Filling in the Gaps

I fell into the Bridgerton rabbit hole this summer. It was a welcome respite from the insanity of politics, elder crises, and family members moving and getting new jobs. 

As part of my deep dive, I discovered the Archive of Our Own (AO3) which is a repository of fan fiction. I wish it existed 30 years ago when I was in my Star Trek fandom. Oh well, those stories are long lost. 

I ended up writing a novella, called Filling in the Gaps, almost by accident, since the words flowed out of me. I was hoping a few people might find it, but today, one week after I released it, I've got far more views (3,676), kudos (179) and comments (30) that I thought possible. I am grateful for every one of them. 

It was nice to do creative writing again. It's been a really long time since I've even tried. Not sure where this takes me, but it's also nice to have new doors open. 

Wow the landscape has shifted

My headline means two things to me today. First, the social media landscape. This was my post on Facebook this week. 

Social media is a mess right now. The new Facebook interface is convinced I want to be one of the groups I support all day long (and not myself) which completely confused a friend this morning. Twitter keeps changing its interface and asking me to give them money (no way, you should be grateful I'm still logging in and seeing any of the ads on the site). Instagram keeps sending me videos of strangers describing knitting hacks in languages I don't understand (and I'm not entirely sure why except for the one "how to crochet a penguin video" I did watch once about six months ago). I'm not job hunting so LinkedIn is not a destination and I prefer to read instead of watching videos so YouTube is not the best place for me either. 

But, I do like to know what you're all doing. Going to try to keep hanging in here to see the people I love doing the things that they love and chuckling about LOTR memes and Mariah Carey on her way.

It's getting worse. And now I see people going to Mastodon, Tumblr, Reddit and Discord. I'm in a few of those places, but I'm not sure that this business needs to reinvent itself again in social. I'll keep this blog going and I'll stay active on LinkedIn, but I think I'll be closing my Twitter account after I get my data. I don't use it enough and he doesn't get to count it. 

And now my second point.

The freelance world has changed since the pandemic. I used to see dozens of options available to connect with potential clients for reasonable rates and now FIVERR is advertising on TV, PhDs are taking editing jobs, and more people have jumped into the remote world. Many of the places where I used to find gig work at night (EST) are already finished by the time I can log in. I'm happy for the companies but sad my routine is broken. I will be honest I was hoping that my business model would last another 20 years, but the world changes constantly. 

I am fortunate to not be desperate enough to write for pennies. I am also fortunate that I am not homebound and can flex in different ways to support myself and my family. After a few months of frustration, I am moving forward again with a new part-time gig and it's exactly the bridge I needed. When it's time for me to leave my full-time job, I'll be able to focus more on Off Peak again.

How are you navigating this changing landscape? 

Link articles

So, I got to write some content for Link: The Journal of Higher Education Web Professionals. It is the official publication of the HighEdWeb Association.

You can check out my posts at https://link.highedweb.org/author/catherinedonnelly/.

Hello November

I see you November, hanging out just past Halloween.  I'm getting all of the NaNoWriMo emails. I'm seeing Christmas decorations in the stores.  I cannot believe we are here right now. 

It has been a busy fall.  Empty nesting is not quiet.  All of the invitations that we pushed to the fall, when we expected to have free time, meant that we had no free time as the weeks rolled.  And as the holidays start to kick in I realize I still have books to read, and projects to knit, and rooms to clean out.

On a bright note, my aunt's book is in the final proof stage, I've emptied a room completely in my house and will be re-purposing it to empty many other boxes around my house, I "think" I have a plan for several other projects and I just welcomed a new client to my freelance business. 

What do you still have left to do this year?

EDX courses

So the Marvel course got me sucked into EDX MOOC courses. I'm loving them. I've done three now.The Marvel course, one on coding and one on HTML5. I'll be honest, I'm mostly doing the homework and tests without watching all of the videos, but I'm learning and applying the skills to my job.  This time around I'm taking an editing course with a focus on grammar. This is the homework for this week. I decided to publish it so that I can claim it as mine in case of any plagiarism. Sad but true. 

As this week’s topic in my EDX class is about verbs, I’ve decided to focus on a news article for my blog post.  If the assignment was allowed about any grammar topic, I was going to write about the schwa, but with this change in topic, that will be a future post. 

According to The Guardian, a British newspaper, there is a new verb being used by German teens. The verb “merkln” appears to be based on the politician Angela Merkel. From the article, ““Merkeln’, which means being indecisive or failing to have an opinion, is topping a poll to choose Germany’s favourite new ‘youth words’” (read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/04/angela-merkels-influence-now-extends-to-german-slang-merkeln).

The most interesting thing to me about this topic is the evolution of words, how new words enter the lexicon and how quickly social media shares these new terms around the globe.  And while newspapers in the traditional sense are dying, they still manage to have a luster and authority with their online posts. I am willing to consider this discussion because it was published by them as an article and not just because I saw a tweet using it.

