Got tools? by Tojosan

Pirate? That’s me and much more. Over the last few years the Flickr 365 group has brought out the hero, the villain, saint and sinner.  This particular picture though caused one young viewer to ask her parents if they knew a real pirate.

Some other friends online ask if I’m an actor. Truth? I am. That’s not the whole truth though.

We’re all actors.

Role players each of us. We learn to play weak when it serves us at an early age. Later some of us learn to play bully. Many of us act both at one time or another.

As we mature, we learn to take on many roles. Some are forced upon us, some we work to make part of our inner self. Parent is a great example. Most of us play at being a parent and only after some rough days does that role become internalized.

Blogger, it’s just another role. Part of the problem with this role is that we often miss that we’re no longer playing at blogging, but it’s now part of us. We keep telling ourselves we’re not really bloggers.

STOP. You have a URL. You post things. You’re a blogger. It’s that simple really. Blogger isn’t a title reserved for those that make a living blogging. There’s no swearing into the club ceremony when you get a thousand subscribers.

You blog therefore you’re a blogger.

So stop playing the role of wimp. No more acting the beggar or the fool. Sit down. Shut up. Blog.

N’ough said.

Friendly and Fun by Tojosan, on Flickr

Trying to fit in? Not these two ladies. I met them during a visit to Borders, where they were browsing magazines across from me. Sure you see some strange dress there, but usually it’s the goth kids or the grunge crowd.  These ladies were bright, high energy, and happy.

Colorful people are a treasure. Really!  You swear you want your kids to grow up to be successful but often along with that comes ‘normal.’ Ordinary has become the new black as families go. Everyone wants it.

Sure, the ordinary gets us by, but it’s the colorful parts that make our memories. How often do is the colorful dismissed though or pointed a finger at and looked upon with a smirk.

These fine young women will always be a reminder that color isn’t something to fear, it’s to be embraced. It’s an essential part of us, a driving force of our inner desires. Sure you can squelch it, but is living in a grey world really the end goal of life?

My tribute to color? My hats. I’ve shrugged off the notion that grown, adult men should wear ordinary and calm hats. By golly, I’ll wear if it makes me or anyone else smile.

So cheers to color, these ladies, and a life filled with breaking out of the dull and grey.

(This article was inspired by What I learned from Colorful Characters on Middle Zone Musings.)

The complete What I learned from Colorful Characters roundup. Please retweet:

Check Out the What I learned from Colorful Characters roundup http://bit.ly/cx5M4J

Bonus social networking tip: Stand out. Be unique. Wear your own ‘hats.’

this is not COD Magazine-Hilary McHone and Rick Baker

So a few years back I run across this lady on Flickr, Brooklyn Hilary. She’s crazy, funny, and has more energy than a room of kindergartners.

She’s still crazy after all these years.  Now Hilary has indoctrinated her rather artistic husband Rick and they’ve gone COD. COD Magazine that is.

I’ve grabbed a quick snap shot of their page. Just click on the picture and go. It’ll blow your mind or make you laugh. Either way, it’s great stuff.

Hilary’s primary project these days is History with Hilary.

Glenda Watson Hyatt is The One Thumbed Blogger and she’s bringing in the new year with another Accessibility 100 series.  Kicking it off, Glenda has a project for us.

In launching the 2010 edition of Accessibility 100 – a series of 100 easy-to-implement, free and inexpensive tips for improving accessibility for people with disabilities, I am borrowing a powerful idea from blogger extraordinaire Liz Strauss.

You are invited to share exactly 25 words on:

What does accessibility means to you?

I encourage you to give this a try.  Glenda shares the rules on her post. Here’s my stab at at.

Accessibility, more than a ramp or wide door, is a thoughtfulness in approaching design, considering people not wheelchairs, souls over boundaries, and vision beyond blindness.

It’s rough but I’m thinking I’m going to be dreaming up more of these.

What’s your 25 words?

Well, No One Said it Had to Be 50,000 GOOD Words…

(Posted using ShareThis)

Deep into your Nanowrimo writing? Struggling to make 50,000 words and make it good? You’re not alone. Kristen is struggling as well.

I’ve crested 37K tonight and am anxious to be a winner. Reading this actually helps to keep up my spirits. So why not click through on the link above and help her along or share her frustrations.

Cheers,

I’m tojosan on nanowrimo.

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.

