A Splintered Mind

I like to occasionally read through my @DouglasCootey Twitter stream with Flipboard on my iPad . I've been on Twitter for over three years and the endless stream of status updates can become boring at times. But Flipboard reformats the tweets as articles and images displayed inline in magazine format, making the experience new for me, especially when the emphasis is on design and art. Last month as I browsed I came across an entry by Scott Nicholson (@hauntedcomputer). It featured the notorious Snooki from Jersey Shore. I don't watch the show, but I've seen a few clips. I've seen enough of the show to recognize her. I never took Snooki to be the studious type, yet there she was looking absolutely bookwormish. I felt a moment of chagrin since I had previously dismissed her as uninteresting along with her show months ago. So I tapped on her pic, then almost dropped my iPad in surprise when the full image loaded. This surprise wasn't anything Scott Nicholson had inten...

I've been looking forward to this app for a few months. When I heard about The Copia and discovered its dizzying array of models to choose from, I wondered why they were focusing on hardware in this increasingly crowded ereader market when they could accomplish the same social network goals with less startup cost with apps for PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, and Android tablets. Apparently, DMC Worldwide had the same thoughts because they've discontinued their ereaders and will be focusing on the desktop and mobile experience. Unfortunately, this app is very beta. As such, do not expect a new social network experience. Whatever Copia's potential, it isn't on display with their iPad client. In fact, my initial reactions to this app are very negative. I spent quite a bit of time diving into the Copia ecosystem last week since I was stuck on the couch . I discovered there was a vastly different experience between Mac, web, and iPad clients. The worst of the three was the iPad v...

After blogging so much this month, you may be wondering where I have been lately. Unfortunately, I began a long, protracted ticking episode last Sunday. I spent a lot of time on the couch reading, but not a lot of time writing. I even ran a new social network for readers through its paces. It wasn't as if I was able to do much more. An entire week was lost to this fog. I am not very happy about it. Fortunately, I had my moments of lucidity which I was able to use to my children's benefit. Still, I am horribly behind. This Thursday is the supposed deadline for my first draft. I don't know if I can make it. The kids are home from school all week and I may not be free of the ticking yet. To make the goal I will have to finish a chapter a day, even more. It doesn't look likely. However, I will still give it my all. Perhaps I will hit a productive streak like a vein of writer's gold. I have a pick and shovel. All that remains is for me to strike, and strike hard. Wish m...

Last week was such a success that I'm stepping up my game this week. I'm taking on 100 words per day . Frankly, I already did that last week when shooting for 50 words per day . Again, these goals sounds small, but I never end up only writing that little. The key is to write daily, something I wasn't doing at all until I began the Distracted Writers Club . Even if I am the only official member, it has been a good club to join. More pizza for me. I also plan on getting out to write to more diverse and less busy locations. Writing in the Borders kids section was a little odd, mostly because I didn't fit in the desk & chair. Next time: James Dashner had some interesting things to say to me.      Follow me on Twitter for my ADHD escapades at @SplinteredMind or my novel writing project over at @DouglasCootey . And if you're a glutton for punishment you can friend me on Facebook as well.  

These past few days have been difficult ones. For no reason that I can fathom, I go through periods of increased ticking episodes. That is what I've been experiencing this week.  Yesterday it was a ticking episode in Borders that I had to ride out for an hour before I could come home. Today it was a canceled hair appointment because my back was arching violently, thus making sharp implements near my face a bit of a dangerous pursuit. Even now my head feels as if the brain is floating around disconnected. I'm not ticking at the moment, but I could again very soon. There is a pending storm in my mind, bristling with energy like bolts of motion and crashes of thought. While it brews I sit it out, but I'm as exposed to the storm as a picnic bench on a hilltop. During the storm I try to read uplifting material. Anything to make better use of my twitching, but immobilized time. Today I decided to finally get through an issue of Drawing magazine that I've been dying on s...

