A Plan? Don't I Wish

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Today my husband and I tackled a chore that we had completed a couple of days earlier. Yes, you read that correctly. We had finished this job earlier in the week. Yet, here we were redoing it. Why? You may ask. Well, we didn’t have a plan. Do you know the quote, "A goal without a plan is just a wish?”  How I wish we had made a plan.

It’s amazing how one little four letter word can make such a huge difference. If we had had a plan to begin with, we could have simply sat back and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Instead, we found ourselves working at least as hard as if not harder than we had the first time.

We moved into our condo about eighteen months ago. We knew that our backyard needed to be revamped but we decided to wait until we came up full time to tackle that job. 

Using All the Tools and Having Fun, Too

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I’m at that point in my writing journey where I must bring all things together and put a brand to me and my writing. It’s called branding yourself. I’ve been to a lot of conferences and I’ve met a lot of authors along the way, and I understand what branding means, but applying it to oneself is a lot more difficult than one would think. 

But the good news? This is the fun part of writing. Don’t get me wrong, I love sitting down and putting words on the page, but I also am a creative person in other ways, and I enjoy those aspects of the writing process that allow me to use all the gifts God so graciously granted to me.

 

I’m no artist. Not a trained one anyway. I’ve been known to dabble in paints or with fabrics to make something lasting and hopefully, beautiful to at least a few.

If you are a writer and you haven’t dipped a toe in some of the things at your disposal, you will not believe how much fun this can be. It’s time to bring out some of those tools.

9 Password Protection Ideas

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I am not a happy camper. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. Today, when I logged onto one of my frequently visited sites, my search engine informed me that my password for an associated site had been compromised. Now, I’m no techie so I may not be using correct terminology here, but you get the idea.

Now, how they knew that is beyond my pay level, believe me. They informed me that I need to change all my passwords. Bummer. That’s about all I have to say about that. If you’re like me, you have a hard-enough time creating decent, hopefully secure passwords in the first place.

One thing I do which is not highly recommended, but I do it anyway, is I keep my passwords written down. What can I say? I’m old. No way could I remember all the passwords I must maintain.

In reaction, I went looking for what the latest thinking is about what a good, secure password should be. Here are a few of their suggestions. I got these from various places, and some are just my own ideas, some things my hubby and I have done for years.