How do you do it, fellow bloggers? How do you manage to engage yourself in potentially meaningful conversations online and share a different point of view than others involved in the same conversation without coming off as a jerk? The internet is a faulty construct within which we attempt to have a dialogue with one another. It is faulty because it places a great deal of the responsibility of interpretation into the hands of whomever is reading what you write. They do not have the benefit of sitting across from you, hearing your inflection and tone, observing your body language, seeing your facial expressions. And yet it is a much better construct than what we have had previously as this medium allows an infinite variety of people to connect and discuss any subject under the sun. I do not want to throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater, and so I covet your advice.
“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.”
~ Samuel Johnson
Outside of what I do here at Stainless Steel Droppings, one of the few ways that I nuture my desire to be creative is in the way I decorate my own personal spaces, be that my home or my office at work.
I love my house. It feels like home. Setting aside those all important ingredients of God and family, faith and love, I truly believe that one of the reasons this box I dwell in feels like home is because we have slowly but surely decorated the space to reflect our personalities. Our interests. Our passions.
And yet I often lament the fact that I don’t have many more rooms to decorate. I was reminded of that regret as well as inspired when I was visiting Stephanie’s blog today and saw a link to this marvelous, whimsical site: Miraentuinterior.com (If the site does not open up in English you may choose that option in the upper right hand corner)
Inspired in part by the idea of connections put forth in the Froud/Gaiman post and futher inspired by this post (which represents a great deal of what I hope this blog and my reading challenges can accomplish), I decided to throw Neil Gaiman and his fans a little more love by featuring 13 You Tube videos related in one degree or another to the man himself. Some are of him reading or speaking about a particular subject that (in my mind) has some connection to the themes in the Once Upon a Time II Challenge. Others are projects by those who have been inspired by Neil Giaman or have some obvious connection with him. All but one of these are a couple minutes long or less. Enjoy! Although this may seem obvious, sound is required for the true enjoyment of these pieces. All are work safe.
Unless of course reveling in your geekness would result in job loss or a trip to the looney bin.
“Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
And so we begin. Our first giveaway for Once Upon a Time II required you to do something very simple that very well could produce something substantial and enduring: you signed up for a reading challenge. The deadline has passed (but only for this contest, I encourage those of you who haven’t to join us in the challenge) and the ultra-scientific prize drawing machine (i.e. slips of paper with numbers on them in a bowl) has worked its magic. We have a winner.
Aren’t you so thankful that so many of the wonderful things in life do not have to be experienced just once? And at the same time we are able to experience once-in-a-lifetime moments….moments that may be quite similar to those experienced before, but not exactly the same.
