Posts Tagged ‘christmas’
I promised myself that I would write more once NaNoWriMo was over. Then again, I tend to promise a lot of things to myself. If I managed to fulfill any of the promises that I actually make, I would be fluent in Mandarin and Japanese by now and have a puppy. Ah, well. Anyway, I started thinking lately about a lot of things.
And by a lot of things I mean…two things.
One thing that has been on my mind lately is how different this holiday feels compared to the other ones that I’ve had in the past 25 years of my life. I’m not going home to Dallas this year to spend a few blissful days at home with family and friends. I didn’t have a tree in my apartment, I didn’t go super crazy with Christmas shopping and cards all over the place. In fact, there wasn’t much holiday going on this December other than my insistence that I listen to Christmas music whenever I had the chance in the car.
Another thought I had was about my blog. Since I’ve been perusing around lately at other blogs from friends and 20-something year olds such as myself, I started to wonder why I didn’t blog as much anymore. Sure, I could attribute it to how much I’ve been working lately. Other times, it’s because I just don’t have anything interesting to share. But then, I remembered how I used to write all the time in my old “blog.” My incessant ramblings of my college life came to me easily, and I had no qualms about sharing it with the little digital slice of my world…those few friends and family that felt like reading my thoughts.
All of a sudden, in the working world, blogging didn’t seem to be so easy anymore. I admit that I’m sometimes envious of those people who have their wordpress blogs and can say whatever they want. I sort of miss that bit of freedom. But now, much like any other public forum, a lot more care goes into my posts. (I wish I could say a lot more care goes into the grammatical structure of my posts as well, but c’mon…who am I kidding here?)
So now, here I am. Pondering about my holiday season, and wondering why I even bother to blog anymore. After all, as publications such as Wired and online influencers have said before — blogging is sooooooo passe.
I think there are a few fundamental reasons why people blog:
1. To inform - these are the people that actually know their stuff, and want to share it with other people. Whether its sharing news, giving tips, or providing insight, I find a lot of these blogs are quite niche. Given that I can’t claim true expertise on…well…much, a niche blog just doesn’t feel right to me.
2. To share - These are the free floating blogs around the Internet that I sometimes envy. You know the ones I’m talking about. They seem to blather on about the little things in life, and yet they do so in such a manner that people are INTERESTED in what they have to write about. Babies, I find, are an endless source of entertaining information for a lot of people.
3. To entertain - I think this goes without much explanation.
4. To feed their own self-aggrandizing agenda - Well…yeah.
Of course, I know that this isn’t a comprehensive list. But since I only have a limited time on this free Wi-Fi in the airport (props, Google!) I thought I’d throw out some of those general buckets.
So why do I blog? Well, in a way, it’s a little bit of 1 to 4. I like entertaining my reader(s), I like sharing news, and I can’t help but share my bit of personal news for all to read. Why? I don’t know. I think some people would say that it’s because I enjoy writing, and others would point to the fact that I’m a bit of an attention whore. At any rate, a bit of a revelation hit me while I was daydreaming on the MUNI recently.
I was pondering both thoughts earlier about the holidays and blogging. And I realized that there are a lot of reasons to blog, but this holiday season, maybe I should spread a little cheer through the things I write. Sure, maybe nobody will read my post. And overall, I’m sure nobody really reads my blog anyway. But if I’m able to share just one warm fuzzy happy thought for the season, then that’s all the reason in the world to keep writing. I’m happy knowing that somehow, I’m able to make someone smile.
Of course, I hope you reader(s) out there enjoy my upcoming posts about my trip to Asia. Woo hoo!
Oh, but, as I was saying: a friend of mine (hi Weber) sent me this link from Reddit today, and I felt like it was perfect for this post. Happy reading, everybody. May you all be blessed with happiness and joy this season with your loved ones.
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I was day tripping to Vancouver from Seattle and stopped in for lunch at a little cafe. From my window I saw a young teenage girl out in the cold, squatted down in a closed up businesses doorway, holding a small bundle in her arms. She was panhandling, people were mostly walking by ignoring her. She looked just broken.
