Sorting Through Drafts

The other day, my pal on Twitter Leah Jones said she deletes more drafts on her personal blog than she publishes. She was talking about how she doesn't blog much anymore, but she got me thinking. I've had this blog since 2007, and I have my fair share of drafts that I never got finished.

I've got 30 some odd drafts that never made it to the finish line. And I'm thinking that sounds like a pretty great way to spend a Sunday. So if you happen to see a post that looks off topic, or seems out of context, look for an "original date" notation... I'm going to go through those old half posts, update them and queue 'em up for publication!

Wahoo! Cleaning house starts with my blog. Ha!

The above photo is from tellumo's Flickr stream.

Restarting the Writing Project: A New Plan

If you've been following this blog lately, you've probably noticed some time / day notation and topics. I outlined the idea behind this here, but it's time change it up a little bit. The idea is to gradually get me writing more on more regularly, and so far, I've had a hard time getting into it.

So I'm going to start over.

The new plan? Write everyday. Track how long I'm writing everyday, then work to write more the following day. I'll probably max out at some point, but I'll be pushing more thoughts to paper (or to Blogger as it were).

Practice is a funny thing. Every yoga class I take, or teach, is a part of a person's practice. Life is practice. Each blog post is a part of a practice. At least it is once I set the intention for it to be so. Right? Isn't that how intention works?


The photo is from Loungerie's Flickr stream.

Music Connects Us

This post is a part of my writing assignment. For a full explanation of what I'm working on check out this post here.

Day 7: 7 Minutes
Topic: Music

The other day, I was at the store shopping. It wasn't any special store, in any special community. It was just a store filled with strangers. And the something magical happened; George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" came on.

Suddenly, everyone in the store was a chorus member of the same choir. The station that was blasting through the store sound system had united us. We were all singing or humming along.

Hare Krishna, Hallelujah...

It was lovely; everyone--black, white, Asian and Latin--singing along with George Harrison, singing along with an ancient chant from another place and time. Music is an amazing thing. Music has this mysterious power to connect us, with lyrics, with a melody that makes us feel something, with a piercing rhythm that gets us moving in the same tempo. You don't need to know the words to bob your head and appreciate a well orchestrated piece. You just have to want to listen.

You have to want to listen.

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That's seven minutes, so I guess my time's out.

Catching Up: Writing Practice Day 6

As it turns out, I don't do so well with rigidness. I started this writing practice idea on January 14th; fourteen days later, I've only managed to get up five days of assignments. That's not very good.


Day 6: 6 Minutes
Topic: Blog Ideas I've Had

Working in social media, every now and again I come up with something or across something and think, "there should be a blog for that." If only there were more hours in the day, right?

Last year, I started a Boston Sushi Blog with a friend of mine. I think we got two posts up. The idea was to write about our sushi experiences all around the Boston area. Whenever we get together, we tend to go for sushi. So it just made sense.

With another friend of mine, I started a blog about chronic illness. There's definitely some back story here, but because of the nature of the subject, we've kept that on the DL. Sharing these types of stories is definitely important though--just wish we didn't have to worry about the repercussions of our openness...

Recently I've been thinking about another blog idea. The concept? White girl, black music. Let's face it, I'm pretty freaking pasty. But I have a love for rap, hip hop and R&B that most people make fun of me for. I figure the combination could make for some seriously amusing writing, or even a serious examination of race, gender, culture and music. Then again, I don't like veering off into the heavy stuff. I try to keep things light around here and on the other blogs I write.

If there were more hours in the day, I would write about the anthropology of social media, and all these other ideas. But I'm having enough trouble getting myself to sit down and write this blog!

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That's it. Up you go Day 6.

I will likely revisit my holiday gifts topic next. I'd like to close that loop and post something complete about all the craftiness that went into this past season's gifts.

Writing Assignments: Day 3 & 4 (Homemade Holiday Gifts)

Hello there. I'm a few days behind on my writing assignment posts. So I'm doubling up today, and will probably do the same tomorrow.

