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Jumat, 24 Mei 2013

[Tulisan baru] Freshly Pressed: Friday Faves

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Freshly Pressed: Friday Faves

by Michael Pick

This week, we turn up three very different Freshly Pressed posts united by their incisive exploration of unexplored, long forgotten, or unexpected experiences, experiences that have been made somehow peripheral by time, geography, or culture. They're posts you've responded to, and that we hope you'll find resonant.

Notes on Email

I started to think how long I've been doing this, this whole writing thing, and how it had taken until my mid-thirties before I could really conduct myself in public where I could hold two opposing ideas in my mind at the same time: 1. that I was a writer and 2. I was me.

We're all familiar with the idea of digging through old journals or photo albums. But what about the digital detritus we leave behind? The social networks we moved on from, the notes-to-self scribbled on digital stickies, the email accounts left for dead? In this post, writer Daniel Nester decides to dig into his long abandoned Hotmail account, and finds within it a fractured, but coherent, narrative of his experiences as a fledgling, and later published, writer.

It's a story that could only unfold now, and plays out like a contemporary update to the Bildungsroman; a numbered sequence of telling moments captured, frozen, in emails and the folders they're nested in. It's a tale of remembrance, but also of delayed revelation, and if you haven't trawled your own digital missives recently, "Notes on Email" is likely to make you consider doing so.

Hip-Hopistan: Inside Greater Kurdistan's Nascent Hip Hop Scene

Today, many of the Kurdish youth use hip-hop as an outlet and a bridge to build a community across their diaspora. Just as MCs in America have raised consciousness on social issues, Kurdish MCs, such as Serhado's "I am Kurdistan", make hip-hop in order to discuss geo-political realities and provide hope to those Kurds in search of a united Kurdistan.

For a lot of us, the first thing that comes to mind when asked to picture the plight of Kurdish people probably isn't so much rap battles as it is a history of much more direct conflict, and that's part of the beauty of this expectation defying look into the nascent Kurdish hip hop scene. We learn that, while the odds are often stacked against the DJs and MCs of Kurdistan due to popular notions of the values attached to the musical form, their efforts to unite, express, and fight for their rights are very much in keeping with a trend toward making change through ideas, rather than conflict.

As Abdullah Occalan says, in perhaps this post's most memorable quote, it's "Time for the guns to fall silent and for ideas to speak." "Hip-Hopistan: Inside Greater Kurdistan's Nascent Hip Hop Scene" offers an insightful look into unexpected, culturally repurposed uses of an art form that itself has roots in repurposing and empowerment of the disenfranchised.

I wish my father were a drug junkie, pathological liar, conman criminal, violent psycho or at least a loser of some kind

My father isn't a drug junkie, pathological liar, conman criminal or violent psycho. He's an easy-going old Jewish man from New York who definitely stops for pedestrians in the crosswalk. He's the kind of man your mom approves of, because he's nice and he loves you. He's the kind of man everyone thinks is safe. But he wasn't and now what am I to think?

Now granted, we're suckers for a sizzling headline, but this is a post that plays with our expectations, just as it leaves the author grappling with uncertainty and unexpected feelings about a situation, a question, that has no easy out, no easy answers.

We're used to life measuring up to expectations. The good guys do good, the bad guys, not so much. But so often life, and memory, exist outside of the dichotomies that sell newspapers or keep people coming back to movie theaters year-on-year. What happens when our past resurfaces, but we have no simple moral compass to tell us how to feel about it? "I wish my father were a drug junkie, pathological liar, conman criminal, violent psycho or at least a loser of some kind" explores that question, and others, in a deeply personal meditation on how our rules and expectations don't always hold up to life as lived.

Did you read something in the Reader that you think is Freshly Pressed material? Feel free to leave us a link, or tweet us @freshly_pressed.

For more inspiration, check out our writing challenges, photo challenges, and other blogging tips at The Daily Post; visit our Recommended Blogs; and browse the most popular topics in the Reader. For editorial guidelines for Freshly Pressed, read: So You Want To Be Freshly Pressed.

Michael Pick | Mei 24, 2013 pada 12:00 pm | Tag: Freshly Pressed, writing | Categories: Community, Freshly Pressed, Writing | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-4ud

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Rabu, 22 Mei 2013

[Tulisan baru] War and Life Afterwards: An Interview with Brian Castner

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War and Life Afterwards: An Interview with Brian Castner

by LouAnn

Brian Castner

We're honored that Brian Castner, Iraq War veteran and author of The Long Walk, makes his official online home right here at WordPress.com. Brian's history and work are fascinating, as are the writing and photographs he shares on his blog.

