Tag: blogging
Guest Bloggers: 2016
I’m a busy bee. I travel a lot and have my hands in different projects all the time. For this reason I cherish my weekends. However, I would like to open The PBS Blog up to some diversity this year. I am currently looking for bloggers who would like to guest blog for me on Saturdays and Sundays. I am not a large blog, but for those of you just starting out this can bring lots of traffic to your blog. I get hundreds of views on a daily basis with a steady increase weekly. Currently we are holding steady at 19,242 hits (since I’ve drafted this post I have had to edit the numbers which have already gone up 10 views within the last ten minutes).
The post can be about whatever you would like it to be. I want readers to get to know you, your personality, perspective on life and all that good stuff. This is an amazing opportunity for new bloggers. I only have a few guidelines:
• Must be at least 18 Years or Older
• Must not use extremely vulgar language or nude images
• Must have the post submitted to me no later than 8:00p CST the Thursday of the week you are to guest post.
• Must include attachments of any images you want me to include in the post in your response email.
• Suggested length: 100-1000 words (please try not to write extremely long posts)
• The article must be your own work. Do not copy and paste work from other sites.
• Multimedia: images, podcasts, and videos are welcome
• A short bio and photo of yourself can be included at the end of your post (like a signature). You may include a link to your own website
There is a form under the Guest Blogger tab of this blog. If you are interested, fill that out and I’ll take it from there. I also appreciate anyone who can reblog this post.
Coffee Date
It is only fitting to invite you to this morning’s coffee session. No need to pull up a chair, there is plenty of couch left. Yes, I want you to be comfortable. Cream? Sugar? Black? I’ll be having International Delight’s French Vanilla, no sugar. We good? Great, let’s begin.
If we were having coffee this morning, I would invite you out on the town with me today, where we’ll be picking up a few more posters for my upcoming book signing. It’s the first where we’ll be featuring all three Stella Books. The fundraiser is also going well. I managed to raise $700 in one month so far, over half of my goal. I’m excited because this will not be your traditional signing. Not only is it a book signing but it is a celebration for the completion of the series with the release of Book #3 in the Trilogy. We will have video presentations, picture slideshows, conversation and of course food. Oh, and indeed we’ll have coffee too. Open to the public, this will also be my first time in Atlanta!
If we were having coffee this morning, I would ramble on about my recent trip to New Mexico, also a first. I am scheduled to return this summer where I’ll explore many of the things I did not have a chance to take in. This trip was for a slightly different purpose. I was able to relax and refresh my mind; a time everyone needs every once in a while. It was the most peace I’ve felt in a long time. I did however get to do a little research which I am always seeking to do. I learned about The Blackdom Community, the first all-black settlement in New Mexico and of course the alien crash landing of 1947. Despite little green men on every corner I did not get to visit the museum (boo) but that is on my to-do list for this summer time permitting.
If we were having coffee this morning, I would tell you that my patience has been tested. It appears that I have misplaced a very important USB drive. This drive has a lot of critical work on it that I have not had the opportunity to back up. However, I am on a quest for a worry free life so I have managed not to freak out at this point. I know that everything happens for a reason and I am just thankful that my most important manuscripts are safe. Though I do have to re-edit everything I’ve already done to the novel I wish to revamp. The work I started on this particular project is on the drive.
If we were having coffee this morning, I would give you the testimony of when I met my husband. You’d probably look at me funny and think “Why do I need to know this right now?” I’ll smile big and explain that this year will mark our 9th year together, with our marriage anniversary on February 17th and our first date anniversary on May 16th.
If we were having coffee right now, I’d tell you that I’m going to be in a Play, my second acting gig before a large audience since High School. Last year my organization and I premiered our Stay Play Production: Blakk Amerika: From Prophets to Pimps before a 400 seated audience at the Dusable Museum in Chicago. Next month, we’ll be presenting at The Riverside EPICenter in Austell Georgia which holds 600 people! I appear in Acts 2 and 4 and I am also selected to close the play with a poem. The name of the poem is “Freedom: The Illusion” and it is my most famous one to date. First written and performed in 2009 for our first documentary, I have not written a poem that has garnered more attention. It is by far my most requested piece. Speaking of which, we’d better cut this date short and begin our day. I have to get ready for rehearsal tonight …and tomorrow night and Sunday night! More coffee please…
A Way To End The Year
I did not intend on writing another post this year. I am preparing for travel this week and getting into major promotion mode for the third installment of The Stella Trilogy. That is until I checked my email and thought, what better way to end the year than to be nominated for your 10th Blog Award?
