Tag: digital

Sand in My Eyes

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison 

Now we were not always like a ring fitting so comfortably on anothers finger

or a sun shining through clouds on a mild spring day

there were echoes of your pain inflicted onto me

my intentions pure and like honey

you stole my honey and you drained my will

just so you could take a big paper payment 'bill'

money always meant more to you

and I was feeling

because what I felt was real, even if you didn't

seeing that you are a deliberate choke

imagining that you had the killing joke

but my heart had to overcome your deceit

know this you sugar coated thorn bush

even with the threat of death, I would not have succumbed to this

even with God not answering my calls, I would not have ever fallen

you know the damage and you left it unfinished

apologies that flew like pigs

a hand that I knew, hid in the mist

I'm not crying, I have sand in my eyes.

Please consider reading ‘Your Eyes’ published in 2020.

If by Rudyard Kipling (really inspirational)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Typewriting & The Writer

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

I have decided to engage online remember? I used to own a typewriter and wrote a few stories on it. When I moved last year I did not bring it with me. Now, I want one again. I checked online, etsy and found that 1960s light blue Olympia for a couple hundred quid. Rather expensive. Unless it works flawlessly then you might be better using pen and paper or even just, you know, your laptop. Actually I just checked and cannot see it on the first page anymore. It was expensive compared to the others, but ironic is that my old typewriter was Olympia… stupid to not bring with me perhaps.

Writing for me has become a digital experience. I use a laptop. As for making time to write, I always try to write something everyday, including on this blog, which I thoroughly enjoy. Plus, it is in line with my own goals and writing ideals, namely to writer everyday and write to targets. You might like this post by Writers Digest about making time to write. It touches on the idea that you can productively ‘waste time’ by blogging. I suppose this is true, if you are an aspiring novelist then blogging won’t help that. I have seen authors on WordPress who can do both which is great. I am one of them.

If I ever go back to a typewriter though I know I will enjoy it too much. The downsides: no spellcheck, sometimes the formatting can get a little screwy, and no choice of text colour. I experience a red/black ribbon, and that was all. It was also quite noisy, which I suspect was due to age. There were sticking issues too. But they provide more creativity I believe, they allow creative expression to flourish as you are not distracted by the idea of opening ‘new tabs’ or watching porn or ordering online food. They are excellent, however, laptops have become the norm.

As a writer and one who does intend to publish further, I find the whole process incredibly rewarding. There will be times of procrastination and that is when you grab a bottle of red wine or perhaps a whiskey and cigar, pretending you are cool, knowing deep down you are the boss of your own destiny.

If you enjoyed reading, please like, comment, follow and reblog! Have a wonderful life!

Increase Traffic To Your Blog

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Welcome to Psychedelic Wizard, and thank you for taking the time to check out todays post on increasing traffic to your blog.

Creating relevant content – We have reviewed briefly the importance of creating interesting posts with passion. However, the content itself needs to be relevant to what people want to read. If your site focuses on specific areas, like poetry, creating relevant content can be as easy as changing the type of poetry that you post. Relevant content may include recent changes in news, lifestyle content or similar. Whatever the topic, relevance and engagement are significant factors to increasing traffic.

Guest blogging – You might have been blogging solo for some time and if that is the case, to further promote a blog, consider inviting a guest post. Guest blogging can double or even triple your website traffic, because when that guest posts to your site, it attracts their followers or usual visitors to your site. On top of this, they will likely share the post on their site, which will again increase your sites exposure. If traffic is important to you, consider a guest post once in a while, or maybe consider other ways to invite guests to your blog.

Social media promotion – WordPress allows you to connect social media sites like twitter. You can then write a post on WordPress and it will automatically post it to the social media website. You can also do it the other way round, so anything you post on twitter will be seen on your site as a feed. This is a great way to increase traffic to your site. Other platforms such as YouTube could prove useful if you have a site with a lot of video content.

That is 3 great ways to consider promoting your website or blog further. Remember, a passion should not become a full time occupation unless you think you will still enjoy it, as work and play are very different things. Just as an artist might paint for a pastime, as soon as they decide to become a full time painter as a job, they might find very little joy in it anymore.

Secret to Blog Success

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Over the years as I have built my blog I have noticed a few things which can contribute to a great blog. From browsing the thousands of sites available over WordPress, to delving into the fabric of my own. There are many factors to being successful, and I am about to talk about a few here.

Passion – Like anything in life, it requires passion. That means dedication, building a blog you enjoy and that others will enjoy. Passion comes within your heart, like a furnace burning bright. A blog or site full of content built from love and care will attract such a following.

