Life in Pixels

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Blog

  • On Writing for Bloggers

    I’ve been blogging for a reasonable amount of time now. It started on a whim back in early 2007 when I signed up for a Blogger (.blogspot) blog. After discovering WordPress, my blogging has soared, and I’ve written (at least, I think) a diverse range of posts.

    So I’d like to give back to the blogosphere, so to speak. This post will include some tips on writing for blogs. Now you may wonder: why should it be any different to writing for other mediums? Well, writing is an intricate art. And as with all art, it can only be successful if expressed correctly, be it through tone, style or diction, within the context of the medium of work.

    Blogs are a fast, dynamic format. You need to be able to express yourself concisely. Sure, lengthy exposition posts are sometimes welcome – but you need to be attuned to your reader. And most purveyors of blogs tend to read on a short time span, perhaps as a means to pass commute time, or within the confines of a lunchtime break. So I’ll try and be succinct on my tips in this post. Here it goes:

    • Your article needs to transport the reader from their mundane daily existence.
    • Inform the reader. Give them something that they can take with them from your post. Present new knowledge in the form of thought-provoking opinions, or news.
    • Have some wit. It adds colour to the article, and will captivate the reader. Try not to be dull.
    • Instigate discussion, and engage with your readership. It’ll ensure the longevity of your blog.
    • Write like you mean it. You’re blessed with the ability to be literate. It truly is a gift; now use it. Don’t abuse this beautiful language of ours. By using correct grammar, diction, tone and writing stylishly, you’re showing your audience that you care about your work. Your passion will exude through the words on the screen. It’ll bring them to life. The design of your blog includes every aspect: the layout, the colour, the theme, even the content. Respect your blog’s style, and write with purpose. Write correctly. Nobody – at least, no discerning reader – wants to read posts that are poorly constructed.

    Writing is fun. Writing adds joy to our life. Writing elevates us from the banality of our daily existence, and takes us to new frontiers. Now go forth and blog, my friends, and let the world know what you think of it!

  • The Echo Chamber

    The following is a post written for my school’s student blog. In light of my departure as editor of the blog, I thought it’d be fitting to publish this particular article here at Life in Pixels: a message, of sorts, to the next leaders of that blog, of the challenges they face in this new age of journalism the world is experiencing. Read the original post here.

     

    "…there is a feeling of injustice being committed when we see our writing reproduced in the guise of others."

    These are dangerous times that we live in, my friends. The Age of the Internet may be the magic we’ve sought after for aeons, that one thread of binary that keeps us connected across oceans, but there’s a darker, more sinister side to it. George Orwell accurately described the consequence of our age, transcending from a utopian to a dystopian future, in his harrowing and age-defining novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The all-prevailing “Big Brother” has full control over the masses, and can manipulate their thoughts and ideas, effectively their entire belief systems, entirely through the effective use of media.

    As budding journalists for a new magazine, we as the Editorial Team of The Echo have a great responsibility on our hands, as informers to you, the student body, of the happenings in and around our campus. Our opinions, our ideas, the words that we write, have in some way an influence upon you – just as the modern media in the “world out there” has enormous control over the public.

    In the rapid world of modern journalism – controlled largely by the high velocity of the Social Web – authenticity is the all-encompassing goal. That goal is the core value that we strive for in the content we publish. Our fundamental aim as writers in this new age is to ensure a level of quality, original content that differentiates us from the masses, most of whom find it blasé to regurgitate that which has already been written by others.

    The scourge of plagiarism in today’s Social Web-era is more prevalent than ever. For us, writers that are concerned with producing quality, original content, there is a feeling of injustice being committed when we see our writing reproduced in the guise of others. Perhaps this all whittles down to the nucleus of the problem: the sense of integrity that seems to be a commodity in this fast world. Content that is rehashed can now be argued as being “syndicated” in a sense.

    At the end of the day, it is the reader who is left in the void of uncertainty, and it is the word thief who has committed the greatest crime of information-sharing. It is now not the original writer who has the responsibility of discernment: the copied words, placed in different context, have the power to influence the public in a manner unintended for by the original creator. Thus, the role of Big Brother is distorted, and in the broader scope of the digital age, an enormity of unprecedented proportions has the potential to envelop our world.

    As young writers, we have quite a task on our hands. But we stand strong in the pillars of integrity that bind this blog, and the content on it, and I am confident that it is this defining attribute that will manifest us as crafters of a new age in journalism.

  • Wise Words from a Legendary Architect

    Architect Frank O. Gehry is no stranger to innovation. His non-conformist approach to architecture has reshaped our urban horizons, providing new perspective to the understanding of structures as not merely systems within which we seek protection, but rather, also as self-contained works of art.

    But to attain this legendary status within the architectural sphere of human civilisation, Gehry has had to confront significant resistance to his bold proposals of new ideas. In this short video, he proffers two simple words that sum-up what the brave spirit of modern innovation should harbour when setting out to change the world:

    Be yourself.

     

    To get an idea of how bold Mr Gehry is in his work, here is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by Gehry Partners, LLP.

  • Where to next…?

    The azure sky beckoned to them as they sat, perched precariously at the zenith of a machine that rendered, in its very bolts and metal, the dreams of not just an entire nation, but all of mankind. The tinny voice scrambled and squawked into their headsets. Numbers counting down. A low sound rumbled in the beast’s loins as the liquid oxygen engines roared into being. The cramped capsule began to shudder. A seagull, oblivious to such a momentous hour in man’s journey on this Planet, tumbled off the tower in a flurry of feathers. A second later, a single number was called out – “ZERO!” – and the progress of our discovery, the defining mark on this epoch of our great existence, was mapped out in the smoky trail of the Saturn V’s boosters.

    Apollo 11 – with its spidery Eagle, and Columbia, carrying her precious cargo – set a blazing trail that was the epitome of mankind’s tenacity to go beyond.

    Ask any of my old-time friends, and they’ll tell you of my avid fascination with space travel. The Cosmos holds a special place in my heart; there’s something inherently intricate in the design of our Universe, and our forays into trying to understand this ancient architecture through our space programmes deeply intrigues me.

    Recently, I’ve rekindled this spark of interest upon watching a brilliant documentary on BBC Knowledge. It’s called The Space Age: NASA’s Story. Using never-before-seen, original, re-mastered footage, the tale of how one of the world’s most powerful space agencies is weaved, with interviews from the legends of space travel.

    Watching what space travel was, what it stood for, in the 50s and 60s, got me thinking about where we stand today. In the forty years that followed that momentous first step on the moon, our technology has improved significantly. Yet here we stand, at the precipice of a new era in discovery of our Cosmos, with a retired shuttle fleet, a cancelled continuation project (Constellation), and the continuing privatisation of space.

    We desperately need innovators. We need people with the same tenacity as those Soviets and Americans who pioneered space travel, pushing the boundaries of our civilisation.

    But we also need a keen, holistic enthusiasm from the people of this planet.

    The Space Age: NASA’s Story aptly captures the excitement that human spaceflight created. There was indeed a sense of awe that prevailed through those years of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes. Has space become an expected norm today? Has the continuous ferrying to-and-from the International Space Station created a sense of routine? Perhaps.

    But maybe it’s the other frontiers that have risen as the race for space died. Kennedy’s charged words are a reminder of that by-gone era when sending a man into space, and onto a distant, heavenly body that captured mankind’s soul for centuries, held an entire planet captivated:

    “We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. […]

    We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

    –President John F. Kennedy, “Rice University Speech” (1962)

    In our age, we have the technologies. We have the knowledge. We have the abilities to “do the other things” in science and technology that will push the human race forward. But what we require is the drive, the will to innovate; a delicate membrane that exists between the dream and the realisation, forever threatened to be swayed by the motions of bureaucracy.

    A new era of discovery awaits a new generation. We now face the charge of respecting the path foraged by those that came before us, and plunging into the unknown depths of our Cosmos.

  • SA Street Dictionary – Fun and… Interesting

    I recently got an email from one of South Africa’s leading mobile network operators, Cell C, about “a pretty exciting new project” called the Cell C South African Street Dictionary.

    The project is an initiative to allow the emerging techno-conscious South African citizen to express themselves through the urban colloquialisms of modern South African language. Now for those that don’t know much about my country, it’s pretty diverse. There’s 11 official national languages, and it comes as no surprise that many words are carried over from each language, thus creating an eclectic blend of accents and slang words that so uniquely express the South African experience.

    The site is stylishly designed, with the generic branding of Cell C. Interestingly, the first word in the welcome headline is “heita” – perhaps a dig at competitor 8ta? The home page offers a concise overview of the reason for initiating the project (alluding to the youth march of June 16th and the need for unique expression), as well as a sidebar showing the top 10 SA street words.

    The site is simple in layout, and this makes it fun and easy to use. Users can even submit their own words to the dictionary. Each entry has the commonplace social sharing features, and there’s also an option to subscribe to the “Word of the Day” feature.

    I can see that the intentions of Cell C are in good light, but this still carries with it a sort of PR or marketing stunt that is unavoidable in this increasingly competitive market. What with Vocacom going red (and making their customers – myself included – seeing red from experiencing hideous network service), it pays to offer added products that show the company cares about its customers. It’ll be interesting to see where they take the South African Street Dictionary in the near future. If you’re a South African, an ex-pat, or a foreigner due to visit our shores soon (or simply curious about South African culture) this website is worth a visit.

    Visit it: www.sastreetdictionary.co.za