John Nugent’s Blog

At the risk of seeming ignorant and like I don’t know what I’m talking about, I need to complain about a trend I’m noticing lately around the internet that Americans might not even me aware of. More and more I’m noticing sites regionalizing their sites so that there is the one (usually cool one) the US sees and then the one that we, being people elsewhere in the world get to see.
I noticed this with tv.com. Whereas I was once able to view the US and, I assumed, only version of the site, I am now only able view the Australian version. There’s mo option to change back, only the one with australian specific content. This site, as opposed to the other, is frequently broken, the information is way more difficult to get at.
YouTube now forces me to go to nz.YouTube.com so my start page defaults to New Zealand content. Again, no choice. I can choose a worldwide setting as opposed to New Zealand but it still localizes the content.
Then there is the issue of multimedia resources being so treated. I’ve been unable to view any of the promotional content on many sites in the US. While I understand the market driven reasons for this I still find the practice to be stratifying in a very negative way.
I believe there is a real chance for this practice to simply continue the global system of haves and have nots rather than the Internet being the globalising, unifying force it can and should be.
All this also fails to recognize the danger of the controling of information. Right now it is being used in a purely economic and market based way, but what prevents this practices from being used to further isolate people, and prevent the spread of information. I thought sharing information was what the internet was all about.
Make this an issue you care about. Talk to your friends about it. Make people aware.

“informal speach”

yes, apparently if you search on “informal speach” you will somehow be linked to my blog.  Very strange.  Perhaps it’s because I write sort of, ya know, conversationally.  Of course it is most likely the fact that somewhere in my blog I used the word, informal, and then some other time used the word, speach.  Wow, I’ll be very embarrassed if I used the word phrase, informal speach, at some point in the last month or so and don’t remember it.  I’ll be even more embarrassed if I wrote an entry about informal speach.  Ack!  Now I feel like going back and checking.  Ah well.

Magic Whispers is ticking along but has ended up being a much more difficult and lenghty story than I’d intended.  Damn.

See, the individual stories will make up a coherent whole, ultimately painting a much larger picture, even though I intend each to be enjoyed more or less seperately.  Those of you that have known me long enough to have heard about or maybe even read what I had completed of The White Dragon, will be happy to know that you didn’t waste the eye effort.  The White Dragon is very much alive and is going to be the basis for either the story directly following Magic Whispers or the one after.  I haven’t decided yet.

Things are clipping along nicely though, wrote another 2,000 words yesterday.  That’s a really nice number.  If I can get that done in a day I’m very happy.

ok…I’m really not sure what to think of this show.  The pilot back in February was pretty darn good.  It was certainly no Stargate, Lost, Firefly, or Fringe…but it was certainly not wretched.

The season opener on the hand was…OK…but only ok.  There was some significantly cheesy aspects of this show that could almost make me not want to watch it.  Some of the banter certainly needs to go away.  I mean, that stuff was just silly and pushed humor too far in my opinion.

I also felt that several of the characters suffered some distinct character changes between the pilot and the first episode that really have the opportunity to make or break the character.

I certainly will watch a few more episodes…but my fingers are crossed tightly.

…I officially approve. While it’s true that the group has a different sound in some ways I think that they have a significantly more Queen feel, than if they had brought someone in who could simply be Freddie. Paul Rodgers has a clear distinct voice and melds well with Queen.
It’s one thing to judge how the group performs the Queen standards…buy quite another to judge how the group seems to work in collaboration on new material. Their new album The Cosmos Rocks…well…rocks. The group is fresh, vibrant, and meaningful. It’s an awesome album that wouldn’t be possible with someone who was simply a Freddie stand in like Robbie Williams might have been. It’s one thing to be able to capture a sound, but quite another to duplicate a sense of group. In this way Queen + Paul Rodgers is every bit the Queen I’ve always loved! Sounds change but what is essential is the spirit remaining the same and I really feel that this is the case. Once I realized that I suddenly realized that…wow!…they DO still sound like Queen! Yay!

The Cosmos Rocks and so does Queen + Paul Rodgers.

Bird’s Fire is now available right here…right now!

