If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it did it really make a sound?
If i post a blog and nobody reads it was there really any point?
You have entered the random thinking space of Morgan Bell . . .
These are my musings . . . things about my life written off the top of my head . . . written in an informal disjointed style almost completely devoid of punctuation, this is where i flesh out writing ideas, discuss my life, and generally be self indulgent . . . it is also the bargain bin for articles which do not fit in with the film or arts themes of my other blogs . . . so have a wander around my mind, have a laugh, have a think, be nice, and humour me!
This is not a Jon thing, this is a Morgan thing.
For almost a year we have had a Facebook group dedicated to the writers on Orble. I created the group because I had so many of my Orble buddies as friends on Facebook and I wanted to develop a space where we could all talk about blogging and the network.
Because, really, Orble has always felt like a special club. We all speak the same language, and navigating the site is akin to a secret handshake.
If you are on Facebook and want to be a member of the group CLICKHERE.
It is a public group, open to everyone, and all members are welcome to become Group Admin or Group Officers. I bestow my organisational powers liberally.
So come join the (unofficial) "Orble Writers on Facebook" group and mingle with the other kids. We have over 100 members so far, and pretty active discussion boards and wall postings. You can promote your posts or ask questions. I often post current Orble News and help people with technical queries. the more the merrier. 
What has happened to my beautiful blogs?
I have abandoned them, chasing after scholarly things, and now they call me back like abandoned dirty-faced children.
I have still been popping in to comment the bloggers I subscribe to, but for one reason or another I never seem to have time to squeeze an article out myself. This must change!
You may notice I am writing a tad more professionally, a capital letter here, a full stop there. Well. I've been doing a Post-Graduate course in Technical Communications @ Swinburne University of Technology, online.
I did a TAFE course in News Media a couple of years ago. Then I did a TAFE course in Small Business Management where I researched free-lancing as a career. Then I considered teaching journalism and did a TAFE course in Training & Assessment. I like to keep all my options open.
So it's been study, study, study for me.
I'm doing Civil Construction Design at TAFE concurrently with my PostGrad studies, just to make sure I am completely occupied at all times.
Facebook has made me lazy. It is so much quicker to post a link to an existing article or video on Facebook than it is to construct a blog post myself. I've been taking the cheats way out. But I do miss my blogs, And I miss my little blogging community.
I feel very encouraged by all these new changes to homepage, and the new systems of having "followers" and "editor stars". It's a brave new world here on Orble.
I think I should set one day a week aside to cue up some fresh material, and use the forward dating system to stagger them out over the week. I need to get more organised and get publishing. I need to do it. I want to do it. I will do it.
I could probably prepare some educational posts on all the stuff I'm learning. Plus there's a never-ending stream of news and events from the queer community that really needs to be shared with the inter-webs.
To all my subscribers: thanks for sticking around, and expect some fresh new content soon.
Liskula Cohen, a former Vogue cover girl and supermodel, has won a landmark court battle to reveal the identity of an anonymous blogger who called her a "skank".
Cohen sued Google in January, forcing the company to reveal the person responsible for writing a blog called Skanks in NYC, which was hosted by Google's Blogger service.
This week Judge Joan Madden ruled that Cohen was entitled to sue the blogger for defamation and, in an unprecedented move, forced Google to provide the blogger's name.
Judge Madden rejected the claims by the blogger's lawyer that the comments were mere opinion or "trash talk", and that only factual assertions could be considered libellous.
"The thrust of the blog is that the petitioner is a sexually promiscuous woman," Judge Madden wrote in her judgment, noting that the comments were run alongside photos of Cohen in suggestive poses.
The anonymous blogger declared Cohen first-place in the 'Skankiest in NYC' awards, and wrote: "How old is this skank? 40 something? She's a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank."
Cohen is a Canadian. She is based in New York, and has modelled for Giorgio Armani and Versace. She hasappeared on the cover of the Australian edition of Vogue.
Liskula Cohen
Some of the main points about this case are that Cohen is a real person and a high profile person who uses her name and reputation as part of how she markets herself. The anonymous blogger used Cohen's full name, occupation, and photos of her alongside disparaging allegations. The allegations were not absurd or satirical, they were presented as fact, and the kind of assertions that could be reasonably mistaken for fact.
Should bloggers be worried?
Only if you don't know the difference between critical commentary and defamation. If you want to criticise the words or actions of a celebrity you should have no problems. If you want to spread baseless rumours about their sex lives and present it as fact, be warned, it may be considered character assassination.
Celebrities are real people too. And they probably have more money than you.
Blog wisely.
See full story HERE.
"The ox is slow but the earth is patient."
Chinese proverb
When you first start a blog on Orble you may wonder if your earnings will ever start adding up. At first it is a few cents. You might do a silent "woo hoo" when you reach a dollar. I know I did a post when I hit $9.97 because I was so excited to have nearly reached the ten dollar mark.
It is a cumulative system where your earnings go up over time exponentially. However, many people give up in the first few month because they think they are not succeeding.
