I Love Wikipedia
Can I take just a minute to talk about how much I love Wikipedia? I use it all the time for my advertising job and writing and life. Need to know about C-reactive proteins? Wikipedia. Hemophilia? Wikipedia. Novartis? Wikipedia. (I do a lot of medically related stuff). The lightening field art installation in New Mexico? Wikipedia. Blogging? Wikipedia.
I know it’s not always accurate/written at the most academic level, but it works great for what I need, which is usually general background information. If I need hard facts, I verify them elsewhere. And actually, the roughness of it can be kind of charming. Recently, I went looking for information on sea turtles, and found the entries to be written by children. It made my day to picture some fifth-grade class, beachside elementary in Florida putting together Wikipedia posts under their teacher’s direction. How psyched are those kids to have their writing published on the Web? (Note much of the content has since been re-written.)
I love how Wikipedia’s made--by people doing it for their own gratification, not monetary gain. A lot’s been written about this (Wikipedia specifically and people donating their time and effort and creativity in general), but one of the most interesting in my opinion is a short video by RSA Animate called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
Wikipedia needs donations. Keep meaning to. Finally did it today.
Keel's Simple Diary(TM)
Date: Nov 11, 2010.
Your day was (choose only 1): () born. (X) worn. ()corn on the cob.
Explain why: Sick w/ a UTI, insomnia last night, lots of work...
They relentlessly try to: Make me conform.
Everything has to do with everything.
This demands more perserverance: Everything, it feels like.
It takes courage
a. () to show real sympathy b. (X) to return a T-bone steak
What you might proclaim despite the consequences: That I don't want to work in advertising anymore.
Failure is unavoidable. () Yes (X) No
God I hope not!
Word Clouds
You know how sometimes once you see something you see it everywhere? That’s what’s going on with word clouds and me. Make your own at Wordle--just insert text and a word cloud comes back. So cool.
Privacy, and “Something Bad that Turned Out Fine in the End”
A couple of interesting things in the October 25, 2010 New Yorker, which I read last night 3 AM hot bath couldn’t sleep.
“Young people discovering their identity and their desires need a zone of privacy where they can be who they are, perhaps in the company of another human being, without feeling that somebody else might be tweeting it, filming it, or blogging about it, or that maybe they themselves ought to be--there’s such a thing as violating your own privacy, too. The unobserved life is so totally worth living.”
--Pride and Prejudice, Margaret Talbot
Interesting to read the week I start a blog.
And, about the rescued Chilean miners:
“…it is a story of something bad that turned out fine in the end. … Only in a handful of stories…is there hope of a true happy ending, in which losses are restored and sorrows cease. … Thirty-three men can now say, for the rest of their lives, ‘At least I’m not trapped down at the bottom of a mine.’ … People are trapped by circumstances; other people help them. There is a way out. Since this is the fable that every life hopes to trace, maybe the madness isn’t so mad at all.”
--A Way Out, Adam Gopnik
Why Blog?
My desk in my home office, where much of this blog will be written.
So last week an idea that’s come and gone for years popped back into my head: “I should write a blog! It’d be fun!”
Quickly followed by: “That would have been cool ten years ago, but everybody’s doing it now.” And: “Why would anyone want to read anything you write, you’re just an average girl.” And: “There’s already not enough time in the day, why would you want to add something else to your schedule?” And: “That’s a stupid idea. Get over it.”
Herein (I think) lies the source of much of my misery: I don’t let myself do what I want to do. I talk myself out of things that sound fun--why, I have no idea. But I’m trying to get ready for another IVF cycle (major fertility treatment), and one of the things I’m trying to do is get myself into as happy a place as possible. Just in case those who say the reason I’m not getting/staying pregnant is because I’m not totally happy, and what baby wants to be with a mom who’s not 100% cheerful all the time? (I’ll have a lot to say on that point of view at some point, by the way.)
Anyway, my “get happy” mandate has somehow helped me brush aside all those negative voices, and hey! Here I am! Blogging! Just because it’s fun! And if I find I don’t like it, I can stop, right? But at least I’ve tried something I’ve thought about doing for a long time, instead of just leaving it on my long list of things I’d love to do.
Yay, me! :)