[NBI] 8 Blogging Tips Which They Don't Tell You

I’ve wanted to put together something like this for AGES. In fact, since about 5 minutes after I started my blog. I thought it might be somewhat arrogant for me to post it then, but I think I’ve matured and learned enough now to put together a rough list of some of the pieces of advice which have really helped me in my past year and a half of blog-discovery. I’m not a blog expert, by any means, but I’ve been doing it a while and I think I can probably claim to be a journeyman at least. I can’t pretend it also isn’t inspired by Syp and his great work with the Newbie Bloggers Initiative, and Hunter, Gank and Ravious’ latest posts on the subject. So, here they are - a short list of the lesser heard (but no less important) blogging tips.

1. You aren’t going to be rolling in “innernet mo-nays!” within months of setting up your Google adwords account. When was the last time you clicked on an advert on a webpage? Exactly. The fact is that unless you’re getting hits in the many thousands daily, you aren’t going to be raking in the cash. That isn’t to say it can’t be done; just don’t expect to be living off the income within your first few posts.
2. Posting your link to Twitter, Facebook, forums and other blogs is a good way to get exposure – that’s true. But having other people do it is better. Keep putting out funny, insightful and interesting content and encourage your readers to share it among their network. Start some discussion across media platforms – that’s where the real traffic comes from. Tooting your own horn is all well and good, but it is far more effective when other people toot it for you.
3. Don’t be surprised if, after your initial blogging-frenzy, you run out of steam. A lot of blogs disappear under the waves after a month or so – there are vast blogger/wordpress graveyards occupied by good intentioned blogs which have dwindled and faded away. When I first started, I was posting almost every day, after a while I realised I simply couldn’t keep up that kind of pace, and had to rein it in and set myself a more realistic posting schedule. Don’t worry if you feel you need a bit of a break from writing, the internet (bar impending zombie-apocalypse) isn’t going anywhere.
4. If you do have a bit of a break (we all need it sometimes) try to avoid popping in for an “update” post: “Hi guys, sorry I haven’t posted in a while! I’m still alive!” The fact is that people won’t usually notice a few weeks break if you don’t point it out! I know that sounds a little cold, but it’s the truth. These “update” posts are usually rushed and without any substantive content or purpose, and no content is better than bad content.
5. Remember that once you release something onto the internet, it will not go away. After all, what has been seen cannot be unseen! Everything you write will have ripples – some bigger than others. So while I and other writers might encourage new bloggers to write for themselves and enjoy the freedom, that doesn’t supersede the concept of being measured, reasonable and realistic.
6. With the above point in mind, don’t be afraid to be controversial when you feel it is necessary. As long as you aren’t inflammatory then the reasonable viewing public, even if they don’t agree with your point, will respect you for it.
7. Even if you follow the above two points, not everyone will like you. Be prepared to deal with trolls and flamers. Some of them might even call you a "haughty windbag" - a moniker I’m actually quite fond of.
8. For the love of god, use correct grammar. If you noticed the hanging preposition at the end of point 7 then you’re on the right track. You don’t need to be a grammer-nazi, but at least avoid 1337 speek and common spelling mistakes like your/you’re, were/we’re. Also, please don’t use the phrase “I could care less”, it is wrong, and it makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty lemon zester.

[GW2] Maintaining a Little Perspective

In a recent post over at KTR, Zubon reposted a comment he received from a Guild Wars 2 fan after he bemoaned the state of a number of MMOs. The commenter listed every feature of the upcoming game as if it will solve every single problem he had brought up. Zubon rightly pointed out the short sightedness of doing this before the product has even been released – and highlighted the (I'm sorry to say it) arrogance which seems to have built up around the game. I believe that the point of the post was somewhat lost in the proceeding 30 or so comments, but the point Zubon (and Syncaine) is trying to make is interesting to note.
I think it is important to remember that the game which solves every single problem is an “Ideal Type” – a platonic concept, an unobtainable ideal. Max Weber argued that certain concepts were so perfect that they couldn’t possibly exist in real life and so were only good as a tool for comparison.

For example, take the ideal family. We all know that every family has problems (however little or petty). So, the happily married parents with 2.4 children, a white picket fence and a dog ideal simply doesn’t exist – but you don’t know where your family (with its drug abuse, manic depression and nick-nack hoarding) fits into the picture unless you have that ideal as a concept against which to compare. I think this is a concept that some GW2 fans need to grasp.

