self portrait of Todd R Jordan - click to see on Flickr

It’s that time again; time to bring in a new year. I’m ringing in 2010 by taking the 365 challenge again.  Nanna J will be taking self portraits as well.

Help me celebrate the new year and the photography challenge. I’d like to give away a Flickr Pro account to one of my readers.

It’ll be simple. Leave a comment with a link to your Flickr profile and add me as a contact on Flickr.  I’ll randomly pick a commenter to receive the Pro account.

All comments must be in by Midnight Central Time on Sunday January 3rd. Random.org will be used to pick.

Member Profile – Five Minutes With Todd Jordan « St. Louis Bloggers Guild: “If you want to know something about social media and networking, Todd Jordan is THE answer man. Todd blogs about an array of subjects – from parenting and photography to social networking.  When not blogging at his home site The Broad Brush he guest blogs at Remarkable Parents.com and is also a contributor at Dad-O-Matic.com”

The above is the lead in for a profile article on yours truly. It’s an interesting read and might show you a thing or two about me.

Lisa Bertrand did a great job with this. She was very encouraging to open up and share. It’s great to be profiled by someone like her.

You can read the whole series of member profiles.

The St. Louis Bloggers Guild is reaching out to St. Louis bloggers, businesses and community. Please considering joining if you’re an active St. Louis area blogger.

Who am I? I’m not asking this to myself. I’m always exploring the answer to that question.

I’m asking you.

I’m asking you one question about me specifically.

What would you tattoo on my forearms?

What would you get for a tattoo for yourself?

Share.

I’m doing NaNoWriMo. Some of you are as well.  I’d like to take the time to share an excerpt from the beginning of my novel in progress.  In return, I’d love for you to share an excerpt as well.  It can be one sentence, one paragraph, or whatever you desire.  A link to your NaNoWriMo page would be welcome as well.

To kick it off….

It all started with her Twittering about being naked. Sanja wasn’t actually naked but she liked to talk about it online.  It seemed to draw the biggest amount of feedback and followers.  Men and women alike enjoyed talking to someone a little dangerous and flirty.  Sanja was all of that, at least online.

Sanja enjoyed the other side of that as well. She enjoyed the fantasy of being naked and chatting with folks that knew she was naked.  She was excited that people that couldn’t eve see her were turned on.  Some of them perhaps carrying on their on little fantasies.  That’s what they would all be of course, since she couldn’t quite get away with stripping down.  Sanja was at that moment in the middle of a little cafe on a busy afternoon, surrounded by people on all sides.  Realizing that those on the other side could be anyone made it even more exciting for her.  She imagined that perhaps the young guy to her left was one of her Twitter contacts.

Sanja would steal glances around every so often to see if anyone seemed anxious or seemed to be engrossed in something other than casual internet browsing.  Some of her contacts provided pictures of themselves and she often looked around when she was out for any of them.  SOme of them lived right here in her town.  A few probably even shopped or ate at the same places as her, though she wouldn’t know unless she met them.

As Sanja sent her messages off to the internet, and fantasized, she couldn’t guess that she was soon to be getting a meeting between her online world and the offline one.

     That’s me in the picture above. That’s me about to write this blog post.  A blog post about writing in general and writing for NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo.

     It’s always been a desire of mine to be a writer.  Not unlike many folks I guess, writing a novel is at the top of my dreams list.  Writing blog posts has fulfilled part of scratching the writing itch.  But it’s not enough honestly, nor do I get to it often enough to make a dent in the backlog of thoughts and ideas I’d love to flesh out and share. It seems I just don’t keep up a great blogging pace.

     I’ll be using NaBloPoMo to work on correcting the blogging side of things.  NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month, and the goal is simple, one blog post per day for each day in the month.  Sounds simple doesn’t it? But if you’re not already a daily blogger, suddenly the blog can go from fun outlet to work.

     There are no shortage of ideas, but when forced to write daily, writer’s block seems to occur a lot more often. The worst enemy is your and my drive to get it right when we right. We worry over the little stuff sometimes more than the big.

     Helping remedy writers block is one of the benefits of working on NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month.  One goal there as well.  Write 50,000 words between 12 AM November 1st and 12 midnight November 30th. There’s no grading for spelling. There’s no grading for plot. There’s even no grading for grammar.  The site has it right, just write.

     Am I going to be able to keep two writing projects going this month? Will I succeed at either? That’s the question.  But to make my life more challenging, I’ve decided to start a second year of the 365 project on Flickr. Seen enough of me? Not yet!

     Writing for me has always been scary.  The cure for dealing with fears though is facing them.  I’m going to face them this month and do what I can. I’m going to be honest with myself though and realize that my success with the stated goals is ultimately up to me.

     Writing is always ultimately about the author.  Some writing transcends the author, but it must come from inside before it’s apparent outside.  I’m praying that God fills me full enough to spill a little out into the world as writing, at least for November.

     To help myself write, I’m going to keep the music on in the background. I’m going to write in a room by myself.  I’m going to write and be comfortable. I’m going to keep caffeinated.

     Don’t expect miracles, grand plots, or the world’s best blog posts. Expect as the month wears on to get down to the real me by the end.  Hopefully that won’t scare you off. Hopefully as time goes on we’ll become friends, buddies and companions. Perhaps we’ll connect on some new level, or sadly, go our separate ways.

     In any case, I’m writing. Hopefully I’ll only look up long enough to make sure I don’t run off my friends and family, and to relax my mind a bit.

     Wish me luck, cheer me on, but if not, then get out of my way.

Or how to lose your sanity in 50,000 words or less.

That’s right, I’m going to try this again.  What’s this? It’s National Novel Writing Month, and yours truly is setting himself the lofty goal of writing a 50,000 word or more novel by midnight on November 30th.

Other’s have attempted this feat in years past and have succeeded but I’ve yet to complete one.  Coming alongside to do this I have a few friends attempting it, but will that be enough.  The drama begins today.

As of this writing, I’ve already put down over 1800 words. I’m writing and storing the novel to be in Google Docs.  This will make the story accessible from anywhere I need to work on it, and with any computer.

What does this mean to you?  It means I’m going to be crazier than usual and you can expect to see excerpts here.  You’ll probably be seeing mention of folks you’ve never heard of and things you might not want to think about.

What can you do to help? Read the excerpts. Leave comments. Suggest things to happen in the novel. Want more danger? More sex? More candy? Let me know.  Just be encouraging.

For now, it’s off to the races, and fingers to keyboards. Let novel writing begin.

in tribute to Wordless Wednesday.

How do you know when you’re a social networking addict? Here’s a few of my favorites.

• your contacts dread when you’re home for a sick day
• you Twitter on the way to bathroom
• the only way to get you out of the house is a Tweetup
• folks online can tell when you ‘got some’ the night before
• social networks start blocking you from sending updates
• you’ve reached every networks follower limits

     Once upon a time, there was this young guy that joined the Navy. The itch for something different wasn’t quite scratched by that though, so he became a Nuclear Machinist Mate. Satisfaction wasn’t going to be had just yet, so of course he volunteered to go submarines. Um, yeah?

     Well, that’s the story with a few facts left to your imagination.  In 1984 I signed up and under two years later I found myself walking on board my first submarine. That’s when the story gets interesting.

     A few firsts from that time:

• first submarine – USS Atlanta
• first words I heard – “ha, fresh meat”
• first thing I learned – the Chief of the Boat had killed someone with his car
• first important duty – laundry duty
• first port of call in a foreign country – England
• first watch station – Engine Room Lower Level