It Feels Alright, Keeps Your Mind on the Page
Tuesday. Sorry everyone for the no post yesterday. I had fully intended to have one out there. I even had one half-written. However, I was having another incredibly busy day and never finished it up. I had counted on getting it done at the end of the day, but sure enough as luck would have it, we had a power failure in the building so I couldn't bring it back up to complete it. So, today I have finished this super long post that I started yesterday (no wonder I didn't finish it) and I will just post it today instead. Here it goes:
I didn't get a chance to mention this on Friday, but that day marked the unofficial anniversary of this blog. Why "unofficial?" Well, I first created this blog 18 months ago because I was incredibly bored at work one day and I thought it would be the hip, cool thing to do to help me pass the time. Unfortunately, though, I quickly found that I had nothing hip nor cool to say so I ended up just letting it alone after just one lame introductory post. About six months later, my good friend Lampsidebriefcase and I were emailing each other back and forth and goofing around (as we have been prone to do from time to time), and Lampside came up with the idea that we should create our own blogs so we could goof around via that medium vs. the email. The conversation went pretty much like this:
Lampside: ...someone sent me their journal so I went in and made one. It's kind of cool to be published to the web that fast. Make one it is free.
Me: I made one a couple of months ago, did an introductory posting and then never followed up. I think I am too boring to keep a blog.
Lampside: Come on, what is the link?
Me: (gave link) I had forgotten. I had to look it up. Don't expect much. It is pretty bleak.
Lampside: I posted to your blog. I started one for myself... I am done with the other one. Blogger is way better.
And so it began. Right after that we recruited our mutual friend Billydwilson to join the fun and for a few weeks we used our blogs as kind of a forum between friends putting down random thoughts and goofing on each other's posts. The novelty must have worn off after that, or Lampside and Billy actually had jobs that kept them busy (at the time I was working on an extremely monotonous vendor database project), because the frequency of their postings eventually dropped off. However, I found that I actually really enjoyed making daily entries on the blog even if I had nothing to say and no one was reading. Since I lacked the creativity to keep up the fresh, absurdist humor that I wanted this blog to contain, I ended up making daily journal entries of what I was doing that day (usually nothing) and what music I listened to on the long drive in to work. It didn't take long to realize that this format was becoming incredibly repetitive and dreadfully boring. I seriously brainstormed many times about how to put together a more interesting and original format, but I always came up empty. Meanwhile, I still kept following the formula and making my daily postings. Eventually I began to embrace the boringness. It occurred to me that I had been searching all over for an original idea when I had one in front of me all along. There are thousands of blogs out there covering politics, popular music, celebrities, bad amateur poetry, etc, but how many blogs out there are proudly and purposely chronicling boredom? I decided to ironically achieve originality by becoming decidedly unoriginal. Recharged by this epiphany, I have continued on in the same basic format since that time. I discuss whatever projects, tasks, or issues I am dealing with at work that day that is causing my boredom. Then, as an antithesis, I discuss something that interests me greatly: music. I sometimes refer to these discussions as "reviews" but they're not really reviews. They are usually just my first impressions on new music, or nostalgic reflections about older releases. In the fall, I added in college football picks just for my own amusement, a feature that I am looking forward to returning to again when my beloved sports season starts back up again this autumn.
Is this structure a cheat? I'm sure most creative writers would be of that opinion. However, I feel that this tight structure actually helps fuel my creativity by providing me with an outlet in which I can write. Perhaps it is a crutch, but I fear that if it weren’t for this daily launch pad I would again be staring at a blank screen with nothing to say. At least this way I can be prolific, if I can't be profound.
This blog has gone through many changes over the past year. The layout began as a no-frills, standard Blogger template. The page used to be simply titled "Darthjohn42" and had a completely different URL address. As I became more comfortable with this whole newfangled blogging thing, I began to experiment more with HTML. I already knew my basic tags, but I wanted to learn how to change the look of the site itself. I did the usual newbie things like adding links, counters, and the changing the background colors. After awhile I got bored with that and wanted to learn more. So, I bought a manual and began teaching myself some more advanced HTML skills. Finally, after several months of promising changes, in January of 2006 I completely re-launched the blog under a new URL, a new name and with a brand new layout scheme that I designed mostly by myself (with a little help from the Blogger template as a reference). At this time I also changed my user name. I had several reasons for wanting to do this, but I had trouble coming up with a new alias. I kicked around a couple of names, and even ended up using one of them for a few weeks before finally deciding (with input from Billy and Light Strikes a Deal) on just plain old "john." As LSD said, “It's so boring that it has come full circle and is interesting again.” Perfect.
So, what does the future hold for Inaction-in-Action? Well, after finishing up the HTML book I got a manual on JavaScript so I could continue to improve my web design skills. Unfortunately I am a bit behind right now on that project since I haven't had much time in my private life lately to sit down and work my way through it. Trust me, though, I am still plenty excited to learn JavaScript, and as soon as I get a little more breathing room I will be starting that endeavor back up. Other than that, my only plan is to keep on keepin' on as Dylan would say. Of course, I'm always open to suggestions and feedback, so please feel free to comment any time.
Finally, I would like to thank everybody who has stopped by over the past year, especially those of you who didn't get bored enough the first time around to want to actually come back. I really appreciate all of the discussions and music recommendations, and I admit it is kind of cool to know that you aren't all alone in this big ol' blogiverse. Thanks again, readers, and here's looking forward to another year of boredom...