The way the game is often spoken about on forum posts and blogs you would think that it had been out for years, had been play-tested to infinity, proven to be completely and utterly flawless and the employees of ArenaNet had been crowned as Supreme Rulers of the Multiverse and given ultimate control over all proceeding and preceding (assuming they also included the solution to time travel in the first expansion pack) peoples.

This is not the case. So, I wonder whether some people might benefit from a bit of perspective.

I’m not asking people not to be excited about the game (that would shooting myself in the foot somewhat), I’m just asking them to bear in mind that until the game hits the shelves, we can’t be sure what it will be like. And until we can be sure, please also bear in mind that if we are going to roll Guild Wars 2 out on a trolley every time any debate about MMOs occurs people are going to get very tired of it very quickly and those people who aren’t as excited about the release of the game as us are going to get rather irritated that we are stifling their conversations by almost touting GW2 as the be all and end all. So, until then, the concept of Guild Wars 2 as the perfect game exists as only an “ideal type”; unobtainable, non-existent and only useful as a tool for comparison. We've got a great community here, but I do think we have to be careful.


Ps. Then again, if the game exists in an unobservable vacuum (unobservable by us, at least) then we could argue that it is a sort of “Schrodinger’s MMO” and, as such, exists in a state of perfection and imperfection simultaneously.

[GW2] Guilds: My most Laboured Metaphor yet!

The first game's guild system is like having a full time job, not in that it's a chore - just in the way it's set up.

You can't have two full time jobs (you ain't got a time turner, crazy fool) you have one job and you work hard at it. A job can be heaps of fun if you work alongside the right people and enjoy the work. It can be a pain in the arse if you don't have the right people by your side, because it's the only damn job you have and for the moment you have to stick by it. If your boss is a douchebag then it's going to be extra difficult to get along - they're the one in the driver's seat, after all (but that's a whole other metaphor, stay focused!). Even if your workmates are the best in the world, if your boss is a wankstain it's not going to be an easy ride. Changing jobs can be equally painful; if you move to a rival company then you're going to piss off the people you leave behind and workmates who became good friends can easily lose touch over time.

Ballbag

Don't get me wrong, if you enjoy your job and work alongside some really great people then you probably wake up in the morning (ie, log in) and think "DAMN I can't wait to get to work and start that freaking filing!". However, imagine if you work alongside some really great people and your working life is great, but then an old friend approaches you with an idea for a start up company - selling porcelain elephants.
It can't fail; its-a-freaking-GOLDMINE!
You'd have to leave those workmates behind to start your porcelain pachyderm factory.

(Still with me on the metaphor? About halfway now, how about taking a break: stretch and take a deep breath... ready to start again?)

In the new game the guild system is like going to a bar. Walk through the door and there could be any number of people milling about. It's likely you've come here with a few friends and that's great, but you know that there will be people in and out of this bar all night. You might choose to visit a few bars over the course of the evening, maybe jump from group to group and socialise with a number of different people. One night you might choose to spend the whole evening in a chill out bar, drinking ice cold vodka from frozen shot glasses. The next you might flit from sports bar to nightclub to strip club - you saucy devil. It doesn't matter if you decide to leave a bar and go elsewhere, you can come back later just as easily if the shisha bar across the street turns out to be a little crappier than you thought it would be.

If you're enjoying an ice cold beer with a group of friends from college (probably discussing the viability of starting up some sort of porcelain elephant production) and you're approached by the smoking hot barmaid from the pub just around the corner, you can excuse yourself from your current group - promising to return once you inevitably strike out - and attempt to woo the frisky young vixen with your talk of dynamic events and epic dungeon crawls whilst enjoying a cloudy ale and a packet of pork scratchings.

Besides, don't you spend most of your time at work wishing you were at a bar?

ps. the metaphor works equally well for class vs playground, but this was the more "mature" version.

Gemeinschaft - What Guild Wars has which the World Lacks

Ferdinand Tönnies stated that the new world order had no time for personable relationships, no time for exploring community and companionship. It was an alienated world, to put it Marx-ly. One where you are separated from your kin, separated from your craft and certainly separated from your community. He called this state "Gesselschaft" - a world where individuals act purely upon self interest. The ying to this yang is "Gemeinschaft", a state where individuals act in favour of the community (in fact, gemeinschaft is often translated directly into community), they work towards common goals and expectations.Tonnies stated that, in our world, Gesselschaft is increasingly replacing Gemeinschaft.

