Possibly the largest challenge facing U.S. offshore wind energy developers however is the lack of a stable policy and incentive regime that would bring more players into the industry.

Paul is my twenty-six year old Facebook friend from Kenya. We have never met. Recently Paul told me on “chat” that he gets inspirations from “Seeds of Insight” and that he was moved to share Antonio’s story with his friends in Kenya. Paul is one out of many persons who have sent me e-mails/e-messages to let me know that they have been inspired with Antonio’s story.

At least 50 persons have been engaged around the world; Jamaica, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Cambodia, Philippines, Russia, Venezuela, Cayman, Kenya.  

Achievements

Stats

As of December 13th, 2009, I have eighty eight (88) posts with over two thousand, nine hundred and eighty eight (2,988) views, and at least one hundred and (160) comments from my viewers. November was the busiest month with 828 views. 

Seeds of Insight: Views per Month

The Top 3 Posts to date are:

Ann Marie E. Campbell (my bio).

“Gone With the Wind:” A Special Teacher From Rusea’s. 

“Spanking and beating: spare the rod and save the child”

Books

“Saving Your Teenager”

“Saving your Teenager: Develop an Implementation Plan” was first published as a concept on WordPress May 15, 2009.  It focused on implementation plans and contracts for the parents/guardians of late teens.  I am now finished with the second draft of the book after making the changes based on feedback from my reviewers. I am still waiting to get feedback from the Chief on the conceptual diagram…if I am not able to get this within the next few months, I might just go ahead and start the proofreading. I know that these tools are needed.    

“Seeds of Insight”

The third draft of my second book “Seeds of Insight: Strong Memories of My Favourite Men” was completed by the end of October and is now being edited by Bethany. Thanks to Jennifer, Althea and Tazh for their review. I want to thank the Reverend Earl Thames for his comments on the entire book and not just his chapter. My goal is to get it to the publisher by the end of the year.  

Antonio’s Story: Child Poverty and Disparities: what good is a campaign without compassion?

Antonio’s story is already written on-line. I followed his case for 51 days (up to December 11th, 2009) and made regular entries on my blog. Anthony’s story with co-star Tamian Beckford generated the most interest among my readers and pushed the number of views up to 828 in November. His story has inspired many persons to act positively on behalf of others (Kerrel) and has motivated others (Allison and Novia) to show direct support.  Even the leadership at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture was compelled to act when his “story” was eventually told in the media. Antonio’s story deserves a place in our libraries and some of my readers are asking for the book, so if it is the will of the Universe, the book will be published.    

Acknowledgements

From a Blog to a “Business.” 

Special thanks to Jennifer, Bethany, Tazh, Jaevion and Caryl for sharing in my vision to spread and nourish “Seeds of Insight.” 

Mrs. Prospect you should know that you are the one who “kicked” me to go and reserve the name at the Companies Office. If it were not for you, I would not have met Andrea. There are many prospects ahead for you as long as you “move closer to being a better and more humane person.” You are a success story waiting to be told!      

I must acknowledge all those who have given me Inspirations. It is because of those inspirations that I can inspire others like Paul in Kenya. It is indeed because of Dr. Campbell-Forrester’s vision for adolescent health and her quiet passion why I was motivated to read extensively on adolescent health. As the Chief Medical Officer for Health in Jamaica, she is more than “sympathetic” to adolescent needs; she is a visionary who is now “drinking from her saucer.” 

I must thank my husband, my two sons and Jaevion; they motivated me in different ways to start this blog. 

Then there are the four women – Jennifer, Tazh, Althea and Bethany who gave their time and talents unselfishly to review my books and asked me those forbidden questions. When the history of “Seeds of Insight” is written, the world should know that Jennifer was my psychotherapist, Tazh was the first person outside of Cascade to call me “Mar,” Althea thought “it was inevitable,” and Bethany was the editor. 

Moses felt that my real stories on health issues and the lessons learned from my blogging experience should be told at EduVision 2009 International Conference. I truly respect him for giving me access into the traditional halls of education. Now I know that “Seeds of Insight” is a legitimate child of Jamaica. Respect to Moses Everytime!

Ian strategically recruited me into the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities (CVC) when he invited me to attend the “Jamaica Drug Policy Conference” held in early November at the University of the West Indies (a conference sponsored by “Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition” and “Caribbean Drug & Alcohol Research Institute”). That was the first time I introduced myself as “Ann Marie E. Campbell sowing ‘Seeds of Insight.’” Ian knew that I was an activist and I could not deny it in the meeting.  

For those who have started a blog (Jaevion and Norwell), I hope you are enjoying the experience. If I have inspired you (Mia and Bridget) to start a blog, I hope you do so before the New Year starts. 

Michele, we are now connected through Antonio and your “New Generation” Rotary Club. I will accept your invitation and come to your meetings when I can.

Andrea, I will be calling you next week because I am excited about the Prospects.  

Last but certainly not least, thanks to Patricia Muller, the designer of the “Connections” theme and much appreciation to WordPress for providing me with the affordable new technology to make this happen. I hope to meet you all one day!   

Full Moon, Pegasus and Prospects

I have been enjoying the sweet scents even more so after the wise old man brought my attention to the Full Moon in August. I am patiently waiting on his arrival every month.

Moon in the Morning

The Pegasus now has meaning; not just for me but for many of you out there. HALLELUJAH! 

There is a job prospect on the horizon with the ICI/OAS (IIN/OEA)…thanks to  Antonio, the CDA and my passions.  

 Challenges

I wish I could blog on a full time basis but I cannot (at least not for now)…blogging requires a lot of energy!

Thy Will Be Done! I was reminded at 12:30 am on December 12th that the energy supply will always be there…the breezes were there again in my room…so beautiful, supplying me with sweet scents. So I will continue to blog!     

Plans for 2010:

- Balance my blog into my work…continue spreading the seeds and nourishing them

- Take advice from Andrea re: the idea

- Get at least two of my books published 

- Write a 100,000 word book about the “Jamaican Cherry Juice.” Jennifer and Bethany told me about the nourishment of the seeds and Ian, Audrey and Ivan have already given me some ideas to get the “juices” flowing. It will be a book on “How to Arouse Your Sweet Scents Just Before Dawn;” a book for women on how to nourish the seeds.”

Blessings to you all! Have a wonderful holiday season and may your positive thoughts and energies guide you to find your Purpose in 2010.

In the style of the inimitable Gaga’s Boys Boys Boys, of course.

You know, I personally don’t care what anyone else says — she’s awesome. And she does wonderful things for the LGBTQA community by being such a sweet person and so open about what she is — while not using it as another way to get into the papers.

Anyway, that wasn’t the point of this post. I’m at 14,306 words in Nano, which is good considering how tired I’ve been this month (seriously — insomnia until 5am and then not being able to wake up till the late afternoon, and tired all the rest of the time but still not able to fall asleep = not. fun. at. all.). My Nano novel is The Jade Star of Athering, which is the sequel to Bellica, and it’s coming along fairly nicely. As it’s my second novel in that world and set right after the events in Bellica I’m having trouble separating the two; I have to remember to make it enjoyable as a standalone as well as a sequel, because I would hate to be one of those writers. You know the kind I’m talking about.

I’m also trying to make my main character much different from Yarrow, but it is difficult because she is around the same age, a bellica, and — of course — is the HEROINE. There are going to be similarities.

What I find helpful is to compare my characters to characters in movies or TV — specifically Battlestar Galactica, because the show is basically religion to me. Yarrow was very Starbuckian*; I’m trying to make Bellica Agate more like Kendra Shaw. Very reserved, sober, disciplined — but she has her dark, dirty secrets.

(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, GO WATCH BATTLESTAR GALACTICA RIGHT NOW. All of it. Even Razor. Actually, especially Razor, because that’s where Kendra Shaw appears. Shame on you for not having seen it. It’s fucking fantastic.)

Then come the other problems — while editing Bellica I noticed a lot of devices that I used and reused and reused until I and my beta readers committed mass suicide (mmm Koolaid). Since then I’ve been consciously trying to NOT use those devices so much, and it slows down the flow. I know the point of Nano is not to edit as you go, but I really, really can’t help it. It’s like cooking — clean the kitchen as you go; make it a habit and your kitchen will forever glisten. (I don’t actually do this, but the analogy sticks. Because I don’t use Pam.)

Also I can’t continue writing until I have a name for someone or something, because the person’s character is tied to the name — AND the name has to be meaningful. Really awesome when the subject of your book is a totally new culture that you haven’t had a chance to research properly — that is, it’s a made-up culture BASED in the Mayan culture. So I want it as true to life as possible, meaning I’m not just going to make up Mayan sounding names, but actually composite new names based off the real words in Maya.

