I have this thing about trying to get the perfect picture of fall leaves. This was on a rainy day, taken with my Canon G10, a great all-around small camera. Click through for another pic I snapped with my iPhone with blue sky behind the trees. It’s almost the exact same location in my neighborhood.

One of the ways to sharpen your writing chops is to parody another author. I’m interested in improving my skills at creative nonfiction so I’ve been reading John McPhee. Here’s my little parody, based on a Japanese sumi-e art class I’ve been taking in Maine this summer: "The road to the art studio dipped and turned between the dark green stands of fir and spruce trees just as the eye travels in an S curve through the landscape of a Japanese

If you still don't understand - or believe in - the ripple effect of blogging, consider this story: the father of a Maryland family was laid off and eviction from their home was imminent. A friend posted a donation link on her blog to help them raise a little cash. After five days, strangers had donated $11,032. Enough so the family could pay $10,000 on their mortgage and enjoy Christmas...

While I was out of town last week the Economist declared blogging not dead exactly... but different. And in October Wired said blogging was so 2004.

So thought I'd run a quick survey: Is Blogging Dead?

"If you're not blogging, you're an idiot," management uber-guru Tom Peters told hundreds of attendees at the Inc. 5000 conference. "No single thing in the last 15 years has been more important to me professionally than blogging... It's changed my thinking, it’s changed my outlook… it’s the best damn marketing tool and it’s free." In response to a question from moderator Susan Sobbott, president of AmEx OPEN ("True or False? You have control

Was delighted to participate in SearchCamp Philly, part of PodCamp Philly, over the weekend. It was a perfect way to spend a rainy, stormy Saturday as Hurricane Hannah swept up the East Coast. Took the train up and back from D.C. and somehow missed the rain and wind.

I ran a session on the viability of CEO blogging, a topic that has been much discussed over the past several years and about which there is little agreement. Should your CEO blog?