Re-Solving K

January 18, 2013 by

“People committing themselves to a New Year’s resolution generally plan to do so for the whole following year. This lifestyle change is generally interpreted as advantageous.”

~ Wikipedia’s definition for ‘New Year’s resolution’

While on Wikipedia researching the above definition, I decided, since I was already there, to casually drop by the hypertext link to lifestyle, which led me directly to modernist art, which, of course, included a hyperlink to cubism leading to Picasso and then France (in general—what a can of worms I opened there),  reminding me that I hadn’t spoken to an old friend with whom I’d traveled to Paris in 1998.  I then Googled  her name, found it, emailed her, and am currently refilling my coffee cup while awaiting a reply.

 Four hours passed between the quote at the top of the page and now.  I check myself (before I wreck myself).

Resolution number one:  Stop going down rabbit holes. This includes, but is not limited to, all screen time. This does not include looking down actual rabbit holes, since that would imply that I am, impressively, both out-of-doors and active.

I’m now back after Googling (just this once) ‘rabbit holes,’ to make sure that’s a real term. Turns out, it is.  But it’s also a play written by one David Lindsay-Abaire, which, incidentally, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  I digress.

And that’s the point, isn’t it?  With more knowledge and information at our fingertips than ever before in human history, it is easy to become distracted.  Our lives can simply devolve into minutes, hours and days of numbing, unproductive information-watching.  Not even gathering, but watching.  Check out your friend in the neighboring cubicle, who’s been surfing the web for two hours now.  Does she seem a heck of a lot brighter or happier than she did, say, two hours ago?  Or are the only noticeable differences her bloodshot eyes, doughnut-powder-smudged pants leg, and carpal tunnel exercises (resembling those Olympic diver hand stretches) that she performs every ten minutes or so?

Yes, it’s a miracle that I can learn about art history, Honey Boo Boo and plate tectonics without moving my arse an inch.  But do you know what else I consider miracles?  My family. The out-of-doors.  Friendships. Good conversation. Wine.   Reading a poem that affects my spirit.  All that the human body—that intricate machine–can do if I eat well and work out.

 And yes, all of those little miracles are covered by everyone else’s New Year’s resolutions.  You can Google them to find out more.

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Why a KLog Blog?

November 1, 2012 by

“You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.” — Author Unknown

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place” ~George Bernard Shaw

Over the years, The Writers K—and you too, perhaps?—have wondered about our silence in the blogosphere.  Like you, we’ve kept up with trends in our particular spheres of interest—writing, technology, small business, nonprofits—learning about new tools and perspectives that inspire us in our writing and in our lives.  We’ve had newsfeeds and blogs pinging our inboxes, stuffing us full of information we find helpful to our business or our personal lives.  But how, we’ve all wondered, do The Writers K feel about all of these developments?  What lights the fire that is obviously burning through the swiftly-typing fingers of those Writers K?

This, then—this cheekily named KLog—is our foray into the congested highway of conversation.  We hope we’ve looked carefully enough before stepping out into the traffic.

You, too, probably subscribe to several blogs or newsletters in your areas of interest—requests for subscriptions are hard to avoid: look up ‘photocopier issues,’ and you’ll be invited to Ned’s blog about his life in the copy room. (Note to self: unsubscribe from Ned’s Copy Room Chronicles when you get a chance).

 If you’re in the nonprofit world, you may have checked out Social Velocity about managing your limited resources more effectively (or if you haven’t, you might try it).   Small Business Brief  is a great gathering ground of information and trends for small businesses from across the web, making it easy for both writers (us) and entrepreneurs (you) to stay on top of the market.  

If our house plants are properly watered and the kids fed, we can pop over to satisfy our English major-y yearning for literary criticism and commentary at The Elegant Variation.  The Poetry Foundation’s blog, Harriet, satisfies our need to keep up on the world of poetics (How do we do it all, you ask?  Simple.  We’re The Writers K).

There’s so much information on which to feed, and so little time to exercise those thought-calories out.  And that’s just it—for The Writers K, social media has been a one-way information feast (the number of analogies for all of this is staggering).   We’ve become, well, clogged (okay, groan if you will, klogged). We feel the time’s come to send our own thoughts about writing, marketing, nonprofits and life pinging in the other direction. 

Please join us here to find out how language affects our world, and how our language can affect yours.

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