Good day all

[Silvercode]

Hi there everyone.

My name is David Hitchcock (I often include the B as there seems to be a lot of "me"). I've been writing professionally for about 5 years now as a technical writer. I have also been writing resumes, business plans, editing essays, and other odds and ends. I am a father of 2 young children, a fairly new home owner, and have international in-laws.

For the last few months now I've been trying my hand at web articles. While I have been happy with the quality of my work, I have been less than happy with the returns on my efforts. Lately I have been considering making the jump to print, or similar when I was introduced to Constant Content.

Everything I've seen about CC sounds like its a great place to do what we want to do - write, and get published.

So, you will likely see a few posted questions from me in the forums over the next little while as I get up to speed. Please forgive any stupid questions in advance, they will be the ones before I have my coffee.

- David

[nichewriter]

Welcome, David! CC is a great place for writers. Just make sure you read the guidelines not once or twice, but several times over. And there's no such thing as a stupid question here; you will find that CC authors are some of the friendliest bunch and ready to help

~Sherry

[Silvercode]

Thanks Sherry! I expect I will be reading, and re-reading things many times before I am well-versed on how things work.

I forgot to mention earlier that I live in Ottawa, Canada. So I do get to see all the seasons, and frequently wish for more trips to my in-laws and their sunny tropical home.

[Debbi]

Welcome David!

Great to have you on CC Be sure to let us all know when you get your first sale. Maybe Phil will do his Happy Dance for you

Debbi

[nichewriter]

I forgot to mention earlier that I live in Ottawa, Canada. So I do get to see all the seasons, and frequently wish for more trips to my in-laws and their sunny tropical home.

Of all the seasons, fall is my favorite. I wish the fall season here in California were longer...I wouldn't mind if it went for, I don't know...at least 6 months maybe

I don't mean to be nosy, but would your wife happen to be from Philippines? My husband and I have Filipino friends (and we visited some of them last year during our trip there). There is a big Filipino community here in the valley where I live and almost always when people say "tropical", Philippines is one of the countries that immediately come to mind. If she isn't from Philippines, my apologies for assuming so! All of a sudden I miss those delicious Philippine mangoes!

Again, welcome!

[Antonia]

Welcome, David! Great to have you here.

Sherry, now you have got me craving mangoes too.

[nichewriter]

Oops, sorry, Antonia... those mangoes from the Philippines are the best I've had in my life, and that's just for starters. They've got some of the best tropical fruits. *sigh* Now I'm simply hungry!

[Silvercode]

Thanks for all the Hellos everyone!

Yes, fall is my favourite time of year ever since I started cross country running in school. Been out of that for a while now, but still enjoy the time of year.

I have connections to Barbados, aka Little England. Sorry to disappoint on the Philippines side of things.

But that does mean mangoes from my in-laws yard, along with lemons, limes, pineapples, and so on.

Damn, now I'm hungry too...

[Silvercode]

As for good mangos, check this out http://www.sporkandknife.net/wordpress/ ... /mango.jpg. It will get your taste buds going!

[Phil]

Howdy David. Welcome to CC. I live in Texas. In my part we only have two seasons. It's either Summertime or December. I did a short stint as a truck driver after retiring from the Marines. I made several trips to Toronto and enjoyed as much of the city as I could. I never did figure out was a 'collector' was as it applied to a highway though.

Print the guidelines. Then highlight the guidelines. Then tape the printed copy to your shaving mirror. Finally, wearing only a towell, and with shaving cream on your face, chant the guidlines while shaving. When you can do this without drawing blood you will ready and your Kung Fu will be strong. Good luck Grasshopper.

BTW, I am still drawing blood....... nice to meet'cha - Phil

[eek]

Welcome David! CC is a great place to be published AND paid decently. Best of luck here, but don't give up trying for print.