We asked Brian a few questions about his background, his book, his blogging philosophy, and his choice of WordPress.com for his site.

Could you please tell us a bit about your unique background?

I served in the Air Force as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officer, and deployed twice to Iraq in 2005 and 2006. EOD is the military's bomb squad, so we defuse roadside bombs and all types of rockets and missiles and such. I got out of the military in 2007 and became a contractor teaching Army and Marine Corps EOD units before their deployments, but when the stress and post-traumatic issues finally caught up with me, I wrote a book about it. Now I'm a writer -- I do magazine pieces, I'm working on another book, and I blog as well.

Your book, The Long Walk, was published last year. What's it about? (And is it true that it's now being turned into an opera?!)

My goal in writing the book was just to get the feeling right -- what does it feel like to take apart Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and then come home and feel like you're going crazy? So, the book is a mix of those two story lines -- in Iraq and back home -- and they are intertwined because it felt to me like everything was happening at once. When I was deployed I only thought of coming home, and once I was home for good I felt a need to go back. I needed to write the book to explain the war to myself, and I never expected it to take off like it has since it was published by Doubleday last year.

And yes, it is being turned into an opera, and I certainly didn't expect that either! The American Lyric Theater in New York is producing it, and I have been working closely with Stephanie Fleischmann and Jeremy Howard Beck, the librettist and composer, as they construct it. They have taken the project very seriously, and have been incredibly respectful of my family and the book, and are doing a really faithful job translating it to the stage. The first performance of the music, just piano and voice, is the first weekend in June. There was a public performance of the libretto in February, and it was so emotionally intense I had trouble listening.

Did writing the book help you heal?

It did, but if healing was the only goal, I wouldn't have needed to go through the publication process. There are a number of writing programs for veterans that focus on healing, and they are great, encouraging men and women to just get their story out. I wanted to find peace, certainly, but I also wanted to become a writer, and I did my best to create a good story too, that other people (besides my family and friends) would want to read.

What would you say if one of your four sons wanted to enlist?

The military was mostly good to me, and I wouldn't trade any of my experiences, good or bad. I have a new family, the EOD brotherhood, and I would never give that up for my ignorant pre-war self. So I wouldn't stop my sons from enlisting, but I know the military isn't for everyone. It wouldn't be a good fit for all of my boys. And because I know the bad things that may be coming, I'm not planning on walking them down to the recruiting station on their 18th birthday either.

Thank you for creating your official website at WordPress.com! Why'd you choose us?

An author in 2013 just needs to have a quality website that can serve as a hub and platform for your books and events. If a reader likes your book and wants to know more, they need a place to go. So I knew I needed a good-looking site, and I chose WordPress.com for a couple of reasons. First, I was comfortable with it. I wrote for an alternative news website in Buffalo, New York, for a couple of years before I wrote my book, and they used WordPress on the back-end. I found it easy to learn then, and since I was comfortable with it, it made sense to build my personal site with it.

Second, and this is no small thing, I could create a decent-looking site for a small amount of money. I'm no programmer, but I'm also not a famous best-selling author who can afford to pay thousands of dollars for someone to build them a site. I needed to be able to quickly and cheaply build a quality site I could maintain, and WordPress.com is good for that.

You've picked the premium theme Linen for your blog. What appealed to you about it?

I looked for a really clean, smooth design that fit the somber mood of the book. I was able to tweak the background color on Linen, so now it's got a subdued grey, vaguely newspaper-like feel, but it also has a nice banner system to draw the eye to high-quality photography. I searched through a bunch of options, and Linen seemed to fit best.

Your blog covers all kinds of topics: info on your book, musings on art, stories about outdoor adventures, book reviews, interviews with other vets, to name just a few. How do you approach all this content?

I have a very strict writing schedule, with daily word count targets and deadlines. I've found it's the only way to keep up with so many different kinds of projects, from blog posts that take half a day to write to a book that requires a year or two. So I try to post on the blog once a week, on Wednesday. I write about two main things: updates about book events and writing projects, and topics that are interesting to me but don't fit into my normal book and magazine "beat." Sometimes you just have a theme or idea you want to explore, and the words need to come out, no matter how many people end up reading them. Not every inspiration I have is topical for the news of the day -- the blog is a good place for such stray thoughts.

What writing advice and tips would you give fellow bloggers?

When writing at that alt-news site, I learned the value of consistency. Readers expect regular content. If you want people to come back to your blog and read more another day, they need to know when. So I announced that I would write columns every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then I stuck to it almost no matter what. I couldn't post everyday, but I could keep to that three-per-week schedule, and it worked.

