Spam is crossing the line with too many aggressive tweets.

- Tom Lop

Before I begin I should mention that I googled this quite extensively but couldn’t find anything relating to the issue. As a result this is the first (that I’ve seen anyway) that examines lop.net, this also means that most of this is conjecture.

Perhaps some of you have noticed that a few phrases show up continually on your timeline repeatedly. Perhaps something with the hashtag #ishow or “stupid twitter tricks?” Well after some investigating, I realize this is all related to the business of Tom Lop who runs a website lop.net that supposedly gets you 10000 followers in a few months.

What Tom Lop does is what I consider to be a fairly insidious form of spam marketing. The process seems to work like this. Tom receives a client that wants to promote his/her website over twitter. An example of this is a show by 2 people called the Jamokies. He then proceeds to create a series of twitter accounts all related to the show. In the “Jamokie” example there are the accounts: “Jamokie” “Jamokies” “DonJamokie” “JimmytheJamokie” and undoubtedly many more. The next thing he does is follow people en mass likely via a follow churning mechanism. At this point he begins a series of retweets back and forth from each of his accounts. For example, the account “Jamokie” says, “Twitter is a mental gym, stress relief for the mind” (there was actually a tweet to that effect). He will have DonJamokie, JimmytheJamokie and all the other Jamokies retweet that. While that seems like an innocuous post, it actually has two purposes. First, retweeting is frequently looked at as a measure of influence. For those people who look at sites like twitchuck.com, twitalyzer.com Tom Lop and his network will look like a great follow. Worse is that these people will always be somewhere in your timeline. Add some well-placed promotions (occasionally promoting their show) and you have full on spamming via retweet. It’s also more difficult to stop because one account doesn’t do all the original tweeting. The next time DonJamokie will send out a tweet and Jamokies will retweet it. Now that Tom Lop has even more customers he has all the accounts promote each other creating a network of spam. Once you follow one you will likely get follow requests from the others. If like me, you don’t look too closely at who you follow you will soon be bombarded with these retweets. Following enough of these people will clog up your timeline, something that is very frustrating. Personally, I had to manually block OVER 30 of them before I couldn’t find any more of their spam in my timeline. I should also mention on an unrelated note that Tom Lop is also somehow connected to Tearn (www.tearn.com) as many of his clients have pages on the website.

I have noticed some trends with Tom Lop, all of his “clients” have somewhere between 10 and 20k followers. They also tweet CONSTANTLY. I would say about 1 tweet every 8 MINUTES. Obviously these are bots doing the work, this is made more apparent by the fact that you will never get a response if you use the mention function to message one of these people via twitter.

Unfortunately what Tom Lop is doing is actually working. I myself have gone to the Jamokie’s site just to figure out what the hell was going on. Personally, I do not like to give spammers the satisfaction of getting a click-through, and I’m sure many of you work the same way. So I would highly recommend unfollowing these people as soon as possible. Below is a list of some of his clients that I would recommend blocking. Even better, after you block them send a mention to @spam with their usernames, with enough people behind us we can get these spammers off twitter!

People to Block:
www.twitter.com/lopnet
www.twitter.com/tomlop
www.twitter.com/imagslo (pretty much anything that starts with imag)
www.twitter.com/loves2twit
www.twitter.com/Jamokies
www.twitter.com/JimmytheJamokie
www.twitter.com/DonJamokie
www.twitter.com/c21sf
www.twitter.com/mindi_li
www.twitter.com/djc8080

This is an initial list if you know of any other users either tweet me or leave a comment here and I will add them.

Now by all means if you like reading about the Jamokie’s show continue to follow them, this is simply for the people who don’t care and are tired of dealing with Tom Lop and his cronies.

Finally, I would like to say that I am nowhere near as influential as these people. I only have 2000 followers. Out of them, how many will actually read this? Probably not many. So I ask everyone who reads this and agrees to retweet it.

