Welcome to my web, my capturing device, my frayed asterisk at the corner. Not complete but drawing your attention, marking out a space. It is violent, strategic, and imprisoning. It is beautiful, vulnerable, and strong.

I connect you to the words that connect you to yourself.

But do I have to write a blog?

Some words feature their ugly with a sound and mouth feel that lingers after the word is gone (sludge, gusset, fetid, moist). Like acid colors and triangle patterns in nature, they warn you to stay away.

Others engage the sickly boniness of their aristocratic inbreeding (pulchritude, bucolic, effulgence) to simply scare you off & save them from doing work. And some are linguistic carrion flowers that lure you in with their liquid sibilance before springing their deadly denotations (acquiesce, hirsute, silverfish).

But a word like blog doesn’t threaten or disdain or tease. It doesn’t do anything but sit, like a tepid lump of beige (not even griege)—unformed, flabby, & tired.

Blog is the sole-surviving syllable of a shantytown portmanteau: weblog. Blog has survivor’s guilt. It’s a purposely ugly word, blog. There has to be something better.

So today, and probably tomorrow, I will explore other words to denote and connote this weblog of musings, missives, and meanderings. This confluence of ephemera, this commonplace, this capturing device.

Paula Diaz Paula Diaz

Mood

As I pored over my words, prioritized my colors, and pinched away the markers I used to make said colors, I knew, in no uncertain terms, I would never use it.

Read More
Paula Diaz Paula Diaz

Binge

It’s not the elephant in the room, it is the room.

Read More
Paula Diaz Paula Diaz

Apoca-lessons

The spellchecker on my computer still doesn’t know “covid” but I can always use corona. Or Corona. Do I want a beer or celestial illumination? When I ask, Google says I want a beer.

Read More
Paula Diaz Paula Diaz

Fast

What kind of modern woman would I be if I simply accepted the good things that came my way without complaint? Please, that’s settling!

Read More
Paula Diaz Paula Diaz

Balance.

So the question is, of course, should I take it? I’m not suggesting I should opt out of 2020, I am just recognizing that just because it is given me doesn’t mean it’s mine. If I take it, what should I do with it?

Read More
Paula Diaz Paula Diaz

Superstar

I don’t have to hate the person I was in order to not be that person again. I need to realize that she is not the person I need to be right now.

Read More