I find anger inspiring. Am I strange?
No, seriously. Recently I have discovered that disagreement boosts my creativity sky high. I actually noticed it when visiting certain forum - I realised that I find posts I generally agree with extremely boring, but statements I want to argue with make me think like crazy.
A useful piece of self-awareness, if I've ever seen one. At least I can be grateful for all the shouting matches I've been through.
I also enjoy writing angry-ish articles (as you've probably noticed if you've read more of this blog). An obvious consequence of boosted creativity, I suppose.
Just to make it clear - angry doesn't necessarily mean rude (I have another outlet for that). I can even get away with G rating most of the time :).
It's impossible to look around and NOT TO get angry, I'm afraid. I think it's ok - if you channel your anger, it helps you change things.
My recent favourite anger source is unethical advertising. I'm right after publishing a full-fledged article titled 'How not to fall for bullshit advertising' (bullshit spelled BS for censorship reasons) and I'm actually quite proud of it. I think I will work some more on the subject. While ranting is extremely pleasant, I also have some solutions in mind - I'm researching the subject of ethical, decent advertising. We'll see where it gets me.
A note to you, dear reader - when I'm angry, I tend to be funny, so if you feel like being entertained, do check one of my Squidoo rants. So far I have been publicly spewing venom at the Internet, job interviews, apocalypse scares, halloween and Internet users' inability to criticise.
I also write 'nice' articles', but rants are so much more interesting!
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Saturday 19 November 2011
Christmas. Rubbish.
Blah, it's that time of the year again. Jingle damn bells and purses, buy, buy, buy, all in the name of our saviour. Yuck.
You know, I can quite live with Christmas itself. It lasts ONE DAY (say two if you will. Say three. Say even twelve, it's still far far away from what we're being served in all public spaces - if, due to salespeople of this world, Christmas starts on November 2nd, by the end of the month I'm sick of this stupid holiday and by the day itself I get a rash at the very sight of a Christmas tree. It's all your fault, Mr. Salesman!). It means mainly spending some time with my close family, with bloody good food in the background, with a possible walk along the blissfully empty streets later on. Fine by me. But...
I don't get excited by the whole show. I mean, what's so damn special about stupid tinsel (or holly, or stockings or whatever is the coolest Christmas gadget where you live)? I was happily buying the whole story until I was about 6 years old. Then I moved on. We live and learn. At least, some of us do...
I'm the least likely person in the world to fall a victim of Christmas advertisers. I'm simply bullshit-proof, at least when it comes to marketing, advertising and the likes. Even if I wasn't - most of the stuff on offer is so terribly, painfully kitschy and crappy that I have trouble believing someone actually buys it. Well, they do. Whatever happened to you, dear world... Anyway, if I'm committed NOT TO buy a thing before Christmas, why on Earth am I still bombarded with Christmas advertising? (And I don't really care whether you disguise it as an 'informative article' or not.) Why I cannot walk the street, visit a cafe or greengrocer's, read a paper, or check the Web without seeing or hearing Christmas advertising?
Now, a few messages for the businesspeople out there:
1. If I hear a Christmas carol coming from your shop, I won't enter unless I absolutely have to
2. If you try to sell me the 'Christmas spirit' bullshit, you will authomatically get onto my 'avoid' list
3. I will never buy anything marked as 'Christmas special'. I KNOW you're trying to rip me off, sunshine.
I know many people who think and act likewise. I will do my best to ensure there's more and more of them, so that they can spread the idea even further.
Consider yourself warned.
You know, I can quite live with Christmas itself. It lasts ONE DAY (say two if you will. Say three. Say even twelve, it's still far far away from what we're being served in all public spaces - if, due to salespeople of this world, Christmas starts on November 2nd, by the end of the month I'm sick of this stupid holiday and by the day itself I get a rash at the very sight of a Christmas tree. It's all your fault, Mr. Salesman!). It means mainly spending some time with my close family, with bloody good food in the background, with a possible walk along the blissfully empty streets later on. Fine by me. But...
I don't get excited by the whole show. I mean, what's so damn special about stupid tinsel (or holly, or stockings or whatever is the coolest Christmas gadget where you live)? I was happily buying the whole story until I was about 6 years old. Then I moved on. We live and learn. At least, some of us do...
I'm the least likely person in the world to fall a victim of Christmas advertisers. I'm simply bullshit-proof, at least when it comes to marketing, advertising and the likes. Even if I wasn't - most of the stuff on offer is so terribly, painfully kitschy and crappy that I have trouble believing someone actually buys it. Well, they do. Whatever happened to you, dear world... Anyway, if I'm committed NOT TO buy a thing before Christmas, why on Earth am I still bombarded with Christmas advertising? (And I don't really care whether you disguise it as an 'informative article' or not.) Why I cannot walk the street, visit a cafe or greengrocer's, read a paper, or check the Web without seeing or hearing Christmas advertising?
