FlackLife

It looks like "Labor", but there's a "u" in there. Someone help!

2008-10-04T11:37:01.382-04:00

Click on the Translate Facebook button to add the Translations application, developed by Facebook so that you can be part of the community of translators.

"

Is a translation from American English to "UK" English really necessary?!

Ciao,
Bob.

Friday post -- the world's fastest cyclist.

2008-10-03T16:12:55.726-04:00

This is definitely NOT me commuting to work. This is Sam Whittingham going over 130 km/h in a recumbent bike. Recorded in Battle Creek, Nevada.




I've hit 50 mph, going seriously downhill and tucked, and it's scary. I somehow don't think the lying-down inside the carbon-fibre Kevlar shell would make 80 any less scary. But I could be wrong.

Hat-tip: Wired News

Ciao,
Bob.

Campus relations and community relations

2008-10-02T16:01:56.026-04:00

By most measures, Queen's University is a top school in Canada, and likely in North America. Large endowment, top-ranked academic programs, huge research budget.

But they have far from a sterling reputation in their own home town. The latest, and possibly most damaging evidence of that is the Save Our Neighbourhood Web site. The site, owned by someone or a group who have chosen to remain anonymous, is an anachronism in terms of design. Very bizarre looking.

But the content outweighs the design shortcomings. Dozens of pictures of huge crowds of students, of litter, of police vehicles, of heavy drinking kids... all focused around the "student ghetto" in downtown Kingston.

The person or people behind the site aren't very happy with the university. They claim "Queen's talks in lofty generalities about long-term solutions and, in our view, avoids taking decisive immediate action. The problem is, that by the time the Queen's long-term strategy has succeeded, if indeed it ever does, there will be no neighbourhood left to save. Our neighbourhood is dying before our eyes, here and now. Unfortunately, we cannot wait for the Queen's glacier to shift."

One thing I find interesting is the covert feel of some of the pictures. Will Dick of the Wikinomics blog uses this case -- and these furtive photos -- to ask some questions about the mix of rights of students to have or not have their images used in this way. Personally, I can't imagine why the picture-taker would feel concerned when people are quite happy to show off just how drunk and stupid they can be on video:



And Queen's itself seems to be losing its taste for the homecoming celebrations, at least according to this artricle in the Kingston Whig-Standard. A Queen's vice-president is quoted in the article as saying: "we're no longer convinced that public safety or the safety of the students who attend can be protected."

Perhaps the students also ought to think about protecting their personal brand. Because these images and videos are going to be around for a LONG time. Just ask Dana Larsen.



Hat-tip: Wikinomics blog.

Ciao,
Bob.

Dan York demonstrates the power of social media

2008-10-02T09:45:20.397-04:00

Dan York, a great blogger (shown below with Shel Holtz in an out-take from Playgirl's "Bearded Geekboys of the Twitterverse" pictorial), marks a "special 10-year anniversary" on his Disruptive Conversations blog, showing just what social media (even the primitive 1998 version thereof) can do for people on a personal level. In his case, I don't think it's an overstatement to say it changed his life, and for the better.




Congratulations, Dan.

Trenchant political commentary like you've never read before.

2008-09-28T11:29:57.683-04:00

Thanks to Statler, Waldorf, and the New York Times.





Ciao,
Bob.

collision detection: At Amherst college, 1% of first-year students have landlines, 99% have Facebook accounts

2008-09-26T17:13:15.585-04:00

From the Collision Detection blog, via Kottke, some astounding information about today's young people.

I figure most people would assume that young people are wired. But the full document, published at The Academic Commons as "the IT Index" and a loving homage to the Harper's Index, is an eyeopener.