[/sociology lesson]

When I started blogging last November I kinda jumped in blind. I started off by flailing wildly into the communities with which I was most involved - Guild Wars and Alternative Reality Gaming. This gained me a few views here and there; the unFiction lot are an incredibly passionate bunch, but the community is solely centered around 2/3 core websites and these are somewhat difficult to crack. Since then my interest in ARGs has waned but my interest in Guild Wars has waxed, this significant waxing has been assisted by, quite frankly,  a staggeringly receptive blogging community.

The Guild Wars bloggers (without, hopefully, offending too many of them) are a friendly bunch; quirky, chatty, sometimes foul mouthed and opinionated; they are the backbone of the community which surrounds this game. They disperse information, conduct interviews, analyse media releases, corral opinions and rationalise the sometimes rather erratic behaviour of this burgeoning gaming populace. They put a staggering amount of effort into providing not only a valuable information resource for old and new players, but also creating a space in which social interaction can take place.

The MMO community can be a barren and unfriendly place. If you've ever frequented a gaming forum you will know that gamers, by and large, are not the most understanding of groups. They may seem to be a largely reward driven bunch, interested in self-advancement and self-preservation above all things. On the surface the MMO community is Gesselschaft in it's purest - only in it for themselves.

Having looked at the Guild Wars community of bloggers, contributors and other writers; having seen the effort they go to, the time they spend and the zeal with which they approach their work (for little to no reward), I really think Tonnies would call this a step towards Gemeinschaft.

PS. a couple of weeks ago, in an interview with Cornish, Tasha asked if he thought there was room for more bloggers in the GW community. I agree with Cornish that yes, the more the merrier. So, if you are considering getting involved I would encourage you to take the plunge (You don't have to start your own site, you could start by submitting a couple of articles to Talk Tyria or to me!). You won't regret it.

Top 4 H'Amusing Blogs

Being a superhero isn't always easy. There's a lot of paperwork involved. Can you imagine the number of expense claim forms I've had to fill out due to having parked my invisible motorbike in Iraqi airspace?

Consequently, I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk doing paperwork. It melts your brain, reduces sperm count and causes shingles. In order to stave off the onset of brain meltage, I sometimes spend a couple of minutes (read: hours) browsing blogs which tickle my funny bone. These be the best:


Number 4: Kurt @ Roaring Dork

Kurt is a feline loving movie critic. If you want an honest review of a film, one not tainted by corporate dick-sucking and swayed by public opinion, reasonable assumptions or fact - this is your guy.


Number 3: David @ 27b/6

David Thorne is the author of the infamous "spider picture" bill payment thing. You know, the one where they guy tries to pay his bills with a picture of a spider, and the ladies all "yo, you can't pay for stuff with pictures of spiders" and he's all "ok, send me my spider picture back" and she's all "ok" and he's all... etc.

Anyway, he winds ignorant people up like a freaking pro. I would not like to come up against him in an Internet argument. His stuff regularly makes me laugh like a freaking horse.

Number 2: Becky @ Steam me up, Kid!

There is nothing quite like a twisted sense of humour to tickle my funny bone (or any other humorously named part of my body for that matter). Becky blogs monthly about her warped mind and the things it creates.

Number 1: Allie @ Hyperbole and a Half

In my eyes Allie Brosh is the undisputed queen of blog-comedy. Whenever I see another Hyperbole and a Half post pop into my subscription list I have to drop whatever I'm doing (brain surgery, rocket science, curing cancer etc) in order to read it. The topics discussed range from whether Kenny Loggins can regrow limbs, the despicable evil of the common bicycle and the biological origins of pure hate. If you haven't read it before - go there now and read it. ALL OF IT.

NOW.

Distilling February: A Review

Tis Friday today - and over the weekend I have friends coming over (shock horror! cleancleancleanclean), then on Monday I've got training on how to pick up and put down a patient (Did you know if you fall over in a hospital, the staff are instructed not to catch you?). Consequently, it will be March before I know it and I won't have had a chance to review February like I did last month.

So, here we go:
Topics this month have been very much on the Guild Wars horse. Its been a big month in gaming for me and I've managed to force it down your throats more than a demented Grandfather, desperately trying to buy a four year old's love with Werthers Originals. We had Human Week - which was punctuated by sentimental Hollywood determination on the part of the Human race - then came the Dervish Update, and now, just breaking its back, is Norn Week. I've mused on the nature of gaming, and talked about my favourite characters from over the years. There's also been a fair amount of ARG-y stuff going on, and I've bigged up da Old Soldiers massive, as well as introducing Tarot by Saranna into the mix.

