haud ignota loquor
Just an update to inform you that a new (very) short story is on its way out. It’s currently sitting in longhand form in my Moleskine, and when I find time (hopefully soon) I’ll transcribe it into digital format, and post it here.
To whet your reading appetite, the tale is called Rendezvous with a Killer.
Look out for it!
You may have noticed that Life in Pixels is sporting a new look. I’ve decided to give the blog a bit of a refreshed, cleaner, darker look. It’s part-experiment, part-permanent; if I enjoy this theme I may decide to keep it.
The previous theme I was using is called Handgloves. It’s a great, clean theme, but I wanted something darker and with more pronounced, Helvetica-esque font use. The theme I’m currently using is called Lightword, and it looks smashing in my opinion.
Hope you enjoy it!
So, a lot of people are giving Twitter a try these days. The site’s been around for some time now, but it’s taken a while for the concept to catch on – especially for most people used to the “profile-friends-wall” system of social networks like Facebook.
The creators of the microblogging site did indeed find it difficult to succinctly explain the purpose of Twitter to those uninitiated tweeps out there. After all, the site is not another Facebook. It’s an entirely different service all together.
Twitter is what you’d call a microblogging site. Instead of allowing you to write lengthy blog posts (like on this blog…), Twitter allows users to quickly express their thoughts. The media world has embraced this technology in quite an innovative way: exploiting its instant-update factor, they’re using Twitter to break the news – literally, telling the news as it happens.
Facebook, on the other hand, allows you to connect with people in a more extended manner; in essence, it extends the featureset of Twitter. Remember, this isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes, the more minimalist the system, the better and more refined it can be.
That’s not to say Twitter isn’t capable of allowing you to connect with other people. I’ve found it a wonderful and easy way to keep in touch with my editors overseas, and it’s certainly a great tool to use when collaborating ideas on a larger scale. Twitter is more flexible than Facebook; but on the other hand, Facebook is more feature-rich than Twitter.
Really, in my opinion, the perfect usage of the two is to see them in the light of synergy: two powerful entities that, when utilized together, can become a great way of keeping ahead of the world.
Sure, the concept of “Following” does lend itself to that creepy, stalkerish-feeling. But ultimately, Twitter is exceptionally powerful technology – it’s a facet of modern social media that’s reshaping the way we, as a human race, communicate. It’s up to you to decide whether or not to embrace the revolution. Twitter, and its brethren, are certainly not going to be waiting for you. As with all technology, they’re powering down the never-ceasing stream of progressive development. The question is: are you ready to take the plunge and grab onto the future now?
I may be an old-school aficionado of Moleskine notebooks, a huge fan of the brand and a devout user of the classic and traditional way of capturing ideas. But lately, I’ve decided to branch out, if you like, trying out a little experiment: a tango of sorts, with a little piece of software called Evernote.
Evernote is a web-based note taking application, but the beauty in the software lies in its extensibility: the service can be accessed from virtually anywhere, and with a native app for most popular smartphones (Apple iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and even the iPad and iPod touch), one can live safe in the knowledge that one’s thoughts, ideas and plans are kept safe from physical destruction. Because, after all, even the legendary Moleskines are vulnerable to the nemesis that is spilt coffee.
Evernote works by organizing your notes into notebooks: think of them as mini files in a larger, digital filing cabinet that you can carry with you wherever you go. What I truly like about the service is the synergy it presents between the traditional and modern method of capturing thoughts: Evernote allows one to capture handwritten notes with a phone camera or by scanning the image, so that all ideas are stored safely in the cybersphere.
I am the editor of my school’s recently-launched blog, and as such this position means that I constantly need to manage incoming posts, plan editorial meetings, draft my own editorial posts and keep everything in equilibrium between the ten writers, a cartoonist and co-editor. This can be a monstrous job to tame, and I am aided by Evernote in managing the entire system. I keep a separate notebook for the blog, in which I deposit notes on agendas for meetings, ideas for blog posts and content for the site, and random thoughts and images that could potentially become new services we could launch. I even run the editorial meetings directly off Evernote on my BlackBerry: the agenda is compiled in Evernote for Mac during the week, and through the sync feature, I can walk into the Friday meeting with the digital agenda ready on my phone’s screen.
Evernote is like a second extension to my brain – the first being my trusted companion, my classic black Moleskine pocket notebook – and I use it to deposit numerous ideas for blog posts for this blog. Although I’m unable, due to time constraints, to work on my book, whenever I find something useful it goes straight into my Evernote digital notebook, where I can later transfer it into Scrivener (where the entire novel is kept safely).
This is a great app to use for managing your life – both offline and online. Try it for yourself – and watch your productivity soar.
My little “holiday project” for these past two weeks has been to begin a short story in my new Moleskine notebook (the Pac-Man one). I’m writing in longhand. Shock. Horror. Gasp.
It’s currently at 14 and a half pages long. That’s pretty impressive in my opinion. But then again, I could be biased. Seeing as this is my story. Anyway, I’m rather proud of my attempt.
It’s a slightly different story to my usual “assassin”-type short stories. My greatest aim with writing this story was to write something that was in the style I am familiar with, and that was interesting enough to absorb me in the process – because, after all, writing can be quite difficult when it wants to be. So I chose a subject that’s been playing on my mind for a long time now.
Also, I wanted to write this story because this past term, I’ve been bogged-down with very mundane essay-style texts; the one creative piece I did write, I may not publish online.
I’m quite excited about this new story; it evolved in an interesting way, as I wrote it. Both the planning and the writing ran concurrently, and the final sequence (the last of five sequences I had planned for it in the early stages of the tale’s development) was fully explored and understood just before I began writing the segment.
As I write this post, the story is very near complete. I’m going to be writing the big finalé soon, and then I’ll begin the transcription process of transferring the written text in the Moleskine into Scrivener, my preferred text application on Mac.
Will it be published? That’s a good question, my friends. Just as this new story has grown as it was written, so too will the final decision of publication be made when the time comes. I’m allowing this story to be what it wants to be; to grow as an entity on its own, and hopefully in the process become something I deem worthy of sharing. Until then, stay tuned to my Twitter page, and this blog, for the latest info.
Live Long and Prosper.
Rahul Dowlath 