Background: When my friend gets into a new trend, band or art form, he’s seriously into it for ages. His name is Sean. He was mentioning, again, how he’s into some band or something…

Karl: Man, when Sean comes across something, he really comes across it

Me: …That’s what she said!

Everyone near me: *laughter* *high fives for Andrew*

A story I wrote and delivered for AppleLoft II

They came in pairs at first.
Dainty fucken pairs, up the double wide stairs that lead to our town.

Ah our town of old, before it all- back when you could walk the streets standing tall with pride. Back where the cool cats and the jazz dogs did reside.

Back when we didn’t have redemption to prove, when we basked under smoky hookahs and smoking hookers, yeah babe, we ran on a fucken groove.
But then they came.

To start, they were quaint enough for most us just to ignore, we’d pass them in the bars and we’d pass them by the shore and none of would bat an eye- Well, most of the time

We didn’t know their tongue, but they kept to themselves and even brought their own tunes so I guess we all just let them go on their way.

They set up stalls and hawked their wares and curse us all for stooping down to buy a thing or 2, I guess it was enticing to see something new. But that was at first.

We’re all to blame, none more than any other. Everyone was overexcited and forgot what we had known way back when. It’s our town. At least, it was then.
These new ones scuttled around, carrying their customs on their backs and trying to talk to us like we were the ones who should’ve been looking fucking back

But we didn’t know this then, we just smiled and thought they were sweet, in a new world they’d never been. Tall buildings, tall orders, tall us.
Would’ve been a change from a world where I presume everything was short all they did was shit and cuss - Don’t let these comments set you astray; way back then, we started to think they were the talk of the goddamned day.

They brought their pets to town; can you believe that? Not normal pets mind, things that you or I would simply leave to drown. They put on chains, in bowls, in cages, controls. We just laughed,

“Ha!” we’d say “look at those new folk, dragging their bait into to halls. Them animals sure do love the nightlife I’m ever so sure” and we’d cheers our glasses and drink our wine, not knowing the other animals had a love of a different kind.

The bam, out of fucken nowhere we were blasted
With the noise and the culture of a million of the bastards
Our squares and markets, our beaches and bars,
Our clubs and hutches, our moon and our stars

We couldn’t see a goddamned thing for all their drills and rigs, even though they’ve the stature of a common dwarf or common pig
The built up and they built down; though we never saw any progress. We came to learn that building was just what they did

Our numbers fell and we took to hiding out at any possible dig. We could hardly lie about and rap on the old main drag, they had it covered and who knows what they could see behind their shiny new flag

At the start, all we did was drink and pray, that what was happening would not happen another day.
Of course this came to naught, what did you think? That we were those kinds of sort? We stood up in the end, but there was planning to do before we could rise up and make amends

The streets hadn’t been welcome to us for months now and they had the dirt and sky all but covered- the one place we could scheme, we soon discovered, was the sewers. We had no illusions of the odds, we must’ve been (in number) fewer, but we had the height and so help us god we had the brains

So with no leader at the reigns we took to planning our return to our town. Efforts were grand at first; we built weapons and drew diagrams of our buildings. You go here, I’ll go there and we’ll meet in the bell tower, that sort of thing

But as the weeks dragged into months, we began to think that time was on our side. Efforts fell lax and some totally gave up the idea of any attacks. Content to be cast out of heaven and reign in some scum filled jail. Forgive my pen, but to fuck with that; hail horrors hail- We’d get the place back even if it killed us

We spoke in pairs at first
Brooding fucken pairs, drinking bathtub rye and longing to claim back our town.

Our numbers grew quickly, those out of favour with that which was content with sorrow. Soon enough, we had the numbers and the tools; we’d go outside. And we’d take them on the morrow

It was bright out. We’d been under for so long we forgot that the sky even had a sun. We scouted the area and split up like we’d planned.

I couldn’t see any of them, but there were scratch marks everywhere. Half built stores and half torn down walls. I heard scuttling, but I’d been hearing it for weeks and didn’t have the time to be scared. Straight to the library, like we planned. The books were still there… I couldn’t understand. I assumed the place would be a smoking crater, or some fucken bin they deemed to be greater. But here it stood.

I went in.

One of them was sitting with its back to me, reading some guide to our grammar,
I dealt with it swiftly and cleaned it off of my hammer.

Why would they be reading about us? Did they know we were still here? Had we been too loud when we were making our gear? Maybe things wouldn’t be as simple as we’d thought…

Still, best keep moving; didn’t come this far to just get fucken caught.
Slinking through the books and forever heading down, I finally reached the cellar and forced my way in,
There sat a couple, cowering in the corner, licking hairy wounds. I fixed ‘em up and put them in the bin.

I cleaned my tools once more, and felt around the bricks
Found the tunnel they’d built that one time, just for kicks

Walking in the dark, I felt more at home than out there in their city. It didn’t feel like our town anymore… I guess we’d have to work hard to make it like it was before.

I met up with the others where the tunnels converged, we all had similar tales. They were trying to learn more about us, and were exceedingly easy to nail. We kept walking, heading towards our town hall. We hoped that a coup de grace on their number 1 would demoralise them all; and that they’d fuck right off to wherever the hell they crawled.

We got to the door and stopped. No one would go in first… we hadn’t had this part particularly planned. I fixed my coat and kicked the door in. After all, I am, above all else, a gentleman.

The room was covered in dirt. The paintings and red carpets we’d so adored were half eaten. We didn’t see any of them in the room… we thought that they may’ve already been beaten.

We walked in, slowly at first. The mayoral desk was upturned and the mayoral chair had been recently burned.

The others turned back in celebration, high fiving and yelling back down the tunnel that it was over, that we’d won without trying.

Alone, I rested on the side of the desk. This isn’t what we had, this isn’t what they desired. What had happened when we were underground, just what the fuck had transpired?

I saw what was left of their leader squatting over a pot plant, wheezing like a sick child. He looked across as me with mercy in eyes that once held thoughts of mystery and wild

I stood over him, looking down, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t feel just a little depressed
…Then I sat back down and wiped the cunt off the front of my vest

That was a week ago today, as I sit in this small room, watching the outside world fix itself
I want to go out and help, really I do, but I think this town will just be fine by herself

I’ll sit here on my own and try and draw this face into anything but a frown
And to return to anonymity, like before this soliloquy, and look out to a place that is not my town

How has the form and meaning of ‘creative writing’ changed since the so-called Internet Revolution?

Storytelling is as old as humanity itself. Before we could talk, we were drawing pictures on cave walls to tell stories about hunters and beasts. Before we had scientific methods, we used stories to explain the inexplicable and confusing. The printing press would not have caused the mass cultural revolution it did were it not for the deep power of storytelling. With the notions and forms of storytelling changing over time, it was only natural that the advent and mass adoption of the web that stories, as we know them, would change again. Over the course of the DIGC101 ‘New Media Communication’ course, I fabricated and crafted the fictitious online persona of an Australian bush poet. Stace ‘Drover’ Kingsford, as I named him, was battling against new technology and forms of creative writing publication. No longer did he, or does anyone, have to secure publishing deals and the like; blogging services and social networking sites allow for the worldwide distribution of creative forms of writing in a way like never before. Whilst some, such as Stace, struggled with this notion whilst still adopting it, other, non-fictitious personalities such as writer Joey Comeau, adopt and praise the new form in full. Still in its infancy, the online world is changing the way creative writing occurs, yet it still has a long way to go before being comparable to the level of change faced by music or even film. Writers have many new tools at their disposal, yet face an entire new throng of challenges as well. This essay will chronicle, discuss and analyse these new challenges and advantages, as well as examine the cultural and creative ramifications of the change from a one way ‘broadcast’ model of creative writing to a more interactive and direct comment style of storytelling.

Despite the delayed, and perhaps disappointingly sparse, personification of my fictional online bush poet Stace; his blog, social networking interaction and web presence are all still useful to look at when discussing web based creative writing. After struggling with traditionally styled, ‘website looking’ social networking sites such as MySpace, I settled on simply maintaining a blog which ‘Stace’ would update as new poems, prose and general thoughts occurred to him. This can be seen as exemplary of the nature of the web today, as creative artists, from writers (Sandoval 2009) to musicians (angy 2007), leave such sites en masse for easier to navigate and more personal services. It was not long before I realised that there was a reason why MySpace’s popularity has dropped (Arrington 2009), the site was simply too awkward use if someone wanted to create an artistic presence. Finally settling on Google’s ‘blogger’ and a Twitter page, I first went about creating ‘old’ poems which poked fun at the culture difference between old media creativity and new media creativity. Whilst this target for satire is hardly original, it was necessary; if only to establish tone and provide a somewhat believable back story for the character. Furthermore, I wanted to have the ‘old’ poems seem like they were legitimately awkward in an online context in order to show the changing nature of storytelling. The first two poems are clearly meant to be read, as they were written with rhythm and metre in mind, which would be fine if the image of a Bushman at a bar reciting from a piece of paper was still in the popular culture, but it is not. The later, ‘newer’ poetry by Stace is more suited to an online capacity, despite the author’s obvious attempts at fitting into the popular culture, new media zeitgeist by littering the poems with banal Internet and mobile telephony references. Despite the disappointingly half-hearted uptake, on my own behalf, of Stace Kingsford, the process allowed me an insight into the world of the creative writer with digital aspirations. Blogging services are a mandatory, social networking is not what it used to be and just because I have built it, does not mean that they will come.

