Blogs & bloggers

What haven't I told you?

eatjellybeans
I let the first U.S. punk compilation slip out of my hands. Album cover from Rate Your Music.


Jean of Jean’s Musings – a lovely blog that I recommend highly – has passed a meme my way, a request to list five things that you might not know about me. Given how much I’ve revealed here, that’s a tall order, but I think I can dredge up some obscure facts.

*I once had a
Secret security clearance. The think tank I worked for did a lot of work for the defense department and the library was responsible for the classified document collection. Getting the clearance was nerve-wracking, as was the proximity to potential national secrets. It was a relief to leave it behind.

*I have never seen an episode of the television show Friends.

*Punk music was the soundtrack of my life for a long time. I knew my now-husband was a good match after we watched a movie that included the song Viva Las Vegas. As we were leaving the theater I told him “Every time I hear that song I …” He finished the sentence, “think of the
Dead Kennedys version?” That’s right. Ahh, love.

*I got my license at 25 (or was that 26?), but
I don’t drive. You wouldn’t want me to. Trust me.

*Despite a lifelong allergy to cats, I have never lived without at least one kitty, except for a brief pet-free period in graduate school. They are worth the asthma, the itchy eyes, the mounds of tissues.

An extra fact: I’ve got some recipes in the Nov/Dec issue of
Vegetarian Times, along with a short profile in the contributers column. Go to your newsstand or local library and take a look. I'll be putting up more information on the Food Writing section soon.

If you have your own five facts, I'd love to read them.

And for your listening pleasure, Viva Las Vegas!


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The kindness of other bloggers

Over the last couple of weeks, writing to survive has gotten a few awards as well as a really kind write-up from a new friend, Dereck of I Will Not Die. The tag line of Dereck’s blog is very intriguing: Sure you could give up. You could settle. Most people do. Although I have not even begun to scratch the surface of what Dereck has written, it is clear that he is here to push himself forward and inspire others to do the same. I'm looking forward to reading more.

And if all this weren’t wonderful enough, Ken Armstrong of
Ken's Writing Stuff gave me a copy of his recently published play, “The Moon Cut Like a Sickle,” after I correctly answered the question “What lady links ‘Mack the Knife’ with ‘From Russia with Love’"? Even though I cheated and used Google instead of actual knowledge, he was kind enough to send me a copy, all the way from Ireland to the far reaches of the continental U.S. Ken’s blog is a mix of movie reviews and stories, infused with optimism and humor. It's on my Google reader and it should be on yours, too.

Finally, the awards (and if I’ve missed one, I apologize. Please let me know). I am so happy that such a great group of writers and thinkers like what I am doing here. This time I'm passing each award on to another blogger who can do with it what they wish. Of course, the blogs below are only an example of the good stuff out there in the blogosphere and there are many that I read regularly and love that I haven't listed here.

BrilliantBlogImage1

Thank you,
Geoffrey and Lidian! I'm passing this one on to Candy of Inside Candy.


iloveyourblog

Thank you, Lidian and
Maitri! I'm passing this one on to Just Bob of the Essence of Bobness.

butterflyaward

Thank you Lidian, Maitri, and
Dori! I'm passing this one on to Karen of The Pitfalls of Life and Five Little Kids Named Larrow.

arteypico

Thank you,
Candy! I'm passing this one on to Koe at The Half-Life of Linoleum.

my-favorite-blog-award

Thank you, Maitri! I can't single out any one blog here without feeling like I'm missing someone, so I officially pass this on to any blog on my blogroll.

uberaward

Thank you,
Judy! I am passing this one on to Lydia of Writerquake.

Next post: Is there anything I haven't told you?
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November's blog: The Virtual Dime Museum


virtualdimelulu
The Georgia Wonder

This month's featured blog, the Virtual Dime Museum, is a shift from personal history -- October’s Melindaville -- to popular history, offering a change of pace for November.

The Virtual Dime Museum provides a peek at advertisements, news stories, and sundry entertainments from the mid-1800s into the early 20th century. It is full of oddities and bizarre medical concoctions, sideshows and haunted houses. Writer Lidian, born and raised in New York City and now living in Canada, has created an entertaining and well-written three-ring circus of pop history, Brooklyn and New York history, and Victorian pop culture.

virtualdimebigbad
The Big Bad Bilious Wolf

Whether it’s digging up an 1896 item about a skeleton hand found in Flatbush or profiling Victorian fascinations such as the animated bust, Lidian brings a sense of humor to the Virtual Dime Museum. Her interests in genealogy and history combined with her mad research and writing skills results in a diverting and dryly funny read. And if you like your pop history a little more recent, check out her other blog of kitsch and camp, Kitchen Retro.

