Raven's View

Interesting NY article following the firing of Bill O'Reilly

"In 1998, Bill O’Reilly published his first and, so far, only novel: “Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder.” The main character is a violently bitter journalist named Shannon Michaels, who, after being pushed out of two high-profile positions, takes revenge on four of his former colleagues by murdering them one by one."

And did the heart grow fonder?

I abstained for Lent from The Facebook - which went quite well. Here's my post. However, I also seem to have pretty well abstained from editing. Darn.

I had joined Camp NaNoWriMo for April to challenge myself to do 2 hr/day editing - but that lasted only a few days. My excuse is not enough peer pressure. With the November NaNoWriMo you not only have other online writers, but friends and family know what you're up to. Editing - a little vaguer. Some days I spent two hours making some good changes, some days it was just a bit of staring off into space. All that time freed up from NOT Facebooking didn't translate into more editing.  

So, some editing did take place, plus some marketing for my first two novels, some reading, some Netflix (of course), some video games, and - right now - another visit to Toronto. Where my girlfriend and I made up an Easter basket of bread, home-dyed eggs, salt, a tiny marzipan lamb, pussy-willows, and tulips. And then we brought it to the local church, St. Casimir, to be blessed. Along with a lot of the people from the local Polish neighbourhood, so many in fact that the blessings were in shifts, every 15 minutes.  It was very interesting as a writer to observe this event - basically a pagan ritual co-opted by the Church. Ours was one of the plainer baskets, but some were quite ornate, with flowers and ribbons. Lots of kids here too. The service was mostly in Polish, but seemed quite relaxed, especially when the priest walked along with his holy water, sprinkling the baskets and the parishioners. I think there was a very slight sizzle when it struck me.  

I gave up Facebook for Lent - from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday. For Western Christians, one of the observances of the period is to give up something, as a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s journey into the desert for 40 days. For me, an atheist, it was an excuse to do without the time-suck that is Facebook. I'm sure JC didn't even have cell coverage in the desert, never mind Facebook, so I thought it was appropriate. 

So, did I miss it? Am I back? Did anyone notice? 

To the last first - a few friends did send me a note asking if I was okay, as I had left without any fanfare or announcement.  

Did I miss it? I use The Facebook for several reasons: to stay in touch with others, to learn about interesting things going on in the world, to share with others my ideas and gems that I find, to discuss ideas, and to promote my books. 

However, over the years I've managed to accumulate over 500 'friends' on here, so my news feed is a constant stream of their posts, or at least the ones that Facebook thinks I should see. Plus ads, of course. The only way to keep up with this deluge is to check in frequently - hourly at times - to see what's new. And once on the site, it's like sitting in front of cable TV with the remote in hand, clicking on and on and on. Hence the time-suck. I did miss being in the loop for what was going on, as buried deep in that stream are a lot of interesting events and discussions. But it is too much. 

I suppose I could just unfollow everyone, but I think while I'll still wander in occasionally,  I just won't bother to keep up, so will likely miss a lot. If you think something might interest me, be it an event, or something quirky or a good discussion - tag me in it.  And I will continue to pass on what I think is interesting - although it is difficult to choose which to focus on. So many dumb-as people out there it seems.  

So I'm back, sort of.

Well, here it is another ROW, and time for some more SMART objectives - as in Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. 

My Goals for 2017 remain the same: write, write better, publish, enjoy life, and stay healthy. 

My Objectives this round, to start anyway, are to:

• edit my novel Ghost in the Machine for 2 hours a day,
• do some writerly things (publishing, promoting, researching, etc) an hour a day,
• walk daily for 4000 steps,
• do my daily yoga, and
• get to bed before midnight.