A dry spell comes into the life of every blogger

It's been more than a month since I posted here. I guess I could say that I'm in the midst of a dry spell. That wouldn't be accurate. I've written some blog posts on healthcare and politics that bored me so much I couldn't finish. So, I turned my attention elsewhere. wrote five feature articles for Artscapes Magazine. I started a piece for Studio Wyoming Review on Wyofile. I revamped the last section of my historical novel and almost finished it. I discovered halfway through the last section that the narrative didn't make sense in its present form. Maybe I should have waited until I actually finished because finishing is the goal. But no -- I had to be different. I do have most of a final chapter, my third attempt. I have read about other authors who begin the book and write the final chapter so they know where they're going. Those are the same writers who outline the book before they write. They're called plotters.

Writers like me are called pantsers because we write "by the seat of their pants," making up the story as we go along. I believe I'm in that group due to my early training in daily and weekly newspapers. Sports reporting, especially, makes writers write down what they know because there is 20 minutes to deadline. It's a handy way to learn writing as you always have the score to fall back on. "Cheyenne Central shellacked Cheyenne South Friday night 52-0 to cinch its record at 10-1 and win a trip to the high school boys' football regional playoffs." All the 5Ws are in there. I used fun action verbs -- shellacked and cinch -- that aren't usually seen elsewhere in daily news writing except in election season. That lede gives you a gateway into the rest of the story that you will keep writing until time is up. Often the ending can trail off into noweheresville as you throw in stats or add a lame quote from the winning coach or quarterback. You're finished. On to the next game!

Ledes aren't always easy to come by in feature writing. You're lucky if some attention-grabbing quote or fact can be fished out of your notes. You really have to dig sometimes, depending on the pizazz of the interviewee. In fiction, I usually start with an image. In my novel, I wanted to put my two main characters on a train together. Nothing too exciting about a passenger rail car in 1919 Colorado, although there are train fans out there who might disagree. My characters, however, are so different that they clash in interesting ways that might (you never know) lead to romance somewhere in the middle of the book. It works for me. No telling if it will grab the interest of editors.

I began writing this because writing is something I am invested in. Not so politics and healthcare. I love to read and talk about those topics. Debate them, too, as long as its a two-sided contest. But tackling these topics rally requires some research. The Internet is key to that. I know which sources to turn to for facts and which to turn to for snark. I like both, so sometimes I turn to opinion pieces in newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Miami Herald. Carl Hiaasen of the Herald is the best columnist in the USA. I also look to conservatives mouthpieces such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and others. For liberal snark, you can't beat Wonkette. I often wonder where Hunter S. Thompson would have plied his trade on the WWW. The Trump Era was made for him.

In conclusion, let me state that I needed to write and post something that interests me so I can move on to the next things. Finishing the novel. Watching the NFL conference finals. Eating lunch.

See you in the funny papers.

It's not always a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Chris, Annie and I saw "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" on Thanksgiving Day. Walking down the corridor to the theatre, I was almost trampled by a rampaging mob of tykes on their way to see "Frozen 2." We have neither tykes nor grandtykes as excuses to see animated films. You could call them movies for children's but I like the term family films. Disney and Pixar know that the under-10 crowd needs parental accompaniment. The filmmakers throw in enough inside adult jokes and jibes to keep us interested. A good thing because these films will be watched dozens of times at home. Our daughter Annie saw "Charlotte's Web" at least a hundred times.

I knew that "Neighborhood" was a feel-good movie because Mr. Rogers was a feel-good guy. So is Tom Hanks. My younger self might not have gone to this movie. If I did, I would crack wise about it on the way home. I could never resist. When visiting from college, I gave my sisters grief for watching "Little House on the Prairie" or "Mr. Rogers." I thought I was funny. I always thought I was funny. In my youth, I teased family members and friends. I outgrew it, thankfully. Being a wise-ass has its uses. But it's not conducive to forming relationships, That takes vulnerability and humility. You know, Mr. Rogers' traits.