Thank you.

twitter.com/elyswim

Before you can get a following that cares about what you write, you first have to GET a following. There are numerous ways and programs to do this (Hummingbird, Twitter Friend Adder). A free and effective, albeit slow one is Buzzom.com. I have found the people I follow using the “Grow” tab tend to follow me back quite regularly. While many of  them happen to be marketers who spew spam tweets to no end ( see further down about this), others are twitterers just looking for fun people to follow. If you happen to have a specific niche you can also use “Twitter Friend Adder” to add people by searching for Twitter trends.

Ok, you’ve added about ~200 “friends” to your twitter account. What’s next? If you’re new send out a quick tweet, something like, “still figuring out this twitter stuff” (which, in fact, you are) then,  its time to take a little break. Go out, forget about twitter for a while! I know it’s hard when you’re just beginning. It’s this interesting new website with so many things happening all at once! You want to know who is going to follow you back and you want to start forming friendships right away! Well that’s great, but you’re a little over-zealous at the moment (guys think of it like the 3 day rule for calling a girl back, except more like the 3 hour rule). So forget about twitter for a while, believe me once you come back, you’ll have some followers, I guarantee it.

Ok! You’re back! First things first. Look at your twitter timeline. Got some followers, eh? Feel pretty cool? But wait, it’s not as cool as it seems. Most of these followers right now probably don’t care who you are. Oh sure, they may follow one or two of your links if you have a good headline, but nothing much beyond that. “That’s not what I want!” you say to me angrily, “I want my money back!” Well first, I didn’t charge you any money, and second this is clearly not the last step as there is a good portion of the article still left for you to read. So what do you do?

Start talking! Just as in any normal relationship (socially awkward people excluded) you have to keep a person interested in you (and vice versa) to be friends with someone. So say something! When I say this, I don’t mean describe the most inane details of your life. People probably don’t care that you ate ham for lunch, and your existence is probably not as interesting as John Mayer’s. So what do you do? Start by looking at your timeline. A lot of people still don’t understand the purpose of twitter and will write stupid things like, “just woke up.” But someone out of the people you follow will probably have an interesting tweet. Use the @ reply function to comment on their tweet and reply back to them. It will make them feel special (they know someone is reading their tweets) and in return they are more likely to start reading your tweets. A note on this, people who have tens of thousands of followers likely get a lot of @ replies and this may not work so on them. I still haven’t found a valid method of keeping them engaged. Once you have got someone paying attention to your twitter account it’s time to start sending out tweets yourself. So we continue…

The first thought you may have is, “Well I have people interested, I can make it all about me.” Au contraire, this does not work in twitter and in life (I know, I’m deep). The relationship you have formed with someone is only temporary if you don’t send out interesting tweets yourself. So what are some interesting tweets?  One option is to tweet questions that will make people laugh. A funny question I asked was, “As a straight 22 year old man, will I be crucified for publically announcing I like the Jonas Brothers?” I got about 8 replies to that pretty instantly. To me that tells me atleast someone is reading my tweets and I am engaging someone in conversation, afterall that’s what I want right? To have a conversation with someone? Another option is interesting links. I’ll warn you about this, use links sparingly. Please, for the love of God, don’t set up an RSS feed that goes from Digg to your twitter account. People don’t want to read every article that goes up on Digg. If they did, they would go to Digg. Only put links that you find to be interesting/funny. Chances are someone else will find them interesting and funny as well.

Ok, now you’ve added people, formed a relationship and sent out some interesting tweets. What’s next? WAIT 24-48 HOURS. Why? Sometimes it takes a while for people to follow you back. You can continue tweeting, but don’t do the next step until you’ve given people some time. After you have waited, remove the people that don’t follow you (unless you truly find them interesting). “How do you expect me to do that? I’ve followed 200 people, it’ll take foreeeevvvverrrrr!!” you inquire with glaring eyes. I have found a wonderful website solution called “Twitter Karma.” After inputting your username and password you can remove anyone who isn’t following you back (Main menu –> Only following option –> bottom of screen –> check all –> bulk unfollow). You should also, at the same time do the next step which is…

Follow your followers back. When you follow someone back, you appear at the top of their list of followers. Therefore you will get plenty of exposure from people who look at their followers list (that is, until you are buried by more of their followers). This makes it more likely that someone will read your tweets and end up following you because of it; plus it’s just polite.