Amherst College, a small (and elite -- tuition, room, and board cost about $50K per year) Massachussetts school with a total student body of 1680 and an incoming class of 438, has an IT director who did some number crunching. Some of the more astounding figures:

• Percentage of applicants who applied online last year: 89%.
• By the end of August 2008 the total number of members and posts at the Amherst College Class of 2012 Facebook group: 432 members and 3,225 posts.
• Students in the class of 2012 who registered computers, IPhones, game consoles, etc. on the campus network by the end of the day on August 24th, the day they moved into their dorm rooms: 370 students registered 443 devices.
• Number of students in the class of 2012 who brought desktop computers to campus: 14.
  
• Number that brought iPhones/iTouches: 93.
• Likelihood that a student with an iPhone/iTouch is in the class of 2012: approximately 1 in 2.
• Total number of students on campus this year that have landline phone service: 5.
• Percentage of email that arrives on campus that is spam: 94%.
• Percentage of storage space taken up by email, a system designed to send brief text messages, that is actually taken up the files attached to the emails: 95%.
• Ratio of the storage required for email and attachments for just the year 2007 to that of all of the preceding 5 years together: 1 to 1.
  
• Estimated number of hours it would have taken to update the graphics, navigation, and organization of the 2005-2006 College web site (static HTML): 50,000.
• Hours it took to roll out the new web site in August 2008 (database-driven): 3.5.

Think about it. 438 students, and five landlines. 438 students and 14 desktop computers. As a communicator in education, I am thinking that there will be some massive changes in how we do our job.


Ciao,
Bob.

New words to live by: 'Everything you've done in your life is public' (UPDATED)

2008-09-23T15:51:02.028-04:00

While Canadians are (I hope) aware that there's a federal election campaign on, those of you outside of Canada may not be aware of that fact.

And one of the things that has characterized this campaign -- a fight between the Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, who was Prime Minister of a minority government for the last 958 days, and four main opposition parties -- has been candidate resignations and embarrassments.

Cases in point:

• A Conservative candidate whose cached blog entries included: arguments for debate on the right to carry a concealed weapon, an end to abortion and official multiculturalism, an elected Senate, and closing the CBC because of its "far left-wing bias." He said gay advocates in the Toronto Centre riding, which includes the city's gay village, tolerate the promotion of "promiscuity, drug usage and prostitution." (His site's gone down, so I won't link.)
• A BC Liberal candidate who once dressed -- so to speak -- as Lady Godiva at an anti-logging protest (right)
  
• A Liberal candidate who had argued in 1990 that the Canadian Forces should have been used to end a native occupation, even at the cost of 150 native lives, and upheld those views now;
• A Conservative cabinet minister who, on a conference call discussing a food safety crisis that has killed dozens of Canadians, talked about "death of a thousand cuts. I mean a thousand cold-cuts..."
  
• A BC NDP candidate who apparently went skinny-dipping in front of a group of teenagers in the past, and, it is alleged, engaged in some inappropriate activity;
• The suspension of a Conservative communications advisor after he accused the father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan of criticising the government's Afghanistan policy because he was a Liber
  
• A Conservative candidate who resigned after it was revealed she had been convicted of uttering death threats and of breaching an undertaking, and charged with several other offences, and was being investigated by the charity which employed her;
  
• A Green Party candidate who made anti-Semitic remarks in an online forum;
  
• A NDP candidate who was a former campaign director for the Marijuana Party who resigned after "events of the previous few days," which probably referred to revelations about:
  
• ...Another New Democratic Party candidate who appeared on videos (including the one below) smoking pot, taking LSD, and driving while smoking pot...
  
  

And even this morning, a new blog scandal has been unearthed, with a Conservative candidate named Ryan Warawa's cached postings including

“It appears that Keith Martin will be at home with other Liberal political whores in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.”

“I wonder how many Liberal memberships [disgraced provincial Liberal staffer David] Basi offered to buy Martin with the Basi Boys’ drug money.”

“[fellow Conservative and Canada's Defence Minister Peter] MacKay fails miserably in my integrity and honesty litmus test, and I’ve yet to hear any true conservative vision to come out of MacKay’s mouth.”

