Healing Through Food

A bit behind, but time to start playing catch-up! A quick content warning here, as the story references survivors of sexual violence.

In Kosovo, tens of thousands of people are finding their way to recovery after the Serbia-Kosovo war in the 1990s. Because of cultural stigmas surrounding abuse, survivors have had difficulty finding work or supporting themselves economically. In the city of Gjakova, an NGO is finding a new way to move forward.

Medica Gjakova is a store that sells organic produce and products made locally by survivors of war violence. These folks are able to sell products that they're making from home, giving them the opportunity to earn an income without having to find work outside of the home. They are supporting themselves and their families, while building a business.

Working with one's hands and making something useful is a kind of therapy in itself. By finding a different way to turn that work into a way of earning a living, people are moving toward in their healing. It's amazing to think of how something as simple as a homemade cheese can lead to recovery and economic freedom.

Behold the Power of His Noodly Appendage!

Today, friends, we're talking about food. Glorious food! Etc. and so forth. Specifically, a beef noodle soup from China:

Man, now I'm hungry. At any rate, this is the kind of regional dish that has the benefit of being both satisfying and cheap, making it ideal for folks with few resources. Recently, it's also become a symbol of a bigger program taking shape in China.

Government officials in Gansu province have announced a plan to teach 15,000 impoverish people how to make the hand-stretched noodles used in the dish from scratch. The idea is that those people will then be able to take those skills to get work in existing noodle shops (of which there are 4,000 in Gansu province alone) or take the next step of opening their own noodle shop.

It's a strong sign of optimism and belief in their people that the government is putting such a program in place, as it indicates a willingness to give people tools to help them live better lives. There are other programs in place or being proposed as well, including driving tourism to more impoverished provinces and opening villages to film and TV studios for filming.

Poverty isn't an easy problem to solve, and to believe otherwise is to oversimplify the factors involved. However, giving people new skills that they can use to help improve their station is never a bad thing. And besides, who can say no to a good bowl of noodle soup?

Under the Sea?

Day three of Camp Pollyanna looks at the bottom of the sea, and showing just how AWESOME it is. The Schmidt Ocean Institute, working with Dr. Mandy Joye and her research team out of the University of Georgia, has been exploring hydrothermal vents and cold seep environments in the Gulf of California. The Institute, using state of the art technology and ships named after characters in The NeverEnding Story, have captured some of the most diverse and vibrant places in the world.

The deep-sea cameras have taken amazing images, showing mineral towers that are teeming with different kinds of life, including, potentially, creatures we've never seen before. And these things are huge! Up to 23 meters (75 feet) tall and 10 meters (32 feet) wide, and venting superheated fluids, these towers allowed scientists to use new kinds of samplers to draw fluids and volatile substances back to their remotely operated vehicle, SuBastian. (Told you - all of the names are like that.)

But what does it look like? Let me show you:

(Look, it's SuBastian hard at work!)

The more we learn about our world, the more awesome we find it to be. No matter how long we study, there's always going to be more to discover in our world. It's just so neat I can't stand it!

Go! Discover! But first...

Robots: Activate

Day two of Camp Nanowrimo/Project: Pollyanna! Hope everyone had a good night's rest and all that jazz.

Do you remember Power Wheels? Being a child of the 1980's, I remember seeing those commercials and being insanely jealous of the kids riding around in a car. Like an ADULT. I mean, look at this!

How could you not want one?

Apparently, they're still around, and a high school robotics team decided to take one to the next level (but not in a "make it go 60mph and jump over flaming tires" way). Meet Cillian Jackson, a 2-year-old in Minnesota who, due to genetic wonkiness, is unable to walk. He had been primarily carried by his parents or pushed in a stroller, but that left him with minimal control over his movement. There were options for motorized wheelchairs, but they were out of his parents' budget. However, they had another idea.

Inspired by a group called Go Baby Go, Cillian's parents approached the local high school with a Power Wheel and a proposal - can you make this into something Cillian can use to get around?

The answer, of course, was yes. By dint of hard work and serious hacking skills(z), the team hacked the Power Wheel to make it easier to use and hold Cillian in place securely. This involved re-wiring, installing new pieces, and writing code to change the steering mechanics.

The result? A child able to move about freely and explore, and a group of high school students who get first-hand experience in seeing their skills make the world a better place in a real, tangible way. Sounds like a pretty solid project to me!

Happy Camp Nanowrimo! *confetti*

Hello all! Long time, no chat. The world's not in the greatest of states right now, I know, but it's time to bring a bit of light to the darkness again. At least, that's what I'm aiming to do. Bring on the positivity!

Project Pollyanna is go!

Now, I had planned to do a new Illumination post, highlighting a positive news story, but then I realized it's April Fools' Day. Not the greatest day for finding a trustworthy news story. So instead, let me tell you about something awesome.

