<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- If you are running a bot please visit this policy page outlining rules you must respect. http://www.livejournal.com/bots/ -->
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:lj="http://www.livejournal.com">
  <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio</id>
  <title>Brian Kell - The Eyeball Afterlife</title>
  <subtitle>babble from an aspiring author</subtitle>
  <author>
    <name>Brian Kell</name>
  </author>
  <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/"/>
  <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom"/>
  <updated>2009-11-29T18:52:47Z</updated>
  <lj:journal userid="11018189" username="brian_ohio" type="personal"/>
  <link rel="service.feed" type="application/x.atom+xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom" title="Brian Kell - The Eyeball Afterlife"/>
  <link rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"/>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:192434</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/192434.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=192434"/>
    <title>Sunday Sundries</title>
    <published>2009-11-29T15:20:15Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-29T18:52:47Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Indiana Jones 2 Lego game</lj:music>
    <content type="html">1. Had a good Thanksgiving. A good weekend. Though I am ready to get back to work tomorrow... I'm the only one in my office so I'll get some peace and quiet. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. I'm revising still. Lots to do. The wife and kids have been very gracious in letting me work a lot this weekend. Amazing what an editorial letter or two will do to inspire your family to leave you alone. Turns out I will have two seperate versions of this book now. At times I'm very stressed and panicked about all of it. I NEED them to be great! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. I didn't go shopping on Black Friday, though I did order a few presents online. A few of my relatives went out at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, found the lines at Old Navy too long, so went back home. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. I let my oldest twin daughters drive me yesterday. Both did very well. I forget how much there truly is to pay attention to when driving. They get overwhelmed. And we haven't even introduced the radio to them yet. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. I know it's a little early for Christmas Cards, but my good friend David always sends his out so early. I got mine in the mail yesterday. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;EDIT:&lt;br /&gt;Sorry, I removed the photo of David Hasselhoff. I just found out he was taken to the hospital, suffering a seizure. I hope he's okay.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:192102</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/192102.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=192102"/>
    <title>Thanksgiving Memories!</title>
    <published>2009-11-25T13:22:32Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-25T13:32:20Z</updated>
    <lj:music>A Taylor Swift Song</lj:music>
    <content type="html">I love Thanksgiving! So much fun, so much food. Sitting at the kid's table and goofing off. Watching the original King Kong. Fighting over the wishbone. Basking in the smell of roasting turkey. Mm, mm... good, good times. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, of course I found some old photos of Thanksgivings gone by. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Here I am giving my date my sexiest look. (Yeah... I dated when I was 9 years old... I mean, look at me. I'm a stud). It's not easy pulling that look off with a turkey leg in my hand. But it worked! (See photo 2.) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00117gez/"&gt;&lt;img height="213" alt="" width="320" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00117gez/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Oh. You don't believe me. Well... here's my date's reaction to that now-patented look. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00118e51/"&gt;&lt;img height="213" alt="" width="320" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00118e51/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Here's my dad getting ready to cut the bird. Not sure why he always stripped down to his skivvies to do it. But my one cousin started to pick up on that tradition. (see photo 4.) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0011913y/"&gt;&lt;img height="135" alt="" width="90" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0011913y" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. As I mentioned above, my cousin followed my old man's example. This is the year my cousin ruined the whole day for everyone. The house cleared out before dessert. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0011az3z/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="260" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0011az3z/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. And, of course, the next day my mom would take me and my brother to see Santa. We loved it!!!! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0011be61/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="172" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0011be61/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:191866</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/191866.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=191866"/>
    <title>Win THE GARDENER by S.A. Bodeen!!!</title>
    <published>2009-11-23T14:30:00Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-23T14:30:00Z</updated>
    <lj:music>zip, zilch, zero</lj:music>
    <content type="html">A good LJ buddy of mine (and the brilliant author of THE COMPOUND) is having a contest to win an ARC of her next book - THE GARDENER.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was LUCKY enough to read an early version of this... honored really, and must say it is a fast-paced, very unique story. Very different from the current books lining the shelves. So go over here for a chance to WIN!!!!  I'm telling you... this book is GREAT!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://latteya.livejournal.com/57625.html"&gt;http://latteya.livejournal.com/57625.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Check out this COOL COVER.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00116x2y/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="180" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00116x2y/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(From Stephanie's LJ...)&lt;br /&gt;A couple cool facts about the cover. The art is by Matt Mahurin. (Google him, he's very famous and cool, not to mention talented.) Second, &lt;em&gt;The Gardener &lt;/em&gt;is the very first Feiwel and Friends ARC to ever include the cover art, and I'm very honored they chose my book to be the first.&lt;br /&gt;The book will be released in June, so yes, this means you would get to read it six months before it comes out. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What is this YA about, you ask? A bit of the back cover copy:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children's book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds.....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:191451</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/191451.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=191451"/>
