Reading – Stray Coffee Breaks

photo through the window, looking east — Looking Out

Mostly Cloudy/-6°F (-21°C). One degree warmer than our forecast high temperature, here in eastern North Dakota USA.

If you’d dropped in, this afternoon, I would offer to heat a second cup of Toddy coffee. I’ve also gluten-free veggie crackers and hot bread cheese (leipäjuusto) to offer. The Scampers occupy the loveseat. Thadd is sound asleep right across from me, and Charlie has been looking out through the curtains, but no cars are passing by for him to woof at.

I made some major changes at the end of the year, canceling both of my domains and Personal plans with WordPress, and so they have reverted to the generic [myblogname].wordpress.com. That means that the [myblogname] dot net URLs no longer work. My blogs, all of them but my journal.thewrittenword.net, have been drastically underused. That may have something to do with my tendency to, periodically, delete them and start over from scratch. #SorryNotSorry

It has occurred to me that I have not put together a chapbook of my poetry since 1990 or 1991, which I had printed locally and then hand sold, netting the grand sum of a little more than $200 after expenses. Also did special editions for individuals to give as gifts to a friend, to a child, &c. So much cozier than what I imagine working through a publishing company might be. Thinking about going through the Quilted Poetry blog and weeding out, editing, and such. Reorganizing to some sort of a plan.

That reminds me of the frustrations of computer programming. One runs out of coding projects before one runs out of the joy, and then is stuck with revisions, updates, and troubleshooting—none of which is fun—and the joy only returns with the next new project. It didn’t take long for me to switch to operations, which had a routine but also many day-to-day variables.

I have creamed the WordPress version update at The Written Word, but I have also upgraded to a new hosting plan, which will triple the web space. That was the domain name for my business starting in 1988, about three and a half years after I left corporate IT to do freelance writing (job search, mostly) and academic style/ESL editing and consulting. Eventually, I became absorbed in my own writing (and in photography), and so arriving at retirement four years ago was a good thing. The demands on my energy couldn’t sustain dealing with the radical bifurcation.. The last two years, I took on no new projects or clients, and just scheduled my long-time customers for their routine work. I do miss them, but I am much more comfortable now and able to do things at my own pace—a flexible schedule.

I have a nice metaphorical stack of ebooks to read and some more preorders to look forward to.

My bread-cheese breakfast is wearing off, and so I must seek out a proper meal before the day runs out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lizl

Tag: Reading

New Year’s Day Afternoon