When I started blogging over 14 years ago, the last thing I thought would come of this endeavor was a strong interest in writing. Call it serendipity, call it colleterial damage, but in a process led by technology then, that very technology has become secondary today. This being said, I have much, much more to learn about the art and craft of writing.

Reading On Writing by Stephen King was also serendipitous. Last summer while on vacation my family stopped at a yard sale as they had kayaks for sale. After learning the prices of said kayaks were more in tune with a Christies auction than stuff piled on an out-of-the-way driveway in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, I found a used copy of the book at the whopping price of 50 cents. As you will read on, this find made the stop worthwhile.

On Writing is part biography, part motivational speech and part textbook from the master of horror and suspense. It chronicles his life story to where he was when it came out 20 years ago – note there have been subsequent updated editions of this since then, however what I read was the original. In addition to the craft of writing, it also tells the tales of the trappings of the industry, including rejection, publishing and how you make a living leading up to publishing.

There were many takeaways from On Writing that I scribbled down as I read through it, what follows is the top, most meaningful of them to me.

The best of the advice he received – There are many pieces of advice that King got over the years that he recalls in the book. My favorite was advice he got from a newspaper editor, "When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story... when you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open” – Building on the advice he received, this really resonated with me. I have always felt that editing was just as equally important if not more so in some cases. To this extent, there is an example in the book of something he wrote, and then edited by hand, showing all of his hand marks.

“Don’t develop plot, let it happen” – As I am writing this post this rings so true, as the results of even this very sentence were not what I thought I would have written. Many times I go into writing something after already writing it in my head. Even then, as I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, the results aren’t always as planned.

“Write one word at a time” – When you look at it that way, it makes writer’s block almost seem silly.

King spent time in West De Pere, Wisconsin – As a child, King lived in a city just about 20 minutes north of where I am now. It’s nice to see I am not the only Red Sox fan who has lived in this area.

This is my first Stephen King book – For all I knew about Stephen King and have seen many of his movies, I have never read one of his books before. As that has now changed, I think I will mix up my reading stack for the year with one of his novels, perhaps The Running Man.

On Writing was a great read for me, as it was an honest look at a man who has been insanely successful at writing, and as humble as the person who could be sitting next to me in bleachers at Fenway Park on a summer afternoon. If you are interested in writing or simply want to learn more about the man behind Carrie White, I recommend On Writing. As with all books I read, the destination of its giveaway was to a friend who has the audio book of On Writing – narrated by King himself – who I thought might like to see his words on paper as well.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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About a year ago someone ahead of me at the Dairy Queen drive-thru paying for my order would have been the sole highlight of my week. Fortunately times have changed.

MAzing – An afterschool field trip with my kiddo took me to MToxins, one of the few venom labs in the world in nearby Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Here they extract the venom from poisonous snakes, by hand no less, which is used to create antivenom medication. I was able to see up close (with plate glass between us) an extraction as well as other reptiles and rescued owls. It is an experience I certainly was not expecting to see, and recommend you do the same.

Thoughts on Thinking – The Scrum Master Toolbox podcast I have mentioned previously will run bonus episodes on the weekend that go well beyond the realm of Scrum. A week ago I heard an interview with Shawn Livermore talking about the creative process. It’s worth checking out this thoughtful half-hour talking about the myths of business genius.

Taking Up Valuable MySpace – When Googling myself I ran across an extremely downsized but similarly looking version of my MySpace page from the mid-2000’s. Why it is still there I have no idea, but it certainly wasn’t worth linking to.

Small Plate Double-Take – The French word for small food plates is “assiettes” as I learned when looking at the label on a package of paper plates which was translated in several languages.

Live Free or Die With Gold – New Hampshire joins Nevada and Utah in offering Goldbacks, local currency that is recognized by state law. They are somewhat similar in appearance to those in the other states, but with the Granite State’s famous motto, Live Free or Die. Wyoming is apparently next to offer these shiny notes.