Nichewriter/Sherry - Do you mind sharing where you visited in the Philippines? I lived there for two years (between 90-92). The children we knew there loved green mangoes, and dipped them in salt and I think vinegar, but I could be remembering wrong about the vinegar part. Green mangoes were not my favorite, but I'll never forget having fresh mango crepes at the Jeepney Room in Manila at the top of some hotel. Yum!!!! (That was the day Mt. Pinatubo blew, and it was dark as midnight at 4 in the afternoon. A very memorable day, but the mango crepes compete heavily in that memory.) Oh - I was in Luzon (middle of the island), but visited Mindanao and Palawan.
(Um - I should add I'm not Filipina nor married to a Filipino.)

Emma

[Celeste Stewart]

We had mangos galore when I lived on Guam but for some reason my mom never had one! She only recently tried them here in California and is now kicking herself for not trying them back then. Of course mangos had a lot of competition: papayas, bananas, calamunzis (don't ask me how to spell that), star fruit, coconuts - all in our backyard! We had so many bananas it's not funny. We couldn't share with the neighbors because they all had the same problem: bunches and bunches of bananas all ripening at the same time. When I say bunches, I really mean six-foot long stalks loaded with bunches. One stalk probably had a dozen bunches of bananas on it - maybe more.

Pickled papaya was a real treat. My friend's mom would take a green papaya and pickle it in soy sauce/vinegar mixture along with tiny, fiery hot peppers. THey had a nice crunch and a yummy flavor. The papayas there were much larger than the ones you see in the stores here. They'd grow to about a foot long and were about as round as a cantalope. We also had the same problem with having far more papayas then we could possibly eat.

Green coconuts were another treat. We used to poke a hole in the top and drink the milk with a straw and then eat the flesh with tabasco sauce on it. Whenever a palm tree was knocked over, like after a typhoon, we'd get to enjoy the "heart of palm" in heart of palm salad.

[eek]

Oooooh, fresh coconut. So good. But we didn't have them so much in Luzon. We called the tiny little citrus fruits calamansi. The pomelo were fun to eat, too. Ever see/smell/eat a jackfruit? I couldn't get past the odor.
Thanks for the reminder of memories, Celeste & Sherry.

[Celeste Stewart]

So, that's how you spell it! We used to make "Calamansi-aid" out of them. It took a lot of squeezing as each one was about the size of a golf ball. We also had a large Philippino population on Guam. In school, my sister and I were among the few blondes. We had lots of wonderful Guamanian and Philippino friends and attended many fiestas. Guam also had tons of Japanese tourists. We had a Japanese western filmed in our backyards, a Japanese rock band lived up the street, and my dog starred in a Japanese Fanta commercial. Of course, having been born in Japan, I loved it! And of course, I currently enjoy watching the "I Survived a Japanese Game Show."

[nichewriter]

Hi, Emma! My husband and I were also in Luzon, specifically in Laguna, which is about 50 miles or so south of Manila. We were there for 5 months. We didn't go to any of the other islands - we just mostly stayed in Luzon and went to a few beaches in Batangas (where they have TONS of beautiful beaches!). We also went to Subic Bay up north. It's one of the US military bases there that's been converted into a Freeport zone and is one of the popular tourist spots (but you probably know this already!).

I love both ripe and green mangoes! I ate the green mangoes by dipping them in a soy sauce-calamansi mix. It was a real shocker at first but my taste buds adjusted to it rather quickly Mango crepes -- I didn't get to try those! I did try a mango pizza, though, and it was the most delicious pizza I've had. I was so glad to have found that pizza. My husband and I are vegetarians, so it was a challenge ordering food there. When we tried to order a veggie pizza, I told them no cheese, just double up the veggies and pizza sauce. The girl at the counter stared at us like we were from another planet and then reluctantly announced over her mic, "One large veggie pizza, no cheese." And then 5 seconds later, we heard over the PA (I guess it was the cook), "No cheese? Pizza with no cheese?!? Who the heck orders pizza with no cheese?!?" (That was in Tagalog, and our friend translated it for us.)

I also tried buko pie (the filling is the flesh of young coconuts) and it was simply delicious. Oh and ube (yam) and espasol (a dessert made of sticky rice and covered with flour). Oh man, we ate a lot there! We always had to ask first if any of the food had meat or seafood, though. But what I love most is their adobo! They usually make it with meat (pork or chicken), but our friends cooked adobo for us using tofu and gluten. Man, that thing is so good with rice!