I wrote a series of 10 of these “Green Xmas” articles in preparation for the season, to be featured on the Exquisite Writing business newsletter.
They have handy tips and plenty of ideas for how to simply spend less at Christmas as well as saving the environment, or whatever that means on a population-wide scale. Most folks just don’t want to look too garish, I figure. Whatever…don’t waste just to be jolly.
It’s now officially a big issue. A reporter for Marketplace, the most excellent show (with their very own sustainability desk) on NPR that explains business news as it pertains to real people (as it most sincerely does) contacted me about a story: how has the drastic increase in the price of food affected people’s actions and attitudes towards urban agriculture?
Oh, is there a topic nearer or dearer to my heart? You know there isn’t! (Read on …)
I’ve done several articles now for a client in Polk County Florida. Though my words have actually 
been changed quite a bit to fit into a web format, they’ve survived at least partially intact.
The first crazy project was on sinkholes. This proved to be a bit more research intensive, in part because I like to fill my articles up with facts — I figure they’re more useful and likely to actually be around in a few years if there’s been an effort to get data from mulitiple sources.
The later two on Hurricanes in Florida and Construction in Polk County Florida have yet to go up. I’ll let you know when they do.
or, reality as we know it, anyhow.
I’ve been lucky enough to have written several articles recently on topics of science and para-science (ones that, sadly, I cannot share with you just yet — soon) that are of particular interest to me. A recent one that is a bit more of the mainstream science varity, though I cosndier the topics related, is about Quantum Computing.
Now - on to my rant:
It turns out that some people who identify themselves as “clever,” seem to believe in quite a few seemingly silly things — but are they? Take “The Secret,” for example. I’ve had reason to study this “movement” lately, and they claim to use certain aspects of Quantum Mechanics as a potential explanation for some theories that don’t entirely make sense when you sit down and do the most rudimentary mental math. Well, most physicists don’t care for the association much, but you’ve always got some wing-nuts who are more than happy to be interviewed for a film.
I still think anything that associates itself with a multi-level marketing venture is a bit shady, to say the least. However, I believe some of the people associated are actually sincere in their own way about it. If Wikipedia is to be believed, (Read on …)
It’s the best of lists, it’s the worst of lists… . Craigslist.org is a wonderful thing, but you do have to be careful. I’ve had a few clients that I wrote for on ‘ol CL not be forthcoming with communication or payment. As such, I posted the articles in question online myself.
The most recent one was an “eligibility assignment” that resulted from answering a CL posting. My assignment was to write an article about Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda, formerly of Twisted Sister. Well, I just happen to be a big heavy metal fan, so I wrote it up one morning, shortly after my regular computer had “blown up.” Some folks with a dubious email address that opened up the Yahoo! online mail client. I had already done the work, so I sent it directly from my own address as a regular email. It was already written before I realized this, and thought, “what the heck? I’m probably just being suspiscious.”
Of course, I never did hear back, (Read on …)
Nothing breeds success like success, eh? It looks as if I’ll be doing a June show of my 
photography and writing at the Roots Organic Brewery that I recently reviewed for wCities.
Not only am I excited about this as a photographer but also, because I’m looking forward to doing some writing on the virtues of organic wine, beer and distillates. As is my custom, my show will focus on the writing as well as photography in an interactive manner. I really look forward to it.
What’s even cooler is that I got the gig because of the review I wrote as well as having a wordpress blog that I can link to with my media. I cannot say how very happy I am that tools such as word press exist!
I ended up writing an rather lengthy description of how Camilla came to be here on my FlickR site. I thought you might enjoy it.
You ought to check out the large version of this pic — the foot scales are especially nice, I think.
Camilla is from Washington originally and came with the wild bird. The other was a wee little pullet with a rather small comb. As you can see, Camilla has a very impresssive comb for a hen.
After finding a good taker for “the boys” (Read on …)
The last of the pics include some that I consider the best from my co-workers pics. I just tidied them up in Photoshop as I saw fit because I’m that sort of girl. I’ve made a note in each photo not taken by me just whose it is. All the words are mine, of course.
Rarely, if ever, does an $8/hour job turn out to be a good career move. This job would seem to be the exception. Nevermind that I’m still looking for work — I’ve got great recommendations again. I continue to keep my fingers crossed for the call from Clear Creek.
Cross your fingers for me, too, would ya?
One of my photos has been selected to illustrate today’s vocabulary building world, mite, on a social networking site called Word Mingle.
An exerpt form my writeup of this photo:
Varroa mites have had a major impact on North American hives. Apiculturists have kept the tiny pest just at bay for nearly 20 years now, but (Read on …)
Like alot of things in life, it all started with a ladybug. The lowly lady beetle (for they are not true bugs at all — those are distingushed by a cross on their backs like a shield bug or lygus bug), or lady bird in the UK, is one of the best loved and most effective bio-control agents. People have known of their effectiveness for thousands of years. The name comes from the middle ages when flocks of the familiar red and black creatures were taken as a sign of intervention by Lady Madonna herself.
I wrote an article a few weeks ago about when bio-control goes haywire and becomes a threat rather than the cure. The displacement of native lady beetle populations by Japanese ground beetles (sometimes called nineteen-spotted or asian lady beetle), is just another example of the unintended consequences introducing a new species can lead to.
The good news is that you can still get great results from your organic garden when you take a few minutes to understand the life-cycles of the creatures that inhabit it. A few tips to direct your research are also included.
So, sit back with the seed catalogues and dream of warm spring days and the click of wing casings.
