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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/1986033-Kits-Korner/month/8-1-2019
Rated: 13+ · Book · Inspirational · #1986033
I’d rather write than talk. Nobody interrupts! Posting monthly or less now--see below.
My original purpose for this blog, which I started in August of 2019, was to see if I could maintain consistency, to discover what I want to write about, and to find my writing voice. In January, I started a "niche-less" blog at Wordpress.com where I've published weekly. -- Kit’s Kontemplations  .
--

I'm preparing to start a Catholic blog on Wordpress.com where I'll post weekly, and another site to put the rest of my writing. I also want to spend more time reading other blogs and offering thoughtful comments, both here on WDC and elsewhere. At most, I will publish once a month at no set time in this blog starting in September of 2020.

Thank you to those who have read and rated any posts on this blog. I really appreciate it.

I did NOT want to write “about” me on this blog. I wanted to share my interests, discoveries and maybe a few useful insights. If anything I've written helps even one person, whether or not they respond to the post, then this blog has been successful.
August 30, 2019 at 1:41am
August 30, 2019 at 1:41am
#965242
In my previous post, I wrote about the harmful effects of following the news. While doing research for this post, I found many more results about why people don’t follow the news and claim it’s either a waste of time or hazardous to your health.

I came to the conclusion that there is a difference between consuming news through TV or the internet and through reading newspapers or news magazines. Getting news the first way is said to rot your brain and getting it through reading will increase your creativity and ability to think critically. Although I believe that it’s important to know about current events, I admit I don’t make any effort to do this. Maybe this list of benefits will inspire me to do more than let conversations float around me:
*Bullet* Advise a community about threats and important events that can impact them
*Bullet* Help people gain national perspective
*Bullet* Stay connected with the world and teach you about the way of life and cultural differences
*Bullet* Enrich your knowledge and understanding about world events
*Bullet* Be informed about latest innovations and discoveries
*Bullet* Increase your vocabulary and language skills

Sources:
*Bullet* Top 5 Benefits & Importance of Reading News
https://www.paperboy.com/blog/top-5-benefits-importance-of-reading-news/
*Bullet* Importance of news from ClearlyExplained.com
http://clearlyexplained.com/news/importance-of-news.html

How important is it for you to keep up with current events? Have you found ways to do it so that you are not overwhelmed or stressed by information overload?

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!
August 27, 2019 at 4:00pm
August 27, 2019 at 4:00pm
#964925
Did you once follow news regularly and no longer read or watch it? Are you more like me and never read or watch it or have you always been a daily news person? I fall into the category of those who don’t follow the news. I hear about current events in conversations that I overhear, from the prayer intentions at Mass, and from items my husband shares with me.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of people following the news has decreased sharply between 2003 and 2013. It tells the age groups and education levels of those who do and who don’t follow the news but not why they stopped:
https://pressprogress.ca/extra_extra_more_canadians_than_ever_dont_even_follow_t...

A cartoon on Twitter by David Sipress captures perfectly how people are recognizing the harmful effects of trying to keep up with the overwhelming amount of media. It shows a couple walking together, with the woman saying, “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.”

Keeping up with the news has a negative effect on our physical health as Leslie-Jean Thornton from Arizona University relates:
“As journalism professors, there’s a need and a desire to stay on top of things — so much so that it becomes somewhat addictive for some of us,” she wrote in an email. “It’s hard to step away, even for a few hours, but yet the constant wash of uncertainties is emotionally draining and physically harmful — teeth damaged from being clenched in anger or frustration, skyrocketing blood pressure, heart palpitations.”

Tips to cope with “News Burnout” and “Disaster Fatigue” from Fatigued by the News? Experts Suggest How to Adjust Your Media Diet.:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/news-media-social-media-information-overlo...
*Bullet*Read newspapers where there are only editor-selected quality stories instead of TV news where the agenda is to keep customers engaged by increasing the emotional impact and online news that exhausts and overwhelms you.
*Bullet*Recognize that if your primary motivation for getting the news is a fear of missing something, difficulty handling uncertainty or anxiety in general, indulging your news habit is going to make you feel worse, not better.
*Bullet*Seek comfort in positive news - https://www.positive.news
*Bullet*Choose something other than news before bed.

In Nir Eval’s post How to Stay Informed Without Losing Your Mind, he explains why getting your news by surfing online is the worst option. https://www.nirandfar.com/how-to-stay-informed-without-losing-your-mind/

The EveryGirl’s post 5 Easy Ways to Keep Up with Current Events, gives very useful tips for getting only the information busy people need. Here are a few the article mentions:
*Bullet*News roundups that give headlines with few details.
*Bullet*Find an unbiased news source.
*Bullet*Download an app that pulls down and condenses the topics and sources that interest you
http://theeverygirl.com/5-easy-ways-to-keep-up-with-current-events/

I am vision-impaired and hate getting ink on my hands so a print newspaper is not an option. I prefer reading to audio/visual content so I wouldn’t choose either radio or TV to get news. I don’t want a lot of detail and interpretation - just the facts so I will look into roundups. I have a newsreader app that I use for following blogs. I think I would prefer a second one for news sources to keep current events content separate from the Catholic, nutrition and creativity items.

