Interlude Of Ineptitude: Goodbye Blogspot, Hello WordPress

I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.
- Neo (The Matrix)

Just a quick post here, as these comments, an interlude as such, are caught somewhere between 'been there' and 'nice to be here'. As I mentioned elsewhere, I've decided to 'self-host' this blog and therefore am migrating it to the WordPress blogging platform and away from Google Blogger. It's something I should've done ealier, or perhaps even from the start. However, as with many folks, it was a combination of fear and complacency that prevented me from doing so.

An Explanation: Feel The Fear

It was fear of the uknown which stopped me from learning Wordpress. I eventually did and started two other blogs, the Penniless Blogger, as well as ELT Vista. Those two blogs, supporting langauge teachers and bloggers everywhere, are thriving and I'm enjoying the ease and flexibility at which I can make all things possible. I'm also less concerned that one day I may wake up and find that Google has decided to axe my blog and all it's content. Lesson to be learned: putting all your eggs in someone else's basket breeds worry. Moreover, bloggers take note, there's a few good articles on the poor practice of what's called 'digital sharecropping'. See links below for details.

Meanwhile, I let the Wooly Yarn, which I pour most of my heart, soul and creative madness into, be mired here at 'blogspot' susceptible to the ravaging whims of apathy and ineptitude that Google (aka Skynet) is known for. From spinning wheels of Javascript death to a lack of any technical support, there is only so much one blogger can take. I blame myself for not considering that even the absence of a 'www' prefix for one's blog suggests to a 'non-entity' status. For all my good intentions, since I started this blog ... I didn't know what it was, but it was  there, like a splinter in my mind, driving me mad. It was this feeling that has brought me to this present state of mind. Do you know what I'm talking about? Lord, bloggin on Blogger (blogspot) is living in the 'Matrix'!

Ok, maybe it was also ineptitude on my part for 'short sheeting' what matters most, my art. Who knows.

A Conclusion: Let My People Go

What I do know, however, is that hesitation leads to stagnation, which leads to rot and eventually decay. Death follows. Therefore, I've felt impelled to wrest myself from the confines and constructs of Google blogspot slavery. Yes, this blog was born into 'blogspot' bondage. Time to set it free.

If you are reading this at http://woolyyarn.blogspot.com: Know that nothing remains here at, except the ghostly presence of yet another false start. This blog is now self-hosted using Wordpress at www.thewoolyyarn.com  Hope to see you there soon.

If you are reading this from the new Wordpress set up, you may now rejoice along with me for my new found freedom. Thanks in advance for making the trip.

Suggested Reading:

On Digital Sharecropping:
http://www.copyblogger.com/digital-sharecropping/
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/sharecropping_t.php

On making the move:
I am immensely thankful to John Saddinglton, the Tentblogger, for his invaluable advice on migrating from Blogger to WordPress:
http://tentblogger.com/migrate-blogger-wordpress/

Relieving Yourself In The Face Of Solemnity

Lay down all thought

Surrender to the void
It is shining
It is shining
- John Lennon (Tomorrow Never Knows)

I used to believe that each day I knew all there ever was to know. The next day, I would learn a few more things and marvel at how stupid I was the day before. That's the way it is with life. Each day brings new possibilities, new hopes, new dreams and, of course, fresh concerns. Balancing the 'yings' and 'yangs' of our existence can leave us dumbfounded as we existentially grope around in our subconscious for our minds to hang our 'sense of being' and self-worth on.

For many, juggling the psychic apparatus of their various cognitive and psychological states is serious business, and good business for many institutions come circus barkers. It's really something to meditate on.

Nevertheless, I've never been much of a meditator. In fact, I'm much too full of myself for the practice and balk at any idealistic isms that preach self-nullification. Perhaps it's a defense mechanism, but for many years, I felt as if I was my own best friend. Alone with my thoughts which I could never really share, I'd entertain myself and find ways to make myself smile. I never heard voices in my head, though I would occasionally talk to myself.

That being said, I have read much about meditation. I've done the breathing and focus-defocus exercises always coming to realization that I was trying much too hard and therefore becoming a burden to my efforts. It's easy to distract yourself with your 'self' as your self can't help but get in the way. It's easy to miss the forest for the trees ... when you are a tree. And perhaps that's really the whole point of it ... to accept yourself for who you really are.

Honestly, if one was happy with oneself, why would one want to lose oneself in a crowd? If we are happy with who we are, then how could we not look in the mirror and smile? An exercise I do each day, sort of my own special daily affirmation, is too look in the bathroom and feign a constipated expression. It always cracks me up, and for a few seconds each day the stress of all that was and all that is yet to be shatter from the moment and fall to the ground.

So how do you distract yourself from distraction? Some would say by training yourself to get lost in the moment. This a far cry from suggesting we lose our minds. Even former vice-president Dan Quayle misquoted "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." I would wholeheartedly agree, if I knew he knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately, he doesn't ... or rather didn't, so the point is moot.

What I do know is that when we lower our guard, demand less and have fewer expectations we are more apt to really enjoy any given moment. I can't vouch for living fully in each moment, because that sounds a bit too wide-eyed and pollyanish for my taste. Sorry, but it's just not in my nature to prance or frolic. Still, I firmly believe that freeing yourself from the gravity of some moments seems doable.

Still, brazenly relieving yourself in the face of solemnity will most definitely ruffle the britches of the hand-writhing and hard-washing rank and file. Some will encourage we be all that we can be. Others will admonish us to lose all sense of independent existence. In both cases, these 'powers that be' surreptitiously suggest that we surrender ourselves, not so much to a void, but to their will. In marketing, this is known as the old 'switch and bait' ploy.

There are many who are seeking a spiritual state of mind. This is a mistake. It's our minds that get in the way of the manifestation of a spiritual state. I'd suggest it's easier to shoot for achieving a spiritual state of 'spirit'. Now defining spirituality is a matter for another post, but trust me I can can definitely propose the following advice: raise your spirits and your mind will follow.

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Suggested Reading: