A Brief Reading on the Death of Margaret Wilson (1647-1685) by her many-many-greats grandson
Listen to Wrong Side of the Family #1 – The Death of Margaret Wilson [5 min]
Month: October 2006
Thursday, 26 October 2006
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Ze Frank vs. RocketBoom – What Counts?
It’s great that Andrew got on my TiVo, great that he’s on phones, getting the traditional media comfortable with alternative distribution methods. Andrew deserves our thanks for going down this road (it’s not one that sounds like fun to me).
To his credit, I can’t tell the difference between RocketBoom and the news from local affiliates. So, it must be working. But, I don’t want smaller, shorter television, I want 3 minutes of interestingness.
What’s it matter if RB has 10x the audience if Ze’s fans buy him bling duckies and dress up their vacuum cleaners?
And later:
Uhhhhh, Mr. Kirkpatrick, there are many other ways to make a living than advertising. Sure, none of them are fashionable, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
There are two problems with metrics:
- Measuring the right thing is hard – and different for everyone
- What gets measured gets attention – whether or not it’s the right thing
Tuesday, 24 October 2006
Studio 60 – Best Show on Television
Sure, I’ve probably said this about ever Aaron Sorkin production…save West Wing (it just didn’t click with me). The writing in all his programs is superb, the characters – real, the situations – idealized without being unrealistic, drama without cheese or melodarama. Life.
Though, if history is any indication – Studio 60 won’t be on for much longer. Perhaps that’s one of the benefits – the need to savor each one because there aren’t that many.
Like really good, imported Belgian chocolate.
Related: Rex feels the same way
RE: What this Website Looks Like
Ben has some recommendations for wordpress publishers using the Hemingway theme (like I am of this writing).
While I agree with some of his suggestions – the undercurrent of the entire discussion is that visual presentation doesn’t really matter – let alone main pages.
Search engines shouldn’t index the main page of a blog (cause it changes lots) – only the links off it, so the likelihood of someone coming by the home page via a search engine should be low – Google et. al should be pointing to the category archive or permalinks.
Secondly, there’s a thing called RSS that delivers the web without a visual presentation. I read all my favorite and not so favorite websites through RSS (including Ben’s) – so I rarely see a what it looks like.
Between you and me, I’m a big fan of just trying on new themes. I’m doing this right now at the First Crack podcast and Working Pathways. When I find a few moments here and there, I’ll tweak the standard to more my liking or find an entire theme closer and repeat.
No, I’m not entirely happy with Hemingway – for some of the reasons Ben states. Yes, I’ve got some changes in the works – when will you see them…..maybe never. Especially if you’re reading this through the RSS feed.
Sunday, 22 October 2006
First Crack 89. Unincorporated #2 – The High Point
A short story about rural junior high basketball players passing time between games.
Listen to Unincorporated #2 – The High Point [12 min]
UPDATE: I just got an email claiming responsibility for inventing High Point. Made me smile.
Friday, 20 October 2006
NBC – Nothing But Crap
Not that I know what any TV broadcaster has on at 8 o’clock anymore anyway – even TiVo is having a hard time keeping track.
Thursday, 19 October 2006
TiVo Being Funny
I’ve mentioned before how desperate our TiVo is to recommend its paltry selection of over the air broadcast to us. The other day, I saw Jen delete a bunch of Hogan’s Heros from TiVo’s recommendations.
Uh. I kinda wanted to….oh, forget it.
Then tonight, going through the Now Playing, 3 of the Scrubs recordings were in fact – Hogan’s Heros.
Ha.
TiVo really wants us to watch Hogan’s Heros and is masking it as Scrubs. Funny.
Or maybe, like the recent Amazing Race problems – the broadcaster is just screwing with the schedules.
I like the former option better.
First Crack 88. Unincorporated
A short story about a private stash in a small rural community.
Listen to Unincorporated [12 min]
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
First Crack 87. Again
I talk about the best TSA airport check point experience ever, review Keyspan’s cordless USB Skype phone, and say good bye to my grandma.
Listen to Again [14 min]