A story in the Toronto Star this morning uses a quote from a New Democratic Party official as its headline: 'Everything you've done in your life is public'.

And he's right. I've been saying for a long time that many aspiring politicians who are growing up in the age of Google and Facebook are going to see their aspirations burn up or fall apart when their online personas come back to haunt them.

We all have weaknesses. We all have failings. But the more public we choose to be, and the more ignorant you are of the permanence of what you do and say publicly, the more those failings can and will be exposed in a painful and public way. And what seems to be an increasingly toxic political culture both here and in the US means that the intensity of the exposure is ratcheted up.

UPDATE: Kady O'Malley reports that the skinny-dipping candidate has dropped out of the election.

Ciao,
Bob.

New member of the household -- name TBD (UPDATED)

2008-09-23T15:58:09.948-04:00

UPDATE: He's Cooper, named after the street he was found on. Thanks all!



I have a bunch of PR-related posts, but I need time to actually write coherent thoughts about them.

In the meantime, meet our new kitten. And if you have any name suggestions, leave 'em here.

Ciao,
Bob.

Now that's what I call responsiveness

2008-09-04T15:38:05.847-04:00

Sure, you could criticize Google for putting some disturbing language in the end-user licence agreement (EULA) for its new browser, Chrome.

But you can't fault their speed of response, or the quality of response: Update to Google Chrome's terms of service.

"We're sorry we overlooked this, but we've fixed it now, and you can read the updated Google Chrome terms of service. If you're into the fine print, here's the revised text of Section 11:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

And that's all. Period. End of section."

Can't find much to complain about there.

Bob.

It was my web 2.0 tool, it done me wrong....

2008-09-04T15:39:50.522-04:00

This is going to be REAL quick, 'cos I'm up to my, um, ankles in alligators after a week offline and on vacation.

But I couldn't resist chiming in on Joe Thornley's meme / lament (lameme) for Technorati, the tool that done him wrong.

In my case, it's Picasa. I'm a huge fan of Google stuff, so my utter failure to get this to work, or to understand the benefits of it for me, after about three attempts at different times and on different machines, remains an unhealed wound.

In the end, I just went back to Flickr, which I understood and which seemed to understand me.

And if I weren't so dang cheap I'd keep up a FlickrPro account, which would really give me everything I needed for images and more.

Honorable mention in this category goes to Pandora, which I fell in absolute love with, and then closed off access to subscribers out of the United States.

As a house concert presenter, I am totally for performers getting compensated for their work, whether live or recorded. But it seems like the Internet radio stations are getting dinged unfairly to me, and I can't figure out why. Other than the fact that the record industry just seems to be bound and determined to do EVERYthing wrong.

Ciao,
Bob.

Damn you Michelle -- six times!

2008-08-19T11:00:06.015-04:00

Michelle Sullivan, who just relaunched her blog on her own site and has it looking splendid, just tagged me (along with Dave Fleet, Tod Maffin, M-C Turgeon, Sébastien Provencher and David Usher (eeeeee, he's so dreamy, eeeeeee!) for the infamous six things meme.

Let's see. Six random things that people don't know about me.

First, the random rules (hat tip to Connie Crosby):
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

And now, the six things.

I have an ongoing affection for hollyhocks that is out of proportion to any other flower. Why? Damned if I know.

When I was doing my first degree, I got sent to a conference at Acadia University. A friend and I turned out to be the only students there. So we hung out with Hugh McLennan, Earle Birney (right), and other frickin' legends of English literature from Canada and beyond. Is it proof of my utter geekiness that I was starstuck by this experience?


My first car was a 1978 Chevette with mud-brown paint (close to but not exactly as pictured, right)that I named Kurt, in honour of Kurt Vonnegut.


I learned a lot of what I know about playing music from jam sessions that took place around Atlantic Canada. I was in a marching band with some seriously old people with more musical knowledge in their little fingers than I had in my whole body.

