30 poems in 30 days: update three

30 poems in 30 days: day 5
pages of a poem for day five

As stated previously, Deborah offered a challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days. So far, I’ve been able to keep up with it in spite of a summertime cold and an urgent freelance job that evolved into a larger project than I anticipated. Still, the discipline of writing a poem a day, or at least a poem sketch a day, has proved to be rewarding in and of itself. Two benefits have come out of this exercise so far:

  1. the generation of new material and
  2. brain dumping stuff that’s been cluttering my mind.

At least one poem sketch so far helped articulate something I’ve been struggling with for a few months. Forcing myself to write at least once a day brought that struggle up from the subconscious and allowed me to form it into a personal poem. Somewhere in my reading I came across a poet, or writer, that said writing every day, even if it’s only for your own eyes, is good practice in writing content for others. My writing professor at the university encouraged students to write a novel for yourself first. Even if the novel is intended only for you, it is worth writing it. And sometimes it may find audience elsewhere.

Learn which company provides the best photo books

While searching for a place to print a family photo album I came across a couple photo book companies. I’ve used both Blurb and Shutterfly and am not particularly fond of either of their final product. Maybe I’m too much of a graphic design snob, but I really don’t enjoy the out-of-the-box templates and the poor image quality of the final printed photo book. Of the two, I prefer Shutterfly, but only because iPhoto makes it easy to order photos. Digital Home Thoughts provides a detailed product review of 10 other photo book companies and their top picks. I may try their top pick for my next photo book project.

Link: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?

Editors and publishers as midwives

Publishers typically sign on new projects, do some big-picture editing, then pass the project to the editor, who does the more painstaking work of carrying the project from its detailed editing and design stages to production. The life of an editor and publisher involves more reading than you can fit into a day at the office. We have to keep up with the publishing world, know what people want to buy, work closely and diplomatically with authors, and lug around heavy satchels of manuscripts. People often liken editors and publishers to midwives. The industry is dominated by women who aren’t paid all that well, but who are working in this helping, nurturing role, counselling authors and helping bring their “baby” into the world.

The scoop on working in publishing (via fluffynotes)

How to Take Command of Any Meeting

How do you like that emotionally rich, evocative headline? Copyblogger offers 12 other emotive headlines with emotional benefits explained after each headline. The emotional benefit to the above headline, How to Take Command of Any Meeting” is “feeling respected.”

Link: 13 Emotion-Based Headlines That Work

polyglot

wordjournal:

adjective • 1) containing, or made up, of, several languages. 2) versed in, or speaking, many languages.

noun • 1) one who speaks several languages. 2) a book containing several versions of the same text, or containing the same subject matter in several languages. 3) a program written in multiple programming languages (programming).

From Greek, πολύς (many) + γλῶττα (tongue, language)

30 poems in 30 days challenge: update two

30 poems in 30 days: days 3 & 4
pages of poems for days three and four

Deborah offered a challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days. I took up the challenge and so far I’m on schedule with one poem a day. Maybe after the challenge I’ll translate the poems from handwritten form to digital, but for me the urgency is to get it all down first. It’s kind of like catching butterflies or lightening bugs.

One interesting item is that the poems have developed a theme. When I accepted the challenge I wasn’t planning on writing 30 theme-based poems, but somewhere under the surface it appears in each page of the poems I’m composing. I guess I’ll find out if it changes course by the end of the challenge.

Poem: Inland

I could swim in these lines from “Inland” by Chase Twichell for days:

Above the blond prairies,
the sky is all color and water.

It’s as if the poet read the pages of my mind and wrote a poem based on the reading.

I love painting more than poetry.

The spare details used created such enduring images that’s hard for me to let go of the poem.

love is folded away in a drawer
like something newly washed

T-shirt design: Why I am a designer

Interested in a "why i am a designer" t-shirt?

A couple years ago I stumbled upon this graphic on my Tumblr dashboard. Recently, I contacted the designer behind the art and asked if he planned to release the design as a poster or t-shirt. He replied he might if more people were interested in a t-shirt.

So, David Sherwin wants to know if anyone, beside myself, is interested in ordering this design as a t-shirt?

