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19
Jul 10

Now appearing in the garage

Finally made it into the garage project. I said last August I’d do this. I’ve intended to do it from time to time in between. To be fair, other things have happened along the way. I meant to do it last week, but didn’t feel well. (I’m getting better. Now I merely sound stuffy and can’t breathe as much as I like. I like to breathe.)

So I made it into the garage, which has made a nice storage space. Of course it was 95 degrees out as I did this. The box fan wasn’t really getting the job done.

But I threw away three big garbage bags and a box full of things. I donated an entire car full of items to the Salvation Army. I sweated a lot. There are about four more boxes to go through, but this was a day of progress. Needed one of those.

In an unrelated adventure, I managed to explode the garbage bax with kitty litter in it. I felt like a thief when I was sweeping up the trail, covering my tracks as it were. I felt like an idiot when I realized I leaked some of it into the trunk of my car. Something else to clean up.

In journalism news the spin you see coming out of this story will require a complete and utter divorce from reality and credulity:

(V)isits to The Times of London and The Sunday Times’ Websites have dropped by 66% since parent company News International put those sites behind paywalls on July 2.

Information, it seems, wants to be free. So now we’ll join former boss Jeff Jarvis, mid-explanation:

But that is based on the assumption that content is a consumable, a scarcity that drains the more it is read. Of course, it isn’t. Content is, instead, a magnet that can create relationships of value; whether that happens is up to the creator of the content and the quality of service and relevance is gives. That, dare I repeat it, is the basis of the link economy.

But note the verb that started off the paragraph above: should. Readers who read more should pay more. This is the product of journalism’s sense of entitlement.

Jarvis concluded, in this January post, that the “risks (of paywalls) are great and grave.” Why? The change, Jarvis answers:

(W)ill have me make a new economic decision every time I want to read a story: Is this unique content I will get only here (there is a good deal of that) or is this commodity information I can get elsewhere (BBC, Reuters, Washington Post, Politico, TechCrunch…). The Times then restricts our relationship and it is in that relationship that it has to find value.

Publishers, if they wanted to make money online, missed the window by a little more than a decade. There’s a hope that apps will flip the model back in their favor, but there also be someone in the app stores (or whatever surpasses them) willing to spread news or sports or entertainment for free?

Jarvis talks about that, too. Peter-Paul Koch touches on the economics.

My thoughts and research are typically more geared to the journalism side rather than the business aspects, but these are important considerations throughout the industry. I’ll let you know when I have all of the answers.

Maybe the spies know. Here’s Wired’s read on the much anticipated Washington Post spy database collection:

It includes a searchable database cataloging what an estimated 854,000 employees and legions of contractors are apparently up to. Users can now to see just how much money these government agencies are spending and where those top secret contractors are located.

Check out the Post’s nine-page list of agencies and contractors involved in air and satellite observations, for instance. No wonder it scares the crap out of official Washington: It’s bound to provoke all sorts of questions — both from taxpayers wondering where their money goes and from U.S. adversaries looking to penetrate America’s spy complex.

But this piece is about much more than dollars.

Go read it over there. I’ve talked about spies enough for one day already.

Hope you had a great, kitty-litter free, Monday today and a great Tuesday waiting for you!

errands / links / Wednesday — Comments Off
14
Jul 10

Still unwell

Remember how, yesterday, I didn’t feel too hot? That continues today.

Did manage to clean out a section of the garage. It seems we had more kitchenware than we needed. I’ve had a quality bachelor kitchen in boxes for years, inherited a lot of things from my lovely mother and then added The Yankee’s to the mix as well. We’ve been trying to offload it for a year to someone who might need bowls, silverware, pitchers and various other useful and decorative things. What didn’t get shipped off to individuals got donated today.

And I just realized there’s an entire plate set somewhere I didn’t discover today.

So I loaded up the car for a garbage run. And then I returned and used every free space in the car for a trip to the Salvation Army.

Unloaded it, watched the guys at the Salvation Army loading bay critique my offerings, got my receipt and then turned to home. About halfway between here and there the not feeling good returned. I was just wiped out.

So I spent most of the rest of the day relaxing. Still have the medicine head, still have the fatigue. A trip up the stairs was enough to leave ready for a break.

Sports Illustrated takes advantage of a new delivery method. The world continues to spin as only the old media are stunned by this new flexibility.

Print readers get a cover featuring LeBron James and his new teammates. But anyone who buys the iPad version will see a cover story on Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died this week.

