Who is Norma Timpkins?

I was listening to my Mott the Hoople CD  hoping for blogging inspiration and, not hearing anything I could mangle into a post,  I decided to answer the question a lot of you are asking:  Who is Mott the Hoople?

No, but for some of you, Norma Timpkins is the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot and Commitment rolled into a great big WHO?  She's a real person or a facet of a real person who wishes to remain private.

I met "Norma Timpkins" at a poetry reading at the Children's Museum in Carson City about 8 years ago.  Standing on the stage in a blue cardigan and red turtleneck looking like a Talbot's cover, she read "Our Love is Like a Slug," "Magic Caterpillar Fingers" and ended with "Kisses Like Heaven Eats Peanut Brittle."  Brilliant.  We were the only two people in the room that got it was a joke and we bonded.  She's single, 77 and lives in Wells.

And Mott the Hoople was a fantastic band from the 70s.

Dreams: Taste Like Chicken?

I have a beer's worth of updating because I've done about a beer's worth of work at Jotsalot this week.


You know how they, parents mostly, tell you not to quit your day job but you do anyway and now live in their basement which is why they told you not quit your job in the first place?  That has nothing to do with me or Jotsalot or Timpkins and her fully functioning fax machine which has been sending me warm scrolls of editing all week.  What does concern me and The Minions is retirement.  It's been taking up a lot of my thinking lately leaving limited lobe capacity for editing, website building, illustrating and, oh yeah, WORK.  Why am I suddenly concerned about retirement?  I think it has something to do with stalking classmates on Facebook and seeing how secure they look with their houses, law partnerships and children.  My God they've even bred successfully!

And here I am weeks into a business wondering about it all.  I have complete resolution and confidence in the business, but sometimes I think I just need a little "like everyone else."

Okay, my beer is making that barely splashy sound when I shake it and thus ends another week at Jotsalot Media LLC.

Taking a Spin Class

On Sunday afternoon we do a lot of what I call "big thinking" here at Jotsalot.  Now other people might call it strategic rationalizing or even napping, but I like big thinking.  Real and promising ideas are generated and even written down on the Someday List of Grand Ideas so it really isn't time wasted so much as time unaccounted for.  But enough about watching football with my eyes closed.

I've decided hiring out some of the art for the Timpkins books would be a good thing.  If you are a photographer, illustrator or other and interested, please contact me for a list.

Meeting of The Minions

Today Jotsalot Media held its first Friday Where are we? meeting.  I thought it would be a good idea to meet once a week over bagels and discuss where we are as a company.  You know, are we meeting deadlines? does anyone have any suggestions or grievances? that sort of thing.  The suggestions and grievances part was a strategic error on my part, but live and learn.  For example, creative people can be sensitive not me personally, except sometimes I feel like my underwear has handles for the World's wedgie-giving convenience, but some around the office are.  I thought they understood that me in my boxers was no different than Hef in his pajamas, but I guess not.

I think most of what goes on around here should be private so you'll have to wait until The Minions' tell-all book.  Here's the where we are part

The illustrating of Timpkins' Wisdom book took a leap forward this week when we found out there's a photography studio available for hourly rental.  That makes a number of ideas possible that were shelved due to space and lighting limitations plus it frees up layout/work space in the office.

Timpkins' first book should be off to the copyright office on schedule and the ISBN will be applied for at the same time.

We're still looking for someone to build our website and still considering hiring out some of the illustration work.

Hey, maybe that was the boring stuff.  Hmm. . .  You want to hear about Poppy's dirty little secret?  She's working on a blog.

Out of the Closet

It was an interesting weekend for Jotsalot Media.  I had a thought, which is always a good thing unless it's that one about the bus stop which is bad.  But if you can think all the way back to Friday, or just scroll down and read, you'll remember I'd decided I need to get out of the offices a little more.  On a couple different levels.

This is one. 

Productivity

Not exactly a productive week around the halls of Jotsalot Media.  In fact I would probably fire myself, or at least lock myself in stocks next to the watercooler so The Minions could throw damp paper cups at me, if I had stocks or a watercooler.  I'm sure The Minions would have loved the idea.  I tried blaming the diet and my weakened state but that took the week off too.  Weather had a shot at having caused  Warm Toasty Bed Disease, but I think it's something else.  You don't start a business without wanting to show it off once in a while.  It's  like owning a juggling dog and not taking it to bars to get free beer, it's just wrong.  So this weekend I need to figure out how to get my juggling dog outside.

So to speak.

Rock Paper Scissors or To Kill a Spider

Answer: Rock, paper, scissors.
Answer: Jots, Bernie and Poppy.
Question: Name three things useless in building a website? 

Today Jotsalot Media went for a walk. Dragging the minions, aka Bernie and Poppy, out for a bracing -4 stroll around the neighborhood just seemed so right.  We were an impressive trio with me recording the minutes into a micro recorder, Bernie holding his "Yogi was framed!" sign and Poppy in her flight attendant's uniform directing us to the exit at every corner.  What we thought was stunning was "appalling, disgusting and disturbing" (the top three responses) to the locals and that was also their response to our website.  This from a populace that eats sauteed bull's balls with eggs.  Bull's balls are actually pretty good if you don't think about it unlike our website.  Anyway, what we decided is we need to farm out the website building.  Anyone interested?

Smaller. Smaller is good.

Well, it's a new year and everyone here at Jotsalot Media is on a diet including Jotsalot Media itself. In order to be a more dynamic, efficient cash cow. . . oh who are we kidding, what we're really trying to do is get things out the door. Calendars are fun. Cards cards are fun. But with limited staff it's just impossible to do everything so we've decided to concentrate on Norma Timpkins' work and plan to have four books out this year. Two by the end of June and two in time for Christmas shopping. At the same time the books are published, t-shirts with your favorite Norma quotes will become available.  Pretty cool, right?  We at the marketing meeting thought so.

Hmmm. . .I know there was more. . .yeah, we might be looking to buy original photos, paintings etc to illustrate books.  Stay tuned for details.