Following the decision not to go and see the new Harry Potter movie earlier this evening, I thought it might be fun to fill the time I would otherwise have spent watching Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid, thinking aloudfreewheeling my mind.
Having this entire day to myself seems to have unlocked something within me. For the past several weeks I have had difficulty finding things to write about in my blog. After spending the best part of 18 hours tooling around on the internet, tidying up files, backing things up and sorting things out, something has switched on inside my head.
I now find myself in familiar territory. My head has switched on, but my body is switching off. It is 10:35pm, and I have work in the morning. A rational person would probably go to bed, but I want to take advantage of my mind being “on it” for a change. Perhaps a coffee will stop my eyelids from feeling so heavy?
(kettle switched on)
I wrote earlier about the various places my name appears across the internetand of course forgot that I am also a member of Photobucket, Orkut, Technorati it sounds really bad, doesn’t it.
A friend asked recently how I find the time to take part in so many online communities, how I write so many blogs, how I stay on top of such a vast river of information. I filed the question away at the back of my mind, and while kicking my heals earlier this evening the question crept back.
If I have an answer, it is that I don’t do everything at once. I go through phases of taking part in the various communitiesof writing blog posts. I was listening to Leo Laporte a few weeks ago and he put forward the idea that different online services were good for different aspects of our online interaction. I agree with him.
Skype and Google Talk are both very good for instant messaging or talking to friends. Next you have Jaiku and Twitter, which give the possibility of off-line conversation. Next comes Tumblr, and the ability to post thoughts, pictures, and linksa virtual scrapbook. Finally we come into the realm of WordPress, Blogger, and Typepadblogging. Beyond these essentially tight-knit networks we find MySpace, Vox, Yahoo 360, and the mighty Facebook.
The keyas the old saying goesis that I don’t use all of the services all of the time. The core components of “Jonathan Beckett, citizen of the internet” seem to be Google Talk, Jaiku, WordPress and Facebook.
Something I have noticed in other blogs, and also see in my own is a variance in effort and consequently style of writing. When the will is there, I write very much more considered and correct english. My writing becomes more literary. When the will is absent posts become less introspectivemore formulaic. Readers have noticed and told me (yes, Lauren, I remember your comments). I should perhaps feel flattered that they want to read something better from meit feels like they know me better than I know myself.
It’s a strange thing, this “internet”. I sit here in a darkened room tapping away on a small slab of white plastic with a glowing screen, and within seconds of hitting the submit button, my words, thoughts, views and ideas will be read by men, women and children all over the planet. Machines will also read them and store these words for tomorrow, for next year, and for future generations to look back and know a little more of the life of Jonathan Beckett, as reported on the night of Sunday the 15th July, 2007.
Blogged with Flock