If someone wants to get back to me on that, I would much appreciate it.
And now, back to the topic on hand. Maggie Mason links to two sites that I think are fairly brilliant, and I'm looking forward to investigating them further and maybe actually even using them rather than being a silent lurker on the sites. The two that I'll be checking out more include:
The Happiness Project: Gretchen Rubin's website grew from her book of the same name, where she spent a year "test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier." I have not read the book myself, but I have flipped through it on occasion, and I'm stoked to see that she has a very thorough website with exercises readers can try for themselves to make their lives more happy. I really like Gretchen Rubin's "Twelve Personal Commandments" that she has posted on the sidebar on the left hand side of her website.
750words: I feel like reading about this website is such a coincidence! The website is inspired by Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, a book on creativity. Just this summer I picked up a copy of the book. The cover looks super zen with a Chinese calligraphy painting of a mountain top circled by cranes. It also reads super zen, so as you can imagine, it lost me part way through, but I made it through Cameron's description and celebration of "morning pages."
Morning pages are 3 pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing that are done first thing in the morning. You don't have to worry about the topics you cover because they are personal and not to be shared. The more boring, repetitive, negative and bland they are, the better, she says. Writing this stuff down helps you get it out of the way so you can move on and get on with your day with a "freer spirit." I had to put that in quotes because you know that's not something I'd say.
Anyways...750words.com is the "online, future-ified, fun-ified translation of this exercise." Blogger Maggie Mason gives the site high marks saying that it helps clear her head and gets her in "a more limber mental space for the rest of [her] day." The site tracks your word count in real time and autosaves, and at the end of your session gives you statistics on your mental state based on your word choice. Awesome! I'm a big fan of writing personal stuff longhand in my journal, but I'm a much faster typer, so I'm intrigued by doing these morning pages online on my computer. If I give it a try, I'll keep you posted, but I think I'm going to do my first attempts handwritten on my journal at home. I'm lazy though, so I'm fairly certain that I'm going to give up and open my laptop and write online.
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