August 2007 Archives

When, exactly, did "Hey!" replace "Hi!" as a standard greeting?

I think I've been using "Hey!" for "Hi!" for at least five years -- but I'm not sure of the when or why.

Was there some sea change in a cultural colloquialism I missed?

Book royalties from computer book publishers to authors have precipitously diminished over the last decade and so have "cash advances" against those future royalties.

Ten years ago, a first time author could expect to get at least a $15,000.00 USD advance against royalties with royalties starting at 8% and rising to 12% or even 15%.

Recent movies such as 300 and The Hitcher prove there is a written disconnect between aesthetic, the body, and gore as expressed in the higher calling of community welfare and the darkest depths effervescent commodity.

One film proves there is humanity and purpose in bloodshed while the other confirms we lose our hearts in the unnecessary testimony of individual cruelty rioting in rivulets of blood across the screen.

What causes one mind to write such beauty in dismay, while another pens purgatory for profit?

The world requires us.

We are inevitable.

We become not what we want -- but what others desire of us.

If were were unnecessary, we would not be here.

What, then, do we do with this complicated life when the risk of throwing it away outweighs the rewards of righteousness?

I've written a lot about how cruelty has ruined Web 2.0:

Hate Mail and Spam
Why Do You Hide Your Identity?
Impulsive Web Rage
Anti-Social Networking
Sycophants in Rejection: Making Terroristic Threats

I run another blog called Urban Semiotic and over there we look at issues rotting the urban core.

This WordPunk blog concerns writing about words in the wilds. 

We are textual. 

We are not the image.

Is it possible for text to be semiotic?

Or is the word always text -- even as an image?

After my free TypePad trial, I have decided to stick with "paying my way" blogging so I can continue to watch TypePad grow its features set in comparison with my ongoing experience with both Blogger and WordPress.

TypePad's support folk are kind and responsive and that is important when you have a dire question or when you blog dies -- and the inevitable truth of all life on the web is that everything eventually dies -- sometimes things are reborn anew, but many times things stay dead without direct resuscitation.

If one hopes to create something of everlasting worth, one must take deep moments to pause and contemplate the idea in time, space, and proximity to an eternal truth.

Contemplation leads to questions and answers that may not be readily provided.

It is in that chasm between the wondering and the answering that gives us context for caution against living and dying and we too often wage death over the sin of life.

Know this universal warning:  Beware of words and their meaning!  Words are tricksy.  Text is culturally malleable!

A UK associate and I exchanged email the other day.  I live in the USA.  He lives in the UK.

Aristotle taught us we learn through imitation.

If Aristotle is right, then we need to be wary with our adoration in imitation because modeling the behavior of the wrong person can imprint a life in awful and classically tragic ways.

The creative process is also inspired by Aristotle's revelation.

We only create what we what we experience.  There are no new ideas.  Nothing is created from nothingness. 

Every inspiration has a core.  Every idea has a pre-existing father. 

Our job as artists is to conjoin separate, disparate, and outrageous existing ideas and present them as new thoughts that spark inspired learning processes in others.

We teach through surprise connections.

We learn because creation breeds imitation.

If you write words for a paper page or an electronic interface, you are cursed by the medium of publication.

Hardcopy has a limited life and is stuck in stasis.  You might get paid and you might not.  It costs a lot of money to print, distribute and manage paper.

Electronic publication is fleeting and febrile.  You likely will not be paid.  Ever.  You can, however, move with the wind, revise and fix at will, and have others scrape the wealth from you in illegal republication.

One medium promise eternity while the other guarantees death.

Which is the better devil?

Sometimes we are unaware of what we have written.

Our words always become ghosts to us and they haunt us in the quiet moments if we are not cogent of their power to harm when we create meaning by solidifying thoughts into form and placing words against each other for context.

I've had this WordPunk blog active on TypePad for a week now and I've made clear the things that concern me as a writer as I try to decide if buying into TypePad hosting is really worth $300.00 USD a year.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Going great guns?"

I have.

And I haven't.

Thank you for reading post and helping me tease WordPunk.com on TypePad.

I would appreciate if you'd bang around here a bit and see if you find anything broken or if you there's something missing that should be added.

THANKS!

I am curious to discover how the new MT4 update will affect TypePad, if at all.  Do we get new features before MT or does the process trickle down in reverse?

WordPress.com is the testbed for standalone WordPress so if you're blogging on the Dot Com version you get to see and experience new features first in an ongoing basis.

This is my second day on TypePad -- I'm here to check out how for-pay TypePad compares with free WordPress.com and free Blogger blog hosting.

This is my TypePad testbed blog.

Please enjoy banging around here with me as we discover how lively Six Apart is when it comes to blogging satisfaction.

Here is my Technorati Profile.