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 |   The loneliness of the long distance ranter--all visitors are welcomed and forewarned. |
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Back in 2007 I blogged. I blogged a lot. I closed all 3 and went cold turkey for a few years, but, a bit like cigarettes, the craving never really goes away, so I am back. Still an addict. Still a... ... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** A HUGE thank you to Nada  for the fabulous awardicon  I'm docked at "Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond"  , a safe port for bloggers to connect. |
Followed WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024  's insomnia video tips (see comments in previous entry, and got a good 5 hour kip in  Feel much refreshed today, but have a long slog of things to do, which should hopefully promote an exhaustion-fuelled sleep tonight. Time was, if I couldn't sleep I would create. I could that, sure, but I couldn't craft. There is a heck of a lot in my port born of creating, when reality, I know in my heart of hearts I should be spending time crafting. I have the balance wrong between patient planning, developing and editing versus mind-vomit. I can't help wonder about how I am going to change this. I know, for example, that I get easily distracted by shiny things. Lookit: I am grabbing a badly-rolled fag at the back door, dressed in no-nonsense-get-things-done decorating clothes, typing with one finger on he iPad, ignoring the fact my oven's 'I am warm enough now for you to place raw goods inside me' light.  *goes off to feed pizza to the oven* Decorating: removed old silicone sealer around bath, and put a new bead of 60 minute cure around. Got in bath for 60 minutes, with iPad, and replied to emails. Silicone set, I got out. Saw next job and evaluated: remove old broken plastic bath panel and replace. Tools required:  replacement bath panel (in shed. Cold out. Stay in shed for now) Black & Decker Workmate, workbench (also in shed. Still cold. Stay in shed for now} masking tape ( ) jigsaw (in study/currently indoors shed. Buried somewhere amongst assorted tool boxes--I hoard tools and could probably open up my own hardware shop. Too darn hard to tiptoe through the saws and hatchets. Stay in study for now)Result: half a job done...to add to a few dozen more half-completed tasks. My writing is like this, too! I create, the power wares down, more work looms ahead and so the item gets stored in my Work in Progress file until I can find the energy to get my writing tools out. So much easier to play editor with other people's writing, and I can kid myself I am honing my editing skills, if I while away a couple hours reviewing  Acme Jnr advised me to make a list of 3 X things to accomplish in a day. Nothing mammoth--three bite-sized chunks of jobs, as simple as 'reply to emails, buy birthday card, post birthday card'. I am going to try it for the decorating and my writing. Starting tomorrow. Procrastination is my new enemy. I swear he hangs out with Insomnia...  *burnt offerings from the oven-god, infuse the kitchen with incense* ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I could not sleep last night. Insomnia is a frequent companion and not cool. I am awake, dark, swollen skin under my eye sockets. Free hallowe'en makeup I guess. Got a 100 year-old grandmother to take to Mass, her housework and mine to do, before BA gets home. I certainly won't have as much time to play on WdC today. I have a couple reviews to do later, but no real rush, and I have decided to limber up for "Invalid Item" by dipping my nib by way of some poetry composition later. *sighs* There goes the alarm. Time to rise and shine haunt!     |
| Well, I doubt I will be able to recreate a day like this again for at least another 12months. It is officially tomorrow in the UK. I have been on WdC for over 12 hours. many reviews done community love spread trinket created Yeah, you read right. Not as purdy as the lovely ones in my collection made by artistic types, but forged by the sweaty efforts of a Luddite, typing with one finger, downloading apps without teenage assistance, and all the while sticking my tongue out in determined concentration for artistic balance: |
You asked me if there was anything for you to create: I loved your question on motivation. So my question is Why did you participate in Rising Stars and tell me about what triggered you and what you want to take out of this endeavor. What do you bring into this? What are your strong points/weak points as a writer and do you think some of those will be met during our 8 months journey? Make a static about that and put it in your port.  ~ email from WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024 I think I may have answered some of these questions in my last blog entry, but, rather than refer to that, I will add to yesterday's entry. Why did you participate in Rising Stars and tell me about what triggered you and what you want to take out of this endeavor. I had a long sojourn away from WdC when my life hit a couple of large potholes. Time on here got harder to find. Now look at me: first day off in about a month and am I plastering the dining room? Nope. I am looking at my unmade scaffolding, paddle mixer, hawk, trowel and mixing bucket out of the corner of my eye, whilst the other googly orb keeps check on the battery-life of my IPad. Thing is, I don't feel that guilty. I had started to feel guilty about the time I spent on WdC, when I curtailed my presence here a few years back. Was that because I thought my kids needed all my spare time because they have gone and are still going through a childhood with one less parent? Maybe, but I took a look at my non-existent social life and saw someone who played a lot of roles (bread-winner, parent, dutiful [and happy to be so] carer for elderly relative, friend, neighbour, cat feeder/slave etc.,), and realised I do not do a thing for me. Luckily, I am low maintenance. Something to type on and an Internet connection appears to be my greatest pampering of whimsy. Welcome home to WdC. But where is home on WdC? Is it really my port? Golly, I hadn't been rummaging around in there for a while. Sheesh, there are well-over 500 items in there. Writes that lovely reviewers remind me of from nearly a decade ago. Did I write that? Could I still write? Scary stuff. Need to build that delightfully brash confidence back up. Nope, port didn't feel like home. Community was home, but it had been a while since I interacted. Some friends and forums were gone, or worse, the cases were there, but no one was home  . Like an abandoned amusement park, signs on forums and groups read creepy messages like, "On Hiatus" and "Back in 2013!" Worse than that were the hollow echoes of former things: forums that still existed, and inside them, trapped voices from later years with conversations like:"Anyone home?" 03/21/2014  Tumbleweed "Guess not." 06/12/2014  Low moaning wind "Oh why don't people put these old forums down! So your forum rules say that you will delete off topic? Well, delete this, you lazy *#@!" 