Goodbye, Michael Crichton

I was saddened to see a headline today on NPR that the well known author Michael Crichton died of cancer. I haven't ever read any of his books, but I've enjoyed many movies he had a hand in writing — apparently, more than I thought, as I had no idea that he wrote some of these screenplays (such as Twister). You can see the full list here.

Even though I haven't read any of Michael Crichton's books, hearing that he'd passed away was a shock. The article says he's a "tower of a man," but I would have said that he is a towering figure in modern literature. It'll be strange to know that he is gone.

Perhaps now would be a good time to finally read one of his books — my own way of honoring his life and work!

Spam legalized in Virginia?!

I suppose this is good news for some of our clients, but for everyone else it's just a d*mn shame:

Va. Supreme Court Strikes Down State's Anti-Spam Law

And how did they manage to justify this? Well, the lawyer of the defendant (Jeremy Jaynes, "one of the world's most prolific spammers") argued that Jaynes's, er, correspondence was protected under the right to free speech.

I don't know about you, but I don't think the Founding Fathers intended the First Amendment to cover sales pitches such as "Increase pen!s size" and those selling stock market scams. Most importantly, the court is forgetting the fundamental premise of American freedom: that we are free only insofar as our actions don't infringe on others' rights.

Obligatory post on the DNC

Some of you may remember that I live in Denver, and you might have wondered why I haven't posted about the Democratic National Convention, which is going on this week.

The truth is it hasn't really affected me much. I've read some of the headlines and listened to some of the speeches, but since I don't often get downtown (and since my writing assignments typically don't include any news reporting) it has actually been a fairly normal week to me.

However, on my library's website I found this delightful "online exhibit" (read: long video) about the last time the DNC came to Denver, back in 1908. Of course the party held some significantly different values back then, before the Dixiecrats split, but for the sake of history we all seem to have forgotten that (ha ha).

In any case, the video has some great pictures of Denver and the convention, and is well worth watching! If it won't load, click here to watch it on the Denver Public Library site.


1908, When the Democrats Came to Denver from The Denver Public Library on Vimeo.

Clay Felker of New York magazine dies

I can't really say I knew who he was, though his picture does look familiar, but it was a top headline this morning: Clay Felker, the editor of New York magazine and other publications, has died. Apparently all of us writers have him to thank for the way magazines are today:

New York’s mission was to compete for consumer attention at a time when television threatened to overwhelm print publications. To do that, Mr. Felker came up with a distinctive format: a combination of long narrative articles and short witty ones on consumer services. He embraced the New Journalism of the late ’60s — the use of novelistic techniques to give reporting new layers of emotional depth. And he adopted a tone that was unapologetically elitist, indefatigably trendy and proudly provincial — in a sophisticated Manhattan-centric sort of way. The headlines were bold, the graphics even bolder. (Excerpted from the New York Times article)

Beware of automatic updates

I heard a story today on KCFR, our local public radio station, that I thought would interest other writers because of its connection to the most important tool we use in our trade: a computer. It was a short radio story that was (I think) done by the BBC and syndicated.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the story online, but basically it was about how software companies are beginning to use automatic updates to hijack our computers. Apple/iTunes, Windows, and even Google are all apparently succumbing to the temptation to get their proverbial feet in our doors — in most cases, without us even noticing.

I can think of one example in the last year. When the iPhone came out, hackers discovered a way to convert songs in their iTunes to ringtones without paying the extra one-dollar conversion fee. Apple found a way to block the hack in iTunes, and sent around an automatic update to fix the problem. I think this went round a few times. When I found out what all the updates were for, I stopped installing them — not because I have the iPhone, but because of the principle of the matter. If the song is already paid for (not stolen), and converting it to a ringtone is as easy as changing the file extension, why should iTunes essentially be making people pay for the song twice?

The reporter recommended that people look at updates before installing them, and I completely agree. Never install anything on your computer without making sure it's something you want on your computer, no matter who it is from!

What do you mean, the stimulus payments aren't working?

