Blank Pages

The blank page is a virgin canvas.

Apple's Battery Issues

Apple's achilles heel, I've read, is its battery life. Despite the current MacBook Pro ad that praises an eight-hour battery life, it has been my experience that my Apple products start to fail after four hours.

But there is virtue in the short battery life, I think. If my iPhone had a longer battery, I would be using it more frequently throughout the day on time-wasting activities. If my work Mac had an eight-hour battery, I'd probably be surfing the web for seven of those hours.

Knowing that I have to conserve energy forces me to work more efficiently. If I cannot get my daily computer work done on four hours of computer battery life, then I need to re-prioritize my time.

Anne Lamott quote

"If you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses don't go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining."

Facebook quizzes

The fastest-growing population on Facebook are persons thirty-years-old and older. We embrace Facebook for the same reason we rejected MySpace: the layout is more mature. It's clean. Simple. Uncomplicated. It is a design that an adult would appreciate. A nice departure from MySpace pages, which tend to be cluttered with badges, sound files, and scrolling pictures. MyStuff pages have the charm of a pre-teen's messy bedroom floor.

But Facebook is quickly losing the benefit of a mature design. My Facebook newsfeed today contained the following:
--"Which Jane Austin character are you?"
--"Which '80s movie describes you?"
--"What are your top five favorite breakfast cereals?"
This content is not worthy of a mature design.

The problem with inspiration

Inspiration is not necessarily a virtue. Anyone can write well when inspired. Solid writers do not need to be inspired to write well.