Coming off a month of a slicing, I'm back for Tuesdays because I don't want to lose the writing momentum. I can manage that. And writing 750 Words a day on top of that. And something every day for National Poetry Month -- not writing poetry though. I tried that one year and made it to day 5.
National Poetry Month 2021 poster, design by Bao Lu, Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn
Just reading more poems and doing digital poetry bombing is a better fit for me. Non-digital poetry bombing had a relatively short run, 1998-2016, and could make a comeback. Broadsided Poetry fills the gap. What else?
Right about now is when I get in trouble and start down the road to writing less instead of more. It's not these but all the usual I'm adding them to.
Made it through the month. I wouldn't go so far as to call 31 days of slicing and commenting the cure for pre-post-pandemic anomie (the contemporary version of a fin de siècle malaise) but it helped get me through the month and maybe even jump started dead blogging batteries.
Today, was the HUD inspection, that's done. Was not up to getting as much done as hoped but did make a start and even substantial dent in decluttering and reorganizing. Whether I keep on with it is as much hoped for -- and in the air -- as blogging.
On past last slices...turns out I skipped a challenge between 2015 and 2017, so this will make my fourth SOLSC not fifth. Either that or there was something wrong with my fingers when I came up with five counting on them. As for the 2017 last slice, I posted a selfie holding a small poster with a six word memoir, "Save the last slice for me"). This time I considered adding the "31 Day Writing Streak" badge but decided final slicing would not complete without the commenting (whether or not I comment more tomorrow and check WP Reader for reactions and replies).
I'm tired, ready to curl with some good slices and call it a day.
Welcome to the penultimate post. By tomorrow I may even have a handle on a workable post-challenge daily blogging routine, hopefully one I can adapt for a reasonably consisting blogging routine.
On my radar (not to mention inbox and social media feeds): places along the way, highered austerity/academic labor disaster porn and the post-pandemic rolls on). As you can see from the pictures, I'm going for door one. From Giza, Egypt to Quarai NM...old stones.
Blogging on, minor modifications aside, I remain a late night slicer, channeling my inner night owl, battered as it by age. Setting up the day's draft with partial title (| #sol21 Day _), basic labels and footer in the morning saves time come the pre-deadline rush. Sometimes I have enough early notes to work with, other About TWT advice to late night slicers: TY and very sound but no one following it is a true Pantser challenging their inner owl.
Wrapping up, TWT seeks SOLSC 2021 feedback... questions include "How many years have you participated in the March SOLSC?" and "How has participation in the Slice of Life Story Challenge impacted you as a writer (and/or teacher of writers)?
Tomorrow, SOLC 2021's last slice. Bring on the graphic
This question came up on an Essaying discussion thread: "What are you proud of this week?" The context was self care. It can mean concrete things but also means more emotional stuff, like sometimes allowing yourself to be proud of an accomplishment or saying no to take care of yourself when you're expected to say yes.
So what am I proud of this week?
That mattress had a big sprung out spot on right side. See, it's not there now. I wasn't sure I could turn it by myself and knew it wouldn't be easy. This afternoon I turned it. By myself. Concrete and emotional.
Tomorrow, kitchen floor and stove -- in fits and starts.
What was I thinking about this morning anyway? Serves me right for not starting when it was fresh in my still morning fresh mind, not yet pushed out of the way by competing distractions. According to notes in my daily 750 Words log, media was on my mind:
alt & mainstream media, filter bubbles, confirmation bias -- run with it for today's slice and share selected items on Facebook
That led to link bundles titled "Media spaces: filter bubbles, echo chambers and confirmation bias" and "Information & Misinformation in the Time of Covid." Then came a few Facebook posts.
Another longish post emerged out of another link shared from the morning idea bundles but I can't find it now.
In between media stuff, I managed a few more "short sets" of cleaning, decluttering, trash bagging and hauling three utility cart loads to the nearest Manor bin. Come afternoon I took a longer than usual afternoon walk. The day was sunny and the usual shifting 20+ mph North winds were taking the day off. I checked pantry shelves reading labels for items to add to the higher sodium items in the monthly Senior Box, loaded the cart again and headed out to deliver them to the 24 hour pantry off Main St.