Not very long ago, I mentioned to a friend that the only thing my stimulus payment would be stimulating was my bill-paying activities. Evidently I'm not the only one:

Consumers Lean on Rebate Checks for Bills and Gas

I don't understand why they sound so surprised, as I have been predicting this for months. Most people I know are behind on their bills, or have credit card debt they want to pay off, or both. Our culture already allows people to live far behind their means by racking up credit, so by the time this stimulus payment was even discussed, most people were past the point of being able to spend it on frivolous shopping.

Attention Craigslist users!

Did anyone see this headline?

Craigslist faces off against eBay

I knew that eBay was part-owner of Craigslist (according to this article, 28 percent). What I didn't know was that it was against Craigslist's wishes: A former Craigslist employee had sold the stocks to eBay.

Now eBay is apparently trying to strong-arm Craigslist. They are complaining that Craigslist is "trying to dilute its [eBay's] stake to reduce its potential influence over the company's board."

Knowing how eBay operates, I don't blame Craigslist one bit. Craigslist strives to create community and provide services for free, while eBay (who also owns PayPal) has the ultimate goal of raping users for every penny they possibly can.

Despite the problems with low-paying and non-paying writing gigs, I have found many of my best gigs — and longtime clients — on Craigslist. I hope they can continue to hold out against eBay!

Off topic again for an update on Rolo

A little over a week ago, I posted about Rolo the German Shepherd, a dog that had been sentenced to death for scratching a woman.

Rolo's owner, Laura Hagan, contested the decision. Rolo was still found guilty of being a "dangerous dog" at his retrial, but — thankfully — his sentencing this time around was much less harsh.

Here's Rolo and Laura's new sentence:

1) Rolo and Laura must continue behavioral training.
2) Laura must have her fences inspected.
3) Laura must keep $100,000 in liability insurance.
4) Laura has a suspended jail sentence of 90 days. "Suspended jail sentence" means that as long as there are no further incidents involving Rolo in the next year, Laura won't serve any time.

I think most of the sentence is fair. The liability insurance is kind of high, but I'm too glad that Rolo was spared to complain too much.

What I think is unfair is the dangerous dog ruling. Once again, I have to say that a dog Rolo's size has the potential to do a lot of damage, and very quickly. If all he did was scratch the woman, that's because he didn't want to do anything worse. And if he didn't want to hurt her, doesn't that mean he's not dangerous?

Unfortunately, I think there are a great many non-dog owners in this world who are very ignorant about dogs. And I think that the jurors probably fell into this category. Many people are afraid of dogs because they understand that they are big, strong, and potentially dangerous animals. What they don't understand is that just because there is a potential there doesn't mean a dog is dangerous.

In fact, doesn't it speak volumes that even though the potential is there — instinct, size, strength, teeth — something in Rolo's nature or training resisted all of those factors, and stopped at merely scratching the woman?

Off Topic: Save Rolo

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately. I have been especially busy lately.

I did want to call everyone's attention to a dog-in-need story in the Denver area. A German shepherd named Rolo has been sentenced to death — wrongly, I think. Evidently he got away from his owner and "attacked" her neighbor, but all that he did was to tear the woman's dress and leave two scratch marks. For this, the courts have ordered him to be put down, but his owner is appealing the decision on February 25th.

I just don't think this is something a dog should be murdered over. He didn't hurt the woman or her child, and he certainly could have — anyone who thinks a ripped dress and two scratches is the worst a dog could do is naive about the strength of a dog's jaws. In other words, if this dog were really dangerous, a couple of scratches would be the least of the neighbor's worries.

A red flag for me is that the neighbor kept adding more "bills" to her restitution claims. If you read the trial transcript, she was claiming $1,327 in restitution, including $500 in physical therapy charges — yet the owner says that her neighbor never showed her any bills to back this up. It sounds to me like the neighbor is being vindictive, trying to milk her "victim" status for all that it's worth.

This story really concerns me. Our white shepherd often nips at the air when she greets new dogs, and plays with her mouth open. She's never harmed another dog and I don't believe she ever would, but what if someone takes a look at those big teeth and decides that she would? Furthermore, I've gotten scratched and had my clothes ripped just from our dogs jumping up on me in greeting.

In other words, this could happen to any dog owner.

I believe that dogs are capable of accidents, just as people are. To put this dog down over a couple of scratches and a ripped dress is an atrocity. Please sign the petition and help to save Rolo from the gallows.

