Author Archives →

The Magician

Author: Michael Scott

After thoroughly enjoying The Alchemyst, I’ve had it in my buffer to finish this series. At the very least, I needed to finish the second (this one) to see if it holds up to the expectations of the first.

With a little more buffer time to get through my bottomless reading list, it finally came up.

The second picks up right where the first left off and it accelerates all the way through. Each chapter building tension and excitement. To me, this series is Percy Jackson for mystics.

The references to historical figures and documents, mixed with the possibility of their literal truths, makes this addictive.

Which character will be introduced next?
Will Scott reference The Greater Key of Solomon?
Who will turn first? Josh or Sophie?

I’m excited and prepared to do something this month I haven’t done in a long time:

finish the series.

Sometimes, it’s just a blank page

Sometimes, there isn’t anything spectacular for me to say.
No insight to expand upon.
No thought that is festering.
Nothing but a blank page.

Yet, I come to that page with humility.

It beckons me to be there because it knows the only way forward is to write some more.

It challenges me to fill it and like a runner who hit the wall, promises something rewarding if I keep pushing through.

One pen stroke is all it takes to spark an idea, but it won’t let me know which one it is. I must persist.

Sometimes, even with persistence, it doesn’t happen on that page.

There is no magic this time.

Sometimes, it’s just a blank page.

A blank page with words.

The Long Tail of My Writing

I received a heads-up that my post from Lifehack (written in 2013, I think) was referenced again in an article.

I find it neat how something I wrote seven years ago is still being discovered and referenced. It’s a testament to the wisdom of putting your work out there and leaving it there.

It’s also a fascinating trip in time to see where my head and my writing was at the time. There are edits I’d love to make, but that’s what growth is all about.

You need to see where you’ve been.

Leaving it out there and letting it be is something I’ve been improving upon. Its only requirement is to let go of your insecurities and keep going.

This is the fourth iteration of my blogging. The other three have been removed from history, which is a regret because there were probably gems in there. After all, the I don’t get to decide what people will like, what works and what doesn’t.

The article in reference outperformed (and still outperform) all my other posts on Lifehack by a significant margin.

However, I get to watch the long tail of this blog grow.

For the first few years, I would’ve been lucky to have fifty visitors a month. Now I get to see the many articles people gravitate towards on a daily basis. It’s a joy to be able to share a part of myself and watch my own growth as it happens.

I’ve been here for almost a thousand posts and I’m looking to grow a thousand more.

It’s a long tail indeed.

If That’s All You Can Do, Do It

If all you can do is read ten pages: read ten.

If all you can do is write a few lines: write them.

If all you can do is five push-ups: do five.

If all you can do is walk around the block: walk around the block.

If all you can do is cut back on one chip: cut back on one chip.

If all you can do is clear your sink: clear your sink.

We get too weighed down by what we want to do because it doesn’t match what we can do.

If we just start doing what we can, we’ll eventually end up doing what we want.

Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club

Author: Megan Gail Coles

Coles warns you at the beginning this might hurt a little.

The many reviews posted warn you this will be dark and painful.

Within fifty pages, it was obvious this was going in a depressing direction and while it did take some time before the book really hit its stride, I kept going.

Had I heeded the warnings, I probably wouldn’t have started this book just as a global pandemic reached my home. It probably wasn’t the best idea to continue reading while we were in crisis mode and my headspace was still adjusting.

Yet, I kept going.

There was a point in my reading when my emotions ran high, my blood boiled and despite my physical exhaustion from lack of sleep the previous night, I stayed up late to read.

I woke up angry.

Angry at the fictional characters knowing full well this isn’t fiction for many. I powered to the end… the end… which gutted me.

I was warned.

And now you are, too.

“This might hurt a little. Be brave.”

Blogging is Graffiti with Punctuation

I’ve heard this quote a few times and while I find it amusing, there’s an underlying theme I want to address.

“Real” writing.

Also included in that category is “real” art.

Let’s talk about graffiti for a second.

I grew up in a city that was so horribly planned, you just assumed you’d get stuck waiting for a train on your way to anywhere. Seriously–even downtown rush hour wasn’t immune.

What made it bearable was watching for graffiti. Some of it was nothing more than vandalism, but some–amazing. Yes, it was still vandalism, but it showcased what graffiti could become.

The artist can take the medium and elevate it.

