Memoirs of an English Major

   Tonight’s posts are simply going to be a couple of plugs. First off, I have a new blog I am part of. For me, I’m looking at it as a tech blog where I think most of my tech article will be. If you’re interested in reading what my friends and I have to say on Tech, check out the Moon-cast blog. If you are familiar with my old podcast, some of the writers will seem familiar. I should have an Entrecard for the blog up as soon as the rest of the other writers are on board.

   As for the second plug, one of my short stories was sent to a contest a while back. It is almost over, but the winners have yet to be announced. In any case, my short work is up at Bebo Author. Feel free to comment, read, and state whatever you wish. Any comment will be read and accepted as such, so please try to be constructive.

  That is all for now. I should have a better post this week.

    Well, now that all is said and done with the interview, it’s time to get back into the full swing of things and get back to writing. I won’t go into details as to who I interviewed with, but I will say it did not go as successful as I thought it would, but it is alright. In the end, it was a great experience and possible one that made me realize what it is I need to do and what I want to do are in fact the same thing. And with this in mind, I am going to commit more time to both writing and programming not only this month, but the following months to come. I’ve decided to go into full production mode on my novel concept and an open source project that I will put online once started. But as a first action, by this weekend, I will post the first version of the theme code that powers this site. The design itself is under a separate license, however any code I have written will be fully under the latest version the the Gnu Public License. I’ll do a check before I do this to see if it violates the license, though I don’t think this will be a problem. Also, I am rolling around the idea of placing something on the Entrecard shop, though I’m not sure what. In any case, if this post does not make it apparent, my mind’s been a swirling mass of thoughts and ideas. Ever since the interview was completely botched, the electrons in the chunk of gray matter in my cranium has going into overdrive and I haven’t felt better. So, stayed tune this month as I think this will one that will be one of creative rebirth on all fronts.

   As a product review, I think I found my top notebook now. As my interview was in Chicago and since my second day was empty, I decided to go to some of the museums of the city. One of them happened to be the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. In there, not only did I see great works of art, but also possibly the coolest notebook ever : The Orange Notebook. Part of the bigger Write On & On series, the notebook is pretty simple in appearance, but I simply love it. Maybe it because it looks like an tech manual, or that it has that Valve Orange look to it, but whatever the case, I simply love the thing. I will probably buy the other colors, minus pink and use these as my main notebooks, though I don’t know if I’ll warm up to them as quickly as I did to the orange color. It just invokes everything I think I want in a notebook and feel like it is my notebook. Unlike my previous attempts with Moleskine notebooks everything simply clicked with this little guy. At at $5 a pop, I’m not complaining. Anyways, if you’re in the market for a new notebook, I’d recommend this one. So far its pretty sturdy, though as I just bought the notebook and its only seen so much abuse. If it tears within the week, you’ll hear me complain.

“Do you not like me with my clown? I can see I make you frown. When on Earth will all this end? I’m your friend, your only friend” - Test Card Girl

Welcome to day two of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes week. Before I begin the post, I’m going to quickly write about my experience with Project Wonderful for those of you whoa re curious how’s it’s gone. My current impressions is that it’s not a great as it sounds, at least for my site. The bottom line is that when you run a PW ad bar, you’re auctioning off your site and much like any auction, if you have something that no one wants, it won’t sell. I have yet to see a bid that actually pays me. At one point I set the minimum bid to a dismal five cents. I soon learned that you can make a bid for a site for the cost without any funds. I think if you’re running a bigger site, Project Wonderful’s a great way to get some ad revenue, but not for a small blog like mine. It’s a good idea, just has yet to pull its weight much like Entrecard has. I’m going to continue to run it on the sidebar for the reminder of the month, but these are my first impressions. In any case, on with the post.

It’s amazing what sort of idea pop into my head while I’m on the road, driving along with nothing more than the wheel in my hand, music blaring, and the open road. As I was driving, Ashes to Ashes by David Bowie started playing on my Ipod and I began to think more on the series finale and the series as a whole. In Ashes to Ashes, much like Life on Mars, there is a reoccurring element of a violent clown ready to attack the main character Alex Drake. It’s a consent image and one the viewer finds out what it means. It’s not the first time the clown has appeared in the show’s history.

read on…

   Today, I decided to put on my blogger cap and looked at the numbers for February. Even though I don’t consider myself a pro blogger in the traditional sense, I do wonder if my site is getting readership and if I am connecting with the wider population of the web. Well, the numbers for last month have quite impressed me, as this was the month where Entrecard was in full force and it shows when my hits doubled from January. Even though I am still well under the radar for hits, I am grateful that there is some traffic and that I am connecting with other writers online in various ways. All in all, I think Entrecard has proven a good feature on my site and I will look for other ways to lead in readers, but there is a dilemma I must face. When does it go against the whole design?

read on…

It’s no secret that I am a Web 2.0 junky. It’s pretty crazy now and it’s about the get better. I’m in the process of listing all of my online profiles, making it even easier to find me online. If you’ll look up there, you should see the link. This will help anyone and everyone to find me online, add me as a friend, or simply see what new service I am into. I’m still adding a couple of other links and the page is a work in progress. Make sure to check it out and if you’re on any of the respective networks,  feel free to add me. I know I haven’t post at all this week, but I have been a bit busy trying to get some things done. Next week will be filled with posts, comments, and a lot of active time online from Entrecard to forum posts. Also I should have my story plot ready and possibly a first draft. It’s been a crazy week of work and little sleep, but it’s been a pretty good week. Tonight’s mission though is to get all of the posts tagged correctly, so keep an eye on the tag cloud. The code for the theme will be up by next week.

"I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m going to take a stand. I’m going to defend it. Right or wrong, I’m going to defend it" - Cameron Frye

    Thought I would open up tonight’s post with a plug. One of my good friends recently posted his Nine Inch Nails remix online and I figured it was appropriate to plug the link. Check it out at http://remix.nin.com/member/CloudedRealm. Well worth a listen.

    Recently, mainly due to Entrecard, I’ve had an influx of traffic and it occurred to me. Some of my better posts are deep within the archives and are extremely hard to locate. This week should mark the new theme and with that will come tagging of all of my posts and the removal of categories. I feel with the amorphous writing style, it is best organized in the cloud structure, which isn’t one at all. The cloud should also illustrate where I concentrate on and where I am lacking in, encouraging me to continue with my goal in exploring how I write in various mediums. This will happen by the end of the week. Once complete, there will be the cloud widget on the sidebar, ready to show the work in a very strange style. So without further delay, I will now reveal some of my better posts. Feel free to comment on each post or if you’re coming from Entrecard, comment on my card. I will take any and all concerns.

read on…

“Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark” Patrick Bateman

If you look to the sidebar over there, you should see a new addition to the links there. That my friends is an Entrecard and it is a combination of a business card and crack for a blogger. After signing up with the service, it detected my site, placed me up there, and within seconds, I had people swarming to drop their cards.

read on…