Back to School Work

I’ve never outgrown the school/summer vacation cycle, and having school-aged kids has reinforced it. With kids underfoot, it’s hard to cram work in around my summertime “activities director” role. September means back to school(work) and schedules get hectic again. So far, October and November have been my busiest months, and I’m hoping that pattern continues this year, especially since summer was a little slow. But I did get a few things out in August and September. Here they are:

AvvoStories

For AvvoStories, I’ve been focusing on technology and privacy issues (more to come next month), but there are some other topics in the mix. I love that I write for a publication that lets me write about everything from the environment to homelessness, and I am always tickled when one of my pieces, like the one on buried treasure, gets posted with the tag “bizarre.”

• New airport “face scans” stir up privacy issues

• Microchip implants: A legal battle waiting to happen

• When does assisted suicide become manslaughter?

• The tenuous legality of hunting for buried treasure

• Will Amazon’s new policy crush small sellers?

• President Trump opens parks to coal mining, again

• Can new housing laws in Seattle help the homeless?

ParentMap

I got to do some reviews, previews, and parenting pieces for ParentMap over the summer, too.

• 20-Plus Shows That’ll Make Your Family Fall in Love With the Arts

• Could You Be Making This Common Cultural Mistake?

• 5 Awesome Seattle Design Fest Events for Families

• Is Anybody Out There? IMAX Film Searches for Life in Space

Crooked Road

Of course, I also blogged – not a lot, but some.

Top Posts

My top posts in August were:

Madame Butterfly at Seattle Opera – I so enjoyed this performance, and I was so impressed by all the educational programming Seattle Opera sponsored around this controversial classic. It is so satisfying when you can enjoy great art and learn new things at the same time.

In This Corner of the World – The director of this poignant film retweeted the link to this post (in Japanese!) so I’m not surprised it did well. I was a little awestruck that such an accomplished artist would bother to notice my comments on their work and share them with his fans. This was one of the most elegant, sensitive, touching films I’ve watched in a long time, so I hope it does very well.

Young Blood – A little bit of Iceland-service, and some much needed hope for the future.

In September the top posts were:

Cat City Reykjavik

About

Sigur Ros’ Challenging Video for Fjogur Piano

The mind reels. I have no idea why these two posts would rise to the top, and hardly anyone ever clicks through to my About page, even though all the “how to blog” experts say it is the first thing most people read after stumbling onto one of your posts.

Searches

My favorite searches that fed my site to someone include:

• what looney tune episode plays the marriage of figaro
  • Here you go.
• //gemmadeealexander.com/2013/02/14/icelandic-romance-101/amp/
  • I just love that they had the URL and used it as a search term.
• vp tie break constitution
  • Not a lot of people are reading my Constitution posts, but the few who are seem to care about them. And I’m learning a lot, so I’m going to keep going with the series.

Interesting Visitors

Top visiting countries were:

• USA
• Iceland
• Japan (thanks to Sunao Katabuchi-sensei!)
• Canada

I’ll leave you with a preview for In This Corner of the World. You really should see it.