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October's blog: Melindaville

Melindaville


What could life be like after recovery from hardcore drug addiction?

Today Melinda Roberts Tyler is a successful and award-winning professor of psychology, happily married to her soulmate, full of warmth and gratitude for life. Over fifteen years ago, however, she was a heroin and cocaine addict living on the streets of San Francisco, at rock bottom with very little will to live.

Melindaville chronicles her journey from hardcore addict to honors student and professor. It is a fascinating, though often harrowing, story. After moving to San Francisco to pursue an acting career in the early 1980s, Melinda gets involved in the burgeoning punk scene and performs as part of the band Wild Women of Borneo. Along the way she becomes an exotic dancer and high-priced call girl, as well as demonstrates an entrepreneurial spirit by starting “the world’s first fantasy phone service,” Julie’s Hotline. As her dependency on drugs intensifies, her life begins to fall apart. It takes twelve years of addiction before she begins to put it back together again.

The blog contains excerpts from her memoir in progress (working title:
Lost and Found: A Journey) as well as consciousness-raising posts on the nature of addiction as a health, not moral, issue, with underlying causes and more sophisticated solutions than “just say no.”

Melinda’s ultimate goal is to use the proceeds of her eventual book sales to fund a foundation for sex workers. Drug addiction and the sex industry are intertwined. Many sex workers choose that path after suffering childhoods of abuse. Maybe they start working in the business to support an existing habit or begin using just to get through the workday. Drugs like heroin or cocaine provide compelling comfort in a small package, a way to numb the pain of the past and present.

Melinda plans to fund treatment and higher education for these men and women who are so often invisible and voiceless. I can think of no better champion.

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You guys are great!

Some weeks are golden. The sun has been out, the sky has been blue, the kid hasn’t threatened to behead me and roll my noggin around like a soccer ball (I remind myself that he is three and doesn’t really understand what he is saying; we just made it through two weeks of attempts at hitting and melodramatic preschooler threats without much incident). I’ve gotten a chance to talk to other grownups besides my husband, even went out for a drink with a friend. There is a lot of good in my life.

About a month back, a new blogging friend,
Melinda, wrote about saying her gratefuls. That’s what I’d like to do today, focusing specifically on this strange and wondrous virtual universe, the blogosphere: I am eternally grateful for the recognition and support of my fellow bloggers.

Last week, Karen of
The Pitfalls of Life passed two awards my way.

CourageousBlogger

and

bloggingbuddies


Karen has another blog, Five Little Kids Named Larrow, where she writes stories about a very difficult childhood with an amazing clear-headedness, capturing the child’s innocent point of view. I think she's courageous, too, as well as a fine writer and photographer. Through the struggles of the past and present, she always finds a way to rise above. Thank you, Karen. You really are a good friend.

Also last week, Dori of
A Yellow House in England passed the I Love Your Blog award along. Dori’s blog is about her adventures as an American expat married to a Brit. Written in a breezy conversational style with tales of little towns she visits and other stories from her life, A Yellow House is a fun read with some nice photography as well.

Finally, Susan Helene Gottfried of
West of Mars not only received a bunch of awards (no shock there!), but she also gave a shout-out to blogs she enjoys reading, including writing to survive. Go to her blog to read her always-engrossing fiction, to peruse book reviews, or just to join in on the conversation.

I’ve been in a bit of a blogging slump lately, not feeling creative or chatty enough to leave comments. I’m getting tired of dropping my Entrecard all over the place. I haven't had much to post about. Even in my current ennui, I recognize that this virtual universe has helped bring me back to life. Blogging and the support of fellow bloggers can take a large part of the credit for connecting me with the world again, not only after a hard year in a strange place, but also after many years of keeping most people at a polite distance, years of sitting on my secrets and keeping my mouth shut.

This wasn't even the point of starting a blog for me initially. Building a community was far from my mind. I just needed an impetus to start writing. In that sense blogging has helped me connect back to myself, has helped the words flow.