    <title>Bridge Over Hoover Dam</title>
    <published>2009-11-19T19:08:26Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-19T19:08:26Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Some song</lj:music>
    <content type="html">I didn't even know they were building this... but it's AMAZING!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've placed it behind the cut because the images are so large. And it's Honestly a bridge!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I hope, if you click on them you'll get a better look.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010ztzz/"&gt;&lt;img height="226" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010ztzz/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00110t1c/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="159" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00110t1c/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/001118xe/"&gt;&lt;img height="213" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/001118xe/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/001122cz/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="159" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/001122cz/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00113w05/"&gt;&lt;img height="213" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00113w05/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00114zp5/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="159" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00114zp5/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00115gc5/"&gt;&lt;img height="212" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00115gc5/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:191021</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/191021.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=191021"/>
    <title>No... you're daughter doesn't have a texting problem... sure!!!</title>
    <published>2009-11-17T13:58:41Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-17T14:06:50Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Kiss me through the Phone - Ugh/Blah!</lj:music>
    <content type="html">I mentioned to my second cousin's, brother-in-law's, godfather's, dog's former owner's, best friend's, pastor's, choir director's, nanny's parents (also known as my neighbors), that their daughter might have an addiction to texting. That she's missing out on REAL life because she's texting SO MUCH.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Boy did they get pissed! Wow! They denied it... saying she does NOT have a problem... she's normal and lives her life to the fullest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just threw my arms up and danced around and did the hokey-pokey... and walked away. But, just for fun, let's look at some photos I have of this young lady.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. For her first birthday, her parents hired the REAL Sesame Street cast (all of them) to come into their house and do a show. Here she is during that once in lifetime performance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010rk5c/"&gt;&lt;img height="211" width="281" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010rk5c" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. They saved their money for years... and finally were able to take a trip to the Grand Canyon. Wow! Here she is on the edge of one of the greatest wonders of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010sxt3/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="317" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010sxt3/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. They went to Washington D.C. to witness the inauguration of President Obama. Here she is leaning against the Washington Monument during the ceremony&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010tz9p/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="240" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010tz9p/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. For over a year, their church raised money for a trip to Rome. Here she is standing outside the Sistine Chapel&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010w9w5/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="180" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010w9w5/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. Oh... and when then TRIED to text her about her grandfather's heart attack...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010xqe4/"&gt;&lt;img height="212" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010xqe4/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I guess I'm wrong... she doesn't have a problem with texting. Boy am I embarassed for mentioning it.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:190932</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/190932.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=190932"/>
    <title>Friday One</title>
    <published>2009-11-13T19:00:30Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-13T19:00:30Z</updated>
    <lj:music>She's Gone - Hall and Oates</lj:music>
    <content type="html">I WANT THIS WOMAN ARRESTED!!!! Not tomorrow. Not next week. TODAY!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010q8yr/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="180" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010q8yr/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:190555</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/190555.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=190555"/>
    <title>Writing Buds</title>
    <published>2009-11-11T15:45:57Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-11T15:45:57Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Everlong - Foo Fighters</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;The Eyeball is Writing Today. At least until 5:00 p.m.... then again at about 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Time).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Join me if you got the guts!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010p5w3/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="293" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010p5w3/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:190265</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/190265.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=190265"/>
    <title>Just Some Random Stuff</title>
    <published>2009-11-10T14:53:13Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-10T15:58:20Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Doll on a Music Box - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;1. While celebrating our 20th Wedding Anniversary the other day, we decided to go through our wedding album. My wife looked gorgeous, of course. Me... well, I think I&amp;nbsp;looked pretty dapper in my tux. What do you think?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010g912/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="159" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010g912/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;The Groom 20 years ago!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Lately I've been picky&amp;nbsp;about what I&amp;nbsp;read... and if I'm not hooked by 50 pages or so... I'm not ashamed to put&amp;nbsp;the book&amp;nbsp;down and move onto the next one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've finished a few books. And I REALLY REALLY&amp;nbsp;enjoyed these books. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010hxc6/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="161" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010hxc6/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Jumping Off Swings &lt;/em&gt;by Jo Knowles. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This book is definitely not what I&amp;nbsp;normally read... but I enjoy Jo's Live Journal and she seems pretty nice, so I thought I'd give it a try. And WOW! Written from 4 POVs... this book is wonderful. I was touched by it. It will be required summer reading for my oldest daughters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010k4k6/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="157" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010k4k6/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Demon's Lexicon &lt;/em&gt;by Sarah Rees Brennen&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'd heard so much about this book before it came out. I actually sat next to Sarah&amp;nbsp;during an afterparty at the Radisson&amp;nbsp;at Conestoga last year. (My brush with fame.) And she's so nice... and that accent. After all of this... I&amp;nbsp;almost didn't want to like her book... &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But I&amp;nbsp;did. A&amp;nbsp;LOT! Very, very unique story with a twist. And it gives me hope that there is plenty of room on the YA shelves for paranormal stories with a lead&amp;nbsp;MALE character.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Today is an EXCITING&amp;nbsp;day for me and my family. UNDER&amp;nbsp;THE&amp;nbsp;DOME comes out and I will be holding that baby in my chapped and callused hands in a few hours. And Pixar's UP comes out on DVD... my whole family totally adored this movie. It'll be something we can all watch together without an argument.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. Seasame Street turns 40 (today, I&amp;nbsp;think). And I&amp;nbsp;can honestly remember, kneeling on a chair at my kitchen table when I&amp;nbsp;was four years old, and looking at the pictures in the newspaper of this brand new show about to air on the TV. 40 years ago. Wow! Now... if we can just forget those Elmo years... everything will be fine.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. I&amp;nbsp;heard Christmas music on the radio last night. Um... why?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. Did anyone go see Jim Carey's 'A Christmas Carol'. Is it worth going to see?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. I&amp;nbsp;am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pumped for Jim Cameron's AVATAR. I know some people think the trailer looks hokey... but once that movie is on the Big Screen... look out. My wife, my&amp;nbsp;middle daughter and I have a date on December 18th to go see it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8. I'm a writing fool still. Put down 5 pages yesterday and I&amp;nbsp;plan on writing.... 10 pages today. Everything is falling into place. Hope to get it to some beta readers before Christmas so I&amp;nbsp;can query after the New Year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9. If my mother-in-law cuts the 'Box Tops' off of my cereal boxes BEFORE I even open the bag on more time... I'm going to SCREAM. She's the GREATEST mother-in-law... but this is driving me NUTS!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;10. I&amp;nbsp;think that's enough for today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:189966</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/189966.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=189966"/>
    <title>Why Agents Get more Queries than ever before!</title>
    <published>2009-11-09T14:04:55Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-09T14:04:55Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Wouldn't it Be Nice - The Beach Boys</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;nbsp;see it all the time... on blogs, on Twitter, on forums... agents say they get more queries than ever before. And I&amp;nbsp;see a few folks reply that its probably the economy that has kick started so many people to finally write a book.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;WRONG! (In My Opinion, of course)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Agents get more queries for one reason and one reason alone (In My Opinion, of course)...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Because its Easier to Write a Book.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;(Notice I didn't say 'good' book or 'okay' book... that part is as difficult as EVER. Believe me/you!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Don't believe me. Talk to someone who's been writing for more than ten years (like myself).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now hear&amp;nbsp;out my reasoning.... I could, of course, be wrong.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Research.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I remember when I started to write back in 1994, a fantasy book. I&amp;nbsp;wanted to research castles and such. I had to go to the library. Many libraries. Go through the card catalog. Dig through shelves. Or go to the bookstore and PURCHASE a book on castles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today it's a click away. You can research ANYTHING if you have the Interent. Easy, peezy, Mac and Chezzy. It's actually fun to research. And go in depth.&amp;nbsp;It's fast. And convenient. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Setting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first book I&amp;nbsp;ever finished (BALLOON SMUGGLERS... I&amp;nbsp;still think it's good), takes place in Los Angeles, CA. Hardly any libraries had anything other than tour books about the City. I&amp;nbsp;didn't know anyone who lived out there. It wasn't easy trying to make my setting a part of the&amp;nbsp; book. Turned out, for me, that my brother-in-law was going to a week long conference out there and had an extra bed in his hotel room. My wife gave me the green light and I spent a week drving around the city. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Physcially going to the setting of your book is still the BEST way to learn about it, but its not necessary anymore. With the Internet, Digital Photos, Blogging... most of us can dig up all kinds of information about our setting without leaving the house. Amazing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Software.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I started to write BALLOON&amp;nbsp;SMUGGLERS, I bought a few pens and a few spiral bound notebooks... and proceeded to write by hand. Then I&amp;nbsp;would type it into a Brother P-touch typewriter and it would print out the manuscript. Took! For! Ever! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now we have Word and Wordperfect and Notepad... so much easier. Spell and Grammar Check and, jeez, it's amazing how much easier it is to create a manuscript. And printing is so FAST!!!&amp;nbsp;Some authors still write by hand... God Bless them... Everyone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. Agent Research&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The only way I&amp;nbsp;could research agents way back when was to go to the bookstore and purchase a copy of &lt;em&gt;Writers Digest Guide to Literary Agents&lt;/em&gt;. About 20 bucks. And then to send out material... I&amp;nbsp;had to label everything by hand, purchase postage... it was a real pain in the patoot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Internet has made finding information about agents very, very easy. But you have to go to the right sources... I'm sure there is also a LOT&amp;nbsp;of bogus information out there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*****&lt;br /&gt;I know I'm missing a bunch of stuff... If you can think&amp;nbsp;of anything else, please feel free to comment and I'll add&amp;nbsp;it to&amp;nbsp;my list.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;nbsp;think the inundation of queries&amp;nbsp;is due more to these reasons than to the economy. At least a lot of it.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:189568</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/189568.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=189568"/>
