Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Distractions & Derisions

So far in 2014, I have made 2 blog entries.  Quite a change from the two years prior, when I was writing at least one entry a week.  Granted, things are different -- the biggest difference is that I am no longer living in the Middle East, which means I am no longer traveling to strange new places, meeting interesting people, or falling off of walls I should not have been climbing in the first place.  So the uniqueness of material to write about has declined, but there are still many interesting things going on in my life and mind.  I did take time to write about two of them:  Mary Poppins and Linda Ronstadt (there is probably a graduate level psychology paper about how those two women figured in), but the reason why is a little deeper.  In the end I have determined it is Mark Zuckerberg’s fault.
 
All of my entries are based on something that happened to me and how I felt about it.  In many cases, the bizarre titles of my entries are the actual starting string of thought that led to the blog entry.  When I was in Kuwait, I did not play on Facebook at all, but upon arriving back I started to read it more often to keep up with family and friends.  As a result of that, I starting making Facebook entries out of those starting strings of thought, rather than letting the ideas mull around in my mind for a few days and developing them into a short essay that would end up posted on my blog.  Facebook ate my initial ideas before they could develop into a full-fledged examination of situations.
 
To curb this in the coming year, I will Facebook a lot less and save to savor those ideas that pop into my mind until I have time to develop them into something more.  I will also go back to writing for a few hours every Sunday to give myself time to capture those savored thoughts and their resolution.
 
Happy New Year!