http://www.alblit.com/blog alblit.com/blog Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:57:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A commenter in the post below referred to me as "American."  The adjective not the noun.  You know what's cool?  It didn't even occur to me to wonder if it was a snark.  You know why?  November 4th, 2008, that's why. I have always been proud of being an American.  I ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=108 I have been hesitating over this post.   I've moved around a great deal in my life and I have yet to figure out how to do it without making people feel as if I am somehow insulting them and rejecting their town or city or country.  I never intend it ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=102 I saw women clutching their babies to their breasts as they tried to shield them from the deadly blast of arctic air.  I saw strong men dressed in multiple layers, hats pulled down over their ears wincing and bowing their heads in the face of the gale.  Elderly Italians shuffled ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=99 I am not a rustic.  Not "country."  Not even a little bit.  I know, this shocks some regular readers who will say, "I am shocked:  I pictured you as a guy who milks cows and shears sheep." Well, no.  No, I'm not country folk.  I am not city folk, either.  I ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=98 Here in Italy the kind of advanced technology that allows Americans to seal their garbage bags by pulling on a space-age device called a “drawstring” is unknown.  Trash bags here come with a sort of filament.  A long and exceedingly fragile plastic thread that is in no way capable of ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=97 So, this was the trip.  Two disobedient, violent, manipulative, evil children and two cranky, snide, critical adults, trapped in a Toyota RAV 4 with nothing to occupy them but 3 computers, 2 iPhones, 2 seat-back DVD players, books, iPods and local radio.   Not since the Donner Party . . . Florence ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=96 I sense a huge wave of work heading my way.  GONE 3 is just begun and I'm slowly gathering momentum.  (I'm toying with cannibalism, crypto-Nazis and false prophets.)  And there's other stuff on the horizon.  Maybe a lot of other stuff.  And it's probably revealing that I look forward so ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=95 I apologize in advance because it's another bourbon and Ambien night.  I'm typing softly because my wife is already asleep.  I tend to type very loudly.  Two fingers beating hell out of the keyboard.  Irritates everyone around me. The weather broke, that's the headline.  Storms came through yesterday and we went ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=94 I don't think the obvious fact that I can't keep up with this blog should stop me from starting other new blogs, do you? I have two new work-related blogs.  One is called TheFAYZ.  It's written as a sort of bridge between books in my GONE series.  GONE is out now. ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=92 Il Campo, Siena.  Germans drinking beer. Today we went to Siena.  Lots of traffic on the way, not helped by the fact that I missed the turn-off and, as people who've driven in Italy know, it is 850 kilometers between any two autostrada exits. Siena is way cool.  Coolest Firenze day trip ... http://www.alblit.com/blog/?p=88