Can you tell I’m totally going crazy? That title should be arrested. But she’s all I got.
I’m sure you guys have noticed a significant drop in my WordPress blogging during the first half of July. Only 4 posts, and all SYTYCD related?! You’d think with an FDL to puff up that number, this would be a heavy month for me. But bottom line is, I’m swamped like you wouldn’t believe.
I’m in month two of dog sitting @cosimo179‘s dogs. I love these little fur biscuits, but man… dogs are not easy for a guy like me.
I’ve also been working overtime to finish this first draft of my script. Some of you are probably thinking… “First draft? Didn’t I read a tweet from him a while back saying he’d completed the first draft.” Kind of… this is a very different project, and I guess I’m about due for a post about some of the details.
The bulk of our work on this draft was finished last Sunday, so I should be able to put more of my creative energy into other projects… blogging being one.
Speaking of which, can we talk about Tumblr for a sec. Those who follow me on Twitter have probably noticed I’ve been really getting into it this week… kind of with a vengeance. Not a vengeance towards anyone in particular, just a vengeance towards the awesomeness of that blogging platform. It’s such a great alternative to this long form blogging… especially these days.
The great thing about it is, if you don’t have it in you to create, for whatever reason (dog sitting, script writing, jury duty)… you can rely on your network of Tumbleros to help you discover content. I just coined Tumbleros, btw, to replace my previous Tumblerinos… Tumblr seems Spanish or Hispanic to me for some reason.
The site is actually designed for you to find things more more than create them yourself. Which I really love. It encourages you to reblog. Basically, you see other people’s work and if it inspires you, with a click of a button you display it as your own… with credit to those who’ve come before you, of course. Not a totally new concept… sort of like a retweet… but I just love Tumblr’s implimentation of it.
And I think this is a very important artistic practice too.
I guess I don’t really believe ideas are created. I feel like they either come to you, or you stumble across them. You could argue there’s some subconscious creation going on, as the brain forms an idea out of memories… but I’m of the camp that believes no idea really belongs to you, as original as it may seem. You’re just the antenna and the vessel that allows it to first be found and then set free. So more important than how you share it with the world (the creation)… is your ability to find it or be open to it finding you in the first place.
Well what better way to hone your skills at idea discovery, than to blog on a network that promotes discovery?
I have a feeling Tumblr or similar platforms (Posterous) are going to play a bigger part in my social media life the months (maybe years) ahead. But I want to figure out how to use it better… for me. Maybe turn it into a sort of workshop or incubator. That’d be cool.
Okay, this post is starting to ramble. So, Tumblr… if you’ve ever considered blogging, but put it off cause you thought it would either be too time consuming or too difficult… Tumblr might be perfect for you. At the very least, a good set of training wheels for longer form blogging. Also, it’s a fairly young platform, so if you sign up now, you can probably still nab a cool username.
And if you’re already on Tumblr, look me up… so I can totally nab some of your brilliant ideas… which aren’t really your ideas anyway. Ha!
johncabrera.tumblr.com