Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "twitter"
My Life on Twitter (Let's Follow Each Other!)
It is not a coincidence that my life on Twitter starts today (yes, you can follow me there now!). Those who know me will understand why this date is so important to me. Those who will yet become my friends just have to remind themselves on the significance of this date and the tectonic shift it made in the history of mankind.
Today is the day for remembering so this is what my first Tweets are meant for. I have both beautiful and sad memories of 9/11 and I hope to connect with you through these memories. I want to share what I love with you, things that meant something to me and are still meaning a lot to me. Through memories we live and defy the oblivion of time. Through memories we are here even after we're gone.
Beside following me on Twitter, you can also connect with me on my other social network platforms: LinkedIn, Goodreads and Promocave. Feel free to share what you love with me!
And, of course, don't forget to check out my new posts on my official web page; it was launched exactly a year ago, also on 9/11!
Thanks!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Today is the day for remembering so this is what my first Tweets are meant for. I have both beautiful and sad memories of 9/11 and I hope to connect with you through these memories. I want to share what I love with you, things that meant something to me and are still meaning a lot to me. Through memories we live and defy the oblivion of time. Through memories we are here even after we're gone.
Beside following me on Twitter, you can also connect with me on my other social network platforms: LinkedIn, Goodreads and Promocave. Feel free to share what you love with me!
And, of course, don't forget to check out my new posts on my official web page; it was launched exactly a year ago, also on 9/11!
Thanks!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
9/11 Through Time and Space
But it happens. Time flows and changes things and erases old memories before the new ones for God knows what reason. People remember and people forget but some things are too important to be forgotten. We have to remember them even when the others think they belong to the past, some other time and place less important and too distant.
I remember.
First it is a day and a night thousand and thousand miles up in the freezing air, a massive moving body of cold Atlantic deep down under me as hours are slowly passing by. First there are clouds and skyscrapers probing them while skyrocketing from the island surrounded by the East River and the Hudson River. The World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building the Empire State Building and many others. First there is a wild beating of the heart when the plane touches its wheels with a soft thud and a brief screeching sound against the Newark Airport runway. The first white limo and your new friend Lidija taking you to her cozy apartment in the Jersey City.
First there are lights of Manhattan across the Hudson River twinkling through the slowly setting young American night and the wind of approaching train in the subway. First there are the Twin Towers, majestic and high high high and big big big towering over you into the endless night and the colorful lights of the Times Square in a warm and pleasant September New York night.
My first time ever on the American soil. My first time ever in New York City. It is September 11, 2000.
I am there, I am dreaming. No! I am living my dream. I am remembering everything: every step on Lower-Midtown-Upper Manhattan tarmac, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, jet lag, rollerblading the streets, avenues and Central Park, skateshops, squirrels, a candy for a dollar from a local teenage guy at the Washington Square Park raising funds for runaway kids, gay and straight couples, the hum of the waves at the Battery Park, tourists, smells of fast food, Italian food, Chinese food, French fries, pasta, any food, longboards, students, volunteering, gay parade, warm wind blowing around the corners of the streets and down the avenues bathed in sun, horns and traffic noise, ice water, museums museums museums, a roller coaster on the Coney Island, books, gifts, firefighters in action, skateboarders at the Union Square, street performers everywhere.
And I am in the midst of everything. I am there, the king of my dream, happy as can be when life throws into your lap everything. At least for a brief and short too short way too short twelve days.
And then there are tears. And screams. And people falling from the sky escaping fire smoke heat and falling debris.
And then there is a shock, disbelief, incomprehension, new explosions, new smoke, white dust, falling papers, death. More live news about the burning floors of the World Trade Center towers, about people being trapped about people being killed about death that cannot be avoided.
Then there is pain in your head and a hole in your heart and a big unanswered question in your eyes moist with tears – why? why? why?
I am far away from it, across the East River, across the Atlantic Ocean, on another continent. I am home from work, watching every news all the news everything, not missing anything and remembering that today is my anniversary of visiting New York. It is September 11, 2001.
I am piling up newspapers, magazines, pictures and articles so as to remember so as not to forget what is going on that day what was going on that day, the dead and the living, lost and found ones, tears, flowers, candles. Photographs and messages, lots of photographs and unanswered messages, thousands of them.
