CREATIVE BLOGGING: Better content, more fun

BLOGGING is a creative process by nature, but many bloggers tend to stick to formulas. Content that isn’t fresh and doesn’t look and feel inspired, tends to drag the audience on. This is not good for your blog as this method of blogging is the most definitive way of preventing your blog from growing and evolving. Like SEO, content creativity is critical to content quality and accessibility.

The blogging market is partly responsible for the tendency to treat a blog like a day job - going through routine processes. Creative blogging, which was the original basis of blogging, has become somewhat “industrial”, and the result has been a large number of blogs doing the same things simply because they’re the norm. The creative impetus is reduced, and that hasn’t done much for the blogs either - inflicting lower standards.

This very bad habit has done nothing for bloggers generally, and has taken a lot of the fun out of blogging. In marketing and advertising, “product identity” is critical, and the very samey content and presentation of blogs is arguably marketing suicide.

Creative blogging is really the only antidote to this situation. Good content is the core business model of successful blogging, and creativity is its main driver. It is also the major asset of blogs - the ability to develop new materials and new approaches. This is an extremely flexible medium and allows a lot of experimentation - synergistic with the creative process.

Blogs really are the most effective method of expression for a range of content that couldn’t possibly be done by mainstream media. The creative options are almost limitless and form a major part of the value of blogs as a media genre.

Creative options in blogging

The creative options are quite literally limitless. Subject, content and presentation can be developed and evolved into a unique product. These are also extremely valuable to blogs as both intellectual and commercial property. Some creative blog materials have become true classics and have formed part of the global culture.

Creative product can also fund the development of blogs and blog operators. This is one element of the creative process that can produce excellent results across a range of operations, and also pay for new media assets.

The creative options include:

• Media content: Unique content is particularly valuable - even salable.
• Opinions: The original basis of blogging. Opinions (particularly expert opinions) are major products and sources for media information.
• Graphics: Graphic content on blogs are the most likely to go viral. This material translates into everything from T shirts to merchandising.
• Journalistic content: Blogs are making major inroads into mainstream news media, and this content is becoming useful commercial property.

There is plenty of scope for creativity in blogging. This is “best practice” for blogging and is also the commercial basis of blogging. Your creativity is your greatest asset as a blogger. Develop your ideas and your blog will evolve with them.

Related Posts:

• Don’t knock it ’till you try it
• A beginner’s guide to blogging

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MEMORY TECHNIQUE: A step by step guide for creating a memory palace

IF there is one person whom I could meet in this world, it would be Derren Brown. The BBC recently broadcast a one-hour special to celebrate 10 years of the psychological illusionist’s work. I personally endeavour to watch everything ever made by Derren Brown and I’m currently­ immersed in his latest book Confessions of a Conjuror. Great read.

Although Derren Brown is something of a trickster — making use of suggestion and misdirection to manipulate people and accurately predict their behaviour — his skills are something to behold. His newer TV shows also seem to be about helping people in areas such as self-improvement and increasing self-confidence.

Thousands of ‘ordinary’ people apply to be on his shows where he teaches participants some of his psychological techniques. In a recent Trick or Treat episode, an applicant in his mid-40s claims to have a very bad memory (as many people of that age might advocate).

After teaching said participant to speed-read and passing on various memory techniques, Derren Brown enters the man in England’s top pub quiz. After just two weeks of preparation, the participant single-handedly earns second place.

One fantastically simple memory technique that is mentioned here is that of the memory palace. This creative approach is not only simple, but it is highly effective in committing long lists of information to memory that can then be recalled at will. It has been used since ancient Rome and goes something like this.

A Virtual Memory Palace

The memory palace technique is based on the fact that we’re extremely good at remembering places we know (image: web.science.mq.edu.au)

Step 1: Creating a Memory Palace

The whole memory palace technique is based on the fact that we’re extremely good at remembering places we know. So, the first step is to create a memory palace of your choosing in your mind’s eye. A memory palace is essentially a physical location that you are very familiar­ with — such as your home or route to work. So long as you can clearly visualise each room or landmark within your memory palace, it will serve you well.

