Post Sarasota

Sarasota was fun; however, I hardly got to go to any of the presentations...well actually there were only a few that I was interested in. I got to those so I shouldn't complain. It just wasn't a good year for me as far as breakout sessions were concerned.

I have scads of FSGS newsletter work to do. The February issue should be jammed packed. I'm hoping that the "fishing" I was doing at the meeting pays off in articles from new writers. I get so tired seeing my own name in print. I'm gonna start making up nome de plumes just for fun. I once wrote under the name Crystal Klear Wrighter (say it)and had a whole company guessing who Crystal was. The writers made up all sorts of wild stories about who Crystal was. Perhaps I can come up with a fun one for a genealogist.

I ended up with a cold. It started in my head and dropped to my chest. I'm sure I ran into the germ somewhere in Sarasota. I've lost my voice twice. It's such a pain.

On the plus side, I'll have four days to do all sorts of things that I've been meaning to do. Writing, writing, writng, printing, printing, printing, emailing, emailing, emailing...you get the idea. I have a newsletter competition to enter, a book to update, and other projects to work on.

Garry and I will go out for dinner on Thursday. I might even be able to get out into my garden (heaven!).

Going to Sarasota

Garry is bach it this weekend because Pattie, Cathy and I are off to Sarasota for the FSGS Annual Conference. For me that means meetings since I'm the newsletter editor, and therefore, on the board. With the vendor table added to the mix, I'm not sure how many sessions I'm going to be able to get to attend. It should be a fun weekend.

FSGS Newsletter

Today, I found a new website that I'd like to write about in the February 2011 issue of the newsletter. I've written to the owners of the website hoping that they will want me to do the article.

I also bought a fishing vest today. I'm planning on wearing it--diginity be damned--at the state conference next week. I'm hoping to snag a few article writers for me and for Cori. We'll see what I'm able to scare up in the way of help in filling the pages.

Pack Peddler's Place: Birth of Everyday Genealogy

Pack Peddler's Place: Birth of Everyday Genealogy: "Everyday Genealogy What are you suppose to do with all the notes and handouts you accumulate while attending genealogy meetings, seminars, o..."

FSGS Newsletter

As of this week the newsletter is with the printer. So now it's a matter of waiting to get the print version out there. I've already deployed the email version. I'm not hearing much so far. Sometimes it seems to take a few days before I start hearing anything positive or negative about it.

Now the hunt for the next "find" is on. So far I've pretty much managed to unearth something new for each issue. I suppose I'll run into something over the next two months.

One interesting item is that Barnes & Noble seems to going into the eBook publishing business for self-publishing on their reader (Nook). It looks interesting...something that genealogist shouldn't ignore.

Pattie and I are off to the St. Pete meeting tomorrow. It's the first time we are going. Sharon Tate Moody is speaking. So we thought we'd go on an adventure. It will be interesting to see if Sharon remembers us.

Paint Presentation

I've been tinkering with the Paint presentation again. It's a fun little item. I created the presentation in Google Docs and shared it with Pattie. We can both go in and edit. Also, when we get ready to do a presentation, we can do it from any computer located anywhere in the world. Welcome to cloud computing! The presentation template in Google Docs is a bit quirky but still managable. The topic should be a fun one. We're booked to do the first one in July 2011 at the FGS meeting in Tampa.

I've also been working on the FSGS newsletter. I'm the editor. The issue is turing out to be a good one. I managed to snag an article from George G. Morgan. I'm hoping to get more national/internation figures like him to contribute. It's a matter of me plunking up the nerve to approach people and ask them...and then accepting "No!" gracefully in the hopes that I'll get an occassional "Yes!" We'll see how much nerve I can work up.

I'm making progress on my "tree" book but my family saga is dead in the water. Maybe over the winter I can revive it. Pattie has all of these ISBN numbers that we have to use up...

Everyday Genealogy: Everyday Genealogy to be available on iPhones!

Everyday Genealogy: Everyday Genealogy to be available on iPhones!: "Just wanted to let you now that Everyday Genealogy will also be available as an iPhone application this fall! And I made sure that it will w..."

Pattie's Secret Genealogy Project

Pattie reports on her personal blog (PackPeddler) that she working on her top secret project again. It's a race to see if she'll finish it on time...

Fun Day at FGS meeting in Tampa

Pattie and I had the pleasure of meeting up with lots of friends today at the FGS meeting. We had a chance to catch up on business while driving into and out of Tampa. I've been working on a presentation using Paint and Pattie has a proposal for how to use the items I can produce with paint to dress up a generated book. We'll see if we can pull something coherent together.

Succesfully Redirected Go Daddy Account

Yeah! Redirecting the Go Daddy link to this blog was a piece of cake. Go Daddy had improved its interface...so much easier.

So far I've complete four articles for the FSGS Journal (Cori is happy) and a new Paint presentation. I've been playing with paint for a long time now. You can do all sorts of interesting stuff with it. Now all Pattie and I need to do is come up with a few more tools that we use that others most like don't know about and we'll have another mix and match presentation...my favorite kind.