Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

An Off-Schedule Wednesday Check-In: New Friends, Not Enough Sleep, and Getting Things Done

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn LifeLeave a comment

Hoo boy, this week has not been the week in which I get organized and start managing my time better, let me tell you.

The week started on a high note by making new friends! You have no idea how exciting this is for us — these are the first friends we’ve made since moving to Arkansas two years ago. We met them on a “blind friend date” at a diner on Monday morning, and our breakfast meetup turned into an all day conversation. Thankfully, they knew the owners so we didn’t get kicked out and the wait staff didn’t give us too much stink eye.

So that was cool, and now we actually know some people here, which is awesome, but by the time we got home late in the afternoon, Monday was pretty much shot.

And then for some reason, I woke up at four AM the next morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I used to be able to function okay on six hours of sleep, but those days are far behind me. Fueled by coffee and good intentions, I managed to update my freelance portfolios and send out some letters of introduction, but that’s about it.

Today was going to be the day that I really kicked some butt in the productivity department. But alas, my brain has been scattered all day, and focus has been an elusive friend. It hasn’t been a total waste — I didn’t exactly kick any butt, but I managed to kick the day in the shins by tracking down some old press releases I wrote years ago that can go in my business-to-business portfolio, along with some personal finance articles, PLUS I submitted a pitch to a homesteading publication, so we shall see if that leads anywhere.

I also did a lot of market research. And now I’m at that point where my head feels full in the same way that my stomach feels full when I overeat. I’m not sure whether that’s an ADD thing or an overstimulated HSP thing, but it’s not a great feeling either way. So now I’m dumping all of this here in the hopes that getting it out will relieve some of the pressure in my head. And it seems to be working! Thank goodness — it’s not like I can unbutton my head pants or anything.

This week’s got two days left. I’m hoping to send out some more pitches tomorrow, as well as sit down and come up with a plan to get organized. And I’m really hoping to set aside a chunk of time on Friday to work on the novel. I will most likely see you back here then.

How’s your week going?

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
Friday Update

Friday Update: Surviving Inauguration Day, Looking for Work, and Novel Progress, Such as it Is

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn LifeLeave a comment

Happy Friday, gang!

Regardless of your feelings about the new administration, can we all just breathe a big sigh of relief now that we’re on the other side of the inauguration and all of the media hysterics about violent protests turned out to be a big nothing burger? To say nothing of all of the Q-conspiracists’ talk about 4D chess and insurrection acts and EMP/cyber attacks and last minute military coups.

While I’d be lying if I said I’m optimistic about things, or that the unity they keep claiming they want is actually possible at this point, I do feel like a load’s been taken off now that we’ve had a peaceful transition.

On a related note, on Wednesday I posted an article about narcissistic projection that nobody seems to have read. Maybe because I gave it a bad title. At any rate, I’m mentioning it again because I think this is important information. So as long as you’re here, take a few minutes to give it a read.

I didn’t get a lot of writing done this week, mostly because I’ve been prioritizing prayer above everything else this week, and also we had a lot to get done around the house. I did finally take a few minutes this morning to add a few hundred words to the epilogue I started on Monday. Or rather, that I ended on Monday. Today I went back and wrote the beginning of it.

I haven’t been very organized with my time lately (if by “lately” you mean since this whole pandemic started ten months ago) and that really needs to change. This may be the last week I can realistically keep up with my daily blog challenge (I didn’t blog here yesterday, but I sent out a newsletter, and that counts). Last night, I learned that my only remaining steady writing client is going to be drastically reducing their assignment volume, so I’m going to have to start hustling to round up some new clients, and that’s going to keep me busy. Marketing and looking for new work is even more of a full-time job than having work. The silver lining in all of this is that it’s the kick in the pants I needed to finally break into business-to-business writing, which pays a lot better than the business-to-consumer content I’ve been writing these past seven or eight years. Say a prayer for me and wish me luck.

But with all that in mind, if I only have time for a little bit of writing on the side each day and it’s a choice between the blog or the novel, I’m going to prioritize the novel. I’m still going to aim for at least two or three updates here a week, though, so it’s not like I’m going away, just scaling back a bit.

So that’s been my week, in a nutshell. My weekend plans include avoiding the news and watching another hour or two of Fellowship (it’s the extended edition, in case you haven’t guessed–last time we left off right as the members of the Fellowship arrived for Elrond’s council meeting) and brushing up on my article pitching knowledge. Oh, and maybe also taking down the Christmas decorations. I was determined to leave it up all winter as a symbol of defiant hope, but we need to clear some space and so we need to pack it all up and put it in storage to make some room for a couple of projects.

