Tag Archives: writing

Which is Better, The Dream or Reality?

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Today, the FedEx man delivered my much-coveted purple insulated, stainless steel “sippy” jug. I’ve wanted it for quite some time and was glad to see it arrive. But the realizations that arrived with the delivery were better, and more welcome, than the Amazon order.

This particular FedEx employee has been out quite a bit lately — since Verizon has failed to send me a working phone to access Internet during the past three weeks, despite five attempts — but that’s another story and I don’t want to recount it here and get all angsty again.

While making the delivery we chatted a bit. He asked how I came to live out this far off the beaten path. I thought for a moment and told him that twenty years ago I decided I wanted to live in the middle of the woods in a cabin and write. Until the words left my lips, I didn’t realize that this year marked the two-decade mark.

I told him that it took eight years to find the farm and for the last 12, I’d cleared the spot here in the middle, lived in and discarded a trailer, and finally built the cabin where I live now. I told him I moved in before I had floors and walls and running water because I knew if I tried to live elsewhere and save up the money to make it happen, it never would. He said I was brave and unusual, which is better than saying I’m crazy, but is probably not far removed.

I told him that way back then, it occurred to me that it was crazy to continue working long hours at a job I didn’t like, leaving my kids in daycare, to be able to eventually afford to start living my dream sometime in my 60s or 70s — so I quit the job when I found the farm and moved out here. I told him that I wasn’t writing the “Great American Novel” for publication as I’d intended, but I was living in the woods, in my cabin and writing for a living, and it was good.

He asked me if it was what I’d expected it to be — was it better or worse than the dream? Again, I found myself realizing the truth as I answered…

“When I had ‘the dream’ it was all whispy,” I replied, “like a castle built on clouds, but this is better because it’s real.” He smiled, gave me a curt nod and said he could understand that.

Until today, I often reveled in the fact that I had “arrived” — and promptly forgot that when things weren’t going the way I wanted them to, when frustrations arose, when times were trying — but I had never truly embraced the fact that my reality now is better than I’d imagined they it be… back when it was just my dream.

I don’t have to work all the time now. I have clients to serve, projects to complete, and plenty to keep me busy (I’m always happiest when I have work to do and I doubt that will ever change), but I don’t have to push my way through every day. There are some mornings now, well before my “retirement” age has even arrived, when I get up in the morning and think to myself, “What do I WANT to do today?” and once I settle on an answer, THAT is exactly what I do! It doesn’t happen every day. It doesn’t even happen on a regular basis, but it does happen.

And today, more than yesterday, I realize… That’s a pretty cool place to be, isn’t it? :)

Playing with Blogsy App for Blogging on My iPad

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Blogging App for iPadYesterday, I read a few reviews and visited the website for a new blogging app for the iPad. It’s called Blogsy and, until now, I’ve been rather unimpressed with those apps claiming to be blogging apps for the iPad/iPhone platform. (This one is ONLY for the iPad, btw.)

All that changed when I put out my $3 last night on iTunes and downloaded this pretty little thing and started using it today. I’m writing this blog on it now and I must say, it’s making the blog process fun. Believe it!

The Good
There’s lots of real estate for composing – even with the keyboard on in landscape mode! The designers have followed the 80/20 rule beautifully by adding nearly everything a typical blogger would need in neat, easy-to-access and visually uncomplicated tool bars on the top and the right side of the screen. It’s pretty. It really is.

It’s also cheap! The developer seems to be responsive to user comments, problems and suggestions and has already submitted a new version to the App Store (currently awaiting the official nod) to address some of those. In the meantime, the price has been lowered until the new version comes out — so now is a great time to buy if you want to try it for yourself.

I’m quite excited to watch as this little app develops and matures — it may easily become one of the most used apps on my iPad.

The Bad
I wish there was a way to add my own photo repository sites to pull the images over and that those icons could join the ones for Flickr, Picasa, YouTube and Google on the right column.

Yes, there’s a Safari-type button there, so I can get there, but there’s no way to favorite or make an icon for the couple sites I use most, so it’s a long and unnecessarily complicated process. I guess I could “go with the flow” and throw up all the images I think I might need onto my seldom-used Flickr account, or start using Picasa, but I’d rather not. Besides, doing that means I can’t do it all from the iPad, and that’s the real goal here.