News of Steinbrenner’s death broke early Tuesday morning, a half-day after Sports Illustrated’s conventional issue had gone to the printers. After a relatively quick conversation, says editor Terry McDonell, the magazine staff decided to give the iPad edition a new cover, along with a story by Tom Verducci.

“We all sort of looked at other, and said, ‘you know, this is an opportunity to do this,’ and why wouldn’t we?” McDonell says.

Everyone else knew it was both an eventuality and a logical conclusion. However, the story reaches a disappointing conclusion. “Time Warner’s magazine doesn’t plan on making a habit out of it. If you want up-to-date sports news, SI doesn’t expect you to rely on the iPad.”

Swing and a miss.

Which came first? Science now says, based on a protein found in chicken ovaries, that it was the poultry. Unless it was the egg. Not unsurprisingly this creates a great debate among commenters, who do not consider the discussion closed. In fact there’s the Biblical wing, the science could do something more useful side, the “they got it wrong” angle, the epistemological and more.

The best one, though: “I resolved this issue to my own satisfaction when I realized that no egg ever laid a chicken.”

Makes perfect sense.

errands / movies / Tuesday / Tumblr / World Cup — Comments Off
6
Jul 10

Back to the future, at the post office

When out and about to accomplish things, always strategically plan the order of events. It would not do, of course, to visit the grocery store, buy frozen things and then leave them in the trunk for two hours while taking in a movie. You don’t go across town on no gas to pick up a rare book without stopping at the gas station.

I’m a great believer in pre-planning the round of events. There’s a certain order to things. Some stops just make sense A to B to C. Some stops just make sense for traffic patterns. Some sequences are purely psychological.

Like this: Visit the post office first, and then stop by the bank.

If yours is like mine you find little redeeming about the post office. The lines are long, painful and slow moving. The person you finally draw to help you with your transaction is doing you a favor. He or she is really bitter about this, but has yet to make an examination about the choices they’ve made in their life. And, no matter how many extra books of stamps you buy, you always walking away feeling dissatisfied.

At the bank, they’re dealing with your money. And they’re making money on your money. In fact, they are still running a great con that a few keystrokes costs six to 20 bucks of your money every time. Of course they’re happy to see you. And, if yours is like mine you find they’re going a little overboard to demonstrate your enthusiasm to see you.

To be fair, the guy at the post office today was helpful, full of sirs — every third word of the conversation between us was “sir” — and generally competent. The life hadn’t been beaten out of him yet. At the bank the teller was a very nice lady. She reminded me of someone from a lifetime ago and had the same first name, but she was younger and nicer. Could be because she was getting my money.

See?

Uruguay’s run came to a close in the World Cup. They’ll still play in the consolation game, of course, but Netherlands handled them effectively enough, 3-2. The cheap goal at the end didn’t mean much in the scheme of things. The Oranje are right where they want to be heading into the final weekend f the tournament. I’ve always liked the Dutch style of play and it is nice to see them do well here.

Now, who will they meet for the championship game? Germany or Spain? We’ll find out tomorrow. Could be a good game, could be a snoozer.

Pedaled 10 miles this evening. I just ran out of gas right at 10. Could be the absence of protein for the day. So instead of riding more I did a few ab exercises and called that a workout. Tomorrow I’ll eat better and ride more, promise.

We had delicious pork chops for dinner, after which I started scanning things. And then I started editing them a bit in Photoshop. Tomorrow the Tumblr blog returns. The first several dozen things that will appear will be things I brought back from Europe. I have a big stack of water bottle labels, funky business cards and odd looking pamphlets that I picked up along the way. I lugged them halfway around the world, I’m sharing them with you.

Now I just have to figure out the problem with the Tumblr section on the right side of the blog. That’s never worked right, and I’m at a loss on a good widget. It isn’t enough that you see these things on a separate site, you should be able to find them here.

No, I won’t tie it all back into my Twitter account. Though I have found a way to write in my Tumblr, cross-post to Twitter, call it into Facebook and then publish back here. I’m only one step away from what Doc Brown cautioned against, creating “a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe! Granted, that’s a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.”

I had to look that up on IMDB, not to worry. Also on IMDB, I’ve just learned that Carl Sagan and I have something in common, we both like Back to the Future.

It seems I’ll do anything to put myself with a prominent scientist.

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17
May 10

Of Kens and trees

Had lunch with Ken, my former boss. I met him more than six years ago — where did all of that time go? — in an almost two-hour interview. That was the day when I began stepping away from radio and into a future that focused more online.

