Some Interesting, Fascinating Insights...On Writing

 Full disclosure...this blog entry is basically lifted from a twitter post I saw today, a post I found both interesting and fascinating...

And worth sharing.

Billy Oppenheimer is a writing/research assistant living in Texas. His post today on Twitter focused on Aaron Sorkin, world-famous writer and screenwriter. If you don't know Aaron Sorkin's name, you know the words he's written. He's best known for The West Wing, but also, A Few Good Men, The Social Network, Sports Night, The American President, Moneyball, and others.

In other words...a proven and successful storyteller. 

I'm not going to plagiarize Mr. Oppenheimer's post, other than to say it provides insights into Mr. Sorkin's writing history, also, he includes opinions on writing from Neil Gaiman. Something Gaiman wrote about creativity and boredom really hit me hard.

Perhaps this information is widely known--I don't know. I haven't read a lot about either Sorkin or Gaiman and these stories can be easily found or are something all fans of these writers already know. So, if you one that already knows this stuff, sorry. 

If you're on Twitter, check out the post at: @bpoppenheimer. If you're a writer, or even if you're not, hopefully you find the stories of where creativity comes from as interesting and fascinating as I did.

Well, #RunChat...Pretty Much Everything

Tonight I was doing a little Twitter browsing (the world's a much better place when I don't...), and I came across a tweet that posed a simple (yet, not...) question.

"What aspect of your running right now needs to the most improvement?"

Oh, #RunChat, if you only knew.

There are so many excuses to not run. The list is almost endless. Time, equipment, an ever-aging and aching body...you name it. Plus, where I live, there's long hill I'd have to climb at the end of my run and that's not something I look forward to. Of course, I could get in my car and got to a park to exercise. But, that requires more work and time.

And during this time of year, I'm sorry but I'm not going outside more than absolutely necessary when it's 100º or warmer--nope.

I could just start by walking. Walking is better than not walking, but the old excuses come into play again. I suppose the biggest excuse and the aspect that needs to the most improvement for me is attitude. Attitude is keeping me from getting off my tail end. Attitude prevents me from getting up early to avoid the heat, it stops me from leaving the house in running gear, it prevents me from running.

Tomorrow begins a new week. We're also in a new month. The days are getting cooler, and other excuses currently in place will change. So, will I begin running again?

Time will tell.

Looking On The Bright Side...

This morning, I came across a tweet. If you're unfamiliar with Twitter, it can literally be a pit of ugly. But, every once in a while, a ray of sunshine breaks through and illuminates the darkness.

First, in the tweet exchange Joe lists something he's grateful for--family dinners and bedtimes not missed. This, in and of itself, is wonderful. A man--a father tells the world that through all the crap, through the pandemic, the riots, the unemployment, the unknowing of the future, he was able to find something positive in it all. He's been there for family dinners and bedtimes.

With Twitter, you can respond to a tweet with a tweet of your own. 

Britton decided that he had something to add.

He agreed with Joe, that family dinners together are important, something he's also grateful for. Normally, this tweet exchange might not even catch my eye, but in today's world where we can use the world's problems as a cause and excuse for our own pain, our own suffering, it was refreshing to see two men--two fathers let each other know that the small things matter and they are appreciative of those small things.

The exchange is small in comparison to the billions of things written every day on the site. Still, to those men--those kids--those families, something good has come from something terrible. If only we could all be more positive, like Joe and Britton.

Checking Out #Pitdark...Lots And Lots Of Pitches

One of the amazing aspects of Twitter is the ability to target your audience for both the those seeking information and those providing information. 

Case in point, #Pitdark.

Or, in other words, The Bi-Annual Twitter Pitch Party for authors of Dark Literature.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

I guess you have to be into that sort of thing.

I learned about #Pitdark from those at Immortal Works Press. They will check out tweets during these submission times for interesting stories. Personally, I've never done it--checked out the tweets--so I thought I'd see what it was all about.

Turns out, there's a whole lot of imagination going on out there.

I scrolled page after page of of titles and pitches. They were fascinating! I took a screen shot of just a few of them. There were so many submissions and so many varied story ideas. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. But, then again, when you have authors with finished stories and publishers looking for finished stories, it's a perfect place for both sides to meet. 

I'll bet, if your job is to look for interesting stories for publication, these Twitter pitching sessions can be exhausting. There's literally thousands of entries. You can spend a few minutes, or several hours just looking, pitch after pitch, author after author. It makes me wonder if any of those stories ever get picked up.

