Hi, guys.  Here’s easing back into blogging to greet you a happy New Year.

Let’s skip the apologies, all right?  I’d rather talk about what this year meant to me.

On balance, it’s been a fantastic year. My blog marked its first year this December.  True, I broke the tape limping but overall the pluses exceeded the hassles.

Here’s why. You’ve enriched my writing life with your conversations, advice, good company and friendship.  True, I’ve parted ways with several persons this year.  But that’s okay, too.

Because those who’ve stayed and became friends?  A lifetime is too short to enjoy your skewed humor, your unfailing support when I second-guess myself, your loyalty and your helpfulness.

My friendship with you is my greatest achievement this year.

Thank you, guys.   Happy New Year!

Okay.  Can we get drunk now?

Recommended Reading:

• Goals for 2010:  Blogging or Writing?
• The “R” Word…
• 90 Awesome Blog Posts that Inspired My Blog’s Growth in 2009
• 5 Lessons I Won’t Forget from 2009

Photo by angelrravelor

Happy New Year, Guys is a post from: WritingToExhale

Call off the posse, my friends.  I’m finally back from a two-week vacation from my blog.  I’m not exactly missing in action, for crying out loud.

In case, you’ve not caught on, I’ve sought refuge in FarmVille, the bread basket of the blogosphere right in the heart of Facebook.

First, let me thank friends who play good cop – bad cop, making me realize the folly of being a fugitive from my own blog:

• George Angus featured this blog in his Blog of the Week, noting the high level of engagement WritingToExhale has with you dear readers in An Exhalted New Blog of the Week.

• Jena Isle perhaps noting the lack of new updates applied gentle pressure by waddling deep into my archives to come up with a list of posts that resonated with her.  She summed them up in this post, Serendipity and Writing to Exhale

• Gerson Garcia who on two occasions was on the receiving end of this writer’s withering critique tried humoring me  with his latest post, When Farming Uproots You From Your Blogging Chores.

• Holly Jahangiri heard someone wisecracked that I could be merely preoccupied smoking crack and suggested intervention.  Holly, however, has a different take on my disappearance in her Monday News & Views post.  Word of caution:  Don’t be too trusting of  someone who amuses herself by eating raw tripe on a dare.  Her latest feat?  She made  the Western Hemisphere go ewww  by  eating balut on a dare.

Thanks a lot, spoilsports.  Remember this:  No good deed should go unpunished.

My FarmVille Roots

My late father used to drive home this point:  Plant fruit trees.  Always plant fruit trees. When they bear fruit, you’d always have something to look forward to.

So many years after the fact, I’ve made good, Father.  I’ve a big plantation in FarmVille.  In your time, you couldn’t plant grapes, could you.  Well, I can. Every crop that can be had only in temperate zones I can now plant in my farm.

I just wish my own virtual farm is swathed in magic and superstition as my father’s acreage was.  He used to keep us in awe how naughty spirits had kept him from finding his way home.  He kept circling and circling practically nearby farms in the dark.  No, he’d protest, I know my land like the back of my hand. I’m not that drunk! And yet he’d spend hours before finally finding his way home.

And how I wish the social aspect of FarmVille opens itself up to more realistic activities and oddities of farm life. Happy Farm, another flash animation game in Facebook, allows its users to steal the crop of their neighbors.  My blogging buddy Gem was unfriended in Facebook by another user when she helped herself to this neighbor’s produce.  It’s my only game in Facebook, it’s all I ever care about and my produce were stolen, the user said in spirited exchange of Facebook status updates.

In his time, my father would drink with the farm hands after a long day’s work. If you’ve a landlord as guest in your farm house, you’d serve him first before your children and husband, giving him the choicest servings of adobo.  That’s farm protocol.  Well, my eldest brother noted, when it’s time for the other members of the family to eat, they’d ask my father to join dinner.  This is good form in Filipino homes.  No matter how sated your guests are you always have to ask them to join you at the table.

Without fail, according to my eldest brother, father would always be a good sport and come to the table, oblivious that he already had dinner.  Perhaps this was true because I didn’t hear father blaming bad spirits for his stunts. After all, he laughed the loudest when he was teased about it.