The funny thing is that I was contemplating whether or not to go on and participate in Blog Awards in 2016. Rarely if ever do I obey the rules and they do take up a bit of time. However, when Kenyc (Ken-niece) McCoy of Soprano Musings nominated me for The Sunshine Blog Award, I remembered how timely these things always are and that maybe I can keep them going for a little while longer but we will have to see. Blog Awards do tend to keep me aware of where I stand with my followers which I think is very important. If nothing else, it is always such great timing when fellow bloggers nominate us (Us as in “The PBS Blog” so yes, that includes you). Just when I wonder what to write about next, if the posts are worth it, or if anyone is really paying attention, it is at these moments when someone comes through with a Blog Award. I take it as a personal reminder that it is not all in vain.
So I just want to give a big thank you to Kenyc for nominating this blog for The Sunshine Blog Award!
7 Facts About Myself:
I feel like I’ve been through this sooo many times that this time around I decided to go a little more in depth about some facts about me:
- I don’t celebrate holidays and ask to respectfully be excluded from any happy holiday wishes
- Though my career of choice require I do a lot of public speaking, I am actually very introverted at heart.
- I am very passionate about the state of Black America, its history, and culture
- I have been known to behave beyond my age so its no surprise that my husband is nine years older than I am
- I won my first poetry award when I was a freshman in High School and wrote plays performed by my High School for three years
- People who don’t know me tend to think that I am mean. That’s because I can be forthcoming in my verbal delivery. Though it is never my intent to be offensive, I will never sugar coat the truth and try my best to keep it real with everyone, giving to each the same measure of respect
- I would really like to visit Germany one day!
A Year in Reflection: 2015
The winds are picking up steam, the clouds are filled to the brim, and another year is gone. North Louisiana is bracing itself for what is to be a major storm. Why does the moment feel symbolic right now? I tried to write earlier on this topic but it wasn’t until the skies growled that I felt compelled to try it now. The air is cooling as we speak while my nose attempts one final sniff of what is left of 2015. I love the rain, and how thoughtful of it to show up now; in the midst of my thoughts concerning change.
When I look over this blog, I suppose the biggest evolution for me has been the evolution of my writing and the changes taking place in my career in general. When The PBS Blog was born August of 2014, I did not set out to enhance my writing in such significant ways. Thinking back I’m sure I was subconsciously aware of the connection between blogging and writing but I did not specifically set out to do many of the things I’ve done. Surely, I did not anticipate giving Indie Author Tips, Author Interviews, or Book Reviews. I think that’s what makes anything new so exciting, the surprise factor of it all. Not knowing what’s going to happen next. This is what Blogging has been for me in 2015, the evolution of my writing in general.
I thought about how to present this post. Should I give links to the best of the best like last years poetry wrap up? Should I bore you with random pats on the back concerning things I’ve done the years past? Nay, I decided to just keep this simple. What do I look forward to in 2016?
Well, that just depends on what there is in store. What I’ve learned about life in general is never to overexcite anything because you do not know what the next day will be like. We can want things and we can be given those wants but it doesn’t mean they will come in the fashion in which we desire them. For that I have learned never to rush time; just let it roll in nice and gently, like rain drops sliding down the vibrant green petal of a rose. Like tiny crystals all fragile and delicate, and yet brave enough to trust the fragility of a tree leaf to hold them. A collection of bodies all too weak to do anything but uplift each other. So, for Blogging Year 2016 I’m just going to continue riding the tide of the unknown and see where it takes me. I hope that you will come along with me and that we can continue to grow together. At some point I’ll sit down to outline some specific goals but for now I’ll take it one blog post at a time. Before you know it I’ll be drafting the post to close out 2016 and hopefully I’ll have you here to share those memories with me.
The Evolution of the Blog
I was fulfilling some orders this morning, you know the daily grind, and my thoughts fell on blogging in general. I thought about the history of blogging and how it has changed over the years. But what my thoughts focused on more so is how the increase in technology seemed to have downgraded the professional image of blogging in the eyes of the (wait for it) blogger.
When we launch these blogs, I do not think we really understand its significance. At least I didn’t.
