In the context of 2009, it's noteworthy for me

I just wanted to point out that I have gone more than a week with new posts on this blog every day. At one point in the life of this blog, that wouldn't have been noteworthy. But if you look at my history for 2009, you'll see that it's monumental.

Now am I cheating by making a post today that only talks about this milestone? Is it a cheap ploy to keep my streak going?

Perhaps...

This should fix that: I'm doing Christmas cards right now. It's a little late to be doing them, but better than other years, when they didn't get done at all. If you'd like a card, send me your address.

Let's talk about reading, writing and blogging

As part of my blogoversary celebration last week, I invited people to send me questions. Claire at A Little Piece of Me picked up the challenge and sent me a list.

Hello, get a coffee and relax. It's interview time with Claire :)

OK, I don't have a coffee, but I do have my feet up on my desk, so I'm as relaxed as I can be. (Honestly, my feet are up. My husband has no idea how I can type this way, but I manage quite well.)
  
Having been a reader of Mills and Boon since I was about eleven, I would like to know what your first romance novel was and how old you were when you read it.

I could go with the short and easy answer, but I won't because I think the payoff is better when I tell it this way.

My third-grade teacher wanted to put me into a remedial reading class. She said I had reading issues (and that I reminded her of her ex-husband). In fourth grade, at my new school, I tested normal for reading. In fifth grade, I read my first novel-length book, Flowers in the Attic. By sixth grade, I'd been placed in an honors reading program. I discovered historical fiction that year and decided I especially liked stories of the American West, such as the Little House on the Prairie series and epic-length books such as Sacajawea.

In seventh grade, I was checking out the books on the supermarket book rack and I saw a book cover with an American Indian on the front. It looked like an interesting story, so I bought it. I didn't care that I was having trouble pronouncing the title: Defiant Ecstasy. (You try to sound out the word Ecstasy -- there are some vowels missing there.)

From that moment on, I was hooked on historical romance. I think my parents were a little bemused by some of my selections, but they didn't try to hold me back. At least I was reading.

What does the husband think of your blog and have you ever said to him 'oh I am going to blog that!'. 

He doesn't get the whole blogging thing, the compulsion to write, and especially the time I put into it. A few months ago, I subscribed him to my email feed so that he could at least know what I was up to. Every once in a while he'll yell from the other room something like "What the hell is a Wordless Wednesday?" He was thrilled this week when he discovered the Odiogo link and vowed that would be the only way he'd read my posts now. LOL

The most recent example of "I'm going to blog that" was recently when we were changing out the bathroom fixtures in our powder room. When I grabbed the camera, he said "I suppose you're going to blog about this."

My only possible response: "Of course I am."

Then I did clarify that since the toilet paper holder we were getting rid of was HATED by many of our friends (you'd have to read the full story), and the friends would appreciate the documentation. That seemed to pacify him. 

Can you see yourself blogging for another three years and beyond?

Yes. For the first few years I sometimes felt like I was blogging into a void. I did nothing to promote the blog and I only had a few readers. But, I blogged anyway. If I kept blogging through that, I don't see what would make me stop now.

How rude is this novel of yours going to be, if you had to put a movie rating on it.

The novel that I've completed, Prairie Fire, would probably earn an R rating. The novella I'm working on is erotica and by definition would earn an X rating.  (I'm staying with officially sanctioned movie ratings here.)

and finally, when do I get to read it?

If you promise not to analyze me afterward, you (Claire) can read it in the next few months. Everyone else would have to wait until it was published, and since I don't have a publisher for it yet, who knows when that will happen. :)

Listen up!

See the "Listen Now" button that's at the top of every post? It's Odiogo. I just installed the widget. The company uses the RSS feed to convert a text post into an MP3 so that you can listen to blog posts.

I saw this feature today on The Junk Drawer and installed it right away. (I like to jump right in sometimes and recklessly try new widgets.) Kathy wrote a hilarious introductory post titled Meet Phil that you have to go listen to.

I have to confess that when I just sampled my own post, it came across as far more dry than when I read it in my head. Not sure if I'm going to like that. Anyway. Check it out.

Going for a blogging trifecta

Sunday marks three years since I started this blog. Three years, and I've never celebrated my blogoversary before. In fact, I've celebrated no milestones with this blog.

Which is ironic, since Sunday could very well mark three different milestones: the Blogoversary, 500 posts, and 10,000 unique visits. With my current planned posting schedule, the 500 posts should happen on Sunday. The 10,000 visits, that's hit or miss.

