{"id":105,"date":"2005-10-30T01:04:40","date_gmt":"2005-10-30T07:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2005\/10\/30\/excuse-708\/"},"modified":"2008-02-11T23:33:54","modified_gmt":"2008-02-12T05:33:54","slug":"excuse-708","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/10\/excuse-708\/","title":{"rendered":"Excuse 7.08"},"content":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005.<\/strong> At some point toward the end of every month, I the Brick layer consider its worth. Blogs, especially those using services and their templates (e.g. Blogger etc.), seem to be one long Internet page then at some point weeks months earlier a cutoff is determined for previous entries to be archived, which still generally are available to the reader.<\/font><\/p>\n

I designed Brick, though, with each page filling a month and the current Brick having at bottom hyperlinks to previous, archived months. This is no great cleverness, one-upping the density of bought blogs. It just seemed logical for a computer application, folders inside folders inside folders.<\/font><\/p>\n

So when I consider adding a Brick on the 28th, or the 24th, or sometimes the 18th of the month, I wonder if it’s worth it, considering it’ll be read less often than what’s been posted since the 2nd or the 14th:<\/font><\/p>\n

“Why in X days, this month will get its unique day-and-year name and I’ll delete currentdocument and start fresh in it.”<\/font><\/p>\n

I had two Brick drafts for the currentdocument that in two days will become filename1005. One comprised notes written Longhand on a midmonth clipping from The Wall Street Journal,<\/em> wouldn’t take but 30 minutes to put into a decent entry. The second was typewritten and would take 15 minutes to enter into the computer, “rekeyboard,” as it were, and hope such an awful coinage won’t be show up in everyday use.<\/font><\/p>\n

Typewritten? Yes. The idea is that a quick-and-effective revision can occur during the — oh my goodness — rekeyboarding of it. Other Bricks have begun as Longhand prose scribed in Shady Hill’s Poet’s Corner.<\/font><\/p>\n

(Shady Hill is what we call our house near campus, with Poet’s Corner being one narrow end of the home’s sunporch where I commit writing. The computer is in another room, convenient to the DSL phone line; I write there, too, but bills also are paid at the desk. Work is committed down there. So far as I know, no artistic genius with connections is buried beneath this Poet’s Corner.)<\/font><\/p>\n

My Poet’s Corner contains a standup desk with a fountain pen and mechanical pencil where Longhand exerts. It also holds a sitdown desk where my old Royal office standard waits for action. (Musical equipment flops out there, too.) Sometimes I feel like typing. The Royal’s tactility, the clicks and dings, are stimulating, or just fun.<\/font><\/p>\n

But what’s the point of uploading either draft? No more than any other. Should they wait for uploading in November? Other topics likely will replace these. Why didn’t I commit the two to the World Wide Web midmonth when I snatched them from the creative ether?<\/font><\/p>\n

I got busy.<\/font><\/p>\n

Sure, I’ve said that in previous months, at least to myself. This month, though, an Assignment and a Project came up. The Project especially absorbed all of my energy and excreted blobs of anxiety. About one I am pessimistic and the other optimistic. I could be wrong on either or both so far as their acceptance.<\/font><\/p>\n

If either or both are successful things will change. The Brick probably will change, though with luck the Brick’s change can instead be better called growth. If both fail, well heck the Brick will have to transform, too.<\/font><\/p>\n

About which, more cannot be said. Anyway, isn’t there always on hand a project or an assignment (even assigned from the self), that is, plans for bigger and better and closer to the ideal? And if it wins, or just gets close — and getting close does count, friends — things do change. -30-<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005. At some point toward the end of every month, I the Brick layer consider its worth. Blogs, especially those using services and their templates (e.g. Blogger etc.), seem to be one long Internet page then at some point weeks months earlier a cutoff is determined for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technical-difficulties"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3471,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/01\/know-when-to-folder\/","url_meta":{"origin":105,"position":0},"title":"Know When to Folder","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This column first was published as the \u201cPresident\u2019s Message\u201d in the January 2012 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Who among us still owns a typewriter? My Smith-Corona manual portable that saw me through high school and college is in the attic, but it works. On a desk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/01\/last-of-the-inbreed-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":105,"position":1},"title":"Last of the inbreed","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Jan. 2, 2005: In the paper and online today is Dave Barry's final column as a regularly run syndicated humor columnist. He announced this a few months ago, calling it a sabbatical of indefinite length while acknowledging writing projects in other media, maybe including papers.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":125,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/08\/non-post\/","url_meta":{"origin":105,"position":2},"title":"Non-post","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you really care? Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005: Just to get the month rolling with a freshly laid Brick, let's note the delay was due to family coming to visit the first of the month. Details such as the visitor was one brother and not a flock of kin, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":219,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/07\/playing-dodgson-ball\/","url_meta":{"origin":105,"position":3},"title":"Playing Dodgson Ball","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Follow some literary logic down a rabbit hole If \"Alice laughed: 'There's no use trying,' she said; 'one can't believe impossible things.' \"'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1701,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/12\/absence-makes-blogs-shorter\/","url_meta":{"origin":105,"position":4},"title":"Absence Makes Blogs Shorter","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Brick has been sporadic for some weeks. With luck, it will be more active in December. Want an excuse? How about National Novel Writing Month. It\u2019s 50,000 words to create a first draft of a novel (around a 200-page book) in 30 days. November is the one. My third try,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"National Novel Writing Month","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/nano_09_winner_120x240.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/07\/lead-the-press-to-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":105,"position":5},"title":"Lead the press to water","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, July 1, 2005: In this morning's papers, we read again of local officials asking people to informally not waste water, before conservation steps are ordered. Again, they say there is no shortage, just that it's summer and yada, yada, yada. In previous summers, though,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}