Fun Flash thing – too simple to be called a game. The electronic version of tossing a ball against a wall. Addictive.
Month: June 2001 (Page 3 of 5)
Where does writing come from? My father was an artist and photographer, but not a writer. My mother would rather be tied to an anthill covered in honey than write so much as a business letter. My mother’s side of the family are avid readers and word lovers, but that’s not the same as loving to write. I used to be a newspaper reporter, and my favorite thing about it was writing something in the morning, and seeing it in print in that afternoon’s edition. Now, with this weblog, the result comes nearly instantly, and it’s addictive. I can’t wait for the next chance to put my thoughts down for other people to read. Where does that urge come from?
I admit that I wouldn’t enjoy writing just for myself, like in a private journal, something many people devote their lives to. (My grandmother on my mother’s side kept a diary, writing out the day’s happenings for about 70 years. After going to secretarial school, she wrote out several years in shorthand that even she couldn’t read years later.) So maybe it’s ego. But I also enjoy the craft of writing – picking out just the right phrase, just the right word. I would much rather write an e-mail than talk on the phone, frankly; if I talk to someone, I’d like them to be there. Why is my brain wired this way? Nature or nuture? If you’re a weblogger or a writer, where does your love of writing come from?
Last week I saw an old, beat-up, grey Chevy Caprice Classic with an all-white Apple logo sticker in the back window. That made me happy.
Those of us thinking of jumping ship from Blogger, but who will miss the hits you get from the “recently updated list,” might want to check out Linkwatcher. It scans registered sites continuously to list them on the “fresh blogs” list when they are updated. Pretty cool.
An acquaintance’s grandmother died this week, and she was asked to give a eulogy to her grandmother as part of the service. Her father’s report after the funeral was that she did a wonderful job, in contrast to her uncle, who “kept breaking down” and “couldn’t get through it.”
What is this genetically engineered Lutheran stoicism we have in this culture? Why should someone be criticized for crying at a funeral of a close family member? Another phrase you hear often about family members is “she just couldn’t keep it together,” accompanied by much nodding of heads and clucking of tongues. My feeling is, why should she “keep it together”?
Outward displays of emotion of any kind are frowned upon in our society, but especially grief. It makes us uncomfortable to have to witness intense emotions in others, especially when we can’t deal with our own. Maybe if we lived in a culture where we spent several days wailing and tearing our clothes after someone close to us dies, we could start working things out. Just an idea.
“You ever have that feeling where you don’t know whether you’re awake or still dreaming?”
-Neo, The Matrix
Last night, finally in my own bed, my brain exploded with dreams. I woke up at 5 a.m. and then fell back asleep until 9, and those hours were pretty psychedelic. In one dream, a woman in a wedding dress and Grim Reaper deaths-head makeup was chasing me, followed by a bunch of angry golden retrievers, also chasing me. This can’t be good. There were long stretches where I was in fact dreaming, but it felt so real I wasn’t sure.
Then again, maybe this is the dream and I really am being chased by a skeleton in a wedding dress. I guess we’ll never know.
So many ideas. So many things to write about. I even wrote a bunch of them down, illegibly, on scraps of paper on the passenger seat as I drive home tonight from De Pere. But since my brain feels like raw hamburger stirred with a cattle prod, they’ll have to wait until tomorrow, when I hope to feel normal again. (Well, at least as normal as I get.)
My new favorite weblog, Textism, has a great reader-submitted discussion on “Which words crack you up?” My submission: bunwaddy. Go add your own.
Dean has created a beautiful, spare design, and populated it with good writing. What more could one ask for? Well, he’s also written his own blog maintenance system. I guess envy is a recurring theme this week…but in a good way.
A representative from Kraft came to Business World today to speak to the students. Considering that Kraft is a division of Philip Morris, a student asked the rep whether she had a problem working for a company that promotes cigarettes.
“We don’t promote cigarettes,” the rep said. “We just sell them.”