Also from the article “The competition has been held by Langenscheidt for the past seven years and aims to reflect the evolving nature of the German tongue. On 31 October, a jury will choose 10 winners – ranking the top five – which will be included in an ever-changing e-book.”  Langenscheidt is a publishing company and I love that they are getting people excited about language.  I think that many languages are open to new words, such as English and German, whereas some languages are protected (i.e., French) and others die from a lack of change (i.e. Latin). Every three months the Oxford Dictionary updates a list of new words (read more: http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/) 

Cleaning out the basement

Finding all kinds of interesting things.  Like the fact that I freelanced for the University at Buffalo in 1998, long before I ever started working here in 2006.  The assignment for Buffalo Physician was Roswell Park focused, and since I started working at RPCI around this time, I guess I just figured it was a part of that job. Turns out it was not. I found the UB contract over the weekend.  I guess I was meant to be here :)

Here is a PDF file from the Buffalo Physician Winter 1999 issue with my three articles extracted. Kind of a fun weekend. Now I have more sorting, scanning and cleaning to do. But perhaps soon my basement will be organized and the stuff I want to keep will be safe. 

Resolutions

So every year on December 31 I sit down and create a list of resolutions for the new year that I then fold up and put into my checkbook. This is a 25+ year tradition for me and last year I was remarkably successful with my 11 goals for the year. Three were completed, four were started (and were in good order by December) and two were changed for good reasons. There was only one item that really didn't get touched and it had to do with my writing, but as I came up with a good idea for a story I think it wasn't a complete loss.

Most of the time my goals are financial. I'm a Capricorn and that rings very true for me. Many of my money goals feel like pipe dreams when I put them on the paper but I think that was part of my happiness on Tuesday.... for the first time I actually crossed off the majority of those goals in a calendar year. Either I'm getting more realistic as I age or I'm honestly doing better tightening my belt.

I'm not prepared to share my list of 12 goals for 2014, they are pretty detailed and personal, but Rachel Reuben shared some of her goals today (http://rachelreuben.com/things-ill-be-working-on-in-2014/) and she gave a shout-out to Chris Brogan's technique of three words (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-3-words-2014/) which I will try.

Here goes: Create ~ Nurture ~ Support

Create: I want to be more crafty, I want to write, I want to garden, I want to find news ways to make things last so I can be more thrifty. At work I want to generate new content and make more people connect.  I think this word is a strong action word (with many meanings) for my personal and professional goals.

Nurture: I want to be able to nurture relationships to celebrate good things and for when things get tough. I also want to figure out how to keep nurturing our financial life. I need to keep nurturing myself so that I have resources when things get tough.

Support: I need to learn how to lean on others for support as well as determine how to best balance the fact that I am the major support for several people. I want to strengthen old and new friendships so that the online network I've developed can become more "in real life."  I am consistently amazed at the new ideas I learn each day and I have to be better at migrating those ideas into real sustainable supports for myself and my family.

Day Two HeWeb12

So, Day 2. Much busier than day 1 if you can believe it. I blogged two sessions:

Using the Right Tools  and Web Content Strategy.

Both were great sessions and I learned a lot. By the end of the day I had 15 golden nuggets!

Tuesday afternoon I did take the lunch break to walk over to see the Bronze Fonz and the Milwaukee Public Museum. It was a beautiful but cool day and a nice walk. The museum was actually small compared to many others I've seen (I might be a museum snob) but one of the Security Guards (Darlene) and I had a great chat about the butterfly habitat and walking sticks.

I also genuinely enjoyed the "Streets of Old Milwaukee" exhibit. I love the architecture and am learning a great deal about cities younger than mine.

I made it back for the poster presentations, the end of the vendor conference, a quick run around to earn SCVNGR points and dinner.

HighEdWeb and Link

So, I'm plotting my sessions for the HighEdWeb conference next week when I saw the "call for bloggers" from Link, the Journal of Higher Education.

It's been a while since I wrote for a journal but I miss it. So I sent an email to the editor and got a response back almost right away. I am now scheduled to cover three of the sessions next week with a possibility of adding two more once I finalize my plans.

I am really pleased I followed up. It will be nice to connect with the "reporters" covering the conference and also be able to contribute to telling the story that evolves in Milwaukee.

Permission to write

So, I have an idea for a book. And I've toyed with it. Tried to write last November during NaNoMoWrite and just didn't have enough time or enough of the idea. That book failed completely.

But one of my characters keeps popping up in my head. So, I've been debating plotting her story but I keep thinking it's not good enough or interesting enough etc.

Last night I read something by Anna Quinden in her book "Being Perfect." She said "Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill A Mockingbird, and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in this history of time ever has. That is her own personality, her own voice....she may well be giving readers a new and wonderful gift. Giving it to herself, too."

So, I'm going to try again. But this time I'm going to try to outline something before November. Maybe if I have a path I can finally finish a story.

Three Words

Sending a shout out to Libdrone Books today.