I lost a brother to suicide nearly 30 years ago, and I believe that it was the single most important event in shaping my character. And that goes for good and for bad.

I once used a mini-Maglite to get a group of people out of a pitch-black underground building in the bowels of Edinburgh, after a tour guide's flashlight died mid-tour.

All righty, now. Who to tag? First, an easy two: Lara and Eric, the dynamic duo of mommy/daddy-bloggers. Shane, my brother-in-common-law and photographer. Lee Hopkins, cool Aussie dude. Fishbowl Andrea -- happy birthday! And ... Estela!


Ciao,
Bob.

Apples 'n Oranges goes bricks & mortar

2008-08-18T14:39:25.912-04:00

My friend and former colleague Lara Wellman had a big day while I was celebrating my birthday at the Ottawa Folk Fest.

She and her friend Vicky Bisson decided to open an online store just after they both gave birth to their first children. Their Apples 'n Oranges store was so successful that Lara took the step of leaving a full-time, stable job at the University of Ottawa to create a bricks and mortar store at Place d'Orleans.

Not having a kidlet of my own, I don't keep up on the latest stuff. But I will definitely be patronizing their store for gifts for the little folk in my life.

So congratulations to Lara and Vicky on the opening of the store. I'm hoping for a rousing success for them.
PS: This is Lara and Eric's little guy Kiernan (BTW, not being forced to work on the store; this was taken during RECREATIONAL painting only). Too bad he's not cute, eh?

Ciao,
Bob.

Where's a time machine when you NEED one?

2008-08-14T13:03:11.231-04:00

I've kinda got a soft spot for meteorites. The first project I worked on in Ottawa was the Geological Survey of Canada's contribution to National Science and Technology Week 1994, when the star (pun intended) attraction was the St. Robert meteorite. (In fact, I may well have written this text, although my memory fades.)

I do remember a cool little display we put together with a map of the area and tiny wee cows in a circle around the pin indicating where the meteorite landed.

And I remember being a little awestruck by the idea that I was holding in my hands something that had traveled for untold miles and years to end up ... in my hands. Freaky.

In any case, I'm remembering this because today's Bourque Newswatch is pointing to "A Stargazer's Guide to the Universe" on InnovationCanada.ca, the online magazine of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

At the end of the article, I was excited to read:

"Mark your calendars! Set your eyes to the sky on August 12th for the annual Perseid meteor shower, so named because the meteor streaks, when traced backwards, appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus."

Of course, this was of little use to me, or anyone else reading the article, since the article was "Posted on August 13, 2008." Sigh. There's always next year.

Ciao,
Bob.

What's on my mind, according to Wordle

2008-08-14T10:31:12.364-04:00

Apropos of absolutely nothing at all...



I have a totally irrational love for Wordle, much like the crush I had on the Visual Thesaurus a few years ago.


Something about the use of words in visual form just really appeals to me.


Ciao,
Bob.

If good fences make good neighbours, then what do bad neighbours make?

2008-08-13T16:08:58.215-04:00

Got pointed to this article today (although I can't remember by who), and was struck by it probably because I'm sensitive to community issues right now, having just gone through a zoning fight of my own.

But for Sandra Cassidy of Toronto suburb Ajax to give an interview and pose for a photo in the nation's largest metropolitan daily like this one is remarkable.

Let me summarize the story for those of you who don't want to click through and read it:

Sandra Cassidy lives in a new subdivision, and a bus goes past her house about every 30 minutes. She feels that this is an impingement on the enjoyment of her house. After all, she "paid a lot of money to have the only custom-built home in a very special subdivision," she told the Star.

Furthermore, Ms. Cassidy says, her husband Wayne is an architectural technologist who designed the subdivision and has clout with local politicians who know him through business and charity events. "Not to sound like I'm bragging or anything but we have more (influence) than the average person,"she says.