Today Reader Becky has a question for me I thought deserved an official response. I'm sure others with ADHD experience this problem, and I'd love to know what various coping strategies people have come up with. "I stumbled on your blog, trying to find techniques or help on how to speak better. Any advise, links etc. for a speaking fool? (ex: seeing a horse in a pasture, I call out to my husband, "look, look... a.. a... dog!"... yeah.. :/ I assume "slowing down" my output is key... my mind racing faster than I can spit it out... maybe reading out loud or something?" What a fantastic question, Becky. ADHD folks can often have disconnects between thought and tongue. That's why we have foot-in-mouth issues all the time, but it also means we can sometimes sound stupid to our peers as our brains short out on our way to sounding like we know what we're talking about. On bad days, I worry about this a great deal. It also affects my ability to play ...

Today's sky looked nothing like this photo's. The clouds clung to the mountains instead of rising above them. In their own way they were beautiful, but by the end of the day the grey, wintery clouds blotted out the sunset and let only a tiny splash of color escape far off in the South West. After attending the First Annual Irish Music Festival last August, my girls and I were treated to Maxfield Parrish skies all the way home. It was like suddenly being given an unexpected desert when we had already experienced a full, delicious meal. What a memory that made for us in the mountains of Park City, Utah. Today felt a little like that as I made my words per day goal then went on to write more and more. What a great feeling that was. Later that evening I sat and listened to my wife chatter about work and things while she cooked me a tasty meal of sautéed mushrooms and spinach on a turkey burger. I then realized suddenly that I felt immensely satisfied with my writing succe...

This time every year I usually undergo my annual bout of Winter Depression . The days are shorter and then daylight savings time puts the final nail in my coffin. Unfortunately for me, I am not a farmer up at dawn to feed the chickens. Instead, I usually hang with the night owls. I need my extra hour of daylight in the evening. Once that hour of light is taken away from me, I plunge into months of difficult sadness. Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD. A stupid acronym; a boring condition. These days I use bright daylight spectrum bulbs to give my mind that missing light. It has made such a great difference. Also, I had a reminder that I set last year go off in the middle of October. I was prepared.  Then Winter came early. Snow. Rain. Overcast skies. The sunlight didn't stand a chance. This morning I woke up in a small panic. The house was messy (which induces Depression), the sky was dim, I was supposed to start my diet again today, and I could feel Depression nipping at my...

Spent the night attending a play then unwinding at Five Guys. The fifteen year old Elf tagged along with my Mum & Dad while the newly unwrapped twelve year old Leprechaun enjoyed herself at a cast party. We discussed life and spirituality while consuming great quantities of french fries. I wonder what my Elf made of it all. Didn't write much today. Spent the lion's share ticking, which is boring and not very fun, but thankfully the virus I was suffering from has run its course. It may have been several viruses. In fact, I may have been flash mobbed by day-glo toting viruses looking for a rave in my cerebrum. It certainly felt that way. I did make great progress on my book, however. Not the sort of progress others have made in their mad, thousands of words, NaNoWriMo dash to December, but progress of the habit kind. Setting the challenge to write 50 WPD has helped me bump into my next obstacle: daily discipline. 50 words; such a simple task. I've written more than that ...

(What follows is a very self-indulgent blog post filled with a geeky stream of iPad and Mac app names. I felt like writing it. I have no other explanation.) My children laugh at my paranoia, but I am always worried about data loss. Losing gigabytes of family movies in a hard drive failure can do that to a person. Or misplacing ballots… I usually take severe precautions to keep my data intact, but it seems I am always a victim of the random data glitch. That's what happened to me the other day. Poof. Chapter Six disappeared after it was shaping up so nicely. When I switched over to writing my novel on the iPad (because my daughter rudely stole my sexy, matte-black MacBook ), I found myself adrift in a sea of useless note taking apps and Apple's word processor, Pages . On the Mac I used CopyWrite to write my novel, DEVONthink to gather all my notes and data, and then saved all the data onto an encrypted disk image that I regularly backed up onto a USB drive I carried aroun...