The first of The Kitrian Tales, Bird’s Fire sets in motion events that will span what I plan as a long series of tales surrounding an epic magical conflict.  The Kitrian Tales will be available here FREE as eReader files for download.  You’ll be able to read them on any device you might have including your PC.  The software needed to read these is available for free as well…here.

The stories are available for sale on iTunes for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I’m putting them out here because I want everyone to be able to enjoy them…not just the iPhone crowd.  If you enjoy The Kitrian Tales and download from this site, I only ask that you make a donation of any size to help me continue writing these stories…and others, assuming the response is good!  I have many many plans.  :)

Also, let me know what you think.  While I write for myself because I enjoy it, my work isn’t worth much if I don’t have a happy audience enjoying it.  Talk to me!

So now…enjoy Bird’s Fire!

…is what I feel like.  I’ve been working like mad on both Magic Whispers and trying to sort out another means of distribution + advertising for my book on the iTunes store.  Right now I’m leaning toward a simple Pay Pal donation based system.  I want to make money and all…but I really want people to be able to read it.  Balancing act, much?

Queen + Paul Rodgers…I’m on the fence.  I want to like it.  I think I do like it…but it’s SO different.  Anyone have any opinions?

In the next day or so I hope to have Bird’s Fire in another medium.  That should translate into Friday.  :)

Sorry for the days of absence.

I’d really like to know who Facebook was designed for.  I recently reactivated my account, admittedly less in an attempt to find people I once knew and more in an attempt to publicize Bird’s Fire and my iTunes stuff.  Thing is…I joined a couple iPhone groups and can not for the life of me get back to them without searching for them?  I’ve got nothing against Facebook.  I actually find it really interesting and quit fun to peruse…but why can’t it be simpler to use?

MySpace isn’t any easier, I might mention.  I’m literally loathing and procrastinating doing anything with MySpace.  Maybe there things aren’t hard to use and they simply weren’t designed with me in mind.  I suppose that’s a possibility.

I have a premonition that at some point people will speak in key words and txt speach. The English language will die and everything will look like this…

hi evry1! jst wntd to say tht i thnk txting is teh wve o teh ftur. this way no1 hs to typ out to mch.

then this remarkable piece of English will be followed by a summary line like this…

grtings, txting, fones, annocmnts,

I’m all for short hand and informal speach…hell…even informal writing is fine with me as long as its actually writing! I’m not by any means an expert on grammar, punctuation, or even spelling. But I do like to try and write whole words as correctly as possible. I’m sort of picky that way.

Complaint behind me…the theme for this next week for me is organization. I started this last week but really need to work in earnest on this. I’ve got a number of projects in motion that need to be streamlined, completed, and/or straightened out so I can stop feeling like my head is full of spaghetti.

Work continues on Magic Whispers. Need to get it done by Friday. I’m basically a week behind now.

Photos below are from NZ’s Te Papa. It’s a major cultural museum spanning art, science, culture, history…you name it. It’s pretty cool. My only wish was that it was a little more friendly as a place to go hang out. I wish it was somewhere I could feel free to go and write. Oh well. It’s a cool place though.

Yeah, as I twittered, my blog is not dead.

I saw a movie that surprised me very much today. Meet Dave. I really wasn’t expecting much and got a lot. There was good humor, a decent story to be sure and a lot of non-cheesy heart. Definitely worth seeing and Eddie Murphy is really quote funny in this one!

Oh and for Buffy people…Riley makes an appearance in it.

Magic Whispers is slow going for some reason. I’ve been working on a few other things that will ultimately make things easier. Lots of organisation to do. I’m creating a system for organizing characters, places, plot, etc. Harder than it sounds actually.

Well that’s it for tonight.

I have, as of Monday, sold 26 copies of Bird’s Fire. That’s over three days. Not too shabby. I was planning on being happy if I sold any!

Tomorrow I’ll be back at work on Magic Whispers and setting myself up…once again…on FaceBook and MySpace…and maybe LinkedIn. I don’t know about that last one. Somehow linked in seems unfun. Very grown-up-ish. In any case I’ll post links when they’re ip and running.

Still looking into alternative e-book distribution options. This is WAY more complicated than iTunes. Almost thinking about going with cafe press, but I don’t know. That seems an extremely expensive route for the buyer.

Well that’s about it for today.

Check out Life and Fringe on TV both are excellent.