From Sparrow to Crow pt.1

One rather cold winter's day a new life was welcomed into the world. A little sparrow by the name of Atlas emerged from his sun bleached egg, squeaking and chirping, ready to take on the world. Unlike many other birds he was lucky enough to have both his mother and father stick around long enough to try and help him into his majestic flying adulthood.

Atlas was a rather average sparrow in terms of distinction; he had hatched with his father's brown fluffy feather and his mother's pearly white beak. Behind his cold black eyes however laid the intelligence of a bird far beyond that of his fellow hatchlings. His mother and father both lauded his intelligence as they were certain that he would bring great happiness to his nest. He quickly learned to fly and scavenge for insects while also developing an extraordinary habit of tidiness.

The nest he called home was always considerably cleaner than that of the other birds in the tree and much of what his own doing. He took great enjoyment in being a bit of a star amongst the other birds and tried his best not to let them down. One day however, he met his downfall after observing some of the older birds a few branches above him.

He wasn't always the most liked by the other sparrows his age, they saw him as an outcast with his impeccably white beak and his fluffy brown feathers. The others had darker beaks and their feathers so much more rough than his and they flaunted it in front of him. He began to retreat inside himself and stuck more closely to the family of birds in his nest while observing the other birds. He thought maybe if he did what the older birds did, that the sparrows his age would be more kind.

He watched as the older birds began to feed more freely on the food that people would drop for them instead of scavenging on insects like the others did. He watched how they would act in increasingly stupid ways to garner the attention of the humans and then how the humans took such enjoyment from it and fed them without any hesitation. One day he decided he too would feast upon the peoples gifts and hope to impress the other sparrows with his courageous and frivolous tricks.

He eventually worked up the courage to perform his first trick and immediately became hooked on the delicious morsels of bread and cake that the humans would leave for him. He kept it to himself at first, realizing that it was frowned upon, but eventually became too caught up in the game that his act was found out. His family was not happy with him and tried to reform him by forcing him to wait silently and wait for the bugs rather than feed upon the instant gratification of the people's food.

[to be continued]

My Thoughts on Online Identity

I don't know exactly what it was that got me thinking on the subject, doesn't take a lot to get me started though, but I've been going over different ideas for online identity in my mind all day.

It today's times where a person's life can tentatively be lived out on the internet, there is a need to build not only an online presence but a persistent online identity as well. The two concepts straddle a very fine line but I do feel there are distinguishable features between them.

An online identity is a core, an absolute finite representation of one's self in the ever evolving world of the internet. It represents who you are, whom you associate with and what you do.

Whereas an online presence, while also encompassing aforementioned online identity, goes beyond who you are. An online presence is you and what you create, a sphere of new-media and social cliques that at one point would have been unattainable by most.

Essentially your identity is the guy backstage rehearsing his lines and your presence is both you and the character you are playing. (Bad metaphor?)

So far, I haven't found one really great resource for actually creating such an identity online, there are great ways to create a presence. You can blog, you can create YouTube videos, take photos, Tweets and Wall Posts on Facebook; but where does your identity actually reside online?

I've been working on my presence for years, I have thousands of blog posts buried in the depths of the internet, multiple thousands of Tweets from the past 2 years, photos and artwork scattered about the likes of Flickr, TwitPic and DeviantArt but where am I? I suppose with so many little pieces of me spewed about that if one were to gather it all up you could maybe define some sense of who I am but it just won't be quite the same.

I don't know if there will ever be a definite answer to such an issue as this, as little as an issue it may seem to be, right now. I do predict that online identity and the self will become a greater topic of discussion in the coming future. One day people may truly live online. For now, well, we'll just have to keep embarrassing ourselves, putting potential employment opportunities at risk, degrading our sense of self worth, living in pseudo-anonymity while exposing our secrets to the world, playing white-knight, trolling...etc...etc...etc

Wondrous Beauty of Life pt.2

Picking up where I left off in regards to what the new job will hold in store for me.

Thirdly, travel, the new job will involve lots and lots of travel around the greater Phoenix area which will work nicely with my sister blog AZ Rogue Travels.

Fourth, solitude, aside from all other things listed previously I will most likely enjoy this one above all. I will not only be making more money and travelling more often but I will be working on my own most of the time. I will be dealing with customers on a daily basis but as far as coworkers go, there will be little to no interaction. I work best on my own and this will prove to be the perfect job for me.

Moving on from the wonders of the new job I'd like to post a tidbit on some plans I have for Reality Grounded here. When things really start to settle down and I start to have more free time I am planning on starting a bi-monthly podcast. I don't really have many plans on what I will be doing with said 'cast but I'm thinking just a free-form whatever the hell I want sort of deal. It will be co-hosted by myself and my lovely wife-to-be.

I've been looking into necessary equipment to produce something of decent quality and have ultimately decided upon the purchase of a new Mac-mini to delegate strictly to my pursuit in creating an online media network.

Ultimately the plan is to work not only the blogs and podcast but also create more videos for the YouTube side of things, start a webcomic and more. It may seem a little all over the place but I really would love to take things further and maybe even create some sort of job/money for myself in the process.

That's all for now. I may post up something a little different later on tonight.

The Wondrous Beauty of Life

As I seem to write more often than not, I've been too busy with so much else going on write now that I haven't had much time to devote to actually writing. It really makes me sad, I need to practice as often as I can find which is very rare these days. With that out of the way though, there is some big news going on, I have recently signed on for a new job which equals a few major things for me.

Firstly, job security. I will no longer have much to worry about in regards to keeping my job. Assuming I am able to do it well (I guarantee I will) then there is not much to worry about there.

Secondly, financial security. This one should probably make top of the list but whatever, here goes, I will be making close to 3 times the amount I have been at my current place of employment which is fantastic! No longer will I need to worry about making rent/bills but I will even have a little extra cash on the side to invest in some new equipment to further this whole blog thing.

More to come later.

I Feel Like Writing Something

It's been a slow weekend. I've been battling pink eye and strep throat for the past four days now and have been in a world of pain. I didn't do much except for rest this weekend which gave me ample opportunity to kick back and do something I haven't had much time for recently, play some video games.

I was just about to write up a review of Beyond Good and Evil HD, which just released this past Wednesday in the Xbox Live Marketplace (you can download it here) but ultimately am not feeling up to it at the moment. I will say that it is a gem of a game, originally released years ago for the Playstation 2 and Gamecube, it's finally been given a fresh coat of paint and a new audience. It never sold well the first time around which is a damn shame, I had always meant to pick up a copy but never could afford too but now it's only 10 bucks and will probably decide the fate of the much needed sequel.

All that aside, I don't know much else to write about, I had planned on taking a small day trip out of the city this weekend to get some new pictures and a new post up over at AZ Rogue Travels, my currently 'a work in progress' travel blog but due to being ill that fell through. Things were pretty quiet around here this past weekend and it was really nice.

I'm pushing lots of tea and medicine, hopefully I can kick these viruses before much longer and get back out there on the road. Probably gonna put up a small post at AZ Rogue tonight too.

That's all for now, peace.

Oh How Time Flies

Life has become a rather hectic endeavor these past few weeks. For a rather long time work had been awfully slow which gave me more free-time throughout the day to read and write. Lately however, it's been anything but slow and I find myself having almost zero free time to focus on my interests.

I refuse to completely give up on my blog through Finnegans Wake but as it stands currently but am going to be putting it on a small hiatus. With the way things have been I just don't have time to try and read through the insanity that Joyce unleashed upon us close to a century ago.

As for my other ideas and projects I have currently planned, one in particular I intend to start focusing on in a big way. I've been mostly discouraged by my lack of proper equipment to really bring anything of value to the table but I need to get over this fear. There's more to quality than flashy lights and smooth silky voice, though honestly they don't really hurt, but I will do my absolute best to make do with what I currently have available.

Now on the same subject, Kickstarter, a community based funding project has intrigued me greatly. The only problem here is that again, as with my discouragement in equipment, I find fault in my own ideas. It should go without saying yet somehow flies over most people's heads anymore but if you never ask, you never receive. So I'm struggling with working up, within myself, the notion that my ideas are just as valuable as anyone else's.

This blog post here, written by Lizzy Bennett, Online Marketing Manager of Timbuk2, is what has most recently set off this series of explosions in my mind. Little explosions that my ideas truly are worthy of something and the reason why, is, I am that StrangeBum from Twitter, I am the one that sparked the little partnership between two of my favorite companies, Timbuk2 and Sanuk Footwear.