National Novel Writing Month Write-In NaNoWriMo

I’m writing on NaNoWriMo.

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National Novel Writing Month doesn’t just take place on your computer; it is happening all across the world.  In my case that area of the world is the St. Louis metro. Today we held our first official write-in.

Hosted by the ML, Municipal Liaison, the official write-ins act as way to get a bunch of local are writers in the same place at the same time.  The idea isn’t to hold a big party, though you could have one.  Supporting each other is the goal.

Leading into my first write-in we held a little pre-party.  Folks showed up with food and beverages, and laptops.  Of course, they all showed up ready to get writing. In our case we mostly stayed away from the alcohol, but there was plenty of caffeine.

Music played a big part of our evening. The host provided some selections but a couple of the attendees brought their own as well. Quite a variety of tastes but a lot of fun.  Another cool party was a bit of Firefly flashback.

On the Halloween episode of Castle, the character, played by Nathan Fillion, is getting decked out in costume. The surprise? He’s getting decked out as a space cowboy, ala his character Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly.  It’s a hoot because not only does he recreate that look perfectly, he gives us a bit of the old swagger.  Producers managed to squeeze in a bit of the old Firefly music riffs as well. Needless to say in a room of fans it was riotous and required several rewinds and replays.

Midnight was brought in with another flashback, this time to Thunderbirds.  It was the countdown from the beginning of the episodes.  Again the group went wild with laughter. Talk about a great way to kick off the writing.

Writing commenced.  There were Macs, Dells, HPs.  Laptops and netbooks were involved. Music and chit-chat provided a continuous background for the writing. There was even a bit of a music battle going back and forth at one point.

In the middle of the 2 hours of writing, we had a word war. A word war is where two or more groups compete to have the highest word average for a given period of time.  We set the timer and went to town. Talk about a keying frenzy!!

This encouraging group lead me to about 1500 words in two hours. That’s with talking, laughing, and goofing around.  At the end of two hours, most of us packed up and headed out but this one event will stick with me the whole month.

Planning on making more of these this month.  If you’ve not been to one yet, I recommend you find one in your area and get involved.  Give one a try at least. You might find the writing much easier.

Do you have a NaNoWriMo experience to share?

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National Novel Writing Month is upon us.  As in years before, thousands of would-be authors will sit at their keyboards and attempt to bang out 50,000 words or more. Yours truly will be attempting it as well.

This will be my third attempt. In years past, though I’ve had writing buddies on the nanowrimo site, I’ve not attended in live events, nor had in person writing buddies.  St. Louis though has a large community of nanowrimo authors so I decided to get some face time this year; the hope being that I’ll be more encouraged, inspired and challenged to complete fifty thousand words.

Saturday we had a kick-off party hosted by etoiline. She brought some goodies, captured our names, and set us to mingling.  This Saturday is the Halloween pre-party in St. Louis.  Party will lead into a November 1st writing kick-off.  Hopefully there’ll be room for me in there somewhere. Writing should go till about 2 AM.

Writing will be helped along throughout the month by write-ins all over the St. Louis metro area.  Planning is in the works for write-ins out St. Charles and St. Peters way.

Beyond the face time though, I’d still love to have some extra buddies along for the ride.  You’ll find me on the nanowrimo site as tojosan. Go. Click. Buddy.

What’s your novel?

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Slideshow is from the St. Louis NaNoWriMo Kick-off party on October 24th. Jennifer, @etoiline, organized, while a couple dozen of us showed up to hang out, get some good eats, and chat about our novels-to-be.

Signup was more than just jotting down our names. After recording our names, and forum IDs, Jennifer asked us to create “plot ninjas”. A plot ninja is basically a sentence or idea recorded on an index card. These will be used later to help folks through writer’s block. In exchange for filling out a plot ninja card, novelists received a gift bag.

Conversation wasn’t just about novels. We talked about jobs, current and past. People shared past NaNoWriMo experiences, including what helped and what didn’t. Personal histories were shared as well, such as trips to foreign countries, family stories, and music they love to write to.

A quick survey netted a range of novel themes, from horror, to chic lit, and several folks planning a sci-fi novel. Me? I’m leaning towards horror/thriller. Dean Koontz will be a heavy influence either way.

Next up is the Halloween Pre-Party leading into the first write-in, at midnight.

Can’t wait to get writing!
Cheers,
Todd
Find me on NaNoWriMo and friend me.