I’ve been rereading my notes from the last month and have noticed that I am deep into the process for which I was trained at school. All I ever do it seems is document the minutia of my life but in the process I develop an insight unparalleled in the world around me. I reread a story about my parents who recently went to the East Coast for a dance exhibition. I asked my mother about the dances she performed and she said it is hard to remember: when you get out there you just get into the flow of things. I find it is much the same when I am writing. I formulate ideas via a complex of writing and rewriting that I find hard to trace because of its reflexive nature. I am almost inclined to call it (re)writing because it is really a cycle of notebook entries, transcription, analysis and blogging. The transcription and analysis alone can often take weeks to organize and very little of it can be publicly posted. At 25 posts a month for 5 months this can be a daunting task when I am racing to move on to other things.
However, I have shortened my turn around lately and now I am often transcribing things that I had written only a short while earlier. While this can be confusing, I have discovered that frequent posting is the key to success. Not only does it speed the process up it also raises the quality of the final product. There is a certain clarity that comes from rereading, which often highlights my changing perspectives and I am continually aware of how I change small items or add to the narrative. For instance, when I transcribe notes concerned with feelings I am often unable to keep myself from changing the words ever so slightly. Also, I may neglect to write about fact in my notebook and may later feel it is necessary to add that information as an explanation. Hence, it isn’t possible to say that I am rewriting my notes but I try to keep to a principle of revisiting my experiences rather than wholly rewrite them.
When I write I transcribe my various notebooks while simultaneously jotting down my thoughts on the process. This often causes me to experience fleeting moments of déjà vu where I try to remember what I was thinking when I last shut the computer down. I tend to write mindlessly and sometimes don’t even notice the content of what I am writing until later.
Events and activities:
I have identified several different but easily distinguished strains in my writing. One concerns my career paths, which I chart using a bibliography. In an effort to better understand how I have been developing my career I used Craigslist to build a set of RSS feeds and have since developed a meaningful content analysis. I used the results to boost the bibliography. I have since begun using these resources to build a more effective resume which will intern be reposted to Craigslist.
I write regularly about my life and experiences. Aside from the obvious activities visiting friends in the East Bay, going to the movies or hitting the bars to watch televised sports I don’t really have to try hard to figure out what to do with my free time. Here is a quick round up of my thoughts and the events that led to them.
In late June, I had dinner with the parents for my father’s 72nd birthday. I identified my paging file as the source of my computer problems replaced the rim on my bike. Also, in early July I had a really complicated weekend that wore me out. Friday I went to a Growlers concert but had an interview the next morning at 7 and a day later I went to Sunday Streets. I started my first Monday at that job very tired. However, a few weeks later we went to a ball game with several people that I got to know that weekend. During this period I found myself writing a lot about commitment.
Outings:
I have been out and about town a lot and this always stokes my thoughts. I often find myself at the desk here late at night with a glass of bourbon, my notebook and my computer. I have noticed on several occasions that I mention how appropriate this seems to me. I suppose that drinking and writing may very well be complimentary. There seems to be enough literature on the fact that they tend to go hand to hand with particular authors. They are strange brothers though. Drinking may sometimes take the place of writing but I would tend to sat that this often happens at the latter’s expense.
On the rare occasion that I am out of the house for a beer, I find that I am riding my bike through many of the same places and even having some of the same experiences. Two items I have hit on are parking and Cabs.
The other day I was riding down O’Farrell Street and near Laguna I saw something that I didn’t quite like. Someone had parked their car in a no parking zone and at the entrance to the park there. It forced me to get off of my bike because there was no other way to get into the park but through this illegally parked car. It peeves me that people would so brazenly break the law. While I would like to say that mean that my infractions would be similarly benign, I have only to look at the letters to the SF Chronicle to know that motorists don’t care much for my problems.
Only a few blocks away from there is a stretch of Page Street (above Divisadero) that I often have to take because of where I am heading. Here the Cabs are the source of my malaise. One night I was climbing this stretch of road when Yellow Cab filled with party people and traveling at high speed came within inches of me. The driver yelled, “Do you want to get killed?” this prompted me to design an image of a cab with giant teeth literally hopping on and crushing a cyclist. I spent several hours drawing this image in my notebook and later at home on the computer. I call it,
Yell, “OH!” Cab.
I started editing this on 072112 and posted it to the RPHL on 080812.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an aglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used only my notes to hash out ideas taht I have hit apon in the recent past.