Personalisation – A personal site which is unique can help considerably. Having your own domain name will boost traffic to the site. Having a personalised site will help to get across your passion and build your blog, If you have an image, like many sites do, and you get that element across then people will follow and like your site as it is unique!

Content – Without continuous content your site and blog will quickly become obsolete. People tend to move on rather quickly, so unless you are pumping out content on a fairly regular basis people might turn away. Of course, some blogs can post content every few months and still have the traffic, because their site is unique. Content can be anything, but if it is developed using personalisation and passion then it will likely reflect what you want to blog about. I have seen many blogs which all have unique content.

So, a brief post on digital website success. Blogging is slightly different to a regular site in that a blogger regularly posts content. From poetry to written works, reviews, music, life blogs, exercise, spiritual, sexual and more… and they all exist using WordPress.

VR Fun

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison 
Endlessly roaming some open land

holding but air in the hand

jumping and pushing and leaping them all

you can discover, there is no wall

hiding behind that big chunky eye glass

beaming to long for that outlasted digest

pulling the veil behind those thin eyes

you are stuck in your living room

hiding behind the disguise

Advertisement

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison 
Big stand out digital boards

come and buy me

get your reward

you will never be bored

otherwise we cut the chords

of your life

maybe harass your wife

cause you tons of strife
did you see me?

hiding beneath the, freeway

painting coded rainbow sound

on your walks

in your mind

... and on your time

What are the benefits of being self employed?

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

This was originally going to be titled the ‘benefits of working from home’ but I realise now I can incorporate that into this post anyway. You may also be interested in my post ‘how to dream big.’ You can also check out my short post on me now studying/working from home.

Alas, today I’m going to go over some excellent reasons why being self employed. If you live in England you can check out this Gov article on being a sole trader – https://www.gov.uk/working-for-yourself.

There is a lot of independence to be gained, and a lot of fun also. You might be earning £23,000 a year working in a desk job sorting a lot of papers. Compare that with having the freedom to work your own hours, be your own boss, and earn whatever you want. Self employment, or being a sole trader, is a sure fire way to get an unlimited income potential. You earn an amount of money both proportionate, directly, to how much you work and what the demand for your services is.

  1. Home Working and Having a Lot of Fun – If you already work from home, or study from home, as I am doing myself at the present moment, although I have a week off starting from tomorrow… a week of work still. So, you get to just do your work in the hours that suit you, whether that be 9 – 5 or 12 – 2pm, you have complete freedom when it comes to home working. You might be able to set up a home based internet business, or run a small business from home where you also store actual inventory – in other words you keep stock in your property. Of course, don’t forget to register with the appropriate tax people, self employment still means paying income tax. I suspect a lot of people are making more than £1000 a year from side hustles, which means they will have to pay tax.
  2. Unlimited Income Potential – There is no limit on how much you can earn from self employment. In fact, there is more income potential as you aren’t in a job where you work fixed hours for someone else, ending up getting nowhere. Self employment en mass is the future, a future where people earn the amount they want and deserve. You see it everyday or hear about people, just leaving well paid jobs to start their own business, work from home, or go solo consulting and then popping up years later as millionaires. Don’t go thinking it’s based on demand though, income cannot be guaranteed through demand unless you have a niche and well valued and sought after skill or service. usually income is dependent on the amount of work you do. This is in turn related to the demand from customers.
  3. Do Your Own Thing – You only have to pay your taxes and national insurance to appropriate levels. It’s real freedom. In terms of what to do for self employment, as already mentioned, you can start a home based business, or a small business, you can sell goods from your home. This can include goods and products you make yourself, like candles, soaps, paintings, pottery, furniture, food, gift cards, anything! If you have skills that are sought after, utilise them for goodness sake. If I pass my course, I’ll be loaning myself out at £50 an hour for legal advice to start with on a freelance basis. To be honest, I can do that now because people with a degree, or relevant qualifications are automatically more likely to have those skills and knowledge that people want. Used to work in an estate agents and want to do this yourself.

The benefits of anything are endless, self employment vs working for a company are truly superior. I never understood why anyone would work for a company on the basis that they will be promoted, earn more and after 50 years become a director or something. Think about it, you can become a director from day one with self employment. The reason I was attracted to becoming a barrister was because they are self employed and independent. Independence is an important word here, remember, you have to deal with it all yourself, unless you pay an accountant or rent an office or hire someone etc.

I hope light shines on you eternally. Thanks for reading.

How to Dream Big?

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

How do you reach for the stars? How do you put all the doubt in your mind into the waste bin? How do you believe in yourself despite what other people think?

