Take the “Are Poetry Contests Killing Your Soul?” Quiz
Problematic literary contests?
From Poetry Hut Blog:
One of the editors of Cider Press — Robert Wynne — has responded to (what appears to be) unethical behavior regarding their Cider Press Review Book Award. And Stacey Lynn Brown’s rebuttal. (I’ve read that Pavement Saw Press’ contest has been problematic. And did you know that there was no winner chosen this year for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize?)
Poet Billy Collins sells out
“[Billy] Collins, the former U.S. poet laureate, is the keynote speaker for the Decatur Book Festival Friday night at Agnes Scott College. Word from the festival organizers is that all of the free tickets have been given out…” Link
Poets & Writers magazine explains why in the recent issue:
“What makes Billy Collins one of America’s best-known (and best-selling) poets? Perhaps it’s his attention to what matters most — his audience.”
A 90-second GTD primer:
From 43 Folders:
- Project. Any desirable outcome that requires more than one physical action in order to be considered complete.
- “Present a persuasive pitch to Henderson’s group on 2008-10-03” is a Project.
- Next Action. The next physical activity I could perform that moves a Project nearer to the outcome I want.
- “Call Henderson to schedule time and location for 10/3 presentation” is the next action for my Project.
- Context. Any limitation, opportunity, tool, or resource that lets me do one of the physical actions in my Project.
- “@calls” is the Context for my Next Action
- in this case, “@calls” serves as a list of all items I could do on any Project, so long as I have access to a phone.
- (See? Different angle.)
- The Four Criteria Model. The notion that Priority is only one of four criteria in deciding what to do at a given moment.
- The other three are “Time Available,” “Energy Available,” and (you guessed it) “Context.
Multitasking is the art of distracting yourself from two things you’d rather not be doing by doing them simultaneously.
43 Folders
These impassable streets
Ditto, Ashvegas:
The other thing that is annoying the hell out of me in Asheville is all the road construction. Every street and sidewalk in downtown Asheville is currently impassable. Link
Last night, I waited at the Transit Center 20 minutes to catch the bus home. Earlier this week, I waited 20 minutes for the bus heading to the Transit Center. Thinking I was late and had missed the bus, I walked back home to at least plug into my digital nomad life. Two minutes later I see the bus pass by. So I totally missed that bus and arrived at work two hours late.
Whoever had the bright idea at ATS, to throw spaghetti on the a map of Asheville and decide that’s how to re-route buses should be forced to drive those routes for an entire day. Since the schedules are fubar, I don’t even plan to show up at the bus stop on time. This morning I found it saved time to simply walk—almost two miles—from the Transit Center to the office.
From The Writer’s Almanac:
It’s the birthday of the poet Li-Young Lee… born in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1957. His parents were Chinese. His mother was the granddaughter of China’s first president; his father was the son of a gangster. His father worked as the personal physician to Mao Zedong, but the Lees were extremely Christian, and so after the Peoples’ Republic of China was established in 1949, Lee’s parents fled to Jakarta, which is where Li-Young was born. But the authorities were suspicious of his father’s Western interests —he was a professor and he taught Shakespeare, opera, and Kierkegaard—so he was imprisoned. The family fled again, this time to Japan, Macao, and Singapore before ending up in Hong Kong, where Li-Young Lee’s father became a successful evangelical preacher. The family eventually moved to the United States, where Lee’s father was a Presbyterian minister. As a child, Lee learned to recite ancient Chinese poems and the psalms from the Bible. He has published four books of poetry, including The City in Which I Love You (1991) and Behind My Eyes (2008), and a memoir, The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (1995).
It seems to me that in any company, large or small, you can divide the people into three broad categories…. The “Changers”…. people who use their work as a platform to “Change The World”…. The “Contributors”…. people who want to do their jobs, do it well, and get handsomely rewarded for it…. [and] The “Coasters
Hugh McLeod
In today’s world, I’m guessing today’s addiction of choice- the Internet- means not even being able to go to the bathroom without bringing along your laptop. They call it “Crackberry” for a reason.
Hugh McLeod
Lovely handmade books.
joelaz:
I added the new site search feature to… my Tumblr…. I take it all back, Marco and David….
Likewise, Coffeehouse Junkie now has search capability.
Not much psychological knowledge is needed to realize that emotive words can very easily be used to cause the unformed intellect to suspend independent judgment, if not forever, at least until there is some rude awakening. When judgment drops the reains, the harnessed instinct runs away with the cart.”
“The average man of small leisure parrots opinions continuously drilled into him by every possible power of persuasion.”
“The belief that what is evil becomes good if only enough people want it is one of the most terrifying abberations of our age.
Johan Huizinga
(via the constructive curmudgeon) Link
Coffeehouse Junkie 