This is funny.

Planet Unicorn Theme Song.

And if you think you're weird ... wait till you watch this video.

Planet Unicorn Dance.

Attention Deficit Hyperactive TV:

Courtesy of jam007dmdotcom, we have a video of Depeche Mode live, playing the song Wrong from their new album, Sounds of the Universe,.

April 23, 2009.

An Introduction:

Being the poster-boy that I am for attention deficit disorder, I've had a number plans for the blog, well, more like 1,000's of plans ... some that I can't figure out how to do, some I can't find the time to do, and others I don't want to do until I can get them "just right."  Ah yes, life with ADD ...

Back in March, I talked about getting the blog back on track along the lines of what I want it to be, rather than what it "should" be.  You may not know it, but you've been witnessing just that.  Is the posting sometimes few and far between?  Yes.  I have ADD. Doing the same thing day in and day out drives me crazy!  And something tells me too ... being that YOU (my readers) most likely also have ADD, you're not going to be stopping by on a daily basis anyway.

Something we've discussed before, is my feeling about not trying to change who you are, but instead accepting your ADD and just being the best you you can be! Attempting to write this blog in a standard way, by sticking to a strict publication schedule, is completely contrary to me and my ADD.

So, with all that said ... the number of new posts will be increasing, some will be meaningful, some helpful, and others ... well, they'll be complete time wasters!

What?  Time wasters?  Aren't we supposed to be learning to "improve" our time management?

Sure ... but let's be real here ... we have ADD, and we gotta have some fun!  And what better way is there to have some fun, OK, sex, sex is more fun, let's try this again ... What better way is there, to burn endless amounts of time on the Internet, than watching random videos?

Attention Deficit Hyperactive TV:

The other night while I was wasting hours and hours watching videos (I'm not even sure why), I thought to myself, why not create a "video channel" for A Morsel of Genius?"  Then I went through all the nonsense over my grand-vision of a video section for the blog, how much work that would be, and how long it would take ... it's enough to talk anyone out of it.

Anyways ... here it is (I'll worry about the grand-vision stuff another time).  I'll be posting random videos about random things, some helpful, some not, some funny, and others that could be just about anything!  So beware! Attention Deficit Hyperactive TV is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. 

Today's video, from Laci (gogreen18), happens to be a helpful video.  Enjoy!

How To Be A People Magnet:

If you don't have ADD this may not make sense to you, but if you do, it'll actually make complete sense (go figure).  You see ... despite the fact that I'm in over my head with Things To Get Done already, I feel it's time to start yet another one!  So, that's what I'm doing right now. 

There's a number of different things I'd like to be able to do here at A Morsel of Genius, but (you know how it is) ... that also means that to do it right, I'll have to re-build the blog by starting all the way back at the beginning ... with the "theme." I'll explain what that is in a minute, first, let me tell you why I'm telling you this ...

Late last August, I said "it would be great to see more adders blogging," and wanted to provide helpful blogging advice to help.  Well, now is the perfect time to start the uh, oh, I don't know ... um ... "The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Guide to Blogging!" (even I'm rolling my eyes).

Introduction:

I use Wordpress as the "back-end" of this blog.  WordPress is open-source, free, stable, sophisticated, continuously updated, and super easy to use blogging software.  I simply can't recommend using WordPress enough, it's fantastic!  Here's a blurb from their homepage:

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.  More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

There is however, one caveat to using WordPress ... you gotta be "self-hosted," meaning you need to buy a domain and some web-hosting.  Here's the thing though ... perhaps even a secret ... If you are starting your first blog (or a new blog), you are best to go over to WordPress.com, open an account, and start blogging there, free!

By starting your blog at WordPress.com, you'll have the ability to mess around a bit, get to know the software, and get a feel for blogging too.  Plus, when you're ready to go "self-hosted," you'll not only enjoy already having an audience, but as an extra bonus, your blog will remain in their search engine, thereby bringing you more traffic to boot.  WordPress.com is hands down the best way to start a blog!

What about that "theme" you were talking about?

In WordPress, your "theme" determines what your blog looks like and does - layout, colors, functions, etc ... basically, it's your website (minus the content).  There are tons of free themes available on the Internet, and I highly recommend checking them out and trying a number of different themes until you get an idea of what you want.

So, in typical ADD fashion ...

"The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Guide to Blogging" won't start at the beginning of your blogging adventure (WordPress.com).  We're going to instead start where I'm at right now (a little selfish are we?), "Building a Theme from Scratch!"

PS - The funny thing is, being that we all have ADD ... in the end, it'll make complete sense to you why I chose to start by building your blog theme. 

Jeff at Jeff's A.D.H.D. Mind has a great series written by one of his readers, who tackles a few of the myths about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  The following from Myth No. 2: ADDers are Smarter than Non-ADDers really caught my attention:

... there is nothing amusing about standing in your kitchen, tears streaming down your face, having forgotten what you were about to do, and knowing time is elapsing at the usual rate - that is, too fast. It is not "multitasking" to start and leave off - without returning to finish or clean up - four or five different jobs in the same morning; it's a mess.

The reason this jumped out at me, is because the more I think about it, the more I realize "adders are good at multi-tasking" is a myth!  Seriously!  The way I see it, I may appear to be good at multi-tasking, but the truth is I'm just completely unfocused and scattered.  That's all.

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Personally, I think meeting your shadow is especially important for adults who've discovered they have attention deficit disorder (ADD).  Having lived a long life under such unusual circumstances, its refreshingly helpful to meet your shadow, finding out what lurks in the dark.

My favorite description of the shadow is one as described by Robert Bly, in "The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us." I'll do my best to paraphrase him here, because if we're going to meet our shadow, we should first know what we're looking for.

When we were infants, up to maybe one or two years old, we had what could be visualized as a 360-degree personality.  Energy poured from all parts of our bodies and psyche.  We were a ball of energy!  But one day ... we discovered our parents didn't like certain parts of the ball.

"Sit still!"

"Be quiet!"

"It's not nice to try to kill your brother."

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