For some serious chillin’ background working music, try Chris Brogan’s mixes

So, it’s that time of year . . .  resolution time. And, my Weight Watchers team leader told us yesterday that 97 percent of us will fail at our resolutions to lose weight. As some of you know, I started a blog last year—Nov. 4, 2008, to be exact. And, it seems to be doing well, increasing its uniques and doing a lot of things in a positive way, including bringing more women’s attention to the outdoor arena.

And so . . . I’m looking for ways to improve the blog’s social networking capabilities as a resolution (er, business plan, too), and while I’m doing that, I like to have music in the background. Now, I don’t necessarily like words with the music; that can be distracting. I do like DJ Chris Brogan’s “sessions,” found at iTunes. For some serious “just chillin’ ” music for free, to set while you work or run or walk or hey, it’s your life, whatever, you might want to check it out.

~Barbara Baird

Cara Peebles – Member of The WOMA

Raised on a farm in Northern New York, this former Dairy Princess never fired or even held a firearm until last year, when she joined the team at Otis Technology as their marketing coordinator. Cara has since moved from vegetarian to huntress in training. She is a life member of the NRA and a Babes with Bullets alumna who carries a pistol permit and owns her own firearms. Read more

Kirstie Pike featured in Forbes.com

Kudos to The WOMA’s veep, Kirstie Pike, who has been featured in an article at Forbes.com in the “Life” section in an article by Rebecca Ruiz. Kirstie and Rebecca recently hunted for elk in Kirstie’s home state of Colorado. See the article, and read about not only Kirstie’s passion for hunting, but also her entrepreneurial spirit — the one that got her into Forbes’ focus in the first place!

The power of clarity

Utah’s trophy mule deer bucks demonstrated to me the value of good optics.

When you’re shopping for hunting optics and pick the most distant point from the store’s counter, this still won’t tell you what good optics will reveal of a buck’s rack at dusk.

When I switched from a less expensive 10x pair of full-size to Leupold’s 8x42mm Mojave binoculars, I could count, not guess, the number of points on bucks over a mile away.

The Mojave model fits narrower faces, including smaller women and young people. They weigh in at less than 1.5 pounds (23 ounces), thanks in part to the open-bridge design. I carried them comfortably around my neck throughout archery elk season and found them easy to adjust, even one-handed.

Mojaves are phase-coated for better performance and waterproof to withstand any conditions and backed up by Leupold’s lifetime warranty. Leupold loaned me a pair of Mojave binoculars to test. www.leupold.com.

Fewer pitch

Writers are sometimes confused about when to use less and when to use fewer.  And editors commonly see (and correct) erroneous constructions such as less people.

I’m happy to report that this is one of the few situations in our endlessly quirky, riddled-with-exceptions English language with a simple, hard-and-fast rule to guide you.

Here’s the rule: When describing something you can count, use fewer; when describing something you can’t count, use less.

Things you can count include people, bass, deer, rocks, trees, hunting trips, mountains, rivers, continents and oceans. (Use fewer.)

Things you can’t count include time, water, trouble, happiness, air, love, space, soil and meat. (Use less.)

Here are some examples:

• Less venison; fewer roasts
• Less happiness; fewer moments of joy
• Less love; fewer affectionate gestures
• Less grass; fewer blades of grass
• Less water; fewer rivers
• Less time; fewer hours
• Less space; fewer parking spaces
• Less trouble; fewer problems

Here are some new editorial funnies to test yourself. See how many errors you can spot. Each example contains at least one.

5. Like many fly fishers, my first brook trout fell for an earthworm clawed from a muddy streambank.

4. Remember how you feel after Christmas dinner? Well, the trout also have to loosen a belt before desert, and often take a day or two off before they actively start feeding again.

3. The Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) has several field locations where DOW personnel strips the eggs and artificially inseminates the row.

2. Both the fore-end and stock are crafted from a durable, weatherproof synthetic material to compliment the non-reflective matte metal finish.

1. Sitting down to write about Montana fly-fishing guide Stacy Jennings, wracking my brain for a slightly edgy hook, I realized that the editor of the Missoula Independent had already written it for me, in giving Stacy the paper’s 2007 award for Best Fishing Guide.

Here are the answers to the bloopers in the last post:

5. At the height of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate in the United States stood at 25%.

It makes more sense to substitute depth or nadir when writing about a depression. For the same reason, you wouldn’t write “depth of the mountain” either.

4. He grew up in Detroit and his love for the city and its people are palpable, as is his grief for the horrors the city has endured.

The plural verb doesn’t agree with its singular subject, which here is love. His love is palpable.

3. We have a serious problem in this country—our champagne financing. TV covers candidates directly commiserate with their ability to sell ads, so an attractive candidate gets more coverage that someone not so photogenic.

Wrong word; should be campaign financing. (Champagne is the famous sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France. It’s expensive, so lots of people have a problem financing it.) Wrong word; should be commensurate, meaning corresponding in amount. (Commiserate is a verb meaning to sympathize.) Wrong word; should be than.

