The Writer’s Coin

Photo by Sopues

When I was a kid, one of my best friends seemed to always have a new video game to play. I would come over and he’d be playing it and I would usually just sit there and watch. Eventually, he would get angry and throw his control around.

“This game sucks! It’s not working!”

I’d ask him what the problem was and he would say the game was broken. So I would take the box the game came in and take the manual out.

“Have you read the manual yet?”

“Dude, the manual is for losers.”

And then I would find what he needed in the manual, tell him what combination of buttons to press, and he would finally move on to the next part of the game.

Problem solved.

I’m sad to say that this happened many many times, but every time he refused to read the manual to his latest and greatest games. Which meant that, without me, he wasn’t even getting all the value for the games he paid his dad paid for. Which I never understood.

Lots of people are this way, and they just feel that reading the manual just gets in the way of the enjoyment of whatever brand-new “thing” they have just bought.

Trust me, I understand the feeling, but what I don’t understand is why you wouldn’t want to figure out how to make your digital camera take macro pictures or how to get your new phone to work as an alarm clock. If you can figure it out on your own, cool. But if you can’t and you still refuse to read the manual, you’re just being very, very stupid and stubborn.

Don’t Be A Know-It-All
Think about all the different times you buy something that comes with a manual. Do you really claim to know how all these different things work? Are you an expert at learning how to use:

• A new gadget like a phone, TV, or camera
• A piece of furniture (I’m looking at you Ikea)
• A new kitchen appliance
• A power tool
• A car
• A new video game/system
• A new computer
• Installing your cable box

I mean, you could go on and on. This weekend alone, I got a piece of furniture at Ikea and the manual was missing from one of the boxes. Did we try to figure it out ourselves? Hell no! We found it online and thanks to that we had no trouble. Then we bought a food processor—do I know how to use one of those? Nope. It even came with an instructional DVD, which is a great idea. Maybe that’s a better way of engaging those that freak out when they see a manual. Last time I checked, DVDs weren’t for “losers.”

Upkeep
Figuring out how to make things work is one thing. OK, maybe you figured it out the way my friend figured his games out. You’ve got it working, good for you. But what about using it efficiently or taking care of it properly? If you aren’t taking care of it or are using it wrong, you’re throwing money away and may have to replace it sooner than it was meant to. Think about your car—did you even open it up once? Ever? Seriously, you think you know enough to not even take a peek?

Other Applications
This is the part where I take a “trivial” thing like reading the manual on all the stuff you buy and apply it to a wider spectrum of stuff you can use in other parts of your life.

Reading the manual is a good way to learn how to follow directions.

It’s happened to me at work countless times: I get an email with a project or request and I shoot off a response right away saying something like:

This is a terrible idea. You can’t do it this way because that software can’t do what you think it does. And another thing….

And then after I’ve sent it, it hits me: Oops. I didn’t read the email closely enough. I was wrong and the person sending the email was right. Now I look like an idiot.

Reading instructions carefully will also make your boss like you. A LOT. Whenever I get an assignment from my boss, I read it carefully and make sure I’m addressing the exact points that he brings up. If you treat it like reading the manual, you’ll wind up giving your boss exactly what he/she asked for.

And that will make you a better employee.

And trust me, in my experience manuals are usually not the problem—99% of the manuals I’ve ever read are so easy to follow that a drunken monkey could understand them. If something isn’t working, it’s more than likely you aren’t reading the instructions carefully enough.

Does anyone else out there feel like I do about this? You got any good manual stories?

As far as I can see, reading the manual will only save you time, money, and a lot of hassle. So if that makes you a loser, lose away.

(wow that is a lame ending to this post…)

Tags: digital camera, furniture, ikea, reading the manual, time saver, video games

I’m still catching up on my Poets & Writers issues, but yesterday I saw this quote by Andrew Porter, who is interviewed in the Nov/Dec issue of the magazine.

Here’s what he has to say:

A writing career is not completely rooted in talent. Nor is it based on what success is happening right now. It’s whether you can make yourself work through those darker periods when you’re not getting a lot of recognition or interest. That ability to keep persevering ultimately separates writers who publish books from those who don’t.

