Monthly Archives: February 2012

Books, Books, What I’ve Read So Far This Year

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So here’s what I’ve read so far:

 

By Terry Pratchet: Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad

What can you say about Pratchet?  He’s amazing, hysterical, wise, funny and insightful. I haven’t read anything by him that I didn’t like, a lot.  I recommend him highly.

 

By Terry Brooks: The Measure of the Magic, Bearers of the Black Staff

I was a little disappointed with Brooks’ latest.  Not as good as his usual, and certainly not as good as his earlier work.

By Jim Butcher: Storm Front

This is the first novel in a long series.  It was good.  Tight plot and writing.  But I wasn’t in the right mood for noir, and the novel left me feeling dark, which says more about me and my mood than it does about the novel.

  

By Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay

I don’t even know what to say really.  These books were so good I rank them in my top 10 greatest of all time.  Best series I’ve read in a decade.  The honesty and insight into her characters, particularly how she describes the pain and anguish of anxiety/fear/depression/greif had me unable to put the books down and towards the end, having a difficult time keeping my composure.

  

By Frank Beddor: The Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Redd, ArchEnemy

This series was excellent.  A different take on the wonderland mythos, it had me captivated.  Highly reccomended.

 

Today Walljm.com is Officially Ten Years Old….

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I have photo galleries that back to Jan 2001, as walljm.com was a personal site before it was a weblog, but the first post as a blog was Feb 15th, 2002.  I started writing just after graduating college.  Heady days back then, when the blogging community was so small it numbered in the hundreds, and you could track the new posts written on a daily basis on a single page.

I’ve grown a lot on this blog, as a writer, a photographer and an individual, slowly loosing juvenile tendencies, slowly getting better as an artist, slowly growing more discerning.  This website has my very first poem, and some of the first photographs I took with my first SLR (a Pentax ZXM film camera).  I’ve been less prolific than some, wondering at times why I had a blog and what I was going to use it for.  I’ve been on hiatus three times, I think, the last time for 3 years in which I moved from Saint Louis to DC.  But I’m glad I’ve kept with it.

Along the way I became friends with Jenn, Daniel, Paulo, Sarah, Ash, Amber, Irene, Wyclif, and many more…

At some point, maybe I’ll do a retrospective of the best posts of walljm.com. But I’ve got work to do now, so thanks to everyone who ever stopped by, and happy birthday to me. :)

Footing

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i lost my footing back in april
and found i was foundering
adrift without a tether tied
my soul no longer calm

it was anguish at first to feel
the pressing panic of my mind
a palpable fear that i had lost
solace in a constant will

yet through the turbulence
of my excited state of mind
a living truth was working
to stay a shaky confidence

and though not all is settled
and doubt yet delves beneath
hope is not quite diminished
nor truth so easily released
– 12/6/09 – 4

the last two lines have always bothered me (the meter is off), but i can’t figure out how to say what i want with the right meter, so i let it stand.  this isn’t one of me best works, but it was written during the worst crisis of faith i’ve ever had, one that led eventually to a severe anxiety attack.  so its personal.  still, i’d like to see the last two lines resolved, so if you have any suggestions, i’m open to hearing them. :)