30 poems in 30 days challenge: update

30 poems in 30 days: day 1 & 2
Poems of days one and two

In spite of a very crazy week I’m still on track with the 30 poems in 30 days challenge. The rain delays on Monday afforded me time to compose a page-length poem. It’s no where near the ideal of composing 75 lines of poetry per day, but it’s a much needed discipline just to fill a page in my moleskine notebook.

Business: Growth versus Innovation

Recently, I heard, or read, someone responding to the question of which is more important: growth or innovation. The person responded innovation, because innovation feeds growth and not the other way around. HBR provided the following points of innovation:

  • population
  • penetration
  • price
  • purchase

Link: The 4 Ps of Innovation

Poem: Beginning with Two Lines from Rexroth

Ray Gonzalez’s prose poem “Beginning with Two Lines from Rexroth” begins with the opening line:

I see the unwritten books, the unrecorded experiments, the unpainted pictures, the interrupted lives, a staircase leading to a guarantee, the glowing frame of wisdom protecting me from harm after I escape the questions of a lifetime.

There’s an urgency to these lines that remind me of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” Also, there is a strong collision of abstract ideas and images as in the following line:

There is no agony and waste, only the steps into the frontier where it is easy to hide.

There’s an interview with Ray Gonzalez on Bombsite where he discussed who he crafts line and prose poems.

Mechanical, thoughtless and unengaged: a Facebook story

A writer laments that he has a huge Facebook following, but it doesn’t convert to readers of his book. From AdPulp:

Gregory Levey, communications professor and author of Shut Up, I’m Talking, says, “if my online fans can’t even grasp that the fan page they’ve joined is for a book, I’m not particularly optimistic that they’ll read the book in question – or any books at all, for that matter.”

Ad Age’s Simon Dumenco opines: “Facebook has become such a burden and a time-suck that they’re only able to devote a fraction of their shattered attention spans to it. They’re reacting to friends’ updates and clicking ‘like’ buttons and joining fan pages like Pavlov’s dogs — it’s becoming mechanical, thoughtless. The opposite of ‘engaged.'”

(Link: Yet Another Facebook Story: A Mile Wide But An Inch Deep)

After reading this I may just pull the plug on my Facebook account (though I know, like the Hotel California, Facebook doesn’t really let you leave).

Poem: If My Voice Is Not Reaching You

If my voice is not reaching you
add to it the echo—
echo of ancient epics

Afzal Ahmed Syed‘s poem “If My Voice Is Not Reaching You” offers such a great opening stanza. A poet can go almost anywhere with those opening lines and a reader will follow with intrigue.

E-readers take longer to read than books

The title says it all: Kindle and iPad Books Take Longer to Read than Print:

…reading speeds declined by 6.2% on the iPad and 10.7% on the Kindle compared to print.

(Link: Kindle and iPad Books Take Longer to Read than Print)

30 poems in 30 days challenge

Deborah (of 32 Poems) invites interested persons to write a poem a day for the next 30 days. The invite was sent out on Sunday (and I didn’t read it until today… so, I’m a bit late), but I think I’m up for the challenge. Anyone else?

Read more details about the challenge here: 30 Poems in 30 Days.

The ritualistic ceremony of brewing coffee is not about speed

Brewing coffee with an infuser

A few months ago I began brewing my coffee through a tea infuser. The glass decanter for a coffee press I used had shattered and I was awaiting shipment of a stainless steel coffee press. So I brewed a cup of coffee with an infuser and was amazed by an excellent cup of my favorite bean beverage.

The stainless steel coffee press arrived and I began using it daily. It took me awhile to get used to the taste (coffee tastes slightly different in a steel press). The convenience of putting the coffee grounds in the press, adding hot water, pressing, and (more often than I’d like to admit) hauling the press to the office.

Then a programmable coffee maker arrived and I was giddy at that thought of waking up each morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. After a few days of that I decided to revert back to the slow process of a single cup of infused coffee. The coffee maker added a plastic oily taste that I really didn’t enjoy. The steel coffee press had a slight metallic taste that reminded me of drinking coffee from an enamel metal camp cup (which wasn’t bad, just different). The glass coffee press had the best flavor. But there’s something about the slow, ritualistic ceremony of pouring hot water onto the infuser and watching a light layer of foam appear on the grounds that is very appealing to me.