Ken had been the online editor of a major newspaper and was the editor-in-chief of the state’s most trafficked newsite, al.com. He’d hold that job for more than a decade. I remember we talked about the job, of course, how the site worked, what sort of web work I’d done and so on.

I remember asking about the possibilities of doing new things. And in my four-and-a-half years working for Ken the site went from merely hosting the daily news for The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and the Press-Register to becoming a full-fledged modern site. We ran blogs. I developed a regular podcast program. I added the first news videos to the site. We covered hurricanes, lots of them, developed political ad strategies and had big plans for the future.

My time there let me read some great thinkers about the evolving possibilities for news online. Many of them help influence my thought, teaching and research today.

So it was great to have a nice long lunch with Ken to talk about his latest projects. He’s a sharp, thoughtful man who puts ideas into practice, and you learn a lot by brainstorming and daydreaming with him.

Stopped by the bank, the friendly people. Now we’re up to introducing ourselves and shaking hands when customers walk in and when they leave. The security officer is holding the door with a smile. Ultimately what I needed can be taken care of over the phone. It will most likely be an automated process. I expect the recording to be painstakingly polite.

Made a few shopping errands in the late afternoon, most notably to the local bookstore. Books-A-Million is based here in Birmingham. It is the third largest bookstore in the country. Not bad for a company that started as a corner newsstand in sleepy little Florence in 1917. I wrote a few days ago about Trowbridge’s, which started in that same city just a year later.

Where that first corner newsstand — built from discarded piano crates and catering to out-of-towners constructing Wilson Dam (which, I’ve just learned, has the highest single lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains) — resided I don’t know. The store that came from it closed a few years ago. It is now Billy Reid, an overpriced clothing store. You can buy a t-shirt that you can order for $51 dollars. That’s on sale.

The sales in the bookstore weren’t much more impressive. And, Books-A-Million, the third largest book retailer in the country, seems a bit dead on a random Monday afternoon. I found a bird watching book I want. I copied the ISBN number and found it later online for half the price.

I’m not a bird watcher, but I know people who are. They take great joy in sharing their latest finds with others. I’m also reading about Theodore Roosevelt’s birding passions and I have this notion that dedicating a little time to bird watching could be restive and relaxing.

The problem is that I know only the most basic birds. Trees, fish, most livestock, dogs, sure I can break all of those down into different species and breeds. Birds? I’m pretty clueless. This book details the ones we see in this state. It has a map for winter and summer months. It organizes the birds by their physical characteristics in a simple and clever way. It has a CD which, I assume, is a study on the bird calls.

So it looks like I could be planting bird feeders in the fall.

Grilling

We grilled steak tonight. It was a big meal for a big night. This is the next-t0-last episode, ever, of 24. It starts with the entrails of the guy Jack killed last hour. It ends with a preview of the finale where Jack promises to finish what he started. And then he smiles.

In between he kidnapped the former president. Again. He squealed quicker than a former president who’s just been trapped, shot at, gassed and choked should. From there we learned that Russian diplomats and fireplace pokers don’t mix.

I’m really wondering about that smile. I’ve been offering predictions about the outcome of the show for the last several weeks, revising the plot as the show dictates. I think he’s smiling while taking aim at the guy at Fox that canceled the show.

Did you see the new picture across the top of the blog? That’s the field behind my great-grandparents place. It sits fallow after his passing, but that’s the place where my great-grandfather tilled the land and let me “play in the dirt.”

The last photograph of my great-grandfather.

I was in college and he’d still ask me when I was going to come play in the dirt. I told stories about that field in most every speech I ever gave in high school. The picture on the front page is the oak tree in their front yard. If there are no cars rounding the curve, or coming down the hill from the opposite way, you can hear every thought you’ve ever uttered all at once.

That’s the peace of the place. No matter where you are in your day — or your year or what have you — you can always use a reminder of what soothes you. Today you can share one of mine.

If you keep reading this site this place might snooze you, too!

Have a great Tuesday!

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3
May 10

Jack Bauer doesn’t have time for Dreamweaver

Clouds over Hoover

The days are starting to slow down. I was home before dark tonight. That’s a tremendous moral victory. Never mind that it is still daylight after 7:30 in the evening. That still means I’m home before 7:30 in the evening.

Today, despite the feeling of a slowing of the Pace of Things, was a full one.

There was a termite inspection. (There are no termites.) A very nice gentleman walked around, through and under every thing, just to be certain. He gave me his paperwork, “I’ve been here, the termites haven’t” to sign and off he went, into someone’s home for half an hour.