Most Popular Post for February 2011 were:

1. Guild Wars 2: Human Week Summary
2. Top 5 Black Ops Commentators
3. Marble Hornets #34/35 - Aka - Why I need new Trousers
4. Norn Week: To the Mead Hall!
5. Marble Hornets: Entries #28-32

Top 10 Search Terms for February 2011 were:

1. marble hornets 35
2. black ops commentators
3. blue mace lady
4. best black ops commentators
5. marble hornets 33
6. dcuo medieval style
7. marble hornets unfiction
8. best black ops youtube commentators
9. good black ops commentators
10. nudekatyperry

I get 5 or 6 people every single day finding their way here by searching for "naked katy perry" or the like. They must be so disappointed. On the other hand - free traffic for me! Maybe I should name each post after a naked celebrity! Next week: nuddy Carol from the weather on BBC news!

Video gaming time has been split as follows:

DCUO: 10%

Minecraft 10%

Black Ops 40%

Guild Wars 40%

DC Universe Online was my big purchase this month, and as you can see - I wasn't overly impressed. My review will be coming soon, but I've just not felt attached to the game. I've levelled a couple of character for 14+ and then just lost steam. I don't think I'll be renewing my subscription.

Minecraft. Yes, I caved. I bought it. The gaming sensation. You should see my sandcastle, its going to be immense. This game is every bit as good as everyone says it should be, I just want to get into the multiplayer aspect and get some real creations done - can anyone suggest a good multiplayer server?

Black Ops. This game still has a great amount of appeal, and still takes up a lot of my time. I'm on my 7th Prestige now, and have pushed my Kill/Death ratio up from 1.22 to 1.25. Not a lot, really, but its something!

Guild Wars. Old faithful. I managed to max out both Luxon and Elonian Cartographer over the past month, now a lot of my time is spent idling my time away in the Guild Hall whilst I browse the Internet, using YouTube videos as timers and every minute popping back to chug another eggnog. I'm at 3750 minutes now and plan to reach 4000 by the end of Sunday. As I say, I WILL have GWAMM by Guild Wars 2 release!

In ARG terms, there are three main games which I'm playing at the moment:

Tarot by Saranna is a blog-based ARG which I covered a few weeks ago. Its interesting and Saranna is a friendly and engaging character to play with. Its quietened down a fair amount in the past week or so, hoping it will spark up again soon. uF thread here.

Old Soldiers is still running, and faster than ever. There have been leaps and bounds from the start of this game. We've now met the ever sardonic Sigyn, Loki's partner in crime; and the tenacious Special Agent Curran - who is pursuing them. We are currently working through some really brain busters and hope to crack them over the next couple of days. uF thread here.

F.F.E.Y-T is a game which is currently running mainly through Twitter; although every indication is that tomorrow it will all kick off. I'll be posting a full summary of where we stand either Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Currently, the PM is playing his cards close to his chest and releasing ever more cryptic clues to his intentions. Can't wait to see what he has in store *grin*. uF thread here.

Interesting blogs I've come across this month:

•  Benny's Adventures: a wide range of topics approached in an engaging and interesting way.
• Darkmatters: regular movie and games reviews from Matt. Funny and insightful. Brill.
• Steam me up, Kid: I don't think I've laughed quite this much in a while.

 Typically, the shortest month of the year does feel like its flown by. I'm hoping over the next few weeks there will be lots of stuff to talk about - lots of ARGy things like the FFEYT developments, more Old Soldiers stuff and a new Marble Hornets entry to build on the epication of Entry #35 - Guild Wars updates with the 7 Hero Build coming in - more info on Guild Wars 2 with the other races weeks and PAX East - and other such banterificatious events to titillate my blogging soul.

ps. I've also jumped from 2 followers to 5! Admittedly, one of them is me - not sure how I did that. But a big thanks to Matt, Pepe, Laughing Lemon and *checks spelling* Najwa Laylah!

Respect my (Technorati) Authoritah!

I started VeryDistilled back in November last year - and in these short few months I've grown to love the space to splurge out ideas into your faces every day. But the blogging world is vast and unwieldy; there are behemoths which when compared to my humble hole look like Titans to my gnat (Huffington Post etc), there's lingo which I'm still not 100% on (whats a Ping?) and there are resources of which I feel I could take more advantage (don't you sometimes think that the "hanging preposition" grammar rule is rather stupid? Its one of the rules I am least comfortable with).

