Daryl Ducharme 11/21/12 Daryl Ducharme 11/21/12

Social Network Conundrum

What does one do with all the social networks? I'm not sure but in an effort to organize my online social life I wanted to create rules for myself around what social networks and this blog will be used for.

Below are the ways I think of each social network and what I plan to post there.

Facebook

Main online presence where I will share most things I want my friends and acquaintances to see.

Videos
My upcoming events - I am an active guy
Thoughts

Twitter

Another major online presence but a great place for just random short thoughts

Bad jokes
Programmer thoughts - most of my friends on facebook don't really don't speak gobbledygook
Events as they happen
Psuedo-conversations with fellow twitter users.

YouTube

Videos I take
Hangouts - I have some ideas for themed ones.
Videos saved from ustream

Google Plus

I like G+ still but it is so hard to post. I'm just going to turn it into the place to post stuff that is easy to post there. Turns out this is mostly Google related links.

Tumblr

I don't put much content here but if I do it will be.

Stupid photos
Longer random thoughts that only people who really opted in will want to see. By longer random thoughts I mean longer than the 140 character limit of twitter but not deserving of a full blog post.

UStream

This is the place for behind the scenes video of my life.
There is a possibility I could start JAMM live broadcasts again in the future.

I must admit, this one is dying quick. I haven't

Silly pictures
Memorable videos

What about this blog?

Articles that well thought out will go in this blog. I want to write better so I will do my best. However, I have been wanting to write a lot more and trying to be to clean and neat usually keeps me from writing so please bear with me as I get better at first and second drafts.

Conclusion

There are too many social networks but being an inhabitant and creator within the social space I feel it is necessary to check them out and see what works. What works for you? I know my list is small. Should I be trying something else? Is there something else a reader of my blog would like to see me use one of these services for? I'm open to ideas and comments. Thanks for reading.

Daryl Ducharme 9/9/12 Daryl Ducharme 9/9/12

What to write, what to write

It has been a while since I have written in my blog. How many of my blog posts start with this or something similar? It's not like I don't have anything to write. Here is a look at why I think I might not have been adding to my blog.

It has been a while since I have written in my blog. How many of my blog posts start with this or something similar? It's not like I don't have anything to write. I'm up at night all the time because my mind is racing. Here are some of the things that keep me up at night pondering and that I have plenty to write about:

Male/Female interactions - gender studies
Attempting to learn French
Magic
Programming
Raising Kids
Being a husband
Identity
Improv
Wrestling
Stand-up
Random cool stuff I want to learn or am pondering
Cool people I have in my life
Politics

So if I have all this stuff to write, why haven't I? I have a few theories that might be why I have blog writers block.

I'm keeping myself quite busy

While this is true, I have quite a busy life, I have also been spending a lot of time at home doing what amounts to very little. In order to increase my nerd cred I've started watching Doctor Who. I have spent many nights watching 2-3 episodes over the past few weeks. I guess I could reduce that to one. Then there is always the dreaded Facebook refreshing. Even though there isn't much there I keep thinking I'll get a notification any time now. So if I'm not keeping myself so busy that there is not extra time, what else is there?

I've limited my blog

A couple years back, in an attempt to get myself to write more I created a schedule for my blog. This spawned Just Another Magic Monday, Wednesday Warrior, Flash Friday and Sunday Funnies posts. At first, this worked. Then I stopped. Perhaps I don't want a specific schedule, perhaps I just need a check in. There are no hard and fast rules saying I can't post whatever and whenever I want so once again I have an excuse without weight. Any other stops?

Social media makes posting easier somewhere else

I am definitely an oversharer on Facebook and other social networks. I think this is part of the reason I have a Klout score that currently ranks around 60. The fact that I even know that is a sign. It is easy though. Take someone else's content and just share it. Maybe I can add a one sentence opinion. This works but it still leaves my mind full of more flushed out thoughts and opinions that need to be refined and written down so as not to keep me up at nights. In fact, I think it even adds to my list. Especially during a presidential election year such as this.

What now?

I've pinpointed some beliefs that might be keeping me from writing. How can I use this knowledge to write. I can most assuredly only watch a single of Doctor Who (or any television show) to one episode a night. I'm a smart enough individual to know that those Facebook notifications are at least 50% game notifications and can wait until the next day. Nothing too pressing there. There are no hard and fast rules on my blog so I should work towards a schedule of writing anything once or twice a week rather than a schedule of writing something specific that never gets done. As for social media, I need to realize that is a consumption and sharing setup and doesn't really fulfill my creative needs.

It is time to write! Now, what to write?

Daryl Ducharme 10/10/07 Daryl Ducharme 10/10/07

Inspiration

Often times, inspiration comes when and where you are not looking for it. Inspiration may unearth a desire for you to take actions you have not yet taken. You may have noticed that much of my inspiration recently has come from parkour. Once again I found inspiration in parkour, but parkour isn't the only inspiration that came to me. ...

I found this recent inspiration on AmericanParkour.com. Demon, a traceur and member of the tribe from Colorado, got a chance to train in France with some of the Yamakasi. Not only did he get to go on this parkour pilgrimage, but he took the time to write about his account of the training.

Some of the inspiring parts of his post came from the way the yamakasi trained. Thinking of doing a drill eleven times as really doing 10 + 1. Making sure to do difficult movements at least 3 times instead of just once to prove to yourself that you can. Thinking that the real training, much of it mental, comes after you are physically tired. The usefulness of training by yourself or with others. This was all great information that has inspired me to train more intensely.

The suprising inspiration came not from parkour, but from the writing of the article. Many of my posts, including this one, are written fairly quickly while I have a break during the day. From reading many other postings online, it looks like most people do the same thing - even for professional sites. Demon's article was different. He obviously put a lot of time into organizing his thoughts and putting together an article that many different people could read and get something from. His writing of that article inspired me to work towards writing better posts in my own blog.

So as I go onto my 100th post, I will take the time and improve my writing ability. Even short articles can have a little extra time expended on them to polish them up.