This is a sync test

Nothing to see here – only posting to test the setup with Beeminder.

Actually, that’s something I can explain.  I’m trying to commit to writing more.  Over the last year and change, ever since I went to Camp Nerd Fitness, I’ve been trying to revisit many of the things I lost along the path of becoming what I thought an adult looked like. Some of those are my creative crafts, my love of writing, and my love of playing music.  Therefore, I wanted to commit to giving myself the time to do those things.  And, of course, every time I block off an hour labeled “Write a Blog Post” in my Best Self journal, it turns into something else: cooking, cleaning, volunteer work, or even just goofing off. I spend more time reading terrible work by other people than I do working on my own craft.

So I set up Beeminder and connected it to WordPress so I will actually do some writing.  Now, when I post to any of my owned blog space, it will count towards my 3 post a week goal.  Hence the need to test the setup to be sure it worked.

I have, over the last few years, debated what to do with this blog.  I’ve kept it online because,  while there is PLENTY of inappropriate behavior recorded in it, it’s all Youthful Hijinks that were age appropriate at the time.  It’s not like a prospective employer now is going to read a tale of why I am banned from UBC Housing and think I’m less of a hiring prospect for it.  If anything, a prospective employer should recognize that the flip side of all those pranks and bzzr gardens was actual student leadership.  And none of my grownup friends, the friends who only know me as an adult, should think less of me because I spent my first year and a half in L.A. behaving like a normal twentysomething , albeit one who perhaps should not have documented everything in quite so much detail. (I was smart enough to keep some of it password protected).  Still, there is a level of vulnerability to writing about oneself as an actual adult, when there are fewer superficial things to write about, and only the meaningful things remain.

Still.  After listening to a season of Magic Lessons, I wanted to put some of that fear of exposure aside.  There is something terrifying about writing in a public forum, even one that garners so little traffic as my own page.  And yet, it is a positive challenge.  Part of the craft of writing is to be able to convey a nuanced thought through words, to someone else’s brain. That is a worthwhile craft to practice, even in a short form, personal blog medium.

Writing blog pieces is critical writing practice. It is the word equivalent of playing scales or arpeggios on the piano.

So yesterday, I created a goal to make myself more accountable to…myself.  To prioritize giving myself the time and space to engage in these small writing exercises that are blog posts.  To that end, I tested a sync between Beeminder and WordPress.  The Beeminder financial threat isn’t the big reason I prioritize writing, but it will be a small day to day impetus to do so.  And those small day to day triggers add up to a full resolve to re-engage in this craft.