Like graffiti, blogging is a medium that anybody can access. Some treat it as no more than a glorified journal without concern for content or its presentation. Others pontificate journalistic writing, but are nothing more than spastic armchair critics who merely post their opinions masquerading as research.

I’ll ignore the endless marketing blogs with the same formulaic copy-writing meant to funnel you int some product. I’ll try not to be too harsh as I got suckered into that methodology for a while, but did learn some useful writing tips along the way.

Some blogs, though, are game changers.

They open a world that a long forgotten non-fiction book collecting dust somewhere cannot.

They engage conversation, provoke rebuttals and gather communities.

They’re not mean to replace journal articles or books (though many books today are blog posts with hundreds of filler pages), but become its own medium to showcase what writing can be.

I consider it snobbery to prefix anything with “real.”

“Real” world.
“Real” books.
“Real” writing.
“Real” sports.
“Real” art.
etc.

There’s no such categorization.

There’s just the level it’s been elevated to in its execution.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer

I really didn’t think I would like this book. Avant-garde writing isn’t my cup of tea, but I gave it a chance under the recommendation of a trusted colleague.

I’m glad I stuck with it because I was treated to a heart-warming story that hooked me by the halfway point.

You get used to the stream-of-writing style and a large part of that is the crafted execution of Foer. Believing the main narrator is nine-years old? Yeah… I can suspend some semblance of reality on that one.

The style? Yes.
The language and thinking? Not so much.

Maybe I forgot what it was like to be that age or perhaps that is the mind of a nine-year old, but not one I’ve met.

Still, the book comes together in a satisfying way and I’m happy to have been there the whole way through. It’s opened up a gateway to other books like it.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff

Author: Christopher Moore

There is something irreverent, but oh so entertaining, about reading a fictional account of religious history–especially when it’s attempted as a humorous one.

Kevin Smith gave us Dogma, complete with Rufus the 13th Apostle and Alanis Morissette as God. Highly entertaining.

And here we have Biff: Jesus’ childhood pal who can fill us in on those missing years (12-30).

“Are you okay?”

My wife would often ask me this as I was reading because my chuckles would turn to snorts, and then full on belly laughs. The last time a book caught me off guard with this amount of tear-inducing humour was Year Zero by Rob Reid… and I read that before I was married.

Moore manages to take some common theories of Jesus and interplay them with a narrative told through an unlikely narrator.

While religious scholars may scoff at the brazen attempt of a quasi-historical account of Jesus’ life, you can’t miss the forest for the trees on this one. It’s not mean to be a history book, or a thought provoking manifesto (although it is thought provoking in many ways).

Instead, it’s a highly entertaining book meant for those can roll with its ridiculousness.

Feeling Overwhelmed

There are two pandemics happening now.

The first one is COVID-19 and the other is panic.

Panic is propagated by the media and amplified with social media. That’s why I made the conscious decision to digitally retreat, only checking in short bursts.

To help, these posts were/are written by hand or with a plain text editor.

Then March break ended and it was time to check-in with the education world. What ensued was an avalanche of information.

PING! Message from a colleague
PING! Email
PING! Clarification email
PING! Form #1 to track
Check in with my students and their families to see how they’re doing.
PING! Another message from a colleague
ARTICLE “Check this out: Tech tool to connect with students…”
ARTICLE “Stop with the worksheets…”
“Here’s a video tutorial…”
“Check out this free resource…”
PING! Form #2 to track
“Daddy! Can you come over here?”
ARTICLE “This might be grief. Read-on…”
Check out what I’m doing!
PING!
BZZZT!
Article to read
Video to watch
Incoming messages
“Make sure to take care of yourself.”
Kids fighting again.
Realized my lack of sleep last night just hit.
New announcement from the government!
More questions, few answers.

I hit a breaking point.

I updated my students for the day, turned off my phone, shutdown my computer and made a cup of coffee.

I haven’t been infected with the first pandemic (yet), but the second one almost got me today.

Time to prioritize.

It’s the government’s job to make the big decisions. That’s why we elect them–for exactly these situations.

Then the chain of command comes down to me.

What do I get to decide?
I get to decide how to react.

What’s my responsibility?
To make sure my family is okay, I’m okay and my students are okay.
After that, I can filter out everything except for what’s best right now.

And that’s what I’m going to do.