Sun, 29 Jan 2023 06:41:09 -0500WeeblyWed, 05 Sep 2018 05:24:09 GMThttps://www.jgower.net/notes-to-myself/an-apology-to-the-empty-echoing-room-filled-with-no-oneSo I’m writing a blog post to explain why I haven’t been writing, or at least not uploading any writing, to my site.  I told my live-in girlfriend that if I were writing anything right now it would probably be dark and depressing.  Of course, a lot of my stuff is already dark and depressing, so I guess that’s no excuse.  Is it really depressing?  Really?  Okay, maybe not.  At least a lot of my stuff is dark, right?  I suppose it is…and I suppose the reason for that is this world is so, so dark.

It’s like 1:00 A. M. right now.  Dark.
 
I could whine and complain about the tragedies I suffer because of the tragedy my son suffers and how all this suffering doesn’t give me time to write or it saps the energy or will to write…but that would be lazy lying.  There is lying that takes energy…flexing my memory muscles, well, it’s just not my thing.  But lazy lying?  I’ve been guilty before of it, but not this time. 

The truth is I’m no liar, I’m just lazy.
 
I mean, come on!  Writers are supposed to be in their element when the tragic happens.  Writers are supposed to bleed on the page their troubles and their pain.  Some writers get through difficult times by writing, other writers write until they kill themselves with the pain.  But either way, or whether you’re smack in the middle of the extremes, writers, well…they WRITE!  And if this sometime writer can’t write when things are going poorly, what is he going to do when things are going well?  Is there any hope?
 
Probably not.
 
So I’m writing this blog entry to explain that though there are reasons I could use to explain my lack of output, none of them are worth typing here.  I have no good excuse.  And I apologize.  To an empty, echoing room filled with no one.
 
Sorry.
]]>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 05:45:55 GMThttps://www.jgower.net/notes-to-myself/creative-happy-balance September 9, 2014; Tuesday.
1:43 A. M.

I’ve heard it said many times that the most difficult time to write is when life is going well.  Happiness doesn’t seem to spawn creativity.  Of course, if things are too dismal, it’s quite possible that nothing creative will be recorded because the writer simply won’t care.  Maybe there’s a balance then, as is the case with most other things.  Writers need to be happy . . . some of the time and only to a certain degree.  There needs to be difficulty in the periphery and darkness in the background.  I need to have one foot in never-never land and the other on the ledge that drops down the sheer cliff into hell.  And the cliff edge needs to be crumbling as my foot shifts slightly and the weight of the world pushes my stance further and further apart.  So, just slightly on the edge of happy with the threat of doom ever present.  Creativity assured.

]]>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 05:34:52 GMThttps://www.jgower.net/notes-to-myself/re-up-jgowernet September 9, 2014; Tuesday.
1:21 A. M.

The wee hours of the morning.  A couple hours till my usual bedtime.  Rowen and Virginia are asleep.  I’m awake and have been made aware that my domain name is about to expire.  JGower.net (caps un-necessary) is in high demand.  If I let the name lapse, it will assuredly be gobbled up by the next software/retail/business giant.  Then, if I want it back, I’ll have to fight for it . . . with fists full of money.  There are web sites (godaddy being one) which will “go to bat” for me and attempt to get the owner to sell the domain back.  Of course, there’s a fee for the effort and no guarantee the new owner will give up the name.  If it were my domain name, the one with my name on it, I wouldn’t give it up for anything.  A million dollars?  Nope.  A trillion?  Well . . . .  Nope.  So I let the name lapse, JGower.net gets taken by a huge company who understands the value of it and refuses to sell it back to me for even a trillion dollars.  This could happen.  It WILL happen if I don’t re-up on the name by September 14, 2014.  That’s five days away!  What should I do?

I re-up on the name, of course.  I put my good, hard-earned credit on the line and buy two more years of JGower.net  So there, big corporation, you can stick your greedy fat nose into someone else’s’ domain.  JGower.net, that golden trove of wisdom and cache of witty treasure is mine.  All mine.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa!

Now for two more years of letting the site sit and stew with ne’r a change nor a visit.  Money well spent.

]]>Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:40:43 GMThttps://www.jgower.net/notes-to-myself/blog-disciplinarian    I’ve never had much use for blogs.  I don’t read them.  I never thought I would write one.  What skimming I have done on the blogosphere has turned up two  basic types:

1) The blog as running dialogue of what an individual is doing from moment to  moment—a sort of babbling onto the limitless white-space of the internet with  the assumption that someone actually cares what you just ate for breakfast or  what ugly thing your cat just upchucked.  I really, really, really have no use for this type of blog.  We all have  personal issues, good and bad.  If I am close enough to someone that I care  about their every breath, I wouldn’t need to read their personal blog to learn  the latest.

2) The blog as news or information.  This is the type of blog I did a little  research about while finishing some college courses.  I have run across blogs that shine brightly in the areas of both content and format.  These blogs look  and read just like professional magazine or newspaper articles—and many are written by well-known authors already in those media formats.  The only problem I have with this, more professional style blogging, is that it is not recognized by most scholarly institutions as a valid source of information.  The blog, no matter how professional it may appear, is still relegated to something less than the opinion page of the local newspaper.  Doubtless this is unfair, but it is a current fact.  As discourse and publication continues to grow online and standards are consistently raised, the professional blog’s status may rise up to equal that of the print and digital periodical article.

    So, I don’t have much use for blogs, at least not yet . . . so why am I writing one?  Two reasons:  to force myself to write and thus improve my writing over time.  I once read an article where writer Harold Coyle* spoke of his writing . . . and he stated that he hated to write.  He enjoyed the collecting of data, the investigation, the traveling to sites he would later write about,
but he hated the actual, physical process of writing.  Still, despite his dislike of the craft, he forced himself to do it and do it well.  I’ve always thought of his attitude as one many of us adopt regarding other occupations.  We may like certain aspects of our job and hate others, yet we force ourselves to do what needs to be done to earn a paycheck and pay the bills.  I, unlike Mr. Coyle, do not hate writing, but it takes a concerted effort to sit down and do it.  Once I lose myself in the words, the poems and the stories write themselves.  I suppose what I’m describing here can be summarized in one word:  discipline.  Discipline is a hard-edged and somewhat ugly word, but it’s pure efficacy.  Power to effect change—in this case, improved written communication
skills.

    I’ve never had much use for blogs.  I don’t read them.  I will be writing this one to discipline myself into a better writer.  I will not be documenting the habits of my cat, nor will I be detailing the moment-by-moment boredom of my mundane life.  If there is anything I include that is of interest to someone "out there" in the digital universe—great.  If not, that’s okay.  This is a blog
that is, essentially, notes to myself . . . .


*Note:  Maybe it wasn't Harold Coyle, maybe it was Tom Clancy . . . ? ]]>Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:51:24 GMThttps://www.jgower.net/notes-to-myself/first-post