Tag, I’m It

A little bit ago, I was contacted by the lovely Ms. Starlily of The Active Life and advised that she added the Figmeant Writing Studio and Community to the list of outstanding personal development blogs. Fabulous! And the best thing about it is that I get to extend the honor to those blogs I think are great.

It’s always hard for me to choose just a few blogs because I think that most of the ones I come across are great and contribute much to the development of their readers. But I persevered and came up with three that weren’t already on the list.

Cardin Lilly Routh @ Optimistlabs

James and Karen @ Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Jim and Emma @ Go Smell The Flowers

And here is the entire list for your perusal pleasure.

Blogging Star

I’m going to start this post off with an apology to Rolando who gave me this award over a week ago. Unfortunately the Incident happened soon after that and I wasn’t really in the mindset to accept the award. But now I’m back and ready to roll and what better way to kick off a great weekend than to accept and pass on this wonderful award.

Rolando thinks that my blog is inspirational which means a lot to me. I’ve come to feel like my purpose in life is to help others in their journeys. So if my blog in some way, shape or form does that then I’m happy to keep plugging away at the keyboard.

The best part of the award is that I get to pass it on to other blogs I think are great. So without furthur ado, I pass this award on to

Keli

Katie

Karen

James and Karen

Jayne

Joy

Stephanie

Congrats and enjoy

I’m Too Sexy For This Blog

A coworker of mine was singing this song yesterday and like any true virus I had it stuck in my head all day long. So I’m sharing the love.

Some People Suck and Some People Rock

Behold the light of Elendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out. [Galadriel - The Lord of the Rings]

I haven’t been feeling well for the past week. The weather changed so quickly here in Maryland that I caught a mild cold. Long before that happened, however, I had a member of my family tell me that my dream of having a home based business was stupid and that I needed to get a real job.

Shaun the Sheep

I’m a big fan of animation probably because of the cuteness factor. We should all have something in our lives that makes us feel good when we are exposed to it and one of those things for me is the work of Aardman Animations.

Aardman Animations is a British animation studio who created the well known claymation duo Wallace and Gromit. I recently came across one of their other works while watching Spongebob Squarepants (It was just on for background noise, I swear!)

Writing Prompts: Edumacation

Fall. That most wondrous time of the year when summer’s heat starts wearing off, the leaves turn beautiful shades of orange and red and all is quiet…because the kids are back in school. Woohoo!

So in honor of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and babysitters everywhere, this week’s writing prompts will focus on the joys of school and education.

1. It is lunch time. Describe what’s on the menu and why your student wished he hadn’t forgotten his lunch at home.

2. Everyone is terrified of running into the school bully only to find out he (or she) has done a 180 over the summer vacation. Why?

3. It is the first day of class for your college student and they are late. The teacher decides to make an example of them. What happens?

4. The students arrive to school to find they have a new principal who everyone begins to suspect is alien. Why?

5. A girl shows up at school only to find out that her BFF skipped a grade.

6. A college student arrives at school to find out that their funding has fallen through and must come up with an alternate source.

7. An upper-class alien family loses all their money and must move to the ghetto of the universe, Earth.

8. A teacher has a one night stand over summer vacation, only to find that person is a new fellow teacher at their school.

9. It’s Fall of 3010 and it is boot camp for the Universal Academy of Space Pilots (no the name doesn’t get any better than that).

10. While exploring the closet in his dorm room, a student finds the entrance to a secret laboratory.

11. A student dreams of showing up in class only in their underwear only it isn’t a dream.

12. A student returns to school after a major accident that paralyzes them from the waist down.

13. It is the first day of school at the Orius school for the mystically gifted.

Is World Peace Possible?

(Personal Milestone: This is my 25th post on this blog. Woohoo!)

Today marks the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. Six years ago, a group of extremists tried to destroy us as a people and as a nation and all for the stated glory of their god. It didn’t make much sense to me then and it still doesn’t now.

Thinking about that tragedy and the war our country is still waging “on terrorism” has made me wonder if we will ever evolve to point to where we will strive for world peace instead of world domination.

How to Maximize Your Donations

I’m not sure that the donation model can be considered a business model. After all, you are counting on being able to convince people to give you money in exchange for the warm fuzzy feeling of helping you and not a product or service. Some people, as in the case of Karyn Boznak and Jason Kottke, were very successful with it but the majority of others languish in obscurity.

Filling Your Inbox With Work

Since you can’t have a career in freelance writing without actually doing some work, this article will talk about the multitude of rocks you can turn over to find writing assignments.

You must first decide if you want to be a niche or a general topic writer. A niche writer specializes in a specific topic or category of writing. For example, if you have experience in the medical industry, you could specialize in writing on medical topics which would open doors in the lucrative pharmaceutical industry. Or if you have a way with convincing people to buy stuff they don’t need, you could be a copywriter.

The benefit of specializing is that you only have to be an expert in one topic plus you are able to command higher rates because of your knowledge. On the other hand, you are more likely to run into a work shortage when times are lean.

A general topic writer is just as it sounds; a writer who writes about a little bit of everything. The great thing about this is that you are able to build knowledge across many different areas which make finding work a little bit easier. The major drawback to this is the consumption of time learning all of the different disciplines and the possibility of being passed over for an assignment for you lack of expert knowledge in a particular field.

Grindstone Monday 09/10/07

Well it’s another day so here’s another dollar (or two).

1. Suite 101 is looking for freelance writers. This is an ad revenue sharing model. (View Job Posting)

2. Zeta Entertainment Software is looking for game writers. Pay is $2000 to $2500 but not sure if that’s per project or per month. (View Job Posting)

3. Writers wanted for new luxury lifestyle website. Pay is $0.50 to $1.00 per word. (View Job Posting)

4. Nolo, a publisher of legal self help books is looking for a copywriter and online publicist for the website. Job is located in Berkeley, CA. (View Job Posting)

5. Bride’s Television is looking for writers to write recaps on popular wedding programs. Pay is $50 per recap. (View Job Posting)

6. About is seeking a writer for its online health guide. Minimum pay is $725 per month. Earn more with increased page views. (View Job Posting)

Actually they have quite a few topics that need covering. See their site for more information the areas and how to apply.

7. Matador has just opened an assignment board where you can pick a topic to write about and get paid (if accepted, of course). Pay range $20-$200. (View Job Postings)

8. Author Dr. Keven Fleming seeks co-author for a new book idea. Writer must be previously published. (View Job Posting)

9. Writer needed for New York based real estate site. Working knowledge of the NYC area necessary. (View Job Posting)

10. Start up company looking for people who can answer questions. Must be able to do research on the internet and communicate the answer in 30 words or less. (View Job Post)