I haven't decided what to do on Sunday, but I thought I might follow the lead of other bloggers and open myself up to questions. Anything you want to know about me, feel free to ask. Anything. We'll see how honest I feel on Sunday when it's time to answer. :)

Also, I'll give 1,000 Entrecard credits to the first person to send me a print screen of my blog with the hit counter as close to 10,000 as possible. An extra 1,000 Entrecard credits if the 10,000 mark happens when it's July 20 in Chicago. (If that person is not on Entrecard, I'll work out a $10 giftcard to Amazon or some place similar at my discretion.)

Send the print screen as a jpeg attachment to webmaster (at) haleyhughes (dot) com. (Replace the (at) and the (dot) with the appropriate symbols, of course.)

So I've announced a contest -- buried it deep in the post -- but it's my first contest, so you'll forgive me, I hope. Consider it a reward for reading. :)

To recap: Contest (see above) and taking questions (see above).

Addendum: How to capture a print screen

If you have Windows Vista, there's something called the Snipping Tool that you can use. I've never used it myself, but here are the directions. (Thanks Monique for the tip.)

The way I've always done it on my Windows PC: There's a button on my keyboard marked "Print Screen". Arrange your desktop the way you want it, then press the "Print Screen" button. This saves a picture of the screen to your clipboard. Open a graphics or photo editing program and paste in the image. Then do a save-as, and save the file as a .jpg or .jpeg.

If you have an Apple computer, there's probably a similar option, but my Apple skills are very rusty, so I don't know.

If all else fails, Google: How do I capture a print screen.

An open mic night with Don MFH

I love it when blogging and real life come together. Even though, in this instance, real life had a head start.

Tuesday night, I met up with a blogging friend who was in town for a few days. Don M.F.H. (Driving to Oahu) and I worked together back in my newspaper days, but since we both switched jobs and he moved to the Boston area, our connection has moved to the blogosphere.

After work, I met him at a place called Fitzgerald's. It's an old pub in Berwyn, not far from the Chicago border, dating back to Prohibition days. We were there for an open mic night so Don could read from his book Baptized in Formaldehyde.



Open mic nights seem to be a perfect venue for him to promote his book, what with the whole rock band theme. The reading went well, there were several laughs, and Don sold a few copies. I'm not so sure that if (positive thinking: when) I ever sell a book, I'll be able to stand in front of a crowd of strangers and read from it. Something to strive for, I guess.

It was a fun night. We got to catch up, talk about old times, and visit with some of Don's family and friends. I even tried to play his photo muse. I'm not sure if the pictures of me will turn out. The light was failing quickly, and I had that ragged, just-got-off-of-work look about me. There was no white nightgown involved. Just some very casual shots.

(Don, in case you can't tell, yes, I'm eager to know about the photos. Oh, and friendly reminder: Can you send me a new copy of Another Day Like Today?)

Twitter and the state of the economy

Wow. Is that a boring title: "The state of the economy". Bear with me, though. This is not an economic dissertation, but rather two lessons from one social event.

The setting: Marwen's Paintbrush Ball 2008, a charity dinner and live auction for a prominent Chicago visual arts program for "under-served young people".

How: Through the generosity of a friend's employer, who purchased a bundle of seats at the dinner. (Thank you.)

The players: JC, Marriott and myself,
plus hundreds of other people.


Lesson 1: Twittering live!

I've been playing around on Twitter for a few months in a very limited capacity. Twitter has been described by many people as "micro-blogging", but I like to describe it as blogging meets instant messaging.

Basically, you create an account and publish posts (aka Tweets) that are limited in size to 140 characters max (this figure has to do with the maximum number of characters allowed by instant messaging programs, or something like that).

You can choose to follow the Tweets of other Twitterers, and talk directly to those Twitterers by throwing an @ before their Twitter name.

Twitter in its simplicity plays nicely with other applications, so there are a lot of tools out there to make your Twitter experience more versatile. Like TwitterFox for my FireFox browser, which keeps me updated on new Tweets with little popup notices in the lower corner of my browser window, and TwitterSync, which updates my Tweets to my status window in Facebook.

So, for instance, I Tweeted this on Saturday afternoon:

Up until Saturday, I'd only ever published my Tweets from my computer. But Twitter is supposed to be more mobile than that. So before I left, I set up my Twitter account to work with instant messages from my cellphone. This was actually a challenge for me, because I don't *do* instant messaging.

Here we were, in the middle of a fancy dinner, with a live auction going on in the background, and I was plugging away at my cellphone trying to perfectly compose a Tweet. As you can see, I was reaching for subject matter, and even gave up toward the end when I couldn't find the "$". That figure is supposed to be $8,000.

Next step was sending a photo Tweet. I'd signed up for TwitPic right before I left the house, but I was inexperienced at emailing photos from my phone, so this was yet another technological hurdle that I had to overcome. Which I did.

When the opportunity came to raise my auction paddle and bid on an item I could afford, I grabbed it. (Nevermind that it was a "raise your paddle if you want to give a straight-up charitable contribution to Marwen" fake auction. I got to use my paddle! As did about a hundred other people.) So I snapped a photo with my phone, gave it a subject line, and emailed it off to TwitPic.


This is what the photo looked like, by the way.

And those three Tweets are my sum experience with Twittering live. (Except for those observations Twittered live from my desk chair, which often say something to the effect of "Is it lunchtime yet?" I never claimed to be the most fascinating person on Twitter. :P )

Lesson 2: The economy affects everyone

If you look up at that second Tweet, you'll see that the "Fighter Pilot for a Day" experience was auctioned off for $8,000. That seems like a lot of money to me. It's well out of my discretionary spending budget. But, the thing is, that same exact experience went for a lot more last year. All the live auction items did.

If my figures are right from last year, that same fighter pilot experience went for more than $20,000.

Quick! Someone do the math. What percentage change is that?

Another great for-instance? A local fashion designer auctioned off a wine-tasting party in his loft for 30-40 people. He supplies the wines, which are premiere.

Last year, there was a bidding war for the party. When the bidding hit $21,000, the designer decided he would happily host two parties and gave the prize to both bidders, raising $42,000 for Marwen.

This year, the party -- one party -- went for $10,000. Nothing to sneer at, certainly, but nothing like last year. What's the percentage change?

My interpretation of the change in bidding patterns? Everyone is tightening their purse strings. If they're not directly feeling the pinch, they're feeling more conservative as they watch those around them who are.

And just in case I was doubting my interpretation, I saw this article on the New York Times website yesterday: It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich.

This snippet summarizes the theme of the article:

The wealthy don’t generally speak publicly about their finances, in good times or bad. ... But people who provide services to the wealthy — lawyers, art advisers, personal trainers and hairstylists — say they are getting an earful about their clients’ financial anxieties.

Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago, regardless of how expansive the definition of “less” may be.

I think that's exactly what I was seeing live on Saturday night. Generous spending, certainly. But not nearly as generous as last year.

A Beacon Time Capsule -- April 27-May 3

A brief look at where this blog has been:

A year ago, I was blogging about:

Why write a novel? That's a good question... -- A link to a BBC Magazine story about why people feel compelled to write novels, even though the odds are decidedly stacked against that novel even getting completed, let alone published.

Two years ago, I was blogging about:

Funny Mike -- Where I see a former co-worker, Mike Siegel, on television and wonder what ever happened to him.

Lofty ambitions -- Where I pledge to take the stairs more often, which lasted for the whole summer.

Why blog? -- Where I try to explain to my family what a blog is and why I'd want to write one.

Contests update 2 -- Where I try to digest some feedback from a romance writing contest.

Lawn-mowing woes, The lawn continues to grow, and Mission accomplished -- About my adventures trying to remember how to mow a lawn.

Prior to that:
This blog didn't yet exist, and I haven't back-posted anything that qualifies.

Life: These kids and their wacky technology

My husband doesn't get the appeal of a blog or blogging. Nada. Zilch. Especially a personal journal-type blog such as I'm writing.

He only reads it when I specifically send him a link and say "Read this". I don't call on my "Read this" strategy all that often, because it loses its impact when over-used. Every once in a while, though, the fact that he doesn't read the blog becomes ... awkward?

For example, here's a conversation (as I remember it) that happened a few months ago:

Dave was telling a friend (Hi Chris!) a story about how we were learning to snowboard.

"I thought Haley's version was funnier," the friend said.

"Haley's version?"

"The one she posted to her blog."

Dave turned to me. "You wrote about this on your blog?"

A moment of silence passed during which I felt like I've been caught leading a secret life (using my name on the very public forum of the Internet).

