We go to our favorite video sharing site to watch a funny video or maybe a video that will help us learn how to do something new we want to learn.

We load all of our vacation pictures up onto picture sharing websites, probably [...]]]> We visit our favorite sites every day without thinking about it.

We go to our favorite video sharing site to watch a funny video or maybe a video that will help us learn how to do something new we want to learn.

We load all of our vacation pictures up onto picture sharing websites, probably have some special moment caught on video at the video sharing site.

We rely on the information that we can find online at community shared information sites, online encyclopedias of collective knowledge that help us write terms papers, articles, or learn more about people and companies we do business with.

We laugh at the things our friends say on social sites and smile at glimpses we get into the lives of people we see in movies and on television.

What if it all started to go away?

What if you woke up tomorrow and found that the site you store your children’s pictures on was no longer reachable?

What if you tried to watch your sister’s vacation videos only to be told it was banned from viewing in your part of the world?

What if you lost half of the Internet in the blink of an eye?

How much freedom would you be willing to lose?

How much freedom have you already lost?

Online piracy is a serious issue, but so is online freedom.

SOPA seeks to stop online piracy, but what is Congress asking us to give up if SOPA passes?

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Almost 50 years ago the United States Army Combat Developments Command Combined Arms Group gave my father, Billy L. Fikes, a citation for meritorious service as Senior Programming Specialist in the United States Army Combat Developments Command Communications-Electronics Agency at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Between August 28, 1963 and Auguest 5, 1965, my father was recognized to have distinguished himself by exceptional performance of duty and leadership, and use of his broad technical knowledge and extraordinary grasp of the technical details of computer operations to guide the conversion of the Combat Communications Simulation Model from magnetic tapes to one that utilized the disk file for mass storage.

Techniques that the Army stated would have significant and far-reaching effects on the economic feasibility of utilizing and Simulation Model for evaluating future communications-electronics concepts and doctrine developed by the Communications-Electronics Agency.

At the time my father worked on the programs he had no idea that one day his efforts would be part of the start of a communications network that would span the world with all the knowledge of human history and all our dreams for the future. He did, however, live to see what that tangled mess of code would become. And I know that he was awed and amazed by the world wide web and all that it gave to the world. He would be heartbroken to think that the same government that had fifty years ago given him a commendation for his part in bringing the world together might have laws in Congress that would want to black out entire sections of the web from Americans.

My father did not serve his country for over 21 years, and through three major wars, to have the freedoms of his children and grandchildren to utilize the web to its fullest stripped away.

Keep the web free, keep information free.

Stop piracy, but not at the cost of our freedom.

The original finished image had just three [...]]]> I made a picture for a Tips and Tricks page that I made here for how to effectively blend Blender, Daz Studio and Gimp to make great 3D images, then I tweaked it a bit more and I really like how it turned out after the additional tweaking.

The original finished image had just three icons for the the main programs in it, with the background swirl of light. I added in the multitude of little bits after I remembered that I could use the cut out images as a pen brush in GIMP. All these years of using it, and I still sometimes forget tricks I know about it, or learn new things that I can do with it.

I am talking, of course, about Facebook.

The observations are [...]]]> There is a black hole on the Internet. A vortex that draws people in. One from which escape is all but impossible. A place where time fades from our perception, and those who do escape may find that hours have passed without their having noticed.

I am talking, of course, about Facebook.

The observations are both my own and ones others have expressed to me.

I think I made my Facebook account back around early 2007, I know I had it when I went to Blog World Expo in Las Vegas in 2007.  Then I forgot about it for a very long time, until one of my sisters told me that I needed to make an account on Facebook because it was such a great new site that everyone was using. I dusted off the old account and started talking to friends and family on the site.

After a few months I left the site again. There really was no reason for me to be on it. Everyone I talked to knew how to find me if they really wanted to talk to me.

I was drawn back in by a friend who played the games at Facebook. I immediately fell into the games myself and had to claw my way back up to the surface. It can be hard to escape the games once you start playing them. And yet, I eventually realized just how much time I was wasting on the games that I would have much preferred to spend doing other things. How much time I was spending on Facebook. I used to read novels.

