10 Apr 2006 ... Odds and Ends

It rained a good amount over the weekend, so my little garden is so much happier! There are wildflower seedlings popping up all over the place. yay! And hopefully the seeds I buried will be joyful little plants soon, too.

I am working on a new web site design! Something my Significant Other said the other day, got the ball rolling... He said I should draw my Happy Elephant (a stuffed animal he got for me earlier this year) and add it to my Art Wall. I have a couple of my digital paintings printed out and tacked on a wall in my bedroom, five paintings, two of which are elephants. SO added that I could frame my drawing with coloured paper, like the others.

And all of a sudden, his idea morphed into Rainbow Elephants. I've been working on graphics for the past few days. And I wish I had more talent and more practice... because my drawings are not the perfect creations that I wish for. oh well. The end result will be acceptable, and if nothing else, a welcome change!

Also, I am very happy to be actively working on a meaningful project. But it will be at least a week before it all comes together. You must wait patiently.

I happened upon a link today about the Novels that Changed Your Life:
Women's List of Life Changing Novels
Men's List of Life Changing Novels

I have read a few books on both of the lists: Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre from the women's list; Heart of Darkness, 1984, The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings from the men's list. These are all above average books, but they aren't changing my life!

So, now I have to think what books did change my life. Off the top of my head:

Sea of Glass by Barry Longyear

I was in high school, and this was my very first science fiction book. The story shaped my opinion about human overpopulation. (It's bad: stop having babies, people!) It also got me thinking about meat, because of how the overpopulation is dealt with in the story. So, you could say this Social-Issues-Sci-Fi book put me on the path of veganism.

Anyway. The story was disturbing, and left me wanting more sci fi in my life. And now, that is one of my major genres that I read.

Hum, other life changing books? Well, I was going to mention The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West by Mary Stanton and Watership Down by Richard Adams and maybe Flight in Yiktor by Andre Norton But did they actually Change my life? I love them, read them over and over, but I don't think there was any "change" involved.

And then I think about other important authors in my life. Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Tara K. Harper, David Brin. And then there's the non-fiction books that have helped refine my world views, but not changed them...

eh. Probably read too much, anyway. ;)