Word Presstidigitation
The wonders of technology are not only for those with a technical mind.
A ticklish mind is all that’s required.
The obsessive nature is optional.
Four months ago Chris Hill pushed his laptop toward me as I took in the sights of Edinburgh from his 4th (or is it 5th?) floor walk-up.
“Here, type in some of those bicycle definitions you were telling me about”.
I did it.
He typed a little more, then flipped it my way again.
“Now, can you write a bit about…anything”
Was that a request or an order? Either way, do I need to be asked twice?
Writin’ and ridin’ are damn near all I do.
Oh, right.
Eatin’ and sleepin’… so I can ride and write about more stuff.
I wrote a mini-tale about the Only Race I Do Anymore (Single Speed World Championship) and ever will do until lured to an adventure race.
Then he gave a quick tour of my shiny new blogsite to show me how it all hung together, and how easy it was to operate.
It featured…
–A mysterious black background that pulls the (inquisitive) reader in.
–This template, a couple of of swirly abstract color rectangles set into the blackness, is named “Chaotic Soul”.
I was amused, like I’d disclosed something about me by picking THAT pattern over all the other possibilities.
Damn, my soul’s not THAT chaotic, or it doesn’t seem like it from inside here, anyway.
Everything I write makes sense.
Then some more tapping came from across the table, and an image from the Edinburgh cycle tour we’d just gotten back from appeared, seen through the slots of an ancient helmet opening onto the world.
The Forth of Firth’s smooth sand.
A miniature wave riffling shoreward, where a pair of small wheeled Moulton bikes lean into each other, and a damp wombat pulls on her socks.
And then out poured “Beached”.
Since then, about a hundred (!) ‘tales’ of varying degrees of readability have been stored there….
I got a long-distance tutorial in “flickr” (still in kindergarten on that one).
But it’s all the crucial ingredients for story telling, connection-welding:
Words
Pictures
Readers
So I hunt and gather a few links, type a journal, then hit “publish”. Voila! CK you were right…
I’m in a new element.
I miss riding my bike….seems like the same synapses that were so soothed by cycling are fooled by the ‘you’ve got mail’ message!
Will report anon.
In the meantime, since that day I have: written a few local paid pieces I would NOT have found (thank YOU BIKE BIZ, ChDOT, of course) and I get to read my friend Cynthia Carbone Ward and her writin’ daughter Miranda‘s blogs (I had only HEARD of ‘blogs’ before this…and as some of you know, I had a “Glob” (reverse blog, which was mailed TO the recipient…I was a step ahead of RSS feed, I know it. After all, who has time to go HUNT for someone’s musings? They’re at WORK!
BUT…if it flops on the digital doorstep…well that’s an entirely different story…
There is always the thought that JP might have something wacquie to say about… oh, glow-ball warming?
General murders (GM)?
Something. There will always be something.
As long as it is a diversion from the day’s (word) pressing matters…
. With an RSS feed
BUY NOW!
Jacquie Phelan's Weblog 
I’m happy to have found you in the blogiverse after meeting you in person in pdx awhile back. Perhaps you’ll come north for the handbuilt bike show next month (even if the crowds get to you there’s always the Esplanade for a little bike ride to calm your head). If you do, Sunday lunch is on me. Lemme know.
B, off for a morning commute with ice on the ground and 33 degrees outside.
maybe 13 or 14 or 15 years ago i read an article you’d written in BIKE magazine, when it was brand new. i don’t even remember what you wrote about, but i remember being excited that you would be a regular writer and i’d have the chance to hear what you were thinking about often.
it was wonderful while it lasted. but short lived if i remember correctly.
i had that same feeling when i found your blog. such fun and what a great perspective on things you have.