Trash on Trash – I heard a story that off-beat posters were appearing in New York City about keeping the city trash free, and appearing like they were from the city’s sanitation department. First I heard about ones saying supporters of former President Trump were trash. When I heard there was also a poster calling New England sports fans trash, I knew they were bogus. Why? The hate that fans of the Red Sox have for the Yankees is far, far from reciprocated, as Yankees fans couldn’t care less about the team northeast of them.

Chaos Ending – I saw the movie Chaos Walking this past weekend. It is a story of a world where there are no women, and the men can hear the thoughts of other men. Where the premise was initially odd to me, the movie has an interesting story, though the ending was rather abrupt.

Mask Up Tax Down – Last week the IRS issued a statement that expenses on masks and other personal protective equipment is tax deductible. By now my taxes information has already been sent to my accountant, and many people in the US have already filed their taxes. Now I know why the tax filing deadline was extended by a month.

You Light Up My Zoom Life – My desk at home is not in a well-lit area for video calls, and I finally decided to do something about it. After much searching and comparing models I decided to get the above-pictures “clamp lamp” – an LED circle that can clamp to a desk and can be positioned with its gooseneck. It comes with 3 lighting modes and the brightness can be adjusted. So far so great and now my entire face can have the same lighting, for better or for worse.

Happy Birthday Thing 2! Your infectious smile and energy both bring me joy and challenge me daily!

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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It was back to the pool for me, as a last minute call for volunteers got me to see my kiddos swim in person for the first time in over a year. Where some swim teams haven’t even tried hosting meets, others have, and they have done it right and with virus safety in mind. The kiddos did some big swims and I was proud of their performance. I also got to perform, for during one session I was back at the mic as meet announcer.

That’s 920-867... – Local calls in Wisconsin will soon require the area code to be dialed first due to new cross-state area codes. Or in other words, Dairyland will now be in line with dialing habits in most every state in the US.

One-Tap Scroll to Top – New to me, and likely many of you too who are reading this, is that you can tap the “status bar” on your iPhone or iPad to scroll to the top of what you are reading. The status bar is the space at the top where the time and other information is displayed. Where this function is not in every app, most Web browsers I tried can do it. And for those who don’t know, Safari is a Web browser. Special thanks to my friend Stefanos for pointing out this feature in his latest blog post.

Overplanned obsolescence – A warning message about updates to my Chromebook led to this information that the Internet device will not accept updates after this coming September. There’s a term for this – planned obsolescence. It’s when someone who makes hardware or software says that after a certain date you need to buy new hardware or software from them as they will no longer support what you have. Of course what you have will still likely work, but I digress. The Chromebook was a hand-me-down from a friend who was downsizing equipment and came in handy when schools all went virtual a year ago. Even though the Chromebook will still work with Google’s Chrome OS, I may look into alternative, non-Google operating systems for it like GalliumOS.

De-Googling May Not Be a Bad Idea – This article in The Hacker News shows what personal data Google captures on its users. The search-and-more giant was called out by smaller and less-capturing DuckDuckGo. Check out the chart towards the bottom of the article for the gory details.

Random Journey – Now that people are starting to get out more, why plan something when you can just go someplace random? Also new to me this week is Randonautica an app that uses quantum random number generation to send you someplace close by or elsewhere. Think Geocaching to a different level. I haven’t tried it yet, but my friend Randy who told me about it highly recommends it.

Last Run – This week Dick Hoyt passed away at the young age of 80. For decades he ran the Boston Marathon and races and triathlons around the world while pushing his son Rick. I met him a few times over the years that I had volunteered for the Boston Marathon, and he was a class act. The story I linked to here is by Boston sportscaster Steve Burton, someone else I have met before and equally a class act.