I finished up my meal and went outside, went through my wallet and thought I’d give her $5 for some food. I got up to her and she was sobbing, she looked like she was 14-15. And that bundle in her arms was a baby wrapped up. I felt like I just got punched in the chest. She looked up putting on a game face and asked for any change, I asked her if she’s like some lunch. Right next door was a small quick-Trip type grocery store, I got a can of formula for the baby (very young, maybe 2-3 months old.), and took her back to the cafe though I’d just eaten. She was very thankful, got a burger and just inhaled it. Got her some pie and ice cream. She opened up and we talked. She was 15, got pregnant, parents were angry and she was fighting with them. She ran away. She’s been gone almost 1 full year.
I asked her if she’s like to go home and she got silent. I coaxed her, she said her parents wouldn’t want her back. I coaxed further, she admitted she stole 5k in cash from her Dad. Turns out 5k doesn’t last long at all and the streets are tough on a 15 year old. Very tough. She did want to go back, but she was afraid no one wanted her back after what she did.
We talked more, I wanted her to use my phone to call home but she wouldn’t. I told her I’d call and see if her folks wanted to talk to her, she hesitated and gave bad excuses but eventually agreed. She dialed the number and I took the phone, her Mom picked up and I said hello. Awkwardly introduced myself and said her daughter would like to speak to her, silence, and I heard crying. Gave the phone to the girl and she was just quiet listening to her Mom cry, and then said hello. And she cried. They talked, she gave the phone back to me, I talked to her Mom some more.
I drove her down to the bus station and bought her a bus ticket home. Gave her $100 cash for incidentals, and some formula, diapers, wipes, snacks for the road.
Got to the bus, and she just cried saying thank you over and over. I gave her a kiss on the forehead and a hug, kissed her baby, and she got on the bus.
I get a chistmas card every year from her. She’s 21 now and in college.
Her name is Makayla and her baby was Joe.
I’ve never really told anyone about this. I just feel good knowing I did something good in this world. Maybe it’ll make up for the things I’ve f-ed up.
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To read more, go here.
It’s pretty hard to believe that the month of November arrived and wrapped up - all in the blink of an eye. Of course, true to my previous word, November was exceptionally busy because of NaNoWriMo. I’m pleased to report that I did, in fact, pump out 50,000+ words. Whether the sentences and words made any sense…well, that’s a whole other story (pun slightly unintended).
Other than completing the first rough draft of my very first novel (and I use that term loosely), a lot of other exciting things have been happening. I decided to take on a new position with a new agency in a whole new city, meaning a whole new route to work. One friend move to Los Angeles (sadly) and another found a new job in Michigan (congrats!!). And, in just a matter of weeks, I’ll be going across the world to ASIA for my first trip to Taipei and Tokyo. It still hasn’t truly hit me yet how many things I’ll have to get done in the next….
WEEK AND A HALF!?!?!?
Excuse me while I go mentally panic right about now.
Yikes.
I’m pretty sure the best way to lose reader(s) is to, uh, not update. Like what I’ve been doing these past few days. But, in my defense, it’s pretty hard to blog when I’m too busy stuffing my face with food and cramming in as much fun and family time as possible.
It always catches me by surprise when I find myself about ready to leave and a friend or family member inquires, “when will you be back?” Instead of the usual college answer (sigh) of break, I really have to think: “when WILL I be back?”
Sad.
And, to cop out, here is an old YouTube video courtesy of one of my friends, rating M for mature due to the expletives included. You’ve been warned.
Thus begins the first day of my holiday season, and it was made even more special with a brand new LAPTOP!
Woo hoo!!!
Who says holidays are just for kids? I love Santa.
On a not so related note (but related to an earlier post), I received a copy of a link to this post by David-George Cosh. I thought it was very thoughtful, and definitely fair.
http://strangehold.com/blog/?p=18
Is the embargo really necessary?
Techcrunch’s Mike Arrington has widely announced his complete reluctance to deal with embargoed information. Is he right? Maybe.
Although I’m going to try to write a story reflecting what the PR firms I deal with think about this issue, let’s assume Arrington is absolutely right.
Some firms will stop talking to us (yeah! less email), but we’ll find other ways to get the news. Others, who haven’t read this post because they don’t read TechCrunch, will be unpleasantly surprised. Maybe if we cause enough pain then PR firms will start to take action against those publications who break the rules.
Embargoes are really widely used to curry some special favour with journalists who promise coverage in exchange for a certain level of exclusivity or timed media coverage. Personally, I love embargoes but would say I’ve actually engaged in them roughly two-thirds of the time. It’s always a nice break to be granted something in advance so I can walk, not run, to the editor, have a leisurely chat, not a rushed one, and decide if this is something I’d cover.
