The Busy, Busy, Busy Emoticon

I'm not sure what this week will look like.  Lots going on this week, in addition to it being the last week of the quarter:

--hopefully, tomorrow we will be closing on a condo that we've been trying to sell since 2005.  My mother-in-law lived in it until she died right as the housing market started its long downward spiral.  It's been an interesting journey, which perhaps I'll blog about some day, but not today.

--my father-in-law and stepmom-in-law are in town visiting and we're having a good time with them.

--I'm off to a retreat to plan the Create in Me retreat at the end of the week.

--I must do follow up eye doctor tasks--pick up a pair of contacts that will let my corneas get more oxygen and see if I can make the switch.

For your reading pleasure, I direct you to some of these postings by others:

--Garrison Keillor gives an interesting history of the emoticon here (after the poem for the day).  Ever wonder who was the first to notice that a colon and a right parenthesis looks like a smile?  Here's your answer.

--a new way to look at plagiarism here.  It's not plagiarism, it's repurposing!  Feeling blocked?  Learn how to be uncreative.

--If, however, you feel like repurposing your own work, here are some interesting thoughts about how the skills you've learned in blogging apply to eBooks.  And perhaps you can repurpose some of those old blog posts!  Will people pay for what you've already posted for free?  This author says yes and gives you tips for how to do it here.

--More of these types of links from Robert Lee Brewer's blog here and here.