November 16, 2008 — by Jacqueline
Like most artists, writers struggle. They struggle to accept their gift for what it is; artists, even the greatest ones who transcend time, have wrestled with the giving up control in their crafts. I find such insights into past and present writer’s self-reflections incredibly revealing. Their sometimes inability to rationally accept the craft shows us how much writers and artists of various kinds are subject to the gift.    What if they gave into these doubts?
I do not like the fact that I am successful; the plots that are still in my head are fretting with jealous irritation over the ones I have already put down in writing. It annoys me to think that all the stuff that is nonsense already written up while the good material is still sitting around in the warehouse like unsold inventory. Of course, there is a lot of exaggeration in my whining…but there is also a dole–a sizable dole–of truth…Either I am an idiot and conceited fool, or I am an organism capable of becoming a good writer. Everything I am writing at present bores me and leaves me indifferent, but everything that is still only in my head interests me, moves me, and excites me. From all of this I have concluded that everyone else is on the wrong track and I am the only one who knows the secret of what needs to be done. This is probably what most writers think. Anyhow, these are the kinds of issues that would drive the devil himself crazy. –Anton Chekhov
I had a routine. It worked for me. I used it for a long time. For months. And then one day, I realized that my routine, the machine that generates productivity and time management so that I can spend time with my significant while being a writer, while trying that new recipe, while still sleeping in on Saturday morning, has changed. Or is nonexistent. Time seems to slip by quickly, weeks pass, and I feel like I are continuously tying up loose ends. My mind is on many things, some worthwhile, some not.
What happened? Have I been sidetracked? Oh, right, I didn’t have time to journal today because I was teaching myself how to crochet a basket-weave-patterned scarf. And I didn’t have time yesterday because I was having a deeply significant conversation with my mother on the phone about … something … can’t actually remember what … and I didn’t journal the day before that because …
My attention has been diverted. I want to do more than mull over the day’s events.
Or, have I been sideswiped by a lifechanging event? Things are up in the air, things aren’t in their proper order, things aren’t in my control. So instead of keeping with my peaceful evening routine which involves journaling as my final activity before falling asleep, I find myself running through mental checklists and roaming around my bedroom as I look for something else to do to keep me occupied from my thoughts.
Well, maybe it’s both. But let me tell you, life without journaling is strange when I’ve done it pretty consistently since I was seven or eight years old.
The solution?
“The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.”
--Roald Dahl
How true that is. I encourage you, if you once wrote volumes (in a journal or otherwise) and are now sidetracked by a new hobby or sideswiped by some kind of Life Event, to keep up with journaling. Talk about it to fellow writers, who will be both understanding and enrouraging.
In this post, I briefly whine about technology, respond with bold action, and transform the situation positively:
I am overwhelmed by computers, technology, phones, and these blasted things called features. Features? As in, a prominent, crowding element so gaudy and useless you can’t look away? I use computers daily for my work, Mind Sprocket, e-mail, and general communication. You probably do too.
I have many bookmarks (or favorites) of websites that at some point I thought would be useful in the future. In fact, I have thousands of those bookmarks, nested in folders upon folders upon folders upon folders. Every day, my bookmarks rear out of the screen and yell at me to learn something new, do a tutorial, use this service, be deep, be shallow, explore somebody’s irrelevant meanderings.
Starting up my internet browser stresses me out. That’s not good!
On November 10th, in a bold tactical move, I placed my index finger on my mouse button and swiftly deleted all of my bookmarks, except for nine. I have six links to financial things and three links to the tools I use to manage Mind Sprocket. That’s it. My browser is, quite metaphorically, a clean slate.
What an enormous relief! Pressure and stress be gone! I just didn’t feel the same way about my bookmarks anymore. I met someone new: simplicity!
The challenge: delete all your bookmarks, except for a single digit number of them.