Nathan Pyle is a web cartoonist who has created a lovely and thought-provoking series called Strange Planet. It's got a lot in common with the "humans are the aliens" idea, where humans are really, frankly, just weird. Nathan takes that idea and runs with it, showing aliens doing all the things humans do.

Enjoy, my friends!

It can be fall now, please (Q2 2018 Round-Up)

Long-time readers may be aware of my dislike of the summer, and the Fourth of July in particular. This year is more difficult than most, between the state of the nation we're supposed to be celebrating and the fact that it's the 20th anniversary of Dad's passing. So, naturally, I've decided to distract myself with a round-up post.

Q2 2018 round-up:

Words written YTD: 7,712 on one project (Novel Wars)

Writer-ly things accomplished: What I thought was a light-hearted fantasy novel turned into a mystery, so I'm trying to roll with it; I didn't quite make the 100 Day Challenge, but I've picked up again with Camp NaNoWriMo for July.

New books read: Some reading for the Hugos, among others. Highlights: Space Opera by Cat Valente (so good go read now now now!), All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Hugo nominee for best novella, and I need more from this world).

Old books re-read: Continuing the Discworld re-read, slowly but surely.

I also started a new job at the beginning of April, which is leading to a fair amount of self-reflection, questioning my own abilities and skills, and wondering just how rare it is to have some kind of consistent data management in a small organization because seriously, people. They seem to like me there, though, so that's always a plus.

And now, back to the writing and avoiding the sounds of the fireworks going off in the neighborhood. Happy summer, all in the northern hemisphere (and happy winter to our neighbors in the south).

*taps mic* Is this thing still on? (Q1 2018 Round-Up)

I live! It's been a heck of a ride the last few months. Let me explain...

In sum: after being out of work since November, I started a new job at the beginning of April. I managed to avoid going completely off the deep end, but it was a near thing. New job is almost the polar opposite of the old job, but it's a nice change of pace. It's given me a chance to focus on writing again. I managed to win Camp Nano this April, and I'm doing pretty well with the 100 Day Project thus far. (My Instagram is primarily pictures of my writing and pictures of my cats, if you're interested.)

So! Q1 2018 round-up:

Words written YTD: 10,684 on two projects (Intermezzo (new project for Camp Nano) and Novel Wars)

Writer-ly things accomplished: Won Camp Nano for the first time in a couple of years, managed to write every day since the beginning of April; jumped back to an old project with fresh eyes

New books read: An assortment of non-fiction books and magazines, with a few graphic novels thrown in for fun.

Old books re-read: Continuing the Discworld re-read.

I haven't read nearly as many books as I normally have by this point in the year, but I'm hoping to change that. It's taken some time to get myself back in the habit of being active every day. More importantly, I'm feeling more like myself, finally.

Camp Nanowrimo Day 10

So far, doing pretty well! Also, I'm rather fond of this one, so have a bit of Steve and Human-Steve.

Steve was troubled, there was no other way to put it. Several of the humans had hidden themselves away in one of the smaller recreational rooms, and on occasion there were loud thumps and other sounds that indicated someone might be in danger. Any time someone would attempt to enter the room and see what the problem was, however, they were rebuffed.

Steve knew that Human-Steve was in the room, and had been for some time. It was not like Human-Steve to spend so much time around others, as he was what he called an “introvert” and preferred to spend time alone. Whatever was happening in that room must have been very important to the humans in order to draw Human-Steve’s attention.

Steve had walked by the door of the room again, trying to find the best way to enter without being noticed, when the door opened and Human-Steve stumbled toward the hallway. “Steve!” he shouted, reaching out in the human gesture called a hug. “Buddy, you gotta come see this!” Before Steve could move their tentacles out of Human-Steve’s reach, they had been grasped (gently) and pulled into the room.

Inside, the room was even louder than Steve had imagined. A large viewscreen took up one wall, and there were several moving symbols flying across it. In front of the viewscreen were two humans, each bouncing and moving their feet in some complicated method that Steve could not decipher. They looked up at Human-Steve, their confusion causing the hairs on their torso to curl.

“Dude! It’s DDR.” Human-Steve reached over to an open box and pulled out a can. “You know, I bet with all those tentacles, you’d kill at this.”

Before Steve needed to react to this frightening statement, the sound from the viewscreen ended, and one of the humans called to their roommate. “Your turn! Try to beat that score.”

“Hold my beer!” Human-Steve cried, which was greeted with many cheers. Steve had heard this phrase brought up in many conversations with humans, and wanted no part in watching their roommate attempt something either ridiculous or deadly. Or both. Steve fled in the ensuing chaos, hoping they would see their roommate again in one piece.

