This place needs more actual content. Let's begin. (idea)

This place needs more actual content.

I've seen that phrase so many times floating around this site. What does it mean? Often, we're off happily chattering in the Chatterbox or noding whatever comes to mind. But when one looks around this site, it's clear to see that in terms of actually having everything, it is riddled with holes like a piece of swiss cheese left for the rats, or a wall after Al Capone's boys have come to collect their payment.

Frankly, this place needs more actual content.

Not a bunch of nodeshells. Not one line definitions. Not three page rants about how your cat failed to do his business in the litter box on the daylog. Real writeups that say something useful, that contain a number of facts written in a way that is actually readable, ones that say something worth saying about your feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Not just definitions, either; definitions are for Webster 1913 - if it's not in the dictionary, it needs some elaboration.

Every person here has something to say, whether telling us about their favorite film, their favorite book, their favorite game, their favorite album, or anything else. It is this which is the essence of Everything, and this place needs more of it.

Hit the Random Node link and find some random nodeshells that have nothing in them. It only takes a few clicks to find an empty nodeshell; go try it. The next time you're out and about, pick up anything free that has information on it; there could be something node-worthy there.

If you don't know what to node, look around your place of residence. Peek in your corners at the things you own. There is enough material in your house to take up more nodes than Pseudo Intellectual fills on a three-day caffeine binge.

More detail, you say? Here are forty things lying around your residence or inside your mind that you can node without diving into desperate attempts at humor or bald-faced getting to know you stuff.

1. Write up the albums in your music collection, but don't just list the tracks - tell us about the album, what it sounds like, what its context is. What do the songs sound like? What do they mean? More importantly, what do they mean to you?
2. Where did you grow up? What, if anything, is historically significant about the place? Every town has an interesting history, and having grown up there, you have a unique perspective on being able to write a nice concise history of the town or city.
3. Who is your hero? Write about this person, and why he/she inspires you. It doesn't matter whether they're famous or not, but tell us about the traits of the individual and the behaviors of the individual that makes the person your hero. This verges on getting to know you, but if you stick with a focus on the hero rather than yourself, it should go well.
4. What is/was your favorite game to play, either now or as a child? What did you need to play it? What were the rules? What are some basic strategies for winning?
5. Where did you eat the last time you went out for a meal? Was the food good or bad? How about the decor of the restaurant? Did you have to park a few miles away to get there? Did the waitress spit on your food? Did you have to chase the cockroaches and hungry rats away from your table with a pitchfork?
6. What is your chosen career? What does it entail? What are the requirements? What do you have to do on a daily basis?
7. Who is your favorite film star? Search on the internet for a biography to start things off, but mostly talk about the roles they've been in that you've found particularly fabulous. Some of these people are well-written here, but a surprisingly small number.
8. What is your favorite animal? Where do they live naturally? What is their habitat like? What do they look like? What animals are they related to?
9. Turn on your television to a random station. Node what you see and what it makes you think about. Movie, television program, commercial; it doesn't really matter as long as you tell us enough that we can understand what it is if we know nothing about it, and we know what exactly you liked about it and what it made you think about.
10. If you have any plants around, node them. What's the name? Where did you get it/how did you grow it? How do you care for it? What does it look like? Does it have any odor? What kinds of sunlight does it like?
11. Look at your shoes. If you happen to know the company that made them and the model, node about them. Have they lasted well? Are they nice to wear or have they caused significant blistering? Does the shoe company offer similar models, and what are those (just a quick peek at the company website should tell you this)?
12. Break into your liquor cabinet and pull out a beverage. Describe the flavor, the ingredients, the availability, the packaging, and the cost. Is it more of a recreational beverage or does it knock you to the floor like a moose on a blood rampage?
13. Got any pictures on your wall of things besides people you're related to or friends with? Why is that poster or photo or drawing there? Who on earth is the person, or where is the place, or what is the thing?
14. What particular historical figure intrigued you? Surely, even if you are not interested in general history, the history of whatever topic interests you must have an intriguing figure or two in it. Who are these people and why do they interest you?
15. If you enjoy sports, what is your favorite sports team? Tell us about their history and significant players, but more importantly, what drove you to be a fan of the team?
16. Who is your favorite musician or musical act who never really broke into the big time, or maybe just did so for a fleeting moment. What is/was their sound? What albums and singles did they release? How did you discover this act?
17. Turn on your radio to a random station and wait for a song that tickles your fancy. Tell us about the song. Who wrote it? What are the lyrics? What's the song about? How does it make you feel? What other songs are like it?
18. How has a major world event changed your life? A lot of worthwhile nodes have been written here about the impact of September 11, 2001 on the lives of ordinary people, and how they are getting on with it. How has it truly changed your life?
19. Again, if you enjoy sports, who is your favorite athlete? Tell us about the player's career, but more interestingly, why do you root for this player? Do you like their style of play, or is it a personal connection?
20. Were you ever taken in by a hoax? How was the hoax constructed? What were the details of it? How did it hook you in? Amazingly, very few of these are noded here.
21. Look in your medicine cabinet. Find out about the things in there. What are the ingredients and what exactly do they do? You can find this on the 'net quite easily. Compiling this information and noting the effects of the med on you makes for a very good writeup.
22. Pick up an issue of your favorite magazine. What is the magazine? What type of magazine is it? What regular articles does it have? Is it high quality or truly lowbrow? How easy is it to find?
23. What is your favorite painting, or sculpture, or fine artist, or one of them if you have an armload of them as I do? Who painted it, when, and in what style? What does it depict? The real home run here, though, is the response it evokes in you and why it evokes that response.
24. Take your favorite song. Write out the lyrics, but pipelink each line to what it makes you feel and think about. Tell us where you heard the song, where we can find it, and who performs it. Tell us what the song means, not only in general but to you. How has it truly affected you?
25. What is your favorite thing to eat? How do you make it? Why is it sublime?
26. Look at your bookshelf. Find a book that you've read recently. Who wrote it? What was it about? What issues did it bring up for you? What other books are like it?
27. Take an old floppy disk with some long forgotten files on them and open them up. Quite often there is a writeup already waiting to happen on there, usually the better part of an already-written report on a certain topic. Post it here; if you want to note it as a "report you once did," do so, but there's no need to.
28. What did you work on today, if you are either a student or a worker of some sort? Simply noding the things that you work on regularly opens up a lot of possibilities; a careful detailing of a technical topic that you work with regularly is a wonderful writeup because you already have great experience with it.
29. Open your refrigerator door. Find a food item inside. Tell us what's in it, what you use it for, and what it tastes like. Why is it in your fridge, anyway?
30. Where did you go on your last vacation? Write a little travelogue, noting what was worth visiting when you went to this place. Many locales have very little in them noting the notable places worth visiting there. You could also do the same for your own hometown, if there is anything worth writing about.
31. Who is your favorite writer or poet? What about their writing style makes you like them so much? What have they written? Tell us about the person, how you found their work, and what it means to you.
32. Node your pet. What species and breed is it? Note its physical characteristics. How bright is it? What does it like to eat? What are its daily activities? File this under the name of the breed or the species, whichever seems more appropriate.
33. Grab a video from your video collection and throw it in. Node the movie; touch on the details that one might find at the Internet Movie Database, but tell us what you liked about it. What was the movie actually about? What other films are like it?
34. Pick up a well-read issue of a magazine that you have lying around. Find your favorite article in it, and node it. What's the article? Who wrote it? What magazine is it in and where? What are the highlights of the article? How did it impact you?
35. Look out your window. What is the first thing you see that jumps out at you? Describe it to us, not only what and where it is, but a description of the item itself. Why do you notice it when you look out your window? What draws you to this particular item?
36. Ever figured out or been told an effective technique for cleaning something or arranging something? Tell us the technique; write up a little how-to. Many of us have no idea how to do many household chores effectively.
37. What was the best thing that you ever received as a Christmas gift? Why did you want it such, and what enjoyment did it bring you? What was the item? How was it used? Use the joy of the gift for inspiration to tell us about the item itself.
38. Do you know how to make something, like a simple origami model, a type of kite, or some similar craft? Tell us how to do it.
39. What did you eat for breakfast this morning? If you're like me, chances are it was a cold cereal and milk. What's in the cereal? How was it marketed? Does the cartoonish character on the box fill you with glee or rage? How does it taste? Do The Soggies attack it when it sits in milk for a while?
40. Find out what happened historically on today's date. Take one of those events and expand on it, explaining its historical signifcance and how it has actually impacted life today.
41. Here's a little bonus: if all else fails, hit the Random Node link for a while and see what it brings you. It has brought me inspiration many times.

There is so much raw possibility here that it is literally intoxicating for me and probably for you, too. Sometimes, visiting E2 is like opening a spigot from my mind; hopefully, it pumps something to your mind on occasion. It's something we can share, the things we know of and the experiences we have. And these are truly countless things, like the stars in the sky.

This place needs more actual content. Let's begin.