This has been a very busy month! I was honored to attend the 10th anniversary of the East African Community's symposium in Arusha, Tanzania. I was asked to demo the XO laptop for attending delegates. I was supposed to go with my boss, and a day earlier, but we encountered some flight troubles when the plane next to us on the Kigali Airport air strip crashed into the VIP building. We were all sitting on the plane right next to the one which crashed. With fears that the crashed plane may explode we were evacuated from our plane (the first emergency evacuation for me!)

So the next day I was off to Arusha alone. It is a beautiful city. Trees line most of the city's street and you can see mountains from most any building. The meeting's focus on the second day (first for me) was climate control. There was a fantastic, informative presentation by a researcher from Kenyatta University in Kenya who warned that the climate change effects would wreak havoc on the African climate, everything from changing agricultural patterns to dire financial implications. His presentation was followed by another passionate plea for action from a Burundian delegate. In good news, a decleration was passed by environmental ministers from all East African counties: Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda & Kenya, promising to make climate change controls a top priority.  
The day concluded with discussion on strengthening community between the East African countries. One professor, also from Kenyatta, provided some great survey data from those who traded and worked across borders.

Many were enthralled with the XO laptop, and had heard of it before. Others were more unsure of how a laptop could change education. Unfortunately the time was so short to discuss such matters. 
 
 
Upon returning from Tanzania, things continued to be fast-paced as the following morning we started our second XO camp. The XO camp is time provided for kids (this time in 12 different schools) to explore, create and computate, which they might not be able to do during school time. I am working with La Colombiere a private school in Kacyiru district of Kigali. I was being assisted by 3 students from Kigali Institute of Education (who we trained the prior week) and also a member from the Rwandan XO laptop deployment team. We are working with a total of 60 students. Our first day we started with introductions. I asked students to use whichever activity (program in the laptop) they want, to introduce one of their peers that they do not know very well to all of us. After introductions, we turned our focus to the three themes of the camp: AIDS,  the environment, and perception of the future (note: these themes were chosen by the Rwandan Ministry of Education as being important to Rwandan society). We asked students to record their curiosities and questions about AIDS in the Write activity. Their questions were great and telling. Some of their questions included: "does AIDS have a cure?;" "does AIDS kill?;" "who was the first person to get AIDS?;" "How do babies get AIDS?" They were assigned homework to find answers to their own questions.
The next day was really great. Kids came in with printed information on AIDS and answers in their laptops, ready to share what they had found. By the end of the morning, we had found an answer to every one's curiosity. The next step was to make this into a project. I hung a printed sheet with our curiosities and answers around the room and asked students to chose one answer that really surprised them and to create an educational book about it for others. We used Etoys for this.
But before the project began, we explained the importance of the students to be creative, so we challenged them to draw the most creative picture they could imagine.
We are now transitioning our focus to the environment and future and to use different programming environments on the laptop. More to come! Murakoze!

It seems that most of us spend our time in rapid fire mode, as if we're saving lives--or the world. So how do you find time to write, instead of just thinking and talking about writing? 


Here are a few tips to help you claim a few precious moments each day to get something down on paper.

You can write:

• on your commute.
• instead of surfing the 'Net.
• during commercials, if you don't have TiVo.
• during TV shows that you've decided aren't all that good anyway.
  
• while getting your hair done.
• while bored in a meeting you really don't need to be attending anyway.
• on your lunch hour. (You'd be surprised how many pages you can accumulate that way.)
• when you get up 15 minutes earlier or go to bed 15 minutes later.
  

This just in! Ideas for increasing your free time (to write, of course). http://holykaw.alltop.com/more-time

Got any ideas of your own about how to sneak in some writing time? If so, post a comment for all to share.

Actually, if you enjoy these creative writing posts, I'd love it if you left a comment, so it won't seem like I'm flinging words down a silent tunnel.

Been longing to write--maybe for decades--but can't seem to get started? Here are a few tips to grease the wheels. On your mark . . .

• Get organized to write. Get notebook, a nice writing implement, and a space.
• Write lists of words--words that interest you or confound you or enchant you.
• Play with phrases. Don't worry if they're meaningless. Just write them down.
  
• Start a journal--for your eyes only.
• Write a letter--not an email message--but a real, hard copy letter. Note: It can be short.
  
• Promise someone you'll turn in 50 - 100 words of your writing each week. Make the consequences unpleasant. For example, each time you don't submit the work to him or her, you have to pay that person $50, no excuses.
  

Later, we'll go into more challenging ways to start writing stuff that's got shape and substance to it.

Just remember, you'll never get published if you don't write anything. And congrats to all of you who have been writing.

