Journal - A Period of Rest

So I haven’t been writing much lately, except for audiobook reviews that is. Now that I’m working it gets harder and harder to find the time.

I’ve been at Walmart for almost 5 months now. Hard to believe it’s been that long. I’m still enjoying the job although I confess I’m tired of working in the cold. I can’t complain too much though, we’ve had lots of nice days in between the cold snaps. Just yesterday it went over 60 degrees and I worked in a long sleeved t-shirt. More cold this week though and some high chances of snow. My feet and legs rarely bother me anymore although there are days. In general I think I’m a lot healthier than I was 5 months ago: thinner, stronger, and sleeping much better at night than I used to. I always feel pretty tired by 9pm each night even on my days off.

I spend my days off taking it easy for the most part although I have been doing a lot of cleaning up in the basement. On each of my off days for the last month or so I’ve been spending an hour or two in the basement going through stuff and seeing what can be thrown out and organizing a little. I’m amazed at how much stuff we’ve accumulated since we moved into this house 4 years ago. We had very little in the basement at first, but now it’s getting full. I dread the thought of ever having to move again. Anyway, I talked in my last Island Earth post about cleaning out the carpeted room a little to make space for a little recording studio down there. Well, Joni and Adam came through for me and got that whole room in ship-shape with plenty of space for me to set up in.

Other than that there really hasn’t been much going on. Kind of a nice quiet period for us. I saw the eye doctor back in January and got a good report on both eyes. He said I can make an appointment for my prosthesis whenever I’m ready but didn’t pressure me at all, which I appreciated a great deal. I’ve been dragging my feet a little because I haven’t really felt like making more trips to Omaha and I know Joni doesn’t either. I guess I’ll need to get that done before too long though. Around June or July my social security benefits will run out and I’m assuming my Medicare will go with it. I should be eligible for insurance through Walmart about that same time but who knows what it will cover or if I’ll even be able to afford it.

And I’m still putting in some work on Audiobook-Heaven. My audiobook listening time was drastically reduced when I started working but I still get in a couple of hours a day and instead of 3 reviews each week I’m down to 1. Still keeping it going though, which I’m glad of. I put a lot of time and work on that and I would hate the thought of having to abandon it. Also something kind of cool happened a couple of days ago. I got an email from a person who introduced herself as a translator for a Czechoslovakian sci-fi magazine on the internet. She was asking if they could translate one of my audiobook reviews into Czech and use it on their site. That sounded pretty cool so I said yes! Don’t know when that will go live for sure but she said she would send me a link when it does.

And that’s about everything that going on around here. Like I said, kind of quiet, which suits me just fine.

Exodus 33:14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ESV

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ESV

Journal - 40 Days

It’s been 40 days since my surgery; can you believe that? I haven’t been very good about documenting things during this time so I shall try to remedy that right now.
I had a complication just a few days after surgery where the pressure in my eye dropped radically, but we got that sorted out and it’s been full speed ahead ever since. I have noticed my vision improving little by little, and the doctor has confirmed that, as I’ve gotten a little further down the eye chart on each visit. Over the last 40 days, I have gradually switched from my screen reader to my magnifying glass, and am now gradually switching up to no aid at all. That’s right, there are many things I can do on the computer now without even the magnifying glass. I still use it sometimes for print that is especially small, or fonts that are a little too fancy. Right now I am typing in 12 point Times New Roman, and can follow along on the screen without the glass. I’ve picked up this trick of squinting a little and looking through my eyelashes. The lashes sort of act like the pinholes in that thing the doctor uses. I will go over it with the glass probably when I’m done to check for errors.
So what are some things that have changed for me? Well, I can name a few. I find myself looking out the windows a lot, especially the kitchen window. That one looks east and is the only window in the house that you can really walk up to and stand comfortably. Other windows have plants or sinks in front of them. I’m seeing things out that window more and more clearly and am noticing things that are further away. Just a couple of days ago I watched a snow flurry out that window for a few minutes.
I’ve also had one change to my routine that was unexpected. I’ve been getting up earlier in the morning. I used to get up anywhere between 9 and 10, but for the last couple of weeks I’ve been getting up at 8. I just have more to do now, or rather, more that I CAN do. I started with the filing cabinet, as I have already mentioned, then I moved on to the recyclables in the basement, sorting them and getting them ready for a trip to Kearney. Yesterday I worked on the junk drawer in the kitchen. Just little projects around the house that I’ve been waiting a very long time to do, and am taking a great deal of pleasure in now. I’ve also been playing quite a bit of Star Wars: Battlefront II on Adam’s PS2 and that’s been fun too and I think I have too many 2’s and II’s and too’s in this sentence but I’m too lazy to fix them so too bad. I guess you could say that I’m enjoying having my sight back. Was there ever any doubt?
My audiobook listening time has been drastically reduced from 3 or 4 hours a day to 1 or 2. I’m not sure what that will mean for the future of Audiobook Heaven. I would sure like to continue that as I’ve put an awful lot of time and effort into it, but right now I’m finding more interesting things to do and later on, when I finally go back to work, there will be even less time for it. Well, things are kind of mixed up right now as I try to settle into new routines and so forth. Probably after a while things will begin to balance out again.
And that brings me to my latest doctor visit, which was yesterday. I was looking forward to the visit so I could take a crack at the eye chart and see how much I’ve improved since October 26. I was a little surprised, and I admit a little disappointed, that I only tested 20/50 on the pinhole test. Last time I was 20/60 and I thought it would be a lot better this time. I am making good progress though, so that’s okay. The doctor is very pleased with how well things are going. He almost sounds a little surprised when he tells me that everything looks great. Needless to say, it was a very good report. He took me off two of the eye drops I was using, and reduced the third to four times a day. Yes, only four drops a day, when I’ve been putting in 14 every day since surgery. I’m very pleased about that. But sadly, he’s not ready to let me play the sax yet. He’s being extra cautious after that problem with my pressure, and that’s okay. He also said that he wouldn’t take out the sutures until at least 6 months, much longer than normal. I miss my sax, but he can be as cautious as he wants as far as I’m concerned.
I asked him how much longer it would be before I could be fitted with glasses, and he said anytime. That surprised me because I know my eye is still healing and changing. He said it might not be completely stable for 6 months to a year, so this would be as good a time as any to get some glasses, even though I would probably need a new prescription after 6 months or so. My next visit with Dr. Feilmeier is on December 8, so they went ahead and made me an appointment with the glasses person that same day. Glasses at 10am, Feilmeier at 11:15. I’ll have normal vision in time for Christmas and bowl games; pretty good deal. I sure am looking forward to seeing some Christmas lights this year.
So that’s about it. God is doing a perfect job of keeping my eye healthy and infection free. Was there every any doubt? Well, of course there was; I’m only human after all. But God has shown me once again that my fears and worries were all for nothing. Amen!

Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. ESV

Psalms 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. ESV

"I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord." ESV

Journal - Just Some Updates

Well, I’m up late again, three nights in a row now. My eczema was flaring up pretty bad for the last two or three weeks, so on Wednesday I went to the doctor for some help, and he prescribed some Prednisone for me. Prednisone, if you don’t know, is a steroid, and is practically a miracle drug. It’s what they have always given me just about all my life whenever my asthma or skin gets out of control. I say it’s a miracle drug because it clears up everything: skin, lungs, sinuses, everything. Unfortunately it has one very serious drawback: it also reduces your body’s ability to fight infections, so you can only take it for short periods of time.
I got a little off topic there. I brought up the Prednisone because that’s why I’ve been having trouble sleeping. It’s kind of funny because, like I said, they’ve been giving me Prednisone off and on for most of my life and I never had any side effects, up until about seven years ago. In 2004, I ended up in the hospital with my asthma. They were giving me Prednisone as usual, but for the whole week I was in the hospital, and another week at home after that, I could only cat-nap during the night and day. Also, I was hungry just about all the time. As a result, I would sit up late at night cleaning all the leftovers out of the refridgerator. I can’t remember how I finally found out what was causing it, but finally determined it was thePrednisone. I think I looked it up on the internet or something. So anyway, I’ve been on Prednisone a few times since then and I always get those two side effects. This time I don’t seem to be getting the increased appetite, but I’m definitely not sleeping right. I don’t mind it too much really, even though I don’t sleep at night, I still don’t feel tired during the day. Also, I have more time to keep up with the things I need to do here on the computer.
Anyway, after three days, I’m happy to report that my skin is clearing up nicely, and I still have two more days to go. Then everything should be back to normal. In the meantime, I can get caught up on some updates.
The last batch of peach jam I made didn’t turn out too good. I didn’t cook it long enough this time. That was disappointing after the batch before turned out so good. I think I’ll try opening the jars and cooking it a little more and then re-canning it with new lids. Don’t know if that will work, but there’s nothing to lose since the jam isn’t much good as it is.
Last Thursday I saw Dr. Feilmeier at the Kearney Eye Clinic. It was just a follow-up. I have to see him at least every three months until I get my surgery. I was only there for a few minutes, and he told me I was at the top of the list and something would probably happen in the next couple of weeks or so. That’s fine, but it’s very similar to what they told me at the end of June so I won’t start holding my breath just yet.
Last Sunday (I think) evening, Lion Lady came out to the house for a bi. She’s still trying to get her club to help us with some of the medical expenses. She got copies of the bills already incurred, and some other information to present to her group at their meeting which was on Tuesday.
In Audiobook Heaven news, I finished the awesome Battlefield Earth book that Galaxy Press sent me. Man, that book is great and they did a fabulous job producing it. I can’t wait to share it with everyone, but they say it probably won’t be released until next fall. A whole year! I’m still planning to take a break in November and December and have started ramping down the incoming books a little. I’m still enjoying the audiobooks a great deal, but what I kind of miss is going back and listening to some of my favorites again. I don’t do that much anymore because there are so many new books to listen to, but I’ll have some time to do that at the end of the year.
And I think that’s about all the updates I have right now. In a little over a week, Aunt LeeDel, Uncle Butch, and Uncle Marvin will be coming for a visit, so we’re looking forward to that. Until then, stay happy and healthy!

Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Journal - Vacation Blues

Yep, I have the vacation blues. No, I’m not blue because I’m on vacation, or because my vacation is ending, rather I am blue because I’m not on vacation. Is that making any sense? Alas, I shall have to explain further.
I’ve been crunching pretty hard on the audiobook reviews for the last several months, and I was starting to feel a little burned out. At the beginning of August, I had decided that I would finish out the month, and then take September off. You know, just listen to some audiobooks I have already reviewed so I could relax with them and not have to always be thinking about what I’m going to write. I was really looking forward to it too. Then last week I got an offer I just couldn’t refuse.
For several months I’ve been receiving audiobooks from Galaxy Audio. They’re the ones that are doing a whole bunch of L Ron Hubbard’s stories from the pulp fiction era of the 1930’s and 40’s. Last week, Galaxy President John Goodwin emailed me to say that next year they will be publishing Hubbard’s Battlefield: Earth, which is probably his best known work, and one that I have been hoping for since I was first approached by Galaxy. Anyway, John said that he wants to send out some advance copies to get some critical feedback. He’s not asking for a review yet, but some opinions on whether or not the audiobook is good as it stands, or if anything needs to be changed for the final production. That’s right, I could have a say in the finished work! But here’s the best part: John is only sending out two advance copies, and one of them would be mine if I wanted it. I wasted no time in telling John “Heck Yeah I Want It!”
Well, the audiobook is 44 CD’s long, which is absolutely huge. In fact, I think that will be the longest audiobook I have ever had my hands on. I estimate that it will take 12 solid days to get through it, and possibly more. So there goes my vacation plans. I’m not complaining though, because this is a huge opportunity for me that I would be an idiot to pass up on. John mailed it out late last week, so I’m expecting it any day now.
So here’s what I decided: instead of taking September off, I will continue hitting the books until the end of October. Then I will take an even longer vacation through November and December. That will actually work out pretty well because November is when I start practicing Christmas music on my sax and I’ll have less time for books anyway. But don’t worry, because I’ve been working so hard, I actually have plenty of reviews saved up to carry me through the two months. Ifyou follow Audiobook Heaven at all, you’ll never even notice that I’m on vacation. It’s actually a much better plan than the one I came up with myself. Pretty amazing how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?
So, two more months of hard work, then I’m off until next year. I’m still looking forward to the break. There are lots of audiobooks I’ve already reviewed that I would like to go back and listen to again, especially the Harry Potter series. I’ve listened to those books about a dozen times but I just can’t get enough.
Okay, break time is over, gotta get back to those books!

