tinhuviel | Entries tagged with writing

Five Problems with Social Media

Grammar and spelling. It wasn’t, and generally still isn’t, that evident on social media sites like LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, but social media sites that limit the size of posts have the unfortunate side-effect of encouraging people to make spelling and grammatical shortcuts, in order to get the most bang for their posting buck. Twitter, I’m looking at you, here. Sadly, it’s beginning to bleed over into “real life” writing habits, breeding a new generation of illiterate morons who will spell wait as w8, even when they have no word or character limits.

Keyboard Warriors. Not everything on Earth or in the virtual world is a fucking trigger. Get over yourselves and stop making everyone who is unfortunate enough to attract your attention miserable.

Selfies. We’ve all made them, yes. But you don’t have to make them every day, much less more frequently. Instagram has got to be the best thing to happen for narcissists, and the worst thing to happen for everyone else, in the history of Teh Intarwebz.

Emojis. This kinda ties in with #1. On many social media sites, you don’t have to use words to express how you’re feeling anymore. You need only post an image of a thing with a face that best represents you at that moment. Even though it comes in handy, when you don’t have the ability to say “I’m feeling a little sniffly right now. I may be coming down with a cold”, when you are able to write out how you’re feeling, using emojis so much may dull your ability to go beyond adding what is essentially a cave painting to a message board.

Lack of Fact-Checking. I’m guilty of this just as much as anyone else, even though I try to be as attentive as possible. In a world where anyone can claim they are a journalist, and images can so easily be manipulated, you really can’t completely trust anything you see, especially on social media. The problem is exacerbated by people blindly reposting misinformation, based solely on the headline, often without even reading the article itself, much less double checking what’s being reported.

Mood: headachey
Where? the house
Music: Rob D - Clubbed to Death

This came to me in the middle of the night as I lay half-awake in the dark: Corruption and blasphemy undulated from his being with every beat of his withered heart. I may use that with the prompt from a few days ago. If I keep going like this, I'll have a drabble comprised of nothing but prompts. That would be a first.

In other news, I'll be delving deeper into the the third draft manuscript of The Blood Crown and making changes where needed as suggested by The Mother Unit. I need to get this done so I can pass it on to

gunslingaaahhh as I want to get the finished product to Sophie ASAP. Khanada is wanting to draw Cadmus and asked me if I had any suggestions for the picture. I mentioned that a crown of thorns in the background would be superb. If all turns out well, her picture will be the cover of The Blood Crown as she's already given me permission to use the picture however I want. Of course, I'll need to get written permission for Fey Publishing's records, but I don't foresee that being a problem. Things seem to be magickally coming together.

Mood: good
Where? home
Music: Howard Jones - Always Asking Questions

The House of Spiders

In the House of Spiders
I am dreaming of his breath
How he takes me ever closer
To the precipice of death
How his fingers brush me lightly
How his lips move at my ear
In this silent House of Spiders
I am lost within my fear
He has blessed me with his presence
In the dark and deadly night
And he has touched my living spirit
Like a raven taking flight
I’m a slave to his entreaties
I’m in awe of his dread stare
I’m a dancer to his melody
That fills the sacred air
And all of this is dreaming
Both the dreamer and the dreamed
Whilst in the House of Spiders
Dream and dreamer are redeemed.

© Tracy Angelina Evans ~ 14 July, 2010

Mood: writerly
Where? home
Music: TV noise

walkinlikecain gave me the following writing prompt: My dick!

And I have been rendered utterly speechless.

Mood: amused
Where? home
Music: Stevie Wonder - Superstitious

felisdemens cried in a war-like voice ~ Footwear!

To which I respond BIRKENSTOCKS! I used to wear high-top Reeboks a lot but, when my feet broke in their first pair of Birks, I was a lost soul. All other shoes hurt my feet so badly, my Birks are the only thing I wear. They're my house shoes, going out shoes, mowing the grass shoes. When I die, I want them cremated with me. I'm seriously into my Birkenstocks. You have one happy camper when Tin is in her toe socks and Birkenstocks in the middle of November.