    <title>Friday Five and a Strange TRUE Story</title>
    <published>2009-11-06T13:15:41Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-06T13:15:41Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Rubber Duckie - Ernie</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010fz21/"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="258" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010fz21/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;Friday Five&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;u&gt;True Story:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/u&gt;I was at my parents for lunch the other day (they LOVE&amp;nbsp;to see me), the doorbell rang. My mom goes to answer the door. She comes back to the kitchen.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Me: &amp;quot;Who was it?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mom: &amp;quot;No one.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Me: &amp;quot;Then who rang the doorbell?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mom: &amp;quot;It was someone at the neighbors.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Me: &amp;quot;Huh?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mom: &amp;quot;Our doorbell rings when someone rings the neighbors.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Me: &amp;quot;What? How?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She and my dad shrug, as though this is normal. But it's TRUE! When someone rings my parent's neighbor's doorbell, my parent's doorbell rings. But if someone tries to ring my parent's doorbell... it doesn't work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;nbsp;know there's a story or scene in there somewhere. I'm still floored.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:189202</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/189202.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=189202"/>
    <title>He's been found!!!!! An Incredible Story</title>
    <published>2009-11-05T15:48:35Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-05T15:48:35Z</updated>
    <lj:music>PYT - Michael Jackson</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;We, as Americans... as &lt;em&gt;humans&lt;/em&gt;... have been lied to. And, I think, most of us were aware of it... but sorta refused to believe it. Didn't want to believe it. Most of us just got to much enjoyment out of it all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And it's sad when a company would go to such lengths to hide the truth. To go on TV again and again and again trying to tell us that we'll be fine. Look at this role model... this idol... look at HIM... he's okay.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No more! I've been watching the developments over the passed few months. Many of the men responsible for the discovery have disappeared. But that didn't&amp;nbsp;stop them from exposing their discovery. Exposing Him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He was found&amp;nbsp;deep in&amp;nbsp;an abandoned&amp;nbsp;salt mine beneath Lake Erie. Locked away and told NEVER to reveal himself... his existance would RUIN their company. It took the efforts of many, including the Toledo SWAT team, to bring him to justice. And, after&amp;nbsp;you see this photo, you'll understand why he was forced into hiding. It would destroy the company. Destroy!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;nbsp;hope you're all prepared for the truth. It's shocking. It's disgusting.&amp;nbsp;It's foul. Ladies and Gentleman... he disappeared many, many years ago. He was the orginal and considered the best. So many have tried to fill his shoes, but we couldn't be fooled. We knew the man who created the charater was no longer behind the makeup and costume. And we longed for the day when&amp;nbsp;the one and only would return.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010e1r3/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="180" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010e1r3/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:189052</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/189052.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=189052"/>
    <title>Recipe for a Manuscript - Help!</title>
    <published>2009-11-03T13:40:06Z</published>
    <updated>2009-11-03T13:40:06Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Help - The Beatles</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;So I&amp;nbsp;was trying to work on my JoNoWriMo manuscript... and continuing to struggle. I'm just missing something... but I'm not sure what. Which prompted me to go up in my parent's attic in search of&amp;nbsp;my&amp;nbsp;great, great, great grandmother's recipe book. Took me a while to dig through all the junk... but I&amp;nbsp;found it!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010c0aw/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="157" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010c0aw/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Grandma's Recipe Book&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And, low and behold, I&amp;nbsp;found the recipe&amp;nbsp;a manuscript. Only it was merely the&amp;nbsp;BASIC recipe... the starter, if you will.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;u&gt;The Basic&amp;nbsp;Manuscript&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1 cup - Story Arc (1 part Beginning, 1 part Middle, 1 part End)&lt;br /&gt;1-1/2 cups - Protagonist (should be fresh)&lt;br /&gt;2 Tbs - Motivation (can always add more later)&lt;br /&gt;4 tsp - Conflict (Internal/External or both)&lt;br /&gt;1 Eyeball Egg - *See photo Below&lt;br /&gt;1 heaping Tbs - Climax&lt;br /&gt;A dash - Setting&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's it. But I&amp;nbsp;KNOW I&amp;nbsp;need to add more ingredients to make the book both succulent and sweet. I want the reader to enjoy every bite while looking forward to the next. NEEDING&amp;nbsp;the next.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every book has a different recipe. That's true. But I&amp;nbsp;know I'm missing a few of the basic ingredients. If you can add any for me, feel free to comment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*The Eyeball Egg (This was my Grandma's Secret Ingredient)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010dsap/"&gt;&lt;img height="212" width="300" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010dsap" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:188824</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/188824.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=188824"/>
    <title>Friday Five - Important Questions</title>
