I discovered a new music artist tonight, purely by accident. Sometimes that's the best way to encounter what's new. Her name is Becky Chace.

My decision to hop on over to Mad City Coffee in Columbia, tonight, resulted in me getting an earful of tunes from her and her partner in song, Brian.

If you get a chance, check them out, next time they are in your area of the world.

Not only is Becky an accomplished singer with a smooth folksy voice reminiscent of the Indigo Girls, in my opinion, but during one song, she soared easily into belting out some powerful blues. Their lyrics are earthy, emotional and speak in a language that most of us can understand. And, Becky and Brian are just some down-to-earth kind people, which makes them all the more cooler. So, check out the upcoming gig dates on their site.

This year I'm attempting a challenge such as I've never considered before. It's curiously called NaNoWriMo. At first, I had no clue what that odd combination of letters signified. It couldn't have come to my attention (randomly, on the Web, via a social bookmarking link) at a better time though, serendipity at a time I most crave more meaning in my life.

Upon turning 35, an age I've always considered to be a pivotal marker in a woman's life, it seemed it was time for a change. Time to see if I could walk the walk I have enthusiastically blathered on and on to friends and family's endlessly forgiving ears for years.

So, in little more than one week, I plan to join the ranks of thousands of other hand-wringing writers worldwide for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month), an event that has taken place annually since 1999. On Saturday afternoon, I'm heading over to a local bar and grill called Rocky Run to spend two hours with 30 other would-be and veteran novelists undertaking the same goal. I was extremely happy to find a NaNoWriMo-related group here in Columbia, Maryland. In fact, after I contacted the group administrator, I was further motivated after reading this in her email response:

The first year HQ started tracking regional word count, Maryland was the number one region in the world! We continue to turn out a huge number of novels, and together wrote over 7 million words last year. So think of Maryland "wrimos" as the best support group you could have.

How lucky am I to be in this great state?

The object of the contest is to finish a 50,000-word novel in one month's time. The premise? Keeping it more about quantity than quality in order to meet that goal. The hardest task, and yet the most crucial to success, is to keep the nitpicking editor side of myself at bay until the word count is amassed prior to November's end.

And should you desire to earn your own calluses, you can sign up until November 30; but the sooner, the better. This writer was successfully published after participating in NaNoWriMo, so ya never know.

The current state of emergency over diminishing water levels in Georgia, the raging wildfires in California, and this NASA video animationof our world's swiftly disappearing Arctic ice masses definitely give me pause today.

This morning NOTHING was better than reading the (so far) provocative e-book, Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, via the third-party "Books" application on my iPhone. I was transfixed, not just by the value of the content and the rapt attention it evoked from me, but also by the niftiness of having such a small, slim and sleek tool that can inform and entertain me so effectively. I love having access to knowledge anywhere and anytime, with minimal drag factor. If I choose to travel with a few books in tow, I can now do so easily, with no messy, sloppy over-packed bags and no extra fuss. I can have a mountain of knowledge at my fingertips, all in my iPhone.

So, until I figure out how not to "brick" it with the latest iTunes update, and until Steve Jobs gets a brain cell recharge and starts working with third parties to authorize an official version of an e-book reader, I'll keep hanging out in the ghetto of unacceptable customers who prefer to get their kicks "outside the (authorized Apple) wire."

Going from the standard approved iPhone capabilities to what's possible outside of that is like walking from a soundproof chamber into a packed auditorium of people all passionately chattering at once. It's freedom of choice, emerging from the dark and into the light of a brilliant new day.

I dream of a time when we can compress and download whole movies to iPhones, or iPhone-like devices, where we can also log our lives as we choose. Currently, iPhone has the most amazing screen for accessing the Web of all of the phones currently out there, however, it does not even come equipped with a simple voice recorder or video camera (features that come standard on other less reputable mobile phones). As I referenced above, it doesn't even have an e-Book reader installed. I had to get my e-book reader software via hacking my phone with AppTap (an application that only emerged for us non-coders thanks to the hard-working, underpaid programmers out there vying for more open source options).

If only I could take the iPhone and then add on the features from my wish list, I would have the perfect device in hand. The iPhone is certainly close to being my dream device, but I envision it being so much more. However, what it does do, it does well.