Footle and Grok

Messing about with empathy

It’s cold out there

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

We’re having a beautiful autumn in the northwest.

The days have been sunny and bright, yet quite chilly. We haven’t been out of the fifties for the last few days.

I haven’t adjusted to jackets yet, so I’m layering t-shirts and sweatshirts. Just right during the day, but I feel a bit cold in the morning and evening.

Instead of complaining (or putting on a jacket,) I decided to research the coldest places on the earth and in the solar system. Perhaps I can convince myself that it isn’t cold here yet.

Fairbanks, Alaska is the coldest city in the United States. It averages -16F in the winter. That’s cold, but it also holds the record for the coldest city in the U.S. ever when it reached -66F. I visited my aunt and uncle in Fairbanks last August. I thought I could live there, but now I wonder.

The coldest place on Earth is at the Vostok Station in Antarctica. On July 21, 1983, the temperature was measured at -128F. Wow!

The coldest spot recorded in the solar system (not counting space itself) is nearby. It’s on the moon. The temperature of the permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s south pole was found to be -397F, That’s colder than Pluto!

See, cold is relative. I think it’s cold out, but it’s not in negative numbers, so we’re barely cool. Cool!

Go tortoises!

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Well, you received three posts in one day yesterday. Hopefully, I figured MailChimp out, and it won’t happen again. Stay tuned next Monday to find out.

Everyone knows the story of the tortoise and the hare. Even though the tortoise wins, everyone makes a big deal out of the hare and how fast he is. No one congratulates the tortoise in any of the cartoons I’ve ever seen. (He does get clapped for in this real-life race, which is nice.)

I’m doing very well in National Novel Writing Month. By day four, I had 25,000 words. A lot of people congratulate me and tell me how impressed they are. The funny thing is, I don’t feel like I deserve congratulations. I’m at a point in life when I can write a lot, so I am. Plus, I’m a really fast writer, so it isn’t hard.

No, I am impressed with the tortoises. The writers who are going to take thirty days to write 50,000 words and have to carve the time out of their busy schedules. The ones who agonize over every word but get it done anyway.

There are tortoises in all walks of life. Those people who finish, not the fastest, but the steadiest. The ones who stick with it day after day, even when it’s hard and even when other people have passed them by. They deserve congratulations.

Perhaps the simple fact is, we all deserve to be noticed sometimes. Whether people write like Isaac Asimov (over 500 books) or Harper Lee (2 books), they should all be congratulated. Look around you and notice the tortoises and the rabbits. Perhaps one of them has already won a race. Give them a cheer.

The power of we

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

I wrote twenty thousand words in the last three days during four Nanowrimo write-ins. A write-in is an event (either in real-time or virtually) where a group of writers get together and write. It works because everyone is focused on the purpose of the event.

This is the power of we. When we are all writing together, there is less temptation to read a book or do the laundry, so more words get written. That is a good thing. Plus, it’s fun.

You can do something similar. Do you have a project that is languishing? Get a group together and make some progress. Some of my friends like to have a UFO day. We meet at someone’s house and bring unfinished craft projects to work on. They may not all get finished, but they all are closer to completion because of the group mentality.

The less you talk, the more you get done. That is how I write so many words. But if you think time passes more pleasantly when you chat, then go for it. However, if you’re getting nothing done it may be time to move the fingers instead of the mouth.

The holidays are a great time to start a project group or have a UFO party. You can combine getting together with friends and finishing projects. Plus, you might finish some Christmas presents just in time to send them.

I’m going to get back to my writing now. Fifty thousand words won’t write themselves.

Learning Curve

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

You haven’t been getting my posts.

I apologize for that. I thought everything was working fine, but now it’s not, and I need to figure out why. I knew when I switched my website to a self-hosted format, I’d need to learn new apps. I was ready for that, but I wasn’t ready to have what I learned not work.

We live in a remarkable age. I can type something in my house, and you can read it in yours. I don’t have to carve woodblocks, or set type, or go out and hand you pieces of paper. You just have to open your email.

Except when it doesn’t work.

I’m going to learn more and fix this problem. If you want to read what you missed, go to my website. I have been writing daily, I promise. I haven’t missed a day since August 1, 2017.

Thank you for your support, and pardon my dust.

Advice from a bot

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

I’m doing virtual write-ins during National Novel Writing Month. I did my first one at midnight on November 1st. They’re a lot of fun and a great way to stay motivated. Along with all the human writers, there is a writer-bot that records our writing sprints and gives random advice. (I’m calling the bot “she” because her avatar is female.) She also provides quotes if you ask her to.

This was the first quote she gave me, and I hadn’t heard it before.

“We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” – Marie Curie

I do believe we all have a gift, but there are lots of other things we can do, so don’t take your gift too seriously, unless you want to.

Setting a deadline (or two)

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Thank you so much for signing up for my blog (again.)

I’ve wanted to update my blog for a long time, but I procrastinated most of the year. I finally set a deadline, made a list that had a deadline for each item, and focused hard to meet each deadline. It worked, and my new, self-hosted blog is live.

We all know that deadlines are easy to ignore. How did I create a deadline that was sticky? I leaned it up against another deadline, like a standing domino.

November 1st is the start of National Novel Writing Month. It’s my favorite event of the year, and it takes a lot of my time. I started NaNoWriMo at midnight during a virtual write-in, so other projects needed to be done before then. By leaning my blog deadline against the start of my NaNoWriMo deadline, it motivated me to get it done.

Perhaps this could work for you. If you’re going on vacation, why not create a deadline for a project that ends just before you leave. Or if you know you’ll be super busy during the holiday season (whichever holiday you celebrate), create a deadline that ends just before Thanksgiving.

I’m doing that right now. I plan to start a Footle & Grok podcast on December 1st. I have friends coming for Thanksgiving, so I’m going to make my podcast preparation deadline the Tuesday before. That gives me a month to get it ready and a reason to follow my list.

Big plans need big deadlines, and sometimes those deadlines need something to lean on. Try out this domino effect, and see if you finish your projects.

Welcome (again!)

Posted on by Jennifer Vandenberg

Welcome to the new and improved Footle & Grok. I have a new domain name, a new look, and new features. What isn’t changing are the short, fun, posts where I mess about in any topic that strikes my fancy.

Since this is a new beginning, I’d like you to me a favor. Poke around the site (that shouldn’t take long) and let me know what you think. You can tell me in the comments below or on my contact page. I’d love your feedback. Doubly so if you find any mistakes.

I have big plans for Footle & Grok and I hope you’ll join me on the journey. The most important thing you need to do is subscribe again since I couldn’t merge my old site with this one. I hope you will and many thanks.