She notes that "I'm sure there are a few elderly people who want it" but everyone in the area has at least two cars, says the mother of four grown children who have left home." She feels the bus is always empty going past her house, on a "dangerous corner," and says "We can't open our windows because of the smell and noise." The regional transit authority tells the reporter, however, that bus route 222 is a "good performer." And the reporter found a young family that use the bus to reduce their carbon footprint, and a woman with a bad hip who wouldn't dare walk half a kilometer in the winter to catch the bus.

Having worked around journalists long enough, I suspect that the Star reporter was so turned off by this woman that she decided to bury her with her own words. Listen to this lede: "Every weekday morning Sandra Cassidy wakes up to the sound of the bus carrying her neighbours to work and school."

There's a message in there: Sandra Cassidy doesn't work. And by the end of the story, when you've heard about her custom home and her influential husband and how the bus ruins the view of Lake Ontario she paid an extra 100,000 bucks for, the message is set that she is a stunningly elitist snob with a world-view that extends no further than her manicured lawn.

I suspect Ms. Cassidy has not done media training, and I doubt she realized what was happening during the interview. But she's likely learning that lesson now, from the dozens of comments. Or she's passing them all off as little people whining.

It's an interesting case study in community relations on an individual level. Being a long way away from Ms. Cassidy's neighbourhood, I have no idea if her perception of empty buses negotiating dangerous corners is accurate. But if, as I suspect, her efforts to change the route fail, I would suggest that this story and her attitude will have been the cause.

If you ever need a lesson in how not to do community advocacy, you can use this one.

Ciao,
Bob.

Flacklifin' the Media Bullseye Roundtable

2008-08-08T16:05:23.579-04:00

I had a great time this morning joining Sarah Wurrey and Jen Zingsheim on the Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable, a 30-minute podcast that's part of CustomScoop's Media Bullseye magazine. On the agenda for our discussion:

• PETA and the bus beheading up here in Canada
• Using Zscaler to filter employee's online access
• Olympic PR

For any of the three of you who remember my CBC column with fondness, grab the MP3. On the one hand, it's 30 minutes of audio gold. On the other, it's 30 minutes you'll never get back.

Ciao,
Bob.

Headline writing 101

2008-08-08T06:57:25.719-04:00

Courtesy of Maclean's magazine's Cathy Gulli, the best headline ever:

Teacher-student relationships key to learning health and sex education

From Science Daily. For realz. So many jokes. Must. remain. silent.

Okay, I'll let Diamond Dave do the job for me:




Ciao,
Bob.

Has PETA looked into the abyss for too long? (updated: it's even worse)

2008-08-07T13:10:53.620-04:00

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an interesting case study in public image.

They never shy away from extreme imagery and messaging in their public relations efforts. But this Canadian Press story has me wondering just how they make their decisions.

PETA tried to buy an ad in the Portage La Prairie, Manitoba newspaper the Daily Graphic. This is what they wanted to run:


For those of you who aren't aware, last week in the Portage La Prairie area, a young man asleep on an intercity bus passing through was attacked by another passenger in a singularly horrible and gruesome way, and his body mutilated.

PETA also apparently sent out a news release announcing it was going to buy the ad, and has blogged about it as well. According to their blog post, they wanted to run the ad "to make people rethink the proposition that it is, rightly so, a criminal act to kill and eat our own kind but that it's "OK" to kill every other species but our own and eat them."

The Daily Graphic announced its position quite simply in its story: "The Daily Graphic has chosen not to run the advertisement" (And good on them, I say.)

I don't share a lot of ethical ground with PETA. I eat meat. I like meat. I don't feel that eating meat is an inherenly immoral activity. At the same time, I consider myself an animal lover. My cat's the best companion in the world. Our friends have wonderful cats and dogs that I, and they, love and treat with respect.

