Category: blogging

Listless In San Francisco

In searching for something to entice The Muse to put down her bons bons and get off her settee, I like to search around for pages offering help to flagging bloggers.

Just about every page I visit suggests creating posts with lists.

I see it all over: “list posts are very popular!”

  1. Really? With who?

  2. Perhaps the who doesn’t matter as much as the what

  3. I’m not sure lists are my thing

  4. Maybe on this one I should go against my own grain

  5. And make a list

  6. A list for the listless

  7. (Yes, I went there)

  8. How about a blog post where the contents ARE the list

  9. No well thought out collection of ideas

  10. No useful reference guide

  11. Just random thoughts

  12. listlitized

  13. Which is so not a word but I don’t care

  14. I mean, does it count as a list if it’s not

  15. a clean, well organized list?

  16. I think it does

  17. In fact, I think it makes it better

  18. Maybe people will even want to

  19. read to the end

  20. instead of scanning down the list

  21. Which I am totally guilty of doing

  22. Maybe

  23. I should leave

  24. Some blank list items

  28. Just to make it confusing

  29. Or maybe

  30. Lists

  31. Are just too darn orderly for my disordered mind

The Well Went Dry

I guess my insightful marbles and rubber chicken post yesterday tapped out The Muse.

I’m at another lean spell on blog topics. So you know what that means!

Imagination Prompt roulette!

A spin of the wheel and away we go!!

Your present job makes you…

Able to pay the rent and buy groceries and every once in a while, a stupidly expensive bauble.

One food you would never give up is…

What?!? Give up a food?!? : looks around suspiciously :

Never! You can’t take me and my twinkies alive!

Nothing matters…

You’re telling me.

(I don’t make these up…they come straight off the prompt)

I remember when…

…my dad used to start a sentence with “I remember when…” and then I’d turn up the television just a little bit louder.

Why do you feel like you do right now?

A carefully managed concoction of sugar, fat, salt, and vodka. Lots and lots of vodka.

What’s the coolest piece of technology you work or play with?

I work for the most austere tech company in the world. We don’t make cool. We make reliable.

So that lets out the work part of the question.

Play with? Well, the husband has an iPad which is VERY cool. When he got that, I got his MacBook Air. I know the technology is a couple years old but I’m deeply enamored of this little thin machine. It’s beautiful and reliable and it makes the PC on my workdesk look like a hunchback.

What’s the last piece of art you made?

Ok, now we’re in my wheelhouse!

I think it was the three small canvases that I turned in for the Brooklyn Art House Co-Op project. I mailed those out on Sept 1.

That’s a LOOONG dry spell of not creating any art.

I’d better get on that.

High school reminds you of…

Horrible dark things I shant share here.

I generalize about _____ because…

… _____ is so specific.

Why now?
Because I’m booked later.

Could you stay in bed all day and think?

Yes. I could also stay in bed all day and not think if anyone is looking for that talent.

Today when I put on my pants, I…

Double checked I’d zipped my fly. Otherwise it’s too drafty.

Money is _____ and here’s why

Wait. I thought _____ was specific. Now it’s specifically money?

I have the golden touch!

Woo hoo!

I’m off to go spend my _____ all around town.

And there we have it.

Thanks for tuning in through the latest edition of Writer’s Block!

I haven’t stopped blogging….

…but I’m afraid I’m going to miss another day. I *hate* missing blogging days. I’ll do my best to make up the two missed days in some way this week.

I’ve been asked to teach a four hour course today on behalf of an association of professional people who do what I do for a living (I’ll demure on my job role…a girl’s gotta have some secrets).

Four hours? *I* don’t even want to listen to me talk for four hours! Good gracious!

Anyhow, it’s a big honor and I have my big ol’ PowerPoint slide deck ready to go.

But I’m scared. I mean, I’m excited. But I’m skeered too.

This is four hours facing a room full of my peers.

Whooooa. Soooo grown up.

Anyhow, I’m up to the task, but forgive my inattention to the blog for a couple days. I should be back tomorrow.

The Tradition of One Thousand Paper Cranes

Are you familiar with the Japanese tradition of folding one thousand origami paper cranes?

From Wikipedia:

“An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person’s wish come true.”

I have always been enchanted by this tradition, and many years ago when the daughter of a friend was to be married, I even helped participate in the tradition by helping the bride fold a thousand cranes before her wedding day.

It is an act of diligence, of repetition, of bringing yourself and your heart to each crane.

I was reminded of this tradition today, as I contemplated the creation of this, my one thousandth post here at Oh Fair New Mexico.

Each post is, to me, like a beautiful origami crane, my own work of art constructed from the folds of my brain, the diligence of my psyche, and the creativity of my Muse.

The posts vary widely in topic and scope. I started out as a homesick New Mexican looking to assuage my guilt by talking about home. Three years later, it still holds that space for me, but it’s also grown well beyond, helping me to find my voice and my writing style.

I’m grateful to each and every reader who stops by and gives me their eyeballs for a few minutes. Especially those readers who have been here long enough to remember that The Good Man used to be The Cute Boy.

When I started this blog back in 2007, I hoped I’d be able to make it last for a year. I’ve well exceeded that goal.

So today, as I finish folding my one thousandth crane, I string them all together and let them take flight upon the wind. I’ve cast my cranes to the fates and I send them all out with the best of me on the wing.

Tomorrow, I’ll sit in front of a blank Word document and start again, folding the first crane in the next series of one thousand.

May we all make a beautiful wish that comes true.

Mine already did.




Image source: Hakobyan Hayk’s Blog


Keep Feeling Fascination

This morning, the idea generator prompted me to “Name something that fascinates you.”

Let’s see…

Right now, the thing that fascinates me the most is: Peanut Butter M&M’s

Oh man, I tried these for the first time during my recent travel. My sweet tooth dragged me to an airport shop where I bought a bag, and ever since I can’t stop thinking about and yearning for the peanut buttery goodness!

Oh wait. That’s an obsession. Not a fascination.

Let me try again.

Ok, I got it. I’m fascinated by that frapping tree growing in my side yard. The one that grows about six feet a month, drapes over the neighbor’s fence, scrapes at the side of the house and blocks the nice view out of my home office window.

Oh no, got it wrong again. That’s aggravation.

Hmm. Fascinated by the endless lines of tiny black ants invading my kitchen?

Nope, more aggravation.

How about this! I got it. I’m fascinated by the process I go through every morning to park in my favorite spot in the parking garage. There is a pinched-faced lady in a gray BMW who thinks she owns the spot. I parked there uncontested for a whole month and beginning last week, missy miss BMW thinks it’s her spot?

Oh I don’t THINK so.

No, every day I’m all about making sure that I get that spot, mine mine mine!!

Nice try, Karen. That would probably be best labeled under compulsion.

Maybe I’m fascinated by my ongoing observations about the sheer quantity of Canada Geese poop at the park near my office?

No, compulsion and aggravation together, I think.

How about my fascination with the recent over 90-degree heatwave in the Bay Area.

Nope. Perspiration.

I got it! Night photography! I’m fascinated by that.

But that’s also education. As in, I’m totally all about learning night photography but yet, I’m also fascinated with the art.

Yes. That’s it. I think I’ve resolved it.

That was a lot harder that I thought it would be.