This is just ABSURD... I'm not sure it's even real, but it's ABSURD either way! It's said to be Bruce Lee -- and check out his ping pong "paddle."
Another amazing feat: this time by BIRDS. (I've been trying to tell Marcelle that singing in the shower serves a purpose.) Or maybe if you visit the same Starbucks all the time you can now detect bad weather or seismic events.
The NYTimes reported this week that American teenagers are averaging over 2,200 texts a month and that it's beginning to have serious health effects. I noticed that my email volume jumped from a low of 30 a day while in China, to over 80 a day within hours of returning to the US. None of them junk. Once I was in the "business orbit" of real time messaging then my business contacts found me and I was returned to the bombardment of messages. I like being "in the loop" again, mind you, but it interested me that it happened so exponentially. My 12 year old has taken to texting--her phone chimes constantly--and we've imposed rules of taking the phone during homework and at lights-out. What's amazed me is when she lost her phone and didn't have it, she didn't seem to miss the texting one bit. Then, since I've been away (from China) and she's been using mine, she's glued to it again. She's even gotten so good at it that she edited the texted messages in my next Kingdom Keepers novel. Scary... and something to keep an eye on.
I'm on the road again this week: tonight Pittsburgh, tomorrow Hailey/Sun Valley, Idaho; Thursday night NYC, and back to China on Saturday morning. It has been a fun and productive trip. I will see my Putnam editor Christine Pepe on Thursday -- a visit I look forward to (discuss the new Killer Silence book... still a work in progress; and Killer Summer that publishes in late June!)
I will see Dave Barry while at the BEA, which is always entertaining. (our 4th Starcatchers book--Peter and the Sword of Mercy--publishes in October.) We have a dinner with Dinsey Publishing and booksellers Thursday night that is, at the very least, unusual. Can't wait.
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Peter and the Star Chasers was the signed book my daughter started her signed collection with.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy you the travel.
Jim
from Jacqueline
ReplyDeleteTexting is a relatively new phenomenon here in the States - in Europe it hit like a pandemic years ago (mainly because texting was considerably cheaper than a voice-call). About ten years ago, while visiting England, I was out shopping with my then-teenage God-daughter. We were walking along having a really good conversation, when I realized that all the time we were talking - and she didn't miss a beat, no "ums" or requests for me to say that again - she was texting her boyfriend, her friends, her parents, to say what a great day she was having, to answer their questions and to organize her social life. I was shocked - not because she wasn't present with me, because she had heard every word, and was very much part of the conversation - but because I just can't do two things at once like that. I don't remember being able to do anything like that when I was a teenager.
And as for me and texting - when I can see the screen without having to look for my glasses, well, maybe ...
I never thought I'd use texting but I do and I love it just like I love e-mail. For me, it's a way to keep in touch and avoid the frustration of playing telephone tag.
ReplyDelete"Tonight Pittsburgh, tomorrow Hailey/Sun Valley, Idaho; Thursday night NYC, and back to China on Saturday morning."
ReplyDeleteYou are the Energizer Writer!
So long. Time for my nap.