Business, writing, marketing, and other ideas

Some alternative titles that I considered for this post are:

• Tropical storms and brain storms in the wee hours of the morning
• Things I do when I should be sleeping
• Why my eyes are bloodshot this morning (totally G-rated), and
• Oh, craaaaap...it's already time to get up?!

Well Tropical Storm something-or-other began to roll into town yesterday. For me, it climaxed at about 2:30 this morning with all of the telltale sounds of, what else, a summertime tropical storm, compounded by the oh-so-poorly-placed plastic storage bin (with lid -- that's the important point) directly underneath the rain gutter's outlet, which is perched about 2' above the ground and just outside my bedroom window. The overall effect was that of being awakened by the pervasive and not-at-all-pleasant sound of fairly loud drumming combined with Chinese water torture that is being dispensed in a fashion similar to a waterfall.

(Note: I say "climaxed" totally anticipating that this storm will be a non-event and will move on to points far away from me and anyone else, leaving no real damage in its wake.)

(Another note:  I just checked -- in the spirit of accuracy and being quasi-anally retentive -- and according to the National Hurricane Center this is Atlantic Tropical Depression 16. I'll update this post should good 'ole 16 get a more proper name.)*

So, here I sit at almost 6AM, I'm about to begin teaching my early-morning Seminary class and I've been up for 3 1/2 hours (with many more hours still to go today).

On the upside, I have come up with some great ideas for a friend's product she hopes to market (yes, I've already emailed her) and, thanks to the notepad and pen I keep beside my bed, I have about 30 potential titles for List My Five articles. Not so much on the upside is that I realize how much I've left undone lately -- in my best Winnie the Pooh: Oh, bother.

(Note to self:  Find and buy another pen that lights up when I write, so that I may, once again, write clearly and then eventually read legible notes-to-self written in the wee hours of my mornings.)

Happily, I see a nap in my near future. YAY!, yet again, for homeschooling.

Happy Wednesday, all.

*Update 9/30/2010:  The storm later officially, sadly, became Tropical Storm Nicole and went on to cause damage, injury and death. My heart goes out...

New writing gig with List My Five

I've had a very exciting, yet stressful, past few weeks. I'm learning so much -- literally daily; but the fact that there's so much more that I want and need to learn, and that I feel I need to know it yesterday, sometimes overwhelms and frustrates me.

For today, though, I'm excited to say that I have just published my first article on List My Five. What fun that was! I may already be hooked.

I spent some time this afternoon looking up stats, song lyrics, videos, etc. about and by Michael Jackson. (The songs are still swirling around my head and playing in my ears. Luckily, since I'm sooooo not a dancer, I haven't yet broken out into a moonwalk across the kitchen floor.)

I included much more in the article than was required -- I tend to be wordy -- and I enjoyed every moment of it. I'm looking forward to doing more.

Here it is -- my article about the top five Michael Jackson songs. Let me know what you think.