Category: Musings

Ponderings, reflections, thoughts, and other observations.

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Where To Begin …

… that always seems to be the hardest point when I start writing. Especially when I have no real idea where I want to go to. Perhaps the question that should be asked when I am staring at a blank screen is where to end?

An alpha-omega moment when both the beginning and the end are equally and clearly in sight is a writer’s dream as I see it. If I know precisely the opening I want to have and know the exact ending I want to reach then all the rest in the middle should simply fall into place. It’s simply connecting the dots.

Today I knew I wanted to write a post, almost a need to write if you will … it something that just had to be done. Did I know this would be the topic, getting from the beginning of a post to the end of the post and filling in the middle with something other than mindless drivel? Not really, and hopefully it serves more than just filling this digital space with pixels in the shapes of letters and spaces strung together to form words.

This sort of writing, free streaming conscious thoughts, is always interesting in that it can go just about anywhere the fingers want to take it as the thought behind it is minimal for the most part. I simply just type as fast as I can think clearly, as I pointedly say the words clearly in my mind.

Which brings to mind it is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Give it a try, you’ll never know if you don’t.

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Automattic = dot-wp?

Yesterday this post was made by Matt Mullenweg regarding the recent accreditation of Automattic as a domain registrar.

I think this leads to a real possibility of dot-wp top level domains (TLD)! As I have recently fallen to the little known affliction of IDA I am quite concerned that this may create a unscratchable itch?! Will this create a digital land-rush for .wp domains?

There is also the potential for a dot-blog TLD that may be more appealing to the Internet in general. As it is, for more general details regarding the creation of a new TLD, head over to ICANN and read this article

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Are You Ready?

Do you stockpile posts? Do you have an idea file that you pick and choose from to write just the right post at just the right time? I rarely do, but sometimes an idea just needs to be kept aside for just the right occasion. Hopefully soon a post I wrote will leave the draft status to live as published … and to add to this mystery: expect it to appear on another site.

Normally I post stream of conscious writings here and will likely keep that style. I find it very freeing to just simply write whatever comes to mind. I write. I edit. I write some more. I edit more … sometimes I stumble, sometimes my fingers dance across the keyboard. I still find it completely amazing how well my touch-typing skills have improved over the last few years of blogging, writing, and coding.

Of course, on other sites I often write with a planned idea in mind. Some of these posts are often written over a number of days. Typically I will think of an idea; consider how I want to convey the topic at hand; then, begin writing. I tend to save these posts as a drafts for a day or so but eventually after several re-reads and usually an edit or two more these posts are published as well. Feel free to stop by my other sites to read them.

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Time Flies

I cannot believe it has been 10 days since I last made a new post here. I do not even have the excuse of being busy posting on my other sites although there have been a few posts made.

I wrote about the lastest release of one of my plugins, BNS Featured Tag version 1.8.1 on October 3, 2010. It was more or less my standard announcement post when I release a new version of a plugin.

A few days later, I wrote about the latest version of Ground Floor, 1.6, on October 6. Again, a simple announcement post for one of my free WordPress Themes.

The following day I posted an article at WPFirstAid.com under my nom de plume for that blog of The Doctor. The gyst of the article was how to Extend the WordPress Menu, referring to adding content to the wp_nav_menu() function output. I started writing the post on October 6 and published it on October 7 as I found it a bit more involved to explain the technique for everyday use after it had been sorted out.

Yesterday, October 12, I wrote a post for the just opened domain WPTRT.com. I registered the domain a little while ago for any potential uses the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT) may need that were not readily available. The post itself was a summary of the First Meeting the WPTRT held on October 9, 2010 (via IRC).

It seems I have been busy doing a great many things I enjoy over the past 10 days which proves the old adage:

time flies when you’re having fun!

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Challengers

It never ceases to amaze me how people can believe being antagonistic will actually improve any given situation unless their goal is to make the process more arduous for themselves before their commentary was made.

Of course there are individuals that do prefer to challenge themselves by purposely creating barriers for going forward but it just seems much more sensible to try to communicate in a more cordial manner than behaving as though the rules should not apply to them in the first place.