If you don’t follow current events, is there any reason you might decide to start? If you’re feeling overwhelmed by news, would you change the way you get your news or stop altogether for a period of time?


Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!

August 23, 2019 at 6:37pm
August 23, 2019 at 6:37pm
#964604
The parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant is often used to scold those who say that truth exists and that it is not relative. If something is true, it is always true regardless of culture, situation, time or place. I don’t have to believe, agree, or be pleased with something for it to be true.

The Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant

As the story goes, each of the four blind men stationed around an elephant. Their experience of the animal is limited by what is within their grasp. The man standing by the leg decides this must be a tree. The man holding the tail declares it to be a rope. The trunk is determined to be a snake. The massive side of the elephant must be a wall.


The “relative truth” of each blind man was not true at all. They were touching neither a tree, nor a rope, nor a snake nor a wall; they were touching an elephant. Relativism says they were all correct. Truth correponds to reality. Therefore none of the conclusions based on their perceptions were accurate.

Two statements that contradict one another can never both be true at the same time. This is the law of non-contradiction. If both your hands are touching something, it is either a fan or an elephant. Perhaps what you are touching is neither a fan nor an elephant but it is impossible for it to be both a fan and an elephant.

If, in a word association game, you hear the word “truth”, what would be the first three words that come to your mind?

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!
August 20, 2019 at 11:03pm
August 20, 2019 at 11:03pm
#964499
How often have you heard or read: “It may be true for you but it’s not true for me”? This mantra of Relativism states that there is no objective universal truth. This is a self-contradictory statement, (a topic for another post).
Few if any relativists are truly consistent in how they apply their beliefs. To do so, a relativist would have to apply this nontruth in every sphere of life. There would be no universal standards and everything would be permissible. Therefore we wouldn’t need the following professions, practices or institutions.
1 - Police: Anyone would have the right to do whatever they want to do to anyone else.
2 - School exams: Any answer the student provided is just as correct or valid as the teacher’s opinion about what the answer ought to be.
3 - Inspectors in any field: The car owner’s opinion is as valid as anyone else’s about whether his or her vehicle is safe to drive or fit to be sold.
4 - Historians: Beyond a few generations back, I could claim the Holocaust never happened and say to you who disagreed with me: “Don’t impose your history on me!”
5 - Lawyers: There would be no prohibition on, or penalty for, lying and cheating.
6 - Nutritionists: No one’s opinion would trump another’s about whether or not drinking milk will help your bones. Especially in this industry, what was true yesterday is false today and may be true again tomorrow.
7 - Prisons: A rapist could validly claim: “Rape may not be right for you but it’s right for me.”
8 - Unions: Employers could treat their employees as they see fit because there would be no labour standards.
9 - Insurance: There would be no point to buying insurance because the company could use any reason it considered valid not to honour your claim.
10 - Editors: The author’s use of grammar and his or her perception of the facts would be the only necessary criteria for publication.
In preparing to write this, I came across this saying: “Get the facts or the facts will get you. Beliefs have consequences.
What examples can you think of, apart from religion, where ideas have consequences?

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!
August 16, 2019 at 5:03pm
August 16, 2019 at 5:03pm
#964300
It could be the height of hubris to think this article would benefit ten out of 100 readers but let’s pretend it will. If I were to make twenty tiny tweaks in an attempt to “perfect” it, maybe it would help one or two more people. That would be great but what if I didn’t post it at all because I couldn’t make it as good as I thought it needed to be? How many people would benefit?
I struggle less with perfectionism than I used to, partly because I recognized how it was paralyzing my creativity and productivity. I realized that I could not please everyone, least of all myself. There is a thin grey area between perfectionism and excellence and a thicker grey area between excellence and “good enough”. There is nothing that I do that needs to be perfect in the way that a flight checklist or surgery needs to be. Now that I am retired, there are far fewer tasks where even excellence is really required. That may change depending on what projects or activities I take on.
How does one define what constitutes “perfection” for any project or task? Who gets to set out these criteria when perfection is an illusion to begin with? To what extent is perfectionism an excuse to procrastinate working on a project or avoiding it altogether?
In his video “Perfection is the enemy of done”, Adam Stein makes three important points
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbE0Jkhkg1s
*Bullet*Work to completion, not perfection
*Bullet*Develop the habit of being a “finisher”
*Bullet*The “perfect project” never completed is no better than the project never started

Miranda Marquit describes the problems of perfectionism and provides practical tips for reducing our tendencies towards it.
https://due.com/blog/stop-worrying-perfection-get-things-done/

I have decided that when it comes to blogging, I will prefer posting to perfection. I will put more effort into my other writing for the contests on this site than I will for this blog. I will strive for excellence in my writing for contests and work to completion in creating content for this blog, letting “good enough” be enough.

