Image by Shena Pamela on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
It’s February. Time for hearts, flowers, chocolate and a ginormous bloggy love-fest.
So, in the time-honored tradition of pimp-and-promote, it’s time to share your very favorite blog posts. What are the best blog posts you’ve seen (new or old)? Share someone else’s and share one of yours.
Note: ginormous bloggy love-fests may be illegal in some states…always follow the law…and always use virus-protection software.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Image by Anirudh Koul on Flickr (Apapted) CC BY-NC 2.0
I’m a big fan of YouTube. I love the way just about anyone can upload a video and share their talent (okay…in some cases, the word “talent” might be a little generous). I love how folks can capture something amazing, funny, silly, weird, or cringe-worthy and share it with the world.
On the other hand, it’s more than a little horrifying that just about anybody can video anything at any time.
That time you drank a few too many Jagerbombs at the office party. The time you went to the grocery store in your crappiest sweats because it was just a quick trip and you were sure you weren’t going to run into anyone you knew. Or the time you picked your nose while stuck in traffic. Or maybe the time you had a ginormous fight with your significant other in public…and then made up passionately afterwards.
Wait a minute! Were you just filming me? If you put that on YouTube, I swear I’ll poop in your shoes.
Image by kishrieves (Katie Shrieves ) on Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0
Personally, I’m grateful no one filmed the time I had a spectacular nursing mishap when my eldest was a newborn (although I’m reasonably sure that guy across the restaurant who got an eyeful will never forget). I’m even more glad there was no YouTube or Facebook when I was growing up. I’d hate to be famous for any of the idiotic growing up mistakes I made, on the off-chance they went viral. While I may want to be on YouTube someday, I hope it’s only ever by choice.
Speaking of choosing to be on YouTube…
Recently, I’ve come across more than a few videos of kids having meltdowns in public places. Most of these videos don’t seem to be uploaded by parents, friends or relatives. On the contrary, they’re usually uploaded by a (probably childless) stranger. Then a bunch of folk add witty comments about how the tantrum “should” be handled, what a bad parent (usually the mother) the attending parent is, and how this is an example of why he or she will never have kids or how his or her kids will never do that kind of thing in public.
Those of you who are parents can stop laughing now.
Seriously.
Been there. Done that. My kiddos were very low on the tantrum-having scale (at least in public). And I usually tried hard to avoid tantrums by not dragging hungry, tired kids from errand to errand. But…I have survived a tantrumapocalypse or two. I’m eternally grateful none of those made it on YouTube (standing among all the stares and helpful advice was torture enough).
Image by rafa2010 (Rafael Edwards) on Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0
Parenting technique aside, I have to wonder at a person who uploads a video of somebody without their consent, especially a child.
I surely don’t want my kiddos on YouTube without my consent. Heck, I don’t even like friends and family posting pictures of my children without asking.
But it seems like our world is moving in an always-on-stage kind of direction.
And I’ll admit to enjoying a video of someone doing something wacky now and then. I generally only watch if the video seems to be uploaded by the folks in it or with their knowledge or if you can’t really see said folks clearly enough to identify them later.
And I may or may not have visited that People of Wal-Mart site. I’m not admitting to anything.
What do you think? What are the ethics of posting videos of other people on YouTube?
“It was a dark and stormy night….” Yeah, that’s the stuff. This is gonna be a best-seller for sure.
Image by SuziJane (Suzi Duke) on Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0
Recently, I’ve come across a few discussions that touch on, in one way or another, the hardest part of writing.
So what is the hardest part of writing?
Well now, that varies from writer to writer.
For me, the hardest part of writing is the actual writing. Allow me to explain…
When an idea really gets its teeth into me, I burn up the page, writing notes and scenes as fast as I can get them out.
In my die-hard pantser days, this was a haphazard process. I wrote the story until I got stuck or had ideas I couldn’t use yet, then switched to taking notes about plot, character, setting etc.
Now that I’m (mostly) a plotter, I try to work out the story in short form/outline before I start the bulk of the story. Sometimes, I just have to write a scene before I’m done with the outline (or my head will explode…you know how it goes).
So it sounds like I shouldn’t have any problem with the story writing stuff. After all, I’m a writer. The actual writing should be the easy part, right?
Wrong.
Even when I was attempting to pants my way through a novel, I often fled to the “safety” of my notes. I used them to think my way around snarls in the story line, work out character motivations, plan future plot twists and so on. Whenever I felt stuck in the story, I’d talk myself through it in my notes. Which is exactly what I do now.
Problem is, sometimes I keep right on taking notes, even detailing scenes I’ll write, instead of actually writing the scenes.
As I near the end of my novel-in-progress, I find myself spending more and more time writing about what I will write about. While this is probably more productive, writing wise, than catching up on Fringe, it still doesn’t get me to “The End.”
The obvious solution is just to make myself write, embrace the Crappy First Draft with NaNoWriMoesque abandon.
But first I think I might have to make a few notes…
What’s the hardest part about writing for you? How do you get around it?
Norbert contemplates the existential meaning of fetch.
Image by 27147 (Sippanont Samchai) on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Last week, we talked a little about all the talking we do, in person, be it on the phone, via email, text or social media, and whether it gets to be too much. Of course, how much is “too much” depends largely on the individual but there’s little doubt all of us could benefit from some quiet time daily.
The question is, how do you make that quiet time?
Do you have to sit cross-legged in a zen garden, drape yourself over a chaise lounge or (probably more realistically) hide in the bathroom with a pair of noise cancelling head phones?
I tend to find my quiet time in the weird unexpected ways. Doing the dishes, weeding the garden, folding the laundry, etc. While I’m not a huge fan of housework, I must admit I find myself refreshed after. When I’m doing a repetitive, fairly simple task (and as long as I’m on my own…which can be hard to achieve around here), I can think about anything or nothing. My mind is free to wander.
Walking the dogs by myself is another golden quiet moment…at least until our part-alien/half-chihuahua gets into a barking contest with the neighbor’s scotties.
Yesterday, I came across an article by Deborah Oster Pannell, talking about finding inspiration in the most unexpected places which echoes my experience (the rest of the article has some wonderful ideas on keeping that “New Year” feeling all year long). It made me smile to hear someone else found doing the dishes meditative. Perhaps the solution to world peace really is right at our fingertips.
It looks like a ton of work but it’s really a great big pile o’ zen.
Image by Peacock Modern (Heidi) on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Where do you find your quiet time?
![[keyboard cat | ORIGINAL]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5167/5340309206_e592a0c4c3_m.jpg)
Muffin finally clears his inbox…only to discover he’s received 562 new messages.
*Image by Cassandra Leigh Gotto on Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0*
All of this technology affords us so many ways to talk to one another. In seconds, we can make a connection with almost anyone anywhere, meeting new people, renewing friendships, reaching out to family, and sharing ourselves with the world. It’s an amazing things.
But with the power to talk to communicate anytime anywhere comes the expectation, from ourselves and others, that we should be available to talk all the time.
Maybe we’ve even become addicted to talking all the time.
What do you think? Do we talk too much? Have we lost the value of quiet time?
Do you ever get to the end of the day and feel like you just talk too much, out loud and in writing? How do we balance all the opportunities for communication with the time we need to just be quiet. What do you do for quiet?
It’s 2013!
How did that happen?
Seriously. How did that happen?
Whether last year ended on a sweet note or a sour one, I hope this year will be your year. Whatever you’ve got cooking, I hope it comes together in the most amazing way.
Let your past successes fuel even greater ones and your past failures be a launch pad to brilliance.
Happy New Year 2013!
Did you accomplish everything you wanted to do this year or will you be revamping your goals for the new year?
However you celebrate this holiday season, my family and I wish you peace, joy and love.
Here’s a little gift of giggle just for you:
December 21, 2012. The Apocalypse?
Image by susivinh (Susana Fernandez) on Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0
Nearly thirteen years ago, hubby (then fiancé) and I toasted the new year with a few good friends. Y2K was everywhere. Some folks devoutly believed the end was upon us. Some folks thought it was a lot of bunk. Most of us probably considered the whole business unlikely…but entertained the wee littlest of doubts. Until the clock hit midnight and kept right on ticking, none of us would know for sure.
I’m not ashamed to say that I might have held my breath for a moment as we counted down to the New Year. Likewise I paid more attention to the world around me in the coming days. But the world went on as usual.
Somewhere, some folks were probably pissed the apocalypse was cancelled. Again.
Image by Elido Turco – Gigi (Elido Turco) on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
We can laugh at those folks, telling anyone who will listen that we know better. Truth is, none of us know for sure, ahead of time, which day is our last. That fact alone, regardless of doomsday predictions, should make us love one another a little more.
Is December 21 the first day of the end of the world (never mind it’s already 12/21 in some parts of the world)? Maybe Probably not. But it could be, so don’t get cocky.
Plan for the future. Be ready for the end. Live in the now.
Check out NASA’s neener-neener-neener-we-told-you-so video, dated 12/22 but released ten days early. Won’t they be embarrassed if they’re wrong.
What do you think? Why do we get so excited over apocalyptic predictions? How sure are you the world won’t end tomorrow? Anyone else planning a disaster flick marathon…you know, just for fun?
In the Wake of the Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary
Image by circulating (Iris Shreve Garrott) on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
When I heard about the shooting in Newton, Connecticut, my heart stopped. I couldn’t breathe. Although I am thousands of miles away and I learned hours after the incident, the world stopped spinning.