It’s going to be sad to take it down, though, not the least of which is because Pete was still with us when we put it all up. Putting it all away is going to make his passing seem all the more final. I really miss my dog, y’all. It’ll be two whole months on Sunday and we’re both still struggling to adjust to his absence.

I hope everyone reading this has a blessed and restful weekend. ♥

Projection 101

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn Life1 Comment

Something that those with what are known in the psychology world as cluster B personality disorders, particularly Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder, which is the designation for psychopaths and sociopaths, have in common with people of a particular political persuasion is a tendency towards projection.

What is projection? I’ve touched briefly on it here before, describing it as when someone accuses someone else of what they themselves are guilty of in order to deflect blame and attention away from themselves and onto their opposition.

But it goes beyond that. People of the above mindset are wired in such a way that they are pathologically incapable of even beginning to fathom that other people are different — with different morals, different values, different moral limits, different patterns of thought — than themselves, and so they feel perfectly justified in projecting their own guilt onto others. After all, what they’re accusing you of is exactly what they would do in your situation, and so you must secretly be guilty, too. They’re just exposing what in their minds is true.

This is destructive enough on an individual level when applied to interpersonal relationships. But when a large group of people who think this way get together, combine their resources, and attain power over those who don’t think this way, things get really dangerous. Then you begin to see entire groups of people maligned for evils they would never even think of committing — and not only maligned, but punished for them.

One fortunate thing for us normals is that people with this mindset can’t help but expose themselves and their true nature by the things they accuse others of doing or  being. They tell us exactly what they would do if they were in their opponents’ position, incapable of comprehending that most of those they’re lumping together simply want to live their lives in peace, get along with others, and be free to provide for themselves and their families as they see fit. Violent people see violence all around them and expect violence from others. Disloyal people see disloyalty all around them and expect disloyalty from others. Insert your sociopathic quality here and repeat, ad nauseum.

Conversely, kind and considerate people tend to see kindness and consideration and to expect it from others, and are shocked when they’re met with unkindness and lack of consideration, and with false accusations and unjust maligning of character. It shakes us off our foundation and leaves us floundering as we try to make sense of what just happened — which is why it’s such an effective tactic that the narcopath returns to again and again. See also: gaslighting

Maya Angelou famously said, when people tell you who they are, listen to them. It’s time to listen and pay attention.

It would not be the worst idea in the world, if you have time, to educate yourself about narcissists and psychopaths and the way these people think, as well as the tactics they use to manipulate, control, and get their way. On YouTube, Richard Grannon, Dr. Ramani, and the Surviving Narcissism channel are all good places to start.

***

We’re living in perilous times, friends. I wish I had some encouragement. But one of the best things we can do, besides pray, is arm ourselves with discernment skills and learn to exercise prudence.

Yesterday, during Bible study, this thought occurred to me — that God is going to allow things to get really bad before they get better, because these latter generations, who have lived our lives in relative ease and comfort, need to be exposed first-hand to true evil and see for ourselves what it’s capable of and what happens when sin and lawlessness are allowed to go unchecked. This life is our inoculation against evil, so that we will be immune to it in the afterlife. And we’re all about to get a big dose.

But the righteous will be saved by faith. Habbakuk first said it, and Paul repeated it multiple times. What makes us righteous? Not our works or our morals or our human virtue. Nothing inherent in us. Only faith in Jesus Christ, who covers us with his righteousness.

The Lord knows them that are his, and he is in the boat with us, our rock and our refuge, our shelter in times of trouble. He will see us through the storm.

Breaking it Off With the Big G

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn Internet, Life4 Comments

My de-googlification project is commencing apace. As promised, today’s post will include some resources to help you de-googlify your own life.

But first, this is where I’m at: I already stopped using Chrome a long time ago because it’s such a resource hog and they did away with some of my favorite features. Since then I’ve been using Firefox, and it’s been fine, but last week the Mozilla CEO made some disturbing comments that are completely NOT fine, so now I’m trying out alternatives to Firefox. So far I’m liking Brave and Midori, but I haven’t settled on one yet.