Bringing my inner demons to FarmVille

Don’t laugh now, but I find that repetitive clicking in FarmVille – plowing, seeding, fertilizing your neighbors’ farm, harvesting – relieves tedium.  It tames the inner turmoil and makes the demons of modern life manageable.  Well, at least till harvest time. If you stick to it, day in day out, you’d get to own a villa for your farm.  It’s every farmer’s wet dream in FarmVille.

I know writing does the same thing.  But without the certainty that a grand villa can be had. Scary prospect indeed.

Just the same, I will not have it bruited about I refuse to disengage from FarmVille because of a well developed affection for a certain cow.  Simply not true.  Yet.

Hey, if you happen to drop by my farm – er plantation, fertilize my farm, will you?

Recommended Reading:

• FarmVille Tips, Tricks and Cheats – A Beginner’s Guide
• FarmVille:  The Unofficial Strategy Guide
• ScamVille:  The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell

Anatomy of My FarmVille Addiction is a post from: WritingToExhale

Being included in someone’s Twitter list can make your day. What if you are  not?  Should you feel bad? While conceding the usefulness of this new Twitter feature, Chris Brogan decried that Twitter lists can become exclusionary the moment you slot people into categories.  Those who don’t make it would feel left out. Bad feelings all around.

Says  Chris Brogan, “Lists are exclusionary by nature. They’re static. There’s a lot of reasons why they might not be all that pleasant for people.”

Twitter lists are meant to be exclusionary

Well, Mr. Brogan, with all due respect that argument is hogwash.

That’s why they’re called list in the first place.  If you include nearly everybody, where’s the value in that?

If indeed one’s feeling hinges on the inclusion or non-inclusion to anybody’s  list then that person needs to be on a therapist’s couch and not on Twitter.  Twitter lists are meant for ordinary people like us to pass on our recommendations based on interests, passions, friendships, and other shared values no matter how banal or weird they maybe.  It’s not meant to stroke someone’s needy, fragile ego.

Like Mr. Brogan, I’m keeping some of my lists private, but not because I’m afraid to offend anyone who’d feel left out.  I’m keeping some of them private at the moment only because  only a few lonely souls are in there.  The moment I’ve got a good number I’d make them public.

Why?  Simply because I want to promote  people who give good value for my time be it on Twitter or in their blogs.  I approve of them and proud to have crossed their paths.  A handpicked, personal list of recommendation is not meant to be complete at one go.  Who’s got the time to do it in one sitting anyway?  Well, mine certainly is a work in progress.  I can add to it as I discover new people.  I can even delete them and start anew.

Twitter lists are democratic

Uh-oh, I hear what you’re saying.  Just how something exclusionary be democratic?  Well, try comparing that to what we had before:  Twitter’s suggested user list.   Now,  instead of having a  Twitter suggested user list  which only the high and mighty get at a crack at, you and I have the chance to give our recommendations  to our own community. The big guys can make up to 20 lists which they can fill with a maximum of 500 people.

So can you, guys.  Fair enough?

For those who feel slighted by non-inclusion to their buddies list, it’s useful taking stock of your strategies. Perhaps you’re one of those people Dave Doolin despairs of in his post, Twitter Redux – Making Sense of Social Media Madness.  Well, if you talk about teeth whitening stuff in Twitter too much then surely you are.  Or  perhaps you push nothing but your own posts and sales landing page?

The thing is before casting an evil eye on the list maker evaluate first what you’re doing.  Are you sure you’re doing social media right?  Here’s something to keep you on the right track.

• Cultivate an Active Network
• How to Become the Prince of Tweets
• Build Your Community, Stop Begging for One

Or perhaps you’re all right.  It’s all me, being forgetful and all that.  In which case, you know what to do. You’re allowed to dig your elbow into my ribcage.  I’d take that as a hint – just don’t hex me.

Over to you, guys.  Does it matter to you if you fail to make it to a buddy’s list?  Will making your list private take away the likelihood of offending those you who don’t make it to your list?  Let’s hear it.

