The other day Jane called and said I should come home because water was bubbling up in the sprinkler box in the yard. I don’t know anything about sprinkler systems, so with a sense of dread I drove home. Sure enough, the valve box was a puddle of water. I do know how to shut off the water to the sprinklers, so I did that … more »

IT Author’s latest podcast, Testing testing 123, dives into testing. Rather than just commenting on testing from a technical writer’s point of view, Alistair Christie and his co-host Graham Campbell interviewed an actual tester. It’s a good interview with lots of informational nuggets. For example, “regression testing” is testing those software features that were tested previously. Every new feature has the potential to affect other … more »

I listened to a podcast from Radiolab titled Stochasticity (meaning randomness) the other day, and it made me look at a few things in an entirely new light. The hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich tell the story of a lady who developed Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s debilitates muscle movement and control by depleting the dopamine in the brain, they explained. Her doctor gave her a … more »

As I implemented the Organize Series plugin for my long essay about moving From Overlooked to Center Stage, an interesting idea dawned on me: The Long Tail applies to writing as well. The Long Tail is an economic principle claiming that an abundance of little sales of niche products eventually outproduce the mega sales of mainstream products. For example, Amazon.com may not sell many 1970 … more »

Epiphany: Cross Pollination Ultimately, what my colleagues had to say did have merit. There is a point that, in playing too many roles, you spread yourself too thin. You compromise your specialization and expertise as you step into unfamiliar territory. There is a limit to the number of roles you can play, and perhaps I had stepped over that limit. But I believe I also … more »

I decided to record a short two-minute videocast to try out my new Kodak zi8 pocket camcorder. In this videocast, I share a brief thought about the similarity between creative writing and technical writing.

I have mixed feelings about Christmas. People in our neighborhood have been bringing over treats all week — a chocolate pie, a peanut butter pinecone bird feeder, sparkling apple cider, brownies, rice crispies, honey, marmelade jam, Stephen’s hot cocoa, sugar cookies, and other food. They bring them with such pace and vigor you would think we were either starving or desperately in need of fattening … more »

Not having grown up in Utah, when it snows, my first instinct isn’t to start shoveling my driveway. So when it snowed last week, I let the snow pile up in the driveway and assumed it would eventually melt. But it didn’t melt. Several days later, it still didn’t melt. And then it snowed again. In the course of a week, we had driven over … more »

This week I’ve been on vacation in Florida, visiting my family and touring the theme parks — Seaworld, Disneyworld, and (soon) Busch Gardens. I used to live in Florida and would go to Busch Gardens all the time. But this week is more extreme. Our first day at Seaworld, I realized my theme park endurance was poor. The next day at Disney was much better, … more »

Today is the start of both NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, whereas the goal of NaBloPoMo is to post every day for a month. NaBloPoMo started after NaNoWriMo, so NaNoWriMo has more of a defined purpose: National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach … more »

Boagworld, a podcast on designing and developing websites, has a recent episode on innovation worth listening to whether you’re into web design or not. Paul Boag gives good tips on the importance of play and experimentation as a method for innovation. He suggests that you challenge assumptions and ask questions, that you break up your work day with short periods of play. He then quotes … more »

Being boring is sin #3 in my list of the seven deadly sins (other sins include being fake, irrelevant, unreadable, irresponsible, unfindable, and inattentive). Perhaps a more tactful way of saying something is boring is to say the writer neglects to “keep the audience’s attention.” I’m always hearing about the short attention spans of online audiences, that readers only skim your content and spend a minute … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 15 min. For the past couple of days I’ve been in Idaho at a pre-professional writing conference at Brigham Young University – Idaho. The purpose of the writing conference is to bring in published novelists, poets, editors, and professional writers to give students a glimpse into the careers they plan to enter. Recommended link: If … more »

This is the second post in my 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging series. My version of the seven deadly sins of blogging are as follows: being fake, irrelevant, boring, unreadable, irresponsible, unfindable, and inattentive. A few years ago, I was talking with a guy named Clyde about blogging. He wasn’t sure what topic he wanted to write about, and I encouraged him to pick a … more »

As you know, the sessions at the STC Summit in Atlanta last year were recorded. My blogging presentation, Introduction to Blogging: A New Technical Communicator Role, is the only recorded session you can listen to for free.  It’s labeled as the “Featured session – free of charge.” I didn’t even realize this until someone tweeted it this afternoon. I figure it means one of two … more »