Ficlets was cool because it forced writers to tell stories 1024 characters at a time. It was also a great source of inspiration for writers, regardless of how experienced they are. Oh, and it was a hell of a lot of fun, too.
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Sadly, I have to use the past tense, because in January of 2009, AOL unceremoniously sent Ficlets off to the lannd of Wind and Ghosts. My anger at this short-sighted move cannot be contained in 1,024 characters.

As I read I thought this was a very cool idea. Writing short snippets of a story that other people can continue via sequels and prequels. It’s, as Wil put it, collaborative fiction. After reading that it had closed down, I started googling and discovered that it would soon be reborn… that was a long while ago.

Then this weekend I received an email alerting me to the launch of Ficly, the new iteration of Ficlets. It’s such a cool thing. Very short stories, or portions of a story, that captivate and let the imagination run. Add in the ability to continue another’s story and you’ve got one pretty neat system.

My favorite part of Ficly are the Challenges offered. Example:

Here’s the challenge: write a story about the lights going out. It could be by “natural” causes, temporary or permanent. But, it has to contain the actual event of the lights being on, and then going off.

Of course there’s nothing to win here, it’s just a means of spurring creativity and seeing different people’s takes on the same idea. Talk about letting the imagination run, think of it as a prompt from your creative writing professor.

It seems like a very small community right now but I expect Ficly to grow as more people discover it’s awesomeness. If you like to write or tend to express yourself through words — which are likely the same thing — then go check it out. You’ll be happy you did.

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Coming soon, Oprah's must-follow list.

The number one rule is that if you claim to be some sort of “social media expert” and you follow me, I will block you. End of story. This may sound a bit harsh, but deal with it. First of all, you are by no means a social media expert. No one is. When I see “social media expert” on someone’s one-line bio I actually read “social media whore” or “lame spammer.” I don’t want to be one of your five thousand followers in the hopes I’ll follow you back just to inflate your own digital ego.

That brings me to the second rule: If you follow me, don’t expect me to follow you back. Twitter doesn’t work that way. There’s only so many different people I can keep track of and while I’m flattered you find my mindless drivel interesting, don’t count on my following you back.

I won’t use #hashtags unless I’m at a conference or trying to get on some sort of TV program, like Current’s debate coverage. I think #hashtagging is pretty silly for daily use, but if I’m at a conference then I’ll tag away. Expect to see #orange09 appear very soon.

While I don’t post as much as some people do, I will go through bursts where I post often, especially while at a conference — see above. Having said that, I do tend to use @replys an awful lot. If you have all @replys turned on, well, you may find me annoying. Oh well.

Speaking of @replys, if you follow me, feel free to drop one on me from time to time. My favorite use of Twitter is as a means of communication; which is why I heavily use @replys. So answer the random questions I ask from time to time or just say hi.

I don’t retweet anything, unless it’s some sort of contest or freebee deal and even then it’s very rare. it’s not that I don’t find things funny or interesting or insert adjective here, it’s that I don’t think retweeting makes any sense. I don’t need to copy someone’s exact words. I didn’t do it while in college and I’m not going to do it on the internet. Maybe I’ll pass on a link and give someone credit for it, but I’m not going to copy the entire tweet. Seems silly.

Basically I use Twitter the way that I like to use Twitter and it may or may not mash up with they way you use Twitter. If it doesn’t, and for whatever reason you can’t deal with it, well don’t follow me. I don’t really care. But if you’re down with all the above, then jump on it.

How do you use Twitter? Do you have any hard and fast rules you use? Let me know in the comments.

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So why the change? What’s the point? When I first opened Sunken Treasure I noticed that the entire book was licensed under the very same Creative Commons license that this site now shares. I thought there was something very strangely cool about that. Maybe it’s a geeky thing, I don’t know. Either way, I figured if Wil Wheaton could grant these rights to owners of his book, why couldn’t I do it with my site? I mean, obviously no ones going to want to copy my words, but on the off chance someone does, it’s not granted here. Pretty cool right?

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Wil reading Sunken Treasure (Flickr - MidgetMe)

Then I started reading his blog and following his Twitter. Wil Wheaton has a gift and it has nothing to do with acting. His gift involves keys and fingers, or maybe pen and paper — he might be roll old school, I don’t know. Wil Wheaton is an incredible writer. His blog is witty but poignant. His tweets are snarky and hilarious. It might be possible for Wil Wheaton to be famous thanks to all the Star Trek geeks out there who will worship him forever, but it’s his writing that really makes him special.

When I sat in on the Wil Wheaton Panel (how does one person make up a panel?) at PAX 08 I listened to him read selections of his writing. Evidently every year he puts together little books with excerpts of his writing, prints 200 at a small print shop and sells them to people. In his ‘panel’ Wil was reading out of the 2008 version. Six months later, that limited edition book is available to the world in the form of Sunken Treasure.

