Posts Tagged ‘Solitary Zen’

Aug
23

Today marks the end of my self-imposed “digital sabbatical” and I thought I would take a moment to offer some impressions of my time away.

At a very high level, I have to say the time away from Facebook, Twitter and my online presence was quite refreshing. Even so, I found myself numerous times thinking “Ooh – I should tweet this” or “I should send this to my Facebook page.” I am pleased that I was able to stay away and resist the urge to fall back into the digital habit. I sincerely enjoyed the quiet and I very likely will look to continue constricting my online time – most especially with social networking sites. I am not going away. However, I do not want to fall right back into the same time-killing habits.

Now some confessions…

I did peek-in on Facebook and Twitter a time or two (or three or four) while I was “away.” If you happened to stop by this blog, you may have noticed I kept my reading list current. I even did some back-end stuff with my other sites that would not be evident to passersby. And, I couldn’t resist posting a William Segal quote to my Solitary Zen Twitter feed on Tuesday of last week. (More on William Segal to come later.) I also spent more time than I had planned with e-mail.

Overall I was happy with my “sabbatical” and I would encourage others to do the same on a regular basis. I have learned a few things about my patterns and habits that will make my next digital sabbatical even more refreshing than this first one. I also found one or two things that were unexpected black holes of time and energy. I have taken the first steps to correcting those as well.

I also came away with a clearer picture of what I want to include in my online presence and those things better left to the real world or tucked safely away inside my head. Not much will change in this space. However, I will be refining the content areas and making some minor adjustments in the days to come. As a firm believer in transparency and full disclosure, I will provide updates as this space evolves.

As always, I thank you for your continued interest in – and support of – my personal and creative work.

Cheers!

Jul
22

In an effort to recalibrate several aspects of my personal, creative and professional life, I have decided to take a “digital sabbatical” starting at 12:01AM Saturday July 24, 2010 and running through 12:01AM Monday August 23, 2010.

During this time, I will not be updating Twitter, Facebook, my blog or the Solitary Zen site. E-mail will be checked and answered very sparingly – so sparingly that I wouldn’t recommend anyone count on it as a way of reaching me. My cell will remain on during this period. Calls and texts are welcomed. If you have my digits, use them.

In those 28+ days I will be researching and note-taking for my writing projects, doing a much-needed clean-up and rearrangement of the townhouse, as well as getting my creative space/office put back together. I will be playing, writing and recording music. I will be reading, meditating and trying to see into the future – but not too far ahead. I will be cooking. I will be walking and hiking. I will be taking pictures. I will be working.

See you on the other side!

Jun
15

On my lunch break today I migrated all of the content from ReadingLists.org to this site. The ReadingLists.org URL redirects to the proper page on this site, so there’s no need to update bookmarks unless you’re finicky about such things. This saves me some time with regular updates to the list and reduces the online spaces I have to maintain.

I hope to give a (much-needed) face-lift to SolitaryZen.com in the coming days. I think I’ve finally got my brain properly wrapped around that writing project and I look to be more active at both the website and the dedicated Solitary Zen Twitter Feed.

As always, I thank you for your continued interest in my personal and creative projects. I encourage your feedback and questions!

Mar
29

As I work my way into spring I find the need to further minimize my online presence and footprint. There is so much going on in my life right now that I simply don’t have the time, energy or inclination to juggle numerous sites and responsibilities. Nearly all of the previously associated domain names are now forwarded to this blog. I’ve updated the links page to reflect these very recent changes. You can still find me on Twitter, infrequently on Facebook and, one of these days, I will actually get my YouTube music channel going. The Solitary Zen site and blog are still live and I hope to contribute more to those endeavors as my book research and writing progress. Other than that, the action is all right here.

I am in the process of planning a few writing and photography road trips for the spring and summer. If you have suggestions about people and places of interest, I encourage you to drop me a line. Due to work commitments, I am looking for things within about a four to six hour drive from the Akron/Kent area of Ohio. Then again, I might just be moved to venture a little further if the timing is right. (I do have four weeks vacation remaining this year…)

A foggy, damp start to the work week here in Ohio, but the sun and warmer temperatures are expected to return tomorrow and last through the long weekend. I’ve got a lot of work to get accomplish during the “break” and I hope to have new content updates in the days and weeks ahead.

Cheers!

James

Mar
02

I thought I’d take a minute or two to update everyone on the recent changes and moves regarding my online presence. The 10-second version is that I was seeking a much smaller (and modestly ambiguous) footprint catering more to my creative sensibilities than it did to search engine placement. To be more precise, I wanted my online presence to better reflect my own personality along with those of my friends, family and loyal band of followers I have been lucky enough to cultivate over the years. In more practical terms, it simply means fewer spaces to maintain and hopefully more time for the actual acts of creative ideation, experimentation and output.

I encourage you to visit my updated links page for a complete list of active spaces and third-party sites. Briefly, my writing will remain at JamesCurtisSmith.com, but the site will undergo a quick redesign to make it smaller and more streamlined as well. The dedicated site for my upcoming book Solitary Zen: Buddhism for Loners remains intact and no major changes are planned as I focus on the research and writing for that project.

The major changes involve the spaces for my music and photography. After some serious deliberation, I have decided henceforth to record and release my music under the moniker Oh, Say Halo. You can visit the site for a cursory explanation of the name. However, for our purposes here I will simply say that the decision further reflects my efforts at a less narrowly defined musical path and also expresses my desire to include some of my very talented musical friends in future efforts.

My photography site is going away. In the coming days and weeks I will be posting photographic content to this blog. It will be easy enough to simply select the “Photography” category to view the collection of images. I simply don’t have the time, energy or inclination to maintain a separate space for my photographic content. Truthfully, the output isn’t sufficient to justify a separate space.

What else?

Oh, yes – my reading lists. For reasons unknown to me, my current and archive reading lists page has been one of the more popular features of my online presence. I’ve given that content a dedicated space at ReadingLists.org. I’m hoping to give that content a quick “refresher” in the coming days. As always, I encourage your comments, questions and reading recommendation.

I think that about does it. As always, you can send me a quick note via the contact form, you can follow me on Twitter and although I don’t spend any appreciable amount of time there, you can send me a friend request on Facebook.

I know you guys are probably tired of hearing it, but I truly am thankful for your continued interest in – and support of – my creative work.

Namaste,

James