However, to add a little catching up:
November:   I had a major presentation with national and/or international groups every week.

December:   Spent a very sad month on the way back to Missouri to take our dog home for the last time.

January:   Was in New Orleans to present at the National Multicultural Summit and while there, took a few extra days off to enjoy the city.   (There’ll definitely be more on that as I discovered I ADORE New Orleans)

February:   Working to prepare for health care reform efforts this year.

March:   Putting the finishing touches on a feature-length script (although I still have some tinkering I want to do) for a local director.  Cross your fingers that we begin production in June!

Overall, life has been great. Some happy times and some sad, but always busy and always exciting. I’m somewhat better about updating my “professional” site at:   www.DayInWashington.com   Home of the Disability Policy Podcast

Whew!  After 23 hours in transit, we had mechanical problems with our plane that lead to significant delays and rearranging of flights, we finally arrived in Oahu at about 10pm.  That means it was about 4am in DC time.  Unfortunately, Renee’s luggage didn’t make it. 

We’re staying at the Wyland Waikiki Hotel. It looks pretty neat, but with the low ceilings and poor air circulation on account of being surrounded by other buildings, it is a bit warm. Although, let me just say, they have one of the MOST comfortable pull-out beds I have ever slept on.

Day 1

Today we visited the Iolani Palace.  The short and sweet description (summarized mostly from Wikipedia - because it is too late and I am too tired to write up my own detailed description) is:

Iolani Palace is the only royal palace used as an official residence by a reigning monarch in the United States.  The Iolani Palace structure that exists today is actually the second Iolani Palace to sit on thepalace grounds.  King David Kalakaua dreamed of a royal palace befitting of the sovereignty of a modern state such as Hawaii. He commissioned the construction of a ”new” Iolani Palace to become the official palace of the Hawaiian monarchy. The building was completed in 1882 and cost over $360,000. It had electricity and telephones at a time that such a thing was so rare and that many had never even heard of it.  And served as the official residence of the Hawaiian monarch until the kingdom was overthrown in 1893.

Iolani Palace

I have to admit, the inside looked very beautiful with a lot of decorative  woods and carvings.  And the building has an amazing history.  Just as a neat note - On April 30th of this year, the palace was “overtaken” by a group of native Hawaiians called the Hawaiian Kingdom Government to protest what they view as illegitimate rule by the United States.  Cool, eh?

This is us indulging in a limo to ride over to the palace.  Actually, the limo was the same price as a taxi.  Brenda was our driver and she absolutely rocked.  The other photo is of the state seal in the ceiling of the entrance to the Iolani Palace.

Judy, Ron, Don, me, Renee and Rhonda

State Seal at Iolani Palace

Waikiki at Sunset

You’d think after thousands of years and all of our investments in medical technology and innovation we’d have something to combat things as common as the cold and the flu.

On the down side, Renee spent almost the entire weekend on the couch sniffling and coughing.  She’d been pretty ill with this flu for most of the week.  Unfortunately, I’m the one now with a scratchy throat and sniffling nose.  But in spite of that, we all stayed relatively on track and managed to really move forward on the writing front.  Of course, considering the availability of extra space and the recent damp, it was also the perfect opportunity to take out a little time late in the evening to do some fire spinning.  (Hopefully, pictures will be coming soon).  It also is/was N.R. Brown’s birthday and we had to celebrate with cake and icecream and presents.  I shall leave it to her to discuss those details. 

All in all, a great relaxing weekend.  AND being able to purchase gas at $3.38 a gallon and then coming home to see prices at $3.71 did not hurt our mood one bit either.

So instead, I spent the time prowling my f-list and facebook for the blog sites of various friends to add to my “Favourite People” link.  It would seem that more and more I’m finding people I know who blog.  Granted, the vast majority of these folks are writers.  Anyway, now I can have them proudly displayed for all the world to see…look!  Look!  I, Day, actually know someone famous!  And if they aren’t famous, you never know, they may one day be!  I have to take my connections where I can.  *smile* Then again, that is what links and blogging is all about…connecting.  Go ahead, check them out.  And if you’re a friend and would like to be included, just let me know.

On July 26 of this year, a number of the big disability groups put together a Presidential Disability Forum and invited both Presidential candidates to attend to discuss their vision for the future as it applied to people with disabilities.  To help advertize the event and encourage attendance (from both people with disabilities and the candidates themselves), I thought it would be interesting to put together a video.

Ohio Disability Forum - 2008

It had a few issues, but considering it was put together in about a week using every ounce of free time I could find, I think it turned out pretty well and it definitely spoke to what I originally intended.  So there it is, the first video produced by Day In Washington

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.