Temptation – Despite my track record I did not give up other blogging for Lent, and I do have other stories coming. One thing I have been moderately successful at over the period leading up to Easter is not eating meat on Fridays. Today I was successful at it despite picking up a package of beef bacon from local favorite Jacob’s Meat Market. I actually had an order in for this new delicacy of theirs as it has been selling out. By the time you are reading this it should be not-Friday and I will be cooking and enjoying this, and remarking how the above photo doesn’t do this deliciousness justice.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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To honor the life of Lou Ottens, the inventor of the cassette tape, I am sitting in a high-armed chair reminiscent of the famous Maxell cassette tape poster as I compile the other things I learned this week. Hat tip to Kim on this news.

Find Me Flaw – It was revealed there was a flaw in Apple’s Find Me app and service that would reveal the location histories of its users. Where this service is used by many, especially parents who want to track the locations of their kiddos, the potential for unintended consequences is high.

Maybe Don’t Use Find Me in Virginia? – Signed this month to go into effect in 2023 is the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act or CDPA. The East-coast Commonwealth joins West-coast California as the only other US state to have its own privacy law. Both are have a similar approach to the European Union’s GDPR. To the average person the acronyms I just threw around may not mean much. However if you are a business in Virginia or do business with people from there, it’s worth looking into to see if or how the new law will apply to you in a little over a year and a half.

Makeup with (Avocado) A-Peel – The other day my kiddo started telling me about a line of makeup that was inspired by the Mexican fast-casual restaurant Chipotle. I was laughing out loud at the descriptions of makeup inspired by their menu items, including a makeup bag that looks like a take-out food bag, thinking she was trying to prank me. That was until she showed me this link to a line of real Chipotle-inspired makeup products. I’ll never be able to look at anyone eating a burrito or bowl who accidently gets some on their face the same way again.

Digital Beanie Babies, Sorta – If you still haven’t grasped the concept of blockchain or bitcoin, then add non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, to the list. In very short, is a way of identifying a unique digital asset and assigning an owner to it. An example is one my friend Craig wrote on where Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is going to sell his first tweet, and the owner’s name will be forever tied to it. Podcasting co-inventor Adam Curry called NFTs “digital Beanie Babies” and I have to agree with him... as I scour my hard drive for something unique to sell to someone.

Managing Communities The Right Way – Agile guru Tom Cagley shared this great checklist for managing remote communities of practice or communities of interest meetings. Even as some events are starting to be planned in person, there are still plenty happening virtually. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

Starting My Birthday List Early – This week audio gear maker JLab announced JBuds Frames, which clip onto your glasses for what they call “open-ear” listening. I’m not a fan of standard earbuds, and having the ability to listen to music or a podcast in a more ambient way will be much more preferred by me. As an added bonus, the mic on the JBuds Frames are not always listening to you.

Boulder Pledge – New to me though far from new to the world is the Boulder Pledge. It was a statement made by late film critic Roger Ebert in 1996 that, in summary, says he won’t do business with spammers. Many people reading this may not have had an email account in 1996, let alone getting much spam in their inbox. This was the early days of the consumer Internet, and it was a prophetic statement. Hat tip to Joe for his mention of this on LinkedIn this week.

You Can't Do That – Presented without further comment, especially to prevent inadvertent offending of my fellow Wisconsinites, is this story about a car that had a lawn chair for its driver seat.

FAQ SEO FTW – In an effort to try to space out acronyms this week yet share with you useful information, I present this thoughtful piece by my friend and search engine optimization guru CT Moore on frequently asked questions (FAQ) and SEO. CT not only knows this topic, he also presents it very well. Where many times I feel updating the FAQs for the program I manage is mundane, its value can be tremendous.

Cordless Not FTW For All – It has been several years since I have purchased window blinds, a streak I broke last weekend. As I perused the big box hardware stores I saw only cordless blinds. A friendly staff at one store explained most all blinds sold today are cordless to prevent accidental strangulation of kids and pets, which I confirmed elsewhere. You can custom order corded blinds, which I will be doing as 2 sets of blinds I bought and installed failed to live up to expectations.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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As I compile this list on my computer I realize it’s the National Day of Unplugging. In the background a movie is being streamed over Netflix, not to mention too many lights on in the house. At least the adult beverage I am sipping now didn’t require any wired power to pour.