The trees haven't started budding yet, so this what the Manor grounds look like.
And so went another Sunday at the Manor in Yuma, Colorado
March 31 isn't just the last slice, it's also the looming deadline for a Manor HUD inspection announced without much notice. I've been picking away but not vigorously enough for the task at hand -- feeling anxiety now. I've read the HUD guidelines and know that it's not a military inspection. The emphasis is on safe and healthy, but I but still feel anxious. I'm on oxygen and supposed to avoid tiring -- stress too -- but tire easily. So I work in short sets.
1 of 6
Slideshow snagged from an AARP article is a fair repesentation although my apartment is much smaller
Decluttering is the biggie, best done gradually, which I don't have time for now. I knew there were decluttering, books, articles, videos, even courses and more but didn't realize is that it's a genre and a whole industry. There's "mindful decluttering." A comparison to writing advises, "think of it as an invitation to write your story."
No thank you. This is how I'd rather be writing my story. I'll be avoiding the articles too -- sure fire anxiety generators. On a possibly brighter side, it's a distraction from worrying about what I'm going to write about.
Of course, late but not due to procrastination or a writing block this time. I was on the phone with my son who recently moved to from Denver, Colorado, to the outskirts of Springfield MO with wife, guide dog and parrots. Boone has big yard, Sandra has a sewing room and even the birds have a room of their own. There's more space for everyone inside and out and rooms for guests.
Anyway, my daughter had mentioned that my microwave had died and I was thinking about getting a toaster oven instead. So Chuck called to tell me he had ordered me a Ninja Foodi 7-in-1 (compact pressure cooker and air fryer). It should arrive tomorrow. Not my birthday, so call it an unbirthday surprise.
...and a welcome one even if I had no idea what a Ninja Foodi was or even looked like. Thank you, Google. I'd been looking for a small low-end toaster oven. Thank you, Chuck. Another plus ~ I'll have more counter space in my very small kitchen. Good bye dead microwave, thrift store crock pot and toaster.
Look for the #sol21 tag on blog posts (and tweets) marking participants in this year's blogging challenges from Two Writing Teachers/ This month, it's SOLSC, the annual March 31 day writing streak. Keep up and stay connected after (and until next March) with #SoL Tuesdays. Read more posts by taday's slicers here. Commenting and sharing encouraged and appreciated.
If you follow Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube or Twitter (@BeauFTC), then you know Rule 303: "If you have the means at hand, you have the responsibility to act."
What does that mean in the context of teaching and citizen media (whatever that is)? Bear with me, I'll get there.
Blogging and posting content to public pages and platforms create citizen media. When that content is accurate and and designed to educate readers, then then the creators are informal educators.
Both independent journalists and citizen media inform the public, If presenting information to the public is educational, these writers are teachers even if not working within the usual institutional framework.
Granted the journalists probably don't consider themselves teachers or "citizen media" journalism. Let's allow and clarify that distinction. They are not the same but also not unrelated.
The so-called recent turn to independent journalism not affiliated with mainstream outlets is not new, just kitted out with new names, on new platforms and using new software. Unlike citizen media, it is practiced by experienced, professional journalists who want to make a living at it.
Do you remember the early internet terms: citizen media, participatory media, indy media, citizen journalism? Whatever you want to call the citizens creating and publicly publishing their media, they are not necessarily out to make a living although some do. For others it is hobby, avocation, side gig.
Getting back to Rule 303, this trip started with thoughts on writing for, posting on or starting and maintaining public media sites as an avocation. I asked myself, "If not actual teaching isn't this at least teaching adjacent?" Further, if you have a public page or pages -- whether website, blog, Facebook page/s or (toggleable) public timeline, Twitter stream/s or on other social media platforms -- what is your personal responsibility to inform (contribute to the education of) the public? Or professional responsibility as an educator, whether retired, active or in training?
