Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Cows

Well, I wasn't going to write another post today, but I came acrosss this. Hee, hee.

One of my friends from Faith Writers, Ben Stephens, just started an internet magazine called Riders and Reapers. It is a country magazine with stories of farm and country life.

A lot of friends from FW got stories published in this month's magazine. One of them, Dori Knight, wrote a hilarious story called The Chasing Cows (follow the link and scroll down the page a bit). It reminded me of a story of my own.

Our neighbors have cows. They stay neatly in their pasture--until we plant a peach tree. Then--unfailingly and no matter how many times we try re-planting--one or two of them come through the fence and eat the tree. Yes, eat it right down to a stump. We can plant as many apple, pear, or cherry trees as we like, but plant a peach tree and here they come!

I am not scared of cows.

But somehow when I go running out to scare one away from the tree and she is three times bigger than I am and is staring rather angrily at me, somehow, well, maybe I'll just buy an apple tree.

Only 750 words?!

Once again I find myself trying to write a novel instead of a 750 word story! Monday I wrote the rough draft of a story for the writing challenge I enter each week. I managed to pair it down to 748 words and sent it to a friend from Faith Writers. After I got my critique back and saw the rather major story-line error he kindly pointed out, I suddenly realized that as I was writing down the story from my head I had left out the paragraph that tied my two points together! Oops.

Now I just have to figure out what to take out so I can put the Very Important Paragraph in. *sigh* Hmmm, and I think it still needs quite a bit of work (bypass surgery?). But I got a lot of helpful things from both critiques I got on it. I think I’ll have to ask for editing volunteers on the Faith Writers’ message board more often! :-)

What is a Mora?

Okay, several people asked what the Mora that I mentioned yesterday is. A Mora is a computerized machine from Germany that reads the electrical fields from human bodies. I'll try to explain from my limited knowledge, but first a disclaimer: The following explanation is my own personal unscientific ramblings and may or may not be accurate! :-)

There are at least two different things the Mora can do: treatment or testing. I've had both. When having a treatment, I put my bare feet each on a metal piece that is connected to the machine by wires and in each hand hold a little bar that is also connected by the wires. When the Mora detects a wrong electrical signal, (like from my small intestine, which has a bit of an infection in it) then it changes the wrong current into the correct current and sends it back into your body. To me it seems kind of like a Hemo dialysis treatment, but instead of filtering your blood through the machine, it filters your electrical currents.


The Mora machine can also be used for allergy testing and to find problem areas in your body. When they are doing testing, one of the metal bars I hold is exchanged for a little probe that the doctor uses to touch pressure spots on my fingers. Your current is shown through a little needle that raises on a gauge (like a speedometer) with a happy "huuurrreeeeew!"

If the doctor puts a little vial of something I am not allergic to on a metal tray connected to the machine and then touches my finger with the probe, the Mora says "vuuurrreeeeew" and the needle swings most all the way around. But if she puts, say, tomato, on the tray it goes "uup" and the needle barely moves.

So if the Mora identifies an organ that is having trouble, "uup", maybe because it is lacking some vitamins (the doctor would determine the latter by symtoms and other tests) then she'll set a supplement containing that vitamin on the tray and "vuurree"! Maybe she'll try a different supplement mixure and "vuuurrreeeew!" Then she knows the second supplement will help the most. (Of course, the doctor uses the numbers on the dial to determine things. But me, I like the sound! :-D )

Anyway, that was probably way more info about the Mora than anyone wanted--but now you know!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Five hour doctor appointment?!

Today I went to visit my naturopath. His office is an hour drive, with good traffic, and I had two different hour-long visits. One with the doctor and one for testing on a Mora machine. Good news! My organs are doing very well and my health seems to be stable, even though I haven't been going in for doctor visits very often. I still have a bit of an inflammation in my gut, but it is significantly better.

Today has been crazy, though! Before I left for the Dr I was rushing around madly in our home office (my dad in a general contractor--he develops land and builds new homes). My birthday this month knocked me over the age limit to be listed as a dependent for our health insurance and I have been so busy in the office, so I left our insurance bill to the last possible days so I could figure out what needed to be done. Of course, that was a mistake. :-) But I think I have it pretty much figured out now...I hope.

In the car on the way back from the doctor I was able to use my nifty new laptop to edit a friend's story that she is entering in a weekly writing contest at FaithWriters.com. We are exchanging stories so now that I am home I need to send her my story. Each week FaithWriters (FW) gives a topic for their weekly challenge and we have a week to write an article between 150 and 750 words. I am getting really good at cutting my story down! haha, I usually write a rough draft that is at least 1,000 words. I always feel like I am cutting major organs out of my story and I wonder if it has managed to live. This week I think it is partially dead. :-) Maybe my friend, Red Baron, can help me put some life back in it. After all, I have two extra words to use!

Amy

Welcome!

Hello! I am Amy, or Sparrow, whichever you prefer. I have meaning to start a blog for a while now and am finely getting around to it. It seems as though I should have something profound to say, being as this is my first blog entry, but, uh, hmmm. :-)

I guess I will tell a little about myself. I live in the Northwest US (I love it here!) with my parents. I have two sisters, one of which just left for college to finish her biology degree and one of which lives near me and is married. My married sister and brother-in-law have three little girls! They are so fun.

I will be going to community college this year, taking sign language studies. Next year I will begin a sign language interpretation program.

I spend most of my free time writing. I mostly write fictional short stories and have gotten four of them published this summer. As I figure out how to work this blog I will add links to my stories. For now if you'd like to read some of my writing you can check it out at http://www.faithwriters.com/member-profile.php?id=12276.

Well, more later!

Amy