Who Comes Up With These Days Anyway? – World Backup Day is March 31. However I really, really urge you to backup your files way sooner, and just like voting in Chicago – early and often. If you’re not sure how to approach backing up your vital pictures and files, I offer this oldie but goodie on my own backup strategy.

Speaking of Your Data... – I signed up for this free Webinar titled, “Government Access to Private Data: Who gets what when and how?” being offered by the University of Wisconsin next week. The speaker’s bio alone intrigued me to watch this, and I also found it interesting that recordings of the event are prohibited.

The Next Generation of Wikipedia? – Larry Sanger, one of the founders of Wikipedia, is starting Encyclosphere as an alternative to the popular digital encyclopedia. It’s not live yet, and from descriptions I read it will not be a central site but a network of resources. Could The Hot Iron be one? Who knows. I have subscribed to their email list to learn about progress in this endeavor.

There has been a lot of talk about how Wikipedia works, using volunteer editors whose influence on content can show their bias. However this is nothing new to me or something that has happened just in the last 4 years. Almost a decade ago I first learned of this by someone I knew in tech networking circles in Chicago. She told me that many edits she and other colleagues made on women’s sports were continuously being deleted. Note I said sports, not politics.

Define Rockstars – “... it’s better to have a rockstar team rather than a team of rockstars...” is a paraphrase of a great quote I heard this week on an episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox podcast. This made me think back on all of the teams I have been a part of over the years, and I concur wholeheartedly with it.

Two-Minute Catholic – With all of the podcasts that are queued in my mobile app, the last thing I wanted is another long show to subscribe to that I will likely never get to yet keep holding out hope I will. I recently learned about Relevant Radio, a network of Catholic radio stations that also has an app, and this week found Fr. Kubicki’s 2 Minute Prayer Reflection. Two minutes! This daily timeout is welcome in the mix of news and technology listening.

Six-Months Italian – They say all good things come to an end, and I decided to stop my daily streak of “learning” Italian at 180 with the Duolingo app. Six months is nothing to shake a stick at, but lately I have been repeating lessons rather than taking new ones simply for the sake of keeping the streak alive. Where I have gained a better understanding of my mother tongue, I don’t have a venue to practice it. I may resume lessons in the future. In the meantime I am going to focus on career-advancing studies.

No Cost to Viewer’s Remorse – Last weekend the new combo animated/live-action Tom & Jerry movie came out concurrently in physical movie theatres and on the streaming channel HBO Max. As I get HBO Max for free for being an AT&T customer, I didn’t mind it as much how horrible the movie was as the only cost was my time, which did not last through the entire duration of the film.

No Cost and No Remorse for this Agile Learning – This week Agile coach and educator Anthony Mersino released the second edition of his book Agile Project Management for free in PDF and Kindle formats. As a paper book aficionado, I have started reading this as a PDF, but will still buy a copy in paper format when it comes out. I have taken courses from Anthony and he has a great style of educating that gets you excited about using Agile and Scrum methods.

End of a Friendly Era – I learned that last month S. Presley Blake, the co-founder of the East coast Friendly Ice Cream restaurant chain, died at age 106. In its heyday Friendly’s was a go-to place for Fishamajig sandwiches and Fribble shakes. I worked at the store in my hometown for 60 days exactly, allowing a friend to get a bonus for referring me, as I quickly realized food service wasn’t my thing. A philanthropist after selling the restaurants, Blake was also known for building a replica of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in northern Connecticut when he was in his late 90’s.

Go Cubs Go – The gratuitously cute bear cub photo at the top of this post was sent to me by my cousin. The cub’s mother is being monitored by state wildlife officials and thus they were able to capture this photo and others of mother bear and her newborn cubs on said cousin’s land. Where I would never think of using cute animals to drive traffic to this humble blog, I’ll fully assess this position after checking the traffic to this one post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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