In my quest for a new job, I decided it was best for me to network, network, network!  On-line job sites were leaving me discouraged so I knew I had to get out there, be seen, and talk to people about my goals.  I began volunteering for a local dog rescue.  During a fundraising event, I met a woman (who had also lived in Boston) who was hired as the PR person for the event.  We hit it off immediately and by the end of the night, she offered to introduce me to a woman she was working with who had started her own company designing camisoles. 

Soon, I met Jennie Horn, a delightful young woman who started a company called "Second Base."  (www.shopsecondbase.com)  I am inspired by her commitment to learning about an industry she had no previous experience in and taking on the challenge of starting her own company.  Jennie found a need for a unique garment that didn't exist in the market and found a way to develop it herself - and trust me, it's amazing!    

And it doesn't look very good for people who say they've always wanted to write. Here are the final responses to the question: "Are those who say they've always wanted to write serious about becoming writers?"
Only 9% of the 32 respondents said "Yes."

21% said "No."

31% were more generous. They said "They'll get around to it eventually."

And a rousing 37% said, "They're just dreamers."

What does this informal, unscientific survey tell us? Well, it might mean that when people say they want to write, others don't take them seriously.

On the other hand, some writers were among the poll respondents, so maybe they're the ones who believe that wannabe writers eventually get around to writing. Or maybe they're the 9% who feel confident that those who say they want to write really do.

Are you someone who professes to have always wanted to write? Are you writing? If so, what was your catalyst? If not, what's holding you back?

Maybe there are reasons you actually shouldn't write a book. See what writer Joel Orr offers as reasons at www.examiner.com/7-reasons-not-to-write-a-book.

In my next post, I should write about what I said I'd write about: the actual contents of the Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers presentation I delivered on October 14. But I think I should write about how to give yourself a push to get over the hump, if you really want to write, but aren't--writing, that is.

Want to get a huge book advance? Check out this blog posting, which also points out that--are you ready?-- 81% of the population wants to write a book! Get a Big Publishing Advance.

Don't forget to leave a comment if there's something about creative writing that you'd like to see covered here. Thanks!

Simmons soccer pushed Emmanuel College into double overtime to take the 2-1 victory over the second-seeded Saints in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship game on Saturday. Freshman Lian Atturio (Hanover, Mass.) scored both goals for the Sharks, including the game-winner, which came in the 117th minute. Senior goalkeeper Rachel Elliot (Amherst, N.H.) made 11 stops to help lead fifth-seeded Simmons to the Championship title. With the win, the Sharks earn an automatic qualification to the NCAA Division III tournament, Simmons' first national appearance since 2004.

To read the entire article please see: www.simmons.edu/athletics/news/2230.php

Now onto the NCAA Division III tournament!

Hi Everyone,

Finding time in the early weeks in November for fun diversions is always a challenge.  Midterm exams and papers are being returned.  The end of the semester is now in sight, particularly as students anxiously wait for their spring course registration times, so that they can save their seat in a particular lab section, or ART 138 - Basic Photography, which most have to wait to take until their senior year because of it's strong popularity. Students are entrenched in what seems as though mountains of coursework and homework, while faculty know it is only a matter of time until the mountains are on their plate to grade! 

Thankfully, this past week a group of 20 excited students and faculty found time and gathered to have some fun in the chemistry lab, making bars of soap. Students gathered after "chem sem," our weekly Chemistry Seminar course to take a brief respite and cook a mixture of lard and other oils in a solution of lye on a somewhat "larger than normal scale."  Students also were able to make use of excess gycerine, a waste generated in the production of biodiesel, in the soap, which is an additive typically used as a moisturizer.  Irv Levy, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Gordon College and fellow Green Chemistry Education Network Member, who developed this specific recipe, was on hand to help us with the large scale soap production. 

Once the reactions were complete, students scented the soap with natural plant extracts and added raw uncooked oatmeal to serve as exfoliants as desired, and poured the mixtures into the bar molds. In roughly one month, the bars of soap will have cured and solidified and will be ready to use.

If you would like a recipe to make your own bars of soap safely at home in your kitchen there is a host of information you can find on the web.  Check out the pictures posted soon.

Until next time, Take care,
Rich  

You remember the poll I mentioned in my previous blog? The one that asked the question: "Are the people who often say, 'I've always wanted to write' serious about becoming writers?"

Well, for a while there, it looked as if no one really believed these folks. 75% of respondents said they were "just dreamers." Pretty bad, huh?

But as more people responded to the poll, the numbers actually got better. So far, 28 people have voted. Here's how the answers look now.

Question
"Are the people who often say, 'I've always wanted to write' serious about becoming writers?"

Answer
Yes  7%
No  25%
They'll gt around to it eventually  32%
They're just dreamers  35%

I was interested to see that some voters left thoughtful comments, and doubted the legitimacy of the question itself. They wondered if the opinions would offer me any useful information. (Since I know that some aspiring writers responded, I think the poll does give me useful info--both about the writers themselves and other people's perceptions of their stated desire.)