I want to share some tips which I believe can motivate you to chase those dreams of yours and make them a reality. If you want to succeed in life you must have passion and desire in order to fulfil your fantasies. They are fantasies only until you act on them, turning the dream into reality.

  1. Having A Plan

Having a plan is not to everybody’s taste. A lot of people like to work off the cuff and be spontaneous. But plans and rituals are an everyday part of life. For example, people never expected that a couple of years ago they’d be forced to work from home, but they adapted, they worked from home on their computers, completing virtual work. Now, working from home is common place, in fact I would argue it is itself a new movement. There is still need for office and office workers, simply because of logistics and product management and all sorts of physical business stuff.

The point is, what was once mystical and mysterious to a lot, became common place. They now plan their weeks based on this new situation for them. They may plan more since they have more time at home. A plan can help to visualise a way out of a situation and help you project your reality into existence. The plan could be as simple as, ‘do it,’ or ‘go and help the homeless,’ or ‘become a businessman.’ Each is unique and will be unique to the individual. One more point, the plan is yours and you should not let anyone plan your life for you, never.

2. Putting The Plan Into Action

Is having a plan enough? No, of course not. Having a plan, well developed and approved by You, is essential, but the next crucial ingredient is actually working that plan into your life. Take the home working, you perhaps plan your week around this, you implement changes like what you do on a Monday afternoon. What do you need to do to put that plan into action? Are you finalising a business plan? Are you preparing to buy that Porsche? Do you need to work out a few final details before you action the plan?

You need to be able to understand what is expected at this point, because many people have plans that lay dormant and then after ten years, they pull them out the trash can and decide to work with it. You need to action it now, or whenever you can, if you want to be happy now. There is a lot of reward mentally when you succeed. Creating a business can be satisfying, and with all the home working, there are so many options when it comes to virtual working and companies. Many people make a living buying and selling online.

3. Being Able To Develop and Create

Now, onto the 3rd step! You have a plan which you have actioned or implemented into your life. You can’t sit back and expect what you have done to thrive and succeed without continuous input from you. Dreams are big and they require a lot of effort and determination. You can’t be lazy when it comes to continually developing your dreams. A business can’t continue to operate and succeed without changing and developing, and you need to do it. You also need to create new ideas and new ways to enjoy and experience life and your plans. If you have gone stagnant on your dream, change it up, develop it further and create a new experience. Look at gaming consoles, look at how far they have come from the 80’s to 2022! That is massive, the creators and developers at those companies continued to develop with the times and technology, so can you.

You also need a certain set of skills and personal qualities to be able to continue and succeed. You need resilience and determination, you should be focused on your end goal and should never be satisfied with a finished product or action. If you settle when you have an online business, how will you grow into something more memorable. Sadly, a lot of businesses don’t aim high, and are content to struggle on pretending that they are happy with what they make, whilst inside the owner is scared to evolve and develop into something more, perhaps they are scared of buying a physical store, perhaps they are scared of branching into another area because they don’t have the expertise.

4. You Need To Learn

You can sometimes create and action and develop a plan without learning anything new. Take for example my recent purchase of two lovely red eye tree frogs who have settled in well and are very active at night. I had to learn about this new species, in fact I had to learn about frogs in general, then tree frogs, then this species, then its requirements and care and food, and its habitat and other things. If you want to have the knowledge you need to read and learn, you need to research, you might decide you need to embark on some variety of course of other to help you reach your goals. It’s not a bad thing if you admit you don’t know about something. When someone wants to start that business, they may need to learn about accounting or creating a business plan. When someone wants to learn how to fix their Porsche, they may need to do a course at college to save on costs of long term garage maintenance.

Whatever your dream, there will sometimes be times when you need to admit to yourself that you don’t have the knowledge and that is okay. Want to be a famous guitarist, but can’t play? You know what to do, you need to learn how to play the guitar. Your dream may be as simple as wanting to be a gardener and competing in national garden competitions. Whatever the dream, you can succeed, even if you are working from home, as the internet is the number one source to learn nowadays with thousands of online courses, a lot of them are free.

What do you think about the 4 steps above? Do you agree or disagree with any? There is more to pursuing anything than the above 4 steps, it takes character and drive, it takes a soul that cares. It is easy to sit on the couch and watch tv and eat potato chips, when you could be busy creating a plan and working towards the end goal. The amount of time it takes to succeed is entirely based on what you want, it is subjective. When you decide you have done what you set out to do, then you can say to yourself, ‘wow, I did it.’

Thanks for reading https://psychedelicwizard.wordpress.com