Matthew 21:21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ESV

Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” ESv

Passing the Time

So now the waiting truly begins. It seems that it’s easier to wait for something when you know it’s still a long way off. I really don’t feel very nervous or anxious, but there’s just this feeling in the air, kind of like an approaching storm. Something you sense more than see.
This month marked exactly two years since I went completely blind, and I was just thinking about how those two years have gone by. There were times when it seemed like time would never move again, but of course it did, and now I can’t believe so much has gone by.
I’m reminded of how much God has been with me during this time. Two years is nothing to Him, but He knew it would be a long wait for me. And He was always there with me, helping me along and giving me things to do to help pass the time.
It was way back in 2007 when He introduced me to audiobooks for the first time. God used Uncle Butch to pass that idea along to my mom, and her to pass it along to me. Only God could have come up with such a perfect plan for me. I’ve always loved books and that was just the thing. Of course, I wasn’t completely blind yet at that time, but my eyes were failing and it was getting difficult to read print.
The audiobooks kept me occupied for a while, but the novelty of it did begin to wear off after about two years. In 2009, just a few months after I went completely blind, God gave me the idea to start writing audiobook reviews and publishing them on a blog. Wow, books and computers combined in one project! Does God know me or what? For that one, God brought in the lady from the division for the blind, who loaded a screen reader onto my computer and showed me how to use it. I can’t even guess how many hours I have passed away listening to audiobooks and writing reviews and working on my blog.
Believe it or not, even that began to lose its luster after a year or so. God didn’t leave me hanging though. It was about then that he introduced me to Susan Dunman. Susan asked me if I would be interested in submitting links to my reviews to her site, Audiobook Jukebox. Not long after that, she asked if I would be interested in writing some reviews for another site that she edits, The SF Site. That put a little bit of a new twist on things and kept me going for a few months.
It was through my association with Susan that God planted the idea in my head that I could contact audiobook publishers and ask them to send me free audiobooks for review. That was a great idea because I had already been through most of the audiobooks my library had that interested me. So for the last seven or eight months I’ve been getting lots of great books directly from publishers.
Anyway, God knew just how to keep my mind occupied so I didn’t have to sit around feeling sorry for myself, or wishing the time would go faster. And in the process I’ve met some nice people that I otherwise would have never known. I even met an audiobook producer and narrator from Colorado: after we had known each other for a while, we discovered that we are both native Nebraskans; he grew up in North Platte.
It’s very comforting to know that God is always there looking out for me. Of course, I already knew that from reading the bible, but the message is so much more powerful when you witness it first-hand.

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. ESV

Romans 8:28 we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ESV

Journal - Audiobook Heaven Prospering

`Audiobook Heaven continues to grow and prosper. In January, I averaged about 40 hits per day, and in February the average was about 42. March isn’t quite over yet, but I think it’s safe to say the average hits will be over 60. It’s been a pretty phenomenal month. My record for one day was 79 hits on a day back in January. In March, that record was broken 5 different times, including three days that went over 90 hits. The new record is 97. I’m continueing to get lots of new audiobooks in the mail. I just got three books from AudioGo, including a couple of Doctor Who books that I’ve really been looking forward to. I have a new L Ron Hubbard book here from Galaxy Press, and another one on the way. I also have a book coming from someone I just met. I got a press release from Audible.com on Monday that told about a new audiobook that’s going on sale. It sounded like a good book, and the narrator’s contact information was included in the release, so I emailed him and asked for a review copy. He emailed me back pretty quickly and said “Sure!” Joe Bevilacqua has been doing audio work for 40 years, mostly in radio from what I can tell. He’s done a bunch of shows on NPR and is just beginning to release them on CD. Joe told me that he has 45 audio productions coming out this year, and asked if he could send me copies of them. I had to tell him that honestly I might not be able to get through that many, but he said he would send a few and we will go from there. In addition, it’s almost time to put in another order to Blackstone Audio. I’ve been getting 6 books a month from them, but I think I’ll have to cut back to 4 in April because of all the other things I’ve been getting. I also made contact with another publisher this week, MacMillan Audio. I looked through their catalog and they have a lot of good audiobooks. MacMillan has some pretty specific guidelines for requesting review copies. They emailed me the procedure, which is no guarantee that they’ll send me any books, but I take it as a good sign. I’ll request a couple of books and see what happens. I’ve been giving some semi-serious thought to trying to find someone to contribute reviews to Audiobook Heaven on a regular or semi-regular basis. I’m not really sure how to work that out though. I can’t pay anyone of course, but I can offer free audiobooks, kind of like the deal I have with Susan Dunman. I think the hardest part would be finding someone that I’m comfortable with and that I can trust. Just something I’ve been tossing around a little. So that’s what’s going on at Audiobook-Heaven. Can’t wait to see what April brings!

Journal - Catching Up

Well, I guess I haven’t written for a while. The passing of time continues to befuddle me. Let me see if I can recall what’s been going on.
There isn’t much to report on Audiobook Heaven. After the flurry of activity during the first six weeks of the year, things have settled down a bit. That’s okay, I like some excitement now and then, but we always need that time to recharge the batteries. I continue to receive audiobooks from Blackstone, typically six books per month. I got a couple of L Ron Hubbard books from Galaxy Press last month, and just received two more today, although one of them is a repeat. I’ll have to contact them and see if I should send that one back. Last week I got my first two books from HighBridge Audio. The only new thing I have to report is my latest discovery, Graphic Audio. One of the books I got from Susan Dunman was from that publisher, and I had never heard of them before. I looked them up in Google and took a look at their website. They specialize in creating full cast audio productions, complete with sound effects and music, of comic book graphic novels. Can you imagine how excited I was about that? I contacted them, and they responded right away saying that they would send me some review copies. I didn’t get to pick out what I wanted, but I was pretty happy to get anything from them. Hopefully they’ll keep sending me stuff.
My Medicare became effective on March 1. I’ve spent the first half of the month getting information and making my choices for part D prescription coverage. I have part A for hospitalization; that part is free. Part B for doctor visits carries a monthly premium of $115, and it looks like there is also a yearly deductible of about $162. On part D, I qualified for extra assistance so there’s no premium or deductible. My scripts will be $6.30 for brand name, and $2.50 for generic. That ended up being better than I expected. My prescription coverage begins April 1, so I’ll be looking for a doctor over the next week or so and will try to make an appointment for sometime in April.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in my blog or not, but for the last 3 or 4 months, God has been trying to get me to play my saxophone at church. I’ve been dragging my feet as usual. I’m not very good at stepping out of my comfort zone. This began right before Christmas and I thought I might play some Christmas music, but that kind of fell through. It was pretty short notice, only one week before Christmas so there wasn’t time to get anything set up. Before I could play, I had to meet with the music director, Kent. Well, after that I let a couple of months pass, then I finally approached Kent again about it. We met at the church on March 4 and I played for him. He sounds like he’s okay with me playing at church, but we haven’t set anything up yet. The ball is in his court, though, I’m just waiting for him to say when.
Speaking of church, on February 27 we had our first service in the new sanctuary. When we first went to this church about a year and a half ago, they were just announcing plans to build a bigger sanctuary onto the church, and it’s finally done. The new sanctuary has theater-style seating for a little over 900 people. I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’m not sure how many our old sanctuary could seat.
For the last several days, Charles Stanley has been doing a series of sermons about guilt, and it’s got me thinking about some things. It seems clear that God wouldn’t want us to feel guilt for sins that He has forgiven us for. Guilt is, after all, a negative emotion, and God doesn’t typically deal in negative emotions. But it sort of seems like a little guilt might be a good thing. In the complete absence of guilt, are we not more likely to repeat our sins of the past? I’ll hav to do some thinking on that.
It’s now been about three days since the disastrous earthquake in Japan. A monstrous 8.9 on the Richter. It sounds like they are stil struggling to contain the nuclear power plants. 8.9 makes this the fourth most powerful earthquake in recorded history.
Okay, I guess that’s about it. See you next time.

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. NIV

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door an knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in with him and dine with him, and he with me. NKJV

Journal - Blessings

God just continues to shower blessings on us! On Saturday, we had a nice visit from Mom and Brenna. They brought out some Valentine cookies that they made that afternoon. We enjoyed the visit and the cookies, and I think Sassie made a new best friend. On Tuesday night, we are going up to Kearney High School for Brenna’s swing choir program, and she also has an orchestra concert later this month. I’m looking forward to that.
Audiobook-Heaven continues to be showered with blessings as well. Last week I received six new audiobooks from Blackstone, and 2 from Susan Dunman. I also made a couple of new contacts. I emailed AudioGo, formerly known as BBC Audiobooks America, and they agreed to send me some audiobooks. I picked out three books and just received them yesterday. I was also contacted by an author, who wanted to know if I would review the audio version of his book. I’ve never heard of this author before, but it’s pretty cool that he went looking for a reviewer and found me. He sent me a link and I downloaded his book. I started listening to that one today, but I had to write back to him and tell him I couldn’t do it. The language was pretty strong.
But wait, there’s more! Also today, I received the books from Galaxy Press. It was about three weeks ago that they mailed them, so I was beginning to think they had changed their minds, but here they are. Galaxy Press, if you remember, is creating audio versions of some of L Ron Hubbard’s older works. I’ve really been looking forward to those. Did you know that L Ron Hubbard was born in Nebraska?
Wait, wait, there’s still more! Also today, I got a response from another publisher that I’ve been emailing, HighBridge Audio. They have also agreed to send me audiobooks. That won’t be quite like the Blackstone deal. With Blackstone, I can pretty much pick anything I want out of their extensive catalog, but with HighBridge, I can only pick from the periodic press releases that they email out. Still a good deal, though, and very exciting.
Business is booming, as you might say. If I had any money I would probably hire an assistant or something. God has been so good to me, and I just can’t wait to see what happens next.
In other news, I’ve finally made the decision to play my sax at church sometime. I have felt God urging me to do this for quite a while now, but as usual I have been dragging my feet. I had a hard time deciding what to play. I couldn’t find karaoke versions of the first couple of songs that came to mind. So I decided to keep it simple and just play Amazing Grace. I found a nice accompaniment track at Amazon.com and downloaded it, and have been working on that for about a week now. I also emailed the music director at our church and we’re trying to nail down a time when I can come in and have a little audition. It’s a busy time for him because they are just beginning to set up the audio-video-lighting in our new sanctuary, which is nearing completion. We may have to wait until that’s all done, but I’m determined. God has been so good to me and it’s about time I started giving something back. I don’t have much money to give, but I can sure use the talent that God gave me to contribute something.
Umm, what else? It’s only a couple more weeks until my Medicare becomes effective. Starting in March they’ll be deducting $115 from my social security to pay for that. That will make it even harder to cover the bills each month, but I have to trust that God will take care of it. He’s never let me down before. Speaking of which, our church really came through for us again and paid our propane bill. Actually they paid our last two. Our energy assistance from the state was drastically cut this year. Last year we got about $1100, but this year it was only $200. They said there were a lot more applicants this year.

1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. NIV

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. NKJV

Do It For HIM

This morning I was sitting at the computer, posting a book review over at Audiobook Heaven and checking my email. For about three weeks now, I’ve been exchanging emails with someone at Simon & Schuster to see if they would send me some audiobooks that I could review. The message I got this morning made it pretty clear that the answer was going to be no. They didn’t actually say no, but just keep putting me off, which is a lot worse than a flat rejection I can tell you.
I signed off the computer feeling a little bummed about that, and all the while this nagging little suspicion was gnawing away at the back of my mind. You know that feeling you get sometimes, like something isn’t quite right, or you’ve forgotten to do something? I’ve had it for a couple of days now. Well, over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that sometimes that feeling means I really did forget something, but sometimes it means that God is trying to get through to me, and I haven’t been paying attention.
I went into the bedroom to listen to my current audiobook, but before I put my headphones on I just sat for a minute and asked God, “Are you trying to tell me something?” I sat quietly for a few minutes and nothing much really came to mind, so I put my headphones on and listened for a while.
A couple of hours later, I got back on the computer, and I had an email from another publishing company, Galaxy Press, whom I’ve never heard of, asking if I would like to review some of their books. Galaxy Press is putting some of L Ron Hubbard’s older works on audio, and that’s what they want to send me so I can review them.
Now, was all that just a coincidence? I’ve already mentioned that I don’t believe in coincidence. Rather, I think maybe God wanted a little acknowledgement. He has been very generous to me lately, arranging for me to get free audiobooks from Susan Dunman, Blackstone Audio, Last Word Audio and possibly from Hachette, although I haven’t got those yet. Maybe God just wanted to make sure I wasn’t forgetting who the architect is here, before blessing me even further.
In a way, I guess you could say that writing audiobook reviews has kind of become my job, even though I don’t get paid for it. I don’t get any money, that is. As Uncle Butch pointed out to me recently, I get paid in audiobooks. Call it what you will, this is where God has led me, just as He leads each of us to one task or another. The mistake I have always made in the past, and perhaps the mistake I’ve been making lately, is not allowing God into a particular area of my life, especially my job. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been very successful at any of the many jobs I’ve had. I have thanked God for blessing me with audiobooks, but maybe sometimes He wants a little more. Thanking God silently in our prayers is good, vital even, but how much better to tell the whole world how He has blessed us?
During one of his sermons a while back, Pastor Mike told us about a woman he met at a restaurant. The woman was an employee, charged with wiping down tables and preparing them for the next guest, a job many people might look down upon. As she cleared the table beside Mike, they struck up a conversation and she said, “I’m just doing this for the Lord.” Another Pastor we had back in Dallas once said that if you don’t take care of what you have, you shouldn’t expect God to bless you with something better, or something more. He was talking about material possessions, but I think that applies to our jobs as well. If you constantly grumble and complain about your job, God may not be so willing to give you a better one.
The biblical reference that jumps to mind here is the parable of the talents, which I’m sure many of you are familiar with. I won’t type out the whole thing here, but you can read it in Matthew 25, verses 14 to 30, or in Luke 19, verses 12 to 28.
It’s as simple as this: if we want success in every facet of our lives, home life, work life, church life, social life, etcetera, then we need to allow God in all those areas. It doesn’t matter if you’re the pastor of a church, or a school teacher, or a farmer, or a janitor, or an audiobook reviewer, be cheerful and productive with what God has given you. You may not think your job is very important, but He gave it to you for a reason, and if you let Him rule that part of your life, there’s just no telling what He might send your way next.