I had a new music discussion all ready to go today, but judging from the length of this post it will be next June before you all finish if I don't stop now. I know I've been slacking in the music department lately, but things (hopefully) should be back to normal tomorrow. Until then-
I didn't get a chance to mention this on Friday, but that day marked the unofficial anniversary of this blog. Why "unofficial?" Well, I first created this blog 18 months ago because I was incredibly bored at work one day and I thought it would be the hip, cool thing to do to help me pass the time. Unfortunately, though, I quickly found that I had nothing hip nor cool to say so I ended up just letting it alone after just one lame introductory post. About six months later, my good friend Lampsidebriefcase and I were emailing each other back and forth and goofing around (as we have been prone to do from time to time), and Lampside came up with the idea that we should create our own blogs so we could goof around via that medium vs. the email. The conversation went pretty much like this:
Lampside: ...someone sent me their journal so I went in and made one. It's kind of cool to be published to the web that fast. Make one it is free.
Me: I made one a couple of months ago, did an introductory posting and then never followed up. I think I am too boring to keep a blog.
Lampside: Come on, what is the link?
Me: (gave link) I had forgotten. I had to look it up. Don't expect much. It is pretty bleak.
Lampside: I posted to your blog. I started one for myself... I am done with the other one. Blogger is way better.
And so it began. Right after that we recruited our mutual friend Billydwilson to join the fun and for a few weeks we used our blogs as kind of a forum between friends putting down random thoughts and goofing on each other's posts. The novelty must have worn off after that, or Lampside and Billy actually had jobs that kept them busy (at the time I was working on an extremely monotonous vendor database project), because the frequency of their postings eventually dropped off. However, I found that I actually really enjoyed making daily entries on the blog even if I had nothing to say and no one was reading. Since I lacked the creativity to keep up the fresh, absurdist humor that I wanted this blog to contain, I ended up making daily journal entries of what I was doing that day (usually nothing) and what music I listened to on the long drive in to work. It didn't take long to realize that this format was becoming incredibly repetitive and dreadfully boring. I seriously brainstormed many times about how to put together a more interesting and original format, but I always came up empty. Meanwhile, I still kept following the formula and making my daily postings. Eventually I began to embrace the boringness. It occurred to me that I had been searching all over for an original idea when I had one in front of me all along. There are thousands of blogs out there covering politics, popular music, celebrities, bad amateur poetry, etc, but how many blogs out there are proudly and purposely chronicling boredom? I decided to ironically achieve originality by becoming decidedly unoriginal. Recharged by this epiphany, I have continued on in the same basic format since that time. I discuss whatever projects, tasks, or issues I am dealing with at work that day that is causing my boredom. Then, as an antithesis, I discuss something that interests me greatly: music. I sometimes refer to these discussions as "reviews" but they're not really reviews. They are usually just my first impressions on new music, or nostalgic reflections about older releases. In the fall, I added in college football picks just for my own amusement, a feature that I am looking forward to returning to again when my beloved sports season starts back up again this autumn.
Is this structure a cheat? I'm sure most creative writers would be of that opinion. However, I feel that this tight structure actually helps fuel my creativity by providing me with an outlet in which I can write. Perhaps it is a crutch, but I fear that if it weren’t for this daily launch pad I would again be staring at a blank screen with nothing to say. At least this way I can be prolific, if I can't be profound.
This blog has gone through many changes over the past year. The layout began as a no-frills, standard Blogger template. The page used to be simply titled "Darthjohn42" and had a completely different URL address. As I became more comfortable with this whole newfangled blogging thing, I began to experiment more with HTML. I already knew my basic tags, but I wanted to learn how to change the look of the site itself. I did the usual newbie things like adding links, counters, and the changing the background colors. After awhile I got bored with that and wanted to learn more. So, I bought a manual and began teaching myself some more advanced HTML skills. Finally, after several months of promising changes, in January of 2006 I completely re-launched the blog under a new URL, a new name and with a brand new layout scheme that I designed mostly by myself (with a little help from the Blogger template as a reference). At this time I also changed my user name. I had several reasons for wanting to do this, but I had trouble coming up with a new alias. I kicked around a couple of names, and even ended up using one of them for a few weeks before finally deciding (with input from Billy and Light Strikes a Deal) on just plain old "john." As LSD said, “It's so boring that it has come full circle and is interesting again.” Perfect.
So, what does the future hold for Inaction-in-Action? Well, after finishing up the HTML book I got a manual on JavaScript so I could continue to improve my web design skills. Unfortunately I am a bit behind right now on that project since I haven't had much time in my private life lately to sit down and work my way through it. Trust me, though, I am still plenty excited to learn JavaScript, and as soon as I get a little more breathing room I will be starting that endeavor back up. Other than that, my only plan is to keep on keepin' on as Dylan would say. Of course, I'm always open to suggestions and feedback, so please feel free to comment any time.
Finally, I would like to thank everybody who has stopped by over the past year, especially those of you who didn't get bored enough the first time around to want to actually come back. I really appreciate all of the discussions and music recommendations, and I admit it is kind of cool to know that you aren't all alone in this big ol' blogiverse. Thanks again, readers, and here's looking forward to another year of boredom...
I had a new music discussion all ready to go today, but judging from the length of this post it will be next June before you all finish if I don't stop now. I know I've been slacking in the music department lately, but things (hopefully) should be back to normal tomorrow. Until then-
posted by john at 12:29 PM
2 Comments:
*does the happy anniversary snoopydance*
i like your blog format... and though your work is boring you talking about it isn't
and the staple remover post? fucking classic
Thanks, Sass, I appreciate your kind words.
I like the format, too, but admittedly there are times in which I wish I could break free and write in a more free form. However, this structure works for me and feels right. The day I get bored of writing and not just of my work itself will be the day to make a change. For now, I'm sticking with it.
btw - I'm fairly partial to the stapler remover post myself :-)
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