Diet, Weight Loss, Health
And here’s how I’m feeling.
Usually, when I want to tune up my diet, I return to raw vegan foods for a while — salads, nut dips, smoothies, etc. I actually love all of those things, anyway, and they’re super-healthy no matter what diet you’re following. So, if/when I slip back into eating too much pizza (and/or other rich food that makes me gain weight), raw vegan food offers a dependable reset. I talk about this in what somehow became a mini-viral post of mine:
This time around, though, my wife found some interesting stories about the “all-potato diet.” …
An idea with many go-to lists to get started
Sometimes, even though we’re writers by vocation, we just need a prompt to get us going. For me, I’m busy with a few WIPs, and to be honest sometimes feel like I’ve touched on every topic imaginable when it comes to writing about writing. I got to thinking that writing about writing might be easier if someone were to ask me questions about it.
From there, I though of this as a writing prompt idea: Seek out some author interviews online, copy down the questions, and then answer them as a published article (not necessarily here in The Writing Cooperative, but presumably on one’s own Medium feed, publication, etc.). …
The polarized Post-Trump era could mean a new frontier for businesses, an important career consideration for individuals.
Intro: I’ve been on a little mission lately to try out publishing with some larger Medium publications. It’s tough because you have to invest time into writing these things on spec, submit them, and then maybe you get in / maybe you don’t. This one didn’t make the cut for its intended high-profile publication, so I’ll just pop it here in my own blog, as I still think it has its decent points. And, I’ll keep trying with some of those publications. :-)
IMHO, politics has significantly divided us (esp. Americans) for quite some time (esp. since the rise of right-wing talk radio in the 90s), but only within the very recent Trump era are we seeing mass social media unfriendings and so forth. …
SEO
A look into a conundrum faced by many small business owners and also those who tend to micromanage.
As far as I’m concerned, as a long-term web development and marketing professional, there are just a few broad aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). There is (1) your web site’s infrastructure, (2) your content (which may be on-site or off-site), and (3) how you distribute that content.
I do a lot of SEO work here at Array. Typically, a client will initially have some sort of vague idea about SEO. Often, there will be a belief that the web site itself just needs some new code installed (whatever that means) — a quick, one-time adjustment , and then their Google rankings will somehow improve. …
Text / Writing Utilities
A handy utility that I made for my own use (but anyone can use it) for crafting specific-length chunks of text.
It seems like, no matter where you’re posting, there’s a recommended length (be it a minimum, maximum, suggested, etc). Twitter has a 280 character limit, Kindle has a 4,000 character limit for some of the descriptions, and I write for various publications here on Medium that ask for specific ranges for titles and descriptions.
To use the tool, just go here: http://jpdbooks.com/text-helper
By default, it’s on the “Twitter” setting (280 chars), but you can also check Kindle (4000), or 500, or 1000 or 1500 character presets — or just put your goal length in the box, as I did…
Advertising
Frankly, the offer is potentially confusing!
The other day, I got an email from Google entitled “Reminder | Your $150 Google Ads credit is waiting.” Now, much like many of the people at Google, I’m a programmer. So, I quite often approach language in the same literal, rational way that programmers often do.
There’s this old programmer’s joke that I’ve probably mentioned before: A programmer’s wife calls and says, “On your way home, pick up a loaf of bread. If they have eggs, buy a dozen.” The programmer comes home with 12 loaves of bread.
I’ve seen a lot of criticism of that joke over the years, mainly asserting that no one would actually make that mistake IRL. And of course they’re correct. But that’s not why it’s funny — especially to programmers. It’s funny to us because the construct of the joke perfectly mimics that kind of logic flow found within computer code. Any experienced programmer has likely encountered logic errors just like this many times. You almost always have to be absolutely clear in the context of coding. …
Decluttering Mentally and Emotionally
This purge was WAY overdue!
Today, I went through a five-pound stack of papers that had been occupying my office desk drawer, untouched, for a solid decade. Prior to that, they occupied my life, untouched, since 1991.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Marie Kondo shows lately, but I had a strong urge to declutter — and to ask whether the things I’ve kept truly “spark joy” as she puts it. Turns out many of them do not.
While pursuing an MFA at George Mason University in Virginia (an awful story), I was made to participate in a “thesis roundtable.” Only, I was a first-year and had no thesis. …
Selected Samples
Kind of a highlight reel of various writings.
Quirky Essays & Misc:
Fiction:
Business & Tech:
Online Scams
🚚 An interesting one I stumbled across the other day. 🚚
The other day, I was casually browsing Facebook Marketplace and happened across an ad for a covered trailer (listed as “Carmate Enclosed Trailer” but also appearing as “2016 Spartan 14X7 Enclosed Trailer” and probably a bunch of other trailer makes/models).
I actually wasn’t in the market for a trailer, but by coincidence was planning on renting a U-Haul soon that would set me back about a grand. So, when I saw an enclosed trailer listed for about the same price, I got to thinking, “Wow, maybe I can just buy this thing, use it, and then resell it!” …
Awkward Tales
And I still don’t. 😕
In my publishing “career,” I’ve never done a book signing. And, though I’ve sent a handful of copies of my books to friends (some with short inscriptions), I’d never actually had anyone ask me to sign one — until the other day when my writer friend Shawn whipped out a copy of my novel “Chroo” and asked me to sign it.
Oddly, I had zero idea what to write. I just stared at the inside cover and my brain stopped working (akin to a mental DDOS attack, for any fellow techies out there). Overwhelmed with questions spinning around in my brain, I found myself unable to actually do anything: So, like, I just sign here? But, like, not *just* my name, right, because that’d be odd. So, do I write something first, like a message or a witty quote? If so, what message? What quote? Or wait, should I *draw* something, or make a little squiggly line? Hmmm, and do I then sign my *full* name as though it were a legal document? …
