MAGic

This article is a sample of my work:

• This is a five hundred word article plus a few
• This article illustrates a simple article designed to describe a process and provide steps to accomplish a task
• This article, though a sample, is copyright and all rights are reserved

How to Make Freelance Lemonade

Lemons are like Geminis. They are versatile and useful.

One of my favorite books in Spanish is by a Mexican writer. It is about the many ways lemons can be used to maintain health.

For me, the best food in the world is in Spain. I learned in Spain how to eat watermelon. Mind you, I grew up in Tennessee. My Spanish friends would slice a bite of watermelon. But, before they sliced the knife through a bite of melon, they sliced the knife through the half lemon on their plate. THEN they sliced a chunk of melon. Enough lemon juice remained on the knife to season the melon bite. Thus, the taste of the melon improved immensely. The point is this: too much can be worse than not enough. Especially with lemons.

I used to eat lemons. A nurse friend explained to me that lemon robs the teeth of their protective enamel coating. Hence the hackneyed truism “too much of a good thing.” This is another view of the previous point.

Sugar is to good food as sound bytes are to language. For one thing it lies. It lies in that it replaces the minimal necessity with a maximal cloying. It deprives judgment of its function. It is a thief. It robs a thing of its genuine value and leaves nothing gained but absence of value. Conversations of no content. Placebos of platitude.

Ingredients of a Good Lemonade:

Citric Acid (provides tartness),
Potassium Citrate (controls acidity
Lemon juice
Basil
Fresh ginger
Stevia

About the Ingredients:

Citric acid provides tartness and potassium citrate controls acidity. Both can be found in drug and health food stores. Keep both on hand but, you may find this recipe works best for you without either. But, keep them in mind if you omit them from this recipe and find the recipe just needs a little something more, no matter how much of each other ingredient you include.

Lemon juice is best tasting and most healthful when you get it from fresh lemons. Lemons are always growing here on the central coast of California. Most people with lemon trees appreciate people taking lemons from their trees lest they rot and fall. Still, I am constantly amazed to see people buying lemons in the market and paying fifty cents a piece for them. I have not bought a lemon or lemon juice in years.

Get several basil starters from a farmer’s market. One will grow best and have best flavor. Basil variety is surprising. Keep a couple growing plants on the kitchen, dining room tables. Whether cooking or eating, take what you need. Remember. Basil likes light. No problem. I live in California. But, Oregon? First batch of lemonade, pluck several outside leaves, tear them into small pieces. For me, constant plucking means never a leaf bigger than a finger.

Keep a couple ginger roots in the freezer. Pull and grate as needed.

Stevia is a natural herbal sweetener. No calories. No carbohydrates. Used for hundreds of years in South America. Liquid Stevia in a bottle. Dropper for a cap. Less than a quarter dropper’s worth for a big cup of coffee.

Mixing the Ingredients:

How much of each ingredient? A few batches of lemonade will answer the question. Too, leave some ingredients on the lemonade tray for individual taste.

Pure water and lemons. A constant measure comes quickly. Careful! Not too much stevia.

Soon, easily made, refreshing lemonade. You cannot over indulge.

Prepare your lemonade. Sit. Sip. Test. Think. Parallels? Lemonade - freelance projects.

Cheers!

–
copyright, all rights reserved
CanDo Jack

This article is a sample of my work:

• This is a five hundred word article
• This article is metaphorical and didactive, that is an article from which the reader should learn something or learn to learn about something, especially something career or life operational related
• This article, though a sample, is copyright and all rights are reserved

The Freelance Road to Lemonade

A day’s cruise of a freelance job site can be invaluable to an independent professional working from a home office whose hunting tool and quiver contains the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Perhaps the greatest value is realizing what one’s own value or the value of one’s work is worth on the world market. One is likely to enter the “Sobering Stage” born of what one has learned, assuming one has not already rushed headlong into bidding on projects.

The Sobering Stage rises from the slough of despondency along the rutted road well traveled that passes by and by through a village famous for its lemonade. Strangely, the lemons do not grow near that village. The lemons are transported to the village by the travelers themselves.

One can learn sitting around the lemonade bars of the village sipping from a myriad of lemonade varieties. Lemonade is easy to make and varietal lemonades are not difficult to imagine or create.

