These days I’m such a happy camper. After so many years, I’m finally on a reading spree. Ah, the smell of books is far more tempting than the herbal tea that brews on the stove now. After a long time, the characters came to life, as my eyes made love to each word, savoring their sensuality.

Finished reading The Last Song, which resonate everything about young teenager love, yet dwells on other aspects such as family, relationships and spirituality. Nicholas Sparks has this endearing quality to touch heartstrings and The Last Song is no exception. The book has layers that he deals with care, patience and love.

I’m planning to watch the screen adaptation of this book featuring Miley Cyrus, this weekend. I hope that the movie won’t disappoint me.Enjoy this theatrical preview of The Last Song and be ready to fall in love with Ronnie and Will, weep with Jonah and comprehend life and its complexities with Steve.

Before I digress, I stopped by at my local library and picked the Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks.

I love to write. I can write. I want to write.

However, why do I find myself at a loss of words when I visit this blog?

 Why do my words elude me?

As a child, have you ever tried to find your partner in a game of hide and seek? Your friend beckons, and even though you can hear him call, yet somehow you fail to locate him.

The blank pages and the black words allure me. My fingers settle on the keys. Why is there an agitation in my heart and mind? Why don’t words flow as they once did?

I teach my daughters:  To be good at writing, write often. Yet, I fail to practice what I preach.

 Today, I challenged Anmol, my thirteen year old to a duel of words. Yes, a daily post on my blog, whilst she did the same on hers.

Deep down, I am hoping for motivation.  Dreaming that today will be the day I’ll leave my perch and soar high to the azure horizon.

Image Courtesy: Mikebaird

I hate unproductive days. PERIOD!

But today, I went with the flow, and let the hours slip by in front of my eyes. Spent most of the time talking to family back home. After all, it was Holi, one of the most important Indian festivals. Rest of the hours whizzed by cleaning up the house, doing laundy and updating status on Facebook. There was no motivation to research, compile or write. I decided not to bang my head against the wall, and called it a day.

The kids came back from school, and it was just another normal day at the Das household: snacks, homework, piano practices, shower and dinner.

Once done, I made a quick visit to my Facebook profile page. Friends had updated their status about winning the Hot 100 or the 500 Badges that went live on AC today. The “Hot 100″ and “Hot 500″ are the Associated Content Contributors with the largest audience, and most engaged readers, viewers and listeners. These badges are updated once per month, and grace the profiles of the top 500 active Contributors based on the previous month’s page views.

With absolute no hope of winning one, I clicked on myAC profile, when I saw the smoking flame sizzling on my account page. WOW!

For someone who knew nothing of web-writing, I feel extremely proud of what I’ve achieved in a year. And I look forward to sharing many such milestones with you all.

Wow, what a week it has been!  The East Coast agonized with the overwhelming deluge of snow. At first, I loved the few flurries that fell. Before we knew, piles and piles accrued. Within a span of 3 days, we created history.

Looking back, the first blizzard now feels moderate. Even though Delaware received around 26” of snow, it was light and fluffy.  Once we opened the garage door, a white wall beckoned us in its complete glory. Two hours of labor and we finally dug our way out.

The happiness of seeing the driveway was short lived. The weatherman predicted another one coming our way in the next 2 days.

Although yesterday, I woke to a gorgeous Winter Wonderland, the icy rain made matter worse. A foot of snow accumulated. We waited patiently as the storm left us shattered and bewildered. Making friends with the snow shovel, we ventured out.

We saw, we came, we conquered. If only!

The combination of ice and snow was no fun. There was no room to pile the fresh snow.  We slipped, fell and cursed. It took us another 3 hours before we finally had a walkway!

Schools closed for the whole week. Washington DC gave up, and we were happy to be a complete family.

 Things always feel brighter with people around. We thoroughly enjoyed this unplanned, unexpected and uncalled vacation with plenty of good food, movies, laughs, late nights and sleeping in.  It will feel weird when everything resumes on Tuesday and everyone departs on his way.

We still have 4 more days.

So why worry?

Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. – Elizabeth Stone

Today Anmol turns 13!

A decade ago, if I met someone who had grown-up teenager kids, I would perhaps give them a courteous smile and look for younger members in the room, someone who could relate to my Terrible Two woes. Time passed, and now I find myself in the room with someone telling me, “You don’t look like someone who has grown-up kids.” Well, it supposed to be a compliment, but it makes me wonder about the cycle called life.

 There isn’t a day now that I don’t remember my mom, the pains she went through dealing with “growing-up kids.” Each day I appreciate her more, as I find myself living her life. Today, I understand the significance of her words.  Today, I understand her elation, her frustration, her joy and her agony. Today, I feel blessed to have her in my life.

This week seems never ending!!!

Amid chores, came doctor visits. My appointment with my lady doctor was a breeze ( Thankfully! )

Although that was the only one on the calender, my red, itchy eyes made me expedite my annual meeting with my eye doctor. Well, after a 30-minute long checkup, he found nothing “insane” as I had assumed.

 He said I suffered from Computer vision Syndrome… sounds fancy, huh? Spending long hours at the computer has made my eyes dry up. It seems the eyes have stopped producing tears that keeps things lubricated. He adviced to take a break every 10 minutes and look far away. Not only will that make the eye muscles expand, it will give the eyes a much needed relief. 

I tried working on my articles as before. I got things done, but not as much as I wanted. I guess it will take me a long time to be prolific in the real sense. The Trails Travel articles were a breeze, and I could even write one with my eyes closed.  The list of articles are all exhausted, and what remains is an endless list of how tos, lists and strategies.  It takes me an hour to sieve through the list and claim the ten I’m allowed to.

Marge, my friend from Gather sold her first article on Seed.com. After procratinating enough, I finally signed up yesterday. The site needs no writing sample. There is a list of articles that you (and multiple users) can claim and write. Choosing the best article is the Editor’s discretion. If you get it, it’s good money. If not, you could always sell it elsewhere. I plan to start working on it from next week. 

And yes, I plan to add articles on AC and eHow, write my blog every day and complete my goal of 5 articles per day for DS… I’m no where close!!!

Well, all I can do is try…

I hate being pessimistic, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t be my cheery self today.

Happy and excited about writing, quick reviews and prompt payments, I made working goals. The progress bar excited me; until this morning, when I woke up with pink-eye like symptoms. The eye lids hurt and my head felt like a volcano about to erupt. I couldn’t even open my eyes, forget about typing a whole article.

I decided to call it a day and rest. My eyes and head still hurt. Will wait to see how it goes tomorrow and in the coming weekend, before I make a trip to the doctor.

Until then…

Image Credit

The past couple of days have been so productive at Demand Studios.

 I love writing the restaurant articles for Trails Travel. In 400 words, you need to summarize top three restaurants in an area. Around 100 words for each place accompanied with a 100-word overview. Piece of cake!

In the beginning, working on the introduction was the toughest part for me. As the articles are for Trails, the overview is generally geared towards outdoor attractions, leading the reader to dining options. When I started writing these Trail articles, I was all over the place looking for activities for adventure seekers! With each article, my research streamlined, and I found necessary information in seconds. Yesterday, was the first day I was able to complete 5 articles in less than 5 hours.

The Editors have been super fast in the last few days. Usually, the articles for Trails Travel look a couple of days to review, but lately they were accepted within hours.

I still need to get more focused and serious with things. I’ve to avoid phone calls, emails and Facebook.

 I’m making progress, but there are still miles to go!

Image Credit

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

Oh, what a year it has been.

While some new friendships were woven, some relationships found much-needed respite. The family struggled and combated with recession, economic turmoil and negativities and found solace towards the end, as we made new beginnings. Throughout the hard times, we remained focused, positive and together. There were no malice, no hurt feelings. Glad we took the road, proud of what we did, achieved and never repented when all was lost.

The girls are growing. Can’t believe Anmol will be 13 this year. And what a beautiful lady she’s turning out to be. Everything about her makes us proud – a sensitive personality, an outstanding student, musician and a loving daughter. Aditi is a handful, as she’s always been. She remains a challenge for us as able parents. We continue to tread the road reinforcing lessons hoping sooner or later she’ll get it.

 The past year brought with itself a career that kept me sane as I woke up each day amid uncertainties and insecurities hovering, a work that kept me excited, motivated as I learnt and grew as a writer and took gradual steps towards success I’m proud of.

Associated Content gave me the foundation. I learned the ins and outs of non-fiction writing, a genre I had never explored. Web writing thrilled me. Each day I spent learning the basics, reading the established writers, learning the norms. Slowly, I made eHow a part of my portfolio and finally came Demand Studios.

I’m excited to turn the page and read new chapters in our life.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2010.Life is beautiful. Enjoy the ride!