Recommended Reading:

• Seesmic is Ahead of the Game with Twitter Lists Integration
• How to Create a Twitter List
• 10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists
• Twitter Lists, Google Alerts and the Changing Face of Social Media

Photo by inju

Read My Lips: Twitter Lists Are Meant to be Exclusionary is a post from: WritingToExhale

All these years, smoking has seen me through crises, rough spots, and countless aggravations.  I always say that in all earnestness.  In fact, I’d say anything to rationalize this addiction.  Enough blowing smoke in your faces.

Truth to tell, it’s downright silly  congratulating myself for grace under pressure when all I ever do is to medicate myself through smoking.  Of course, the mind is a formidable thing, able to withstand all sorts of pressures and challenges.

Thirty one- year-old dependency

Thirty one long years.  Only writing predates my smoking addiction.  I started writing in high school, smoking in second year at college.  Note to self:  you can write.  Period.  Banish your romantic notion of writers who tattoo the air with their pipes while deep in  writing throes.  It’s just another silly notion.

If my smoking and I were a relationship, I would say we’ve celebrated our Pearl Jubilee last year.  If I stay on, I’d be looking at emerald anniversary four years from now.  But that’s not going to happen.

A blogging friend’s challenge

I’m accepting Holly Jahangiri’s friendly challenge.  I’m quitting the nicotine habit.  Holly for her part tackles her weight problem by losing two pounds per week till she gets to her ideal weight.  It’s a big deal for us.

This started innocuously enough.  I bragged in private email to her of my recent good showing in Alexa Ranking.  Of course, women being women have always the last word.  She countered with a far more significant statistics, giving me the gains when she had successfully quit smoking.  Can’t argue with a life changer like that.

There’s simply no weaseling out of this gauntlet Holly has thrown at me.   Of course, I’m a bit dubious at my batting average in quitting.  To paraphrase Mark Twain, I’ve been successful at quitting, having done this a thousand times already. I’m lucky, however, in that I have blogging friends and loved ones who’d see me through the rough spots and can make me accountable to the pledges I’ve made.

Smoking has proved a mighty ally numbing me down when the going gets rough for 31 years.

Quitting while still ahead

But only because it has forgot to put me under the grave yet. It’s insane to tempt the fates further. I’d rather quit now.

I’d rather embrace life and celebrate each coming year in the company of friends and my family.  I intend to write and blog long and hard into my retirement.  Until I’m too infirm to write, and the only pleasure to be had is that I’ve mastered myself, seen some of my dreams fulfilled as well as those of dear to me, and noted a number of my tormentors went to the grave ahead of me.

Here’s taking up your friendly challenge, Holly.  If I back down and go back to my filthy habit again – and this permission goes to my other friends here as well – feel free to do as Douglas Adams warns – “If we see you smoking we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action.”

Are you up for some friendly challenges yourself, guys?  What stuff you’ve long dreamed of doing but for one reason or another kept it languishing at the back burner of your mind?

Recommended Reading:

• How I Quit Smoking
• Five Sure Ways to Stick to a Resolution
• How to Exercise Your Will Power

Photo by Davic

When Quitting is the Only Sane Option Left is a post from: WritingToExhale

Death of email, my foot

You’re the World’s Coolest Blogger If Only… is a post from: WritingToExhale

Far more life changing statistics

That cleared the fog in my head.  Now, that’s the kind of statistics that makes sense.  For one thing, since I still haven’t quit smoking I was dumbfounded when I read that.  Just between you and me, this was one of the reasons I started this blog:  a commitment to kick the nicotine habit.  Figured if I made it public, I’d have a fair chance at succeeding.

So much for my ill-conceived tactic.

Back to Holly’s forthright email.  Well, that’s  the kind of feedback I treasure from friends – honest opinions that cut to the chase.  No drama.  No fire and brimstone stuff.

Metric that Trumps Alexa Ranking and PageRank is a post from: WritingToExhale

Twitter rolled out today Twitter user list – a new killer feature that’s built around the concept of #followfriday. The real beauty in this new feature is that  you can create a list of your top picks of tweeters which other users can follow with just one click.  Or unfollow with just one click if you change your mind.

