Explaining the five 'o five

The fiveofive [updated 11/06/2007]

The Orgin

T H E 5 : 0 5
"
Early Morning Random Blog Ramblings of an Overactive Mind Held Hostage by a Restless Spirit.
"

One morning after awakening exactly at 5am I was compelled to record my first waking thoughts somewhere and somehow and so I started a blog. It was initially posted as the 5am report but that sounded to news like so I tweaked the name a little. The idea soon developed into a series of morning thoughts and other unscrambled dream data to produce what I now call the fiveofive (and this is all in the course of a day). It is called the fiveofive because (for the most obvious reason) that is the time when I normally make it downstairs to my computer in order to type it out. I plan on waking every (possible) morning to post something at sometime after 5am. I'm not sure if has been done yet but if I'm the first then that is all the better.

The Process

After my alarm rings, promptly at 5am, I spring from my comfortable bed and skip merrily down the stairs where my Gateway Convertible CX210X is patiently awaiting my cold rigid morning fingers to grace its warm plastic keyboard. Once I sit down in front of the brightly glowing screen (turning on a lamp or two so to avoid eye strain) I reflect on the first smidgen of a thought rattling around inside my mind. The moment I access the thought and begin typing I push forward without preparation, planing or provision (using a freestyle, free flowing, non fiction equivalent of "stream of consciousness" ). So far this method has produced all of the entries you read here in the five o five without incident, but I already have a plan in place in case my mind is totally blank.

The Plan

If you don't have any ideas in your head first thing in the morning then there are ways you can kick start your creativity and imagination.

• ~I take a brief glance at one of the day's top story's and then blog about what it means to me or how I relate.
  
• ~I look around my house and think of some of the memories that dwell within my living quarters.
  
• ~I reflect back on the day (or week) before and think of any hot topics that would interest my audience.
  

There are some other online resources you can use to get that creativity going and a few are listed below, check them out for some ideas and please message me if you have any others I can add.

• ~So, You Want To Write!
  

The Protocol

Because I live such an unpredictably active life I decided to develop a protocol in order to revise this blog in passes that will also allow the reader to know when a post is complete and ready to read without having it sit in draft limbo until it is good looking. The five o five blog revision protocol [brb] is a method of posting that allows the author to create post including supportive content and visual aides in an uninterrupted process or edit notes and link leasing. The protocol allows a blog author to post an unedited blog post with simple notation describing to the reader how much more the author has left to do and allows the choice of perusing the raw material or returning when the final edits are made and the blog is at its prettiest. This method is beneficial in that it gives the reader options based on their personal preference.

[#] <- What's This?

A number in brackets represents the stage of editing. The numbers count down from 3, which is the raw unaltered post with edit notations, to 1, which is the final aesthetic incarnation of the post.

Edit Notations: Edit notations are a temporary place holder for extra material including links, images, music, and references. Edit notations themselves usually appear in brackets and can be as simple and general as a note *[see cats] or may even be an unedited link reference *[insert google.com link].

Revision Stage:
Below is the brief description of what each number in the brackets represent.

[3] Raw unedited original
[2] Ascetically edited post with images and pull quotes
[1] Final edited post with aesthetic modifications and contextual links and references.

If you have any questions or suggestions for how I can improve this system please contact me via email, IM, or comment. You are free to use and improve upon this method without permission but I do ask that you send me a link so I can see what you have done with it and reference you in this post.

The Principal

Below is my personal pledge to keep the five o five fresh and un-commercialized by following a simple protocol and procedure for every post. If you decide to follow my model you can either use this preset structure or design your own. The bottom line is to make it yours.

On my honor:

1. ~I will not alter nor falsify any time codes on post entry's nor will I make any excuses for missed days (sometimes we just oversleep or sleep in - you understand).
2. ~I will not plan or sketch out ideas for the next morning blog the day (or days before).
   
3. ~I will not alter nor change the core content of any published post once it is live.
4. ~The only changes I will make upon publishing are aesthetic and grammatical.

I hope that this experience produces deep conversation and great debates. I hope it reaches, not out to the masses, but into them. That's where I want to go. That's what I'm all about.

Tigga76 (Jermaine Antonio Young)