As I get serious and excited to meet my goals for this year, I just wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to check out this blog. To this point, it has been an “as needed” part of my writing life that I hope to expand on throughout the coming year.
Thanks and I wish all a great start to 2013. This is the year to make it happen!
How do you know writing is a part of you? Somethingyou HAVE to do? After four years of writing and editing I still get butterflies when I finally have a few hours of unhindered writing time, which with a newborn can be hard to come by. The butterflies today reminded me of how important it is to make time daily. Honestly, I think my soul needs it.
My baby’s doctor said to keep doing what you are passionate about because happy parents are important for any baby’s well being. This, of course, made me love the man instantly.
Almost everyone (not including my wife, thank God) has made a comment about how I might as well give up writing because when you have a baby “your life will never be the same.”
Really? Babies change your life? What sage advice this was for me from the world’s wisest people. My son has changed my life for the better. He has given me new inspiration and someone to write damn good stories for. And when he is old enough to understand, he will know what it means to have a passion for something.
Forget about the naysayers and do what makes you happy. For me that is writing.
Schedules. Schedules. Schedules. I need a new one and I need it fast. I love my wife so I have to give her attention (no complaints with this one). My dog needs love and exercise (again not a problem).I also have to help around the house (slight grumble). I have to plan to teach middle school and grade papers (excessive groans, especially the grading). But, I also need to write.
Here is the dilemma. There aren’t enough hours in a day to do all of these things and write as much as I want to. So, do I add more hours to my day by sleeping less? I have to think that I could condition my body to six hours instead of seven or eight (sometimes ten or twelve). I will be adding grad courses soon and within a year (or two) a baby to the family. I’m only getting busier and sleep seems the only element that I can control.
Do I write at the expense of sleep? Time to crunch the numbers (maybe the student’s papers too).
You might have read my rant on the origins of the word “picnic,” and you might not have. Either way we can learn a great lesson from this factual error on my part. I wrongly stated that the word had origins in picking a n*&%#* at lynchings. The interesting part is that I never heard about this until I was in a college class with a professor I considered trustworthy, and he explained to us how it was the truth…That was in 2006.
Now in 2009, having never heard about this word origin since I smartly share it with the world only to realize that my professor must have recieved the brilliantly contrived e-mail hoax (and believed it). I was rightly corrected by an anstute reader (See Patti’s Blog) and am happy to share that my information was bad and that we can thank the French for the word picnic as well as fries (this one is legitimate…trust me).
Continue with your picnics but never trust an e-mail. See snopes.com if you want those e-mails broken down to fact and fiction.
So I didn’t jump out of a plane at 11,000 feet. In fact, no one did because of the weather. But I wasn’t going to anyway, and the best part—I didn’t have to look my cowardice in the eye and tell anyone. Why? Because my wife did it for me. She is a woman with courage.
She had the courage to cancel my slot without even getting final consent from me. She knows me well enough to know when I am genuinely worried and cared about me enough to save my manhood and tell everyone for me. And, she is still going to jump out of the airplane when it is rescheduled. What a woman.
So my chances of dying during a tandem skydive are at worst 1 in 250,000. So what! If I don’t do it I will avoid the opportunity to be that lucky one, the remembered statistic. I am fully aware that driving in a car is dangerous and that more people die from snake bites than skydiving every year, but I’m still not convinced that I need to do it.
I love rollercoasters and I have experienced a ripcord fall of about 150 feet, but that is more than 10,850 less feet than if I skydive. My wife is doing it, but I’m already fully aware that she is tougher than I am. So why even consider it, you ask? Why jump out of a well functioning plane? I’m still not sure. Will I accept my cowardice or will I pull untapped courage out of some hidden recess in the corner of my mind? I only have about 30 hours to decide.
There are some things that are common to all people and all place. But cultural differences make us different and interesting. We often classify this difference in terms of geography, with a concept of what is up north or down south. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has a special place in my heart for its beauty and unique people. If you experience more than two of the following, you are, what I would consider, up north.
When outsourcing negatively affects you, just find the local guy.
My recent experience with AT&T has left me dumbfounded by how outsourcing can impact customer service. The reality is that the people in India (or across the Country, say Nevada) have no idea who to talk to locally. It is like them attempting to contact the other outsourced branch of service who probably outsources their communication as well. The solution: hunt down a local service guy.
Find the AT&T van on the side of the road and see if that guy will help you. Bob (and this is a legitimate Bob, not the person whose native name would be too long to tell you) is helping me and I think I will finally get somewhere. Part of the reason may be that I know where he is working tomorrow (and he can see the murder in my eyes). But, most likely, he is helping me because we have established a human connection, an element that is invaluable to improving how businesses treat their customers.
Without my local library, I would have been cyber space deficient for the last week. AT&T has been going to fix the problem everyday since July 21. I’m glad to see they are true to their word. Thank you for the digital tissue.
More important than my problem could be the future of the library and its patrons. I recently heard a fantastic speech about how the Amazon Kindle might affect book accessibility for those in society who can’t afford to buy their own. If paper books become obsolete, how will those that can’t purchase the four hundred dollar Kindle access books?
But when I mesh this idea with another speech regarding printed newspapers, I am not so sure the Kindle has so much power. Printed newspapers have been labeled as a thing of the past more than once. First with the advent of radio, then television, and now with the internet. Paper newspapers are decreasing in circulation, but we live in a market based on supply and demand.
I know too many people who value printed books and papers. Who would be devastated not to have the pleasure of cracking a new spine and anticipating what is on the next page. Or, unfolding the newspaper and kicking back with a cup of coffee. There is something encouraging about seeing ones bookmark move across the pages every night that I don’t think readers will allow to disappear.
Author J.R. Roper 