Twitter  says it’s open to a small group of users and asks us not to tweet about it yet.  Sure – no problem.  I’d just write a post about it then.

Twitter list as the new social proof

As of this writing, @mashable figures in 242 lists, @chrisbrogan in 85, and @problogger at 54.  The big names are lording it over as usual which,  of course,  doesn’t come as a surprise.  Expect some those numbers to go up dramatically as this becomes the new status symbol in Twitter.  I figure in three lists, but I can live with that.  Genuine engagement resulting from a manageable list of friends is nothing to scoff at.

Twitter list as discovery tool

It’s a great discovery tool for users to connect with like-minded people.  And it’s great because these lists come from you and me.  Trust factor is high when real persons go to the trouble of sifting through their list of users.

Bye bye #FollowFriday?

I’m not sure yet if this will mute the ruckus raised by #followfriday meme in the coming weeks. Rest assured, the spammers will be hard at work just like you and me to come up with their own laundry list. Sure thing though – I love the one-click functionality of following a prepared list of another tweeter.  No need to entrust your passwords to a third party app just so you can bulk up your Twitter follower count.

My brand of #FollowFriday will still push through because I find it’s more personal than an dodgy list with only a descriptive phrase to go by. A #FollowFriday post gives you more elbow room to highlight valuable posts of your Twitter friends.

How to create a Twitter list

In your Twitter home page, check out the right sidebar and click “New List.”  You’re then prompted to create a list with a name or category of your choice.  Create a Hot Mommas list, for example.   To add to your list, click on your follower page.  You’d find a List tab to the right of the user names.  Click it to show the drop down menu of lists you’ve made earlier.  You can then add a friend to categories of your choice, which can be anything you fancy:  poets, bloggers, web designs, internet marketers, etc.

Alternatively, you may choose to go to a user’s profile page to add him to your list.  It’s easier if you prepare  several categories beforehand so you don’t need to shuttle back and forth between your page and your friends’ profile page.

Still on beta

This new feature is still in beta but may available to every user soon.  The hassle of organizing lists will be  addressed  soon when Twitter release its Lists API to developers.  Says Twitter List pointman Nick Kallen, “This will allow developers to add support for Lists into your favorite Twitter apps.”

My Twitter list

• My Twitterati – my mastermind group consisting of friends who I collaborate with on projects related to blogging.

• Cream of the Crop – my catch- all group for  excellent writers, bloggers, and friends in Twitter.

• Top Pinoys – a group of Filipino friends who may not have a big following but who are outstanding networkers, supporters and brilliant friends.

My lists are  not final yet – I’ve just made them today.  I’d add friends to these lists on a daily basis and might even come up with other categories to suit my needs.  That’s my excuse if I happen to overlook your royal highness, by the way.  Tell me in a comment so I can add you to my list.

Recommended Reading:

• Essential:  8 Things to Consider Before Using Twitter Lists
• Twitter Lists:  Limitations, Bugs, Impact and Brilliance
• Twitter Lists Will Organize the Social Graph
• Twitter Lists Make Following Easier and Organized

New Twitter Social Proof: Are You on Everyone’s List Yet? is a post from: WritingToExhale

Keep a blog and you can call yourself a writer.  Conventional wisdom has it, however, that you need to be a published writer to call yourself an author. Not in a magazine, not in a newspaper, but in a book.

For most of the contributors to Jena Isle’s inspirational book, “Inspirational Thoughts and Stories of Bloggers from All Over the World,” that dream of becoming a published author has finally come true.

It maybe just another day at the office for accomplished authors Jim Murdoch and Holly Jahangiri, but for most of us who contributed to Jena Isle’s anthology it was our first.

27 compelling reasons and then some

You’ve 27 compelling reasons why you need to get a copy of this  book: Your Jedi blogger friends are in it: Doc Z, Roy, Novz, Elmot, Rey Jr, Angel and other writers from overseas.  Isn’t that a fantastic reason for you to get yourself a copy?  If you’re a bit stumped what to give your friends this Christmas, this makes for one thoughtful gift.  Do you have an upcoming blog contest?  A book giveaway is always a knockout gift.