I’d also like to be able to pull images directly off my iPad to add in. If there’s a way to do that, I’ve not found it.

It would also be nice to work on drafts that are currently in process on my WordPress self-hosted site, or the ability to pull down and edit published posts on the fly. Right now, this will only create new posts and upload them.

I have heard reports of the loss of posts when attempting to upload to a blog — but have not experienced that one myself. I’m writing this blog on Blogsy now! :) I think it would be great to have an automatic backup on the app to prevent data loss — and to prevent that sinking feeling when you just exit an app without hitting a save button and just hope for the best.

The Ugly
There is no ugly to this app. The layout is intuitive and easy to use. Instructions are complete and easy to follow. It’s like a little microcosm of Blogging 101 — with the power to support those of us who have been at it for many years.

Until recently, I didn’t realize how important the icon is to my enjoyment of an app. Sure, it must function well, do the job and not crash — but having a little bit of pretty eye candy makes me happy and this app has that too. (Now, maybe I like it because I still love the classic tools of the writing trade – typewriters, fountain pens… heck, even Quills!) Or maybe my age and sense of nostalgia just gets the better of me from time to time.

If you are a mobile blogger – this may be the next tool in YOUR toolbox.

The Uh-Oh!
***NOTE/UPDATE: Although I still like the little app, it has frustrated my morning. I probably won’t try to blog on it again until the new, more stable version is released — since as I was finishing up the last paragraph, the thing crashed and I lost everything other than the first sentence. :(

I had to recreate it from memory… on my MacBook. And this was a crash unrelated to the “uploading” one I’ve read about. This one was while I was trying to add a link. Go figure.

5/20/2011 – update – I’ve played with the Blogsy app quite a bit now, and must say that I love it. Nearly all of the issues I noted before have been addressed and it has now become a permanent resident on my first page of my iPad. I love how responsive and helpful the developer is in answering questions and addressing concerns (see the comments below for a sample!) Thank you for making Blogsy a keeper!

Minimalist Goals and a Focused Life

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I’m taking an inventory of my life. I’ve been a simplicity advocate for many years, and yet my own life has been extraordinarily complex. I see now that those complications are of my own making. I see that I have made a habit of continually making choices that inhibit simplicity.

In the same way (a few years back) I realized that I took on other people’s problems to keep from looking too closely at my own life. Family, friends… even clients. I called it “helping” others — but it was actually avoiding me.

That has changed. I still help people, but I make sure that I’m doing it for them and not for myself. I really think on that before acting. That’s new.

So, I guess I’ve become a woman of “a certain age” and things are becoming clearer.

Perhaps the complications in my life are a similar avoidance. I called it other things. I justified, I even enjoyed the complications — held tightly to them and wouldn’t have changed them for anything. The complications taught me huge lessons and showed me a great amount of joy. It was easy to get lost.

I would like to say that I came to this epiphany on my own — that I’m THAT enlightened or THAT mature. The fact is, someone else had to shake up my life for me to remember my long-term goals and the importance of simplicity. My own priorities will now play a much larger role as I learn how to pare down and un-knot my life to date. I have to get things straight in my own mind before I’m sure about the direction. It’s like my life map is all wadded up. I know the route is there, it’s just obscured by wrinkles (how ironic) creases and folds. I’ll iron it out.

On the bright side, I’ve learned many lessons of late. Lessons about love and patience and being the best person I can be. I’ve learned to compromise when I wanted to control. To speak calmly when I want to scream. To think before I talk or act. I’ve learned to consider others before myself – even people who aren’t my own offspring. I’ve given this lip-service before — even practiced it intermittently — but I never made it a lifestyle before. Now, I have. I guess that is a success.

It’s a calmer existence. I think it may eventually become an enjoyable one. But for now, it’s a challenge. For now, it’s overwhelming. For now — I need to take the time required to focus on the second half of my life and spend less time evaluating the first half.

Paring down to the essentials will be a tremendous effort. Determining what is past and what is future will envelop my present for awhile. I’m trying to concentrate on the journey, to learn to enjoy THIS path, but it’s difficult.

I have to remember what my father told me recently — “People who WANT to write, write. Everyone else makes excuses.” That upset me at first — I felt that he didn’t understand my situation, my “complicated life” and that he was minimizing the importance of how I had chosen to spend my time, my resources, my energies. Now I have to wonder…

I suppose people who WANT to travel, do it — instead of just putting it off and adding things to their lives that inhibit the realization of the goal. I made choices that filled my life to the brim — and left no room for anything else. And I did it with a smile. I loved it. So…

Do I really want to write? Do I really want to travel? Do I want them both enough to do them, regardless of the cost, the isolation, and the difficulties I’ll have to face to accomplish them? Or is it time to admit that this isn’t really what I want … is it time to change the goals?

I don’t think so… but…

The next few weeks (or months) will be a time of soul-searching and self-discovery. I’d like to say I’m really looking forward to it, but in truth, I think I’d prefer a nap. But I know that this time will be pivotal for me and that weighs on me.

I’m cocooning right now, and yet, I’m not excited about emerging in a different form on the other side. I will be. But for now, I’m just exhausted, sad and overwhelmed. It’s a monumental undertaking and, for better or worse, I can’t put it off any longer.

Writer’s corner: Working with words on a Mac

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Writing the "wicked" way

Writing the "wicked" way

I’ve been looking for the perfect word processor for the Mac for quite some time. When I first broke free of MS Word, I was loving the open-source community and I was all about OpenOffice.

Then, when I made the jump to Linux, I simply adored Abiword and wondered why I had dealt with the bloat of Word and even OpenOffice for so long. (I still use Open Office for other features, but don’t like waiting for the launch for a word processor.)

When I went to the Mac platform, I traded in my OpenOffice for a Mac-specific version of the same called NeoOffice. Frankly, I got tired of waiting so long for it to launch to jot down the idea that I was trying to wrestle, so I started looking for faster options. I looked at Mellel (which was reportedly a favorite of many writers). It came in one of my MacUpdate packages, which pleased me. I liked it ok. I used it for quite awhile. But it always seemed to be a bit lacking. Couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

I considered getting one of the “blackout” programs that turned the full screen into a writing surface without any distracting menus or pop-ups. I test drove a couple. WriteRoom (with the Windows version being DarkRoom) and even got the iPhone app for WriteRoom to try that one on the fly. Neither worked as I had hoped, I needed it to do a bit more than just blacken the screen for $25, so when the Mac trial ran out, I left it.

I also started looking into notes options that would launch quickly… something like the notepad gadget on Windows… but something with a bit more umph. From there, I discovered TextWrangler, TextEdit (which came with my Mac), and even played with Stickies (also came with the Mac) and a dozen or so others, all in an attempt to find a quick way to keep up with my notes.

I gave up finding the perfect tool(s) and hobbled along, busy with all the other balls I was juggling. Finding these holy grails joined the mass of items on the “I’ll get back to it” list. I find that locating the perfect tools (software) on a Mac can become a full-time hobby all by itself. There are so many options! There are dozens of options that I tried that didn’t even make it into the top contenders list.

But, recently, I found my perfect option. I have a four-pronged approach to the office suite thing – one is for quick notes on my Mac, one is for word processing and “darkening” my distractions, one is for full featured word processing (which I seldom touch these days) and one is mobile.

First, I have a quick-launching multi-note system in XPad. It offers a quick way to get the thoughts down and to make lists for specific projects, ideas and writing projects. It also offers a “slide out” list of all the mini-documents contained therein. It offers cool tools like fonts and highlighter and color options without cluttering the interface with more stuff than I need or want. XPad launches when I turn on my Mac and stays “at the ready” for me to use. And, it’s FREE!

Second, I have Bean. Bean is an oddly named, but beautifully built word processor that launches quickly and handles 90% of what I need. In addition to being there in a couple seconds (literally), it also offers bullets, formatting, highlighting and several advanced features. It even offers a “full screen” mode that blacks out the rest of my computer and helps me to concentrate on the business of writing. I changed the blue background with white text to the retro black background and electric green type of my youth. I love it. LOVE IT. And, it’s also free.