Matthew 25:21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ NIV

Ecclesiastes 2:24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God. NIV

Journal - What a Great Day!

Wow! I didn’t know so many good things could happen in one day! God has just showered us with blessings today and I hardly know where to begin.
I guess I’ll start with Sassie. She got up today! Remember how she was just lying on the back porch all day and all night, and hardly moving at all? Well, when I got up this morning, she was lying in the hallway that goes back to the porch. After I brushed my teeth and all that, I coaxed her into the kitchen with a boiled egg. We’ve been just taking food back to her on the porch, but I thought since she had moved on her own, I would see how far she was willing to go. She came into the kitchen and ate the egg, then I decided to try one of her treats. They’re those hard crunchy bones, and of course she hasn’t been able to eat anything that needed much chewing. She was very careful and hesitant at first, but she eventually crunched the thing up and ate it.
After that I tried to coax her into the living room. Again, she was very hesitant at first, she kind of sat in the doorway between kitchen and living room for a little bit, but she finally came all the way in and lay down by the computer where Joni was sitting. After that she stayed in the house all day, lying around in her usual places. She was eating better, and drinking more water, and generally seemed in better spirits. When I had lunch today, she sat and whined for food for the first time since her accident. Joni took her out in the snow, which Sassie has always loved, and she wagged her tail and seemed happy. Sassie, I mean, not Joni. I could scarcely believe the turnaround from her condition of yesterday. I asked for a miracle, and I believe we got one.
Sassie is not 100% yet, she has trouble going up steps. She gets her front paws up, but has trouble getting her hindquarters up. Maybe she’s just sore still, but I guess she may have some lasting damage too. We’ll have to wait and see. I guess God does look after animals. I’m reminded of a line from the movie, “The Stand.” “All things serve the will of God, even big dumb dogs.”

Well, that made my day pretty awesome, but it gets even better. Today I got an email from an audiobook publisher, asking if I would like to review some of their books. That’s right, a publisher contacted ME! This is a brand new publisher that I’ve never heard of. Last Word Audio published their first book last August, and has only two books published, with a third on the way, but I think it’s awesome that when they went looking for a reviewer, they found me. I felt really honored. So anyway, this guy is going to be sending me a couple of books to review, and they don’t sound bad.
I’ve been wondering a lot lately if this whole audiobook thing is really what God wants me to be spending my time on. I truly have to believe that He is telling me to go for it. Too many great things have happened in such a short time for me to believe otherwise. I’ll take this thing as far as I can, which is pretty far with God pulling the strings, and if I get my sight back someday I’ll try to become an audiobook narrator. I’m already networking, making contacts with some publishers, so who knows where it could lead.

And to top off this really great day, our neighbor, Brett, came through this evening with a bobcat and cleared our driveway. We got quite a lot of snow over the weekend, and we were afraid that we might not be able to get out for a while, but God stepped in again and got our driveway cleaned. When Brett was out there, Sassie watched from the window and tried to bark at him, but all she could manage was kind of a little “huff!” Seeing her take interest in her surroundings again was an excellent way to top off this wonderful day.

Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household. NIV

Joshua 1:7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. NIV

Journal - Eye Doctors, Audiobooks, and Sick Puppies

I can’t exactly remember what I said the last time I talked about the eye doctor and such. I had an appointment in Omaha on January 5th, but I cancelled that one several weeks ago. That whole thing was just not feeling good to me. On March 1, I will become eligible for Medicare so I’m just going to wait until then before I do anything else. Two more months doesn’t seem like very long to wait. Hard to believe it’s been two years since I was declared legally blind. That happened back in October of 2008, but I didn’t start receiving disability payments from social security until March of 2009, so that’s when my two years began. You have to be disabled for two years before you can be eligible for Medicare. With Medicare I think I’ll have more freedom to go where I want, instead of letting someone else pick the doctor. So that’s where we stand on that.

Audiobook-Heaven is still humming right along. I finally got a response from another publisher. Someone from Hachette (ha-shet’) Book Group responded to one of my inquiries and said they would be willing to send me some audiobooks for review. On Friday I requested three books, and today Megan responded and said she would send them. I’ll have lots of audiobooks to keep me occupied I think.

I don’t really know what to think about Sassie. She’s just so listless since her accident last Tuesday. For the last several days, she has taken to lying on the back porch where it’s cold. She just lays there all day and all night and never comes into the house, except maybe just to poke her head in while we’re eating. Joni did some reading online and read that when dogs are in pain they seek out confined areas, and they also seek out cold places. That explains the porch. Of course, it’s pretty hard to tell just how much pain she is in. We’re still giving her soft foods, but she just isn’t very interested in eating. We always have to coax her to get her to eat anything, and she’s not drinking much water either. I feel so helpless and just don’t know what to do for her. I’ve been praying very hard for God to heal her, but I honestly don’t know how much God is willing to intervene for an animal. He created them too, didn’t He? I guess that’s all I can do, keep praying and hope for a miracle.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. NIV

Journal - New Audiobooks

Wednesday turned out to be a pretty great day! I got two new audiobooks in the mail from Susan so I can review them for SF Site. Then just a few minutes after Adam brought in the mail, the UPS truck drove up and delivered five audiobooks from Blackstone Audio. Yes, they finally came! Last time Blackstone sent me some books, UPS lost them, so I was pretty happy to get these. The shipment included three books from my favorite science fiction author, Ben Bova. Can’t wait to dig into those.
Well, on top of all that excitement, I finally got a nibble from another publisher. I’ve continued sending out requests to various publishers, trying to get them to send me books to review, and my third request to Simon & Schuster Audio finally got a response. They haven’t promised me anything yet, but the person who responded, who is only filling in as it turns out, said she would check into it and see what they could do. That would be awesome if I can get books from them, but hey, I was pretty happy just getting a response.
Now, that’s all pretty exciting, but I’m still facing a little bit of a dilemma. Not so much a dilemma I guess, but just something I’ve been thinking about. I keep wondering if this is really how God wants me spending a majority of my time. On the one hand, I worry that maybe all this is taking my attention away from Him. On the other hand, some really neat things have been happening in that area, and I sort of think they wouldn’t be happening if God was against it. Maybe this is the beginning of something big that God has planned for me. That would be cool. Well, I’ll keep praying about it, and see where God leads me.

Happy New Year!

Psalms 30:5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.