Then again, every time an author is contacted and a contract is signed because a publisher saw a pitch on Twitter, that's a success story. If it didn't work out, people wouldn't be doing it.

So, for all those authors out there pitching, and all those acquisitions editor searching, good luck--I wish you both a successful experience. And if it doesn't happen this time, there's always another pitch session just around the corner.

Apparently...Social Media Believes I Have Bad Breath

It's no secret everything we search online, see online, or speak through our phones--online, or not--is stored, kept, accessible, retrievable. I've blogged about this before--how I mention something casually to a friend one day, and the next time I get online, there's an ad for that very thing.

Like I said, it's no secret.

Still, I find it interesting when I see this type of personal information hijacking first-hand. It happened again to me this morning.

Two days ago, I posted a subtly funny Pic of the Day picture. It contained a bag of goodies given out by the Walmart corporation for using their drive-up grocery service. We've used the service for years and we intend on continuing. From time to time, the good folks at Walmart have included a bag of stuff to celebrate a local holiday or other event. This week--Halloween.

Most of the contents were edible, but a few weren't. I thought it would be fun to arrange the edible things with something some have tried to consider edible, tried and failed and take a picture. This morning I received a Facebook comment about my picture, about mouthwash, about millennials, and their judgement (or lack there of...). I should say that I do not necessarily agree with this assessment of an entire generation. Just wanted you to know.

I responded to my friend's post, but not before noticing an ad for Listerine Ultra Clean Mouthwash directly under my friend's post. 

Coincidence?

I think not.

I closed the program. As I'm wont to do, I then opened Instagram. And what did I see? Another ad for Listerine. I decided to press my luck and see if there was an ad for Listerine on the third leg of the social media holy trinity, Twitter. I actually expected a Listerine ad to be on my Twitter feed, but it was not. Of course, the Instagram Listerine ad may have only been added after I saw the Facebook Listerine ad. Although, I'd like to think the Instagram Listerine ad was sitting there waiting for me to see it all along.

The more we look for this type of thing, the more we'll see it. Of course, there's always the distinct possibility that I actually need to use the product.

Did You Hear That? It's The Sound Of The Unfulfilled Unrealistic Expectations...

In the short space of eighteen hours, a wave blew across the landscape. Perhaps you heard the cries of anguish, the gnashing of teeth, the profanity and pseudo-profanity. For if you are a sports fan of Utah's two largest college football programs, this was not a good weekend.

In fact, it sucked.

But, if you look at the games with a non-fan perspective, the outcomes might not be surprising. The local teams lost to national powerhouses, or, at least, programs with storied pasts. On any given weekend, our local teams would lose to those programs again and again. 

So, why the frustration? Why the angst, the pain, the sad faces across the state?

One reason--unrealistic expectation.

The die-hard fans thought--no, expected--the local teams to win. We thought our teams were better than they actually were. And this weekend, the truth--truths that were always there, we just chose to ignore them--showed their ugly faces. It didn't help that national media pegged the Utah Utes as a dark horse playoff team, nor did it benefit anyone that the BYU Cougars were 2-1, even thought their record could be 0-4, if it weren't for a couple of plays and lucky bounces. We flat-out thought our teams were better than they were, or that the limitations in the teams were either not there, or would not show up for big games.

Yes, the pain is real. We wished things had turned out different, but they didn't. The lofty goals some imagined will have to wait until next year, and they may never happen (another hard truth that may be tough to swallow...). The sound we heard this weekend may return again. Although, I suspect, if it does happen, it won't be as loud, or as impactful. After all, we all learned something this weekend, whether we wanted to, or not.

But...We Don't Even Have A RV!

I've blogged about this subject before. Big Brother is alive and well and listening in on our conversations.

And here's the proof.

And ad for RV insurance showed up on my Twitter feed and we're miles from ever owning an RV. The other day my wife and I were talking about RVs. I've been working for the same company for over two decades and since I'm in in my 50s, the "R" word (retirement...) is no longer one of those things that will never get here. Also, on occasion, I've checked out an ad for an RV or two. I find it interesting to see how much these things cost.

I have no idea if we'll ever get a RV. I mean, we don't go anywhere really right now. What makes us think we'll load up a mobile house and drive all over the place? Still, it sounds like fun, driving to interesting places, sleeping in a bed I'm familiar with instead of motel rooms, preparing meals in a a tiny kitchen...oh, how would it be?

No, I don't believe we'll be buying a RV anytime soon, but the good news is, if/when we do, we know Farmers ® offers specific options for our motor home. After all, it's not quite a home or a car.

