Univerese Today is a blog that covers space exploration and astronomy. The offer came out of work I was doing last year on Tomorrow is Here. Fraser Cain, who runs Universe Today, also runs the carnival of space, which often featured articles from Tomorrow is Here.

a new world and new civilization?

Perhaps this could lead to something bigger. I noticed that the coverage of the LCROSS Moon impact in the Daily Star was inacurate.

The article says that debris were “brought back to the Earth for analysis.” I am pretty sure this isn’t true. Both probes impacted the Moon. There was nothing to come back to Earth.

This will be my first writing assignments since I took a break in April. I stopped because writing had become such a chore. I wasn’t enjoying it at all.

Writers block had me in a strangle hold. Things had gotten so bad, merely sitting in front of a PC with Word open would give me a headache.

Maybe that’s more than writer’s block.

My first interest remains politics, so there’s an opportunity cost in writing about space. But it’s a way back into writing. A way around the writers block, if that’s what it is.

Recently, I’ve gotten back into the habit of writing daily. Or at least trying to. Even if I am only writing a few hundred words a day it’s something, hence this blog.

No pressure, and as yet no headaches. Perhaps, if I start on writing about politics again the headaches will come back.

So now to look for some suitable space ideas.

Last week was my highest earning week since turning freelance two years ago. My spread sheet projections were beginning to look a lot more healthy with a lot less red on them.

OK, projections are another way of counting your chickens before they’re hatched. Let’s be honest, when you are looking at two-year-projection on freelance work then the eggs haven’t been laid yet.

Then the bad news

From Feb. 1. one of my main markets is stopping paying. I will now have to find another source of income. Still that is all part of the freelance game.

And here’s me thinking maybe the credit crunch could be good for me. After all if people have less money then maybe they will stay in and surf the net more.

Where the theory falls down is many of the innovative internet start-ups I have been working with exist on borrowed money, venture capital or love. So the credit crunch sees much belt tightening.

Mind you, I have heard a lot of ex-full time journalists are trying this path. The long tail is about to get a lot longer and a lot slimmer.

In some ways it is good because it removes a straight jacket just when I need a little time to rethink my business plan.

The Three in One award denotes, “Blogs of attitude and gratitude, a member of a proud sisterhood, and a best friend of all blogs.”

Now you may have noticed that I am a guy. But Patricia has decided to give the awards to male personal bloggers, as there are so few of us about.

I can’t decide if this counts as spam. I am quite happy to get the recognition (thanks again Patricia). But I am not to sure if I want to be bothering other people.

But I have never been invited to be part of the sisterhood before. It seems kind of churlish to refuse. So this may well be the first and last time I play this game

I have chosen these blogs for a variety of reasons. There is an apparent contradiction in the selection criteria. Whereas blogs such as Blanca DeBree and BadGal Radio undoubtedly have attitude, I don’t think it is accurate to describe them as, “a best friend of all blogs.”

In fact, any blog with attitude will annoy someone surely. I don’t get the, “I have attitude, as long as it’s OK with everyone.”

Maybe it’s a sisterhood thing that guys can’t get.

Anyway my nominations are:

1. The Alien Next Door
2. Blanca DeBree Blog
3. BadGalsRadio
4. Diana Sabrain On Sexy Female Marketing
5. Modern Witchcraft School
6. Angelika
7. Babette’s Definitely MAYBE!
8. Mariuca
9. Lainy’s Musings
10. Buffy’s Blog

So if you are listed above all you have to do is:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great attitude and or gratitude.
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let winners know they have received award.
5. Link to this post and the person from whom you received the award.

Or feel free to completely ignore the whole thing. This sisterhood thing is already wearing thin.

But I am now a “struggling writer”. The days of milk, honey and cheap power have gone. Along with mind numbering boredom, machine coffee and office politics, so I am still happy with my decision to write full-time.

As heating the flat all day is something of a luxury and I am now afflicted with the writer’s curse of cold feet. Since I started working from home, I have become a two pairs of woolly socks man, October through May.

I blame the man in the flat below. If he kept his flat warmer, my floor would be warmer, so my feet would be too.

Then one day, for some reason, I didn’t change my shoes for slippers when I came in as I normally do. The cold feet problem was much alleviated.

Now, I can’t remember making a decision to wear slippers. I still don’t consider myself a “Slipper Wearing Man”. But apparently sometime in the last decade I became one. My Mum usually buys me a pair for Christmas. Perhaps I started to wear them rather than waste a perfectly good pair of slippers.

I think it is a psychological. When I get home; I take off my shoes and put on slippers. It rests my feet and makes me feel home. I relax.

But the soles of slippers are not very thick, so no matter how furry they are, the heat leaks though the bottom. It took me two years to work this out. If I was still an engineer instead of a writer I probably would have got it in a week at the most

I have abandoned slippers.

Then, this last week it has been very cold. So I braved the January sales to buy myself some hiking boots to wear when I am writing. I got a bargain, a £90 pair of lovely warm “all weather” boots for £26.

This has to be the first time in weeks that I have had warm feet all day. I am writing more. This is the second article today.

Warm Feet = Increased Productivity

Now there’s a tip you would never find on any writers’ site.