Situation:
I wanted to write a post about a newspaper article that I saw today. I think it was going to be a pretty good post, maybe even witty. But in order to even search for the article, I had to make a user name and password at the newspaper’s site. Well, I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I’m tired of having to make user names and passwords
for every old thing. I’m sure I have a user name and password trail so long that anyone could follow it straight to my house. Probably straight to work, too, and to my parents’ house.
Not being able to access something simple is like not being able to try shoes on at the store until you sign up for their credit card.
Rabbit Trail:
Speaking of credit cards, I wanted to access one of my accounts online, which I have never done before, though I’ve had the card for three years or something. Being able to access things online is supposed to be quick and easy. It’s supposed to simplify life. I really believe this is true (insert sarcasm). So for this particular website, I jumped through their hoops. I didn’t have to create one password, but two: one for the website and one for the account itself. The specifications made it impossible to use anything I normally would. Somehow I managed to create one. Whew. Then it didn’t work. Then they sent me one that didn’t match their own specifications. It didn’t work. I created a new one. Hooray! But then … there was not one security question, but three, the most interesting one being “what is the name of your favorite teacher from your senior year of high school?”. What if I hated high school? What if I didn’t even go to high school? What if I was apathetic about all of my teachers? How then could I remember my answer? Somehow, through all my audible whining during this process, I managed to think of answers to the three security questions.
Discovery:
Sure, sure it’s for my protection. Credit card companies care about me so much. I owe them big time, really, for being so concerned. Whatever. It’s for their protection. If someone breaks through the barriers of only two security questions and accesses my credit card information, I might cancel my credit card and never reopen another one with them again.
Conclusion:
The internet sometimes feels like a dark alley that you can only walk through with bodyguards. I’d rather move out into the country.
Anybody with me?
I came across this blog a while ago (likely it was forwarded to me by a fellow grammarian!) and recently revisited it. Not demeaning, whiny, or overzealous, “The ‘Blog’ of ‘Unecessary’ Quotation Marks” displays contributed photos of quotation marks that have been abused. The title of the blog alone speaks for what you will find there.
For those who can have a wry sense of humor in the face of blatant punctuation errors, this site is for you. For those who go into a disbelief and rage at the sight of so many misuses of punctuation on one webpage, you might want to refrain from clicking this link.
Though repetitious (how many ways can the misuse of quotation marks be funny?), this blog just doesn’t get old for me.
Enjoy!
October 21, 2008 — by Jacqueline
Trying to remember, I have learned,
is like trying to clutch a handful of fog.
Trying to forget,
like trying to hold back the monsoon.
In Sold, a National Book Award Finalist, McCormick tells a prose narrative (although it reads like verse) through the eyes of a Nepalese girl who was sold into sex slavery. The harrowing tale of deception, bodily violation, starvation, and ghastly punishments from such innocent eyes reveals the human indignity within the secret walls of sex trafficking. McCormick actually traced the path of girls such as the one in her book as part of her research for writing this book. [Beautifully heartbreaking.]
And then he is gone. Leaving me to consider how long it has been since a tomorrow meant anything to me.
October 19, 2008 — by Jacqueline
You’ve heard the statistics.
You wear pink in October.
You race for the cure.
But have you seen the art cancer has inspired? In Virginian Linda Weatherly’s art exhibit “Exposure,” she “reflects how [her] body and psyche felt as well as the emotional struggle of coming to terms with feeling less-than-whole as a single-breasted woman,” according to the exhibit pamphlet.
Definitions of exposure are: “to lay open, to view, not shielded or protected.” Yes, I felt physically bare, singled out and unprotected. I also identified with other nuances of expose: “to unmask, to bring to light as something shameful.” Yes, I felt a terrible sense of shame and vulnerability. What bad thing had I done to cause this cancer? And yes, there was unmasked OUTRAGE. The fact that society wants me to pretend that I’m still “whole” by wearing a prosthesis or getting reconstruction surgery! What is wrong with the way I am?” –Linda Weatherly
In the above exhibit, “What Shall I Wear Today,” Weatherly portrays the idea of how “what we wear is a creative expression of who we are” through prosthetic breasts made of various textiles and patterns.
