Wednesday 16 November 2011

Update


(Picture is one I took this year near Howarth)

My latest Triond Traffic Geo Distribution Pie-Chart reads as follows:

USA 42%, UK 39, Australia 6, Philippines 4, Canada 4, Romania 3, India 2.

UK has now closed the gap again on the US. It is only in recent weeks that the US has become my main source. Most of the year the UK has been my main source. Before Google PANDA (search algorithm change) the USA was always my main source of readers.

Poemhunter - Been talking to one of the UK's top viewed poets, Dave Walker, who happens to live in Bramley or Pudsey - my old home. In fact he's just told me he went to Crawshaw School! Small world!

PS I'm currently ranked 41 in the UK on Poemhunter, 265 in the world on 23 Views. Posted about a handful of new poems there the other day.

Latest publications:



24\11 - UK 42, US 41 now! Those last two blogs seem to have swung it!

More:





This edit facility is acting weirdly this week. All this code stuff. Anyway, on Triond UK is now 50%, USA 29! Viewers from within Triond are falling but from Google they are rising! (Now that forum has gone). Well it works!

Let's try a new paragraph. Yep, okay. No more code now. Will go with the flow.

Latest:

http://socyberty.com/holidays/my-thoughts-on-the-shortest-day-christmas-smith-family-tragedy-barcelona-and-uk-x-factor/

http://sportales.com/rugby/about-racism/

Damn! Just realised! Been on Edit Html by mistake!!! Why this article is under "rugby", well, God Knows!

27\12 - On Triond: 50% UK and 30% USA now! About half my views are from Google!!! Since The Forum went, my views have "switched" from Triond internal to Google! Does this mean The Forum was damaging Triond's Google Ranking?

More:


30\12 - This week I can check my Google Adsense on Triond. This after Another invitation to sign up! Have I gone all these years Not linked with Adsense when I thought I was? Let's hope all is well now. As it is, I've made £1.90 on Adsense to press! Must have done Something, if not a lot.

More:






6th February: Triond: USA 51%, UK 39! The pendulum has swung back to the US these past few weeks!

More:




Incidentally I notice most of my Triond Views are from Google now! The Views direct from Triond are only 2\3 those from Google. During the days of "The Triond Forum" it was the other way round! Well, writers say it's healthier to get Views from the wider web, so I'm fairly happy now.

BTW - US 47%, UK 38%, and some Views from Hungary and Turkey!


5\4\12: Today my Triond View level from Triond dot com is IDENTICAL to that from Google dot com. Not so long ago it was over twice as many. More:


19\4\12: I NB that my pal Craig Kendall now has nearly 42,000 followers on Twitter whereas I have a grand total of 42. This from him writing a blog about Swindon Town on a football site. Okay so he writes quite well, but he must have sussed out this web writing business far better than me. He keeps asking people to retweet, but I don't know the value of that. My trouble is, I'm still in the nineteenth century I'm afraid. Nuff Said.

More:
http://socyberty.com/psychology/lifism-a-philosophy-for-life/

21\4 - Have amended the title of this as I was the only viewer on Triond! Yet overall my Triond viewers on Triond have been about double those of my Google viewers just recently. I expect my Google figure to improve again soon. My UK viewership has been roughly the same as the USA. More:

 http://authspot.com/poetry/voice-14/

http://socyberty.com/society/football-surprises-and-shocks-chelsea-manchester-city-and-roy-hodgson/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/strike/

http://authspot.com/poetry/now-26/

http://authspot.com/poetry/mortality-10/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/colonisation-earth/

http://bookstove.com/book-talk/grimsby-table-tennis-league-2011-2012-end-of-season-roundup/

16\6\12: Today I retitled two of my "golden oldie" poems: "Her Eyes" to "Girl Eyes", and "Chicks" to "Young Chickens". I also discovered that Suite 101 had deleted all my articles there, so I resubmitted "Achieving Consistency at Table Tennis" to "Wikinut" (with amendments).