I will not be abandoning Facebook entirely, not at the moment, but I am going to stop posting so much to the site. I have a lot of blogs and websites of my own, and I can see no reason why I should post things to Facebook when I could be updating a blog or website with that information instead.

I understand that it is easier for my friends to see everyone’s updates in one place on Facebook. I am sure, however, that anyone that really wants to read the things I have to post, won’t mind a few minutes to check my website here. I am on AIM most days, and the people in my family all know my phone number, so it is not like I am going to be out of reach of anyone that really needs to find me if I stop going to Facebook. And, I will be stopping by Facebook at least once a day. Atake about five minutes to look around and comment on stuff, but it will be limited to a specific amount of time spent on the site and none of it allowed during work hours.

Instead of posting to Facebook I will post here… which will then have a update note sent to Twitter which will… update Facebook. Okay, so I won’t escape the vortex, but maybe I will lessen the time I lose there.

Bloggers are, by their nature, independent.  They have, in fact, been the target of recent FCC regulation changes to help preserve their trust [...]]]> Today, 33 years after the fourth edition of The Professional Journalist was published, the statement on newspapers quoted in part 1 of this series could very easily be applied instead to bloggers.

Bloggers are, by their nature, independent.  They have, in fact, been the target of recent FCC regulation changes to help preserve their trust as independent sources that are not being covertly swayed by big business and others who would have them write with preset agendas. Bloggers are, for the most part, the public expressing their opinion. Bloggers have found a place in the media and it is unlikely to do anything but grow.

The trend for up to the minute reports has gone toward social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but the blogger is still a very strong force in reporting news. Blogs have greater room for exploring issues and reporting all of the facts of a situation. Blogs are also capable of tying together posts about particular subjects so that a person that is interested in a specific event can find all of the posts a blogger has made on that subject.

This has lead advertisers to realize that if they want to stay on the cutting edge of media and place their names where people go or news, they need to work with the bloggers. This has lead to bloggers having the ability to make at least part time and in some cases even a full time income through their work as bloggers. And that makes blogging a legitimate job… those of us who can make ends meet and pay the bills through the skill of our writing, not for a newspaper, but through our own small press independent media outlets on the Internet.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also considers blogging to be a legitimate job. In their Occupational Outlook Handbook for 2010-2011 they have the following entry:

Bloggers, see: Authors, writers, and editors

In the entry on Authors, Writers, and Editors they define a blogger that is a writer as being “…those who are paid to write their blogs or send text messages…”

So, we hit a balancing point where bloggers need to maintain their freedom to write about what they believe in, to maintain the trust of their readers, and the need to earn an income from their work as bloggers. It is a delicate balancing point that, as I said earlier, has even lead to revisions of the FCC guidelines on advertising when it is associated with the Internet. Websites, including mine, that have advertising now include specific policies that explain their use of information and their compensation for advertisements on the website.

In the next part, I will be looking at blogging and advertisements.

to be continued…

So, what did I do? In writing first person narrative I was so fussy in making sure I stayed in first person [...]]]> Okay, I just made a newbie mistake in writing something, and all I can say is it is because it is almost five in the morning and I have been up all night.

So, what did I do? In writing first person narrative I was so fussy in making sure I stayed in first person (which I HATE to write) that I missed a small action that was GLARING as soon as I hit send and could no longer fix it.

The problem… well… I was adding to a write along story over at Writing.com and added a sequence where a character is reacting to another one and I typed…

(drumroll please)

……………………
“I know it sounds dumb, Jake,” Max’s eyes roll toward the ceiling, “but you’re two inches tall. How do you explain it?”
…………………….

Yes, that character’s eyes just popped out of his head and rolled through the air toward the ceiling. Or at least that is how it reads. ::pounding head on desk:: Why, oh why, do I only see things like that when I can no longer fix the error of my tiredness?

I think I best go sleep now. You can read the whole scene I wrote, or better yet, read and add to the entire interactive story at Writing.com yourself.

Once you have joined the site, go to your member account page and select Add New Story.

Enter the title for your story.

If you have collaborated with someone else, and you are both members of Phantascene, then you can credit them as a co-author of the story.