Vizify was a online profile service that took info from Twitter. The service is closing soon having been purchased by Yahoo and I was asked to archive my profile. I figured ‘what the heck’.

Vizify tracks what you tweet about most. My #1 keyword was KIDS but I was interested to see what other words were prominent. After clicking I saw a bit more than the topics I tweeted about. I got to see a representative timeline of my bout with depression.

The most obvious is the large gap between October 2012 and mid-May of 2013. That was the worst of it when I wasn’t even able to get out of bed. I also noticed two other little drop-outs (though they’re not as stark as the big one) between Q3 and Q4 of 2012, then a gap between Q1 and Q2 (a smaller one).

Those purple dots say a lot more than Visify intended. I’m glad to see the dots on the right side. There’s a lot more tweets about my kids and my trial run with putting out regular videos on YouTube.

Were Vizify to continue there they would be adding a few very large and dark purple dots to the PODCAST and EPISODE and SHOW lines because I’m happy to announce that Nobody’s Listening podcast is returning. You can find more about that over at podcast.nlcast.com.

Thanks for reading.

(Click to make the pic bigger)

From Wikipedia: “A Beta Reader is a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements before the story is released for public consumption.”

I need a few (4-7) families with a kid or kids (8-12) who would be interested in reading Bad Hero and taking notes.

Naturally parents are encouraged to read the book as well and feedback is encouraged and welcome.

The children need to be between 8 and 12 years old. They must be able to read the book without assistance, and (the most important part) take notes while reading and possibly complete a questionnaire after.

I’ll be looking for feedback on things like plot holes, problems with continuity, characterisation or believability.

Bad Hero is easier to read than Harry Potter but a little more complex than Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Email james@nlcast.com
Subject: Bad Hero Preview
Include how your family qualifies.
I will follow up with specifics once we’re ready.

I’ll post again when the slots are filled. Thanks!

**UPDATE**

The slots are filled. Thanks!

Hello gentle readers. I realize that I have not added anything to the site since mid February. I have been distracted by a new obsession lately. That obsession is writing. The past several months I’ve written Bible Stuff articles and let out some inner stuff about Depression and the patterns of Church Culture, but now I’m on to brighter and possibly more productive expressions.

I have written a 36,400 word novel for pre-teens (8-12, it’s called Middle Grade) called Bad Hero.  Continue reading →