Posted in Likes, Other, tagged awesome, creativity, fun, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Videos, yay on February 3, 2013| 2 Comments »
I know, in internet years Kid President is past retirement age by now. I don’t care. I tried to ignore this video for a whole week but finally broke down, and I’m glad I did. This kid is great, and his message is even better. Watch it. And be awesome.
Posted in Other, tagged inspiration, January, New Year, resolutions, Thoughts on January 24, 2013| 1 Comment »
photo by Jayt74 on Flickr
2012 started well but ended with a bit of a fizzle. And by fizzle I mean a wave of illness, death, and generally unpleasant travel schedules. So apologies for not being around here since the holidays. The good news is that there are still people to care about, there is still useful work to be done, still delicious food to make. Here’s to 2013, eh?
And on that note…
I pride myself on not making resolutions, not at New Year’s, anyway. But here’s the thing: I’m starting to think that maybe I should.
Why? It’s simple, really. Raised by a couple of nontraditional types (they eschewed the “hippie” label but certainly shared some defining characteristics) I generally scoff at traditions. Well, not Christmas and Easter and watching Star Wars with giant bowls of popcorn, obviously, but the other stuff. The traditions that seem designed to weigh you down rather than buoy you up, that help you feel like crap when you realize you’ve fallen short.
Honestly, that’s what New Year’s resolutions always seemed like to me: an opportunity to fail and then have to spend the rest of the year wandering around in a haze of guilt, regret, and inadequacy. Like a minor but well-established branch of several major religions I can think of, actually. No thanks, right? True enough, as far as that goes. But if you look at it as a convenient time to check in, to catch up, to re-evaluate or just to ask yourself the questions that generally get lost in all the frantic day-to-day, well. That seems to be something else entirely.
So. I’m still not going to vow to lose ten pounds a week or exercise constantly or only think thoughts worthy of a nun, because that’s never going to happen. I reject the tyranny of “should” and “must.” But I will spend at least a few belated moments checking in, to see if what I wanted last year is the same thing I want now. And if not, then what? Then I have a whole new year to figure out what comes next.
Posted in Writing, tagged inspiration, nanowrimo, writing, yay on November 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »
photo by Shayan (USA) on Flickr
I swear, I’ve felt like Tiger Woods* these last few days. I couldn’t get to par on my NanoWriMo word count to save my life. Too much going on, yes, but perhaps more importantly, my story engine hadn’t kicked in yet. You know what I mean, it’s that point when things really start happening. The bad guy comes out of the woodwork, the building collapses, the Galaxicon ice worm wriggles into the away team member’s pancreas and stows away on the ship. Like that.
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, inspiration, Writers, writing on October 12, 2012| 1 Comment »
I stumbled on this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert yesterday and loved her characterization of creative genius as something that we encounter, rather than have (or, more devastatingly, do not). Sure, it could be considered a cop-out, but any idea that can help artists move forward while avoiding the pitfalls of despair seems like a good thing. Also? She’s funny.
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