Blogging Perks, Progress, and Commitments

I'm not sure if I've reached a point where I'm reaping the rewards of being a blogger, but this should count as something. Because of my association with a parenting blog, every now and then, and these are rare occurrences though I would welcome them more often, we get to review kids products. We've done some books, which the kids really liked, but this time we got some science kits for education. Really cool stuff, with hands on experiments that all of us got a huge kick out of. As a person who works in science, it's hard to overcome the cynic in me, but I really enjoyed working with A&N on these experiments, which included making a vinegar/baking soda rocket. I'd love to do more of this kind of thing, though now I have to write a review, but such is the glorious life of a blogger.

I've also been working more towards getting real writing gigs. I've dabbled here and there with paid writing, but nothing that I would call a home run. The ultimate goal of doing all this blogging, however, is to work up to bigger and more lucrative gigs so that we can maintain our fabulously luxurious lifestyle. Like home improvement and karate, the ball's in my court and the end result will be determined by what I do with it. With this in mind, I've got several projects in the pipes, and the next step will be the hardest - shopping them around and finding an interested buyer. Yikes!

To complicate the matter, I'm still doing my small time blogging that pays next to nothing, but next to nothing is still more than nothing. And as I've mentioned countless times in the past, you make up for getting paid peanuts by simply eating more peanuts, while also keeping the big picture in mind. Part of the small time blogging is doing volunteer writing, which is gratifying if it's for a good cause. I've written for a small non-profit involved in establishing schools in Africa. I wrote one piece that they liked and asked me to write another one. That was about two months ago. I'm not even sure if they still want it, and I feel terrible about the delay, but it's hard to find time, we had a busy summer, we went on vacation, blah, blah, blah.

My strategy is to write the piece and give it to them, and they can decide what to do next. That's the best I can do at this point, and of course offer my sincere apologies. The point is, it's just another thing I've got to write, so I'd better get on it. One nice thing about writing for these organizations is you really learn a lot about the places that they are focusing on, and it's stuff you'd never pay attention to under ordinary circumstances because we are all so wrapped up in the daily grind to give it much thought.

Also, our (R, A&N take part, as well) involvement introduces the kids to the fact that life is not so easy for some people, and that we should not take many things in our lives for granted. They're really good kids, if not a bit too young to fully comprehend all this, and maybe that's for the best, but it's still not a bad idea to have some awareness. Travel is also a great way to expose them to the fact that it's a big and exciting world, or as Hemmingway put it, "The world is a wondrous place, worth fighting for."

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some writing to do, but what else is new? Thanks for reading.