Getting off of Gmail is the biggie. I decided to switch to Protonmail instead, and grabbing an account their was the easy part. I’ve updated the e-mail links and contact form on this site and set an auto-responder in my Gmail to automatically let people who e-mail know that they need to update their contact info. By the by, if you have and use my jmbauhaus email address, just change the gmail part to protonmail and you’ll be good to go. Also, jean@jeanmariebauhaus.com still works just fine. Eventually I’ll also move my Jeanie Nicholson and Broke Author accounts to P’mail, but they don’t get much traffic, so that’s not a priority.

This also means I’ve got to go through all of my accounts and update my logins. Since I also haven’t been using password best practices all these years, it’s also an opportunity to change everything out to stronger, unique passwords. I had to get a good password manager to keep them all straight — I don’t want to store passwords in my browser any longer, as I had been doing.

This part is going to take a good, long while. It’s helping to prioritize. I started with accounts I log into regularly, along with accounts that have been breached. One thing I like about Firefox is that it has a service that monitors your logins and lets you know if they’re connected to a website that’s been hacked, but you can also find out by entering your login email at haveibeenpwnd.com. I’m also deleting accounts with services I no longer use, and reducing my digital footprint.

Changing my login methods on accounts that login with Google or Facebook is also going to be a high priority.

Sorting through all the newsletters and subscription emails I get at Gmail, unsubbing from the ones I no longer want and updating my email with the ones I want to keep, is also going to take a while.

Anyway, if you want to go down this road, start here: Alternatives to Google Products for 2021

That article does what it says on the tin, recommending more private and secure alternatives to every Google product out there. The rest of the website also has great advice on other privacy concerns and tools, such as VPN and password management recommendations, etc.

I’ve used Google Docs for years, mainly because I can copy and paste from that to my freelance writing agency’s content management platform without a lot of extra code getting added in like it does if I past it from Word or Open Office. But with my next batch of writing assignments I’m going to give Zoho Writer a try instead. It looks pretty comparable. Zoho also has a cloud storage alternative to Google Drive that looks promising.

I probably won’t be quitting YouTube any time soon, because there are too many good content creators who haven’t yet switched to other platforms. But I disabled the app on my phone and am just watching it in my web browser. Between that and my Android phone, I won’t be able to break up with Google completely. But I can at least support their competition and stop giving them so much information about me.

Oh, and speaking of Android, this is helpful if you have one:

I hope this is helpful if you’re wanting to reduce your dependence on big tech. It’s almost impossible to avoid them completely without quitting the internet altogether — a solution that gets more attractive with each passing day — but at least it’s something.

Monday Check-In: Novel Progress & Cutting Big Tech Cords

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn Life2 Comments

Hello, friends, and welcome to a new week!

All the chipperness indicated in that exclamation point is an indication that I finally wrote on the novel today, which usually has the effect of making me feel like I kicked some A. I skipped ahead and wrote the ending, so now I’ve got a clear destination in mind. I also revised the rest of the outline to take a less meandering route to get there. Progress!

I’d meant to write a more substantial post for this here blog today, but I’m finally motivated enough to start the process of de-googlifying my life and cleaning up my online footprint as much as possible, along with tightening up security, and hoo boy, is this ever going to be an intricate, drawn-out process. It’s really disturbing when you realize just how deeply these big tech ecosystems are entrenched in your life, especially when you’ve been using them for over a decade. I have a feeling this is going to take weeks. Small steps. It will be worth it to know I’m no longer ho’ing myself and my data out to them.

So apart from my novel, that’s my big project for this week, along with continuing the website renovation. I’ll try to share some resources here later this week if you would like to join me in this journey. If so, drop an affirmative in the comments!

Later, gators!

Friday Update

Friday Update: Conspiracy Theories, ARGs, Novel Update and Weekend Plans

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn Life6 Comments

Happy almost-weekend, friends! We made it all the way through the week without any frightening historical events taking place, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned. It was kind of nice to get a little bit of a respite, although something tells me this is merely the calm before the next big storm.

Despite my resolve and best intentions, I was terrible at staying away from the news this week, but at some point yesterday I started to burn out on it and realized that everything at this point is speculation and rumor and propaganda and nobody really knows anything. What a crazy, turvey-topsey world we’re living in. Interesting times, indeed.

I’ve also been keeping my ear to the rumor mill, partly just to be ready in case any of it turns out to be true and partly out of the fascination you get when you drive by the scene of a bad accident, and… wow. If I ever decide to write a political thriller I’ll have no shortage of fantastic plots to choose from.