So I've Tweeted 5000...Now What?

It's one of those things I hardly notice, but as it approached, I did. It's not a big thing. In fact, in the vast configuration of things, it's no larger than a spec of dust. But still, because it's a "milestone," it's something.

I finally sent out my 5000th tweet.

See? I told you is was nothing.

I've blogged about Twitter before. It's one of the more interesting social media platforms out there. The immediacy is unparalleled. My "wow" moment for how amazing Twitter is (or can be...) came when I was following a neighborhood fire a few years ago. The fire started in a backyard and spread. I followed the tweets as witnesses tracked the fire and told people which houses were in danger and which were not. Even the local fire department used Twitter to spread information to nervous and panicked neighbors.

I thought of all the good Twitter could do.

One of the truths by which I live, is this: "There is opposition in all things." That can definitely be said of Twitter. Anyone using the social network knows the other side of Twitter, the not good side, especially if you're even casually interested in politics, religion, or other social issues. Twitter can be terrible, or better stated, the people on Twitter can be both wonderful and awful.

I don't spend a lot of time on Twitter. I'm only at 5000 tweets (now 5001 when I post the link to this blog post...). I'm a lightweight compared to some. I find it mind-blowing that there are people out there who have hundreds and hundreds of tweets and likes and re-tweets. That's so much time. No, I like sticking in my toe. Swimming with the sharks in that tank is too much for me.

Life's But A Walking Shadow...

If you're a fan and use the social network platform Twitter, you should be following Utah's Lieutenant Governor, Spencer J. Cox. And not only should you follow him, but follow those who follow and interact with him. Why should you? There's no better example of what I'm talking about than the incident that occurred in our state yesterday.

It was a doozy!

Our governor (and my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss...) Gary Herbert underwent minor surgery yesterday. Apparently, for an hour or so, the current governor was scheduled to be under anesthesia, and therefore, unfit to lead.

What so ever will the citizens of this fair state do?

Call up the reserve, of course. 

And boy, did those who follow him have a good time. Followers posted photoshopped pictures (oh, how I pray they're photoshopped...), words of advice, and even included apocalyptic pictures showing the state of the state after his reign that lasted an hour ended. You've got to check them out if you're on Twitter.

But it shows more than friendly fun. It shows it is possible for people to interact with a politician in a civil and entertaining manner (gasp...), something much needed in politics at all levels and in all places. It shows also a politician can have fun with his own image.

Of course, other thoughts came to my mind--two imparticular. One's from the musical, Camelot, and I substituted the words just a bit.

The snow may never slush upon Capitol Hillside.

By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering than here

In Spence-e-lot!

Perhaps, a quote--unedited--from William Shakespeare better describes the Lieutenant Governor's temporary time as Utah's leader.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour

Upon the stage, and then is heard no more; 

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

You decide.

Børge Østervang's Twitter Account...Definitely Worth A Visit!

If you're unfamiliar with Twitter, it can be a pretty despicable place. Anyone can create an account and post almost anything. And if you add a false sense of anonymity, things can get ugly. So when you come across an account where the owner chooses to post something beautiful, over and over again, it's like a breath of fresh air hits you square in the face.

Because my Twitter account name contains a Danish word, people from the small Scandinavian country have found me and followed my account. Børge Østervang did just that, and when I checked out the things he posted, it was wonderful. Mr. Østervang posts paintings, beautiful paintings from around the world. He highlights many Scandinavian artists, most I haven't heard of. Then again, I haven't studied many artist or their art.

Too bad.

It's something I should do.

Because of the time difference, I usually see Børge's posts when I check out Twitter in the morning. I suppose he puts up most of the artwork when it's evening for him. It's a nice way to greet a day, like looking out a window and seeing a view that takes your breath away.

If you're on "The Twitter" and you'd like to check out Børge's site, search for @bostervang (you don't need the "ø"...). And if you're like me, you love it.

UCF's Danny White's Response...One Of The Best Tweets I've Read In A Long Time!

Today was a busy day, tweet-wise. Locally the leader of our Church passed away which generated a lot of tweets. But through the haze of political garbage, and other tweets, I found a gem, a bonafide winner. It's from Danny White, the Athletic Director of the University of Central Florida.

He hit a home run.

If you followed NCAA football this year, you know that when all the dusk clears there will only be a couple of teams that won all their games--that never suffered a loss--that went undefeated. UCF is one of them. All the other winning teams, all lower-tier programs in different leagues, will have their school's name etched on the winning trophy.

