Hey guys,
Steve here.
I had a wonderful spring break. As my last post was published on Monday, most of you already know that I went to Winter Jam 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas. But that aside, the rest of my week, though not nearly as exciting, was still good. Besides coding on my proverbial racing game, I worked out mostly every day, Spent time with my friends, chilled a little, and did a bit of gaming.
Due to the situation with reality software that I wrote briefly about in a post a few weeks back, I’ve played little to no Death Match: A New Beginning since then. Recently, though, things have calmed down considerably, thus I started to play it again. Last week, Danny took me on a bounty mission which took a good chunk of time to complete but was worth it. I myself do not possess any ship(s) required to do such missions, but am gradually working my way up.
Off the topic of Death Match, more work has been done on my racing project. As per the programming aspect, I’ve slowed down a bit, but progress is still being made and, that being the case, I have some stuff to report.
First of all, as suggested by someone on my forum thread, I’ve added the ability to drive backwards. I will demonstrate this on Wednesday night’s demo.
Also, I’ve put in some more work on the stats system, fixing some nasty bugs and having to rework it a couple times. I designed it so that all player stats are stored in the character folder which is located in the s quad racing program directory, as it currently stands. However, before this is over, I’d like the data to be stored on a remote server, to prevent cheaters and other such pests from having access to easily changeable content.
Anyways, I’ve not yet added anything in the way of upgrades. For that matter, there’s still only one track in the game, but that is soon to be changed. I had quite a busy weekend, so didn’t have much of a chance to code, and I really didn’t code much today as I’ve been taking a little break.
Besides that, there’s not much else to report. I’ll blog you all later.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Tag: blogging
My july… so far
Hey guys,
Steve is still here.
Today, out of pure bordem, I decided to do a bit of browsing around my website. While doing so, I discovered that including this one, there have only been 3 posts published to this blog since June first. Please know that I’m not losing interest in blogging, it’s just that there hasn’t been very much to blog about. But since it’s been 18 days since my last entry, and I went to a camp during that time, I figured it was definitely time to write a post.
For me, the 4th was quite uneventful. All I did that day was sit around and listen to episodes of we’re alive, an audio drama about people who are trying to survive the zombie Apocalypse. I watched from chapter 40 to 47 that day, and chapter 48, the finale, will be available to listen to on the 29th of this month. I can’t wait!
Moving on, my family spent Saturday and half of Sunday traveling to camp. Since Lions camp is in Kerrville, about 5 and a half hours from my house, me, my mom, my dad, and sister drove to Austin Saturday afternoon, and spent the night in a hotel, and made it to the camp by about 1:30 in the afternoon.
Since Sunday was the first night of camp, all we did was the opening ceremony. Also, since I was in the oldest age group, I got to choose 2 block classes (from 10 to 12 each morning, the first one we’d go to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the second we’d go to on Tuesday and Thursday). I chose cooking, and center stage, a sort of acting class.
Camp turned out to be quite a blast. In cooking class, we cooked omelets, granola bars (they were more like blobs, but they still tasted good), and angel food cake. In center stage, we learned stage combat, and went on a field trip to see a play on Thursday night. Although we had to leave the play early due to some inappropriate content, I still got to miss the dance, which is definitely okay with me.
Besides block class, there were several activities including ropes (where you climb things), r&a (recreation and athletics, similar to gym class), swimming, horses, archery, and swimming.
At ropes, I actually managed to reach the top of the 30 foot rock wall, although there was a lot of nausea, heavy breathing, and breaks involved, because I’m not really in shape; but what really matters is that I made it :).
Each night after dinner, we’d have a night activity. On Monday, it was something called carnival, where there were games and snacks. I ended up eating a pretty good size stick of cotton candy, and let’s just say I was very hyper the rest of that night.
Tuesday, at least for my unit, was camp out, which is pretty much self-explanatory. For dinner we had hobo packs. In mine, I had meat, potatoes, and some seasoning.
On Wednesday, we had Night Court, where you could file a complaint about one of your councilors, and there was a chance that counselor would get punished in front of all the campers. What would normally happen was that they got lots of nasty stuff poured on them.