Why am I pushing for this book? There’s no commission in it for me, guys.  And for Jena Isle who shouldered all the expenses, there’s none to be had by way of profits.  Jena Isle did this for the sheer love of putting in one anthology great writer friends she has  met over the years.  After all, Jena Isle has mothered fledgling bloggers:  giving great advice, offering support, believing in unsure bloggers even before they know they have it in themselves to make a difference.

Jena Isle’s book and the art of the possible

It’s a logical step really for Jena Isle as writer and “mother” and teacher extraordinaire.   She has this uncanny ability to nurture newbie bloggers to make them trust in their abilities.  Her unerring instinct for the art of the possible  has made us achieve early in our lifetime a dream we can only dismiss as whimsy. She had made authors out of bloggers.

This early, Jena Isle is dreaming of publishing a book of poetry for next year.  Will you let out that poet in you to be a part of Jena Isle’s dream?  Maybe it’s your turn to become an author.

Check this out to order your copy of the inspirational book.

Recommended Reading:

• Self-Publishing:  Should I, or Shouldn’t I?
• Author-Publisher Chat: On Women (and Zombies!) in Fiction
• 6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book
• Getting Published:  Is Your Story Idea Strong Enough?
• Sell Your Book, Then Go Ahead and Write It

27 Reasons Why Jena Isle’s Inspirational Book Rocks is a post from: WritingToExhale

A Guest Post By George Angus

I‘ve got some writer’s block going on. I still write nearly every day. How can this be, you say? Well, it’s because my wall is made of 500 words.

You see, I’ve been blogging for over a year now and most every post is – you guessed it – 500 words. I’ve done a lot of work for clients and writing on other blogs and the criteria for most of the posts is…

500 words

Being the anal-retentive, short attention span type of fella, I adhere to this unspoken rule of blog post length. I may be a few words short of 500 sometimes (and a few fries short of a happy meal) but I rarely exceed the speed limit.

This has had an impact on my writing. Now, if I try to expand a topic to more than 500 words, I stare blankly at the computer screen, eyes glazed over, a thin line of droll trickling from the corner of my half open mouth as I cogitate how to go over the speed limit without saying what I’ve already said.

It really is a remarkable case of writer’s block. An unintended consequence of blogging if you will. In the back of my head I wonder how this would affect any future novel I may write. Would it have 500 word chapters? Would each scene in the novel be a mere 500 words?

I’m ghost writing a non-fiction book for a chap and honestly, it is becoming more and more difficult to exceed the speed limit with each sub-section of the book.

Who decided the speed limit, anyway?

I suspect no one did. Not even Darren or @ProBlogger. Not even our good friend Jan. I think it was decided by mob mentality. That’s  right. Blame the readers. After all, we are told they have the attention span of a gnat. “Don’t go over 500 words! You’ll bore people! They’ll leave, never to return”. Okay, even with the snarkiness of that last sentence, I have to admit there is some kernel of truth there. For myself, if I see that a post is like 1000 or 1500 words, I say “Thanks, but no thanks” and I move along. Unless it is something I am outrageously interested in. In that case I’ll hang for quite a while.

Maybe that’s the key to breaking the speed limit. Maybe we need to write stellar content regardless of length. Make it interesting to as many people as possible and let the short-attention-spanners stumble along to their next page.

I’m not certain if that is the answer to this dilemma. I’ll leave that to someone with much more talent and wisdom than I. Ahem. That would be YOU, dear readers.

On a final note, I am wondering how many of you did a cut and paste of this post into your word processor to see the word count. I know you are out there. I can hear you breathin’.

Thanks for having me Jan.

About the Author:  George Angus is an Author, a Teacher and an all around good guy.  He owns Tumblemoose Writing Services, lives in Alaska and has a beautiful six-year-old daughter whom he orbits around.