Step 2: Define a route

The second step is to trace a clearly defined route through your memory palace and visualise particular objects along the way. If you are considering your home for example, your route may start with your front door. You may enter into a hallway and notice a mirror hanging on the wall. Start with one object per room and follow an easy path (such as from left to right) until you are back at your starting point.

Practice following this route in your memory palace — making an effort to remember each specific object in order. This shouldn’t be hard to do if you choose a place deeply embedded within your mind; perhaps the house you grew up in. Each object is generally known as a “memory peg”.

Step 3: Peg it to memory

Now think of something that you’d like to remember, such as a shopping list or your agenda for the week ahead. Place items in a particular order and integrate each with a memory peg (object) within your memory palace. It helps to conceptualise objects as being bizarre or perhaps cartoon-like at this stage. Memory does, after all, perform best when operating in a strong, visual way.

For example: your week could start by going to the post office. If you have chosen your home as a memory palace, visualise a letter box spewing out envelopes. Perhaps your child is playing a school cricket match on Tuesday. Visualise a school cricket match happening inside the mirror in the hallway. Animate­ things as best you can and they’ll be sure to stick in your head. You could even add smells and sounds to things to remember.

Step 4: Remember to practice!

The memory palace has proven to be a powerful memory technique that anyone­ can use to awaken the memory they already have. Your imagination really is the limit. Also, remember that you can have more than one memory palace for dealing with different kinds of information. There is also always the option of upgrading your palaces once you’ve got the hang of it.

• For more information on the memory palace technique, have a look at Develop Perfect Memory With the Memory Palace Technique

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GAME GUIDE: Playing Fallout New Vegas on very hard difficulty in Hardcore mode

GAMES such as Fallout New Vegas are a lot more fun and intense when they’re extra challenging. Playing in hardcore mode really adds to the survival aspect of Fallout, and, in my opinion, makes the game a lot more fun to play.

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: S.P.E.C.I.A.L: General stats and perks

If you decide to test your Fallout skills in hardcore mode you’ll want to pay special attention to your starting stats. It’s a good idea to create a character with high strength and endurance. Strength will allow you to carry more items for selling and creating explosives and endurance will provide you with more hit points and the ability to get enhancements later on.

Also remember that in hardcore mode ammo weighs you down and it becomes frustrating if you have to constantly drop items when encumbered.

You’ll also want a fairly high intelligence so that you can add more skill points when leveling up. These are the three stats I’d give preference too. Remember that you can always add extra S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points with the Intense Training perk, by collecting bobbleheads (download Fallout New Vegas bobblehead mod here) and by visiting the New Vegas medical center.

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: Skill points

It may make sense to play as staunch, melee character in hardcore mode. Fallout New Vegas has improved melee combat considerably, so this can be a lot of fun.

However, I find it wiser to keep enemies at bay by playing as a gun nut. Killing or injuring enemies before they can get close enough to cripple you may just save your ass.

In the beginning, I generally feed my skill points into Guns, Repair, Explosives, Lockpicking and Survival, and maybe a few in to Medicine and Barter. You need to be able to inflict as much damage as possible early on as well as heal yourself with stimpaks or by cooking gecko steaks at a campfire.

Note that some foodstuffs work just as well as chems by giving you boosts to strength and other skills such as agility. It is also a good idea to keep well fed and hydrated in hardcore mode before leveling up.

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: Finding a home

It is useful to find a place to rest and stash your excess goods early on in the game. Unfortunately you don’t get offered as nice a place as the little shack in Megaton back in Fallout 3, but there are other options.

I chose to settle in Novac – in a rented motel room. You pay peanuts once off and the place is yours! I store extra guns and ammo in the safe, special Nuka Colas and other drinkables in the fridge, extra armour in the cabinet and all miscellaneous goods in the footlocker (for creating items later).

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: Leveling up

When playing on very hard difficulty in hardcore mode you’ll want to level up as quickly as possible. The best way to achieve this is by completing quests early on. Accept all side quests and odd jobs that come your way and get out and explore.

A good idea is to take the Hunter perk early on which gives a 75% critical hit score against mutated animals and creatures. Once you have that, get out and pot a few geckos and mole rats, but watch out for those killer Cazadors!

