Wannabe Cowgirl

An article on the Montana primaries that I submitted to Associated Content today was not only accepted, but also became a featured news story on the site's front page!

Labels: writing

My browser's homepage is set for iGoogle, a personalized version of the Google website. With iGoogle, the signed-in user can add widgets that can range in function from helpful tools to games to social networking. My own iGoogle page, for example, has a widgets that display articles from The New York Times as well as top news headlines in general, a weather report device, my Google Reader RSS feed headlines, my Twitter feed, and a Flickr display.

One of my more frivolous widgets is the How-To of the Day. This displays two links to wikiHow, where the reader can learn how to do something. My favorite titles have to do with recipes or fitness, but they cover just about every topic imaginable, from parenting tips to dishwasher maintenance.

One of today's headlines caught my eye -- "How to be Artistic." Intrigued, I clicked through the link, curious as to how one goes about being artistic. Surely expressing oneself through an art form would be the number one tip, but what about the others?

Once on the wikiHow page for this topic, I found myself sadly in the wrong. The primary step in becoming artistic, according to the site, is to "start wearing unique clothes." Hmm. Only in step number two do we even start hearing about art -- "you know your talents, so use them creatively." Hardly a specific reference to making one's own art. Other tips include becoming more social, hanging out in coffee shops, and listening to unique music.

I suppose that writing poems and fiction is not enough to make me truly artistic. Neither is an active interest in photography, I imagine. At least I spend a good amount of time in coffee shops. I knew all those lattes would one day turn out to be good for something.

Labels: art, writing