C’est la vie.

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Manna and Music

These items just struck me as having a great photogenic and blogging potential: my Filthy Chai Grande; and, a brand new Apple iPod Nano. The picture was taken with my iPhone and uploaded via the WordPress app.

Starbucks Filthy Chai and Apple iPod Nano

I used my Starbucks card to pay for my Chai, it was pre-loaded earlier this week. The hand-written drink order on the side of the cup just looks so naturally part of the design, its as though the cup was printed just like it appears. Quality penmanship is becoming more and more rare in these days of digitality that when you come across fine example such as this one it should be shared. Also to note, Starbucks in Canada also offers free wi-fi to everyone.

My wife and I used Airmiles to get the iPod Nano for our daughter, Jackie. It arrived at my desk this morning; I had not thought about seeing it anytime soon as the confirmation suggested it would be two to three weeks before we would see it. It’s soooo small! … and, it still has a serious “cool” factor about it. Besides, we had to do something with all those airmiles.

Just looking at the two items on my desk made me think what a great picture this would make … the rest of the post is just my usual musings.

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Here or There

Although I have not been writing as much on this site of late I have been posting on my other sites. Here is a short recap from the last week:

  • WPFirstAid: An Implementation of wp_nav_menu – This article will show how to implement the wp_nav_menu() function using the wp_list_pages() function as a fallback.
  • BuyNowShop: Shades 1.6 – The free WordPress Theme Shades version 1.6 is now live as of September 14, 2010.
  • Rattitude: H2 – … aka Aramis, one of our three boys from the Toronto Humane Society is this week’s Rat of the Week.

A short interlude of space and time can always be filled with substance from another place.

Is it a benefit or detriment to write on more than one site?

Some might argue the case it is splitting your readership to post on several sites while others may put forward the thought that each site represents a distinct content set.

I agree with the latter idea, but I can understand the merits to the first camp’s premise of keeping your readers focused on one site to better maintain their interest. It is under that same premise that I generally separate my content so my readers are able to focus on like content aside from it all being from the same author.

If you write on multiple sites, how do you separate your post ideas?

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Eleven Oh Eight

Sometimes you just need to take what you can get … and today that is 11:08PM, when I started writing this post.

Five minutes in and I am stumbling about the keyboard; and, I’m not really having much to think about or write for that matter. The ideas are fleeting and I am just writing steam of conscience thoughts. Really just whatever comes to mind tonight although it really is rather thin and tenuous.

Ten minutes in now, and I’m still not really getting anywhere with this post, but more than anything else I am looking forward to having a new post with the latest variation of the Shades theme that I recently uploaded to the WordPress.org repository. Being deferred to as the team lead would allow me the luxury of approving my own theme without review, the most correct method is to have another team member give it the once over just in case I missed something.

Seventeen minutes and I am bringing this post to a close … sometimes you get what you can and move on.

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Patience

Biding ones time is likely the most common form of patience shown, or in other words patience is the art of waiting; but, what does waiting accomplish for the patient person?

You may often gain a clearer picture of a situation with unseen influences and unknown circumstances becoming apparent after a judicious application of patience.

The patient fisherman waits for just the right moment to set the hook before reeling in their catch. The seasoned farmer practices patience waiting to reap the greatest harvest. A wily adversary will wait patiently for their opponent to make an error and capitalize on it.

… and some would even say:

Revenge is a dish best served cold.
an old French proverb*

*NB: In early literature this proverb is used, usually, to persuade another to forestall vengeance until wisdom can reassert itself although this ideal is lost in more recent occurrences found in literature and the cinema.

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Blank Screen

There is always a seed of inspiration in every moment; it is only a matter of realizing its growth potential.

This moment’s inspiration is a blank screen and ten minutes to fill it. A blank screen to match what I am drawing from my mind; and, although I am not using this as a 10 Minute exercise the goal is still the same. I like to write, or ramble as the case may be; and, today it would seem more rambling than writing.

My seedling ideas are suffering from the sleep inducing heat of these lazy August summer days. So, without further ado … zzZZzzz….