30 Day Song Challenge Day 30 The End is Here! Desire, Romance & Blood

I've done it. Managed to keep with this meme all the way through. Never done this many blogs in a row. I'm thinking the once a  month with extras will be the way to go (it's where I sit comfortably in the blogging world when added to twitter, facebook and oh yeah, that pesky writing thing I do). Part of the experiment in doing this meme via my blog rather than facebook (keeping the list was another) was to see if I wanted to blog more often. I can see a blog post about where the interwebz fits into my world.

The final choice was for favourite song this time last year. May 2010 was a blur. I was busy working 2 jobs (both regarding teaching/training), juggling a teen in the first of two years of senior (we're in the final year now) and organising an engagement shindig......songs weren't really a priority.

Trawling YouTube by ways of friends posting songs on facebook was more how I came across songs last year.

The result is I'm wrapping with two songs.

The first is a performance by a capella group On the Rocks dong a performance of a Gaga medley with Bad Romance dominating (& it was the song on high play on radios too). I love the movements they do along with the general awesomeness of a bunch of guys pulling off the songs.

The second is another I must've heard a lot and started to enjoy via morning weekend tv music shows. Undisclosed Desires by Muse. Added bonus to a version I found on YouTube (before my son bought a few of the cds) is someone put a composite of Eric Northmen & Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood to the song. A fan of the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris and the HBO tv show (though do not watch/read one expecting the other to be the same).  Personally I think the actors playing Pam and Eric in particular have nailed their characters brilliantly. Some of the others I hold reservations on (& just don't get me started on the fairies....)

So to wrap.......some Eric goodness :-)

Song Break via way of Playdate

I have completely lost track of time this year. Today I'm having a playdate over at Kylie Griffin's blog discussing the hows and whys of what I write.

Kylie is a lovely lady who I met via  Romance Writers of Australia. She is busy working on her books with Vengeance Born due out in February 2012 (an awesome time to be doing anything in my opinion). You can find out more at her website http://www.kyliegriffin.com/Home.html

I'm looking forward to catching up in person again at the August conference. Much celebrating will be had!

Technology & Book Challenges

Technology. Such a double edged sword in this day and age. I thought I’d had my moment of technological difficulties back in February. Alas, no. My computer decided to end the year with some hiccups.

So, once again I’ve been forced offline or reduced to hijacking a computer from a family member. Least this time I had some peace of mind knowing backs up were regular. The problem is fixed, but for how long. Well, how long is a piece of string?

Then, I finally get my computer back – Yay! To only have our household succumb to the storm season. Brisbane is a sub-tropical climate & though summer has been very slow to start, the tropical thunderstorms we’ve had have hit way above their weight. The whole household went offline. This was only finally rectified by Christmas Eve.

So, I’m tentatively saying out loud that I appear to be back in the electronic saddle & wading through the inbox of email, blog feeds, google reader etc.

Over the coming few weeks I’m looking at how I’m going to incorporate my blog with other aspects of my online life.

As well, deciding which Book Chick City challenges I’ll undertake in 2011. The ones I’ve done this year have been great for keeping me on track to read (& take note of what I have been reading). I’ve met the speculative fiction one, well & truly. 

The library challenge run here, not so much. Though I am mostly happy how many books I’ve borrowed (as I’m aware that due to the busy-ness of the year meant not as much reading as I’d like). 

Dark Side Down Under

Time is flying. I’m certain this year someone, somewhere, wound up the clock to see how humanity copes with the speed. I’ve essentially been recovering from all the trips taken, cons attended & workshops undertaken. As well as absorbing all of those experiences.

Something else that has been stirring is the creation of the Dark Side DownUnder blog. Eleni Konstantine & Keri Arthur have been the masterminds behind this outing of the RWA Australia Paranormal group.   

We’re being let loose on the world…on Halloween no less. The group has on many occasions been a wonderful place of support and encouragement (as well as a place to discuss essential topics like who is the hotter Dean or Sam).

Blogging & online life

Developing a blog is an interesting experience. I’ve enjoyed online life for over ten years and yet it’s only a little over a year since I decided to start blogging.

I can remember posting until the wee hours of the morning many nights for years on message boards discussing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and when they started Angel and Firefly. Yes, I’m a Joss Whedon fan. It took those shows for me to explore the whole world of forums, message boards and the online world in general. Have made some awesome friends from the experiences. In fact it was on a dare to write something for an online friend who noticed way before me that perhaps I was a storyteller. I told her I’d last 6 sentences. Instead I was looking for an ending 16,000 words and original characters later. I was wrong and bam the beginning of my passion for writing flared brighter than a bonfire.

Yet, blogging is something I am only beginning to embrace and I’ve been trying to understand why it is one of the last aspects of the internet I’ve utilised. Driving home after visiting a friend (yes, visiting people in real life is still something  people do even with the digital avalanche) I understand what it is. Interactivity. With message boards, Yahoo messenger, MSN, ICQ, Facebook, Twitter, emails, MySpace etc the level of interactivity is much higher and direct. Not surprising how social networking has taken off. It’s quick and immediate. Message boards can be busy and quiet, with notes being followed at the reader’s request.

Blogging feels personal. Private. I write a journal and have done so ever since I can remember (the fact I didn’t tie this to any side of my once-repressed writer is another matter). I find blogging a little like journaling and working out what I want to ‘put out there’ and what is going to stay private has been a new juggling act.

I’ve had these thoughts about facebook and twitter too. I watch and follow some very successful writers, actors and musicians and wonder how they feel juggling the private and the public. Once it’s out in the interwebs it’s there. Doesn’t matter if you take it down, somewhere out there your words are recorded. 

Twitter is being catalogued in Library of Congress, which amuses me no end. Imagine it, a millennium from now, someone reading the archival material (assuming they retain the technology to read said material) and wondering why it was kept. As a classics student, years ago (and even today) I wish I had access to the general day-day chatter, styles and mores of an era. Cicero is wonderful to learn Latin, but really he can be very dry. Assumptions about the why behind reasons create much scholarly debate. Will that be our culture in a thousand years?