Which brings me to my theory about Q and QAnon (if you don’t know what those are, count yourself blessed). I’ve been a casual observer of this whole movement since they made it onto my radar shortly after the lockdowns began. One thing that struck me right away is the similarity between Q and an ARG.

ARG stands for alternate-reality game, a type of game that operates in the real world but is set within a fictional universe, in which the players follow clues and bread crumbs dropped around the internet–and in some cases real-life locales–to solve a mystery. JJ Abrams popularized these games in the late ’00s, starting with games set in the LOST-verse and later expanding to the entire JJ-verse.

For those who are unaware, Q is supposedly a military operation run by a person or persons high up in the government with access to the president, and they are all working together quietly behind the scenes to expose and drain the swamp and all of their corruption, which includes but is not limited to profiting off of child sex trafficking. This entity, so they say, wanted to start a movement and get this information into the hands of the public, and they do so by leaving “drops,” i.e., breadcrumbs and clues, on a message board for its followers — who call themselves QAnon — to parse and act on.

There’s quite a bit more to it than that — like the almost cult-like devotion of QAnon members to Q and the president and their absolute belief that they are our saviors, including a lot of Christians who ought to know better. In spite of all appearances, these true believers are trusting in a Plan that will result in a second term for the current president, busting child trafficking rings wide open and rescuing thousands, if not millions of abused children, and in mass arrests of the corrupt government leaders behind it all, followed by military tribunals to bring them all to justice.

As an admittedly casual observer, I’ve developed a strong suspicion that all of this is, in fact, an elaborate ARG, the players of which are intentionally led to believe that it’s all real and not in actuality an elaborate fiction. Why? I can think of a few reasons. Maybe the actual deep state set it all up to dupe and discredit Trump supporters as crazy and paranoid conspiracy theorists and stir up those within that group who have a less firm grasp on reality combined with a propensity to carry things to the extreme. Or maybe it’s just a group of bored hackers who enjoy screwing with people for kicks.

Or maybe I’m wrong and it’s real and Trump is going to pull off a second term with the help of Q and save freedom and democracy and thousands of children from the clutches of the satanic globalist cabal.

I don’t think so. Mostly because I’m a student of prophecy (and I also read Fate of Empires, and I recommend you do, as well), and these things that are happening in this country seem to be right on schedule. Both Jesus and Paul, as well as Peter and John, told us things would get to this point, that people would be the way they currently are, and also there is no America in end-times prophecies, so we shouldn’t be too surprised that its time has come. And from a Biblical and spiritual standpoint, I believe the true author of this Q phenomenon is the author of lies and confusion, that this is ultimately a spiritual deception designed to distract believers from putting their hope and trust in Christ and, as I fear will happen for some when the “plan” doesn’t pan out, cause them to fall away from the faith.

Again, maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. I guess we’ll all find out on Inauguration day.

I didn’t plan to write all of that when I sat down here. I was just going to tell you how I spent too much time this week glued to the news, which is one of the reasons I didn’t make much progress on Revolution 2 this week, but not the only reason. Part of it is also because it always turns out that I need a few days off from writing after a long run of article writing. The rest of it is that I just need to let this story simmer a bit and allow time for the movie of it to play out in my mind so I can get some clarity on exactly how to tie everything up and get to the end.

So I didn’t feel like a total slacker, apart from blogging here, I spent some of my non-writing time switching this site over to a new theme and redid the home page. It’s still a work in progress as I ad some more pages, including a page dedicated to my sweet romance pen name, and update outdated info, but I’m pretty pleased with it so far.

I’ll try to get back to the novel on Sunday and get some momentum going again before the Inauguration happens and whatever drama occurs along with it. I’m truly hoping and praying that there will be none, and that things will be peaceful, and that all of the anticipation of something big happening fizzles out into a big nothing. I just want people to be safe, for as long as that remains possible.

In the mean time, I’m going to do my best to turn everything off and take a real break. Outside, the sky keeps spitting snow, and it’s going to be a cold weekend, so I’m going to stay cozy, maybe read a book, and watch the rest of Fellowship of the Ring.

So what do you think? Sound off in the comments. And have a safe, peaceful, restful weekend.

What’s the Goal of the Goal?

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn LifeLeave a comment
Image by USA-Reiseblogger from Pixabay

Yesterday, I touched on failed New Year’s resolutions and how I’m pressing on with my own resolve to blog here every weekday throughout January even after deliberately skipping a day this week. Because, as I pointed out, even though I set a goal to blog daily, my true goal wasn’t to blog every day — it was to develop a more consistent blogging habit. Posting daily was just my methodology.

