Fun stuff

Photo by Kookyworld

Here's an IMPORTANT news item I had to share.

I'm excited by heading out to The 20th Century Cincinnati Show again this year with M and eating here after so I can gaze at my beloved city.

I'm devotedly watching Idol which is P-A-I-N-F-U-L without DVR to get through commercials, lame Paula comments and BAD SINGERS, of which there are plenty. I've not missed cable until now.

I'm reading Macolm Gladwell's (author of The Tipping Point and Blink) new book, Outliers, which explains that success is as much, if not more, the product of environment than genetics. As always, dry material made fascinating.

I secured a part-time position at the new West Chester Medical Center as a health unit coordinator in the Emergency Dept. Two twelve-hour shifts and full benefits. A freelancer's dream come true.

Finally my dear sweet friend and co-contractor, Michelle, wrote me a lovely poem since we are parting ways and I'm turning 46 (ugh). I think she is too shy to want it pasted for everyone to see, but suffice to say, we've been through our private struggles since we met in October and were each other's safety zone during the day. I love her.

A weird realization

I like survival stuff. I'm certainly not the kind of person who wants to rough it in the woods (realistically-I've alway said my whining about dry lips would get me booted from Survivor day 1), but I'm certainly drawn to the ultimate in minimalism: surviving in nature and the monastic lifestyle. This, like most of my conclusions, was realized over time and in discussion with M who is one of the best listeners and understand-ers out there. We both loved My Side of the Mountain growing up. I remember reading the book and then joyfully seeing the movie as a kid. The idea of hollowing out a tree and living in it with my own personal band of critters was a wonderful antidote to the chaos I often experienced at home.

I also adored The Boxcar Children series, especially the first one when the orphaned kids set up house in the boxcar itself, scrounging for pots and pans and broken-down furniture, independent and in charge of their own desitinies. The mysteries didn't do much for me, but the setting up of a tiny, little self contained home did. Then there were books and gasp! Just googled Andrew Henry's Meadow which I STILL own from childhood and imdb says there is a movie in development!

Favorite design show? Small Space, Big Style (cancelled). Favorite reality show? Survivor. New interesting reality show (new to me, that is): Survivorman. Love the idea of Burning Man (summer in the desert probably wouldn't work for me but I long to go). And I've certainly spent my fair share of time exploring voluntary simplicity...though it doesn't show.

I've been hooked on the monastic tradition since I read Kathleen Norris's The Cloister Walk. From that point on, books seemed to find me: The Mermaid Chair, The Father and the Son, and Amazing Grace. Something in me loves the idea of being stripped down to the bare minimum of possessions, but I don't have the self-discipline or courage to do it voluntarily. No idea where this stems from (though my dad always read Mother Earth News and owned many of the Firefox books). Just a realization over time.

Fun stuff from The Selby

Many of the photos on The Selby are taken in France. Look how beautiful!



Did I write about The Selby before? I can't recall. It's taking off though, that's for sure. Self-explanatory but highly creative. These are a few of my favorites. Trends include clustering art on the walls and stacking books on the floor (or anywhere else).






How wonderful it must be to find someone as quirky as you who desires your company like you do theirs?


Check out The Selby for so much more!

Why I blog...

I just got done reading Guy Kawasaki's brilliant essay on The Art of Blogging. He talks about how reluctant he was to start blogging (as a business tool even) because he felt like it was, well, self-indulgent. This despite the fact that he is Stanford and UCLA educated with stints at Apple and now a feature writer and popular consultant (who I am proud to say follows me on Twitter). So, if HE feared feeling self-indulgent, imagine how I feel. But he pointed out various reasons you might blog, including simply as a form of self-expression, and said that even if your dog was your only reader it was a worthwhile venture.

I have a stats counter and I know approximately where my readers are and how many times someone looks at the blog. But I really don't do it frequently which tells me I'm doing it for me and not the readership. Darren Rowse, of Problogger.com, says I should have a "blog strategy" and I know this is true. But I don't want to.

Why do I blog then?

• It is a form of self-expression, both visually and literally.


• I love sharing information and little tidbits of goodies I find lying around the Internet.


• I refer back to it for links and information I want to save.


• I do it, sometimes, to get attention. This is clearly not working ;-).


• I do it to work through ideas.


• I like it the graphic design elements in it.


• I like cheerleading good works or booing bad works.


• I'm too lazy to keep a handwritten diary.
  

But mostly...

• I do it, now, after a few years because I can't not do it. I have to blog. I blog, therefore I am? Readers? No readers? Turns out I do it because I love it and for no other real reason. And, at the point that happened, I think I became a real writer (which I must be because I get paid to do it now, typos and all).

Who knows? If you blog and no one reads it, did you really blog at all?