Star Ratings on planksip

Starlight, Star Bright, Life Isn't Always a Picnic

Star Ratings on planksip

Hello, fellow planksipians.

Subject to some minor changes and ongoing updates the following graph (see below) represents the number of star ratings associated with posts in the Figures of Speech section. The star ratings are part of the amalgamation of posts, parsing if you will, of over 1,500 posts down to the current 609 posts. Like it or not, this article is going to take you through our process and where we hope to go with this section.

So where did I start?

For this, I think you should sit down.

Have a sip, a planksip.

Like a warm cup of coffee — plank — SIP is consumptive in nature

This journey began with this author's personal reading list, I believe of around 100 or so authors.

Using the P.A.S.F. filter, I ran these original 100 authors through the filter and then asked the Google oracle which of these intellectual giants have quotes, funny enough it was already right in front of me and the entire world wide web for that matter. These were the quotes that populated the initial list of thinkers that made up the first group.

I have been reluctant to add too many more to this list simply because of the amount of work that I manually do for each entry. First of all, I make note of the Figure's Day of Birth (D.O.B) and Day of Death (D.O.D). These dates then become part of the republishing strategy for each of the posts when I look at the day of the year that they repeat on.

The next step after I have the quote from the Figure of Speech is to create a title for each and every single post. For this, I provide a response or as I like to call it (thanks to George Steiner) a responsion. Essentially, I am using a free-form associate technique to read the quote, and then engage with the quote in some way, meshing with the quote like gears working together in reciprocal interchange. Who am I kidding? When I write down the first thing that comes to mind it's sometimes clever but of questionable quality. I am okay with the apparent deficiency because the intention is that I don't want to overthink it.

What happens next?

Once the quote and responsion have made their way into the draft of the Figure of Speech post I am ready to pick an associated image. I intentionally try to relate the quote, responsion and image in some sort of theme. If I am lucky the cleverness continues in three-part harmony, but don't mind me if sometimes I am tone deaf (hey, I warned you).

Look, keep in mind that this is a relaxed form of written expression and association. It just happens to have a whole lot of structure behind it.

In terms of the number of images that I have, I think I am sitting with approximately four-hundred images. These images are stock images that I have pulled from either Adobe or Unsplash, royalty and superficially look stock all the way to the blog.

In order to remedy the stocky feel, you will see a composite variation in the featured image which also shows up as the thumbnail into the post. The other variation that I have created for each of my stock photos is more of a blurred artistic effect. This will typically show up as the final bookend at the end of the post.

So this is the essential starting point to the posts in the Figures of Speech section on planksip and it's from this starting point that the iterative intention continues. Because of the fact that these posts are continually reposted throughout the year, I am in a continual state of revision. Iterative inspiration!

Now What?

Currently, I am looking to add a video to these posts. The project is fairly large because, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the number of posts is close to 800.

Think about that for a moment.

How long would it take you to create 800 videos?

Oh, by the way, did I mention that I painstakingly added each one of the Figures of Speech to the planksip blog as an author? You can check out the author's section of planksip anytime.

Image Limits?

I think it's mildly interesting that I am really able to stay within the ecosystem of approximately 400 images. I don't find the urge to find a new image, I can usually find one in my collection and the "extra" interesting aspect of all of this is that I labelled the image file names with the captions, which are descriptive and represent that cheekiness that I mentioned earlier.

In some odd way, I am treating this all like an experiment in objectivity. I was curious when the curation of images started how many images I would have to accumulate until I rarely would have to look outside my collection.

So why do this?

Well, as the image selections start to double up, triple up or even repeat (up to) 15 times (see the graph at the beginning of this post), the correlations have now organically helped forme the content of the website. A system, or an ontological framework of sorts as I like to refer to it. The organic and objective correlations happen just outside my best (and worst) intentions.

So now, I am able to retrospectively able to look back at all the images that I have used across the entire Figures of Speech section and ponder the correlations. No causations, as this would be fallacious but it is interesting nonetheless, a framework from which to stand on the shoulders of giants. Can I see further? Well, I guess that depends on where I am looking.

Back to the Videos

Ok, I have set my mind to it, I am bound and determined to create the approximately 800 videos for the Figures of Speech section of the planksip blog.

Check back often, I will let you know how I am coming along. If you want to help, consider signing up as a contributor and a planksip Journalist. As a fellow truth-seeker, you will be a part of this creative and iterative expression. Besides, it would be great to have you if you feel that you have something to contribute.

The planksip writer's cooperative is sponsoring a re-writing of this article (500 words) with $500 CAD in prize money for the best article as voted by your peers in the planksip writer's cooperative. Judged by your peers, your chance to join a community of creative thinkers and win over $750,000 CAD in prize money is your entry point into becoming a planksip journalist.

We want to change the way people engage. The planksip organic platform is dedicated to supporting your voice as a writer and a thought leader. Join today, membership matters!