Please redirect your attention to...

Hi folks, it has indeed been a while since I posted on this blog. I have been blogging, just not on this site. Although this blog and Writings of a Writer blog will be combined into the new Prestopedia Blog very soon, for now head on over to http://prestowrites.wordpress.com and enjoy!

A Late-Night Comeback

While in the process of writing a post on how working with social media in affects your own personal involvement with social media, I decided to take a break as I had been on the computer all day for work. And as irony would have it, there the draft sat, cold and alone for almost a month now while my jobs left me feeling a little blogged-out by the end of the day. But alas, a comeback post, of sorts!

Although this post (and lack of other posts) is a pretty good answer to 'how does working with social media affect your own person use of it?' I have stayed relatively active on Twitter, and very active on Facebook (which correlates nicely with my little use of FB for work). For those who don't know, my work was a summer internship for a PR agency with mostly health care clients, and managing social media campaigns for two restaurants. The PR agency had me doing a LOT of blog monitoring, which could be a possible excu- I mean, reason why I haven't been so avid in my postings. (thought I did post here last week) Also writing for the restaurant blogs, though not super frequent or lengthy, probably also deterred my own writing a little.

All excuses and reasons aside, this blog will be a little more active from now on, even if that means the occasional skimpy post (like this one). I'll also be moving this on over to WordPress. I've got plenty of ideas for posts, a lot of them relating to our digital lives and how they intermingle and overlap with our offline lives. I feel like this blog thus far has been mostly on social media and not so much our digital lives, so this will provide some refreshing content! I've also read a lot of great content from some awesome bloggers (mostly that I've connected to through Twitter), so they've been an inspiration for me to blog more, and blog better.

I'm looking forward to posting more frequently, and getting some good conversations going.

Social Communications & Healthcare: Case Studies and Roundtable

Today was a good day in New York City (despite the subways being an oven) at the Social Communications & Healthcare: Case Studies and Roundtable. You can listen to recorded audio from the event thanks to Blog Talk Radio. I'll be posting some thoughts inspired by the speakers soon, so keep you're eyes peeled.

Also, if you want lots of bite-sized snacks on this event from literally every angle, check out the #bdi hashtag. They were even projected on a side screen during the event in real time. Very swanky.

Are Vanity URLs Showing Facebook's Vanity?

Well, for most of us, the questionable changes to Facebook over the last few months (namely interface and layout changes) have been... well questionable. Now Facebook unveils it's all new idea (which is probably in NO way inspired by Twitter because Facebook would never be influenced by Twitter *sarcasm*) vanity URLs. Now I have a lot to say about this, BUT I've already said it on The (Not So Simple) Life blog. Consider this post linking to that post as a post, and you'll be just as happy.
So without further rant, The (Not So Simple) Life: The collective voices of many come together to present the next innovation in blogging. I'll post more info and opinion on this project in the future as it develops.

Do What You Love and Love Where You Live

I apologize for the lack of updates but I swear I've got a good excus- ahem, a good reason why I haven't been updating. Graduation. May Madness started with a frantic scurry to get all assignments in, study for tests, then graduation came, moving back home, telling everyone goodbye, graduation parties with family and friends. After a short "ah it's summer" reprieve, it was back to the full time job search (which was put on the back burner due to finishing up schoolwork. While the story of my current living situation is the seed of the post, it is not the fruit. The real purpose of this post is to tell of my two friends, and what they're up to these days.

Jen is a friend of mine and she's an artist (does lovely paintings). She went to art school and like me is a recent graduate. Now an artist's job search or employment experience I'd assume would be somewhat different than a writer's, and much different than a writer like me who wants to write for a company and do social media marketing and such. But Jen took a head first approach into life after college and moved to a little corner of Philadelphia called Fishtown. Living by herself, working as a tour guide in the Eastern State Penitentiary, and experimenting and pushing her art along the way. You can read about such adventures on her blog- Jen Brown: a life. It's tough, but she's living on her own terms in her own way and to that she deserves much credit. I don't know if her artistic painting skills helped her paint her new apartment, but she seems pretty charismatic about it.


I thought about her bold living and working decision, and it got me thinking about my own job search situation and living. But before I digress in reflection, let me tell you what Vincent did.

Vince is a friend of mine from high school two years younger than me. I hadn't talked to him in a while and saw him online and the conversation basically went like this:
Me-Hey Vincent what's up? Long time no see!
Vincent- Aloha.
Me- lol What are you visiting Hawaii or somthing?
Vincent- well i was sick of living in my parents homes so i wanted to go live someplace chill where i can do communal organic farming.
Me- So what, you just took off for Hawaii??
Vincent-Basically.
Vincent never went to college (to my knowlege) and was just working jobs from home and decided to pick up and go to Hawaii. Not knowing anybody there and only after doing some organic farming research. He now lives in a small cabin 1,200 up the side of a mountain on the big island. To me, an inspirational story of how in control you are of your own life, just in case you forget.

And I think a lot of times, we do forget. Change seems out of reach, or at the very least, as Matt Chevy describes, "inconvinient." I've been working, job searching, eating the same lunch, doing the same things, rinse and repeating. But my friends' stories of how we always must keep in mind that we're in control of our lives and what terms we live on. And while I'm not quite ready to move someplace without setting up a job first, (I'm planning on following the work and moving to whatever area I get a job in) I feel much more positive about relocating once my full time job is lined up. I'm starting to set goals and limits for work and job search, making time for writing, becoming socialon my social networks again, and exploring some new things like lomography. A sushi lunch, some new goals and hobbies, and I feel fresher already; making my life more mine one change at a time.

What changes have you made lately?

P.S.
Here is a view from Vincent's cabin at sunset, for us non-islanders!

Writing versus blogging: Is there even a line to be blurred?

I apologize for not posting in a while, but my thesis on Wallce Irwin's The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum has been eating up all my time. Now as I finish up the finishing touches and the bibliography, the gears in my head are turning and getting my back in blog writing mode. And this transition itself is the inspiration for this post; there are more blog writers than every but how many of them would actually consider themselves writers?

Of course writing a 30 page literature thesis for a capstone class in college is much different than writing an in depth blog post. A thesis (or any kind of scholarly writing) is researched, analytical, and trying to make a point about what you are writing about. Writing a (good) blog post is typically well researched, approaches the topic in an analytical... wait a second. How different are they really?

Okay, all kidding aside, how similar are the two? With hundreds of millions of blogs, many of which being credible sources for news and information, blogs have reached a state of acceptance and legitimacy. Writing for college classes or academic publication requires a more objective, personally distanced type of writing, while blogs can be more opinion based. Despite the difference in indented audience, length, and form, the two types of writing do both require a substantial amount of intelligent thinking, knowledge or research, development of thoughts and points, etc.

But how many bloggers would consider themselves writers in the same way that someone like myself who is a Literature/Creative Writing major would? I write to make points in my essays, and I write for my own pleasure. Bloggers who have no formal education or background in writing have the same habits, but why not cross the line from blogger to writer? Would bloggers still write if there was no blogosphere?

It's a matter of how you consider your writing habits, and how passionate you are about your writing, and of course, if you started writing before you started blogging.

What about you? Do you consider yourself a writer or a blogger or somewhere in between?

Atlantic City Press Release: Social Networking, Job Networking, and Yours Truly

I received an email last week from a friend at Career Services of my school saying that the Press of Atlantic City wanted to interview me about using social networking as a graduating student entering the job market. I gladly accepted and gave reporter Courtney McCann a call. We chatted about the do's and dont's of using social media to appeal to employers, its networking benefits, and how I as a creative writer and social media enthusiast fit into the marketing and business plans of companies.

But I don't want to spoil the article, so just check it out right here-

AC Press: Social networking is job networking, experts say

I just want to correct a small error in the article when it mentions me heading the social media marketing campaign for a "pet store" in Missouri. This is referring to my work at FURminator Inc, a company that is a little bigger than a pet store ;)

At any rate, what do you think of the article, and the idea that social networking is job networking? I use social networking/media sites to build my online presence and portfolio, aside from the fact that it's related to what I want to do. Do you think graduating job seekers can afford to not acknowledge their online presence? (aka employers looking at their Facebook and other profiles)