Too long - Census reflections

Wow, I know its been too long - since I had to look up my password and can barely remember what happened last time I posted.  I was whining about working for the Census, but turns out... I discovered my inner stalker and actually enjoyed the job.  I even got some of the "difficult cases" that other Census workers passed on.  I found I didn't mind tracking people down and cornering them, since I believed in the Census. How else are we going to divvy up our pot of taxes, if we don't count ourselves?  How else can we even begin to try to make things fair? I was a believer.  I did find that I enjoyed the stories and the characters, but also got a scary look at my smooth righteous streak. Folks who didn't want to answer questions, didn't stand a chance with me.

Its really quite an endeavor going door to door.  As NRFU Enumerators (great name, huh? It's pronounced NarFu!!) we followed up (FU) on those who had not responded to the Census (Non Respondants -hence NR). Only the Feds would think like this. But I do think the government needs a little PR help. Within an average 30 block radius we had about a thousand non-respondents. Only a few of mine were really negative. Mainly, I was appalled at how many people didn't have a clue - boy they got my teacher lecture.  It was lots of young folks, which does not reflect well on our current educational system.  What happened to Civics anyway? 
That's about all I can say.  Any more is confidential and should be. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this year's Census knowing I helped.

Census

I've signed up to be a door-to-door Census taker and have very mixed feelings. I really need $$ and am sort of desperate, but have turned my nose up at lots of other jobs. So why the Census? Even though the idea of knocking at doors and dealing with all sorts of people just about makes me nauseous, I really do believe in the importance of the Census. Once every 10 years - a count that is the basis of political and economic planning and distribution of funds. Pretty cool! So here I go...... I'm trying to see this as a research project, an opportunity to see into people's lives that I would not normally see. I'm also breaking out in hives and drinking too much. Thank god this is a short term position.

Seat in Chair

Well,
I had told myself that I would write today and here I am writing, but not what I should be. The old "seat in chair" rule has a number of loopholes. Writing a blog, checking e-mail, doing "research" on the web are all wonderful ways to avoid the real writing.
Since working on this novel, I've come to a whole new appreciation for writers in general. How do so many books even get published? For every published book, I'm sure there are tons of unpublished manuscripts and, even then, probably multitudes of unfinished ones. After almost two years, I am now 2/3rds of the way through a first draft. I have really come to the conclusion that tenacity is much more important than talent.
So....I'm exercising some discipline and making this short. Back to my story.

Titles

So... a first post in a new endeavor.

Though actually not so new as I did try creating a blog once before and it now languishes in the nether world. (I've forgotten my password.) I wanted to erase it anyway as I made a mistake with the Title.
I called it BELIBRA, which I thought was rather cute as my initials spell BEL and I plan on primarily blogging about books. But - I did not check before I named the blog and later found out that BELIBRA means "to shop for a bra" in Indonesian. It seems there are a number of sites on Google helping Indonesians find bras. So much for books.
I started again and this time, just as I was all done, using the catchy title, BeL-Biblio, my daughter told me that Biblio means Bible in Italian. This will definately not be a Bible Blog. I was going for biblioteca.

Titles....

I have a wonderful little book about titles, Now all we need is a Title - Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way, by Andre Bernard. Great little stories about titles changed or how they came about. Gone With the Wind was going to be titled "Pansy", then "Tote the Weary Load", then "Tomorrow is Another Day". All changes were considered within 6 months of publication. I'm going to try and stick with BeL-Biblio.
Cheers!