Reverend Robert Shields – Would He Have Been the Ultimate Blogger?

Recently, while looking around for subjects to write about on my blog, I came across the story of the Reverend Robert Shields, who died a few months ago.

His claim to fame is that for 25 years he kept a diary – but not any old diary! From 1972 until 1997 he would spend at least four hours a day recording every detail of his life in five-minute segments. Nothing was left out – he even recorded his visits to the toilet (and what he did there) – to ensure that the entire day, every day, was accounted for. In his small office at his his family home in Dayton, Washington State, he kept half a dozen typewriters (Do you remember those?) on his desk just in case any one of them broke down due to over-use. He had them arranged in such a way that he could reach any one of them by using his swivel chair without having to get up.

Each day he would type about 3,000–6,000 words describing in fine detail his daily activities on to single sheets of paper. Eventually, he would bind these sheets into ledgers, which were stored in huge cardboard boxes and stacked to the ceiling just outside his office. As well as detailing his trips to the bathroom, he recorded his body temperature, blood pressure and his daily medication; he described every piece of junk mail he received, every meal he ate and the cost of virtually everything he bought. He even attached a nostril hair to one page so that scientists could study his DNA. He would sleep for just two hours a day so that he could describe the dreams he had experienced. In a good year he would write three million words, but in a bad year he would manage just one million. He would type everything down spontaneously as it came into his head and didn’t correct or edit anything. He said that he didn’t read any of the entries afterwards because if he did he wouldn’t have time to do anything else.

Eventually, in 1997, he succumbed to a massive stroke that curtailed his writing activities although he did attempt for a while to dictate his journal entries to his wife but, perhaps not surprisingly, she quickly became bored with the task. In 1999, he handed over his diary to Washington State University in 91 boxes on condition that it would not be read or subjected to a word count for at least 50 years. However, one sample page has found its way on to the Internet and can be viewed here.

I wonder what Robert Shields would have made of today’s blogging technology. Would he have used it to update his diary for all of us to read and comment on or would he have shied away from it because it was just too public an arena to reveal the details of his private life and personal thoughts? At his age, would he have understood or been afraid of Web 2.0, Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS 10.4/10.5? Or would he have become the world’s ultimate blogger and acquired the same sort of following that ‘Geriatric1927‘ (Peter Oakley) has amassed on YouTube. I suppose now we shall never know!

It Might Look Quiet – But From Over Here It Isn’t!

You may have noticed that my last post was over two weeks ago and may have thought that nothing was happening on the Lockyer front. On the contrary, I have been very busy. During the first week of March I was editing articles for three different journals for Intellect and was out every evening either socializing – it was my birthday last week – business networking, attending committee meetings or dealing with entries for a local road race I’m the director of.

In addition, for some time now I have been looking for ways to increase the number of visitors to my blog. As a result of reading a very interesting article by Jack Humphrey of SocialPowerLinking.com recently I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time putting together a social marketing campaign. So, over the past week I’ve been signing up to join the various social media sites, such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Propeller and Mixx, as well as the blog communities at MyBlogLog and the BlogCatalog. The results have been almost instantaneous – within a few hours I have had half a dozen e-mails from other bloggers wanting to be friends and one very complimentary review of my blog. I had already signed up to Facebook and MySpace so my next job in this compaign is find my existing friends (in the physical world) whom are on these sites and start interacting with them in cyberspace.

Finally, I suppose I ought to start writing articles for this blog. I’ve already got a few ideas that need to be worked on – so watch this space!

A Case of ‘Man Proposes, God Disposes’

A few months ago, on 12 November to be precise, I resolved to get up early each morning so that I could spend time keeping this blog up to date with fresh content, and follow a regular schedule in the same way that I went jogging each evening.

However, shortly afterwards, on 15 November, I developed a deep vein thrombosis in my right leg, which not only put an end to my jogging but also made sitting down to try and write material for this blog very painful. I had to keep walking (which was painful in itself) to prevent my leg seizing up completely. So, for the past three months my blog has taken a back seat while my focus has firmly been on getting my health back.

Luckily, I have now substantially recovered and I am no longer in pain, so I can concentrate once more on my plans for this blog. So much has happened just recently that I have several writing projects that need my attention and I think it is important to make sure that I don’t repeat myself in any of them.

To assist me in this respect, I’m drawing up a list (or more precisely, a series of lists) of what needs to be done for each of these projects, including this blog. A list is a great tool if you have a great deal to do but don’t know where to start. Listing all the various tasks that need to be done can help you to prioritize your workload, and there is nothing more satisfying than to cross off an item on a list once you have completed the task that it relates to. But don’t make the list too long – there is a danger that it will become a vast, indigestible and growing heap of unfulfilled wishes and you will find that for every item you cross off the list you will think of least another three items to go on it. And if your list is more than one page long, there is the added danger that you will just concentrate on those tasks on the first page (i.e. the page on top) and forget about all those other tasks that have been relegated to the second, third and, heaven forbid, subsequent pages. Therefore, your list should never be more than one page long!

And finally, but most importantly, allow room on your list for the unexpected! A wise man once said that God looks at our plans and laughs. Remember that man proposes but God disposes. So, submit to the will of God and enjoy the ride!

How do I Find Time to Write Every Day?

