Thursday, December 14, 2006

Thursday Thirteen, I'm Not Quite Sure What Edition

Today's Thursday Thirteen doesn't seem to have a focus. I just don't have an inspiration for it, but I really want to do it because I love the comments and the connections I make with these. As I free-write this, I think I've come up with a topic. Thirteen ways I get inspiration for blog posts.

Here we go.

1. The Wall Street Journal. It's the one paper I will never be without, even if it is just the online edition. Every morning I log on and see what's going on. I can usually find something to blog about for those days like Mondays and Tuesdays where I don't have a themed blog post I usually do.

2. No Pasaran. Their posts are typically short and pithy and make me think about longer responses. I find myself leaving the gang over there long comments that I come back and turn into blog posts here.

3. YouTube. If I'm sick or way behind schedule or just totally uninspired, I drift over to YouTube and root around for something fun. I consider this cheating, but there you have it. :-)

4. More coffee. I look forward to that brief, chemical rush in the morning where all my synapses are firing and the creative juices are flowing. The kids aren't up yet and I can just sit down and start typing. Sometimes, like right now, I'm surprised at what comes out of the keyboard.

5. Uh oh. I'm only on number 5 and I'm running out of ideas. Well, I also go and see what Hugh Hewitt has to say. There's usually something good over there to add to and work with.

6. I get some inspirations from work. I am in corporate marketing, so I get to see the genesis and development of corporate strategies up close. Like sausage, it's best not to watch how they're made. Most of it seems to be forced on us by people who don't really understand what it is we do. The result is like living in a Dilbert cartoon. The lessons learned are fun to blog about especially when combined with snarky analysis.

7. My digital camera can provide inspiration. I am truly blessed to live where I do. I get great sunsets almost every day looking out over Mission Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Snap a few photos and come up with a caption or two and you're done.

8. This is getting much harder now. Hmmm. I'm blaming low blood sugar. Maybe I just don't have that diverse of a set of inspirational sources. OK, Here's one. My garden. I'm struggling to landscape an entire yard that is nothing but dirt on the narrowest shoestring imaginable. I'm growing a lot of my plants from seed. I've used this blog as a comic relief from that effort.

9. Five to go. Travel. I get some of my inspiration from travel. I fly a lot for business, typically back to Virginia. Sometimes I get odd bits of time here and there to explore parts of wherever I am and end up with a nice blog post and some photos.

10. Blog carnivals are another source of inspiration. In addition to doing Thursday Thirteens, I like to encourage links and traffic by participating in the Friday Ark, the Carnival of the Cats, the Carnival of the Capitalists, the Catholic Carnival and the Virginia Blog Carnival.

11. Current events. I've tried to keep the political posts to about 50% or less on this blog, but there are times when I just can't resist it.

12. The news media. With a few exceptions, I think they're dreadful. I do a weekly World of Good post and in the process I've found just how commonplace good deeds are. If you watch the mainstream media, you see nothing but evil. They spread the evil by over-reporting it.

13. Last one! I made it! Or did I? Hmm. I'm just not inspired to do the last one...

:-)

24 comments:

Barb said...

I had to laugh. In concept, thinking of 13 things doesn't sound that hard to do.. but it sure is :) Congrats on coming up with yours.

Thanks for dropping by.

Shelby said...

great list! I had a hard time too today so I just started rambling and ended up with a whopper. Have a great Thursday :)

Anonymous said...

thanks for stopping by :)

Louise said...

Great list. Sometimes I find that I can blog lots and always have something to say, other times I find it really hard for several days.

As for the 13 - always seem to come up with decent ideas, but lose stam around about 7 or 8.

Happy Thursday

Carmen said...

i get inspiration from life. it never ceases to amaze me. ;)

Anonymous said...

Loved your list.
Are you from VA? Where?
I am in Floyd, VA.
My TT is up.