Q1 Round-up and Camp Nanowrimo Day 7

Starting with the second thing first, Camp Nanowrimo is going slowly so far. I believe I'm overthinking the Steve and Human-Steve drabbles, which is making it difficult to make progress. I also decided to spend some quality time with Living Cities, which right now involves reading through what I drafted and remembering what the devil was going on. Fortunately, reading through it is giving me inspiration to work on it again, huzzah!

And now, the round-up:

Words written YTD: 364 on one project (S&H-S). I did mention that it was going slowly, right? To be fair (or not), I hadn't actually written anything until earlier this week.

Writer-ly things accomplished: Technically I wrote a couple of short bits on Tumblr, but they don't feel like they count, somehow. Even so, I'm getting back into the swing of things.

New books read: Many comics/graphic novels, the first book of the Craft series (now nominated for a Hugo), and a book on the history of the severed head in science and society (appropriately titled "Severed").

Old books re-read: More Discworld, the first three books and many of the short stories of the Incryptid series

Steve and Human-Steve

Those of you reading this on Tumblr have probably already seen my initial drabbles on this topic, but I wanted to flesh things out a little more here. This year for Camp Nanowrimo (at least, the one in April), I'm planning on taking some of the various writing prompts related to the "humans are weird" trope.

The general idea is that, if alien cultures were to look on human beings, they would find us decidedly odd. Humans do weird things like try to pet nearly every animal that comes within reach, or collecting worthless objects, or laughing when we're scared or nervous. We talk to ourselves and make up songs and give inanimate objects names. The way we're built, we can do things like throw objects accurately and with force, or continue fighting or running even while injured, or break down and cry at the sight of that cursed Sarah McLachlan sad puppy commercial. From an outside perspective, we are just strange.

It's a bit of fun, and it definitely gives me something to think about. How would a species that never developed sight interact with a species that uses sight as one of its primary senses? How would a species of risk-averse creatures (think the Vulcans from Star Trek) handle a species whose first response to most challenges is something along the lines of "here, hold my beer"?

That's what I intend to find out.

How is it August already?

So Camp Nanowrimo this last month was a bust for me, but at least I was able to keep writing. I have a good idea of where things are going for the rest of the story. I've also been using My Write Club to set smaller, shorter goals for myself - I've been setting things for a week at a time, and that's been helping me keep my motivation going. This may be the longest period of continuous writing that I've done in ages, and it makes me feel more like things are in hand.

With luck, my blog posts going forward won't just be about how I'm trying to write, really and for true! In the meantime, I'll be here, trying to figure out why my villain is making evil coffee.

Camp Nanowrimo Day 29 and July Round-Up

So, is anyone else ready for 2016 to be consigned to the fires of history? I sure am. *sigh* At any rate, I live, I write (some), I read - let me tell you about it!

Camp Nano word count - 6969 (ouch)

July Round-Up:

Words written YTD: 36,246  on one and a half projects (Paranormal Investigations novels and a prequel short story that didn't really go where I wanted it to)

Things accomplished in fiction: the bookstore date went...poorly. Alison now knows that her coworkers know more about the paranormal than she thought, and one of them is some kind of fae? Maybe? Also, the new coffee blend is probably evil. (Such a Seattle villain, I swear)

Writer-ly things accomplished: Re-jiggered my outline for the rest of PII based on the changes to the first book that have come up, making it more like something I think will make sense. Started using mywriteclub.com for weekly challenges, rather than relying on Camp Nano for monthly ones, which has gotten my progress going a little more steadily.

New books read: The God of the Hive (Russell & Holmes #10, and not the strongest outing); Lumberjanes Vol. 2-4, issues 13, 18-20 (I blame my friend Danielle for this recent obsession, but it's well worth it); Fables Vol. 10 (my ongoing attempt to read all of Fables); Asymmetrical Warfare (short story for Hugo nomination - decent); How to be a Heroine (non-fiction deep-dive into various YA books aimed at young women - I liked it a great deal, especially as the author discovered how her reading of the different characters changed over time); Prudence (Gail Carriger's Steampunk world, which I still love)

Old books re-read: Feet of Clay (ah, Pratchett); Feed (preparing for Mira Grant's Feedback, and reminding myself how much I love this world)

Significantly more new reads this month than re-reads, which is always a bonus. Now, to figure out how Alison discovers the evil of the secret coffee blend...

Momentum

Normally, this is where I would give my stats for Camp Nanowrimo, but I haven't actually figured out how much I've written in the last couple of days. I do seem to be falling into a bit of a trap with regards to moving things along. As in, they aren't moving all that quickly. And it's hard to tell if that's because I'm more focused on discovery writing what's going on, or if it's because I've only been writing a couple hundred words here and there, so it feels like I'm not moving very fast.