Technorati is one of those tools. When I first started blogging I read a lot of guides about how to get noticed, how to get more visitors etc etc - most of them seemed to say the same thing: good content, guest writing and get involved in the community. To my knowledge; I've endeavored to do all three of these things! A number of sites also suggested I sign up for Technorati - so I did. I signed up, staked a claim for my blog, set up my profile and off I went.

Currently, I have absolutely no authority. I'm fine with this! I'm a new blogger and gaining that cred is going to take hard work and perseverance. Every so often I log in and check how my site is doing - got any authority yet? No? Ok!



Also, Technorati thinks the site is still called "Who Moose?"
A detail I've tried to change a number of times.

 There are 184 pages of Gaming blogs on Technorati, and of those 184 pages 146 are filled with blogs with a Gaming Authority of no more than 1. That can't be right, surely? Out of the vast expanse of the internet - it appears that most of the information capital is centered around a very select few blogs. These are blogs I rarely read - Joystiq, PS3 Blog etc. I like to click on the Gaming blog directory and go straight to the end of the list, and go back from there clicking on articles which look interesting.

I'm not 100% on how you gain "Authority" on Technorati - a number of online guides talk about how its linked to the number of links you are gaining, but they are unclear about timescale and magnitude of links etc. Recently, I was linked by Ravious at Kill Ten Rats on a blogpost about GW2 Human Week. My readership immediately went up tenfold (I've since emailed Ravious to thank him for this). But its difficult to gauge what impact that will have on my "authority" - because KTR is a fairly high traffic site, is the link worth more than from a smaller site? If I'm linked again from KTR will it have the same effect or is it diminished? Do I care? Should I care?

Ultimately, I'd like to say thanks to those who come to see my little space on a regular basis. Particularly thanks to those who have started following me (Pepe, Matt and Laughing Lemon and all of those who might be following anonymously), I really appreciate all your support and comments. I don't believe I need to rack up those extra authority points to prove I write decent content, I don't believe that the people at the end of the list are there because their posts are any less interesting than those at the top.


Ps. finally finished The Looking Glass Club - stonking ending. Left me with a decent number of questions, including: why wasn't I clever enough to solve even one of the puzzles?

Human Week at ArenaNet

Today marks the first day when we'll be getting some juicy info from ANet on the Human race for GW2. Hopefully, a little later today the writer John Ryan will be revealing some of the background and ambient audio which our characters will be party to in Human cities. ANet plan to make Guild Wars 2 cities feel like living, breathing places; rather than the static and ostensibly dead places they are in most games.

In other Guild Wars related shinanigans; I reached Legendary Cartographer over the weekend! Turns out I was scraping around the edges of the Elonian map to reveal as much as possible, I got within 0.5% of 100% before going to my ace in the hole - the Dynastic Tombs. I knew I'd never been there and I was hoping it would be able to chomp off the last .5%. Turns out the Tombs are worth 1.8% and I could have completed the title last week...

Having achieved Legendary Cartographer, that puts me at 26/30 titles maximised. I'll hopefully be maxing out my Luxon Allegiance title later this week (9.92m/10m), putting me at 27. From then on its consumable titles all the way: Sweet tooth, Party Animal and Drunkard. Its not going to be easy as I don't have a lot of money and the Sweet tooth title alone (if I bought it all right now) would cost me 750 000g. So, got any spare sweets for a poor toothless lad?


Other than Guild Wars'ing; I've been working my way through the DC Universe Online world. I'm having quite a lot of fun with it, but I'm not sure I'll play past the free month - I'll be discussing my reasons for this in a blog post later in the week. In the meantime, if you have a villain on the Absolute Power server, feel free to add me and we'll hunt some Heroes together. My character name is Stormenghast.

Nakd Bar Giveaway from Brit Chick Runs

I was flitting around Twitter today and saw a tweet by my recently discovered LGC buddy @MalwenGoch:

18 delicious Nakd bars being given away by @BritChickRuns including my current favourite: cocoa mind. See http://bit.ly/g8hyiE to enter.

Never have I been known to pass up the chance of free confectionary, I duly visited the site and signed up. Brit Chick Runs is giving away a box of 18 Nakd bars for free (to anyone with a British postcode),  all you have to do is go to her blog and leave a comment on the post, then either tweet about her competition or make a post. I decided to do both in the hope that in doing so I will maximise the possibility of healthy-bar-output.

