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thistlechaserIt's been a while since I last mentioned my thriving little country. It's really doing amazingly well.
Population: 29 Million
Economy: Very Strong
Civil Rights: Good (Wow, surprising.)
Political Freedoms: Outlawed
The Confederacy of Habari is a large, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its absence of drug laws. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 29 million are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.
The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, pro-business morass -- juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and the Environment. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 29%. A small but healthy private sector is dominated by the Beef-Based Agriculture industry.
Surveillance cameras are banned, the government's religious works are headed by a New Age guru, military spending recently hit a new high, and college students make ends meet by selling their kidneys. Crime is a serious problem. Habari's national animal is the dog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Wheel.
In other news, sometimes I surprise myself that my sleep can actually get worse. I went to bed at 11, read until 11:45 (I know I said I wasn't going to read anymore, see below for the reason), but at 1 AM I was still not even close to sleepy. I should have gotten up. I kept hearing my computer beep about new email, so I should have gotten up and checked instead of rolling over and over and over and over. Heck, I could have gotten up and cleaned the bathroom or something, anything's better than being in bed and not sleeping.
Finally, sometime around 2 or 3 AM, I drifted off. Sort of. Problem was, Miss Kitty decided not to sleep on the foot of the bed as she usually always does, she slept against my chest. This meant I couldn't roll over or really adjust my position much. Woke up. Couldn't go back to sleep.
Worst part was, the darned cat stole the blankets. Cold. I could have pushed her off them and onto the floor, but... I've never done that. Ah well.
Okay, so why did I go back to reading when I obviously need sleep more? The reason starts a good 15 or so years ago, likely more. I found this book I loved to death. After I read it, I hunted down and bought all the other books she wrote, too. (Years later, when I found the Internet, I took the name Thistle-Chaser from it to use as my own.) So anyway, I was rereading one of the books when I moved out here, and I noticed in the About the Author section that it said she was from San Jose.
Hm.
Hitting Google, I found a Clare Bell (her name) in Hayward. Hm. That's not San Jose, but it's in the same area. The book had been published many years ago, so she could have moved... There was an email address listed for her, so I sent her off a fangirl letter.
She replied. It was really her.
I giggled loudly and grinned. We exchanged a couple of letters, and she asked me what I had thought of her last book, if I thought it worked or not. Well, since it had been so long since I read that one, I did a quick rereading of it. After I finished it, I wanted to read the whole series again, so I started on the first one (and finished it last night).
So see? I have an excuse for reading instead of sleeping. Sorta. :)
Population: 29 Million
Economy: Very Strong
Civil Rights: Good (Wow, surprising.)
Political Freedoms: Outlawed
The Confederacy of Habari is a large, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its absence of drug laws. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 29 million are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.
The government -- a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, pro-business morass -- juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and the Environment. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 29%. A small but healthy private sector is dominated by the Beef-Based Agriculture industry.
Surveillance cameras are banned, the government's religious works are headed by a New Age guru, military spending recently hit a new high, and college students make ends meet by selling their kidneys. Crime is a serious problem. Habari's national animal is the dog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Wheel.
In other news, sometimes I surprise myself that my sleep can actually get worse. I went to bed at 11, read until 11:45 (I know I said I wasn't going to read anymore, see below for the reason), but at 1 AM I was still not even close to sleepy. I should have gotten up. I kept hearing my computer beep about new email, so I should have gotten up and checked instead of rolling over and over and over and over. Heck, I could have gotten up and cleaned the bathroom or something, anything's better than being in bed and not sleeping.
Finally, sometime around 2 or 3 AM, I drifted off. Sort of. Problem was, Miss Kitty decided not to sleep on the foot of the bed as she usually always does, she slept against my chest. This meant I couldn't roll over or really adjust my position much. Woke up. Couldn't go back to sleep.
Worst part was, the darned cat stole the blankets. Cold. I could have pushed her off them and onto the floor, but... I've never done that. Ah well.
Okay, so why did I go back to reading when I obviously need sleep more? The reason starts a good 15 or so years ago, likely more. I found this book I loved to death. After I read it, I hunted down and bought all the other books she wrote, too. (Years later, when I found the Internet, I took the name Thistle-Chaser from it to use as my own.) So anyway, I was rereading one of the books when I moved out here, and I noticed in the About the Author section that it said she was from San Jose.
Hm.
Hitting Google, I found a Clare Bell (her name) in Hayward. Hm. That's not San Jose, but it's in the same area. The book had been published many years ago, so she could have moved... There was an email address listed for her, so I sent her off a fangirl letter.
She replied. It was really her.
I giggled loudly and grinned. We exchanged a couple of letters, and she asked me what I had thought of her last book, if I thought it worked or not. Well, since it had been so long since I read that one, I did a quick rereading of it. After I finished it, I wanted to read the whole series again, so I started on the first one (and finished it last night).
So see? I have an excuse for reading instead of sleeping. Sorta. :)