02/25/2015 Ok, so some old haunts had gone, and it deeply saddened me because our responsibility to keep this community tidy is pretty important, especially when you think of all the visitors who join us to join in; it can take a lot for a new person to join in. Imagine the horror of no one hearing your voice  . When I couldn't commit myself as I thought I should I found new owners to run the groups/forums/contests I couldn't spend the time they deserved on. I looked for old friends. There they were in my email memory, a lot of them reduced to the desolate_blue_of_deleted_member_status. I was scared.Then I checked myself. It was ok to be scared. Sure, I had logged on about once a month and kept my membership going, but it had been a whole 5years since I wrote. Half a flipping decade  . Strangely, this made me feel better: I was just a yellow-cased newbie. I could start exploring the site anew! And guess what, the newsletters were still full of fab things to read, do, visit...and not all my old friends had gone, oh no, no siree. Most were around, to encourage, to motivate, to inspire and before I knew it I was writing, participating, reviewing, hosting contests, entering contests, and generally having a blast. The "Invalid Item" had 50 entries. All reviewed. The "Invalid Item" isn't doing as well as I hoped, but, Ho-hey, more time to do more! And the "Invalid Item" will be back on its feet before I know it, along with a new, secret writing workout for only a select few that I can't go into detail about until my test pilot and I have .... Well, just trust me: it will be a very different kind of group...Anyhoo, I was starting to feel comfortable here again, and enjoying reading and reviewing new writers. I thought of GabriellaR45 and that fabulous programme, Rising Stars. It nurtured and enriched my early days here on site. I wanted to be part of that again, and so here I am. What do I want to take out of it? Everything I can put in, I think  oh, and to learn a lot along the way, with my teammate.What do you bring into this? I bring dog analogies today!  I bring the delighted puppy of mischief into this: I get rather excited about things. I hope that rubs off when the workload seems a little daunting.  I bring the terrier of trouble with me: I take on beasts twice my size and tenaciously persevere beyond the point when most give up. I hope that determination fires the will to succeed. I bring the wolfhound of loyalty with me: I got your back. Always. I bring the golden retriever of game with me: everyone knows I am a massive hypocrite when it comes to treating my own writing to rudimentary reader expectations, like editing, but ye gads, I can proofread and hunt down pesky punctuation problems, flow, character and story development like a ... Like a hunting dog! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** What are your strong points/weak points as a writer and do you think some of those will be met during our 8 months journey? Weak points, and how I might address them, include:  Taking things seriously. Life's too short. I do recognise, however, that sometimes mucking about is not the answer, especially if folks rely on you. I hope to 'mature' a little and become incredibly grown up, sensible and classy...at least when it matters. Terrible organisational skills are a weak point. Happily, this appears to be the opposite for my rising star. I hope to learn a lot. Look it? I am using a blog/journal format and have created a folder to put things away tidily   Poetry, especially free verse. Again, this is a strong point for my travelling companion. Maybe some good will rub off.Strengths include:  Academic writing (not sure what use that will be...) History (BIG fan of research, which might prove useful) Comedy (from satire to slapstick) Reviewing (with a gob as big as mine, it would be rude to keep my opinions to myself) Proofreading (I have eyes like a shithouse rat, for other folks writes, at least)Make a static about that and put it in your port. I am a rebel: I did this blog entry instead. Sorry |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I have been on WdC for 9 years. I love it here. Like most folks, sometimes I have the freedom to spend endless hours knocking about the place, sometimes not. Thank heaven for Brooklyn  's Masquerade. It gave me a chance to reconnect properly with writing, as well as writers. Dear iKïyå§ama-House Targaryen  got me involved in an even wider writing experience with the international community via Project Write World, and that dearest of site stalwarts of sisterhood, GabriellaR45 , reminded me of what treats could be found by making new friends and discovering new talented writers out there with the relaunch of the fabulous Rising Stars programme.Rising Stars has changed/tweaked/revised its format over the years. I think that is why it is so popular, oozes vitality, and creates a work ethos that promotes and encourages hard work and talent--being a candidate all those years ago was a real honour and has fostered a commitment to craft that I employ off site as well as on. The biggest honour of all is the responsibility and gift of being a sponsor. I am over the moon to mentor a candidate like WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024 , although I am not sure mentor is the best word--it is her journey, her hard work and commitment, that will be involved as her star rises. I am just lucky to hang on her tailcoats for the ride. Even though it is all about her (as it should be), so generous is she in her passion, zeal and hunger for writing, that we both see this as an opportunity for a mutually beneficial experience. I am already rediscovering old loves that my muse had thought buried in layers of dust (well, look at this: I am blogging again), and excitement rules the roost as I look forward to taking on new experiences, led by her example (co-writing a short story, for example). In comparison to the amount of work she has ahead of her, you may think my role of 'being there' is an easy one, yet I am as nervous as hell: I don't want to let her down. I asked Gabby if I could sponsor her after rummaging around the blogs and poetry in her port. She is a very different writer to me. It is one of the things that attracted me to working with her, but is that perhaps a disservice to her? Should she have a passionate poet with her, instead of a comedy clown/satirist, history fan and essayist? I hope the pros outweigh the cons; a different perspective never hurt me, after all. I asked her a deceptively simple question, and I will ask it you, too: Why do you write? In case you think me all take and no give, here's my answer from 2008:
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Still have an awful lot of real life pulling me away from my beloved WdC, but, thankfully, no more crashes!