Thinking about that, I started to wonder how many people’s failed resolutions are failing simply because they’re putting too much emphasis on methodologies and not on the actual purpose — the true goal of the goal, as it were.

Maybe you resolved this year to eat Paleo, or Keto, or whatever’s currently popular, or you resolved to work out every day, and your resolve to do those things has already petered out and so you’re declaring them failures. But what’s your true purpose behind making those changes? Is it to eat Keto for the sake of eating Keto or to work out for the sake of working out? No — I’m betting your true goal is to move more, eat less junk, and improve your health. The diet and workout plan you chose are simply methodologies to achieve that goal. If those methodologies aren’t working for you, that’s not a failure — it just means you need a new methodology. Or maybe you just need a break. Taking a break from the pursuit of your true goal is permissible. It’s only a failure if you allow it to be.

Before the holidays started, I decided I wanted to memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount (or, as my pastor likes to call it, the Teaching on the Hill) from the Gospel of Matthew. I set a daily goal of committing one verse a day to memory. I made it through the first 18 verses before my momentum petered out, and I haven’t memorized any new verses from that passage since.

I could call it a failure and give up on my project to memorize the whole sermon. Or, I could remember my true goal — to hide God’s word in my heart so I’ll always have it with me — and pick back up where I left off.

This applies to writing, as well. If I judged my success or failure on whether I hit some arbitrary word quota each day, I’d never finish a novel. But since finishing the novel is the actual goal, I always get back after it at some point — sometimes after months of no forward progress. Still, the novels get written. And that’s the main thing.

Are you making the mistake of focusing on methodology instead of purpose? What’s the true goal behind your goal? Figure that out, and it will be a lot easier to stick with it for the long haul. And if you feel like sharing, leave a comment to tell us about it.

Do What You Can, and Trust God for the Rest

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn LifeLeave a comment
Image by Bohdan Chreptak from Pixabay

Yesterday was a full day, and I was also very tired, so I gave myself permission to not blog. Right on schedule, apparently–I heard a statistic this morning that January 12 is the day that most New Year’s resolutions die. Not that I’d made a NYR to blog every day–that was just a goal for this month, to get me back in the habit. And since the purpose was to build a blogging habit, and here I am, picking back up today, it’s all fine. Anyway, carrying on…

The weather turned sunny and warmish yesterday, so we headed outside and into the woods. We hiked to the bottom of the big hill on top of which our house sits, and then back up again, which was quite a workout, and it turns out I needed that as much as I needed the sunshine and time in the woods. I was wheezing a little by the time we made it back to the top, which shows how quickly I’ve gotten out of shape after only two weeks of neglecting my daily walk. At any rate, that little outing was as good for my body as it was for my mind and soul.

With the rest of my day, I finished the big article I’d started on Monday. The thing that took me so long with it was coming up with a thousand words to say on the topic. I tend to write with brevity, which can be a good thing with fiction, but it’s not helpful when I have a minimum word count, especially when that minimum is a thousand words on a topic that can be covered in only 500. After padding the article with as much tangentially-related info as I could come up with, I was still falling short, so it was time to haul out the adverbs. Want to know how to prevent bloat in deep-chested dogs? Ask me, because I’m an expert on it now. Or you can just wait for my unusually verbose, adverb-laden article to come out in a few months.

(But seriously, if you have a deep-chested dog, look into that whole preventing bloat thing, because that’s a serious and potentially deadly problem, and we’ve had quite enough of dogs dying around here, thank you and good day.)

Moving on to something that’s been on my mind lately: after a few years of flirting with homesteading, we’re really wanting to give it a go this year. January is a tough month, because there’s not really much you can do, although we’re doing the things when we can. It’s tempting to get frustrated and worried, because in light of current events, there’s this sense of urgency that everybody’s feeling to get started, and even if you’ve already gotten a good start, it’s easy to feel like you’re behind.

This is not helped by influencers in the homesteading and prepping community, particularly on YouTube, who basically come right out and say that we’re all going to die if we’re not already fully established farmers and field medicine experts and expert marksmen with fully stocked larders who are also experts at canning food and baking bread. I get where they’re coming from — the proverbial S has already HTF, and it’s past time to prep for it. They want to motivate people to get serious and get started. But a lot of times the result of this messaging is that if you’re not moving to the country or starting a prepper commune or growing substantial crops or raising your own livestock and producing your own dairy products or filling your entire basement with canned and dry goods and etc., then it’s hopeless, so why even start?

