Does this happen to you? You’re coasting along on the internet and you find miscellaneous articles and items you want to share, but you see a pattern to them in terms of your life and you kind of want to put them together so you can find them again? Or maybe share them with more context, say, outside of Facebook of Twitter? Maybe you don’t, but I sure do. Hence, I thought I should share them here on my blog.
In order to provide an image with each blog post, even those that are primarily wordy, I have created square image labels that use one of my works of art plus a tag word, such as “reading,” “inspiration,” and “thought fodder.” I’ve created a new image for this type of post, this one labeled “olio.” Aside from being a mellifluous word that’s fun to say, olio means “a mixture of heterogeneous elements; hodgepodge” and that’s what these posts are meant to be, just a collection of things I find interesting.
Let’s get started.
1. In keeping with my Year of Creative Reading, which I’m attempting to do in book form, I am also drawn to online articles about creativity. I probably read more about creativity online than I do offline. Here’s an article from 99u called “Create Things No One Else Will Ever See.” Consumers of art, music, literature, & etc. may find this notion highly narcissistic, especially if they are waiting for a sequel to a great master work. However, creating things for yourself as an artist is how you find your own voice, the voice that some other soul may desperately need to hear but will never get to if you constantly stifle it in order to create what others want you to create.
2. The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas from Digital Marketer is an attractive and well-organized infographic that lays out the various types of blog posts, from informational to inspirational and all points in between. Blogging has changed so drastically since the early days when individuals were using blogs to pour out their souls. It has been adopted by professional writers and large organizations to push content for commercial purposes. As such, methods of blogging have become codified, with lists like this showing writers what works to get their messages across and build audiences.
3. Academic Earth Online College Courses – In cleaning out my bookmarks this morning (yes, sometimes this fiddly work has to be done), I ran across this link to free online college courses in a variety of topics. I have to make time to check some of these out.
4. How gut bacteria affects your health: What we know, what we don’t from Minnesota Public Radio feeds my recent curiosity about the human microbiome and how it relates to health and disease. Did you know that a breast-fed infant gets good bacteria from its mother through breast milk? All the more reason to breast feed if you can. Have you ever heard of fecal transplants? Sounds yucky, but experiments with fecal transplants have helped clear a particular infection. Read the article for more information. This is a subject I’ll be paying close attention to as the field develops. I suspect my adult allergies related to fruits and veggies (seriously) and my eczema are somehow tied to an unbalanced microbiome.
Got an interesting items you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments.