Cyber-Frustration...

My computer continues to drive me crazy. My wireless only works for the single wired computer in the house, my server is freezing or crashing several times a day, as is my email. All will be well soon enough, but for now the frustration is mounting. That aside, there's lots to report, so on with it.






First, in weather news (for a writing blog, I have a remarkable number of people who tune in just to check out the weather and environmental conditions here on the Wild West Coast...) -- flash snowstorms are ravaging the city and region this weekend. Bizarre pockets of snow all around the Lower Mainland -- a foot in Burnaby, for example, while the sun shone in Howe Sound. A firetruck rolled in Maple Ridge yesterday, according to the CBC website. This struck fear into my heart -- what happened to all the firemen? I didn't hear of any fatalities, but still -- if it's that snowy, stay home if you can. This after a week of sunshine, and the most remarkable full moon that hung in the sky well into the morning for a couple of days. This first picture is a shot of the moon, shining through the trees around 7 am. Not a great shot -- hard to pick up the contrast. But when I mess with the colour saturation a bit -- a better sense of what it looked like emerges.





Okay, so the sky wasn't really that colour, but the moon was truly beautiful, peering through the branches...

Next up, just heard of the advent of a new conference for children's and Y/A writers to be held in Calgary this year.

The Kaleidoscope Conference (http://www.kaleidoscopeconference.ca/index.html ) will be held November 6- 8, 2008.

From the site: "The Kaleidoscope Conference celebrates literature created for children and young adults and the interpretation of this literature through media, performance and illustration. This celebration aims to heighten the awareness and appreciation of the creative processes through interaction with authors, illustrators, publishers, producers and performers. "

Looks kinda cool -- check it out!

And speaking of kinda cool -- this just in over the weekend:

Canadian author (and my buddy) Marsha Skrypuch has just been given notice that she has been awarded the Order of Princess Olha, class III by Victor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine. According to the announcement, the state awards of Ukraine are the highest form of civilian honour of for outstanding achievements in development of economy, science, culture, social sphere, defense of Motherland, protection of man's constitutional rights and freedoms, state building and public activity, for other services before Ukraine.

In further researching this, I was struck by the incredible life of the award's bestower, Viktor Yuschenko. The survivor of a dastardly (and likely politically motivated poisoning) AND being hit by lightning whilst mountain climbing, remains on active duty as the President of the Ukraine.

Marsha's award (pictured above) is specifically to honour women for distinguished services in state, production, public, scientific, educational, cultural, charity and other spheres of public activity.

An incredible honour.

~kc