More:

http://paulb.quazen.com/shopping/towards-a-healthy-diet/

27\6\12: Weird. On Triond 47% of my Views are from the UK, 46% from USA. The rest of the world is squeezed out! BTW Triond now use Facebook and similar apps for Commenting. No more Comment stats, apart from the odd site, such as Picable. More:

http://trifter.com/europe/united-kingdom/lady-blantyres-rock-why-theres-a-scottish-monument-in-yorkshire/

http://authspot.com/poetry/new-eden/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/lennox-the-dog-a-sad-story/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/discovery-new-earth/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/time-crime/

http://beyondjane.com/relationships/dating/what-do-you-want-me-to-write-about/

(or is this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^my next blog here?)


Saturday 15 October 2011

Our Universe


The Universe began with the “Big Bang” 14 billion years ago. It is believed to be the sum total of all Existence.

I have a problem. The “observable universe” does indeed indicate that there is an enormous “globe” of expanding matter out there, consisting of countless super-clusters of galaxies. Okay. But is that really Everything?

Let’s call our “universe” a “flowering”. The big question is, are there other flowerings beyond the one we have observed? I suspect that there are. A whole Multiverse of them. Our “universe” could even be an electron in some Macro Universe!

Besides which, there may be an infinite number of “dimensions” lying parallel to ours, each with its own multiverse. In short, we are truly lost!

Paul Butters

Latest story based on this:

http://authspot.com/short-stories/the-universe-is-about-to-end-part-two/

More new pieces:

http://writinghood.com/writing/end-of-an-era-triond-forum-closed/

http://sportales.com/soccer/no-poppies-allowed-on-england-football-shirts-what-a-disgrace/

http://authspot.com/poetry/inspiration-58/

http://paulb.quazen.com/shopping/towards-a-better-lifestyle/

http://trifter.com/europe/united-kingdom/dickie-rees-another-one-bites-the-dust/

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Yorkshire: God's Own County















Have just sent a blog about Yorkshire to Triond. Better not leave a sample yet but will when it's published.

It's published.

Yorkshire: The Truth

The stereotypical Yorkshireman is a big fat beer swilling bloke who eats Yorkshire Puddings, tripe, black pudding and dripping and bread. He keeps whippets, pigeons and ferrets tha knows. Yorkshire is a backward rural county where everyone plays cricket. However, this stereotype could not be further from the truth...


The Yorkshire stereotype lingers on. A backward, rustic county where we wear flat caps and carry ferrets in our pockets. We are Tykes who speak our own language, sithee. This Monty Python sketch shows this well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

Enough of that!

The Truth

Sure, somewhere in the backwaters of The Pennines or somewhere there are still folk who race pigeons and so forth, bless em. But modern Yorkshire is about vibrant cities like Leeds, Sheffield , Bradford and Hull. I Googled the good things of Yorkshire:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1066&bih=590&q=good+things+in+yorkshire&oq=good+things+in+york&aq=0j&aqi=g-j1&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=2192l12281l0l14552l19l

Over a million pages, and that BBC article was a good starting point:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5234444.stm

and:

http://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/search.php?county=West%20Yorkshire

Actually the larger conurbation around Leeds and Bradford could easily become “Pennine City” through the course of time. Someone once called this area “HuddersCleckHaliWakeFord or something in recognition of this fact. What a city “Pennine” could be! I was brought up in West Leeds by the way, a couple of miles or so from Pudsey.

What Yorkshire can be Proud of

Yorkshire has a great industrial heritage: woollen mills, engineering, steel (Sheffield) and so on. Culture is everywhere. Leeds has its Playhouse and Grand Theatre. Roundhay Park, famous for its “Children’s Day” and Tropical Gardens. There is Headingley: home of the County Cricket Club, former Rugby League World Champions The Rhinos, and Leeds Carnegie Rugby Union club. Elland Road houses one of the greatest football teams ever. Nearby Huddersfield Town won three league titles in a row once.

