Sunday morning grocery shopping...I still head out with my favorite grammar book, my favorite new jacket, and a "vintage" quejimenez leather bag. Taken by E with his cool, new iphone 4gs and processed in a couple of apps before finally landing in instagram, my wicked obsession.
"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." -Conficious
After careful and long consideration I have decided not to stop blogging, change platforms, or get rid of quejimenez here at typepad. My life has undergone so many changes within the past year and a half, and more particularly during the past ten months, that I have had to take stock of where I am, what I can accomplish, and what I should spend my time trying to accomplish.
One thing kept bringing me back here: This is where it all started. It has been this blog, this ritual of sharing my thoughts, my creativity, my upsets and successes that has directed me down my current path. Although the signs were present throughout my k12 education, I never knew my passion and talent lay in writing, it simply never dawned on me until I started writing here.
But, I have decided to move in different directions in some ways while also maintaing other aspects of what has come to be known as quejimenez the blog. Most of you who have been a part of my life through online and personal connections already know that I am a full-time Uni student majoring in English. You may even know that I tutor English now. This means virtually no time for crafting, painting, quilting and the likes but more time spent researching, writing, and studying the mechanics of writing and literature. This means less DSLR photography and more time snapping moments on my iphone, ipad, or both.
This all boils down to one thing, I will now be blogging a lot about writing, grammar, literature, and the stuff that makes us English majors' hearts race. I am that grammar, writing nerd. You know that fleeting feeling of your heart skipping a beat or racing when you realize your falling in love? I get those sort of moments when reading grammar books, stumbling onto great literature, or finding a great critical review while researching.
I know, I know, it's sickening. Who does that? Who falls in love with rhetorical grammar books, and takes copious notes on gerunds? Who else loves punctuation? Anyone? And should I even ask who would like to raise their hands and volunteer to write an essay?
It's okay. No one has to stand up or raise their hands. (I have a few fellow grammar nerd pals at Uni.) E informed me last night that he does not care to know about appositives. He said, "not even a little" when I prodded him again and again. It doesn't matter to him that it would improve his writing and help prevent dangling gerunds, he still cares not to know.
That may sound familiar and normal to you, but to me that sounds like blasphemy of my grammar and writing religion. It offends my grammar and writing sensibilities.
So here's the deal--my goal is to share my passion, my knowledge, and my experience. Got a question about grammar? Ask me. Need advice on writing a paper? Go ahead ask me. Want to know if you should end a sentence with a preposition? Yeap, ask that too. And by any means if you have a sentence that just doesn't "sound right," I would be offended if you didn't ask me. Sentences are the gardens of thoughts. Were else could we plant beautiful words, raise wonderful ideas, and nurture the thoughts that make us bloom.
One of the reasons I love iphoneography...this is a composite of the first picture I took with my first iphone (3g) and a recent (about 2 months old) picture taken with my current iphone (4g) taken through one or two editing apps. These photos are about 3.5 years apart, btw.
With all that grammar stuff said, I do hope and expect to include what few crafty projects I manage, the pictures I take (you are familiar with iphoneography right?), and the creative meals and decorating ideas I come up with between grammar, literature, and word crushes. As much as I love this stuff called English and frequently acquire new word and grammar rule crushes, no one can take English all the time with no colorful, creative breaks. Well, let me just own up to that and say I can't live void of colorful, creative breaks. That is not because my love is not there, but because the heart of me is colorful and creative. (Hince my new obsessions with iphoneography, cross stitching, stlyistically plating the food I cook/bake, and redecorating my humble abode.)
As I get things settled around the blog expect changes to pop up here and there. (You did notice the new blog header, right?) I intend to include some helpful links to websites that encourage good writing skills and that I often refer to when writing (or being a nerd and searching grammr rules for kicks). I'm also planning to update my booklist to include books that I turn to while tutoring, writing, pleasure reading, etc.
My hope is that through sharing my passion I can help others write better, understand why punctuation and diction matter, and ultimately free those thoughts and ideas growing in your mind's garden waiting to bloom. Writing is complicated, but it is not impossible. I don't know it all, but I do know where to find answers and how to spot problems. In fact, I still have spelling issues of my own; however, I have learned to recognize my mistakes so that I can correct them. Knowledge is power, remember?
Finally, although the archives are not listed here anymore they are still archived and housed here. So if you had a favorite past post of mines, or wonder if I have any blogging cred (if your new to the world of quejimenez), or are just plain interested in how I got to this point in my life, don't worry it is all still here. I'm working on updating links, etc. It will be listed under the banner in archives and/or "life."
As always, I welcome your company and look forward to sharing my passion with you all. I hope you'll join me and I can be of some English benefit in your lives.
This is my life--a pieced and quilted writing life.
<3 Ki
