‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’

Image from Wikipedia.org.

Just for giggles, let’s entertain the idea that the Mayans were right and some profound universal alignment/shift/calendar moment happens on 12.21.12. And let’s say this ‘moment’ is a slice in the space-time continuum…
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Headnotes (‘cuz there’s not exactly room at the end, ya know?):
*Any arbitrary-yet-precise moment we choose to anticipate (12:21:12, for example) will unfold around the world continuously for 24 hrs on 12.21.12. Twenty-four hours on the infinite edge of a portal. Hmmm…what could we do with that?

**Concept of distinguishing human time from ‘meta-time’ borrowed from the current planetarium show at the Cal Academy of Sciences. It’s about local and global seismology, digital earthquake simulations, and our planet’s geological evolution. Translation: all kinds of Nerd Heaven.

***Whoa. That was fun, huh? 😉
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Here’s where I’m going with this: What if 12.21.12 (+12:21:12*) is a rupture in the fabric of spacetime, where/when we can slip into an alternate dimension of infinite possibility? As with other imagined portals, what if we could enter and exit them in an instant and never know the difference? The moment would pass in the blink of an eye, but its impact has real-world consequences (a la 1990s Contact). Our attempts to measure this phenomenon “in human time”** are incomplete, so skepticism abounds that it actually exists.

If this portal exists, we could use it to infuse Our Era—whether it’s ending or beginning—with all of the _______ we can muster. [#joylovegratitudepeace]

Why not? What have we got to lose?

‘Cause that’s the ultimate moral of the epic stories: there’s good/bad, evil/sacred, fear/courage, etcetcetc within everything and all of us, and it’s what we choose to bring forward that wins in the end.

Boromir struggles with the intoxicating power of The Ring. *dun-dun-DUH!!!* Image found on “Ramblings of a Minnesota Geek” blog.

What if—rather than fearfully wait for what might happen when Everything Changes—we stretch our imaginations beyond what ‘makes sense’ (because there’s sure as hell plenty about this world that doesn’t make sense to me anymore) to believe in something absurdly improbable, take this once-in-multiple-millenia opportunity, and breathe regenerative light and fire into it. If we can embrace our collective, intense, white-hot destructive/creative power to dissolve bullsh*t and injustice, we could actually initiate this progressive, feminine shift that so many people are talking about.

So, why not? Why not just give it a shot, and our ‘objective,’ protesting egos be damned? (To the death of the ego–)

Are you ready to go over the edge, to stare into the depths of our wildest dreams about what’s possible and not just recapture what we’ve lost but reclaim our ability to ignite new life and purpose into a world on the brink? You’ll never know you left, but the world will never be the same. It will be better.

Hey, look: here it comes. It’s Where the Sidewalk Ends—

___,___,___,___,

Ready?

___,On the count of one,___,___, two,___,___,thr–

[let(s) go]

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6 Commandments of Blogging

Aww, shucks…

So, you want to start blogging. To which I say: Are ya sure?? Are you ready to be wiped out, tossed around, shocked senseless, thrown into the deep end of the Internet ocean– and love it? Oh ok, then, jump in! Here’s some help:

1. Start writing. Keep writing. Write some more. Are you spent? That’s nice– keep writing (or drawing or photoshopping, or whatever your primary content medium is). Come up with 5 posts you would feel comfortable showing your grandma, your boss, and the person you have a crush on. ‘Cause this is the World Wide Web, baby, and once you press ‘Post,’ there ain’t no going back. So, did you like all that writing? Could you do it next week, and the next and the next and the next? GREAT!! Now add at least 25% time for formatting, images, and the unexpected time-sucking details you never imagined would come up. P.S. This does not include outreach and promotion. Hey, just trying to be real with you.

2. Collaborate! Get a buddy who can share the load with you, or keep you accountable, or be a source of inspiration when you’re stuck. If you know someone else who is blogging–and that you can talk to when you need help and feel dumber than a brick–it helps keep you on the constant blogging treadmill. It also helps you sidestep the panic-inducing downward spiral of Internal Self-Doubt, because you can bounce an idea off of someone rather than chase all its myriad tails around your rapidly dwindling sanity. (Speaking of collaboration, check out the blog of my partner-in-crime, Vidya Spandana. She’s an entrepreneurial balllller!! And Kris Israel is my original blogging trainer. See the co-promoting? That’s tip 2b: Remember to share the traffic love and credit your sources of inspiration!)

3. Post, and let it go 🙂 Don’t attach traffic expectations to your posts, at least at first while you’re still testing the waters. Keep writing (see #1). Don’t give up on posts or hide them away because they’re ‘not quite there yet.’ That being said… if it’s really not working, chuck it. As you practice, you’ll learn the difference. Hold yourself to deadlines. It will be easier to focus your content and prioritize editing when you’re sweating like it’s your first paper of your first class of freshman year. (And hey, at least you know your writing is better now…hopefully…) Commit to following through with that last 10% or 15% percent, or whatever point at which you start to question the premise of your post. Keep writing, keep editing. Then post, and let it go. Note: Do track your views, but at 10 min, 30 min, and 1 hour after posting on social networks. Not, like, 30 times in the first 5 min. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. One more time? Post, and let it go 🙂 Ahh.. 🙂

4. Test-case your titles. Ask a friend or two (or the collaborator from #2) to vet your title. It’s hard to see the hook of your piece when your nose is pressed to the fish tank and you’re reaching over the top of the glass with an awkwardly bent elbow and your tongue is sticking out from ‘concentration.’ Just ask a fish! (a.k.a. someone in your intended audience.)

