CBMused

Yes, it means I’ve been writing. And words have been floating in a bubble above my head, circling me like bees on a lazy hot summer’s day. Here are the top 5 in each category:

Words I Like
Fall – as in the season, what North Americans call autumn
Autumnal – the adjective of what the rest of us call fall
Vitriol – for it sounds as strong as what it means
Sentiments – has a romantic flair
Arse – I love pronouncing it, writing it, grabbing it…
Gorgeous – need I explain?

Words I Don’t Like
Toe/toes – blech, and not just because I dislike feet
Baby – call me ‘baby’ and I’ll rip your bollocks off (see below).
Ma’am – reserve that word for the military else you’ve told me I’m 100+ years old.
Connoisseur - an English word with Latin origins that sounds French but appears bastardised by having an oi instead of ai.
Incredulous – sounds a bit pretentious
Awesome – a highly overused word on its own, even by me

Words That Make Me Giggle
Bollocks – when said as an interjection, perfect with a British accent.
Ass – as pronounced by North Americans as Opposed to the word ‘arse’
Bosom – anyone familiar with that Simpsons episode where Ned Flanders writes Homer a letter would understand
Brouhaha – try saying it without laughing
Z – when pronounced Zee by North Americans as opposed to Zed for the rest of us.

Now tell me yours.

I should have known it was going to be a disaster as soon as he described his car. A VW beetle original, with additional lights “that look like bug eyes”. I thought it was a joke but little did I know then that the joke was to be on me.

When I arrived at the meeting place, a busy beachside location for a coffee on a Sunday afternoon, I spotted the car with the buggy eyes. I should have made a U-turn and gone home. But he saw my car and waved. And so with a little trepidation, I walked into the café.

He had described himself as tall, slim, dark and “people-say-I’m-very-attractive”. He said that he was educated and a professional, dressed well, and was very sociable. Yet there I was in the company of Mr Ordinary, who was tall but with a solid build, “I-wouldn’t-call-him-attractive-least-of-all-very”, and if being a garage mechanic meant he was educated and a professional, then I must be Einstein².

He raved about how much he liked Elvis, how much he looked like Elvis, and how he could sing and move like Elvis, offering me free samples of his notes. I was so shook up I nearly choked on my coffee. He pointed to his oversized retro aviator sunglasses which were just “like the King wore”. He spoke using lines from Elvis’ songs while something churned violently in my stomach. But I smiled. I nodded. I checked the time on my watch, all the while I wanted to tell him how much Elvis repulses me, how I can’t stand his songs, and his voice, his costumes, and his appearance… everything that this chirpy sociable guy was proud of.

I made my polite excuses and left. Beside his Elvis obsession, which incidentally included memorabilia in his car, we had nothing in common. As I sped away with the window wound down and the breeze attempting to clear my mind from the experience, I told myself in consolation that as an avid writer, one day I may write about it. Or not.

And I vowed never to go on a blind date again.

If it weren’t for comments left by GSR and Gboy on my sidebar Wall, I would not have written about my date with Elvis. Now tell me about your worst dates because I’m feeling kinda dirty like I need to rinse off a bad memory.

As a follow up to this post, anger is also rampant in the interwebs. People hide behind a mask of invisibility, an anon persona, a grandiose moniker, just waiting for the chance to pounce at others, cut them down to size or push them out of the way.

Anyone who has been blogging for some time is likely to have encountered trolls and flame wars. In this case, I am referring to another medium where more often than not, human behaviour rears its ugliest head.

I have never liked Public forums. What is supposed to be a place for asking/providing assistance or resolving support issues becomes a cowardly avenue for flaming others at the first possible chance. Just like kids in the school yard.

I remain as distant as possible from such infantile word wars yet forums become a necessary evil when seeking support. Imagine a newbie male asking for help configuring his wifi modem firewall and the barrage of talk-downs that ensue. Think of a budding writer asking for an opinion on dialogue or phrase construction, and the insults to the tune of “if you don’t know you shouldn’t be a writer”. Or holier-than-thou forum spammers who respond to a question by offering “Google it or do a forum search idiot” without giving thread details. And there are those who believe they are laudable and display superiority complexes for everyone to see, then withhold knowledge.

I have wondered what kind of cowardly person hides behinds a screen ready to dish out insults, until I met such person. An ex-colleague was never quick with the Alt-Tab keys and I have caught him frequently replying to forums with his screen minimised. He intimated on more than one occasion that people get a thrill out of creating and participating in mini wars. After observing his behaviour for a while, it clicked into place. He was a man very much under the thumb at home and all that repressed freedom and anger began to manifest in other ways that impacted his work. He fitted the bill for a flame war veteran, and not a casualty.

But there are exceptions. A few years ago I was an active participant in a sensitive forum. It was strictly moderated and we all felt comfortable enough to contact admin at the first signs of antagonism. That space was an oasis of support and understanding from a group of people on the same difficult path, and it worked very well.

In fact, that early experience paved the way for anonymous friendships that crossed the line between the virtual and real. It was before blogging was commonplace and everyone gave it all and was rewarded in return. Those people were the angels that kept one another sane and didn’t deserve what life had handed to them. Other forums could learn a learn lot from that experience.

Pity it takes human suffering to bring out the best in people.

Vibrant
After a few design and colour experiments, I have decided on a red background for this blog instead of the grim black, the dreary grey and the icy white. Red is warm and welcoming. It’s classy. It’s eye catching. It’s vibrant. It’s passionate… just like me.

Mini-Me
BeMused is now being trialled on mobile applications. Just point your phone browser to www.cbmused.com and it will automatically display the mobile version. This Mini-Me has a different look, colour and feel but it’s essentially the same content and much faster to load. For PDA/browser phone addicts… like me.

The Wall
The sidebar has a new addition. Whether I am at work or at home, I maintain my reputation of the “whiteboard queen”. It’s a place I often turn to for recording a spontaneous idea in purple, a must-do list in black or a passionate inspiration in red before it evaporates… just like the smell of the coloured markers.

Do you have a blog? Do you MySpace? Do you network in Facebook or LinkedIn? Do you Digg It, Sumble It, Redditt, CoComment, MyBlogLog, Entrecard and Del.icio.us? Do you Twitter, Bebo, Orkut, Flickr, Friendster and hi5?

Do you blog daily? Update many times a day? Do you have multiple blogs on Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, and host your site? Do you follow SEO on your blog? Do you read/follow the advice of probloggers? Do you seek out popular blogs just to bring comments to your site? Do you post comments on news websites? Do you get actively involved in forums?

Have you tried Joomla? Do you blog from your mobile phone? Do you have the iPhone app for your WordPress blog? Do you subscribe to multiple RSS readers? Do you have a number of email addresses through different providers? Do you cyber, IM, MSN, GChat, Skype? Do you update your networking status several times a day? Do you take and post arm-length photos of yourself? Do you upload your mobile phone videos to YouTube?

Do you write? Do you then have time to write quality posts? Do you get the inspiration from your real or online life?

Do you live life or update it as it happens?