If you need to get caught up on why I'm doing this, read here. Since day one and day two didn't allow for a lot of time to talk about all the holiday gifts I made this year, I'm going to continue with that topic--though I'm hoping to be done with it soon!

Here are the proceeding "holiday gifts" posts:

Day One: One Minute
Topic: Holiday Gifts

This year I made almost all of the gifts I gave out. For my roommates, I crocheted scarves (out of yarn I had them choose, so I knew they'd like the color). I made scarves for members of my family too.

Day Two: Two Minutes
Topic: Holiday Gifts

I did a little experimenting with crochet stitches while I was home too. Normally, I crochet the width of the scarf first and then just build up the length from there. For the first time, while I was home for the holidays, I made a scarf length-ways. My grandmother got that one. It was two-toned. I would have kept it for myself, because I liked it that much, but I already had one of that color (or at least one of those colors). I made scarves for my grandmother, my aunt and some of my friends.


Day Three: Three Minutes
Topic: Holiday Gifts

I played with stitching variations. And even stole one of my mom's book on crochet stitches -- she's more of a knitter anyway.

The crocheting was a great distraction to all the drama of being home for the holidays. But before I left I took on a different crafty project. I made lip balm / salve. It was kind of fun, especially because of how much of that stuff I go through. I bought all the ingredients needed online through two different wholesalers: Mountain Rose Herbs and Wholesale Supplies Plus.
I needed all sorts of random things you never think about buying--chapstick tubes, flavoring oils, raw mango butter...


Day Four: Four Minutes
Topic: Holiday Gifts
Needless to say, this project took a little more planning than finding yarn and a hook. I had to buy tins and tubes to put my creation in. Also, I took flavor orders. My brother requested nutmeg--he said he'd like to kiss a girl that tastes like nutmeg (I made some for his new lady friend). My mom requested white tea. For myself? I picked up a tinsy tiny container of chamomile essence because I thought it sounded soothing.

The first batch (recipe cut and paste below) was White Tea Mango Butter flavored. So it smelled a little like fruity tea. It was all experimental. I didn't really have the right tools; I had to jerry-rig a double broiler with a metal strainer and bowl. But it worked out. I learned a few things for next time. For example, don't melt hot wax in a container that doesn't have a spout.


Lip balm: First Attempt
1 tbs beeswax
1 tbs mango butter
1 tbs shea butter
½ tbs olive oil
10 drops of white tea oil

Combined beeswax, mango butter and olive oil in double broiler set up until melted. Then added white tea oil and shea butter. Once fully integrated, pour into containers and allow to cool.

Writing Assignments: Day Two

Yesterday, I started my writing assignment project (click here for the post). I'll be writing one post a day for 60 days, with the amount of time spent on each post corresponding to the number of days I've been in this little personally prescribed writing clinic (i.e. day three gets three minutes). While I'm well aware this project will become increasingly more time-consuming and potentially difficult to budget for in my day, I'm really hopping it puts me back in the swing of writing everything down with ease.

For today, I'll continue where I left off on yesterday's post, since I have more to say on the topic. For your reference, here's yesterday's assignment:

Day One: One Minute
Topic: Holiday Gifts

This year I made almost all of the gifts I gave out. For my roommates, I crocheted scarves (out of yarn I had them choose, so I knew they'd like the color). I made scarves for members of my family too.


Day Two: Two Minutes
Topic: Holiday Gifts (continued from yesterday)

I did a little experimenting with crochet stitches while I was home too. Normally, I crochet the width of the scarf first and then just build up the length from there. For the first time, while I was home for the holidays, I made a scarf length-ways. My grandmother got that one. It was two-toned. I would have kept it for myself, because I liked it that much, but I already had one of that color (or at least one of those colors). I made scarves for my grandmother, my aunt and some of my friends.

...

Out of time. It's looking like I can get a couple of days out of this topic. Stick with me and I'll get down to the good stuff (like the lip salve I made from scratch!).