    <published>2009-10-30T12:35:33Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-30T12:35:33Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Love Stinks - J. Geils Band</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;1. On Gilligan's Island... the millionaire's wife was named Lovey. I'm sure her nickname growing up was Love. Do you think, when Love was a baby and pooped her pants, that her father would shout to her mother, &amp;quot;Love stinks!&amp;quot;?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Do you think the original name for a Banana Split was 'A Banana brutely severed in half along its horizontal axis'?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Do you have any strange acronyms for sandwiches? I like a &lt;em&gt;Bacon&amp;nbsp;Under Lots of Lettuce Ending with Tomatoes &lt;/em&gt;sandwich. Or... a BULLET.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. How's come we call a small clock a watch? Why don't we just call it a&amp;nbsp;clock? Like... &amp;quot;What time you got on your wrist clock?&amp;quot; 'Watch' has enough definitions as it is... let's eliminate one for God's&amp;nbsp;sake.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;5. Are there any stories out there about the 8th dwarf? I've been thinking about him a lot lately. The poor little guy was kept locked in the basement. Rarely ever seeing the light of day. Sure, Gassy had hygiene&amp;nbsp;problems, but did he deserve to be treated as though he didn't exist. Gassy's story needs to be told. I may just have to tell it.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:188651</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/188651.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=188651"/>
    <title>Thanks!</title>
    <published>2009-10-29T13:08:12Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-29T13:09:02Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Crazy from the Heat - David Lee Roth</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;Thanks to all of you who sent your congratulations to the wife and I yesterday. We took the kids with us to dinner last night. They all&amp;nbsp;made cards for us. Very, very sweet. We had a good time. But, I swear, with four daughters... I heard the word 'Daddy' at least one hundred times in that hour. They ALL&amp;nbsp;have something to say, it seems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We're going out to dinner&amp;nbsp;ALONE tomorrow night. Finally.&amp;nbsp;I'm going to give romance what for!!! (Can you hear my wife laughing? Hm?)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By the way... the movie we watched on our first date was Friday The 13th, Part 3 in 3D. My wife gave the wrong answer to throw you guys off.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh... and my wife got me a new pair of sneakers as an anniversary gift. The ones I had were REALLY&amp;nbsp;gettin' worn out. Look!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010b70r/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="271" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010b70r/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Check out these cool new tennis shoes! Nice!!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010aha3/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="245" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010aha3/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:188262</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/188262.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=188262"/>
    <title>20 Years Today!!!!!</title>
    <published>2009-10-28T13:01:16Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-28T13:01:16Z</updated>
    <lj:music>What Kind of Fool Am I - Rick Springfield</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the day I&amp;nbsp;said 'I do'.&amp;nbsp;I'm talking about my Wedding Day. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hard to believe it's been 20 years. I met my wife when I was 17 years old. She was the sister of one of my best friends. And my buddy didn't even flinch when I told him I'd like to ask his sister out. Who wouldn't want me as a brother-in-law? Srsly (tm).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our first date? Well... I'm glad you asked. Are you ready for this... we went to a movie, miniature golfing and out for ice cream.&amp;nbsp;Any guesses on which movie...?&amp;nbsp;Here, I'll give you multiple choice.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1477488"&gt;View Poll: Which Movie&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;We found out, years later, that my buddies (including the brother of my wife) followed us on our first date. Bastards! But I was a total gentlemen... as for my wife... well, she was a little more aggresive than me. But I&amp;nbsp;LIKED it. Wink, wink &lt;span class='ljuser  ljuser-name_ladyeye' lj:user='ladyeye' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://ladyeye.livejournal.com/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://ladyeye.livejournal.com/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;ladyeye&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Marriage is hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. But SO&amp;nbsp;worth it. It's a blessing knowing I&amp;nbsp;have someone who loves me to grow old with. To share things with. To laugh with. To chase grandkids with.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's been amazing! Somehow we spawned 4 daughters during those 20 years... all of them beautiful and kind. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, I'd just like to say to my wife... &amp;quot;Honey, I&amp;nbsp;love you. Always.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh... Here's a few pictures from that Special Day!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Chapel...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00104eqw/"&gt;&lt;img width="191" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00104eqw/s320x240" height="240" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Cake...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/001057cg/"&gt;&lt;img width="137" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/001057cg/s320x240" height="240" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Bestmen...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00107cd0/"&gt;&lt;img width="320" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00107cd0/s320x240" height="190" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leaving the Church...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010839z/"&gt;&lt;img width="180" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/0010839z/s320x240" height="240" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:188092</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/188092.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=188092"/>
    <title>My First Attempt at a Short Story in Many a Year...</title>