Although I really don’t get embargoes that much, I’ve also never, ever broke them and will never understand why someone would break a promise to report on it ahead of schedule. Call me a professional, but there’s to do otherwise is highly unethical, which is why I’m not applauding Arrington wholeheartedly here.
Arrington also describes the actions of one Lois Whitman, who appears to spam her targets with her PR pitches to the point of complete annoyance. Based on the evidence presented in that blog post, I’d say it’s a fairly easy to throw the rulebook out of the window. I’ve dealt with a few Lois Whitman’s myself and frankly, it’s easy for these types of PR professionals to be lumped with their peers into the single annoying flack category. As some of my colleagues would like to point out, this has made me very frustrated, something I hope people would understand given the amount of pitches I get daily.
The problem, as PR blogger Brian Solis says, is two fold. One is opportunistic bloggers or reporters looking for an edge will break a story ahead of the agreed-upon embargo and the other is just PR firms leveraging the embargo while privately knowing that the “scheduled” wire broadcast time isn’t that important anyways.
Hopefully, the outcome of Arrington’s lead could be a decidingly shift in how PR works with blogs and the mainstream media. If this concept of ignoring the embargo begins to take off, this will undoubtedly create a shift in how coverage is awarded to certain organizations. Will this make the reporters job harder? I’d like to hope not. But it might help the whole process between PR and reporters better.
Even though I’m not a blog writer (although I’m sure one day that will happen), the embargo will always be a welcome tool to my coverage. But it shouldalways, always, always be up to the PR rep to have an understanding of how the media works and what makes a good story will always win out in the end, something I rarily have seen during my experience with PR folk.
Trust and relationship building, as Allen Stern notes, is certainly part of the equation, but if Arrington’s ways catch on and PR folk can’t rely on their most powerful weapon in their arsenal anymore, I can only hope that the only outcome of this movement will force blanketing of cut-and-pasted pitches to die a welcome death.
Yikes. So it’s been awhile since my last post.
Many apologies to the one or two readers out there.
Things lately have been crazy - not only professionally, but socially as well. Anybody who knows me or has an elongated conversation with me past five minutes knows that I -
1) love December and the holidays and
2) have the tendency to try to cram in as much as possible
I’m very thankful that things have been busy, actually. Although I do whine and complain about it and often pontificate on how luxurious it would be to sit and home and rot away with daytime television, I admit that I like things fast-paced. Although sometimes it’s nice to sit back and relax, sleep in or just veg around, one of the best feelings in the world is to feel productive.
I admire many of the friends, family and acquaintances out there who seem to juggle ten to fifteen projects each day - my mind is absolutely flummoxed at how they are able to budget their time. One friend is in the midst of working a full time job along with two very successful side projects, with yet another one down the pipeline (to write a column for a daily newspaper).
Envious? Yes. Absolutely confuddled as to how she is able to do it? Absolutely.
The first thing I asked her when we sat down for a drink a few weeks ago was - how do you do it? Without going into much detail, she told me that two people that she was fairly closely connected to passed away. Although it wasn’t a close family member or her best friend, it was enough to shake her to the core.
Recently, I found out that a classmate of mine since elementary school recently succumbed to lung cancer. We weren’t the best of friends, but we were stand partners and we shared a few mutual friends. The most incredible thing to me is the mere fact that she is just one year younger than me.
I know these things happen, but it never crosses your mind to think that it will actually happen to somebody you know. I’m not sure how I would react if it were a family member or a close friend. For now, my heart just goes out to the family that must be having one of the hardest Christmases…
And despite all the mild grumbles and groaning about a stressful time… I am just thankful for being able to go out and spend time with the people I love.
Christmas in San Francisco
What a lovely place to be
Seeing the hills being all lit up
Like a diamond Christmas tree
Hearing children singing carols
People come from everywhere
To sing along with the children
Standing all around Union Square
Christmas in San Francisco
Looking like some fairy land
People with gifts in the crispy air
Giving old Saint Nick a hand
Let’s take a peek in Chinatown
Eating lychee nuts and barbecued boar
What can you say about the Golden Gate
That hasn’t been said before
Christmas in San Francisco
There is no place quite so dear
It’s the closest thing to heaven
How I wish that you were here.
What can you say about the Golden Gate
That hasn’t been said before
Christmas in San Francisco
There is no place quite so dear
It’s the closest thing to heaven
How I wish that you were here.
