The weight of winter hardly upon us,
only now is our reality apparent.
The season must be seen to be felt.
Without snow there are only
harsh winds and inconvenient truths.
Precipitation fuels our anticipation.
On the cusp of Solstice, Christmas
barely a week away, winter now visible.
We live the season as much as we wear it.
Months from now we will wish it all
away, yet today our feelings are as fresh
as the fallen snow. Hello winter.
12/20/2024 j.g.l.
The learning never stops; and so, it shouldn’t.
Often, more through trial than error, I have taken on new tasks throughout my life and the experience (for the most part) leaves me in a better place; no matter how difficult it seems at first.
I am undertaking a redesign of this website. Not the type to go into things blindly, I’ve taken on some help to see myself through the process. I knew, from the outset, that I would require some assistance just as I did when I opened up Mythos & Marginalia almost a decade ago.
So much has changed in the years since. I wanted to take this opportunity to not only update the look of the website, but also my skills.
I am learning.
While I know (or think I know) what I want, turning my ideas into a tangible reality is not easy. I understand the fundamentals of page design from my years in the newspaper industry but editing and layout has come a long way from the days of pencils and pica sticks. Technically it is easier now (or should be), but it is the technology that I have issues with. My knowledge of coding was never what it should be, so I am trying to learn more.
The learning never stops.
The WordPress ‘classic editor’ — the platform I have worked on until recently — is, principally, more straightforward with its options. Selecting text size was a drop-down menu, and aligning the type was just a choice of clicks. Working in this format had become routine.
The newer (and, apparently, more advanced) ‘block editor’ mostly seems to skip those familiar steps. I, now, should be able to work more visibly to adjust the text to what I am trying to achieve. That’s a big “should be”. I am, right now, daunted by what should be simple keystrokes and sizing on a very intuitive template.
Making mistakes is easy; correcting them often proves difficult. Understanding the errors of my ways takes understanding and knowledge. I am learning. Slowly.
I guess I had become too used to doing things in a certain way, in a specific order, always able to visualize the results. Now, in this new format, all I seem to be doing is confusing myself.
I am not working in my habitual ways. But I am still learning. That’s a good thing.
You don’t learn from routine, yet you should routinely be learning.
12/16/2024 j.g.l.
It doesn’t take long
for nights to blur
into months
or years,
or beyond.
Fractured thought,
a broken timeline,
then barely
a fragment of
a second,
or
nothing at all.
Do you remember
what was there
before?
Memories often
disappear
just like that.
© 2017 j.g. lewis
Will you think a little harder, after
the mistakes of today?
Will you remember to check your ego
as you respond another way?
Will your actions, going forward,
be the difference that holds sway?
Will the promises you utter become
another debt you have to pay?
12/13/2024 j.g.l.
Sometime over the coming weeks, but certainly by the impending new year, this website will undergo a few changes. You might even see them as they evolve.
It’s time for both change and a new year, and an alteration to the way I conduct myself and display my daily thoughts: I write every damn day.
Daunted by the insidious infiltration of routine, I have become frustrated. To combat the daily delirium, I’ve considered certain options by planning ahead (something so unlike me: I’m more of a spur of the moment kind of guy).
To be honest, I need a little more time to tend to the bigger picture, but I cannot ignore the space I have carved out here for almost a decade.
It’s time to step ahead.
I am looking forward to the change, and the specifics will become apparent in the coming weeks. I hope you enjoy the change of pace, as much as I will.
12/09/2024 j.g.l.