Losing My Flow

Flow, what a wonderful thing when you’re in it. I’m not saying it’s easy there, there’s a lot of work to do, a lot of time and effort – but when you’re there it’s easier. Inspiration is less of a battle, and getting words down is far easier. When you’re in a flow, "the zone", it’s harder not to write.

Woe betide that flow being broken. That’s what happened to me, having suffered a series of technical set backs, and professional distractions, I lost my flow with this blog, and writing in general. My attention snapped. It’s not a nice place to be, I’ve not written much in the past two weeks, which is a travesty when you consider I’ve had two weeks holiday in that time, and didn’t go anywhere.

I feel bad, I should have done more – but life isn’t always that simple. Besides, what’s done, is done. I can’t change it, I don’t know the secrets of controlled time travel. I can only move forwards and hope to reccapture my wayward writing spirit.

Suffice to say I’m back, I may not be as prolific, but I’m going to write again.

Guess who’s back…

The site was down for a week, this was due to a small technical issue, which my hosts have fixed, very promptly. I actually waited a week, trying a few ideas to get the site working again, I reported the issues tonight, and they fixed it just like that.

Big thanks to Bargain Host for that.

Normal service will be resumed next week, and I’ll get some posts going again by mid-week. I’ll get some of the missing poetry from my daily poetry posted in a single post too.

I was getting a wee bit worried I’d have to rebuild my blog. I do have database back ups though, so somehow I would have saved my content (which probably isn’t great, but means a lot to me.)

My first pingback!

Of course, you know some people read your site, friends who follow your cross posts, and the odd visitor from the blog ping aggregators.

I got my first ping back today though, from another blog, not just a random blog though, but one I occasionally read, as an E71 fanatic (though you’ll have to forgive me today, I’ve just seen the N97, and my commitment to the best, and most productive phone I have owned, has slipped slightly)

Many thanks to TomH over at WOM World (http://www.womworld.com), who posted this: http://www.womworld.com/nokia/9814/e71-making-life-more-manageable/

Thanks to those who have come over to comment, and share. Enjoy.

Update on Blog (Adminstrative Notes)

You can feel free to ignore this post, it’s more for me than anyone else.

Read the rest of this entry »

Aspiring.org’s First Blog Entry (for the umpteenth time… this is the last, honest)

So here I am, once again in the blogosphere, with  a whole new blog.

I struggled with what would be the first post. It should be prolific after all this time, right? Grand in nature. Broad in scope. So, I struggled. Should I be business like, or should I be all pally? I struggled some more. And then I realized it’s just like walking into a room full of people you’ve never met – I’ll introduce ourselves to you. It’s the only polite thing to do, right?

My name is Jonathan L. Lawrence (yep the name’s in the banner, so you’ll never forget), I go by a few nicknames, for this blog I’ve chosen JL Legend, a monicker coined where I work, an ironic confidence booster. This is also my name on Twitter, if you want to follow my micro-blogging.

I’m a Business Analyst by trade, but in my spare time I’m (deep breaths this is coming straight from the banner),  writer, poet, artist, geek, among other things. I’ll admit, I’m not the shit at one of these, but I aspire to be – and that’s what this blog is about, my aspirations. Now, the benefit of having a blog is that I can show case what I can do, and pretend I know what I’m doing. I do have some clue, I’ve been plying myself at the creative arts for fifteen years now, ever since I was a teenager. I’ve studied in school, in college, in my spare time when I started work (and shhh over the years occaisionally at work too – though obviously not in my current job *psst anyone from work looking?).

So, you have an idea of who I am, you kind find out more specifics in the About section. You also know why I’m posting (no it’s not just to further my ego by having JL Legend plastered everywhere across the site!), it’s showcase what I can do, to diarise where I’m going, and where I’ve come from, to offer what advice I can, commentaries on the creative world, and the news around it. I might also throw in a review or two of books, such old and new. It’s not all about me (damn the world not revolving round me!)

I encourage anyone to comment (if you’re not a spam bot, or a sweaty, greasy, puberty waiting troll), I love comments, makes my day to hear my inbox ping. You can also email me at lex-a-like [at] [dot] aspiring.org, or through the comments page. The more the merrier.