5 posts tagged “writing”

Yeah, it is starting to get very annoying.  No internet blows.  Things are apparently working though, as I had my mom check if the internet was working; she says that the indicator is solid, meaning I'm back in business.  I'm going to return home tomorrow and get back to work.

I don't really know of anything interesting going on.  Well, one interesting fact is that my site is now almost past the 1,000,000 rank on Alexa.  This is very good considering the fact that only a week ago I was ranked around 1,900,000.  I'm going to write a few more articles, and try to get out one more good one before the end of this month.  Right now I'm looking to end the month on 300 unique visitors, but maybe I can get it up to around 400.  I know that Sierra has visited my site at least 16 times.

I've been reading up on my old college book, Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, for ways to improve my writing. Making a good effort to read the entire sections about punctuation has really led me to find how many bloggers are doing so much wrong.  I must admit that I too am guilty of some things I have read.  Correct apostrophe usage is something I have more than likely abused.  I know I have placed "it's" instead of "its" a few times too many in writing.

It could be worse!  I do know I will continue to improve my writing, as it is a good skill to have!

No, I'm not referring to being recognized in person; Although if I did hang around Newport News or VA Beach, someone might recognize me sooner or later.  I am speaking of online.  How, when I visit websites I used to visit, I am recognized.  The most recent example of this was only moments ago when a person on Newsvine left me a comment saying my name looked familiar, and then saying how he realized that I was writing for Mashable and he was reading my post on travel resources.

It's somewhat weird in a way.  I had been approached by the owner of Wakoopa, and he told me that if I ever wanted to know any information about Wakoopa, to let them know.  I had a member of the Particls team personally message me asking how my experience was with the software.  I had a person today on Stickam, while I was listening to Leo Laporte, notice me and praising my articles.  I have people commenting on my articles directly, telling me how much they like the articles.  Some people even seem to know how much effort goes in to the research I put in just for writing a single article.  It just really changes me in a way.  It's the same thing when I know even one person has watched a YouTube video of mine, or read a blog post of mine, or even just thank me for helping them with something.

It's just kinda weird in a way, but I don't mind it.  It's also quite amazing in other ways.  I like the fact that even though I have posted less than 10 articles on Mashable.com, that I'm already starting to feel the attention.  I want to make a difference, and I have always dreamed about doing something where people would remember me for.  I never imagined it would have been writing, even though since I was about 14 years old, I had wanted to be an IT journalist.

I could see myself doing this for a living.  I could see myself doing this on a daily basis.  I could see this being my life as a writer.  I don't mind it at all, and I'd be willing to work my best at it, because I know that if even one person reads my article, and they get something out of it, that I have made some kind of impact on that person.  I want to write about things that people care about.  Even though it's only technology, it still is important to many people.

What does this mean for me?  I don't know just yet.  It's all happened all of the sudden.  I never, ever, would have imagined being a writer for Mashable.  I sent in a few links to stuff I have previously written, and for a whole month there was no reply, until one day when I was given my shot, and my first article, ironically enough, was my best according to Digg.com, which had over 750 Diggs the last time I checked.  It was, and is a real personal achievement for me, as I'm not going to college to study English, and I was only a mediocre English student.  My best subjects were Math and History.  I just really never imagined I'd be doing this.

The only thing I really was certain of, was that I'd be working for myself.  I know that writing for Mashable, doesn't really mean I'm working for myself.  Yet, it is fairly close.  As I write more articles, and earn the respect of my fellow writers, I am confident that I'd be given more freedom to do as a choose, and it is a great responsibility, and one wrong thing could totally destroy it.  The recognition or writing for Mashable though, is an honor, and I think it is something that has given me the confidence in my writing, and the dream I had only but a month ago, my whole life, is slowly turning into a reality.

No matter what you do in life, make sure that the job you are doing, makes you happy in life.  Work hard, do well, and push yourself.  There is no reason why you, the very person reading this article, can't do something you have always dreamed of doing.  It takes patience and determination.  The best things in life come to you.  The person who I now love has found me, my best friends found me, my dream job has found me.  Some of these things took a long time, but I never lost hope, and I kept trying, even when it almost seemed pointless.  So never give up on anything you want to accomplish.  Just make sure that what you are doing makes you happy, because no amount of money can make up for doing the things you love most and enjoy.

I'm not sure if I'll be writing for Mashable for years to come, for a few months, for a few weeks, or for even only a few more days.  I do know that I'll do my best no matter what.  I know that just experiencing all this, is life changing, and is really making me re-think everything.  It reminds me of when I went on a 7 day cruise.  It was a life changing experience, because I've never done anything like that, and it's something that not most people are going to ever see.  It's something that I had to experience.  Now that I have experienced writing as a job, I don't want it to end any time soon.  I hope it lasts forever.

These were my thoughts and stuff.  I know I kinda went over what I initially wanted to write, but I just got into a groove and had to get it all out.  If you want to see what I have done on Mashable thus far, check this link: http://www.mashable.com/author/james-mowery/

As always, I appreciate comments, criticisms, and all feedback of any type.  I guess this was part personal, part dramatic, and part inspirational, but it was all me, and that is all that matters.  I'm sorry if I repeated some things, or if it is unorganized in any way.  I am about to pass out from tiredness, but I wouldn't have been able to sleep if I didn't get this out of my system.  So it is done, and I hope everyone has a wonderful life, and maybe if you have read this post, it will inspire you to try harder, and never give up on your dreams, no matter how big or unachievable they might seem.

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http://mashable.com/2007/06/19/social-networking-firefox/

http://mashable.com/2007/06/19/blogging-toolbox/

Stan Schroeder and Pete Cashmore, and myself of course tackled most of these resources.  I contributed half, and other writers submitted their own, but Stan and I both did most of the work.  Pretty amazing list!

Definitely something to check out if you want to become a blogger!

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The lack of correct grammar usage in the United States is steadily increasing.  The reason for this?  I believe it is the fault in public education.  I would be willing to say that in all my classes throughout high school, barely 50% of the kids knew how to use proper grammar.  The school handed diplomas to kids who were set up for failure in the real world.  This is partially due to the teachers failing to help their students, and also because those students themselves were unmotivated to actually learn anything or care.  The students lack of motivation to learn is most likely at the fault of their parents.  Is that to say that that the unmotivated students of today will have children that will be the same way ultimately?  Thus continuing an ongoing chain of this ungrammatical nation?

Nothing is certain.  I am already traversing to areas beyond this article's purpose.  The simple fact is, the public schools need to hire better teachers who care about their students. The teachers need to provide extra help to those students that are not motivated, and punish those more severely who are unwilling to do anything (basically acting like a parent), because the parents are not going to do anything about it, because they were the same way.

Failure to do so will see a nation even more split of the upper and lower classes, where people just didn't have the proper discipline and teaching to live a successful life.  The lack of grammar, is only but a branch of the problems which is part of a much bigger picture.