Whilst Joey Comeau can hardly be considered comparable to ‘famous’ writers with web presences like Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett, he still makes a living out of creative writing and storytelling. Perhaps best known for being the writing half of the duo who create, publish and maintain the webcomic ‘A Softer World’, Joey Comeau is also a perfect example of a successful online writer who embodies the new and respects the old. Webcomics, comics designed for, and primarily publish online, have been part of the Internet’s creative circle for many years now, with numerous author’s making a full time living off of their advertising revenue and merchandise sales. Often seen as the culmination of the underground, indie comic movement (Fenty, Houp & Taylor 2004), webcomics can be viewed as a democratising medium for the artists involved, who no longer have to strive for newspaper or graphic novel level of popularity in order to make money. Webcomics indeed, are exemplary of the lofty, perhaps naive, view that the Internet is some great democratising force. Joey Comeau, unique amongst web cartoonists for the generally downbeat, darkly humorous tone of his comics, is also a published writer who relies heavily on new media communication for his fame. Now with published books under his belt, Joey still employs the Internet for his creative output His book, Overqualified, documents his dark and funny cover letters to jobs he has applied for. The book originally appeared as a series of episodic updates on his website, and is now available for purchase worldwide. Comparable, Joey has published many short stories and pieces of creative writing online, for free, and collated them in published, short story collection books. Other work includes an episodic horror novella online, available at no cost. These stories, and Joey Comeau’s attitude to distribution, are uniquely possible solely because of the changing state of creative writing today. Piggybacking off of his webcomic’s popularity, Joey uses the same platform to pursue his main love; semi-long form storytelling. Whilst this is comparable to a musician using their popularity to warrant publishing a novel, that comparison ignored the fact that Joey Comeau’s webcomic ‘A Softer World’ is only popular through electronic word of mouth and utterly minimal advertising. With webcomics being as popular as they are online, it is understandable that artists and writes may use them as a launching point for their careers in general. Furthermore, the episodic nature of these novels published by Joey, honour the timely tradition of gradual storytelling employed by such writers as Charles Dickens before the novel was culturally de rigueur. Magazines are hardly known for publishing chapters of unknown authors in 2009. Thus the beauty of blogging and self publishing becomes apparent. However, it is not all roses; the Internet may have democratised the idea of publishing and reinvigorated episodic, written storytelling, but this model is not without flaws.

The successful Joey Comeau and the amazingly unsuccessful Stace Kingsford rely on having a following because of word of mouth, piggybacking off previous laurels, and simply because their work is good enough to warrant one. This is hardly the only way of getting one’s work out into the greater Internet consciousness; indeed, it has got to be a rather hit and miss manner of doing so considering the vast number of social networking sites available for artist promotion in 2009. Despite my personal grievances with, and unenthusiastic adoption of, MySpace, this does not mean the social networking site is a useless tool for the creative writer in the online sphere. Considering that big name brands believe in using social networking as a legitimate advertising avenue (Scott 2007 pp229-231), it is understandable that creative artists would want to use the services as well. Through first hand research, using Stace, I conclude that Facebook is a decidedly mediocre platform for publishing creative writing. The URLs are too long, the pages are not designed for long pieces of text and the ‘notes’ themselves are all too often lost amongst thousands of other floating around, let alone the shady policies surrounding Facebook and ownership of publications (Finin 2009). However, I also noted during research that Facebook seems like it could not be happier to have your advertising your page on their website, with Facebook’s design team more than happy to have your ad appear to be another friendly suggestion based on your current interests. Whilst this raises ethical questions about advertising online, it also raises possibilities for writers who really feel like advertising is a good source of building a following. Another possibility is to use the piggybacking method based off another’s popularity. Recently, my friend’s and I made a mock holiday, and we advertised it simply by posting a generally humorous message on pages we assumed like minded people would visit. After a week or so, some 500 strangers were ‘attending’ this party. Tackling social networking sites is tricky, which is perhaps why there are so many books devoted to the subject, yet going about them in a tongue in cheek manner is a definite possibility for gaining popularity. On the topic of Facebook’s End User Licence Agreement and the controversy surrounding it, another huge obstacle facing the online interested creative writer is copyright. When a book is published, the copyright is simple enough to understand, yet when a writer publishes or syndicates content between several platforms, problems may arise. A way around this is to only publish on a website directly owned by you, or use services one trusts. Facebook hosts and distributes links efficiently, which would make it a fine alternative for writers who may want to use it for the socialising aspects, yet still wish to promote their work and maintain ownership of it. Nevertheless, relying on Facebook and a blog is still not employing the modern web to its fullest potential for writing purposes.

Traditional social networking sites are certainly useful tools for promotion, yet in terms of art publication and experimentation, they are unquestionably lacking. However, combined social networking and art sites, such as Flickr and YouTube, possess some of the benefits of straight social networking services whilst still allowing for unique, web-based artistic expression. Whilst there are countless people who would be willing to read online stories, their numbers are certainly smaller than the number of people who would watch a 3 minutes video or look at half a dozen photos. Whilst decent photography and filming equipment isn’t possible for everyone, free photo and video editing software is available for anyone who is willing to hunt it out. A handful of small YouTube videos featuring voice over work and several edited photographs featuring creative script or a poem over the top of them are more interesting to the layman than pages of black text on a white screen. This raises questions about the nature of the supposed democratisation of the Internet and the cultural zeitgeist though. In times of yore, not having the money, skill or desire to publish short films would not impact one’s life as a writer, now, this may not be case. Likewise, if people are less likely to simply read text for pleasure on the Internet (Miller & Sumner 2009 p275), this is a problem for writers. Despite this, services and forums specifically for writers, and niche writers, exist all over the Internet and it is not difficult to simply attach a signature promoting one’s blog at the bottom of forum posts unrelated to writing. Services and sites such as Reddit, Digg and Fark allow for uploading of links, such as individual chapters or blog posts, which can only help broaden appeal. Each site has their own particular subculture though, where different rules and social norms exist. Take Reddit, for example, the culture is heavily rooted in Internet memes, self aggrandising and left wing leanings. Stories in a humorous, gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson style of language would be right at home. Learning the cultures and submitting relevant stories to them with interesting tags and headlines would not be too bad an idea for a writer in the online sphere. Tagging and Folksonomy based websites like Delicious and StumbleUpon can be used to extensively tag stories and blog posts in a way to make them findable for more people. So whilst the number of services at hand can seem overwhelming and difficult to learn, a writer can certainly not be for want of free publicity tools.

Creative writing is in the middle of a drastic change, whether or not the change is for good is yet to be seen. The physical, printed word is unequivocally still the more popular medium for creative writing. Yet through researching with my own experiences and noting the practices of those more successful than me, I see that the digital realm is only gaining popularity for writers. A plethora of services are available for the writer’s use and self promotion. The benefits though, are completely balanced by the challenges. Promotion is difficult; writing is a tried and true medium for the printed world; mass digital culture is not entirely aboard the idea that the written word is an entertaining cultural artefact. This final point is particularly troublesome. If Internet users are less willing to simply read text, what does this mean for the future of storytelling?

Works Cited

angy 2007, ‘Myspace gets rolled by Facebook’ on FasterLouder, accessed 27^th October 2009, http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/news/international/10972/MySpace-gets-rolled-by-Facebook.htm

Arrington, Michael 2009, ‘MySpace Is in Real Trouble If These Page View Declines Don’t Reverse’, blog post, TechCrunch, May 18, accessed 27^th October 2009, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/18/myspace-is-in-real-trouble-if-these-page-view-declines-dont-reverse/

Fenty, Sean, Houp, Trena & Taylor, Laurie 2004, ‘Webcomics: The Influence and Continuation of the Comix Revolution’, in ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, vol. 1, no.2, accessed 31^st October 2009, http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v1_2/group/index.shtml

Finin, Tim 2008, ‘Facebook owns your content. All of it. Forever’, blog post, UMBC Ebiquity, February 15, accessed 1^st November 2009, http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2009/02/15/facebook-owns-your-content-all-of-it-forever/

Miller, Holly & Sumner David 2009, Feature and Magazine Writing, Blackwell Publishing, West Sussex

Sandoval, Greg 2009, ‘Growth of Facebook Leaves MySpace in the dust’ on cnet news, accessed 27^th October 2009, http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10374324-261.html

Scott, David 2007, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey

This week’s topic was Conversation Analysis, which ended up being the main form of research conducted re my final investigation (into Tertiary Gaming Activies, not visable here). Looking at a conversation conducted between myself and Jo in class over Gmail pop out chat client reveals several things about computer mediated conversation which proved to be ultimately pivotal in my final report.

