On July 21-July 31, I was in the Netherlands. For almost all of that time I was in Holland, which the the Western part, more or less,...

I have come to enjoy The Habit Podcast, with host Jonathan Rogers. I really recommend it for writers and would-be writers. He interviews...

Confession: I am a dog person. To the core. However, I do not have "fur babies" or feel a sense of human connection with them. They are...

Sometimes I repost here from my other blog, Partsofspeaking.blogspot.com This is one, and it's a bit amorphous but heartfelt....

I don't recommend movies. But I'll make an exception. It's not just that "We don't talk about Bruno" is impossible to get out of one's ...

I'm going to post this on Amazon, although I didn't buy the book there. That's a different story.... I was walking into the campus...

Since the release of Dune (highly recommended if you have read the book; not sure otherwise, and I don't recommend much in the way of...

In the last post I used an illustration (Jose y Maria by Everett Patterson, a comic book artist) that re-imagines the typical Nativity...

A friend posted this illustration to Facebook. I found it ... at first perplexing, then disorienting, then resistant, then interested,...

Friends and I were talking about old TV shows from our childhood that are now on YouTube. I mentioned Lancelot Link, Super Chimp. I will...

There are a lot of reasons why you might not want to compete in Toastmasters. To be honest, after a few outings where I lost pretty...

I attended a webinar today that purported to give the Six Secrets of Author Success. I won't name names here. I signed up for it to see...

Entry 1: How to Come Up with Topics I would lay money on this statement: Many people who come to Toastmasters really want to improve...

Not feeling well last night (two reasons: exhausting first week of class and my air conditioning was out, making for a very hot house in...

I am not a biologist or epidemiologist. I am a social scientist and understand research and basic biology. I also understand persuasion...

This is not an argument against undergraduate education or the bachelor’s degree. It is an argument against the unreasonable expectation...

First, I’m a huge fan. I’ve watched all sixteen and I plan to go back though them and watch again. They are worth multiple viewings. What...

I just finished Syd Field’s The Foundations of Screenwriting because I’m sitting in on a screenwriting class this summer. I posted on it...

This summer I am sitting in on an introduction to screenwriting course in my academic department. The final output is 30 pages—the first...

I chose to watch all three episodes, equaling about six hours, of Ken Burns latest documentary, Hemingway. First impression: I watched...