Have muses, will follow
Earlier this week I totally dropped the ball on writing new posts for TWS. Really, I did. First, I reposted this already published post as a new post. I thought it was a great post that people should read – and it hardly ever gets any views. Yet, that didn’t help because no one read it again either.
Then, I wrote about a questionable foray into Ph.D ghost writing. I tried to make it sound like something really awful and evil and titillating, but perhaps that was an overstatement. I helped someone cheat in a Ph. D program. And, since this blog is supposed to about work and design, I neglected to get at the heart of the post: I have no morals. That’s bad. Do not trifle with talents by doing pointless shit. End of story.
So, my blog suffered is suffering a bit. In the beginning, I was keeping up really good momentum, doing 20 minute writing exercises and getting up early. All I needed was a cape – and I would’ve been freakin’ Wonder Woman.
Then, my wandering eye began to notice the hot new pair of legs on Modite. There were all these deliciously cool posts on beautiful household wares and clothes. She was talking about things I couldn’t afford, but would want anyway. I was hooked. I started creeping out with Apricot Tea and obsessing about her life a lot more often than I should. I invited way too many lascivious thoughts into my head about this girl’s YouTube channel.
Infidelity starts with the mind
Therefore, I decided I so, so, so wanted to be a style blogger. I wanted to be that kind of writer that picks out noteworthy stuff. I blog about fashion and design in a way that makes you smile. But, I am not fashionable. I do not care about fashion. I cherish all things awe-inspiring, but my love stops at discussing $4,300 boots and Spring runway trends.
I am not so much interested in gorgeous things to wear. I am more intrigued in exploring the systems of good design. Whether it’s on the body and clothes or within a body of work.
So, that brings me back to my blog.
Good and wonderous things are incredibly created – including a career. While life can be messy, it is also well designed. You live. You die. Everything you do in between is up to you. Easy. And, why is that good design? It ensures freedom. At the end of the day, the freedom to choose your own design is the epitome of any worthwhile system.
I would read other style bloggers and wonder how come my blog wasn’t more like that. Nonetheless, I loathe taking pictures of myself. And, publishing posts about charming chatchkes I find on the web gets boring.
So why do it if I can become so easily bored by it?
It’s a good question. I suppose it’s because I don’t make any good use of it. I can only posit that I am abstractly interested in style. Yet, it is not something to talk about per se. What’s the diff ? The simple talk about anything takes you to the middle of the conversation. This is where all the safe information is found. This is what most style bloggers do – and that is fine.
Exploration requires hacking angles and removing frames. How do you hack style?
One of my favorite posts talks about how English majors are totally effed up in the head when it comes to their own academic degrees. English degrees don’t equal writing and editing genius.Writing and good editing are not something to be learned in studying William Somerset Maugham or Mark Twain. What I like about that post is that it removes a frame of misplaced expectation – it derails a style of thinking.
I also get snarky. I love being snarky.
Yet, at this point, I am making out and indiscriminately screwing other blogs. Meanwhile, my blog sits at home, faithfully waiting for me to bring home crabs. Or, leave her for a younger, sexier blog with a tight ass and no emotional hang ups. I have been tempted too many times to count.
I can think all I want about how other blogs are better designed and have more going on than me. Nonetheless, the design is up to me. It always has been. It never really changed because beautiful things can be recycled. They always come back in vogue because anything worth keeping never goes out of fashion.
It’s classic. And, that’s style.