I tried ordering a new t-shirt at Cafe Press to wear to the Emerald City Comic Con convention with a mashup image of Kelley/Urban on the front and an image of my book cover on the back. Cafe Press stopped the order because of a possible copyright violation.   I figured the violation might have…

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Instead of visiting golf courses 25% of the time while he’s in office (his itinerary so far), I’d like to see Donald Trump visit a National Park.   But of course he never will.   Why?   Because a National Park would make him feel small.   Really, really small. And petty.   National Parks…

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I’ve been checking in via Facebook and other online venues, from time to time, with Joe Kennedy III–Robert F. Kennedy’s grandson–for the past year or so. I’ve been watching him, wondering if Bobby’s DNA and his upbringing have created a man whose heart, spirit and soul are as transparent and as constant as his grandfather’s…

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In 2013 (was it that long ago already?) Lisa Twining Taylor and I drove to the Puyallup Library to spend a delicious 90 minutes or so with Ursula K. Le Guin and a roomful of her admirers.   To say it was a total love fest is not an exaggeration.   She spoke, read some…

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I’m back in action!   Over the weekend Lisa (my power partner) and Phil (my nephew) worked their tails off getting my new PC (from fellow author and copywriter Chris Bailey) up and running despite persistent, time-gulping challenges.   Century Link’s sluggish weekend speeds caused massive delays when it came to uploading (or is it…

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I’m on the short list of potential copywriter hires at a multinational, multi-billion dollar company. Three candidates are being presented to the company, and I’m one of them.   I’m probably the weirdest one of them (in a good way, of course!), but I put my weirdest cards right out on the table in a…

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Halfway through the night while I was asleep, or on its edge, the word “persistence” captured my undivided attention.   I turned it over and over, trying to discern why it had popped in to belabor me in this unusual way.   A single word: Persistence.   Despite my desire to abandon it, it persisted!…

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Two of the men I admire most were assassinated 50 years ago this year: Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th, 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy on June 5th, 1968. (Bobby died on June 6th about 25 hours after being shot.)   Both men had jobs to do and both men did them extraordinarily well.…

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Dammit! Upwork (which many of us oldtimers unceremoniously call Upchuck) is down again.   I was on a roll, applying for several projects just now.   In the middle of a particularly crucial cover letter, the system went belly up.   I am frustrated with a capital F—.   It’s hard enough to find worthwhile…

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I’ve been walking 32 blocks every day since December 31st except for Friday. Friday it was raining, so I decided to stay indoors and wait for a better day. I don’t plan to walk on weekends, but if I miss a day or two due to rain, I’ll make it up on the weekends.  …

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