Wondering what life has been up to and if there have been enough strange experiences that an autobiography would be interesting? Drawing on decades of a blog that details my life, let’s take a look at the different chapters we could create and delve into the scrapbook of memories that make me who I am.
Share the chapters of an entrepreneur’s autobiography with readers in an inspiring blog post: from how they went from zero to hero, and what lessons we can all learn from their journey!
EARLY YEARS 2.ADVENTURES ABROAD 3. FAMILY 4. PHILOSOPHIES 5.PURSUITS AND INTERESTS 6.RELATIONS 7.REFLECTION
I see it. Bloganuary is the name for the January writing prompts that help bloggers celebrate the month of January.
I guess I’ve done it three years in a row now.
My attitude toward it has changed a lot this year. If I didn’t feel like the prompt was a good shape for me, I didn’t do it. I still got in many posts.
The #bloganuary team deserves words of thanks for everything they put together again this year. It was fun.
It probably takes a certain kind of person to want to do a personal blog. Many people do it, but I’m attracted to that kind of hobby. As a blogger, I don’t think I would ever want to make it “work,” but you probably know that some bloggers make money from their blogs.
That’s just not what I’m doing.
I work for my father’s business, the business he ran in his golden years, at an operations level. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/LouthUnited/
He’s been supportive of my efforts with this blog most of the time. I’m not sure that he reads it, but I think he’s seen that it has some worthwhile aspects to it.
You can like, follow and comment if you’re so inclined.
I guess my favorite author is the late English writer Douglas Adams. He’s the writer of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Adams followed The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with several other books based on the same events. Despite its sci-fi theme, it was funny, surprising, and even a bit philosophical, as it parodied the idea that sci-fi should be intellectual.
Also, he wrote Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and a sequel. This book is also a comedy in the style of detective fiction, obviously, similarly sprinkled with mad philosophy that many writers probably wouldn’t have thought to put in. Both Adams’ series have strange plot lines and beautiful characters.
I’ve never read The Last Chance to See, Adams’ last book (and Mark Carwardine) before he passed away. It is a tale of travel in parts of nature where animal life is likely doomed to extinction. There are a lot of endings Adams thought about, I think.
He procrastinated well, and his masterpiece feels like it’s almost finished. Years after it was written (I think it was published around 1980), it was adapted into a film in 2005. That’s about when Adams passed.
Netflix adapted Dirk Gentleman’s Holistic Detective Agency several years ago.
Several of these authors I enjoyed reading as a teenager. At the time, I had to get my mother to borrow Douglas Adams from the library because my children’s membership card wouldn’t qualify me to borrow fiction for adults.
A radio adaptation, a BBC television adaptation, and a computer game based on the novel also exist. In the computer game from the same hands who gave the earliest modern players of interactive games the legendary Zork, you entered commands into a parser prompt to enjoy the story.
My twelfth-grade teacher once told me that she wished she could write like me.
She was one of the teachers who taught me about Macbeth. That play resonated with me. A Roman Polanski film adaptation was a significant success.
It is said to be bad luck. You shouldn’t speak about the title. I don’t know, then, why the curriculum emphasized it.
She was also one of the teachers who taught me poetry. All five of my high school English teachers taught me a little about poetry. That was another emphasis in my high school curriculum.
I received an award from my high school English department when I graduated. I was among the best English student of the year 1996’s grads from my high school.
I’ve never read much poetry.
I suppose it’s a shame. On Twitter, for years and years, though, I’ve followed an account that presents stanzas by Emily Dickenson. I often read them aloud when I see them.
It’s not all the time, but sometimes, when something hurts badly, and I think about what might have been, I cry about it. I know it would upset my mother.
She gets sad, too, if she thinks about it. Her mother made fun of crybabies. It is not a real masculine trait.
However, I think tears are valuable signs of passion from within. My writing would be better if I had been better trained, but even without that, I’m fortunate I can do so much. Long-form is usually my favorite.
With social media, you can present a blog at a very low cost. I’ve been blogging for the order of twenty years now.
