It appears the time has come to finally update to the new style of templates, and with G6 talking about it I started perusing the options. I'll still fix it up quite a bit, but meanwhile this is to start out. I believe you can choose your own view from the options on the top left, so enjoy.
One reason I'm switching it up is because this will probably become SerandEz v.4.0 or so, as I mentioned to a friend recently - more consistent, more essay/editorial in style, and more discussion inducing (or not, that's up to the readers). I hope everyone enjoys; if you're still reading after all these years, most likely you will, and thanks for continuing to come back. :)
UPDATE: Reverting for now, since apparently I can't insert any of my sidebar or header items at the moment. I'll switch once they've worked those issues out and/or started to allow widget functionality.
~ Ezzie
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Monday, October 03, 2011
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Why I'm Writing
A number of friends have asked why I'm suddenly writing again after a long hiatus, and it's a fair question, deserving of an explanation.
I should first note that I love to write, read, and edit. One of my first favorite regular pieces, beginning I believe while I was still in high school, was James Taranto's "Best of the Web Today" from the Wall Street Journal site. (As an aside, what's particularly astounding is how good it is on a regular basis, even after 10+ years - if you don't hate politics, I highly recommend it. You can receive it via e-mail every weekday, and it's no more than a 5-minute read.) In college, my English literature professor felt that while my essays were excellent, I would "never be a great writer" and that my writing was best suited for editorials and the like - but not for "real" writing. In 2005, about a year after Serach and I got married, this blog began on a whim at 3am after a friend showed me some funny clips on the "website" of his friend. A few months later, thanks to SoccerDad and Shoshana, I found the J-blogosphere and went on from there. In November of that year, I wrote an article that was ironically published in the Wall Street Journal as its lead online editorial. Looking back, the essay was good, though the predictions sadly turned out not to happen almost at all like I had hoped; and my reaction was cringe-worthy, looking back on it.
From its humble beginnings, this blog grew slowly and steadily, and it would be fair to say this blog has had a wonderful impact on our lives (except financially :-P ). I've enjoyed the discussions with near everyone who's ever commented here, whether they agree with what I write or not, and it's been a wonderful outlet and also source of information. I've learned an incredible amount from the people who've read, commented, and posted here and on other blogs that I read. Perhaps more importantly, the writings here have led to other opportunities in my life that simply could not have occurred otherwise, and most importantly, this blog has led to meeting and becoming closer with countless people, including some who we would count among our closest friends.
All of the above reasons alone would be reasons to have come back and started writing again, and have been a large part of why I've started writing again. But there's also an added impetus to write now that did not exist two years ago, when my writing started to slow. Some readers and friends are aware of what's happened the past couple of years in our lives; some are not. I am not writing to write "that" story, which I don't believe will help anyone or accomplish anything, though some relevant details may be included in what I do write. I am, however, interested in writing about various side effects of that story, how they impacted us and others, and how those could have possibly been prevented to some extent by others, including members of the Orthodox community. Perhaps more specifically, I aim to discuss an attitude I found from countless people about either this story or other stories and occurrences which whitewashes what I believe to be a major issue. That series is the "Honesty & the Jewish Community" series which I began a couple weeks ago and will be continuing slowly (for a variety of reasons) over the coming months. I also am presenting numerous aspects to that story specifically because there are countless types of individuals, and it's important to highlight those who epitomize both the good, the bad, and those in between when it comes to these ideas.
Partly for that series, primarily because I love writing and all the other reasons listed above, and of course simply because I have the time, I am back to writing again. I hope this explains why, and I sincerely hope that people enjoy, discuss, and take part, while I also hope and pray that some of the ideas and points that will be discussed can positively impact how people act, interact, and deal with issues that face us as a community.
Thank you for reading, commenting, and discussing.
I should first note that I love to write, read, and edit. One of my first favorite regular pieces, beginning I believe while I was still in high school, was James Taranto's "Best of the Web Today" from the Wall Street Journal site. (As an aside, what's particularly astounding is how good it is on a regular basis, even after 10+ years - if you don't hate politics, I highly recommend it. You can receive it via e-mail every weekday, and it's no more than a 5-minute read.) In college, my English literature professor felt that while my essays were excellent, I would "never be a great writer" and that my writing was best suited for editorials and the like - but not for "real" writing. In 2005, about a year after Serach and I got married, this blog began on a whim at 3am after a friend showed me some funny clips on the "website" of his friend. A few months later, thanks to SoccerDad and Shoshana, I found the J-blogosphere and went on from there. In November of that year, I wrote an article that was ironically published in the Wall Street Journal as its lead online editorial. Looking back, the essay was good, though the predictions sadly turned out not to happen almost at all like I had hoped; and my reaction was cringe-worthy, looking back on it.
From its humble beginnings, this blog grew slowly and steadily, and it would be fair to say this blog has had a wonderful impact on our lives (except financially :-P ). I've enjoyed the discussions with near everyone who's ever commented here, whether they agree with what I write or not, and it's been a wonderful outlet and also source of information. I've learned an incredible amount from the people who've read, commented, and posted here and on other blogs that I read. Perhaps more importantly, the writings here have led to other opportunities in my life that simply could not have occurred otherwise, and most importantly, this blog has led to meeting and becoming closer with countless people, including some who we would count among our closest friends.