Thursday night’s activity was the dance, but since I went on that trip, I didn’t go.
And on Friday, we had the closing ceremony. Since my sister is 16, she graduated camp, but I still have one year. I will definitely be going back next year, because I had a blast.
All I really did last week was unpack, and get back in to the normal routine. Today was mostly the same, but my mom, sister and I went swimming this afternoon.
Besides that, for those of you who have followed this blog fir 3 months or more, you probably remember a post where I said I didn’t particularly want to take pre-AP english next school year. For those of you who commented on that, telling me to take the class, you’ll be happy to know that I am, in fact, taking it. Proof of this is the summer assignment I received yesterday… ug.
I have to create a dialect journal over a book of my choice (thank goodness it’s not like last year where I did an assignment over a book I didn’t care to read). I don’t remember the exact assignment off the top of my head, but I’ll look at it and work on it tomorrow.
Also, we have to do some research on Homer’s Odyssey. This is a relief because I actually thought I’d have to read the book over the summer. But thankfully, we’re not reading it until the school year begins, so I guess that makes things a whole lot better for me.
Well this year, unlike last year, I won’t wait until August 20 to begin the assignment, in case 4 days of summer isn’t enough to complete it.
On a completely different subject, I haven’t done a podcast in quite a while. Recently, however, I’ve obtained a few great games to demo in the podcast, so expect that to change. For those of you subscribed to the podcast feed, the episodes will show up in your feed July 27, August 3, and August 10. For those of you who haven’t subscribed to the podcast feed, the url to copy into your pod catcher is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49289052/stevendpodcast.xml
.
If you don’t have, or know how to use, a pod catcher, then check back to the podcast page on each of those days to listen to the episodes, which will be 23, 24, and 25.
Well, I guess that about wraps up today’s post. Hopefully, I will have more to blog about in the next few days, so I’ll be able to write more frequently. And if I don’t write soon, know that you’ll get to read another one of my awesome posts somewhere in the next couple weeks.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
games and updates
Hey guys,
Steve here.
As most of you guys probably know, the game Swamp, featured in several podcast episodes, went paid a few months ago. The program itself is still free, but to get on multi-player, you need to purchase a Kaldobsky (Kaldobsky is the last name of Swamp’s creator) gamer account. The reason for this was due to the numerous hackers who tried to destroy the server… and Jeremy Kaldobsky figured that if people had to pay $24 per year for a gamer account, it might deter them.
Well last weekend, I finally got around to buying a gamer account, and resumed playing. I was a level 44 when I bought it, and am now level 46. One of my favorite things in the new version is that on all sporting rifles (Marlin, Remington, and Winchester), the reputation and experience you earn per kill has been doubled. Due to this change, I now make sure that every time I die, (which is a lot because I tend to take stupid risks), I purchase a Winchester before doing anything else.
Also, Kaldobsky made it to where you have to go to different maps to buy some of the basic armor. So in order to get a leather jacket, (it provides low protection but doesn’t slow me down like some of the alternatives), combat boots (because they provide medium protection), and a football helmet which can provide a random amount of protection, I have to go to map 3, where there are dire zombies which are very dangerous and hard to kill with the weapons I can afford. In addition, to get there, I must cross a map which is swarming with hoards of zombies.
Because of this, when I level up next time, I will spend 40 skill points on speed (40 is the maximum number of points you can have in that skill), and the remaining 6 on sneak which quiets your footsteps so it’s harder for zombies to hear you. Well, I guess I have a lot of playing to do, because I still need around 8000 more experience points until I can level up. I guess that beats the 11400 I needed when I first reached level 46.
In other news, I’m officially out of middle school, something I’m actually quite happy about. As for summer plans, I am going to the Texas School for the Blind in 2 weeks for a 2 week long writers workshop class, and since I like to write, I’m looking forward to it. The week after, I think I’m going to Texas Lions camp, a camp I’ve attended for the passed 2 years.
Later on in the summer, in August I believe, I think we’re going to Maine, but don’t know exactly what day we’re going.
As for what I’ve already done this Summer, not much. Just relaxing, playing computer games, and forgetting about school.
thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Great news and a busy week
Hey guys,
Steve here.
As the post title implies, I’ve got some good news to tell you guys about. It might not affect you as much as it does me… but I figured I’d share it with you, this being my blog.
Remember that Spanish exam I talked about in last Thursday’s update? Well I figured two good things about it:
1. Turns out, that won’t determine whether or not I fail or pass Spanish 1. It’s the semester averages combined, not the semester exam scores as I previously thought. And judging by the fact that my grade in that class has been passing all year long, that answers the question of whether or not I’m done with Spanish 1.
2. The test has been moved back a week. So even if there were a good reason for me to be panicking, I could give my nerves a rest for about another week.
Oh man, you wouldn’t believe how relieved I was to learn that. I’m not terrible in Spanish, though I’m not the best either.
Moving on, also mentioned in the title, I’m having a rather busy week this week. There’s been church, concerts, and will be more church, and even… I think a family get together on Sunday.
To start off, we went to church twice last Sunday, as we normally do. On Monday, my sister had an orchestra concert, followed by my choir concert on Tuesday. Tonight, we’re going to church, and Friday night fellowship will be this Friday at our church. And finally, on Sunday, I believe we’re having a family get together.
Monday will be memorial day, and there’s nothing planned that day. I think I might spend Monday programming, because I haven’t done much of that in a while. Come to think of it, besides playing games and doing a late podcast, I really haven’t done anything productive in the world of technology in quite some time.
Moving on, but still kind of on my previous topic, there are only 11 days of school left, one of which will be Tiger Bash, a day of fun and absolutely no school work. And, the last days of school will be early release days. I guess after that, until June 23 when I go to church camp, I’ll have plenty of time to program, Skype, blog, and podcast; so if I’m not blogging a lot now, just remember that I will when school lets out, because I’ll have plenty of free time.
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I promis to blog more often.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.S. Episode 23 of the Steven D podcast hasn’t been forgotten. I’ll get with danny and we’ll record it together.
3 whole years!
Hey guys,
Steve here.
It’s already been 3 years everyone! And together, we can celebrate another year of this awesome site…
Well yeah, that is true, but let’s cut to the chase. As with all annual posts, I have a stats report to show you guys. If you’d like to compare the stats report below with the one from last year, click here.
- 10198 views
- 138 followers
- 757 posts
- 32 categories
- 1203 search tags
- 22 pages
Those are just some of the stats for this blog. However, I have more to talk about than just stats in this post, thus is why that list was so brief.
April 21, 2011 at 5:05 PM, I published my first ever post to this blog. Can you believe that? That means, at the time of this writing, this blog is approximately 3 years and 4 hours old. And yes, believe it or not, most of the views and followers came in the last year! In fact, there were only 44 followers, and 4902 views on April 21, 2013, and that number has since doubled, or maybe even tripled over just this past year… talk about astonishing!
switching topics, let me give you a brief life update (it probably won’t be brief :). But anyway, Wednesday and Thursday of last week were normal days. However, on Friday after school, my family and a few of our church friends went to the lake house.
We stayed the night and came home on Saturday evening. It went mostly the same as last time, except there were quite a few more people, and I didn’t get a sunburn, mainly due to the fact that I had to lather myself with thick layers of sunscreen practically every hour… but it’s better to be safe than sorry… right?
Anyway, the excitement of the weekend didn’t end there. No, after going home, showering, and chilling for the rest of Saturday night, we had to get up at 5:15 in the morning to attend Easter sunrise service at our church. After that, we were there until 12:30, because of Sunday school and regular Sunday morning service.
After church, we met up with Justin, and went to my papa Dutch’s house for easter dinner, where I had pork, sweet potatoes, bread, and candy.
We ended up staying until around 4:30 or so. And after we got home, I took a nap, and woke up thinking it was Monday already. Yes, I actually woke up, panicking at 7:40 last night because I thought it was 7:40 this morning. I didn’t truly know what day it was until 3 minutes later, after getting upset that there was no coffee, and having pulled out a plate, when I absent mindedly checking the date on my watch and realizing it was still Sunday.
Well, the night ended well anyway–a nice energizing cup of warm coffee, and a thunderstorm. Unfortunately however, it wasn’t one worth recording, but none the less it was pleasant to listen to.
As for today, it was your average Monday. I had a doctors appointment, but only missed choir and part of math. However, on a last note, there were 2 more storms today. I didn’t record any of them though.
Moving on, I am excited to tell you that I have our next episode of the Steven D podcast planned out. I will be recording it tomorrow afternoon–so, if you’re subscribed to the feed via a pod catcher or podcast receiver, check that at some point tomorrow. If you’re not subscribed to the feed, however, be sure to check the podcast page.
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Ps. I’d just like to thank you guys for putting up with, and reading this blog. I hope it’s been funny, intertaining, informational, and exciting!
You guys have been awesome for putting up with delays, forgetfulness, and procrastination on my part. Even on those 3 week blogging breaks, 2 week gamebook release delays, and month long podcast delays, you guys patiently sat through it all, and had faith in me, knowing that I’d get the job done some how.
Well, if you guys continue to read this blog, you can look forward to more of your favorite posts and content over the coming years.
Thankyou for reading everyone, and have a great week!
life and programming updates
Hey guys,
Steve here.
I’ve been wanting to write this post all day, but since my school recently got a new website blocking filter, wordpress has been blocked, thus eliminating the possibility of that happening at school. And when I got home this afternoon, I was far too tired to produce anything better than a sloppy, short, rushed life update post.
Okay guys, I’m really sorry for annoying you… but it’s really important to me that you vote on the, you guessed it, pole that will be presented below. Unfollow me if you wish… but I need to get your opinion. If you can just bear with me, this will only stick around through April 16, but until then, here you go.
[polldaddy poll=7937065]
So you want to know what’s up with me lately? Presumably, seen as how you’re reading this post. Well Since last Wednesday, much has happened in this life of mine. So where do I start? Well I guess how about Thursday and Friday. Yes, I’m sorry, the most boring days of my last week.
Since that severe weather day post was posted on Thursday, you could gather that we had another severe weather outbreak. The day was still rather uneventful for me; all the storms stayed north of us, and I spent the evening practically attached to my radio.
As for Friday, nothing much happened then either, and besides goal ball and my favorite weather (rain), Saturday was the same.
Sunday, however, was a good day, right from the moment I woke up. Sunday morning was one of those rare occasions when I get to wake up to the exciting yet comforting sound of thunder. And when I got up, I had a wonderful breakfast of eggs and sossage, then it was off to church.
After church, and a little bit of house cleaning, something really awesome happened. My brother Justin, whom I hadn’t seen in 3 years, came over for dinner! It was nice, but shocking, to finally get to see him again. Man… he’s already 20, and has a job. I still remember those days when he was 15. And, the day I last saw him was April 12, 2011, just 9 days before I started this blog!
Anyway, after the excitement of seeing my brother again, Monday and today were normal. I didn’t even have to write a Monday’s musings post last night; I wrote it on Saturday, and scheduled it to appear on the blog last night. That’s another neat feature of word press :).
As for the future, I’m going to miss school on Friday. My o&m teacher is taking my sister and I, and I think some other kids, to the firewheel town center. I’m not sure exactly what the field trip is for, but I’m looking forward to it. Since I don’t know exactly how the day will go, I’ll be sure and blog about it.
Besides the field trip, the beginner Orchestra Festival is next Tuesday. Basically, my orchestra class will be going up to a high school, where we’ll practice our songs (I might be wrong), but then we’ll come back in the afternoon. And at 6:20 Tuesday evening, we’ll have to be right back up at the high school, where we’ll be performing our music.
I guess that’s it for future life events.
Moving on, I did mention programming updates in the post title… right? Well here’s why.
