Redundant writing

I love this.  The Daily Post prompt was about redundant writing errors, and I love this because my blog is full of them before I edit, and even then, redundant writing errors slip in.  It made me realize how wordy our everyday speech.  Richard always says "basically" before he describes something in less than basic terms and it always drives me crazy.

The Daily Post wrote:

An added bonus of blogging on WordPress.com at the present time is that occasionally your blog will come under close scrutiny by an Automattic staff member, who may choose to reblog one of your posts at a time when he’s in a rush and short on ideas of his own. He might not even collaborate together with you, choosing instead just to provide an example of the point you make in the blog post in question. Of course, one of the basic fundamentals he would need to keep in mind is that when using another blog’s content as a source, it’s polite to refer back to the originating blog.
How many redundancies did you find in that paragraph? Count them and then compare the ones you found to the neat lists Lisa J. Jackson, who writes for the scrutinized blog in question, has written about here and here. Did you find them all? Can you come up with others?

I went to Ms. Jackson's site and read about common redundancies and it amazed me how common those mistakes were made and how, at first glance, they seem perfectly acceptable.  That is until you think about it.

Why would you say "added bonus," or "close scrutiny"? They mean the same thing.

Anyway, this was just something to think about and another thing to worry about as I write.

Pen or computer

What do I prefer when I write, a pen or a computer?

It all depends really.  I used to like to write with a pen, and I do keep a journal with blank pages in my bag that I jot down silly ideas for my blog and paste pictures in.

I use the computer to write my blog.  The ideas that I outline in my journal rarely make it to the computer.  I don't like transcribing my ideas.  I like it all to be organic.  I did enough note taking in school for research papers, I never want to do that again.  Transcribing ideas ends in censorship anyway.

I am almost reluctant and fearful of the pen.  I kept a diary from the time I was 10 years old until I was about 20, and they hold scary things.  If I feel I need to write real thoughts out on paper, I nearly always throw it away (I used to burn it).  I don't really know why.  I guess I see the pen as more personal (more permanent) than the computer.  When I write with the pen, there is no editing or thought process.  I just let it flow out, most of the time it is unreadable; a total free write.

When I use the computer, I use more thought, worry about sentence structure and spelling.  There is allot of editing and rewording.  Blogging is quite difficult because you have to put your tone of voice in the writing, and let's face it, it doesn't always go over well.  It also takes one click of the mouse and your words are deleted forever, and I always assume someone else is going to look at whatever I have on the computer.

So my answer is that I use both, but they are for totally different reasons.

Add, subtract and delete

I thought I would pick up some NaBloPoMo (the daily writing prompts).  I have been really bad about writing, I haven't even written about the Sprout's birthday, but there wasn't really that much to say.  At the moment I would do a better job at posting Wordless Wednesdays (where you just post a picture that sums up what's happening instead of writing an essay. I might do that).  Honestly, I just don't have a need to be on the internet.  It sucks my life away.  However, if I am doing something like writing, it isn't necessarily a waste of time.

What is your favourite part about writing?

I enjoy writing because I get to project my inside voices outwards.  Have you ever noticed that sometimes the only way to get those thoughts to go away (good or bad) is to write them down?  I have a major case of that.  In most cases saying those thoughts just makes them worse.  When I write them down, I can add, subtract and delete.  When I write down a thought I may find the true meaning of the thought.  It may be more important than I thought, or it may be something I need to let go.  The thought becomes naked and real.

That is why I enjoy writing.

Britmom's prompt of the week

Ok so maybe if I do another one of those prompting sites I will write more.  For the most part it isn't that I have nothing to say, but more about the time and effort, and that horrible feeling when you find out you have wasted a whole nap on the computer.

So, here is the Britmom prompt of the week:

 "If I could start my blog over, I would...."

• What might you do differently?
• Would you choose a different url?
• Would you change your blogging platform?
• What would your header look like?
• What technology related gagets/widgets/etc would you employ?
• Would you leave everything the same?

Luckily I have had the opportunity to start a new, 2 times actually, once with my original site "Jessika in Nevada," and then with this one which the original title was "Jessika Lives Here."

"Jessika Lives Here" was pre-Sprout and was about living in England and all about my thoughts and feelings about things.  "But I Digress..." is post Sprout and is mostly about being a new parent and the stuff that goes along with that.  All of my sites have focused on letting my friends and family know what is going on, and if someone random happens to come across the site, COOL, but it isn't my main purpose.  I don't think I would change my platform because I write what I know.

I may have changed who puts out my blog (blogger vs. wordpress) because other sites let you have more control on the way the site looks, but then I would spend more time on the way it looks rather than the content of the blog.

So really, I wouldn't change anything.  I like the background, the legs with the striped socks and the coffee mug...that is me to a T.  The one thing I don't like is the way it sites a website, I have to put it in bold and underlined so you know it is a site.

Well that is a pretty lame entry, but it only took 15 min, and that is a good start to get me going again.

Catching up with us

Ms. Molly calls this Trivial Tuesday, and I know she wouldn't mind if I stole that title, but I think it would make it sound like I would do this every Tuesday.  But I usually work on Tuesdays, so I wouldn't be able to promise anything.

I am loving my Barefoot shoes.  My only critique is that the ankle support part digs into my ankle because they didn't put any padding in it.  I added my own and they are a dream to wear.  I can wear them at work and my back, hips and legs are pain free.  As soon as I can find a cheaper pair, I am going to get a pair of Barefoot trainers.

The Sprout and I went on our first trip to Saltaire since last Summer.  He was very good, until I took him out of the stroller to walk around.  Let me tell you, once those little guys learn to walk and run, that is all they want to do and they don't care that there is a road right next to them.  The Sprout is an expert tantrum thrower ( I wonder where he gets that?)  and ended up on lying on the side-walk because I wouldn't let him go.  The people waiting outside the bakery were amused.  This is how I know that I have graduated to "mom with a toddler" status.  When the Sprout was new, I hated the thought of people thinking I was a bad mom because I let the baby cry, now...let me tell you, I don't care and I actually laugh.  The only thing I care about is making sure his head doesn't smack the ground as he falls dramatically to the floor.  I did finally buy him a kind of halter which is disguised as a backpack.  It is coming in the mail and I can't wait to get it.

I got the bee one because it was the cheapest and still cute.

On our trip, the Sprout was amused by all the birds on the canal and some back hoes dredging the bottom of the canal (he found that particularly hilarious).

Richard and I had food poisoning last week from eating bad brie.  It was horrible to say the least.

I am so happy that it is light at 6 am, but sad that at the end of the month the clocks will move forward.

I have so many books on my Kindle that it is hard to stick to one book.  At the moment I am reading 1984 which I am really enjoying.  I am surprised that I have never read it before, but that is what I get from going to Community College for my last 2 years of High School, I think it was mandatory reading at the High School.

I really love doing photography and I have decided that I should submit some of my photos for competitions just for fun.  Before I submit any, I found a website called dailyawards.com.  There your pictures are objectively rated (you can't get your friends to all log in and vote) and critiqued by the community and there are daily awards for the picture with the highest scores.  The scores rack up somehow eventually, so you aren't at the bottom everyday.  The people who have won the most have more weight when they rate a picture than someone who has just started out (which is good).  Anyway, it has been a real good way to see how others see my work, and it will let me grow as a photographer.  So far people really like my picture of the Sprout holding the shovel  and a couple of pictures I took at Whitby Abbey a couple of years ago.

The one of the Sprout is by far doing the best of the five I have up with a score of  6.9 out of 10.  Which I think is really good for a photo I just randomly took and hasn't been edited at all.  I called it "Little Archaeologist."

Last week, the Sprout decided that he needed to use a binki.  This is so weird because he has never had any interest in using one.  It was decided that he must have needed something to soothe him of his new independence from me.  We stopped breast feeding almost two months ago and he doesn't need me to get from point A to point B any more.  I wish he had discovered his thumb, a stuffed animal or a blanket instead.  But for the moment, as long as it isn't in all the time (which he would love), we can let it slide.

Anyway, that is about it.  I don't post much because I have been way to tired at night to write and during the day, the Sprout would never let me get a chance.  When he is napping, I have things to clean or I just want to sit.  I have decided it is ok to just sit.

Autobiography

I was reading Ms. Molly's Project Blog answer this week and I might as well write on it because it isn't a hard one (in fact I have past entries on this very subject).  The question was Why did you start your blog?  Simple answer really, so that my family and friends know what I am up to.  It also gives me some time for some writing, which I really enjoy doing.  I started my blog in May of 2008 when I was heading off for Nevada for the Summer, the blog was called Jessika In Nevada.  I didn't realize that you could change the name of your blog, so after my return I started a whole new site called Jessika Lives Here and now it is called But I Digress....  I changed the name from Jessika Lives Here to But I Digress...because after having written a whole year's worth of blogs, I realized that my writing tends to float away from the subject at hand and is constantly interjected with my current personal thoughts.  Digressing seems to be what I do best.

Though I have waned a bit in my posting (mostly due to a pre-toddler) I am constantly blogging in my head.  Unfortunately by the time I sit down in front of my computer, the moment has passed and what was so insightful and funny is pretty much non-existent.  Even if I were to have written it down or used a Dictaphone, I most likely still wouldn't have typed it out (reminds me too much of school and I am lazy).

I am really enjoying my Kindle.  I read my first book in a week.  I haven't managed to read a whole book in over a year!  I think I have mentioned before that I like to read autobiographies and books written in the first person, the funnier the better.  My first Kindle book was Life and Laughter by Michael McIntyre.  Michael McIntyre is one of Britain's newer comedians.  I didn't not know this.  I have seen many of his acts and I figured he had been around forever, but in fact this is not true.  He has been famous for only a couple of years.  The other part that surprised me was that he is barely a year older than me!

McIntyre's big break at the Royal Variety Show

And his show Part one

Part 2

Part 3

I have a problem with ageing people.  I never get it right.  My parent's do not look 60!  That 30 year old looks 40 and those 25 year olds look 15.  I am never around 30 year olds.  My husband is 27, my closest friend is 28 and the majority of the people I work with range in age from 19-25.  On top of that, I am completely aware that I look 25 or younger.  Needless to say, when I hear of someone being my age, I immediately compare my self to them, not only on looks, but on life.

I finally realized the other day that most of the ads, movies and politics of the day are aimed at Generation X.  I have finally reached the majority, the one whose opinion is most valued.  This was an astonishing revelation.  I realized this when I was noticing that many movie and TV stars are my age or younger.  I am not really sure I know how I feel about this, obviously a little unsettled and a bit overwhelmed.

So what does all of this have to do with liking autobiographies?  Well simple really.  I like to see how other people lived and figured out their lives.  I especially like to see how they have managed to write it out.  When I was 15 I read all of Maya Angelou's books.  I think this is where I discovered that I would rather read about people from their prescriptive.

I don't know how to end this...the ship has sailed away from the dock and if I don't wrap it up, the Sprout will wake up and I will have gotten nothing done.

Published

I published my blog.  It is a very rough First Edition.  Once I get a pdf editor I can make it more polished, but for the moment, it is pretty fun.  I decided to publish the entries from when I announced I was pregnant to the bath entry.  I realize the title is a bit misleading because it only covers the pregnancy to 9 months of the Sprout's life in the outside world.  I can still edit it to cover the 12 months, I just got excited to put the project together.

Lulu is a good site for publishing books of all kinds and compared to other publishing sites, is pretty affordable.  Because I have coloured pictures and quite a few pages, my book costs £18.50 for me, but if one wants to sell their book for profit want to (and I did for fun) you can up the price and sell it for a profit.  So I put it up to £20.00 ( which I find a bit expensive but it had to be at least £18.50 for Lulu to make money).  You can also sell it as a download, for Kindles and things for a majority profit.

Anyway, something fun.

This is so cool

From lolcats

I have been reading a blog by Cave Mother and she recently wrote a post based on a comment I made on her blog about co-sleeping with the Sprout.  If you care to read it here it is: Premature babies and co-sleeping: Would you do it.

Her blog is mainly about parenting issues such as co-sleeping and breastfeeding as well as a bit of cultural anthropology thrown in.  I find it very interesting, everyone should check it out.

Links

I have noticed that my new format makes links hard to see on the web page (you can see them on the email) unless you float the mouse over it.  I will try to underline links from now on, but this requires me to insert the code for underline, which is a real pain (I don't know why they don't let you underline things)...so if you float the mouse over text, if there is a link it will light up.

Thankful Anyway Thursday

I am going to move on from my last post but it has actually evolved into my Thankful Anyway post. I feel that people may have gotten me wrong, mostly due to the fact that I just wrote how I felt, didn't take the time to lay it out so that the tone of the post could be recieved by people reading and not talking to me. I am also not sure if anyone actually read the blog in question and I didn't elaborate on the points that perked up my ears about over protectiveness. Yes if you live on a busy street it is best that your children not play in it, and yes if you have a litter box you should block it off from your kid so they don't eat the lovely cruncy clay. Those were not the issues I was concerning myself with as they are common sense...anyway...I am washing my hands of it.
I have had this site for a year now...Whoopee! And in true Bullajabbar fashion, I have to change the name of the blog.  I don't know why, but I did.  I think this name fits it better.  I can't believe that I have been able to write about nonsence at an average of 6 times a month for the past year, that is pretty darn good. On average, one of my good blog posts takes at least 2 hours to write and edit. If it is insiteful, has lots of links and I don't have to put a disclaimer at the top it probably took me 3 or so hours to write. That is a lot of time invested for me to throw my ideas or "what I did todays" out there for people to read if they want.
Whenever I write like the one the other day, which I only took about 15 minutes to write, I almost always regret publishing it. It is kinda like that letter or email you write when you're mad, but instead of doing what your mother always told you to do and sit on it overnight, you mail it anyway only to say "oh crap! why did I do that?"
I return to my book about thrift and the chapter on Emotional Thrift. The British author and columnist, India Knight believes that we emote too much and here is her paragraph on it:

Now, it may well be that you genuinely believe you are the only thing that matters- many people do, to a lesser or greater extent. But surely you can manage to keep your egomania to yourself? It isn't the most attractive of characteristics, even if it is a very human one-and, to be perfectly frank, nobody cares as much about you as you do. Going on and on about yourself, or about a thing that has happened to you, is incredibly bad manners- it only makes any conversational exchange about you and you only. It also marks you out, in my view, as a person who cannot successfully function on his or her own, and constantly needs the praise ot interest of other people in order to feel like a functioning human being. This sucks. It is amazingly tiresome to have to deal with and I wish people would desist- not just because it would make me happy, but because I genuinely think it would make them happier too.

The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less by India Knight, page 266.

That little paragraph knocks most bloggers right off the Earth. For what is a blog? A blog (short for weblog) is a site where people regularly express their thoughts and opinions in a public forum for others to read and then comment... a public journal if you will. This format has also moved on to include social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, where all anyone ever does is talk about themselves.

Do I think this makes us egomaniacs?  Not really.  Mainly because you can read the post or not.  If  I was forcing it down your throat, well then I would be on FOX News (a most despicable channel).  And personally I like listening to other people, although as most people have noticed about me, I never ask people how they are doing, mostly because I know everyone says "fine" and that isn't what I was asking.  The British seem to be very non-elaborative when greeted with "you all right?" or "how are you?"  It is always answered by "fine."  My boss has had to stop me on many occasions to say " Jess, just say fine."  Well, you asked.  This is a cultural thing that I have found and an observation British author Dave Gorman made in his book America Unchained.  He writes:

Americans clearly get irony, they just don't tend tend to use it quite as often in day-to-day conversation because, unlike us Brits, they aren't afraid to say what they actually mean and will happily discuss emotions. (pg. 16)

So what does this all have to do with Thankful Anyway Thursday?  I have often referred to how my blog helps me not feel lonely...OK, we all get that (and D is a bit tired of hearing about it), I really like writing it.  It was really fun to review my posts over the past year...I went through all of them...and I learned a couple of things:

1. I can be funny, creative, sad, insightful, and darn right wrong.
2. My writing helps work my brain.
3. I am getting better at spelling, though not so good at the linear thought process, as my professors always critiqued.  I need to except the fact that I am creative and not so focused.  Just ask Ellie about my Maths skills.
4. I can sometimes make the uninteresting, interesting.
5. And I don't take criticism very well and need to work on tone in my writing.

These are the things I am thankful for.

Writing through the loneliness

As a rule, I don't keep a journal. I used to. I have about 8 years of life stored in a box in a storage unit. I guess it was reading these journals at an older age that I decided not to keep one anymore. I suppose one might feel that a blog is a journal, but I disagree. A blog is written with the intent that others will read it; it is formatted; it has a subject; it is usually checked for grammar and spelling.

When I was away this summer, I started the blog Jessika in Nevada and enjoyed writing about the missions I was on and every once and a while, I actually wrote a good piece that was personal. I recently went over some of these posts and pieces I didn't publish and thought they were pretty good. I write quite well when it is a descriptive and reflective piece. Editorial is fine; however, it is hard to get a good flow going because of the bouts of research involved to allow some kind of coherency.

My mind (like most people) is always thinking. Some of it is worrying about things, but most of it is narration and much of it makes me chuckle. However, I can be carried away and a screenplay develops in my head that I can't stop.

I don't know why I don't write more; I probably should. I am sure I would be less stressed.

I came to the realization the other day that I was lonely. I enjoy my time with my co-workers and my husband but they are permanent, a bit like furniture (I hope this doesn't sound mean). The conversation is the same, the arguments are the same, the comments are the same, and the routine is the same. Therefore, I am lonely. Some may say I am just bored, but to me boredom is something different. Boredom is a laziness to find things to do, where as a lack of a variety of human interaction is loneliness. At work, I like to talk to people but I can't because the queue extends past the sandwich refrigerator and people get grumpy when they haven't had their caffeine and insulin fix.

I get choked up when I think about this realization and the majority extends to the fact that I miss my family (see right there, watery eyes). Facebook led me to this epiphany. The amount of times I log onto my page is staggering. A couple of weeks ago I had 90 "friends" (which isn't that many by most people's standards). These "friends" included people from university, family, co-workers, people I grew up with and didn't talk to anymore, and people I still talk to or were good friends in high school and therefore e-mail from time to time. Suddenly I became overwhelmed by the feeds from people I hadn't liked since elementary school, never thought about until I saw their name on the "People You May Know" list, or people who I just didn't really know. When my "friends" list hit 90 a light went on in my head...I didn't care about most of these people, and I immediately deleted 45 of them. POW! Just like that.

I am so excited about my "friends" list now. It contains people I actually care about. More importantly, it contains family whom I am excited to read about. The following people make my day happy after logging onto Facebook:

Peter, Bryna, Carol, Amanda and Flip (though they are never on), Jared, Kathleen, Marya, Eric, Jan, Danny, Molly, Ron M. (the true Ron, as he says), Darby, Ben R., Ben W., Andrea, Shinee, Johnny and Matt.

Thanks guys for making me feel a little less lonely.

And It Goes On and On...

Well we all knew it would happen sooner or later...we'll just see if I can keep up my writing.

So...Welcome to the new site. This won't be as specific as Jessika In Nevada, because this is more or less a free-for-all. I would like to thank Senorita Molly for inspiring me to start a new page.

I guess I will start right in with my next post dealing with my most favorite month...October.

But...before I do that, I should mention that I LOVE ENTOURAGE...come on, who's with me? September is awesome for the fall line-up that we all yurn for during the boring Summer TV season.

I am also excited to see that they have picked up Secret Diaries of a Call Girl for another season, a show I never thought I would like...but lo-and-behold, I did.

However, there is one show who's season will be ending this week...Weeds. I love Weeds and have been excited to see it go from an excellent show to a boring show and back to an excellent show. I will miss it. My hat's off to you Nancy...