Well those are basic steps of getting a decent twitter following. It worked for me! I have about 2100 followers and converse regularly with quite a few of them. I can’t leave this article without a few warnings however…

1) Twitter can be very suspicious of new twitterers, and for good reason! Just look at all the spam they have to deal with! Mass following and unfollowing (called “follower churning”) is a well known spam tactic. Don’t get too crazy with the steps above until you’re above 2000 followers (approx 1 month) otherwise your account might get suspended.

2) Spamming: I know all who read this will undoubtedly use it purely for finding and getting to know cool new people on the interwebs, but for those of you who spam this is a process that will NOT be very profitable for you. First, who actually likes reading your garbage? 2nd, and I recommend this for all of you, if you see a spam message from someone you’re following go to their page, if you their timeline full of spam messages use the “Block” key. Then send a message to @spam with their username. I can understand a message very once in a while, but people can go way too far. You can also use www.twitchuck.com as a way to discern how much spam someone sends out. (I have an 81 ).

3. NEVER EVER EVER Auto DM. I hate it, and once you follow a lot of people you will too. It reeks of spam and frankly is mighty impersonal. If you want to get to know someone send an @ reply (most regular users don’t even read DMs anymore).

4. NEVER EVER EVER go to one of those “following train” sites. Your timeline will be full of “found this great way to get 10000 new followers!” They will also hijack your own posts.

5. I know it may seem like I’m using people as mere pawns in this article. I assure that is not my intention. To find people you’re truly interested in, I assure you, you have to wade through a bunch of crap. So, go at it! Best of luck! Tweet me if you have any questions/comments or leave a comment here!

Regards,

twitter.com/elyswim

twitter.com/elyswim

Reqall:

Reqall

Cost: Free

Reqall is a relatively simple FREE “To-do” applicaton that certainly helps me keep up with my day to day activities. One of the things I like most about the app is that you have the ability to add objects via voice. Reqall then sends this to their server where it gets translated into text. This is very nice for people who suddenly remember something in the car, but don’t have time to type it into their phone while driving. Additional features include the ability to: share things with other people in your contact list, get a pop up notification if you shake your phone, set a due date/time for a certain event etc. Reqall also uploads every note you have to its server and sends you a copy via email, so even if you don’t have your phone on you as long as you can connect to the internet you should be able to manage your list.

The reqall interface is very clean. It is divided into 5 tabs: “Jogger,” “Time,” “Things,” “People,” and “Places.” The one used most often will undoubtedly be “Things” as it holds everything you input. Reqall thankfully recognizes times via voice input. So if you said, “Meet with Tom at 7pm Thursday” Reqall would automatically put that on your schedule for Thursday at 7pm. It would then give you an appropriate reminder when you opened the app.

The main screen of reqall divided into 5 tabs.

When it comes to reqall, I am still not without wants. First and foremost I wish it would be able to integrate with the calendar on the iphone. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not I receive push notifications because it would already be on my calendar! Second, as push notifications are supposed to be used on the app. So when something upcoming is due, the server will send out a message and a pop-up should appear on my screen telling me that an item is due. Unfortunately, I have not seen any evidence of them working. What’s going on there reqall? Other than that the app is fantastic and very useful, considering it’s free I’d highly recommend giving it a try. To-do lists don’t work for everyone, initially I forgot about reqall, but I’ve gotten into the habit of using it and am much more organized because of it.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck

Cost: Free

Twitter addicts tend to have several options when it comes to free iphone apps. There’s twitterific, twitterfon, itwitter (no longer free), tweetdeck and likely numerous others. I will tell you now that I’ve been through most of them, and even though it has its problems I have to say I like tweetdeck the best. First, it is one of the few free apps that supports multiple twitter accounts. Now for many heavy twitter users this is a huge positive. Also, out of all the twitter applications I’ve seen, it has the most visually appealing interface. A black background with popups that notify you what and how many updates you have.

The Tweetdeck interface

In tweetdeck as you can see in the photo, you can add columns. A column is essentially what you define it to be. It can be your general timeline, mentions to one of your accounts, your DMs, the timeline for a certain trend (equivalent to the search function in twitter), groups that you can create from users, etc. You can add and delete these columns as you will.

Customizable "Add Columns" tab allows you to design your twitter client to show what you want.

While it is very nice tweetdeck is not without its problems. The recent updates have made things flow smoother yet one of the largest frustrations I have with the program is that it crashes so frequently. Another issue is that you may open the program and receive a mention. However if you close and reopen some of those mentions might go missing. These frustrations really tend to add up. On the other hand, one can’t complain too much because after all this application is free.

iFitness

iFitness

Cost: 1.99 (on sale right now)

The only paid app on this list and the only app I’ve ever bought. Ever since I bought it long ago I’ve used this application everytime I go to the gym. The app features pictures and instructions for numerous exercises. While this may be useful for a gym newbie, as a person who frequents the gym often, I find the logging function to be well worth the $1.99. This is perfect for those that do a wide range of exercises because it can often be difficult to remember what exercises and what weights you use from week to week. In iFitness you can add any of the workouts to your “My Workouts” tab where your workouts for a specific day are easily accessed.

The muscle groupings in iFitness. Selecting one will give a list of exercises involved.

In addition to all that, the logging function also has a graphical layout where you can see in a chart how your lifting varies from day to day. The logging ability also allows you to upload weights, reps etc onto your computer in .pdf format for further integration. New additions to the app include a “weight monitor” allowing you to track gained or lost pounds, and a “distance tracker” to track the amount of miles you run in a given exercise day. Overall, I’ve found this app to be well worth the 1.99 I paid for it. It has been invaluable to me in switching gyms, trying to beef up certain muscles and logging my strength routines.

Shazam

Shazam

Cost: Free (ad supported)

Ever hear a song and absolutely have to know what it is? Well now there is Shazam to help you out with that process. Once a song is on, simply open Shazam and click “Tag now” and place the iPhone microphone next to the speaker. After 10 seconds a new menu will pop up with the song name. Now in terms of music library, Shazam is by far the best. I used to have another application, “Midomi” which claimed to do the same thing, but was almost never correct. Shazam even include youtube videos so you can listen to the song again. It’s a very well made program, I’d highly recommend.

Yelp

Yelp

Cost: Free

For those of you who are always looking for new places to go there are two major applications that people frequently recommend. The first is Urbanspoon which comes highly recommended to recommend places to eat. However, Urbanspoon usually only works in larger cities and can only give you food options. For people interested in the top bars, clubs, restaurants, lounges, etc. that wouldn’t not be sufficient. In comes Yelp! The application which takes content from the website (yelp.com) does a wonderful job of providing a distinction between the good and the bad. Since it is all user based off of an already popular website there are hundres and thousands of listings! In some ways it can also become a social network you can add friends and discuss your favorite restaurants. Yelp also has the contact information of the locale which can automacially be transferred to google maps.  can’t think of how many times it has found me a good restaurant, whether I’m planning something with friends or if I’m merely looking for something quick to eat. It even has grocery stores and barbers!

