So, I guess I’m going to keep this blog (at least minimally). Besides, I have to have some way to catalogue my life.

Hmm, so let me perhaps sum up my life of the last few weeks – work, work, and more work. We just got done with our national convention and in addition to almost a week in Boston, I spent the previous two weeks from 9am-11pm at the office preparing. Got back yesterday, had a Board meeting today and now I am demanding a few hours to myself.

And in between the work and the time passed I did get maybe 2-3 hours of fun which I shall now illustrate.

July 4th – We had friends in town (special shout-out to Dylan) and went to see part of the Folk Festival and fireworks on the Mall. Pretty cool, eh? 

The Crowds at the Capitol

Fireworks behind the Washington Monument

Late July - My Dad was in town and we went to Marrakesh which is probably the best Morrocan restaurant in Washington.  

Me, Renee and my Dad at Marrakesh

Girls Night In – Special thanks to Badger, Liz, Anotheranon and Katherine for dragging me away from my office and reminding me how awesome it is to just “hang with the girls.” Scrumptious dinner, a great movie…and Renee loved the foot bath too.

Badgers Fabulous Dinner!

Homestead Farms– Renee’s desperate need to escape the city life was finally sated with a Sunday jaunt to Homestead Farms, a pick-your-own fruit farm. I have to admit the peaches and blackberries were divine. We had a fun day with our friends Danny and Neds.

Day and Veni with our Box of Peaches

On the writing front, I am ashamed to say that it has all been work related and work focused. Thankfully,  CVS Writers has been forgiving and my goal for the next few weeks is three-fold:
1. Show up (which is tougher than it sounds)
2. Do the critique (I’m still working on that one)
3. Write something (I hope to accomplish that before this Thursday)

What kind of impression does it give?  I created this site separate from “Day In Washington” so I might be able to clearly separate my personal life from my professional interests.  But that doesn’t really make much of a difference.  Not really.  If I were a recruiter or an employer, I would definitely persuse an applicant’s personal website, regardless of what they may or may not do related to the separation of portions of the site.

So what that really means is that there really isn’t anywhere where it is “safe” on the Net.  Anything said in anger (or stupidity) will come back and haunt you.  Other activities such as political affiliations and donations to specific groups can be seen and judged.  Did you give money to Lambda Legal, or were you volunteering with the local Republican party?  So what is the safest thing to do?  Not participate at all?

I can see the allure in not putting up information about yourself on the Net but realistically, depending on the field you are in, that is almost impossible.  For example, I work in Washington DC, specifically in lobbying.  There are so many opportunities to provide testimony or statements or comments for regulations, proposed rules, briefings, conferences and even Congressional hearings.  Much of that then becomes a part of the public record and every day, more and more are posted online.  Many social groups and organizations such as curches and local softball teams post pictures and articles about their activities.

What that means is that there really is almost no way to truly escape having something of you mentioned on the Net.  So what is the solution?  Control you image.  Control what you say and what is said about you.  If someone does a Google search, make sure that the site you’ve created is one of the first they find, not the drunken college photo from your misspent summer in Cancun.  Use what you have available to you to put your best face forward.

Now to make this discussion personal again, I have to admit to some ambivalence as to keeping this site:  www.DayAlMohamed.com up.  Or at least available as a blog.  I don’t blog here.  I work significant hours and lately, that is about all that I do.  When free I podcast to:  www.DayinWashington.com but not here.  In addition, I cannot say that I have spent a lot of time even writing fiction.  So perhaps it is time to withdraw from my efforts to “keep up appearances” and simply keep this as a static site and let DayInWashington be the only blog.

But I am loathe to let this go.  The other site is purely professional and there is no place there for posts about my writing, my fencing, my travel…my hopes, dreams and fears.  Of course, that may not be something world is ready for yet anyway.  *smile*  But it does smack of giving up, not on just the posting but on sharing my other activities and loves.  Things that I spend my time and my life on.  Why should anyone care?  I don’t know.  Sometimes people do.  After being inspired at Balticon, I learned about podcasting through people’s websites.  Renee’s Photo Sunday’s came from an idea on someone else’s site.  My list of things to do in my life came from some one else’s.  Heck, even my most recent inspirations that sent me careening back to writing poetry (which I haven’t done since high school) was in part supported by poetry on blogs.

Obviously, my mind is not yet made up. 

Tonight it is cleaning up what remains of my sites and trying to write 300 words on a piece of fiction.  Right now it is a struggle as all I can think of is the many non-fiction writing projects I have remaining.  (Far too many).