So that's where things stand for me currently. My life is filled with ideas that I truly think have some potential to get me to where I truly want to be. All it takes now is a little creative marketing on my behalf to get my name out there and also to just push through my insecurities and get something done.

Thank you for reading and with this, I am done for the night.

Slow Updates

This is really more of an apology to myself than anyone else, as I do not believe I really have anyone who actively reads this here blog, but I haven't been keeping up to date on the blogging lately. Mostly it's just because I've been too lazy to write anything and I definitely need to break out of that habit.

Though I have been doing a few other things lately. Finnegans Wake was on a temporary hiatus as I was working my way through the game Red Dead Redemption for Xbox 360. I used to be a really heavy gamer and had shelved it as of late due to various reasons but have finally taken it up again. I won't be quite as absorbed as I used to, I can't fund that sort of habit anymore, but I do plan on trying to play more often.

With all that said, I'm thinking of maybe writing up a small review about the game, I'm pretty much finished up with the storyline now and all I have left are the small side stories and numerous challenges if I want to 100% the game which I would like to try and accomplish.

I also recently finally saw the new Tron: Legacy movie and have some thoughts on where they might be going with the series after this one. I assume they are going to be making a third movie and I have good reason for believing so and I might also do a writeup on that as well. There will be spoilers so if you are actually reading this just be warned.

And with that I bid you farewell and thanks for reading.

A Quick Update

As it were, I have begun reading Finnegans Wake and must admit I'm quite lost with it...I'm going to be taking a lot of time making my way through this book. To think I ever thought A Clockwork Orange was difficult to read, that's laughable now.

In any case, I would also like to mention that while I would like to update here as frequently as possible it just won't be feasible to update daily. I'm thinking small blog posts every two to three days, making it about two or three posts a week. This should leave me time to read enough to talk about and also have time for my other projects.

Anyway, don't expect another post until later this week I presume. Thanks!

It's Here

The time has come. With 2010 now behind us and 2011 ready for action I can finally start focusing on my writings here more effectively. I have only been waiting because I really wanted to get started with a fresh year and therefore, a fresh outlook on life.

Now I have been talking about some big project that I'm planning on starting and now I shall announce it along with a few other resolutions I decided would be good goals to work toward.

First, this blog is going to beging focusing on the James Joyce's book Finnegans Wake. Long considered to be the most difficult book in the English language to read, Joyce's tale utilizes language that he considered to be more akin to dream speech than anything else. It is a book many may consider indecipherable, incoherent or just plain silly and it very well may be; however, my plan is to not only read the book thoroughly but also offer my ideas and opinions on the subject.

I am not the most highly educated individual nor would I claim to be the most suitable person for analyzing Joyce's gibberish. But alas, this is precisely what I intend to do.

Other than that though I did mention other projects. Firstly, I plan on creating more intricate videos for posting on YouTube rather than the vlog style musing I've been doing recently. Secondly, I am going to attempt writing and publishing a children's book by years end. I have some vague ideas of where to take that but have not started quite yet.

And then, that is it, that's all I have in the works currently. Hopefully I can keep it all up and hopefully someone out there is able to find this and enjoy it.

Thanks

[Post Edit]
Forgot to mention, along with the other little (big) projects above I am also planning updating this blog with multiple pages with various focuses and maybe a layout change.

Thanks again!

Ideas Abound

I realize I haven't really been doing much on here, hopefully that will change relatively soon. I currently have some really great ideas that I hope I can find some time to start working on. I should probably change my tagline that I've setup, my main use for this wordpress blog is that I want to experiment with some different writing styles and themes.

Really that's what Reality Grounded means to me, taking reality as it stands all around us and pushing beyond into a realm of free form creativity. As a writer I have come to the realization that I am, if not ambitious, strictly an amateur. I'm struggling to find a way for me to easily express my voice. I've started delving into more YouTube content as of late and hopefully will start finding the time to do the same here.

Even if no one were ever to read these words, I just want to make this a tool for expression and, again, experimentation. Hopefully somewhere along the line I will find something that I can truly say is unique to myself.