Photos and Pinterest and Problems, oh my!

I've been a member of Pinterest for a few months, but I haven't done much with it. The other day, I read an article in Writer's Digest about one author's experience in using Pinterest to create a board of her fictional character's clothing. She then provided a link on her website to the Pinterest board so readers could see the items for themselves.

So I thought - hey, I could do that for my novel Risking Exposure set in 1938 Nazi Germany.. I already had photos of Munich on this blog. Why not pin them to a new Pinterest board and add other photos I got through my research trip to the Library of Congress and several historical websites? Voila ~ the Pinterest board called Sophie's World was born.

To add to the collection, I pinned a photograph of a section of my reference bookshelf

as well as my 1930-era camera that served as my reference for Sophie's own.

Simple, right? Until I tried to link the Pinterest board to this blog. I created a link, but can't get the Pinterest logo to appear, not even after a dozen attempts. ~Sigh~
I'll figure it out again another time.

In the meanwhile, click on the link at the top of the right hand column to enjoy Sophie's World.

Trying it on for size

I tend to be a do-er, the kind of person who's happy with a project and not content just sitting around. I've been known to 'find' things to do, especially physical work like washing windows or cleaning out a closet, just to avoid sitting.

My life has changed.

I'm a couple weeks post-op, still unable to use my right (dominant) arm for anything that requires force. I can keyboard if I keep my forearm propped up, I can read when the book is propped in a stand, I can drive a little with my right hand on the bottom of the steering wheel. But working or gardening, cooking or cleaning? Not happening, not for two more months. I've also got remnants of what can only be called anesthesia-brain, times when I zone out or find myself acting without forethought. Not the best time to make huge decisions or attempt new projects.

And yet it's the time I've been given. For a few years, I've wondered aloud and in prayer what to do with my time and my gifts once I no longer can perform or choose to perform my current job. This next two months is God's answer - try a few different things on for size, Jeanne, and see what fits.

Since my current ability to focus limits me to brief periods of concentration, I've spent the last few days pulling old short articles and stories I've written but never published. Some of them aren't worth salvaging, but a few are. So between breaks for naps and old movies, I've worked through some edits and found potential markets for three magazine length pieces. Plus, I've sent out my picture book manuscript with high hopes, sent writing samples to a couple publishers looking for freelance writers on assignment, and started to think about the revisions my novel needs.

The long and short is this - I'm using my time the best way I can: resting and healing my body, exercising my mind, and sowing seeds that may help me grow a new future.

Permission to fail

Newsweek has a great weekly column called "My Favorite Mistake." This one is with Sara Blakely, the woman who invented Spanx (you know, those spandex undergarments designed to keep the jiggles in place.) In it, she describes an embarrassing error during an interview on the BBC - which she apparently handled gracefully. She had been raised to respect the effort she put into an endeavor, not its immediate or ultimate success. As it happened, her mistake opened doors for her, but the reader gets the sense that even if it weren't so, she would have learned from it and moved on.

I was reminded of a quote by Edwin Land, a co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation and inventor of numerous items for the photography industry.

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.

And one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Billy Joel, said,

Take it from me, you learn more from your accidents than anything you could ever learn at school.

Knowing that failure is part of the creative process doesn't make it any more palatable. Failure is just the side dish, which we can hopefully stomach on our way to the main course.

Do Not Call list?

A couple years ago, I put our phone number on the national Do Not Call list in the hopes of keeping telemarketers at bay. Despite that, every night almost without fail, we get one, two, or last night three calls who come up on the caller ID as 'restricted' or 800, 888, 877, or 866 numbers. We usually let this go unanswered and the caller seldom leaves a message. But last night, already agitated by events unrelated to the poor sap on the other end of the phone, I decided to answer one of the calls.

Me: Hello
Hapless Telemarketer: (long pause while their system figures out they've got a live one) Hello, can I speak with Jeanne Moran?
Me: Who's calling?
HT: This is so-and-so from blah-bedie-blah energy. I'd like to speak with Jeanne about our company's...
Me: Do you know we're on the national Do Not Call list?
HT: ~silence~
Me: Do you know that means you're in violation of the national list's rules?
HT: ~silence~
Me: -> hang-up ->mumble to self -> resume dinner prep

The point is - what's the point? Why does the list exist if companies ignore it? Maybe there's fine print about who can and cannot call despite the list. Maybe there are exceptions.
Or maybe I'm getting a taste of my own medicine. Maybe companies look at that list as guidelines, the way I look at the speed limit 65 sign and set my cruise to 71.

Politics, budget cuts, and the same old same old

Disclaimer: When it comes to politics at a state or national level, I'm a cynic. In my view, few people run for major office because of some altruistic desire to improve the conditions in which we all live; they do it for power and to massage their inflated self-importance.

That said, I think most state and national politicians cater to two groups of people and projects, the ones they're most familiar with and the ones whose advocates holler loudest. The first group is often large business interests, as seen by Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett and the way he limply handed the state over to the natural gas drilling companies without taxing their profits. He acquiesced a bit by allowing local municipalities to tax if they so choose, but that doesn't help the overall state coffers.

Now he's got to balance a budget, so he's doing what the big guys do. He proposes 20% cuts in funding to groups who don't holler loud, who don't massage his ego, and who don't vote. Community mental health and mental disability services, drug and alcohol outpatient treatment, homeless assistance, and child welfare grants are the victims of his choice, in addition to everyone's favorite target, public education.

What vulnerable populations learn by your proposal, Governor Corbett, is that their safety and their health and well-being are less important than the hand-shake deals you make with big business. As Ann Landers said,

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

Better be careful, Governor. You're character is showing.