Here's a direct link to the blog post with full details: Brit Chick Runs gives away free Nakd bars. From Brit Chick Runs herself:

Old, faithful, hardcore readers who’ve been following my blog since the beginning [of time] will know I have raaaved about this companies’ bars A LOT! But, weirdly enough, I’m yet to try the new flavours. I rather ashamed of myself really. Especially seeing as they are so awesome:

Raw fruits

Raw Nuts

Natural flavours

Nuttin’ else. Nada! Simply whole foods, rolled together.

Usually when a tweet includes the phrases "Nakd" and "Brit Chick", it's about a particularly rowdy night out in Skegness, chucking up in a taxi and falling asleep in your boob tube - but this is far more wholesome (although it is a little... *snigger*... seedy).

Weekly ARG Report: After the New Year

Ok audience, I may have been a little hasty trying to set up my weekly ARG report! What with Christmas, Thanksgiving, finals etc etc people have been finding it hard to get time together to help me out. So, I've decided I will put the project on the backburner until after the New Year.

I'm still looking for people who might be interested, I've got a couple lined up but I could always use more help - the subject of the article could be a currently running ARG, chaotic fiction etc, or one which has finished, or even just an ARG-y subject. I will be contacting players through their threads on unFiction so if you see me post and are interested, either post on my blog, on the unForum thread here, or send me an email at: will.r.knight@gmail.com.

There are some really interesting games running at the moment, and hopefully we can get some exciting and informative articles going after the New Year. So, don't hesitate to contact me - even if its just to ask a question, you don't need to be an experienced writer, I'm looking for anyone who is enthusiastic about the subject.

Writing About ARGs

You may have noticed the new page which has appeared at the top of the blog ^ just up there entitled "ARG Report: Looking for Guest Writers". I'm well aware that a lot of the people who read this blog are forwarded from the link in my UnFiction signiture, welcome to my world uF readers! I wanted to make this post to announce we have our first guest writer coming up this time next week!

Ellocia will be writing on the subject of "Great Big Jerk" - this is a game which I was involved in at the start, but then quickly lost track of as shinier and more "Black Ops"-y things came on the horizon. Personally, I'm very excited about how this weekly spot is going to shape up. So, be sure to check back here on Friday 10th December (probably be up sometime in the evening GMT) for Ellocia's post.

If you'd like to get involved yourself, either leave a message here or on the unFiction forum post and I'll get it sorted. Literally anyone is welcome to contribute, on any ARG subject, so don't hesitate to ask me a question and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

So, to recap:

FRIDAY 10th DECEMBER

FIRST EVER WEEKLY ARG REPORT

ELLOCIA: GREAT BIG JERK

Tribe Twelve - The Young Pretender

Having looked at the family tree of Slender-fiction, its obvious to see the original Somethingawful.com thread at the top, and branching down you have a number of "where's Wally?" type photoshops and then branching into the ARG community you see Marblehornets and then underneath, attached to the spindliest of twigs, is the sea of Slender-blogs/video fictions which we seem to be swimming in today.

Few stand out above the morass of near identical stories. But when one does stand out it can blow up fast, EMH stands at just over 3.5 thousand subscribers, Marble Hornets is at a whopping 31.6 thousand. Tribe Twelve is comparatively fledgling in status to these two behemoths in terms of age but has still managed to rack up an impressive 2.5 thousand subscribers on youtube. I'd like to look at why I think this series is gained popularity in an already saturated field.

Tribe Twelves tells the story of Noah Maxwell, a twenty something living alone in Florida. It begins with Noah explaining how he had a close relationship with his cousin Milo, how they grew apart and how strangely Milo acted in the few weeks before he was found dead in his home of an overdose on prescription medication. Each of the first few videos (described as "Layers") depicts Milo's final visit to Noah, as the videos progress we realise that Milo is being stalked by Slenderman. When Milo dies, Slenderman seemingly stays behind. Noah is thrust into a freaky world of mysterious packages, disturbing phone calls and cryptic messages.


One of the things which makes TT stand out is the technical ability of its producer, the latest Layer "Hello There" has a slick nature to it. It uses a two-tone filter to give the whole message an eerie feeling, images are sometimes too dark to make out until the filter shifts through a spectrum and you can make out the subject for a split second before it becomes too light. This "there and yet not there" approach is indicative of the thread I feel which runs through this whole series - claustrophobia and loneliness.



