tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21066876957347652472011-10-30T21:29:13.762-04:00The Official Blog of Writer and Artist Bill Dowis and His Aventures Living the Freelance Life.Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-8109774970570972172011-10-30T21:28:00.001-04:002011-10-30T21:29:13.831-04:00

Bill Dowis has moved to his new home at www.billdowis.com Come check me out.

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-49430828272748437972011-10-24T22:15:00.000-04:002011-10-24T22:15:17.470-04:00

Have you ever clicked a link to a YouTube video and after watching the video clicked on one of the recommended videos? After watching that video you click on another recommended video. Before long you will be watching a video that is nowhere near the same as the first video you watched. That is how my thought process works. My mind is like YouTube. Yesterday I was out for a run and I started

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-63494009691345832742011-10-18T19:58:00.000-04:002011-10-18T19:58:33.595-04:00

Hack is usually used as a derogatory adjective. To be a hack writer means that you grind out thousands upon thousands of words without thinking about the art of writing. You are viewed as nothing more than a word factory. Is that such a bad thing?Think about the dime store pulp novels of the fifties. There was something for every taste including romance, mystery, and western. These novels carried

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-61942254038182373802011-09-28T08:20:00.001-04:002011-09-28T08:41:30.211-04:00

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meg-z/ Don't put all your eggs in one basket. That is sound advice. Quite literally it means that relying on just a single basket is not a good idea. What if you dropped that basket? The eggs would spill everywhere and most likely break. Even if you could save a few you would still lose nearly every egg you had. This principle can be applied well to the

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-53718110350589827162011-09-23T10:35:00.000-04:002011-09-23T10:35:17.839-04:00

The sub two hour marathon was a mythical feat. People believed that it could be done, but most believed it was humanly impossible. But as people got closer to two hours, more people started paying attention.It was 2016 when the fastest man in the world completed the London Marathon in two hours one minute and twenty-nine seconds. This is when it really got serious.Both the Boston Athletic

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-86210272230618268152011-09-17T09:44:00.000-04:002011-09-17T09:44:57.094-04:00

Yes... Monopoly the board game. I watch a lot of kids television. That is the curse of having two kids. Although, it gives me an excuse to watch some awesome cartoons. Obviously, the commercials shown during these shows are targeted toward kids or for kids. Enter the commercial for the new Monopoly game. It is electronic. The kid in the commercial is playing the game with a debit card. He

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-88818158518921973552011-09-14T08:56:00.000-04:002011-09-14T08:56:48.088-04:00

Let's face it, books can be cumbersome. Some of them are heavy. Most are thick and hard to hold in the hands. Some weigh in at over 1000 pages and become a piece of heavy machinery that is difficult to operate, especially in hardcover. The Kindle weighs the same no matter how many pages fill it up or what books are stacked inside. Why would I lug around a Stephen King hardcover when I can easily

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-34171673019590547492011-09-09T22:10:00.000-04:002011-09-11T22:12:48.633-04:00

Yesterday was my oldest son's first day of the second grade. And thank God for that!! I have two sons, and trying to write when they are both home is a major pain in the butt. Doing art isn't as hard, because I can put them at their table and let them paint while I do my projects. They even love doing that with me. But writing requires a different form of concentration and it really isn't

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-3282908687014379312011-08-29T14:00:00.000-04:002011-08-29T14:00:32.733-04:00

This was an exciting weekend. Hurricane Irene terrorized the entire east coast and everyone was in a panic. Living in southern New Jersey made it quite interesting. People in this area tend to be ill prepared for natural disasters and when one comes knocking on the door, everyone panics. The stores were packed with people stocking up on batteries, flashlights and junk food. Honestly, I am

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-19905784028365756772011-08-18T16:20:00.000-04:002011-08-18T16:20:49.671-04:00

When it comes to works in progress and other projects, be sure to keep your priorities in order. A lot of the things I talk about on here I do to earn a paycheck. So here is my list... Do the projects that currently make money first. Do the projects that will be making you money second. Do the projects that don't make you money last. Now I just need to apply this all the time instead of some

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-28355523007260166522011-08-15T17:50:00.000-04:002011-08-15T17:50:43.010-04:00

The vacation is over. Literally. A long overdue vacation has come to an end. It was an extended weekend down the Jersey shore. The real one, not that crap you see on MTV. My shore towns of choice are Ocean City and Wildwood. This time we chose Wildwood. It was a good weekend. Relaxing on the beach. Getting buried in the sand. Teaching Tyler how to swim in the pool. Walking the boardwalk.