One man pointed out that writers have to write. Others just mean that they want to make money writing.

Another wondered what I meant by "serious."

The most exciting comment was from a woman who said she used to be someone who "always wanted to write." She is now a person who can say, "I am a writer." Nice news.

Check back here in a few days to see the final verdict.

If you'd like to cast your vote, just click on http://polls.linkedin.com/p/64368/qlhro.

No, that wasn't a typo--I'm not thinking about Twittering. In fact, I'm thinking about the opposite of twittering: frittering.  

I'd love to get your take on the seriousness of aspiring writers. Please respond to  this short poll, and I'll share the results here.

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/64368/qlhro

Thanks!

As a the owner of a bookstore, I read - a lot. The surface of my bedside table is obscured by a teetering mountain of books and more are stacked throughout every room of my house. They overflow from cartons in front of already full bookshelves, are tucked into the seatback pockets of my car, and stashed in purses and totebags everywhere. I had a dinner party the other night and wouldn't let my guests leave unless they took a book with them.

That said, I don't read as much as I'd like. In a good week, when life is nicely balanced and the choices are compelling, I may finish two books. Other weeks, I find myself bogged down with one and starting multiple others, a habit that smacks of literary promiscuity, even if it is a necessary evil of the job. But now lurking in my brain as a symbol of virtuosity, if not plain luxury, is a woman by the name of Nina Sankovitch.

Sankovitch, a former environmental lawyer from Westport, CT, began a quest last October to read one book a day for an entire year. A 30-second snippet of an radio interview containing that nugget was enough to make me go digging for more online, something I rarely do. What I learned about her, mainly from a New York Times piece to which my Twitter tweeps promptly referred me, such as the fact that she, in part, turned to reading in order to channel her grief over her oldest sister's death, got me thinking. Why do I read? Are my two books a week enough? And most importantly, how much do other people read?

According to a 2007 AP/Ipsos poll, one quarter of all Americans didn't finish a single book in 2006 and the median yearly consumption was just 4! Excluding the 25% of non-readers bumps the median total to 7, a figure that still doesn't begin to touch the Australian tally of 52 (you know how much they like a party!). So, right there, I have reason to feel pretty good about my hundred-books-a-year habit! As someone who is expected, it seems some days, to have read every book in my shop, it is, I'm afraid, not nearly enough. But Sankovitch admits to having given up, "the garden, The New Yorker, wasting time online, ambitious cooking, clothes shopping, [and] coffee with friends," to achieve her goal; I'm not that virtuous.

Answering why I read is easy, and is what I share most closely with Nina Sankovitch, who posted in her blog on September 20, 2009, "It is that hook -- this is a good book! -- that is the addiction to reading... the deep, deep satisfaction of knowing that I am in for a good read, full of solid atmosphere and interesting thoughts and beguiling characters and challenges." I simply love to immerse myself in a world which is not my own; whether it is a novelist's creation, a memoirist's reflections on his or her own life, or an essayist's eloquent musings, the act of reading, of imagining people, places and emotions, neither me nor mine, transports me. Fifteen minutes with a book distracts my mind from worry, satisfies my inner voyeur, stimulates my emotions as well as my intellect, and entertains me. I agree with Nina Sankovitch that, "Books are a reason to live, a cause worth getting up for in the morning and all the reason I need to climb into bed at night, books on the table beside me, waiting to be read."

So, for goodness sake, turn off the TV, exit your browser, and pick up a book. If you need a recommendation, I suggest you start with Nina Sankovitch's amazing blog. 

I'm a fan of online writing classes--mostly.

Nothing beats their convenience. No commuting to class in the dark after work, no searching for parking; no sleepy ride home late at night. Just you, snuggly at home, or out in the open air, learning in comfort, any time you choose.

Another advantage is that you have access to any instructor you want. Proximity is no issue. You can take a class in Boston from someone living in the Midwest--or as far away as Burkina Faso.

But learning online does take a bit of getting used to.

Tone of voice, facial expressions, and individual animation are all lost. You communicate with your instructor and classmates via email, and by and large, they are only names to you. Of course, you can see your instructor's writing, and maybe a photo, on her web site. And after a while, you do associate your classmates' names with a certain kind of writing. But that's about it.

Unless . . .  you take a class with an instructor who places more emphasis on interaction between the two of you and less on your interactions with your classmates. Andrea Collier, who teaches personal essay writing a couple of times a year, is one one such teacher. Take a look at the profile I wrote about her at Andrea Collier.

You can find out more about choosing an online writing class at How-to-choose-an-online-writing-class.

If you've got questions about creative writing that you'd like me to address, just leave a comment!