As a programmer, you know I couldn’t stay away from my code for too long… so I didn’t. Last night, I decided to start working on sQuad word once again, and messed around with some of the code. By messed around with some of the code, I mean adding autosaving (never worry about your work being erased), and majorly tweeking the configuration. It used to be that, if say you wanted to show the version number in the window title, you’d have to check that option in the options menu, restart the program, then it would take affect. But now, it will automatically do it, no restart required. This is the same for the word wrap option.
And while on the subject of software, my dad and I will look in to getting a Patton (I think that is another word for software license) soon. If we get that, I’ll publish version 1.0 of sQuad word. But remember, I still have some visual testing to do, to at least make sure the thing works for you sighted users.
As for Trash, that will require a bit more tedious code work. Thus, I’m not even going to bather with that until I get the patton.
Well I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjouyed it. Have a good night all of you, and try not to get bored to tears by the end of this workweek. Believe me, I’ll take that advice myself :).
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Monday's musings 17: Is there any other blogger like me?
Hey guys,
Steve here.
Please vote on this pole–remember, I’m excepting votes through the 16th of this month.
[polldaddy poll=7937065]
Often, when talking about blogging, there are many topics that come up. Religion, politics, traveling, photos, cooking… you name it. Being a blogger myself, I find myself looking through the wordpress.com reader for things I like blogging about… and usually, I find rellavent results. However, none of these bloggers are like me–some of them are college students, moms, preachers, travelers, photologgers, doing completely different things than me. If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you’ve discovered this about me: I’m a teenage boy, who loves computers and cats, and has a passion for blogging. I also like recording things, talking to my friends on skype, and for the life of me can’t keep any kind of schedule to save my life. I don’t use social networking, I don’t much care to have my picture taken thus elimonating the likelyhood of me being a photologger, and traveling isn’t my thing. And cooking… well if I try to cook, the house might go up in flames (jk, I’m sure I could be a good cook if I wanted to); but that’s beside the point.
So as I sit here, writing this post, I wonder: is there any other blogger like me? Is mine the only site like it? Is my blogging style unique to the rest of the entire bloggosphere? And better yet, under what category would my blog go?
Even browsing the wordpress.com’s recommended blogs section, I found some of the following: cooking, family, arts, books, humor, traveling… well you get the picture. But even reading one of the 753 posts written on this blog, you can tell I don’t belong in any such category. This makes me question my placement in the bloggosphere. Not whether or not I should blog, but where I fit in as far as categories go.
Yet some how, I find myself at one conclusion every time this thought comes up. Maybe, what makes this site so unique, is that I might be the first of my kind. The first teenage blogger, who loves cats, recording things, has a passion for writing, enjoys programming, and blogs whatever comes to his mind.
There are plenty of good bloggers out there; quite of which I’ll probably end up following, liking, or commenting on their content before my blogging days are done. One thing is for sure, if I found one out of the 12 million bloggers on wordpress like me, I would most certainly follow him/her. And better yet, I would be happy to have the question of all time answered–where do I fit in on the bloggosphere?
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Updates and questions
Hey guys,
Steve here.
I’m in a pretty awesome mood today–staar testing is all gone, I just had my coffee, and I get the privilege to write yet another blog post.
Well as the post title implies, I have a question for you readers–but no need to worry, it’s just a matter of filling out a small pole. So I was thinking… should I have a home page (an actual home page), or should the home page remain as it is, the blog entries.
Let me elaborate here. A home page, is what you’d see when first logging onto stevend.net. I was thinking about creating one of those, instead of showing blog entries on the home page as is being done currently. So, I’d kindly ask any and all readers of this post to fill out the pole below, and submit in your vote. In two weeks, (on April 16), I will decide based on the majority of votes whether or not to do a custom home page. So please vote, you have two weeks to do so.
[polldaddy poll=7937065]
Alright… with that knocked out of the way, let’s get on to the main body of this post.