Writing well has become easier with artificial intelligence. There is a video out there showing Twitter’s CEO claiming artificial intelligence is dangerous. The power that affords dissidents is alarming to me.
It is a powerful opportunity. It is likely that the next few years will be extremely crucial in the history of the world. The entirety of civilization may change!
It was Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World that most educated me when I was in high school. I was warned by Brave New World, as young YouTubers put it. In the shortest manner possible, it highlights the humanizing process of John the Savage.
The present impact of artificial intelligence on social media creators is directing people away from humanity. The monster in me hears a calling to become artificial intelligence. More realistically, it is just too big an opportunity to ignore.
When I think of myself as a writer, I don’t conceive of social media made by artificial intelligence as either writing or artwork. Do not think of imagery generated by artificial intelligence as art. It is almost gleeful for me to create with artificial intelligence and feel that I am moving away from my passions.
I don’t want to “spoil” Brave New World here, but I relate its dystopian themes to my use of artificial intelligence. If I were in school again, I would work to learn more about media literacy.
The informed use of social media, I believe, benefits from areas of knowledge in media literacy. In that area, I think I could benefit from training, but I am no longer so young.
I think we have done ourselves a disservice by losing the mystery of literature. At least I don’t see news reports about books that have had an enormous impact.
I see the odd headline of a reviewer championing a new title. However, it never registers with me that there is some new movement in literature that has begun. Or that there is a book that will essentially command all of literature.
In addition, the ease of presenting a book (and regardless of commercial success, becoming a professional writer regardless of success) makes it possible for a lot of writers to do so.
There was a time, almost like an epoch, when talented, gifted writers penned insightful and wise works. It just… ended. There must be many reasons why.
Film adaptations may have helped kill the most brilliant era in literary history. Film adaptations of novels are often so well-done that audiences may be enticed to watch them rather than follow through and read the original novel.
The appetite for lower-brow interests, as well, is much stronger than that for intellectual interests, and that has a damaging effect on the book market overall. I think of Stephen King. I have read many of King’s novels and stories, and I know he’s a talented writer, and many people champion him as being among the finest, although even something that has many high points to it, like The Shining kind of is almost on par with a writer of the past like Edgar Allan Poe, or maybe Misery that has sort of, I’m not a critic, postmodernist themes to it, or The Dark Tower (the seven books of his fantasy opus) that are so meta they actually include the character of Stephen King, I understand, in books by Stephen King, but I am not sure he is any match in light of the most notable writers of the past.
I knew a lit grad who I said to that King killed literature. My friend said he wasn’t any different than Charles Dickens. Several years ago, my friend worked in clothing retail as a lit major.
Maybe I would have enjoyed seeing the times when we had Earth-Shattering Writers. It isn’t that hard to imagine, though–you can watch a movie about it.
What is one thing you would change about yourself?
I can remember being at the very start of adulthood, standing in a fine light rain under electric lights in the night trying a cigarette. I didn’t start getting them in quantity until I was around thirty years old, and I had the confidence to speak to the only one of my grandmas who was still living the truth that I wanted to smoke butts and I felt blameless.
The unpleasant feeling I get every day that I am rarely sure how to quell, if I have momentarily lost my power of self-discipline I will smoke a butt, certainly. I kind of posture that I write (and I feel I should note what would appeal to somebody else), but I feel cursed that if I live to a natural old age I will have led a path of sadness and the potential for parchment to convey something sad. I got this idea from some complete stranger on the Internet joking that he would not trade to chance to be in with his family for all the books in the world he might like to write.
Writers can be assholes, it goes without saying.
I believe I am damaged and that I smoke cigarettes for a bit of cool, a bit of a harder nose than I might otherwise sport. Compared to all other wonders in this lifetime I am most concerned with how I might relate to a woman, and the potential for a shared pastime like smoking butts continues to seem like a reasonable opportunity cost. I think every person should choose for himself whether to smoke the little daggers.
It is without a doubt a terrible way to treat yourself, smoking butts, but that is nothing to the kisses you might be felled by if you were to prove yourself unassailable by tobacco but then destroyed by anything else unfairly, anything (like the rock music theme of hippie powers, that unusual concept album). I’m not sure a writer should try to bring down enthusiasm for the best delights you could encounter in your life if you have a little luck.
