The Properties of Dust: Moreh

Wash and Buttes
Valley of the Gods. Bears Ears National Monument. Utah. May 13, 2016
Copyright © 2017 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
www.aflitt.com/bearsearsnm

This original post for this poem was deemed too controversial for vocal.media (or just too religious).

Remove Content Regarding Personal Attributes and/or Beliefs: This piece contains content that makes direct or indirect assertions or implications about personal attributes and/or beliefs such as race, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We cannot accept this article unless you remove the references to personal attributes or beliefs.

They took Beyond Gibeon which covers a lot of the same themes, so who knows?

It might just have been the verses from Genesis that I included for reference, so I am resubmitting it without them and linking to this page instead.  Same as Beyond Gibeon.

Update:  Apparently removing the verses did the trick!

Read the poem on poets.media: 

https://poets.media/moreh

Lake Lenore Caves
Washington. September 5, 2005.
Copyright © 2011 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
http://www.aflitt.com/easternwashingtion

Genesis 12:1-7 (NIV)

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.12.1-7

Genesis 35:4 (NIV)

So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.

https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.35.4

Near Deep Lake
Sun Lakes State Park. Coulee City, Washington. Memorial Day Weekend, 2004.
Copyright © 2011 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
http://www.aflitt.com/easternwashingtion

The Properties of Dust

1.

The Well  (https://poets.media/the-well)

Moreh

Orienteering

Tides

The Properties of Dust

2.

Storm

Oncology

Upon the Ruin

Golgotha

Demolition

3.

Watching a Woman From Across the Room

Moonrise

First Snow

Antarctic Whispers

Lines

Bedtime Prayer

4.

The Red Car

Something Lost

Slough

Home

After the War

5.

Lair

Love Poems

Valley of the Gods. Bears Ears National Monument. Utah. May 13, 2016
Copyright © 2017 A. F. Litt, All Rights Reserved
www.aflitt.com/bearsearsnm

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A. F. Litt on vocal.media

https://vocal.media/authors/a-f-litt

www.aflitt.com

Something New...

https://poets.media/beyond-gibeon

Yesterday I received an email from the folks who run vocal.media inviting me to contribute to their site.  This is not a big deal, anyone can contribute to their site, but it might be a right time in the right place sort of something new for me.  Something to throw a few stones at, just to see what happens.

I've been posting on Blogger for over 15 years, with a few detours here and there, and a part of me feels like I am spinning my wheels a bit.  Post on Blogger, share here and there on social media, hope a few people read my words, look at my photos, watch my little videos...

It is a comfy, safe routine, I suppose, and for most of the last decade, the old pair of slippers fit just fine, but it is time to start pushing the envelope a bit.  It is time for me to start getting more serious about moving into the next phase of my career and to start generating revenue with my work, and I feel that posting through this new service might be a nice next step in that direction.

Yes, it is a site that will pay me per click, but that is not my main concern.  I know those micro payments can take a long, long time to add up.  What is more interesting to me is that the site is somewhat curated; posts are reviewed before being accepted, and apparently there are editors who will work with you while preparing your posts.

Now, how seriously they take that task, we'll see...  Yesterday, I re-worked an old poem, posted it, and it sailed right through in less than 24 hours.  I posted another old poem today.  These are system tests, I suppose. I want to get some content up quickly and there were no other relevant posts ready to go.  In the next few days, I do hope to submit the next National Monuments in Danger post there, and then I will get a better idea about how this process works.

Obviously, if I can earn a few bucks by posting on this new platform, that would be nice, and it would be nice to work with an editor, but I think the main benefit for me will come from being more disciplined with my writing.

Sometimes I get a little lazy copy editing my own material (obviously), and knowing that some sort of editor will be reviewing my writing before it goes live will motivate me to not slack off on that critical part of the writing process.  "It's just for fun, not many people will ever see it, folks probably won't notice, I am out of time and need to move on..."  These are my demons.  Especially that last one. It teams up with "I can always fix it later!"  Of course, I usually do fix typos and errors I find later. Usually.

Beyond the kick in the butt on copy editing, this sort of a submission process will force me to clean up my basic writing process in general.  Being my own editor for too many years, I know I am getting a bit sloppy.  Sure, basics like writing to an audience and basic structure are (usually) in the mix, but a lot of my posts tend to be sloppy notes and jumbles of quotes and links.  I have no problem with that approach for a lot of my posts, but I do want to push back towards writing actual articles, not just the interesting clutter.

Here is where I think working on this platform will be useful for me.  There is a minimum word count and I need to write towards specific themes, topics, and genres.  I am assuming most of my work will fall into the travel writing category, so I need to start writing more with that in mind.  Less "here's a jumble of information and notes about a place that interests me and some links to dig deeper with later" and more time spent telling the stories of the subjects I am posting on.

This isn't to say that I haven't been writing stories and, occasionally, longer essays here, I have, but I've also put up a lot of what I think of as "quick posts" with a few words, some images, some links, sometimes a video (or a dozen)...  What this re-focus in my process will mean for me is that, when sitting down to work on a new post, I need to plan out what it is going to be before I dive in.  Is it a quick photo with a few words and links?  Is it a short article for the new platform?  Is it a longer essay style piece of writing?  Is there a genre I should focus on?

Cleaning up my process and focusing more on articles, I feel, will kick my content up to the next level and help prepare me as I move ahead with my career in “content creation” (writing, photography, video).  I also think it will make the material I post for my projects stronger and more interesting, hopefully building my audience even more.  Finally, as I mentioned earlier, it will force me to take my posts a little more seriously when editing them, slowing me down so I prepare them properly before sharing my words.

For all of these reasons, there may be some significant changes in the way my posts appear here from now on.  For articles and essays, it may be more of a blurb and a link to the article rather than the full post here, a “to read more, click here” link after the opening paragraph or two.  That makes me nervous, though…  The demons in my head say no one will follow!

There is still a lot to work out and I am not going to worry about it too much at the moment.  Life is busy and complicated right now and it might be awhile before I have the time to really figure out what this new process will ultimately look like.  Right now, I am just sketching out some foundations for later, while dealing with too many tremendous life changes…

This is a long post, really, for just saying, “hey, there’s changes coming!”, though I do find value in posts like these.  As the old, old blog has changed and evolved over the years, it’s been useful for me to go back and see where these little milestones and procedure changes have occurred and to revisit the reasons why I made certain decisions.

Hopefully, these sorts of posts are interesting to other folks too!


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Links

A. F. Litt on vocal.media
https://vocal.media/authors/a-f-litt

Tin or Copper? Why Your Camera Does Not Matter!

Sun on Camera
One Day On Earth: 12.12.12 Folsom, California.
December 12, 2012. 4:27 PM
http://www.aflitt.com/onedayonearth2012
© A. F. Litt, 2012

In a photography group, someone was wondering about gear for an upcoming shoot:

Every time I get a great meal in a great restaurant I demand to know what brand of pots they use, what brand of knives, what brand or type of sharpener they use to sharpen those knives, because I can't enjoy my meal until I know that it has been made with the absolutely best, newest stuff on the market.

And I've been fooled! I, a few times, liked a dinner and then found out they were a small, new restaurant who used sub-par cookware!

Oh, that was humiliating! Tin, not copper! Tin! I felt like, not even an amateur, worse! I felt like a pretender for enjoying those meals. I should have known better!

But it was on them, not me, and boy, I told everyone I knew never to eat there after I got fooled into liking those places' food like that!

And boy howdy, did people know that I knew my stuff after that and I am pretty sure no one ever took those so called chefs, fake chefs, seriously ever again.

Seriously... Gear is nothing but a gatekeeper used by the insecure to keep their egos protected.

If you can't shoot great with the low end, you can't shoot great with the high end.

Get the best you can comfortably get on your budget and shoot your soul out! It will be fantastic!

Die Robot's "Armed Forces" Video is Done!

A screenshot from Die Robot's "Armed Forces" music video that I just finished up yesterday. There may be a release party for this in the next day or two, but if not, it will be released digitally this evening. @dierobot @startheaterpdx @vince.christian #dierobot

A photo posted by A. F. Litt (@aflitt) on Jul 27, 2016 at 11:49am PDT

Farewell, Snip.it (& thanks!)