Now, a few messages for the businesspeople out there:
1. If I hear a Christmas carol coming from your shop, I won't enter unless I absolutely have to
2. If you try to sell me the 'Christmas spirit' bullshit, you will authomatically get onto my 'avoid' list
3. I will never buy anything marked as 'Christmas special'. I KNOW you're trying to rip me off, sunshine.
I know many people who think and act likewise. I will do my best to ensure there's more and more of them, so that they can spread the idea even further.
Consider yourself warned.
Sunday 6 November 2011
How... boring
A question to all those SEO magicians and web millionaires out there - don't you find it extremely boring??? By 'it' I mean doing all those necessary things to bring traffic to your sites (paid advertisement excluded).
As probably every single webmaster in the world, sometimes I get frustrated by extremely low traffic. A long cursing session is my first aid, but once I've let some steam off, I usually surf around for phrases like 'How to increase traffic' etc. Tips I'm finding are usually pretty much the same: go on Facebook, Twitter, blah blah, be active in the forums, comment on other blogs, submit to directories and so on, ad infinitum. Yeah, right.
I'm not saying it wouldn't work. It might as well. Only it's... so. damn. extremely. BORING!!!
I don't know how it works with other people, but I'm not turned on by shallow socialising. I don't even get close to social networking websites because guess what - all they are is only one big popularity contest. I mean - what the hell, has the whole world suddenly turned into a permanent high school? One would think people grow out of it...
Nope. Apparently they don't.
The whole idea of being active on other blogs, forums etc... I thought leaving comments with the sole purpose of getting backlinks is considered SPAM? Well, of course, you're supposed to PRETEND you're very interested and radiate the oh-no-I'm-not-here-to-get-you-to-visit-my-website-at-all attitude. So, in other words, spam like hell but don't let anyone catch you and never, ever admit you're spamming.
Or directories and other article submission places. Write a short article about nothing (because come on, most of web content is just a lot of blah blah, served in politically correct sauce), then write ANOTHER article on how you wrote the article about nothing and perhaps write an article on writing an article on writing an article... Is this really how it's supposed to go?
How come nobody ever, EVER, mentions things like
- learn to write better. It doesn't mean you're not good, it only means you can get better, right? What's wrong with being a better wordsmith? Guess what, nobody seems to care, ha ha.
- think about your own web-browsing behavior. Think what you're rewarding with your traffic and your attention.
- how come we are all allowed to praise anything to high heaven (regardless of its worth) but any critique is met with howling dogs of communal fury? If this trend continues, I'm going to commit my life to browsing the web and leaving nasty comments on weak websites. Simply because nobody else dares to do it.
And so on.
Writing is great. Interacting with people is - well, if not great, then at least stimulating. Interacting with traffic gatherers is surrounded by a very nasty stench.
So how about - think twice before you publish another article on 'How to bring more traffic to your website'?
Please?
As probably every single webmaster in the world, sometimes I get frustrated by extremely low traffic. A long cursing session is my first aid, but once I've let some steam off, I usually surf around for phrases like 'How to increase traffic' etc. Tips I'm finding are usually pretty much the same: go on Facebook, Twitter, blah blah, be active in the forums, comment on other blogs, submit to directories and so on, ad infinitum. Yeah, right.
I'm not saying it wouldn't work. It might as well. Only it's... so. damn. extremely. BORING!!!
I don't know how it works with other people, but I'm not turned on by shallow socialising. I don't even get close to social networking websites because guess what - all they are is only one big popularity contest. I mean - what the hell, has the whole world suddenly turned into a permanent high school? One would think people grow out of it...
Nope. Apparently they don't.
The whole idea of being active on other blogs, forums etc... I thought leaving comments with the sole purpose of getting backlinks is considered SPAM? Well, of course, you're supposed to PRETEND you're very interested and radiate the oh-no-I'm-not-here-to-get-you-to-visit-my-website-at-all attitude. So, in other words, spam like hell but don't let anyone catch you and never, ever admit you're spamming.
Or directories and other article submission places. Write a short article about nothing (because come on, most of web content is just a lot of blah blah, served in politically correct sauce), then write ANOTHER article on how you wrote the article about nothing and perhaps write an article on writing an article on writing an article... Is this really how it's supposed to go?
How come nobody ever, EVER, mentions things like
- learn to write better. It doesn't mean you're not good, it only means you can get better, right? What's wrong with being a better wordsmith? Guess what, nobody seems to care, ha ha.
- think about your own web-browsing behavior. Think what you're rewarding with your traffic and your attention.
- how come we are all allowed to praise anything to high heaven (regardless of its worth) but any critique is met with howling dogs of communal fury? If this trend continues, I'm going to commit my life to browsing the web and leaving nasty comments on weak websites. Simply because nobody else dares to do it.
And so on.
Writing is great. Interacting with people is - well, if not great, then at least stimulating. Interacting with traffic gatherers is surrounded by a very nasty stench.
So how about - think twice before you publish another article on 'How to bring more traffic to your website'?
Please?
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