For more go to:


My latest story:


More pieces:














17\9\2011: Am currently 303\500 on the Poemhunter World List with just 17 Recent Views. That league has got easier. lol.

More publications:







Saturday 23 July 2011

What If


(As posted on Triond yesterday)

I was dreaming I’d returned to teaching after a long sickness break. Or had I returned to helping out in class? Whatever. I woke and went to the loo. I emptied my bowels and returned to bed. Glanced at my watch. Six fifteen in the morning. And got to thinking... About the nature of Life...

What if Life is but a Dream, as others have suggested. What if my sleeping dreams are created by my subconscious mind. By my “Id” if you will. But my waking dreams are created by some “SuperId”. An even deeper part of my “brain” which forges “Superdreams”: Waking Dreams!

What if those “others” exist only as part of my superdream? What if all people, even my relatives, are but creations of my SuperId? And the whole universe and all history is part of the Superdream.

Where is my SuperId? Where is my Id even? My brain. My mind. Where are they? Really? They are supposed to be in my head. But is my head part of the Superdream?

Is the stark Truth that I am all alone? Am I the only one? A loneliness far greater than any I have experienced, in The Superdream. Am I “The One” as in “The Matrix”? Not a “God” though because I have so little power in the Superdream. Perhaps there are no gods. Just little me. Alone. At the mercy of my SuperId. So what exactly is my SuperId? I don’t know.

Or maybe there is a group of us. Our SuperIds connected in some way. Perhaps we share one SuperId. Who knows.

When I die I expect to become nothing. An emptiness in which I cannot even acknowledge I’m not there. Rather like that gap in living that you get during an operation or having a tooth out under general anaesthetic. It saddens me that every living thing eventually dies in this way. Not a single one escapes this fate. So I am told. There are some water creatures that are biologically “immortal”, I read, but I hold out little hope there.

Yet rather than becoming nothing when I die, I hope to awaken from this “Superdream” and enter some “Super Reality”. Perhaps that Super Reality is but a “Super-Super Dream”, and that a “Super-Super-Super Dream”... ad infinitum. Now Infinity, that’s a scary thing.

How many times will I “Supersleep”? Just the once, or countless times? Is there reincarnation after all? Will I re-appear in other places, other times? Or does my consciousness continue, somehow, after my physical death? Will I join some Spiritual World?

Regular reader LewSethics reminded me recently of a possible scenario: that there is just one being reincarnating continuously so as to live the life of every one of us. Others have suggested such an individual might be God. There are countless possible scenarios. What concerns me, however, is my own personal destiny. The next major milestone for me is Death.

Whatever happens: from my perspective this world of ours will cease to exist once I am “gone”. It might just as well have never existed in the first instance. What a waste. I do Hope there is more than this.

Who cares whether there is a God, or race of Gods? What counts is whether there is Life. What matters is Existence. The Quality of that Existence too. I hope this Superdream is but an “Education”. That I am learning lessons for my “Afterlife”. I am a “Lifist” indeed. “Life” is Everything. If that has to be a “Spiritual” Life, eventually, then so be it. Better than nothing.

Let’s face it: on the cosmic scale of things the human race knows next to nothing. For me, nobody has really explained gravity, electricity or any of the major forces which make existence possible. Nobody has even told us where The Big Bang came from. The Universe seems to be some colossal Accident, which has spawned a multitude of mortals. Yet no-one can really explain it all.

Maybe there is indeed a universal “Force” behind all this. Could “Star Wars” be right after all? May the Force be with us indeed. May our Hopes be realised. May there be an “our”, a “we”! To the Spiritual. To Everlasting Life. To Immortality. To Eternity. Throughout Infinity. Let there be Life.

Paul Butters

See also: http://authspot.com/poetry/aire-valley/

Friday 8 July 2011

Dream


Early this morning I had a strange dream. In the “beginning” I was back teaching in the 1970s. For some reason I decided to go round the class and take a look at each group of pupils. It turned out that a girl was ill and needed to be carried out.

