The blog I read the most is science fiction writer John Scalzi’s Whatever. Yesterday he posted 10 things that I’ve done that you probably haven’t. At first I thought this would be an exercise in one-ups-manship, but it’s more of a revelation of how unique, coincidental, and just plain stupid our individual lives are.
Here’s my list.
10 things that I’ve done that you probably haven’t
1. Been sprayed by a skunk
2. Watched David Blaine take a leak
3. stuck a sweater defuzzer on my tongue
4. held my breath and dove to 100’ beneath the Atlantic Ocean
5. Spent the night in Dracula’s Castle
6. been molested by a drag queen
7. touched a shark
8. melted a penny in flowing lava
9. been zorbing
10. taken 19 kids and one old man into a Bangladeshi amusement park for $67
Publisher’s Marketplace made the official announcement today. If you can’t read the pic here’s what it says:
14 January, 2008
Non-fiction Narrative: www.whereamiwearing.com blogger Kelsey Timmerman’s WHERE AM I WEARING?, in which the author learns about the garment industry by following the Made In China/Bangladesh/Honduras tags of a complete outfit and goes to the countries to visit the factories that made his clothes and talk to its workers, to Richard Narramore at Wiley, for publication in 2008, by Caren Johnson at Caren Johnson Literary Agency (World).
I’m tired of harder, stronger, longer-lasting, spine-tingling SPAM. So, it made my day when this email landed in my SPAM box:
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The You are a Spoiled Brat, You Should Feel Guilty Award goes to…
Jenn for her impressive list consisting of 23 items made in only 6 countries:
Green Abercrombie shirt – Made in Vietnam
Gray & White Gap shirt – Made in Sri Lanka
Gray AE hat – Made in China
Santa Claus socks – Made in Taiwan
UTMB sweatshirt – Made in Honduras
Blue snowman pajama pants from Gap – Made in Indonesia
Blue cashmere gloves – Made in China
Blue cashmere scarf – Made in China
Snowman slippers – Made in Taiwan
Purple pajama pants – Made in Indonesia
Pink corduroy jacket – Made in China
Life Is Good sweatshirt – Made in China
Green and white sleep socks – Made in ? (no tag)
3 pairs trouser socks (white, black, and tan) – Made in China
3 pairs “casual” socks (black patterns)…
I saw this video posted here. If you want to skip right to the meat, start at 2:30. The lady in the pink shirt is amazing. No one else has the balls to tell the “Compania” what they think. She does.
An Op-Ed piece in yesterday’s NY Times by the former country director of Cameroon brings into question the usefulness of sending recent college graduates overseas to help people that probably don’t need any of their help.
Robert Strauss writes:
In Cameroon, we had many volunteers sent to serve in the agriculture program whose only experience was puttering around in their mom and dad’s backyard during high school. I wrote to our headquarters in Washington to ask if anyone had considered how an American farmer would feel if a fresh-out-of-college Cameroonian with a liberal arts degree who had occasionally visited Grandma’s cassava plot were sent to Iowa to consult on pig-raising techniques learned in a three-month crash course. I’m pretty sure the American farmer would see it as a publicity stunt…
If eliminating poverty around the world is a factor in your decision for whom to vote for President, the ONE Campaign has all of the candidates on record. Each candidate discusses how they would confront disease and poverty….
Books on writing piss me off. I’ve said it before that “…there are many people that take advantage of aspiring writers. Aspiring writers are vulnerable and, unlike actual writers, they have money to spend on books, online courses, and websites.” I would like to add this little nugget…
Reading books on writing takes away from time that you could actually be writing, which is how a writer becomes better – writing begets writing. A brick layer doesn’t get better reading books.
The difficult thing is finding the motivation to continually write. And by motivation I mean an audience or a deadline. I was lucky to have both early on when I contributed my “Travelin’ Light” column to the Key West City paper. Without this…
No word as to what the Scout’s rank was, but, just so you know, I’m an Eagle Scout, which is basically the equivalent of a black belt, so you might not wanna mess with me. And if you do, you better Be Prepared, sucker.
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