All of the above reasons alone would be reasons to have come back and started writing again, and have been a large part of why I've started writing again. But there's also an added impetus to write now that did not exist two years ago, when my writing started to slow. Some readers and friends are aware of what's happened the past couple of years in our lives; some are not. I am not writing to write "that" story, which I don't believe will help anyone or accomplish anything, though some relevant details may be included in what I do write. I am, however, interested in writing about various side effects of that story, how they impacted us and others, and how those could have possibly been prevented to some extent by others, including members of the Orthodox community. Perhaps more specifically, I aim to discuss an attitude I found from countless people about either this story or other stories and occurrences which whitewashes what I believe to be a major issue. That series is the "Honesty & the Jewish Community" series which I began a couple weeks ago and will be continuing slowly (for a variety of reasons) over the coming months. I also am presenting numerous aspects to that story specifically because there are countless types of individuals, and it's important to highlight those who epitomize both the good, the bad, and those in between when it comes to these ideas.
Partly for that series, primarily because I love writing and all the other reasons listed above, and of course simply because I have the time, I am back to writing again. I hope this explains why, and I sincerely hope that people enjoy, discuss, and take part, while I also hope and pray that some of the ideas and points that will be discussed can positively impact how people act, interact, and deal with issues that face us as a community.
Thank you for reading, commenting, and discussing.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Writing vs. Editing
In writing, as in life, it is often far easier to find the faults in others than to see them in ourselves. In life, we almost always see the faults in others, along with knowing exactly what they need to do to "fix" the fault and just how it negatively affects them in their daily life. Meanwhile, we are either unaware of the same fault in ourselves, or choose to say "well, that's just me, deal with it."
G has so kindly referred to me as something along the lines of "Master Editor" of this blog. The truth is, I've always enjoyed editing far more than writing - I would glance at friends' papers in high school and immediately see a number of ways to improve, spruce up, or spice up even rather decent essays. In college, I did the same with papers and theses, sometimes getting paid for doing something that I actually enjoyed doing. Now, I'll take a look at posts or papers or books for people, and I'll still note which parts are unclear, which are too complicated, and which are simply boring.
And yet... my own writing is just not all that great. It's generally easy to read, and that's worth something, but it's not particularly deep, rarely written particularly well, and outside of slightly rewriting a sentence I'm in middle of, almost never gets edited. In fact, unless I was made to, I never had a "draft" in school - I just churned out the essay or paper and handed it in. Rewrite? Look for mistakes? Care to change from what I wrote the first time? These ideas always were foreign to me... best to just write it once, well, and that was it. If anything, I took my extra care in advance: While some may call this procrastination, I would generally spend time sitting with an open but empty Word document while I surfed the internet, reading, writing, checking my fantasy baseball team, and the like, while thinking about how I am going to format my essay - what it will be about, what parts I should leave out or insert, what points I wish to drive home - and then I'd start writing at about 12:30 (or 1, or 2...) in the morning and finish a little while later.
But editing... editing I can almost always do. There's something fun and interesting about editing. Perhaps it's the lack of pressure involved: If you miss something, it's not your "mistake". Perhaps it's the efficiency aspect: With very little work, a person can take something that's okay, or even decent, and turn it into something far better. Perhaps it's the ability to read or learn something new or interesting or important and take part in its getting out there for others to read. Perhaps it's a combination of all of these, really. Whatever it is, there's just something about editing that's fun and interesting that I enjoy even more than the writing itself.
G has so kindly referred to me as something along the lines of "Master Editor" of this blog. The truth is, I've always enjoyed editing far more than writing - I would glance at friends' papers in high school and immediately see a number of ways to improve, spruce up, or spice up even rather decent essays. In college, I did the same with papers and theses, sometimes getting paid for doing something that I actually enjoyed doing. Now, I'll take a look at posts or papers or books for people, and I'll still note which parts are unclear, which are too complicated, and which are simply boring.
And yet... my own writing is just not all that great. It's generally easy to read, and that's worth something, but it's not particularly deep, rarely written particularly well, and outside of slightly rewriting a sentence I'm in middle of, almost never gets edited. In fact, unless I was made to, I never had a "draft" in school - I just churned out the essay or paper and handed it in. Rewrite? Look for mistakes? Care to change from what I wrote the first time? These ideas always were foreign to me... best to just write it once, well, and that was it. If anything, I took my extra care in advance: While some may call this procrastination, I would generally spend time sitting with an open but empty Word document while I surfed the internet, reading, writing, checking my fantasy baseball team, and the like, while thinking about how I am going to format my essay - what it will be about, what parts I should leave out or insert, what points I wish to drive home - and then I'd start writing at about 12:30 (or 1, or 2...) in the morning and finish a little while later.
But editing... editing I can almost always do. There's something fun and interesting about editing. Perhaps it's the lack of pressure involved: If you miss something, it's not your "mistake". Perhaps it's the efficiency aspect: With very little work, a person can take something that's okay, or even decent, and turn it into something far better. Perhaps it's the ability to read or learn something new or interesting or important and take part in its getting out there for others to read. Perhaps it's a combination of all of these, really. Whatever it is, there's just something about editing that's fun and interesting that I enjoy even more than the writing itself.
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