So I want to encourage you that it’s not hopeless. Should you be prepping for hard times ahead? I believe that would be prudent. Do you have to make prepping and homesteading your life and pour your entire life savings into it? Nah, child. Do you have to get out of the city and do whatever it takes to move to the country? I don’t think that’s a bad idea if you actually can, but it’s just not feasible for everybody, and that doesn’t mean you’re doomed.

A few years ago when I figured out that I can’t do everything and trying to was making me exhausted and sad, I developed a philosophy: do what you can and trust God for the rest. I think that applies here as well. Nobody can do all the things, but everybody can do some of the things. I believe that prepping for hard times — be it illness or job loss, natural disasters, bad weather, a cyber attack on the grid, the government turning on its own citizens, whatever — is wise and responsible and also a Biblical concept. I think doing nothing and hoping to get by on the kindness of strangers or the provision of the government is misguided at best and irresponsible at worst. But I also know that God is my provider and protector. He set things up so that we participate in that provision as much as we’re able, but we don’t have to fear when we lose the ability or our contributions fall short. He’s not going to let us starve to death because our attempts at growing and preserving our own food were insufficient for the challenges we’re facing.

Do what you can and trust God for the rest. Don’t let the influencer scare tactics scare you right out of even getting started. Start with the basics you need to live — clean water, food, and a way to cook said food and stay warm if you lose power. Mary’s Nest is a great YouTube channel for this — she has a very encouraging, very soothing, and very doable playlist of videos showing you how to get started stocking your prepper pantry on a small budget.

It’s another warmish day, so I’m hoping to get outside some more this afternoon, and also to make some substantial progress on Revolution 2.

Any good prepping or homesteading resources to add? Tips for getting started? Drop them in the comments — or just leave a note to say hi and tell me how you’re doing.

 

Monday Check-in: Hobbits, Writing Plans and Bracing for What’s Ahead

On By Jean Marie BauhausIn LifeLeave a comment
Image by Christoph Schütz from Pixabay

One of the problems with committing to blogging daily is coming up with something worthwhile to blog about eacy day. This problem is compounded when, immediately after making said commitment, you get handed a slew of articles to write. Not that I’m complaining about the paying work — far from it. But it’s kept me from being able to give as much thought to these here blog posts as I would have liked.

I’ve got one more article to finish, and then I’ll be able to put some real time and thought into these daily posts. Until then, I’m afraid you’re stuck with bland life blather, if you’re actually here to read this. Of course, if I wanted to start writing about politics and current events, I’d have a whole litany of things to say, but considering the current political climate, now doesn’t seem like a prudent time to start delving into all of that.

Anyway, I got the rest I needed this weekend, although I wasn’t able to keep myself away from the news as I’d intended. But I did get a lot of prayer in, and spent a lot of time in the book of 1 Peter, which I highly recommend if you’re a Christian who is worried about the state of the world, as it’s basically a field guide for Believers living in a hostile and perilous culture.

We also finished Battle of the Five Armies and then started Fellowship of the Ring. I’d never seen Five Armies, so it was nice to finally complete that trilogy. I also confess that I’ve also never actually read all of The Hobbit, which I’m sure loses me significant geek cred, but my husband tells me that the book and the movie trilogy have very few things in common. At any rate, I enjoyed Five Armies once it got past the middle lull following the (spoiler alert) death of Smaug and picked up again, and as endings go, I thought it had a stronger ending than Return of the King, although overall I think the original LotR trilogy is far superior to the prequels. In any case, I’ve moved The Hobbit up to the top of my TBR list for this year.

Now that we’re faced with another Monday, and life and work must both go on despite democracy dying in darkness, I’m turning my attention to what I hope to get done this week. That includes finishing and submitting the previously mentioned article and then turning my attention to this blog and coming up with some more thoughtful content. It also includes devoting more time each day to Revolution 2 and building momentum that will carry me through to the end. I may send out an update to my author mailing list later this week, and I’ve been wanting to sit down and come up with a plan for Facebook that will let me engage more there without it eating up too much of my time.

I’ve got just enough time in my work day to squeeze in a quick word sprint on the novel, so I’d best get to it. While I do, leave a comment and share what you’re tackling this week.