Remembering. It is important to remember. When life goes on and pushes death aside it is important to cherish the memory on the most nightmarish day in New York City. When the Twin Towers died.
When the Twin Towers were murdered.
I haven't returned to New York yet. I am trying to coexist in a parallel universe, sorrow in my head, fire, longing and desire in my heart for a distant city and a close memory I do not want to forget.
I remember everything.
Even the life I build here revolves around it, distractions help only temporarily. I whisper about it in my soul, I sing about it in my poems and in my books. And now in my blog posts on my web page, too.
Fifteen years after our encounter and fourteen years after the mortal wound to its soul I have launched my official web page www.bernardjan.com. It marks the beginning of a new life and a new adventure I am embracing and exploring every day.
Precisely one year later and fifteen years after the disappearance of the Twin Towers I am opening my Twitter account so I can better share what I love with you AND I'm writing this blog post because I want to remember and I do not want to forget anything. I want to remember my dream fulfilled, my love, my feelings, my story. I do not want to forget other people's tears, losses, pain, agony, ruined lives and stolen destinies.
But it happens. Time flows and changes things and erases old memories before the new ones for God knows what reason. People remember and people forget but some things are too important to be forgotten. We have to remember them even when the others think they belong to the past, some other time and place less important and too distant.
It is never too far and never unimportant to remember. With fire, longing and desire as a reminder, we may just realize that now we love New York more than ever.
We just have to – remember.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Original post
My other blog posts
I remember.
First it is a day and a night thousand and thousand miles up in the freezing air, a massive moving body of cold Atlantic deep down under me as hours are slowly passing by. First there are clouds and skyscrapers probing them while skyrocketing from the island surrounded by the East River and the Hudson River. The World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building the Empire State Building and many others. First there is a wild beating of the heart when the plane touches its wheels with a soft thud and a brief screeching sound against the Newark Airport runway. The first white limo and your new friend Lidija taking you to her cozy apartment in the Jersey City.
First there are lights of Manhattan across the Hudson River twinkling through the slowly setting young American night and the wind of approaching train in the subway. First there are the Twin Towers, majestic and high high high and big big big towering over you into the endless night and the colorful lights of the Times Square in a warm and pleasant September New York night.
My first time ever on the American soil. My first time ever in New York City. It is September 11, 2000.
I am there, I am dreaming. No! I am living my dream. I am remembering everything: every step on Lower-Midtown-Upper Manhattan tarmac, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, jet lag, rollerblading the streets, avenues and Central Park, skateshops, squirrels, a candy for a dollar from a local teenage guy at the Washington Square Park raising funds for runaway kids, gay and straight couples, the hum of the waves at the Battery Park, tourists, smells of fast food, Italian food, Chinese food, French fries, pasta, any food, longboards, students, volunteering, gay parade, warm wind blowing around the corners of the streets and down the avenues bathed in sun, horns and traffic noise, ice water, museums museums museums, a roller coaster on the Coney Island, books, gifts, firefighters in action, skateboarders at the Union Square, street performers everywhere.
And I am in the midst of everything. I am there, the king of my dream, happy as can be when life throws into your lap everything. At least for a brief and short too short way too short twelve days.
And then there are tears. And screams. And people falling from the sky escaping fire smoke heat and falling debris.
And then there is a shock, disbelief, incomprehension, new explosions, new smoke, white dust, falling papers, death. More live news about the burning floors of the World Trade Center towers, about people being trapped about people being killed about death that cannot be avoided.
Then there is pain in your head and a hole in your heart and a big unanswered question in your eyes moist with tears – why? why? why?
I am far away from it, across the East River, across the Atlantic Ocean, on another continent. I am home from work, watching every news all the news everything, not missing anything and remembering that today is my anniversary of visiting New York. It is September 11, 2001.
I am piling up newspapers, magazines, pictures and articles so as to remember so as not to forget what is going on that day what was going on that day, the dead and the living, lost and found ones, tears, flowers, candles. Photographs and messages, lots of photographs and unanswered messages, thousands of them.
