{"id":219,"date":"2000-08-06T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-08-06T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2000\/08\/06\/reflections_of\/"},"modified":"2024-12-01T19:41:28","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T03:41:28","slug":"reflections_of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2000\/08\/06\/reflections_of\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections Of…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that it’s been a year<\/strong> since my first online journal entry, I thought I should take a moment to pause and reflect about what I’ve gotten out of this little experiment. (Those of you who know me better will be think, and rightly so, “Pause and reflect? Day-um, Sparky must have a BUTTLOAD of work that he’s procrastinating about.”)<\/p>\n

Overall, it was a good idea to start it. I’ve never been very disciplined about keeping a journal, although I’ve been partial to the idea ever since I first read Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy<\/a>.<\/i> The decision to post the entries on the web site has been a good motivation for me to keep writing. Not only do you people keep nagging me if I slack off, but the feedback I get encourages me to keep going. It’s also been a great way to make lots of new friends, which has probably been the best part about it.<\/p>\n

My original thought for the journal stuff was for it to be a way for people who knew me to keep up on what I was doing so I didn’t have to write so many similar e-mails. As fate would have, almost no one I know reads this regularly, and it’s become a tool for new people to get to know me a little better. That’s been a nice surprise, and it’s helped get me over some of my inherent shyness. I’ve found myself meeting people who already know too much stupid stuff about me for me to worry about making a good (and possibly misleading) impression. Hell, this sort of shameless self-promotion has even gotten me laid a few times. God bless technology!<\/p>\n

My writing has also gotten a hell of a lot better. Writing more often has made it easier for me to control my voice and sharpen my skills. The journal writing has gotten closer and closer to the way I actually speak and think, and my paying attention to that aspect has even helped me with more formal writing, which I’ve been doing more and more for work.<\/p>\n

Why all this introspection?<\/strong> Well, aside from marking the anniversary of this journal, I’m also beginning preparations for my 30th Birthday Blow-Out Shindig<\/b>. Yes, it’s true, and you’re all invited!<\/b> Details to follow, but if you have any desire to boogie with Sparky in his spacious Williamsburg loft, make sure to keep your calendar free. Details to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that it’s been a year since my first online journal entry, I thought I should take a moment to pause and reflect about what I’ve gotten out of this little experiment. (Those of you who know me better will be think, and rightly so, “Pause and reflect? Day-um, Sparky must have a BUTTLOAD of … Continue reading “Reflections Of…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ultrapersonal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77432,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/77432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}