Authorian Adventures in the Ether

Spending Time?

There are over 7 billion people in this world and I would venture to say at least half of them have an opinion on how you should spend your money.  I wonder, though, how many of them have an opinion on how you should spend your time.  Everyone gets roughly 24 hours of this commodity every day.  There are no time billionaires with more than they will ever be able to use.  There are no time accounts where you can put away some of your time for retirement or a rainy day.  But you can invest your time, in things that will save you time,  and/or compund your interest in your time.  You can also waste your time.  But wasting time is a relative term.  While many of your relatives may perceive what you are doing as superfluous, in your mind you are super charging your brain cells in preparation for your next challenge. 

One of the smartest time investments I ever made was to actively pursue doing nothing of substance for awhile.  SomeTimes, if we are wise enough, our thought to be timely expenditures are way ahead of the cosmic tumblers and the smartest thing we can do is to wait for the rest of our world to catch up.

This past weekend, Paul Newman died.  A man who spent his time here with great respect for the opportunities presented to him and a refreshing humility relative to the hours he spent in front of a camera.  I also saw a special about Albert Einstein, wherein the prevailing opinion among today’s genius’ is that Einstein “wasted the last twenty years of his life”.  But as I said above and I’m pretty sure Einstein said it first, “time is relative”.

All of these deep thoughts are presented to explain to you why I decided to terminate my Facebook and MySpace accounts…I just have better things to do with MY time.

Thinking about Juke Box Jumpin?

For me, the single most amazing and influential man-made system I have ever seen is the Juke Box.  A robotic arm moves silently to the selected disc, extracts it from it’s vertical storage position, places it horizontally on a turn table and then perfectly positions the needle onto the first groove.  All of this, because I deposited a dime and pressed two buttons, one alpha, one numeric that corresponded to the tune I wanted and needed to hear.  IF I had put in a quarter, it would allow me to press two more alpha numeric sequences and it would REMEMBER not just the songs I wanted it to play but the order in which I selected them.  As others deposited and pressed, it had the wherewithall to hold everyones place in line.  Many of these devices contained sound systems so sophisticated that it was many times preferrable to listening to  the live music of the day.  We needed no training manuals, no Juke Box for Dummies books, people of all ages could work these things.  Installation?  The proprietor of the establishment just had to plug it in.  Maintenance?  Periodically your local mafia would send over a technician who would restock with some of the latest tunes and replace any worn out favorites.   I ALWAYS wondered what it would be like to have one of these in my house, stocked with my entire collection and ready to play any of my (or anyone elses’) SELECTIONS at the touch of two buttons.

I tell you this story because many of you have asked me to join a side in the MAC vs PC, or more approriatley Apple Operating System vs Microsoft Operating System battle and this is my answer.  Whichever tool comes closest to costing YOU a dime and allowing YOU to achieve YOUR desired result by pressing just two buttons is the one YOU should go with.

And remember the defintion of juke is “to make a move intended to deceive” so don’t let ANY of these New Media boxes fake you out!

Let’s Go Let Go and Let it Be

There are many things I try when I a need to get motivated and focus on the task at hand.  I think turning on some spirit rousing music is one of my most successful techniques.  Other times I will watch movies of underdog triumph.  Sometimes I’ll read from my collection of inspriational quotes.  

Nine times out of ten, for me anyway, these practices will get the old brain cells percolating. But on that pesky 10th time, when life rises up and smacks you in the face like a wet cod fish all the inspriational sounds, sites actions and verbiage in the universe just don’t seem to get you anywhere.  This is when you remember what Obiwan or Father John or Zen Master Chen or Forrest Gump or whichever spritual advisor passed on to you the wisdom of “Letting Go”.   There is a time for charging ahead with the force of your will and a time for allowing external forces to do the work they have to do so that you can find your way.

Such has been my conundrum for the past month or so, as my book’s publicity campaign ended and I broke even on the venture.  Do I finish my next novel “Gabriel’s Horn”?  Do I pursue more sales of Considering SomeplacElse now that each sale represents significantly more profit?  Do I produce the Web TV pilot for “Podcasts From the Future”?  Do I somehow record my ”Rocky the Polar Bear” stories for my grandchildren and their children? Do I complete work on the SomeplacElse collborative Website?  Do I return to the much more lucrative world of Software Development which is much easier than being an author and is literally begging for me to come back?  

For now,  I have decided to allow the cosmic tumblers to click into place and see what direction is revealed BECAUSE, quite coincidentally (and you know I don’t believe in coincidence), The Beatles are whispering words of wisdom…

And I didn’t even think that song was on my MP3 player!

Ironing out your Brand

The calves of Samuel A Maverick were without brand and from this negligent rancher came our term for “masterless” and our 1957 James Garner TV Show, which actually featured Jack Kelly in more episodes than Garner.  Ironically, “Warner Brothers had a policy of recycling scripts through each of their television series to save money on writers, literally changing only the names and the locales while leaving the rest of the dialogue more or less intact”, thus rendering Maverick a brand.

On the Thursday Night edition of Sunday Night Football on NBC (that used to be Monday Night Football on ABC), in the few seconds between the constant deifications of Packer now Jet Bert Favre (if his last name is pronounced Farve, then is first name has to be Bert), the Belgian Company Budweiser, ran a commercial for their new “BL” beer.  Can I sue them?  I don’t drink and they are compromising my brand.  Or are they making BL more famous?  There is a PR maxim that, in the long run “All Publicity is Good Publicity”  So, maybe, all I need to do is get some copies of my book to that bar in Illinois called SomeplacElse and we’ll have some real marketing synergy going on.

The NFL game was followed immediately by “Maverick” John McCain’s acceptance speech. While I will leave all political commentary and thoughts on the Obama Brand to my good friend Char I must point out that just as Mr. McCain was speaking about the need to shake up the educational system, the camera panned to a young man holding a “McCain the Mavrik” sign.   Perhaps someone had “texted”(that’s the past tense of texting right?) the word to him.

As I was contemplating all this branding I got an email from Suzanna at Great Adaptations who told me to go for a walk and figure out ”Who I am”. Then, when it came time to write my next blog entry, I could focus with laser like precision on MY message.  When it comes to putting your Brand onto the internet this is excellent advice.   

Of course, if you consider yourself  “One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter” you still have to figure out WHO YOU ARE lest you end up ”an unbranded range animal that has become separated from its herd and is now considered the property of the first person who brands it.”

Breaking Even

Our good friend Mr. Webster defines Even as “leaving no balance of debt on either side”.
If we also take his second definition of Breaking “infringing, ignoring, or acting contrary” it would appear that I have acheived balance by acting contrary.  Which is what, at least this maverick, is all about.

Ove the past two weeks I had a flurry of activity in e-book downloads and paperback sales.  When I looked at the balances in my accounts, I discovered that I had earned more profits on my book than I had spent on formatting, editing, and promoting it.

Having reached this accounting milestone by intentionally pursuing a non-traditional publishing route is very gratifying to me.  But I must tell you, that my personal scales are not balanced, instead they remain tipped dramatically in my favor.  Finally telling the story after 40 years of thinking about it,  the 50 to 1 favorable comment ratio and the number of people who told me “I loved it” and “it was like you were in my head” will forever outweigh the cost in dollars of producing the work.

So now that I have recouped all these costs, will I do it again?  Probably not.   Will I tell another story?  Most definitely!  And then another and another, but if you want to read/hear/see them, you’re going to have to embrace these New Media digital technologies, because I intend to contine breaking what most consider even.

A Wiki Wiki in Review

Yesterday I saw Ed Begley Jr on the CBS Sunday Morning Show.  The story was about his commitment to being environmentally concious, but he had a quote from his Father that I though would be  motivational, regardless of your natural awareness. 
His Father told him,
“Don’t tell me what you’re going to do, tell me what you’ve done”.

So let me tell you what I have been doing for the last week or so:

1. Wordpress WordCamp followup: I have sent followup emails to most of  the Worpress contacts I acquired during the August 16th conference. I am asking them for more information on things like optimizing blogs for Search Engines, Setting up a WordCamp in Phoenix and various “plugin” features that can be easily added to our wordpress blogs. 

2. Wiki research:  Wiki is Hawaiian for “quick”.   In internet parlance Wiki has come to represent a quick way to set up a website that can be enhanced, amended and expanded by any user that happens to have something to contribute to the subject.  WikiPedia is the most notable example but check out Wookieepedia for a lesser known use of this collaborative approach to gathering and conveying information.   This week I began work on changing SomeplacElse.tv into a wiki.  What better way to create a truly Utopian community than to have everyone contribute?  It’s not quite ready to be unveiled so staty tuned.

3. 3D ebooks: One of my readers has been having trouble getting their DNAML 3D ebook set up on sharewareebooks. When I investigated, I found that DNAML has decided to release a whole new business model with ”better and easier to deploy Digital Rights Management”.  The original release date was early August, which was changed to August 18th, and is now August 30th.  While I applaud them for their efforts to make things better, those who have been trying to implement under the old model for the past several weeks are having a heck of a time.  I have found hardcopy of my original instructions from last November, so if you need some guidance, I think I can help.

4. Citizen Char : The individual who inspired the Charlene Davis character in Considering SomeplacElse sent me an email a few weeks back asking if she could write a blog using Charlene’s name.  The real Char was very much taken with the heroic deeds of the fictionalized Char and wanted to see if her exotic dancer life could begin to imitate art.  So not only did I give my permission, I set her up with a wordpress blog.  She hasn’t posted for a week or so, but she is in Denver right now, getting ready to cover the Democratic convention.  So take a look! 

5.  PFTF: There won’t be a link until I get the SomplacElse wiki done, but I did complete the script for the pilot episode of Podcasts From the Future.  The story takes place in the year 2020 and features a lone video podcaster trying to decide whether to trust the government and move to a land of plenty or to stick it out and deal with massive shortages of food, water and energy.  

So that was my week. How you “doin”?

Be Qoolity

As a member of the baby boom generation, my media of choice in my young adulthood was Big Black CDs (as my grandaughter calls them), Movies and Television pretty much in that order.  All of these are one way communications devices and, until about 30 years ago, they were highly controlled and, for the most part, rock solid money makers.  We(the U.S.A) even made most of the devices used for play back.  In those days we had a commerical for a manufacturer, I believe it was Zenith, that stated “The Quality goes in before the name goes on” 

Last weekend, I attended WordCamp in San Francisco.  It was a conference for users of Wordpress, the software that drives this Blog.  While I went to learn more about the Wordpress platform, I also went to observe Social Mediators in action.  And in the latter I received the bulk of my education.

Observation 1:  80-90% of the 400+ users and dozen or so presenters in attendance were using Apple computers.

Observation 2: 50-60% of the audience had their computers on and connected through the auditorium’s wireless network.  Apparently FREE WIFI, up most of the time, is EXPECTED for this type of  conference.

Observation 3: Those connected were literally all a “Twitter” throughout every presentation. In other words, they were constantly passing 140 character electronic notes during class.

Observation 4: The presentations were, for the most part, very enlightening.  However, those things that I found of keen interest,( like how to optimize your Blog for Search Engines), were allocated less time than those subjects that seemed to be of little interest to anyone, (like how to swtich to Wordpress from some other Blog software). Though I am sure the 10 or so folks who weren’t already using Wordpress appreciated the information.

Observation 5: Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Wordpress was much more engaging, entertaining and insightful than he was when I saw him at Blog World 2007.

Observation 6: Even free California Barbecue contains nothing to write about…The cornbread was pretty good though.

Observation 7: To this Social Media market, it is more important to get an idea out there, than it is to make sure it works correctly for everyone that embraces it.

Observation 8: PC users can do everything MAC users can do, but it’s just not cool.

Observation 9: The conference cost ONLY $20 and included a WordCamp T-shirt, Lunch, free WiFi and a chance to attend any 12 of the 24 sessions available.  This IS EXTREMELY COOL.

And from these observations comes the primary lesson of the weekend: 
Brand Quality is not the principal concern of Social Mediators.  It’s the Brand itself. 
And while the Brand has to deliver some reasonable INITIAL level of whiz-bang-imaginative-utility, once it’s embraced, the Qoolity goes in AFTER the name goes on.

Innerfacing

Ya, my blog looks different today…let me explain.

Last weekend I went to SF, CA.   SFO is linked directly to BART.  So when I got off the plane, I was determined to take a train ride to downtown San Francisco.  Plentiful signs directed me down corridors and up escalators to the ticket vending machines.  It was 8:45am and the only humans in the area were as dumbfounded as I by the ticketing process.  A paper sign proclaiming it would cost $5.35 to get to Union Square was taped to the machine, but another sign listing all of the train destinations, did not include Union Square.  The readout on the ticket machine warned that it did not make change, and directed us to another machine that only made change.
I swiped my credit card and the ticketing machine told me I would be charged 20 dollars, I canceled the transaction and turned to the person behind me asking if she knew how this worked.  “No” she said “but I’ll give it a try.”  She swiped her card and saw the same 20 dollar charge, but before she could cancel another patron told us “just push the minus buttons until you get to $5.35″.  ”OH” we cried, “it doesn’t vend tickets by destination, it vends by amount and each destination is a different amount”.