When I read the following story in the Mountain Xpress, I found a local establishment that caters to me coffee snob tastes. Here’s five comments made in the article:

  1. Espresso beans are like bananas.
  2. Coffee shouldn’t be about speed.
  3. It’s espresso, not EXpresso, people.
  4. Dark roast does not have more caffeine than lighter roasts.
  5. “Fair Trade” doesn’t really mean much of anything.

Link: Dispelling some espresso myths

5 Blogging Tips

Here’s a five step approach to successful blogging list I discovered.

  1. Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You
  2. How Can I Be Helpful?
  3. The Actual Writing
  4. Review The Last Few Weeks’ Posts
  5. Repeat

Link: A Simple Blogging Formula

Poetry fisticuff

In one corner Billy Collins. In the other corner CA Conrad for a dispute over Emily Dickinson’s sexual preference. This should be a great fisticuff battle… except it’s taking place in the American poetry scene which will be mostly ignored by the general public.

4 reasons why ad agencies are impotent at branding

Repeat after me: Branding is product, service and experience.* It’s not a wicked cool logo with drop shadow and PMS color key nor a catchy slogan. It’s simple and complicated and it’s why ad agencies typically don’t get it.

  1. Ad placement drives profits
  2. Advertising creatives are spoiled. And entitled. And enabled.
  3. The integrated agency is a fallacy
  4. Advertising is a knock-knock joke. Design is a dialogue

Link: Why Ad Agencies Still Can’t Do Branding

Design is dialogue sums it up for me. Know your audience, build community, and provide consistent, satisfactory customer experience.

*Watch this video for an excellent overview of what brand is (via AdPulp).

A good conversation

ireadintothings:

A good book is like a good conversation with a good friend.

Writing tip: Read it aloud

“Reading aloud lets you craft great writing” writes James (of Men with Pens) how goes on to offer a few tips on writing including:

  • We Have Voices in Our Heads
  • Have You Lost Your Voice?
  • Reading Aloud Without Saying a Word

Link: How to Become a Better Writer and Get Readers Loving You

The last couple months I’ve been writing scripts for a proof of concept (POC) audio production. Often I’ll find myself pausing during a reading and re-write portions of copy because it sounds weak or clunky or maybe too upbeat when it should be somber. During a recording session with other voice talent, we may continue revising copy because transitions, though they look good on paper, may not perform well. So, yes, reading your writing out load us beneficial to improving writing skills.

Strange, like fiction

I’m reading an anthology of steampunk essays and fiction titled, well, Steampunk. It’s a sub-genre of science-, speculative-, historical-fiction. What’s intriguing to me is the hard-boiled speculative science with smartly dressed Victorian, British fashion. For those of you serious about Steampunk, would you believe there is a Steampunk Emporium (providing clothing and other accessories) and Clockwork Couture (another purveyor of fine clothing and accessories).

Writing tips from C. S. Lewis

Here’s a few writing tips from the author of Til We Have Faces:

1. Read good books and avoid most magazines.
2. Write with the ear, not the eye. Make every sentence sound good.
3. Write only about things that interest you. If you have no interests, you won’t ever be a writer.
4. Know the meaning of every word you use.

Link: 8 Writing Tips from C.S. Lewis

An honest sinner

It’s either a clever turn if a phrase, or not. “I grew up in the Bible Belt…” the anonymous contribution to The Sun’s Readers Write section begins and concludes that “…it was better to be an honest sinner than a dishonest churchgoer.”

The phrase that arrested my attention is “honest sinner.” Juxtaposing words in that fashion are delicious.

So, I looked up the etymology of the words to see if the anonymous author is clever or something else.

“Honest” comes from the Latin meaning “honorable.”

“Sinner,” or its root word “sin,” as far as I can find comes from the Latin meaning “guilty,” thus sinner means “guilty one.” Further, “sin” means to “miss the mark,” specifically, “to miss the mark of righteousness.”

So the anonymous author constructs a phrase meaning “honorably guilty” or “honorably missing the mark.” Either conclusion (“honorably guilty” or “dishonorably attending church”) seems disappointing. To open up the phrase a bit more — the author proposes that it is better to honorably miss the mark than to charade dishonorably in church. At this point I realize that the anonymous author reveals a logic similar to that of wet noodles. I’m too disappointed to continue to write about the author’s logical fallacies and philosophical short cuts.