We don’t do daylight savings in Hawaii, and given that I haven’t lived in the mainland United States since I was nine, it was a new — and disorienting! — experience to undergo the “conversion” last weekend while visiting in the great state of Washington.

The concept is easy for those of us sitting out here in the middle of the Pacific. After the winter change, the west coast is only two hours away, and the east coast only five. (It’s a three and six hour difference in the summer.)

But when one actually undergoes the change…what time is it, anyway? All clocks immediately become suspect. Did someone reset that digital display? Did someone adjust the analog dial on the wall? And who resets all the clocks in hotel rooms? I expected the staff would do it, but that didn’t happen at our airport hotel. Who resets the clocks in all the rental cars? That’s probably a crowd-sourced effort, but after the switch I just ignored the clock in our car. I was a bit unsettled when, on our flight back to Maui, the pilot kept saying we would arrive at 1:40pm when in fact we were due to arrive at 2:40pm, and did arrive at 2:40pm. Seriously, who resets the pilots? Isn’t time kind of important to navigation? (I’m sure they navigate with GMT, or GPS, but still…)

Both my Netbook and a wristwatch that I carry in my purse are set to Hawaii time, so I could always calculate the proper time, but those are crutches. There is one, true reference that I trust to provide me with correct local time, and that is Verizon Wireless, of course! Thank goodness for my cell phone, which is clever enough to reset the time when driving from one timezone to another and has no problem at all with daylight savings.

The winter conversion did illuminate a minor mystery to me. During the first part of our trip I was marveling at how long daylight lingered, given that it was so late in the year. Then on Sunday night, darkness suddenly fell an hour earlier, and all seemed normal again.

Personally though, I’m glad to live in a state where clocks can keep the same time all year round.

Along the little country road down to South Point, on the island of Hawaii, are isolated homes surrounded by windblown pastures–and then there is this:

We’ve all seen eccentric homesteads, but this looked like a bit more than even the most devoted communications hobbyist might come up with. Fortunately for our curiosity, there was a small sign on the corner of the property identifying it as part of the “Universal Space Network.”

Being a science fiction writer I’m inclined to take such claims literally. Naturally, my first comment was, “Wow. Impressive. The Universe is a really big place.”

Sadly, the Universal Space Network does not seem to be truly Universal. The network doesn’t seem to include alien worlds, but only this familiar one. According to the website, it’s a US-based company, evidently specializing in satellite tracking…which makes a nice cover story anyway! Personally, I find it more fun to imagine aliens huddled inside that little green house, communicating with their home worlds across the star lanes.

If you follow me on twitter, you’re probably aware that I like to exercise. I’ve always been into fitness, I’ve just gotten more consistent and have pushed myself harder in the last couple of years. In a recent article at Fast Company, The Creative Brain On Exercise, Jonathan Fields tells us why fitness for writers and artists is a good idea:

…exercise isn’t just about physical health and appearance. It also has a profound effect on your brain chemistry, physiology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to literally rewire itself). It affects not only your ability to think, create, and solve, but your mood and ability to lean into uncertainty, risk, judgment, and anxiety in a substantial, measurable way

Consider me a sample of one. Lately I’ve been asking myself, “Why am I in such a damn good mood?” It’s not like I’m a Joe Konrath/Bob Meyer indie-publishing success story. Nevertheless, I am in a good mood most of the time, and 2011 looks like it will be one of my most productive years ever. I think exercise has a lot to do with that.

I’m not all that disciplined. I don’t exercise everyday, but I do a lot more now than I did a couple years ago. If you’re interested, here’s an older post on the book that got me going again.

Let me know if you exercise, if you’d like to exercise, if exercise is a drug that works for you. It’s good to have a sample size larger than one!

(Hat tip: I found the Fast Company article via Andrew Sullivan’s blog.)

I was looking ahead a week or two on my Google calendar and saw an entry that read: “Follow up w/Hawaii [Whatever]” (name changed to protect the innocent).

My first thought, of course, was “Who in the world is Hawaii [Whatever]?

