Day: May 29, 2015

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today!

The theme:

Blue Skies

Leap past the window and lean in across tangled sheets, dreams,

A lost sock. Some lost change.

Lost hours of sleep.

It’s sunny today and I feel it through my eyelids and through my glorious plans

for laundry, for folding, for keeping it all clean.

The sun says, “Forget the plans. Go play.”

The boys and I grab our bikes and snacks and backpacks

and one small boy even asks if we can take the cat

“He will fit in the basket mommah I swear.”

And we head out.

The cat, alas, is left behind to ponder and sleep in a spot of sun

by the front door, where we fall over his furry belly, laughing and home and

full bellied from snow cones and snacks and mislaid plans

because today was a blue sky day.

Amen and thank…

It can be incredibly hard to stay encouraged in the middle of a storm. In my application cycle, I had many moments where I felt discouraged, helpless, angry…I mean literally crying and asking God (okay I’ll admit, a few occasions yelling to God about how angry I was) why things weren’t going as planned.

Yea.

This application cycle was a roller coaster of emotions.

I’m someone who applied to 19 schools as early as June of last year (see relevant post here) and filled out 15 secondaries. Out of the 15 schools my application was complete at, I received only 2 interviews. One interview was held the 1st week of October and the 2nd interview exactly 6 months later (to the exact date). I mean the application cycle was ROUGH.

Add in the fact that the first school I interviewed at deferred me in November up until the last week…

Sometimes.

I first began to get into photography when I got into reefing. Any coral reef hobbyist will tell you the two go hand in hand.  Reefs are beautiful, always changing, photography documents those.  More than anything, photos are necessary when you need help. Regardless of how broad your vocabulary might be, when you’re on a forum and trying to get an ID of a specific coral, coral disease, or algae, you need the visuals. I was a lousy photographer, but kind of liked it.  Every so often I’d get it right, such a good feeling.

Then I began blogging. I like blogs that include photos or artwork.  Makes it easier to read than a wall of text, and often adds a little something.  At first, I mostly used stock photos, embarrassed when I posted my own lousy pics. But then I began bringing the camera with me more frequently…

So you want to write the perfect article? Welcome. I’ll tell you how.

The essential starting point is to have a clear central message.  What are you trying to say?  What’s your point? Clarity on this makes everything which follows much easier.

My companion piece “7 tips for writing the perfect article” explains how to decide on your message; focus on readership; and ensure what you’re writing is relevant.

Once you’re clear on what you want to say, it’s time to get started.  “The best way to start work is to start work”.  Structure is everything.

Many journalists use a simple template.  There are lots of ways of doing this; but the following, based on advice from a US journalist friend, has worked well for me in numerous feature articles during my time as a freelance journalist.  A worked example is at the end of this…

How do you decide when to start a blog?  I’m starting mine today for no good reason- I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to find a name- Everything I thought of had already been thought of by someone else. And how do people choose a theme or topic for their blog?? I couldn’t possibly limit us to just one topic, dear reader; so be prepared for an eclectic mix (get it? that’s where the name comes from) of ideas, photos, stories, and what ever else one blogs about.

Find me on Instagram @theeclecticelectric! Can’t wait to post again.

Nighty night for now,

T.E.E.B

You read about all the doubts and fears that I was facing about getting back to posting. Today was an interesting experience and it focused around something that I didn’t realize was happening to me — I am turning into robot. It seems bizarre, but let me explain it to you before you run off and report me to the authorities.

This morning saw and read this Instagram post by Mike Gonzalez (@therealgonz):

He talked about how personal read everything and when he felt he wanted to share the content he would put a message that expressed why he was sharing it, what he was thinking. It clicked for me — I had stopped doing that and need to get back to being human with my social media.In recent months, I’ve gotten busy and thought that I needed to focus on pushing content. I had lost the engagement and…