The Technical Writer's Existential Plight

After two weeks of plague, I have dragged myself from the miry depths of sickness to produce a new article. While recovering, a philosophical quandary took a firm lodging within my brain. previous post, the heroic acts of writers often go unsung in the corporate world. An area where this phenomenon is of particular concern is among the ranks of technical writers.
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One of the prevailing trends of late in this particular corner of the writing world is a policy of erasure. Technical documents should be toneless, impersonal, instructions absent personality. For instance, a blog post I read recently suggested that some of the policies taking hold within the industry are causing the proliferation of an "assembly line" approach that attempts to remove writers from the equation whenever possible. What could cause such a promotion of subalternity? The post's author suggests that it is something initially meant to assist technical writers: the topic authoring system.

To give a two-bit summary, topic authoring and more technological implementations of it, such as DITA, are methods for creating content repositories that allow for the easy reuse of pieces of written information, dubbed topics. These organizational systems make it so that there is a reduction in the redundancy of content since writers can simply pull in information that has already been created. Sounds great, right? Well, in theory, yes, but as I've indicated, there are drawbacks as well.

Under the law of topic authoring, no longer are writers to be concerned with narrative. Instead, each snippet of information should be self-contained and able to stand alone so that any document can incorporate it with ease. This, when implemented in a haphazard way, causes chaotic guides cobbled together from myriad sources that vary in tone, structure, and approach. For this reason the holy, impersonal statutes delineate certain varieties of topic that prescribe unyielding templates for information types, such as procedures, explanations, and references.

You may ask why I take issue with this. To put it in a phrase, these standards promote absolutism. They strive for a unified whole that, through the uncertainty of language, is rendered always already incomplete (see my electronic music article for more on this). Okay, great, but what's the alternative? If you'll permit me, I've got a few ideas.

First of all, we need to cease the overdefinition and erasure of the writer within and from the writing process. Even the STC, one of the preeminent organizations in the technical writing field, seeks to alter their title away from "technical writing" to "technical communication." In principle, this seems broader, but in actuality it removes the agency of the writer. The act is no longer in their hands. They are now simply cogs in a great, inexorable machine that churns out instructions. Instead, I think writers should embrace the power their name represents. They are the directors of language's play. If we place the same creative value on technical writers that we do on other writing professionals, such as copywriters, the results might be surprising.

Once this initial shift in philosophical perspective happens, a more effective harmonization between technical writers and other professional divisions can be established. The breaking down of these artificial walls will allow a dialog across the many corporate areas dealing with the written word. When the lines of communication are flowing, synchronicities in thought can be achieved that will improve company-wide branding and stylistic recognition.

Only one key realization is needed to bring this to fruition: technical writers are marketers too. Their words contribute as much to the success of a corporate endeavor as front end advertising processes do. If customers have a unique experience even when looking for solutions to difficulties with a product, they will have an even more vivid recognition of specific brands and will be more likely to return for more service. Remove status, remove fear, leave only the words. Then, we can understand value beyond what reductive structures define for us.

The Human Element: Ultimate Business Intelligence Differentiator

The beginning of this week was quite exciting for me. I accepted a job offer to work at the Ironside Group and managed to pick away further at pieces of my novel. While on the surface these events may seem to have no correlation, the combination of the two got me thinking. As you know, my prevailing philosophical tendency, as I elaborated on in the context of electronic music not long ago, is to pursue avenues that increase connection and proliferate values of communication. What's interesting is that the company that I just joined espouses these same values and puts them into practice to create a cutting edge approach to business intelligence, something else I've spoken about in a previous article.

Ironside's bread and butter is technology consulting, specifically around IBM's suite of business intelligence products, such as Cognos. They book professional services engagements with companies across the US, helping these business partners to implement and learn about how the products that Ironside supports can improve their knowledge of and control over their infrastructure. In addition to helping with planning, installation, and setup, Ironside also offers training services that enlighten clients to the vagaries of these oft-complex technological solutions. This, my friends, is where things get interesting.

As I've said before, it's not only a matter of providing a service, it's also about providing the opportunity for people to learn about and implement that solution. You may have already asked how it is that a company like Ironside can survive on the technology of another company, and this opportunity is the space in which the answer lies. The expansive vision of Ironside stems from the company's ability to take IBM's technology and run with it. These consultants and trainers innovate on and bring their own perspective to the products, pushing the envelope of the customer's experience and addressing the individual needs of their unique business infrastructures.

Would you look at that. It came back to a Deconstructionist principle again. I'm sure you're all making shocked faces. What makes Ironside innovative? It's their ability to take into account the myriad perspectives floating around in our vast universe, coming into contact with as many as possible to broaden their scope and create the most impactful ideas possible. This human element is their differentiator. No more is simple reliance on the cold, binarial logic of machines sufficient. We must translate; we must play with the interpretations of these interfaces. Only then can we learn and grow.

I'm sure you've anticipated that this is a windup to your next challenge. Its goal is much like the others I've given, though this one may seem a bit more practical. I ask you to try to re-envision a process that you execute every day. Try to see it from someone else's angle. Would it work in a different environment? Where and why? Where and why not? When we start exploring these questions, we unlock the many points of existence around us. Keep on flexing them expansion muscles, people. As a wise, literate man who was once on Star Trek says often, I'll see you next time.

On Writers, the Unsung Heroes of Corporate Culture

Yesterday, I came across an intriguing article by Cord Jefferson on Gawker regarding the fair compensation of writers. It laid out a few thought-provoking points regarding the debate between whether or not asking writers to provide free content is a fair request. Being somewhat concerned with this particular quandary myself, I thought I'd explore it further in today's post.

To me, this is a good springboard from which to launch a campaign of awareness. Whether you realize it or not, writers are all around you. Laboring in the shadows, these talented individuals are, if you'll permit the metaphor, the wheels on the bus of business. You could still start the engine without them, but it would sure be hard to get anywhere.

Another unfortunate truth contained in the image above is that, like wheels, writers often bear a lot of the weight of corporate success without being considered as pretty or visible as the paint job, hood ornaments, or grill. This is a situation to which I can relate. When I was employed as a technical editor, I saw many brilliant individuals in my department working with a tireless sense of duty. Their creativity and commitment drove many successful documentation releases, without which the products that our company sold would have been incomprehensible. Despite this fact, however, technical publications is a field that often gets overlooked. These departments often fail to receive the hallowed title of "revenue generator," and therefore often face budget cuts that leave them unable to pursue improvements that would increase customer satisfaction.

So what does it take to be a revenue generator? Well, based on the explanations given in the link above, it takes having a tangible impact on the profit of a company. Okay, so by extension, wouldn't that mean that technical publications do generate revenue because they make products understandable to users? There, my friend, is the rub. Yes, they do, but not in a flashy way. People consult technical documents often at the pinnacle of their stress levels. They can't find the answer on their own, so they need help. As a result, it's not considered something people want to read, like marketing materials or business proposals. The mistake that often results from this correlation is the thought among executives that these resources aren't always necessary and are often more frustrating rather than helpful. Sure, this assertion might hold water in some cases, but the alternative is a far more confusing realm.

As an editor, I saw my fair share of technical information written by non-technical writers, whether these be product managers, engineers, or any other functions. There are occasions upon which these endeavors can work, such as when the audience aligns in understanding with the profession of the author. That said, without someone dedicated to exploring what customers need to find out and where they go to do so, much gets lost in translation. Research into the types of people using products, the way they use the products, and the places in which they expect to find valuable information about the products is invaluable. That's how technical writers generate revenue. Each day, through the very nature of their work, they gain an insight into how customers think.

Now, this isn't the only literary profession subject to the Invisible Writer Syndrome. As Cord Jefferson points out, journalists often get the short end of the stick in terms of the compensation they get for what they do and are often taken for granted in this age in which news just appears out of the ether. In fact, if you look in most departments at a company, from Marketing to Operations, you'll find various types of writers providing content that keeps the whole thing rolling.

This is not meant as a complaint. I celebrate my chosen profession and revel in the creative backflips it allows me each day. Think of it instead as a call to action. Notice those quiet scribblers tucked away in corner cubicles. Realize that just because they are not at the head of a board meeting or the face you see at business conferences does not mean that they deserve less than those that are. All those company blogs, Facebook updates, Twitter posts, proposals, and manuals come from somewhere. Look in that direction, and shine a light on the individuals there. You'll be glad you did.

Engagement: Applying Social Action to Business

There was a certain prevailing notion about business that I and many others from my generation experienced as we ascended the rickety and treacherous ladder to adulthood: it is by definition amoral. Profit is the holy grail, and any people, animals, or environments in the way of that goal were to be swept aside. Well, another part of adulthood is also sweeping aside the preconceived notions fostered in the boiling cauldron of teenage angst, so with that said, I'd like to put forth a proposition. The strongest businesses are those that can actualize and engage their intended audience. Social action is as large a deciding factor in the marketplace as it is when rallying for causes. People need to feel involved. With the advent of social media, we are all connected for better or for worse. There are no more numbers, only names. That's a liberating thought, isn't it?

As a result of this movement, it's no longer easy to get away with inundating potential customers with impersonal spam. Instead, it's necessary to learn about and nurture the connections you wish to make (see my lead nurturing article for more on that). An effective marketing campaign in the modern corporate landscape should take more cues from non-profits and social change efforts than it does from risk analysts and financial planners.

An emerging company that embodies this new mode of thought is Dailybreak. They market not only a product, but an experience as well. How? Through interactive snippets of content called challenges. These unique digital packages encourage consumer participation, what Dailybreak calls, aptly enough, social actions. Whether through a bite-sized game, a photo contest, a public vote, or an abundance of other options, Dailybreak pulls people in and makes them feel as though they are a part of something. This may sound familiar, as it is a very similar model to the one that Kiva uses, which I discussed in an earlier post. Social responsibility influencing corporate culture. Who'da thunk?

Anyway, I find Dailybreak's approach so fascinating because it can be applied almost anywhere. Just find the interactions most appropriate to your particular line of interest and off you go. The best part is that there's no way to be disingenuous here. To follow such a model necessitates a deep understanding of your audience and a genuine interest in connecting with them on a personal level. The old methodologies of simple trickery go out the window in this scenario. Corporations now have to be responsible in order to even attract customers.

Bravo, I say. Bravo to the Age of Information. As Neal DeGrasse Tyson put it, "We are all connected to each other biologically; to the earth chemically; to the rest of the universe atomically." The more that business assimilates this truth, the more ethical practices will prevail and the more people will get what they need instead of just meeting a series of transient, fleeting, implanted wants. Keep that in mind the next time that you advertise, and I wish you the best of luck in finding those in the world who need what you have to offer. They're out there, I promise.

Just Say Yes: Why Improv Improves Business Presentations

There's a touch of whimsy in the air today, perhaps brought along with the gathering storm clouds over Massachusetts. Not one to reject such things, I'd like to focus on a somewhat unorthodox methodology for standing out in the elephant graveyard of halfhearted PowerPoint presentations that is the typical day at the office. Where could we possibly find a respite from those long, droning quarterly meetings? Follow me, friends, to the land of improv.

As some of you may know, improv is common parlance for improvisational theatre, a practice among actors that involves an entire performance made of ad lib content. In other words, it's all off the cuff. Straight from the brain pan into the fire, if you will. The actors involved feed off of ideas from other performers, themselves, objects in the room, and even the audience to create an array of ever-shifting narratives. This may sound familiar, as it received a great deal of public attention during the run of the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?

But what's all this got to do with the PowerPoint that you dread having to present next week? Well, there are several rules of improv that can prove very useful in a corporate situation. The first, and I think most widely applicable, is to just say yes no matter what happens. When interacting with another actor on stage, this means responding in a positive way to an idea that you might not have figured would result from the action taking place. In a business situation, this could mean being willing to go off script or address questions about aspects of your presentation that you hadn't considered. The point is, when you allow yourself permission to be open to the flux of ideas and activity around you, you can think on your feet with ease and respond to even the most difficult circumstances with grace.

Another couple of more pragmatic rules are not asking open ended questions and making your partner look good. Now, when improv folks say "partner," it doesn't apply just to situations in which you are working with someone else. It can also apply to the audience or even to the presentation materials that you use. For instance, you can take an idea that someone brings up in the question period after a presentation and run with it, elaborating on the basic principal and praising that person for their ingenuity. This not only wins you an ally, but also stimulates further discussion and innovation. In addition, when you're in the audience for a presentation, you can apply the principle of not asking open ended questions to give others ideas and generate targeted conversations. If you focus on a specific point, it makes it easier for someone else to respond, which benefits the flow of both improv shows and presentations.

Finally, there's the idea of telling a story. This concept is a bit more abstract, but it pays off to practice it. In improv, telling a story is crucial to building the action in a scene. You need to set the stage or be able to elaborate on the stage someone else has set. Don't just say "there's a fish in the road," say "Melvin! Melvin! Oh God, Melvin! I must have left his tank on the window sill again...somebody, help!" These specific details, as ludicrous as the above scenario may sound, allow someone else to begin picturing what you're talking about, which is important since improv is often done without a set and with minimal props. In business, there's numerous ways to take advantage of this concept. Place specific examples in your presentation, and flesh them out with anecdotes, facts, and your opinion. Paint your proposal across the mind's eye of your peers.

What's the best way to start learning about improv? Watch it and do it. There are numerous improv troupes across the country. For instance, the Boston area (my personal stomping grounds) plays host to excellent artistic efforts such as ImprovBoston, a comedy group that provides five nights a week of entertainment. They also offer classes so that you can immerse yourself in improv practice. Another amazing and innovative group is New York-based Improv Everywhere, who create random scenes in public places, often calling attention in a comedic way to objects or ideas that the general public takes for granted. Please check out these groups, as they are both immaculate performers and excellent resources for improv theory. With that said, I think it's time you got out there and revived that comatose presentation. Let those ideas take you away from the elephant graveyard and into the bright, verdant valley of creativity.

More than a Sale: Lead Nurturing's Role in Marketing Success

As it seems that I grow increasingly business-minded of late, I thought that I would share some information about another marketing practice that I've been reading up on: lead nurturing. This concept is a bit more abstract than those I addressed last week, but is also intriguing due to its philosophical elements. You see, lead nurturing is not just some predetermined set of statistics or programs. Instead, it involves a sophisticated mix of relationship building and persuasion. That's right, my friends, it's not just about tracking some emails or blasting out notifications to a list. To do it right, you need to cultivate the idea that I've mentioned time and again in these pages: connection.

As usual, I've gotten a bit ahead of myself. First, we should walk together through the valley of fundamentals in order to reach the peak of understanding. What is a lead? Well, it's really quite straightforward: it's you. That's somewhat of an oversimplification, but it conveys the gist of things. To elaborate, a lead is a person or group that is already interested or could potentially be interested in becoming a customer. Leads can come from many places, such as a customer signing up for an email list, downloading a trial pack of software, or accessing free learning resources, among others. For obvious reasons, marketers covet these relationships because they can, when given the right impetus, lead to further revenue and brand exposure. This, as you may have guessed, is where we get into the nurturing part.

As I've indicated above, obtaining a lead is only the first step. After initial contact, a marketer must grow, or nurture, the connection in order to persuade the lead to become a customer. Proper use of this strategy bears tremendous reward. In Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, the author mentions a statistic from a DemandGen report, which asserts that nurtured leads result in an average sales opportunity increase of 20 percent when compared to non-nurtured leads. That's a definitive margin if I ever saw one.

Okay, sounds great, sign me up, but how do you do it? How do you grow a customer relationship that way? This is where we get into the abstract bits, so buckle your seat belts. Mounting an effective lead nurturing approach takes a careful combination of automation and analysis with a personal touch. The first part is concrete enough; there are some great solution providers out there like Hubspot who can set you up with an array of powerful tools to analyze your audience and craft automated alerts and responses to get the initial lead in place. However, it's the second bit - what is done with that information - where having a spark of creativity can pay huge dividends.

Folks, we've got to fire up that imagination engine again. Sure, you can know what kind of a target market you have, how many people have visited your site, who has downloaded your trial software, and a million other pieces of similar information, but that doesn't mean people are buying what you're selling. For that to happen, you must enter the surreal landscape of relationships. As the aforementioned Marketo guide says, lead nurturing is like maintaining a long-term relationship in your personal life, and that means you've got to give to get. If you don't capture people's interest and stay present in their minds, you will lose leads as fast as you get them.

With that said, I'm going to run through a fictional case study as an example of how you can imagine your way to good marketing practices. Say you've got an email list that tells you who signed up to view a product demonstration on your website. There are some valuable facts you can glean from this list. First of all, these people are probably exploring several product options if they're watching demos, which means you need to prove that your product is worth more to them than the competition's. You can hope that the awesome video your team put together does the job, or you can act to reinforce the message.

With planning, automation can help you out a bit. Using an email service provider or marketing automation software, you can author an email ahead of time that thanks people for signing up and gives a few follow-up details about the product that flesh out what they saw in the demo. In my opinion, though, the most important element to include here is a method for the audience to give feedback and reach you with other questions. Don't bank on your extra facts filling in all the gaps; you can't anticipate all the vagaries of the human thought process, and if you tried to your email would be far too long. Instead, make it clear that you value what your audience has to say. If they feel important and cared about now, they'll trust you more later.

Along with planting the seed of trust, make sure you reinforce your credibility. Respond promptly to any feedback and questions you receive, and be honest. Procrastination is a killer in this scenario. If people perceive your question line as a bottomless abyss into which queries disappear without a trace, they will no longer believe in any of your claims. Thank them for criticism, and pass on useful critiques to your team. This can be stellar method for getting in product testing while also nurturing leads. Answer questions in a succinct way, and point the questioner to further resources (make sure you have these ready to go). Above all, don't automate this if at all possible. As I said before, the personal touch will be noted.

The foundation above paves the way for more intricate lead nurturing techniques, such as offering free trials of products, requesting surveys of customer needs, and, at the latest stage, engaging the sales team to pitch a purchase plan to the prospect. Remember, you need to prove your worth first. The magic of the interwebs affords us the ability to research companies and products in-depth before buying anything, so premature sales pitches almost always scare people off. Be deliberate and unique. Think about what you can do for the leads you are following. To once again reference a past blog post, it's not about manipulation. More and more as technology improves, the old ways of suckering someone into buying something then running are invalidated. What will make you stand out is your passion and your ideas. Connect to, nurture, and help others, and then your success will be limitless.

For more information about lead nurturing, I suggest checking out Hubspot's blog posts. They've got loads of useful information that can deepen your understanding of the concepts I've sketched out here. Like Wistia, they provide both the resources and the opportunity to learn about what they sell. Also, Eloqua has some amazing best practice tool kits that lay out these ideas in very easy-to-consume ways. My words here are only a starting point; after all, I still have much to learn myself about this fascinating discipline. Continue exploring, and I'll see you next time.

Fanciful Friday: Social and Deconstructionist Benefits of Electronic Music

Today, an idea struck me. Since my interests range across such a wide gamut, I've made the executive decision that Friday will be a day on which I diverge from my typical subject matter and pluck a topic from the ether to discuss. Today, I want to delve into a genre with which I've grown increasingly enamored of late: Electronica. Encompassing an unfathomable amount of different sounds and techniques, from the calculated dissonance of Dubstep and DnB to the sweeping melodies of Trance and House, this genre is redrawing the barriers of sonic experience and redefining the public opinion of musicianship and music in general.

In recent years, electronic music has gained a great deal of headway due to its increasing integration into the pop music scene. Artists such as Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and even rappers like Flo Rida have capitalized on electronic influences to gain notice. While many deeply knowledgeable genre devotees dismiss these appropriations as a cheapening of the electronic tradition, I'd like to offer a different perspective. As a disclaimer, I am new to Electronica, but as such I think that I come at it from a different trajectory than those who have been embedded for a longer time period. To me, it seems that though the co-opting of electronic styles does of course lead to a certain degree of washout, overall this is a striking opportunity for a generalized improvement in music as a whole. You see, Electronica has something that can push pop in a more positive direction: an accepting, nurturing culture.

I'm going to introduce you to four letters that have been a potent driving force behind the general ambiance of electronic concerts: PLUR. Standing for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect, this philosophy in many ways appears, when combined with the genre it supports, to be a sort of technologized, transhumanist Buddhism. On a basic level, it means that while engaged with others in the enjoyment of music, acceptance and the expansion of perspective are of chiefest importance, and that the narrowing of this experience via the vectors of intolerance or violence are not permissible. Sound familiar? It should, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time. These principals mirror in many ways the particular brand of Deconstructionist philosophy of which I'm most fond.

To give a two-bit summary, Deconstruction at its highest level speaks about the instabilities present in our language. It teaches that meaning is only ever partial because a portion of it is always already deferred into another related piece of language, causing an unending chain of signification that never quite gets to an authoritative, universal concept. Confused yet? To make it even more simple: words don't allow us to fully sum up the world around us or to express the fullness of reality.

Often, this idea becomes conflated with a downward spiral into a neverending abyss, but that's a somewhat reductive way of looking at it. True, this perspective does strip away our certainty regarding how we categorize and catalog our daily experience, but that doesn't mean living is pointless. In fact, here's the kicker: Deconstruction is negative and generative. It both wipes away our surety and encourages us to play in the new, amorphous space to which it sends us. The social applications are striking: The further you follow the chain of meaning, the more people, subject positions, and general wonders you will encounter.

Now, with that tangent out of the way, how does all that high-mindedness relate to the Nero album that Steve bought yesterday? Well, it's not as complicated as you might think. Electronic music prioritizes this kind of thinking. PLUR, Deconstruction, whatever you call (or don't call) it, this particular genre is a hotbed for thinking that increases social awareness and equality, and its impact has reached many corners of music.

Let's do a quick breakdown of two examples: Enter Shikari and Lady Gaga. Polar opposites, right? Nope, and I thought I already told you that the entire concept of binary poles was right out. While not electronic artists per se, both have clear, strong influences from the genre in their songs. What's clearest, however, is the social responsibility that these artists exhibit. Lady Gaga has championed the cause of acceptance, telling people to embrace difference and flux. She also played a key role in the fight to get Don't Ask Don't Tell repealed. Enter Shikari's music is brazen in its political messaging and advocates for the shattering of national borders as well as promoting government responsibility and economic/environmental sustainability. My argument? I think these impulses, at least in part, stem from engagement in electronic music culture. Exposure to PLUR and other principles like it promotes an ethos of discovery and enrichment that carries through into the lives and work of the people listening, whether they create music or finance reports.

If you're interested in learning more about the many facets of this genre, I've found Earmilk to be an excellent site for reviews, commentaries, and introductions to newer electronic musicians. As usual, I end this post with a challenge: Resist the impulse to fall into the trap that media outlets have laid regarding Electronica. This particular sector of the musical environment is not simply the domain of drug-addled escapists. In actuality, it is the province of dreamers and activists pushing for the kind of social and mental growth that needs to become all the more frequent in our society. If we are to evolve, we must look beyond the fictional polarities and reach out beyond our comfort zones. The beeps and beats can teach us; we just need to listen.

Killer Keywords: The Tip of the SEO Iceberg

The blogs just keep coming hot and fast these days. It seems there's more in my mind than usual, which of course results in even more content than usual. Today, I'd like to talk about yet another concept I've just started learning about: Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO. This fascinating process is an excellent example of something that began as a simple technology innovation and has since been leveraged to gain attention for a variety of interests across the web, from businesses to causes to blogs. Now, I preface this article by saying I am a rank beginner in this subject. The intention of this particular blog is not so much showing my expertise, but rather giving others an idea of where they can get started with this daunting analytical practice. There. Now that the tip of the iceberg has been sufficiently mapped, let's begin.

In order to start grasping the philosophy behind SEO, you first need to get the history. The particular echoes from the past informing this technological phenomenon began where many thoughts of its kind do: with engineers. Back when the web was young, it soon became apparent that organization was going to be paramount to its success. What good were all these electronic resources if it was impossible to find them without knowing an exact location? Enter the search engine. Using programs known as crawlers or spiders, engineers gained the ability to map out the giddying peaks and bottomless valleys of the online world. These programs pulled the information into organized indexes, what we now see upon entering a search on sites like Google or Bing.

But what makes it possible to create such an index? Wouldn't you still have to know exact addresses to mount an effective search? Relax, my friends. I present to you the heroes of our time: keywords. By tagging websites with words and phrases related to the content contained within them, we can search in a more general way and receive results from a plethora of sources based on their relevance to our query. This is the beating heart of SEO.

Once businesses realized that it was possible to use keywords in this manner, they took the next step and tried to optimize keywords to get noticed. By using consistent terms, matching the titles and URLs of websites to internal content, and researching the keywords that got the most use, companies became able to predict where their pages would be most successful in shouting their brand to the void. In fact, there is now an entire industry built around creating analytical tools for and performing the functions of SEO. Once again, language at play creates valuable connections.

I've done a simple scratching of SEO's surface here, but if you are interested in more information, I've found SEOmoz to be an unparallelled resource. In addition to creating tools and analytics that help you build a successful SEO strategy, SEOmoz also provides numerous free resources for learning about the subject. I've found their Beginner's Guide to SEO to be quite enlightening. Check it out, and start spreading your echoes to those around you. I hope these resources help you to keep expanding your perspective and to meet many other unique points of contact.

The Business of Imagination

During the beginning of this week, I've begun delving into the depths of yet another dark corner of the business world: Business Intelligence. BI, as those savvy in the terminology of this industry call it, concerns itself with creating an architecture around gathering and using the various customer, financial, and technological data swirling about untamed in a company's infrastructure. Sounds dry as a bone, right? Sure, but have I yet met a topic I failed to spice up? I guess we'll find out.

BI, like so many other practices in the oft-draconian corporate world, has myriad appearances and methods of application, and looks quite intimidating from a high level. Despite this fact, however, I am convinced that with the correct application of a talent unique to our species, we can break down these walls and restore what so often falls by the wayside of progress: accessibility.

What talent could possibly accomplish this herculean feat? What skill could cut a swathe through the seas of endless red tape? The key, my friends, is imagination. True, the previous sentence might seem to contain an overabundance of cheese, but the point stands.  By linking concepts that seem unyielding in their complexity to the creative centers of our brains, we can break them down piece by piece into digestible packets of visual, auditory, and written data. Several examples of these kind of business practices already exist. Once again, as in my last article, I find myself giving a well-deserved tip of the hat to Wistia.

In addition to their innovative video marketing platform, the Wistia team makes BI easy through gathering vital information about the videos they host using analytical tools. This video, taken from the Wistia Learning Center, gives some insight into how this kind of information can help track success without melting the minds of the innocent. As you can see, Wistia presents video stats using a clean, graphical representation that forms an instantaneous imprint on the user's mind. The colors delineate important patterns and draw the eye to the most relevant data points. No longer must we swim through line after line of a spreadsheet to glean insights into performance. Using the resources that modern technology affords us, we can harness the artistic ideas bursting from our brains and speak to others through cornea blasts of content that excite rather than frighten.

This does not simply apply to video, either. Wistia's methodology is extensible. The infographic below, posted on Column Five's site and done with Wistia, moves the scope outward to cover the video marketing industry as a whole and articulates its efficacy with striking grace.

Using an aesthetic mix of colorful imagery and easy-to-decipher text, this page breaks down the applications of video marketing, as well as its key audiences. It accesses the interplay of verbal and visual connections that form the constant backdrop of our mental experience. Through understanding this transience in our language, we can transfer meaning and resonance to objects and establish chains of significance leading from words to pictures to ideas. This is at once a powerful case study for deconstructive philosophy and a boon to business practices. Who says academic and corporate culture can't live in harmony?

I know it seems that I've harped on Wistia a great deal of late, but that's only because they've done such a great deal to deserve it. Companies using the kinds of methods articulated above give me hope for further innovations to come. If we can make business our art and art our business, then nothing will stop the free flow of imagination between the two. No longer will we need to choose between the drudgeries of work and the amusements our hobbies afford us. Instead, we will all simply live in a world at play.

#TweetFiction, Video Marketing, and General Excitement

This week has been one of the most eventful in recent history for me. So much discovery, exploration, and imagination is flooding my mind that I simply have spill such wondrous brain contents here. In terms of authorly-type activities, the ideas have been flowing, and to start I'd like to articulate a concept upon which I've been musing of late: #TweetFiction.

Similar to the flash fiction of luminaries such as Warren Ellis, #TweetFiction further condenses the concept to work within the scant 140-character confines of everyone's favorite social media platform. Thus far, it seems that about two sentences is the average workspace afforded. I've published four or so entries on my Twitter feed as concepts pop into my head. This is a wonderful brainstorming tactic, as it galvanizes the ol' neural connections and, in my case, leads to springboards for longer form fictional endeavors.

Being interested as I am in connection and perspectives, I'd like to extend an invitation. All ye writerly types, flood the Twittersphere with your dazzling creations. Pass it on, share the wealth, and provoke thought in a region of the web so often perceived (unfairly) as a source of irrelevant trivialities. Whether you're a fan of the real, fantastical, or scientific, this format offers a way to send out polished nuggets of verbal excellence to the world. Consider this the beginning of your manifesto: creativity and expansion. After all, isn't life boring if it's all defined for you?

Continuing on the track of creativity, I've recently become acquainted with an industry that has me quite excited: video marketing. Ranging from whimsical to instructional, these pieces of content highlight the importance of the emotional resonance that I spoke of in my last post when it comes to selling products and services. In our Big Data-centric society, the visual content is often of even higher importance than the verbal message. As Eddie Izzard put it, "It's 70 percent how you look, 20 percent how you sound, and only 10 percent what you actually say." Now, this isn't to say that verbal content should go out the window; my point is more that the visuals should match and amplify the message.

One of the best examples I've found of this amplification lately is the work being done by Wistia, a video marketing group out of Somerville, MA. They've managed to push for change in the marketing industry in ways that inspire others and spark conversations about where the industry as whole should head. Most important in my mind, however, is their generosity. Not only do they offer masterful solutions to clients, they also have numerous free resources available to the general public. One of their newer efforts is the Wistia Learning Center, a portal in which the company expounds upon the various aspects of video marketing. Whether it's the nuts and bolts of production techniques, the cerebral process of concept design, or the analytical intricacies of measuring video success, Wistia has it covered. Their easy-to-digest content is enlightening and integral to the building of success in the industry. Additionally, they offer free hosting for three videos to anyone who makes an account so that both the resources and opportunity to learn are within reach. Check them out if you have time.

Well, this brings us to the end of another scintillating installment. I hope to see #TweetFiction and videos popping up across the untamed vastness that is the Internet. Remember, construct your lives one moment at a time, and always broaden your perspective.

Revitalization and Notes Toward a Marketing Career

"How did Gandalf get ahead of us?"
"He comes and goes at will. He is a wizard, you know."
- The Hobbit (1977)

Jobs are much like wizards; they come and go at will, but (hopefully, at least) they always show up when you need them. My recent departure from RSA has caused some contemplation in this regard. The unexpected does not send you a calendar update on Microsoft Outlook, it simply happens. However, while it may be uncomfortable, it opens up a host of new, previously unexplored realms of opportunity. These are the things that, in my humble opinion, it is most productive to focus upon.

The chiefest sin of becoming entrenched in a daily routine is the impulse toward inattention. As my significant other says, "You can't just let life wash over you." This is a sin to which I have fallen prey over the last year in particular. Many of the facets of life that I most enjoy have fallen by the wayside as I encased myself in a firm wrapping of petty day-to-day concerns. One of those facets is this blog. The sounding board has suffered from a failure to resonate for over a year now. It's high time I remedied that situation.

As a first step, rather than keeping it all contained in the grey matter between my ears, I'd like to discuss my plans for the future upon reentering the murky waters of job searching. As I said in "I Swear to God I Can Copywrite" back in prehistoric times, marketing is the career area in which I think I can make the greatest impact. In terms of having a channel for boundless creativity, you can't get much better. The myriad products and services floating around in the ether of our global community all need direction, expansion, and targeting. Whether it's a video game, an automobile, or the latest breakthrough in cancer treatment, the only way for it to become useful is for it to be known.

Now, I know many may accuse me of lionizing a career that is essentially a glorified, electrified form of peddling, but if you look a little deeper, "take the deeper dive" as the managers I've had are fond of saying, you will find a vibrant community of individuals as imaginative as any science fiction writer. After all, marketing is the science of connection, something that has fascinated me since my MA studies. Think of it not as simple selling; that's not the point. The actual motive is a far more complex process involving the interweaving of emotions with people, acts, and objects. Ask yourself: what makes me treat a Roomba like a pet that happens to like eating my dirt? Why is it that the kind of computer I use signifies a certain set of personality traits to others? Marketing at work, folks :).

Now, my intention here is not to have everyone go off in a half-cocked, paranoid state a la the movie Branded thinking "the corporations are eating my brain." True, these powers have been and can be used for nefarious purposes, but there are other ways as well. Caution is called for, yes, but consider this: social and political causes need marketing too, as do products legitimately attempting to progress the well-being of humanity. For instance, despite the fraught nature of the individuals involved in its inception, the Kony 2012 campaign did succeed in highlighting the crimes being committed toward children in Africa and grabbed the attention of the global community in a very tangible way. In fact, three of the four goals established for the project were met in the same year in which it started. That's a pretty solid result any way you look at it.

Another sterling example is Kiva. Realizing that the biggest barrier to philanthropic activities is convenience, the people behind this organization created an online micro-lending platform that allows for instantaneous small donations to various individuals across the world. The best part? It's a loan, so the money will come back to you, and you can use it again to help more. All this from your comfy chair at your first-world computer desk. I can't think of a better use case for market targeting.

In short, marketing can change the world. It's a process that follows the best possible portions of the deconstructionist vision: using the play of language to engage as many points of human connection as possible. Through this enterprise, we can not only create successful businesses, but also expand our perceptions and raise global awareness of the infinite subject positions inhabited across the earth we share. In this spirit, I encourage you to learn about others; learn what they need, what preoccupies them, what they think and feel. It's not about manipulation, it's about actualization and proliferation. In this way, we can all be marketers.

The Perils of the Working World

I give up. I will not even make the pretense of apologizing yet again for the months-long silence that has plagued this blog. The fault is fully mine, and I own up to it. With the reorganization of my life that has taken place since starting my position at RSA, I have found it very difficult to maintain a writing schedule. Despite this, however, I have not been lax in my creative endeavors. Recently, after being struck with a bolt of inspiration in the midst of an otherwise ordinary workday, I began taking notes and making outlines concerning a new novel that I would like to write. It is to be a piece in the cyberpunk tradition, dealing with a (relatively) near-future European dystopia. More will be posted as it develops.

In addition to literary endeavors, I have also decided on the Warhammer 40k army that I would like to construct in the near future. Influenced by the awesome array of modeling and force options available to them, I have decided to create my own division of the Blood Angels, the Frostblood Brethren. This is mainly influenced by the power and versatility of the Baal Predator and Stormraven Gunship, units available specifically to the Blood Angels (pictured below). These vehicles, as well as the insane amount of jump infantry available to the Blood Angels, will allow me to create an extremely fast army that can get into close combat quickly and decimate the enemy. Choppy armies, as they are known in 40k parlance, are by far my favorite, and the Blood Angels are one of the choppiest. I will include pictures and army lists as I build and paint my units.

I am sure, as always, that this journey will allow my creativity to flow and will be profoundly enjoyable. I will post more about the novel and the army as soon as I can. Thank you to any readers who stuck it out through the silence of the past months.

A Job! Huzzah!

Once again I find myself apologizing for the extended silence that has plagued the blog over the past month. What with my work as a freelance journalist for Worcester Magazine and my job search, I have been quite swamped of late. I am happy to report, however, that this particular iteration of stress has now ended: I have a job! I will be beginning employment as an Associate Technical Editor for RSA, the security division of EMC, a software company on October 4th. I'm very excited. My qualifications have finally come through for me, and I'm also happy to note that this blog played a part in my success. The hiring committee for the position took a look at the various musings that I have been posting here and decided to forgo the writing test that is usually a requirement in the application process based on my work in these pages. Thank you, Internet. Anyway, this is meant to serve as the explanation for my hiatus and to let you readers know that I am back in the proverbial saddle and that more posts will follow soon. I've got a few stories that I want to get going, so you will hopefully see those up here relatively quickly. Thanks for the patience.

A Short Story: Comprehension

Let me first begin this post with a thousand apologies for the atrociously extended hiatus that has afflicted the blog over the past two weeks or so. There has been a large amount of uproar in my life of late, what with job applications and moving to new environs and all of those wonderful, time-consuming activities. Now, permit me to cut through the noise of everyday life and return to the art that soothes away the many stressors that grate upon the human conscience: writing.

The story with which I am about to present you is one that I recently dusted off and reread. It deals mainly with human relations on a global scale and is told through the lens of an outsider, an alien observer who has sat for many years patiently observing the works of the human species. I hope that you enjoy it. The piece is entitled "Comprehension."

All species share a connection. Their collective minds shout out into the Great Void. Each planet cries out, "We are alive; we breathe; we feel." No part is separate. All have a place, a purpose, a meaning that many minds define.
Not I.

I am separate, alone, drifting from brightness to brightness amid the endless stars. Endless. Such a strange word. Implying eternal expansion, unending vastness. It is in fact the wrong word, yet you who hear my recounting require it. The fortitude needed to fathom the truth of the matter exists only in those of my species, and I am the last of them.

So there is an end. An end to stars, to space, to all you comprehend. Suffice it to say that should you reach it, and I believe after ten thousand of your years' worth of study that you shall, you will be the first of the Young Ones to do so. I have seen many of my kind pass over the Edge of Endless, flying out into the Beyond, but as you say in one of your many, many expressions, I am "getting ahead of myself." Perhaps I should start from the beginning, or at least the beginning as far as your species is concerned.

Your histories and sciences tell you enough of your evolution and the events that brought your planet into existence. I shall not elaborate further on these points. I have seen the process a thousand times upon a thousand. There is never a great deal of variation. Stars grow and die, along with the planets that they spawn; such is the order of our Universe. You are not unique in that respect, but do not despair. Your physical sameness belies an inner distinctiveness that I have never perceived in any of the other worlds that I have tracked. For this reason I have lingered a full five thousand years beyond my time. You see, you are the last hope. Your race must take up the mantle that mine will soon let fall.

From your dawning, you displayed a heightened awareness. You knew, however instinctually or unconsciously, that there was something beyond yourselves, something greater, a governing force giving meaning to your existence. I have done my best to foster this sensibility in you. I cannot articulate the excitement that ripped like fire through my veins the first time I reached out to you and you felt me. None ever had before. To hear a mind respond again, to feel waves of awakening comprehension…it was a thrill I had not known since the last of my kind passed beyond the Edge.

The other Young Ones I observed never sensed me. Their minds were too concerned with bending the world beneath them to their wills. It was disheartening to see all the species look down at their feet instead of up to the heavens, all failing to realize their potential. All but one. All but you. When I saw this, I began to shape you, to lead you toward the path you must now follow. I admit that my method of teaching has had some adverse effects, but that could not be avoided.

I have tested you, warping your fates, changing probabilities against you, forcing you to ascend above ever-increasing adversity. Always you managed to surprise me with your responses. While none of my manipulations have proceeded as foreseen, all have driven you toward the knowledge I am now imparting. Granted, there have been conflicts, some of horrific magnitude. I would watch saddened as you tore into each other with the same tenacity that you used to overcome my obstacles. These conflicts are solely my responsibility, and I beg your forgiveness for them. Had I but realized the unique power I was trying to mold, I would have approached this situation differently.

You understood that there were other worlds beyond yours, yes. You reached up to tug on the hem of the sky's jeweled robe and ask your questions. Little did I know how many questions you would have, or how many ways you could find to interpret what answers you gained. Myriad explanations for all manner of phenomena began to filter through your ranks as your awareness increased. Ideas and speculations gained form and substance and soon walked unaided, forming the constructs you call "religions." I believe that these creations show with striking accuracy your progress toward the goals that I have tried to instill in you.

You began with somewhat elementary beliefs, equating the different natural processes of your planet and the surrounding galaxy with spiritual figures of great power. Your pantheons grew to encompass all that you encountered. Though you only had the most rudimentary understanding of the Universe, you always left room for the sky in your equations. Whether it rained lightning bolts upon you from a seat on Mount Olympus or comforted you with the warm rays of a flaming chariot, you never turned your eyes from what was above, what you sensed was so vital, so transcendent in its magnitude. You conquered your planet as well, classifying the lower life forms given you by "gods" for your sustenance and progress. Soon you developed your sciences, your theories that explained in more concrete terms what you saw, felt, smelled, heard, tasted around you.

This led to a narrowing of your focus. The old "gods" passed away. Natural phenomena were now within your reach. It was the celestial that continued to baffle and amaze you. "Gods" became "God," a being residing above your planet somewhere within the seemingly infinite cosmos who gave you direction. Science soon elaborated on your understanding of the heavens as well, giving you the ability to see into space, to map your solar system, to view other planets and stars, supernovas, black holes, and all manner of vast, cataclysmic happenings above you. Your findings suggested an order to things that extended even to the stars. This reinforced in some of you the belief that "God" had created all of it according to some massive schematic that "He" devised in the far past. For others, science became deity and "God" faded. Both groups had the same passion, the same need to know, to delve and explore. You wished to meet your "God" face to face, or to disprove that entity's existence altogether. This need drove you ever further heavenward, pulling the veil back farther and with more insistence. Only one obstacle remained: the great, nagging "how."

I was ecstatic on the day you achieved space travel. The little point of light that blossomed toward me, pushing ever upward through your atmosphere, confirmed that all my efforts were not in vain. You ventured further, setting foot on your Moon, planting your flags, looking ever outward, searching the void for the answers to those many questions of yours. This year, upon the successful establishment of the Moon Colony, I decided that the time had come to contact you directly. You stand on the giddying brink of more discoveries than you can possibly grasp. You have trained your eyes and scopes and probes toward the Great Beyond, but an obstacle remains. There is one conflict left to be resolved: the massive threat coming not from the Beyond but from within your own ranks.

I mentioned earlier the unique construct called religion that your race devised. Overwhelming numbers of you have put your faith in a staggering plethora of different doctrines and dogmas. These "cosmic sensibilities" evolved greatly over the years, and now only two remain. In the west of your world reigns Christianity, while in the east Islam has firm control. Such similar belief structures, and yet you manage to find so many reasons why they cannot coexist. The battle lines are drawn across your entire planet, and barring the kind of "spiritual" intervention that both sides claim to monopolize, you will destroy yourselves before your true calling is fulfilled. To enlist another of your quaint phrases, "you want it, you got it." I am your intervention. I do not wish all my effort to go to waste, so I am establishing this direct communication with you in order to relate some of the truths of the Universe before you continue making up your own until destruction becomes imminent. The first may come as a shock, but I promise I will explain.

There is no "God." Well, at least not anymore.

The figure you refer to in your mythologies passed over the Edge long ago, before my people were even a sentient race. Little is known of the Maker, who drew all the myriad materials out of chaos and into order, but it did not spring from nothingness in a spontaneous burst of consciousness as you maintain your "God" did. Instead, it came over the Edge into a place that had no life or shape to speak of and bestowed upon it a gift. It is said the Maker gave the First Maintainer his orders directly, but there is no way of confirming this. I am the Ninetieth Maintainer, the last of a long line of entities who have helped to spin the fate of this Universe and to hold its fabric together. It is my hope that you will not simply become another set of Maintainers. I believe that your potential is far too great for that simple task. In fact, I am confident that your species marks the next step, the first of the Evolvers. You will link all the peoples in this vast Universe together. There will be conflict of course, but you have dealt with your share of that. The survival of all of existence as we know it depends on your ability to take up this task.

My time grows short. I will aid you as long as I can, but soon I must go to seek my own people and leave you to your own devices. I implore you, in light of this new knowledge that I am sending, put aside your foolish bickering. Your religion is trivial in comparison with the magnitude of your mission. Find oneness in the cause with which I charge you. If you cannot, all is lost. Keep your faith, but remove your prejudice and dogmatism. Put your faith where it really belongs: in the Universe itself.

I have always been flattered that you found some way to include me in all of your belief systems. It was the surest sign that you felt me and that you could one day carry out your purpose. I apologize for the fact that, due to the nature of my approach in shaping your species, I always appeared as an adversarial figure in your various theologies. This was the only way to truly drive you to the point that you have now reached. My challenges have made you strong, and I hope that you will take up the cause for which your race is destined. Goodbye, my Evolvers, my children. As a token of my affection, I sign this letter with one of the many names that you have given me over the years. Go forth, and unify the stars.

With All My Love,

Lucifer

Moving Out

At the end of this week, I will be moving back to Worcester, the land of my collegiate triumphs and struggles. Now, some of the uninitiated are somewhat put off by the "dubious" ambiance of this particular urban locale, but that's just because they haven't yet taken the time to scratch beneath the veneer and discover what the place truly has to offer.

You see, as my friend with whom I shall soon be living and I discussed thoroughly last evening, Worcester is a place with personality. It is the perfect setting for a noir film, somewhat dark and down on its luck but full of vibrancy and living spirit despite the grays in which it is initially painted. Like those brilliant blasts of color that appear in flashes and moments throughout the movie Sin City, Worcester continually surprises me with its unexpected displays of beauty.

Now, when I say "beauty," I know I must qualify my meaning in this instance as it is, like so many other words, drastically imprecise. If I am to use it, I must chain it to other terms and create a web of association. Beauty in Worcester is the man known to many Clarkies as Mr. Fantastic, aka the owner of Fantastic Pizza. Every day, his distinctive ponytail of wavy gray hair can be seen bobbing behind a load of pizza boxes as he delivers edible happiness to students and professors alike. It's not just the food that makes him special, though. It's the tangible wave of joy that he exudes as he moves through the campus walks and city streets. He loves every minute of what he does, and it shows. There's no better way of ensuring brand loyalty than that.

For instance, one winter day myself and one of my friends were picking up several pizzas for a presentation that we were giving on one of Clark's Study Abroad programs. As we began to pack up and leave the shop after paying, Mr. Fantastic asked us where we were headed. When we answered the UC, Clark's university center, he smiled.

"Come on, I give you a ride," he said. "I deliver to Sackler anyway."

That was the day that I had the pleasure of riding in the famous pizzamobile, and it was a unique chance to have a glimpse into the world of one of the most talked about non-student individuals on campus. The kindness of the act itself had astounded me. Never in my life had I even remotely thought that receiving a ride from the person who generally is found delivering something to you was even possible, but in his world it was. It didn't matter that he was doing something for which he would normally be paid for free. His mission in that moment became to deliver us as well as our pizzas safely.

This is a more abstract idea of the kind of beauty that I see in Worcester, but there are more concrete visual examples as well, for all those more conventional types out there. For example, the brightly colored triple decker houses, constructions unique to the region (pictured right). These abodes line the streets surrounding Clark and are home to students and residents alike. My new apartment will be in one such triple decker, a pink and white one a few blocks from campus.

In addition to the houses, Worcester is home to some unique historical attractions as well, such as the Higgins Armory. The building in which it resides is an appropriate grey with metal detail work, resembling the knightly artifacts contained within its walls (see left). It is a place that transports the visitor through the ages. Between the reenactments, sword fighting classes, and of course the exhibits, you might as well be in a mead hall as in the middle of a metropolis. It is just another facet of Worcester's personality: a healthy respect for tradition fused with a forward-looking perspective bent on pushing for a brighter future.

There are many more aspects of the city worth noting. It is full of parks, concert halls, train stations, towers, and churches. However, I can only present you with echoes. In order to understand as truly as is possible, with your own senses, you must visit one day for yourself and see why Worcester has become one of the places that I proudly call home.

Once I Have Money...

The milieu of post-education existence has taught me something very important: I need more hobbies. Now that I'm no longer struggling late into the night over essays and reading a thousand pages or more of literature per week, there is a great quantity of space in my schedule that previously did not exist. Faced with the boundless possibility of such an absence, I have decided that once I secure a proper, steady source of funding I shall return to a pastime that once gave me a great sense of accomplishment and pleasure: Warhammer 40,000.

For those who at this point are thinking something akin to "but, uh, that's like a nerd thing, right?" I would merely say that, while I proudly wave the flag of nerddom, 40k has much more to offer partakers than simply a zone in which to interact with wonderfully eccentric individuals. It is more than just a strategy game. It is, in fact, a form of creative expression that crosses the boundaries between literature and visual art.

Let me give you some examples. As someone well-versed in the Warhammerly arts, the first point of importance that I would like to impart to you is that every single person who plays the game has chosen their army not only for the "cool factor" or for the weapons/strategic advantages offered by that particular race, but also for the story that that specific army inspires them to create. Whether it's a crew of burly Orks braving the perils of the Galaxy in search of "Mo' Dakka," a platoon of stalwart Imperial Guardsmen defending Humanity from the daemons of the Warp, or a Tyranid Hive Fleet seeking to devour planets and assimilate more biological forms into the Hive Mind, each is the unique creation of a mind at play. The universe that Games Workshop has built around the game's various armies provides a template, but it is up to each player to carve out their own space in this vast universe and to find the location where their carefully crafted group of characters reside in the great scheme of things.

That's right, I'm submitting a hypothesis to the Council; Warhammer 40k is about stories. Sure, it's also about moving models on a board into advantageous positions, but the spark that catches so many minds and fuels so many of the fierce debates that I've overheard between those loyal to different "regimes," shall we say, is the game's strategic deployment of a weapon more potent than any Land Raider or Fire Prism: imagination. It makes no difference whether someone has simply signed on with a group that already has a preexisting background in 40k canon or goes through all the trouble of creating their own Space Marine Chapter down to the symbols painted on their shoulder pads. The bottom line is that the people who play the game love their armies and invest not only the efforts of assembly and painting into their models, but also pieces of their inner selves, the pieces that put light in their eyes and grins in the corners of their mouths.

Of course, painting and modeling are components of the game just as artistically legitimate as the concoction of the army's "fluff," the term with which many running in the, ahem, "nerd," circles refer to background stories. The quantities of time and patience required to put any sort of decent color scheme on models that are oftentimes shorter in height than my pinky finger (see the approximately to-scale image of a Space Marine at right) are absolutely tremendous. However, as you can see by the several images I've posted (blown up to show details), die-hard Warhammerers remain undaunted and produce some absolutely stunning miniatures.

I hope that these images speak for themselves. After all, images can be argued as another set of symbols that have some linguistic meaning in a system and that connect to and resonate with certain words and concepts. Anyway, the point is that these models are every bit as artistically valid as a sculpture or a painting. As a matter of fact, they're both, and breathing life into what was once a hunk of plastic or metal is yet another way in which 40k players create their own personal sector of the Galaxy.

Now that I've described the various merits of Warhammer 40k in general, I'm going to give a brief personal history of my own encounters with this inspiring universe. When I first started playing, I decided that the Chaos Marines were the army for me. You see, I had a much larger quantity of angst back in those days, and since I had recently decided after a typical eighth-grade-style perusal of the various musical aesthetics available to me that Metal was my favorite genre (it still is, by the way, though my tastes have grown a bit more sophisticated), I thought that an army full of daemons and genetically enhanced super soldiers covered in spikes (see right) was right up my alley. With this thought galvanizing me forward, I set to work inventing my Legion: the Ravagers, a sub-army of the World Eaters created at the behest of their Primarch, Angron. The reason for their founding was to reward Angron's star pupil, a Chaos Lord named Azroth the Deathbringer, my star creation. I painstakingly picked out every bit of his wargear, every color, and every personality trait, and finally placing him on the field and experiencing the admiration of my peers was one of the most fulfilling extracurricular experiences that I've had. Though he was somewhat typical, a rebellious, irreverent, harsh, and ruthless commander, I loved Azroth because he was mine. I still love him. I love the idea of him, the fact that my mind was able to leap from the platform that Warhammer gave it and ascend into the great heights of fantasy.

Nowadays, I've reined in my angstiness a tad, and as a result the forces of Chaos just don't hold the same appeal that they used to. I find them to be too one-dimensional, too concerned with mere destruction. For my return to the Warhammer universe, I needed something a bit more inspirational. I found that source in the Space Wolves, a Chapter of Space Marines whose ideology is diametrically opposed to the army I previously played. They are defenders, not antagonists, of humanity, and that offers me a host of character building options that I had no access to when I played Chaos. There's a tangible motivation present around which I can erect myriad conflicts and personalities. Come to think of it, personality is basically the Space Wolves' middle name. They're boisterous, noisy future-Vikings who cruise around the Galaxy seeking to commit acts that will get their names written into the heroic Sagas of their Chapter. With my predilection for Norse mythology, I just couldn't resist.

The creative juices are flowing, and I've already drawn up several different army lists and have put together my own Wolf Lord, Varg Dirgehowler. I will post pictures of the army as it develops, though depending on the capricious whims of the job market that may be a short or a long time from now. The Saga of the Sorrowhunters is just beginning, and I can tell that I will have many more adventures to relate as the synapses fire in my brain and new, wonderful connections are made. I hope that after reading this you feel somewhat enlightened in regards to the Warhammer 40k universe. If you have any questions or are interested in getting started/picking an army, post a comment and I'd be happy to give any advice that I can.

I Swear to God I Can Copywrite

Despite the fact that I've worked as an Independent Label Relations Intern for iTunes, one of the most successfully marketed electronic media services in the world, potential employers have a hard time believing that I know how to write ad copy. This is my own fault, I suppose, since in my infinite wisdom as I was writing those new release blurbs and launch materials for the pan-European Metal genre page, it never occurred to me to email one of the aforementioned items to myself or to take a screenshot of one of my stylish and sophisticated works of genius live and in action. Such is life. The point of this recollection of a past foible is that I am sure that were I to receive gainful employment in the area of copywriting or copyediting, I would do an admirable job, but since I lack evidence, the job market quite often hangs me out to dry. Therefore, I propose a solution: playing pretend.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to flex that imagination muscle. What I'm going to do is write several pieces of short copy for fictional companies. What you're going to do (hopefully) is tell me whether or not after reading said short copy you feel quite convinced or if you're more, as good old Captain Barbossa would put it, "disinclined to acquiesce" to my request. Is that copacetic? I hope so.

Number One - Bob Jones Coffee

The sharp fragrance of fresh-ground beans. The warmth on your hands as you lift the steaming cup. If this says "morning" to you, then the best morning you could possibly find includes Bob Jones Coffee. Our delectable blends of the finest free-trade coffee beans from around the globe will stimulate your senses with their subtle scents, bold flavors, and distinctive finishes. Pick up a bag today at your nearest Trader Phil's or online at bobjonesbeans.com. Bob Jones Coffee: waking up the world, one cup at a time.

Number Two - Weird Bird Books

Challenging. An adjective referring to something that stimulates interest or provokes thought. Here at Weird Bird Books, we take this word seriously. Our authors are the mavericks, the free-thinkers, and the envelope pushers in their disciplines. We wouldn't have it any other way. If you've been searching for texts that will put you in dialogue with the most controversial, perspective-expanding subjects of our time, then look no further. You've found a home at Weird Bird Books. Check out our list of authors online at weirdbird.com and start flying against the wind.

Number Three - Riot! Promotions

Would you like a webpage that's targeted, relevant, and rockin'? How about a commercial that always stands up in the mosh pit? Riot! Promotions has got you covered. We bring the attitude, power, and passion of a rock concert to everything that we do. If your band or label is sick of seeing its sales get trampled, give us a call at 333-666-9999 or visit us at riotrox.com. We'll have you crowd surfing in no time.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed reading these blurbs as much as I enjoyed writing them. If anybody reading would like me to take a swing at composing some stunning verbiage for their honest-to-god-real-life company, I'd be absolutely champing at the bit to give it a try. Contact me via email if such an offer puts a spring in your step. Keep resonating, everyone.