With that I have given just a smithering of the amazing apps out there. Feel free to explore and let me know what you find! I’m sure there are hundred that are just as cool if not cooler! Also, I love feedback, send me a tweet or leave a comment here!

var t_mid=’ady’;
twitter.com/elyswim

Unfortunately it didn’t…

First, a quick rundown of the plot. A college student (Lou Taylor Pucci) loses his scholarship after his roommate (John Hensley) throws a party that gets busted. To make it up to him, the roommate offers the student an option to sell 50 ecstasy pills at 20 dollars a pop to stay in school. What follows is a somewhat odd series of supposedly “life changing” events.  In his travels the student meets a dominatrix, an insane day trader, and a competing drug dealer (among others).

Content/Performances: Poor Follow through/Forced

While the concept has great potential, there was a complete lack of follow through in the story. It seems as though the screenwriter was trying too hard to make jokes rather than allowing them to flow organically from the situation. For example, the student visits a dominatrix. Instead of allowing the viewer to merely enjoy the awkwardness of an innocent college student entering the lair of a dominatrix, the writer went too far. Entering the home, the student was greeted by a grandmother. Thinking he had entered the wrong house, he turned around to leave, however the grandmother stopped him with the statement, “You’re the one selling the ecstasy pills, right? My daughter is downstairs.” The grandmother acted completely normal in the situation. It might seem funny, but it translated poorly. I didn’t laugh, rather I just waited for the plot to continue. To make things worse, once the boy got down there he was greeted by the screaming dominatrix. Who through a combination of poorly written lines and mediocre acting completely took me out of the film. I was so uncomfortable at the poor composition of this scene and the forced attempt at humor that I almost had to fast-forward through the part. This was not the only scene that went poorly, the rest of the drug dealing situations were much the same way: crazy person, awkward interaction, boy leaves.

The mediocrity was not restricted to these situations, however. The motivations of the female love interest (Kristen Bell) were not well developed. I’m not sure whether it was poor acting or writing (likely the former), but I couldn’t find a justification for her to act the way she acted. In the film, she is supposed to be “worried” that the protagonist is turning into his roommate by selling drugs. However, the way it plays out is that she doesn’t seem too concerned about it, because frankly she is not too invested in the character. They’re merely good friends. One things she asks of him in the film is that he show up to her charity Christmas tree selling event. Due to a rival drug dealer the boy cannot make it because he gets kidnapped. When he finally escapes and finds her again, the resulting fallout made it seem like had cheated on her. He literally begged for forgiveness. Strangely enough, he hadn’t mentioned that HE WAS KIDNAPPED. I couldn’t help but laugh, partially because of how ridiculous he was acting and partially because I wasn’t connected to either character in either way. Frankly, I just saw him as an absurd boy, which in this film is not a unique quality for a character.

In this film you’ll see that characters are one dimensional which tends to make them very uninteresting. “Coleman” the student’s roommate (played by John Hensley) is the quintessential “player.” He cheats on his girlfriend, throws parties, yet goes through NO journey in the film. Even though he faces ramifications for his actions, he doesn’t learn. He just continues to act of his own accord. This makes it incredibly hard to believe that in some magical moment in the last 5 minutes he shows remorse and offers to pay his roommate’s tuition. Once again, what an absurd boy.

Film Design: Nothing Special

One could easily argue that without good writing a film is doomed. I would tend to agree, however sometimes the overwhelming beauty of a film can remove some viewers from a poorly constructed plot. This was unfortunately not the case in this film. Unlike Harry Potter which had outstanding visuals to accompany a good plot, lighting was fairly high key. There was no shot complexity, no mood lighting, no inventive editing. Just a banal shot progression. It’s what one would expect out of a film and it’s what you get.

Overall, this film was mediocre at best. The concept was good, but poor acting and forced comedy essentially killed it. The one thing I will mention that was outstanding was the music (playlist follows). The music was primarily performed by a group called La Rocca; I highly recommend them. Favorite songs: Cambodia- La Rocca, Now the Sun is out- Greg Johnson. I would love some feedback! Leave a comment, or send me a tweet! Thanks!

twitter.com/elyswim

Full playlist:

“Sing Song Sung”
Performed by La Rocca

“Home”
Performed by La Rocca

“Cambodia”
Performed by La Rocca

“If You Need The Morning”
Performed by La Rocca

“Sketches 20 Something Life”
Performed by La Rocca

“This Life”
Performed by La Rocca

“Cross The River”
Performed by La Rocca

“Champion”
Performed by One Block Radius

“Loud And Clear”
Performed by One Block Radius

“Newton”
Performed by Helen Stellar

“Popris”
Performed by Helen Stellar

“What If I Get Sick”
Performed by New Sense

“Sticks and Stones”
Performed by New Sense

“Gave A Smile”
Performed by New Sense

“Filling Fountains (Instrumental Version)”
Performed by Santiago

“A Trick Of Light”
Performed by Soloman’s Seal

“Venom”
Performed by Greg Johnson

“Now The Sun Is Out”
Performed by Greg Johnson

“Roaches”
Performed by Durbage

“Come With Me”
Performed by Alex Kid Llorca Mix

“Pills & Booze”
Performed by Spooner Oldham & Chuck Prophet

“Drizzle”
Performed by Run Run Run

“Hello Spaceman”
Performed by Calliope

“Everybody’s Getting Down”
Performed by Incredible Moses Leroy

“Soul To The Devil”
Performed by Eclectic Method

Film design: In short, outstanding.

Now having majored in film at the university I attended, it’s difficult to determine what someone who hasn’t studied film so extensively notices or does not notice. From the very first images of Half Blood Prince, I saw a dimly lit, fairly high contrast image with heavy blue/black colortone. This made the film seem more dark and “artsy.” This is not to say that there were no warm colored scenes. Everything at the Weasley’s house was very warm with earth tone colors. The contrast of these scenes with the rest of the film really made these scenes “pop.”

Note the dark lighting and heavy shadow use in this screencap.

Indeed, the dark lighting sets the mood of the film, one that will stay with the series. And this mood is very appropriate as evil looms ever closer to the protagonist.

Shot complexity was also fairly apparent. In certain parts the depth of the shot was essential to getting the “joke” set up in the film. Take for example when Ron was given the love potion and Harry took him to Slughorn. As the two talked we could see a blurry Ron in the background sit on the top of the couch and promptly fall over. These comedic moments add humor to the film but also make us aware of the complexity that the director/cinematographer duo intended. Undeniably this adds credence to those in charge over at Warner Brothers.

I’m sure many could (and perhaps may) write a large paper on the topic of film design in Harry Potter, but I’ll leave that for those that plan on getting paid for it (or plan on getting a grade for it). Let’s move to content!

Content: From book to Film

In every Harry Potter book, save the last, there is a certain expectation of day-to-day activity that should be included. J.K. Rowling takes her time to explore the nuances of every class whether it be Charms or Professor Trelawney’s admittedly useless fortune telling class. In the books, Rowling develops personalities for even these small side characters. Her words paint a portrait of a life that many kids probably wish for. It’s this quality that makes her books so magical. I would love to be at Hogwarts flying on brooms, hanging out with Harry Potter and playing around with spells. Rowling allows to access this in our imagination while we read the books. As a result she has sold millions upon millions.

This is where many have a problem with the movies. It would be financially stupid to include all these perspectives in a film that costs 29000$ a minute to make. The movie would have to be 10 hours long (if not longer!) No one would be willing to sit through it, and people would be bored! As a result, the movies present only the bare-bones plot with few frills. So while we actually have an image to look at, the nuances and daily life of Harry and his pals are lost. Thus, one of the main criticisms of the movie is that it simply takes out too much. Film is after all a business (and a very risky one at that). Producers and directors need to do what is best for the FILM, and not necessarily stay faithful to the story. Hence “creative liberty.” Unfortunately, I had already read the books by the time the respective movies were released. I’d be curious to know if the movies are coherent as their own entity. Yes, they may be a bare bones plot compared to the book, but for those movie watchers who haven’t read the books do you get the general gist of the plot?