Once Milo is gone, Noah is alone and facing his demons. Unlike MH and EMH, where the subject is a group of friends, Noah has no support - even putting out a request to fans for somewhere to stay over Thanksgiving. I believe this sense of isolation has built quite a connection between Noah and the TT fans, you feel his pain because he has to share it with you, you believe he has no one else to share it with and so you feel more part of the story.

Tribe Twelve feels more akin to Marble Hornets than EverymanHYBRID. Jay has become increasingly isolated in the latter part of the MH story, and the epic use of silence which MH employ is similar to the cloyingly quiet scene where Noah is pursuing a stalker around his house.

Recently, Noah has been to see "Sarah" - the fan who accepted his request for somewhere to stay over Thanksgiving. They did a live stream and had some laughs but in the end Noah had to leave early with the tweet:

left early. some shit went down. dont know where im headed. fuck this. sorry sarah.



7:21 AM Nov 27th via Twitter for iPhone

So, there has been shit! I know I'm not alone in my curiousity as to what this shit was. I think Noah should just bite the bullet and stomp out to the tower again, alone, at night. Whats the worst that could happen?
 

Living with Yourself

I've broached this subject with a number of coworkers and friends and a lot of them seem to come back with completely the opposite response to the one which I would give; do you like spending time alone? I relish the chance to spend some alone time just quietly getting stuff done or relaxing. However, some people say that they outright cannot stand their own company, that there is something fundamentally annoying about themselves which means they'd rather blank themselves out with the company of other people. So, I thought I'd post the top 5 tips for spending time alone:

1) Mentally plan your day. I find that if I don't give myself tasks to do then I will probably spend the whole day melting further and further into the sofa - sure, I'd get a lot of headshots, but would I get stuff done? Hell naw. When I know I have a day of leave coming up I set up a little timetable in my brain: 9-10 get up, breakfast, eat cocopops in front of the news, 10-11 do the washing/dishes, 11-12 dance around in my pants... etc.

Note: that's not to say that you shouldn't set aside time to unwind and chill out. Time to get your head around what is going on and just sit and scratch yourself is very important. Having time alone is just as much about relaxing as it is about getting the dishes done.

2) Get "out there". When you've got extended time alone, one of the obvious problems is loneliness, one of the easiest ways to combat this is the engage in some online networking. One of the great things about meeting people online is that you can have social interaction in tasty little bitesize pieces. Start a blog, get on twitter, play a MMORPG, join a forum - whatever takes your fancy. The beautiful thing about the internet is that each of these little facets of society interlink, the more you post in a forum the more you meet likeminded people, maybe you find them on Twitter and you sign up, you follow a few interesting people and in turn are followed by others, in time you will stumble over their blogs and maybe start one yourself. For me this is fascinating, its social interaction at the very basic and pure level, relatively little geographical or aesthetic restrictions, just plug in and go.

Note: that is not to say you should rely on the internet 100% for social interaction, there is no full substitute for human interaction. So, by "get out there" I also mean, go down the shops, go to Twitter organised events, attend Flashmobs, do some Geocaching etc etc. 

3) Be childish. You are alone, do whatever the hell you want - if you'd like ot take your clothes off and dance around your flat to Miley Cyrus then go ahead and do it, you crazy diamond. Go and watch Spongebob Squarepants, you'll enjoy it. As adults we rarely get a chance to revisit the world in which we existed as kids, I believe that to have a healthy mind you have to embrace your inner kid. So, put on your furriest slippers, watch Alladin - its awesome. There is no-one around to judge you.

Note: don't do a MJ. You don't have the space to look after a fully grown chimp.

4) Don't watch the clock. Although I've said that you should have a plan for the day, I don't believe its good to watch the clock for every second. If your favourite TV show isn't on until 5, dont sit down at 4 and wait, go and do something else for a bit - set an alarm for 5, and if you find an interesting enough activity then you probably won't notice the hour fly by.

Note: I am incredibly bad for this. Like now, I've had to write this post as I'm alone in the office and I'm watching the clock every 5 minutes hoping that 12:30 will come around and I can go for my lunch. *Check again* Damn 12:08.

5) Don't be afraid to mentally (and sometimes, physically) slap yourself. One of the biggest traps which I often fall into when alone is that there is noone around to tell me that I am being silly. Typical train of thought: "Hmm... I should make lunch... wish someone else would do it... WHY AM I SO ALONE?!". You need to be able to go "Oi, stop that. Get a grip", otherwise you won't survive past the first few days. Be realistic about your circumstances, but also be realistic about what you do have. Take an honest stock of who and what exists in your life and its likely you will see that there is more than you think.

Note: having a strong online community to go to for advice can help with finding perspective when no-one else is around.

The experience project has some interesting tips from anonymous people on spending time alone, check it out here: Experience project.

*Checks again*
12:10, Dammit!

Journalspace Revived - Riiiise from your Grave!

I was very happy to discover that the loss of JS wasn't just something which I mourned, but there was still a rag-tag group of bloggers from the great blowout of '08. I came across Dorrie's blog whilst searching for some old names who I used to blog with back then. Just thought I'd say I really appreciate the effort you've gone to for the community. Here is a picture of a mouse with a hat on as compensation for your efforts:

Why I would mollycoddle a Moleskine

Sometimes I despair at the ghastly objectophile I have become. Not the fall in love with fence posts, marry the Golden Gate Bridge kind of objectophile - but I have this odd sensation that buying a Moleskine notepad will solve many of the problems in my life.

They're just so pretty, tightly bound and sealed with care. I imagine the paper to feel like it was hand crafted from Nile-side reeds, and each page to be crisp and new like a blank sheet of possibilities. I could use it when a blog post springs to mind and I'm not near a computer to note it down, on the bus, or... or when... hmm... it appears thats literally the only time I'm away from a computer. What a excrementally dull life I must lead.

The fact of the matter is that I couldn't have such an item. There are a number of reasons, but primarily, I would feel that I wouldn't have anything worthy of putting pen to Nile-side-river-reed-pressed paper. I'd only write silly things, or draw pictures of my bus companions with devil horns or riding a camel. I'd never tarnish the pages of my precious notepad with such squalid utterances, it would be like the best silver - never taking it out of the cupboard when you have guests lest there be a more important guest next weekend.

Taking a look at Lifehacker.com's favourite notebooks, maybe I should go for one of the cheaper options. Then I can draw fish and mice with hats and write about the Universe and other innane things.

Blag Blogging. Blug Blibbing. Blub Blubbing.

So I was advised to sign up to Technorati to get my blog noticed. This whole experience has been rather confusing and there are a lot of things I'm not sure I totally understand yet - but, as you will learn, I feel like I probably should understand. Let me give you the lo-down on my past blogging experience:

Start off small. I used to have a blog on Journalspace, back when blogs were first starting to break it big. In my opinion I thought I did pretty well! I only started keeping it because my friends did, and we just used to talk about little things that happened and gigs we were going to and stuff. I got into it a little bit more than my friends, and at one point I was getting a pretty good daily hit count! Honestly, my little experiences even made the local paper! Leicester Mercury, Feb 11th 2006 - Look:

What do you mean you don't see it? LOOK:

Not sure where they got the name "Distilled Space".


Anyway, I think what brought people back was that about 2 weeks after I started the blog, my sister was diagnosed with cancer. The blog became a diary of what it was to be 16 and having a family dealing with a chronically ill younger sibling. The blog basically became about that, about me being angry and scared, and how my family coped and how I tried to cope, about the sacrifices we all made and with my life strewn liberally in between. Thing was, when Kate was declared in remission I kinda lost contact with the blog and I stopped posting. I became one of those guys who blogs only to tell people "Sorry I've not been posting, been totally busy. I'll tell you later. Bye".

However, my interest in online communities stayed. I got into online gaming and when I was at University started perusing blogs again. I didn't start one myself as I didn't feel like I had the time, although I wish I had, I think I would have benefitted from 3rd party input to tell me how much of a dick I was being in certain situations. Still, shouldawouldacoulda. Anyway, riding on the back of this interest my Masters dissertation was on Blogging and Online Identities - I discussed how bloggers create an online identity which is seperate from their real identity, totally incorporeal and therefore without boundaries. In my eyes it was interesting stuff, in the eyes of the examiner it was toilet paper. To be honest, it probably was pure bilge, I was trying to hold down a full time job and write a postgraduate dissertation at the same time and it probably wasn't working.

After this I decided to pick up my journalspace blog again and see where I could go with it. Unfortunately, JS had been taken over by some evil overlords or something and everything I had written over those years had poofed out of existence. It was kind of a blow really, it was a relic of a particularly emotionally charged time of my life.

So, my life isn't totally devoid of bloguration. I have blogged before! And I shall blog again! Help me blog viewers, I am awash in a sea which I'm supposed to understand! To a level at which I should be able to write a paper which could hold up to a review by my peers! Help!