Month: January 2018

Mulling A Science Fiction Screenplay

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I have a lot on my plate creatively and limited funds, so I have to be careful what I spend my money on. I really want to buy a professional camera but I also am interested in buying Final Draft, which is script writing software. But the camera is more important than the software, so I am going to force myself to sketch out the screenplay as much as I can without any way of actually formatting it formally.

But the idea I have in my head is pretty strong. I have been thinking about this topic for years and I think I may have finally come up with a way to approach it. But, as always, the toughest part for me is the plot. I have a great concept, but I am really struggling with a plot.

And, yet, I am well aware that no one will help me because I can’t pay them, so I’m going to try to figure out a plot myself. But we’ll see. It will be interesting to see how far I get with this concept before I get fed up and move on to something else. I usually do that, at least in the past.

Saving SnapChat — The Complete Vision

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

If I was tasked with saving SnapChat, here is what I would do.

The first feature I would roll out as soon as I could would be robust discovery of people you didn’t know who happened to be proximity to you. So, there would be a feature where by you could see everyone on SnapChat at a bar you were in and you’d be able to “poke” them or something in such a way that they would know you were interested in them. You could then become SnapChat friends and send snaps to each other before you met IRL.

Maybe SnapChat has something like this already I just don’t know about it, but I know if it did have this feature I would be a heavy user of it. (As it stands, I barely use SnapChat, so there could be any number of different features I don’t know about.)

After I did this, I would slowly roll out a whole lost of features that would be difficult for my competitors to implement. Some of this would require the app having a desktop component that it currently doesn’t have. So, I would give people the ability to have live text chat with people as well as recorded video conferencing. I would also figure out a way to bring in many of the concepts of Usenet that made it popular 20 years ago. These changes would not come easy and they would be controversial with the user base, to say the least.

But as it stands, SnapChat is doomed. Instagram is going to kill SnapChat unless it innovates and innovates rapidly, so that’s why I even introduce these concepts at all.

Anyway, that’s just the barest skim of what I think should be done. I may come back to this, depending on my mood.

Far Worse Than Watergate, My Ass: How I Quit Worrying & Learned To Love Fuckwits

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

For otherwise grown adults, the Republican Party sure does collectively act like a bunch of little kids. They know the only way to get anyone’s attention is to cry and say this or that dumb conspiracy theory is “far worse than Watergate.” Republicans know they will catch liberals attention by invoking Watergate, even if it, in fact, has nothing to do with what’s going on.

I had a long, painful and weirdly insightful discussion with a Trump supporter recently that at first left me seething and now leavings me somewhat resigned. Talking to him about Trump was a textbook case of gaslighting and rhetorical shadowboxing. Even when I landed punches, he wouldn’t admit it. It was extremely frustrating.

But I did learn something about how to debate a Trump cult member. You have to give them specifics. You have to be prepared. If you’re going to engage, not enrage a Trump cultist, you need to be prepared. This is a really big mistake I’ve made in the past. Just because it’s self-evident to you that Trump and his ilk are bigoted, racist misogynists, doesn’t mean you’re not going to have to prove it to a Trump cult member.

The sooner we admit to ourselves that Trump supporters are in a deluded cult, the sooner we will better understand how to address them. They don’t see the fetid, rancid ideological dumpster fire of MAGA as that at all. All they care about is that the economy is “humming” and that ISIS has been largely defeated. It’s really weird that otherwise conservative people would embrace moral relativism in their efforts to support the Dear Leader, while a liberal like me has to stand on principle to get anything done.

Anyway, I guess the point is if you’re going talk to a Trump supporter, you can’t just yell at them the way you want to. You’re going to have to have cold hard facts — lots of them — at your disposal that you can throw at them. They will shadowbox, they will rhetorically bob and weave, but find your hill and die on it. Don’t get distracted by what a target rich environment MAGA is. Find a specific thing that really pisses you off about Trump, learn as much as you can about it and attack, attack, attack.

But we’re all doomed. I need some hope.

A Very Out-Of-The Box Vision For Saving SnapChat

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I have already mentioned this, but it’s fun to talk about so I’m going to write about it some more. If SnapChat were to re-imagine itself completely in the manner I have suggested, that of turning itself into something akin to a video discussion service with a new text aspect, I think something pretty cool could happen.

Here’s how I would do it.

If it were possible, I would base the new SnapChat on video conferencing. I used the now defunct Blab.im a lot a few years ago and if SnapChat were to leverage its existing user base to go in that direction I think it would reap significant rewards. But there’s a lot I don’t know.

Video would still be at the core of the service, but there would be so much more than that available. The whole point of this new SnapChat would be to get you to have video conferences with your friends that others could watch. It wouldn’t be so much about sending video email to your existing friends as it would be making new friends. That’s a pretty powerful concept, I think. If you had a robust discovery feature you could make all kinds of new friends.

But the point is, there would also be a powerful IRC (AOL Chatroom) text feature in this new service. And threaded Usenet-like post discussions. All of this wouldn’t be rolled out overnight, of course, but you would gradually work towards a completely new vision for SnapChat that I think users would really love. Again, the only reason why I even suggest SnapChat doing this is if it doesn’t innovate and innovate quickly, the whole thing is doomed.

I don’t know if its even technically feasible to do a massive amount of video conferencing in the way I suggest. Blab was never able to get more than, maybe, 100 people in a room to watch a four way video conference, so it may not even be technically possible to get thousands of people watching even a two way video conference. But let’s suppose they used proprietary technology or something.

They would have to expand onto the desktop to truly have this vision become a reality. It would be really cool to have a service whereby you had not only recorded video conferencing with an audience, but a feature rich text environment as well. I have talked at great length about my vision both on this Website and on Instagram. Like, I’ve done thousands of little Instagram videos about this subject. I just take a lot of pictures now, but the videos are still there on my account for better or worse.

The only reason why I even think SnapChat would be interested in such a completely different vision for their service is they’re in serious risk of becoming moot and if they did something really, really dramatic and revolutionary it may be the only way to survive at all. They have the means, motive and opportunity as they say.

They wouldn’t even have to worry that much about their userbase revolting. SnapChat is dying and if they don’t innovate their way out of this deadend, there won’t be much for them to worry about at all in the first place. But whatever. Like I said, I only even wrote about this because it’s interesting.

The Fate Of SnapChat & A Social Media #Startup Based On Usenet Concepts

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I may have talked about this before, but I have nothing else to talk about right now, so we’re going to talk about it again. You see, of all the existing social media networks, SnapChat has the most to lose right now. Instagram is eating its lunch and maybe if SnapChat did something out-of-the-box dramatic it might be able to innovate itself out of certain doom.

I’m thinking, of course, of the social media startup concept I have based on the old Usenet. What if SnapChat took the basic concepts of the platform I’ve talked about at great length and use it to save itself from being eaten by Instagram? I have no clue how exactly they would do it, but right now SnapChat has the means, motive and opportunity to save itself by doing something crazy like completely re-imagining the entire service. What if public snaps were threaded in such way that you could have an intelligent convertation using them? Throw in a new desktop app for the service and all kinds of cool stuff might happen.

But, really, I can’t help but keep thinking about the startup concept I have. It’s just so cool. It’s too bad that I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn. It’s weird that we’ve actually gone backward in the last 20 years when it comes the functionality that Usenet once provided. Throw into the mix some IRC functionality and you have the makings of a killer app for sure.

One issue, of course, is would Facebook either co-op the service or buy it out the gate? I think if you made it clear that it was Twitter now Facebook the service was gunning for, then maybe they’d settle for an investment, just like Microsoft did with Facebook many moons ago.

I just really like the idea of bringing back the concepts of Usenet, which were so addictive to me 20 years ago, to modern social media users. But, alas, no one listens to me and if they do they’re just frustrated with me for not being willing to code. This has a lot more to do with me just needed something to talk about than anything else.

V-Log: Yet More Mulling A Social Media #Startup Based On Usenet Concepts

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I mull about this all the time and no one listens to me, but this video is a nice little run-down of my continued fascination with this concept. Overall, it’s a pretty strong idea for a social media startup, too bad everyone cares about AR, VR, bitcoin and automation now.

Mulling How To Share Posts In A Usenet Concept-Based Twitter Killer

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

One thing people have come to expect is the ability to share information they like within a social media environment. With Facebook it’s Sharing, with Twitter it’s Retweeting. With Reddit you can “vote up” content you like.

So, the question is, how would you do this with a Usenet concept-based service. This is an interesting, and crucial, question. You can’t have people vote up posts because that’s a direct rip-off of Reddit and people would see it as such. Meanwhile, Sharing like on Facebook is problematic. The best I can think of right now is some combination of “Starring” and Sharing. You might Star a post you liked, and Share it on your “Wall.” Or something. You would have to think of some way whereby people would feel like they were interacting with the content.

This gets into the whole concept of how you would represent Trending Topics. You would have to do in a dramatically different manner than Twitter and I think you could figure out something. I was thinking a pull-down menu that would be feature rich and give you all kinds of different options that either Twitter already has or are unavailable with Twitter.

Anyway, all of this is moot because I have no money, can’t code and don’t want to learn. But it is interesting to dwell on.

‘The Wall Is The Wall’ — #Lyrics To A Pop-Rock Ballad

As usual, Trump tweeted something stupid this morning. The turned out dumber than I expect, but it’s just a very rough first draft. Made me feel better to write it.

The Wall Is The Wall
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

I’ve been a loon for years now
president now I spout off on stupid shit
the key to my success has to been my dumb wall
the idea hasn’t change at all
even though it has
the wall is the wall
the wall is the wall

people try to convince me we don’t need a wall
that they don’t make for good neighbors
and there is something that doesn’t like one
but I won’t listen because I never do
you can’t get me to change my mind I never will
the wall is the wall
the wall is the wall
the wall is the wall

when we’re dead from my pushing my big red button
it won’t matter at all
but I have the gaul to push for my damn wall
doesn’t matter if you have a dream
a dream of staying in this great nation
the wall is the wall
the wall is the wall
the wall is the wall

‘Lulz, Nothing Matters’ — #Lyrics To A Woke Pop Song

This concept is pretty strong.

Lulz, Nothing Matters
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters

Trump can trample our freedoms left and right
all that matters for me is the economy
as long as its humming a long
doesn’t matter not everyone can sing their song

when they come for you I’ll just laugh
smile right back you as you cry in pain
nothing matters at all so what’s the point
I rake in the dough so what the point
lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters

the stock market keeps reaching new heights
I get to spend a quiet night with my wife
doesn’t matter to me that you’re in a camp
you should have just shut up when you had the chance
lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters
lulz, nothing matters

[bridge]
watch me as I dance on your grave
you were my friend long ago
now you’re getting the smarts kicked out of you
why are you so blue?

I wish you would wake up to your fate
find yourself a nice girl to date
if you were getting laid
you wouldn’t have so views
I trust you get the point of my words
otherwise there’s nothing left of you

‘I Call Bullshit’ — #Lyrics To An Angry Woke Pop-Rock Song Protesting Trump

This song is me giving my general view of Trump supporters’ point of view. They’re all full of shit and talking to them makes me furious.

I Call Bullshit
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or peform

your views make my skin crawl
I get a splitting headache thinking of you talk
you think Trump is going to make America great again
but the world hates us now
is that making America great?
shut up I don’t care what you have to say

I call bullshit
on your views
I call bullshit
on what you think
I call bullshit
you deplorable, deplorable, deplorable

nothing I say seems to make a difference
you’re member of a cult, cult, cult
Trump could whip out his wang on Fox News
and you wouldn’t blink an eye
that’s because your views are bullshit, bullshit, bullshit

don’t know how this ends
it doesn’t seem like it will be well
we’re going down a dangerous road
a dark path is before us
all I can say is I think your views are bullshit

I call bullshit
on your views
I call bullshit
on what you think
I call bullshit
you deplorable, deplorable, deplorable

[bridge]
your views are vile and ignorant
full of shit, full of shit, full of shit
you’re a member of cult

there’s nothing we can do
it seems but call it like we see it
Trump supporters are full of shit
and we’ve got to bring and end to this terror
vote, vote, vote, vote