1. You can download Stockholm Syndrome by Derek Webb for free at NoiseTrade.com.  How much?  Free.  But hurry, I think the freeness ends today.
2. A productivity tip regarding email.
3. Chris at The Art of Non-Conformity posted The Small Man Builds Cages For Everyone a couple weeks ago.  Really good read.

I’ll blog-blog tomorrow.

A Personal Blogger’s Lament

As years go, 2009 was one of them.  Not the worst, and no where close to my best year of life, my first, which consisted of drinking breast milk until I passed out and/or messed myself.  Fortunately I believe that I am not alone, and that pretty much the whole of society has lost their damn minds in the last two years.

About a year ago I launched Ream of Paper, with little more than a dream, and the belief that I am so darn interesting, (funny and good looking) who could avoid reading my glorious thoughts.  The answer was shocking.  Read the rest of this entry »

No more sojourning through that pesky “valley of the shadow of death” crap.

Gone are the “trials of many kinds.”

blasphemy never looked so good.

Pick up your cross in this trendy poly/cotton blend and be the envy of the sheepfold.  Oh yeah, and when you fast, put on a clean tee-shirt!

Dear Staples,

Someone posing as Jesus is trying to steal your button idea.  Please sue them immediately.

Your Friend,

reamofpaper.com

Thank God Day 10 is over.  It was my neediest day on record; everything I did needed to be praised.  Every sentence and phrase was a junior varsity marching band on my desktop, so self-aware and full of pimples they almost forgot they were playing a fight song.  Even using the bathroom required reassurance, “You really hit the bowl that time, big guy!” I’d tell myself.

To top that off, yesterday I noticed that my friends in the fake world of social media are all masters of bumper sticker productivity and success; with the vulnerability of a horseshoe.  Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Ream Readers and Friends,

During the month of November I have accepted the challenge issued by www.NaNoWriMo.org. I have decided that it is high-time that I complete the first draft of a novel I have been screwing around with for the better part of a year.  If I complete 50,000 words in the month of November; I am a winner. So I must try…  I have made this promise to myself and my ultra-supportive wife, Molly, who seems once again gifted with endless belief in her quixotic husband.

The book won’t sell even if I manage to complete it.  The concept is too racy for a Christian market and too Christian-y for the standard market.  Add to that my inexperience in blending story lines, and you have a recipe for NOT SELLING.  But I guess that is not the point.

You probably won’t like the book-that-doesn’t-yet-exist either.  It’s not tidy.  It doesn’t end neatly or even well.  I’ve managed to tear off my language filter.  Hopefully it will develop into the dark mirror of culture I am planning for it to become, a small portrait of a great culture war.  Hint: the story line is rooted in the first few chapters of Hosea.

All that to say: I will not be blogging regularly in the month of November.  When I do, I am contemplating posting excerpts of the rough draft.  The reason I am posting this as “news” is because I fear that if I don’t tell someone, I’ll quit.  The remedy is of course to tell everyone!

I won’t talk about the story much.  I’ve found that only derails me.  So if you ask how it’s going, I’m going to tell you – “Very Good.  Thanks.”  And that’s it.  I’ll tell you “Very Good” even if the truth is otherwise.  Molly has hidden the razor blades, the scotch, and has locked up all the ammunition to my guns.  There is no escaping!

I am thankful that you continue to read all of my nonsense at reamofpaper.  I look forward to writing for you again very soon.  I’m off…

Ryan

“The great owners, striking at the immediate thing, the expanding government, the growing labor unity; striking at new taxes, at plans; not knowing these things are results, not causes.  Results, not causes; results, not causes.  The causes lie deep and simple – the causes are a hunger in a stomach, multiplied a million times; a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times; muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times.  The last clear definite function of a man – muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need – this is man.

This you may say of man – when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes.  Having stepped forward, he  may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.”

John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath, chapter 14.

All 7 of my frequent readers have probably noticed that I have dropped the blogging ball as of late.  It has been about 3 weeks since I’ve written anything of substance for Ream of Paper.  The reasons are many, though some of them are a lot more like excuses than reasons. Read the rest of this entry »