The answer is Rule 303: "If you have the means at hand, you have the responsibility to act."
Posts tagged #sol21 are part of this year's blogging challenges hosted by Two Writing Teachers, which include SOLSC, the annual March 31 day writing streak and the more modest weekly #SoL Tuesdays to stay connected by serving up and sharing weekly snapshots (aka slices) of life through writing. Read more posts by taday's slicers here
I'm 77, retired, live in senior housing and have a community Facebook page about Life in the Manor. Aging is a regular post topic. I research related areas for my own use because learning more about whatever is my first step in coping. That contributes to page content too. I also subscribe to aging newsletters like Next Avenue, Senior Planet, etc. Then there's the fat aging collection of link bundles tucked away in Diigo.
During this morning's slice reading and commenting routine, my response to a slice about adjusting to aging drew on personal experience. Little did I realize it was a harbinger of the day to come.
Later I was caught by a last minute reminder about a zoom that I meant to calendar on the Manor but forgot. Peggy Stoltenberg at the Northeast Engagement Center emailed afternoon reminders about this evening's "Aging, Alzheimers & Agriculture" zoom, a lecture with slides followed by Q&A. Recording to follow -- note to fogetful self: add link here...
There I was, anxiously examining the slides for applicable warning signs...
My Draft title was [whatever today's post turns into]. Possibilities: "Today's mindworm is winning" and "About the illusory parasocial even if it's not real." Searching for just the right image, most of the image were marketing graphics, flow charts and misfit memes. So I triedGoogle Arts and Culture for abstract art, which somehow felt a better fit for the parasocial. The inherent askewness of both...
Notes on morning (mostly) news routine: initiated checking Google News simultaneously with alt.news media. The resulting contrasts sure do expose coverage gaps and remind me yet again to deep dive often and monitor personal confirmation bias. Checking the MBFC button on my toolbar is automatic.
Those pesky but engaging mindworms stil won't go away, Succumbing to their siren song, I'm making them a feature. Today's mindworm deep dive: parasocial relationships.
Early on I try to catch fleeting morning thoughts in words on 750 Words before they fade from accurate recall. Then reading and watching news, skimming mail -- more note taking along the way -- interspersed with media hopping across Facebook and Twitter to check notices, look in on pages and upate on the fly...
My Zoom day started with "Coffee, Tea and We," a weekly discussion group for "seasoned adults" hosted by CSU's Northeast Regional Engagment Center (Sterling). The center remained closed and classes canceled without no clear end in sight. By November, everybody decided it was time the got back together online, no lectures this time, just convivial conversation.
I've been on the mailing list for a while getting notices, but this was my first meeting. Karen Ramey-Torres, the local Yuma coordinator had been in touch and gave me a nudge. I'm glad I went and look forward to the next one. Copacetic. To be honest, I'd often felt awkward and out of place at organized Manor socials, a thing of the past until sometime in the indefinite future.
My first new local connection in over a year. It was about time. And worth waiting for...
A quiet Sunday at home in Yuma started with morning coffee milk over email and news back on oxygen after morning routine (CPAP equipment, morning meds, cat demands) off oxygen, moved on to writing (daily log, emails, other posts), lunch (more meds), cleaning apartment (upcoming HUD inspection), taking out trash/cleaning debris, walking, reading, annotating links to save, taking notes until supper time, evening meds and continuing to procrastinate until now.
Tomorrow feels like the same day.
Give or take a few zooms...
Come one, come all:
Early Birds and Late Night Slicers, Planners and Pantsers,
Tonight is even more down to the wire. Blogger's Russian Roulette, played with clock, keyboard and internet connection. Timed panic writing. My tricky unconscious hid over an hour from. At least I checked in earlier to set up footer, labels and the "#sol21 Day 20" part of the title.
I had something specific in mind earlier but it's still a jumble and hasn't coalesced enough to use, at least not with any coherence. It's like an idea that once read or mentioned sticks in your mind like an earworm does with piece of a song or melody. Call it a brainworm. Apparently Wikepedia does too.