That's what hit me as I watched Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers. He was a humble soul, a friendly man who sought out people like Lloyd, the acerbic Esquire journalist assigned to do a short profile on the children's TV star. Lloyd was a broken man, hobbled by his hatred of the father who abandoned his family. He is struggling to be a partner to his wife and father to his baby. When his father reappears, he is so pissed that he punches Dad at his sister's wedding. When his father is hospitalized with a heart attack, he refuses to see him, opting instead to go to work. Mr. Rogers helps him to heal by being himself and asking the right questions. I  won't say what happens next as I don't want to spoil it.

I left the theatre with a warm feeling. Chris liked the film but Annie did not. She grew up with Mr. Rogers and liked him. But the movie didn't have enough oomph for her. She is a Millennial who avoids network TV and spends her Roku-fueled spare time with life looking for horror films, oddball YouTube videos, and funky indie films. She is kind and creative but impatient. We enjoy a lively banter and has picked up wiseassery from me. My son Kevin has a quick wit, too. He has always had a sensitive soul and I hope that remains. We don't see him much as he lives 900 miles away. I want my kids to be good people. Bad people seem to be on the ascendancy, at least in the public sphere.

I would love to be Christ-like in my behavior toward others. My writing style sometimes allows that, as does my daily behavior. I crave Mr. Rogers' understanding nature. I've long admired Elwood P. Doud, the rabbit-conjuring soul in "Harvey." I would wander the town introducing my pooka Harvey to strangers. I would hand them my card and ask them if I could buy them a drink. I would hope that people tolerated my quirky nature and and invisible companion. Unfortunately, those who wander from acceptable social behavior tend to be discounted even vilified. Americans, bless their hearts, like to believe they tolerate the eccentric among us.

I know a man who's a fixture in our downtown. He has a mental illness and works full time. He tells jokes when he shows up at events. He writes poetry as he hangs out at a local coffee house. On one chilly fall evening. he spotted me pushing my walker along a downtown sidewalk. I saw him scribbling on a sheet of paper as he made his way to me across the street. Before I could even greet him, he handed me the paper. On it were "get well soon" wishes. It was nice and I thanked him. I wish I would have told him it was the best card I had ever received. It was the best because it was the nicest gesture. I could see Mr. Rogers doing this. I could also imagine good wishes from Mr. Doud. He, of course, would have invited me into the Paramount Ballroom for a warm drink on a cold night.
And I would have accepted.

Will Radio Free Internet survive?

Great to see the return of fellow prog-blogger Jeran Artery of Cheyenne. For years, Jeran served as the public face of Wyoming Equality, the interviewee you often saw on TV news when LGBTQ rights were being debated in Wyoming. A passionate spokesperson for the gay community, he also is my friend. Is he upset about the impending Trump presidency? Go to Out in Wyoming and find out. You also can find a link to his blog on my sidebar.

What will blogging bring in 2017? Those progressives pissed off about the political turn of events will have plenty of blog fodder. Late-night comedians, bloggers, political junkies all have plenty to joke about. None of the really cool music groups want to perform for the Trump inauguration. Ha, ha. None of Trump's appointments to top cabinet posts have the required experience. LOL. Trump daily shows his ignorance on Twitter. Ho ho ho.

As we discovered during the campaign, none of that matters. We live in a post-factual world now in the U.S. Trump lies, Liberals chortle merrily and point this out, and nothing happens. Trump believes all of the stuff he said to those sign-waving supporters at rallies from Dallas to Detroit. He plans to do it all. That's not funny.

But humor is a weapon. So are words. Will Radio Free Internet survive? Hard to say. Part of Trump's success was the viral spread of fake news and lies and half-truths. Can he shut down the prog-bloggers without shutting down the wingnuts? Will we be forced off the web and into an era of samizdat? Keep those printing presses handy!

Vladimir Bukovsky, one-time Soviet dissident and no liberal (he's a senior fellow at the reactionary Cato Institute in D.C.), summarized it as follows (from Wikipedia): "Samizdat: I write it myself, edit it myself, censor it myself, publish it myself, distribute it myself, and spend jail time for it myself."

Self-publishing and self-distribution are all the rage in our DIY society. Perhaps samizdat will catch on in Moscow, Idaho, as it once did in that other Moscow.

Do women feel safe from online threats in The Equality State?