I can't help but feel that attempting to capitalize on this utter tragedy is just about as morally bankrupt as Phelps and his loonies at the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas picketing the funerals of victims of gay-bashings and of soldiers who died in Iraq with hate-messages. And in fact, I can't help but feel badly that by even blogging about this I am at least in part playing into the hands of PETA, who have gone from misguided to evil with this tactic.

It's always good to know who you CAN'T work for. So perhaps having PETA do this and remind me that I could never work for them is a good thing. And another good thing might be if someone from PETA reads this post, and these quotes from Nietzsche:

"He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you."

Ciao,
Bob.

UPDATED: 1:10 Thursday: Thanks to Cheryl, I now am aware that the abovementioned Phelps loonies are planning to picket the funeral because, apparently, poor Tim McLean's life didn't meet some standard and, they say, he deserved to die. I can't imagine how traumatic this is for McLean's family, and I can't express how sorrowful I am that the morally bankrupt see a tragedy as an opportunity to push their hateful agendas.

FaceBook spam. It was inevitable, right?

2008-08-06T14:44:45.890-04:00

Separate Facebook messages today from two friends, with the identical text:

My friend catched you on hidden cam. LOL: http://myvideo.d9.pl/?a=F0F2EFE6E9ECE5AEE1EBAEE6E1E3E5E2EFEFEBAEE3EFEDAFF6B2B2B5AFB6B2B4AFB9AFF1B6B0B0B5B7B5B0B4B4DFB8B9B1B5AEEAF0E7&b=C4E5E2A0C4F5E6E6F9&v=07&s=fb
I suppose it was inevitable. I don't think there's any news about this on the Facebook blog, but I can't search it, so I can't say for sure.

Ciao,
Bob.

Welcome, CBC listeners

2008-08-06T11:59:42.723-04:00

If you're here because you heard me with Andrea from A Peek Inside the Fishbowl and Regine from Victoire on CBC Radio this morning, welcome! Please help wrest control of this blog from the hordes of Stephen King fans who've infested it since last week.

I'd post pictures, but:

1. I didn't take a camera
2. Do you really want to see bloggers that early in the morning? (Actually, we were all pretty presentable)

PS: I had to go with Eden from Bargainista as my blogger of choice to pimp, although I'm still wishing they had asked a "what's your guilty blogging pleasure?" question so I could have pimped Go Fug Yourself and Zero Means Zero.

UPDATED: The interview is now online. Listen at your peril.


Ciao,
Bob.

CBC gig on "the art of blogging"

2008-08-01T14:31:11.647-04:00

I'll be appearing on Ottawa Morning next Wednesday morning (listen online via their web site) to talk about the "art of blogging."

They're still working out the rest of the panel, but apparently one of the two owners of "Victoire", a very cool boutique here in Ottawa and host of "Notre Victoire", will be on.

I'm going to open this up and ask for people to give me the end of this sentence:

"the key to the art of blogging is ... " and I'll pimp the response I find most interesting / annoying / entertaining / thought-provoking on air. If Kathleen Petty doesn't cut my mic.

Go at it.

Ciao,
Bob.

Secret to blog success: Stephen King.

2008-07-31T17:18:29.533-04:00

To the several hundred people who showed up here today because I blogged about Stephen King, and apparently because Jenny Mannion has a lot of StumblePower(tm):

If I were to start a podcast with some critical analysis, discussion, and interviews about Stephen King's books and other writings, would you listen? Let me know via a comment.

I'm a big fan, and I've been looking for a topic for a podcast, so perhaps this is serendipity.

Ciao,
Bob.

UPDATED Ed Nottle: unemployed baseball guy, but interview genius

2008-09-30T10:50:45.979-04:00

Here in Ottawa, we are enjoying the first season of baseball with the Can-Am baseball league's Ottawa Rapidz. (Disclosure: the Rapidz are a client of TFC sibling firm 76design). The minor-league team, based at a gorgeous little stadium in Ottawa's east end, makes for a nice evening's entertainment in the summer. (Baseball on TV = a fate worse than death; baseball on a warm summer evening with a beer and some friend = total relaxation)

Like most first-year teams the Rapidz have struggled to win. In fact, the first half was pretty bad (13-34), and the team is still in the league's basement. But one of the great public assets they've had has been their manager, Ed Nottle (photo at left from the Ottawa Citizen). From the time he was hired, lifetime baseball guy Nottle showed himself to be a folksy, straightforward, and candid guy in interviews. I heard him as a "house guest" (meaning he co-hosted the whole show) on CBC Radio's "All in a Day" and elsewhere on TV and radio. And the guy knows how to work with the media.

But yesterday, the Rapidz let Nottle go. You can see why, and it's hard to argue with the statement from team owner Rob Hall:

"The decision to part company with Ed came only after long and careful deliberation. Ed has helped the Rapidz take root in Ottawa but a manager is ultimately judged by his team’s performance on the field and we felt it necessary to make a change at this time.""

However, perception-wise, it was pretty bad, because the 68-year-old Nottle was home in Indiana visiting his wife, who has cancer.

So what did Nottle do? Lash out at the ownership? Hold a nasty press conference? Nope. He flew back here to Ottawa to fulfil a commitment for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and he did interviews in which he was gracious, understanding, and as upbeat as you can be after being turfed.

Listen to this interview from CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning (Real Audio, sorry, not my fault) and tell me if you don't think he could charm the socks off anyone. He explains his feelings without being maudlin, he says wonderful things about the city, he doesn't trash anyone, and even when he admits he was wrong he does it with class. He told the Ottawa Citizen:

"I made a statement that Ottawa would be the last place I ever managed. I guess I lied. I wanted it to be that way, but I will manage again. But some day, this can be the jewel of independent baseball. This city and this facility and these fans can make it that."

At one point, he mentions the old cliché about sports managers being "hired to be fired." But I'll tell you, maybe he should give up baseball and teach interview training.

Ciao,
Bob.

UPDATE, September 30, 2008 -- It appears that the Rapidz have declared bankruptcy. I guess the big indicator of that, looking back, was the departure of Rick Anderson from the organization in early September. It now appears that the team owes Momentous.ca, Anderson's company, nearly $750K, the lion's share of its debt.

Stephen King innovates again (updated)

2008-08-01T07:03:13.983-04:00

You've got to hand it to Stephen King. He's a multi, multimillionaire. Forbes estimates his 2007 income at over $46M. That's just one YEAR.

But he's continued to churn out writing. Some of it's great, some of it's good. But he can never be accused of not working hard. He's churned out 39 novels under his own name, 8 under the name Richard Bachman, 100+ short stories, there have been 38 movies, and 27 television productions that he's been associated with.

Even a near-fatal car accident (he was hit by a car while out for a walk) in 2000 has stopped him.

But what I think is cool about King is that he's used his clout to push the boundaries. The Green Mile was a serial novel published in 1996. In 2000, he published The Plant as an e-book. And now, he's created a new experiment -- a graphic novel to be published online.




His new serial graphic novel N is designed to be delivered online to desktops or mobile devices in 25 instalments.

I'm looking forward to reading it. And I wish more authors would be this innovative, and that he would get the credit he deserves for it.

UPDATE (August 1, 7:00 am): I've seen a HUGE spike in traffic due to this post, and it's got me thinking of doing a Stephen King podcast with some critical analysis (amateur), maybe some interviews, and news / chatter about King. Anyone who thinks this is a foolhardy or wonderful idea can drop a comment. I'd like to know what the Kingosphere thinks.

Best corporate policy ever, Subway edition.

2008-07-29T11:12:05.543-04:00

Via Consumerist. By the way, when I was there, they had nearly 200 comments, and by my quick reckoning the vast majority were exultatory.

Next step: kicking the iPhone people out of the store entirely.

Ciao,
Bob.