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Bookmark Archives That Don’t (Pinboard Blog)

Bookmark Archives That Don’t (Pinboard Blog)

Buy My New Book, Please! Writing Assignments eBook and Paperback Now Available

Buy My New Book, Please! Writing Assignments eBook and Paperback Now Available

Start searching if you want to find your writing voice | Write for Your Life

Start searching if you want to find your writing voice | Write for Your Life

Say It Simply

“Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”

Some in my audience may be old enough to remember the above. It is the “slogan” for McDonald’s Big Mac hamburger. Perhaps one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history. If you ask almost anyone who was of learning age or older in the mid-1970’s, they can likely rattle off this list of ingredients today without pause and on command. I have not had a Big Mac in over 20 years but I will be able to remember exactly what one is, the very components it is built with, for the rest of my life. Textbook advertising. Yet, it is just a list of ingredients. Nothing more.
I love words. One of the main reasons I write is because of my affection for words and the ability to play with their framework and structure. I find it not only fun, but self-challenging. Nothing thrills me more than clever prose. Seeing something written with such deft skill and imagery that it causes one to gasp in the seeming death defying awe of it all. Yet, while other writers may look at such a thing and half-grin with knowing approval, what the reader often remembers, and what often has the most lasting impact, are the things that are said simply.

Hundreds of unknown Picasso works discovered in Paris | Art and design | The Guardian

Hundreds of unknown Picasso works discovered in Paris | Art and design | The Guardian

Eating dog food, scratching itches, walking talks and all that jazz.

I have ordered a Macbook Air 11inch with a 64GB SSD to replace my 3.5 year old Black Macbook (Blackbook) that had been upgraded with a 320/7200 HDD. 

Once it arrives, I will use it fresh out of the box. I will not “migrate” any of my data until it is needed. Even then, the question before doing so that will always be asked is “Where does this belong?”. I will only install software methodically, deliberately and only when absolutely needed.  I really do think that, with proper data management, 64GB will be enough for me. In fact, I think I will find that the constraint of not having a lot of space will be freeing. Perhaps it will force me to make some honest admissions about what “need” really is.

My photos are a good example of this. I take most photos these days with my iPhone. I sync my iPhone to my iMac because that is where the bulk of my music and movies live. That said, my main photo collection lives on my Macbook. Why? Well, I’m not quite sure. For how long have I had my photos taken with my mobile and photos taken with my main camera in two separate locations? Years. Why? I don’t know. Well, this weekend, I changed that and now all photos live together on the iMac.

Then, if all of my Photos live on my iMac, do I really need to have iPhoto on my Macbook? What about iDVD on a machine that does not have a Superdrive? Do I need to have iLife at all? These are the sorts of questions I will be pondering.

I have done a lot of talking about doing such a thing on this site since the beginning. Now, I’m about to put that into practice and, I’m sure, will share about the experience here with you. Stay tuned…

You Have Permission To Do Nothing

You Have Permission To Do Nothing