ALL we had to do, was press the minus one dollar button 15 times, then press the minus 5 cents button 13 times, then press the print single ticket button and we would have our trip to downtown.  A review of the destination chart showed that $5.35 would get us to the Powell Street Station…ergo, that must be downtown.

Now, I don’t know who came up with this approach to buying train tickets, but they most certainly brought a different perspective to the process.  And they can’t really be faulted for designing a system that, to them, seemed perfectly logical.  The real culprits here are the folks that approved the design. Were they so afraid of appearing to be stupid, that none of them dared say, “Hey, I don’t get it”?

Now that I know the trick, the next time I ride the Bay Area Rapid Transit, I’ll know what to do.  This doesn’t make it a good design, I just learned how to interact with it.

This brings us to the changes in my blog.  The reason I went to SF was to attend a conference on Wordpress, the software that powers this website.  It was an excellent conference and one of the things they preached constantly was to stay up to date with the latest version.  So, as soon as I got back, I upgraded to version 2.6.1.  Everything went smoothly with the upgrade until I brought the site back up.  All of my links to “Works of Heart”, “Considerations” and “Considerables” had vanished.

Further, there was no apparent way to fix my previous layout (it’s called a theme in Wordpress).  So I pressed the minus dollar button 12 times(aka reviewed a dozen or so other themes that would restore my links), then hit the minus 5 cents button about 6 times(aka replaced the default graphics with mine) and voila, a new look to my website. 

I’n not sure it’s as good as the previous design, but at least I fixed so YOU don’t have to relearn any interactions.

Check back tomorrow, I’ve got lots to tell you this week!

Ultramodern Chinese PROverbs

On Friday I watched the Chinese present one of the most symbolic and meaningful displays of true Olympic spirit EVER by focusing the world’s attention on what can be accomplished if thousands act in harmony.
No one was leading the drummers. There were no marks on the floor to define where the tai-chi circles were to be created. All of the majesty was acheived by individuals being aware of their surroundings, their neighbors and the role they were meant to play.
It required months if not years of dedicated practice to achieve this vision, to say nothing of the individual and collective commitment of resources. And while technology played a role in this triumphant spectacle, no machine could ever duplicate what these human beings were able to enact.
As Authors and New Media Publishers we would be wise to remember these lessons from the Bird’s Nest, and ensure there is more to our work than the mere quest for gold.

The Is of a Writer

I took my wife to Vegas this weekend for her brithday. Every so often I set aside my to do list for a few moments to let Melinda know how much I appreciate her. I know, it’s not often enough. So, when it comes to her birthday, I try to focus all my energy into some unique demonstration of my love and affection. But that’s another story for a different blog.

Today I wanted to tell you writers about the other way I struck it rich in Vegas. The town is so full of stories and characters just waiting for the right person to come along and collect, the odds are you will stumble upon a wealth of creative impulse if you are willing to risk paying a little attention.

There sitting across the old-school-still-serving-a-gambler’s-special restaurant were three characters, right out of your next book:
One, the ancient relic of a gold prospector come to celebrate the memory of his big strike,
The second an aged symbol of the 60’s gambler still wearing the Sinatra hat “the Chairman of the Board” had thrown into the audience after a show,
and the third a slick suited, manicured, pit boss with a large diamond stick pin holding his white tie in place against his black shirt.
Ah, I can’t wait to imagine the stories these three are going to tell me.

Quite literally on the other side of the strip was nouveau Vegas. Hundreds of petite and not so petite girls and women revealing as much as they possibly could in an attempt to rub, shall we say, elbows with Saudi (or otherwise endowed) Prince Charming while, shall we say, dancing to the throbbing beat of e-music at Club Hookup. As someone who came of age in the early 60s, I simply marvel at what has become socially acceptable, even in Vegas.
This trip I also witnessed the downside of “trolling”. When I left for the airport at 7:00am on Sunday there in the Mirage casino, slumped over a row of nickel slot machines were four young ladies, still in their little black dresses, looking anything but crisp and desperately waiting for the topless pool to open so they could sleep it off.

On the way to the airport, I learned about the mob-like Vegas cab business controlled by 9 men. Somehow, these capo di tutti cabi are still able to take 50% of all the fares and incentivize their drivers to direct riders to their various other enterprises, IF the driver needs to make more money.

That’s how I saw it. Your eyes may focus on something else, but you really need to look at Vegas as an enormous virtual library of tales quite ready for you to check them out.