I See You

June 25, 2014June 25, 2014 ~ Bon Steele ~ 2 Comments

Pre-coffee pondering¹: I thought Facebook was supposed to be a social media? That it should actively encourage people to interact with one another. Instead, empirical evidence suggests that it is more of an acknowledgement tool.

People post something and then others ‘like’ or ” 🙂 ” their words. This is not necessarily a bad thing, being acknowledged as having said something is also important. But it, I think, misses at least some of the point of social media, and Facebook in particular.

And all of this was brought on by seeing people (myself included) ask questions on their wall – and have people ‘like’ the comment and say nothing. Or, in response to said question, people smiley-face and/or *HUG*!

I’m equally guilty of this. I think, or rather, it often is for me, a way to say “ooh, I hear you and Imma answer you, but cute kittens/puppies are the greatest thing ever!”

Anyway, I didn’t have a solution or anything. I was just drinking my coffee while reading FB and happened to notice a thing.

¹ – Under-caffeination is a serious affliction. Won’t you please help?

Professional Portfolio

June 23, 2014June 24, 2014 ~ Bon Steele ~ Leave a comment

I have been working on my professional portfolio for potential technical writing gigs. I realize I probably should have researched and done this a lot sooner, say months before the graduation date. But, I didn’t. And most jobs that are hiring professional writers want to see examples of their work.

Shocking, I know.
Obviously, I cannot direct them here. For one thing, this is mostly a personal blog with some fiction work thrown in as I hammer out style and voice in my head. For another, I rarely* edit this.

Anywho, I asked some technical writer friends what they did for theirs. 8 out of 10 said to write an instruction sheet on (get this) making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

*blink* Really?

Really. Apparently, it gives the interviewer/potential boss-type an inkling of your style.
Who knew?

I took them at their word and wrote my version of the PB&J white sheet. I must say. It’s epic.

Now, I am curious as to what my next piece for this project should be. Maybe I’ll wow them with my incredibly detailed, color-coded, retailer link enabled, Yule gift and card list. I’ve probably logged a thousand hours into that bad boy over the last several years.

Nah. Wouldn’t want to overwhelm them with too much awesome, all at once.

* – I never edit. I write what I write into the little text box that WP provides. The only editing that I do is if I happen to catch a missed word or misspelling after I publish something. You guys get the raw me. Lucky y’all.