A visual refresher
I was musing on something the other day. It occurred to me that I am personally equipped with a formidable arsenal of tools for recording and trapping aspects of the world around me, and through this blog and a host of social media channels, I have a live outlet for broadcasting my observed world to the greater universe. I am not alone in this regard, as the tools I have assembled are ubiquitous in the developed world: high resolution still and video cameras, image and film editing software, word processing, document compositing software - and of course simple pen and paper, self-sharpened observational skills, a nice shiny blog and plethora of social media sites to post to. The thought I had about all this was simple. I have so much hardware and software - the full kit of a digital warrior - and yet I feel like I have a deficit of things to say, an acutely felt shortage of things to report using all these lovely tools. In short, I feel all dressed up, but with no party to go to.
I was wondering if this is a shared feeling. I can post about all manner of things here, but what is really essential? What really rocks my world, and might rock yours? When I started this blog I described it as a slow blog, with the intention to post only when I have something to say or an observation of real interest to share. I think that the phenomenon of extraneous posting is rife in the blogosphere, and all it does is contribute to the deafening informational cacophony we are all engulfed in. I hesitate to contribute more noise to the mix.
Despite my reticence, I remain enamoured of, and inspired by the tools in the bloggers kit. The notebooks, the pens, the paper, the cameras, my ipad, its little wireless keyboard, my voice recorder: all of these things seem to vibrate with potential, waiting to be tapped. To me they are like a blank canvas to a painter, challenging and exciting and confronting all at once. All I need now are compelling subjects: but I am careful not to tempt fate, and wish too hard. History has a habit of intervening with momentous events just at the point where it seems nothing much is going on, and people are beginning to complain about things essentially being good. The war correspondent is never really short on subject matter, but I wouldn't want my life and times to become quite that interesting.
All of which is merely to announce that I am relaunching the site with an excellent new template. The old template was austere, which appealed to me, but in retrospect I think it was a little too stripped out - a little too restrictive. It was excellent at focusing the reader on the written word, but it didn't handle photographs particularly well, and aflawedmind.com is at least half visual. Enter Graph Paper Press (graphpaperpress.com), an excellent wordpress template outfit geared at creative publishers with a heavy emphasis on visuals. I have decided to trial the Base template - it is perhaps the most 'bloggy' and text-friendly of the GPP templates.
Let me know what you think of the new threads.
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I was wondering if this is a shared feeling. I can post about all manner of things here, but what is really essential? What really rocks my world, and might rock yours? When I started this blog I described it as a slow blog, with the intention to post only when I have something to say or an observation of real interest to share. I think that the phenomenon of extraneous posting is rife in the blogosphere, and all it does is contribute to the deafening informational cacophony we are all engulfed in. I hesitate to contribute more noise to the mix.
Despite my reticence, I remain enamoured of, and inspired by the tools in the bloggers kit. The notebooks, the pens, the paper, the cameras, my ipad, its little wireless keyboard, my voice recorder: all of these things seem to vibrate with potential, waiting to be tapped. To me they are like a blank canvas to a painter, challenging and exciting and confronting all at once. All I need now are compelling subjects: but I am careful not to tempt fate, and wish too hard. History has a habit of intervening with momentous events just at the point where it seems nothing much is going on, and people are beginning to complain about things essentially being good. The war correspondent is never really short on subject matter, but I wouldn't want my life and times to become quite that interesting.
All of which is merely to announce that I am relaunching the site with an excellent new template. The old template was austere, which appealed to me, but in retrospect I think it was a little too stripped out - a little too restrictive. It was excellent at focusing the reader on the written word, but it didn't handle photographs particularly well, and aflawedmind.com is at least half visual. Enter Graph Paper Press (graphpaperpress.com), an excellent wordpress template outfit geared at creative publishers with a heavy emphasis on visuals. I have decided to trial the Base template - it is perhaps the most 'bloggy' and text-friendly of the GPP templates.
Let me know what you think of the new threads.
Tweet