I keep a copy of NeoOffice on my machine, although I seldom launch it for anything other than the spreadsheet app. I don’t really do much with advanced features like mail-merge and the like, so I don’t need those “hefty” features because I don’t do admin work. And, I don’t want to sit and wait. I hate waiting for a program to launch. I despise it.

On the “mobile” front, I absolutely adore that feature-rich note system in Awesome Note for my iPhone. I love that it’s wherever I am, and that it’s able to sync with Google Docs — even the Google Apps version! So I can backup and restore my notes from any location. It’s richly textured and as graphically beautiful and visually appealing as it is functional. I may like bare-bones programs on my computer – clean and crisp is fine there – but on my iPhone apps, I expect beauty. I can’t explain that, but the graphics (even the icon for the app) seriously affects how often I’ll use an app. I’m iPhone shallow, I guess.

I’m a writer by trade — mostly a content and marketing writer for my clients. I write, do web work, and SEO submissions. That doesn’t take much word-processing power. It takes a little knowledge and a lot of creativity — and the ability to capture the creative sparks when they fly. I find that having to wait for my software to launch actually discourages my productivity. If it’s a quick launch, I’ll add a thought or an idea on the fly. If I know I have to sit and wait for it to launch — even for an additional 5-10 seconds — I think, “Oh, I’ll just remember this and jot it down next time I’m working on that.”

The fact is… I don’t remember and I’m not patient. I’ve quit trying to pretend that I will or that I am. I know my foibles and I now find the tools I need to work around them. Resistance is, after all, futile. It’s particularly so when fighting my own nature. These tools make my life better and my business stronger and for under five bucks, I have them ALL.

Even in this economy, that’s a GREAT deal!

Media and Truth: A Mutually Exclusive Relationship?

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It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a rant. So, if you want kindness or technical assistance this is not the post for you (use the search box to find a less angsty post on the topic of your choice.)

If you like a good rant… you are in luck!

I have my roots in media. One of my most enjoyable, challenging and rewarding professional stints was as a reporter and later as a managing editor of a small newspaper. I ponder that time of my life fondly now (in my dotage) and wonder at the amount of energy I had to do all that way back when. Gee what I wouldn’t give for some… even just a little of that now!

Today, the written word is my favorite tool and past time and passion. I think it always will be.

But what I see in the media now absolutely curls my toes (and not in a good way!) There is no relationship between truth and what is written in the mainstream publications. Particular offenders are local newspapers and television newscasts.

Larger papers, assumed to be more reserved with stories more carefully crafted and with a team of fact-checkers on staff, are now slinging sensationalism too. It used to be that I avoided even looking at the “weekly” rags at the checkout line at the grocery store. I’ve NEVER purchased one (nor do I ever intend to). But today, even the local papers use those same reporting “techniques.”

If I had been the editor when some of the recent news stories were submitted, some reporting “heads” would have rolled. I would have benched them or fired them. Period. There’s not even a half-hearted attempt to get facts right in “news” stories…even to the point of the basics (who, what, where, when, how)… even THESE they get wrong.

As far as reporting voice and tone — it’s more like a Stephen King novel than a report. A reporter, people, is supposed to REPORT — hence the name. Capture the reader with your headline, sure, but tell the facts in an unbiased and well researched way in the body.

There, I said it.

A writer of FICTION gets to make it up and “fill in the blanks” between the missing bits of reality strung together for entertainment purposes. This type of writing is not reporting. See the difference?  If you have an opinion, it belongs on the OP/ED page — not on the front page.

If you must create stories (which isn’t a bad thing… at all… so long as you don’t try to pass it off as truth) — then write fiction. As a fiction writer, you can play free and easy with the facts as much as you like. It hurts no one. It’s not unethical or immoral then. Then, it’s properly seen as entertainment. Then it’s fun.

And if you are an news editor, and you are letting this half-baked crap be sent to the press you should be ashamed. Where are the Publishers, to fire the editors who don’t fire the reporters for this shameful work product?

Does life not have enough real drama? Must more be created by our “news” outlets? Are the traditional, once respectable, news venues so desperate to hang on financially that they have sold out their rightful role as the watchdog of our society just to sell a few more papers? Are the continuing education classes for journalists now being sponsored by The Enquirer?

How disgusting I find it all.