Anyone can create a blog today. It is as easy as signing up for a Word Press free account. You can write about what you want and organize your blog how you see fit. Though it is easy to do, have you ever thought about what it means to be a blogger? I remember watching television over the years and seeing someone speak. Sometimes the person speaking had a title that said “Blogger” and as he or she spoke concerning their subject of expertise I never second guessed that they were a professional. “Blogger” was no different to me then than “Attorney at Law” or “Psychologist”. That is because before the blog evolved into what it is today, it was a big deal.
“The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle. Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994.
The blog was independently invented by Ian Ring, in 1997. His online journaling platform was called an “e-journal”. Ring’s project was later abandoned, but was rewritten in 2006 but didn’t become popular amid the overwhelming flood of other CMS systems becoming available, including WordPress. Ring still maintains that he “invented the blog”, which is technically true even though there were other projects that could make the same claim with greater authority.
Another early example of an early online entry into the evolution of blogging was created by Dave Winer. Winer is considered a pioneer of Web syndication techniques and has been considered one of the “fathers” of blogging. As the editor of Scripting News claims that his site “bootstrapped the blogging revolution and that it is the longest running Web Log on the internet”, Winer did not use the term “blog” and has never claimed the term. However he has gone on record as saying that “The first blogs were inspired by this blog, in fact many of them, including Barger’s Robot Wisdom, used my software.”
Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have “What’s New” or “News” sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based “weblog” is the Drudge Report founded by the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes this classification. Two others—Institute for Public Accuracy and Arts & Letters Daily—began posting news releases featuring several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several times a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to a blog was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today.” – Wikipedia
So what of all this? What’s the point?
From personal reflection, understanding the magnitude of what it means to blog helps me to maintain a level of professionalism on my blog; whether that is the appearance or the quality of the content. It helps me to remember that people are browsing the internet and coming across this blog from Google everyday in hopes of finding solutions to problems, or to overall be informed. It is not to say that blogs are not fun because I have lots of fun on this blog. And as we have read the first blogs were online diaries. Interestingly enough, many of the blogs I come across have this format.
The blogger is not a writer in the organized sense, just someone using the web as a way to publicly vent their thoughts (which I think we all do to an extent). It is just to say that I have come to look at blogging in a new light. As opposed to when I first started this blog, I place a kind of value on it now that I didn’t really think about before. Not value as in its my whole world or anything, but value as in the fact that real people are taking the time to stop here and to read and to learn. Therefore, how I present myself online, as a reflection of my real self, is not just some mediocre past time. What we write here is a big deal. Every day you are helping people in every aspect of their lives. To be a blogger then is kinda a big deal. I would even say it is something worth mentioning on a resume.
Timeline: Blogging Evolution:
January 1994
Swarthmore student Justin Hall creates first blog ever, Links.net.
December 1997
Online diarist Jorn Barger coins the term “Weblog” for “logging the Web.”
April 1999
Programmer Peter Merholz shortens “Weblog” to “blog.”
August 1999
Blogger rolls out the first popular, free blog-creation service.
January 2000
Boing Boing is born.
July 2000
AndrewSullivan.com launches.
February 2002
Heather Armstrong is fired for discussing her job on her blog, Dooce. “Dooced” becomes a verb: “Fired for blogging.”
August 2002
Nick Denton launches Gizmodo, the first in what will become a blog empire. Blogads launches, the first broker of blog advertising.
December 2002
Talking Points Memo highlights Trent Lott’s racially charged comments; thirteen days later, Lott resigns from his post as Senate majority leader.
December 2002
Gawker launches, igniting the gossip-blog boom.
March 2003
“Salam Pax,” an anonymous Iraqi blogger, gains worldwide audience during the Iraq war.
June 2003
Google launches AdSense, matching ads to blog content.
August 2003
The first avalanche of ads on political blogs.
September 2003
Jason Calacanis founds Weblogs, Inc., which eventually grows into a portfolio of 85 blogs.
January 2004
Denton launches Wonkette.
March 2004
Calacanis poaches Gizmodo writer Peter Rojas from Denton. Denton proclaims himself “royally shafted” on his personal blog.
December 2004
Merriam-Webster declares “blog” the “Word of the Year.”
January 2005
Study finds that 32 million Americans read blogs.
May 2005
The Huffington Post launches.
October 2005
Calacanis sells his blogs to AOL for $25 million.
December 2005
An estimated $100 million worth of blog ads are sold this year.
January 2006
Time leases Andrew Sullivan’s blog, adding it to its Website.
February 2006
The Huffington Post surges to become fourth most-linked-to blog.
What We Are Here For
The PBS Blog 