    <published>2009-10-26T12:48:23Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-26T18:04:37Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Viva La Vida - Coldplay</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; House sitting usually entailed watching an empty house. Easy way to make beer money for professional college dropout Dunker Blooze. He did it for Mrs. Simpson whenever she went out of town. A few peaceful, relaxing days away from his mom and dad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; But this time something startled Dunker awake. Beneath the silk sheets, Dunker&amp;rsquo;s skin rippled, each hair on his naked body took a moment to stand at attention. He&amp;rsquo;d promised Mrs. Simpson he&amp;rsquo;d stay on the couch, but how could he resist the silk sheets on her waterbed. And all that lotion he&amp;rsquo;d discovered while rivaling through her panty drawer. Going to bed here had become an event for Dunker.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%"&gt;It came again. From the sitting area of the large master bedroom. He&amp;rsquo;d pounded a lot of beer last night, Dunker&amp;rsquo;s full bladder recoiled from the fright and he peed a little.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%"&gt;He lowered the sheets beneath his eyes and glanced around. The only light came from the digital clock next to the bed. Dunker had found a wide array of toys in the nightstand; Mrs. Simpson kept Barbie dolls and Lego&amp;rsquo;s in there for her grandkids. She had no pets; nothing in this house should make a sound.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The noise erupted, fouler this time. A short, sharp burst. It had a horrible phlegminess about it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;ldquo;Who&amp;rsquo;s there?&amp;rdquo; Dunker asked, scooting off the wet spot he&amp;rsquo;d just made.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Silence. More silence. Even more silence. Then&lt;i&gt; snort&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Dunker sat up rigid. &amp;ldquo;Get out! Please! Don&amp;rsquo;t hurt me! Please! Pretty please!&amp;rdquo; He'd heard the paranormal rewarded politeness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; He gulped, trying to catch his breath. His heart hammered like a hammer hammering.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Then he saw it. Sitting in the cushy recliner. Curled up tight. A man. A transparent man,&amp;nbsp;glowing as if painted with phosphorate paint. A spirit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%"&gt;And he was snoring.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; As Dunker tried to decide whether to run for the bathroom or finish relieving himself on the bed, one of the ghost&amp;rsquo;s eyes fluttered open, staring at him. 'Evil' gleamed off the glowing orb, turned out to be the reflection of an&amp;nbsp;inspirational poster with the word 'Live' on it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;ldquo;Hey!&amp;rdquo; the ghost croaked. &amp;ldquo;Could you keep it down? I&amp;rsquo;m tryin&amp;rsquo; to sleep.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;THE END&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: 200%"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh&amp;hellip; I&amp;rsquo;m&amp;nbsp;calling this story: PARANORMAL INACTIVITY.&lt;/p&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:187858</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/187858.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=187858"/>
    <title>THIS TOTALLY FREAKS ME OUT! YEAH... ME!!!!</title>
    <published>2009-10-24T14:58:31Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-24T14:58:31Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Life After You - Daughtry</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00103bwr/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="166" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00103bwr/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:187560</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/187560.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=187560"/>
    <title>Friday Five For Fun</title>
    <published>2009-10-23T12:49:32Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-23T14:49:14Z</updated>
    <lj:music>It's a Sunshine Day - The Brady Bunch</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;1. When I&amp;nbsp;was a baby, my mother loved to USE&amp;nbsp;me as&amp;nbsp;part of her&amp;nbsp;Halloween decorations. For some reason she'd get angry when I made a poo in the pumpkin. I had bowel issues from an early age. Sorry for being human!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000s8y0q/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="174" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000s8y0q/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. But I guess I&amp;nbsp;enjoyed the feel of the pumpkin on my body... even in high school. Man! Was I&amp;nbsp;cool. Who else could pull off a 'Fonzie' move like that and NOT&amp;nbsp;look stupid? Who? Who?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00101skr/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="291" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00101skr/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;quot;Sit on it, Cunningham!&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. How embarrassed are you for the guy below? &amp;quot;Hey! Buddy!&amp;nbsp;I can tell you had corn on the cob for supper.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00102wtp/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="141" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00102wtp/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. I've been doing a whole lot of waiting lately... and I&amp;nbsp;don't even work at a restaurant. It's true. Here's a recent photo I&amp;nbsp;took of myself staring at my inbox... waiting for a new message.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000pxa85/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="179" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000pxa85/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. Look at these two photos... this is bizarre!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zp1c8/"&gt;&lt;img height="225" alt="" width="300" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zp1c8" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000xyb6e/"&gt;&lt;img height="228" alt="" width="320" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000xyb6e/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:187203</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/187203.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=187203"/>
    <title>Some of my Halloween Costumes from the Past</title>
    <published>2009-10-21T12:42:36Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-21T12:42:36Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Why Can't This Be Love - Van Halen</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;This was my 2nd Halloween. Most of the homes my mother took me&amp;nbsp;trick-or-treating gave me little bottles of saline solution. Real Funny! What a ripoff !!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zyyea/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="240" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zyyea/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My 6th Halloween was a disaster. Can anyone guess why? Yep... I&amp;nbsp;couldn't put my arms down.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zzg90/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="180" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zzg90/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My 9th Halloween... don't ask!!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000detx3/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="179" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000detx3/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For my&amp;nbsp;13th Halloween... my parents decided that I&amp;nbsp;should rent out space on my retina, I&amp;nbsp;never did see any of the cash. Hm.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00100swt/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="150" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/00100swt/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My 17th Halloween... I went as the&amp;nbsp;ULTIMATE gift...&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000x4tsd/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="160" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000x4tsd/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;TO: Women&lt;br /&gt;FROM: God&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:186912</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/186912.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=186912"/>