Conversational Analysis is traditionally carried out by meticulously transcribing spoken dialogue between any number of parties. The researcher then tries to look at the meaning behind the words (inferred by pauses, laughs, coughs and other semi-verbal forms of communication) and what that meaning, or inferrence of meaning, means to conversation. An excellent introduction and guide to CA can be seen here. However, things become very different when CA is applied to computer and web mediated forms of communication, such as an online chat, forum discussion, twitter back and forth, blog posts and comments and so on.

The conversation carried out between myself and Jo is a perfect example of some of the new rules and implicit social norms that have been built into online conversations. For examples, one needn’t look further than the first 2 lines- The obligatory Hellos and How Are Yous of face to face interaction are still present, yet the norms of capitalisation present in traditional language are not online not present, they’re so ingrained as being not present that no remark is made in regards to them being ‘broken’.

Other examples include the obvious inclusion of a URL on my behalf. A practical impossibility in non web communication. Jovial speech attitudes are replaced by emoticons (:-P) and rather than pauses, ellipses are used. On the topic of pauses, there is an implied sense that whilst online chatting, one is never only online chatting. Which is why taking 5 minutes to respond to the other particpant is not only acceptable, it is very common.

These notes were the basis for my arguments in my final essay on the topic

The aim of this study is to determine what the appeal is of gaming at tertiary educational facilities. ‘Gaming’ is implied to mean video game playing, specifically on computers. This study will aim to include demographical information such as age, gender, and degree of student gamers as well as the types of games being played. Also worth examining are the times spent playing, how long sessions last and whether or not this has an impact, positive or negative, on university work, be it in a conscious or subconscious way.

PS- You’re not going to get to see this study unless your name happens to be Jason Wilson or Christopher Moore

Finished. The DIGC101 online persona work has finally come to a close. You can view the google site page for the persona of Bush Poet Stace Kingsford right here. From here on out, this blog is a reflection on why I did what I did and why I should’ve done it different.

After much deliberating and pondering how to best go about creating my online persona, I decided to stick with the basics (or rather, the 2004 basics) and create a MySpace page for my poet. However, I soon discovered that MySpace is just as awkward now as it was when I left it personally in 2004. So- I decided to make a ‘page’ on Facebook. Having been the creator of the 13 000+ member strong Facebook page “winning”, I knew my way around the system and could see how the medium would lend itself to a ‘famous’ personality. However, I soon ran into obstacles when it became apparent that Facebook is not a blogging platform… at all. Really.

I also created a Twitter page, which I neglected hugely. For awful, embarrassing reasons which range from “I totally forgot that I made a Twitter for my Bush Poet!” to “What the hell did I set his password as?” This is a real shame, because many of my favourite writers, poets and musicians have Twitter accounts which I check regularly and enjoy muchly (Neil Gaiman’s in particular in fantastic).

In the end, I chose what I totally should’ve chosen all along; Blogger. Google’s blogging platform has long been my preferred site for weblogs. The RSS integration, tagging/folksonomy methods and search benefits were why I enjoyed in the first place. I also dabbled with Flickr for Stace, but this fell apart when I ran into a “financial hitch” and couldn’t get a new camera; there remains 2 galleries of Stace’s favourite “aussie” and “bush” photos though.

Whilst Blogger was definitely the service to use, I really have no one but myself to blame for the lack of content. There are some 10 blog posts/poems on the site (viewable here) and each one of them cryptically (read: really obviously) refers to a topic discussed in class each week. Off the record, I adore the lines (from Walls) “A Common Bush Fiend” and the ending rhyme about not writing on the wall. Seriously never fails to crack me up. Regardless, I feel these were largely well done on my part. It’s amusing, for me anyway, to have a laugh at bush poetry and also poke fun at those who poke fun at technological differences. Irony is thick in these poems, of course.

I do feel like I could’ve created a YouTube account, which would’ve been excellent for a Bush Poet to do (film the bush, recite poetry etc.). But I simply did not have the funds for a camera or video editing equipment to vid my own mashups. So, despite the setbacks and procrastination, I developed a bit of a rapport with Stace. Regardless of his hyprocrisy with technology, his bigotry and lame poems- he holds a part of me that I don’t entirely dislike. I will miss him. I hope that I’m forced to return to the bastard’s blog for one reason in the future- I really do.

