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FirstFound Blog
Google Street Map Now Covers 95% of the UK
Despite large amounts of criticism, Google Maps’ Street View service now covers nearly 95% of all the streets in the United Kingdom. A full 360-degree view of your street is available from today. Previously the service was restricted to only major cities. It means that Britain will join Spain, France, Italy and the...
Microsoft steps up advertising campaign in a bid to attract Google users.
With a tag line of “Bing and Decide” Microsoft aim to show customers how different their search engine is companied to the others and say it functions more like a “decision engine”. There is certainly a bit of a dig at Google as they show people suffering from information overload and...
Image of the Week – Good bye MRI
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Image of the Week: Leeds Town Hall Put-together
All Rights Reserved Steven Ryan®...
Metro Newspaper Launches News iPhone App
This week, Metro announced the launch of their news iPhone App, the FirstFound blog reviews this interesting move from the North West UK based newspaper and identifies the broader context of what similar moves mean for the news industry....
5 Tips for an Effective SEO Link Building Campaign
The top 5 most important considerations for an effective link building campaign from naturally generated links won for good content, to social media and creative link building strategies to future proof your search engine optimisation strategy for 2010....
Technical Communication Center
Technical Writing – Clean Your Sentences Down to the Bone
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Have you ever watched a fisherman filet a fish down to the bone at the fisher’s market? They do it quickly, separating fish from bone in a flash, without wasting anything. You should do the same to your sentences to write the kind of smooth and “delicious” technical...
Technical Writing Jobs, March 15, 2010
SENIOR TECHNICAL WRITER CORK, IRELAND Proposal Technical Writer in Fairfax, VA Technical Writer Job Posting in Oakville, ON, CANADA Technical Writer Job in Calgary, Alberta Canada Technical Writer job opening from EdgeCast Networks Inc in Santa Monica, CA Technical Writing job in Norman, OK Senior Technical Writer at Merced Systems in San ...
Medical Writing Jobs, March 15, 2010
Medical Writer I / II to join Oncology group on a 12 month contract role, in South East UK Health Research Writer in London, UK Laboratory Technician, Medical Writing Job in South East UK Medical Writer job in Cambridge, MA Related Posts:Medical Writing Jobs, March 11, 2010Medical Writing Jobs, March 7, 2010Medical...
(Anonymous) Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. (if you’re not you should get a chuckle anyway.) It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that’s probably true of many languages.) There...
Technical Writing Jobs, March 14, 2010
Technical Writer III in SPRINGFIELD, VA at Apogen Technologies Technical Writer -Saudi Arabia Environment, Health and Safety Technical Writer in Makati City, PHILIPPINES Technical Writer in PHILIPPINES Technical Writer IT Jobs Jobs in Dublin, IRELAND Technical Writer/Editor Job in Warner Robins 31088, Georgia US Technical Writer job in Corona, CA Technical Writer – Chipton...
A Conversation with a Technical Communicator – Pallavi Madhusudhan
(Excerpts) An Interview with Pallavi Madhusudhan Which is your favorite font? Why? My favorite font would have to be the standard Ariel font. This is what we use widely in official documentation and it’s what I am most comfortable using for personal correspondence as well. What type of training programs or workshops...
Unmemorable Title
So I set to work and crafted my sample. I went to town. Sound effects, wailing sirens. The lot. Something that I thought would at least demonstrate to the client that we knew where they were coming from. Related posts:Is Your Professional Voice Boring? From the Archive: SEO Copywriting – Not Just...
Is Your Professional Voice Boring?
This is Jim. Jim is a professional musician. Jim is exciting, innovative and all sorts of other interesting superlatives. Jim isn’t boring. So if a professional isn’t a boring person, why is your professional copy boring? The Reputation of the Professional Voice Too many writers see the word “professional” on a brief and sigh. Professional...
I’m too ill to recap the whole debate, but if you want some background on the Copify issue, here’s a quick-n-dirty guide to where in the Blogosphere the debate is happening. Twitter Search Twitter for Copify – you’ll get a rough idea of what’s going on. Unmemorable Title Whilst not strictly about (but obviously...
Should You Pay Your Copywriter by the Word?
Twitter has been all aflutter this weekend, with a brand new “copywriting agency” following all and sundry. They’ve been promising the untold riches of £0.02 per word and have met with responses ranging from the amusing to the incredulous. @SarahCopywriter £0.04 per word! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, (breath)...
The Writing Secrets Conspiracy Theorists Don’t Want You To Know
Make sure you read this quickly. I'm not sure how long it'll stay up before the CIA, Illuminati and those Lizard Men that David Icke dribbles about will find this and shut it down. The information I have to share with you is so sensitive, I dare not put it on...
History – The Copywriter’s Degree?
A bit of life experience enriches your copy no end. Unfortunately, if you're straight out of university your life experience probably extends to 2-4-1 drinks offers, home remedies for Fresher's Flu (whisky mixed with honey cough medicine, if you're asking) and which local pubs offer a free sandwich on pub...
