Musings of a Tech Writer

It was a warm sunny afternoon with a brilliant clear blue sky. I sat at a picnic table with my lunch from Safeway: broccoli salad and a turkey wrap. Usually from this park I could see planes taking off from SFO and the Oakland airport. Not today. No plays would fly today. "There's a three-hour time difference. So there probably weren't many people in those buildings," my boss had said on the phone. My mind numb, I didn't catch her mistake. But wait. Six a.m. on the west coast mean nine a.m. on the east coast, not three a.m. Those buildings were horribly full. There was no work that day. There would be no trip over the Bay Bridge, which now appeared vulnerable and exposed. Sitting there on Bay Farm Island, eating a turkey wrap, I was glad that planes for one day weren't shattering the peace and quiet.

I wrote the following during a ten-minute creative writing exercise in my class. Let me know what you think. I have more.

My grandmother sat at a white Formica table, the top emblazoned with a large yellow daisy, a cigarette in one hand.

Frito corn chips ringed the saucer of her coffee cup.

She wore her favorite lucky bathrobe covered with green shamrocks.

I knew where all her candy was. She kept Wrigley's gum in the smallest drawer of her kitchen. The front parlor held a glass jar of anise candies with dark red wrappers.

But in the back pantry, she maintained stacks of prune juice in glass bottles. This held no appeal to a six-year-old.

"Your Aunt Fanny takes too many baths," she said, exhaling a stream of smoke from her nostrils. "If you take too many baths, you lose all of your good body oils."

"How many baths does she take, gramma?"

"Oh she takes one every other day. Sometimes once a day. You only need one bath every week or so."

Grandma dipped a Frito into her coffee cup and took a bite.

I reached into the greasy paper napkin and also took a Frito, munching it slowly.

"That's why she gets so many colds, honey."

I've decided to finish out the rest of the year with MTW, making it to at least episode 100. I'm at 90-something now so I might as well keep going. The remaining episodes will probably be audio mash-ups.

Since I've started MTW, I've tried to post one episode a week. Next year, I plan to only post episodes when I feel like recording them. Crickets. Is there anything more boring than someone talking about their podcast schedule?

Anyway,  I'm just at a point where I'm switching gears. I've enjoyed MTW but I'm getting more into writing. So that's where I want to focus my time and energy.

Thanks.

Mark

Dear listeners,

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my podcast. I don't want to keep doing the same show every week.

When I first thought about podcasting, I wanted to do something innovative. Well, that hasn't really happened.

I need to regroup and think about what I want this podcast to be or if I want to just blog.

So I'm taking a break for a bit while I try to figure out what I want to do. Thanks for your patience as I work my way through the podcasting blues.

I don't have an episode in me today. The weather is just too nice and we're off to enjoy the sun. I'll get an episode posted shortly.

I haven't been listening to podcasts for the last week. I'm taking a bit of a break and letting my favorites pile up.

If you haven't seen it check out the Frontline special on the U.S. deficit. You can watch the whole show on their web site.

Basically, to the U.S. is running huge deficits to take care of our aging population. We are borrowing from China and Saudi Arabia to keep living beyond our means.  There are some hard choices coming. Probably the best thing our creditors can do for us is to cut off the money which will force us into financial rehab.

I've got the day off and I chat about food, gym guilt, lost musicals, my love of documentaries, and keeping it together past 40. Musical interlude courtesy of B.B.'s legal team.

I lament some of the tools of our trade. If you have an answer to my problem, please send me an e-mail at tech-writer@shaw.ca