Wyoming's small community of liberal bloggers has been challenged by the controversy surrounding one of our own, Meg Lanker-Simons of Cognitive Dissonance. We are challenged to stand up for our friend and colleague as she is viciously attacked by those on the right. But we also are perplexed by he reports from the University if Wyoming campus police alleging that Meg has perpetrated a hoax regarding a hateful post on the UW Crushes Facebook site. After a quick investigation of Meg's computer and a two-hour grilling, they charged her with interfering with a police investigation. It carries a penalty of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Meg hired a lawyer and said she will plead not guilty when the case goes to court May 13.

Wyoming liberal bloggess Sarah Zacharias wrote a piece for The Big Slice that sums up some of the tangled feelings being experienced by progressives in our conservative state. Go here: "My Friend Meg-Lanker-Simons -- Not Who the Right Thinks She is." 

One of Sarah's key points is whether women in The Equality State feel safe from threats and violence, especially the online variety. This is how she sums it up:

It isn’t ok to bully Wyoming women. It isn’t ok to harass them online. It isn’t ok to threaten them. It isn’t ok to shame them with their own sense of self. It isn’t ok that my community heard the cry of a victim and the first thing we did was feed the dog that bit her.

That is not and never will be the Wyoming way.

As a fourth generation Wyomingite and a determined voice for Wyoming Women, I proudly stand by Meg. I stand between her and anyone who would disparage a woman who is bold and independent and vocal. This is not how we treat people. Not even women like Meg that some find distasteful, no matter her opinions or her reputation.

Very well said, Sarah.

Update on UW Crushes and Meg Lanker-Simons story

There have been new developments in the story I blogged about on Saturday. What had seemingly been clear has become complicated. This was in today's Laramie Boomerang:

The University of Wyoming Police Department issued a citation Monday afternoon in Albany County Circuit Court for Meg Lanker-Simons, a woman allegedly threatened last week in a social media post.

Authorities allege the post was a hoax.

Lanker-Simons was cited for interference, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and $1,000 fine.

“Subject admitted to making a controversial post on UW Crushes webpage and then lied about not doing it,” according to the citation.

Lanker-Simons is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. May 13 in Circuit Court. 

Read the rest here.

Meg has publicly denied making this controversial post. This was in today's Casper Star-Tribune:

The UW senior told the Star-Tribune on Tuesday that the police accusations were untrue. Lanker-Simons said she retained legal counsel and filed an entry-of-appearance plea of not guilty. The citation set a court date for May 13. Charles Pelkey, Lanker-Simons’ attorney, declined to comment.

So what's going on here? Stay tuned for more...

UW Crushes Facebook site goes dark after hateful post targets Laramie prog-blogger

My friend and fellow prog-blogger Meg Lanker-Simons in Laramie was attacked online this week. Here's what an unidentified person said on the Facebook page UW Crushes:

I want to hatefuck Meg Lanker-Simons so hard. That chick that runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn't care who knows it. I think its hot and makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch.

This is verbatim. There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start. Would this person countenance someone saying this about his sister, wife, girlfriend or mother? If not, why is he saying this about someone else in public? He must think that such comments are OK. Where did he learn that? At home? From his UW pals? Talk radio? These attitudes are in plentiful supply on the web and on conservative talk radio. Sure, some of these words are not allowed on the airwaves. But hateful anti-women messages spew regularly from the big mouths of Limbaugh and Hannity and even women commentators such as Ann Coulter.

The UW Crushes site no longer exists on Facebook. The attitudes, alas, continue. After the story broke, Meg received a barrage of hateful anonymous comments on her Tumblr site, Cognitive Dissonance. I won't repeat any of them here. For the first time ever, Meg had to block anonymous posts. That's saying something for the most outspoken liberal blogger in the most conservative state in the U.S.

We always want to know who's to blame when these things happen. UW Crushes was not an official UW web site, although it carried the university's name and featured its logo. The UW administration had distanced itself from the site that posted "crushes" involving university students. That made it a throwback to the original Facebook at Harvard, if the "Social Network" film can be believed. It seems a stretch to blame UW for the transgressions of one person who may not even be a student. The site's administrators confessed to being engineering students too busy to monitor every status update. One wonders if they will be too busy to monitor the computer systems, nuclear plants and bridges they will be building after graduation.

