Who Needs Role Models?

I read an article (recommended by a friend in my writing group) today about 10 ways to stay fired up about my writing goals. It was all the things you expect, but in an order that made it more palatable. In other words, “write every day” was not the first suggestion. Nor was it the last. I loved number 3 (“Accept your messy life and your messy house”).

The morning started foggy. I was worried we weren’t going to see the eclipse too well because of the fog. And if the sun was eclipsed, would it be strong enough to burn off the fog? So I tested with the monocle before the eclipse started, and yes, I could see the sun’s full disc on my hand. So that was a relief. I was using Mark’s monocle to shine the sun onto a piece of white paper. Later on I put up a shade around the monocle so that the image would be clearer and easier to see. My friend got into it with a colander, but it was harder to see the eclipse than my method. 
When we weren’t watching my monocle viewer, we were watching the NASA channel on my iPad. That made it feel like we were watching the eclipse with tons more people, even though everyone I called was either busy or not answering their phone because they were watching the eclipse. When it got near totality (we were in the around 90% totality zone) Jaryth looked at it and said “the sun looks like a banana.”  And it really did! It also looked like the Cheshire Cat at one point. After totality, Jaryth got bored, but I didn’t. I set up a time lapse with my iPhone. At first I was holding the phone and propping the screen up on my leg. I sat like that for several minutes. But then even that was too boring for me, so I created a makeshift studio with my blankets and the tripod and left it running until the eclipse ended. [caption id=“attachment_1462” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”] My makeshift time lapse studio - so long as the dog doesn’t t knock it over.[/caption] I had a lot of fun with this eclipse. See you again in 2019 or more likely 2024… Did you view the eclipse? How was it? Let me know in the comments below!

I’m getting really excited. This time tomorrow I’ll be outside with a pinhole box, a monocle, and a tripod attempting to watch the eclipse. #eclipse2017

This is the closest I’ve ever been to a total eclipse–we’re around 92-94%.

Preparing for eclipse

Mark prepared a pinhole viewer with a box. And set up his monocle on a tripod and showed me where to aim it. I’m all set.

[caption id=“attachment_1445” align=“aligncenter” width=“1024”] View from my Office[/caption] Summer is hot here, but at least I have flowers.

~ Robert Collier I’m focusing on the little things to repeat so that I can find success. And if I can’t, then at least I can enjoy hummingbirds.

I’ve known this for a while. I first learned it when I was writing a test for my TEFL students. I had to figure out questions that were hard enough to demonstrate that they understood the material, but not so hard that they would be completely demoralized. I also had to make sure the questions were on the material the students legitimately should know, and not just on English language in general. When I started teaching HTML, I created a course, complete with an exam at the end, to demonstrate that students had learned something. The first iteration of the exam was fill in the blank. This made the test easier to write, but a lot harder to grade. So the second version was multiple guess. But multiple guess problems are hard to write because often the questions can be way too easy. For instance, how difficult would this be to guess the correct answer?

“I give you my word, as a Spaniard.” “No good. I’ve known too many Spaniards.”

This was the exchange Inigo and Wesley said to one another after Inigo had cut the rope and Wesley continued climbing up the Cliffs of Insanity in the movie “The Princess Bride.” Inigo wanted a chance to fight the man in black, and he didn’t want to wait. But Wesley did not want to be betrayed by a Spaniard. I joined Ninja Writers, a group of writers who are going to write a post on Medium every day. I joined thinking that instead of writing on Medium, I would write here on my own site and reap the benefits of writing practice as well as some possible publicity if the other writers deigned to read any of my posts. But then I learned that the group has a rule that you can only publicize Medium posts. So I may be dropping out of the group, or not publicizing anything I write for the challenge. Because I am not going to write for Medium.

I typically walk at the Brightwater sewage treatment plant several times a week. It’s one of those places where if you don’t live here it sounds strange to consider wanting to go to. But I really love this area. Several years ago, King County (the county south of here) needed a new sewage treatment plant, but because of space considerations and, let’s face it, NIMBY they couldn’t get one built in their county. So they came to Snohomish county and set up an agreement to build one on our land. And one aspect of the agreement was that they would build a park for public use. This park has lots of features including a small forest—complete with warnings of cougars, small retention ponds, marshland, and groomed trails. Canada geese come here, as well as dog walkers, and Pokémon hunters. There are at least three gyms and ten or fifteen Pokestops, and I caught my first Snorlax here. I love cattails, and there are lots along the water trails. I would say Brightwater’s only drawback is that some of the trails are only feet from Highway 9 renamed Woodinville-Snohomish road which makes it loud in places and sometimes smoggy. But generally, Brightwater walking trails are a wonderful place to come walk. If you come and see a woman walking two dogs while playing Pokémon Go, say hi! It might be me.

I’m trying to wake up.

[caption id=“attachment_1331” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”] a happy cat[/caption] It’s been a while since I’ve written. That seven word sentence says so much more than it seems. I haven’t written in this blog since October. Other sites I write for have languished even longer. This would be fine if I could say I was working on other things. But I can’t even say that. I finished working on my RWD videos in early fall and then the world fell in on me. I can’t even say what, if anything, happened. Mostly because nothing happened. Nothing. Happened.