Hedonist vs Bon Vivant

I like living well and enjoying life. I think of myself as a hedonist but I rarely call myself that because to other people that seems to mean "shortsighted idiot who has zero concept of consequences and is incapable of learning from their mistakes."

Because most people seem to think "hedonist" means "drunkard and drug addict who sleeps around casually and has zero sexual ethics "

Excuse me? I like my fun without regrets.

Hangovers, STDs, jail time and other ruinous consequences for shortsighted behavior are absolutely not my idea of "fun," thanks.

The expression bon vivant seems to do a better job of conveying what I mean which is that I like eating well, good conversation, nice clothes and similar pleasantries.

I like living well and bon vivant is French for "person who lives well." (Literally "good liver.")

If you want to communicate effectively, it's pointless to try insist your audience is wrong about what a word means. Your time is much better spent finding a word or phrase they will interpret as meaning what you hope to convey.

Pivoting a Website

The website Aberdeen Art and Music began as an effort to consolidate three older websites into a single website for purposes of trying to create a local walking tour as a tourist asset for this small town. It later took on a new purpose and I was tasked with updating the site to preserve and enhance the existing purpose while making room for new functions. The older websites were static sites that each corresponded to a printed brochure. The brochures and corresponding original websites were logically categorized by type of art: Murals, Critters and Urban Art (mostly sculpture). But much of this art can be found in close proximity in the downtown area, so I wanted to consolidate that information and enhance it to serve as an economic development tool for this small town. The intent was to support a walking tour via smartphone and begin phasing out the printed brochures while still supporting the existing brochures that were still out there and had the old URLs on them. In s

Project: #Eclogiselle

Proposal: Use #Eclogiselle if you are translating my work or developing things related to stuff I am doing and WANT it to be more discoverable and identifiable as related to my projects. (There is "Fine Print" .)

Local News and Information Online

I recentely read an online article with local news. Nowhere in the article does it actually name the state and the name of the publication is generic enough it doesn't give clues as to the location. I poked around the site and found a county name somewhere, maybe in the same article, maybe in a different article. I googled the city name and the spelling is unusual such that it might be a unique city name though there are definitely other cities with names that sound the same. If this article were printed in a physical newspaper bought locally, using just the city name would be fine. You would know from context exactly which city was intended. But when an article is posted online, people can potentially trip across it from anywhere in the world. You are no longer talking to just locals and even if the city name is unique, not everyone will automatically know that. Don't assume your audience will go digging for more info like I did to try to figure out exactly where

Doreen Michele

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