Which Maya? GOOD QUESTION. I’m calling the people the Pokomam, which is a kind of Maya, but that’s not necessarily what I’m basing it off.

Oh, and I need to devise a Mayan calendar for a different world 20,000 years in the future.

So my flow is not fresh. It is stumbly and blocked. But at least it’s moving.

As for Get Your Words Out I’m at 154,984. If I finish NaNo at just 50K I’ll need to pound out 10K in December. Which is fine; I’ll be doing NaNoFiMo most likely. But I’d love to finish WriMo with 60K.

That’s it. I’m off to write.

-Katje

*Also, Starbuckian is a term I use in my own life to refer to how I shoot myself in the foot REPEATEDLY and am just a general frak-up, but if I were a Viper pilot you can bet your ass I’d be the best you have.

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As of September 22, 2009, I have forty (40) posts with over one thousand three hundred and fifty eight (1,358) views, and at least seventy five (75) comments from my viewers. My WordPress blog is now linked to my Facebook page and vice versa.

The Top 3 Posts to date are:

“Spanking and beating: spare the rod and save the child”

“For Queen Esther we give thee thanks. Amen”

Ann Marie E. Campbell (my bio).

Positive Happenings

I was asked to share my blogging experiences at the EduVision Conference 2009 coming up in November here in Jamaica. I hope the participants will be inspired to use the technology as I have to generate similar learning and educational tips for their own development goals in health care as well as in other fields. I also hope to spread the news that our youth are to be taken seriously as partners in the development of Jamaica.

“Saving Your Teenager”

“Saving your Teenager: Develop an Implementation Plan” was first published as a concept on WordPress May 15, 2009.  It focused on implementation plans and contracts for the parents/guardians of late teens.  I am now finished with the second draft of the book after  making the changes based on feedback from my reviewers.

“Seeds of Insight”

I hope to have the third draft of  my second book “Seeds of Insight: Strong Memories of My Favourite Men” completed by the end of October after I go through the comments from my reviewers (JSD and AB). My wish is that the Reverend gives me his comments on the entire book and not just his chapter.

The Wizard of Oz

I watched this movie uninterrupted from start to finish at the Tom Redcam Library on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009. I must confess that I have seen bits and pieces of this movie at least a dozen times but have never watched it as a “thinker” and a “writer.” I thank the United States Embassy for making this possible at this time.

Full Moon

The next Full Moon is this Sunday, October 4th. I am patiently waiting on his arrival.

Book Description: This book gives an overview of the key debates that took place during the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meetings on the theme of the High-Level Segment of 2005, “Achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, as well as implementing the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits: progress made, challenges and opportunities”. This publication also includes the Secretary-General’s report as well as the President of ECOSOC’s Summary on the theme of the ECOSOC High-Level Segment for 2005.

Click to read the book

Drank quite a bit of vodka tonight, but thought I’d just pop in and say that Bellica is up at Muerta’s Tears, so you should go check out the prologue and the first chapter.

I’ve been doing 14 hour days at school since we began. Now things really get crazy.

Trying to get back into writing, but this show is killing me. Maybe I will find time this week? With my homework for my second- and third-year classes?

Lawls.

Also need to get Snowbound edited so I can send it in to the Writers of the Future Contest. Wish me luck (well, time, mostly).

-Katje

I am taking a break from writing anything new until September 8th because I have to work on editing Snowbound, preparing for Dragon*Con, going to Dragon*Con, getting together a working props list for Dove In Death (a production that goes off the end of September), getting together my production stuff for Just Shoot Me (the show I’m directing in November), and losing some weight so I can be IN the fall show that goes off end of October (The Balcony).

Yes, three shows overlapping, right after the other. Plus 5 classes (more than  full load), dance classes, morning yoga, and working out at the gym 3 times a week. And then there’s making my GYWO word count goals, which are 10K for Sept, 5K for Oct, 50K for November, and 5k for December. Yay.

Also, I have decided to publish my novels, etc, serially on Muerta’s Tears. You can start reading Bellica with the Prologue sometime before Sept. 20th, which is the official start date — ie, when Chapter 1 is up.

I’ll be putting up Islands of Fire and Water and The Man of Bronze sometime in 2010, too, provided I finish writing them and then edit them this year. Snowbound is getting turned into a contest (which I’m still eligible for, because NO WAY will I get 5,000 hits before the contest runs through, and I’m not getting paid for these works), so it’ll be a while before that one comes up.

The Jade Star of Athering won’t be up for a while, cause I haven’t written it yet.

So yeah — check it out. And if you wish to continue to see my works online, please consider donating to fund my writing habit.

See you after Labour Day Weekend (which is just going to be one big party, man.)

-Katje

I have just finished (as in, today) my first short story, Snowbound, though it’s more of a novelette at 15,758 words, and added a really terrible synopsis on the “Finished Works” page.

Needs an edit, and then I send it to the Writers of the Future Contest.

But not till after DragonCon. No more writing till then; I forbid myself. Cause I need some frakkin’ sleep.

(PS brings my GYWO wordcount to 140,678 which means I’m 7k ahead for the standard non-Nano goals for August yaaaaaaaaay)

Over and out.
dead!Katje

I wrote two more poems today, bringing me a third of the way to my year’s goal. View can be read here, and my Hierophant meets my High Priestess: all bets called off is scheduled for tomorrow.

I think I may put my most recent poems into glasstown as well; I need to add more to it. Make it thicker. And a lot of my old stuff is just crap.

July word count: 76,346 words
YTD count: 124,301

Still working on edits for Bellica; maybe done by August 5th? That’s my hope. I also have essays to write for class and a final to study for, so that is kind of my priority as I need to have at least a 9 GPA this intersession (for those of you used to the US 0 – 4.0 system, here we use a 0 – 10 system; I’ll outline it now).

10     A+
9       A
8       A-
———-
7      B+
6      B
5      B-
———
4     C+
3     C
2     C-
——–
1     D
——–
0    F

The “A” section is considered “First Class,” the “B” section “Second Class,” the “C” and “D” sections “Pass,” and the F is of course Fail. At this point I have a 7 — a B+. I would need to get a 10 each semester for the next four years in order to get a 9 GPA before I grad. Meaning I’d need at least 95% in each class.

I want to get that sort of GPA because it helps when one is looking into doing a secondary degree, and I may want my Master’s at some point so I can teach. I sort of have that desire somewhere in me.

So that’s a long-winded way of saying “School takes priority right now; sorry guys.” But after this class I have a month off before I start courses again, so I will be writing like a fiend in that time. (You know in between all the other things I have planned like DRAGON*CON.)

And I am off because tonight is Battlestar Galactica night; we’re about to finish the final season and WE ARE SO EXCITED.

-Katje

So, screw the term “editing” — I’m doing a whole frakkin’ rewrite. The entire first part of my novel is completely nonviable. It’s boring. The characters are, well, out — of character.

So I started a rewrite today (yesterday; it’s four am) and have written over 4600 fresh words so far. Tomorrow I must dedicate to a paper, at least, and then I can work more on the book.

Haven’t been able to hit the gym because of horrible blisters on my feet. Ah well. This gives me more time to write.

MAYBE I SHOULD USE IT.

Liking the rewrite a lot more but now worried I have to rewrite the entire book, as my characters are….different. The relationships and everything have changed.

Le sigh.

On the plus side, inspiration blindsided me on Thursday after class and have now solved the problem of not knowing what the feck to do for Bellica’s sequel. I’ve changed the name and figured out the plot. Now I can’t wait for November so I can start writing The Jade Star of Athering. It’s going to be good. (I’m actually doing an outline this time.)

If I can rewrite the entire first part of Bellica this weekend, I’ll be incredibly pleased with myself.

So tired. Collapsing into bed now. I hope I wake up in the morning and not the afternoon.

-Katje

PS: current gywo count is 107,101.

Still haven’t gotten down to editing. After finishing I was up for two days straight, basically. Last night I slept 13+ hours straight, and now I’m up till 4am because I slept too much last night.

I swear I’m not on Earth’s schedule.

Tomorrow is class and gym and hopefully edit. I do also have to work on my three papers for class, though, which are all due a week from now. Feck.

You may notice the synopsis is up for The White Star of Athering. Do not assume this means I know what the feck I’m writing. I do not.

I also need to get cracking on my other stories as soon as possible.

Weekend? Please do not elude me.

-Katje

At 10:22 pm on Friday, July 10th, I typed the last words to my first novel, Bellica. I’m pretty darn impressed with myself.

Let us party.

Also, for July I’ve written 55,977 words total. That’s since the 5th, when my monthly word-count starts (because of GYWO’s system on LJ).

I’m incredible. *preens*

Reading copies published by the 14th of August, godswilling, and actual book published….??

I’ll keep you posted.

-Katje

Been doing a lot of handwriting on Bellica since the 14th. I think I’m about 15? Maybe fewer; not sure. 15 chapters away from the end anyway. Kind of excited and scared about that.

In other news I’m working on getting my poetry book glasstown published, so stay tuned for news about that.

I’ll post again when I’m breaking out the champagne.

Accomplished:

• No meetings this week – no submissions due

For Next Week:

• Meeting to finish deliverable #3
• Detail a total of 3 misuse cases (most risky)
• Update prototype as needed
• Put together a full data dictionary for the project, including correct notation
• Update analysis diagram(s)
• Meeting with stakeholder to review and sign off the full SRS package
• Include feedback from stakeholder regarding SRS package in the final SRS

Challenges:

• Keeping in contact with team members and up to date on project, when there are no deliverables immediately due

Here were our goals for this week:

We met this Friday for about an hour to distribute our workloads for this weekend and to discuss when we would meet with our stakeholders. We are pushing back meeting with our stakeholder to next week because we realize that we want a completed SRS document first, and that was not accomplished this week unfortunately. We have at the very least picked out four more use cases to detail, we have split up fixing up the criticisms left on our previous submission of our SRS document, and Doug has been pushing along with his prototyping.

Bob – Bob didn’t attend the meeting because he had class. Total work: 0 hours

Ed – Ed attended the meeting and helped us determine logistics. Total work: 1 hour

Doug – Doug has a personal interest in this project and, as such, works vigorously on his prototype of the system. He also attended the meeting to help figure out when we’d meet with our stakeholder and to discuss fixing up our use cases. Total work: 8 hours.

Peter – Peter didn’t attend the meeting. He simply did not show. Total work: 0 hours

Alberto – I scheduled our meeting for Friday and helped pick out use cases and our work assignments to do over the weekend.
Total work: 1 hour

Planned for next week:

• Meet up at the beginning of the week to discuss the data dictionary
• Detail 4 more use cases
• Continue work on the prototype
• Fix up our SRS document so that all our use cases use the same format and correct all comments

Challenges: We’ve had to drop one of our stakeholders because their requirements are far too basic (only hardware and systems we’re not even designing), so we’re down to one. Another challenge has been our defunct group member. We’ve basically cut him from the team.

I was traveling on the 310 the other day and wow, it’s really coming along.  The demolition of Kirn is just around the corner, the new 18th Street is coming, and word on the streets is that Virginia Beach buses are going to have to start running at night.

All we need now is service to ORF Airport.

Accomplished:

This week our group held a meeting to discuss our strategy for tackling part 2 of the project and to divide up parts of the work that can be done separately. We met up on Wednesday at 4 o’ clock and came up with these task divisions:

Peter – Detail use case: Admin Setting key bindings( forwards, backwards, pause, resume powerpoint shortcuts) and draft up section 1 of the SRS document.

Ed – Detail use case: Users controlling slides( pausing, resuming, advancing, go back ) and draft up section 3 of the SRS document.

Bob – Detail use case: Admin setting up slide configuration( selecting slides and timings ) and draft up section 5 of the SRS document.

Doug – Detail use case: Admin calibrating the screen and draft up section 2 of the SRS document. He has also worked on a somewhat working laser pointer prototype of the system.

Alberto – Detail use case: Presenter uploading slides and draft up section 4 of the SRS document

Our general meeting lasted one hour, and as it is not Saturday yet, we have no numbers as to how much each person has worked on their individual parts. A rough estimate suggests that everyone should take at least an hour and probably more like two hours. Doug has worked several hours on his own time setting up a basic system for our IT professor customer.

Planned for next week:

• Meet Saturday at 3PM
• Finish analysis diagrams
• Look over SRS draft and make sure it is coherent
• Compile prototype screenshots
• Set up webcam prototype

Challenges:

None as of yet; it has been fairly trivial to combine the requirements of the SSE and the IT professor.

Week 5 has seen a break in our normal team work. After submitting P1, we all spent the first half of the week studying for the midterm exam. What an exam that turned out to be…

Today we built and tested a small prototype of the touch interface. We learned that the wireless camera doesn’t work with the touch libraries we are using. It was reported to our main customer that he would have to purchase a new web cam to allow further progress towards his goals.

We have decided to get back together tomorrow inorder to continue working on P2.