In your SL profile, you have 500 to describe yourself. Think about what you might write here. What kind of person will you be in SL? How is it different or similar to your RL self? How did you choose your avatar’s name? What, if anything, will you put in the “First Life” tab?

My character in second life is going to be many things I am not, largely due to the fact that I don’t see the point in replicating my real life self. I’m going to be an aging black man, who looks like an old Blues musician with a name like Blind Lemon Jefferson or John Lee Hooker. However, my guy’s name is AM Blackheart. I chose Blackheart because it was the least awful sounding of the available names and I chose AM because I thought it was de riguer to choose your actual name, and all the Andrews were taken, so I took the initials from my first and last names; AM Blackheart.

I figure that I’m going to be an antisocial person in second life because I have a dislike for the service and, as such, a mild dislike for its users. Not that I’m going to go around being a jerk, I just have more in common with the people who would do the penis attacks than I do the people who spend hours building a second life pair of pants. Actually, if the blues man seems to hard to make, I’m going to make the Anonymous Nigra (for the lulz of course).

First Life tab? Totally blank- I’m not going to use Second Life after this course (unless I have to for a later course) so there’s no point in leave anything identifiable at all behind

To my surprise, everyone’s YouTube videos on academic integrity were not all different, but all really good. I was really expecting everyone’s to be pretty similar and of a poor quality; but everyone seemed to take to the idea better than expected!

Varying from an ironic Blair Witch style short piece to a short homage to a University of Wollongong ‘mascot’ of sorts- all the films were entertaining and well made. However, I do feel that the best one was Food For Thought (below). It’s funny, well made and features an interesting concept. And, anyway, I’m a sucker for old school stylisation and silent films. Well done to everybody though

The current issues with my online digital persona, and reflections therof, are due primarily to my own poor work ethic. I’ve been writing the bush poetry here and there, but I’ve not been publishing it frequently enough to reflect upon. However, what I have realized is that I went into this with the idea that my persona would be a bit of a laugh and more fun than work. Of course, this turned out not to be true as I was forced to work the areas of weekly interest into the poetry and work the bush poet “wrote” years ago, and has also written recently.

I know I’ve got a fair bit of work to do; but I know that I’ll largely be reflecting on the difficulties of working in the course topics discussed in class

Flickr is a Social networking Site I have struggled with for some time. On one hand, it is amazing for finding images for presentations, reports and anything else, what with its creative commons liscence for all photos present. On the other hand, I’m not too impressed with its “free/not free” membership deals and never bothered to sign up because my regular email handles were already taken on Yahoo (The Flickr owner). However, once I signed up, I got over my phobias of the platform; still enjoying aimlessly browsing for images and nice photography.

As I am without a decent camera at the moment, I’ve not been able to upload anything worthwhile, so my account is probably looking pretty bare. However, I am planning on investing in an excellent camer soon (watch this space); and cannot see a better place than Flickr to host my images. It is, however, a huge pity that ‘free’ members are unable to post limitless photos… It is a seriousl frustration and I thought we were over that as SNS users

via Scribd

Google Sites had been known to me for some time, but I never really got into it. This course is the motivation I need to bother making one! Whilst I have not published one yet, I am planning one to consolidate the various Stace Kingsford Bush poet links, as well as my own SNS usage. Who knows? In the future, it may come in handy should I decide to have some sort of career where people google my name

Re: YouTube personalities and vlogging… I’m torn. On the one hand, I am all for the use of a new technology and the democratisation of visual entertainment media that YouTube offers. On the other hand, 99% of it is all awful. The fact that anyone can do it, means that *anyone* can do it. There’s something that just screams contrite much louder when a person is telling me in a video what they think about Kanye West compared to someone saying something in a blog. As a side note, I simply do not care for YouTubers telling me to subscribe to their feeds. I’m a petty man and I’ve 1 star voted and unsubscribed many users for doing so. Regardless, YouTube is a fantastic medium if used well. Many original YouTube video makers (Whitest Kids You Know, Harry Partridge and Lonely Island) would never have been exposed to me were it not for the ease of access YouTube offers. Perhaps I am being too harsh as well, I doubt 10% of television appeals to me… I am very selective with my music, film and literature tastes as well; there’s no reason YouTube has to be nothing but win. Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that when YouTube videos fail, they fail hard