Monday, March 30, 2009

*SQUEE* potential and a QQ

I should 'splain , as Ricky Ricardo would say. (If you don't get it - you're young, it's one of those In Jokes of the Elderly.) "Squee" is blog language (blanguage?) indicating that wheezy, gasp-y breathless scream issued in awe and delight. Example: you answer a knock at the door and it's Daniel Day-Lewis; he says "Terribly sorry to bother, but might I please come in for a cup of tea and a chinwag?" Response: SQUEE!! Get it?

Well, I've had a few *squee* moments of late. Sitting and contentedly chatting with Stephanie , that's superior to having an actor at the door (by bunches); getting to have my picture taken with our dear Midwestern Franklin --Oooh yeah, WAY superior to having DD-L at the door. (Yes, Franklin, I do prefer you to Daniel Day-Lewis on a LOT of levels, plus as far as I know he can't knit a stitch!) NOTE: if you have information to the contrary, feel free to pass it along, but it won't change my opinions. Daniel Day-Lewis may have actually galloped through the forest and loaded a muzzle-loader, including using the ramrod, but ladies and gentlemen, he doesn't even KNOW Dolores, and I'm sure about that.

Thing is, those two people count among their downright-innumerable other virtues, the fact that they are both writers . And I? I am also a Writer!


This is pictorial proof, obtained during last November's NaNoWriMo competition, and is an authentic Writer in Situ shot. Please to overlook the sportsman jammies; that was NOT a Good Hair Day; block out the clutter - and yes, that is a skeptical look on Evangeline's face. She's my greatest skeptic ....uhm... critic ...erhm...FAN. Yeah. Fan.

I'll have you know, however, that I DO have a truly gifted author among my close personal friends:

This is David Sakrison, skillful poet (he was my personal Bard in our SCA days) he's been a magazine editor, and his latest book, Chasing the Ghost Birds, is now available at Barnes & Noble! Ffurthermore, he'll be presenting a talk and book signing at the Smithsonian!! (The book is about the International Crane Foundation , which is working, successfully, to salvage wild cranes from extinction. At one point there were 14 in the wild. In the WORLD in the wild. Now there are several hundred. Information from book cited above. My point is, David is a writer.

Now, when I say "I am a writer", I don't place myself in the same category as these authors or knitters , but there is a similarity. I enjoy being on the same spectrum with those folks, though. I AM a card-carrying member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators . What I lack in accomplishment I make up for with enthusiasm and potential! But here's the deal, ladies and gentlemen:

Saturday I was at the State History Day competition, to judge. We do that every year, first for the regionals and then, in May, for the state finals. And this year, as I came in, I saw my friend KB, former colleague at American Girl and now the main Editor of the Wisconsin State Historical Society Press. (They publish books. Bet you surmised....) I mentioned my research about Mary Hayes Chynoweth, and my wonderful tailor-made 1895 walking suit, and my invitation to speak at the Spiritualist Camp, and how I got my own copy of her biography, and how I think she's such a super-cool neat-o lady....and KB, Editor of Wisconsin State Historical Press, said to me:

"You should think about writing about her for our Badger Biography series."

S Q U E E !!

Here's an opportunity, a goal, a project-worth-considering! The effect on me is this: I'm going to organize my research notes in such a way as to be available for me to write; I'm familiar with these books and their format - and better, I think I'm up to the job! "Watch this space"........

And now for the QQ . In transcription for the hard-of-hearing, that indicates a question mark, as in: Would you like to order a pizza QQ

Twitter. Have you twittered? (Or is the correct term "tweet"...do you tweet?) Do you read anyone's twitters? (Tweets?) Anyone really love twittering? (Tweeting?)

I ask because I'm a tiny bit interested. I have no curiosity about Facebook or MySpace or any of those there, but I'm intrigued by this Twitter deal. And heck, some mighty well-known people twitter. Tweet. (OK, even though it's true, I feel ridiculous writing "I understand President Obama twitters." Or worse: "Did you know President Obama tweets ?) OY!

Any thoughts, experiences, guffaws,suggestions, recommendations or raspberries welcome.

Go for it, Mom, I have faith in you. Also - look deep into my eyes, you want to put some crunchy green treats in my bowl, you know you do....

7 comments:

Jamwes said...

I've allways associated SQUEE with the scream of glee one might hear being uttered by a 14 year old girl.

I have not heard your defination of QQ before. The one I know is that QQ means crying. Here, let me use it in a sentance in common usage. "Less QQ more pewpew!" What that means in video game language is, "Less crying more shooting". QQ because it looks like two eyeballs with tears rolling out of them. Pewpew because thats the sound effect kids always make when pretending to be shooting laser guns.

As for twitter, yes I'm on twitter. You can find me at http://twitter.com/Jamwes. The cool thing about twitter is that you can post status updates. Lately I've been using it to automatically update my status when I post something new on my blog. Twitter is also a fun tool to keep track of your friends and famous people.

I've been trying to use it as a marketing tool, to remind people when I post new stuff to my blog so that they remember when to read it. Other people use it as a question and answer resourse. They ask questions and hopefully one of their followers will answer. This works for famous people that have thousands following them, but not so much for me who has only 37 followers.

You can also send replies to other twitter people by starting your status update message with their name. A lot of people use Twitter as a running conversation and seem to only post responses to other people.

Twitter is just one more way that we all can keep in touch. I hope this helps.

CTJen said...

I don't know, DH... You are rather more, shall we say, *verbose* than Twitter will allow (only 140 characters, you know!). However, it might be good practice for you. ;-)

Alwen said...

I'm under a sandhill crane flyway.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've been an origami folder for many years, folded many a bad crane, watched many a crane overflight, and only realized due to a discussion on the Origami email list last year that DOH! that's not the crane's tail in the back - it is the trailing LEGS.

kkkkrooooo! <-- my bad sandhill imitation

Anonymous said...

I am on Twitter, but I hardly ever say anything. But you can subscribe to people's Twitter streams in your news aggregator (that's a technical term for something like Bloglines or Google Reader). I subscribe to 3 but need to add a bunch more.

Yarnhog said...

Dear Lord. There's an even more irritating method for communicating than TEXTING?!

(I'm the mother of an eleven year old. Please don't tell him about Twitter.)

Marjorie said...

Yarnhog, he'll find out soon enough! (I wasn't going to teach my toddler the word cookie "cracker" was all I was going to allow!-- and along came Sesame Street with the Coookie monster. . . nuff said.)

The "books written for the general public" never mention that sandhill cranes also migrate through California. Hello- the West IS part of the country. Hope your friend writes inclusively!

On Facebook, not Twitter (yet). Not horribly impressed (yet).

janna said...

(Playing blog catch-up tonight!) I tweet -- I'm jannabeth there, like about everywhere else. It's a great way to be a little bit involved in the lives of people you don't get to see very often - at least, that's what I like about it.