Another late night for me, but I'm feeling pretty good. I've maintained my 50 Words Per Day Challenge all month long! Yes, it's technically only three days into the month, but I'll take my accomplishments where I can get them. I rewarded myself with a rare treat; I bought myself a Twinkie. I eat one every ten years or so. I figured I was due. Now I'm wishing I had waited another ten years instead. Is it a natural side-effect of Twinkies to cause hives? Also, my stomach feels as if I've swallowed chunks of embalming waste. But it sure was tasty. Now that NaNoWriMo is underway, I am reading my Twitter stream with awe and a bit of chagrin. Some people are at 5000 words already for the month. I don't know if their story is worth reading, but that's an impressive amount of output for two days. None of those people have children at home—a curious observation I made. I'm thinking that if I fill my kids with Twinkies, they'll have so many preser...

This article has been deprecated. That's a fancy geek term for outdated and shelfed. As fun as it was to great the iPad graphics and post them on my site, I just found it easier to use the new iPhone app, Lift. It's free, and its built for daily check-ins for habits you're trying to create or break. Read more about it here: Six Ways to Give NaNoWriMo Loafers a Lift .  The goal of the Distracted Writers Club is simple: to train distracted and busy writers to write daily. I was inspired by two things: the Inkygirl Wordcount Challenge and NaNoWriMo . One was like a fresh breath of air in a stuffy room and the other felt like a vacuum opened up into space sucking the very life out of me. My problem wasn't being motivated to write. I could write plenty. My problem was that my life was not organized around writing. Maybe you can relate. You're a writer with good intentions and high enthusiasm who writes around the edges of your busy life. You've started pr...

This article has been deprecated. That's a fancy geek term for outdated and shelfed. As fun as it was to great the iPad graphics and post them on my site, I just found it easier to use the new iPhone app, Lift. It's free, and its built for daily check-ins for habits you're trying to create or break. Read more about it here:  Six Ways to Give NaNoWriMo Loafers a Lift .  Main Challenge Page Like the 25 Words Per Day Challenge and the 50 Words Per Day Challenge , the goal of the Distracted Writers Club 100 Words Per Day Challenge is simple: to train distracted and busy writers to write daily. I was inspired by two things: the Inkygirl Wordcount Challenge and NaNoWriMo . One was like a fresh breath of air in a stuffy room and the other felt like a vacuum opened up into space sucking the very life out of me. My problem wasn't being motivated to write. I could write plenty. My problem was that my life was not organized around writing. Maybe you can relate. You...

This article has been deprecated. That's a fancy geek term for outdated and shelfed. As fun as it was to great the iPad graphics and post them on my site, I just found it easier to use the new iPhone app, Lift. It's free, and its built for daily check-ins for habits you're trying to create or break. Read more about it here:  Six Ways to Give NaNoWriMo Loafers a Lift .  Main Challenge Page Like the 25 Words Per Day Challenge and the 100 Words Per Day Challenge , the goal of the Distracted Writers Club 50 Words Per Day Challenge is simple: to train distracted and busy writers to write daily. I was inspired by two things: the Inkygirl Wordcount Challenge and NaNoWriMo . One was like a fresh breath of air in a stuffy room and the other felt like a vacuum opened up into space sucking the very life out of me. My problem wasn't being motivated to write. I could write plenty. My problem was that my life was not organized around writing. Maybe you can relate. You...

This article has been deprecated. That's a fancy geek term for outdated and shelfed. As fun as it was to great the iPad graphics and post them on my site, I just found it easier to use the new iPhone app, Lift. It's free, and its built for daily check-ins for habits you're trying to create or break. Read more about it here:  Six Ways to Give NaNoWriMo Loafers a Lift .  Main Challenge Page Like the 50 Words Per Day Challenge and the 100 Words Per Day Challenge , the goal of the Distracted Writers Club 25 Words Per Day Challenge is simple: to train distracted and busy writers to write daily. I was inspired by two things: the Inkygirl Wordcount Challenge and NaNoWriMo . One was like a fresh breath of air in a stuffy room and the other felt like a vacuum opened up into space sucking the very life out of me. My problem wasn't being motivated to write. I could write plenty. My problem was that my life was not organized around writing. Maybe you can relate. You...