Journal - Audiobook Heaven Update

Okay, more exciting news about Audiobook Heaven! I’ve been listening to the audiobooks that Susan from Audiobook Jukebox and SF Site sent me. SF Site is updated twice a month with new book reviews. It works kind of like a magazine, but since it’s on the internet it’s called an e-zine. I had written reviews for two of the books Susan sent me in the first part of December and sent them off to her. When the mid-December issue of SF Site was published, I was a little surprised, and a lot pleased, to see that they had used both of them. I reviewed “The Golden Apples of the Sun” by Ray Bradbury, and “Hull Zero Three” by Greg Bear, and they can both be found there now. I sent Susan a third review just a few days ago so maybe it will show up in the early January issue. In the meantime, I’ve also requested two more books from Susan.
In other news, I’ve been exchanging emails during the last week with my contact at Blackstone Audio. I hadn’t heard from her for a while so I was asking about the audiobooks she was sending. She said they had gone out by UPS on December 6, and when they tracked it, it showed that the package was delivered on the 10th. Unfortunately, I never got them. Good old UPS. I hope whoever got those books enjoys them. I was pretty disappointed, ofcourse, not only because I had been looking forward to getting them, but also because I was afraid Blackstone wouldn’t want to bother sending me any more after the first bunch got lost. My fears proved to be groundless, though. My contact, Tanya, was very gracious and said she would send them again. She even said that in addition to the three books I had requested, she was sending me two more. One of the books I requested was “Mars” by Ben Bova, and Tanya also threw in the other two books in the series, “Return to Mars” and Mars Life.” I can’t tell you how happy that made me! I received her email on Wednesday saying that she had sent them out, and I should get them next Wednesday, the 29th. I was a little disappointed that she had sent them UPS again, but I suppose that can’t be helped. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed next Wednesday as I wait for the UPS truck to come around.
In case I don’t post again before Christmas, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. Safe travels to those of you who might be traveling for the holiday.

Luke 2:10-12 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” NKJV

Coming Home

I guess you may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately. There are a number of reasons for that. Partly it’s because I’ve been spending my time on other things. A lot of my time has been going toward Audiobook Heaven, writing reviews and contacting lots of people to get new books. I’ll probably be writing another update on that pretty soon as there have been a few developments. Also, I’ve been spending about an hour a day practicing Christmas music on my sax. That comes out of my daily computer time because I use it to play the karaoke music. We had our Christmas party last Saturday, so I need to post something about that too.
I’ve also just been spending less time on the computer. I used to stay up late almost every night, working at the computer, and that was when I did most of my writing, when the house is all quiet. But lately, I’ve actually been sleeping: going to bed, falling asleep pretty quickly, getting up at about the same time every morning. I was kind of missing my late nights of quiet solitude, but I have to admit I’ve been enjoying the regular sleep habits too. Tonight I’m up late because we’re having furnace problems and I’m babysitting. This evening the furnace wouldn’t come on, then shortly after we went to bed it came on but wouldn’t shut off. I kept laying there waiting for it to shut off and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. It’s probably been on for close to an hour now and still running.
Anyway, those are my excuses for not writing, but they’re not very good ones. The main reason I stopped writing was because I’ve been going through a lot of stuff in my head. And yes, you guessed it, most of it has to do with my blindness.
This fall, I made a couple of trips to a doctor in Omaha, which I have already written about. I got some bad news, which I have also written about. I was pretty mad at God about that for a while, which I don’t think I mentioned before. I ended up canceling my third appointment that was supposed to be in November.
I gotta tell you though, that whole thing really threw me for a loop. On the one hand, I was disappointed about the news I got about my left eye being unrepairable. On the other hand, I was totally confused because I really felt like my waiting had paid off and it was time to get my sight back, but then it started feeling like it wasn’t time after all. On the third hand, I was upset because people were pressuring me to go to the doctor and get my eyes fixed, as if I were taking my car to the shop for repairs. Damn it, I didn’t know I was going to say that, but there it is. Would you call that a Freudian slip? On the fourth hand, there was lion lady promising this and promising that, handing out assurances like sour little lemon drops.
Okay, take a deep breath. Sorry, I got kind of negative there. How many hands do I have anyway?
Well, what I came in here to say is that I’m mostly over all that, even if it doesn’t sound like it. At least I’m not mad at God anymore. When all that was going on, I felt very distant from God, like the connection I had begun to forge with Him was slipping away. Of course, I know that God was just as close to me then as He has always been, I just had too many other things clouding my judgment.
The furnace finally turned off. Thank you God!
I wrote a while back that I was afraid getting my sight back might interfere with my relationship with God. A couple of months ago, just thinking about getting my sight back did that very thing. I want my sight back very much, but I am clearly not ready for it yet, and God is clearly not ready for it yet either. I’m finally beginning to recover and I’m in no hurry to repeat that fiasco. But here’s the thing: God uses every situation we face to guide and teach us.
What was my lesson this time? Simply this: God knows that we are going to stumble now and then. Shoot, He even knows that sometimes we will fall flat on our faces. But no matter what, He will always welcome us back with open arms, no questions asked.
I was listening to Charles Stanley on the radio last week, a habit I had lost for a while. Charles had a guest pastor which turned out to be his son, Andy. Andy’s message was about the prodigal son. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this story, but God’s timing was, as always, impeccable. I had finally tuned in to hear Doctor Stanley again, after not listening for a few weeks, and I heard exactly what I needed to hear.
So that’s about it. I’m going to try writing more often again. I was kind of missing it, and I have a lot I want to write about. See you soon, okay?

Luke 15: 20-24 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'

Journal - Free Audiobooks

Okay, here’s some more of the good news about Audiobook Heaven.

I already talked about Susan. She’s the person behind the website Audiobook Jukebox, and also the review editor for the website SFSite.com. She had asked me if I would be interested in submitting some reviews for SFSite and I said “Duh!” Well, I didn’t exactly say that, but you get my meaning. She told me about her list of books I could choose from and I was all happy about getting some free audiobooks. Since Susan is the editor of an audiobook review site, publisher’s send her the audiobooks for free since it’s good advertising for the publisher. Susan, in turn, sends the books out to her reviewers, of which there are about 12 including me.

As I was discussing all this with Susan, it occurred to me that hey, I run a legitimate audiobook review site of my own, why can’t publisher’s send free audiobooks to me? I looked around the web a little bit and found that this is a fairly common practice. Publisher’s like to send out review copies to reviewers at newspapers, magazines, websites, and yes, even little bloggers like me. So I started contacting some publishers. I’ve been reviewing for over a year so I know several of them. I looked up their contact information on the internet, and sent email inquiries to about half a dozen publishing companies to see if they would be willing to send me review copies. Of course, I provided them with links to my blog so they could check it out if they wanted to.

About eight days went by and I was beginning to despair, but then I got a bite! Someone from Blackstone Audio sent me an email saying that they were interested. She asked me how many audiobooks I could comfortably handle per month. The answer to that is between 15 and 20, but I didn’t want to seem greedy, so I said three. She had also asked me to go ahead and pick out some books from their website, which I did last Monday. Several more days went by, but on Friday she wrote back and said she had two audiobooks ready to send to me. The third one I picked is apparently still in production and not available yet so she asked me to make another selection, which I also did. Her only requirement is that when I review one of their books, I include a link to the product page at Blackstone for that book, and send her a link to the review I write, which is no problem at all.

