SeanDareOnline.com

I can hear fluttering, like someone is lashing a wooden board with a strip of velvet, it draws me slowly back to consciousness. Without opening my eyes I stretch out and feel a cool spot at my toes. I smile and listen to the fluttering. As I move steadily toward a more conscious state I hear more sounds; I hear…chirping. Light chirping sounds mixed in with the fluttering. I breath in deeply and then roll back and forth slightly, trying to work my way back into warm sleep. I try relaxing and letting myself fall back into my dream, but it is too late. I am awake. I lie there for a moment and listen to the birds outside my window.

I roll over and slowly unzip the nylon panel that covers the screen window in my tent. I open the zipper no more than two inches and pull it open to spy on the birds. I search for them in the gray of early dawn. At first I don’t see them, they are further away than I expected. I finally catch sight of them, a blur of gray amongst the darker gray of morning. The two birds flit and flutter around each other, taking jabs when the other one leaves an opening, bobbing and weaving away from each others beaks and talons. This early morning ritual has something to do with mating, I try to remember what, but I can’t.

Jenn and I played the Wii for the first time last night.  We ended up playing Wii Play for two and a half hours!  Man what fun.  Jenn and I liked the cow racing and pool the best.  I liked the fishing as well.  Not sure I liked Ping Pong.  Can’t wait to get off work so I can play some more tonight!

- Sean

Check out this post about Camp Cooking on the Students of Success blog. I have learned these same lessons by making my own mistakes. I especially like the advice on how to prepare chicken. Those of you who are camping newbies take note.

- Sean

I received some money for my birthday and decided to spend some of it on a new Tent. My current tent, nicknamed the Taj Mahal because if it’s size, is a monster. At 10 feet wide by 15 feet long and standing over 7 feet tall it is difficult to set up by yourself. It is also heavy weighing in at over 50lbs! My current tent is the Cougar Flats Tent made by Columbia. I posted the manufacturer’s picture for you.

A frustrating downside to this tent design is the partial fly. Notice how the windows and doors are not covered by the fly? Rain never falls straight down, it always comes in from the side. Many times when you are camping the only dry place you have is your tent. If you have inadequate rain protection in your tent you end up with no dry place to stay. I like to do a lot of camping during the fall and spring so rain protection is of the utmost importance for me.

Determining my needs was pretty easy, finding a decent tent that fit those needs for a decent price wasn’t. I want a tent that:

• I can stand up in
• Is big enough for my sizable cot
• Has a rain fly that comes down to the ground on all sides
• Is easy for one person to set up
• Is light enough that I can carry it for some distance without effort

The Taj Mahal Cougar Flats Tent is so heavy the case for it has wheels like you find on large rolling luggage! After much searching I found a couple of options from Cabela’s and REI, most over $500.oo. I ended up choosing the REI Basecamp 6 tent because REI offers a good tent and it was on sale this month to members at 20% off. I just placed the order in fact. Here is a random picture of an REI Basecamp 6 (not ours) I picked up off the web.

Notice how the fly comes down all the way to the ground! It also has a nice vestibule area where you can leave your dirty shoes out of the tent but still keep them dry. I actualy set up this tent at a local store. It was easy to set up by myself due to the free standing dome design. I also checked out the carry bag which has nice wide straps for carrying. With the fly this tent weighs in around 25lbs, half the weight of the Taj Mahal. I can’t wait to try it out!

Note: This is my heavy camping gear for when Jenn comes along. When I go by my self I use only the Hennessy Hammock for shelter. If you haven’t checked out the Hennessy Hammock Website you should. it is the best piece of camping equipment I have ever purchased!

So, who out there likes to camp? What kind of tent do you use?

- Sean

It was hard to say goodbye to the Wii this morning.

Just kidding. I ended up setting it up last night (you knew I would). I bowled a frame and then knocked a guy out in boxing. After that I headed to bed. This morning while I was putting on my shoes I noticed the blue light around the CD opening was on and flashing, but the Wii was powered off. I didn’t have time to find out what it means before I left. Does anyone out there know what the flashing blue light means? (post your answers in the comments or email me the answer)

- Sean

We have a new Wii! I had my friend in Austin ship it to my work. I opened the box and took a quick pic with my cell phone (sorry for the poor quality). We will probably have to wait until tomorrow night to try it out. I can’t wait!

- Sean

P.S. Thanks Colin and Shannon!!!

I am going to start writing fiction essays. You can read more about this new feature by reading the post on Finding My Voice.

- Sean

The Announcement

SeanDareOnline.com, among other things, is an outlet for my musings as well as an opportunity to enhance my writing skills. An area I struggle with is finding my “voice”. Just as a persons physical voice is different from another’s so too does one writers words differ from another’s. This subtle change in the way words are constructed on paper is called a writer’s voice.

I have often read about how to find my voice. The advice is the same. To find your voice you must both read and write…a lot. Upon re-reading the interview with Daring Fireball author John Gruber I found a powerful description of how he found, and in turn uses, his voice. Here is an excerpt from that interview:

SHAWN: How has your approach to writing articles on DF changed over years? Have you gotten better at writing something and publishing it or are you more meticulous than you used to be?

JOHN: That’s hard to put into words. Early on, I had to think about my “voice”. I was conscious of my style. Now, not so much — I “just write”, and the style seems to come naturally. Part of that is that you get used to anything over time, but a bigger part is that the style changed slowly over time — I kept tweaking it until I found the perfect pitch, at which point it became something I didn’t have to think about to achieve.Put another way: early on, I had to concentrate both on what I was saying and how was I saying it. Now I just concentrate on what I’m saying.

John says it so well. When he started out he was concentrating both on what he was saying and how he was saying it. Now he just concentrates on what he is saying. I can tell I am getting closer to this goal. How? Easy, I don’t have to revise as much. When I started writing about five years ago I would re-write the same passage three or four times. I would agonize over sentence structure and word usage. It was quite painful and frustrating. Now when I write I find myself reviewing my work saying,”That is pretty good.” I still make some changes, but the overall tone changes very little.

The down side to this discovery is that I have developed my voice for informative writing. Informative writing is like the writing I have done on this blog to date. The writing I need to improve, however, is fiction writing. There I need a lot of practice. To solve that problem I am announcing a new series on this website called Essays. When you see a blog post with the word Essay in the title you will not be reading informative writing, you will be reading fiction. The goal is to use this website as a forum where I can enhance my voice in this area.

What I Need From You

The other part of the equation is you, the readers. I need readers who will tell me honestly what they think of the essays I post. John Gruber says it eloquently in the continuation of the quote above.

I also find it much easier to write now that I have a regular audience. The hardest thing for me starting out at the very beginning was trying to shake the feeling that I was writing something no one would read. It felt like delivering a speech in an empty auditorium.

I need to fill my “auditorium” so to speak. If you like what you read here then tell your friends and neighbors about SeanDareOnline.com. Check back daily for new posts (I am trying to post something everyday). Post your comments and be honest with me about my writing.

- Sean

Jenn and I have decided that we are going to purchase a Macbook when the time comes for a new computer.  I could ramble on and on about why, but the reasons all distill down to one thing.  Mac’s just work.

The Cult of Mac blog posted a great little story about the decision to switch from a Windows PC to a Mac.  You can read the story here.

What platform do you use, Windows or Mac?  Which platform will you buy next?

- Sean