I continued my tour: most of them were whiling away their time doing next to nothing. One of them requested my help and I duly obliged. Oddly the “classroom” was now located in an open, grassy field with brick walls but no roof.

Presently I found myself in the staffroom, and a tannoy message blared out. Apparently a policeman was here to see me about his son! A (false) memory crossed my mind of me hitting a lad for misbehaving. I dashed down the corridor.

Suddenly I was outside the massive concrete and glass school campus. Ahead of me was a “Spaghetti Junction” of criss-crossing motorways. I turned to face the school. A secretary ran out. “You’ve just missed him! Ah, no, he’s waiting for you down there.” She pointed to my left, down a dark pedestrian subway.

Without hesitation (silly me) I marched into that morbid alleyway. There was graffiti and rubbish everywhere. Yet there to greet me, and shake my hand, was a middle aged policeman in rather a modern, American style uniform. He gave me his name and I tried to make a note of it. Somehow I was now carrying an assortment of diaries and notebooks, but somehow I could not find a blank page.

The policeman told me not to worry. He thanked me for helping his son all those years ago. That was real teaching, he said. Now he was a young policeman who offered his support, put his arm around me and gave me a big hug!

“I’m lucky, I have my whole department to back me up. You are on your own. Come and see us solve some murders. Then you can go back to class and really impress those young punks with your knowledge.”

At this point I woke up. What a dream! Okay, so I have been watching a DVD of Waterloo Road, Series One. And Waterloo Road on Wednesday of this week. I can see how such viewing might make me dream about teaching.

Yet how can my own Subconscious, Unconscious, Id or whatever come up with such a surprise? I really was expecting to encounter an irate parent there. Yet I was offered lots of support instead! How can my own brain keep things from me like this then spring something new on me like that?

My Id shocks and surprises me an awful lot. They say your subconscious remembers every detail of everything that you experience. It is a wonderful thing. My “mind” gives me false memories and story lines, to completely dupe me into God knows what. I’m just glad my Id was in a very kindly mood this morning.

Lucid dreams? Very rare for me. I seldom realise I am dreaming, until it is too late! And What Dreams. As I keep saying. I hope I am making progress in my head there.

Paul Butters

Latest:

http://authspot.com/poetry/out-of-africa-2/

Friday 10 June 2011

Barcelona!


My Triond blog, "Are Barcelona the Best Team Ever?" currently has 77 Views - making it one of my top pieces. "Sexy Writing" did best I believe, with at least 120. Popular topics indeed. I am typing this live by the way. Have just posted a piece on my "three favourite talking therapies" onto Triond and await publication (they are a bit slow on this one). Steady business. Would go much quicker if I could keep off the Triond Forum.

Latest:






Friday 6 May 2011

Fact or Fiction?


I said earlier that Factoidz was the site of choice for me. Now I'm not so sure. On reflection I am more a "Blogger" than an "Article Writer". I like to pour out my thoughts, ideas and feelings. Also I love to be anecdotal. That goes with my penchant for story writing. And of course, I love to compose poetry. To me, dry facts are boring. For publishing blogs etc., Triond will do for me in the main. It is, after all, a "Blogging Site".

Apparently most of the people on the web are looking for facts and information. That's a shame. I feel they are missing out. Being human is all about emotion, even passion. It's about Wanting that hero to get the girl or find the treasure. Let's hope I can woo these readers into actually Reading and enjoying the experience. Not merely to acquire some nice shoes or a "bird-pulling" car. Not robotic clicking and glancing. I am looking for people who savour their reading like good food. For me, that "meal" should be served with flair, like a top chef. And eaten like real human beings.

(This blog was written "on site", with no cutting and pasting from "Word". The tag suggester was rather forceful today but we got there with MY NEW words eventually)!