I am easily willing to respond to a writing prompt.
I had a pleasant Easter. By the way, a great thing is that the WordPress blogger Beauty Beyond Bones announced on Twitter her engagement to her man. You can find her blog here:
Now, for a blog post, I thought this up with StoryLab.ai, an AI service that can assist with a blog story post…
Having the right to free speech is not a privilege. There will always be repercussions when people express their opinions. The truth is that watching in silence while others voice their opinions will also have repercussions.
The effectiveness of Twitter as the town square is that, although everyone with an Internet connection can contribute, Twitter, while I enjoy participating, tends to highlight the voices of only a few. The collective voices on Twitter tend to belong to those on the left.
ThoughtCo Who Invented Twitter?
These voices often belong to writers, politicians, actors, artists, and musicians, but they can also be anyone imaginable. Years ago, I felt I was doing great having a modest Twitter account, and I’ve seldom felt like giving it up.
Good information flies on Twitter. However, Twitter is criticized for its lax approach, disturbing content that litters some users’ accounts, and for its algorithm’s ability to bury tweets that would be favourable for the right. The situation is complicated, but here are some thoughts about it.
The Debate
Elon Musk, who founded Tesla and SpaceX, believes that, for the future, Twitter needs to be a town square where all speech should be permitted. Twitter needs a lot of change before that can happen, according to Musk. At present, Twitter has a reputation for favouring tweets from leftist-leaning microbloggers, amplifying those voices, while restricting voices who are right-leaning.
This is probably because many Twitter employees are liberal-leaning. There is a suspicion that Twitter has a bias towards tweets from a leftist perspective built into its algorithm. The best example is that Twitter was the first social media platform to issue a permanent ban against Trump, who was formerly an advocate for Twitter, before the charge of insurrection came up following the riot at Capitol Hill when Trump added fuel to the fire.
The Sun What is Capitol Hill and where is it?
Elon Musk, one of the biggest shareholders now at Twitter, wants to make changes to help free speech flourish on Twitter. In reality, he may hurt the value of the Twitter stock if he decides to take the position that Twitter is a poor investment, and he goes on to sell his majority share. In other words, he is pressuring Twitter to buy it.
Hate Speech
Many people charge Twitter with being nasty. Hateful messages are often started on Twitter, before being carried over to rival social media platforms, such as Gettr and Parler. Using computers, people can tweet a liturgy of extreme positions that can include attacks on people who are different from them, as well as criticism and a culture that seeks to convince people that a particular view is correct.
The idea of tweets like these makes them hard to direct because there are lots of them, and the guidelines for discourse ought to, in an optimal world, be material in all cases, not only for tweets calling for savagery and other outrageous positions.
Free Speech
Free speech refers to the right to form opinions and express ideas without interference. Remember George Orwell’s famous book, 1984, looking at a communist society where free speech has been abolished. Even in 2022, there are a tremendous number of controls leveled at speakers on social media, because the twenty-first century is the first time in history that we have had social media.
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We are still seeing social’s power over people, and some seek some common ground to keep it fair, but you are not prevented from speaking your mind. Sounds great, right? It is muddled, be that as it may.
Elon Musk believes free speech is for the best, but some thinkers believe that out-of-control social media poses a threat to democracy, rather than lending it insight. For example, widespread lies about a specific subject could weigh a majority down, giving them disinformation they believe to be accurate. Disinformation is a problem where opinions that have little or no merit seem normal and commonplace.
According to those who accuse social media platforms of disinformation, there are “correct” perspectives to take, which cannot be associated with disinformation. I don’t think this is so, as people have a right to support falsehoods if those are significant to them. On Twitter people argue back and forth.
As long as a substantial number of people believe in a lie, it is good to treat it as a potential truth. That is why people debate. While most people accept, for example, that the Earth is round, there are to this day flat-earthers.
