running with paper

http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/

As the writers go, so do the contracts of everyone else.

h/t: jnfr

Often is the time I find myself wanting to rent a cat. (Warning, noisy annoying site). From Neatorama.

What can I say. The spam bots love me. And think I should be on Xanax, Cialis, Ephedra, Hoodia, and Tramadol.

On the other hand, if only spambots are posting, no one knows who I am, and I won’t be impersonated at a convention any time soon. Keep reading on the site – he’s gotten Flickr users together to help ferret the imposter out; I wonder what will happen when this guy is caught. It’s a rather elaborate plan, as the website he used to register himself was purchased over a year ago.

But it’s time to dust off this space a little, and see what there is out there to do.

I have been to a number of professional conventions in my life; just not any for my profession, until now. I headed up to writing convention a few weeks ago, and it’s gotten my writing juices flowing again.

More soon.

One of my friends on and off the Internet recently posted a question in her journal: What do our kids think we do all day? Until she asked, I hadn’t given it a great deal of thought, really. I’d ask my kids what they did at school or daycare most days, and they would answer in an age-appropriate fashion. As they got older, I’d be asked what I did at work in return.

I tend to keep my answers simple and parallel to their experiences: “I spoke on the phone with my co-workers, I went to meetings to talk about work, I wrote my work using the computer, had lunch, and missed you kids.” I have a book about “what authors do” on my Amazon to-buy list, but it doesn’t quite seem to fit the bill. “See, son, this is what I do, but instead of rhyming silly words, I format and validate command line parameters for a small audience of high-level administrators of medium- to large-scale server farms.” Not exactly driving up in a large fire truck, sirens blazing, when someone dials 911. My emergencies are more along the lines of a document not formatting correctly when saved in ASCII instead of UTF-8 … and it needs to be uploaded before 5pm.

But while home sick for a week with my oldest child, a little television show by the name of Wow, Wow, Wubsy provided a fantastically age-appropriate explanation for what it is I do actually do all day for months on end. Continue Reading »

I’ve spent a few of my breaks at work over the past few days working on an audio clip for the NPR series Sound Clips. I’ve got a small but nice Olympus hand-held digital recorder I use for detailed meetings, and the sound turned out rather badly on my first few tries. Continue Reading »

It’s taken me a while to get settled in and re-organized with my writing, but we’re back.

Quick summary of what’s been going on:

• Got a rejection on the Hurricane Wilma essay. Re-doing for a local parenting magazine submission.
• Changed jobs within my company to work on more infrastructure things and broaden my horizions as a technical writer.
• Got a few new scars, and lived to tell the tale .
• Expanded my little family a little bit more, with new cousins and babies in the last year.
• Picked up a small Canon pocket camera with a bit of a bonus I got last year. Have managed to not yet lose it. Fun fun! Must post some shots.
• Finally got this started, yay!

And now, on to 2007!

Years ago I started cutting comics out of the paper I liked. One in particular that I enjoyed was a three or four panel affair, the parents reading and relaxing until they hear a noise and start. A young voice floats out of the other room: “It’s only the wind!” Likely Calvin and Hobbes – it seems Bill Watterson’s style of humor.

A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of travelling to Morikami in Palm Beach, Florida. Equipped with our handy digital Rebel, I took a few pictures. Here is the first of what I hope will be a series:

©2005 lorena bee zooom

This first release, Invader, was identified as a Northern Curly-tailed Lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus armouri) by my friendly neighborhood herpetologist, Madweasel.

For now, this is a digital release only. I’m looking at printing options through the ubiquitous Cafe Press, as well; I’ll keep updating.

A multi-ethnic writer in my 30s, this is supposed to be my general writing and sometimes artistic creative endeavour blog. I’m experimenting with writing, drawing, photography, and general creative work. I’ve got a journal about my life growing a family; this is for everything else, despite how intertwined it all is.