Friday, September 28, 2012

The Life of a Hoarder

First off, let me apologize for not keeping up with this blog in recent weeks. Between vacations, some personal issues at home, some hectic weeks at work, and a few other commitments, I’ve had little time for writing. And what time I did have left was devoted to working on my book. Now that my schedule has returned to normal, my goal is to return to my usual Wednesday, Friday schedule.

Now on to the post.

My wife thinks I’m a hoarder. She’s wrong. I just don’t like throwing stuff away.

It’s not as though I never throw things away – although a photograph of my office might suggest otherwise - but every time I do throw something in the trash, I almost invariably need it the next day. Honestly, this has happened so many times I no longer fight it. If there’s the slightest chance I’ll use something again – no matter how broken it might be - I’ll find somewhere else to store it. It gives me a nice, warm feeling to know I can still put my hands on it anytime I want.

Assuming I can find it, of course.

When it comes to Internet links, though, I am an avid hoarder. I just can’t help collecting them, especially ones about writing. It’s no secret I probably follow way too many writing and author blogs, but I’ve learned so much the past few years about writing I simply can’t stop piling up the links.

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee I’ll ever go back to these links again. A quick check of my writing links folder reveals that I have over 900 bookmarks waiting to be clicked. I tell myself I’ll eventually go back and read them again, but I know it’s not going to happen. But that’s okay. I still get that warm fuzzy feeling from knowing the links are sitting safely on my hard drive.

Not surprisingly, I’m still collecting links. I think I’ve saved four of them this morning already – most of them having to do with self-publishing and social media.

Help! Is there such a thing as Link Hoarders Anonymous?

ChemistKen


P.S. Please forgive my excessive use of the word “it” in this post.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like you collect things that help you in achieving your writing goals. I've collected chickens, blue glass, boson terriers, books, ceramic piggy banks, and I could go on but I won't. It's crazy, but once we finally settled down I just wanted to fill the house, now it's so full, I just want to empty it. To Much Stuff! :)

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  2. Not you too! I use old parts to fix things other people would throw away. No wonder we're slow writers. I do clear out links when I click them (rarely) and find they're not active. And we're having a garage sale in October because hubby wants to put our house on the market to get off the water and move uphill to a city just barely in driving distance of the military base. When he retires in 5 years, the drive won't matter. And we won't have to stock sandbags along with all the other stuff in our garage. Maybe you should move to clear out stuff too.

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