Bloging and Writing--A Success Story (and a fun movie)

Bloging can certainly lead to writing and publishing, and for Julie Powell, it led to both a book and a movie.  I saw Julie and Julia for the first time today courtesy of Netflix.  Wikipedia.org has an entry about the movie and there is a blog that looks like the one in the movie.  The book is available from Amazon.com.  (I certainly enjoyed the movie, by the way.  Thanks, Julie.)

I started this blog on August 10, 2009.  One of my original goals was to have the discipline to do a daily blog that will allow me to begin publishing.  I have several partially completed books and, like Julie Powell in the Julie and Julia movie, I wanted a more reduced time-line.  Julie Powell focused on "365 days and 524 recipes".  I was more open-ended and, as a consequence, do not have as focused a product as Julie's blog.

I've had some feedback from friends which have helped me clean-up my blog entries and conversations with these friends and more have given me lots of ideas to post in this blog.  Every day I ask myself what I'm going to write about and the day always brings something forward.

I never know how many people are reading the blog and I post entries which can help anyone who reads it.  It is helping me to maintain my focus.

My plan is to look at my blog when I have 180 or so posts (or more) and to see if there are related blogs which could be chapters.  I'm not sure how much editing I'll need to do and we'll see.  I am an electronic publisher and can publish my book whenever I think it's ready.  So far, that "being ready" has been a challenge.

I looked at the summary of my blog--seen at the top of each page--and believe that my posts are delivering on the intention presented in that summary.  I'm glad to see that Julie Powell has a success story from her bloging efforts.  That holds more hope for me.

Changing Weather Patterns in Florida--Absolute Zero Movie

A strawberry grower in Florida was interviewed on ABC Good Morning America Weekend on Saturday, 1/9/2010, concerning the impact of freezing temperatures on his plants.  He reported that he has seen colder weather in Florida for the past three years.  I grew up in South Florida and am very familiar with weather conditions there.  A friend of mine is thinking about purchasing a town house in Key Largo, Florida, and I was reminded of the Absolute Zero movie which talks about a polar shift where the ice caps melt at both the North and South Poles and Miami becomes buried in ice--overnight.

We are all aware of the global climate changes we are experiencing.  Whether or not these changes are being brought about by global warming or some other mechanism, the results are the same.  Ice is melting at the poles and many parts of the world are experiencing significantly different weather patterns.

How do we prepare for such changes?  For a polar shift, I really don't know.  (I don't think anyone does.)  That would be catastrophic for the entire planet.  Has it happened before?  Probably.  It could also be linked to the Bible story of Noah and the flood.  Could that be what wiped out the dinosaurs?  Perhaps?  Could a polar shift be caused by an interplanetary impact (a large meteor, for example)?  Possibly.

In any event, movies can give us food for thought along with entertainment.