Rise and "Shine"

Oh forgive me the dreadful pun but it keeps rattling 'round my brain of late. I was invited to attend a pre-launch event this past Saturday for Yahoo's new foray into online publishing for women. They invited a group of women who were involved in some way or another in online content creation -- blogging, online journalism, etc. -- to come see what they've got cooking. And to invite us to join the party.

Nice!

As of this writing, it's called Shine. I have to say I am not sure what I think about the name. I'm similarly concerned about whether I can get past the fact that "Entertainment" and "Astrology" both feature prominently on the home navigation panels (to the exclusion of more weighty subjects of more interest to me, like "Art and Culture" or "Politics and World Events." That having been said, their editor assures us that it's more an issue of form than function. She reminded us of the dilemma that many of us who develop online sites suffer to resolve -- how to you boil a whole area of content down to one descriptive, understandable navigation label? So "Entertainment" it is; I'm suspending judgment and diving in.

No, not diving, rather mulling, masticating, obsessing over ideas. I've tossed and turned the last two mornings thinking about all the things that I've allowed to slip out of my daily ruminations and into notebooks and folders and project cases gathering dust while I took time to be with my ailing mother and all that entails.

And it has been both torturous and glorious.

Now, as I move my belongings from my apartment of eight years to a new place a little farther away from the city (where we hear frogs and birds as we wake and dodge wild turkeys as we drive home from getting our morning coffee), I think about unpacking my microcontrollers and soldering iron, buying more solid core 18 gauge wire, and pulling out all my project plans. It's time to blow the dust off my ideas, rub the sleep from my eyes and get working again.

Time to rise and shine!!