I just hit my second lot of one hundred dollars.
In sixteen months (1 year, 4 months) I have reached the payment threshold twice.
Converted to my own currency its not a bad piece of pocket money for doing something I enjoy.
Click on image to enlarge
The above image shows my total earnings to date in American Dollars (US$). It also shows some of my highest earning days so far.
Click on image to enlarge
At the end of my first month (March 2008) my account total was a tiny $0.48.
The above image shows my monthly adsense earnings and balances from April 2008 through to May 2009. You can see there are fluctuations month to month, some slow months where I was not posting as much, but on the whole there is a gradual increase.
It took me 10 months to earn the first US$100 (approx AU$165), and it has taken only 6 months to earn the next US$100.
CLICKHERE to read more about my readership and earnings milestones.
I have been inspired by Natalina to take a few snaps of random things from my room.
To see Natalina's house CLICKHERE.
I moved in with friends somewhere around the murky borderlands of southern Newcastle and the upper Central Coast (yeah i still call it Sydney, but I think anywhere 90 minutes by car away from Oxford St can be classified as the city) and my friends are in the process of renovating.
Hence I am still living out of a packed bag and my car, with the bulk of my belongings stored in boxes in the garage.
However I can still show you my day to day stuff.
I cannot take credit for any decor or colour schemes in the background, but I am responsible for the mountains of clutter in my guest quarters.
These are my everyday shoes. I got them from Rivers for $30 on sale. They remind me of something a genie would wear. Last time I got a pedicure the lady that served me was from China and she remarked that they were very similar to the colourful styles that are popular in China.
Next to the shoes is my heat-pack for my back. Its filled with wheat and you microwave it for a couple of minutes and apply it to the area in pain to sooth it. An ex-housemate gave it to me when I lived in the city of Newcastle some years ago.
This is the most recent pair of shoes I've bought. They are the first pair of high heeled shoes I have worn in over two years. They make me look 7 foot tall.
My housemate HATES them . . . which is a big part of the reason I bought them, I just wanted to see his face because I knew he would consider them to be ugly. When I saw them I thought "he will hate them", but I liked the colour and the the general idea of a slit-front bootie, and I knew it would go down a treat at the local gay bar. Are they the boots Gwenyth Paltrow wore in that film? No they are $40 from Target
Here is two items I cannot live without. My mobile phone and my hair straightener. I bought both of them before I left Sydney. The phone has gone to shit, everything on it is broken, and because it is a Nokia it has absolutely no battery life. It will randomly switch itself of mid conversation. It really needs replacing.
The GHD will probably outlive me. I wish GHD made mobile phones.
This is my Guess handbag. It is huge. I have spilled many drinks over and in that bag. It has a leopard-print lining. I want to keep that bag forever, but sadly, due to my mistreatment, it is wearing in places.
These are my keys. There's a bottle opener, a keyring from where I had my labret pierced saying "Let Me Put It In For You", a crab in a little red bottle from Vanuatu, a diamante "M" (both gifts from a friend), and the green key is quite special to me as it opens the front door of a friends house who gave me an open invite to stay at a time when I was homesick for Newcastle.
Clockwise from left we have my handbag, a few DVDs including Broken Flowers, Dangerous Liaisons, Torch Song Trilogy, and a Jackie Chan box-set, some of my books (the ones that arent in storage), my pink make-up bag, medications, notebooks, and perfumes.
A friend of mine works for Perfume Connection so I have acquired many fragrances on the cheap. I also used to be an Avon lady so I have a couple of Avon perfumes that I love.
I have quite few books on writing (see HERE and HERE) and a selection of fiction I have discussed in a post before (see HERE). A few others include a Rupert Everett autobiography, books by Isaac Asimov and Erica Jong, plus Alice In Wonderland, The Devil Wears Prada, Prozac Nation, Valley Of The Dolls, The Orchid Thief, and He Died With A Felafel In His Hand.
So that ends the tour of my room. Thanks for joining me.
In an unprecedented move, today The Vatican has announced nuns will no longer be permitted to study for diplomas of midwifery or perform the tasks of a midwife. The Pope received a message from God on Facebook instructing all Catholics to no longer speak on topics they have no personal experience in.
Only women who have had children can speak about childbirth. Nuns, the childless variety, have been disqualified from discussing, advising, or explaining any aspect of human reproduction
[ Click here to read more ]
As any old, burned out hermit and part-time e-lawyer would know, blogging is very different to death.
An internet persona is virtual, not real. When an internet persona "dies" they can resurrect themselves an unlimited amount of times by re-registering. When a real person dies, thats it, lights out, the end, no second (third, forth, fifth, or sixth) chances. It is the difference between fact and fiction. To claim a closed internet account is the same as a real human death cheapens the value of life
[ Click here to read more ]
Thanks to my 112 subscribers and my 2,000 individual readers per day.
Just six months ago I had 59 subscribers about 650 individual readers per day
[ Click here to read more ]
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Morgan Bell
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