I haven’t done a lot of focused writing this week. Perhaps its that the weather is too cold. Or that my kids are demanding a lot of totally worthwhile attention. Or that at the end of the day all I’ve wanted to do is veg on the couch. Whatever. All the ideas for writing topics seem to disappear when I finally find the time to sit down.
So. I play.
Often on Twitter. Sometimes on Facebook. And just this week I installed Stumble Upon. I never really “got” Stumble Upon before. Sure, I’d heard other bloggers asking to be stumbled. And once I attempted to join and figure it out. But when it came to installing the program on my computer, I quit. Without any knowledge of what it was, I was terrified of installing.
But on Wednesday I shrugged and thought “why not?” I guess it was a bit of “everyone else is doing it so how bad can it be” syndrome.
Its not bad, its great! For the past 3 days, after I’ve checked in at all my social media sites, perused my e-mail (note, that doesn’t say responded, still have to do that), and read some favorite blogs, I’ve hit that little circular blue and green SU icon. A lot. With each impression I’m taken to a random website. Some are doozers. Others familiar. But its when I stumble upon something I love that is feeding a certain oncoming addiction to the application.
A few stumbles worth sharing:
One Word: Have writers block? This site gives you one word each day. You have 1 minute to write about it. Today’s word was “burst.” In one minute I wrote 2 paragraphs to start a new story that included (and was inspired by) this word. This fresh free-write exercise totally unblocked me.
Bemboszoo: The perfect 5-minute filler, my kids and I watched as every letter became a word became a decorated, animated animal. “Cool!” and “Awesome!” were exclaimed at least 26 times.
Then there was the one I didn’t save, which led to my initial problem with StumbleUpon. As it was the very first site I stumbled, I was just starting to figure out the whole thing. So, I stumbled. Loved the site. Saw my self totally using it again in the future, and then hit the SU button again without “liking” or bookmarking or favoriting. So, I lost it. What are the chances I’ll Stumble it again?
Guess I’ll just keep on stumbling. You never know, right?
Image is StumbleUpon’s logo.
© 2010, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.
