Suzanne Calling

One of the assignments for my Interactive Media class was a group project conducting a Usability Study of a website, finding four to six subjects and observing as they used the site. I lucked out with some great (and understanding teammates) and we all ended up playing to our strengths. T was good with identifying what we could test, M made some fantastic materials with which to conduct our observations and I wrote the report summarizing the data and providing interpretation. It was rough to do, but only because it has been hell to concentrate on anything with all that's been going on. The report got finished at 3pm for a 5 o'clock class. I worried that my teammates would find it lacking. Meanwhile, they both looked at the finished product and were pleased with it. As I had the professor's rubric close at hand while I wrote it up, I suspect we'll have minimal revisions to make next week. All those Psychology papers definitely paid off, because the format was stra...

Three years ago today, I embarked on an adventure of blogging daily. At the beginning, 30 consecutive days of posting seemed nuts, an impossible task. Granted, the rules allowed for 'off line blogging,' in which one could write a post on a particular day and as long as it was posted on the day it was written, it counted. 30 posts seemed like so much, but 1,096 days later, it's not so bad! Thanks, NaBloPoMo, for encouraging bloggers to get into a habit. And to those of you who start on that journey today for the first time, you never know-three years from now you might also be surprised at what the month of blogging did for you.

I like to consider myself a grammarian, one who respects the importance of using proper language rules in speech and writing. Yes, there are many out there who can point out my numerous flaws, but I'm always striving to write well. It began with the passion for reading. Later, my Dad encouraged my enjoyment of language arts by purchasing books like "The Joy of Lex", "The Elements of Style" and other books geared towards becoming a better writer. I think he was telling me something 25 years before I became a blogger! Back when I started writing the blog, the typical blogger could have easily worked in as a professional writer if they didn't already work in the field. Perhaps that was part of what intimidated me from starting up-I am not on their level. Still, there are daily reminders that most people haven't read "Eats Shoots and Leaves" or had excellent English teachers and professors. There are people just don't care that they'v...

Oooooh Ahhh Ooooohhh. Do you promise that you'll tell? (mangling the lyrics on purpose here!) I've got a new writing gig! Each Thursday, I'll be writing at www.momdot.com about food. I know, it's a surprise that I'll want to write about food, isn't it? Anyway, if you like the meal in What's For Dinner Wednesday, expect it to show up in Tasty Thursday sooner or later. For now, I'm planning on uploading my posts on Tuesdays, so there may be a week's lag time between a WFDW meal and the recipe showing up-if it's worthy of publication! So, what things would you like to see featured on Tasty Thursdays or here on WFDW? I have a couple of ideas in my head that will fill at least a month's worth of columns. I'm pretty excited about it and hope you'll come visit at Momdot. See you there this (and every) Thursday!

About a month ago, Jennifer over at Thursday Drive posted an entry in which she shared a sample of her handwriting . She displayed a beautiful, fluid handwriting sample that could only come from her hands. Her writing is so eloquent, so must be her penmanship. The idea was one I tucked away. I made one of my usual To Do lists, with the idea that it would be scanned and entered the day after I saw that entry. What I didn't realize is that I did not reload all the drivers to the HP when I had that lovely hard drive crash last year. The idea went on the back burner, saved for a rainy day. Yesterday's post HAD to have the picture that graces our fridge, one taken by Bawb when I visited Chicago to move Ed back east. July 5, 1995, Lakeshore Drive, Chi Town. That was a great trip and the start of an adventure for the two of us. The flippant pose? That sums the two of us up nicely. My handwriting? It's not as cute as the picture. I spend far more time using a keyboard ...

Six months ago, I wrote my first entry for NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. I haven't taken a day off since. It's funny, there was a time when my readers (all six of you) would complain that I hadn't written in three or four days. Heck, when I was having some Blogger issues in 2006, I would go weeks without posting! My goal was to get through NaBloPoMo, maybe make a few friends and gain a few readers. I did that and then some. I've got blog buddies that I have to pop in and visit every day, I dragged a blog friend into NaBloPoMo and my reading audience went from roughly 14 a day to about 25. Sweet. A writer wants to have readers. In the waning days of NaBloPoMo, one of the participants replied to a forum question "You've completed this, what are you going to do now?" by mentioning Holidailies. Ooooh, another blog post every day? That sounds like fun! December went along much like November. I made some friends and picked up a few more re...