Now, my blog supports my book efforts, so I write less, but still consistently. If I'm going to take a week off, I say so. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the "10,000 hour rule" in his book Outliers. It basically says that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. The only way to get better at writing is to read and write. Blogging helped me get to 10,000 hours.

Thanks for your time, Brian!

Check out briancastner.com for more on Brian, his book, and his ongoing work.

LouAnn | Mei 22, 2013 pada 3:15 pm | Tag: author, blogger profile, Brian Castner, The Long Walk | Categories: Community, Profile | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-4tH

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Senin, 20 Mei 2013

[Tulisan baru] Customizing Comet: Beau and Arrow Events

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Customizing Comet: Beau and Arrow Events

by Lauren Orsini

Who doesn't love "Before and After" home improvement shots? It's always amazing to see how just a couple of changes, like a coat of paint or a quick do-it-yourself project, can transform a living space dramatically. It's no different when it comes to WordPress.com blog themes, in which a little customization can go a long way.

Today let's take a look at Beau and Arrow Events, a wedding inspiration blog run by Ellen and Kate, two San Diego-based event planners. You'd never know that this chic blogazine is running on Comet, one of our sparest themes.

Here's how the bloggers behind Beau and Arrow Events transformed grayscale Comet into cursive and gold elegance. It's nothing any intrepid blogger couldn't try at home!

A cohesive color scheme

Like any well-planned wedding, Beau and Arrow Events picked a handful of theme colors and stuck to them. In this case, blush and gold accents temper plain black and white.

The bloggers opted for a busy backdrop with a pink-and-white arrow pattern, but keep it from commandeering the design by not repeating it anywhere else. In fact, the backdrop is the only space pink appears in the color scheme. Elsewhere, like on container borders and links, the bloggers chose gold as their sole accent. The effect is a perfectly balanced duochrome.

To learn more about personalizing your blog with custom colors, view the tutorial.

Typefaces that brim with personality

On Beau and Arrow Events, the bloggers made bold font choices that hold their own with their featured wedding photography. You'll notice that their custom header image isn't a logo at all, but a medley of complementary fonts. The effect is an elegant, feminine vibe that caters perfectly to the blog's wedding-planning audience. To continue this theme throughout the page, Ellen and Kate chose flirty Fertigo Pro Script for headers, and the classic serif Skolar for a readable body text. A smaller, caps-lock version of Fertigo creates notice-me sidebar titles.

If you're interested in reading more about how you can personalize your blog with custom typefaces, yes, there's a tutorial for that, too!

Custom bullet points enhance the sidebar

Ellen and Kate maintain consistency in their design by carrying over the ampersand in their custom header image to the bullet points on the sidebar. They're able to do this by setting a custom image in place of the regular black dot for bullet points that typically mark unordered lists.

You can dive into your CSS to have more control and customize your site the way you want — to make a variety of tweaks, such as setting a custom image for an unordered list, like Ellen and Kate do here. In order to edit the CSS, they use the $30 Custom Design Upgrade and a small ampersand image.

Here's how to make your own custom bullets:

Create and upload a small image, which we'll call custom.jpg, to your Media Library.
In the Customizer, navigate to the CSS button on the lower right side.
Now, you'll want to roll up your sleeves and do a little coding! In CSS lingo, "ul" is how we refer to an unordered, or bulleted, list. To change the icon that shows up as the bullet, we'll want to specify a "list-style-image" property that affects that "ul." Finally, we'll need to specify a URL where this image lives. Since it's in your Media Library, it lives at custom.jpg.
Now we need to put the above information into syntax browsers can read. It's OK if you don't understand exactly why it's worded this way, just know that it's the same information we outlined above. Add a line that looks like this anywhere in the Customizer editing window:

ul { list-style-image: url('custom.jpg'); }

Save and refresh, et voila! — you should see a heart, star, or whichever custom image you picked in place of the ordinary bullet point.

You can do much more with custom CSS to make these types of design tweaks — for more, check out our support page on custom CSS.

Lauren Orsini | Mei 20, 2013 pada 4:00 pm | Tag: CSS, Customization, fonts, Themes, typefaces, upgrades | Categories: Customization, Design, Themes | URL: http://wp.me/pf2B5-4st

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[Tulisan baru] Customizing Comet: Beau and Arrow Events

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Customizing Comet: Beau and Arrow Events

by Lauren Orsini

Here's how the bloggers behind Beau and Arrow Events transformed grayscale Comet into cursive and gold elegance. It's nothing any intrepid blogger couldn't try at home!