Up too late

It's not yet 12, but it's still too late to be up on the internet pretending to work (it's amazing how long that lasts. It's as if by virtue of the fact that I'm sitting behind the computer, some part of me actually believes I'm working. That part is a dumbo).

So, I sort of had this mini blog identity crisis. Such a nice problem to have really, if you think of all the problems you could possibly have (better not).

Is it a vegan blog? Is it a writer's blog? Wannabe artist? Just a personal me n' my friends blog?

Should I try to diagnose myself with something from the DSMIV so that I can jump in the boat of some blog niche? HSP? Borderline, maybe?

For now I'm making peace with the fact that it's a personal/writer's/artist's blog. After all, writers can write about whatever they want, no? And if it's a personal blog, then it's still fair game. As for art, well, I did used to post a few sketches here once upon a blue moon.

To indulge this newly found laissez faire attitude, I wanted to link to some of the websites I have been spending too much time checking out of late. Most of them are vegan blogs.

I have discovered belatedly that it's VeganMoFo (vegan month of food), the vegan version of NaNoWriMo. Who knew? So decreed Isa of Post Punk Kitchen fame.

So I found:

Vegan Dad
Vegan Fat-Free
Pickled Treats

plus there's Yeah That Vegan Shit, which I already knew about. (Where I found this great recipe for chocolate peanut butter shells, which are as amazing as they sound).*

It's just nice to know that they're all out there.

And just so you know, it's not all blogs and no action. I recently tried out a pumpkin pie from Vegan Fat-Free blog, pumpkin bread (veganized by replacing eggs with flax seeds), pumpkin soup, and even roasted the pumpkin seeds, all from one pumpkin. I even made a pumpkin pudding from that pumpkin! It seems pumpkins will feed you for life, at least in autumn.

Today I found another cool blog, this time not vegan: will draw for cookies. It's an art/sketch blog.

Okay, it really is time to sleep now.

*Writing this I remembered once upon a time I intended to have a vegan links round-up, but apparently I never got round to it. But maybe I'll do a follow-up to this post with the other food/vegan links I like with the information I wanted to include.

quitting and making the leap

Wow, I really have been posting infrequently.

Part of the reason is that I'm thinking of changing the blog's URL to something more memorable, and yes, something without a spelling mistake.

So it's like every time I come to post, I'm thinking, it shouldn't be here, it should be on the other, better address.

I'm trying to write more, like I said before, although I quit NaNoWriMo '07 to try and work on Nano '06. Truth be told, I haven't quite just parked Nano '06 since completing it last year (by completing I mean the word count), but trying to edit it was just so overwhelming, the only thing I really managed to do was fix the typos and grammar (pressuring myself to reach the word count, I really didn't bother worrying about those little details).

In addition to that, I also just want to write. Anything. The other day I was reading an interview with Ariel Gore about her new book How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead (which I read and found really useful). Ariel is posed this really great question: "How do you know when to put up (and start working on an actual project), or shut up (keep doing this "practice")?"

Ariel's answer is "there is a point where enough is enough," and that we should really just take the leap and embark on a project. She continues with, "If you fail, you can call it practice. But you will not fail."

So I guess that is what I decided: enough is enough. Why start a new draft when I already have one? But also I think practice and working on your project go hand in hand, and like Ariel says, the project is the practice.

Writing is Better than Not Writing

Doing something, even badly, is much better than not doing it at all (as the wise Jim Munroe once wrote on his blog), because something is better than nothing.

Anyway, if like me you agree that (specifically) writing is better than not writing, go ahead and sign up for NaNoWriMo ([inter]National Novel Writing Month). It's starting tomorrow. Oh my. November somehow seemed further away than that.

Right now my "do something badly" thing is going to be blogging. And as The Artist's Way reminds people, it's normal that you're bad in the beginning. Later you could get good.

view from above

Every once in a while it occurs to me I might not always live where I do now. For some reason yesterday I was tempted to open the window and just look outside, and then I took this picture. In case someone comes across it later and says, so that's what it looked like (although admittedly this picture isn't a crystal clear view). Still, I like the color of the sky and the silhouette of the building and trees.

**

The blogging hiatus was due to an internet hiatus, which in turn was the fault of a phone line hiatus. None of which were my idea. But it wasn't a bad thing, all things considered.

Maintain Your Sanity; Escape Cairo

Escape from Cairo can be a very good (and necessary) thing. I had a super relaxing weekend away from the Big Bateekha.

**

Check out this newly discovered blog, Dooce, which belongs to a previously Mormon woman who suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her now five year old girl.

I found it in a list of the most popular blogs in New York Magazine. A good chunk are not USian and not in English. Yes, one of them is in Arabic. Lots are political. I recognized a few that I'd heard of before, but the only one from the list that I frequent is PostSecret.

Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts

Cool stuff:

Naptime Writer blogeress wrote an interesting post about blog inhibition: "...trying to be clever and funny and insightful in every post....it's inhibiting, unless you're having a particularly clever, funny, and insightful day." Leading people not to post.

I'm attempting to get over this by posting more often.

Jean Railla of the Get Crafty website mentioned how much she liked Ethan Lipton's music on her blog. I loved the song Pirates of the Heart on first listen.

Keeping a blog

According to Ryan Healy who writes for Penelope Trunk's blog The Brazen Careerist (whose blog I actually read very often), who blogs about the "intersection of work and life," keeping a blog is a smart career move. Not a blog like this of course. A proper blog where you choose a subject and focus on it til eventually you become an expert. (Think Ramit Sethi's blog, or the Happiness Project. Or 52 Projects.)

Alas, my blog is far from that, but besides from the career impact, or lack of it, I often find myself not posting at all because I just don't know what to write about.

In a sense, writing is selfish. Or writing about myself is selfish. Who cares?

Nobody needs to care; my blog hurts no-one. Very few people are even aware of it's existence.

Anyway, check out my delicious list here. Basically bookmarked links I found interesting.

Oh and check out Scott Adam's blog, the man behind the Dilbert cartoon. His blog is serious and funny, and sometimes both at once. Check out his "Meaning of Meaning post." There's something I think about a lot.

Til I can figure out a decent direction for blogging or just make my peace that I can't/won't.