Tags: andrew porter, poets and writers, the theory of light and matter, Writing

Ever have trouble finding things on search engines? Here is one quick tip that some of you out there may not know about:

Using quotation marks makes it A LOT easier to find things.

When you enter two or more words into a search engine with quotes around them (like this: “this blog rocks”), the search engine will see the whole thing as one word and look for it accordingly.

So if you want to search for ways to find things online, you would search for “Finding things online” and Google (or whatever engine you use) would return pages that have that very string of words (hopefully this post would come up). It works great for finding images too.

Say you want to find this guy:

Searching for “funny mustache” and then clicking on images would get you there.

I mostly use the quotes system to find new articles by some of my favorite writers. For example, I’m a huge David Foster Wallace fan (still), and I was always on the lookout for new articles from him and other authors like Michael Lewis.

Just hit that News button and the latest articles will pop up for whatever you’re looking for. And if you click Blogs on that next page, you can see what the blog world has to say about whatever you’re searching for.

I’ve noticed some people still don’t know this little trick and since I use it so much I wanted to pass it along.

Tags: finding things online, google, google blogs, google news, google tips, using google

by martinhoward

Routines are a great way to get things done consistently and over long-term periods of time. It’s like brushing your teeth—you do it as part of your morning/night routine and don’t really give it much thought. Whatever negatives they may have (and we’ll get to that in a second), you can’t argue with the simple reasoning that they simply work when you want to get things done.

The Good

If you want to do something consistently over and over through a certain period of time, setting a routine is a great way of going about it. Want to get fit? Set up a schedule to go to the gym. Want to read more books? Set aside the time to read an hour every day. Want to save some money? Bring your lunch to work every day.

Easy, right? Sure, as long as you stick to the routine. And that’s the beauty of routines—once you get them started it’s very easy to keep it going.

The Bad

It’s Boring. Let’s be frank here, bringing the same old lunch to work every day (which I do) gets boring really fast. Does it achieve the goal of saving money? Sure. Is it exciting? No, it’s very very dull.

If you’re not a fan of repeating the same thing over and over, then this kind of routing wouldn’t work for you. If you want to work out, you have to actually stick to the routine, which doesn’t work well for people who want to be more spontaneous or feel trapped when they have something scheduled out ahead of time.

The Ugly

You can fall into a rut. This is what I’m struggling with right now. When it comes to creative endeavors like writing, routines are your enemy. They will lull you into a sense of “getting things done,” when in reality all you’re doing is wasting time and killing your creative cells.

Sit down every day at the same time and “try” to do come up with something great to write will absolutely kill any chances you have of writing something worthwhile.

Setting aside the time to write every day and leaving that window open to new things, however, could work. But I often find myself falling right back into a rut of writing the same old boring stuff over and over again.

Not good. Very ugly.

What Say You?

Routines are great for things like exercising and saving money, but not so good for creative pursuits like writing. How do you deal with this struggle of getting things done consistently without falling into a rut?

Tags: Blogging, Getting Things Done, routines, saving, Writing

by Bob Jagendorf

Yesterday the Chicago Bears lost to the Houston Texans and officially ended their season. There will be no playoffs for the Bears in 2008. For me, that means my football season is over—although I may watch the Super Bowl.

M thought I would be bummed, and part of me is, but mostly I felt a great sense of relief. I now have my Sundays back and I don’t have to plan them around a football game. Don’t get me wrong, I love following my home team, but I’m also looking forward to having the “free time.”

And that got me thinking about sports in general, and how much time sports fans like myself put into following our teams. Between actually watching the games, reading newspaper articles/blog posts, and talking about it, sports can take up a LOT of time. Time that could be spent reading a book, learning a new skill, or writing an incredibly interesting blog post like this one. Not only that, it also gets in the way of doing bigger things like going to a museum or driving to IKEA to find a proper TV stand.

Is devoting a significant amount of time to being a sports fan a complete and total waste of time?

I know it’s entertaining and gives you something to talk about/network with others. But it’s addicting, and that’s the part I’m thankful to be done with when it comes to football. It’s like a soap opera, and I’m sure a lot of people feel that it’s just as useless. Week after week you want to see how your “guys” are going to do against the other team and if you miss a week, it almost feels like you weren’t a part of that week’s drama.