But there's difference (in my mind) between an earworm and a brain worm. The earworm or sticky music syndrome is repetitious, like a stuck record. But not the brainworm. It hops around, spreads, sparks more ideas. Yet like cousin earworm it takes over your mind. The earworm is considered a problem and interferes with concentrating on anything else, while the brainworm drives active, productive concentration.
The last brain was from Tressie McMillan Cottom and so is this one. Too much typing. From now on, it's Tressie for short. Oh, what was it? I don't have time now to write about, although I have spentmost of the day researching and thinking about it. Let's save it for another time, another post -- unless I'm hijacked first by another brainworm.
Today I attended/participated in ThinqStudio's 2021 Unconference subtitled Humanizing Higher Education with Care and Joy. Don't let the HE designation mislead you. Resources, concepts, apps and activities would be if not immediately at home in classrooms then readily adapted. Everything presented and tried out on the spot was student-centered, mindful and fun!
I registered because of the keynote speaker Maha Bali whom I've known online for years, from Connective MOOC's we were in together to Virtually Connecting. Plus the description intrigqued me even though I was not familiar with ThinqStudio, a UC Denver independent, cross-disciplinary faculty project
I'm not quite sure how today turned into an off kilter day. I'd say "should of stayed in bed" but would be in the same place I am now. Blank of mind and bereft of words, numb from the silent cacophony of thoughts churning, hurtling around on misaligned trajectories, crashing. Would if I could write my way through it. Like this:
No such luck. It's more like this:
I give up for tonight. See you tomorrow when I'm back to try again
Come one, come all:
Early Birds and Late Night Slicers, Planners and Pantsers,
Check out the lime slices image in Slice of Life acknowledgment footer ~ green slices for St Paddy's Day (what the Irish call it). When I last checked, there were six slices about the holiday, more expected before posting deadline. Why the title? As a natural contrarian, I avoid wearing green on March 17 because it's expected. When chided about or asked why not, I'd reply, "I'm Welsh not Irish." Both, however, boast epics featuring cattle. Celtic rustlers, which, in turn reminds me of Desmond Kinsey's great mosiac mural (below) depicting the events of Táin bó Cuailnge (The Great Cattle Raid of Cooley).
Today is the midpoint of month and challenge: 15 days behind us and 15 ahead. I'm celebrating this Hump Day with a camel video, an camel orange slice instead the familiar SoL orange...and above all by not writing.
Only just now getting to slicing. Yikes! After morning news and skimming email, the rest of today has been state and local. As part of the former, I watched a Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions initial meeting that lasted over three hours -- twice a long as I expected but also vastly more engaging than expected.
Our local group is interested in redistricting and would like to be involved in the process. Somebody's got to hit the cyber and bring home the info. Colorado is experimenting with increased non-partisan, including unaffiliated voters, participation in the actual process. Well, there's not enough time to go into detail now. Slicing fodder for another time.
Happy Pi Day and staying indoors day to keep warm and stay out of the miserable weather. Unlike other Colorado slicers posting today from Denver and Front Range, yes, we have no blizzard in Yuma today -- no power outages either. Mixed rain and sleet instead of photogenic snowy white vistas. Better to stay in and eat pie. After all, today is Pi Day.
OK so I didn't eat pie (too cold and rainy to walk out to get some) so I just looked at pictures of pies. There are probably pie videos on YouTube too.
By early afternoon, I have read a few blogs made a few comments; by evening more of both. With so many slicers writing poems on daily slices, I've reading more poetry this month than usually -- good prep for April and National Poetry. I don't expect to be writing any but do plan to read more and share a lot.
This morning I started not here scribbling aimlessly but on email experimenting with posting by email. I learned (was reminded of) something important. Email formatting does not always travel well or display the same way on the blogging platform. When that happens, the result is rarely worth the time or effort of fixing. It certainly doesn't save time. Low tech copy/paste is easier, faster and works better. So would email in text or with minimal formatting.
That's the experiment part. The voices in our head when we blog is the other.
