By G. Robert Frazier
I’m a lifelong learner. I like learning new things, though I am a master of none.
Technology is always interesting, but I’ve found if I don’t use it on a daily basis, I will disregard it for something else. I think of my brain as having a memory chip that’s somewhat old, outdated, and out of space. If I don’t chuck some useless files once in a while, there won’t be enough capacity for anything else.
That’s what I used to tell people in my younger days as a journalist for a daily newspaper.
My sources would often marvel at my ability to listen to them without scratching down everything they say into my handy reporter’s notebook and then being able to regurgitate their words with accuracy into the next day’s article.
They didn’t know that once I wrote their quotes into the article, I no longer needed to retain them. My brain automatically trashed the information to make room for the next interview.
Challenges persist
An eidetic memory (or photographic memory) I have not.
As I mentioned earlier, my memory fails me. (Shades of Joe Biden!).
Nowadays, I tend to write everything down so that I don’t forget it. Words on the page seem to help kick the old grey cells (as Hercule Poirot would call them) back into gear.
Without the crunch of a daily newspaper deadline looming over me, my notes allow me to come back to my notes later. (That’s the procrastinator in me, but more about that, you guessed it, in a later post.).
That’s why learning this WordPress thing is a bit challenging.
If I don’t try to work at it day in and day out, poof, it’s gone and I’m back to square one. As I haven’t posted to my blog in a long, long while, all my former WordPress skills had rusted away.
If only WordPress were as easy as driving a car…
Learning by doing
But, I’m slowly trying to get reacquainted with my copy blocks, which is why this site is still something of a jumbled-up mess. Every time I think I am adding copy in the right place on the page, I seem to misfire and make a mess of things.
I am, of course, viewing as many of the WordPress tutorials and help guides as I can to glean some skills. (Thank you, WordPress!).
But the best way to learn something new is to just keep doing it — over and over and over again until it becomes ingrained in your psyche. Until it becomes second nature.
Like riding a bike.
Writing is much the same.
There is only so much you can learn from books and classes and webinars. At some point, you just have to grit your teeth and do the deed: Put pen to paper or start clacking on that keyboard.
So, bear with me as I endeavor to make this site shine like new. At least, until something else comes along to occupy my mind.
And as always, thanks for reading.
G.
Story By G. Robert Frazier 