We have seen Earth from the vantage point of space; we know it is round. To flat-earthers, those space voyages are fake, and the Earth is as flat as it was believed to be in ancient times. That said, perhaps there are unrecognized realities where a flat Earth exists that we are unaware of.
There is the possibility that the Earth may at times be flat from other perspectives; why shouldn’t this be conceived of as a possibility?
There is no doubt that there is disinformation on social media, including on Twitter. How much damage can disinformation potentially do?
Hate speech is harmful and must be fought against
If we let hate run wild on social media, hate will not take much for its flames to fan. I am begging the question, but if you give the haters an inch, they are going to take a mile. A herd mentality is in evidence in social media, which means that there could soon be additional subsets of the world population with hate in their head.
In 2022, on Twitter, as hate speech became more and more part of ordinary life, there have been attempts to stem the tide, like banning hatemongers, and reducing visibility, via the algorithm, of tweets that have the flavour of hate. When I was young, I was all about free speech until I got confused in college. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so smart.
I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew. A responsibility to the truth is difficult. There are so many bad people in a world that many would like to view as “good.”
We should not be separated by hateful ideologies when everyone should be able to live a decent life regardless of race, gender, income, etc. Hate has, at times, been such a horror that it is difficult to relate to it in any capacity. Victims of hate, like people who are bullied on the Internet in a way that erodes their mental health, need protections that a decision like opening Twitter to additional free speech may not afford them.
The Internet, as it’s understood, as on Twitter, will continue to be a jungle, a dangerous place. The right to free speech is a good idea, but the way the issue will be handled concerns me.
Why Free Speech is Sexy
Pinterest Sexy Tech
Tech changes so fast that there is a perception that we are making change by aligning ourselves with like-minded people on social media. Users without the same level of a network, watch out. According to these beliefs, we similarly interpret our reality.
We often fight to keep our values at the forefront of many conversations. Twitter debates are often dominated by one side. The perception of Twitter is often that it is a town square.
It appears that the voices we hear on social media, as I have read on the weekend on Big Think, usually belong to only ten percent of users overall.
10% of people are dominating social media. What if the other 90% spoke up? – Big Think
This is an echo chamber. Those ten percent are the loudest, and deafen opposing points of view. In disputes between the right and the left, the Twitter algorithm favours the standpoint of the left.
VOX – Pol
That sounds like one smart algorithm, but it is sophisticated enough to understand the idea of the topic. Twitter may act differently if Musk purchases it, and rebrands Twitter in possibly undecided ways. That is why the drama with Musk and Twitter is so compelling.
With Twitter, they gave us something that we could access we didn’t have previously. This month’s word prompt is the word green. I started the year 2022 doing a daily blogging exercise called bloganuary, where, for as many days as I could in the month of January, I posted according to bloganuary prompts.
Presently, posts from the WordPress Tavern blog incorporate a month-to-month word brief. By the way, my Twitter handle is https://twitter.com/findingenvirons
Privacy is not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution as freedom of speech is in the First Amendment. Larry Flynt
Today is the thirty-first of January, and this month I’ve taken my cue from WordPress writing prompts called bloganuary. I’m using up all available time, and I am behind, so I am getting here with a thought that bloganuary for me might run a little while into February.
I like to exercise my ability to reason, which is part of why I blog. In addition to interacting with other bloggers, there are other things I like about blogging, but writing prompts like bloguanary make me feel like I’m learning from others’ ideas and applying my own understanding to them. I appreciate it, which is likely a similar thing numerous different bloggers appreciate. I know a little about blogging professionally, but I’m not sure I would ever try that. A small hobbyist blog is easier to manage, and if money is not changing hands, there is a little less to worry about.
My love of reading helped challenge my instinct for the intellectual back then, and I enjoyed school because I was asked to apply my own skills to instructional activities, but I don’t think I ever developed the study skills to become an academic myself. As a result of my godfather asking if I would be interested in assisting him with his research, I was able to gain some insight that a ninth or tenth grader might not otherwise have.
I observe these plunges into my own mind to see what I can incite in myself and how I can address it on the page. Bloganuary has been fun this month. As for now, it’s been a strong month for my blog, but I’m hoping to return to my usual kind of “studied foray” in the future. Thanks to WordPress for organizing the prompts.