But not the Knights of the University of Central Florida.

They get a trophy as the winners of this year's Peach Bowl.

The travesty of NCAA football has a long past. I can't tell you how many hours of frustration I went through back during the BCS days. My favorite college football program, the U fo U Utes were denied a national championship in football twice, in 2004 and 2008. Had they been a school with more financial clout, they'd have two trophies, because they earned them. It's frustrating, but it wasn't the first time the best team in the country didn't win the championship trophy.

And it won't be the last. In the Peach Bowl, the Knights beat the Auburn Tigers, who beat both Alabama and Georgia, the two teams playing for the hardware--the winner of next week's game will forever be in the history books as this year's NCAA National Championship.

Of course, thanks to Danny White, the UCF coaches will get a bonus, just as if they won the whole thing.

Because, they did what no other team did in the entire country. They never lost.

Except having their name etched on the trophy, that is.

Man...It's Getting Nasty Out There

Last Saturday night I was on Twitter checking out some of the tweets during the BYU-LSU football game. If you're not from around here or familiar with what transpired in New Orleans last weekend, it was a tough night for the boys in blue.

And boy, did those who had opinions tweeted up a storm. I took a few screenshots that night. At first, the anti-cougars had a field day, mostly because they had a lot of ammunition. But as the game dragged on, people--even the haters--began to feel sorry for the Cougars. 

That was Saturday night. Since then--things are a little crazy out there. It goes back and forth, pro and con, red vs. blue. Even though the technology that brings us social media is incredible, I'm glad we didn't have social media when I was in college attending the University of Utah. I don't know if I could have handled it, especially watching BYU totally destroy my helpless Utes year...

After year...

After year.

I can definitely feel the BYU fan's pain. I was there. I lived it. And if I had to be reminded of the opposing teams dominance again and again on social media, that would have been too much.

The game is this coming Saturday. Utah fans are feeling pretty confident for several reasons, and the BYU game against LSU only bolstered that confidence. But, they shouldn't be that confident. Even when one team has all the advantages on paper, the underdog can deliver a crushing blow. As a Utah fan, I remember those rare events, too. And man, when the undermanned Utes beat the Cougs back in the day, it was that much sweeter.

I not the kind to make predictions. Conventional wisdom says Utah will probably win, but I wouldn't be surprised if Utah gets taken to the woodshed Saturday night. And if that happens, how different the tweets will be next week. It should be fun.

If You Are On Twitter And A Ute Fan...You Should Follow Andrew Zaugg!

I've admitted before that I don't fully understand Twitter. What's there to understand? You ask. I mean, how hard can a site be that restricts all posts to 140 characters or less?

Good point.

Twitter is an interesting site. I don't spend a lot of time on it. I do post a link to each of my daily blog posts, so I've tweeted at least 2393 times. Actually, I've tweeted a few more times than that, but not much. There are people with millions of followers--I've got just over 1800. And there are people who have posted tens of thousands of tweets, some hundreds of thousands of times. That I don't understand.

I'm not following a lot of people, but not surprisingly, many of those do I follow are University of Utah fans. Utah fans are like fans of other sports franchises. Some are cool, some are goobers, most are passionate, hence "fanatic." There's one Utah fan who I follow that I actually know, Andrew Zaugg, teacher, friend, fellow thespian. I've known Andrew for at least ten years. We've even done a few shows together and he's a good guy.

Last Christmas we found ourselves sharing the stage once again. I talked to him about Twitter. He loves it, and it shows. He's witty, snarky, and bright when it comes to his tweets. He seems to save his best stuff for all things U of U. And, thankfully he's not a jerk fan.

Because the football season hasn't yet begun, and because Andrew's a teacher, he has time to tweet to his heart's content. There's something hypnotic about pre-college football season hype. And Mr. Zaugg dishes it out with the best of them. So, if you're a Utah fan and you're on twitter, You'll mostly likely enjoy his tweets as much as I do.

Sarcasm Society...Identifying Geniuses Among Us

*

I'm not good at snark. It's why I can't really fully participate in Twitter. I have friends who do, one in particular who tweets a lot, especially about U of U sports. I follow him. I laugh (usually...) at what he posts and what he retweets, but i just can't get into it.

Or, better stated, I'd love to get into it more, but I'm just not good enough.

Maybe it's because I don't have thick skin. Maybe it's because the damage that can be done from a simple tweet is unbelievable, whether it's on purpose or not. Don't think so--google Justine Sacco.

