Running. Running through a forest of dark trees. Branches grasping and scratching at his face and arms. Running. The occasional thorn setting in his flesh and ripping. The burn of nettles against his forearms as he bursts into a clearing. He can taste the blood on his lips. Sweat is burning his eyes. His lungs are on fire, ready to explode. The man has almost caught him. He can hear his breathing and the sprinting steps behind him. Terna is too afraid to look back, to take his eyes off the terrain in front of him. Terna knows that he has to clear the fence, it’s his only chance to escape the grasp of his pursuer. The distance to the fence shrinks. The barb wire and rusted metal grid is difficult to see, even for Terna. He only knows it is there because the undergrowth that has grown up over it. Terna presses harder, readying himself for the leap. 20 feet to go. 10 feet. 5 feet. The man is right upon him. He jumps up and forward into a roll as his body clears the fence. The toe of his boot snags on the fence as his body levers toward the ground. He violently tries to free his foot from the fence as the man’s hand takes hold of his boot. (more…)
one might think that I have again left the blogosphere. Not so. I have been consumed of events of late, and by the time that I get to the computer screen, I have nothing to say, nor the energy to say it. I am drowning in busy-ness and it is frustrating. I feel like a plate spinner at the circus. There is a lot of tension, a lot of tasks and a lot of thoughts. work life, home life, parenting, side job, church.
I’m tired and yet I must press on. I must press on. soon I will make some deadlines for producing some more writing, but there are still some other things that must be addressed in our personal and business life. Once I attend to those, I hope to return to regular writings, especially through the accountability of my fellow encouragers.
I hope to be here soon.
tom
I am not really ignoring this area. I’m just really busy. We are preparing our taxes and getting the final collection of docs for the photog business in. I am looking at some different technology pieces of software for taking our cool web slideshows and making DVD’s for our clients, which has been a popular request. I am dealing with being sick, again and my kids being sick, again, and it is all tiring and draining. I’m making albums and cards for clients. I’m backing up the last of 2007 weddings to DVD (anyone have some good backup schemes for massive amounts of photography data?), I’m chasing children around the house. I’m trying to have conversations with my oldest child. So much stuff. And I’m trying to make sure I keep things in perspective and prioritize.
One thing I’m not getting lately… quiet time with God. prayer time. time in his word. It’s still go, go, go from morning to night. This must stop. I have to get that time, it will impact the rest of my life, especially where I am falling down in parenting and husbanding, my two most critical roles.
soon the sun will come out, the weather will warm and health will be restored. I hope that I can figure out how to carve up my time to make sure that God is a part of. If I believe, truly believe that is critical, then I should truly work to make it happen and make it a priority.
And then, after all that… there are things to write about.
good night.
tom
Here is an example of freemind. I like it because I can visually draw things out and then create an outline form from the mind map.
what I really need is more time, more free time. I have not gotten where I wanted to this weekend. Things like a social life, parenting, tax preparation, business, etc. etc. etc.. Still, I am putting some thought and planning into this.
more on how it goes when I get some where.
tomb
I am currently employing 3 tools that may be of interest.
One is TaskFreak which is a ph/mysql app that helps a person or multiple persons get and track tasks and their progress and due dates. It has been great for our photography business since there is often so much to do and hard to keep track of what needs to be done when.
the other tool is something I have used for quite some time, but just pulled out of the closet again to start thinking about The Tree House. FreeMind is a mind mapping tool that is also free and available on sourceforge. It helps you visually (I’m a visual person) lay out ideas and thoughts and arrange them graphically. Then you can turn your map into an outline or text doc and start filling it in.
One more tool, Ywriter, is also helping me organize my docs. It is a new tool, so a little confusing, but it helps you keep track of all sorts of things for writing books and organizing your story. See Sean’s post on SeanDareOnline concerning Ywriter.
I’ll let you know how these tools work within the writing environment.
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