How their so-called improvements have hacked my writer payment down to 1/4 of what it was — Medium revealed a wee while back that they were changing the way they monetise and reward their writers. New Partner Program incentives focus on high-quality human writing Changes are coming in August to the way we pay writers for great stories and which countries we support.blog.medium.com It was (like all things big business) pitched to we writers as a good thing, that they had heard our voices and were looking out for us. It all sounded so lovely…

(learned on life’s rocky road) — Famed psychotherapist Sheldon Kopp, author of If You Meet The Buddha on the Road,Kill Him, was a remarkable human being. His writing, his work as a therapist, all of his life was dedicated to helping others find a sense of purpose and wholeness through therapy and spiritual pilgrimage. Dr. Kopp…

They caught me off-guard as well — Here we go again. Five more amazing words which you can casually toss into your daily vernacular, hopefully freaking out your friends and family. Compatibilism noun the belief that free will and determinism are mutually compatible and that it is possible to believe in both without being logically inconsistent My dedication…

Tales of a Pop Culture Luddite — I read headlines on Medium or on the “news”. I see clickbait clips online telling me how so-and-so is getting married, how this famous person is now in the doghouse. I read about how everyone is mad at whozits for what they said on <insert social media platform of the…

(I sure know I never knew them) — Words rule. I love words. I’ve always loved words, how they tell us things, they can evoke emotions, thoughts, perspectives, imagery. I have spent my entire life studying words and wordcraft, and I’m still not even close to bored with the subject. I love to learn new words. I never…

You can hyperlink your PlantUML diagrams to drill to other pages and diagrams — So, in a previous article, I wrote about getting started with PlantUML, as I felt the tech is well worth engineers getting to grips with this awesome tool. A Beginner’s Guide to PlantUML The plucky open source plain-text diagramming syntax you never knew you neededmedium.com This was quite a while back, and since then, not only have I learned heaps more about PlantUML, but the tech itself…

There is more to your work than a sale — I get it. First and foremost, let’s get that out of the way. I get it better than most. Trying to survive in today’s world, there’s good reason to do your best to make money any way you can. And selling your writing, your videos, your art or anything you…

(And Why You Need One) — One of the benefits of being an early morning riser and writer is it affords me the time to do things which late risers never achieve List of Early Morning Riser / Writer Superpowers Seeing the sun come up and feeling super “writey” about it (but always failing to write about it every stinking morning) Writing a terrible…

A Pre-Dawn Writer’s Journal Entry — I like to wake up early. Even if I turn around and fall back to sleep, I like the act of waking up early. Just being there in the dark and quiet of pre-dawn, feeling the quiet breathing of all sleeping things. It feels safe, innocent, and full of something…