Future Essay Topics

My original, rambling and half-formed thoughts:

Walking the fire trail at lunch (sounds, sights. Memorable visits....dizzy. The runner who failed. The grumpy woman. Human acknowledgment or lack of. Fear of predators. What I turn  my mind to (50% personal 50% work), transition back to work (that pretty path vs the switchbacks).  Some info about nature and relaxation.

Good multitasking and bad multitasking: good: a busy workplace, limited time of year, you initiate things to do as well as absorb things to do.  Feeling of accomplishment and rising above the tide as you walk home to BART.  Bad multitasking: on-going busy, all directed by others, often in a way that doesn't make sense, or detracts from your local mission.   Long term busy.  Start to avoid work and "play" even though there is no time. Lose sense of urgency, work hard to forget about work while gone.  Find myself forgetting important things that happened previous week. How I work on good gardening days, how I lose sense of mission if running too many errands, but how my body also needs the break.

My parents' tools (and lifestyle): photo essay, need to get mitts on pictures.

My mom and isolation.  Again, good isolation and bad isolation.  Concentrating and over-concentrating.  Self-motivation and study and how you have to then set your own limits and breaks.

Blog as personal essay.  Look exclusively for artists' blogs?  Blogs where craft blends with reflection.  Consider blended personal essays in general....comments for experts or afficionados [spell?] combined with general thoughts, or those that blurt out general thoughts in the midst of more technical stuff.  9/11 blogging/essays?  Large event mixed with personal reflection.

Look for my own postings on art and textiles.

A place to take chances....with new words, concepts I haven't quite mastered, etc.

The "clubbiness" of writing.  Namedropping style, assumed familiarity with famous dead Europeans, very off-putting to the newly educated, maybe even shuts out the modern educated.  Reeks of smokey clubhouses inhabited primarily by British upperclass males, with invisible servants scuttling about, filling their drink glasses without notice or invitation.  Where is the writing that will be directed to the educated children of those servants?  People who will bring a new edge to learning?  The stay-at-home spouse of those males?  Awakens and irritates the 99 percenter lurking in me.

The spreading of knowledge and how acquisition of knowledge has expanded.  Me and art and Pinterest.  The kids and German and guitar tablature.  Recipes. Threatened withholding of this knowledge in the future.  An old friend who is not on FB and doesn't email?  Me and my daughter and FB.  Running out of stamps.  The joys of hiding in the woods away from these distractions vs the joy of being able to jot down my thoughts here and bring them back up where ever there is internet coverage.

My actual submission for Module 2

Here are some essay topics that I have been considering:

1.  Women bloggers (or any bloggers) as personal essayists:  I was interested in Lopate's reasons why there were very few women essayists from previous centuries and I began to wonder where are today's essayists lurking, those who aren't as well known as Barbara Kingsolver and Anne Lamott.  I suspect that some of them are out there blogging their thoughts rather than publishing them in news media or book format, and I would like to discover them.  It may be difficult to find the best of these essayists, however.  I'm not sure if there is a guide to the best online personal essays. Many of the bloggers who write rambling, interesting essays seem to be in the self-help business, are not too good at examining their own failings as well as their own successes, and want to sell you their book when you visit their "About" page. I have also read some fascinating posts from bloggers who mainly blog about arts and crafts, but on occasion will devote time to talking about life or art in general.  It might take a lot of time to find these posts, however.

2.  Walking the UC Berkeley Fire Trail at lunchtime: I could describe what it feels like to enter nature for an hour in the middle of a busy day in the office.  I see some other path users on a regular basis and have held friendly conversations with a few, have a nodding aquaintence with many and a somewhat hostile relationship with one.  I have had a couple of memorably bad walking experiences and have seen others having bad experiences (two twisted ankles).  Sometimes posters regarding recent wildcat sightings will add an interesting layer of fear to an otherwise routine walk. Often as I walk my thoughts are swirling around, concerned either with work issues or with home/personal issues.  Over the years I have encouraged myself to think 50% on each topic so I have not spent my entire walk preoccupied with the same problems.  On some lucky days I am able to set my problems aside and concentrate on the sights and smells of nature.

3.  Good multi-tasking and bad multi-tasking:  I am interested in why some days we leave a busy workplace with a deep sigh of satisfaction, the sense of a job well done, and a mental list of projects we want to start on the next day, and other times we scuttle out the door hoping to forget the frustrations of the day, amid a growing list of half-completed tasks.  In the past few years the second option has increasingly prevailed for me and many other staff members I know.  I would like to examine recent studies that have found multi-tasking to be harmful to productivity and list some work-related policies that have caused growth in the need for this practice.

 Despite this finding, I believe that by nature I am a multi-tasker.  When I am working in my garden on the weekends I constantly move towards certain goals, such as making the garden weed-free, adding levels to slopes so more things will grow well, improving the fertility of the soil.  However, my activities on any one day may include a multitude of small tasks, constantly interrupted to perform related tasks.  At the end of one of these gardening days I feel a sense of satisfaction rather than frustration.  What is the difference between these two types of multi-tasking?