Overall, I thought Harry Potter was astoundingly well made, though there are criticisms about its plot and certain choice removals, I do think they were necessary and allow Harry Potter to be accessed by a wider audience. I hope this was informative. If you’d like me to go into anything more send me a tweet or comment here, I’d love to indulge my readers .

www.twitter.com/elyswim

See below:

INT. CLUB- CONTINUOUS
Martin walks in the club and goes straight to the bar.
MARTIN
Vodka tonic.
Martin sits down at the stool. The bartender looks at him strangely, but gets his drink anyway.
BARTENDER
(handing him the drink)
That’ll be 7.50
Martin stares at him.
MARTIN
Listen you little bastard, you might be new here, but you don’t fucking ask me for money. I started this motherfucking bar.
The bartender steps back, unsure of what to do.
BARTENDER
(hesitantly)
Would you like me to call the manager?
MARTIN
The manager? Call the motherfucking owner. Dean? You met him?
The bartender runs off to find the manager. COLLEEN, 24, BEAUTIFUL talks to him from his right.
COLLEEN
Still causing trouble, eh Martin?
MARTIN
Fuck you Colleen, I’ve had a bad night.
COLLEEN
Oh really? Didn’t get to piss on tourists? Or was the sex you’re not having too wild?
MARTIN
It’s women that ruin this world.
COLLEEN
If I hadn’t let you fuck me 3 years ago, I’d think you were gay. Though now that I think about it, that doesn’t mean shit. Look at Ricky Martin. He fucked me and now he’s blowing some guy on a beach.
MARTIN
Maybe you turn them gay.
COLLEEN
Haha, don’t get mad at me because you’re such a loser.
MARTIN
Listen, you slimy bitch. As soon as I’m back on top I’ll personally make sure that your slutty ass is fucking all the wrong people.
Colleen gets up and moves toward the back door of the club.
COLLEEN
I’d love to continue this exhilarating conversation, but I actually have work to do.
MARTIN
Was Dean good in bed?
COLLEEN
You probably know better than I do.
Colleen gives him the finger as she walks to the office at the back of the club.

In this exchange, though in its first draft, several things become immediately apparent to us.

The conversation shows a prior relationship existed. We have an idea of the main character’s place in the film and where he once was. We also get some characterization, we can see that Martin is a man that is rough around the edges, someone that is certainly bitter.

An optimistic perspective.For I am no JK Rowling, RL Stine, Stephen King, or respected author. I’m not even amongst the Trisha Meili’s of the writing world (no offense intended). Neither, in all likelihood are you, another WordPress blogger. So why do we do it?

Perhaps it is the hope that we will one day change the world with our blogging, or introspective notions will amaze anyone who dare read those words. A moment that validates our entire being and changes the world we live in. For others it may merely be a recording of day to day events. Meant for no one but themselves and a small group of people. Still others may have a mixture of being self-involved and arrogant. They write their thoughts, thinking that the world cares about their idle musings, not offering anything society. Others? For money. Others? To spread information Others? I could go on forever. We have nearly reached a saturation point I believe, the point where there are almost more bloggers than readers. Each blogger is spewing inanities of their lives, or attempting to change the world or writing about one of 10,000 things. There is simply too much to read! The blog like twitter can (and certainly has been) used in far different ways than it was intended. So how readers seperate the good from the bad? Cut the bullshit? They look for people they know, people they trust, people that bring them closer to their immediate objectives, and people that inform them of their surroundings.

How, then, does one become a “popular” and “successful” blogger? Certainly not through high-minded, elitist discourse. I’ll try to stop that. Also, not through arrogance. I’ll try to stop that too. I will attempt to provide something useful, something that can help people in my field, something that is INTERESTING. To get it read, I may have to market, but my goal is to gain a readership, keep them interested, and inform them, whether it be about film, or life. Figuring out how to do so is the great mystery.