social networking overload

 journal, writing life  9 Responses »
Jul 182011
 
IMG_0018

Plitvice lakes

Croatia is, well, it's partially booked, and the rest of it is planned. That totally counts as progress. I'm going to be seeing Zagreb, the UNESCO listed Plitvice Lakes, and the Dalmatian coast. This strikes me as a most excellent way of spending some time.

This weekend I also managed to book my flights to America for WFC 2011. Yet more progress!

In more ephemeral progress, I've also been pondering the thornsome dilemma that is social media. There is, quite simply, too much of it.

I like blogging for the fact that it's my website, and my voice, and I like the space you get in blog posts, both writing them and reading them. Conversely, I like Twitter for its immediacy, and for its ephemeral, thrown-off nature. I don't like Facebook — too much noise to signal, and the platform makes it impossible to filter content from chatter. I have a Goodreads account, but I can't remember the last time I found time to log in. I'm on Google+, which I like better than Facebook if only for its more easily-accessible privacy and filtering utilities, but it does feel like yet another platform I'm supposed to keep up with. Yet another platform where I have to face the dilemma of whether I cross-post, and commit the sin of forcing people who are following me on more than the one platform to trawl through duplicate content, or whether I strive to come up with original content for just this platform…

It's frustrating, because I enjoy the interaction, but the time consumption and the fragmented concentration is simply too draining.

So I am hereby giving myself permission to say that two social media platforms is my limit. For now that's my blog, and twitter. I'll still lurk on the other platforms, but I won't be logging in unless they demand my attention.

I think this also counts as progress.

mission: climb a mountain is GO. well, born.

 journal, shadow bound, shadow queen  1 Response »
May 092011
 
travelisGO

This is a snap I took on Saturday, of the Australian landscape somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney rolling beneath the plane's wings, but it's a suitable enough backdrop to say it's official: I paid for my flights today.

Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, I am on my way.

(For those who've been already: what's unmissable? So far I have Plitvice National Park, Split, Dubrovnik and Hvar in Crotia; Ljubljana, Lake Bled and the caves in Slovenia.)

This of course leaves me with a myriad more tasks, such as figuring out my itinerary and double-checking visa requirements, not to mention finding a dress to wear to the wedding, but I shall at the very least attempt not to bore the entire internet with all my talk of travel arrangements in the months leading up to my escape.

Instead I shall tell you that the weekend brought me the rather exciting news that Shadow Queen and Shadow Bound have been featuring on the Highly Recommended shelves at local Borders stores. Sadly, I have no photographic evidence, because my eyewitnesses did not realise just how upside-down this industry can get, and logically and rationally assumed an author would know things about her own books. (Kids these days.)

I also learnt, completely unrelatedly, that the Shona people of Zimbabwe name their children for a purpose. So apparently there's a whole slew of ex-army types who go by names such as Bloodthirsty and Bloodlust. (Sounds like a happening party, right there.) And there's a security guard called Nomore — he was the last of six children.

I kind of like this practice. I think, if ever I have children, I shall name them for the purpose they shall serve in (my) later life. Plentiful Retirement Fund and Tireless Chef are sounding pretty good for starters.