Category Archives: Uncategorized

Can’t wait to try these wines from Trader Joes

I’ve tried the Espiral Rosé already and love it, but Picpoul and Muscadet Sèvre et Maine are two wines that I typically have to spend a fair amount of money to drink these days, so I’m very interested to try TJ’s under-$10 offerings of both. I’ll keep you posted!

  

The Failure Mode of Clever

I just discovered this article by John Scalzi (read his fiction; it’s excellent) about the urge to try to be clever when communicating with people you might not know very well, and what happens when you fail.

I adore being thought clever, so this pertains to me, times a million. Maybe it pertains to you, too? 🙂

Whatever

So, apropos of nothing in particular, let’s say you wish to communicate privately with someone you’ve not communicated with privately before, for whatever reason you might have. And, wanting to stand out from the crowd, you decide to try to be clever about it, because, hey, you are a clever person, and as far as you know, people seem to like that about you. So you write your clever bit and send it off, safe in the knowledge of your cleverosity, and confident that your various cleverations will make the impression you want to make on the intended cleveree.

Two things here.

1. The effectiveness of clever on other people is highly contingent on outside factors, over which you have no control and of which you may not have any knowledge; i.e., just because you intended to be clever doesn’t mean you will be perceived as clever, for all sorts…

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8 Postcards of Generally Positive Gratitude

The smart, sassy Mary Laura Philpott has some great words to express your appreciation for things that, even if they didn’t make your Ten Best Life Experiences list, also didn’t ruin your life. My favorite is: “I just spend 2 hours with something you spent 2 years on.”

Lately, there seems to be a lot of fussing about how some entertainer/artist/creative person didn’t give everybody exactly what they wanted 100% of the time.

Sigh.

There’s a thing where people seem to think, well, if you put yourself (or your work) in the public eye, you should be prepared never to make a mistake or do anything that’s less than pure genius ever again. And that’s a bit much. It’s not really fair, you know?

I’m not saying we don’t all have a right to discuss people’s missteps and examine what we could all learn from them, or that we shouldn’t criticize stuff we don’t like. We do, and we should, and I will — OH YES, MATT DAMON’S PONYTAIL, I WILL — but it sure would be nice if we could also remember that all these things we pick apart are made by real people. It peeves me when I see…

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Overcoming Impostor Syndrome as a Photographer

I so enjoyed this article by Jen Hooks about believing in your work and yourself.

The Daily Post

There is an unsettling, nagging worry that accompanies impostor syndrome, that somehow, someday, someone is going to find out that you’re a great big phony.

Impostor syndrome is the pervasive feeling that you’re faking your way through success, and that your achievements are attributable only to good luck. There is an unsettling, nagging worry that accompanies impostor syndrome, that somehow, someday, someone is going to find out that you’re a great big phony. That you’re really not as really good as you’ve cleverly convinced people that you are. That you’re a fraud.

In today’s post, I’ve decided to focus on impostor syndrome in the photography community, but everything herein can be easily extrapolated onto any professional field or any creative pursuit. I’ve collected some thoughts from a few of the I Heart FacesCreative Team; Amandalynn Jones and Julie Rivera, as well as Texas photographer Karyn Kelbaugh…

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