Stiletto beauty give away...

This from Victoria the editor at Stiletto beauty:

Good morning everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I launched a giveaway of Honeybee Gardens all natural beauty products on Stiletto Beauty this morning. All anyone has to do to enter is leave a comment on the blog post before March 31.

The link to the post is: http://www.stilettobeautyonline.com/2009/03/honeybee-gardens-giveaway.html

I've sent it out to all my friends, family, etc. and thought you might want to do the same.

Have a lovely weekend,
Victoria

Victoria Blackburn
Beauty & Fashion Editor - Stiletto Woman, Inc.
http://www.stilettobeautyonline.com/

Go check her site out and comment and you are in the running... it is that easy and honestly - she has some great fashion and beauty info there.

(Also swing by my site... I am conducting a poll and have been busy posting....)

Penthouse or Jailhouse...

I am on hand pleased that it seems Bernie Madhoff is going to cop to what he did - he appears ready to take responsibility for his greed and unethical behavior and plea guilty to lying and cheating and stealing.

Good show! Finally one of the Wall Street dogs is ponying up and admitting to be a dirty rotten scoundrel. Finally!

While I will not say he has found his honor - I will say finally someone is willing to admit to wrong doing and scheming and lying.

Even better - he will have to go to jail!

My issue today? Await sentencing in his penthouse - NO WAY! He should go directly to jail and NOT pass GO! His investors have had a dramatic reversal in fortune and I see no reason for Bernie to have the luxury of a penthouse. A cot in a multi man cell should be just the thing.

On day it is caviar and the next it is shit on a shingle...

Writers block

Well not really. But I think it is decision time... for 18 months I have been building a portfolio and trying to develop a business plan - to make writing pay. And I have been paid. I really and truly have and I also have written and not gotten paid.

I have taken on some writing for a new magazine and something hit me... this is not what I want to be doing. I do not want to be spending a half an hour on the phone trying to get someone to talk to me about where to Salsa in Columbus, so that I can write a 200 word story and get paid $X if they publish and $Y if they kill. Seriously - that is less than than p cents a word and trust me I charge my corporate clients way more than that.

Now I like the exposure... but it comes at a price and the REAL price of late is that of my true passion - my kiddos and my novel and my poetry.

The bottom line is when E is in school full time- my plan is to be A) be published or B) utilizing my MBA and making some real money OR both. A friend used to say I was selling myself short and I used to counter that I was paying my dues.

This week I think I have finally decided I am selling myself short.

My goal is not to be a magazine author or editor. I have no real desire to be a journalist. I like writing marketing copy, curriculum, training materials and business documents - like white and gray papers and grants. That is what I want to do professionally - not chase Zumba instructors and write about Sakitinis.... unless of course I am writing menu descriptions of Sakitinis - then perhaps that is different.

And what I really want to do is write poetry and fiction for a living - but I am doubtful that that will ever really pay.

So the big thing for me - I have to decide what to do - because frankly I am burning myself out. I really and truly am. I was jazzed writing poetry for the Nake Sunfish this week and my upcoming workshop at Kenyon this summer. I am jazzed writing personal essays.

I also am feeling myself sinking into my normal trap of doing what I think is practical verses what I WANT TO BE DOING and well - it has made me pissy!

I went tonight to a poetry round table and read my work to other poets and songwriters and I made them cry and laugh and my work moved them. This is why I choose to be a writer.

I want to make an impact! I want to move people... I never went into writing to make money - I think I can make money writing and I have - but I think it is time to be choosier about the projects I take on... cuz if I am not feeling it - how can I possibly make others feel anything either - I am good but not that good.

I like writing the business blog and I even liked writing about chairs, I generally have enjoyed writing the MBA papers...

But I know in my heart - I am not a news hound and I know I am done selling myself for cheap... I would rather write a my novel and make nothing until I sell it - than feel the way I felt writing about salsa dancing... there is no passion as I write that story and yet I worked on my short story last night for the Washington Post contest with much passion and enthusiasm.

I have talent... the trick I think is to make sure I am developing the talent I like and not the talent I think will make me money... I can get a straight job with my MBA - I want my passion and my craft to be about an accurate expression of me...and my world view... I want to write right.

Cancer Live - on speed dial!

So my mom is feeling pretty good. She has been off work, while letting the glow fade and she has been taking care of business and resting. She head back to work on Monday and is planning to take it slow and maybe work a few 6 hour days to get back into the swing of things.

This past week she and I have cleaned some at her place, run some errands and had some meetings.

On Thrusday as we drove to L's school, for lunch, in the school cafeteria, I asked Mom if she had heard from the "Grand Pooh-bah!" and she said she had not! Which just stymied me. They pumped her full of arguable poisonous amounts of a dangerous radioactive substance and then send her home and NO ONE calls? I mean really!

So as we pull into the drive thru to get her a hamburger and L some chicken nuggets - her cell goes off.

Who is it you ask? The Pope? No he was sleeping is my guess... No it is the Grand Pooh-bah! One of the only thyroid cancer specialist in the US - is calling my Mom's cell personally! Woot!

And the icing on the cake? He had good news. There was significant uptake on the scan - so the low/no idoine diet that we worked so hard on - worked. Her body was depleted enough of iodine that those pesky tumors sucked up the Radioactive Iodine with a straw! Awesome.

She has to have another CAT scan in a month and then she sees the Grand Pooh-Bah in May!

It was good news. We are lucky to live in a city with a wonderful cancer center and as a Team - my mom, H, my bro and I are banding together to kick Cancer in the butt! One day at a time, one challenge at a time, and one step at a time!

I can compute...

I will be the first to admit, I know enough about the internet to surf and WE all know I have managed to keep the Edge looking pretty darn spiffy. Yep me and google/blogger are tight!

But may I just say... I just configured my Outlook - all by myself - with no one holding my hand and no one directly coaching me. Me and the Help tab did it all alone. And I did a bit of trouble shooting - Go Me! And I am pleased to say... it works... (Now my web guy did give me fairly clear instructions - but still, I was one plugging it in and making it work...)

I have switched web hosts - and no I have no idea what that really means - I guess it means I used to be sitting in booth A (well not me - my page in cyberspace... www.imageswritten.biz) and now I am sitting in Booth C!

So - in the space of a few days - I have stretched a bit of my Web presence muscle and I am learning things! Not that I will remember it for the next time, but hey I am patting myself on the back all the same!

Maybe I will seriously look into that HTML class of FLASH or whatever. I could be a cool cyberpunk chick in no time flat.

I used to have no idea what to do and now I am learning to be my own helpdesk. It is all about doing more with less these days!