But even though I'm not good at snark, I do enjoy it when it's well done and not attacking (too much...). Case in point, I ran across a website today called Sarcasm Society. You can find their homepage: HERE. I just found this site today and I only looked at one article, but it was fantastic!

You can go to that article: HERE. I admit, the first photo is not the best, but many had me chuckling, out loud, even. A lot of the pictures focus on college life and a lot focus on beer (are the two related--perhaps...). But most are hilarious.

What does sarcasm have to do with Twitter? If you don't know, you don't know Twitter.

* Photo used without permission from: http://sarcasmsociety.com/these-people-are-all-clearly-geniuses/typo-or-no-typo

Football Games On Twitter...Pretty Cool!

I first heard the news months ago. The National Football League had reached an agreement to broadcast games on a new medium--Twitter. There was a time when I listened to sports radio programs and the gentlemen on those programs thought having games on Twitter was a little weird.

Tonight I'm watching my first game on the social medium and--though a little strange--it's a good thing. I took a few screenshots of tonight's game and put them here on the blog. 

I don't know why but over the past couple of weeks I've found myself saying over and over again, "We live in amazing times." It's so true. The fact that I can use my phone to not only watch shows and sporting events, but record them from remote locations and then watch those recorded shows and games from practically anywhere.

And that's just a minute speck of things that are available to us. We can download any work ever published (except some super secret government stuff...). We can listen to any songs from all over the world. We can hear radio programs, download podcasts, hear speeches given by everyone from the most influential people in the world to the simplest piano recital by the most humble child in the world.

And now we have football on Twitter. What will they think up next?

Mr. Diggs...You Surprised Me

The other day I got an e-mail, a notice that alerts me to when someone has followed my on Twitter. If you're on Twitter you've gotten them as well. Unless, you've turned off the notifications. 

I am not a big social media guy, at least, I don't think I am. It's all a matter of perspective. Compared to some of my extended family, I'm a BIG social media guy. I do post a daily picture on my blog, on Facebook and on Google +. I also link my daily blog post to both Facebook and Twitter. I admit that I use Facebook the most, but not as much as I once did.

So, when I get e-mails about new Twitter followers, I'm a little surprised. I'm not one to solicit a lot of followers, and I doubt I'll ever pay for followers as some services promise to do.

The e-mail alerted me that I had a new follower, one Mr. Taye Diggs. There's about a half a million of us Taye Diggs followees out there, and when you put that up against seven billion, I'm part of a semi-rare group. There are some celebrities I follow (not many...) and they usually follow almost no one in return. Mr. Diggs, however, follows about half a million people. This tells me he's a little different than most celebrities. 

I don't know much about him, but what I do know I like. He was not ashamed or afraid to show real emotion after the passing of his friend and co-star Paul Walker, another celebrity about which I've heard good things. Mr. Diggs hasn't gotten into the kind of trouble about which a casual fan like myself would have heard. He seems like a stand-up guy. He's also wickedly talented, if you're familiar with his work.

I don't know how he found me, or if he has someone to manage his various accounts that found me. It would be interesting to one day find out. Needless to say, I was surprised. I got into my Twitter account and quickly followed him back. 

I wonder if he was surprised.

Twitter...Still Trying To Figure It Out

At some point last week I reached one-thousand twitter followers. Now, I know this is no real milestone, especially since on any given day that number can rise or lower by a few followers so it's not a hard and fast thing. In fact the number did dip for a few days and now it's a few above a thousand.

I've had a Twitter account for several years, but I haven't done much with it. One of the reasons for this is because I don't really understand how to maximize Twitter (as you can also see by the low number of tweets I've posted...). For some, Twitter is an amazing social program that can be used for marketing or for other uses. For me, I kind of use it.

The first thing that impressed me with Twitter was its immediacy. I remember a few years ago our state was so dry in the summer that several fires were springing up all over. Once news of a fire hit, cities would create a hashtag of the fire and began tweeting instructions for citizens and others concerned about the welfare of their loved ones. What I loved about it was the information on the fires was SO much quicker than you'd get on the local news, even the local news websites. It was amazing!

Since I am currently following so few people that when I'm following an event such as a U of U sporting event I can just refresh the Twitter feed and keep up with the conversation. But, if I were following a lot more people, I would need to log into the hashtag of that particular event then I could follow every tweet using that hashtag. At least, I think that's how people do it. I really don't know.

And so, to those thousand followers I say I'm sorry for my Twitter cluelessness and I'll try to do better. Whether or not I succeed remains to be seen...