At my day job, projects are often called by code names before they receive their final (marketing approved) name. These names are assigned when the project is started for internal use only and sometimes even linger long after the project gets a final name in places like bug databases, specifications, etc.

A LOT of thought should go into giving a project a code name but, honestly, some names should really get a more careful look and some names should just never be used. Call me a bit superstitious but I really don’t like working on project where the name seems to have some ill portent attached.

This came up with a project code name I heard yesterday (the second project at my day job with this code name). The project is called “Alchemy.”

Even seven or so years ago when I heard the first use of Alchemy as a project code name, I was boggled by the choice. They really wanted to name a project they wanted to succeed after a field of study that never succeeded in turning lead into gold but instead succeeded in poisoning most of it’s practitioners to death or at least insanity. Really?

So I humbly submit an off-the-top-of-my-head list of project code names you should never use:

Alchemy – I still say it was an unsuccessful project that destroyed those that tried to work on it.
Chernobyl – Destroy not just itself but make a huge margin around it a disaster area also.
Columbine – I know it’s a flower but I think the high school massacre trumps the flower petals.
Donner – I don’t care if the other projects are Blitzen or Rudolph. Think Donner Party.
Earhart – I know she was famous but she took a lot of expensive technology and disappeared. Didn’t end well.
Hindenberg – Crash and burn. Enough said.
Loki – Somehow the Norse god of Mischief is not what you want to invoke.
Pompeii – Buried alive where you fell with little or no warning.
Titanic – Crash and sink.
Tungusca – Blow up in the air and knock down everything for miles.
Vesuvius – Explode, burn and bury.

I’m sure I can come up with others but you probably can too.

I can’t help it. I write. I must write. Apparently when that switch got thrown and I decided to put effort into writing something (a business paper, I think, was the first thing), I started something I cannot stop.

Not that it’s a bad thing, really. But it is something I don’t think I control. For a Type-A control freak, that’s always a bit worrisome.

I’ve been writing a lot on my fiction recently and I told my husband that I thought maybe I’d broken my dry spell and was writing again. He looked at me, obviously confused, and said “But you never stopped writing. You just were writing other things instead of fiction.”

That stopped me in my tracks and I thought about it a bit and, you know, he’s right. (Don’t tell him, we don’t want it to go to his head.) I’d had a really long dry spell in my fiction world but my creative juices had merely re-directed themselves to my non-fiction world. I’d written many business documents and helped revise a publishing strategy while I was lamenting my lack of writing.

I’d been told for a long time that writers write. It was one of the signs of being a “real” writer. I suddenly realized that one of the ways I kept self-sabotaging my belief that I’m a “real” writer is because I felt I didn’t HAVE to write. I could turn it on and off and no harm done, no twitching, no big deal.

I would like to state that I was wrong. Apparently I don’t turn it off as much as re-direct it. I express myself a lot through writing and words and, when blocked in one direction, apparently my brain finds another avenue to go down. The written word is as natural to me as oxygen and I can’t actually stop writing SOMETHING.

This realization has actually helped me break free of my block, too. Now I can direct my desire to write toward what needs to get written instead of letting that energy and drive be sucked up by a class or whitepaper.

So writers write. Guess I’m a writer :)

It’s almost 2010 and each year I like to look back at the year I’m exiting to sort of assess what went on and what I accomplished (or didn’t), then set myself some goals for the next year.

2009, for me, was a year a LOT of both highs and lows.

In my day job profession, I weathered a lay-off that was scary but served to get me out of a toxic work atmosphere I’d been trying to leave for a while. The economy tanked, unemployment grew and grew but I worked hard and picked up some freelance technical writing, a contract technical writing position and am now back to a full time programmer writer position in a team I really like. It was a bit hard, emotionally, but it worked out well for me.

In my writing other-job, I wasn’t as productive in 2009 as I’d wished. I think I overloaded myself and took too many things on at once until I could only focus on those things instead of on my long-term goals, whether or not those things helped me toward my long-term goals. I did start moving more at that direction near the end of the year, though.

In my family other-job, I actually had a decent year. My youngest son is doing well and I was a very supportive (if cold, wet and tired) football mom as he played peewee football in the fall. I managed to put aside my worry over my oldest son (US Army, deployed in Iraq most of the year) and sent lots of care packages. He was injured and is now in Germany, recovering from knee reconstruction. My husband and I are doing well also. Wish the house was cleaner but it’s a bit lower on my list unless the cats magically turn into mini-maids in the middle of the night.