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

I had a hard time with my TT this week too. Yours turned out very well. I can always count on # 3 to make me laugh. There's some crazy stuff over there. I agree with #12 too. The Media is terrible and getting worse. I'm trying not to think about the sausage... Thanks for visiting and have a great Thursday:)

Christie O. said...

love the list! some of my own favorite posts come when i have absolutely no inspiration at all and i just start typing away. i'm always surprised what happens! happy tt, thanks for stopping by!

Sonny said...

Great list!
That really made me smile!
I know about this lack of inspiration sometimes... =)

Hugs and happy TT from Germany,
Sonny

Sweet like Kitty
Sonny's Xmas

Zeus said...

I sometimes have a hard time coming up with ideas as well. The worst is when you have a fabulous idea on Monday, but you don't write it down until Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, you lose it so you have to start all over again. I can't tell you how many times that has happened to me. I'm going to keep your list of inspiration close to my desk!

Happy Thursday to you!

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Thanks for stopping by West of Mars; your list today is a hoot! (if you lived closer, I'd donate some shasta daisies to your yard effort)

You can come visit any time you need inspiration, btw. *wink*

Happy TT!

Anonymous said...

Great list - I also use a few of those mediums for inspiration.

Happy TT!

Mikala's up!

Lazy Daisy said...

Wow, some really good sources. Thanks, I'll check them out. Life lessons, and family usually give me plenty of blog fodder.

Kukka-Maria said...

I love the list and expect I'll be checking out these sources (because...and this is a secret--or not...I'm in sort of a funk).

I especially loved #13. It's one with which I am very familiar!

Bonnie Jeanne said...

I haven't participated in any Thursday Thirteens, but I am inspired by this one to come up with my first one. I love how your digital camera gives you ideas for blog posts. I am going to get my camera and see if the most recent 13 photos will give me 13 ideas for my Thursday Thirteen, which will then carry to through to 13 posts.

May take me the rest of the day to get the list up, though. But, it will be up today, before midnight GMT -5.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, I get stressed on Wednesday trying to think of a topic, but like you, I enjoy the comments. :)
I will have to remember some of your ideas for when I have TT block.

http://www.chelleyoung.com/index.php/archive/thursday-thirteen-40-thirteen-things-my-son-wants-for-christmas/#comments

Chelle Y

Rashenbo said...

Oh yeah... blame the low blood sugar. It's one of the best excuses you can use! :) I have seen references to blog carnivals before... but I'm not really sure what they are. I'll have to look into them a little closer!

Southern Girl said...

Blogging inspiration IS hard to come by sometimes, isn't it?

You make it look easy though! ;)

Happy TT!

Anonymous said...

Great list! I could feel your struggle as went through it, but it worked out great! Thanks for dropping by, Happy Thursday :)

Anonymous said...

I don't think I could come up with 13 sources of inspiration for my blog...maybe that's why I only have 2 or so readers :-)

I tend to go much easier routes...the AOL homepage that I was too lazy to ever change when I bought my laptop.

I really need to get into some of those carnivals. I participated in one...I guess i just have some sort of fear of commitment...the same reason I didn't join NaBloPoMo.

Lucienne said...

That is a fun list. I'll make sure to visit you again next week, see what has inspired you ... ;-p
I'm very jalous of that automatic link thing in your blog: how do you put that in? My linking looks quite pathetic, but I'm a nitwit in html.

Scribbit said...

Thanks for the visit, coming up with the muse can be tricky. And I think everyone has read that book No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 101 Ideas for Your Blog (I think that's the title) Liz Strauss at Successful Blog also has a great post this week about ideas.

Anonymous said...

Travel is such a great inspiration - especially if you get to go someone quite different from where you normally live. The change in venue opens up so many different avenues to explore when you're blogging.

Vanessa said...

I feel your pain on no. 8 -- at the last place I lived, I had a dirt yard that stubbornly resisted five years' worth of effort on my part to make something, anything grow in it. Now I have a concrete patio and a lot less frustration. :)