So, Snip.it was bought by Yahoo and is being shut down. They've put together a "Hall of Fame" of contributors and I was named as one of the top contributors in the "Politics & World" category...

From an email I received from their Content Director:

I want to personally thank you for all your amazing contributions to the product, both in your snips and in your feedback to us. I’ve been continually impressed by all the interesting, unique content you’ve unearthed, as well as your thoughtful commentary on it. The quality of your contributions made the site an absolute joy to browse. 

To honor all of your support and contributions, we’ve included you in our Snip.it Hall of Fame, a place to celebrate our top snippers. We’ve included your Twitter handle, so people can continue to follow your insights.

https://snip.it/awards

We've also created a Snip.it Hall of Fame, where we’re honoring some of the top contributors to the Snip.it community. We’ve included their Twitter handles so you can continue to stay connected and follow their insights.

I joined Snip.it while it was still in beta and have posted to it more days than not since then.  They’ve been cool, it’s a great service, and their staff has been very supportive.  From nearly the beginning, they featured my content, which I was pretty proud of, and I seem to have attracted quite a few followers there.

Supposedly, they will be reinventing themselves with Yahoo.  I hope so.  They were a great service.

https://snip.it/

We are thrilled at the opportunity to bring Snip.it's vision to a larger scale at Yahoo!. While we can't share the specifics of what we'll be building, we are excited about the opportunity to take social news to new, exciting heights at Yahoo!. The Yahoo! team is passionate about inspiring and entertaining the world’s daily habits, and certainly sharing news and information is something we all do every day. The vision and energy at the company is contagious, and we’re so excited to be part of all that is to come.

So now, I just need to figure out what to do with the links I’ve saved there.  There are a couple ways to download them for future use, and I’ll be taking a look at how to get these back out there, when I have a little time…

I just deleted the Snip It button from my browser.  That makes me sad. 

Unfortunately, in life, with both the good and the bad, “This, too, shall pass…”

My Collections: HTML Links

Snip.it: All My Base Belong To You - HTML Links
Snip.it: Democracy In Distress - HTML Links
Snip.it: Favorites
Snip.it: Retrovirus Lab - HTML Links
Snip.it: Rubble - HTML Links
Snip.it: Suburban Eschatology Part Two - HTML Links

Yahoo Is In Talks To Buy A Site We Actually Use, Snip.It

Snip.It is a social site that resembles a mash up of Pinterest's collections and Instapaper's ability to save links for consumption later.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-acquires-snipit-2013-1#ixzz2IoskdMnR

Yahoo Poised to Acquire Content Curation Site Snip.it - Liz Gannes - News - AllThingsD:

Snip.it was founded by Ramy Adeeb, who was formerly a principal at Khosla Ventures, and has funding from Khosla, True Ventures, Charles River Ventures and SV Angel.

Yahoo is paying “mid teens” of millions of dollars for the company, according to a source.

…

Kara Swisher yesterday described Yahoo’s new approach to content:

While one might argue that Google is already the Google of content, the plan is to make Yahoo more relevant by tailoring it to the individual and make the site a “trusted destination to get them to where they want to go and keep going back.”

Thus, the thinking goes, while Google is the place people come to search for links, Yahoo then becomes the place users come to find content. That means more partnership deals from third-party sources, with an additional social component layer and synced across a number of devices and platforms, especially video.

 

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A year’s worth of interviews with artists from MotherBoard

Trying a new method with this post.  Click on Miranda July until you get to the content...  (Don’t think I like this method already!)

Source: motherboard.vice.com via Aaron on Pinterest

 

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Statistics: Second Month on Panoramio (With lots of pictures!)

Stats for my pictures on Panoramio.com:

Here is the first month, vaguely... 3870 total views, ever.

Here is a rough cut of the second month... 10,331 total views, ever.

Most popular photos by category...  