Remembering. It is important to remember. When life goes on and pushes death aside it is important to cherish the memory on the most nightmarish day in New York City. When the Twin Towers died.
When the Twin Towers were murdered.
I haven't returned to New York yet. I am trying to coexist in a parallel universe, sorrow in my head, fire, longing and desire in my heart for a distant city and a close memory I do not want to forget.
I remember everything.
Even the life I build here revolves around it, distractions help only temporarily. I whisper about it in my soul, I sing about it in my poems and in my books. And now in my blog posts on my web page, too.
Fifteen years after our encounter and fourteen years after the mortal wound to its soul I have launched my official web page www.bernardjan.com. It marks the beginning of a new life and a new adventure I am embracing and exploring every day.
Precisely one year later and fifteen years after the disappearance of the Twin Towers I am opening my Twitter account so I can better share what I love with you AND I'm writing this blog post because I want to remember and I do not want to forget anything. I want to remember my dream fulfilled, my love, my feelings, my story. I do not want to forget other people's tears, losses, pain, agony, ruined lives and stolen destinies.
But it happens. Time flows and changes things and erases old memories before the new ones for God knows what reason. People remember and people forget but some things are too important to be forgotten. We have to remember them even when the others think they belong to the past, some other time and place less important and too distant.
It is never too far and never unimportant to remember. With fire, longing and desire as a reminder, we may just realize that now we love New York more than ever.
We just have to – remember.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Original post
My other blog posts
Lightbox, Cookies, Subscribe
Last week I had entered some strange period when absolutely nothing was happening with my book A World Without Color. Whatever I tried to plan or do was in vain. The forces of heaven, earth and the universe united against me and I could not make a single step forward. The thought of walking into a formatting nightmare didn't help the least in breaking free from the chains of inefficiency and desperation.
Such days and such times happen and will happen again, I have no illusions. The key is in making the best of what you get when nothing is as you want it to be.
And so I did. I continued networking on Twitter and Goodreads (If you don't follow me there feel free to do so) and updating my website by adding the lightbox with a “Subscribe to my blog Muse” (I will be thrilled if you subscribe to it!) and the short notification about cookies.
I don't have to tell you what it means to be an indie author and when someone subscribes to his list, how much it means and is appreciated, how encouraging and motivational this is.
So let's say a bit more about those famous cookies. As the resident of the EU, on my website I have to post the notification about the use of cookies. Unfortunately, it is not something sweet and tasty to eat but, as nicely put by my Wix provider, small files or other pieces of data which are downloaded or stored on your computer or other device, that can be tied to information about your use of the website you visit. All websites use cookies to provide the services and features offered on their website—mine included—to improve their user experience. Once you are on the website, you can either agree to such use of cookies or delete and later disable them, but then you may experience interruptions or limited functionality in certain areas of the website.
Now we are all a bit smarter about cookies after also indulging the EU legislation that wants us, the website owners, to warn you, our visitors, fans and followers, about the little monsters we keep hidden in the secret labyrinths of our pages that will jump on you and eat you alive before you get to click X for exit or close the window!
Don't worry, I don't eat anything or anyone who walks, flies, swims, crawls breaths and thinks, so you are pretty safe with me. My book designer Marijo Kožar from MKM Media can confirm that. He survived an hour on the phone with me on the relation Rome—Zagreb as he was helping me to set up the lightbox which looks much more elegant than my successful but ugly previous attempts with two separate pop-ups which I happily and quickly removed!
You haven't seen a thing and I don't think cookies will tell anyone about that either. Wink, wink!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
Such days and such times happen and will happen again, I have no illusions. The key is in making the best of what you get when nothing is as you want it to be.
And so I did. I continued networking on Twitter and Goodreads (If you don't follow me there feel free to do so) and updating my website by adding the lightbox with a “Subscribe to my blog Muse” (I will be thrilled if you subscribe to it!) and the short notification about cookies.
I don't have to tell you what it means to be an indie author and when someone subscribes to his list, how much it means and is appreciated, how encouraging and motivational this is.
So let's say a bit more about those famous cookies. As the resident of the EU, on my website I have to post the notification about the use of cookies. Unfortunately, it is not something sweet and tasty to eat but, as nicely put by my Wix provider, small files or other pieces of data which are downloaded or stored on your computer or other device, that can be tied to information about your use of the website you visit. All websites use cookies to provide the services and features offered on their website—mine included—to improve their user experience. Once you are on the website, you can either agree to such use of cookies or delete and later disable them, but then you may experience interruptions or limited functionality in certain areas of the website.
Now we are all a bit smarter about cookies after also indulging the EU legislation that wants us, the website owners, to warn you, our visitors, fans and followers, about the little monsters we keep hidden in the secret labyrinths of our pages that will jump on you and eat you alive before you get to click X for exit or close the window!
Don't worry, I don't eat anything or anyone who walks, flies, swims, crawls breaths and thinks, so you are pretty safe with me. My book designer Marijo Kožar from MKM Media can confirm that. He survived an hour on the phone with me on the relation Rome—Zagreb as he was helping me to set up the lightbox which looks much more elegant than my successful but ugly previous attempts with two separate pop-ups which I happily and quickly removed!
You haven't seen a thing and I don't think cookies will tell anyone about that either. Wink, wink!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
Blooms and Thorns of May
Most definitely May 2018 was one of the most exciting and annoying months. When my heart bloomed and my soul wept with frustration.
Good news? My Twitter profile got its first 10,000 followers! My LinkedIn profile hit the number of 4,000 friends and followers! Fantastic news!
Care to join my old and new followers? Would be so cool!
May 9 was a good day. An excellent day, because the paperback edition of my novella Look for Me Under the Rainbow has been released on Amazon. Oh, happy day! Happy was also May 22 when my copies were released by Croatian customs and arrived at my home!
Celebration! And then frustration!
Boring and long frustration just like all those GDPR notifications piling up in our mailboxes. I must admit guilt on my account too for sending you my Privacy Policy. Did you read it? Oh please, tell me you did because we take great care of your data and privacy protection so you can safely browse my website and feel as good there as in your home.
Thanks to the new EU legislation and everyone NOT being prepared for it I spent a great majority of my time studying it instead of with my books.
As if this wasn't enough, I had an emails exchange with Amazon about my reviews which, thankfully, ended well and had painful few days while updating my Microsoft Office and reinstalling my Windows.
Let's conclude this May chronicles with some good news. Look for Me Under the Rainbow was in the finals of AllAuthor cover contest for May and it ended up ranked #6! Not bad at all considering I entered the contest with one day and 140 votes delay!
Look for Me Under the Rainbow has also been approved in the YA and Middle-Grade Book Category of the TCK Publishing 2018 Reader’s Choice Awards so please follow this link and browse to page 12 where you can cast your vote for it! Wouldn't it be a great thing to do after reading this post?
Thanks!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan
Good news? My Twitter profile got its first 10,000 followers! My LinkedIn profile hit the number of 4,000 friends and followers! Fantastic news!
Care to join my old and new followers? Would be so cool!
May 9 was a good day. An excellent day, because the paperback edition of my novella Look for Me Under the Rainbow has been released on Amazon. Oh, happy day! Happy was also May 22 when my copies were released by Croatian customs and arrived at my home!
Celebration! And then frustration!
Boring and long frustration just like all those GDPR notifications piling up in our mailboxes. I must admit guilt on my account too for sending you my Privacy Policy. Did you read it? Oh please, tell me you did because we take great care of your data and privacy protection so you can safely browse my website and feel as good there as in your home.
Thanks to the new EU legislation and everyone NOT being prepared for it I spent a great majority of my time studying it instead of with my books.
As if this wasn't enough, I had an emails exchange with Amazon about my reviews which, thankfully, ended well and had painful few days while updating my Microsoft Office and reinstalling my Windows.
Let's conclude this May chronicles with some good news. Look for Me Under the Rainbow was in the finals of AllAuthor cover contest for May and it ended up ranked #6! Not bad at all considering I entered the contest with one day and 140 votes delay!
Look for Me Under the Rainbow has also been approved in the YA and Middle-Grade Book Category of the TCK Publishing 2018 Reader’s Choice Awards so please follow this link and browse to page 12 where you can cast your vote for it! Wouldn't it be a great thing to do after reading this post?
Thanks!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan
