Tag Archives: community

On a big date – September 11 from down here

Posted on by
Reply

9 years ago I signed a mortgage for what was meant to be a family home. I was living in Perth at the time. We, XH and I had just seen the mortgage broker off after a marathon contract signing and finance explaining effort and we were exhausted. I turned on the television in the bedroom hoping for some mindless dribble and a distracting change of pace.

I think XH and I didn’t talk finances for a week after that.
I remember watching plumes of smoke coming out of a tower and journalists scrambling,  rushing to get their words out in case they too faded, as a second plane lit the second tower as it crumbled like melted wax. I believed it to be a movie. It couldn’t be real. I switched over needing something lighter. But it was everywhere.
I remember being scared, not in a child like way, but with an awareness that chilled me to the core that evil was around.

It was a big day.

I haven’t known what to say over the side of the world as American news media outlets and the bloggersphere has marked the 9 year anniversary. But I will say this; Those planes took lives, but in my view gave America its sense of community and put it on display for all of us to honor. Battles for justice and equity have raged since

On the same date some six years earlier a brave young(er) PB took on a mammoth task of justice and community on a somewhat more localised scale. To this date he fights on with courage and determination I can but aspire to.

I honour in a small way all to whom Sept 11 becomes an anniversary of fighting for the good.

Possibly Related Posts:


Blogging with Discipline

Posted on by
Reply

I like this idea.

I can relate to what Beth talks about. I have tended to be one of these writers;

There are times when my mind is filled with more blog posts than there are days in the week, when everything in my life can be easily put into a witty and/or meaningful bit of writing.

I remember just before I “seriously” started blogging a friend looked on the domain of my email address at the time (it was puzzling), expecting I think because it wasn’t a telco account that I might have a blog and telling me that it’d be a fascinating read if I did blog. I’m glad she did. I wonder though if like most bloggers, I feel a pressure to be fascinating every time. Indeed the catch cry that “content is king” is championed on many a blog.  I have often waited till I had the post in my 3rd draft stage with a beginning, a middle, and an end before I have started typing or I have just ranted.

I recently applied for membership of BlogCatalog; a blog directory similar to Technorati. It was hard for me to find which category of theirs I would “fit in”. (Oh where have I heard that before?) I was rejected. I’m fine with it. I think they look at the blog on a few days in a row and it might have been during my last “bloggers block”. The email read in part:

Your blog is brand new and/or doesn’t have enough content to make it truly valuable.
If this is the case, please resubmit after you have made more postings.

Ouch… But getting more disciplined is something that I want to develop anyway.

I’ve always used my work and confidentiality as an excuse. That’s true, but it needn’t be an excuse.

So;

Blogging with discipline doesn’t mean you have to blog every day or that you can’t ever take a break. It means blogging regularly–whatever that means for you. It means sitting down and trying to develop a blog post idea instead of waiting until a perfectly-written post is already floating around in your brain.
Given that what about this for a trial? I’ll write 5 blog posts a week and commit to putting at least three up per week till the 15th March. Some may be very brief, other dull. But we’ll try it and reassess.
Lets talk.

Possibly Related Posts: