Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about a bigger bookshelf.

THE PROMPT: "Write an essay or blog about on what life for you would have been like had there been no Writing.com."

Hmmm...good topic. That's like asking me what the last 10 years of my life would be like without it. Let's do some quick math...say I spend an average of an hour a day at the most on this site every day, and now I had to do something else instead, that's 3,650 hours of my life (give or take) that I'd be doing something else.

Certainly, that'd be plenty of time to finally learn how to play guitar, and maybe I'd be in a band after a few years. Boom...10 years knocked out right there. More likely, I probably would've came across some other web community for writers. Google found me Stories.com (WDC's infant stages), so it's likely I would've joined some inferior website.

I could've gotten myself into all sorts of trouble. I may not have gone back to NYC. I wouldn't have stayed up late at night talking to Gaby ~ Quiet contemplation . I wouldn't have imagined as much about what it's like in other parts of the country, or world for that matter, because of the many friends I've made here over the years.

I haven't always had the "paid membership", but I think from the time WDC instituted it up til now, I've had it more often than not. Let's say that seven out of ten years, I've been a paying customer. And five of those years was on a quarterly basis, and two of those years I ponied up for a hole year. Again, simple math (which I think is a lot to be asking someone when talking about writing ): 5 years quarterly breaks down to ($20 x 20) + 2 years annually ($50 x 2), which equals $500. $500! What the hell theoretically would I have done with $500? I wouldn't be $500 richer today, nor any other day in the last ten years, fo' sho'. Maybe I'd have a few more cd's that I was like, "Well, I'll get it next paycheck cuz I've got to re-up my WDC account..." and never did. Or a new pair of sneakers for work instead of a yearly commitment. And maybe those weeks when I was extra-tight on funds, I'd actually have a little more food in the fridge and wouldn't have to be converting all my spare change at a http://www.coinstar.com/ machine (but man, do I love that soooooo much more than rolling dirty money by hand ).

But truth be told, I'd need a bigger bookshelf. Ever since I was a teenager, I'd do all my writing in notebooks. I've saved almost, well, pretty much everything...it adds up. I have a modest bookshelf with one and a half shelves taken up with notebooks. But when WDC came around, and this is a testament to its power and dominance in the online writing industry, I stopped using notebooks. After I transcribed and typed out my favorite selections from the years past and get the itch to write something new, I'd just do it all on WDC. I remember the first time I was not going to be able to renew my membership and was going to be locked out of my portfolio...I blew threw almost a ream of paper and an entire black ink cartridge (see...more money I would've saved right there ) printing up everything just so I wouldn't lose it. Those days now live in a 1-1/2" three-ring binder.

So I would've still written...but I wonder if I would've written the same items. Probably not. I think knowing that the community could finally see what I was doing influenced my style. I like to think that it was my most creative time period. Different styles emerged, different things came out of me that I've never seen before or after. I also think that the use of color and the template helped keep me more focused...there was something that felt new to me about writing...the borders were out of the way when the lines were taken off the page, because there was no page. Just words in a box, and I could put any different words in those box and maybe, just maybe, someone would actually say something about them. I can't tell you how liberating that felt.

My favorites from those days are here: "The Computer Age" . I hope you get a chance to enjoy them. But back to what I was saying about the bookshelf...not nearly everything I've ever created is on here at WDC (thankfully) and there's still some things I have on here that I'd like to have a back-up for. And since there was no WDC, I'd have the money to spend on more notebooks, pens and bookshelves to house everything that wouldn't have an online home.

MUSICAL BREAK:

More simple math (ugh!) to supplement my point...say you spent $2 a day on coffee at Starbucks on your way to work, and you were lucky to hold your job for ten years (working an average of 270 days a year), you'd have spent $5400! So don't tell me that by spending money on some form of internet release is frivolous...if the doctor told you ten years ago you had a condition that meant you couldn't have coffee and could only replace it with free tap water, all you'd have to worry about is a little bump in the water bill, no? And what to do with the rest of that $5400.

That said, a funny little ditty from some Canadians with their answer to a common question we've all tried figure out since we were kids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHacDYj8KZM

VITAL STATS:

I don't understand why I dislike working nights so much. I love my 8am-4pm four days a week, and I hate my 2:30pm-10:30pm shift one day a week, when I hate waking up early to deal with crabby-ass people, and prefer sleeping in and dickin' around a little before I go in to a quiet, nearly empty store where people aren't so aggrivated when they shop. Can someone explain this connundrum to me? Please, and thank you.

That is it for this kid tonight, y'all. Gotta check on some things and be prepared to turn it back around at 8am, so the vultures can pick at what's left of me for another eight hours. Gotta love 'em; the belly they supply the food for sure does. GOODNIGHT NOW!!