Tag: Time

Categories
Writing

The Search for a Social Identity

I am your typical introvert: I don’t have a need to talk to people. I can go an entire day and not say a single word and not mind at all.

Likewise, I don’t have a need to interact online. I enjoy peek into the socials to see what’s going on and what other people are up to, but I rarely feel the need to share my own activities.

Therefore I really don’t have much of a social media presence. I appear once in a while, say something snarky, and disappear back into my cave.

And I like it way.

However, I’ve been told repeatedly that I need a social media following to be a successful writer in this market. But it’s been hard to keep myself focused on the task. I have to pull myself away from other tasks – more important tasks – to do this… whatever ‘this’ is.

I’m not sure what I’m to do about it. I’ve laid out media plans, scheduled wiring tasks, outlines, etc. And have failed to stay on task at every turn. But yet, I’ll rework a single scene from my story for hours on end. Because ‘that’ is the work to me. Not this… not talking… not socializing in electronic packets… not showing you my lunch or my cat or derpy dog.

Sigh… But I guess I will for a laugh….

Whatever happened to that solitary tortured soul of a writer?

I miss that guy…

Categories
Life

Your Task List Will Expand to Fill the Alotted Time OR How I Lost Track of Two Months

I am a busy guy. I don’t really have ‘free’ time and I like it that way.

I have things to do.

I am an engineer and project manager, a husband with a large yard and an old house, a scuba diver, a traveler, an aspiring writer and guitar player, and occasionally a blogger. It’s the ‘occasional’ that I want to address here.

I started blogging because I had ideas, opinions, and general thoughts that I believed someone would find entertaining. I also enjoy writing and do it every day in some form. Lately, it’s spent more planning to write than actually writing. But that is always a struggle.

Yet, this year my other tasks seemed to have gotten the edge on me and I found myself buried in ‘things to do.’ This all resulted in two months vanishing without me really writing anything substantive. This blog will break that cycle and tick off one of my tasks. I have made a nice dent in my list and have even started using a Kanban board to manage my priorities.

(I can honestly say that it has worked. The engineers and nerds out there will know what I’m talking about.)

The pics in this post are a small sample of what I was doing in May and June, including:

  • Rewiring a production line
  • Scuba diving in Key West
  • Visiting the Hemingway House
  • Laying tile in my basement
  • Shakespeare in the park
  • Drinking beer with a cat
  • And something to do with a saw

As you can see, I’ve been busy.

There are still lots of stories from our Egypt trip to write up and I need to have that wrapped before our Italy trip. So, I’ve got some work to get done.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer. I’m going to go tear out a basement closet, now.

    Categories
    Uncategorized

    The Decay will be Documented


    Sometimes I like to play photographer. I have no training and don’t have the delusion that I’m an ‘artist’. However, I do like to think that I have an eye. An eye for what I find interesting anyway. I am an engineer by profession and tend to think visually, so I will find myself seeing a picture in my head and then try to recreate it. It’s never as good as I imagined, but sometimes I do surprise myself.

    One of my favorite themes in my writing and photography is Time. The passing of it, the waste of it, the grasping for it. Abandoned places are a great place to find images of this. The decay of human endeavor and possessions fascinates me because nature doesn’t care what we think is beautiful or valuable. It will chew it up and turn it into life regardless.

    This image was taken in an abandoned farmhouse in Nebraska. I found it odd that the television was still in mostly one piece, possibly even sitting where it was last used how many decades ago.

    If you listen closely you can hear a raccoon hissing in the background.