The Friday Flush #3

The Friday Flush #3

   This week ends with an animated robot elephant, some words of wisdom from one of our favorite authors, and something more random than the square root of rooster breath on a wind farm of destiny (whaaaa???). Each week ends with a sigh of relief as we head into our day two day breather from the grind of making some pesos.

Biology Notes Animation
   For a change of pace, and a trip back to the long and dreary days of taking notes in class, have a look at Biology Notes, or as I remember it,.....ROBOT ELEPHANT! As I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts, I wasn't sure where my honed skill would take me. After designing t-shirts, then medical collateral, I found myself at a slot machine company in Las Vegas, NV. There I began to pick up on basic animation. From there my love of hand-drawn animation took root and I delved into a world of my own. I had a few of my own animated shorts. Nothing award winning, but fun to do either way.

Mark Twain Quotes On Writing
   While I'm not a professionally trained writer, I do like to scribble down words with a pencil 'n paper, or type till my fingers start to form blisters. I've noticed that many of my blogging friends will occasionally question what they're writing, if anyone is reading it, why they can't make a good living at it, and so forth. I'm here to say, "amen". I stumbled across  Mark Twain quotes on writing, and found that one of our heroes had a lot to say on the matter. Some of it funny, some of it serious, I found it to be just what the doctor ordered. Reading through gave me a moment to step back and take stock of where I'm going with some things. Beating writer's block or just getting some direction is usually accomplished by hitting up some of my peers for advice. However, getting beat around the head and shoulders with words from a giant such as Mr. Twain can be a nice departure from the norm. Take a peek and see what might resonate with you.

Retro Junk
   We wrap up with a completely random offering. I stumbled across RetroJunk.com several years ago. It started as a search for some old cartoon intros and others. Boy did I leave the site satisfied. Theme songs (and video) to the likes of Silver Spoons, Different Strokes, Thundercats, and so on. Some time later, I wanted to find some old Mountain Dew commercials. I checked out RetroJunk and found what I was looking for. As a child of the 80's, I think we had a fun decade of the most random things that made us happy. This site is a great place to relive some of those moments, and to share them with our children to watch their faces in shock and horror at what we thought was cool.

   So enjoy The Friday Flush #3. May you be inspired and edified through a militant flying robot elephant, a no-frills legend, and any number of blasts from the past.

J.

Blog Clog - A New Name For An Old Problem

“Writing is hard. Not as hard as not writing.
 Not writing is torturous, bloody, chaotic and a gruesome winless battle.
 A writer who writes, knows peace, lives connected to truth.
 Not writing is ache, betrayal, death of the soul and imagination.”
 - Coco J. Ginger

   One evening, The Wife and I were sitting next to each other, doing the Internet thing. She was working on some projects, and I was trying to think of what to write next. While there are a million topics to pick from, it's hard to single in on the one that inspires you to write. She sensed that I was having trouble deciding on what to write and asked, "Blog Clog?" 

Blog Clog - /blôg - kläg/

Noun - The inability for a blog writer to unclog the massive amount of ideas that amount to no new entries. 

   Now that we've given a new name for an old problem, how do we combat it? I've seen some great posts and articles about how to beat writer's block of any kind. Below are a few that might help. 

- Dad Blunders has a great post titled Blogging Basic - You Must Write, all about how to keep writing and finding your voice. 

- Dukeo has a great post that are Six Very Official Ways To Improve Your Writing. I think each tip is a great way to also determine which post might be your "next best thing."

- Social Media Explorer has a great Overcoming Writer's Block article. Tip #6 & 7 are key for me. Using stories makes it personal and more interesting in my opinion. Also the idea of "just write" makes sense. It helps to get out the crap, so you can get to the good stuff that you'll actually post. 

   I hope this helps, if for no other reason than being able to finally call the difficulty of getting a post out by name. Drop a line if you ever get "blog clog" and we can figure out how to get out of it together. Happy writing!

J.