It's Monday!

One of the best classes I took in college was one on Women's Studies. The professor subscribed to the "freedom with focus" mentality, regularly assigning us essays with one word. The word was a general topic, like "work," or "future," with the only instruction given "to write about it." There may have been a minimum length, I can't remember, but being free to consider a topic and see where it would take me was wonderful. I've never enjoyed writing more. Some may call this laziness of the professor, but I call it sheer genius. Besides, it's not easy to assess papers that aren't given specific direction, so that judgment would be wrong. There were many in the class who took issue with this approach; they needed specificity and guidance. They didn't trust themselves.

I've enjoyed the group blogging projects like Self Portrait Day (with a theme), and pet (who started that one, anyway?) and stuff Fridays. When given focus with freedom, it's interesting to see how different people approach the same topic.

The biggest issue I have with such projects as I've seen so far is that they require equipment. They also require, for me at least, the time necessary to find a subject, prepare the area -- who doesn't clean, or at least dust?? -- take the picture, find the connection wire, transfer the picture(s) to the computer, open the pictures to select the most suitable one(s), crop and adjust as necessary, and upload. Ok, so maybe the time issue is larger than the equipment issue. They're directly related anyway.

Writing, on the other hand, doesn't require such effort, especially when the topic is to be taken from within, as in those papers I wrote in college. It is because of this that I begin assigning myself such writing activities, and I invite all of you to join me. The subject will be announced each Monday, to be posted on the following Monday.

And so starts Motif Monday. As indicated last week, today's topic is #1 Google Search Term. We're starting easy. Write about it as you may!

My #1 Google Search Term

Please also refer to last week's post for the beginning of this.

Of all the weird search terms that will get one to mrtland, I couldn't say which of these terms produces a #1 hit. When I try to Google many of these terms now, they hit on the afore-linked page. This makes no sense; they weren't added to this page till after the initial Google search hit my site. I shall keep track this from now on and note them as such.

I can't think of many search terms I'd like to claim. I doubt I could come up with something as clever and silly as some of those actually used to get here. There is one search term that I know will get mrtland as the first result, and I am proud of this for more than simple vanity. I Googled "mrtl" when I first started using it as my pseudonym, to see what else it stood for. The first several hits were for various Right to Life organizations. Don't get me wrong; I'm supportive of people having their own beliefs, and some people believe that abortion is wrong. That is fine with me. What peeves me is when anti-abortion organizations or groups crop up that get all militant and shit, and aren't respective of others' beliefs. It pleases me that now when someone Googles "mrtl," they're more likely to end up here in mrtland, a fun and happy place (when I'm not bitching, that is).

next week's topic: love

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Update: Following are links to participating blogs. If I've missed you here, comment with a link!

Catherine, Ern, Katie, Kalki (aka Google Goddess), LadyBug, Sharkey, Susie

Comments

[Ern]

I joined in the fun! Better late than never. That sounds like a really cool professor. I always liked it when they trusted us enough to set our own guidelines.

[lawbrat]

I wanna play. :-) So, just so I have it straight, next week Monday we post something on love? Way cool mrtl, great idea.

[mrtl]

lawbrat - That be it!

[LadyBug]

I'm posted. It may SEEM like I'm a day late; but today's really Monday, since yesterday was a holiday. Right? RIGHT??

[Von Krankipantzen]

Oh no! I got lost in technoville and missed this. Next week for sure.

[catherine]

I'm playing, even though I'm very late. I'm posting on Wednesday. But I'll be ready for next Monday. Great idea, mrtl! I had fun checking out the google searches.