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-83632132401525571582011-08-03T22:57:00.001-04:002011-08-15T17:41:19.793-04:00

Last week I told you about a great couple of picks from the Goodwill store. It just so happens that the auctions have just ended and here is what has come of them. The sparring gear was purchased for $5. Less than 24 hours after listing it on eBay with a starting bid of $10, I get a message from a guy asking if I will end the auction now for $25 plus shipping. By this time the auction already

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-60824167781925255492011-08-01T00:04:00.017-04:002011-08-01T00:04:00.962-04:00

I hate the treadmill. HATE it. This weekend, for the first time in quite a while, I was able to go for a run outside. Even in 90* heat a run outside feels better than a run on the treadmill. I especially love running early in the morning. When the world is just waking up and most people are still sound asleep. It is renewing and refreshing. If you allow yourself to take it all in and just be

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-68920986233375525322011-07-30T00:00:00.016-04:002011-08-15T17:42:06.195-04:00

I love this picture. It was taken on the bank of the Delaware River during low tide. As you may have guessed the "Always" rock was placed there on purpose in order to create meaning within the scene. Always can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. This image creates a lot of emotion in me. Among all the random rocks scattered along the beach there lies this one. One rock among thousands that

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-18757501155363716092011-07-27T22:55:00.003-04:002011-08-15T17:42:53.082-04:00

This week's pick is so exciting, I had to make a video about it. Check out the auctions on ebay right now! This way to my eBay auctions!

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-23061150892032115662011-07-25T19:39:00.032-04:002011-07-27T12:46:46.245-04:00

Spiral notebook and a Moleskine I consider myself a creator. I am an artisan, a photographer, a writer and more. My most important tool is not the camera or the paintbrush. It is not clay or a computer. My most important tool that I have is my notebook. After an idea germinates in my head for the proper amount of time, the first place it finds itself is in a notebook, handwritten. I carry one

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-76153971552122950512011-07-23T12:38:00.016-04:002011-08-15T17:43:19.020-04:00

One thing I like to do with photography is create scenes, especially with toys and things that you can find around the house.  One of the first props I had to buy was this wooden mannequin. He is used by artists to help position people in drawings. I have been directing him in a few of my photo shoots. There is a project I am working on and he worked with me for over a hundred shots. More on

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-85634204183549721062011-07-20T12:11:00.027-04:002011-08-15T17:43:37.153-04:00

Actual eBay listing after auction end. This is a pick that surprisingly enough many people don't even realize could be in their own pockets. Silver is a valuable commodity. The price of silver has been steadily increasing and more and more people are investing in silver bullion than ever before. The United States Mint used to create most of our coins with silver. Any dime, quarter, or half

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-27794896501561549532011-07-18T19:27:00.000-04:002011-07-27T12:46:46.264-04:00

All of our lives people are told to get an education, find a secure job, and work hard at building a successful career. But all you get from that is becoming overworked and under appreciated. Maybe if you define success as a six day work work and an expendable position in a big corporation, this way of life would be for you. So you get paid a salary. No matter what you do or how many hours you

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-21741588277572271482011-07-16T12:30:00.024-04:002011-08-15T17:43:56.861-04:00

I love light painting with my camera. This picture you see was never touched with Photoshop or any image editing at all. This was done with only the camera and a blue light in a dark room. For this picture I made the aperture as small as possible to let in very little light and set the shutter speed to bulb mode. That means I push the button to start the exposure and push it again to end it. I

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-15733186954681429492011-07-13T11:47:00.034-04:002011-08-15T17:44:17.648-04:00

Chicago Lockback Knife  This is one of my favorite picks of the year. This little knife was found in a storage unit that was bought at auction. While digging through any unit, a lot of stuff is tossed in the trash. I was looking through drawers in desks and end tables and most of them were full of junk. It was best to just dump the drawers in the trash and be done with it. But that is not

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2106687695734765247.post-40337911813357668862011-07-11T09:53:00.008-04:002011-07-27T12:46:46.298-04:00

Everyone needs a choke bucket. In it's most literal form, the choke bucket is the bucket you keep in bed with you when you are sick. The bucket you need because you know, no matter what, you are not making it to the bathroom. This blog is my choke bucket. What better place to regurgitate words and thoughts than the Internet? It's what everyone is doing anyway, right? The words spilling into

Bill Dowishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17026856910191933505noreply@blogger.com1