Week in Review-Preview

In Week 2 of the 600 Minutes a Week Dare, I failed the goal by 18 minutes. It was tougher than the first week. I am really dipping into the persnickety issues which I've avoided, and I'm making really good progress on them... but they're hard on the brain. This week should get me through most of those.

Will it get me to the end? Not sure. Frankly, I'm not sure the persnickety issues weren't hiding other persnickety issues... but I think not. But I think it's going to take me a little more than a week, so introducing:

The 800 minutes in 10 Days Dare

Yep, I'm hoping to finish this darned book by Talk Like A Pirate Day!

I have no idea if this is realistic, and furthermore I'm throwing in a new wrinkle: Saturdays, from now on, are going to be Blog Like Hell Days, and therefore won't contribute much to the rest of the goal. (See more about Blog Like Hell Day below in the "preview" section.)

Lookie, lookie, up at the top of the page! A new header image!

I had a sudden inspiration earlier this week, even though I was not looking for one. (Hey, I'm fine with "Simple" template.) But I was browsing through various old magazines, and I was first inspired to create a retro header with the two side-by-side frames. But I needed an image for one of the frames. I was planning on drawing something WPA-ish, if I could come up with the concept images I wanted to put in.

Then I came across a public domain image that I just fell in love with. It was in a 1915 issue of The Strand Magazine (I think August, I have to look it up and also put in artist credit).

It's not finished, but 'tis good enough for now. When I do more work on it, I will probably talk about it in one of my Monday Night Cover posts.


Preview of the Coming Week:

The goal of my new Blog Like Hell Saturday will be to have the postings for the whole week mostly done by the end of the day. This not only allows me to get all the blogging work out of the way in one day. (Well, most of it.) It also allows me to put up a schedule of postings for the week. And it allows me to limit what I do on the blog.

• Sunday -- Important Vs. Urgent, another Layer in Productivity
• Monday -- "Monday Night Covers" - I look at four new book covers.
• Tuesday -- The Plan - Career, Writing, Marketing, The Whole Enchilada.
• Wednesday -- The Plan - Part 1: Who Am I? Laying the Foundation of My Personal Brand
• Thursday -- The Plan - Part 2: The Writing and the Art
  
• Friday -- The Plan - Part 3: The Blog

Next week I'll be instituting a new schedule, but I'll wait until then to tell you about it.


The Video Of The Week - Buster and Tacos

This particular YouTube video always amuses me. It seems to be someone's sound editing exercise -- they've taken a clip from Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL, and edited in sound effects and dialog.

Since I do a lot of writing at Taco Bell, and since I am talking about my personal brand (and how it springs partly from classic Hollywood), I give you this video:



Who knew that Buster was really doing all that just to get at some free tacos?

See you in the funny papers.