I've come to know them through Empire Avenue (yes, I'm back into that again) and find their blog using three words to be a brilliant writing device. And I'm honored that my words have been used twice in recent months.

Go check them out, and if three words come to mind, share them. You might end up being featured in their blog! 

Deja Vu

{EAV:41ab1939ba9630d4}

So last year I tried Empire Avenue, changed some privacy settings on facebook and deleted my account with them. #fail on their part, I never got a notice but all my work was gone. So I quit.

The last month, I decided to check out Empire Avenue again. Very different, much better. Have connected with some interesting people and my shares are pretty good. (e)cpd623

Anyway, yesterday I reconnected my blog there. And this string {EAV:41ab1939ba9630d4} has to be in it to prove the blog is mine. So, here I am :)

Happy December

Time to accept that the resolutions for the year are probably not happening and that is time to simply get ready for another new start in January. All in all, 2011 went pretty well and this month feels like it is going to be a good one too.

Reflections on 2011 (I know I'm early, but I think I need to do this so I can get back to focusing on other stuff!)

• My oldest got into college, got decent money from said college and now attends that college. Was hard to let him go but I think it was the right choice. Still cannot believe I am old enough to have a child in college.
  
• My middle is a sophomore in high school and thinking about college. I'm excited to go through that process with her and having fun watching her be busy in school. For a kid who says she prefers to stay out of the public eye, she is now working two jobs and managing the school play (assistant stage manager) while staying an A student. Not quite "A's" across the board, but not bad overall.
  
• My youngest has totally started to grow up on me... not only are we almost eye to eye, but he's playing the games I love to play, he's busy with stuff I like to watch and he makes me laugh all the time.
  
• Work has been great... lots of projects, lots of new people to meet. Moving into a cubicle was an adjustment (and still adjusting) but overall the move was far more positive than negative. And no more headaches. I never realized how changing light affected me. Being in a controlled environment really has improved my overall health and functionality.
• My husband has a new job, has started a new masters degree and has started several projects around the house. I'll have to get into those projects now if they are ever going to get finished, but overall the year was a good one. We managed to make all the changes with the kids and fix several issues around the house that are making it much nicer to live here.
  
• My family survived the year. My mom and uncle are still here... wasn't sure last Thanksgiving that would be the case. I don't think we'll have both at the table next year, but that will be an issue for 2012... I think 2011 will see us all together for Christmas.
• I'm not sure I really finished any of my goals for the year... but everything moved in the right direction. We did get the oldest into a good school, we are still paying all the bills on time, we did fix up the house and we did have fun this year (two more ballparks off the list!). I didn't get to 50,000 words in NaNoWriMo but I did start a story... and did get almost to 15,000 words before life intervened and I couldn't take the time to write anymore. I will finish it though... I have enough of the ideas on paper that it seems more cohesive than any previous attempt.
• Holidays are on track... at this point I have a complete list and it is almost done. I have the cards started and cookies planned. Tree will be in a week or so. I am now wondering what I forget to do :)

Any thoughts for next year?

NaNoWriMo

Yep, I'm nuts. Came back from heweb11 sick, still can't talk (my kids seem to find the laryngitis amusing) but I'm going to try to write a novel this month.

Every November, the folks at NaNoWriMo encourage the world to write 50,000 words. I know a woman who wrote one last year and sold it. She's on her third novel now. She's writing for the romance genre, which I have no interest in doing, but she managed to make this challenge work for her.

Last year I tried it. Got to about 5000 words and stalled. Debated going back to it, but then my computer failed. Died. Dead as a doornail. So, my feeble efforts were really wasted. But, in the past 11 months, those characters kept popping up, so I'll try again. It's a sci-fi/fantasy novel, and I have no idea if I'll ever finish it, but I have a better feeling this time around. My biggest challenge will be the names of the people and places... I tend to read novels and immediately drop the names (they all become him, her, hero, hero's friend etc). So having to give those adjectives will be my biggest challenge. But I think I'm up for it.

Empire Avenue Update

So yesterday was my most "productive" day on Empire Avenue:
Earnings: 135.38e
Dividends/Investment Earnings: 130.47e
Other Earnings: 805.48e
You spent: 4784.13e

My current "value" is e25.61 (+1.067).

I'd originally joined the "game" because of a surge of highered and social media colleagues joining. I thought it might be a way to connect with some different, albeit similar, folks and follow them on twitter to expand my knowledge base.

What I've found is a very involved writers group. And I've read a new book because of them and I'm "re"thinking about a novel I started a long time ago. I have no idea where it will go, but it is nice to be energized again about my writing.

Lost Six Months LOL

Well, I launched the blog and got busy and that was that.

Been writing (managed to double my word count for NaNoMoWrite month over last year) but didn't finish the 50,000 word goal. I do have a good idea for a novel now though and will continue to work at it.

Working on some web redesigns and expanding some social media outreach. It's been a year of changes and I am truly looking forward to flipping the calendar this month.