First of all, I’d like to inform you about severe weather day, and the weather expected therein. On Monday, I said that the weather on Thursday April 3 (dubbed by me as severe weather day) was going to be severe; large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes. The forecast really hasn’t changed much, except that the storms are now most likely to hit mid to late morning, and the main severe weather threat is going to be east of where I live. So, hopefully, we will not be seeing any tornadoes in the near future.
On to life news, school has been boring (more than usual), because of staar testing. Basically, on both yesterday and today, I sat at a table for 5 hours, completing tests that were (no exaggeration), at least 60 questions. Not to mention, the English test which I took today, had like 6 stories in it. My goodness, state of Texas, why must you burden me with such horrendous and pointless work? I am a natural born relaxationist (don’t ask me if that’s a word, because I honestly don’t know)… so all that work was too much for me.
Anyway, besides school, I still haven’t programmed since last week… except maybe a bit on Sunday out of pure bordem. I plan to talk to my dad, and try to reason with him that my intentions aren’t to sell my software as of yet, but to release them as first programs. And if he thinks someone can steel it from me, (I think this is the case), I’ll need to let him know that I’m releasing this software as an executable, and not open source code, thus no one can modify the windows that are titled “trash by sQuad software” and “sQuad word.” because after all, despite my endless excited ranting about programming in the past months and years, he just told me last Thursday, after I’d spent 2 months of hard stressful work on 2 projects with quite a bit of potential. In fact, oddly enough, today marks exactly one month since I first began writing the code for Trash, and this Sunday will not only mark 2 months since the first lines of sQuad word were written, but also the day I began actually learning programming. So do you see where I’m coming from?
Moving on, I also have some news about the podcast. I know I said I couldn’t schedule episodes to the date, as we all know how that was going, but I can tell you the game of the day for the next few episodes… in case you’re interested. For episodes 20 and 21, I will continue my swamping with Steve series, and for episode 20 the campaign I’ll be playing is one called “twisted egg hunt.” It’s like an egg hunt, but there are also zombies; so not only do you have to find as many eggs as is possible in the allotted time period, but you also have to avoid having your brains eaten by zombies. Good times, good times.
Aside from that, episode 22 will have a review of the remarkable game my friend Danny is working on, the first of its kind. It’s called snow race, and is an accessible, multi player snowboarding game for the blind. I highly recommend you go to his website (the link will be at the bottom of the post) to check it out, because it’s a truly awesome game. So I guess you’d better look forward to episode 22, because that’s when snow race will be demonstrated.
That’s about it for podcast game of the days, but I’ll get some more games to test in later episodes. And while on the subject of podcasts, I can see a few of you’ve listened to episode 19? That is, after all, the most clicked link on my website in the last 3 days. Well I’m just glad you enjoy it.
———————-
Completely changing topics, let’s discuss my future for a while. This weekend, I don’t know what I’ll do as of yet, except goal ball. It seems like a while since I’ve gone to goal ball, though it’s probably only been two weeks. Also in my near future, I have a orchestra concert coming up on April 15 (we’re playing some good songs, but not the best songs we’ve learned. I think the songs we’re playing are songs we learned about 2 weeks ago). But for our orchestra concert on May 29, we’re playing some pretty awesome songs, so good that I’ve officially declared them “my jams.”
Also, we’re having a choir concert, however I don’t know exactly when that is. But for that, we’re singing “black burd” by the Beatles, and just the way you are by Bruno Mars.
Anyway, continuing with future events, on April 6 it will officially be 2 months until the last day of school. Also, there are only 7 more Monday’s left of school, but that’s not counting memorial day, which of course we have off.
Well I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. Good night everyone, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week, and look forward to another one of my posts.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.S. Here’s where to go to find out more about snow race:
the snow race page of danny’s website
Monday's Musings 14: What blogging is to me
Hey guys,
Steve here.
This isn’t a post on why I prefer a blog over social media, and this isn’t a post on why I think it would be a waste of time to promote a blog. No, this post is here to answer a few of your questions: Why do I blog? What does it mean to me? How much longer do I plan to have this blog? How have I managed to blog for so long?
Blogging, to me, is more than writing a post and hitting the publish button. It goes deeper than that–I put thought and work into these posts. Whether it’s my current life events, how I feel about something, or even if something just comes to mind, I can be assured that this blog and the people reading it are there to listen.
I didn’t set up this blog to see how much popularity it could gain, as you know by reading my first ever Monday’s Musings post. This blog wasn’t intended to appease the people. If everyone decided to shun my blog for whatever reason, unlike your average news blog, I wouldn’t shut down–I don’t care how appealing my posts are. I don’t care how much people like them. I don’t care about how many likes, tweets, shares, reblogs, and comments my posts get, (although when I get those I know that there are people who appreciate what I write). Because for me, blogging is more than a hobby, more than something fun to do. It’s an outlet, a passion, and the virtual book of my life.
To put it this way , each post on this blog is a chapter of my life, every Monday’s musings post a foot note in the margin letting you know more about my thoughts. And besides, I feel like I can express myself more through my writing than when talking. It seems even to me, that my deeper thoughts, passions, and feelings come out in what I write, and having this blog gives me a place for my writing.
So if you’re wondering how I’ve managed to blog for so long, the answer is that it’s sort of grown on me. It has turned into a part of my every day life, imbedding itself among all the other things I have to do. As for when this blog will be taken down, I don’t know. But let me assure you, it won’t be for a long, long time. So at least for now, sit back and look forward to all the chapters to come, as I travel day by day through the book that is my life.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Monday’s musings 11: My thoughts on social networking
Hey guys,
Steve here.
Often, people ask me “do you have a facebook?” or “do you have a twitter?”, and sometimes “do you have an instagram?”, and my answer is always the same. “No, I prefer blogging.”
The reason for this has to do with my thoughts of social networking. If you ask me, I don’t believe in posting a facebook status, or a tweet, or any other social media post, because:
1. length. A face book post, from what I understand, is max 5 sentences, and twitter has a limit on how many characters can be in a tweet. When I write, I pour my heart out, because as you already know writing is my outlet, and my way of expressing myself.
2. Social media posts, at least on twitter anyway, really don’t have much thought. As i said before, I put careful thought into what I write.
3. frequency. From what I heard, and correct me if I’m wrong, you don’t just go 3 to 7 days without posting on social media. People often post every day, and I already tried that on the blog… and we all know how that worked out :).
4. junk mail. I signed up for facebook a while back, and literally had to filter the facebook emails to my spam… because there were so many of them. What really set me off was the day I checked my email, and no lie, the first 9 emails were from facebook. By using this blog, I don’t get all that junk mail.
5. The elimination of annoyance. With a blog, I don’t have to put up with people who think it’s necessary to write a post on their social media once every minute. I can just write, and know that although you can read other people’s content, you for 1 get to search up what you want to read, and for 2 don’t get a notification of every time someone writes to their blog… unless you want to. I’ve had problems with facebook sending me notifications about people posting a status, even though I didn’t want it to send me those notifications.
6. true followers. With a blog, you know that anyone and everyone who hits that follow button really cares about what you have to say, and will devote some of their time reading your words. You don’t know that with facebook friends. I have some people on my facebook, only because they think that’s the way to stay in touch with me. I can’t be certain that if I were to post a status, my facebook friends would actually read it, and like what it says. So if people want to get in touch with me, that’s what my skype, phone, and email are for. And if they want to know what I’m doing, well stevenD.net is the place to go.
7. viruses. With a blog, you are less likely to get a virus. I’ve had spammers send me friend requests, but their names were of people I knew (an example would be Colbie Smith, who is my cousin. A person on facebook named Colbie Smith sent me a friend request, but I found out it was spam and/or viruses). Also, I’ve gotten false emails such as my friends uploading photos of me, emails that I new were false because I hadn’t seen those friends in a long time. So thank god I hadn’t opened the emails, because I would’ve probably got a nice ol’ virus.
Those are just some of the reasons I refuse to use social networks. So if you ask me whether or not I have a facebook or twitter, my answer will remain the same–“I prefer to use a blog.” Because after all, why use social media anyway, if there’s a better solution out there?
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.