Wil refers to Sunken Treasure as an introduction to his writing. If his other books are anything like this one consider me sold. Wil talks of life, both as a child star and as a father. He talks about playing poker and makes fun of the show that endeared him in the hearts of millions. The excerpts are short and read quickly but all leave a smile on the face. They’re happy stories and reflections on life. They’re stories you can’t help but enjoy.

One thing that comes across loud and clear through all of Wil’s writing is that he’s not really famous after all. He’s a guy who likes to play video games, write stuff and act on occasion and he happens to make money doing it. It’s extremely evidently that Wil enjoys his life and all that it includes.

Whether you know who Wil Wheaton is or not, you’ll enjoy Sunken Treasure. If you don’t, you’re probably not human. You might even be an android. Data? Maybe.

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Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps

The Olympics were two of the greatest weeks of 2008 and there were dozens of amazing moments ranging from the incredible Opening Ceremonies to the unforgettable I Love Beijing theme song. There were so many great moments this year it’s hard to choose just one that stands out. Ok, that’s a lie. There’s one moment that was far better than any other and is, quite frankly, the greatest moment in aquatic sports history. The Justie for the Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps goes to Jason Lezak’s amazing comeback in the 4×100 relay which won the USA a gold and created one hell of a story. There has never been a comeback quite like that nor has there been an instance of shear determination. Way to go Lezak, way to go.

Greatest Thing on TV

All in all, it’s been a pretty crappy year for TV. The Writers Strike cut a lot of seasons short and seemed to affect the quality of TV for this season as well. So the pool to draw from here is obviously pretty slim. But there were some stand outs. The Office and 30 Rock have been stellar and new shows Fringe and Life on Mars have been entertaining. But one show has been better than the rest, so the Justie for Greatest Thing on TV goes to Chuck. Chuck is consistently entertaining and just quirky enough to be endearing but it was “Chuck Verses Tom Sawyer” that pulled it in. Twin Galaxies, arcade games and Rush? Can’t get much better than that.

Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic

People search for funny things on the internet. Some people spend tons of money and time trying to figure out the best combination of Julianne Hough, Will Smith, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, the Jonas Brothers and Wil Wheaton to get their search engine ranking high enough for people to notice. Around here I do things a little different. I write things and then see how people find them. If a Miley Cyrus mention gets slipped in, well, so be it. It was earlier this year while perusing my site logs that I came across this category’s winner. The Justie for Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic goes to this post about Chinese food and Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I’ll let you figure out what people were searching for.

Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me

A lot of crappy things happened in 2008 including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires and a new Rambo movie. I jumped off a cliff and blacked out in the water, but I’m exempt from this category for obvious reasons. No, there was one crappy thing that unfortunately deserves this Justie; the Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me Justie goes to the economy. Sure, I’m affected indirectly, but whatever. The economy pretty much sucked this year and have put hundreds of thousands out of work. Unfortunately it looks like it may get worse before it gets better but one thing is for certain, it will get better. Here’s to hoping that the economy earns the 2009 Justie for the Greatest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me.

Most Addicting Social Media Outlet

Hello my name is Justin and I’m a social media addict. This year there were plenty of social media sites begging to earn an addiction: Facebook, Shelfari, Strands, and Last.fm just to name a few. But there was one that stood out far above the rest — possibly combined. The Justie for the Most Addicting Social Media Outlet goes to Twitter. I wasn’t the only one addicted either. Not only did twitt rank as one of the years ‘buzzwords’, but now CNN even takes comments — and in some cases breaking news — from Twitter.

Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To

This one is a tough one to call. I’ve been a number of places this year including Seattle, The Bahamas, New Orleans, Key West, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah. In those various places I’ve seen a fair share of strange things, like the odd traffic lights on the highway in Seattle, but by far the Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To goes to Utah. Why Utah? Their numbering of streets is absolutely ridiculous. Everything is laid out in a grid, which makes sense, but that grid is far too large. For instance, we had to turn from S 700 E onto E 10600 S. Does that make any sense? Then, thrown into the middle of that was State St which does make sense. I don’t get it. Way to earn that Justie, Utah.

Coolest Thing of the Year

Despite all the crappy things that happened, 2008 had it’s share of some pretty cool things. Myron Rolle won a Rhodes Scholarship and I read Snow Crash, both pretty cool. The Dark Knight made a ton of money while the Devil Rays won the American League without any. Tiger Woods had the comeback of his career and Bill Gates ended his. All of these things are pretty cool, but only one can win the Award. The 2008 Justie for the Coolest Thing of the Year goes to The Olympics.

It was going to be pretty hard to beat the summer games. They began with the coolest Opening Ceremony ever performed (no video links available, stupid NBC) and included some unforgettable moments, a lot of which occurred in the pool. Michael Phelps won a record setting 8 gold medals, which will probably never happen again. Countless records were broken, smaller countries shined and for a few weeks in August the world actually came together and enjoyed each others company. You can’t really get much cooler than that.

All the Justies have been handed out and I’ve got nothing left for 2008. The ball will soon drop and bring in 2009. Let’s see what happens.

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