In the village of Lemonade, one may fall into the abbreviated sound byte nature of the language. Falling into and habituating to the limited 600 word vocabulary common to long term visitors or the indigenous people of Lemonade, one may may observe the narrowing of language choices, the dulling of creative thought and the charm of life gradient change from avid to morose. Eventually one will do what is done in Lemonade — work mostly at searching for work in the lemonade shops of Lemonade.

Once upon a time One was enduring the weather called sobering mentioned in paragraph ONE. This one, incidentally named One. One disliked the weather, and creatively considered what could be learned and utilized from the sobering stage.

One began to rise along the well traveled road to Lemonade. One observed an old weather beaten road sign whose directional sign indicated what One eventually made out to be the name Lemonade.

One was carrying many lemons. One thought that carrying lemons to a place named Lemonade might not be an optimal preoccupation. One rested and considered directional choices. One mused on lemons and Lemonade. Not really liking either, One observed a less traveled narrow road that forked left and upward.

The less traveled road rose rapidly and was tiring. Soon, One rested. A shady glade. A field of wild flowers. A picnic table near the base of a cliff. A craggy shelf in the rock, carved by a slow, steady spring of cool water. As One rested, One enjoyed the refreshing surroundings.

By and by a traveler came, rested a while, then continued. One sat and thought. So pleasant a spot. One sat longer.

Eventually, another traveler came, sat and chatted. The traveler had an interesting, expansive vocabulary. A conversational joy.

When the traveler departed, One rose, gathered all the lemons from the various pockets of his traveling bag, then got water from the spring. One then made a sign and placed it at the edge of the road less traveled. The sign said FRESH LEMONADE.

–
all rights reserved
CanDo Jack

I have been intending to write a post for multimediamags.com but, I have not. But, I HAVE been thinking about it. I think it is appropriate for this site. I sometimes get several contracts done without writing an article. Then, I just have to do what I like to do best — write. Right? Right!And “right” is what I want to write about here.  Davy Crockett is reputed to have said, “Be sure you’re right. Then go ahead.” Sorry, Davy! Often, I have gone ahead without being sure. Continue Reading »

You have probably heard this running on water phrase many times now and on the way to imposing hearing it again on you, I need to tell you a few things to ensure I am behaving responsibly. The responsibility is somewhat like providing a Minnesotan who has only ever used wood with a new gas furnace, no operating instructions, no GOOD DEAL BUT BE REAL CAREFUL, OLY signs on it and no construction diagrams.

The simple truth is this. Running on water can blow out your hearing when the water explodes.
Continue Reading »

I AM NOT A GRAPHIC ARTIST I AM NOT A GRAPHIC ARTIST I AM NOT A GRAPHIC ARTIST

But that does not mean I do not like a good time.

Continue Reading »

Get a Good Host! I would say that 90% of the time.

Most people would say that I would say that because I wear an “I AM A GOOD HOST” badge. No I do not wear a badge. As such. But I do talk. Hey, I am a blogger, among other talky things such as a software developer (I mumble, maunder, soliloquize), an entrepreneur (of course we do), an inventor(welll), a great grandfather (ask the kids), and oh yeah, a good host.
Continue Reading »

In the following days I will be putting up a number of tutorials that will be helpful to all new most veteran bloggers.

The tuts should comprise a package that enables an unexperienced would be blogger to move rapidly toward the total use of the tools necessary to get the blog up with pics, sound, and whatever media assists are necessary along with the facilitation provide by existing plugins, widgets and themes./>

Mind you this does not make a writer out of the blogger.

But, my friends at TheLitBit.com are inaugurating a blog called WriteWriterWritest next week. It does for web writing what Daniel Chandlers web published work of Semiotics et al did for academia imprisoned creatives.

Imagine a TV guide for the Internet. Assume this “IV” guide eliminated 99.999% of “channels” - assume the remaining percentage is the percentage that you would be interested in. What is on the other sites? Only the mother’s and financially “concerned” of the site owners care. No that is not. They don’t care what is on the sites. They care if the sites are turning a profit.

That is not a second level opinion, actually.
You may say, “Jack Boy, what ever I want to find I do it with a search engine, not a TV guide.” I would reply like this. Unless you have some magic trick with search arguments you are still going to come up with a search result list of 10,000 “channels”. And what you want may be any card in the 10,000 card deck.