However, I hope to have some Hawaii photos up soon. They better express the trip than any words I could use.

Regardless, both versions were emailed to the director and now I just have to hurry up and wait.  I hate waiting.  I hate not knowing if the person reviewing my work likes it or not.

So right now I’m trapped between relief that I completed both scripts and the walking on hot coals jumpiness of waiting for a response.  And of course hopefully, there’ll be re-writes (meaning he decides to go with me as writer).

In related news, I just realized that the Nicholl’s are coming up and I need to prep a feature length script to submit.  *grins*  Nothing like completing one project and leaping off into another. 

I recently completed the first episode in a series of small shorts, “Rapunzel - The Outtakes.”  The first one “Ooops!” is about a minute long.  It was a lot of fun to do and was a great way to destress after a VERY rough week.

I know that there are some lighting issues that I couldn’t see while I was working on it and a couple of times I bumped the set/camera while working and didn’t quite realize it, but overall, I’m pretty proud of my first Lego-attempt.  Renee set up the camera and let me go…

Anyway,  below is the film clip which I shall now send out far and wide.

Although I managed to capture a couple of

shots of her that were “keepers” (I love digital cameras…we got a couple out of almost 100 shots), she got quite a few of me that I liked. I’d love to say these are lovely professional photos but as I have been work-busy and was looking for relaxation…they’re fire pictures.

For quite a few years we both have done fire performance. Mostly for our own enjoyment, but Renee has taught quite a few seminars in the MidWest on this. Alas, we still haven’t found a good burn-space in Maryland so the photos are from the backyard and livingroom.

-This first is a portrait-type photo with flaming batons.

-The second is a picture of me actually ON FIRE.

-I took the next photo which is of Renee with her fire fan.

-This last photo is of the fire trails left by her fan while spinning.

We got some pictures and even took the dogs with us.  The most interesting thing that we came across was the gravesite for ‘General Grant’ also called ‘Jiggs.’  He was the pit bull in the ‘Little Rascals/Our Gang’ films called ‘Petey.’  (Way too many names for one dog, I think).  Aspin Hill is also the final resting place of J. Edgar Hoover’s dogs (including Spee De Bozo), Rags (one of the first acclaimed ‘war dogs’ who was the 1st division’s mascot in WWI), and 40 humans who insisted upon being buried alongside their pets.   We didn’t find either Bozo or Rags but did find the graves of two of the couples who insisted on being buried with their pets.

Although the oldest grave we found was around 1920s, Aspin Hill is listed as America’s second oldest pet cemetary with over 40,000 of man’s beloved companions buried there.   I hadn’t realized it was so many.  What also caught my attention was the number of graves from the 30s.  This was during the Depression.  I can only imagine the expense and how special those animals were.  Although part of the park is obviously still in the process of being reclaimed from overgrowth, it is a nice, quiet place and definitely a little sad and run down in the older parts.   

We both found ourselves bawling over one gravestone that read:  “My heart is buried here”  and in the area of most recent burials is a memorial to Sherlock and Watsie, two beagles with an inscription that reads:

“If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane
We’d walk right up to heaven and bring you home again.”

I haven’t managed to add any more dialogue to my screenplay short (or work on the alternative I have in mind), nor have I been very good about keeping up with my podcasts.  Day in Washington hasn’t had a meaningful update in some time and I completely missed a hearing and will now have to reconstruct it from the webcast alone (something that is not easily done).  And Unleaded - Fuel for Writers hasn’t had a post from me in weeks.  Renee has been attempting single-handedly to keep up with the daily schedule of casts.

So mostly, this update is a reminder of everything I have to get caught up on! 

From the Rolling Stone interview with William Gibson:

You made your name as a science-fiction writer, but in your last two novels you’ve moved squarely into the present. Have you lost interest in the future?

It has to do with the nature of the present. If one had gone to talk to a publisher in 1977 with a scenario for a science-fiction novel that was in effect the scenario for the year 2007, nobody would buy anything like it. It’s too complex, with too many huge sci-fi tropes: global warming; the lethal, sexually transmitted immune-system disease; the United States, attacked by crazy terrorists, invading the wrong country. Any one of these would have been more than adequate for a science-fiction novel. But if you suggested doing them all and presenting that as an imaginary future, they’d not only show you the door, they’d probably call security.

Not bad for someone with a visual impairment, yes?   Happy New Year!