5. Trust the random urges. You never know where online traffic will come from. The bizarre interests that spark your curiosity probably don’t exist in cultural isolation. They might seem intellectually odd when you think about them too hard, but if they still just seem to ‘make sense’ or you have an unstoppable passion for writing about it, then do it. Those posts are the ones that often work a lot better than you thought they would. Example: I love fencing, and took it up in college. Around the 2012 Olympics, I wrote a blog post explaining the basics of fencing. It seemed odd at the time and off-topic for my blog, but I couldn’t sleep one night because the post was writing itself in my head. I peevishly got up, finished it over a few hours, and went to bed at 4 am. Sure, I was tired that day at work, but it’s been my most viewed post yet, generating views from at least 15 (and closer to 30) countries around the world every day. So random, soooo awesome.

6. Get ready for the rush. There’s NOTHING like watching the views pile up once you’ve found a miracle elixir of culturally relevant content, a great title, and well-timed promotion. It’s freaking MAGICAL!!! It’s almost as great as riding unicorns.

Here’s the flip side: For every intoxicating success, there are 4-5 mediocre post responses, and one dismally, soul-crushingly disappointing release. That’s the way it goes, at least at the beginning. But you will get better, and the victories are totally worth the failed attempts.

And once you start practicing, you can apply this NOTE of musical wisdom: The best composers know the rules well enough to break them. ;D

Meme of Ryan Gosling from lamiki.com; Smurphy riding a toy unicorn? That’s all original.

New Liberalism, or Evolution of a Bleeding Heart

Evolution of a Bleeding Heart

Doing something a little different today with The Word Wizard. There’s lots of radical ideas, both in the ‘awesome’ definition of the word, and the ‘whoa, that’s way too out there for me’ definition. I’m hoping that, rather than digging our heels in further, we can find some agreement on solving current problems to better the world for future generations. It starts with being honest about our own shortcomings, and the gaps in between ideology and practice.

(Check out Matthew Kalkman and New Liberalism for more info on “timeless freedom”. “Oh my gosh, he’s CANADIAN?!?” But really, it’s only moderately shocking. *Ba-dum-CH!*)

The Word Wizard! Segue

Keep your Fridays funky and fresh…and nerd out with your word out. ;D 

Connecting the dots ;D

Beloved by some and laughed at by all, Gob (pronounced like the Biblical ‘Job’) Bluth cemented The Segway into our cultural memories. So much so, in fact, that the common spelling of the verb has shifted. Google searchers ask, ‘Is it segway or segue?’ (And I started my search with ‘segueway.’ Eeeshk.)

For my college buds who studied Italian, check this out: ‘segue’ comes from the Italian seguire. But no matter how it’s spelled or where it comes from, the act of getting from one point to another is crucial to storytelling, and it isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

Today I’m trying to reach 10,000 total views to my blog. I’ll be re-sharing different posts on good ol’ Facebook, and I’m experimenting with different ways of segueing from post to post, connecting the train of dots that exist in my mind, but isn’t always clear to readers. Let’s see how this goes, and if you want to help out, explore some more Word Wizard cartoons by checking out the index. They’re good for a clink ‘n’ a smile 🙂

segue: v.  “to move seamlessly from one activity to another.” n. “an uninterrupted transition from one piece of music or film scene [or blog post ;D] to another.”

[Wordpress UI has changed. Serious photo uploading problems. But it’s Friday, so…@#!* it. For the real-real animation, visit Smurk’s Facebook page–and make sure to ‘Like’!]

Check out the Word Wizard index for more goofy nerdy wordy cartoons!

Definitions from 1) writingisrightforyou.com and 2) thefreedictionary.com.

Cartoons are original drawings by Stephanie Murphy.

The Word Wizard! Kerfuffle

Keep your Fridays funky and fresh…and nerd out with your word out. ;D

Fluffr

pffft!…floofrt!…flutter….

“Hey– what’s all that racket?! What are you doing causing a ruckus?”

But sometimes a ruckus is fun, especially on Fridays! There’s so much hustle and bustle anyway, what with the weekend coming ‘n all. It couldn’t hurt to ‘fluff’ the air a bit, could it? I mean, you never know what you might find…

This week’s word is one of my favorites: fun to say, fun to animate, and it brings out the kiddy giggles like no other. So I gotta ask… what kinds of kerfuffle are you koordinatin’ this weekend?

kerfuffle: n. commotion; disorder. v. to put into disorder or disarray.

Ker says, “Where are all these “pffts” coming from? Curious…”

Apparently the word kerfuffle is a “chiefly British” word. Funny, I didn’t know Brittans had chiefs… ;D

Check out the Word Wizard index for more goofy nerdy wordy cartoons!

Definition tweaked from dictionary.com.

Cartoons are original drawings by Stephanie Murphy.