Betterness by Kawika Holbrook

No Longer Secret

What secret would you share if no one could trace it back to you? PostSecret began at an arts festival. More than 3,000 visitors picked up postcards inviting them to share a secret anonymously. They're being posted online. And they're brilliant. Some are mundane. Some are shocking. Some come with drawings. And some are worth trying out. I have no idea what I would share, but I can't stop thinking about it.

I love the idea of a simple project that gets people to think and share in a unique way. Some of the best therapy out there -- all for the price of a stamp.

Note to Dave: This did not take me 20 minutes to write, but it took 30 minutes to think about. That's something.

Rock Bottom

Me: "I don't know if I can stoop any lower than to write about my cat."

Dave: "So it's all uphill from here!"

It's a quiet comfort to know when you won't sink any lower than rock bottom.

About the Cat

Betterness is a blog, so it's only proper to post about a pet. In this case, my wife's cat Slate. Now, I am a dog person. Cats are too snobby for me most of the time. Independent. Callous, even. My wife has two cats. Sky, a mottled tabby (I think) who wants little to do with the humans in the house but feed her and scratch her when an itch seizes her rump.

Slate is the other cat. His fur begins gray and ends black. He and I began life together tolerating each other. Now, I hate to admit, he's growing on me a little.

Not that he makes it easy. To get my attention, Slate strategically places himself exactly where my next step will fall. He dares me -- dares me, I say -- to crush his spine with the weight of my body and feed him through tubes the rest of his days. Every day is a miracle when I avoid stepping on that cat.

The cat likes to butt heads. Literally. This may be common, but it still strikes me as if he's the kid in the class who had to wear a helmet. The cat simply saunters up to me, lowers his head, and rams it into my face. Perhaps this is his way of saying, "Dude!" I'm not sure. The cat will meow, loudly, for no reason. This too may be common, as is the bolting from one room to another simply because it's time to change room rightthisverysecond.

Now, the cat has one peculiarity that I have not heard of before. If Jenny and I set the alarm for 7:00 a.m., the cat will be in the room just before the alarm goes off. And he will start meowing. And pacing. And butting heads. And he continues his tirade if we hit the snooze bar. He does not stop until we are up.

At first, I thought it was coincidence. Perhaps he was hungry. But we made sure the cats had plenty of food and water. We tried to lock the door. The cat will ram the door with his head.

Somehow this cat can sense when we're supposed to get up. Unfortunately, the damn animal doesn't understand weekends. Every day is Sunday to Slate.

Weird.

Okay, now I've written about a pet. That should suffice for an entry today. One more day of writing. And not a single edit, even for grammar or spelling.

I refuse to re-read this post. I refuse to berate myself for something so banal. I'll just put it up for the world (Dave and my mom, most likely) to read.

More tomorrow.

Blog Bet

Friend Dave and I are betting to see who first fails to blog something original at least five times a week. The loser donates $100 to the winner's charity of choice. There's also a dinner in there somewhere. Dave is an artist. I'm a typist. He creates original works of art and comics. I comment on commentary from readers of other writings, usually to avoid writing something personal. I've promised myself in this space that I would stop editing myself. That I would stop fussing with HTML. That I would focus on content. Instead, my blog helps me procrastinate faster.

Until now.

Now I'm just typing whatever comes to mind. I wouldn't call it writing, really. Just freestyle fingering the keyboard. I promised to do this for 20 minutes a day, five days a week. I'm about ten minutes into this, mostly because I paused to look up words for fancy sentences that I edited out. Of course, I'm not supposed to be editing. I'm supposed to be writing.

It would help if I had a point to make.

So, what point would I like to make now? I think about writing a lot more than writing what I think. (These recursive sentences sound more profound than they are, I think.) I have hundreds of links saved in a folder called "To Blog," which -- of course -- I never do because I'm too busy trying to edit my thoughts down to something pithy or profound. I must have 15 links to various Social Security articles alone. Just waiting for my synthesis into a coherent paragraph that .... that what? What's the point? I could use it as a reference for future research, I suppose. Or I could point others to it, saying,

"Here -- here is my point. I know what I'm talking about and, frankly, you don't. Your opinion is based on some talking point from some Administration official whereas my opinion took hours to hone from 15 articles written by people with more objectivity and insight. So there. Plus, you stink."

Or I could just write it to write. Until I have something more to write about.

Okay, that's it for today. Twenty minutes of typing to say ... well, not much. Perhaps I'll have a better point tomorrow.

It's all about betterness, I guess.

DPT1

GM's Sequel Better Than the Original

GM's "Sequel" prototype car runs on hydrogen, emits water vapor exhaust, and uses far fewer parts than cars today. Two steps foward for GM's three steps back in fighting better fuel efficiency standards. Please mass produce the Sequel, GM, and make amends 50 years of environmental malfesance.

Tweelin'

A combined tire and wheel that could never go flat because it contains no air, Michelin's "tweel" offers the potential for no flats, longer-lasting tread, fewer parts, and better handling. I love reinventing the wheel when the effort can obviate so many problems.

Thing 1

What are my goals? How am I reaching them. What can I do to quickly share my success? "43 Things":http://www.43things.com answers the questions simply. A blog unto itself, my list of things (now at one) can also be published to "Betterness":http://betterness.net at the same time. If this works simply enough, I may add a "Resolutions" link to my blog.

My first goal is to exercise three to five times a week. I've exercised twice this week. If I don't exercise today, I will have already let myself down the first full week of the New Year.

(See more progress on "Exercise three to five times a week."...)