Recommended Reading:

• Nine and a Half Ways of Sending Your Writing Into the Stratosphere
  
• Copy Length, the Golden Rule
• Behind the Bars of 500 Words
• Do Long Blog Posts Scare Away Readers?
• How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (A Lesson on Writing)
  

Speed Limit: 500 Words is a post from: WritingToExhale

In this post, I’m raising a toast to a bunch of excellent posts of my Twitter buddies.  Yeah, it’s #followfriday love fest  – a perfect excuse to say my thanks to friends who have helped me keep at bay this overstaying blogging funk.

My #followfriday shout-out has evolved yet again.  It’s too constricting to confine this Twitter meme to just brilliant conversations or tweets.  Those stuff might have broadened my mind and made me burst out laughing, but you might find it odd and silly.  There is, however,  universal admiration for brilliant and useful writing.  Makes more sense, eh?

So I raided the comment section to check who made my posts  brilliant with their insightful contribution.  I also rummaged in my Google Reader in search of posts worth sharing all the while praying, “Please, you got to have a Twitter ID. Please, please…”  As you can see,  two buddies have no presence in Twitter.

No way will this stump me though.

See?  I redefined yet again my #followfriday list.  But who says I can’t?  If a content thief can suddenly spring from nowhere and snatch away my previous #followfriday post, I should have my way with this  to suit my taste.

A touch of humor and dollops of class

Is it just me or morose guys just love humor in writing more so than others?  Well, that’s me being attracted to quirkiness, a touch of humor and dollops of splendid writing.  Note:  Followers of @tumblemoose, please take note that he prefers using @GeorgeAngus.

• @HistoryofAll -  On This Day:  The Curse of the Billy Goat
• @TracyOConnor – 11 Reasons I Sometimes But Not Always Dislike Doing List Posts
• @stagedesigner – 10 Ways to Guarantee Grumpiness
• @georgeangus – Why Do You Write

Creative writing goodness

Despite evidence to the contrary, I love checking out creative fiction and poetry.  Nothing compares to creative writing gems to make you yearn  to be a writer, too.  You’ve blogging down pat already, but to be writer?  Caramba.

• Kathleen Maher – Boys To Men
• @zorlone – Brick Wall
• @bloggerdad – Available Darkness: Chapter 23
• @houseofpuroy – She Wants to be Free

Inspirational

Sometimes, I just don’t want to learn another how-to.  Too much of it can sometimes hurt the brain – that’s me speaking from experience, of course.  The quest for uberness can wait.  Just want my cup of coffee and let the voices of writers wash over me.

• @JedChan – This is the Truth
• @dezertsnow – My Philosophy in a Couple of Trilogies
• Fr. Felmar – Silip sa Buhay-Pari (Part 2)
• @JenaIsle – Yankees Go Home

Blogging resources

Read me at your own risk.  I’m as buggy as a poorly written code.  And I have this suspicion it will take a while before I get out of my Beta version.  Not to worry, I’m working on it with the help of these people.  Hey, I have a Gotcha moment last week.  I discovered Dave Doolin who breaks down SEO processes and tweaks as well as easy on the brain practical WordPress tips in his WebsiteInaWeekend blog.

• @websiteweekend – Fast Process for Fixing Image SEO in WordPress
• @jaypee – Feedly: Magazine Style Homepage
• @ditesco – How to Become a Better Blogspot User
• @bradshorr – SEO Opens the Door, But You Need More to Close the Deal

Hot Issues

A splogger scraped the post of my good friend Elmot and he wrote a breathless account of his experience.  It may be old news to you, but it’s our first brush with content thievery so pardon our excitement.  Barbara and Holly examined the implications of the new FTC guidelines and how it may impact on bloggers.  Rey Jr who’s got a first hand look at the lousy state of disaster preparedness in the country has come up with a list of helpful suggestions and asked his readers to do the same.

• @elmot – A Scraper Has Stolen My Balls…Post!
• @BSwafford – Caution:  Read at Your Own Risk
• @HollyJahangiri – FTC Updates Guides on Endorsements, Testimonials to Include “New Media”
• @ryjr - Post Mortem Review for Ondoy Flood Rescue and Relief Operations

Have I left you out?  Do you want to recommend a post?  Send me a tweet so I can consider it for the next edition.

Photo by PCharlon

My Top #FollowFriday People and Their Best Posts is a post from: WritingToExhale