By Flood on March 20, 2012
The content problem
Penelope Trunk says you should pick a topic and blog about that one thing. One thing. But I have more than one thing to say. Or I have nothing at all to say. I’ll say this though: You shouldn’t take advice from someone who thinks maybe women should get plastic surgery to get ahead. Or from someone who thinks that getting your hair cut in Madison, WI means no one will take you seriously. Trunk is both of those people. I like her but she’s unhinged. I’m just stuck.
The audience problem
They say you should imagine the one person you’re writing for and always write for them. The problem with a blog though, is your imagined audience is likely to eventually overlap with other, less ideal audiences. The things I would say to my sister I wouldn’t say to my boss, and though I don’t love my job, I want to keep it. How much of my winning personality (and deviant vocabulary) should I suppress?
The persistence problem
This is the natural corollary to the first two problems, because when you don’t know what to write about or who you’re writing for, it’s tricky to keep it up post after post. Like every other struggle in my otherwise charmed life, I suspect this one is about fear. In this case fear of obscurity and fear of disapproval. On the one hand, no one is reading it, wah, so why bother. On the other hand, oh god, I hope no one is reading it. Either way, no post.
Posted in Uncategorized |
By Flood on January 10, 2012
Last weekend I went to the movies and foolishly tried to buy tickets from a kiosk. As I guess I should know, those machines are worthless, and though it pretended to print my tickets it really printed a receipt for my $0.00 invalid transaction. Why was it invalid, you might ask? Was my credit card declined? Did I enter the wrong pin? Was the 2:45 showing sold out? Who knows? The receipt says “invalid transaction 902 thank you,” to which I say, “You’re welcome! This was fun! I will now consult my list of ticket kiosk failure codes which I have right here in my pocket! Thank YOU for persuading me to skip the line for tickets only to be standing in it ten minutes later for no apparent reason!”
I asked the condescending and apathetic human who finally did sell me my front row seats why my transaction might have failed, and he said, “I always tell people not to use those things, but they keep doing it.” MY BAD.
Posted in petty outrage | Tagged customer service, man vs. machine, movies, UX fail |
By Flood on December 22, 2011
After languishing at LastNameFirstName.com for damn near ever, I finally procured my FirstNameLastName domain. It only took 8 years of stalking, a credit card, and the temporary inattention of some other poor sucker with my name. I’m sorry, other Erin Flood. You were probably off feeding the poor in a WiFi-less country when your registration expired, but it looks like patience beats charity in the roshambo of virtues (and humility is probably gonna kick my ass for saying that). I’ll be changing my name next year though, so maybe I’ll let you have it back.
It’s been a long time since I blogged. I’ve dabbled in (which is to say, failed at) 365 photo projects, I tweet a bit, and I post to my Eugene Discarded tumblr when I see something fabulous, but I haven’t really written anything of substance in a very long time. I’m thinking about breaking the streak. No promises.
Posted in Uncategorized |