Amazing Music Video

I found this music video on Greg Pincus' website, The Happy Accident. You have to watch it - it's amazing! Check out Greg's site too - it's all about how to use social media to promote yourself.

ALA in Chicago July 9 - July 15

The annual ALA Conference runs from today through July 15th. I'm going there on Monday with a couple of my writing friends, one of whom, Suzanne Slade, will be signing books at the Sylvan Dell booth on July 12th & 13th. She'll also be signing at the Children's Museum on Navy Pier on the 12th from 11:00 - 12:30. Her new book, WHAT'S NEW AT THE ZOO comes out tomorrow, July 10th! Congrats Suzanne!

TMTOMH Disorder

Once again, I've come down with a case of TMTOMH (Too Much Time On My Hands) Disorder. It happens every summer and I still don't know how to cure it. Sometimes the symptoms are mild and I'm able to get things crossed off my massive to-do list. At other times, however, the symptoms are debilitating and all I can manage to do is watch old movies on TV, surf the web and putter ineffectively around the house. One of the worst side effects of this disorder is a massive case of writer's block. It took everything I have to get this short post written. What's a writer with TMTOMH (with secondary writer's block) to do?

Well, I took advantage of my need to web-surf and I checked the ultimate source - no, not Mayoclinic.com - Verla Kay's Blueboard! In no time at all, I found a thread addressing the writer's block issue and it led me to an excellent site that I think will help me and my fellow sufferers. The site is called DrWicked.com and on the site is an application called Write or Die.

Here's how Dr. Wicked describes the application:


Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you're fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.

The idea is to instill in the would-be writer with a fear of not writing. We do this by employing principles taught in Introduction to Psychology. Anyone remember Operant Conditioning and Negative Reinforcement?Negative Reinforcement "strengthens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior."

Consequences:

• Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
• Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
• Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

These consequences will persist until your preset conditions have been met (that is, your time is up or you've written your wordcount goal or both).

Sound intriguing? Give Write or Die a try and let me know what you think. Here's the link:

http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

Pictures From Alaska

Here are some pictures from Alaska. We've seen amazing wildlife, some of which I didn't get great pictures of and have to wait until we get back for my friends to send to me. We're not on a cruise, we flew to Anchorage and have taken driving trips to a lot of different areas.

This is a view from our first hike south of Anchorage.


This is a beautiful bird I discovered called a Stellar Jay.


This a moose that was standing in the pond outside our window at our bed and breakfast this afternoon. Two days ago we had a black bear in the same spot but I didn't get camera out in time.



More pics to come!

Off to Alaska

I'm about to leave for Alaska for two weeks. I hope to post some great pictures! Hopefully not close-ups of bears!