The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog
Conversations with Andre Agassi
The New York Times Book Editor posted a wonderful video interview with Andre Agassi, tennis player turned writer. Agassi recently published his autobiography OPEN, which chronicles his struggle with his dislike of tennis while he was growing up. If you’re an Agassi fan (or even if you justl ike sports...
Maya Angelou Interview at The Guardian
For the Maya Angelou fans out there ,The Guardian did a recent interview with her. Click here to check it out. Posted in Author Interviews, Awesome Writers Tagged: interviews, maya angelou, poets ...
McCann Wins National Book Award
Congratulations to Colum McCann! McCann recieved the 2009 National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin, an allegorical tale surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attack and a man who walks between the towers on a tight rope. Click here to check out the videos from the event and...
MFA Spotlight: Warren Wilson College Low Res MFA
Warren Wilson College has a very rare bragging right in the literary world–they were the first college in the United States to create a Low Residency MFA program. Since 1976, faculty and graduates of the Warren Wilson MFA program have won nearly every major literary prize including Guggenheim Fellowships, National Book...
Its Official, The 2009 Word of the Year is “Unfriend”(<?)
Welp kiddos, its about that time. The year is winding down and to celebrate, the New Oxford American Dictionary has picked a word of the year. And the word is *insert drumroll here*… Unfriend: (v.)–To remove someone as a friend from a social networking site such as facebook. In a year of...
Our Very first Vlog/Video Blog/Week in Review!
Posted in Blog News Tagged: authors, blog, books, MFA, week in review, writers ...
Matt-Gibson.org
Ghosts and Angels on the Beautiful Island
When I woke up around nine that Sunday morning my cell phone showed that I had 33 missed calls. It rang again in my hand. It was the head teacher from the school I worked at. “We’re at the hospital.” She told me. “Jana was hit by a bus.” On...
Snorkeling, Rum, and Island Hopping: Five Days in Coron, Busuanga Island, Philippines
To escape the suffocating traffic and staccato of firecrackers that besiege Taiwan every Chinese New Year, several friends and I booked tickets on a budget carrier, Spirit of Manila, to the city of Coron on Busuanga Island in the Philippines for five days of snorkeling, island hopping, and rum drinking. ...
I was contacted today by Lidia Nyiri, a PR Consultant for TravelGrove.com. She asked me if I would write a blog post reviewing her company which, “helps users find cheap offers on airfares, hotel and car rentals, cruise deals and vacation packages”. She said the review didn’t have to be nice....
An Interview with Matt Gibson (aka Me) on My Several Worlds
Check out the full article here....
A Good ‘Ol Fashioned Boat Burning
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Bunk Magazine Issue 5 is out now
The first issue of Bunk Magazine was published by the Armory nearly 10 years ago, long before I arrived in Taiwan. Around the time I moved to Taiwan the last issue of Bunk, issue 4, was published. Bunk had a big influence on my decision to start Xpat Magazine. It...
All write with coffee...
Shakespeare's Sonnet Sunday: Sonnet 10
For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any, Who for thy self art so unprovident. Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many, But that thou none lov'st is most evident: For thou art so possessed with murderous hate, That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire, Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate Which...
Saturday's Writing Quotation Examination
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with...
Humility for the writer can be good and bad. Good humility: What is good humility? If you've ever read a great book, with great writing, great plot, and great characters, and when you've put it down, thought, 'I wish I could write as good as that author.' That's good humility. As...
Action in the white space - Part III
The Smash Cut The last thing I will mention about writing in the white space is something the movie/TV business calls - The Smash Cut. What does this mean? According to Wikipedia: It is technique in film where one scene abruptly cuts to another without transition, usually meant to startle...
Action in the white space - Part II
This pic has nothing to do with the article. Yesterday was part one...now part two of communicating a point without actually writing it. Writing between the lines...or not. Here are a few more devices the writer can employ to engage the reader: 1) First, instead of narrating actions or emotions, let the...
Action in the white space - Part I
Over the course of the week, I'm going to be discussing writing in the white space. It's communicating a point without actually writing it. Writing between the lines...or not. Sometimes as writers we worry that if we don't describe absolutely everything, our readers will be left confused but give your reader...
Tsurei no seimei
you have those who are barely able to touch their shadow those who would never allow others to grow BLANK you have those who are never able to measure their own strength those who wouldn’t even try to finish the final length BLANK you have those who would want to build their sand castles on clouds those...
The center that is losing edge
Unifying the tormenting extremes One in each direction One at each side BLANK Complying to the greatest distances one in each direction one at each side BLANK Denying sparkling gems and jades One in each direction One at each side BLANK Yet the emphasised pledge Is the center That is losing edge ...
The place i go to at night The place that keeps me at all might The place that longs to exist The place in which my desires will persist The place that is once in a while frightening The place that is now and again brightening The place in which reality won’t even bother you The place...