My health has suffered the most this year. I think this is partly because I have a tendency to push my own needs to the side in favor of those of other people and partly because my day job had been so stressful and toxic for so long that it took its own toll as well. This year I’ve been getting a lot of medical testing and some treatment done and I need more. One of the things I’ve discovered I have is Obstructive Sleep Apnea and now that I’ve been on treatment for that for about 90 days, I am finally feeling like I have some energy again and can contemplate more than the bare minimums it takes to get by. But I really need to lose weight – a lot of it.

The world in 2009 has been really scary though. The economy, the job outlook, the number of crimes and then all the officer shootings. Those hit me really hard because my brother-in-law is a SWAT Sgt. I have skin in that game. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of control over much of that.

For 2010 I think I see my goals as:

• Lose Weight - I am going to do my damndest to lose 100 lbs in 2010. This will be partly via low carb diet and a lot via exercise. I have guidelines from my cardiologist and a gym membership now, sports bras and shoes on the way. And a naggy gym partner :)
• Investigate Food Allergies – I have a lot of symptoms of celiac or at least gluten intolerance. I’m setting up a doctor appt to investigate it and will make whatever dietary changes I must to accommodate whatever we find.
• Sell to New York – I am going to keep my eye on my prize of selling to New York. This means not taking on any more side tasks and sticking with my writing better. I am going to set up a weekly wordcount goal and work to it.
• Nurture Myself – I’ve taken up photography as a way to get myself into a totally different creative place from words and it will help me get outside more often. I have a photoblog (Focal Changes) set up and will be doing something called the 365 Project where I take a picture a day and post it. I also want to learn more about the aspects of photography that interests me – so I might take a class or two.
• Ace the Day Job – I want to earn a promotion in 2010 and wow my boss with my brilliance without killing myself or spending all my time and energy at the day job.

As you can see, a lot of 2010’s goals are around me. I realized I need to improve my health and take some time out for me before I burn out.

I spent most of the last three days at the 2009 Emerald City Writers Conference. This is a local writers’ conference held annually by the Greater Seattle chapter of the Romance Writers of America and I’m glad it’s local to me as I can actually make it to the conference with a good amount of certainty.

This year, I was only able to go to a few of the workshops but I really enjoyed those I managed to make it to. The offerings ranged from an H&R Block tax workshop to ones on writing mechanics, finding inspiration, promotion and how to succeed in writing as a business.

The book signing was nice, especially given the economy. I didn’t have anything there to sign because my print book had just come out and I didn’t know that when it was time to sign up for it. Maybe next year. Instead I provided “minion” services for both Yasmine Galenorn and Linda Wisdom. Whenever there was a slow period, I amused myself by making bunny ears behind Yasmine’s head (Linda says they were devil horns but, hey, whatever works!).

I saw a lot of old friends, made some new ones and won a door prize (I don’t usually win anything). Next year Yasmine and I are talking about proposing two new workshops. We’ll see if they are accepted or not. :) I also plan a couple of fun baskets with things like Office.

I also rediscovered the bonding of knitting, especially among writers. On Sunday, I brought my knitting with me because I needed something to do with my hands and had given up on the possibility that I’d actually get the laptop out and do anything on it. I had quite a few people stop by to see what I was knitting and tell me what they were working on. I was really interested in the gloves Deborah Cooke was knitting and may have to find that pattern and make a pair – at least I might when I’m less intimidated by knitting fingers and the concept of a thumb gusset.

Next year the Emerald City Writers Conference is October 1-3, 2010.

A few days ago, after fielding yet another question about how to do something in Word from another writer, I realized that I could write a focused, easy to understand class for writers using Word.

I’m a technical writer during the day with many, many years of Word use and I also have a background in instructional design (I write and present classes, usually on software usage).

I floated the idea briefly on Twitter and got some interest so I’m trying to judge both real interest and gather ideas of what issues writers are having so I can make sure they are addressed.

I’d like to cover Word 2003, 2007 and Mac Word (latest). I won’t cover OpenOffice or other programs because I don’t use them and they have some decent documentation of their own. I can talk about the differences between Word and Works as well.

I want to cover the following basic list of topics:

• The lay of the land in the Word User Interface
• Formatting a manuscript from scratch
• Changing existing formatting
• Creating and using templates
• Using track changes and comments
• Document file formats and what they mean
• When things go wrong and what to do
• Lots and lots of Q&A

For handouts, I’d like to give:

• Class packet with all the info in the class
• Downloadable templates for common manuscript formats

So my question to anyone reading this is what have I missed? What problems have you had that you wish you knew how to fix? What questions do you want answered?

Also, what version of Word are you using and is there interest in a class like this?

Let me know!