Cons:

• Being a fan takes up a lot of time
• It uses up time that could be spent on more productive endeavors
• Sports never end—there is always a sport that’s “in season”
• It’s unhealthy

Pros:

• It’s fun?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE baseball fan and that’s one sport I’ll never “rid” myself of. I’ll always be a fan and will always read the sports pages every day, talk about it passionately, and waste a WHOLE BUNCH of time with it.

But where is the line? How much is too much?

This post was included in the Money Hacks Carnival.

Tags: chicago bears, fandom, football, nfl, Sports, sundays, wasting time, watching TV

by Buggolo

Over the weekend, M and I had a pretty interesting time. My holiday party was at a relatively fancy bar/club downtown. It was fun dressing up and hanging out at a trendy place, which is something we don’t do very often. Then on Saturday we had M’s holiday party, and before going out to dinner at a nice bistro, we visited with one of her clients.

The nature of her business puts her into some very nice homes—she actually designs them so that’s why they look so good. The sad part is that she gets to design/see some of the most amazing homes in the city and then she has to come back home and live with me in our little apartment (which does have a nice view, at least). Anyway, the experience had me thinking the whole time we were there: “I would love to have all of this.”

This is a building filled with famous people and others who can afford every luxury in life. The best part? They are incredibly nice people and excellent hosts. It’s usually easier for me to handle the whole “look at all the stuff you don’t have and probably never will” when the people that have it are jerks. But this couple was super nice and you would never think that they live in the lap of luxury. It kind of reminded me of Black Friday a year ago when I felt like I wanted to shop to be an equal to everyone else.

Now, this apartment we were in was incredible. It had three bedrooms, a sweet den where he spent most of his time, a ridiculous living room, dining room, and some extra rooms that were left over. They share the floor with four other units. And they were telling me that some people own the entire floor. This blew my mind, what on earth do you do with an entire floor when this apartment that takes up 1/5 of it is so huge/nice/incredible?

The whole thing was a crazy experience. I was having a great time because these people were such good hosts, but the whole time I couldn’t shake this feeling of “wow, you people have so much more than I do.”

I know it’s stupid to compare, but when you see this level of luxury, part of you wants to have it too. Or something more than what you have.

It got me thinking about how other people handle this. Have you had any experiences like this and what kinds of feelings do they generate in you?

Do share because I want to hear other opinions before the memory of Saturday fades and I forget all about it.

Tags: Happiness, money, rich

Still looking for a gift to give this holiday season? If you’re really stumped and have no idea what that special someone would like, why not surprise them by giving them the greatest television show I’ve ever seen. Better than Lost, better than Mad Men, better than Sex and the City, and yes—even better than Seinfeld.

Welcome to The Wire.

Here’s the best part: a lot of people still don’t know how good this show is. It was on HBO and it ended in 2008, after five incredible seasons. The other great part? The complete series came out on DVD earlier this month, which means you can now give the whole thing to someone you really care for (not just anyone, mind you) all in one fell swoop.

If you can’t afford it, don’t fret. Here’s what you do: you buy the first season and give that instead. After that, they’ll buy/rent the rest on their own—guaranteed. The show is that addictive.

OK, now that I’m done talking like a salesman, let’s get down to the nitty gritty about this show. This is my review of my favorite show of all time:

The Wire is the Greatest Show Ever

There are shows that take you by the throat and smack you upside the head with a great first impression and fool you into thinking that it’s a fantastic show. Then years and seasons later when you’re arranging your life around watching this show, it hits you: Why? The show hasn’t done anything but ride on the coattails of that first impression and settled into a nice comfortable groove afterwards.

Or some shows, like The Wire, keep you intrigued with how “real” they feel. When someone asks you what The Wire is about, you try to explain. “It’s a cop show, but wayyyy better.”

“Cop show” doesn’t do the show justice.

But then, as you’ve had your heart broken over and over with every TV show out there (like Lost), you start to see cracks. You start to wonder if the so-called “reality” at the core of this show isn’t anything more than just straight-up pessimism. Imagine the worst possible thing that could happen to a series of characters and that’s what happens on the show.

McNulty, Bubs, Michael, Omar, Duquan, and on and on and on it goes. As you’re nearing the end of season five (the last one) you start to feel that familiar dread and you want to fight it. “Not with this show. Not The Wire. Please, no.”

Then you watch the last episode of the last season, and you’re glad you had your doubts about The Wire. Glad you put it through your most stringent standards — that you weren’t blinded by the whims of one man who worked as a cop reporter for all those years and decided to start writing for TV. That you were conscious, that you doubted, that you fought the good fight the whole time. All the way to the end.

And then, it ended and the truth was revealed. you were right to follow your instincts: this is the greatest television show you’ve ever seen.

It is reality, it’s the way it is — that much is obvious even to a middle-class white kid that’s never stood on a street corner like that before (and doesn’t want to).

The dialog, the reality of it, the characters come to life.

The first few episodes weren’t a great first impression—it just felt like a very old, dated cop show. Then, after the first couple of discs, I got hooked and couldn’t get enough. As the characters would say, I got a taste and now I was hooked.

Hooked on McNulty and his self destruction, his freeing himself of himself.

Hooked on Bubs, the only real ray of hope in the whole show.

Hooked on Duquan and Michael and how they are simply part of a cycle.

Hooked on Bunk, my man. Probably my favorite character, especially early on.

So many characters that you have to come to terms with that you’ll never see or hear from again: the admiration for Daniels, the pulling and rooting for Omar. The first guy we rooted for was D’Angelo, then Poot’s friend and then Michael. You start to think of them as long-lost friends instead of TV characters. That’s when you know this show is different.

If you’ve already seen the show, you know these things already. This is nothing new. But I have something for you too: here are a couple of really cool links that fans should check out that I really enjoyed:

• Mix a little Freakonomics with The Wire and what do you get? This series of posts my economist/gang expert Sudhir Venkatesh titled What do Real Thugs Think of The Wire? He sits down with real gang members to watch the show and gets their impressions. I read Sudhir’s book on gangs in Chicago and it was pretty incredible what he did spending time with them back in the day. Any fan of The Wire has to check out these posts.
• Slashfilm has a three hour podcast/special of various critics discussing the show. What they liked and didn’t like, etc. Listening to it so long after watching the last episode brought back some great memories. It’s an interesting perspective on the show—more from a critic’s standpoint, although most of the guys are obviously fans.

OK, that’s all I got. If you’re a fan, please let me know if I got a good grasp on the greatness of the show in this post. If you’ve never seen it, did I sell you on it or did I just blab on about it like a schoolgirl?

Either way, if you still have a gift to give, you can’t go wrong with giving the gift of drug dealing and gang violence that is The Wire.

Enjoy.

P.S. This post is featured in the Movie Monday Blog Carnival.

Tags: mcnulty, television show, The Wire

 By Vision Valley Photography

The other day I was hanging around at Best Buy while my wife went shopping for shoes at DSW (which is the closest place to hell on earth, but that’s a whole different post). As I walked around in there and checked out the new computers, I got a major case of the gimmes. 

I want a new computer.

Do I need a new computer?

First of all, my wife and I have a desktop computer that her old boyfriend gave her way back when. This is an OLD computer that has reached the end of the line, all while performing admirably. I even upgraded the machine’s RAM a few months ago and it’s reached the limit of how it can be improved.

The machine I use is a laptop that I bought before traveling to France in 2003. Laptops don’t have as much flexibility when it comes to upgrading, and this one is also starting to show its age. The hard drive is crammed and no amount of trickery seems to speed it up to what I’m used to at work. 

In other words…it’s time.

Without Spending a Cent? Explain!

That’s what I’m here for. As I walked around Best Buy, it hit me that the stupid way to go about buying a new computer was to take out my credit card, pick the machine closest to what I want, and buy it right then and there. Worrying about how to pay for it down the line was something a stupid person wouldn’t care about because I’d have my hands on my new computer right away and my life would be so much happier/better/etc.

