Category Archives: General

Writing for the sake of writing

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Sometimes it’s difficult to post something every day.

In November, several organizations make a big push to get people’s fingers moving and write some content. Such efforts include National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Pragmatic Programmers Writing Month (PragProWriMo, which I participated in last year), and my participatory exercise for this year – which you’re reading part of now – National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo).

Pushing yourself to write something every day can be daunting, to say the least. Sometimes you might feel like you don’t have anything to say. You might think what you have to say isn’t important enough; that no one would care. You might think the effort isn’t worth it.

I’d disagree to all the above.

I’ll admit, I’m horrible about writing with regularity, but these annual efforts get my juices flowing. Maybe you feel like you’re writing for the sake of writing, and that is perfectly OK.

It’s amazing to me how important writing is. It might be documentation, a story, song lyrics or your deepest fears but these all need to be well written to convey their meaning. And as it turns out, a really great way to get better at writing is to do it over and over and over again.

Write, edit, share, repeat.

If you’re writing, keep it up. Encourage others and solicit feedback. Great writing and other arts will be the backbone of the next phase of the new economy. Be part of it.

Welcome to our store. Screw you.

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In the age of renewed information sharing and social media, I find things like “No Public Restrooms” to be a bit wacky.

Another day, another lunchtime motorcycle ride. I was tooling out and about when I felt nature’s call, so I decided to ride on for a bit to find a restroom. Yeah, being a guy is great and all since we can easily pull over and do our thing in the bushes, but I like to do it right. I’ve got a thing for clean hands.

My ride was somewhat off the beaten path, so when I came across a place on the road, I was (well, hoping to be) relieved.

That is, until I saw the sign: “NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS.”

I don’t follow instructions well in this type of situation, so I decided to go in and ask anyway. It’s not like I wanted something for nothing: I have a personal policy of always purchasing something if I go in and use the restroom. It’s my way of saying, “Hey, thanks for providing for one of my most basic needs. Let me support you.”

But this guy wasn’t budging.

“Sir, do you have a restroom I can use?” I asked, trying to give my sad puppy eyes.

“Nope.”

And with that, I kind of half-shook my head in disbelief and left.

I’d like to tell you about how this place was actually kind of cool on the inside. I’d love to talk in greater depth about the main product they were selling (not gas; it wasn’t really a convenience store). I’d like to link to their website or a map to the place on Google. I’d like to review them on Yelp! for being so nice for letting me use the restroom.

Of course, I’m not going to do that. Why should I? What would I say? Would I tell people to come out and try your amazing product, but make sure your family hits the head before departure? Nah, I think I’ll pass. I don’t want people I know going to that place based on my recommendation, on the off chance they might have to use the bushes across the street.

There’s lessons from the digital world that can be learned here. Of course, you already picked up on that, right?

Today was an awesome day

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I really had a great day.

  • The family went to American Legion pancake feed.
  • The weather was great and I took the motorcycle out for an excellent ride around Clinton Lake.
  • I took my girls for a wagon ride.
  • KU won a football game.
  • We get an hour of extra sleep tonight (in theory anyway).

How was your day?

Shouldn’t we be angry?

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Do you ever question why people aren’t more angry?

Don’t misunderstand – going through life with a chip on your shoulder is no way to live. But anger with a purpose can lead to real change. Why does it seem people aren’t angry about injustice, corruption and a disregard for others?

Why do people still shop at BP?

Why aren’t the masses in the streets, protesting, demanding punishment for those who destroyed the economy?

Why do we still eat fast food when we know it’s so bad for us?

Shouldn’t we be angry?

Shameful words

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Election season really brings out the nasties in a lot of people.

Probably the worst thing I hear during the election season is that people who don’t vote aren’t “real Americans,” or that they “should be ashamed.”

When it comes to freedom of speech, I think we all pretty much understand that everyone has the right to speak his or her mind even if we don’t agree with it. We believe this so much, we’ve come up with the phrase “agree to disagree” to help us cope with the understanding that we’ll not always see eye to eye on issues, but at least the issues are open to debate.

When it comes to voting, a type of political zealotry keeps hate speech flowing.

There are plenty of reasons to not vote. Depending on your viewpoints and the political landscape of where you live, your vote might not count after all. Your effort at the ballot box might have been wasted. Let’s call this what it is: the election process isn’t fair. If it was, everyone’s voice would be heard and everyone would get a say. Elections are a popularity contest, often fueled by machines driven by money and corporations.

But just because someone exercises their right not to vote doesn’t make him less of an American. It doesn’t make her shameful.

What is shameful, however, are the words of those who have made politics their religion.

Barely-organized chaos

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Lately my life has been a barely organized state of chaos.

It’s easy to blame the disarray on family life – it certainly doesn’t make it easy – though it seems as though there are plenty in similar situations who have their act together.

Or perhaps I’m being fooled by what I think I see in others.

Nevertheless, I hate being like this.

Why can’t I gain some semblance of an organized life? Am I afraid that routine would eat away at what I perceive is my creative core? Would organization free me from this cage (as I have been told), or will it only make every day exactly the same?

I really need to find a solution to this. It’s really starting to get to me.

And …

This isn’t my first time writing.

I graduated with a degree in Mass Communications, and then after graduating in December 1999, I moved to Lawrence to write (and design pages) for the World Company’s Eudora News and De Soto Explorer newspapers, in addition to a later stint as a page editor at The Ottawa Herald. Then I got out of the newspaper biz altogether, and not a moment too soon, apparently. That is one hurting industry.

Somewhere along the way, I got interested in web development. When I was first learning web design, I started writing my ramblings on the now-defunct Grubesteak.com (don’t ask about why it was named that; it’s a dumb story). It was all hand coded; those where the days before WordPress and other blogging platforms had become popular. Coding the pages and writing were a bit daunting and eventually I gave up the ghost. I tried another time to get blogging again but then my life got busy with the birth of my first child. And then, I was too busy.

These days, life has settled down a bit. I like to write and I decided to give another stab at it. I’ve been on a creative roll as of late, development more, taking pictures and just overall being more creative.

It’s important, at least for me, to get things out from time to time. I find if I keep things repressed that I’d like to write about, it just comes out in other forms and usually not in anything good.

I really think more people should write and write often.

And so, that’s what this is all about. I’ve lived in Lawrence for a decade now, but it’s only been recently that I’ve come to the acceptance that I’m a Lawrencian. That might sound odd, but I’ve had one foot out the door for years now. I was always going to leave, move away, start anew somewhere else. What happened instead was, a lot of my friends moved away to find work, and I was left behind. I grew my family, established some roots and got involved with the community. Despite some rather glaring faults, I’ve fallen in love with this town all over again.

So I guess I’ll write about it.