Archives for category: Metablogging

Thinking on Paper

October 2, 08 //
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I’d like to being using this “space” more as a scratchpad for my thoughts – however uninformed.

The tagline to this blog is “fleeing from ignorance” (a very specific kind – skill-based, though I also mean it more generally), and I’d like to actually implement that.

Writing is an important tool for developing thought, because it forces one to go slowly – to step back and think things through a little more. This blog was originally created as a tool to just that; focus my thinking. However, it has lain fallow due to my failure to incorporate it into my “way of life.”

I am aware that I have made this post before, and I doubtless will again. I am reminded of the Mark Twain quote “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.” In this case, it is the reverse: Starting a blog is easy. I’ve done it thousands of times!

More importantly, perhaps, is that it doesn’t manner how many times you try – it only matters how many times you succeed.

I’ll try to keep that in mind.

Blogging with Word 2007

January 31, 07 //
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Microsoft released Office 2007 today. I highly recommend it – due to the “Fluent” ribbon-based interface, Office 2007 is excellent. A real pleasure to use.

Word 2007, among other things, allows you to seamlessly post to blogs. It’s what I’m using now – and intend to use for the foreseeable future.

It allows you to use the same tool for all writing purposes. And, frankly, Word 2007 is leagues better than any other blogging tool on the market. Consider spell-check: not only is Word 2007 excellent at spell-checking words, it watches for grammar and words incorrect based on context (e.g. loose vs. lose). It also has fantastic image manipulation abilities, and uploads them automatically so there’s no need to deal with finicky FTP programs and URLs.

For example, take a look at some of the image effects applied to a thumbnail of my resume:

Nice!

Blogging and Good Intentions

January 31, 07 //
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It seems that I’ve left this blog to idle by, despite my good intentions.

There’s a trap, you see, in blogging. ‘Blogging’ these days is intimidating: every post is archived for eternity. It makes it easy to fall into a seductive fallacy; that each post must be perfect, or at least good.

That’s true, in some situations. But in most – and in my case in particular – that assumption is both incorrect and damaging. The point is not to produce perfect posts that reverberate with meaning. Instead, it’s to transcribe my mind. Immortalize my thoughts in words – and make them electronic, searchable, and open. The interest and attention of other people will be appreciated, but it’s ancillary to creating in the first place.

My posts will get better as time goes on. Simple experience, accompanied by an eye for improvement, will polish and expand my posts. Of course, that’s one of the real benefits in writing for an audience, instead of taking notes. It forces you to write to communicate. After all, that is what life is about.