When I don't start pre-draft free writing until after dark, it's going to be a real Pantser slice. Today wasn't even that busy, not the way yesterday was. Overall, blog reading aside, the theme of the day was politics. I don't want to write about politics though. Not today. Reading blogs was the best part of my day.
About reading more blog posts, not just #sol21 posts: I read and comment a number SOLSC posts directly from WP Reader where I'm surround by other blogs I've follow but haven't been keeping up with. I started reading just slices and ignoring the rest. That didn't last long. Then I started reading and liking the occasional non-SOLSC post. Today I moved up to commenting on and sharing to posts to Facebook timeline and and other pages according to content.
Today I'm back to my usual morning routine of starting with video alt.news and covid-19 updates, then a news web and email news overview. I've always been a news junkie, albeit with notable gaps, but have become even more of one over the past few years, a turn accompanied by (necessitating) increased digital literacy and media awareness.
The good, the bad and the ugly describes about any day's national and global news. Today it's the pandemic anniversary, vaccines, stimulus legislation, an evening presidential address and politics all over everything.
Missed morning start, picking up early afternoon on what is basically the same strategy as yesterday: free writing until something comes to me or something already there re-surfaces. Reading -- email, news, social media, blog posts -- stirs the mix. Which will be today's earworm? Unlike yesterday, my reading did not start with comments.
Writing comes to/stays at the top, no surprise given the nature of the challenge.
I started reading Tressie when she was a grad school blogger. Now she's a sociology prof with books, podcast, essays and more to her credit. Her Substack, essaying is about personal essays and the process of writing them.
Morning notes, just to see where reading/commenting on slices and my unconscious take me today. OK call it what it is ~ free writing.
Writing habits -- what, when, where and how do I habitually write? Mediums, modalities, genres. How has the shift to digital and social platform changed genres, spawned new ones, influenced individual writing practices?
Caveat: I often feel like an imposter in this mostly K-12 reading and writing focused teaching community. Now a retired educator, not a retired K-12 teacher, am I still or even a teacher at all?
Retired but digitally active and engaged with learning and teaching, what am I? Retiring does not stop the itch to teach, but what should I call myself? Lifelong learner and free range teacher, stealth educator, guerilla educationist
...aka TWT *Week That Was sliced in a single sentence
From the first day's late night (not a golf) slice, through walking, one day at a time, lost hours, life on a leash, reading poetry all the way to this sentence, reading and commenting on slices along the way, it's been quite a week; and that's not counting the two shaggy spares in drafts.
Every day is a good day to read poetry. Today is my day to blog about it. I didn't plan it that way and won't be writing any...not yet anyway. It started early this morning when I shared a link from email to my Poets & Writers Picnic Facebook page. Then the very first slices I read today were poems. Surely a sign...if not, I'll run with it anyway and see where it takes me.
John Keats reading, by Joseph Severn
And then I read more slice poetry, strapped on my oxygen backpack and walked a mile before dark. Returning tired (exertion does that) I rested before supper and reading more, commenting as I went. Now it's time wrap up and post. That's where it took me today. Sorry, no meaningful poetry appreciation epiphany stories or using poetry in teaching stories. I have those for poetry in at least three languages.
There's this unfinished 400+ word draft, less slice than analyis of the distributed slicer network because that's what I've been wrapping my mind around. Obsessively. It's still in drafts. I'm tossing out a Day 5 quickie about life on a leash...or hooked up to oxygen. That was my new normal since being diagnosed late 2018 with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) or high blood pressure in the lungs. Until 2020, that is.
Crossing the 5:10 to Yuma 5K finish line
Exertion tires me easily. I'm too tired to focus on editing after a long walk today with my oxygen backpack instead of pushing the utility cart with a larger oxygen tank strapped in. Walking with even the smaller tank in a back pack is more tiring. I used the cart through the winter for stability over icy patches. Walking is my other challenge. Protecting oxygen tubing from the cat should count as another.
This slice of my life comes to you courtesy of the
Slicing with Two Writing Teachers one Tuesday at a time
