The Emily Blog » writing

On not Examining

Emily — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:51:09 +0000

I announced not long ago that I’d joined Examiner.com as the Honolulu Museums Examiner. I was pretty excited about it at the time, even though I realized it probably wouldn’t make me much money. It seemed like a good way to get more into the museum groove here in Honolulu.

Here I am, a month and a half later, busy up to my eyeballs (whatever that means) and unable to keep up with the writing and reviews I’d initially been very excited about. I’m also quite certain that I’m never going to make ANY money off it. So, I thought to myself, why not just ditch the Examiner.com thing (I don’t like their website anyway) and continue writing about museums at my own pace on my own blog? Bingo.

From now on I’ll be trying to write more about museums here – especially innovative public programs, outreach, interesting events, and things along those lines. I’ll also try to migrate my Examiner.com articles over here one at a time, since the company assured me that I have full rights to reprint them wherever I want.

P.S. On a related note, I changed my Twitter name to @EmilyAlbarillo. Now I’m just me.

Journal vs. blog

Emily — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:36:58 +0000

I kept a diary when I was little. I think it was my mom’s idea originally but I really took to it. As I grew older the entries morphed from “I woke up early and played My Little Ponies with Gretchen” to “OMG, that drum player in band class is SOOOO CUTE” to “I just arrived in Paris and am trying to find my hostel”. A handful of those older diaries/journals are still around, and I’ve got excerpts from all of them saved on my computer.

Since the advent of blogging, though, both the quality and quantity of my handwritten journal entries have gone downhill. In late 2004 I started using LiveJournal, then I was on WordPress and then Blogger a while and now I’m back on WordPress. I still have a journal – a physical journal, I mean – but I was looking through it yesterday and realized it is incredibly, inanely BORING. All the good stuff goes online. All that’s left for the handwritten private journal is either complaining or dull summaries of daily activities. Something’s got to change.

There are a few things I do want to start writing more about, that I don’t feel are really fit to go online. One is dreams. I love writing down my dreams, because if I’m getting enough sleep they’re absolutely crazy and incredibly interesting and weird. There was a point in my life (Albuquerque, I think) where I would actually draw my dreams in a big ol’ sketchbook. They’re great to look back on, even if they make no sense whatsoever. I’d also like to write more about my relationship with Frans – both the good and the bad – and I don’t feel like all of that belongs on a public blog. Finally, as I announced to Frans yesterday, I’d like to start Writing My Life Story. Not because it’s interesting or publishable or of international relevance, but because I want to remember it, and I feel that even at 27 some of the details are starting to get blurry. I’ve done some random things and lived in some bizarre places, and I want to make a record of it. For the grandkids, you know?

I’m tempted to throw out my current journal (the boring one) and start fresh. Fresh and not boring. Fresh and relevant, at least relevant to me. And I want something spiral-bound so it will lay flat while I write. Maybe it’s time for a trip to Borders.

Rhetoric and politics of language documentation

Emily — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:24:55 +0000

According to my Facebook profile, I am “in a losing battle with a term paper”. It’s not quite that bad, but it is going very, very slowly. This is partially due to the simple fact that I write very, very slowly, and partially due to a loss of motivation when it comes to anything school-related. Despite the angst, though, it’s an interesting paper. I’m looking at how, in all the books and articles and radio segments and films dealing with endangered languages, people (especially outsiders) are making the case for endangered languages – how they represent the “crisis”, how they explain the need for documentation, how they argue for the value of languages and language diversity. A lot of it has already been said (especially by Joseph Errington) but I hope to go beyond just examining the rhetoric and look at outsiders’ (linguists) vs insiders’ (speakers) roles in the actual documentation of endangered languages, possibly using the Language Documentation Training Center here as a case study. Of course, this will depend on how much writing I manage to get done today, Monday night, and Tuesday. And whether I’m able to convince myself that this is NOT a good time to try a new recipe, get out my sewing machine, go for a bike ride, or start a new book.

Audience

Emily — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:58:19 +0000

When writing, you need to consider your audience. Blogging is no different, but when I think about who my audience is here, I start getting confused. Do I want a popular blog that people I don’t even know in “real life” will follow and comment on? Do I want a forum to share experiences and pictures with my friends and family? Do I want a place to just vent? A place to discuss academic issues? A place to let writing happen without worrying about the consequences?

I think that I’ve concluded that this blog is mainly for myself, so I can write and reflect on what I’m doing and what’s happening around me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want anyone else to read it – it would actually be great to start conversations with friends or even random strangers. But in the end it’s for me: so I can write and sort things out and create a digital record of some of my thoughts and feelings. Maybe later I’ll start another blog that will be more focused and academic, more aimed at a public audience. For the time being, though, there’s just this. Emily blogs.