I’m not sure where I’ll be going with this space. Starting next month, I will be taking a writing course in which will entail writing every day, including holidays and weekends. I hope this little push will not only help me find a local community but will also propel my writing forward. It doesn’t mean I’ll stop blogging or commenting, but it does mean that I will have to cut back. Or maybe I'll bring you all along with me on this new venture with updates and postings of my half-baked work. I don't know exactly how it will work.

What I do know is that I am grateful for my blogging friends. You have supported me on my journey and I look forward to having you along for the rest of the ride.

Thank you.

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How did you get here?

I never knew.

I had no idea as I blithely googled my friends and neighbors and looked up various topics on the Web that anyone would be keeping track of my searches. But then I started this blog, became interested in the statistics, wanted to know how many people were coming, what they clicked on, etc., and discovered that these searches were logged. Google doesn't tell me
who has been searching (thank goodness!), but it does list the search terms used to get here.

Some of the searches are from people who are struggling, for example: “why keep trying to survive in this world” or “writing to survive life’s struggles.” Did they find the answer here? I don't know. Most people don’t go beyond the first page. I wish I could hold out a hand for them, help them along the narrow and rocky path.

Then there are the more bizarre queries. Yes, the term bloodworms and marine do come up in
close proximity in this blog, but probably not in a combination that the searcher was expecting. So, in the interest of lightening things up around here, I've listed some of the more interesting searches below.

  • Hangover existential angst
  • Underwater handstand
  • How to survive traveling with a crazy boyfriend
  • Brain nubbin
  • Capricious father
  • We have nothing in common but love – can our marriage survive
  • Flim flan recipe
  • Marine bloodworms
  • Submissive Louise
  • Teen girls baptized in diapers

What were these folks thinking as they read my blog? Hopefully they left entertained in some way.

Next post: acknowledging awards from two wonderful bloggers, Karen and Dori.
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The wonderful, the not so good, and the unknown

First, the not so good: it was another week of sickness for the kid, which meant he missed two (out of three) days of school. We spent several days in an atmosphere of shared crankiness. His minor cold has now moved on to H and me. Brain fuzziness and physical weariness don’t do much for the process of writing. I’m burned out.

Then, the unknown: my father found this blog. This is not a shocking development, since there is at least one link out there with my full name that points to writing to survive. What does it mean? I don’t know. I hope it means an open line of communication. And that’s all I’ll be saying about it here. Some things are meant to be – yes – private.

Finally, happily, the wonderful: two fine bloggers gave awards to writing to survive in the past week.

BrilliantBlogImage1

John of Storied Mind passed along the Brilliant Blog Award, which is quite an honor from someone who I think has a brilliant blog! The premise behind Storied Mind is that writing and creating stories about one’s experience with depression can help break through its deadening effects. Storied Mind also aims to create a community, a place where people can gather and discuss their experiences with depression. All of this is beautifully done, with thought-provoking posts that dive deep into the experience of mood-related disorders and what may work to reach clarity. Thank you, John. I am truly honored.

iloveyourblog

Kimmy of The Eagle The Lion and The Dove passed another award my way, the I Love Your Blog award. Kimmy’s blog is all about focusing on the light in darkness, seeking the beauty in the world and ourselves, knowing that none of us is perfect. It’s a great dose of daily inspiration. Thank you, Kimmy – I’m so happy we found each other via Entrecard!

As a way to share the love and highlight some outstanding blogs that are part of my daily reading, I am planning to have monthly reviews, with a feature on my sidebar linking to the Blog of the Month. Stay tuned for the October selection.

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Missing comments

If you are a regular reader, you may have noticed that many of my recent posts are missing comments. I want them back -- really, they are one of the best things about this blog for me -- and I'm working on restoring them. It may require cutting and pasting each comment from my archive, but it's worth the effort.

Thanks for being such a supportive, thoughtful group of readers. Your input is vital and has helped take this blog to places I never anticipated.
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Excellent Blog Award

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Writing to survive has been recognized by two wonderful bloggers this week.

Kathleen Maher of
Diary of a Heretic was the first one to pass along the Excellent Blog Award. A warning: once you visit Kathleen’s blog, you won’t be able to stop reading! You can also find more of her fiction in The View from Here.

Then Bobbi of
My Muse and Me passed the same award my way. I’ve recently come upon Bobbi’s blog and have been enjoying the mix of fiction, poetry, and discussions of everyday life.

Thank you both very much for the honor!

Early on, I decided that I wasn’t going to pass on memes or awards. Initially, it was because I didn’t want to trouble people with meme postings, and then it became difficult to decide who to pass on awards to: so many choices! The downside to my approach is that I never spread the love. I’m trying to think of a way to recognize some of the wonderful blogs I read on a regular basis, maybe by writing the ocassional review or by coming up with my own award.

Next week: a return to writing about writing? More about my mother’s visit?

I won’t know until I start typing.

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From the inside

Mary of Do You Digg It recently posted a review of my blog. It’s a positive review, though reading it unsettled me a bit.

Part of what unsettled me was the link back to
my own words (which I’ve changed to better reflect my feelings). The “why” of writing to survive was initially a rather bleak description of what life was like for me for the first two years of my son’s existence. This was a difficult time with many struggles to maintain eveness. I lost a lot of myself, my marriage changed, and I’d have to say there was some depression tossed into the mix, too, though I was never treated.

So. I love my son. I am lucky to stay home with him. He makes me laugh. We dance and sing and talk and read together. He has also been an impetus for change, a reminder to slow down and enjoy. With him I am able to remake my own childhood, borrowing the good bits and discarding the bad. I am lucky to be able to do this AND write.

Which brings me to my husband, an amazing man who is my biggest supporter. When I need reassuring about my parenting skills, he is quick to soothe. He loves to read my work. He gets take-out when I am tired of cooking. He understands when I use naptime (when naptime happens) to write instead of clean. We are truly a team. I love you, H.

There are nuances to this angst, and as I’ve been writing here and privately, the angst shifts and dissipates. The words have saved me.

This is writing to survive.
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Seven facts

Ellumbra of Smoke Signals passed this meme along some time ago and I am finally getting around to completing it! 

Instead of passing it along, I offer it up to anyone who would like to participate. 

7 FACTS about Jennifer 

1 - WORK: I was a reference librarian for about ten years, first for a state legislative agency, then for a Washington, DC-based think tank, and finally for the U.S. Senate. Four years of working 40-50 hour weeks in a basement paging through Congressional Records, locating report language, and watching C-SPAN with my colleagues for the laughs led to disillusionment and burnout. (Note: There is really much more to being a reference librarian at the Senate Library than that, but an exhaustive listing of what we did would bore most readers). I quit to go to culinary school. 

Took a detour to be a stay-at-home mother and freelance writer.  2 - EDUCATION: After one false start, I received a bachelors in philosophy, a masters in library science, and a certificate from a culinary school. My first college experience was about drinking; my second, about thinking, my third, about getting a job, and my fourth about taking a chance while I still could. 

3 - FRIENDSHIP: When I do make a friend, it is generally for life (even when I am not good at keeping in touch). I’m still figuring out how to make connections as a reserved person without a traditional working life in a place I don’t know very well, since we’re still fairly new to Northern Californa. It isn’t easy, but I am getting there. I don’t need a posse, just a few confidants. 

4 - RELATIONSHIPS: My second husband and I have been married five years as of last Saturday, and have been together for ten. After a tough 2007, we’re in a good place now. Happy belated anniversary, honey! 

5 - WWW: The Internet was just taking off when I was in graduate school. I remember becoming quite engrossed in the usenet groups. Gopher -- a kind of menu-driven WWW -- was the hot technology during my first library job. It’s a totally different world now. Completely addictive, too, especially now that I am blogging. 

6 - FITNESS: Run 3x a week when I can, other exercise on the off days, walk almost everywhere. I’ve been mainly vegetarian (some fish) for 13 years and don’t see going back to eating meat. 

7 - DREAMS: One basic dream: that I make an authentic life as a writer. A better way to put it: I am living an authentic life as a writer, making the dream a reality. (Thank you to 
The Fearless Blog for cheerleading the idea that we must think something to make it so.)

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Kick-Ass Blogger Award

Angel at Here and Now ~*~ For Angel ~*~ has nominated me for The Kick Ass Blogger Award!

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According to Angel, A Kick-Ass Blogger is a blogger who can grab your attention and give you something to chew over for the rest of the day and in doing so, entices you back for more. A Kick-Ass Blogger is someone who is witty, articulate, and informative. I was introduced to Here and Now via Entrecard, and I am continually impressed at how direct Angel is in dealing with some difficult issues, sometimes through poetry, other times by just writing out her thoughts for the day. Thank you, Angel. I am honored.

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Arte y Pico Award

arteypico

Marlene of The Fearless Blog has presented me with the Arte y Pico award, which is given to bloggers who inspire others with their writing or artwork. If you need inspiration and a dose of motivation, Marlene's blog is a good place to start. For a wonderful example of her work, take a look at Straddling Between Two Worlds on the PublicLiterature.Org website.

Thank you, Marlene! I am honored.

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In the beginning ...

I'm up early this morning, enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee before anyone else is awake, cherishing my time alone, time to think before the day begins in earnest, before I have to answer to the needs of the kid.

When I started this blog in late December of last year, I wasn't in a good place. All the things I've been writing about since then were burbling just below the surface, barely suppressed, waiting to be given form and shaped into a story. I used a pseudonym -- Anonmomous -- and wrote pretty freely about my angst at the time, my desperation, the stifled creativity that I blamed on my daily mundane existence mixed in with a
childhood hangover.

I had no creative outlet, but a strong desire to write and figured that starting a blog would force me to do it on a regular basis. Maybe I would find others out there like me, or attract an audience (even an audience of one would have been wonderful). But nobody reads a blog if they don't know about it. I started using my real first name, joined
blogcatalog, and things started to look up.

Most of my early posts are
gone, but I recently found an interesting one from right before I "came out." I've reproduced it below.

Thanks to
Geoffrey for asking some questions that got me thinking about the early days and how the process of self-expression has actually changed the story I've created for myself.

I also have to thank
The Fearless Blog for her kind profile of writing to survive, and her words of encouragement. As usual, she got me thinking about how a positive attitude can change the equation entirely.

Manufacturing interest
18 February 2008

As I was thinking about whether I would post tonight, not sure if I had anything to say, I decided I would manufacture something of interest to write about: the manufacturing of interest in what I am writing here.

I have no idea how you arrived at this blog, whether you find it entertaining, or relevant, or worth five minutes of your time. I could probably come out of the closet, quit being anonymous, and invite people I know to read it, or at the very least passively put up the address in my facebook profile and e-mail signature. Perhaps then the blog would spread like a benevolent virus across cyberspace, e-mailed here and there: you simply HAVE to read this.

Would more people read? Maybe. Would it affect what I write here? Most definitely. In a good way? I am not sure. Currently, I can write corny or stupid or revealing stuff here without worrying about hurting anyone's feelings or worrying about looking corny or stupid. I would probably remove anything non-writing related, which may be the cleaner and kinder way to go. I still have much mulling to do on the topic.

H and I took advantage of our holiday Monday babysitter to go into the city. We wandered around North Beach, did some vintage shopping, had lunch. We ended up at
City Lights and I was suddenly overwhelmed by all that fiction, non-fiction, poetry, ecology, etc etc, titles and authors I have never heard of and will probably never read.

What a crazy idea it is to write when there are so many talented people out there who can barely sell a book.

But I can't worry about that now, can I?
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Seven songs: another meme

Cirellio of Five Rings has passed along an interesting meme:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Although I can't say that there are seven songs that are shaping my summer season, I can list seven songs that I've listened to lately, almost all while dancing around with the kid. And we don't listen to a lot of current stuff, apparently, so I apologize in advance to the youngins.

Belle & Sebastian: The State I Am In
Reminds me of a different summer, but I still listen to it and the kid has been listening to Belle & Sebastian since birth.

Robyn Hitchcock: Belltown Ramble
My husband and I recently attended a Nick Lowe/Robyn Hitchcock show at the Fillmore. Robyn played this tune, H bought the CD, and we are now hooked. My son asks for the Bell song, and we move around the room, swaying our arms.

White Stripes: Seven Nation Army
Good stomping music.

Sonic Youth: Bull in the Heather
Don't know how to explain this one, but we likes distortion.

Prince: Dance, Music, Sex, Romance
We had a morning of dance. I was thinking of my old college roommate, who was a Prince fan, and there you have it.

Kenny Loggins: House at Pooh Corner
I wrote about this recently. Now the kid sings it, too, though he doesn't catch all the words. It's cute.