"Of course."

In order to prevent future conversations like that, a few days ago, I decided to subscribe my husband to the email feed for this blog (offered through Feedblitz, see the lower right column of this page).

Now while my husband doesn't seem to get the appeal of blogging, I personally don't get the appeal of instant messaging. The conversations are too slow for me. Because my husband uses instant messaging all the time, though, I try to remember to sign in while I'm at work so we can exchange an occasional few lines of conversation.

Apparently, his subscription to my blog finally kicked in today. Here is a snippet of an instant-messaging conversation we had:

Husband: Wordless Wednesday?
Husband: WTF?
Me: It's a blog thing. Some bloggers post a photo on Wednesday and call it Wordless Wednesday. :P
Husband: :P
Husband: This is all too wierd

A moment later he'd moved down to the next post titled A Steamy Romance Novel.

Husband: DH's Rogue?
Husband: DH?
Me: dear heart, dear husband
Husband: Ew
Husband: STOP
Husband: Seriously
Me: LOL
Husband: this is just TOO WIERD
Husband: Will you be text messaging soon?

Yes, we're both typical Americans of our generation who have never caught on to the international fascination with text messaging.

Me: DH has been around for a LONG time
Husband: And you never told me you read the novel
Husband: You just posted it to your blog?
Me: I did it right after you told me it was clickable

Several minutes passed while my husband doesn't say anything. I started to worry. (This is one reason I'm not a fan of instant messaging, BTW.) I picked up the phone and called him. No answer.

Husband: Are you calling me?
Me: yes
Husband: On a conf call. What's up?
Me: sorry
Husband: That's OK. What did you need?
Me: Just trying to get a read on you -- you seem upset about the blog
Husband: Not upset
Husband: I just do not in any way understand it
Husband: :)
Me: LOL
Me: OK

So that's where we left it. I'll continue to try to draw him into this "secret life" that is my blog. He'll continue to remind me to log into instant messaging every day. And we'll both stay in continued agreement that we have very limited uses for text messaging.

At Large: Writing, Life and the World...

Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't. In an effort to tame this broadly focused blog of mine, I've started using tags in the headlines of each of my posts. The tags are based on my old description for this blog, which was "Illuminating writing, life and the world at large."


Writing,
Life,
and
the World
at large

Writing: These posts have to do with the subject of writing.

Life: These posts are my personal journal posts.

The World: Happenings from around the world that don't necessarily impact me, but I find them interesting.

At Large: The fun stuff, like quizzes, some memes and random things that don't fit the other headings, like posts about the blogosphere in general.

Every once in a while a post will come through with no tag, and that's because I think it covers the broad spectrum, such as the Things I've discovered posts that I've started running on Fridays.

The added benefit to me of doing these tags is that I can easily filter out the articles that I don't want syndicated in the BlogRush widget (see the right column of this blog).

Hi, my name is Haley and I'm a blogaholic

75%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I found this link on Life's Context and, of course, had to try it myself.

Things I've discovered this week

The concept of a "meme"
It's an idea or exercise that is spread from blog to blog. Kind of like the survey-get-to-know-you chain-letters that people like to email, but instead it's something you post on your own blog, then tag other bloggers to do the same. See my The Page 123 Meme for an example.

Lisa 365
A blogger who has taken the challenge to try something new every day for a year. This idea really resonates with me. A few years ago, I experimented with doing something that scares me every month. It only lasted for a few months, because, well, everything was scary. Lisa's challenge of trying something new every day doesn't require that the something new be big, just new, like building a tower out of wine glasses or cutting up a credit card.

Entrecard
The bloggers in the World of Warcraft community all seem to be using Entrecards, so I explored the idea and signed up. I'm less than a week into using Entrecard, and the hits on this site have gone up. The idea is that you drop a digital business card on sites that you visit, earning credits every time you do. Then, you can use those credits to display your digital business card on other Entrecard sites.

Blog 2 Print
Someone has invented a way to take the content from a blog and have it printed into an on-demand book. Looks intriguing, but I can't really see why anyone besides me would want a book version of this blog.

Ugly blogs
While playing with Entrecard, I've visited a lot of blogs that I wouldn't have normally visited. Some are gorgeous, but some are so cluttered with money-making schemes that it's hard to find the content. I'll stop there.

Facebook
I can import this blog into my Facebook account's Notes section. Not only that, the Notes will automatically update whenever I post to this blog.