Slightly Off KIlter

Normal is overrated

Language Arts

  • Choosing Email

    We need to stop thinking of email as some strange beast. Email is written communication – nothing more, nothing less. The primary difference between email and any other form of communication comes down to one thing: email doesn’t require a human delivery agent. That’s it. That’s the difference. Continue reading

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  • Frame of Reference

    This thing she bought had me stumped. I swear I had the words right, but WHAT was it? What was I missing? Continue reading

  • A Passion for Writing

    Insanabile cacoëthes scribendi   * I recently interviewed a possible technical writer candidate. When I asked her “Why do you write?” she said “I enjoy it… and the money’s good”. It was an honest answer. It wouldn’t have been my choice. I write because it’s part of who I am. I have always had a… Continue reading

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  • What Do I Write About?

    Recently, a similar topic came up on two different list groups I’m a member of. First, one list posted this writing prompt: I find that, unless I *force* myself to write something meaningful in my journal, I tend to just regurgitate the events of the day with little comment or insight. Is this a problem… Continue reading

  • The Lazy Way?

    I ran across the following <A HREF="entry on a fellow blogger’s site. She’s also a fellow Victoria, so she must have sensible things to say 🙂 One of my favorite bloggers called memes “officially the lazy bastard’s way of filling a blog”, but I beg to differ. As someone who uses my blog as a… Continue reading

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  • Writing Prompts Epiphany

    I’ve been working on a lot of writing prompts; I find that I enjoy them greatly. I treat them as “essay questions”; I try to respond in complete sentences, preferably several complete sentences. Also, I try to put some thought into my answers. If there are several questions, sometimes I respond to them one at… Continue reading

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  • How I write (3rd in a series)

    I enjoy writing prompts; one of the places I visit frequently for ideas is Diarist.net Spark (they post a daily prompt). When I first saw the prompt for January 30, I was interested: Voices in your Head — 30 January 2004 List the things that are hanging over your head right now — back entries,… Continue reading

  • Why I Write (revisited)

    Back in December, I wrote a weblog essay entitled Why I Write. I’ve been having a lot of fun writing since then. I’ve been averaging two weblog entries a day in my regular weblog (aka my “other” weblog) as well as several per month here, in my “family eyes-only” weblog, and in the cats’ weblog.… Continue reading

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  • Why I Write

    I’ve always liked to write; when I was much younger, I wrote a lot of poems and short stories. For several years in Junior High and High School I did a periodic “newspaper” for my family. I don’t recall keeping any sort of diary or journal during elementary school or High School. I did keep… Continue reading

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