This is really exciting! I haven’t heard back from any of the other publishers I contacted, but I’ll be getting audiobooks from Susan, and from Blackstone Audio, so that’s pretty awesome. Oh, the really exciting part is that Blackstone carries my favorite science fiction author, Ben Bova. I’ve been listening to audiobooks for about three years now and have never found a single one by Ben Bova, so I was really happy about that.

My career as an audiobook reviewer is really taking off! Now if I could just get someone to pay me! For now I’ll be content just to get somefree audiobooks. This will make a much wider selection available to me than what I’ve been able to find at the library.

Here’s the bible verse I got in my email yesterday:

1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Today is my 40th birthday, but apparently God thinks I’m still young, so that’s good enough for me.

Journal - SFSite.com

So where was I? Oh yeah, putting my links on Audiobook Jukebox. Okay, I spent a few days putting my links on Audiobook Jukebox, I had 100 book reviews, so I put up ten links a day for ten days. After three or four days of that, the lady from Jukebox, her name is Susan, emailed me again with another opportunity. She told me that she is also the review editor for a science fiction audiobook review website called SFSite.com, and asked if I would be interested in writing some reviews for them.

She told me that SFSite gets about 250,000 hits per month, and I figure even if she’s exaggerating, that’s still a much bigger audience than I get at Audiobook Heaven. Any review I write for SFSite will have a link back to my own blog, which could send a lot of traffic my way. Susan said I would retain the copyright to any review I write, and I can still post the reviews on my own blog, even if they are published on SFSite.

That sounds like a pretty good deal already, but here’s the best part. I get free audiobooks! Susan has a web page with a list of science fiction audiobooks on it. I can pick any book off the list and she will send it to me in the mail. This is especially exciting because, since I went blind almost two years ago, I’ve had a hard time getting my hands on science fiction audiobooks. Libraries carry a few, but they usually stick to books that will appeal to more people. Science fiction has been my passion since I read my first Jules Verne back in the third grade, so this is pretty exciting to me. Oh, and I get to keep the audiobooks, too.

So anyway, Susan told me to start out with four books, so I went to her book list and picked out the four I wanted. They got here last Saturday, but I haven’t started one yet, I’m listening to John Grisham’s "The Firm" and I want to finish it first.

Isn’t that exciting?! There’s no guarantee that my reviews will be accepted, but it will be fun giving it a try. I kind of feel like a minor league player who has been called up to the majors. I don’t get paid anything, but I get the free books, and if one of my reviews is accepted, it could mean a lot of exposure for Audiobook Heaven.

Believe it or not, there’s even more exciting news on this topic, but I’m going to save that for later. See you soon!

John 9:4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. NIV

Journal - Audiobook Jukebox

Hey kids, I wanted to share something kind of exciting that happened last week. Or maybe it first started a couple of weeks ago, I’m not sure. Anyway, I received a comment on one of my audiobook reviews over at Audiobook Heaven from someone I didn’t know, which hardly ever happens. In the comment, there was a link to a website called Audiobook Jukebox. Now, usually when someone posts a link in a comment to your blog, it is spammers who are just trying to get traffic to their site, and usually those sites are not the type that respectable internet surfers like to visit. I always promptly delete those from my blog, and even though this one didn’t seem as bad as others I have seen, I deleted it anyway because I just don’t like having other people’s links there.

Well, about a week later, I got an email from that same person, and the email said about the same thing the comment said so I decided to check it out. Oh, I should mention that my email address is visible in my Blogger profile to anyone who cares to go looking for it, so there was nothing underhanded at work there. I visited Audiobook Jukebox, and it seemed perfectly legitimate to me so I asked this person for more information.

Audiobook Jukebox is a fairly new blog, started about three months ago, I think. The person who contacted me is one of the founders of the site, and their basic goal is to create a central gathering place for audiobook enthusiasts. People who write audiobook reviews, like myself, can put links on Audiobook Jukebox that lead back to the reviews on our own sites. In other words, the reviews stay on my site, but Audiobook Jukebox will have links to them that people can click on. It’s kind of a win/win situation. People who like to read audiobook reviews can find a great wealth of them at Audiobook Jukebox, maybe even multiple reviews of the same audiobook, and those of us who write the reviews can get greater exposure, thereby increasing traffic to our reviews. Since I began putting my links there, my hits have gone from about 10 per day, to around 40 per day, which makes me very happy.

So that’s been pretty exciting. I just posted my 100th audiobook review, and I have links to 70 of them on Audiobook Jukebox so far.

This story may get even better! I got another email from this person on Friday, asking if I would be interested in another opportunity that she has to offer. I won’t reveal any details yet, I want to check it out first, but it sounds pretty cool.

This has been a nice little ray of sunshine for me, when things have been looking rather dark (no pun intended). This is kind of interesting, actually, because I was sort of talking to God Friday evening, and I said something like, “God, I’m trying to do what you want, but you gotta give me something to work with here.” It’s not usually a good idea to be demanding things from God, but in my own defense, I was really doingmore pleading than demanding. Anyway, it was only a few minutes after that when I checked my email and found out about this new opportunity, the one I’m not revealing yet. I sure hope this is coming from God, and not somewhere else, but I asked God to slam the door on it if it’s not from Him, so we’ll see what happens.

More on this later.

Acts 20:24 I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. NIV

Back to Basics

Sigh.

I guess it’s time for us to sit down and have a serious talk. Now now, don’t put such a sour look on your face. And don’t worry, you didn't do anything wrong, this is about me. If it was about you, it would be in your blog, right?

For several weeks now, I’ve been feeling kind of out of sorts. It’s a feeling like something is out of place and I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it. I suppose everyone has times like that. Or is it just me?

In one of his sermons that I listened to on the radio a while back, Charles Stanley talked about those feelings we sometimes get. Like something is missing or out of place. Doctor Stanley said that those are the times when God is trying to get our attention, and we just aren’t listening. We start to get that odd feeling because we have temporarily lost that connection with God. He went on to suggest that in times like those, we need to stop and talk to God; ask Him what it is He is trying to say. So that’s what I did. For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking and praying about this, and I think I am finally beginning to understand what God has been trying to say.

What it all boils down to, is that I have lost my focus. Or rather, I have been focusing on the wrong things. Sometime around the beginning of April, I went through a big ordeal with my audio book review blog, “Audio Book Heaven." I revamped the whole thing, added some neat things, and made the whole blog a lot nicer than it was. For the entire month, it consumed almost every bit of my computer time. Even my posts here on "Drums In The Deep" were all about what I was doing to "Audio BookHeaven." I kind of forgot to pay attention to God.

The sad thing is, I even realized it was happening. I just kept telling myself, “I’ll start talking about God again as soon as I’m done with this.” But then something else came up, and then something else. It finally got to a point where I just didn’t know how to get back. I had lost my connection to God, and I never realized how much I had come to depend on it.

Then one day, I received a very clear message from God, something that He wanted me to do. Instead of just doing it, I kind of hemmed and hawed around for a bit. I stalled for time by saying things like, “God, is this really what you want me to do?” and "God, you need to give me some more details." and so on and so on. The idea persisted and so I finally sat down to do it, only to find out that God had gotten someone else to do it instead. I let God down and what an awful feeling that is. Talk about a humbling experience.

So, having been properly God-slapped, it’s time to get back to basics. Back on track. Keep my chin up and get back in the saddle. Pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. No school like the old school. I’m going to try to do better. Those other things I’ve been writing about lately belong in my blog too. I don’t think God minds having them in here as long as I remember what’s important.

There, that wasn’t so bad was it? I’m glad we had this little talk. I’m starting to feel better already.

Deuteronomy 13:4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Journal - Projects

My Audio Book Heaven project is finished. I’ve gone over every book review and added the affiliate links as well as more relevant keywords. I think I have about sixty-three book reviews now. All that’s left to do now is write more book reviews. I’m not going to do as many this month, I've decided to only post on Wednesday's and Saturdays now, like I used to.

That means it’s time for a new project. Actually I already have a couple of things going. Earlier this year, I had begun reworking the labels on my posts here at Drums In TheDeep. I put that project aside when I started working on Audio Book Heaven, so now I can pick that up again. I don’t have any particular reason for doing that, it’s just something to do.

I’m also working on backing up all of our personal files on this computer. It’s an old computer and its behavior scares me a little sometimes, I’m afraid it’s just going to crash and all our stuff will be lost. We have a lot on this computer that would be pretty hard to replace; original blog post documents, Joni’s poems and writings, photos, Adam’s writings, and all of my genealogy files that I spent almost ten years gathering and organizing. It would be pretty devastating to lose all that.

The obvious solution to me, was to get some storage space on the internet. There are lots of different places that offer storage space for your files, some for free, some for a small price. The only problem is choosing one.

I decided to go with Google since it is a name I am familiar with and have come to trust. Everyone is familiar with the Google search engine, but I also use Google Mail for my email, plus Blogger and Feedburner which are also Google products. With Google, I found that you can get 50 gigabytes of space for only $5.00 per year. That's more than enough storage space for us and even I can afford $5.00 a year.

Well, I was disappointed with that right from the start. I had a really hard time figuring out how to upload files to the space I had purchased. I finally discovered that the “upload” button was not visible to my screen reader. I have no idea why, I’ve never had that problem before anywhere on the internet. This turned out to be a problem only with System Access To Go. With Jaws the button worked properly. It took me several days to figure all that out. During that time, I also discovered that it is impossible to contact Google for customer support. All they have is user forums. You can ask a question there and maybe another user will be able to help you. No one ever responded to my questions, though.

Anyway, I could upload using Jaws. Then I found out that Google only allows you to upload one file at a time. Not good, I have several thousand files to back up. I decided to give up on that and I couldn’t even ask for my money back. I called my bank since I had used my bank card to make the purchase. They couldn’t do anything either. The lady at the bank recommended using a credit card for online purchases instead of my debit card. Okay, lesson learned. I’m glad that lesson only cost me $5.00.

So I looked around some more and found that Windows offers online storage as well. With Windows Skydrive, you can get 25 gigabytes absolutely free. Can’t beat that. I signed up and started uploading files right away.

Anytime I try something new on the computer, it takes me a little time to familiarize myself with it, but I found that I was able to navigate the site without too much trouble. With Skydrive, I can upload all of the files in one folder all at once, although the upload is very slow. Luckily, I can start it uploading and then just let it run while I do other things. It’s running right now, in fact. Yesterday I let it run for twelve hours non-stop and it got through about 500 files so it will take several days to get everything uploaded.

One last thing. Tuesday at Bobbi's house I broke my cane. I was just standing there bending it like I always do, they're very flexible. But this time it broke. It didn't break off completely, though, only cracked so I can still use it. Also, I still have my old one but that one is a lot shorter. When I got home Tuesday, I ordered a new one from the NFB so I’m just waiting for it to get here.

Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Journal - Audio Book Heaven

Well, I see I’m overdue for an update. Where does the time go? May is almost over already.

At Audio Book Heaven, I finally figured out that RSS feed business. I can’t remember if I mentioned that before. An RSS feed allows people to subscribe to your blog or website. A feed is nothing more than the content of your website. Everytime you publish new content on your site, it goes out on your feed. Subscribers can view your feed in a feed reader. By subscribing to the feeds of all your favorite websites, you can get updates on their new material all in one place rather than travelling all over the internet for it. It’s kind of like having pizza delivered to your home instead of going out to eat. You might have noticed the new widget on the right-hand side of this screen that says "Recently at Audio Book Heaven." That is my feed and it updates every time I post something new over there.

Anyway, blogs automatically produce a feed without you doing anything at all. If you choose to, you can sign up with a feed service to activate your feed and make it available to subscribers. That can all be done for free and doesn’t require much work at all, once you know how to do it. I had to do a bit of research on that because it’s fairly recent technology and I knew nothing about it. I activated my feed through Feedburner. I chose Feedburner because it is a Google product, just like Blogspot, and I like to stick with one brand as much as possible. Through Feedburner, you can also set up email subscriptions that allow subscribers to receive your feed directly to their email inbox. So if you want to get my book reviews sent right to your email, use the subscription form at Audio Book Heaven.

For several weeks now, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to link my blog to my Facebook account so that every time I posted something new it would automatically notify all my friends at Facebook. I was unsuccessful at that until I started learning more about feeds. Using my feed, I was able to do exactly that. Every time I post something new, it now automatically puts up a message on my Facebook wall. Pretty slick. Now all I need is some friends.

As far as the book review revisions, I am almost done. Actually the revisions have been done for about a week now, but I still have a few that need to be re-published. I'll probably do the last ones tomorrow.

At the end of April, I set myself the goal of publishing a new book review on every odd numbered day of May. I messed up once, publishing at 11:59 pm on May 4. Other than that I haven't missed a day, and I have enough reviews on hand now to finish out the month. It was a bit of a scramble doing all those reviews, so next month I'm going to slow up a bit and relax with some longer books. Actually, I’m not going to slow up just yet. I'm overdue for listening to Harry Potter. I usually listen to Harry about every four months, but I haven't done it because I wanted to keep posting new reviews, and I already reviewed Harry back in January. So I need to save up some reviews so I can keep posting while I listen to Harry Potter.

Umm, what else? I guess that’s about it. With my revisions done, I’ll probably start spending a lot more time researching. I want to see what else I can do with my feed and also find more ways to increase traffic to my site. I'm seeing some positive results in my stats at Stat Counter, but I'll talk about that later.

Jeremiah 32:27 "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

Psalms 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.