What I’m going to do is be patient and plan ahead: I’ve started a targeted savings account over at ING that’s specifically for this new machine. The account is starting from $0 and my goal is to save $1,000 as quickly as I can without spending any money from my paycheck. All the money I deposit in this fund will come from the money I make on this blog, any freelancing money I make, and any other extra income I get. 

Which means it’ll take WAY too long to get my new computer.

But having a specific goal and a very nice reward waiting for me on the other side means one thing: motivation. 

I’ve already put up some books on Amazon that I don’t need and were just taking up space. So far I’ve sold four books and have netted around $25, so I’m on my way. 

Not only that, I’m always on the lookout for how I can make and extra buck or two to drop into the computer account. It will probably take a really long time, but the best part is I won’t feel any of the guilt I usually get with big purchases. 

Why? Because I won’t have spent a single cent of my paycheck. Now, who’s interested in buying a guitar I’ve played like 17 times and looks brand new? Any bidders?

Oh and also, if you have any tips for making a quick buck or two, let me know because every little bit counts and my computer may not make it much further…

Tags: amazon, computer, dell, ING, openoffice, selling books, targeted saving

1. I want to read my old philosophy books from college again. This time, for myself. 
2. Writing my novel would be so much easier without this whole “job” thing. 
3. So I can start submitting stories to magazines, not blog posts to blog carnivals.
4. Read more. 
5. Take pictures again.
6. Practice my French before it fades completely from my mind.
7. Become a (much) better cook.
8. Read more, again.
9. Never ride the bus during rush hour ever again.
10. I have nothing left to prove

Usually I would write something like this and end it with a “takeaway,” or something that says to the world “listen, I know this sounds silly because I could do all these things now if my time-management skills were further developed, so that’s the lesson I learned from writing it out.”

But instead, today, I’m just going to say screw that. That is all.

Tags: retirement, top ten

How am I qualified to give you advice on what to buy for someone you know who wants to be a writer? Because I’ve been claiming to be a writer for some time now, but I’m still just a “wannabe” like the rest of us. Anyway, onto the list:

Stuff

• The Amazon Kindle: You may not think so now, but this is the future of books. The question is, how far into the future is it? Eventually, we’ll be reading books and newspapers on something like this, and we’ll look back at the Kindle as the Rio PMP of the MP3 world.
• Dragon Naturally Speaking: If your writer friend likes to write things out by hand like I do (it just feels right), then this is essential. Otherwise, those manuscripts will just sit there for fear of sitting and typing them all out for hours on end. Plus it works really well.
• Moleskine Reporter Notebook: I love my Moleskine. Sure, you can do with a simple pad of paper (or your hand, if nothing else is handy), but this just makes you feel like a writer. More expensive? Sure. Does it make you a better writer? No. But we’re a quirky bunch, us wannabes.
• Poets & Writers Magazine Subscription This is one of the greatest things I ever did as a writer. Here is a quarterly reminder to keep writing. I’ve fallen off the wagon so many times and then this comes in the mail and I’m reminded why I love writing so much.
• Music: It’s really key to the whole process of writing, in my opinion. When I’m drawing a blank, I can always count on firing up some tunes and letting my mind wander. Usually, it gets the creative juices going.
• A notebook: My preference? Blank pages with a really nice, unique cover. Just something that says: “Here, fill this up with whatever you want. Now you have a place to write in.”

Books

• A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway: One of my favorite “writing life” books out there. If you can, read it in Paris—it’ll blow you away.
• Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides: If it’s not the best novel I’ve ever read, it’s only because the next book on this list tops it. A must have.
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz: Years after reading Middlesex, I thought I wouldn’t find another novel like it. Junot Diaz combines history and family history in this awesome book.
• On Writing, by Stephen King: I’ve read it twice and it’s one of those books that manages to inspire you each and every time. Unexpected, I know, but the man knows his stuff. 
• Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott: I don’t like some of her personality traits, but if you want to write, she has some great advice for you.
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never do Again, by David Foster Wallace: This is the book that turned me into a writer wannabe. This man can make anything under the sun interesting. May he rest in peace.

Did I miss any obvious ones? I’m curious what others would recommend and what they think of my picks.

P.S. This post was featured on the Just Write Carnival. Make sure to check it out, along with some other great writing-related posts.