You wonder if he wonders about these people whom he meets briefly each day. As I might have mentioned here before I worked at Stanley Steemer during high school, cleaning carpets, complimenting people on their pets and the fine pictures of their children and selling things. It must have looked odd. “Nice picture of your son and daughter there, sir. You must be proud.” I am 16. His kids were older than me.

I always wondered about these people, whom I got to meet. I often think of the guy who told me, between puffs of his cigarette, that he’d just been diagnosed with cancer. The lady that was obviously in a bad domestic situation, what ever became of her? The wealthy family with two kids in college? What achievements of their children are they boring their friends with down at the country club? People’s photographs say a lot, of course, and they are often willing to brag about this or that. It was an always changing adventure to meet five or six families a day.

This guy though, the termite guy? He’s more concerned about a snake falling on his head. In all of my tales from the high school carpet cleaning days — and I’ve got great stories — none of them start with “One day this snack just dropped out of the rafters … ”

There was the purchase of a gift card. (The only way to shop.) Walk in to Best Buy, wave off the gentleman who’d like to give you a flier. Pick up the appropriately themed plastic card. Tell the cashier how much you want on it, zip, beep, done. The cashier and I were both on the phone during the entire transaction. It was beautiful.

There was the picking up of a handsome framed piece for the Crimson’s outgoing editor. We took the newspaper plate from one of the year’s issues, had it matted and framed and gave it to her tonight. The people at the Framin’ Shoppe know me. We do this project, and a few others together every year. They notice the subtle changes in the order before I do. We don’t do a great deal of business with them, but they have a great eye for detail.

I love framing things. I wouldn’t mind if it were a bit cheaper. If I could afford it I would cover every inch of wall space with neatly framed photographs and profoundly important looking shadowboxes. I’d have more floorspace because everything would be hanging up. People would come visit us and think “This is a life invested.” Or “Quick! Invest in matting stock!”

I placed an order for the catered dinner I’m throwing tomorrow night. I visited Roly Poly, as that is the tradition I established. Order a platter, share it with the student journalists.

This is a very hard order for me to place. I’m not fond of even picking restaurants — my reasoning is sound, whenever I pick a place something goes horribly wrong with the dining experience — and now I must order for a group of people with different tastes.

Fortunately Roly Poly names their platters. Since they don’t have the Roly Poly Platter (when in doubt, order the thing named after the restaurant, you know that dish works) they have the All American Platter. Problem solved.

I taught a class for two hours. The students have been laboring away in our sweltering Mac lab (I wonder if they have given it a creative name this spring) learning how to build themselves a portfolio website in Dreamweaver. Some of these pages are really quite impressive.

And then we had the annual Journalism and Mass Communication Barbecue Picnic Awards Banquet and Hootenanny. They just call it a picnic because that fits on the program better.

We give out awards and honors and scholarships. Students are recognized. We eat. The dean tells great jokes. The students then make fun of the faculty. Everyone has a nice time.

And after all of that I still managed to make it home before dark. I had to help The Yankee find her cell phone. This took about 35 seconds. For my troubles I was able to remind her to not lose her cell phone for the rest of the night.

We watched 24 a couple of characters didn’t see that coming, did they?

There is a reasonable discussion going around that this is the best season of 24. I’m not sure if I have a favorite — and the common subplots of the series are too rampant at this point for me to pick this as my favorite — but it is an entertaining ride, these last few weeks.

I’m being vague in case you are behind, dear reader.

I almost wish I didn’t know that a Jack Bauer movie was forthcoming. That’d let the danger and the ambiguity and the concern over Jack’s stability linger in the air. Since a.) Kiefer Sutherland is the executive producer b.) Jack Bauer does the clock narration c.) We see him in next week’s previews and d.) there is a movie coming we know that nothing fatally bad happens to our hero. A little suspense at the end wouldn’t hurt.

My (this week’s) prediction: The series ends with Jack soaring down a zip line into Vladimir Putin’s office and screaming at him. Putin, or his composite character facsimile, pulls off a rubber mask to reveal that he’s Charles Logan. Logan pulls of his mask to reveal that he’s Logan’s ex-wife. She pulls off a mask to reveal that the person really throwing the switches is Teri Bauer.

Jack will have an emotional breakdown, black out and wake up on the set of Lost. He quickly deduces that the smoke monster is really just the steam from the Hot Tub Time Machine movie. He will be transported back to the set of Lost Boys, but with all of his knowledge intact, so that he can avoid making The Cowboy Way and Cowboy Up.

Write it down.