I learned about how scientists are evaluating materials to help keep in-car bacteria at bay, I found out that Ford’s Traffic Jam Assist™ will one day help make start-and-stop freeway traffic less crazy-making. And I even got the skinny on biometric seats. What’s that? You’ll just have to check out the article.

Not that I wasn’t old enough to turn on the tube back in 1969. I was an 11-year-old kid on a camping trip atop Mingus mountain in Arizona on that cloudless summer night, squished into our truck cab with my parents and my nine-year-old brother. I still had s’mores stuck to my fingers as my brother and I did the noiseless elbow-jabbing and jockeying for space that occupied much of our time on family trips.

“Listen up. Here it is,” my dad said, and we fell silent, straining to hear the faint, crackling radio broadcast and staring up at the moon through the bug-smeared windshield as we heard Armstrong tell us he was taking “one giant leap for mankind.”

From our mountain-top vantage point — minus the glaring city lights that surrounded our Phoenix home — the moon looked closer, brighter than I’d ever seen it. I felt quite ant-like and wondered how a person could possibly, actually, be walking on the moon. I imagined Armstrong’s big footprints kicking up moon dust and wondered if he was stirring up a permanent, gravity-free dust storm.

My little brother made jokes about cheese.

We wouldn’t see the pictures on TV until we returned home a few days later, but nothing could have topped peering up at the moon as we perched on that mountain, straining to catch every detail from a distant radio signal.

My grandma used to say television ruined baseball for her. That it was much more entertaining to listen to the colorful radio announcers describing the Sunday-afternoon Cleveland Indians game while she did her weekly ironing. “I could picture every play in my mind,” she told me. With television, she complained, the need for imagination —and for announcers who were true wordsmiths — went the way of the Edsel.

Today, an event such as Armstrong’s first step on the moon would be not just all over TV, but on Facebook, Twitter and all manner of media. We’d be inundated with images, reports and opinions. We’d be walking around staring at replays on our phones.

We’d be busy looking down.

I’m grateful that, back in 1969, sitting on a mountaintop with Armstrong’s voice coming across a crackling radio, my parents gave me the opportunity to look up.

So funny how those of us in the writing/editing business are always partially living in a completely different season. I sometimes have to stop and remind myself that I don’t REALLY have to be thinking about Halloween just yet. (Although buying a little chocolate never hurt anyone…)

Did she have time for long journal entries? Hardly. She was busy working, taking kids’ temperatures and putting food on the table.

So she did what she could when it came to noting the little things in her day. What a treat it is to read, decades later, those little details about how much it cost to buy a used car, how long the measles lasted and all the other little things that make up a life and a family.

Sometimes she just wrote a few sentences. Or a list. She apologized for not being religious about writing in her diary. But there’s no need to apologize to your family members who will enjoy and treasure your words a generation or two from now. (They might even appreciate the fact that you kept it short and sweet.)

I made my own list today:

* Son heading off to Bye Bye Birdie rehearsal tonight
* Made my writing deadline and felt good about the article, for MyFord.com, about something the company is doing to help schools
* In-N-Out cheeseburger for lunch (shhhh!)
* Hot date with my honey to watch the American Idol finale, with a glass of wine, tonight

Nothing earthshaking here. Just a day in the life of a family. But I love the idea that some day my son’s wife might read this — maybe when I’m gone — and she’ll relate in some way to the woman I am today. Will community theater groups still be performing Bye Bye Birdie? Probably. Will American Idol be history? Definitely. Will In-N-Out still make the best cheeseburgers on the planet?

Youbetcha.

When I started in this freelance-writing business (after getting a journalism degree, working for a newspaper and then working as a technical editor for a number of years), I thought I’d want to write strictly for consumer magazines and newspapers for my entire career.

That was before blogging and social media; before newspapers took a steep dive, along with many magazines; before so many online writing opportunities appeared. It was also before the custom-publishing world had all the opportunities it now offers.

As I look at where I want to go in the next few years, I’d love to hear from other writers who are also considering their options. What are you doing today that you never dreamed you’d be doing? Where do you want to be in five years? What’s the best decision you’ve made for your career?

Thanks! Looking forward to your comments here.

It’s draining. Just ask yourself, after lunch with a friend: Do I feel energized by this person? Or dragged down and exhausted?

We all only get so many days on this planet. How are you going to spend yours?

Jason points out that there are 96 15-minute chunks in everyone’s day. Don’t fritter them away. It’s amazing how much you can get done in 15 minutes of concentrated effort. (Emphasis on “concentrated.” No Words With Friends. This means you, Kathy Sena.)

I need to get better at using chunks of time like this consistently and well, and Jason is inspiring me to do just that. So right after hitting “publish” on this post, I’m going to set a timer for 15 minutes and finish a writing project that just needs one final edit. Then I’m going to set it again and make all those phone calls on my to-do list that I’ve been meaning to take care of. (“Batching” tasks like this during a 15-minute period also really helps get things accomplished.)

There are so many great ideas, so well-explained, in Jason’s book. And be sure to check out his blog for tips that will increase your productivity.

What are some of the techniques you’ve learned for being more productive with your writing business, as an editor, or in your life in general? Please share them with us in “comments.”

As Cowbird’s founders note on the site’s About page: “Our short-term goal is to pioneer a new form of participatory journalism, grounded in the simple human stories behind major news events. Our long-term goal is to build a public library of human experience, so the knowledge and wisdom we accumulate as individuals may live on as part of the the commons, available for this and future generations to look to for guidance.”

Lofty goals, but founder Jonathan Harris is the man for the job. Check out this New York Times interview with him, in which Harris refers to the stories on Cowbird as “soul food, not fast food.” Cowbird feels to me to be the opposite of a Tweet — it’s the storytelling equivalent of the slow-food movement, with emphasis on originality, care and building community one satisfying meal at a time.

I’m just getting started as a member there. It’s exciting to learn something new every day from wonderful writers like Shawna Coronado, Annie Correal, and, of course, Jonathan Harris. Stop by and check out this wonderful project. Just be prepared to stay up late.

With just a click you can read what editors have said about my work, see a list of publication credits and even check out an audio version of one of my essays on Cowbird.com. Over in the sidebar, you can easily subscribe to the blog, connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn and drop me an email. So much more fun that getting one more paper resume in the mail, right?

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to hearing from you!