PS 15\5\2011 - Just to say my Poemhunter poems are visible again after the latest "vanishing". Cannot access "Managing Poems" right now, however.

My latest Triond "Blog":









Saturday 23 April 2011

Triond Forum Spoof


Just published hopefully a hilarious spoof story cum script on The Triond Forum, on TRIOND! Thankful for the good comments so far. Enjoy:




Thursday 21 April 2011

Adsense


Just Checked my Google Adsense Report. Plenty of Views registered this month, but NO "Clicks"!
Have earned 66P to press! The "Payment Threshold" is £66. Long Promised Road. Am doing okay on Triond etc. however. No big money though. Oh well. No Caribbean holiday yet. Now, please Scroll Down to the "Second Chance" story!

Superseded by my first Haiku: http://authspot.com/poetry/haiku-one-5/

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Second Chance - Part One


Newly improved version of my Triond story:

Where am I? Can’t be. Dave Summers has awakened to find himself back in his old house in Oaklee Road, Workham, City of Lionby. He keeps pinching himself. Surely this must be a dream, yet everything looks so real. Dave sits on his bed, in his bedroom at the rear of the old terrace house. A terrace that was demolished in 1963! Dave’s last recollection before today was falling asleep in his house in Grimlea, in the year 2015. He had had a steady day at the office: Grimlea Job Centre, where he had worked for about thirty years. The evening had been quite routine too. But without warning, everything had come to this.

Impulsively Dave dashes downstairs into the lounge. He ignores the rumbling of his father’s snoring, which comes from the bedroom at the other side of the staircase. Dave knows, or rather remembers better than to disturb anyone at this early hour. Soon he stares into the sitting room mirror: at his ten year old self! After several minutes prodding his face he takes in the scene. The Sunday ‘papers are scattered before the doorway. Frantically he ceases them and hones in on one detail: they confirm it is 1962!

About thirty minutes later Dave returns to his bedroom after exploring the street outside. Everything is more or less as he remembers it. Admittedly the houses are much smaller than he recalls, but going back to visit old places is often strange like this. With an air of determination Dave finds himself a notebook and pen. His instincts now tell him that he must keep his grip on 2015!

Dave writes: “This is a true story. Last night when I went to sleep it was the year 2015 and I was a Personal Adviser at Grimlea Job Centre. Now I’m a ten year old schoolboy living in Lionby and it is 1962. Brazil have yet to win the World Cup this year. Next year J.F. Kennedy will be assassinated. Maybe I will wake up tomorrow back in Grimlea 2015. Yet I might not, and I may lose all my “memories”. England winning the World Cup in 1966. The Aberfan tragedy the same year. Man landing on the Moon in 1969. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones. Queen, Genesis, Girls Aloud. 9\11, The Gulf Wars, The Falklands War. The tragic tale of Princess Di. Digital Television. Mobile Phones. The Internet. Sinking ships and air crashes. The pulling down of The Berlin Wall and the breakup of The Soviet Union. The North African Revolutions. My friends and colleagues. For what if I take a different path this time? Meet different people in different places. Could I change history? Only time will tell. Amen.”

Feeling a little more composed now, Dave ventures outside again. One or two people are strolling about. He sits on a small wall not far from his house. Presently a young man, dressed in jeans and tee-shirt, walks up to him.

“Dave Summers you may not change history!” he announces firmly.

“How do you know my name?” squeals Dave.

“May I sit with you?” asks the man, with a smile, “I’d rather not stand over you like this.”

Dave nods, frowning.

“Please sit back and relax,” says the man, “I’ve come here to explain what is going on for you.”

Dave: “Who are you?”

