New Smyrna Beach, FL. It’s a beautiful wide beach, with sand hard enough that you can ride a bike on.
Category: Uncategorized
Friday Photo: The Undisclosed Location
Friday Photo: Capitol Blooms
DCist Exposed FAQ – New Pink Line Article
I wrote a short article for the Pink Line Project on the DCist Exposed Photography Show. It’s a really neat event. DC photogs submit their photos and then the best are selected for a show at Long View Gallery. I had a photo in the first year of the show. It was awesome seeing one of my pics hanging on a gallery wall and I got to meet some great photographers who I’m still friends with.
It’s so popular that this year there are two opening nights, March 15 and 16. Get your tickets now – it will sell out.
Goodreads Review: The Art of Non-Conformity
The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World by Chris Guillebeau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Perhaps because I’m an avid reader of Chris Guillebeau’s blog, I didn’t get as much out of this book as I thought I would. It’s still a good book, however, for people who want to live differently and pursue non-traditional goals. However, a lot of it is very familiar to regular readers of his blog.
Mini-Retirement Interview
I was interviewed by a reporter from U.S. News on the enticing concept of the mini-retirement.
New Fiction in Thirty First Bird Review
Check out my short story, Don’t Mess Up My Block which was recently published in Thirty First Bird Review.
The editor of Thirty First Bird Review called my story an “unholy marriage of New Age fluff and international diplomacy.” That’s about right – it’s a dark satire about a management consultant who tries to apply his misbegotten theories to an already screwed-up country.
Thirty First Bird Review is a new literary journal published by Edward Simon, an adjunct instructor of English literature and composition at Point Park University and Duquesne University. The journal is a web site but also intends to publish a print journal and be an integral part of Pittsburgh’s literary scene.
Friday Photo: Signs of Spring
After what seems like the longest winter ever, signs of spring along the Potomac.
Friday Photo: Save Darfur Protest
I was out last Friday and just happened to run into this protest. Students poured up from the Dupont Circle Metro then marched down Massachusetts Avenue to the Embassy of Sudan. There were around a hundred protesters, some of whom carried signs with the names of Sudanese villages that had been ethnically cleansed. I followed along on my bike and fortunately I had my camera with me.
I like this picture because it shows the motion of the cab and the number of people at the protest. I took it with my Canon Digital Rebel XT with a Canon 55-250 IS lens. I ran it through the “aged photo” filter in Adobe Lightroom to fade the colors a bit.
Taking Time Off to Write
I’ve not been blogging much because I’ve been busy wrapping up my job. It’s been a great three years working on Ocean Explorer but I’m ready to do something new. My last day at NOAA will be October 15.
While I love working on web sites, I have another passion – writing. I’ve written a couple of short films, won the Film DC Screenplay Competition a couple years ago, and, most recently, was the screenplay competition manager for the DC Shorts Film Festival (crazy fun). I’ve also written articles and short stories. It’s time for me to pursue that part of my life for a while. I’m going to take off about 3-4 months to write. I’ve been working on a novel for the past couple years and it’s something that I want to finish.
The novel that I’m working on is a dark comedy about DC, set during the summer before 9/11. I’m about halfway done with it and need large blocks of uninterrupted time during the middle of the day to finish it.
I’ll be busy with other projects, too. You may find me at a Caribou sipping cappuccino but I’ll be working, trust me. I plan on really learning WordPress and updating this blog. I’m going to look for other writing opportunities, perhaps on other blogs or in print. I’m also going to market my screenplays and short stories.
And I have another idea for a book, as well. It just occurred to me as I was telling people at work that I was leaving. NOAA was involved in the production of the new Ocean Hall exhibit at The Smithsonian. Many of the people I worked with were part of this project so I joked with them that my book would be a mystery called, “Murder in Ocean Hall.” This idea started as a laugh but, the more I thought about it, the better this idea sounded. It would be fun to write and my non-reading friends might even pick up a mystery set at the Smithsonian. So, I might be working on this instead of my serious, “literary” novel.
This “writing sabbatical” will be an exciting adventure for me. Yes, to me, spending several months in front of a computer will be an exciting adventure… what could be more fun than having time to create? Wish me luck!