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!
August 14, 2019 at 1:33am
August 14, 2019 at 1:33am
#964176
Do you ever wonder if there’s any point to saying or writing anything when there are so many voices competing for attention and most people’s attention span is woefully small? When Melissa Bowers mentioned a bad case of writer’s block in her post “Is There Room for Triviality in a World Like This?”, I had a feeling it wasn’t the usual case of having no ideas about what to write. She had plenty of ideas; she just didn’t think they were important enough to write about or to be read.

Is There Room for Triviality in a World Like This? By Melissa Bowers
https://melissabowers.com/room-for-triviality-in-world-like-this/

Even though I don’t watch news, I catch enough to know how overwhelming it is to absorb all the horror, despair and negativity. To talk or write about anything that is bothering me seems like having a petty pity party. Even if I were to say or write something positive, our souls are so crammed with information, it’s rational to assume that no one else has mental room to attend to anything you write. Not to mention that most of us are seriously sleep-deprived which decreases our mental as well as our physical abilities.

Some people have no trouble believing that others would be interested in what they have to say. Others, like me, are more likely to wonder who would bother paying attention to anything I have to say. Which category do you fall into?

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!
August 9, 2019 at 5:27pm
August 9, 2019 at 5:27pm
#963982
Are you (or were you) bewildered by the rules for successful blogging? I was until I read by Robin Houghton‘s book The Golden Rules of Blogging (& When to Break Them)
For each of the 28 “rules”, he lists, he also provides:
- Where the rule comes from
- When you should break it
- At least one brief and very perceptive expert comment
- A “Blogger’s Story” which includes a link to his/her blog

This is available on Amazon as a print book. I borrowed it from my local library. I’m way too new at blogging to be into affiliate marketing so I get no benefit to providing this link beyond the pleasure of maybe helping you.
https://www.amazon.ca/Golden-Rules-Blogging-Robin-Houghton/dp/1440339570/ref=sr_...

I especially liked how there were two views provided for each rule. It helped me to sort out what I want and don’t want to have in my blogging experience. I am not interested in gaining millions of readers or thousands of dollars. I don’t want to feel like a failure as a blogger because I don’t post every day and don’t bother with images.

Success is relative. What a successful blog is to others will be different than what it means to me. What constitutes a successful blog to me is going to be very different several years from now than it is today. My favourite quote from the book was: “Write out of a desire to record and share experiences and ideas.” If I am doing that at least weekly, then my blog is successful.

If you have a blog, if you plan to start one soon or if you are playing around with the idea, what does or would “success” for your blog mean for you?

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!
August 6, 2019 at 4:23pm
August 6, 2019 at 4:23pm
#963817
Before you started blogging, did you wonder whether it was worth the effort? Did you Google “blogging” only to find advice for promoting your brand and marketing your product? Maybe you got lucky and found an article that mentioned “hobby blogging” or “personal blogging”. Did this give you hope you could have a blog which did NOT have to be a narrowly focused, money-making, all-consuming venture?

The best reason for blogging is that it gives you a reason to write every day. Not that you would post every day, but I want to have a backlog of posts ready to go when life gets in the way or I run out of ideas.

Here is a list of benefits of blogging that I came up with from reading the articles below along with several others:
*Bullet* It gives you a platform to share your ideas and discoveries.
*Bullet* You can share what interests you.
*Bullet* It gives you a place to showcase your writing.
*Bullet* You can connect with people who share your interests.
*Bullet* Writing regularly improves your writing.
*Bullet* You’ll learn new things from research you’ll need to do.
Which of these most encourages you to start a blog if you haven’t already done so or to expand on one that you may have abandoned?

In this article, Joshua Becker shares 15 ways blogging can impact your life. I especially like the quote and image at the beginning of his post.

15 Reasons I think you should blog
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/15-reasons-i-think-you-should-blog/

This transcript from an episode of the ProBlogger podcast answers a listener’s question about whether it is important to have a personal blog. This list of reasons could lean toward a niche blog in your future. If you’re interested in delving more deeply into the blogging process, it may be worth subscribing to the podcast.

15 Reasons why you should consider having a personal blog
https://problogger.com/podcast/15-reasons-why-you-should-consider-having-a-perso...

Monique from Ottawa, Canada
No matter what, WRITE!

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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/1986033-Kits-Korner/month/8-1-2019