Brain Dump - Niebu, Helium Contests, and Twitter
photo credit: neurollero
All right, I’ve got so many different things rolling around in my head this morning, and none of them are working themselves into a full post. Let me offer you, then, a potpourri of the things jumping between my synapses:
Niebu
Being an Internet writer (or any other sort of self-employed web worker) means several things. It means sometimes working long or odd hours. It means having clients and colleagues that are, mostly, people you’ll never meet in person. Add the two together, and you wind up with “Niebu.”
How exactly does that work? Simple. You take an Internet Writer like James. James wakes up one morning at 5 AM. He likes to get things done in the morning, before his kids are up. He starts the coffee pot. While he’s waiting for his “jet fuel,” he hops on Twitter to type “Morning” to greet his colleagues and followers. Only problem is, both hands are shifted one key to the left. He types “Niebu” instead.
Two or three weeks later, Niebu is an Internet phenomenon. James and his colleagues (and peers, friends and hangers-on) have their own little inside joke. I think DebNg referred to it as “Men and their made-up words.” We use Niebu to mean “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Good Luck,” and even refer to Niebu as a sort of tribal Deity, as in “My Twitter is acting up. Quick, sacrifice a virgin to Niebu.”
In reality, Niebu means Community. Niebu is the grand community of web workers and their friends, followers, and anyone else who wants in; it’s not exclusive. Niebu means, in some ways, I get up at 5 AM to work my a$$ off all day so that I can have the afternoon to watch my kid’s Kindergarten play. It means The soul-sucking corporate environment is eating away at my soul. I need a way to escape.
Niebu to you all today, my friends.
For another take on it, check out Dave Navarro’s perspective on What Does Niebu Mean?
Helium Contests
I told you all last time how you can go about earning money on Helium by writing for contests, and I wanted to follow up by pointing you to this week’s writing contest topics. They are as follows:
- 2008 Elections
- Hawaii
- Terrorism
- Antiques
- Online Business
- Trucks & SUVs
- Arthritis
- PC Support
- Christian Teens
- Role-Playing Games
I won’t be writing in the Role-Playing Games contest this week, as I’m the “sub-channel steward” for RPGs. “What’s a channel sub-steward?” you ask? I’ll cover the steward program in more detail at another time, but the basic principle is this: Helium utilizes a community-based system of quality assurance, in a similar fashion to Wikipedia. For each content area, there are stewards. There are sub-channel stewards for the very tiny portions of each content area, and I’m it for RPGs and Wargames. I’ve just really started doing this, though, as my focus up until the last couple of weeks at Helium had been the Reward-athon.
At any rate, good luck to those of you who decide to give the contests a shot. I’m thinking of writing in “Online Business” and probably “PC Support” this week.
Good luck to everyone who gives it a shot this week!
If you’ve not jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon yet, you should really consider it. My understanding is that there is some social networking/marketing value in it, but really I think it’s just a nice little way to blow off steam for 3 to 5 minutes at a time, several times a day. It is, for me, what the water cooler was when I worked in the corporate world.
Follow me on Twitter here.
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Have a great weekend, everyone. If you get a chance to see Iron Man this weekend, you should take it. Make sure you stay through the credits, though. I promise a totally geeking-out moment for any comic-book fanboy who does. It’s great stuff.
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10 Responses to “Brain Dump - Niebu, Helium Contests, and Twitter”
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Niebu Bob!
It’s amazing to see how quickly Niebu spread as an accepted and appreciated greating, among a small group of tweeple. I can totally relate to what you wrote about that word. Niebu is community.
Niebu, Bob!
You captured the essence of the word very well here (especially the soul-sucking part…)
And when my escape is complete, I will stand atop the highest mountain, and shout “NIEBU!” to the world
Brett Legrees last blog post..viking fridays - the unwise man.
[…] Niebu post on WritingJourney: In reality, Niebu means Community. Niebu is the grand community of web workers and their friends, followers, and anyone else who wants in; it’s not exclusive. Niebu means, in some ways, I get up at 5 AM to work my a$$ off all day so that I can have the afternoon to watch my kid’s Kindergarten play. It means The soul-sucking corporate environment is eating away at my soul. I need a way to escape. […]
“Niebu means, in some ways, I get up at 5 AM to work my a$$ off all day so that I can have the afternoon to watch my kid’s Kindergarten play.” Yes, yes, yes, and can I get an “Amen!” on that? I haven’t jumped on the Niebu wagon yet, mainly because it seems like, as Deb perfectly described it, “you men and your made up words.” But I was twittering the morning of Niebu’s inception, and I’ve loved watching it take off. The community thing is definitely true—-all I keep thinking is that only a group of totally kick-ass writers could take a typo and turn it into an internet sensation
I love the Niebu *as community* concept. I remember waking up that morning shortly after the word hatched and said “What is Niebu? It sounds like a spirit-god.”
Well, maybe it is. The Spirit of Community.
Nice post.
Wendi Kellys last blog post..Slow Cooking Frogs
THANK YOU for the explanation of Niebu! I have been confused about it for days!
@ Lodewijk - isn’t it amazing? I’m floored.
@ Brett what you’re saying is I’ve captured a soul-sucking Niebu. Very good.
@ Colleen come over to the dark side. The water’s fine.
@ Wendi - you’ve got it. Now, on to the sacrifices…
@ Sandie - You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping in! Don’t be a stranger.
Niebu, all.
@Bob,
Yes! You have captured the elusive, yet dangerous, soul-sucking Niebu.
I’m getting in the car now, and will be at your house early tomorrow morning with a blowtorch, an assortment of power tools, and a soldering iron.
I’m going to get medieval on that Niebu… just don’t get too close to the cage, they have razor sharp claws
Brett Legrees last blog post..viking fridays - the unwise man.
Thanks for the lesson, Bob. I was starting to think I missed out on a meme in twitter. Niebu.
Hey, Bob. Meme goin’ round. This post seemed the only place to link in. Tag! You’re it. More info back at my site: http://tuleydocs.com/2008/05/09/sixteen-random-facts-about-me/