short takes

It's been production time at work! At the same time, I've still been writing 10 short profiles for THIS issue, and editing 15-20 others. Aside from the obvious deadline issue, I've learned a lot about presenting the most tantalizing information about someone in the smallest amount of space. It's been interesting. I've talked to a scientist passionate about the rattlesnakes she studies, a new NASA administrator, and two young women who have set up a charity dedicated to helping refugees through the resettlement process. The profilees are all very young, and it's sort of been inspiring what these folks have gotten done before age 40.

Writing my monthly Echo column today and getting started on writing for Bright Livelihood. We moved the computer out into the front room, so my noise-cancelling headphones may be in for heavy usage. It's ok. Scooter's older daughter's living with us for six months, and we enjoy her musicality, intelligence and her sense of humor.

blogger's view of history

Some of you have seen this, but I thought it was pretty dang funny:

http://mena.typepad.com/photos/viewmaster/1.html

blog days of summer

I apologize for my infrequent posts of late, but such seems to be the way of my own personal circle of bloggers, with a few notable exceptions, such as Yorkistrose at Poetry in the Everyday (http://yorkistrose.blogspot.com/) and of course, Lobster (http://midwestrocklobster.blogspot.com/).

However, I'd like to point readers to a few of the other wonderful blogs I've been dipping into. Not that they really have any relevancy to my writing, but they are just a heck of a lot of fun, or provocative, to read.

For a little bit of a laugh, or a tiny tear, check out Echos From Aral in Pezland at http://aralecho.blogspot.com/ . It's the only Quaker-Lefty-Lesbian-Martial Arts-Ice Hockey Goalie blog that features pictures of family members with pez heads superimposed on their faces. Last week, Pez-lady wrote a very moving tribute to her late brother and what his death has meant to her life since then.

Another spiritually connected blog I like is, as I mentioned before, Darrell Grizzle's Blog of the Grateful Bear (http://wildfaith.blogspot.com/). He's been quiet for much of the past month, but a recent post on "why we flee silence" was meaty enough in two quotes to keep me fed for days.

For those wanting to understand how blogging is affecting the so-called real world of journalism, there is CyberJournalist.net's J-Blog list of official and personal sites run by reporters and other journalists (http://www.cyberjournalist.net/cyberjournalists.php).

Or, if you just want a little fun, you can check out my writing friend Bill Konigsberg's Six Degrees of Separation. He's a novelist and sports writer who gained some fame several years ago by coming out as an openly gay sports-loving man while working as an assistant editor for ESPN.com. His six degrees page is just fun--and you have to love a man who can write about football well AND who went to high school with Diana Ross's daughter. He's at http://www.billkonigsberg.com/separation.html.

More later. Off to rearrange furniture! :)

idea birth

Ok, first we'll start with the obligatory grandson photo. Don't worry, that's not his pizza in the background, that's his daddy's. He's still wearing a milk mustache. :)

I've been crafting plans for the next year in terms of my writing outside of work. And I do need a plan. As much as I dread marketing myself, it has to be done...and for me to take freelancing seriously, some direction is in order.

On the other hand, my creativity coach said she sensed I was the nose-to-the-grindstone sort and could use some fun. I agree. I have some addictive little video editing projects that might help in that regard, as well as a couple of creative nonfiction/essay/memoir type writings in the back of my mind that would be driven by my heart, not my head.

I'm still gathering some fun ideas for the Bright Livelihood column. I hope I can write a sample column soon and start working out the kinks in that idea. :)

Happy August! Don't swoon in all this humidity, which by this point in the summer is sopping even "desert" like Phoenix. Our dew point was 70 degrees yesterday--yech!

...and the rains came

Boy, did they. We got 2 inches of rain in two hours last night, and a big ol' rain/windstorm on Sunday that knocked out power for hours.
It's monsoon season in Phoenix, which means that a big nasty thunderstorm marches in from the north or the southeast (yes, all the mountains around here means the weather circulation is a little different) almost every evening.
Mind you, I'm NOT complaining. The t-storms have broken our heat wave, at least for now. Instead of 115 plus everyday, we're at 100 or 105 degrees. It makes a huge difference, even if the humidity is 10 times greater than three weeks ago.
However, the rains coming in on Saturday, and the cloudy day before that, led directly to me getting the mother of all sunburns whilst playing at our friend's pool up in Cave Creek. Unlike our earlier bash up there, we were slovenly about applying sunscreen, due to the clouds and the cooler weather. My legs turned a purplish-red color I have never seen before! WOW. But no blisters. And aloe vera gel got it under control in about two days.
In the writing world, I finished the column for Echo. I took out all the ponderous stuff and left in the humor. It's really hard for me (as the former editor) not to turn every opinion piece I do for them into a sermon.
I'm learning how to get a lot more freelance irons in the fire these days. I'm not there yet, but I'm trying to do enough prep work to send things out that have a chance of acceptance/payment/seeing print, but not laboring over it and wasting time making it "perfect." It's hard. I still have that "gotta getta A" school-leftover syndrome.
Scooter's older daughter (not the new momma) restrung Scooter's Martin guitar on Sunday. She bought some brighter strings and it does sound better. Scooter and daughter sang and played "Marty," easily the favorite guitar of both of them (and they have close to 10 guitars between them); it was fun to watch and sing along.
I have to work on a bunch of computer stuff at home tonight. I've meant to update the blog more than once or twice a week, but judging from some of my other blogging peers, this is the dog days of blogging and no one's updating much.