To me it is somewhat surprising which ones are the most popular.  Maybe I cannot curate myself as well as I thought I could. However, it is an interesting way to select a mess of pictures to post before I take a short break from my Photo of the Day. 

Total Views...

Photo of the Day, February 17, 2011. Taken July 20, 2008. The old Litt farm near Hartline, Washington.

Photo of the Day, May 18, 2011. Taken February 9, 2011. Mt. St. Helens from Powell Butte Nature Park, Portland, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, April 27, 2011. Taken April 24, 2011. Beaverton, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, July 31, 2011. Taken July 27, 2011. Powell Butte Nature Park, Portland, Oregon.

Marine Drive, Portland, Oregon. May 1, 2011.

Photo of the Day, April 6, 2011.  Taken April 5, 2011.  Southwest Park, Gresham, Oregon.

Ochoco Lake State Park, Prineville, Oregon. August 17, 2011.

Ochoco Lake State Park, Prineville, Oregon.  August 17, 2011.

Panoramio.com views...

Ochoco Lake State Park, Prineville, Oregon. August 17, 2011.

Prineville, Oregon from Ochoco Wayside State Park. August 17, 2011.

Photo of the Day, April 11, 2011. Taken April 2, 2011. Happy Valley, Oregon.

Dragon from I-5 near Yreka, California. January 31, 2011.



Forest fire snags. Santiam Pass, Oregon.  August 17, 2011.



Photo of the Day, August 5, 2011.  Taken July 24, 2011.  McClellan Butte, Snoqualmie Pass, Washington.

Burn damage. Astoria, Oregon. April 30, 2011.



Our old blue house, many years later. Portland, Oregon. May 1, 2011.




Google Earth views...

Mosquito breeder. Clide Holiday State Park, Mt. Vernon, Oregon. August 18, 2011.



Photo of the Day, August 15, 2011. Taken August 14, 2011. Sandy River Delta, Troutdale, Oregon.



US 26, John Day Highway. Overlook near Prairie City, Oregon. August 19, 2011.

Clyde Holiday State Park, Mt. Vernon, Oregon.  August 18, 2011.



John Day River, Clyde Holiday State Park, Mt. Vernon, Oregon.  August 18, 2011.



Photo of the Day, June 14, 2011.  Taken June 4, 2011.  Mt. Hood from Hwy. 48.  Oregon.



Photo of the Day, August 31, 2011.  Taken August 17, 2011.  Sunset.  Ochoco Lake State Park, Priveville, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, April 26, 2011. Taken October 6, 2010. Lolo Pass, Oregon.

Google Maps views...

Burn damage. Astoria, Oregon. April 30, 2011.

Photo of the Day, April 27, 2011.  Taken April 24, 2011.  Beaverton, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, August 22, 2011.  Taken August 22, 2011.  Mt. Hood from LSI Logic, Gresham, Oregon.



Red Sunset Park, Gresham, Oregon. August 4, 2011.



Sandy River Delta, Troutdale, Oregon.  July 9, 2011.

Photo of the Day, February 19, 2011.  Taken April 24, 2008.  Washington High School, Portland, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, March 2, 2011.  Taken March 1, 2011.  Near Ames, Oregon.

Piety Island, Detroit Lake, Oregon.  July 16, 2011.




Widget API views...

Astor Park, Astoria, Oregon.  April 20, 2011.



Truth in advertising.  Portland, Oregon.  May 1, 2011.

Photo of the Day, September 9, 2011.  Taken August 20, 2011.  Hells Canyon and the Seven Devils from Saddle Creek Campground.  Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, September 7, 2011.  Taken August 20, 2011.  Hells Canyon and the Seven Devils from Saddle Creek Campground, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, September 8, 2011. Taken August 20, 2011. Imnaha Canyon from Five Mile Viewpoint, Hat Point Road. Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, September 5, 2011. Taken August 20, 2011. Wallowa Lake County Park, Joseph, Oregon.

Photo of the Day, August 29, 2011.  Taken August 20, 2011.  Sunset.  Saddle Creek Campground, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon.

Forest fire snags at Saddle Creek Campground, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, Oregon.  August 20, 2011.




And that is all for now, folks.