After The Data Is Safe

I am currently writing this on Typora installed on Ubuntu, which I am running on a thumbdrive.

Persistent live, to be specific. It isn’t perfect. For example, it will not boot at all on my other computer. And yet, on this one, it seems to work fine.

I had a realization recently. While data is always king, and backing it up is important, I found myself without a computer recently. My computer crashed recently and had to be sent in for repair.

And while the data was all safe, I found myself with a different problem: work is more than just data, it is also workspace, applications, overall setup.

My email was safe, but without my computer, I could not check it. My ebooks were safe, but without my computer, I could not make more. My book covers were safe…

Get the picture?

So I spent that time while I awaited my computer to return setting up my wife’s computer for my use. Now I had a true back up, not just of files, but of function.

And still, the idea that I could have a full Linux install on a thumb drive, set up the way I wanted, to use on any hardware I could find is very appealing. This is a mini computer, just add, well, the computer.

I tried several things, from setting up a live USB drive, attempting a full install. It took a bit, but finally I got it. I used the live USB to set up MKUSB, and use this tutorial to make the drive.

It has a partition set up in FAT32 format, so when I put it in a normal computer, it will work like a thumb drive.

And all of that sounds great… but it still doesn’t boot on my computer, just my wife’s. Which tells me it will be not as clear cut to use.

So while the idea is still appealing, the execution is still wanting. I’ve not given up on this idea.

But think of it for a moment for yourself: what do you need to work other than your data?

(and for you Windows people, consider Portable Apps as well)

A Poem for A President, 2009

The day President Obama was inaugurated, I listened to part of the inauguration as I was driving. A poem came to mind, nearly fully formed.

I rushed to my destination to get it written, and after a quick editorial pass, it was done. It is playful and light, and celebrates the moment for what it was–a moment. And even now, eight years later, I think it one of the better ones I have written post college.

I have shown this poem to practically no one.

I suspect it is silly of me to wish to divorce a poem of this topic from the politics, to have to stand as I believe it to be, rather than have it burdened by the weight of the divide that politics create.

I suspect that is silly–but I am silly.

So it sits, restless, I imagine, on my hard drive. It has been read aloud, recorded even, but always in solitude.

In the end, I fear, the angry, ugly side of the response to something political is simply not worth the chance.

Which is unfortunate.

The only real regret at this moment is that I didn’t make any attempt to send it to him while he was in office. I know the chance he’d see it is very small, but I’d like to think he’d appreciate it.

So, You Want To Write Poetry, Part Four

Life, Death, Love

When we think of poetry, we often associate them with these three–attaching poetry with emotion, the spontaneous overflow, as Whitman called it.

These things, however, are too big for your poem. They will rip it apart at the seams. The weight is too much.

This is not to say you cannot write a poem with these elements. I dare say poetry and language itself owes quite a bit to these things.

But yours is not a poem about LOVE, rather it is about your love. But even then your love for someone is a huge thing, and will not fit on a page.

Instead your poem is about a moment–breakfast two years after your wedding; the wilted flowers in the vase from your first date; the stolen glance back when you saw them dancing as they walked away from your first kiss.

Don’t put a net around the galaxy and try to hold it in lines of poetry. Instead look at the moment for poetry, find the whole galaxy in the sparrow on the window sill.

Keep your images tight as well. “Love” or “Death” may bring a grocery list of things to mind, but a list of those things is not as strong poem as a poem about each thing is.

So focus your poetry on the moment, the specific.

And in these small moments, you’ll say what you need to about life, love and death.