Put a smile in your voice. November 4, 2009

Have you ever seen someone looking around, arranged your face into a pleasant half-smile (just in case they look at you, you want to look friendly) and looked away, then looked back at them and they’re smiling because they saw your smile and it was contagious? It’s a really good feeling :) And it takes almost no energy at all–just a little presence of mind. Try it!

By the way, I have very little patience with myself when I hold off on blogging for the “right time” or until I have a good idea, or until I can elaborate on a thought. So I think I’m just going to treat it like it’s a Twitter account with a more lengthy character limit and write thoughts as they come up. Especially because most of the time I’m sitting in the most boring and annoying class in the world. Leave me comments!

New Directions July 19, 2009

The downside of introducing your blog to lots of people who know you is that then it’s very awkward to actually blog about them.

So in other news…

I changed my desktop background. Boring, no? But it’s a gorgeous picture I took at the Grand Canyon, and it reminds me of the amazing trip my mom and I took last year. Good times.

Went to Caleb’s again today–we sorted and resorted bottles of soda. No, really. It was tons of fun. But of course, if I were with Caleb I’d probably think watching the stock market change was fun, so that’s not saying much. Church tomorrow, and I’ll probably blog about that.

Besides my simple goal of blogging every day, I’d like to develop some trends. Sundays and Tuesdays can be faith days, and if I go to church or something like that I’ll talk about the experience. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are music days. Thursdays are random, things-on-the-street days, and maybe movie reviews, and Saturdays can be fiction days.

Ahhh this is so exciting! I feel like I need to catch up for every week I’ve been blogging and not done this. wow.

Also, I have a few resolutions that are not to be mentioned outside of cyberspace, just in case:

1. Get up earlier. Wake up at 9 and stay awake, even if I do just read in bed.

2. DO more. Get out. See stuff. Maybe take pictures of it or write about it to prove that I’ve gained new insight. ha.

3. Read more. This includes others’ blogs, the magazines I have piling up, and my ever-expanding book list. But mostly the books, I think.

4. Say “yes” more. It may be just because I just finished “Yes Man,” but I want to feel better about trying new things. I thought about shooting a bb gun today at nothing in particular at Caleb’s, but I’ve never held a gun and I’m not sure I want to. And… I suppose there’s nothing wrong with it if it’s just target practice, right?

5. Listen to more new music, and review it.

6. Pick one thing each day to love in my life.

7. Pick one thing each day to think about. (This sounds really dumb, but I like the idea. Some problem to solve, or something to pray about. It can’t hurt.)

8. Pick one thing each day to better something/someone other than myself.

9. Do one thing each day of which I’m proud. It has to be something that I didn’t accomplish on the computer (unless it’s a set of articles or something).

10. Blog about something that has potential to influence others or be meaningful to someone.

I think this is about the time of year where people really do start to slip on New Year’s Resolutions, so maybe it’s time to revamp. What are your resolutions? Are they ones you’ve tried before? Why are they important to you?

not just another wordpress blog. July 1, 2008

I only just realized that at the top of my blog page, it says “Just another WordPress blog”… or something similar. Excuse me? I’d like to try really hard at this blog thing, since I can’t seem to keep a regular journal going at all, and because I really need to find some work and I’ve heard blogging can be a great outlet for that. It’s lamentable to have to admit, but the world (and especially the internet and cyberspace) is becoming such that if you don’t give someone money, they don’t consider you worth their time or energy… either to reply to or just to acknowledge. It goes without saying that that’s just not very fair.

Sure, there are tons of blogs. Hundreds. Thousands. But bloggers deserve more than that. Blogging takes some time for us, just for communicating and sometimes educating the general public. Of course, it’s hell for us, too, because obviously some of us don’t get the blog traffic that others do (and don’t deserve.)

I won’t go into a “good writing vs bad writing” argument (after all, who will argue with me…?) but that’s really what it boils down to. Some of us who deserve the press really don’t get it at all, while others are miles ahead only because they know how to post links in blog entries. I’m sorry, but BIG DEAL. Blogs make us vulnerable; obviously, anything that enters our minds may be on display. And cyberspace is a huge, cold world, if you hadn’t already figured that out.

Anyway, none of our pages should be “just another wordpress blog.” A blog shows just about as much individuality as one can display online at all. So show some respect, please.