It’s Oscar season. Oscar-nominated film promotions are everywhere.

Coincidentally, I just finished reading Going Wild by nature writer Robert Winkler. His chapter entitled "The Bird Songs of Hollywood" had me laughing out loud.

Whether he’s in the field or at the movies, Winkler is a careful observer. Respected feature film directors, noted for their attention to detail, are apparently oblivious to the natural world. Here’s where Winkler found bloopers.

I just used my last snowflake stamp. I love using nature theme stamps on letters I send out. I came across a December 2006 article in The New York Metro Area Update (a montly newsletter sent to postal employees) where I learned these snowflake images were photographed.

A new dimension has been added to the way I look at snowflakes.

I’ve been reading WickedWordCraft blog posts from attendee Angela Allen Parker. That’s where I learned about the net neutrality issue in the first place.

One of Angela’s articles answers a question I have about how to explain this issue in a way that makes sense to people. Angela posed the same question to Stanford law professor, Tim Wu, whom she describes as the “probable author of the term Net Neutrality. Professor Wu suggested she use electricity as a metaphor.

Here is an excerpt from Angela’s blog:

Winter Solstice officially arrives at 7:22 PM in my neck of the woods.

For the next six months, the sun will start getting closer to earth and days will get longer for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. Folks in Australia and New Zealand are enjoying summer, while we experience winter.

Here are a few things to think about on this, the shortest day of the year.

Several of my clients write in passive voice.

My job is to find the most powerful words to express their message. Consider the following sentences:

The protective covering should be removed before use.
Remove the protective covering before use.

See the difference?

Here are a few tips for helping you figure out whether to use active voice or passive voice in your message:

I’ve had a BAH HUMBUG! attitude about holiday shopping ever since I worked in a retail department store after my first semester at the University of Connecticut.

I don’t blame people for being grumpy. I don’t like to be bullied, either. Product-pushers demanding my cheer and joy while shoving gadgets at me makes me feel a level of anger beyond words. Friends and relatives demanding cheer are enough to make me scream.

In the last couple of weeks I have watched helplessly as two long-time friends battle mental health problems. As we head into this dreaded season of short days, long nights, and wind-driven precipitation, their challenges mount.

It’s a struggle not to get sucked into the vortex of anger, blame and all the other fear-based emotions. It’s even harder when fear-based media messages add fuel to the fire.

Emotions can travel through a room, a group or an organization. If you
are stressed, then you send that energy out wherever you go. If you can
harness that stress energy and send out peace, then you may not change
the world, but at least you do no harm.

Here’s my plan for keeping my sanity. I hope some of this works for you.

Writing is a lot like sculpture. In both crafts you trim away the excess to reveal the art within.

Sculptors chip or carve away at stone, wood or clay; writers trim words.

Here are a few tips to guide you along this process:

Writing seems to flow when you have a strong opinion.

Whether you write for like-minded readers or readers you hope to persuade, spotting the weak parts of your argument will help you and your readers.

I can tie a square knot and it’s converse, the granny knot.

I have learned others, but like anything else I don’t practice, I forget.

I am bookmarking this site: http://www.iwillknot.com/

I’m comfortable using terms like flight attendant or fire fighter when I’m referring to an individual who performs that job. I typically struggle with pronoun use.

This is an interesting area of writing technique, because the strategies for applying gender-sensitive language are still being worked out.

Here are some of the choices I am comfortable making when using this gender-sensitive language: