socially making the most of the internet

Im not sure what to name this post, but what it is about is socially making the most of the internet, so I guess I will call it that.
One of my brothers was surprised to say the least that considering I have spent less than 6 months really actively on the internet and social media, so I thought I would write about what one should do to make connections with like minded individuals and geniuses on the internet.
The first thing I can think of is to pick a social internet circle and stick with it, I include YouTube in the definition of social internet, as it is most definitely a way to interact socially with others if you so decide. And in ways I exclude the vanilla usage of facebook, as you can use facebook to interact with new people but it is really for reinforcing relationships. Hence I use the term Social Internet rather than Social Network.
Charlie McDonnell is a prime example of how he made YouTube work for him, Although a self admitting nerd and once a shy quiet lad, he is now a musical a YouTube sensation. Who can say the line that many people wish they could, that being "my job is YouTube" Charlie has explained his rise to fame and his thoughts on fame most aptly in this video

and the idea of doing what you do, for you; I think is completely true. I'll be lucky if three people read this, I don't do much on-line to get the attention of others I do it for me.

I use twitter, because writing is my medium of choice although it does not have the same viral nature as YouTube, as tweets are not really passed on outside of twitter and even if they are the don't really go viral, unless its a drunk/high celeb. But through twitter I have a small yet solid base of friends and followers from all over the world. something that is scary.

I did this through constantly being active and joining in conversations with others, an essential trait in the offline social world not surprisingly is essential in the online world too

(sorry that this post is a bit messy)

How I write

So, I have started whiting again, and I am very happy that I am doing so. I said to @londonjustin that I would try his method of planning, what compares planning a novel to the process of producing a computer program. L So I try his method, to be fair I was trying to write a plan as quickly as possible (or maybe that is the true test) so I started planning. One of the things I realised latter is that his plan from what sticks in my memory, Maybe Justin would disagree, but it can be summed up to me as, write the ending and or purpose for your novel, (to inform, tell a particular story, push a moral)to explain the characters, then to form a plot with a focus on the later stages of re-writing and editing.
My normal method of planning is slightly different (though I have only planned one fictional piece) and this plan consists of allowing the thought, it might be a character or a theme to bounce around my head for a day or so. and then to open up my laptop and write 3 pages, a figure though in my last plan turned out to equate to a figure closer to 100 000 words (although I still have not finished the first draft) when I was aiming for something closer 50k (before editing, expanding of detail etc.) But a true plan for me, I can only imagine being 3 pages, typed or handwritten, I do prefer typing thou. Once I have allowed the main ideas to bounce around in my head and I have a plan written out I then start to write. As I made my NaNoWriMo attempt last year I started to discover tactics to write efficiently, the most important being:

Setting goals/word counts: When I am using my preferred (non-write-or-die) program, Q10 (a free download) I set a daily goal (1667 words minimum for Nano) a mini-goal usually something that would result in a self-indulgence, such as a break, chocolate, coffee, tea, lollies, a new lip balm. Pretty much everything I bought for myself last November would be a prize for reaching a certain word count. This towards the beginning of Nano was 500 words, and this tends to be my usual goal (though in retrospect I would have made the goal closer to 1000 for the first week of Nano) this then dropped to 250 as the month wore on, eventually wearing down to 100 words as I tired, became sick and so on, as many Nano writers will ditto. These goals, even when not rewarded reminded me of how much I had done, and served as markers that I had written a decent amount. As someone who gains great pleasure in watching numbers increase this was a very effective technique, also having a word count for how much I had written that day, that session and overall that month. Especially how Q10 translates your overall goal into a percentage is very comforting, did you know that 500words is 1% of 50K! Tiny as it sounds, especially earlier in the month (and I would probably write more now in a Nano like situation) I would write 3000 words, 6% of my Nano goal. And to me this very much felt like an accomplishment!

Prizes: I mentioned prizes before, and incentives for writing can be very effective, prizes don't necessarily have to be especially bought, though that can help. a visit to the supermarket with the aim of buying excessive amounts of confectionary (something I believe you can claim on tax if you are a published writer who gains a profit from writing!) just for you can be an inspiring exercise, that also can help control your sugar intake and make it seem precious rather than a given. But also crude things such as "I won’t have a shower this morning if I don’t write 2000 words" or "I won’t have necessities break until I write another 500 words" just little things like that can keep me writing.

Environment: Environment is very important to my writing; I can’t have anyone I know around me. Even if they are in another room i find it hard to settle down with the sounds of movement, or TV in another room. So getting up early and staying up late was a necessity for a lot of my writing. Also going to the library or a cafe when no one I knew was there was an important factor; also I had to have dedicated writing spaces to get a lot of work done. When I went I go to the library to write I have a process. There are 2 libraries that I frequent, at one I can easily crash in a bean bag and write, at the other I sit at a desk in a certain spot, because at the library where I avoid the bean bag, I have gone there many times with friends and chatted and mucked around, some of the time sharing a bean bag, So i find that memory a distraction. I also managed to clear enough space for a card table at the bungalow at the back of my house, and there is a powerpoint there too so I could sit for hours singing angst punk rock songs and eating chocolate as I wrote without fear of being embarrassingly interrupted, and the humidicots, and other sciency equipment there from when My dad did orchid flasks is a really cool place to write... although slightly terrifying! I know that if I went there with a friend and just sat around, that it would be harder to work there.

Word wars: Many lunch times I sat with one of My Nano buddies and we wrote for about 45min of our lunch break, sitting side by side and peeking at the other's word count. Also we battled it out once via txt message one evening. Now with my recent purchase of "write or die" and the wonderful writers I have met though twitter. Word wars seem to be even more accessible and as I get more into writing again, most likely a very helpful community of peers to bounce Ideas off.

Word processor: I wrote the beginning of my Nano using word, big mistake, the red and green squiggly lines (I know they can be turned off) slowed down my writing immensely. Also the desire to format, I would recommend notepad, q10, write or die, anything that *does not* have spell check or formatting options. Editing I have found should be put as far away from writing as possible.

Make sure you have meds: If you suffer a chronic condition, stress gives you headaches, makes you more prone to get sick, have allergies make sure you have plenty of your drugs of choice. Aspirin is a necessity in my writing kit as I suffer from migraines especially when I’m stressed or tired. And I keep lemsip close for another signs on illness. I try my best to identify when I am feeling crook, so I can take necessary action, a break, sleep if I have the time, or meds. A migraine can knock me out for a day if am not careful but awareness plus knowledge of things I can do to help, kept me writing with minimal disruption from my body.

So those are a few of my writing tactics, overall, and I think this next thing applies to everyone, I think the most important tactic is Identifying your own personal strengths and weaknesses and using them to formulate tactics to help you write is a must, plan, even if you disregard it, the worst that could happen is you lose a few hours of your life, and back to Justin’s planning method, I think its great overall, and I am definitely going to use it for my essay planning. For fiction though, I don't think its right for me. I highly recommend you try it though, especially if you are a writer who also has knowledge of programing, as many I know surprisingly do!

Pandemic

The unedited 30k sprint story, quite harsh and visceral, think bfore reading (http://www.edpriceishungry.com/2011/04/20/nowt-to-3k/) does this make up for my fail tuesday blog post?

so the fog and haze was still thick in the air of the streets as i ode my bycyle home, i was ready preapared for anythinjg that may lurk ahead of me, what difficulties would face me at home this times, what falures would face em on this journey. i live in a boarding house, and the year id three thousand. the smoke lyes thinck in the sky from, the buring of the funeral pyres, if they can even be called that anymore. there i no moarning or sorrow for the poor wrechid creatues who nurn anymoare no one knows what side they are on, good or bad, are we going to suffer painfuil deaths at the hand soof our firenmds as the paranoia sets in, noone really knows for siure. all they know is that the pademic will eventallu take them, its an innocent enough story, thatr of how the pandemic started. and i guess thechincally i was a part of it, we all where at we keep playing the game, it was called paindermic also, it was a gme whre the whole aim was to distroy the world with a pandemic thqt woulsd spread accotss the intire planet. kiloing evey one in the most effective way. accouting for the fact that boarders wouls close and that the government would try to astop the infectionm with aid and rules such as martial law and cufews. but there was one differnace between this game and so many ithes that had proceded it. this game was completel open sorse, and could be changed at the whimiscl though odf any man or his child. it was pandemic 1.345695d that was the vertion most remebered and most downloaded. it took into account eh most dangerious an deadly killer and disyroyer of human kind, itself. I added in sypotoms that caused humans to lask out on each other. It was simple to win then, even coutries that shut there boarders could not escape the killers so hell been nt of distroting theat they would fly there own plains or row there own boats or even swim to counties where the promise of fresh uninfected meat lay. where they could keep infecting and killing. It was the most popular dowload, so popular that for the first time a game was taken off the pandemic list.
but then people started getting wise, and my people. i mean govebnments,m of couirse chamical warefare had bewen well and truely banned by the time pademic was realese. but since when has that stopped any govenment for doing what it belives neesary. noone knows much about the nation that invented it. where they are or why they did it. but they took down evgerything. every man child woman animal and building burnt when the pandemic escaped, as everyone knows pandemmics do. but the virus spread almost silenly accross the world before anyone really noiced what has struck. even socail networks such as the dead twitter and facebook seemied in the dark abou what was happening. It just seemed as if civil war had struck nations foir no apparent reason. As the populace slowly got worse. The pandemic was smart 2, the scientist leart for all pandemics that had swept the world before, it learnt from the black plaugue to pray on our socitys weakeness, it learnt from spanish infulenza and h1n1 the power of ease of transmission and it learnt its most deadly leason from the most deadly diese that had speread the world befoire 1.345695d that speed was worth nothing, the disease just burnt itself out, so the pandemic was slow, silent and stealthy, it is transmitted through any contact with skin or bodliy fluids, and it takes a week to die even if it is not infecting a person, meaning that it it i almost impossible to stop. but still we stry, under the hope that he disease will burn itself out and that we woill be left as the soul surviours to live on again. but as each day pased the pyres only grow bigger. i look back on my parents, remebering the day they left me, hoping for the best for me, The could not even give me a goodby hug. only call out to me, from far enough away that neither party would be tempted to run out and hug the other, they were so gallant, so caring that as soon as they saw the blood on the tap that they had just drunk from, they knew it was the end. Thats what some of the infected did, cutting themselves and smearing the blood where ver they could like biologiacal mines, killing smalled clusters of people before the the could be warned away from the places where the infected had struck, 6 monthes after my parents left me, public waterfountans were diabled. no one was sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing as then the thist set in, people so despirate for water that they would dig at the earth for moisure, some gave up so completely that they threy themselves on the pyres. screaming in ectacy as they did so, the watchers of the pyres had run out off sorrow, or at least thats what they said. But i swear that there eyes that constantly smarted from the fumes, smarted just a little more each time someone gave up. many people who belived they were infectyed threw themselved on the pires, but the complete despiration of those who had given up shone through those who were m,early doing it as a public service, before the frenzy kicked in.
I visted the pyres daily, part of it was because the only service i could offer was giving the watchers some reief and part of it was a videral curiousity, as i watched shiliny eyes and flesh burn. though am in no way hearless. I still cry myself to sleep each night even thought the others sem to weiry. I scream for my parents in nightmares. i don't kmow how the others remain so composed, well i guess i am the youngest but that shouldn't make a differance i should be brave i should become accepting of the horros that each day brings, thare is no other way to survie this life in the opinions of all of the others in my boarding hose although they are wonderfully accepting and tollerant of this young man who ius to old to be accepted into an orpanage but not strong enough to be a wanterer of the wates. Naomi everynight through every nifht mare and every scream and fear she holds me. I cant help but feel ashaved of my cowardice, if the others canb survive without breaking down at each oprtunity then surely i can, i am almost a man. close enough in thius world as you really need to grow up fast. you need to put away your fears into a dark little corner where they cant claw at your heart with pademic infeted thoughts.
i hjave screamed at naiomi mnay nights
"how can you live like this" she murrmurs sofly in my hear in and attept to slow my rapid breath.
"i don't" it panics me more though
"then how can you sleep withough screaming, without the terror" insanity threatebning to grip me, turn me into one of the depirate sould who die in ecatcy. with death being a blessing, as they scream to there deities. weithing on this buring death bed, no religions hell is as bad as this life in there opinionts. death raging on and on and on incecently calosly and cruely, but not as criely as this magificently touturous life, pain maring every body, psycological or pysical.
at one point it was suggeseted that the infected should be hunted down and killed, but it was made apparent very quicly that this was completly the kwornd way to go about anything. anf the huters were infected on averge in days, witht the longetst surviving hunters, weeks not even the the best hunters names were recorded, they all diesd way to quicly for even the most dedicated person to record. everyone was dying. no one was sure if the population had dropped bellow a billion a million or even a thousand, i bacme harder to tell as each day passed. more people gave up, stopped stavelling and stpped spreading the word from other places, we were becoming m ore and more alone and more and more isolated. we feared the day that the pyres stared going out because when that day came it would mark the true coming of the end, we had been waiting and parying for years that that day would never end but it seemed as if it would and more and more people, we had no idea where they were coming from as the world stated to feel smaller and smaller more and more isolated. screams of the dying still reacing out ears. impossibe that life still seemed to go on childeren still being born in the sight of the pyres, the creamd of the schock of coing into the world seemed no differant that the pain of leaving it. some children were thrown on the pyres by parents who could be considered , amzingly bave and kind. or the worst kind of cruel, but there was no law anymore. we were only helb back by what socity if i could even be called that offered. you die without water, you die with the pandemic, you kill for food, you die for no reason. but you still have sex, love (if the twised up world could even truely hold that any more) the pademic, need and fear. the fear of what would happen if the screams stopped andf you were the only one left, if you were infected, if you were inferted and you found out before the madness hit you like a brick wall to the face. woiuld you have thge guts to go out like a hero by throwing yourself on the pyre like a true honest soul would, would you try to lock yourself in a room where you could starve out your frenzy all anone where you cdould hopefully hurt no one or would you give in at wait for the madness to set in and kill everyone. those were the questions that made everyone who lwas left (at least the sane ones) phlosophrs. we were eventhong now, philosophers , healers, teachers, pyre watchers, listeners, and we were all a little bit insane too, even the one who didn't show there night mares and fears how i did, still occtionally weep at the pyres when they found the energy or the time.
even nova, the harshes person i have ever heard of, (and i have to live with her!) could be spotter at the pyres. she said her eyes were just watering, but i dubted it. we all did, everyone left who was sane cryed. at least every one whio we had seen, and who we had been told about, although the population kept dropping the worl;d was steadly becoming bigger, we wondered what would happen to what was a tiny blue and gree worl abundant with life. would everything die, would we die and then the world manage to rebuild with us safely out of they way. none really new for sure, but we had the time to sit and ponder thouse things althought we arely talked anymore, you were either a realist or an optmist in this worf, and neith one was a respecvted title so people just jkept there mouths firmly clamped shut. and i was an crybaby already, i didn't want another ajective added to my name so i guess i really did conform in that way.
the haze was still drifing sofly, as i roe over the bumpy rubble of the ground, the grey houses the only thing that surrounbded me in the silence that drifted away at each explamation and scaream and incoherant scram of indanity in the disance as anoither thrwe themselves on a pyre. like the pandemics of the past hoses were forsaken , but with fire, the wooden ones having as mush of the woord taken as possibe fot the fires. out hose was the only one in our street, distance ws seen as a main factor to keep every one safe, but it was really an illution, with infected moving accross contanat and nations there was no hope brough in the disance of a few strees in suburbia, nor a few mile, not even a few miles under the sea was a garenttee any more. I just kept rining, carefully though brecause any damage to my bycycle was hard to repair, i was luck just to have a bike, they were a raity and this one was my fathers, so i would never leave my possention as long as i stayed sane. well i guess sanuity was really quite subjective, so i will say as ling as i remain sane enoughhto not trow myself on a pyre in a screaming rage like i saw most days. it was an impossible way to exist in this inbetween, in this limbo still wondering and praying over what tommorwo would hold for us, what horrors were in stor for us what was needed to survive and what ws desprately wanted. to escape for this impossibl lonely ness. was it possible, physicall contact was a risk, but most who avioded it went insane, or gave up, not wanting to live the last... no one knows what time frame.. of there lives untouched unwanted my anyone, or wanted so badly but avioded. i remeber every contact i had with a person since the pandemic, it wasn't something you jus forgot. I let my thought be absorbed in the physical exertion i was partaking in, trying to shut out my babbling thoughts for at least the shortest of whiles, round and round my feet go, fingets clenched tight on the handle bars, no helemt, it didn't even seem like a risk in thius world. roung and round forward and onwards.
and then it struck me, what was the point with keepin on trying with this world, we have done so much evil and hurt so much. we were worthless, we deserved tpo be killed an maccecured in the streets like animals by out own frieds, so i moved steathly, the pedals turing and the gears spinning on my bike gained a whole new meaning as i pedaled harded and harded towads home, ready to show them what i had realised, and show them with my bare hands and teeth, to claw at there throats with despiration for blood, io needed there deaths to purify this place that we have tourtured for so long, and still keep tourring. the light of the pyres making the night sky light, and the smoke hiding the clouds. childrenj have been born who have never seen the stars who mhave never seen life beyound the little hell hole that we live in. who will never see a tree. This world is dirty and horrible nasty and messed up by all the things that we are trying to do to msave our selves. what is the point, we are going to die. we are killing each other is the most ingenuios way of doing it. we are truely paying for our sins with the blood of our friends that are spil all over our hands and clothes. clothes that we have not changed stained with ash and sweat and tears. pointless hopeless tears that make no sense. we deserve to die. I cant wait to feel the suffering and pain that i shall inflict on my friends, the ones who i though were my friends. but in fact they are all evil; and heartless, Nove would go to the housed of those who had fleed and stael food, micheal would spend half his time praying to an false godess and the oither half trying to jusify his beafief to thoers instead of helping where it ws really needed. What is the point of his existance even i we derseved to live he wouldn't. He tells tales o saving children accross the nations before they were annexed into this mess we call a United Nations, but i realise now that he is a liar, no good ever came out of humans, not ene to each other. sasha says she takes our foor to orphans near the easter p[yres but i know now that she is lying she is eating it all herself or sharing it with he true friends, the dirty theif/ my legs are starting to cramp from the last hill before home, befor i can have my vengance. Before i can rake my broken finder nails accros scared chests, smear blod on the walls, run and claw at as many others as i kcan. spill my blood in there food. I feel the blood pound through me like nothing else ever has. Like nothing else ever will. i exist to kill and take life, I will spread death, I will bite, eat the hearts of my lovers, as they still boil in my hands. I finnaly reach home I Iam preapred I first see Sasha and nova talking in a corner, the spot me and wave hello, but the dont seem, so cheerful as i pounce on them hungry for them needing them. I smash my palm into novas throat cutting off her aggonized scream as i hear the carttilage clooapse and the blood explode from her mouth like pure water from a faucet. Im on mical next as he mive forward to stop me, i slash at him, naomi comes next and i bite at her, she deseved a more personal touch, as we were VERY close, if you know what i mean. Nova, who i had forgotten about calls my attention moving closer to her turning and snarl;ing. she fires the 2 shotgut pellets through my chest, i lunge at he at my heart fails. But i die happy, at they are all infected too only one drop of blood of fleck of salia or smear of sweat.

The way to my heart

Its officially wi-fi
I will at least put up with you as long as you give me access to free wi-fi
My dumdum cousin was flicking rubber bands at me but because I was in the process of logging into his wi-fi.
And I guess the giving of gifts has often been an excuse to treat someone badly, and I think he would be an annoying twat even if he had not have let me on the wi-fi. So overall I am content.

My True Paradox

Clarity
Echoes of meaning
Intelligence

Love
In the silence
Forgotten

Noise
Fog and mist
Screams

Fate
Making life easy
Lies

Missing
Your Imperfect life
Adoring

Drawing
A wondrous picture
Manually

Dreams
Of just you
Joy

Velvet
Your supposed flaws
Beauty

Sorrow
I am alone
Crowded

Clear
My shadowed path
Indistinguishable

Movement
So perfectly balanced
Tranquility

Home
Is with you
Undone

Silhouette
Of your form
Alone

Love
Still my Mystery
Unsure

Fallen
Risen
Silence
Screams
My true Paradox

Allegory

There was once a boy named David, he was brave and kind living in an important village on the fringes of the kingdom. This village did have fertile sol to grow crops or deposits of valuable ore, its importance was in the knowledge it had.
This knowledge was in mediation and stopping the escalation of wars. It was the odd one out in an area filled with battling villages. Every few months a couple of village elders would come asking for help in settling disputes. In return for there help the village would get supplies of skins food, wood and the occasional specialty item. But in between these visits there was not much happening, there were no classes for boys and girls and the elders were always debating about this and that.
One day David and his friend, who were mostly boys, while skimming stones on the lake decided to take aim at a small bird with there stones. A tough young boy cracked the bird’s skull and a young lass picked it up and marched back to camp with it, along with the rest of David’s friends. It became a game where the person who killed the most got a small piece of leather or silver from the elders.
The elders thought this game was a great character building activity for the children.
A few months later the eldest children were offered swords and other weapons by the other tribes who had heard of there exploits. The elders were in outrage, these weapons are the cause of all evil in this world they all agreed and the children and the rest of the tribe were banned from even laying eyes upon them. And the whole tribe agreed that this was the way to go.
Years passed and David became of age, He wanted to use a bow to catch larger animals now he was of age, but the elders reaffirmed there statement of previous years, “Weapons are evil.”
David grew older, still believing that weapons were not the cause of the wars that surrounded to village. He was accepted to the council of elders and fought hard for change, but still nothing.
Years after that, The warring ended, There were great festivals and feasts all around the surrounding villages. David’s village was left out, and now there was no way for them to earn supplies. The once warring villages heard this and offered food or weapons to the village.
The village was offered a choice between living reliantly of the kindness of the people around them and hunting; the elders were drawn. Half not wanting to be so dependant and half fearing that weapons will cause war.
David who still strongly believed that every one should have the right to hunt with weapons made a speech to the council “These tools are just what, tools. Tools have no intelligence, they cannot breed murderers, if we keep strong in our views, we could starve on the words of our “friends”. As long as keep our values though, we can ban there use by children but allow those who are mature to use them, we will be free.”
All of he elder were convinced by this passionate speech, and decided to take the weapons. The children were not allows to use or touch the weapons. They lived peacefully forever after.

The End

Statement of intention

The issue in my allegory is the lack of a R18+ rating for video games in Australia.
Many People are under the delusion that video games:

a) Cause violent behavior in real life
b) Are just for children

In my allegory I use medieval times to represent that our society is living in the past compared to other progressive views around the world.
I also use children to represent the gaming industries humble beginning (60s game arcades and then the creation of the “Nintendo generation” late 70s - 80s)
I use stones to represent the innocent beginning of video games and swords as the modern games, and this progression representing the aging and evolution of the Nintendo Generation.
The fear of war being the fear of violence in society, and the choice between food and weapons being an amplified trigger between social ideas and social pressure.

His touch

His touch
Leaves a tingle over my skin
His kiss
A burn

His left hand
On the base of my spine
His right
Firmly holding mine

A movement
A twirl
A spin

His chest
Against my back, I can feel his heartbeat
His Shoulder
Solid yet Warm

His eyes
Are fire, a determination beneath a lie
His hair
Reflecting a golden light

A step
A stroke
A measure

His right arm
Holding me tight
His left
Holding me tighter

His Smile
Warming me in its glow
His legs
Firmly planted on the ground

No Footsteps
No roads
No wind

Music for my soul
Two bodies one essence
Absence of Dark
Yet not Vivid

Why I was crying

I cried and he touched my face
As the tears trace
Down his jaw
It was what I saw

He made me shed tears
Show him my fears
Only more violently
Insistently

My sobs made him shudder
When we could not utter
He saw the dove
Over and above

I felt like I was falling
As the pale bird was diving
I look at my beloved
He was all I loved

Why was I crying
I was not dying
I was so animated
I was elated

And he was breathing
Holding me unyielding
I was no longer descending
Nor was I rising

I was with my adored
I could not be bored
I could not be sad
I could not be bad

It was the present
And not the descent
The countryside was bright
Filled with his light

And then my reality
Was torn apart
As I awoke
So near yet so far