Happy November

Five pee emm #noooooo #theyearthatis2015 #2015yip #ddd/365

A photo posted by Nazila (@nazilam) on Nov 1, 2015 at 5:04pm PST

How dare October end so suddenly? I needed another week.

Happy November. It is time to get the content filled and some ideas down on the keyboard. I've missed writing and I'm not sure you have missed reading my rants.

I've been here, there and everywhere for the last six weeks.  None of it too exciting but I was happy to be grounded for eight long days. It gave me a chance to figure out what the rest of the year should look like and be ready to accept what it is going to look like.

I've been to New Mexico, Nashville and South East Tennessee, California, Portland, Yakima!, Chicago and back and forth across the city.

It is also NaPoBloMo. I will post daily (even if it kills me) and hopefully some of you will follow along.

Day 1 is over.

Around the bend - the editorial calendar

The Garden at Great Dixter is a good place to take a nap, but it is not Paris. Highly recommended. 

I had some choice things to discuss today, but since today is nearly over and I just got around to writing, it is going to wait.

Maybe I need to start writing earlier in the day. Maybe I need to stick to my awesome, yet slightly out of season editorial calendar.  Why do I even need an editorial calendar?

Patterns are good. People like to know what is coming. The notion of expecting the unexpected is a in theory, much like when you hike and come across a marmot, but you knew that a waterfall was around the next bend because you were bright enough to look at the map before setting out. 

Editorial calendars set patterns– whether it is a Tuesday travel post or a weekly series of productivity hints that culminates a set of recommendations.  As a reader, you may have an inkling that Tuesday’s post may feature my suggestions for dining in Paris, so there is that waterfall you are expecting and sometimes you get the marmot that appears out of nowhere, like where I would go to take a nap in Paris when my hotel room is too far away.

I’m working hard to get to the waterfall over marmot in terms of creating interesting content without boring you to death or myself because I am struggling to figure out what to write.

When I walk the dog, talk to TH or look at my pathetic lawn (blog post soon), I get ideas for things that I would like to write about. Unless I write them down on paper or send myself a message immediately, those thought vanish into thin air only to be retrieved when something random comes up.

This is not the best way to operate.

So, back to an editorial calendar I go – nothing seasonal or kitschy, but something that works for me as a way to set patterns so that you can expect to see that marmot frolicking in the waterfall around the next bend.

May Day

A photo posted by Nazila (@nazilam) on Apr 29, 2015 at 8:12pm PDT

I'm not calling for reinforcements -  but I am making my May goal public. I would like to blog every day this month, no matter where I am and when.  I like those gold stars that mark my calendar for completing tasks.

Last month my goal was to record everything I ate - that was interesting. I learned I love sugar and early in the day and late at night. I don't eat enough vegetables and that I walk a lot and get plenty of exercise.

All these goals start to snowball in a good way - I track my food, I try and exercise daily and I need and want to write about all sorts of things.

Happy May.

What are you goals for the month?

One Month. Thirty Posts.

I need this. Just saying.

Dang that was fun and hard.

I loved it.

I really appreciate all the feedback.

I am not sure I can continue at the pace of NaBloPoMo. The days I was exhausted or sick, it was hard to get enough enthusiasm up to post. I was glad I could do it from my phone.

I have an editorial calendar at work, I need to do the same for this blog.

I promised a few recipes and didn't deliver. I have a bunch of ideas scribbled down and need to start writing and doing a little research.

During the month of November, I flew two Europe twice and went to California once. I am nearly done with travel for the year. I cannot wait to go and come home again. I see so much when I travel that I want to share - places, things I see and things that make me go hmm...

Thanks for sticking it out with me.

Woo Woo What? and missing your target

Klout, WTF? 

I spend my days wondering if anyone will ever read what I write.

Truthfully, I spend about six minutes wondering if I should hit the share buttons and even posting to Google Plus to see if I can increase my reach. I don't always execute on my intentions because the people I follow or care about are usually on more than one of my networks and I hate bombarding people with the same content or whines.

There are a million places, apps and opportunities for people to share content, but picking the right one is critical to building your audience. Are the folks you engage with the most  on Twitter? Do you love to curate collections and have a million followers on Pinterest? Are your photos envied and emoticoned by more than your best three friends?

Should you pick just one?

I recommend that you and I should spend some time testing hypotheses, measuring reach, and trying different approaches before developing your outreach mix.   I crack up every time I see this ad for Adobe Marketing Cloud.  It is a great example of brands and maybe you, jumping on the latest thing without thinking things through.

Jumping on a bandwagon - Cashing in the Q4 budget and buying some followers. 


Until next time, WOO WOO on or until you mama joins up.

What's the frequency Kenneth?

                                           Startup Hall - U of Wa. Go there. 

Yup. I'm back.

Life has been pretty decent around here - we're busy with work, family, dogs, gardens and travel.  I miss writing terribly. I start a hundred blog posts in my mind and then I just walk away without scribbling anything down.

I think once I learned about page views, impressions, SEO, SEM, trackbacks and how blogging really worked, I got turned off.

I'm not sure Twitter is my medium, either.

Photography is great. I like the instant gratification of posting an image and getting instant feedback. Who wouldn't? However, there is something lovely about writing out your thoughts and something even better when someone takes the 45 seconds in their day to read what you wrote.

I'm going to try this again.

We'll see how it goes.
nm

1 september 2011

It's the Labor Day weekend here and without kids and back to school obligations, it just becomes another farewell to summer weekend. We have been pretty lucky - most weekends we have had nothing to do.

Nothing.

And. It. Was. Awesome.

We spent a lot of weekends with our friends at their house on Orcas Island. The house reminds me of the house I grew up in and the house my brother now owns - Northwest classic with soaring windows and lots of wood beams. The house also has a garden - one that had been neglected for so long but called out for a little love and reorganization. Clearly someone once had loved this garden as it was full of perennials and beautiful - oh so beautiful. Beds made with river rock, a bit crooked, a bit rustic, but with good bones. The garden is away from the house, in an area that gets lots of sun and wisely enclosed with a deer fence.



We spent a few weekends making plans, pulling weeds, moving plants, mulching and spreading wood chips and made a garden for our friends. The weather here has not been so cooperative, so things are not as big or magnificent as we had expected, but we have an idea of what is to come.



And now we rest- we take lots of naps, walk dogs, cook good food and walk on the beach. Other than weeding and picking peas, lettuce and kale, we can sit back and enjoy a garden that will once again, be loved and tended.

Maybe the same will happen with my blogging.

in a word

Where I have been? In a word, everywhere. I have been stuck in a snowstorm in London, lounged in Rome, shopped for salt in Paris, ate pinxtos in Barcelona along with other comings and goings.

Never fear, my family still remembers what I look like and so does my dog.

I am participating in NaBloPoMo this month, partially to get myself back on track, but mostly because I need the outlet.

Bear with me.

Heeeeeeeeeellllllllllllloooooooooo out there

Father sun, the greenhouse, Seattle, WA May 2007.

Is it something I said, or didn't?

Things here are fine. We're just wrapping up another exciting work week here. Papers are almost done and on Thursday night we're on our way to Boston and not such beautiful New Hampshire to deal with a family issue.

My family is fine, thankyouverymuch. My father met another 15 relatives yesterday and my brother has met close to 60 M&Js he had never met. Pretty cool huh?

I will just be happy when by brother texts me from Paris telling me he's okay.

I've been busy taking all sorts of pictures, you should check out my Flickr photostream and using my rss feed to see my new pics as I load them. Some are silly, some are really bad (those are the ones taken with my phone) and some are down right awesome. I'm contemplating buying a new point and shoot because TH will take the D50 to Alaska with her and goddamnit, I take pictures every freaking day.

Check out my contacts too, they take great pictures.

Well the dog is snoring, I'm ready to read something that doesn't pertain to hazard planning and scientific python and hopefully one of you will comment before too long.

smooches,

nm

nablopomo away

Its National Blog Post a Day for Month according to Z, who heard it from fussy. I'm up for the challenge I think even if it means posting from a skanky internet cafe next weekend. NM is not taking a laptop to London unless necessary. Too much overhead these days....


Anyhoo, not much to say, TH is sick, Ernest has pano, I feel like crud, so we spent most of the evening feeling sorry for ourselves. Me, snoring on the couch, TH and E. dd on the futon in my office. I think E. dd now thinks that all beds should be this big.

Now, we're all awake and its close to midnight.

If you blog, join us, link to Fussy and wow us with your witty thoughts and prose.

nm

Happy Blogiversary or whatever you say

March flowers, chez nm.

I have been blogging for a year now. I have about 12 dedicated readers who will admit to knowing me and comment.

Thanks for putting up with me.

I have nothing profound to say other than today's post is very much like last years postings around the same time. I went to the farmer's market (this time with TH, B, her parents-F&J and E.dd), Trader Joe's and then the Arboretum Bulb Sale.

There we spent enough to pay for seventeen hundred goats for goat herders in small emerging country or two, but who's counting? The best parts were having the Foundation Director say hi to us and then promptly asked if we had brought Ernest and seeing M&G and the dogs who we hadn't seen in forever.

For as much as blogging about my mundane and pathetic at times life has been fun for me and maybe fun for you to read, my life hasn't really changed and I'm okay with that.

Check it out.

nm