In the spring of 2021 I set myself a goal to pitch more publications and get more of my writing out there. Things got in the way, and well, since the summer I have not been doing as much writing as I wanted. Below is a roundup of everything I did submit this year, whichContinue reading “New writing elsewhere, by me (2021 edition)”
Category Archives: writing
Journaling Part 2: The Daily Note and Morning Pages
A quick review of my journaling setup as per my previous post: A simple bullet journal for daily habit tracking Morning Pages Keeping a Daily Note I detailed my BuJo approach in the last post. That is the quickest part of the routine. You could just keep a BuJo and gain lots of benefit. SinceContinue reading “Journaling Part 2: The Daily Note and Morning Pages”
Getting started with a journal
I have always been a sporadic journal writer, only regularly documenting daily experiences while traveling, winding down during the end-of-day decompression in my room. Many years ago I made it 1/5 the way through a 5-Year Journal. This year, I’m giving journaling a serious try, and have found it to be like a delayed mindfulnessContinue reading “Getting started with a journal”
New writing elsewhere, by me
The latest edition of the quarterly Kyoto Journal just dropped with a new article by yours truly. travel, revisited is KJ’s 99th issue. The magazine has long been a staple in the English language media on Japan. I was asked to consider the topic of travel writing as it pertains to my book project. WhileContinue reading “New writing elsewhere, by me”
Articulate Noise — Review of Better Living Through Criticism
For a book with “how” in the title, there is not much instruction. Better Living Through Criticism is more of a “watch me think about art, pleasure, beauty, and truth” which is much more entertaining. If writing described as “pontificating” or “a meditation” does not immediately turn you off, you will probably enjoy A.O. Scott’sContinue reading “Articulate Noise — Review of Better Living Through Criticism”
Writing macrons on macOS and iPadOS
This is a quick tutorial on how to easily type macrons on Apple devices with a hardware keyboard. The onscreen keyboard on the iPad makes this easy, but not when you are using an external hardware keyboard. This will be particularly relevant to academics needing to write Japanese terms in rōmaji. I searched the webContinue reading “Writing macrons on macOS and iPadOS”
Summer Break
It is the last day of summer break. The kids’ school here on Iki had a 3 week summer holiday, shortened by the school missed in April due to coronavirus measures. Although our break was shorted by a couple of weeks, we are lucky. Some schools only got 9 days. We are also lucky toContinue reading “Summer Break”
What is the most exciting thing in publishing today?
This weekend I was thinking about the recent history of publishing content: What are the innovations and trends of the past? What is in the near future? Let me give you a few examples of the kinds of things I am thinking about: blogs microblogs vs tumblr vs twitter social interest-based blog networks like MediumContinue reading “What is the most exciting thing in publishing today?”
A better process for reading, writing, and thinking: zettelkasten
I read a lot. Maybe too much… I am not a particularly fast reader, and I only do about 48 books a year (about 70% of those books in audio). So why do I say that I read “too much”? It is because I can barely remember anything I have read in the past. ToContinue reading “A better process for reading, writing, and thinking: zettelkasten”
Fear not the Blank White Page
Writing is how you complete your thoughts. An excellent quote from a piece on writing by Drew Magary. He writes about how he keeps a notebook of as-yet unformed thoughts so he never starts with the dreaded Blank White Page. Once you have collected all that primordial material: Then you get to catalog it, tinkerContinue reading “Fear not the Blank White Page”