Want to have a more productive New Year?

Visit Passion Planner's Home Page

Get a Passion Planner.  I'm not kidding - this is a great tool for writers because it gives you a place to:

• Keep track of dates and appointments
• Keep track of both work and personal tasks - on the same page but in separate sections
• Transform a vague goal to a workable plan complete with steps and deadlines
• Reflect on each month and decide how to improve next month
• Has a blank "Space of Infinite Possibility" for you to jot down notes, create mind maps or lists, or even just doodle every week
• Has a place for you to write your daily and weekly "Focus" (boy, do writers ever have to work hard at focusing!  At least, I do - because I am highly distractible and easily entertained).
• Has a space to write "Good Things that Happened" every week, which is awesome if you are have a tendency to focus on the negatives or want to make happy memories.
• Keep a writing log or notes on the blank (plain and graph paper!) pages in the back.
• Has a pocket in the back where you can tuck receipts, photos, clippings, whatever

Not only this, but when you buy one, they donate one to a person in need.  So you're not only helping you be happier and more organized, you're making the world a better place.

Try the Passion Planner for free - let me know what you think.

Want to write daily? Get a free 12-month calendar

You think I'm kidding, right? Nope. What inspired me to try this was Gretchen Rubin's truly life-changing book, Better Than Before. She writes:

“Comedian Jerry Seinfeld advised aspiring comedian Brad Isaac that, because daily writing was the key to writing better jokes, Isaac should buy a calendar with a box for every day of the year, and every day, after writing, cross off the day with a big red X” (page 112).

In 2017, I rarely wrote.

In 2018, I used my calendar to give me a quick visual indicator of how often I was writing. The red circles are days I wrote; the black x's are days I didn't. Simply hanging this calendar next to my desk transformed my writing habit, because I could see at a glance whether or not I had written the day before. And I hate seeing black x's instead of nice red circles.



If I counted correctly, I wrote at least 15 minutes a day for 264 days last year. To put that into perspective, if you work 5 days a week and don't take holidays or vacations, you will work 260 days a year. 260 is a great goal, and I met or exceeded that goal.

You don't have to limit yourself to writing - you could use this for exercising, or reading, or any other activity you want to do on a frequent basis.

Here's a link to a free calendar you can use for 2019:  Go to www.blank-calendar.com now.

This simple tool has been great for me.  If it helps you too, leave a comment below.

Can't Get Enough of that Biosphere 2!

We really enjoyed our tour.  Here are some other things we saw, and some suggestions for further reading.

Rock Sculptures at Biosphere 2, Oracle, AZ.  Image ©2018 Tina Quinn Durham.

A beautiful desert vista at Biosphere 2, Oracle, AZ.  Image ©2018 Tina Quinn Durham.

In addition to water harvesting and other earth-friendly features, there were bee condos, and instructions on how to make your own to provide homes for solitary bees - which are important pollinators in our desert environment.

Bee Condo. Image ©2018 Tina Quinn Durham.

One last photo of something near and dear to my heart: aquaponics.  We have two tanks in our home in preparation for a full-scale greenhouse, which I hope to get around to finishing someday.  Aquaponics uses fish poop to fertilize plants, and is a very efficient way to produce vegetables, herbs, and protein in the desert.

Aquaponics, Biosphere 2, Oracle, AZ.  Image ©2018 Tina Quinn Durham.

More About Biosphere 2

"Fast Facts:  Biosphere 2 by the Numbers" - description of Biosphere 2 from the University of Arizona/Biosphere 2.

Dempster, William F. “Biosphere 2 Engineering Design.” Ecological Engineering, vol. 13, no. 1-4, 1999, pp. 31–42., doi:10.1016/s0925-8574(98)00090-1.
         This article is quite technical, but a great geek read nonetheless.

Didn't get enough homework at school?   Check out this problem from Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics by Kevin D. Dahm and Donald P. Visco (Independence, KY: CENGAGE Learning, 2014.)

Want to read some poetry about Biosphere? 
Deming, Alison Hawthorne et al. “Poetic Field Research at Biosphere 2 Archives • Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments.” Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments, Terrain.org, 4 Sept. 2014, www.terrain.org/category/poetic-field-research-at-biosphere-2/.