Mood: amused
Where? home
Music: David Bowie - Fashion

circumspectly asked: how to escape your life when you can't escape your surroundings

It's been my experience, having grown up in a very poor home, that trying to physically escape your environment is downright impossible. So the thing you have to do is stop looking outward for release and begin to construct an inner world. Hannibal Lecter might describe it as a Memory Palace, which is an actual psychological term. Make this your rock and your refuge to which you might escape at any moment, when a moment of need arises. By mnemonically creating a place in which you can reside, you can achieve a zen-like peace and happiness within when outer world is less than tolerable. This inner world may eventually be the key to your changing your circumstances in our outside environment. It takes time and commitment, but I hear it can be done. Have I done it? In a way, yes. This journal is my Memory Palace and it is the one place to which I run when Life gets out of hand.

Mood: full
Where? home
Music: Vnv Nation - Mayhem (From "Gene Generation)

popfiend asked: Why is "Tin" so friggin' awesome? That's right. Say something really nice about yourself.

I write purdy (for the most part), I make people larf, I try to be a good friend to true friends, and doggone-it people like me!

Mood: goofy
Where? home
Music: VAST - One More Day

angstzeit asked: Are we having fun yet?

The answer is when are we not having fun?

Mood: amused
Where? home
Music: Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple

softlywhispered prompted me with this: Being a woman, who isn't comfortable in her own skin, and wants to be a man.

I believe there are more transgendered souls out there than any of us would know because they're viewed as such pariahs in our and other's societies. There seem to be more MTF transgendered people than MTF, but make no mistake that they do not exist. In one Native American culture, homesexuals and transgendered tribes-people were considered sacred and touched by god. This ties into the hermaphroditic Aeon as foretold by Aleister Crowley.

At one time or another, we've all felt uncomfortable in our skin. Especially those of who are fat. Knowing there's a beautiful thin person inside your biological fat suit often drives people to do ridiculous things to escape their skin. I've done it myself and part of my failing health can be attributed to my abuse of my body because I felt trapped inside something that was not me. I imagine being a man encased in a woman-suit insurmountably worse, especially when having to deal with the stigma of your situation on top of feeling completely out of sorts. I can't even conceive the trauma a transgendered individual endures almost constantly.

Some people think it's a brain-wiring mistake, others think it's a deception of Satan. God forbid, it might be a mistake on God's part. The only mistake God made was creating humanity in the first place. If I were a woman in a man's body, and my only respite to even marginally fit in was to abuse my body further by having a sex-change operation and be on hormones for the rest of my life, the last thing I would need is a bunch of hooligans dissing on me over something that is completely out of my control. Thinking about this subject just makes me dislike my species even more. My suspicion is there would be far fewer sex change operations if transgenders were simply accepted for what they are.

In closing, there's this song I heard (and I have the video, but it's super fuzzy due to poor TV reception) back in 1986 called "Damn, I Wish I Was a Man" by Cindy Lee Berryhill. If you ever find it, get it. 'Cos...it's groovy!

Mood: thoughtful
Where? home
Music: Dougie Maclean - All Together

Since there's not much going on in my life right now, I'm having difficulty writing about anything other than my writing, which is probably boring the hell out of a lot of people here. So, to rectify that, I'm asking you to prompt me. Give me topics to write about and I'll do my best to write about them.

Here, in convenient poll format. Niiiiice.

[Poll #1557938]

Mood: blah
Where? home
Music: Simply Red - Stars

You give me a word or two and I'll include it/them in as strange a sentence as I can muster or maybe even a tiny tale. I'm bored and blocked, so help me out here.

And pass this on to all your buddies so they can join in. Comments are open to all.

Mood: bored
Where? home
Music: Del Shannon - Runaway