Tag: twitter

End of an Era

I did it. I actually hit deactivate on my Twitter account.

That app is where I found so many kindred spirits and a lovely community of writers, many of which I’ve met in person or have chatted to online. It was where I finally felt seen as an author and felt the joy of having complete strangers compliment my work.

These are not feelings that fade, but they do tarnish.

What Elon Musk has done to the app should honestly be studied in the future as a cautionary tale of how to turn an incredible app into a billionaire submersible equivalent. Musk has managed to tarnish his own legacy by being an outright idiot and doubling down on being so. I can still remember, many moons ago, that Elon had me intrigued. The man was a billionaire and investing in the things I wished I could have. Electric cars! Home Batteries! Solar Roofing! Space travel! I even said at one point that the man was like a living Tony Stark, minus the fancy metal suit.

Fast forward a few years and I harbour a hatred for the man that he has fostered through his arrogant public persona. From his transphobia, to his backing of Trump, to simply claiming credit for much of his teams’ successes, I simply am in awe at his fall from grace. The last nails in that coffin for me? Coming for my social media platform of choice. This may seem petty, but it was a place where I’ve had some incredible interactions. Famous authors have commented on my posts, I’ve had famous folks like my tweets, and it all felt like a brush with circles otherwise distant from me.

Now? Twitter (now aptly named X, for it is now my ex social app of choice) is rife with racism, folks slinging around slurs, I’ve seen photos/videos of people dead or dying, and the block button is worthless. The ads are always irrelevant, the Elon Cheer Squad are always prioritised (blue ticks), and frankly with his latest update stating that whatever we share on there WILL be used to train AI, well, in short, feck that.

So, while I’m on Threads, Facebook, and a few dozen other apps I rarely use, I will miss old Twitter. I’ll miss interacting with authors such as Anthony Horowitz who leapt into a conversation about his book Magpie Murders. I’ll miss having my literary heroes coming across my tweet and tossing me a like. These things could change the mood of a day or rejuvenate me for another writing session.

Anyway, I’ll step down off my soapbox for now.

In other news, I’m seriously considering writing book reviews in the hopes it can earn me a few extra dollars for the bookshop. I read any and everything, and I believe my rating system to be far more just than other folks.

  • 5 stars – Excellent read, enjoyable through and through, easily recommended.
  • 4 stars – Great read, an issue or two, but still recommendable.
  • 3 stars – Average read, perhaps just not for me, possibly recommended for particular readers.
  • 2 stars – Not enjoyable, perhaps content with no warning that should have had one, misleading marketing, broken parts.
  • 1 star – I tend not to use, this is for books that haven’t been edited properly, misleading, broken, confusing, awful dialogue, poor writing in general, plot flaws, etc.
  • No Rating – For books that were clearly not to my taste.

For a no rating example, I read a book that was essentially a checklist of traumas with no trigger warnings (it would have required a chapter for them) and was sold as a dark comedy. As someone who made a “Guess I won’t bring the marshmallows” joke to my Mom when she told me they couldn’t wait for me to get come to cremate my Dad, dark comedy is where I live. No, this wasn’t dark comedy. None of it was funny. I felt like the “semi-autobiographical” label was a cry for help and I should have been calling someone for a welfare check on them. So, no rating, but the review was around the reasons why as stated here.

Also, I am a firm believer that you CANNOT and SHOULD NOT rate or review a book if you don’t finish it. “I was in the Louvre, didn’t see the Mona Lisa, but one star.” The book I’ll use as my example here is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. I loathed the unnamed protagonist as she began spiralling into her own thoughts and manufacturing her own despair. I would have put the book down, but I was listening to it in my car, so I soldiered on. Then, out of nowhere, the twist drops and I nearly had to pull over to listen to it again. Completely changed the book. After that, I finished the book before bed.

Perhaps people think I’m too generous, and maybe I am. I know how much work goes into these books and I’ll be damned if I’m going to One Star/DNF for an author.

Anyway, it’s something I’m thinking about. We will see how we go. For now, I’ll continue trying to squeeze in some writing time and running the bookshop as best I can!

Can't Stop, Addicted to the Shin… Dig..?

I thought a line from a song would really help me title this post, however upon looking up the lyrics for “Can’t Stop” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers I realized that line makes no sense. Either way, the message was and still is, can’t stop! What I mean by that is I’m on a roll with this whole blog thing as of late and I’ve been finding it easier to write posts. There’s something oddly addictive about people liking my blog, or my post or even just seeing the view count rise. I feel bad because I don’t network the way I should, as it seems the common courtesy in the “blogiverse” is when someone likes/shares/tweets your blog, I guess you do the same? I don’t know, these new fan-dangled “tweeterers” and “facebookians” are just in a different league to me I suppose!

Yes, I realize that makes me sound old. In fact some days I feel it. But as I became addicted to my smart phone (ironic name, but I’ll get to that) I started to get lazy with my thumb typing. Autocorrect does everything for me, so why bother, right? However autocorrect has its own world and I truly believe occasionally Apple throws a random word in even when you spell the damn word right! I mean honestly, I have typed “cringe” and it changed it to “chinchilla”. Yes, that made total sense. Now I “chinchilla” every time I hear Lady Gaga sing for even more reasons. Not only that but I am pretty sure my intelligence is drowning in the sea of supposedly useful apps in the app store.

Luckily my creativity is still running free, but when I say my intelligence has suffered it comes down to the little things. Not having as good a memory as I used to (yeah, for those of you who know me… it has managed to get worse!) and my spelling has taken a hit. Now as a self proclaimed grammar snob I have tried to maintain the best grammar standard I can. But lately there has been lots of questions that have popped up such as: Is organisation spelled with an S or a Z? Ridiculous or Rediculous?! Neighbor or Neighbour? Armor or Armour? For those last two cases, either can work but I guess the greater question is will I get grilled at the editing table for a novel?

That being said, here’s some news for you! I have been addicted to Google News for awhile now, but it has been shocking the number of times I have seen “You’re” mixed up with “Your” and “It’s” mixed up with “Its”. These are not simple blogs like this humble site here, oh no! I am talking an epidemic that has managed to forge its way into supposed reputable news sites as well as t-shirts and even signs. That’s right, official signs! It’s ridiculous! Everyone is worried about the zombie apocalypse, but that is fictional! One guy eats another guy’s face and everyone jumps on the zombie bandwagon, but seriously why can’t people just get these straight! Your welcome means that this welcome is yours. You’re welcome means you are welcome. It’s teeth means that yes, it is teeth (which is terrible grammar!) but its teeth means we are discussing the teeth of the object in question.

Anyway, today I talked about my dream of running a school with some of my colleagues at work and I really enjoy the thought of it. It really sounds like a place I would like to go to school! The concept differs quite a bit from traditional schools as the concept is based around the creation of video games. The school itself would be a four year program no matter what discipline you choose on the road to game creation. The student tuition would go toward their future employment within the school run business for the first year after their graduation. What do I mean? Well the model would go a little like this…

A student would apply straight from high school and hopefully be accepted into the school. No application fees in this case as I could not guarantee everyone a placement. Yes, this means tuition may be a tiny bit higher per year, but I believe no application fees would open the school up to everyone as I felt the need to pick and choose carefully due to fees. After the student is approved they choose their degree and they are slotted in. Assuming I don’t have a million classrooms like a university, I would be restricted at first by size and staffing. That being said, let’s assume that I am already in business. Tuition comes with a breakdown of costs (administration, technology, bills, maintenance, etc…) but the bulk of the tuition would actually be put aside in waiting. During your fourth year at our prestigious college/university/higher learning/altar of awesome, you embark on a mission to help create a video game. The fourth year is like a co-op placement but within the school itself. Teachers are there to guide you, teach to to problem solve, improvise, plan and execute a game title.

Then after your fourth year (with more labs than classes), the fifth year is actually what I call “Student Sponsored Employment”. You see, all the while you’ve been paying the bills for the school, we’ve also been saving your money. Yeah, we could expand, but we’re working on that anyway. Your money comes back to you, as I believe that every school should have a very serious plan to make their staff useful employees. With your fourth year “co-op” you begin to gain that real world experience. In the fifth year, suddenly you are thrust into the real world, but still connected to the school. You have already guaranteed yourself a job for one year by paying tuition. The fifth year is what we call “The Danger Zone”, where you can fail but it won’t cost you your job. However, this year would show everyone how crucial each member of a development team is. “The Danger Zone” is also where our school makes its profits, so the better our graduates do, the better off we are! The fifth year has the mission of creating a full potential AAA title in just a year. This would pressure students to work on time management, and also face the reality of cutting their beloved idea to pieces and sacrificing stability for release. Student projects that do well are granted bonuses and some students may even consider building a team from the people they worked with for their game. But the whole idea is to take a new high school graduate, teach them all they need to know, help them work out the kinks and then watch them fly before letting them go into the world. This is my lifelong dream.

I’m sure I forgot to mention a few things in there, but I am tired and need to get up and do more creative writing in the morning! As much as I love posting in my blog, I love creating and writing and even just planning far more than this! But for now, I hope you enjoyed!