The other day I was thinking that it would be great if Twitter could be used as a communications platform for discussions around blog posts. I mean we already do this but lack organization. We all know organization isn’t Twitter’s strong suit.

Ultimately I think it would be beneficial if everyone tweeted their blog comments. Currently you’ll see things like:

“Commenting on Jon Bishop’s blog” or “Reading This Awesome New Post”

Every once and awhile someone will actually provide value when Tweeting about one of my posts … but this is rare. I think more people need to start speaking up as it is only through the general consensus of the greater population that we can come to the most logical solution.

So this is where Commentwitter comes in. Ultimately my goal is to give the commenter the option of sending their comment to twitter and allowing people to follow that blogs comments both in the blog and in twitter. The main reason for this is to generate a buzz and encourage commenting on peoples blogs. It will also improve the quality and value of people’s tweets revolving around blog posts.

So here it is, Version 1.0 of Commentwitter.

I wrote about how to use search.twitter.com to find contests and giveaways. Well because of that very post I am half way to winning my very own iPhone 3G and a year supply of chocolate.

I received a phone call from Newtree’s PR department about a week ago informing me that I was one of the finalists for the contest. This totally caught me off guard but I had secretly been hoping my story might stick out. The contest was pretty simple:

Inspired by the popularity of cell phone text novels in Japan, this short story contest required that entries be submitted via cell phone text message. Creative writers with dexterous thumbs were asked to incorporate all 11 NEWTREE Chocolate flavors in a short story of no more than 1,500 words. The judging panel has selected the following top ten finalists in the Gr8 Am. Txt Stry Contest. The grand prize winner will be announced October 13, 2008. – Newtree

Now they have announced a small side contest. The People’s Choice awards. If you think my story is the best (or if you just think I’m really cool) please go vote for me at http://www.newtree.com/contest.php.

So without further adieu… here is my story:

Ten miles to go and I’m falling to my knees. All i want is to stop the crave. I would beg for forgiveness, but I’m not sorry. The pleasure is worth this cocoon life has entrapped me in. Eight more miles and I’m getting week. Six miles and I’m longing for the vigor my last victim provided. Four miles and I’m starting to fade. Two more miles and my mind is lost in the tranquility starvation embodies. One more mile …. will I make it? Suddenly my veins begin to pump as the sexy smell of chocolate causes me to blush. I rejoicein a feast of tiny chocolate men. One meal was all it took to refresh my mind body and soul. Now off to the next “Little Chocolate Men Convention” to help renew me once again.

Isn’t that exciting. It’s obviously about chocolate eating vampires that travel from chocolate men convention to chocolate men convention to stay alive. I thought it was clever at the time of creation and still do.

So please support me on this endeavour and vote for me.

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was some sort of centralized posting system to make your giveaway known to the world. Oh wait there is.

Something I’ve been doing to win some free stuff is monitoring search.twitter for just that… free stuff.

Search Twitter for Free Stuff

A lot of these contests are easy to join….. usually just leaving a comment on their blog. Others are kind of fun, like a best caption contest. But the more you enter, the better your chances are at winning something.

So go and win many iPhones and Wii’s. Tell them Jon sent you. It won’t help at all but it makes me feel good about myself.

Here’s another effect using AS3 to make fog with source files below.

View: http://bishport.com/fog.html

Source: zip

This is my first attempt at creating a realistic flame effect in Actionscript 3.0 so be gentle.

View: http://bishport.com/flame3.html

Source: zip