So I clicked through to the entry and read this:

Originally emailed them on May 17. If this is all a mystery, try contacting again.
http://Hawaii [Whatever] domain name

Evidently my past self fully anticipated the mystified state of my present self. I admire that.

It’s Sunday, so I get to amuse myself. What follows is a list of “search engine terms” that people used to get to my blog over the past week. If you had to guess my occupation from this list, what would your guess be?

My how things change.

If you’re following the evolution of self-publishing, or if you’re into romance novels–or maybe it’s erotica?–you’re probably familiar with the latest “hot” book cover. There are subtle variations of course, but the basic idea is to display a man’s unclothed and well-developed chest. He is only seen from neck to waist. There is no head, no face, no personality. ***He’s a pure sex object–assuming you find anonymity attractive.

According to Wikipedia “Objectification is an attitude that regards a person as a commodity or as an object for use, with insufficient regard for a person’s personality or sentience.”

I grew up in the seventies when women were frequently and emphatically speaking out against sexual objectification. From what I remember, if you’d tried something like that with a woman–we’ll allow her a bikini top, but otherwise let’s imagine her featured on a book cover, shown only from neck to waist, her large breasts well-exposed, and no head showing, no face, no personality–well, I can hear the outcry ringing down through the decades.

I still don’t see women “featured” like this, but there are many such covers objectifying men. Having grown up in the seventies I personally find it rather embarrassing, not for the sexual connotations, but for the de-personalization. The cover type is so common though, I can only assume these books sell quite well.

*** I link to this particular book only because it happened to show up in my facebook feed today. And the cover certainly caught my eye!

1. Sit down at laptop, ready to work.

2. Realize mouse is still upstairs. Go get it.

3. While upstairs, check email on desktop; process some photos; look for a file; realize file is on laptop.

4. Go downstairs to get file from laptop.

5. Realize mouse is still upstairs. Go get it.

I use a heart rate monitor while exercising. It consists of a strap around the chest and a wristband to provide the read out. The wrist unit is like a regular digital watch, with the additional ability to detect the heart rate data–at least until the battery dies.

I found myself faced with doing battery microsurgery.

Step 1: take it apart

But would it ever work again??

Step 2: determine battery type; determine I don’t have that type. Send husband to buy it.

Step 3: Using tweezers, tiny screw driver, and reading glasses, put it back together.

Hrmmm…most discouraging:

Step 4: Analysis

Well, actually, the clips on the battery holder don’t seem to fit very well, er, maybe the battery is upside down?

Repeat steps 1 and 3.

My heart beats in victory!

Yes, I know I should be writing. Off to do that now. Really.

Yes, I do hold onto things way too long. The last time I bought gloves for weightlifting, I don’t think there were girl gloves. This time I had three(!) choices, so naturally I bought the ones with pink trim.


Time to say goodbye to the old veterans, but they’ve been good to me.

The importance of Valentine’s Day has definitely gone up in our family.

One year ago my daughter, Dallas–she’s a professional photographer–started a photo-a-day project. Here’s Day 1, February 14, 2010:

Today, he brought me red roses and coffee, then made me breakfast. Later, he left for Afghanistan. He'll be back next year.

When Dallas was nineteen or twenty she infamously proclaimed she would never date a man in the military because she couldn’t handle the deployments. One should not tempt fate.

In December 2009 she met Edward White. From the first night, she knew he’d be shipping out come February. They had a two-month whirlwind affair anyway, and then he was gone.

But with Skype, chat, and text messaging they were together in some sense almost every day.

They were married in July when Ed came home on leave. He had two-and-a-half weeks with his bride before heading back to duty.

Now we’ve come full circle. This is the last post in my daughter’s photo journal, Day 366, February 14, 2011:

Today, I spent the morning doing last minute errands and prepping for dinner. Later, I went to Ft. Shafter and welcomed Ed home. ♥

How the US Army arranged for two such momentous occasions to occur on Valentine’s Day is a question for the mystics. We’re just overjoyed to have Ed back. This couple has paid some dues and earned their honeymoon!

And for all the other military families out there waiting for loved ones to return from overseas, we wish you the best.