Beasts and Birds

If you have a blog on Blogger, you know that the login page has a rolling list of recently updated blogs, and a category called "Blogs of Note." A few months ago I clicked on the noted blog out of curiosity, and found one worth revisiting.

Rigor Vitae is written by "A failed field biologist with credentials to be a street sweeper, NASA spokesman, or wildlife artist. Settled for the third option." His artwork is breathtaking, and his writing about art and nature is both detailed and thought provoking. For someone like me who doesn't have nearly enough time to study everything I want to learn about, this site is a welcome addition to the list of favorite blogs. His droll sense of humor doesn't hurt, either.

Bibliophilic Obsession

Books are akin to jelly beans, potato chips, and Dove chocolates: once you’ve had a taste, you simply cannot stop with one or two. Readers and writers joke despairingly about the height and breadth of their TBR (to be read) piles. Most of us have more than one. There’s the next-to-the-bed TBR, the living room TBR, and the not-yet-piled TBR that resides in several bookcases scattered around the house.

Personally, I favor baskets. Under my glass coffee table live an assortment of baskets with an eclectic collection of books and magazines. Favorites like Schott’s Miscellany and Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, stay there after reading for a quick word snack. The best of the bunch from each Malice Domestic mystery conference live there, too, waiting for the chance to be my next traditional mystery read. An assortment of other fiction and nonfiction titles are stacked in an order that makes sense to me both under and on top of the table.

Then there are the boxes and bags in the basement. More Malice books, treasures from my Mother’s and aunt’s collections, and the odd book of quotations or high school yearbook, all waiting for a new home in that bookcase that lies in neatly stacked pieces with assembly hardware and directions nearby.

So you might say that the last thing I need is to learn about any other books. You could say that my present collection plus the two pages of my Amazon wish list should hold me for a decade or two. You would be wrong.

Every day I receive an email from Garrison Keillor with new-to-me discoveries. A bit of poetry, a bit of history, and facts about authors famous and obscure. The Writer’s Almanac is not a blog but it is a daily read, and that’s close enough for me. When the CNN alerts become too depressing, my Writer’s Almanac is a refuge of sanity.

High Flight - Part One of Many

Flying is an unfulfilled passion for me. Not commercial jet flying – certainly not any more. It used to be fun; these days the intrusive paranoia that envelopes any trip to an airport has destroyed the last bit of enjoyment. And that was back in the good old days last week when you could still take a bottle of water or a Chapstick on board.

No, I’m talking about flying in a small plane. The thrill of rolling down the runway, bouncing gently on three tires, steering with your feet, watching the needles swing round the instrument faces until takeoff speed is reached, pulling back slowly on the yoke, and suddenly, effortlessly…you are flying. The earth drops away. You bank left, holding the yolk back slightly, stepping on the rudder, seeking a perfectly coordinated turn.

It’s been years since I soloed, way back when BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport was still Friendship Airport, and Piper Cherokees shared approach control with 747s. That day is as clear as the sunlit afternoon a year ago when I sat strapped into a T-6 Texan turning loops over Warrenton, Virginia.

Hangar flying is what I do these days. Financial realities don’t allow for a hobby with a price tag that might give Warren Buffet pause. But having the memories, I can feel myself at the controls of a little Cessna, light and flirty as a dragonfly. I can even imagine flying with the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds, flinging myself and my machine around the sky in formation, screaming along feet above the ground and then soaring straight up, back home to the blue ocean sky.

All this is to point you to a flying blog – one of several that I’ve found and enjoyed. It is, appropriately enough, called Hangar View. Check out the wonderful photos from Oshkosh, the annual roundup of flying enthusiasts and their beloved machines.

Happy landings!

Where Are the Reunion Blogs?

There are millions of blogs, and the blogosphere is growing exponentially. So why is it that I seem to find uninhabited niches? In this case, school reunions. Googling turns up very few blogs, and Technorati brings up scores of people talking about their reunions, but not blogs for the reunions.

High school reunions are on my mind because we are just back from a bittersweet weekend in New Jersey. A dozen of my husband's fellow graduates got together for a high school reunion, tagging along on the reunion activities of the class after theirs. I went along and enjoyed seeing him reconnect with people he had known all those years ago.

What I found most interesting was how the years fell away as people met, and even more, the differences that separated them back then also disappeared. The bitter side of the sweet was what has happened to that school since they graduated, and how it is struggling to pull itself back up to the stature it had when they were students.

This trip made me wonder whether I should go to my own high school reunion in October. I was one who couldn't wait to get out of high school; it was a painful time for a wall-flower, aware as I was that I was not "in" or even close to it. Until this weekend, I had only some curiosity about the reunion because I thought those same divides might carry over the decades.

Now I think, if I've changed as much as I have, of course others have as well. What intriguing life stories might be waiting for me to hear? What would it be like to revisit the town where I grew up after so long away? Could I reconnect with the friend from grade school who shares my birthday, or the woman whose parents were such good friends of my parents? Fascinating are the possibilities now.

A reunion blog could be a place to exchange information, post schedules, or share "then and now" photos - kind of your own corner of "Classmates" but without the cost. A blog is much easier to set up and maintain than a Web site, and thanks to services like Blogger, it's free. It can be as public or private as you like. So why aren't there more reunion blogs?

Are You a Publicity Hound?

A couple of years ago some good friend turned me on to The Publicity Hound. Joan Stewart is a publicity expert who has a free weekly newsletter loaded with tips for gaining free publicity. That’s my price range for sure! A while ago, she started a blog to go along with her web site and ezine, and it’s joined my daily feed list. If you read her regularly, you’ll find that you start recognizing when a publicity or PR technique is smart, stupid, or just plain off target.

Joan has a few pet peeves that come through regularly, and I’m with her on thinking that photos of smiling people holding up an oversized check, or wearing hard hats and holding shovels, are deadly dull. The difference is that The Publicity Hound offers alternatives that make sense, and get you started thinking about new ways to promote your own business or event.

Recently Joan started an 89-day tutorial, "89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases." Every day there’s a new email and a quick-read tip to improve how you write and distribute press releases to not only journalists but also potential customers. Like the ezine, it’s free, and I’m looking forward to following through on some of her suggestions.

Check it out for yourself. If you need help promoting your business, charity, book, or professional service, The Publicity Hound has plenty of ideas to get you going in the right direction.