Hand over your part in this communication motivate your consideration throw stones in the water try to represent actions with these ripples tho’ these ripples only represent a fraction and won’t reach at all that far you’re that star that’s how luminous you are Note: Jupiter isn’t always accepted as a star ...
I think i just read a book about your wavelengths if i change my voice a bit, will it reach you those on the same wavelength only a few those who need the same strength only a bit more those who need the content only a bunch those who will comprehend to that extent that will be only one percent to...
I will try to reach the ceiling to connect with my shadow i will try to match this feeling to assure that i will not bow Tonight i’ll paint the white ceiling red tomorrow maybe green adding a little colour to my shadow and our now see-through dream ...
First Impressions
What is the first thing you do when you wake up? Stretch a little, drink a glass of water? Rub your eyes and will your body into leaving the warmth of the bed? That used to be me, a couple of years ago. I’d lie curled under my Jaipuri quilt, gazing...
Sitting in the waiting area of my dentist’s office, I reached for Time magazine with the cover image of an aeroplane and the title “Fear of Flying.” Right beside it was Redbook with a smiling Julia-Louis Dreyfus looking “hotter at 49 than 29.” What caught my attention was this message shouting...
A record of our life, our times, our vanity
What does blogging do for you? Is it a forum for tips? A place where you reflect and have conversations with yourself? A safe haven; an escape? A commentary on social, political, economic issues of our times? A minute-by-minute record of your personal life? A journal that was meant to be personal, but really isn’t? Do...
I watched The Fight Club again after several years and it was interesting that different aspects of the movie resonated with me this time than when I had first seen it. Probably because of where I am in my life right now vis-a-vis a decade ago. There are a lot of...
Here is an article I wrote for Hindustan Times a couple of years ago. For my readers in India, let me know if things have changed for the better on the streets, in the houses, at work … —————— In 1909 some women textile workers in New York went on strike. After...
Gift for your baby girl: a breastfeeding doll
Yesterday, a friend forwarded a Huffington Post slideshow of the seven most inappropriate toys for children. I was appalled, needless to say, but one that had me going “No way!” at the top of my lungs was this particular product: The Bebé Glotón breastfeeding doll. Who in their right minds would buy...
Imperfect Clarity
Testing headers: what do you think? :)
So, which one do you like the best? -00- ...
Book Review: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
“An old Ukrainian proverb warns, ‘A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil.’ That is a risk we will have to take.” — Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume -00- The back of the book states: “Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. Which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient...
Fear, procrastination, and inner critics
Let’s talk about fear. And procrastination. Because for me, they equal about the same thing when it comes to writing. We’ll do this backwards today–first up is procrastination. Putting things off until… Whenever… “I’ll get around to it.” “I don’t want to do that now; I’ll just do it later.” I’m the Queen...
Fiction: Smiley-face ramblings
It’s usually afternoon when I see them. Sometimes I’ll see them at night, but mostly late afternoon, they peer in my windows. I don’t know what they are, but I know what they remind me of. Smiley-faces. Smiley-faces with black vertical scribbles for eyes and noses, a crinkly curved line...
“America’s Most Wanted” and Adam Walsh
The 1,000th episode of America’s Most Wanted will be broadcast on Saturday, March 6, 2010. It’s been 22 years since the show first aired and, while I don’t watch it and really never have (except the occasional episode here and there), the man responsible for the show’s origins has a...
Mark Twain’s definition of a “classic” was “something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” Quirk Classics is ready to change that stiff and starched view of the classics, starting with the New York Times Bestseller “Pride...
The Sphinx Scrolls writing blog
Well, the sun lived up to its part of the bargain so I lived up to mine. I said I’d write at the seaside if the weather was good, so earlier today Katia and I stepped out towards our micro camper van with our micro computers and our micro dog,...
I am the proud driver of a micro camper van. No bigger than a 6 seater MPV, it has a pop-up roof with a double bed, plus a sink, a gas hob, an electric fridge and some cupboards large enough to store a couple of biscuits. One of the cupboards...
One of the challenges of writing this novel is that I need to use two distinctly different narrative voices. The first is the usual omniscient third person narrator, which is fun to use because it’s like playing God: in this voice I have total power over the lives of all...
I didn’t make many changes in my edits today. That’s a good sign, of course. So I thought I would talk instead about the age of the Great Sphinx of Giza. No one denies it’s very old, but it’s hard to put a precise date on it because it’s mostly...
The ancients didn’t just predict the end of the world: they caused it
I recently watched the clever low budget Duncan Jones sci-fi film, Moon. On the DVD case was the line ‘250,000 miles from home the hardest thing to face… is yourself’. Every great film has a short distillation of its theme splashed across its poster or DVD box. They call it...
It’s the first day of my juice diet: and I’m not talking fruit juice. This is hard core vegetable juice. Raw, natural, and tastes as bad as it looks. I’m getting used to it, though, and if I stick at it for long enough the local pie and cake shops...