Man: “I have no name as you know it. Nor am I from anywhere you would recognise. Fact is, as you may have surmised, you have indeed been given a second chance. The meaning of that should be clear enough to you. But any time your actions or words begin to threaten the main historical time line you will find yourself re-awakening on the previous day! So, sorry Dave, you cannot tell anyone about any of this. You cannot hint about 9\11, Kennedy or even your own family births, deaths or marriages. Nothing must prevent the birth of your nieces and nephews. Your pathway, however, may be very broad indeed. Any changes you make to your life may, within due reason, be accommodated. Before you ask, that is all you need to know about this arrangement. It’s very simple, any wrong word or action and you go back a day. You might even do this deliberately to get out of a scrape, but you will always go back. You are not allowed the right of question. I sincerely wish you the best of luck. Goodbye.”

With that, the young man jumps to his feet and heads down the street. At this point some girl accidentally bumps into Dave. She apologises and Dave accepts. When Dave turns to look back down the street, that lad has vanished into thin air. It is a fait accompli. Dave has no option but to live with the situation.

So Dave simply lays on his bed and meditates on what path he might take this time. Well, for a start he will not start his career with ten years in teaching! Should he still go and work at The Job Centre at some point? Maybe. Anything better? Perhaps. Something to consider. New women? Why of course, given a fair chance. At least now he has the massive advantage of fifty years of experience and knowledge of the future.

Paul Butters

To be Continued, in Part Two!

(Amendments\additions made 12\3\2011. Meeting with “young man completely redrafted 20\4\2011)

(Picture above is of Ashley Road, Upper Wortley, Leeds - the "School Street" where I lived until about 1963)

YO I've Gone Green on The Triond Forum!


Yes. I have edited my profile on the Triond Forum so that my name "Yorky" there has Gone Green. Thus I have hyperlinked it to this very blog.

But Trionders, don't expect pictures of naked girls or porn videos here! Or indeed anything flash. I am but a Freelance Writer who loves to WRITE. That's why I'm on Blogger rather than my own domain. Sure, I can copy and paste URLS now, but I freely admit to being computer illiterate. When I tried to integrate Google Analytics or whatever here, I failed miserably. Then I thought, what the hell, Blogger provides full stats and traffic sources anyway!

Those kids on Triond can get thousands of Views with clever SEO titles like, "Runescape Sucks". Well, good look to em. About time I got down to some more story writing. For Triond initially. WILCO (To Me) (if that's the right word -yep, checked online).

Monday 28 March 2011

Factoidz - The Facts!


Just posted this on the Triond Forum:


"Factoidz just gave me 60 cents "Activity Bonus" for posting one article (only my 4th there). Have had 63 views in a couple of days. That's like 4 of my SF stories here. My lowest Factoidz view total for an my established articles is 234 - far higher than any of my Triond ones. Nuff Said....."


Yes, Factoidz has to be first choice for me. That's for serious, factual articles only. Their editorial is very finnicky but.... Quality Site. HubPages and similar sites are a consideration. Everything else I post on Triond first, because they demand original content. My poems and fiction are then copied onto Voicesnet. Am still copying my poems onto Poemhunter now it is at least partly working again. Nuff Said. Out.



Just received my 100 Articles Badge from Triond (12\4\2011)!


17th April 2011: My Total Friends on Triond is now 403! Fans 351. (Have some withdrawn or just not reciprocated? Don't recall friending many myself). Right now my Poemhunter poems are invisible again I'm afraid. Have messaged Poemhunter (who have improved their messaging facility).

More Recent Stuff


















Wednesday 19 January 2011

Life in Space.


Have just had an article published on Factoidz. It describes most of the planets and moons within a 20 light year radius from Earth, that might support life. For once I did some serious research. Did not use all of the many facts and figures I'd compiled, for fear of information overload and too long a piece of writing. Am quite proud of this piece. Shame picture of Europa, Earth and Moon did not take. (See to left - from NASA via Wikicommons). A couple of spacing errors too. But still happy. Here it is:




19\1\11: That's 47 Views (and counting, at 23.12) on Factoidz today, with 2 Thumbs Up (Votes or whatever)! Nearly always do well for views on Factoidz!
1\2: Have posted a follow-up article on Triond, using ALL the facts I researched, more like a list. See: