Wordplay

So this kind of made my day:

I Wrote This For You–a blog I stumbled upon a few weeks ago from a love-addicted friend. The photographs are original and perfectly moody. The message is clear and striking: Love me. Love me all you can. And if you can’t, it’s OK. And if you don’t, I’ll love you anyway.

Facebook explains: I Wrote This For You was started in July of 2007 by Iain Thomas and Jon Ellis, who met one day in a shady backroom on the internet, although they’ve never actually met in real life. The main reason behind this is that the words (Iain Thomas) live in South Africa while the pictures (Jon Ellis) live in Japan. Naturally, this makes it hard to pop round for a cup of tea. Neither of them really know what I Wrote This For You is supposed to be but several thousand people seem to really like it, so that’s ok with them.
I Wrote This For You is published 5 days a week except around about Christmas time when everyone takes a well deserved break.
Finalist Best Original Writing/Personal Blog 2009 Blog Awards
Winner Best Photography 2009 National Blog Awards

Today’s post was exceptionally divine. In the spirit of graudation-anxiety-induced moments like these.

“Fine. Maybe I’m the puzzle. But you’re still the pieces.”

Do you love it?

See, journalism isn’t dead. It’s just under hospice care.

See who won the Pulitzer Prize for ’08:

Public Service:

Las Vegas Sun, and notably the courageous reporting by Alexandra Berzon (for the exposure of the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip) — click photo for story link:

Image from Las Vegas sun

Breaking News Reporting:

Staff of The New York Times (for the sweeping coverage of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal) Read the Spitzer stories.

Investigative Reporting:

David Barstow of The New York Times (government secrecy)

Explanatory Reporting:

Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of Los Angeles Times (cost and effectiveness of attempts to combat the growing menace of wildfires) — click photo for link to story

Image from LA Times

Local Reporting:

Detroit Free Press Staff, and notably Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick (disclosing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s sex scandal)

Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of East Valley Tribune, Mesa, AZ (How a popular sheriff’s focus on immigration enforcement endangered other local investigations)

National Reporting:

Staff of St. Petersburg Times (fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign)

International Reporting

Staff of The New York Times (groundbreaking coverage of America’s deepening military and political challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan)

Feature Writing

Lane DeGregory of St. Petersburg Times (richly detailed story of a neglected little girl) — click on photo for link to story

Image from St. Pete Times/TampaBay.com

Commentary:

Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post (columns on the 2008 presidential campaign that focus on Obama’s election)

Critcism:

Holland Cotter of The New York Times (wide ranging reviews of art, from Manhattan to China, marked by acute observation, luminous writing and dramatic storytelling)

Editorial Writing:

Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY (down-to-earth editorials on the perils of local government secrecy)

Editorial Cartooning:

Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune (agile use of a classic style to produce wide ranging cartoons that engage readers with power, clarity and humor) – click on image to link to his archive

Image from San Diego Union-Tribune

Breaking News Photography:

Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald (provocative, impeccably composed images of despair after Hurricane Ike in Haiti)

Feature Photography:

Damon Winter of The New York Times (memorable array of pictures deftly capturing multiple facets of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign) — click on image for link to slideshow

Image from NPAA

Make sure to download the premier issue of Parasol magazine.

Parasol is a downloadable pdf magazine dedicated to featuring established and emerging designers and artists as well as segments on creative lifestyles and small business owners.

Inside these pages, you’ll find interviews with designers, crafty tutorials, design resources, and some tunes you should play. If that doesn’t sell you, the mystical mushroom cover should.

Who doesn’t love a free magazine?

Love this Kit to Thwart Writers Block from Elizabeth Dilk. For the blank piece of paper we really all are inside.

A Kit to Thwart Writers Block The Kit to Thwart Writers Block was created after being asked to find something I hate, change it and make it better, and then advertise it. Because I hate getting writers block, I researched the many ways to solve it, and created a packaged kit. I advertised it by silkscreening depressing doodles on napkins that look like they could have been drawn by someone in the throes of writers block. Folded on the other side of the napkin is the logo of the kit. Napkins were dispersed at coffee shops, and other locations where one might go to try and avoid writers block.

Throw the die to be presented with an inspiring idea. Pass on pencil chewing and get to the writing-things-down part (Box holds 12 pre-chewed pencils so your nervous twitches and procrastinating action are provided for you….). Desist the doodle-drawing (because even the “I’m a total jackass” thoughts that are bouncing around in your empty skull have been realized and recorded) and start your story-telling.

No more excuses.

In a perfect world.

Where pencils don’t break and space bars never stick and you have so many original ideas that you fear you’ll never get them all realized.

Alone print by MagnolijaART

Yep, I’m now on Twitter. Notice that new addition on the right? It’s me pretending someone would be intersted in my daily activities.

Anyway–FOLLOW ME if you are so inclined!

In lieu of next weekend’s lovefest, a few unconventional valentines:

“What do you use as a measuring stick for love?”

Paperwhite studio thinks the only way to really determine how much you love someone is to measure it against something else. SUBMIT YOUR OWN “I love you more than ____” and they’ll publish your comparison on their site. Above are a few of my found favorites. Visit their gallery to see many many more submissions, among which two are mine!

Check out my guest post on Adam Bornstein’s Men’s Health blog, Working Out the Details.  I apologize now if you find it a waste of your precious workday internet surfing. I understand, as a journalist, you’re supposed to “write what you know,” but instead I decided it was OK to write what I thought…or write what I thought I knew…or write what I heard…or perhaps write what I learned from Rock of Love Bus. Either way, don’t judge too harshly.