We could blame Wyoming's conservative culture. Conservatives have had a particularly tough time keeping their prejudicial attitudes to themselves. Remember all of the dumb things Republicans said in the most recent election cycle? Remember Akin's "legitimate rape" and Romney's "47 percent?" Even big-time conservatives like Bobby Jindal have told their colleagues to quit being so dumb in public. That didn't stop some of our Republican legislators for saying stupidisms about the LGBT community during the civil unions debate at the 2013 session. Women in the Equality State continue to experience inequality in the workplace. And they continue to be slapped around at an alarming rate by their menfolk. Violence, alas, is an American as apple pie and is served up often to women.

Wyoming is not the only place in the world where some men profess a need to rape women into docile, compliant serfs. But it's the place I call home and this kind of attitude must stop. I have a wife and a daughter and some day will have grandchildren and I don't want any of them to be subjected to violence.

Simpson's Plaza at the University of Wyoming is the site of a demonstration against UW Crushes and rape culture in Wyoming. It will be held on Monday, April 29, 11 a.m.

Flash mob to swarm downtown to query city candidates

Picked this up on Facebook via Wyoming Community Media:

Flash mob! Meet and greet the candidates for Cheyenne mayor and city council on Sunday, July 1, 3-5 p.m., 415 W. 17^th St., downtown Cheyenne

Stop by and visit about the issues facing the broader community with the Mayoral and City Council candidates for each of the three wards:
* Downtown Development
* Optional Sales Tax Projects
* Streets, Water Rates
* Police and Fire Protection Issues
* The Kitchen Sink

While this is primarily an event for municipal candidates, other local, statewide and national candidates are welcome!

If you can or can't make it, this is a flash mob, social media activity, so please invite 100 of your closest friends and family members to attend the event!

Felicia Follum wants to introduce you to Works of Wyoming (WOW)

Felicia Follum, Works of Wyoming

Wherever you may be in your arts career, sound marketing advice is crucial. Artrepreneurs in Wyoming may want to get to know Works of Wyoming in Laramie. Drop in and see the WOW Gallery and gift shop during the holiday season. It's located on the second floor of the Laramie Plains Civic Center, which has become action central for the local arts scene. 

Fellow artists, family and friends. I would like to introduce you to Works of Wyoming. I am currently the AmeriCorps intern working primarily on social media marketing as well as working in the gallery space and gift shop. (Last year I worked as the Graphic Design Intern for WOW and the WWBC. You can see my blog for that here.)

As the social media marketing person (I would love to say coordinator, though I do not officially have a title) I have been posting some marketing tips on the WOW blog. My current goal is to post every week on either Tuesday or Thursday and sometimes both. In addition to weekly social media marketing tips, there are basic professional development tips for artists, some fun projects and of course announcements for our workshops and shows. 

It would make my day if you would check out the blog and share it with your friends, especially artists and small business owners who could benefit from our services.  In addition to sharing the blog with people, I would also love to have more examples to post. If you would like to have your social media site, plans, or strategies in the blog, please comment below or contact me on the WOW Facebook page. If you would like to contact me through WOW feel free. Phone number is 307.742.6574 and the email address is wow@uwyo.edu. 

If you are not from Wyoming and would like help with your social media comment below for more info. If you are from WY and not a part of WOW, you should look into becoming a member. 

Contact WOW: WOW Blog or WOW Facebook or 307.742.6574 

Personal: Art Facebook Page (I don't add people I don't know in real life to my personal page, so be sure to go to FeliciaFollumDesign not FeliciaFollum. Thanks!)

 Cross posted in a slightly different form on the Wyomingarts blog.

SocialWyo: Take Three Point Oh!

Juliette Rule speaking to Laramie County Dems Monday evening. She's also putting on the SocialWyo conference. More info: SocialWyo: Take Three Point Oh!

Laramie County Democrats and Grassroots Coalition meet Sept. 27 to discuss uses of social media

From Linda Stowers:

A joint meeting of the Laramie County Democratic Grassroots Coaliton and the Laramie County Democrats will be held on Monday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m. at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Union hall. The speaker will be Juliette Rule and she will be discussing social media. Please plan to join 
us. The meeting is open to everyone.

From your blog editor:

Progressives in Wyoming have barely scratched the surface when it comes to social media. Come out and hear Juliette's talk. And get to know the people in your local progressive community.