TL;DR (presented as a Haiku)(well, almost.)
The backyard is still crusty.
I am already over spring.
The house is clean.
It was surprisingly busy for a weekday night, but the weather was nice so we sat on the patio to pass the time (and, of course, I took pictures of the decor).
Every now and then, I come across really well-written pieces on the interwebs and get the urge to share. There are so many vapid pieces floating around these days, making it more and more difficult to filter the fluff. Whether it aligns with my viewpoint or not, I only have one rule: it should be thought-provoking. The following (listed below) were just that.
Ladies and gents, may I present: a list of things I have been doing more of lately:
Lighting Candles
A few years back, I used to light candles every evening. My routine would be to come home, figure out dinner, get comfy, light a candle, dim the lights and read/watch tv/write/etc. It has always been a super simple way to relax and unwind - kinda like romancing myself. The first time J. ever came to my apartment, I had a candle lit on the coffee table with the lights dimmed. I thought nothing of it at the time, because HELLO, it was part of my routine. Like a year later, he told me he thought I was trying to romance him that night! *spoiler alert: he was wrong* After a few more visits (and no "romancing") he realized I just like to light candles in the evening.
I had fallen out of the habit this past year, but it is coming back strong.
I was fresh out of college, working full time as an administrative assistant, and in desperate need of a creative outlet. After being inspired by a few blogs I found via StumbleUpon, I created a blogspot account, registered a domain and got started - armed with only an entry-level DSLR my mom bought me as a graduation present and the HTML knowledge I had from a 101 class I took at Georgia State University. I had all I needed, or so I thought.
I soon realized my kit lens was not cutting it. The quality of my photos were not on par with the kind of content I wanted to produce, and as blogosphere began to explode, my homemade template began to feel inferior. Comparison got the best of me. Those sentiments were present in this post. *cringe*
After all this time, two things have remained constant in this space: my core categories (life, love, music, food and atlanta) and my name/domain. It took me all of 20 minutes to pick a name for my blog, and even less time to choose what I wanted to blog about. TAS was created as a form of self-expression, so, naturally, I built this platform around my personality.
Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes...
Not much has changed since day one, but at the same time, nothing is the same. I still live in Atlanta, love food, enjoy writing about music and am (occasionally) spilling my thoughts on love. However, the following things are different.
My Writing
There were many times when I felt so constrained by certain academic standards. My senior year was full of 10+ page papers, structured poetry pieces and APA vs. MLA formatting. By the time my degree came in the mail, I just wanted to write for the sake of writing, so that's what I did.My early posts were full of grammatical errors and typos, and I hardly proofread before hitting the publish button. I recorded my thoughts and went on about my business. My readership was minimal (such is still the case), so who cared if I missed a few commas here and there? Not me. All those linguistic rules could kick rocks. I even put a disclaimer in my about me page, something along the lines of please excuse my writing, this space is imperfect, just like me.
These days? I CARE. My blog link is sprinkled throughout my various social profiles, including my online portfolio, which means increased visibility with potential clients. In short, flawed blog writing can now interfere with my freelance side hustle. *record scratch*
I cleaned up my act and am continually working to improve my blog writing process, mostly as a way of honing my craft. I no longer spill my thoughts and hit publish; I review, revise and refine. Sometimes I even find ways to challenge myself, like only writing in the past tense for a whole post or only using simple sentences to convey my message. Funny how my relationship with rules and structure has come full circle.
Visuals
I have always cared about the visuals here, but I now care less about how others will view them. I snap and post photos for my own enjoyment more than anything else. In doing so, I have become more confident in my photography skills; I have also gotten better at curating photos for my posts. I am itching to upgrade my gear this year, so hopefully that will happen soon, but I will definitely be shooting more 35mm film in the coming months.Layout
Okay now. This one changed quite often. I have updated my blog template every year, sometimes twice each year. At first I was upgrading for newer and newer features, then I could hardly settle on a design. Sometimes I just got bored, and this may always be the case, but I will always choose a simple layout with lots of white space.
My camera just came through the other side of open-heart surgery (it needed a new image circuit board). I got it back today, so, naturally, I took random photos to document its return.
Today I had the absolute honor and privilege to sit under the voice of Andrew Young, Jr., a man who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and led so many changes to race relations in our country. I wanted to write about it now, while the moment is still fresh in my mind.
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