My IV Guide newsletter streamlines, organizes, finds, directs. In short it funnels the feed you need to your trough. And that is good. After all, I am an info pig. What about you? Oink, Sis.

The IV Guide allows you to select the areas you want to get information direction about.

“But,” you say, “Google does that.” This may be a rude awakening for you. Grab a door facing. SC does not exist and does not come down chimneys. Search engines tell you what Google wants you to hear. Yahoo tells you what Yahoo wants you to hear. None of them is a totally eclectic, good goal oriented info slopper. Want an example? Who is going to point you to a user biased discussion of Google’s efforts to refine and control a national health records database. Will they not point you because they don’t know or it is to their advantage not to say.

Try this. Take the same search argument of keywords to five search engines. Compare the results.

OK - NO IV GUIDE EXISTS! YES, AN IV GUIDE EXISTS.

But it may not be, no, it dim well is not, as simply as the top paragraphs have suggested.

First I am not going to be sending you and those who are expecting a newsletter such a newsletter, not the old fashioned kind newsletter you probably are thinking of.

Remember the original TV Guide. Such a thing would be impossible today. Too much stuff exists when you consider all the possible sources and delivery options.

It would not even be possible in a multimedia delivery. TV Guide presents in their online version about 75 channels.

I am going to sidetrack here for a second. If you come along you will enjoy it. If you are in a rush for the IV GUIDE in your paws right this second, skip down to the big letters WHAT”S IN IT.

This is the kind of thing we usually approach in our USER FIENDLY MAG at userfiendly.com. Two kinds of people. Those who look at news details and those who look at trends. Applying that to technology, the trends become technological milestones that change our lives. My friend, Chris Petro once said “where would we be if technology had not engineered into products the “satisfying click?” If you think a second you will see that every gadget has at least one sound effect to reflect something about its operation. That is the satisfying click - it is built into every thing you use. So much so that you expect it.

Once I visited Lisa Coffman, a professor I admire, in situ. Live action classroom. Lisa uses the satisfying click. When an idea pops or a revelation is revealed or a change of topic is introduced, fingers are snapped. That is an ingenious education device.

Almost as important as the satisfying click was the introduction of random versus sequential. An example is the DVD as opposed to VHS tape. OR CDs as opposed to audio tape cartridges.
OR THE INTERNET VS TELEVISION

Essentially TV is sequential. IV is random (maybe a better term is ubiquitous because in cyberworld we approach the possible reality of being able to be everywhere right now.
THE RERUNS ARE LIVE.

WHAT’S IN IT

The IV GUIDE will come in a series of newsletters disguised as RSS notifications.

What the Tell is RSS? Well that is what the first newsletter or article is all about.

RSS is a way to accomplish the goal. The goal is WHAT’S IN IT? I want to know right now. Or, I know what I want is in there. Now, get it out here.

The goal is GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND HURRY UP!

The IV GUIDE is more than a bunch of pages to turn. The IV GUIDE is a series of skills with which you can use some core information and principles to accomplish the goal.

RSS in a sense is an IV GUIDE.

Assume you like my mag, my blog, my site. But you don’t want to open it and dig through it all the time when you are just after that next article on building your own virtual IV GUIDE.

It sounds technologically crude when I say it like this but you put IV GUIDE in a directory and when the next article comes out a bell goes DiNgDiNgDiNg.

THAT IS IT???????????? Where is the other good stuff?

Let’s line some of it up in order of expected appearance:

• RSS - Defining what we see arranging for its delivery
• Starter lists
• Prioritization
• Using beginning search argument (keyword) packets to:
  • Get exactly what we’re after and
  • Use that practice to understand and build better search lists for ourselves
• Using the keyword prep wizard to prepare and launch the search
• Building our own real speedy bookmark assembly with our own bookmark program
• Building our own deep touch data sources

That seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

It really isn’t. Yet it really is in the sense of its ability to empower you.
Very quickly we rise to the level of feeling entitled to that level of empowerment.

Well you should.
That entitlement is based on having done the work to build the skills to assemble the tools and handle the function.

I began my first programming job in 1968.
A dreadful year in many ways. A King was slaughtered five miles from my birthplace.
A wonderful year in others. I had a profession.
I ticked off realities.
One of them was that I really needed a minimum of twenty percent of my work week to stay state of the art and beyond.

I realized I could do one of two things. Only one.

While I needed to be able to know everything, that was the one of the two things I could not do.

The other thing was the thing that was left. While I could not know everything,

I COULD KNOW WHERE TO QUICKLY FIND IT.

So I built a good collection of sources and developed access to them.

Every day I ponder the immensity of the content of the worrrrrllllllldddddd wide web.
It is bigger than a bread box. It is bigger than the library of ancient Alexandria.
I am two people. I am the librarian. I am the most frequent borrower of content.
If he who said “I am king of the world” had said “I am librarian of the world”
then being king would a mute point.

Ten years ago I placed the following lines in my first web site when it was a year old.
“The world is my oyster
The net is my cloister”

Shortly thereafter I added these lines from Goethe

Lass mich nur auf meinen sattle gelten
Bleib in euren hutten, euren zelten
Ich reite froh in alle ferne
Ueber meine mutze nur die sterne

Let me just get up into the saddle
Stay in your huts and tents
I ride joyfully forth into the unknown
Over my head just the stars

This is where we tell you that here and soon will be a point to a catalogue and a description of the software bells and whistles running MAGicly.

One, we want you to have a list and
Two, we are going to have to explain what some of this stuff does

…Because once my corpos colosum wakes up enough to fall into integrative mode, all the stuff I am thinking of creating,

not like an illusionist spellbinding you like a turkey
(forgive me - it is Thanksgiving)
at a turkey shoot
(not exactly a turkey shoot - here, they just let them run until time to go out to lock and load, shoot and cook - a feature of the capitol city of Consumerdom)

OK, forget turkies now.
Our goal is this. With our showplace magazines we intend to present some amazing (and amazingly useful) tools and we will have to catalogue them to make them available to you.

As I intended to explain, I am slaphappy with grandkids and the main discussion is corporate organization and how their ideas become MAGic realities.

I think the younger gaggle of grand kids (say 2-7) will be doing the feasibility and some of their ideas are so incredible they will have to do their own documentation.

Primarily the software engineers are in the 8-11 range and I guess will have to hang onto some of my dysfunction long enough to keep tossing them metaphorical bones to provide cute names to entice you to employ them for your fun and efficiency.

To be succinct (heh - heh - an inside publishing and personal joke) I live to provide great software tools and let’s see… (more like Google (as it is in 2006) than Windows (as has always been, mentally and awareness wise) I don’t want 50 billion dollars for software. It will flow to those we host and support and push and praise and want deeply to say to the world what they want to say, even if it is something nice about Bill Gates or the Redmond Contingent et al or et part.

I am, it is Thanksgiving, grateful to the US government and the MIC (Military Industrial Complex, OK, I confess we did make those fifty dollar data telemetry tools to fetch good stuff from the satellites. But we were able to do it as well and as cheaply as we did because we had the onus on us to apply the good development practices that we learned when oops was more a programming protocol than OOPS. Who now remembers Milestone Guidelines or Decision Tables?

To be succincter, as we learn about the online magazines that are under our wing, we will be developing cool software for them to use to do great things succinctly and at no cost unless we have trouble that month with the grocery bill.

I know it’s MAGIC. I just don’t know what the acronym is. I’m going crazy trying to find words to capture the extent of qualities, the vast body of information, organizational options and audience outreach possibilities, not to mention saving a few zillion trees from certain death. The instant accessibility of online media for reader, writer and publisher, plus the heh, heh, iconoclasting of publishing monoliths and behemoths - in a single acronym? I just can’t do it. So we’re simply calling this effort MAGIC, and letting it go at that - the magnetic Magic of online magazine publishing in its fast moving, fast changing, but beautiful, sighbereal currency.

Join us in celebrating the arrival of a new player determined to publish, and more uncharacteristically than may appear to be normal, simultaneously serve those publishing and desiring to publish.

Examine this issue of MAGIC to see how we’re promoting low cost, ubiquitious online magazine accessibility, where publishers, writers and an expanded audience of world-wide readers, join in the hum of universal conversation.

Thanks, input-output ferrets for joining us- now let’s have some fun.