“I have this funny belief that in the morning when we stand at our closet to decide what to wear, it is like putting on our costume for the day,” Weatherly said in her exhibit pamphlet. “This is all in jest, I don’t really wear them.”
For more, check out her website.
Here is the webpage for Documenting the Unseen. This is the page we’ll be updating with info on the book, but more importantly, the page where you’ll be able to buy a copy when we publish! I set up an e-mail notification system, so that you can be notified the day we publish without having to check back on the website periodically. That should make things much easier for you.
The reason for the e-mail notification system is because our publishing date is still in flux. We’re working with a number of freelancers, and that makes keeping a tight schedule fairly difficult. Also, this is the first time we’ve ever done this, so we have no idea what to expect at any stage! So that’s why it’s there: it means you don’t have to worry about any dates, because we’ll send a note to your inbox when the time is “just right”.
The webpage isn’t anything fancy, but it’s got the basics. I’ll be adding more information as we get closer to the publishing date, like previews of the book, photos of it, etc.  Just in case you don’t feel like going over to the webpage, I want to highlight what I think is the most important information on that page:
Why We Want You To Read Documenting the Unseen:
The book will challenge you with new thoughts and foreign perspectives. Challenges are good. You’re not a consumer, a commodity, or a user. You’re a real person, and we wrote this for you. There are no gimmicks or marketing tricks. This is what it is: real and honest. If you are simply a consumer or user, then this book might not be for you. But if you’re a living, breathing, real person who cares about living in this world, then you’re exactly who we wrote this for and we think you’ll love it. By buying the book, you’ll be helping us, a group of diligent idealists who care about life and how we live it, just like you do. We’re trying to find the same things in life that you are: peace, truth, meaning in life, and more. This book is one way we’re trying to find and create those things, and we want you to be a part of it.
So check out the webpage, get signed up for an e-mail notification, and prepare yourself for the book of the century!
Comments and feedback are very welcome 
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by
side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does
it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just
to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When
you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
–From The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Henry Ford: assembly line, mass production, big business. Ford made changes in business that have permanently shaped the growth and wealth of every developing nation in the world. He changed the daily lives of millions of people and left a permanent mark that spread all around the globe.
He was an innovator.
Innovators are people that make lasting changes to real people through unceasing creativity, daring, and a fearless attitude that explores the unseen and questions the unquestionable without respect for the status quo. They’re the crazy ones that push the rest of the human race forward.
Do you want to change the lives of others? Do you want to leave Earth (which you will) having made an impact?
Popular theory states that to become exceptional human beings, we must:
Have a working knowledge of the history of your field Learn from others’ successes and mistakes Have a significant level of inborn talent or ability Work incredibly hard Never give up
Popular theory is wrong. That bullet list is wrong. (Stay with me.)
A friend of mine told me a couple of weeks ago his definition of experience: time + paying attention.
That means that some people are highly experienced at a young age because they’ve been paying close attention all along. That means that some people have little experience, despite their age because they’ve been distracted and unfocused.
A 25 year-old who has more experience than a 50 year-old. A student who has more experience than his professor. If you pay attention to life, these things can happen. And they do.
Real wisdom: it’s not popular, it’s just wisdom
On the invention of the Model T: “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.”
Never sit still. “It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.”
Opportunity is hidden only by our inability to see it. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.â€
Hope that becomes action is priceless. “I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.â€
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Do what matters, and only that. “I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.â€
 Author Andy Riley was onto something when he put together”The Book of Bunny Suicides”. I’m an animal lover, but somehow manage to get a kick out of these comics. They’re kind of like Hellen Keller jokes, if you catch my drift …
As Wikipedia so concisely puts it, “Each cartoon shows one or more white rabbits in their creative attempts to end their lives using a variety of items.”
Check it out on Amazon.
“Happiness is the only practical thing there is.”
- Quote from a friend
I was debating on whether or not following a certain dream and passion of mine makes sense. This response made me look at it as something truly worthwhile.
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