Category Archives: This Blog

OCD stands for obsessive-compulsive disorder.  Although my wife claims I display this in many ways, the only OCD trait I’m aware of is my desire to right-justify my lines of text. In fact, I choose words carefully (and edit them after the fact) to produce the least-ragged right margin that is possible.  I did this well before the arrival of word processors — I recall adjusting the hand-lettered text in my high-school underground newspaper to this effect.

I also hate it when a sentence ends with a single word at the beginning of a line.  I look for ways to add or subtract text so that a sentence ends at the end of the line or, barring that, so the sentence continues with three or four words into the next line.  It’s better that way.

These requirements were relatively easy to satisfy by hand or at the typewriter, but it is a bit harder to achieve this on the web, given that the reader can change his font size at will.  But I can’t control that.  If it looks good on my screen, then it goes out the door.

Maybe this stems from my childhood attempts to imitate Charles Schulz, drawing cartoons and fitting words into speech balloons.  In any case, I confess: I make function follow form.

I am wary of falling into the same trap with this blog that I did with my photography, namely, letting the product spoil the process.  Several years ago, when I decided to try to sell my photos, I found I enjoyed shooting less and less.  My outings became more about creating product than creating art.  Before a shot, I would ask myself, “Would someone buy this and hang it on their wall?”  Most of the time I would answer “no” and then walk away.  Eventually, I shot about as many photos as I sold, which is very few.  I’m “taking a break” from photography now, to see if I can get back some of my eye and my enthusiasm.

Turning to this blog, I am well aware that only a handful of people read what I write here.  Face it, this isn’t Facebook.  On the one hand, I question whether it is time well-spent doing something that floats off into nowhere, seen by no one.  On the other, do I really want this to be about building and maintaining readership?  I’m afraid that if I impose some measure of success or economic goal onto this effort, I’ll kill it.

There’s a tension here.  I enjoy the process of writing but take more pleasure in sharing and interacting.  One is an avenue to the other.  I’m not the kind of person who could, say, put an easel and paint and canvas in a studio and spend years in isolation working to find his muse and perfect his art.  For me, not shared is about the same as not done.

I’m not one to quote the Bible (or Shakespeare or Nietzsche either) but this sums up my views on human creative effort: “Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house.”  I need to focus on keeping the candle lit and stop counting how many people are in the house.

Hi, I’m Craig Collins, the Creative Director of The 100 Billionth Person website.  It is only the mildest form of pandering to say, this blog wouldn’t exist without you.  Well, maybe it would, but if you aren’t reading it, can you be sure it’s still there? Anyway, the topic here is money and my goal is $16 million — that’s right, $16 million to continue delivering, to the doorstep of your laptop, my interpretation of life on this planet, where “planet” means a 10-mile radius from wherever I happen to be.

So, if you want to continue experiencing the same pleasure you now get from sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and The Shawshank Redemption — in short, if you want life to have meaning — why not send your generous contribution today.  In the next 15 minutes.  14.