One of the nice things, though, is that I'm learning an awful lot about my characters and the world I've built over the years that I apparently didn't know before. For example, the bookstore that Jonathan loves so much is apparently in something like a knowe? I haven't decided if that means it's actually run by the fae or not, but probably.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks, is what I can say. I'm trying not to make this blog into a "the world is full of awful and needs to knock it the hell off" rant-fest, but seriously. Could we maybe have a week where that doesn't end with a list of people murdered? Please?

Day 4 of Camp Nanowrimo, June Round-Up and Second Quarter Check-In

Why yes, I am cramming everything into one post! This is what happens when I go to a convention (Westercon, in this case), and forget to get posts up for while I'm gone.

July Camp Nano:
Current word count: 1,152
Goal word count: 30,000
What's happening: Turns out that Jonathan (love interest) and Jack (partner in the work sense of Veronica) are bros. Also, the paranormal community around the coffee shop is Not Happy about the mystical, magical new coffee blend. Alison wants nothing to do with this - she just wants to go on her date already, dangit.

June Round-Up:

Words written YTD: 30,429 on one and a half projects (Paranormal Investigations novels and a prequel short story that didn't really go where I wanted it to)

Things accomplished in fiction: see above

Writer-ly things accomplished: Decided that the short story wasn't going to do what I needed it to do, and that I wasn't in a good place to keep going with it at the moment. Picked up the proverbial pen for the second Camp Nano of the year, and I'm planning to keep my word count goal where it is - it'll be good practice for November.

New books read: Waking Up in Vegas (Incryptid short story by Seanan McGuire, which remains so much fun); Night Owls (urban fantasy I picked up on a whim - other than an unnecessary amount of head hopping, pretty solid); Hamilton, the Revolution (why yes, I have fallen into the hole that is Hamilton fandom, why do you ask?); Lumberjanes Volume 1 (so cute, and with enough "what the hell?" going on to keep things interesting); No Love Lost (Weather Warden short story that I hadn't known existed previously - kinda meh, to be honest); The Fifth Season (nominated for a Hugo, and so far, my front-runner); Stage of Fools (October Daye short story, courtesy of Seanan McGuire's Patreon)

Old books re-read: The Long Earth, The Long War, and The Long Mars (sci-fi collaborations by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, read to be caught up for the two new ones I hadn't read yet); Ill Wind (Weather Wardens book one, because sometimes you just need somewhat trashy romance with djinn and weather magic); Kitty and the Midnight Hour (see previous, only replace djinn with werewolves); Ms. Marvel Volume 1 (picked up the other two volumes in trade paperbacks and decided to re-read volume 1, as I hadn't looked at it since last year's Hugo nominations).

Q2 Check-In:

• Complete draft of book 2 of Paranormal Investigations
• Due:  March 31, 2016
• Q1 status:  I should really restate this as "fill in the gap between books 1 and 2 of Paranormal Investigations", and it's still in process.
• New due date: July 31, 2016
• Q2 status: This is the goal for this Camp Nano, so we'll see if we can actually finish filling the gap this month.
• Complete draft of Church of Books
• Due:  September 30, 2016
• Q1 status: I haven't even touched this one in a while. I'll keep the date as is for now.
• Q2 status: Same as Q1
• Complete edit of Paranormal Investigations
• Due:  December 31, 2016
• Q1 status:  In process
• Q2 status:  In process
• Complete draft of one of the works started for a Nano
• Due:  December 31, 2016
• Q1 status:  In process, as Paranormal Investigations started as a Nano
• Q2 status:  In process, looking better with each day of sitting and actually getting some words on the dang page
• Complete at least one Nano
• Due:  November 30, 2016
• Q1 status:  COMPLETE!
• Q2 status:  Trying for number 2!
• Submit at least one story for publication
• Due:  December 31, 2016
• Q1 status:  I have ideas, ever so many ideas...keeping the date as is for now.
• Q2 status:  I may come back to the short story I was fiddling with post-Camp Nano, or I may try for something completely different. Who knows? Not me!

Plans and schemes, schemes and plans

I know, I'm a terrible blogger, but I have returned! I would give you the usual song and dance about the various reasons/excuses I haven't blogged, but meh. Time to look forward to plans ahead!

Later this week, we'll be heading to Westercon in Portland. I haven't had much time to look over the schedule, but the weekend will include at least one Powell's run (because obviously), and a potential meet up with a couple of members of the Kicksnarker Google Plus community.

Beginning in July, I'll be starting Camp Nanowrimo round two: Camp Harder. I'm setting my word count goal for 30K, which is double what last Camp's goal ended up being. I'm still goiing to be working my way through Paranormal Investigations, but by gum, I intend to have a full draft of that sucker done, dammit. (And I said dammit, so you have to believe me.)

Finally, I'm really hoping to get back into the blogging habit. I have the germs of a few ideas for blog posts floating around, I just need to pin them down and get them going. If I focus, I think it's something I can do.

Now I want to get some writing done before going back to cramming a week's worth of work into two days. See you on Friday!