LifePundit

How to Increase Writing Productivity

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One reason I've really enjoyed The Biggest Loser is because I'm part of a team and I've made a commitment to show up. Nothing too remarkable about that while you have it and it's working for you. A really big deal, though, when you don't have it and you need it.

So somebody challenged me to use those same principles in my novel writing. Get a team going and make sure that I show up. Believe it or not, I've figured out a way.

Here's how it works: you probably forgot (and maybe I never wrote about) my accountability partner, a freelance writer who lives in the country in circumstances similar to mine out in Oklahoma. For two years this coming January, she and I have e-mailed each other every morning with our plans and goals for the workday, primarily to hold each other accountable in our fiction writing. We've only spoken twice and have never met, yet we know almost everything about each other and have become close friends. I think she has seen my photo but I've never seen hers. 

So we've tried a daring experiment. We have an appointed time every morning, which we call our Sacred Time, when we show up at our desks and do nothing but write fiction. Together. Usually with our cats. Except we've entered a strange new level: we have Skype video calls going while we writ. Yes, she can see me working and I can see her working, and nobody better get up from that chair until our two hours are over. (Though sometimes we have to excuse ourselves to let the cats in and out. That's the only allowed excuse. That and answering the door for people bringing checks, which has only happened once and unfortunately it wasn't for me.)

It felt very awkward at first. We don't talk to each other, we e-mail. So we didn't really know how to carry on a conversation, made worse by the fact that talking on Skype is like talking on a walkie-talkie. We've almost started to end our sentences with radio jargon so the other person will know it's okay to talk, but we don't know radio jargon.

I no longer feel like I'm here working by myself (unless you count the cat). Somebody notices if I goof off or my butt doesn't stay in chair, and I'm really enjoying the silent companionship. At the end of the session we tell how many words we have written and whether it was easy or hard.

Sometimes we'll follow up with an e-mail, which is useful because we now use our regular e-mails to each other as ways to answer our own questions by writing them down. I've learned so much from her and rely on her to help prop me up when I need propping, and I hope I do the same for her.

An Excellent Adventure

I've got a cold and I'm waiting for the tranquilizer I gave the cat, Tiger, to take effect so that I can take him to the vet. Tiger was diagnosed with diabetes last week and I've been giving him insulin shots twice a day, which has been easier than I've expected. But today Tiger needs to have his blood drawn, and if I take him to the vet unmedicated, the only blood drawn will belong to the vet. Tiger has a massive personality change just by entering the vet clinic.

When my niece (who is a vet) used to give him his shots here at our house, he wouldn't bother to get up and would purr the whole time. Take him to the vet and they have to put him in a gas chamber. He has a big orange sticker on his file and you can hear him screaming from miles away even though nobody has touched him. He's so awful that it's funny. Unless it's your hide he peels off.

So, since my life is not worth telling about right now, you need to go visit my friend Joe's new blog, An Excellent Adventure. Joe is a retired FBI agent living as the "trailing spouse" while his wife, Melanie, works for the State Department in Tajikistan. They've chosen an interesting path through life, but I mainly think they're trying to get far enough away so we won't come visit.

I'd tell you all about Joe's adventures in the FBI, all the places they've lived and the interesting things that they've done, but then he'd have to kill me.

Go visit Joe and tell him I sent you.

A Great Gift Idea for an Elderly Person

There's a new digital picture frame out that can receive photos directly from cell phones. That would be fun for nearly anyone -- I'd love such a thing at my desk, assuming anyone would send me photos. But think how wonderful that would be for an elderly person stuck at home or in a nursing home.

Your children, grandchildren, friends, etc. could send you photos of their vacations and of their daily lives. You don't have to know how to use a computer. Poof! and the photo of your newest grandbaby is there.

Really cool idea. Hope it works. Read the review here.

The Vacation is Over

I'm back -- and kind of sorry about it.

The switch on our water pump had a problem so we had no water. Now it's back -- and I'm back to doing laundry. A working well and water pump is one of the world's greatest inventions.

The lightning that gave me technical problems before vacation did something to my computer and my speakers and printer quit working. The lights were on but nobody was home. Finally, late last night, I got it working again. Had to uninstall a bunch of stuff and re-install, plus had to use different USB ports. I think the lightning got some of my USB ports. Now I have wires going everywhere and am beginning to feel like Medusa.

And then nobody remembered how to hook the TV back up to all the wires and boxes (since we unplugged everything before we left). I've about had it with wires and boxes.

The vet is coming to see the horses this afternoon. One injured an ankle while we were gone and the other caught a cough. Ah me.

And my father fell, but he's okay.

I'll post pictures and write up a little about our trip to St. Maarten/St. Martin. It's a beautiful place, no hotter than here, and I didn't have any wires or livestock to concern myself with.

And to think we could have stayed two weeks!

Tech Support When You're Married to a Techie

My husband, Paul, isn't exactly a geek, but he could be if he tried. We met in grad school when he was the student in charge of the computer lab -- and I was the student in charge of boogering up the computers. He had to rescue all my data (this was on some monster mainframe that took up a couple of rooms) and put it into some other location on the mainframe. I guess it was a file, but I didn't know the lingo then. All I knew was that he named that location "Rosebud."

Ahhh. How romantic. How sweet. Yes, I know it was Kane's sled, but still. Just the word. Maybe he was not only the sort to rescue me from technical difficulties, but maybe he'd bring me flowers. And I thought he looked hot, too.

Thanks to his rescue, I squeaked by on my statistics project. And rather than ask me out on a date, he asked me if I could be a subject in his study project. So, all giddy, I said yes. It was some kind of statistical marketing project where I had to answer a bunch of questions on the computer. Very cozy.

Turns out he's not the sort to buy me flowers, but is the sort to buy me rosebushes so I can grow them myself. Fabulous roses, abundant roses, rewarding roses. Until you have a baby and kill all your bushes through neglect.

Paul's still involved with computers and is my last resort for tech support. Shoemaker's children and all that. I think he hates computers, and asking for help, which is always given, is not my favorite thing. It's sort of like asking him to put up the Christmas tree, before we bought an artificial one and cursing stopped being a family Christmas tradition.

Sometimes you need to seek tech support that you don't have to sleep with. When that's the case, check out Fast-teks home and business computer support. They also do home theater installation.

Woot-off in Progress

A friend just called to tell me that there's a Woot-off in progress. Woot is a hoot, if you're unfamiliar. They sell frequently refurbished or overstocked electronics, but more than that, their product descriptions are laugh-out-loud funny. Check them out -- and keep checking them out because a Woot-off is when they unload stuff by posting items until they sell out, then posting the next thing. Never know what will be next.  Days that aren't Woot-offs just feature one item. I'm not connected to them in anyway except as a customer. Just thought I'd share the fun with my friends. www.woot.com