Cassandra Wilson: Children of the Night
This song brings me back to a different time in my life, in a bittersweet way.

Instead of passing this on to seven bloggers, I invite anyone who would like to participate to post their own seven songs.
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In six words: a meme

The Fearless Blog has kindly passed along a fun little meme. The task: write my memoir in six words.

OK. I am up for the challenge.

Who would have thought: me, here?

There have been a few surprising turns in my life. Spending five years in the midwest? Never would have anticipated it. Cooking school in New York? No way. Being a stay-at-home-mom in Berkeley, California? Oh, but I would never leave the East Coast again ...

And most surprising of all: tell my secrets to the world (well, to a small group of loyal readers) on a "blog"? You must be joking.

So now I pass it along to the following bloggers, if they wish to participate:

Clinically Clueless
The Pitfalls of Life
Geoffrey's Farrago
Shiv's Brain
The Essence of Bobness

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The lost weekend

One stupid move – accidentally deleting every single entry on my blog – and the weekend was a haze of recovery, web page tweaking, and trouble-shooting.

Reminder to self: be more careful. Read the manual. Back everything up. Test out the web page in different browsers.

And pay more attention to
Timethief. She knows what she’s talking about.

Next week: more recipe development for
Vegetarian Times.
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Um, Hello?

Hi there.

Welcome to my not-quite-fully-baked web page.

I've spent the last 24 hours trying to recreate my deleted blog entries. Got most of them, though the early stuff is missing. Just figured out that I can't get a working redirect from blogger (that darn 'www' in my web address makes that difficult, apparently), so I am starting from scratch.

I still have lots of content to create. Not sure if I'm happy with my descriptions (too melodramatic? not enough information? do I want to be a melodramatic woman of mystery? does my profile picture negate the idea that I am a melodramatic woman of mystery?). I also have to enter what I've written so far of "A Prolonged Illness" and "A Shifting Scar." I don't think they worked well in the blog format.

I'm curious how the look of the page will affect the feel of the words. Even typing into the little box I now have for blog entries feels completely different. Funny how a change in layout or type alters the whole experience.

Anyway, hope you like it.
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Watch this space

A long time ago -- well, not so long ago, but it feels like a lifetime -- I had a "real" job. It wasn't so bad, being a reference librarian in the U.S. Senate Library. The questions were usually interesting and many of my colleagues supportive and funny. The library was a relatively safe vantage point to observe the political wranglings and posturings of the Senators. Even when we were there at ridiculous times of night, it was a cool place to be. (My old co-workers who read this blog may think that my mind has been clouded over with nostalgia. Yeah. It was all filibuster threats and judge battles mixed with impossibleCongressional Record searches, tossed with more than a smidgen of office tension.)

The hours were long and being exposed to the inner workings of the legislative branch got old. The head of our department liked her iron grip and crushed what little joy we had in our dark basement space. I quit and went to
cooking school. Finished cooking school and had a baby. And when part of me slowly reawakened, I began writing.

One of the things I miss about the working world is creating things for the Web (another thing that might have my old colleagues scratching their heads). Although I'm not sure how many people read or use the
Virtual Reference Desk, I am still proud of it. I'm also proud of helping to develop and maintain the Active Legislation list, which is a truly useful online document for those who are keeping up with federal bills that are in the news.

I'm in the middle of redesigning this blog and putting together an Internet site using Rapidweaver. It's kind of like the old days, except I have more control and no technical support. I'm limping my way through and it's slow going. Hopefully it will be up in a week or so, but until it is I may not be posting as much or checking in with my friends.

See you soon.
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Bloggers Unite for Human Rights

bloggersuniteI really didn't want to think about this one.

Why? Because I feel helpless. Human rights abuses happen in far away places to people I can't touch, look in the eye, or help in any concrete way.

Right?

Maybe not. For example,
Guantanamo Bay was created by my own government, a government in which I presumably have a voice. I could participate in international pressure against the Myanmar junta, which could get supplies to people who are dying. There are tons of examples from across the globe -- violence against women, the horror in Darfur, LGBT human rights, etc. etc. Once you start to read about human rights abuses, you realize that the idea of human rights isn't universal. And even nations who tout the cause violate it.

Get involved. If enough people try, maybe, just maybe, the world will change . . . I hope. OK, I'm still a little cynical. But I won't let that stop me from trying. It takes so little to try.
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