I hope that everyone has a lovely 4th of July filled with family, friends, fun, and laughter.
June 27, 2009
June 28, 2009 – “Good taste is the worst vice ever invented.”
June 28, 2009 – “Sometimes people are layered like that. There’s something totally different underneath than what’s on the surface. But sometimes, there’s a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.”
June 28, 2009
June 28, 2009 – I <3 him
June 26, 2009
June 28, 2009 – Adults with asthma face a higher risk of complications if they catch the flu, yet many skip their annual shots, new research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
June 28, 2009 – Australian pop icons Men at Work are fighting accusations that a riff in their 1980s smash hit Down Under was snatched from a popular children’s song.
June 28, 2009
June 28, 2009 – If you’re looking for a new way to find Twitter users near your location you may want to try TweetMondo. Your results will all depend on the location you enter – whether it be a broad or precise location.
June 27, 2009
June 27, 2009 – This became the start of the Public Enemy Era, but it also became the start for a much more benign era in Hollywood: gangster movies
June 27, 2009
June 27, 2009 – Before horror movies laced with special effects kept people up at night, people got scared the old-fashioned way: through story-telling. The ability to spook people with only your voice is an ancient and endangered art, but through practice, it can be mastered.
June 26, 2009
June 26, 2009
June 26, 2009 – Stylist loyalty
June 26, 2009 – two
June 26, 2009 – They want to have children try and find fireflies at night. If they do see them, they want them to count how many they see. Children would use these special tracking sheets, and then upload the completed ones to the Museum of Science in Boston.
June 24, 2009
The Internet has made plagiarism as easy as pressing Copy + Paste. I was reading the forum of one of my LinkedIn forums when I came across a post labeled “Attention All Bloggers – Read At Once!” Mike Clough wrote how someone had copied his post for word-for-word, and had even taken his images. Here is what he said:
“A terrible thing happened to me last week. After being really excited about the popularity of a post I made to my blog (the most views ever by 300%) I began to research why I had such a great response. Unfortunately, I found something that really upset me. It had absolutely nothing to do with the popularity of the post but it did cause me to take action. I found that another blogger had ripped off my post word for word (even the graphic I used) and posted it on his blog without even giving me credit or links back to my blog. Upon further investigation, I found that every post on his blog was ripped off from some other blog. Not a single one of them was his own. Over the next view days I learned a lot. I learned this is a very common practice (it is probably happening to you as well if you are a blogger) and I learned how to get the plagiarized copy removed from the offending site.”
Even though I know that this is rampant on the web, I never really thought that this could happen to me. Usually I hear people talking about images, but never actual blog posts. After reading this, I looked through Wordpress plugins and found one called “Copy Alerts” to find one that scans the Internet, and if it finds one that is similar to your post, it will shoot you an email.
If you are going to use someone’s post or his/her image, all you have to do is one of the following things:
It’s time that we stop taking other people’s work. They spent their time and energy to develop something that they are proud of. More often than not, all you have to do is ask. If there is a chance that the person says no, there is usually another post or image that the person will probably say “yes.”
It’s like my mother always taught me.
“Treat others the way you want to be treated.”
I am starting to write for more than one blog, so I have decided to start relying on a blog schedule. A blog schedule is a great way to organize and structure your blogging, so you don’t miss any deadlines and are on top of things. Below is the chart that I created:
I am going to take this and implement it into my Google Calendar, so I can get reminders and view it in my Gmail or iGoogle.
Here are some references to create your own version of a blog schedule:
Have you created one? What tips or advice can you give to people on how to create a blog schedule?
june writing goals, originally uploaded by madame.furie.Writing goals are something that every Writer should sit down and write before they begin any type of article, story, book, etc. I read two wonderful articles, “Setting Writing Goals” and “Developing a Writing Plan” that give tips on how to create such a document. Imagine it as a business plan for your writing career.
Without the goals I have always set for myself, I wouldn’t have achieved half of the things that I have in my life. Goals keep you focused on the life that you want for yourself, so it should apply to my writing career as well.
The following is my writing plan (so far):
Vision Statement: I want to become a full-time freelance writer who will get published in notable publications.
2009 Long-Term Writing Goals:
1. Get ten articles published in a magazine/trade journal
2. Get two new clients every month
3. Write a short story that will get published in a literary journal
4. Become a respected Blogger
5. Become a full-time Freelance Writer
Short-Term Writing Goals:
1. Send five queries a week to various magazines/trade journals
2. Create an effective blog schedule
3. Write 300 words a day for short story
4. Write two hours a day until I go full-time
5. Continue applying to blogging gigs
6. Develop an implementation schedule for writing career
7. Learn how to manage time wasters
8. Write a blog entry every day
9. Write in personal diary every day
I am still working on the deadlines for each one. This part is going to take a day or two to think about because I have to shift my schedule around, even if it also means waking up earlier. By the end of this year, I want to be able to stay home with my children, and be able to smile when I wake up in the morning. If I focus on my goals, I will be able to one day. Wish me luck!