Recently, I critiqued a manuscript that straddled the line between a blogging and memoir. The manuscript's format and subject matter (showing, telling, praxis, faith, knowledge, and finding one's path) made me think about my own blog, and how lately it's gone from thinking about ideas and the examined life to "weather is here; wish you were fine" with Cat Pictures.
I blame some of the blog's straying on my Winter Writing Malaise. Some of it is losing my focus. Some of it is simply enjoying posting photos of our pets and the skies. Some of my idea-lite posts come from only posting how many reps I did at the gym; which isn't a bad thing as far as accountability goes -- but I'd like the blog to be more than a mere gym ledger entry.
Coincidentally, I was having a discussion with The Child about What He Wants to Do With His Life. His current aspiration is to become a Rich and Famous Video Game You-Tuber (I think). During the course of our discussion, he rattled off three names: I didn't recognize one; one I know as a profane swearer; one I don't approve of because of his slurs. On one hand, it's probably a good thing that the You-Tuber I refer to as "Yammerhead" wasn't on the list--but neither was the Kind and Curious Minecraft You-Tuber from about six years ago.
"So," I asked near the end of our discussion, "What is it that you're actually going to offer?"
"I'm going to post games reveal videos. I'll probably put in some click-baity reaction-video stuff so I get five thousand likes -- that's when you start to make money as an affiliate."
"Yes, that's great" I said, "but what is your content going to be? What will you have to offer that would make people want to watch your You-Tube channel?"
He gave me a look that anyone whose parents didn't understand that their garage band, or poetry, or painting was a one-way ticket to the big time gives to their out-of-it parents.
This whole entry is reminding me of The Hermit tarot card. The Hermit, as a part of his journey, lifts his lamp up so that other travelers on the path can see where they might go. I have to say, though, that I never thought of The Hermit as an Internet Influencer.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Weekend Updates
On the Blogging front: I still wanted to post about Smith Rock, but I haven't yet... Eastern Oregon last week was nice -- we managed to see Mercury over the Three Sisters.
The Blogger app I've been using seems to be losing entries that I leave in mid-edit. It's been a busy week, and I've been trying to blog between chores, errands, and other things. Oh well, on to ...
On the dreams front: I dreamed that our house was a larger than it really is. in the dream, we hadn't noticed that there was a much larger, highly peaked outer shell around the part of the house that we live in. Mark and I found a door that lead to a barn-like room. Lots of rough wooden beams and shadowy dark browns (In waking life, I'm reminded of the Eugene Bijou theatre, a converted church).
We thought it would be an excellent space to have a gathering, and the next thing I knew, there was a congregation of people. There was a professor type expounding on something (possibly Celtic culture, since I'm reading a archaeologic history book on Celts). The next thing I knew, we were shuffling in a kind of circle dance, singing and chanting something like "Dodie dodie, cu cu cu; dodie dodie, cu cu cu cu." (I remembered the words a little more clearly the other day, but I've lost that post).
Everyone but me and a youngish man, who was (un)dressed like a Faun, was circling clockwise. Mr. Faun was encouraging everyone to look into each others' eyes and I had the strongest feeling of being a stone in the middle of a small stream.
I guess I should look up "extra secret door in one's house." Usually when I dream about houses, they're someone else's or else they are (non-existant) family mansions (with a confusing number of oddly connected rooms).
In a different dream, my sister was keeping a pet sloth in a toilet. The poor thing was standing in the water and couldn't figure out how to get out of the bowl; its claws couldn't get a grip on the rim. I helped it out by giving it a wooden dowel to grab. Lately my sister has most definitely been doing dream time as a symbol, but I haven't figured that one out yet. At least the sloth wasn't a raccoon.
On the design front: I finally printed out a kind of shadow box for Julie's birthday. She's seen it over Skype, and now I need to mail it to her.
On the writing front: I submitted the re-write for a story that will appear in "On The Premises #19." The editors really like the world-building in the story. I'm glad that I found a home for it so quickly.
I've also put some finishing touches on a story I intend to submit to The Wordos. We'll see how it goes. I started writing it based on a photo of a partially submerged temple being visited by people in boats, so the manuscript has a strong milieu and idea-story feel to it.
I've also signed up for a one-day Clarion West workshop focusing on character development. I was looking at two of my short story sales, "Up" and "The Gear Master's Wife" and realized both main characters are flat-affect, late-20's men with recently dead family members. Since I don't want to fall into the dead-dogs-and-moms territory of Disney, I'm hoping the workshop will help expand my ability to write interesting characters.
I wish the workshop was in Eugene -- I'll easily spend twice as much time traveling to the workshop as I will participating in it. As soon as I receive confirmation that I'm in, I'll do a cost analysis on car versus train.
The Blogger app I've been using seems to be losing entries that I leave in mid-edit. It's been a busy week, and I've been trying to blog between chores, errands, and other things. Oh well, on to ...
On the dreams front: I dreamed that our house was a larger than it really is. in the dream, we hadn't noticed that there was a much larger, highly peaked outer shell around the part of the house that we live in. Mark and I found a door that lead to a barn-like room. Lots of rough wooden beams and shadowy dark browns (In waking life, I'm reminded of the Eugene Bijou theatre, a converted church).
We thought it would be an excellent space to have a gathering, and the next thing I knew, there was a congregation of people. There was a professor type expounding on something (possibly Celtic culture, since I'm reading a archaeologic history book on Celts). The next thing I knew, we were shuffling in a kind of circle dance, singing and chanting something like "Dodie dodie, cu cu cu; dodie dodie, cu cu cu cu." (I remembered the words a little more clearly the other day, but I've lost that post).
Everyone but me and a youngish man, who was (un)dressed like a Faun, was circling clockwise. Mr. Faun was encouraging everyone to look into each others' eyes and I had the strongest feeling of being a stone in the middle of a small stream.
I guess I should look up "extra secret door in one's house." Usually when I dream about houses, they're someone else's or else they are (non-existant) family mansions (with a confusing number of oddly connected rooms).
In a different dream, my sister was keeping a pet sloth in a toilet. The poor thing was standing in the water and couldn't figure out how to get out of the bowl; its claws couldn't get a grip on the rim. I helped it out by giving it a wooden dowel to grab. Lately my sister has most definitely been doing dream time as a symbol, but I haven't figured that one out yet. At least the sloth wasn't a raccoon.
On the design front: I finally printed out a kind of shadow box for Julie's birthday. She's seen it over Skype, and now I need to mail it to her.
On the writing front: I submitted the re-write for a story that will appear in "On The Premises #19." The editors really like the world-building in the story. I'm glad that I found a home for it so quickly.
I've also put some finishing touches on a story I intend to submit to The Wordos. We'll see how it goes. I started writing it based on a photo of a partially submerged temple being visited by people in boats, so the manuscript has a strong milieu and idea-story feel to it.
I've also signed up for a one-day Clarion West workshop focusing on character development. I was looking at two of my short story sales, "Up" and "The Gear Master's Wife" and realized both main characters are flat-affect, late-20's men with recently dead family members. Since I don't want to fall into the dead-dogs-and-moms territory of Disney, I'm hoping the workshop will help expand my ability to write interesting characters.
I wish the workshop was in Eugene -- I'll easily spend twice as much time traveling to the workshop as I will participating in it. As soon as I receive confirmation that I'm in, I'll do a cost analysis on car versus train.
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