Winter

last days of winter

daffodil blooms surround me

sunshine in my heart

Sticking my toe in the water...

Jerry keeps telling me I should publish my poems. Michelle and I plan to write a book, and sprinkle poetry (hers and mine) throughout, but... well, we haven't written the book yet.

So, I'm trying out the "submission" system --- there are thousands of poetry journals and collections, many with online submission sites.

And I got my first acceptance.

You can see it at Creative Writing Now.

Done...

... with Phase 1, anyway.

Sidney drove up from Chico California on Thursday, and we spent the long weekend producing a very clean and concise copy of the COAST (Continuum of Autism Spectrum Traits). Sidney and I work well together, and I think that shows in the finished product.

Thanks to Jake's very skilled (surgical) wielding of the editor's pen, the COAST now reads like a novel -- telling the story of six children with autism and their non-autistic friend.

Phase 2: Get ready for publication.

Phase 2.1: Flow the text into a book layout (I'm brushing up on my InDesign skills).

Phase 2.2: Develop the Evaluator's Manual and data recording/graph pages.

Phase 3 Focus groups of professionals and hopefully parents, giving us feedback.

Phase 3.1: Publish. Even if it's self-published.

Phase 4: Write some grants.

Phase 5: With the funds from the grants, run a variety of validity and reliability (correlational) studies.

Phase 5.1: Also with the funds from the grants, translate the COAST into Spanish. Run validity and reliability studies on the Spanish version.

Phase 5.2: Develop a web-based data entry site (in English and in Spanish)

Phase 5.3: Develop a handbook to compliment the COAST.

Buy a copy... we'll autograph it for you.

GO Ducks ! ! !

Game Day.

And Oh SO Much More than Game Day.

Even the Eugene Police have upgraded their Official Image – Note the Oregon Flag attached to the rear window.


Update, January 11, 2010: Oh MY, what a game. We didn't win, but we have nothing to be ashamed of.

"Learn to write well..."

This was the advice Dave gave to Jake as he prepared for college... Great advice.

And Jake apparently took it seriously.


Sara and I traveled to Seattle this weekend to watch the staged reading of Jake's fourth play. Staged readings are essentially professional readers theater; the purpose is to elicit feedback from actors and audience about the play. The playwright then considers the feedback, edits where appropriate, and then produces a finished play -- ready for performance.

The staged reading was brilliant. The actors were amazing, there was a large audience (unusual, apparently), and the feedback session lasted nearly two hours. The audience were engaged and generous in their praise.

This play will make Jacob famous.

You can watch a YouTube video of the staged reading (Vitriol, by Jacob Sherman). But really, you should just come to Seattle in July and watch the play.

Jake and friends have formed their own production company, Handwritten Productions. They will produce the play this summer: July 7th-9th, 14th-16th, 21st-23rd. I will be there the weekend of the 14th to the 16th. I'll rent an apartment for the weekend and host any overnight guests who need a bed... Anybody wanna join me?

Learn to write.

Jake did.


[update, May 17: Looks like I'll be in Seattle for Vitriol on July 8 and 9. Come join us!]

Out with the old...

Time to de-clutter. Again.

I've recently coined the phrase "The Bank-of-American Dream" to reflect my feelings about the US economy, consumerism, indebtedness and the continued growth in wealth of the richest 1% of my fellow citizens while the rest of us are a paycheck from couch-surfing (or are already there -- if we are lucky to have a friend with a couch.) The old "American Dream" of a house and a new car and the newest appliances, and ... and ... and ... does not serve us well. It enslaves us.

Last New Year's, I chose to de-clutter my mind with a three-day meditation retreat at Breitenbush. I had just decided that I was on my chosen path -- working for UO and Alaska, nice house, large plot of land, critters. No man in my life, but that was planful, too. Who needs those complications? Not I!

So of course, it was at the three-day (silent) meditation that I met Jerry. Funny how life works.

Since then, I have wiped my 5-year / rest-of-my-life plan clean and rethought what it means to be successful.

And I have decided that success cannot – should not – be defined by the things you own. Because ultimately, that is really a calculation of how indebted you are.

So, for 2011, I'll start the plan to de-clutter.

De-clutter what? Everything.

I believe that, at the end of 2015 (when I am 55), I will be completely debt free. I will have sold the house, the furniture, the stuff. Probably still have a dog or two (maybe even all four...). I will find a way to live for free.

I also plan to give up my UO job by 2015. And if we are successful in our bid for the next Alaska contract, that will be winding down in 2016.

I've got a few projects that I think will fund my minimalist existence...

• Michelle and I will write at least one book and it will be a success
• The Continuum of Autism Spectrum Traits (C.O.A.S.T.) will bring income to both Sidney and me
• I'll pick up a few other interesting projects, write a few grants, between now and then.

Of course, not paying a mortgage is a significant savings.

De-clutter. In the event of a fire, what is worth saving? Really, only the people and critters. That tells me a lot about how important the rest of the stuff is.


Shalom,

Kim

It's the end of a most amazing year...

... And the start of an even better one!

Michelle Jensen (my best friend, business partner, and Idea Popcorn Generator) and I took on a small project a few months ago -- we agreed to help a local organization that is working with several villages in Kenya to build community capacity.

Capacity for what?

Well, everything. It started with schools. Morphed into adult literacy. Spread into water wells, ecology, farming... All led by the needs of each community.

The problem was: how to organize all of these activities into an Annual Report / Presentation to potential donors?

The answer: The Annual Measure of Success (AMOS), (c) Kim Sherman and Michelle Jensen. (Email me if you are interested in the tool).

The Kenya director seemed very excited. Michelle may peddle the AMOS to some NGOs in Central and South America while she is there this Winter and Spring, and I'll see if a few other programs are interested in using the tool to measure their success.

Of course, the key to knowing if you've been successful is to start by defining what success will look like.

True in schools, in NGOs, in private businesses.

True in life...