The last time I felt like that was 9/11.
I’m guessing most of you felt the same way. Something so mind-bogglingly horrible touches us all and we grieve as one.
Grief is a strange thing. Some react with numbness or a sense of terrible heaviness. Some with tears. Others with denial. And still others with anger and blame.
If we’re honest with ourselves, maybe we all react with anger and blame.
Listening to all the rhetoric and watching all the finger-pointing that sprang up immediately after the news broke, all of which has only intensified since, we might find ourselves disgusted and angry at all the finger pointers. Now is not the time, we say. We point the finger at them for using such a horrible tragedy as a political stepping stone.
We might be right.
We probably are right.
Thing is, those tendencies are built into our very core as human beings and they are only the flip side of some of our greatest drives. Our thirst for justice. Our instinct to protect the defenseless. Though we sometimes act on the dark side of these drives, seeking vengeance and scapegoats jumping to horribly wrong conclusions, we also sacrifice for each other, reach out to one another and fight for freedom and human rights.
We may not all do the right thing all the time but the ability is in us all.
Beside the desire to set wrong to right, we also crave meaning and order. If something seems senseless, we cannot let it be. We must fill the gaps in our understanding, making guesses and inferences if we must, because we are storytellers, all of us.
Whether we make a living spinning tales or hope to someday, we humans make sense of our world through the stories we tell about it. In our thoughts and our conversations. In our news reports, tweets and blogs. In how we will look back on these things over time and how we will pass it on to our children.
This is why we must blame someone or something. Every story needs a villain. And, if one dragon is already slain or out of our reach, we must have another.
This is also why we have to understand why something like this happens, how someone can do something so horrible. Everything in a story is part of a grander design. Nothing happens by accident or coincidence, unless those too are part of the design.
And these stories we tell ourselves are not merely self-indulgent (although they can be), they are how we shape who we are as people and how we shape our futures. If we allow it, a great story inspires us to change both the world and ourselves.
So maybe this dark story that we are now all a part of can inspire us to make ourselves and the world a better place. Maybe we can seek to pay more attention to each other, especially those of us that are lost or in pain. Maybe we can reach out more often, give more of ourselves. Maybe we can look for real, lasting solutions instead of giving into knee-jerk reactions. Most of all, maybe we can just love one another more.
How has the tragedy in Connecticut changed your world? What do you think we need to do to make this world a better place, in light of the shooting?
You’ve almost certainly seen these books in the bookstore (yes, the mythic bookstore does still exist…but it’s sort of like tracking down Bigfoot), library or on your friend’s bookshelf. More than likely, you own or have read at least one.
I’m talking, of course, about the For Dummies series.
My personal collection includes Writing Fiction for Dummies (by Randy Ingermanson, the Snowflake guy), Piano for Dummies (because I will learn to play the piano, darnit) and Web Marketing for Dummies (which I’m pretty sure isn’t even mine because I don’t remember buying it and I’ve never opened it).
Even though that whole “For Dummies” bit never fails to make me snicker and some of the titles give me pause:
Not that any of these wouldn’t be great books. I’m sure they’re super helpful…it’s just the the idea of any of those titles.
Know what I mean?
Perusing the ginormous catalog of For Dummies titles, you might think they have a For Dummies for everything. However, I discovered they are shockingly remiss in some areas.
Mittens takes his first steps towards world domination, thanks to World Domination For Dummies.
Did you know they don’t have a World Domination For Dummies? Taking over the world is a challenging endeavor. If you want to be the next king/queen of the world, you’re gonna need all the help you can get.
Also, there’s no Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse For Dummies. Oh sure, Max Brooks has The Zombie Survival Guide and you can probably pick up quite a few good tips from a Romero flick or any of Jonathan Maberry‘s books. But wouldn’t it useful to have a survival guide with For Dummies’s trademark tips, warnings and exercises?
Neither is there a Having a Complete Meltdown For Dummies. I don’t know about you but I’ve been on the verge of more than one of these. A few tips and tricks would have helped a lot.
I am NOT sleeping. I’m just closing my eyes so I can meditate on what you said.
And what about Embarrassing Your Children For Dummies? Pretending to Not Be Asleep While Falling Asleep in Class/Church/the Big Meeting For Dummies? Getting Fit Without Having to Exercise or Stop Snarfing Contraband Twinkies Little Debbie Cakes For Dummies?
Surely there are markets for any of these and more. All we need are the books.
What about you? What title do you think really, really needs to be on the For Dummies list?
Image Attribution (In Order of Appearance):
Image via For Dummies series (fair use)
Bengal tiger out for a hunt. by Someguy of the Outerworld and Afar, on Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0
eyes closed. by Corinna A. Carlson, on Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0*
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