The Prose of an Electrate Mind

How many times do you find yourself lamenting over the social injustices you see in the world, yet you quickly ask yourself the title question? All too often, I hear people utter this question before they return to their daily activities. Do you know what happens next? Nothing changes. The same problem continues, people think that one person can’t make a difference, lather, rinse, repeat. I find this horribly depressing, especially seeing as how the globally economy has spiraled into a dark, scary pit.

But what CAN you do? Simple — get off your hands, open your mouth, and fight. I’m not talking about fighting with your fists. On the contrary, I’m asking you to fight with your words. For starters, did you know that our government is in place to do our bidding? If you’ve been sitting at home on election day, you haven’t been exercising your right to tell the government what you’d like them to do. Constituents like you and I can write and/ or call our representatives on every level — local, county, state, even federal government is within your reach. Asides from contacting our representatives, we can also join forces with like-minded people. The ASPCA is an entire group of people working to ensure that animals are treated well. The AARP functions as a group to help better the 50+ crowd. Mothers Against Drunk Driver obviously are a group of mothers fighting against drunk driving. The point is that you can find a group of like-minded people to further your cause.

Obviously, things won’t change overnight — but wouldn’t it be worth the effort to see the world become a better place?

So, I apparently got so caught up in birthday and Halloween festitivities that I completely forgot to renew my domain name. That was rather embarrassing and frustrating, especially since I never received a reminder email. I know the expiration date, but I really do count on those reminders. I guess I’ll just have to make my own in order to cut out the middle man.

Obviously, we’re back online.

I must agree with Mark Twain: “Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.” In my case, it’s not so much my current school so much as my lack of schooling. I’m not entirely sure what I plan to do about graduate school at this stage of my life, but I do know I want to learn all I can about electracy. With the consent of Dr. Ulmer, I’ve chosen to “take” his courses on my own free time without concern for the technicalities of acceptance and admission into a graduate school.

For my first order of business, I intend to read and review Dr. Ulmer’s sites and blog. Reading what he has done will prove to be enriching, educating, inspiring, and above all telling of the projects I’ll be updated and/ or undertaking. Secondly, I need to locate the books — a few are actually in the on campus libraries. Luckily, I enjoy the benefit of the UF libraries as a UF employee, so it would appear that I have the luxury of reading these books for free. As I have a… “discrepancy” with the county library, I’ll have to wait to clear that up before utilizing it for the remaining books I can’t find on campus. Suffice it to say I need to stop forgetting to drop off that book to the book mobile. Next, I’ll take notes from the books much like I did in Ulmer’s classes. Finally, I’ll revisit my projects from Internet Literature and Hypermedia to either update what I currently have or build from scratch.

As it stands, I have much to read and so much more to learn. And with that, I realize my auto-time has already been set back an hour. Didn’t WP get the memo that we won’t get our hour back until November 9th?

Regrettably, I am 100% guilty of blog neglect. It would seem I work in phases of writing activity. Perhaps I could blame an increase in my work load between mid-August and late-September, but I’m merely grasping for a scapegoat when I should only blame myself.

While directing a professor to the chair of the English department to find technical writing students to edit papers, I decided to check in on Dr. Ulmer, my favorite English professor. Okay, let’s be honest — my all-around favorite professor. I discovered that he’s created a blog, of course in typical fashion as well. I’ve been inspired to sit down, review his course syllabi, start revamping my MyStory, and taking on new projects. I certainly could use the direction, and Dr. Ulmer is a pioneer on the subject matter. After all, he did coin the term “electracy.” I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to take his classes.

I’ve been inspired to sit and write a bit more after reviewing a couple pages of his blog, so hopefully I will manage to be more productive with my writing in the coming days and weeks.

It would seem my theme is incompatible with widgets. However, I’ve not found another theme that appeals to my aesthetic and professional needs. It would seem I need widgets in order to add any extra buttons to my sidebar. Now really this just means I need to spend some time reading what coding needs to be added, implement it into my current theme, and I should have no more issues. What this does not take into account is my extreme ability to procrastinate on even the most mundane of tasks. So what’s a procrastination queen to do? Until I take the time to apply myself, I suppose we’ll be staring at the donation button in entry format, won’t we?

I feel very inspired to write, yet at the same time I have little to no motivation. I suppose perhaps it’s an issue with formulating my thoughts, expressing what’s going through my mind. I find myself typing away about the day-to-day concerns, repeatedly pressing the “backspace” key, then continuing the cycle. It seems so incredibly trite and trivial once I actually type it out, and then I push the keyboard away feeling bewildered and ambitionless. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a writer’s block — unless we’re discussing the articles I have looming above my head. I have the materials I’d like to write about, but I’m having difficulties wording it the way I’d like it to read. For example, do you remember in English class when they’d force you to read literature and find the symbolism in the text? I don’t want people drawing the wrong “symbols” from my work — and how did those teachers know that’s what the author really meant when s/he wrote it?! Perhaps we’re reading far too much into the words printed before us and taking less time to enjoy what the author has bestowed upon us.

I also find myself wanting to share images at times when my digicam usb cord is sitting somewhere inconvenient — say, my desk at home while I’m at work. For example, I captured an image of a hawk or falcon while on my way to work one morning, and I was just so awe-struck by the whole incident. The last time I had such an opportunity, my digicam was merely a wish rather than reality. It the simple beauty in life that inspires me, as corny as that may sound.

Maybe soon I’ll break from this obnoxious phase of unactivity. For now, I suppose I’ll continue to entertain thoughts of a prosperous writing career.

This is where I’ll be saving my donation button until I can decide on an optimal location for it.

I recently moved to a new web host — Host Gator, how convenient as I’m a Gator! I lost the previous entry in the process, but I simply republished it as I have been cross-posting to my blogger blog. I may not have previously seen that option, but I believe that back-dated option is new. Very handly tool!

Relatively soon I should be adding the option to donate to support my writing. I think it might even be a fair bargain to offer a topic per donation as well. Check back later for more details.

Why does it seem that so many human beings practically thrive on drama? From an early age through our last breath, people find one thing or another to gossip about, obsess over, and generally get involved in the latest dramatic issue. I’ve personally chosen to avoid such instances, although I generally don’t escape from drama. Some how, drama finds me even if I think I’ve chosen the best hiding spot. I then find myself either running or facing the drama — the so-called “fight or flight” response, you could say. I don’t much care for it at all. For the moment, however, I’ve chosen to muse about how drama seems to effect us no matter what our age or circumstances might be.