One of the first things I was taught while on a blogging course was the importance of keeping my blog up to date by writing something in it at least once every week. I made a resolution at the time to do just that – after all, I want people to be regular visitors to my blog to read what I’ve written.

It started off OK because I had plenty of material in my “back catalogue” that I could post on my blog, and at the time I was having to write a 60-second presentation every week to promote my business at BNI that I could use as the basis, or so I thought, for my weekly post on my blog.

But then things changed in my life. The local chapter of BNI fell apart and I was no longer required to write a witty presentation each week. At the same time my business workload increased, which meant that I was spending all day, every day, in front of my computer editing articles that other people had written. This meant that I had no desire to spend my spare time, if I had any, in front of the computer updating and editing my blog. Although I was spending some spare time in front of the computer, my interest in family history meant that it was being filled by visiting the Ancestry and the Genes Reunited websites, and entering data on to my genealogy software program.

As a result, my blog has barely been touched for about six weeks and the number of visitors has dropped to nearly zero. So what can I do about it? One thing that I have noticed is that I have plenty of ideas first thing in the morning and I lie in my bed composing potential articles in my head before I get up. However, by the time I’ve got up, got washed and changed, and I’ve started to make my breakfast my initial enthusiasm and creativity has waned, and I find myself thinking more about my next editing job I have to do for one of my existing clients.

So, the answer is simple! I get up at least one hour earlier each morning and write something for my blog before breakfast. As I write this, in long hand, it is eight o’clock in the morning and I’ve written virtually an entire post without much effort. The next challenge is to enter it on to the blog – but I can probably do that this evening – and if you’re reading it now it means that I’ve passed that challenge without any problems. It’s amazing how easy it is to type something up once you’ve written the first draft and it’s there in front of you.

Right! I’ve proved that it can work – now I’ve just got to make sure that I can keep it up. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem as long as I treat it like a training schedule in preparation for running a marathon (or any other distance, for that matter). After all, every evening during the week, without fail, I go out jogging. So, early every morning during the week, without fail, I must write something for my blog.

There, that wasn’t too difficult, was it! Same again tomorrow? We’ll see – I’ve got a business breakfast early tomorrow morning but I’ll try and write something, even if it’s only a few lines. So, watch this space!

Why You Should Never Depend on Your Computer’s Spell-checker

Every word-processor software program seems to have its own spell-checker and it is very tempting to rely on it to make sure that every word you’ve written is correctly spelt. However, there are several different reasons why you should never depend entirely on your computer’s spell-checker, as I will now explain.

To start with, spell-checkers are not very good when it comes to the use of English. Although a spell-checker can tell you whether a specific word has been misspelt, it can’t tell you whether you have used it correctly. For example, a spell-checker doesn’t understand the difference between ‘wed’ and ‘web’, ‘where’ and ‘were’ or ‘can’ and ‘ban’. And it doesn’t know if you’ve missed a word out entirely. Missing out the words ‘no’ or ‘not’ can totally change the meaning of a sentence. The same is true of punctuation. A few months ago, in Canada, a misplaced comma in a contract cost a communication company over two million dollars.

A spell-checker can’t tell you if a comma or a semi-colon is more appropriate in a sentence; and it doesn’t know where to use a colon. How often have you typed a comma when you meant to use a full stop? And how often have you used a spaced hyphen to introduce an explanation when a dash would have been more appropriate. Unfortunately, a spell-checker would not have helped you.

In English, some words can be correctly spelt in a number of different ways. For example, the word ‘co-operate’ can also be spelt ‘cooperate’. Whether you are writing a report or a brochure, whichever way you choose to spell this word, it is important that you spell it consistently that way throughout your document. The same applies to punctuation. For example, do you consistently separate items in a list with a comma or a semi-colon; do you always use either single quotation marks or double quotation marks? And what do you do about quotations within quotations? You can’t use your spell-checker to ensure consistency in these sort of things.

Are you sure that what you have written is unambiguous? You know what you mean to say but when you write it down it might not necessarily be all that clear to the reader; and your spell-checker certainly won’t know what you meant!

Finally, there are occasions when you might use a word that is frequently confused with a similar word that has a different meaning. A spell-checker can’t tell you which word you should have used, and this is another reason why you should never rely on it to find all the mistakes that might have crept into your written work.

So, if you can’t depend on your word-processor’s spell-checker, what can you do to make sure that your document is as perfect as possible?

Employ a professional proofreader

It is notoriously difficult to proofread or edit your own work. You have probably been drafting it for some time and in your own mind you know it better than anyone. The thought of another person altering so much as a comma may seem unbearable to you.

However, because you are so familiar with your work you could be blind to its flaws. It can be very difficult to put yourself in the place of the reader of your document. So it is best to use a second pair of eyes to review it before the final version is printed or published on the Web.

And be sure to use a professional proofreader or editor. That person will know from their training and experience how words are spelt and used, and when and where punctuation should be correctly placed. By delegating this task to such a specialist you can concentrate on what you do best!

Hello world!

Hi! I’m Jeremy Lockyer and welcome to my world! This is the first post of my new blog and is being written late at night shortly before I make my way up Wooden Hill and down White Sheet Lane on my way to the Land of Nod!

This blog is very much a work in progress and over the next few weeks and months I aim to use it to inform, enlighten and entertain those of you who read it, but not just yet!

Time for bed, methinks!