2. The tragic news did not phase Jonathon as much as Melinda had expected.

Wrong word; a phase is a particular step or stage in a process. Should be faze, a verb meaning to disturb.

1. After rounding the corner near the entryway, Wilson’s paranoia began to ease a little.

Here, rounding is a dangling modifier. (Currently this says that Wilson’s paranoia rounded the corner. But emotions don’t walk around inside buildings.) Rewritten thus: After rounding the corner near the entryway, Wilson felt his paranoia begin to ease a little.

Register now for Archery Trade Association Show on Jan. 13-15, 2010

Please be advised, anyone registering for a complimentary press badge must attend the show to cover the event as a journalist through print, film or digital media. Any media person or anyone associated with a media group who is attending the show to garner sponsorships, partnerships or sale ad space, must register for a sales representative badge. Media cannot solicit exhibitors. Those media who do solicit exhibitors will be banned from the 2010 Trade Show.

Before you may proceed to registration, you must be verified as a working journalist for the 2009/2010 calendar year. Once you have been verified,  you will be contacted by e-mail with instructions on how to register and order your Trade Show press badge.

To obtain verification, please e-mail Amy Hatfield at

amyhatfield@archerytrade.org

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

with the following information:

• Name
• Company name
• Mailing address
• Phone number
• E-mail address (A unique e-mail must be provided for each individual attending.)
• Web site
• Sample of your work (provide Web url featuring your work or an attachment)
• Publications or networks that have featured your work

Thompson Targets giveaway

This post is sponsored by the wonderful folks at: Thompson Targets at The Hunter’s Wife

I was offered the opportunity to review and give away, to one of my readers, a target from Thompson Targets. Since I’m not the one who packs heat around here, my husband and his friend Troy, aka The Rootin’ Tootin’ Fisherman, had a chance to shoot ‘em up. If I didn’t live in the city and had ventured out to the woods or hunting properties, I could have been the one smacking targets. But instead, Mark and Troy had a little fun this weekend. Before the damage . . . After the damage . . . The Rootin’ Tootin’ Fisherman, Troy, and his .22 rifle… The giveaway: I am giving away the CS-35 – the CS-35 Centerfire

Description from their website: The CS-35 Centerfire Spinner Target is a popular, two-disc spinning target for “big bore” pistol shooters. It provides the shooter with a choice between the upper 3″ target and lower 5″ target. The CS-35 is designed for use with Centerfire handguns up to .44 Magnum and provides shooting action you can easily see (spins when hit) and hear! The heavy-duty steel frame provides years of trouble free practice and many outings of fun with family and friends. Portable and easy to use spinning targets mean no more knocked down targets to reset. A footrest makes it easy to push targets into the hardest ground.

To enter please answer the following question: If you won the CS-35 target, who would you give it to? Maybe you will keep it for yourself, give it to your kids, or give it to your sister because she’s the one who packs heat in your family. And it is Christmastime and this would make the perfect gift. The winner will be selected randomly. The winner will be announced Wednesday, December 16, 2009. The winner must claim the prize within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected.

US residents only, please. (I cannot guarantee that it will be there in time for Christmas. The product will ship directly from Thomspon Targets, and we all know that mail carriers are working as fast as they can this time of year.) Good luck!

Suck it up!

This a good time of year to fix what’s broken and quickly move on to better days. Don’t dwell on the pain it has brought, just suck it up and move quickly to the next opportunity. Complaining only magnifies weakness. Take personal responsibility and resolve whatever conflicts you have either internally or externally.

Wishing you the merriest of Christmases and that Santa brings you everything you want. I will glow in the memories of past holidays and reflect on the real meaning of Christmas.

Cheers,

Marsha

Learn how to write a powerful press release

It doesn’t matter if you’re in television, radio or print. At some point in your career, you’ll need to write a press release. You don’t have to go to journalism school to figure out how to write a good one. Subscribe to Mickie Kennedy’s PR Fuel Newsletter and not only will you get tips on how to write press releases, you also will learn interview and social networking tips.

Spoiled brats: When parenting goes wrong

At 20 years old, I chose not to have children, so my tolerance for unruly kids may be less than most people’s. I do think my observation skills are fair, and in saying that, I have discovered the reason youngsters today are spoiled brats. It’s their parents and the lack of disciplining children when appropriate.

Sitting in the crowded terminal at the Philadelphia airport, waiting for my connecting flight, I watched a young mother running around and around the chairs with her two-year-old daughter chasing her. This gave the child the model that running is OK so she took off screaming, crashing into luggage, people, furniture and more.  The mom then tried to get the child settled down, with not much luck.

We boarded the plane and were ready to take off, but the child was wailing and would not sit in her own seat with the belt on. We were delayed almost an hour because of this situation. Finally a bribe of candy and a Coke from the flight attendant settled the child down.

Who created this aggravation? The child? Ah, no.  Mom was the one who validated the behavior profile that the child parroted.

So what should be done? What can be done? How will business handle this bad behavior when the kids are going into the business world? Yikes!

Next Page »