah, and Sam is the suffering servant--and each of these characters goes through a sort of "resurrection": Frodo almost dies twice, at Rivendell and at Shelob's pass, Gandalf dies at Moria, Aragon goes through the Paths of the Dead, Sam almost drowns but Frodo saves him. There's a lot more stuff like that, but anyway, I think LOTR is a good example of how to go about building meaning and depth into fiction through the use of symbolism. When all else fails, copy Tolkien, LOL!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

They learned a valuable lesson: Always remember where you leave your ammo!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Hopin' the sick ones get well and the well ones don't get sick!

[Rose in RoseBear]

The two main mutual seducers --- Eve and Roarke ---are engaged by the end of the second book, and get married at the end of the third ...

Here's the list:
1. Naked in Death (1995)
2. Glory in Death (1995)
3. Immortal in Death (1996)
4. Rapture in Death (1996)
5. Vengeance in Death (1997)
6. Ceremony In Death (1997)
7. Holiday in Death (1998)
"Midnight in Death" (1998)
8. Conspiracy in Death (1999)
9. Loyalty in Death (1999)
10. Judgment in Death (2000)
11. Witness in Death (2000)
12. Betrayal in Death (2001)
13. Seduction in Death (2001)
14. Reunion In Death (2002)
15. Purity in Death (2002)
16. Portrait in Death (2003)
17. Imitation in Death (2003)
18. Remember When (2003) [hardback]
19. Divided in Death (2004) [hardback]
20. Visions in Death (2004)(due August 2004)

[My back yard]

moo

[Wneighbor]

Made it home. NO weirdo students to worry about tonight. And the psycho guy didn't appear on my rolls for this quarter! :-)

[HairOfTheDog]

Here was the progress on the bulkhead today! Dad's camera messed up while they demolished the old bulkhead, so the pictures begin with the placement of the first layer of rocks... There is a bit of controversy over the placement of the rock stairs, were supposed to be two stairways and there are only enough stair-height rocks to do one stair. This is a bummer for us, because all the beach sitting has always been on the stairs of the old bulkhead, which went all the way across and provided a lot of places for even a big group to sit. We are disappointed, because I am sure the compromise doesn't mean the bill will be smaller... but mostly because it will change the way we can use the beach.

They should finish tomorrow, but this is what it starts out looking like! Even the large rocks will stair-step back at roughly the angle of the bank there.

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome home!

[Fedora]

LOL!

Heading to bed soon here; g'night all!

[My back yard]

I guess you have to see that feminine gals looked like Marilyn Monroe or Sophia Loren -- round, curvacious and cuddly -- and then the twig came along and womenhood's psyche hasn't been happy since. Men's either for that matter. it was a communist plot I'm sure.

[Wneighbor]

Thanks! It really feels nice to come home after a stress-free night teaching.


Cool pictures of the bulkhead work. Sorry ya'll are getting ripped off on the stairs. :-) Would be interesting to just hang out and watch this work for the next days huh?