I won’t get into perks as there are various strategies involved with picking these, but allocating skill points wisely is vital to surviving the Mojave Wasteland. Don’t spread your skills points too thinly. Rather fuel them into a single stat until it reaches 50. Again I would first focus on Guns, Repair, Lockpicking, Explosives and perhaps Barter and Medicine before anything else.

It sucks coming across a safe or ammunition box that you can’t open because your lock pick skill is too low. You also want to keep your weapons in mint condition so as to inflict as much damage as possible.

• Fallout New Vegas Game Guide part II: weapons, crafting items, making money, combat tips

Related post: Fallout New Vegas Bobblehead Locations

25 best Fallout New Vegas game mods

Please feel free to add any game tips or suggestions you may have!

GAME GUIDE: Playing Fallout New Vegas on very hard difficulty in Hardcore mode

Read Fallout New Vegas Game Guide part 1 here

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: weapons

There is a great arsenal of weaponry available in Fallout New Vegas. However, it isn’t wise to carry more than just a few weapons at a time. I generally prefer handguns and rifles over heavy artillery and generally keep one handgun, one shotgun, a rifle and an assault rifle or machine gun at my disposal.

It is important to learn what ammo you need for each weapon and to carry enough of it. If you have collected other ammo that doesn’t fit your guns, break these down at a reloading bench and try and create more of the ammo you need for your favourite gun. If you’ve chosen lead over energy weapons, microfusion cells are still useful for collecting and selling later.

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: Crafting items and weapons

This is one of the best aspects of Fallout New Vegas. There is a plethora of items that you can make from wasteland junk – some of which are essential for survival.

Once your medicine level reaches 40 you can start making healing items; when your explosives skill reaches 50 you can start making time bombs; and when you science and survival skills pass the 50 mark you can start creating all sorts of chems and goodies at a campfire.

Learn what ingredients you need to craft each item you think might be useful and store these until your skills are at the right levels. Stash them in a safe or footlocker or get a trusty companion to carry them for you.

Making money in Fallout New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas gives you the chance to make it big and spend it all on guns, armour, enhancements and more gambling. What’s great is that there is always something to blow your caps on, unlike Fallout 3 where you often ended up sitting on a pile of bottle caps.

The casinos are where you can strike it big playing blackjack and roulette, but there is a game that can be played fairly early on to make some extra dough. The game’s called Caravan, which does take a little getting used to but can be a lot of fun. You will need a minimum of 30 cards before you can play and you will need to seek out merchants who know how to fold em.

Fallout New Vegas Game Guide: Combat tips

Everyone will have their own combat style, but if you’re playing as a gun nut with a high explosives skill, I would recommend the following.

Keep an eye on your compass for red markers as you explore the wasteland. Once spotted, sneak up as close as you can to assess the situation and see what you’re up against. Determine which direction the enemy will come charging when spotted and place a mine or two in this spot. Take some drugs (preferably jet and psycho), crouch down and go for a critical hit.

Let’s assume that the creature is the fiercest of them all – namely a Deathclaw. Funnel the creature to where your explosives are placed and throw a grenade or stick of dynamite just before said Deathclaw steps on your explosives. Boom! You want to try and cripple the enemy before they can get close.

If still alive continue to pump the creature with lead. Use you VATS to assess which areas are in critical condition and take it out! Be warned that playing Fallout New Vegas on very hard difficulty and in hardcore mode can be really tough early on. But give it a bash by playing strategically and the the rewards and good times will follow.

• Fallout New Vegas Game Guide part 1: S.P.E.C.I.A.L: General stats and perks, skill points, leveling up and finding a home

25 best Fallout New Vegas game mods

Please feel free to add any game tips or suggestions you may have!

LEGAL DOWNLOADS: Free stuff that won't put you behind bars

CONTRARY to what most people believe, the downloading of music, movies and software is not entirely illegal. There are actually several things that one can download legally without fearing imprisonment.

Two particularly useful programs that allow one to do this are Limewire and Miro. You can download each peer to peer program legally without any hitches from the pages linked. They are both lightweight programs that take minutes to install and set up.

Limewire is mostly used for downloading music. The program will ask you whether or not you want access to illegal torrents when you install it. A lot of people tick that option but there are surprisingly several songs you can legally download if left unchecked.

Miro, on the other hand, is the prime pirating program. It can be used to download just about anything, but be warned that this is illegal! However, Miro does offer several legal torrents (i.e. stuff that can be downloaded legally). There are daily podcasts and videos available on Miro that you can legally watch and listen to without fear of building a criminal record.

As with anything involving the Internet, one has to be careful when downloading anything and you must use your discretion. The temptation to download goodies illegally will always be there, but be strong! Ye have be warned...

Kind regards
That Tech Guy

More Easy PC Tech Advice:

1. Virus Scans
2. Wires and Dust
3. Buying a new PC
4. Good old Google
5. Setting up Skype

SKYPE: Setting yourself up for web chatting in a few easy steps

SKYPE is great for chatting to friends and loved ones spread across the globe without worrying about getting a hefty phone bill at the end of the month. The web application is completely free for home use and can be set up in a few simple steps.

What you’ll need is a computer, Internet connection and a microphone and headphones. You can buy headsets with built-in microphones if you want to go for more of a call-center look and keep conversations private. Alternatively, you could buy an external microphone and use your speakers as the audio output if more people are keen to participate in web chatting.

Next, you simply need to download the latest Skype from www.skype.com and install it. There is very little to configure once installed, and the program will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to set up your microphone. This really just involves plugging it in correctly and testing it.

The next step is providing a user-name for yourself and to start adding web contacts. Skype lets you easily search for people you know on the web, and adding them to your contact list is a breeze.

The application will also let you know who is online and ready for chatting. Clicking on “dial” once you have selected a person to call will start making Skype-like noises and connect you to that person — wherever they may be in the world.
Commence chatting as if you were having a normal conversation.

If you would like to see each other while chatting, you’ll both need to have web cams installed. These are now available for around R300. Web chatting has never been easier. To get started, simply download Skype from the link below.

• Download Skype 5.0 for Windows

Kind regards,
That Tech Guy

More Easy PC Tech Advice:

1. Virus Scans
2. Wires and Dust
3. Buying a new PC
4. Good old Google
5. Legal Downloads

WEIGHT LOSS: Tips to help shed those unwanted flabby bits

I used to have the special ability to eat whatever I pleased and never put on weight. This was before I hit twenty five. I am no longer the envy of the heftier members of my family and I've had to start following a few weight loss tips to stay in shape.

With winter having waned, you are so often left with the results of overindulging in the warm, delicious winter dishes which tend to settle around the middle body area, increasing your girth and refusing to budge. All of this is exasperated through lack of exercise. The gradual expansion of weight in this manner can eventually lead to all kinds of of negative, unhealthy conditions. Proper weight loss will help prevent these.

Research shows that decreasing your body fat percentage by 5-10 percent reduces your risk of cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other lifestyle related diseases. Why not follow these simple weight loss hints and tips below to help reduce your weight and improve overall well-being.

14 weight loss tips:

• Exercise while watching television.
• Use a smaller plate when dishing up your food.
• Make sure ½ of your plate is full of raw or cooked vegetables.
• Drink a glass of water before your meal to help fill up the stomach.
• Reduce or eliminate alcohol intake as this can contribute to weight gain.
• Eat 80%of your total energy intake during the day and the other 20% at night.
• Cut back on your carbohydrates at night eg: pasta, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes etc.

Be careful of snacking, especially at restaurants or coffee shops. Milkshakes and carrot cake with cream, for example, contain approximately 4500 KJ. For the average woman, this amount of energy virtually covers her total energy intake for the day.

• Exercise: starting with a short walk then gradually increasing the walk to 30 minutes a day is a good start.
• Eat at the table rather than in front of the television. When your brain is preoccupied with visual stimuli other than your food, this can affect the digestive process.
• Wait twenty minutes before you go for a second helping. It take at least twenty minutes for the brain to register you are satisfied.
• If you are still hungry after a meal, head for the salads which contain little or no dressing.
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Sometimes we are thirsty and not hungry.
• Feed the body with nutrient rich foods (vegetables, fruits, whole-grains, avocados, nuts) rather than nutrient diluted foods (refined foods, biscuits, breads, sweets, chocolates etc.)

And remember, “optimum nutrition = optimum weight” !

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