SMILE

Brag and boast time.  Take a few minutes out to share the best of your 2009.

In the comments brag on yourself or someone else you know. Tell us who, what, and how it made you feel.  Be sure to include links to your blog post or pics or both if you have them.

I’d like to share a couple of my own.

1) My wife reached a weight loss goal of 100 lbs.

2) My brother, battling ALS, is a continuous source of inspiration to me.

3) My daughter-in-law who continued raising three daughters with our son being deployed part of that time and working to the bone a good part of the rest.

4) My friend Karen Goodman who embraced social networking and social media with remarkable gusto and made it a successful and integrated part of her business.

5) A contractor, James, who completed a run of bathroom upgrades that took us multiple visits, many hours, and a bit of patience. He worked out so well I intend to recommend him to everyone.

How about you and your family and friends? Share something great with us!

Merry Christmas friends, loyal readers, and those just dropping by. It’s been an amazing year full of life and it’s trappings and even a couple of deaths. There have been tumor scares, shrink visits, and disease. This year found me making donations, bailing people out and falling out at a very nice Christmas bonus.  That after worrying if I’d have my job through till the end of the year.

Life has its ups and downs. It is and always has been a mixed bag. Each day a chance to win the lottery or pass onto your final resting place. This year though, all things considered, I consider myself and my family blessed.

Blessed for me has taken on a whole new meaning for me this year. In the past, I considered it a great year if no one died AND I got a big raise and a bonus. Oh, on individual days I felt blessed but just as many days I felt cursed or beat up on.  Often felt like I was ready to go to my final resting place and save the world the trouble.

Don’t ask me what brought on the change. It wasn’t a smack in the face experience. There was no come to Jesus moment or words from a friend. Can’t even blame one of those killer hangovers either.

Blessed is no longer something that’s dependent on circumstances. It’s become about realizing my life is a blessing as well as the life that awaits. Both are immense blessings. Along with that I’ve taken ownership of the fact that life isn’t supposed to be perfect, great, full of wealth, free of fear.

Life is meant to be a rough and tumble ride. Sometimes slow. Sometimes at breakneck speeds. I’m going to fall, family members will suffer, but the next day will bring joy to make my heart burst.

I’m no Peter, a master of contentment in all circumstances. Far from it, but this quote has a lot power for me these days.

At the end of my life I don’t want to pass quietly into the night. I want to slide in sideways kicking and screaming “WOW What An Awesome Ride!”

I didn’t want a boring ride anyway; do you?  Heck, I want to take it up a notch this year.  Likely that means those little bumps are going to hit harder and the dips will bottom out rougher but the highs will be shout worthy.

Hope this little Christmas rant hasn’t left you too bored or depressed. I’m happy and celebrating as this year wraps up.  I want to share a few things with you though; some Christmas links from my Twitter family.

@acummings - Merry Christmas from Portsmouth NH – Decked Out Downtown

@swbuehler – Christmas with Empty Hands

@elsicomoro – Be Kind

@RoraBorieAlice – 7 Years Ago Tonight

@stlwebdesign - 12 days of Christmas from your St Louis Web Designer

@abiteofsanity – Sisters XV

@debworks – Alone on Christmas

@SheilaS - It’s tamale time for the holidays!

@JessicaGottlieb – And a Very Merry

Scrivener Trial NaNoWriMo message

Every day I see this message pop up. It’s the Scrivener NaNoWriMo 2009 Trial message. This software is my success story for this year’s National Novel Writing Month.

Scrivener is a Mac native application geared especially towards novel and scriptwriting. It allows easy organization of work into projects, manuscripts, parts, and subdivisions, such as chapters or scenes.

Research notes are kept in the Scrivener as well. The same interface allows not only keeping text in your research section but also images and links. It’s as handy as drag and drop.

Search has a Mac native feel, a la Spotlight.  Start typing in the search bar and the left hand bar immediately responds by only showing subsections (in my case chapters) that have that search word included. In turn, the search word is highlighted in each section. I’ve found this feature especially useful for name use. Don’t want two characters with the same name right?

Search has more than just simple text searching. Here’s a snapshot of the search drop down.

Full Screen mode is nice. A single column down the center of the screen is the initial set up. Configuration is adjustable to place the column, set the column width, and the transparency of the background. Many writers will find this their preferred mode I think. It blocks out distractions well.

Document exporting is robust. Microsoft formats are selectable, as well as PDF, RTF, and plain text. Selection is allowed at differing levels, allowing any part of the document to be exported. This feature allowed easy email off to my wife of the novel.

Scrivener has other features I’ve been enjoying. It doesn’t have a couple of features I’d love though.

• Web publishing
• One click email sending

Will I be purchasing Scrivener at the end of the trial? Right now it seems a sure bet. Its interface is straightforward. There are plenty of ways to customize and export. Support is built in for CSV version management. (computer geeks will get that)

Find the Scrivener NaNoWriMo deal.

Find me as tojosan on NaNoWriMo.

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• NaNoWriMo: Half way (thinkingsofalili.blogspot.com)

This morning I crossed the 30,000 word mark.  I’m excited. This is the highest number of words I’ve reached in three attempts. I’m not done either.

This puts me ahead of the curve. Much better than either of the previous years.

Blue lines represent the word count you’d have if you divided the 50,000 words up over the 30 days equally. As you can see, I’m not doing that.

My personal goal is to be done before Thanksgiving eve. I’m planning on traveling starting that Wednesday evening and be busy for the next few days. That will certainly decrease the opportunity to write.

How am I doing it? I’m giving myself some isolate time to write nearly every day. Only one day did I miss writing. I’m also seeking daily encouragement from others. The flip side to getting that? Give out a ton of it.

According to a recent pep talk, it gets easier after 30,000 words. I don’t know about that, but I’m pumped up to go the distance.  Please consider cheering me on, donating Diet Pepsi products, writing a blog post about me and my story, or something else.

For those choosing to write about me and my story, I’ll send you the text to date and you can excerpt it. Heck, monetary donations would be nice as well, but please make those at nanowrimo.org, under donations.

Cheers to my #nanowrimo twitter family, especially those in St. Louis.

I’m tojosan on nanowrimo.org. Find me. Buddy up.

November is coming up, and you know what that means: warm up your word processors, refill your fountain pens, gnaw at your pencils, sharpen your quill nubs, and set the espresso machine to overdrive because it’s NaNoWriMo time!

It’s that magical time of year where writers from all over the world hunch down in their favorite writing corners to produce a 50,000 word novel. Some will succeed, some will fail, but most everyone should be able to get Chapter 1 done—and that brings us to this month’s contest!

Submit the first chapter of the NaNoWriMo novel you’re writing to enter our NaNoWriMo ‘09 writing contest. It won’t be your best work ever (after all, 50,000 words in 30 days is a lot to write), but that’s the point. We want to see your raw, unedited writing. Everyone will be on the same playing field, so don’t be shy—let’s see what you’ve got. Good luck!

That’s the gist of Sribophile’s National Novel Writing Month 2009 contest.  There are prizes as well.

1st Prize:	$50 Amazon.com gift card
2nd Prize:	$25 Amazon.com gift card

Read more about the contest, including contest rules and submission guidelines.

Strange Folk Festival describes themselves:

Strange Folk is the Heartland’s largest outdoor indie arts and crafts show. We are featuring 125 vendors from across the country along with plenty of eco-freindly craft activities, exhibits, live bands, and local cuisine under a canopy of beautiful trees! Over 10,000 folks attended last year, and Strange Folk was declared “BEST OF 2008″ in the craft show category by The Riverfront Times.

Our vendors offer merchandise with aesthetics ranging from retro, pretty, punk, urban, and everything in between. All in price ranges that make it possible for anyone to afford a one-of-a-kind handmade creation. Besides our talented artisans, we strive for a variety of food and drink options, including coffee and vegetarian fare.

There are oodles of crafty activities for children and adults. As well as live music, and free Wi-Fi access available throughout the park. O’Fallon is just 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis, and easily accessible from both sides of the Mississippi.

Your family and friends will find the food, crafts and even the crafters interesting and fun. Knowing some of them personally, I can guarantee you’ll find something you can’t resist taking home.

Click the image above to go to the Strange Folk Festival site.

See you there!

Chris Brogan shared his goals for 2009.  He took a different approach than most though.  Instead of coming up with a laundry list of specifics he tackled it with three words.  A bit different I admit, but let’s see what his logic is.

If you want to try the process, it works something like this: think of how you want to be successful in 2009. Then, try to think in even broader terms. Extrapolate on the broader terms, and find one word to hang the idea on.

Meaning, don’t think as much “I want to lose 50 pounds and get back into my high school pants.” Try thinking “Fitness means I’ll be able to cover more ground.” From there, you can say “ground” might be your word. And then, when you look at that as a word, you see how it can open you up to even more meanings. “Ground” can remind you to get fit so you can cover more ground. It can mean to be “grounded,” like someone who feels calm and at rest.

Sounds radical doesn’t it?  Does it work?  It sure seems to for him.

I took a similar approach with my 2008 goals.  My goals for 2008 were simple – have an interesting year, take opportunities. Let’s just say it worked out.

Some highlights from this approach – trip to Austin to visit with online friends, attended first bloggers conference (SOBCon), attended a Pulver breakfast in Vancouver CA, started the St. Louis Bloggers Guild, attended several Tweetups, and even put on a BarCamp, and more.

So yes, my goals turned out to be spot on.  But how to follow up this year? Go with interesting and opportunities?  This year I think I’ll concentrate on some other areas of my life.

My goals this year are driven by some realizations from last year.  One, I’m not turning to God enough as a primary relationship. Not telling you how to believe, but I believe in a God that listens, cares, and is active in our lives.  I’ve not been paying enough attention to that relationship.  Most evident of this is my wife all but telling me outright to get it together.

Two is focusing on health. I’ve been slacking this past year. Oh, I’ve lost some weight, eaten a bit better and etc, but I’ve not taken it seriously.  My wife has rocked the weight loss, and I’ve been her cheerleader. It’s time to let her cheer lead me on. It’s also time to take better care of my body as I’ve had more aches and pains this past year than ever before.

Third will be to build things.  Build better work habits, build success in business, build a presence for St. Louis on the social media map, and more.  I want to put my best foot forward into doing better at work, at creating a presence for myself, and getting a platform.  I want to build relationships, build bridges, and build up others.  Heck, I’m feeling charged up just talking about it.

So my three goals – God, Health, Build.

Chris’s three goals - Equip . Armies . Needles . (you have to read the post to get it)

What are you goals for 2009?  Have you thought about them? How about considering lessons learned from 2008 as a good starting point.

I’m inspired by my Twitter friend, @freshfocus. Every Friday on Fresh Focus she shares the link love. Bonus – they are work and family safe.

Here are some links to some good posts to kick of your year.

• Strictly shares about her new years struggles, and as she puts it, their ’smashing to pieces’. Strictly Anything.
• DigitalMaverick also shares his goals for 2009, as well as some kismet he’s already experienced. Digital Mavericks.
• ChrisBrogan gives us push with his three goals for 2009. A unique way to approach them. Chris Brogan.

The list of great New Years post is amazing really.  That said, I’ve yet to do my own.

I’d love you to share yours with me here, or share the most interesting ones you’ve found.  Also, do consider writing your own Friday Link Love post to share the wealth.

What posts are inspiring you already?