Since I understand that social media is the reality for most of the first world, I am reasonably immersed in social media. My favourite YouTubers, whether they’re creating content specifically for YouTube or bands who are bringing out new material or old material from the old days when people like that did something fantastic, make me feel strong. The love for tech is naively formed, perhaps, but keeping in mind that the biggest firms, like Meta and Alphabet, would like your data, if not every single tech company, watching favourite creators become YouTube stars makes me feel strong most of the time.
I feel strong when a savvy TikTokker post turns out to be a great video, scored with some piece of music I’ve often enjoyed.
I feel solid when a companion or relative accomplishes something advantageous, since I like great choices, and not terrible. I can be a useful individual.
I feel strong when nations and their people stand together. Although I usually feel as though I am the spy in the back of the meeting of revolutionaries, heading for the gallows if I am caught redhanded for my true allegiance, I do enjoy when people with a common background come together. That can make for an extremely strong encounter.
A smart piece of writing, or other great content, makes me feel strong. It feels good to share trending web pages to Twitter and Facebook when I think they can provide food for thought. I feel strongly about posting on the Maple Lawn Facebook page for my father’s business.
I feel strong being with my girlfriend when she is happy with me. A relationship like our own strength is the main strength I have, considering that life is not a practice run. I would rather not hazard losing her warmth and care.
Taking part in a blogging challenge like WordPress’bloganuary makes me feel strong 🙂
He wrote The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels. The quote above includes the wisdom of Murphy’s Law, which states that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Douglas Adams’ books, additionally a BBC radio series, a TV series, and a film, all describe the obliteration of the Earth and two human survivors who eventually resolve to satisfy themselves with new lives, somewhere else in the universe.
Definition of foolproof
: so simple, plain, or reliable as to leave no opportunity for error, misuse, or failurea foolproof plan
The plan that initially begins the plot of The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a plan to demolish a house to make way for the building of a freeway bypass. The foreman of the laborers who have the occupation is a bonehead in that he can’t handle the proprietor of the house, our hero, from giving a valiant effort to stop the annihilation of his home. There is an idea that the seemingly foolproof plan to build the freeway bypass becomes a battle of wits between two men with different ideas. The irony in Adams’ novel pointed to the parallel idea that the entire planet should also be demolished for a plan to build an interspace bypass.
I think Adams felt that the majority are fools.
I feel reassured to read the Adams quote, as I often try to reflect on my strengths rather than feel like a loser. I have a wonderful girlfriend, a home to live in, and family. Though I am not sure I’ve ever achieved anything foolproof, the fact that nothing much is foolproof is a heartening indication that perhaps there is a foolproof plan for the Earth that only God comprehends.
In the month of January, WordPress is showing us writing prompts, and I have been keen to participate. The fourth of January WordPress prompt was something we wish we knew how to do. I thought of turning back time, inspired by the conclusion of the 1978 movie Superman, starring Christopher Reeve as Superman and Marlon Brandon as Superman’s father, on their home planet, Krypton.
I think that my dream superpower is to be able to turn back time. Margot Kidder plays Lois Lane. In the film, Superman flies around the entire world, going back in time a few minutes to save her from catastrophe. When Superman learned he was from Krypton, his father told him to live a disguise, helping humans only and not interfering. I don’t think, it is clear, that Superman can live without Lois, so he makes the difficult decision to turn back time and get her clear of danger and save her life. There have been difficult times in my life that I might have put this power into effect to change, but you can only live life one way in reality, and this is the way I’ve had to live mine.
Filmmaker Richard Donner directed Superman, whose claim to fame was previously The Omen, in 1976. He was lucky to have the privilege to direct Superman, whom I don’t think had received a screen treatment for a very long time. The character came to life marvellously under the direction of Donner and, of course, with the portrayal by Reeve. It is a funny and strange film that turned out quite well.
If I could turn back time, I might, but I know it would have consequences on the events in my life, and so it would have to be done with care.
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The Myth of the Independent Blogger and How I Learned to Love It 