Monthly Archives: June 2010

How do I get off the internet?

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24

One of the hardest hardest hardest HARDEST things I deal with, when wanting to focus on songwriting, is fighting to stay OFF the internet and free from distractions.

Yes, I’ve got a nice little room in our house that is solely devoted to this craft. And, yes, I’ve got time to get this done. BUT, I have tools on my computer that I use for writing and recording. And, hello? The wi-fi reaches to the studio, y’all…

I briefly considered wrapping the whole room in tin-foil, but that seemed a bit… metallic.

So, I did some digging and discovered a nice little thingy that will block all my fave sites for as long as I tell it to.

And, y’all, even if you close the web-browser, and then pull it back up, those blocked sites will STILL be inaccessible!

For.

Hours.

So you better think twice before you decide how long you want to block your favorite sites.

What is this fun tool, you ask? It’s called “Concentrate” and I know it works like magic on Google Chrome. I’m sure there’s also an extension for you Firefox lovers who are still fighting off the Chrome bug. ;) (resistance is futile)

So, all you other junkies: how do you get off the internet?

When all else fails, make your own dang day-planner.

Posted on
50

Hi.

Welcome to Mandy’s first DIY post ever in the history of this blog.

Wait. This may not be the first.

There was that stuff about Chicken & Dumplins.

And recently, the infamous “how to write a Gaga song” post.

But, this, my blog-reading friends, is one I’m most proud of. I’m even staying up super late to get this to you by sun-up tomorrow!

I came across a non-traditional day-planner concept and immediately knew it fit me. See, I’ve never gotten along with the typical day-planner approach. But I’ve been a bit forgetful lately, so I need to keep something on hand that’s a bit more reliable than my brain.

Enter the Muji Chronotebook Planner: a simple, yet chronological way to plan each day – with lots of space to add details and lists and notes on the page.

Note: I’ve modified the setup to have my entire day on a page, rather than having two pages for a single day. I just don’t want to be that busy.

Anyway, back to the whole reason why a bunch of strangers have googled the phrase “how to make your own chronotebook” and found themselves here:

I would LOVE to hear who’s done this, gonna do this, or has done something different to plan the day.

Control and trust and pride – and what you’d see if you looked inside

Posted on
7

Here’s another peek at the inside of my brain – an unedited (grrrr) snippet of writing from one of my daily 800s (feel free to comment on anything and everything today, just like I rambled on in these words):

what is control? what is it really? do we really have that much influence over life and the circumstnaces that fill our day? how much influence do I have on whether or not I make it to work in the morning? I trust that all those other coffee-soaked drivers are going to behave themselves. there’s so much trust involved in driving down the street. and I don’t know these people – but I do know that if one of them does something even slightly out of the regulations for driving, then my life may be over. every time we enter a car and drive down the road, we are putting our lives in the hands of other drivers. how can we be so blindly trusting of complete strangers?

trust. is it something that is earned, or something that is automatically given? I think most of us start off with the assumption that someone is good – that there is inherent generosity and patronage inside of them. I think that’s because we want to believe that there lies within us that same measure of goodwill…. I think trust sits as the foundational act of the golden rule. it is embedded in our very nature – we trust because we want to be trusted – we want others to say of us that we are upstanding and clean and all-around good natured.

but are we? are we, at our core level, any degree of amiable? or do we (let’s be honest here) spend most of our mental time criticizing and governing and checking and redirecting our selves? which is it? do we live in the land of self-approval or self-abasement?

my vote? self-abasement…. those who are proud are only proud in the sense that they are lying to themselves – they are attempting to counterbalance their own sense of worthlessness by declaring, to a world that can see right through them, that they are in fact notable.

Note: Why on earth did I choose the adjective “clean” as one of the things we would want others to say of us? Do I have some remnant of Junior High insecurity curled up in a dark corner of my soul?

The best thing I can say is, “I do not want to finish this book.”

Posted on
46

“My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.” ~Thomas Helm

I read this quote on a friend’s blog recently, and immediately went through all the books in my head that fit this category (granted, there aren’t many, because I’m not a huge reader):

The Help

Redeeming Love

Julie & Julia

What would you add to the list?