    <title>I had a talk with God about Publishing</title>
    <published>2009-10-20T12:37:46Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-20T12:37:46Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Kum Bye Ah</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;So I&amp;rsquo;ve been getting a bit frustrated lately. With many aspects of the publishing business. Okay&amp;hellip; ALL aspects of the publishing business. &amp;nbsp;I know, I know&amp;hellip; this surprises many of you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;Still&amp;hellip; it&amp;rsquo;s true. I&amp;rsquo;ve finally&amp;hellip; FINALLY reached the Wits End.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zsscs/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="237" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zsscs/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;(Their apple pie is delish! It&amp;rsquo;s covered in this caramel sauce and served with whipped cream)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;So I decided I needed some heavy duty support. The heaviest and the doodiest.&amp;nbsp;That&amp;rsquo;s right. I&amp;nbsp;needed THE BIG GUY!!! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000ztay4/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000ztay4" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;No! Not The Big Guy (a.k.a. Mr. Carlson) from &lt;em&gt;WKRP in Cincinnati&lt;/em&gt;&amp;hellip; from God. &lt;span style="font-size: large"&gt;THE&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style="font-size: large"&gt;Big Guy!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zwps7/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="187" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zwps7/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;God&amp;nbsp;responded immediately, almost as though he&amp;rsquo;d been waiting for my scream&amp;hellip; er, my call. He was VERY understanding and VERY optimistic. We had a pretty good conversation, and I must say, I learned many shocking things.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;About Him&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;For example, did you know the Bible was His fourth book&amp;hellip; His first published work? His first two books, both fiction, are still in the trunk after receiving nothing but form rejections. He said, and this made me laugh, a few agents didn&amp;rsquo;t EVEN RESPOND to his query! And he told me&amp;nbsp;with a wink,&amp;nbsp;they&amp;rsquo;re roasting in Hell for all eternity.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;His third book, a non-fiction account of the existence of anti-matter, made it to acquisitions, but eventually was rejected since it was longer than Stephen King&amp;rsquo;s upcoming &amp;lsquo;Under the Dome&amp;rsquo; and, back then, papyrus was very hard to come by. The banks of the Nile would be wiped clean just for the ARCs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;Finally... with some help from&amp;nbsp;a saintly group of writers, He wrote His masterpiece. The Bible! He had a feeling this was the one!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;Using AgentQuery.com and Querytracker.net&amp;hellip; He selected his top tier of agents and off went the queries. But the rejections poured in again. A&amp;nbsp;distant, distant relative of Nathan Bransford, Ishmeal Bransford...&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zxpws/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="240" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zxpws/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;...pointed out that God shouldn&amp;rsquo;t have opened His query with the rhetorical question, &amp;ldquo;Have you ever wanted to&amp;nbsp;create a Universe in Six Days?&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;Finally, an agent named Jehoshaphat Goldblatt requested a full of The Bible. God was certain His book was going to&amp;nbsp;be in every Motel/Hotel room on His planet. But Jehoshaphat passed, sighting the overuse of the word&amp;nbsp;&amp;lsquo;begot&amp;rsquo;. But God wouldn't budge on that one. After months of revising and submitting, God eventually found the perfect agent (He wouldn&amp;rsquo;t give me a name or gender) and the rest is ancient history.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;So, He told me to&amp;nbsp;NEVER give up. If it could happen to the Almighty&amp;hellip; it could happen to me. And I believe Him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"&gt;Oh! And just recently God&amp;nbsp;finished writing&amp;nbsp;a Middle Grade book for boys called &amp;lsquo;The Adventures of Balloon Boy.&amp;rdquo; But after the recent news, He placed it in the trunk. God isn&amp;rsquo;t very happy with Freewill sometimes.&lt;/p&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:186570</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/186570.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=186570"/>
    <title>Writing Today (Cross Posted at JoNoWriMo)</title>
    <published>2009-10-19T12:18:00Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-19T12:18:00Z</updated>
    <lj:music>If I Needed Someone - The Beatles</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday. Awesome! Loved it! I&amp;nbsp;think it's my favorite. I just think they did a great job of mixing both the character development and the plot development. Not to mention humor and fear. Very nice job. Plus I&amp;nbsp;forgot much of the book, so&amp;nbsp;a lot of the movie&amp;nbsp;came as a surprise to me. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I'm raring to write! Write until my fingers blister and bleed! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you'd like to buddy up... just comment at &lt;span class='ljuser  ljuser-name_jonowrimo' lj:user='jonowrimo' style='white-space: nowrap;'&gt;&lt;a href='http://community.livejournal.com/jonowrimo/profile'&gt;&lt;img src='http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif' alt='[info]' width='16' height='16' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href='http://community.livejournal.com/jonowrimo/'&gt;&lt;b&gt;jonowrimo&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; and we'll check in with each other. I'll be writing on and off until 5:00 p.m., maybe a bit more later in the evening. I'd love to have a few others along with me... keeping me honest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Comment over here if you're going to buddy up!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://community.livejournal.com/jonowrimo/182329.html"&gt;http://community.livejournal.com/jonowrimo/182329.html&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:186216</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/186216.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=186216"/>
    <title>Friday Five - Vampire Comparison</title>
    <published>2009-10-16T19:19:16Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-16T19:19:16Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Thirty-Three - Smashing Pumpkins</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;1. My daughter's Vampire&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zh656/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="220" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zh656/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. My Vampire&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zp1c8/"&gt;&lt;img height="225" width="300" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zp1c8" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. My parents' Vampire&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zkped/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="200" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zkped/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. My grandparents' Vampire&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zq1ye/"&gt;&lt;img height="234" width="300" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zq1ye" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. My Favorite Vampire...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zrh9c/"&gt;&lt;img height="160" width="160" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zrh9c" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:186031</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/186031.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=186031"/>
    <title>An Old Photo</title>
    <published>2009-10-14T13:28:01Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-14T13:31:30Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;While I&amp;nbsp;was digging through some boxes in my basement... I found an old photo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's a picture of me and my very first girlfriend. I think we were eleven or twelve years old. Back when things were&amp;nbsp;innocent and everyone was saying 'Dyn-o-mite!'. Her name was Mary Lou Ferrigno. She lived on a farm that massed produced manure (when I&amp;nbsp;close my eyes... I&amp;nbsp;can still smell her pungent fragrance).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A truck hauling Instant Mashed Potatoes overturned near&amp;nbsp;her farm and the cows ate most of the spill. I&amp;nbsp;guess&amp;nbsp;it caused them to suffer&amp;nbsp;severe constipation... the farm closed and she moved away. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'd forgotten all about her... until I found this photo. It&amp;nbsp;brought back a rush of memories and cow pies.&amp;nbsp;Her parents had taken&amp;nbsp;us bowling and snapped this picture. We made such a cute couple.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="cutid1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zg7ea/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" alt="" width="226" border="0" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zg7ea/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:185826</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/185826.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=185826"/>
    <title>My New Invention</title>
    <published>2009-10-13T11:54:43Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-13T11:54:43Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Worlds Apart - Jars of Clay</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;So I'm trying to edit my manuscript. I&amp;nbsp;need to get it from 70,000 words to at LEAST 60,000... I'm actually shooting for 50,000-55,000 words.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's right... I&amp;nbsp;want to cut nearly a quarter of the words... WITHOUT&amp;nbsp;cutting any of the story lines or characters. This isn't easy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In order to accomplish this...&amp;nbsp;I need the proper tool. Oh, I&amp;nbsp;tried many of the usual ways...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. The Red Pen... didn't work so well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zacz8/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="182" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zacz8/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. These scissors... gave me blisters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zds7x/"&gt;&lt;img height="239" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zds7x/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. And the hatchet... let's just say I was lucky my daughter found my finger and put it on ice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000ze2e1/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="310" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000ze2e1/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So... I&amp;nbsp;decided to put my brain to use. It sputtered, smoked, coughed and protested, but eventually I&amp;nbsp;was THINKING. And it wasn't long until I&amp;nbsp;came up with an idea. I&amp;nbsp;hired a few guys to draw up the plans, I&amp;nbsp;paid a local machinist to build the thing. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And... Wa-la!!!! I&amp;nbsp;give you...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;THE&amp;nbsp;WORD&amp;nbsp;CHIPPER&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zfftg/"&gt;&lt;img height="184" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zfftg/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just shove your manuscript in on the wide end, and it prints out the condensed version on the other. AMAZING! The patent number for this baby is EYE-134-AM-68-STU-897-PID. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&amp;nbsp;went from this....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zbe6p/"&gt;&lt;img height="160" width="85" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zbe6p" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To This...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zcbps/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="320" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000zcbps/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm willing to rent it out for a price.</content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:brian_ohio:185389</id>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/185389.html"/>
    <link rel="self" type="text/xml" href="http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/data/atom/?itemid=185389"/>
    <title>Friday Five - Pumpkins</title>
    <published>2009-10-09T11:44:27Z</published>
    <updated>2009-10-09T11:44:27Z</updated>
    <lj:music>Shape of My Heart - Backstreet Boys</lj:music>
    <content type="html">&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z5d8r/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="240" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z5d8r/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z6zzw/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="319" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z6zzw/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z7k3g/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="240" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z7k3g" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z8901/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="319" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z8901/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z9w3q/"&gt;&lt;img height="240" width="276" border="0" alt="" src="http://pics.livejournal.com/brian_ohio/pic/000z9w3q/s320x240" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content>
  </entry>
</feed>
