Pneumonochrome

And speaking about the Wheel of Time series in my last post made me think about this as well. Messy and I are reading the Wheel of Time books to each other right now. Robert Jordan is a great writer, in my opinion. I don’t know of any other writer that could keep my attention for approximately 4500 pages (which is about how many pages I’ve read in this series so far). I find myself loving some of the characters and hating others, being offended by some and exasperated by others. He characterizes very well indeed.

I find that there are often questions I have about his characters and the mechanics of the world he has created because it is just so amazingly vast. Just before the release of his most recent installation, “The Knife of Dreams,” he started a blog through Dragonmount.com and he recently made a post indicating that he’s back and already working on the final book in the series. That’s really exciting to me, and sad at the same time. With series like these ones, I both want them to end because I’ve been waiting for resolution to the conflicts for so long, and want them to last forever because the characters have become friends and enemies in my heart and mind.

One of the coolest things about this blog is that readers can leave comments, so they’ll post questions that may or may not be addressed by Robert Jordan, and often are addressed by other readers who know the answers and where to find them. It’s helped me get answers to some of my questions already, and it’s also brought about many more questions.

One of the coolest things about the World Wide Web is that it has the potential to bring authors, actors, and other celebrities closer to their fans, should they decide they want that kind of interaction. It opens up a whole new realm of writing and reading, and it looks to be a lot of fun!

So, for the last little while I’ve had a hard time falling asleep, and the other night Messy mentioned something she does to help herself fall asleep. Honestly, it was after reading A Crown of Swords (Book 7 in the Wheel of Time series) for a while and seeing the description of how Egwene puts herself into the “sleep of a dreamwalker.” What she describes is like progressive relaxation techniques that I’ve heard described as meditative aids before. Well, Messy suggested that I try it while trying to go to sleep. . .

Can I just say, “Wow!” I can’t believe how effective this has been. If I start at my toes I’ve never gotten farther up than mid-calf, and I usually don’t get off my foot, before I fall asleep. I try to “inhale relaxation” while I’m breathing slowly and steadily in, and “exhale stress and tension” while I’m breathing slowly and steadily out. I imagine that happing beginning with the very tips of my toes, and slowly move proximally along my feet and legs. I fall asleep SO quicly doing that, it’s absolutely amazing, and I think I’m sleeping more soundly lately, too. It’s great, and I highly recommend it.

To President Bush, and others we’ve elected to represent us:

You’ve been elected to serve your country and your constituents at a difficult time. In the world today there are those who will stop at nothing to destroy our country and everything it stands for. These people believe that basic personal freedoms should apply only to some people, and that the rest must be governed absolutely. I, and those who think as I do, understand that this is not an easy job. I fully admit that I would probably not be doing well were I in any of your shoes. Because of the need to constantly fight and be prepared against these monsters, you have decisions to make that I could not make. I offer what thanks is owed to you for this, and wish to discuss another aspect of the fight against those who would destroy freedom and liberty.
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I’ve had a couple of days since the rush of trying to see both families on Thanksgiving to really think about how good I have it, and I think that I’m often guilty of overlooking the great things in my life entirely. So I’m going to write about them now. The order of the things I write is mostly the order of how noticeable the effect on my everyday experiences, not necessarily in the order of importance to me, though the first one is pretty amazingly important.
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So, I play World of Warcraft casually. Today I tried to swim from Auberdine, around the north end of Darkshore, to Azshara. This was a very bad idea. I play a level 24 Druid. I was just fine until the intersection of Winterspring and Azshara. I was fine because there is nothing living between the northermost tip of Darkshore and the border fo Winterspring and Azshara. Some really beautiful country to explore, but nothing living on the coast. So there I was, swimming around when I discovered “The Jagged Reef” and saw a level 54 sea turtle. I was okay, because the Sea Turtle isn’t an aggressive mob. Then I saw a level ?? Murloc and decided it was time to hearthstone back to Astranaar. Unfortunately he saw me and decided it was time for some fun. Two swipes from him and I was done for, not yet even halfway to done with the cast time for the hearthstone. I found myself in a graveyard surround by level ?? mobs, and decided to have the spirit healer resurrect me, then hearth back to Astranaar. This time it worked. So now I have this random spot in Winterspring in a level 50 to 60 area exposed on my map, and I probably won’t go back there for oh… 30 more levels. It made me (and most of my guild mates) laugh really hard.