Note: After signing the petition, you will be asked to donate to iPetitions. It's not required. Just hit the back button, scroll to the top of the original petition page, and click the Signatures tab to make sure your signature made it onto the petition.

Big news at the L.A. Times

News from the writing/publishing world: The Los Angeles Times got rid of their top editor, James O'Shea, because he was refusing newsroom budget cuts. Pretty much the same thing happened last year, when the L.A. Times fired former publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson for refusing to make newsroom layoffs.

According to the article, this is "the fourth time in less than three years that the highest-ranking editor or the publisher has left for that reason."

Journalists aren't exactly a highly-paid bunch, so I have to say I respect O'Shea and Johnson for standing up for their writers and other newsroom employees.

A new reason to raise your rates

Listening to NPR this morning, I heard a short spot about a new study regarding wine and pricing. Essentially, a bunch of people tasted a bunch of different wines, for which they knew (or thought they knew) the prices. The study found that the price was linked to people's enjoyment of the wines.

Here's the trick: Some of the wines were the same, just with different prices on them. Even so, people enjoyed the wines more if they thought they were more expensive.

I find this interesting on so many levels. One, it demonstrates the power of the mind. It's obviously related to the placebo effect, where people report feeling better just from taking a sugar pill or getting some other phony treatment that they believe is going to cure them.

In this case, they believe the wine is going to be exceptional, and as a result their brains show more enjoyment of the wine.

Two, it demonstrates the importance of pricing your product appropriately. (Which is why I'm blogging about it on my freelance writing blog.) Think about it. When you buy something for a very cheap price, you expect the quality to be cheap — perhaps it's subconscious, but you do. When you pay good money for something, on the other hand, you are more likely to be satisfied with the product.

By spending a lot of money, you have essentially committed yourself to being happy with the results.

This is a good lesson for freelancers, particularly those who waffle on raising their rates. When you write articles at bargain-basement rates, you are essentially ensuring that your clients will perceive your work as lesser quality. However, if you charge more along the lines of the standard industry rates, your clients will see your work as at least as good quality as the established professionals in your industry.

As I'm sure my husband and sister would point out, this proves that there are all kinds of things you can learn from wine!

Making money blogging

The Denver Post ran an article yesterday about the money to be made in the blogging business. As usual, the article cites the unusual cases: the folks who make $1,000 or more every month by selling ad space on their own blogs.

However, to its credit the article does note that this is the exception and not the rule:

That doesn't mean bloggers are suddenly flush with money. For every blogger earning a decent side income like Brooks, countless others will never earn a cent.

What I thought was interesting and useful about this article is its discussion of different companies you can use to make money selling ad space on your blog. Here are the services mentioned in the article:

* Google AdSense
* PayPerPost
* BlogAds

Honestly, the only one of these I am familiar with is Google AdSense, which I use on my own blog. And though I am one of those bloggers that earns only peanuts, those peanuts do build up after a while, making a nice bonus for something I'd be doing anyway.

Does anyone have any information or personal experiences with either PayPerPost or BlogAds? I am interested in how they compare to Google AdSense, and I'm sure it's probably a subject of interest for many other bloggers as well.

Horse lovers: Support our "Right to Ride"

For years, horseback riders' rights to trail ride have been slowly chipped away. Many wonderful horse trails have been closed — at least to the horses.

In response, a new bill, S. 2283, has been introduced to protect our "right to ride." I urge you to read the bill, spread the word, and write to your senators and representatives. Even if you do not ride yourself, no one can deny that horseback riding is a historical tradition in our country, and an important pastime for many Americans.

More snow, and going back to work

We're getting more snow here tomorrow: another 4 to 8 inches in Denver (though if they are as far off as they were on the last storm, we may be in for a downright blizzard). Michael is planning on taking public transit to work, and I'll forego my visit to the stables in order to stay home and work, all warm and cozy.

Which brings me to another reason tomorrow is important: It's technically my first day back to work after Christmas, assuming Michael goes to work. (If it's bad enough, his company will close, though that's a rare occurence.) I have work lined up already, of course, so I won't be able to stretch my vacation any longer — though I do have a light enough load to allow me to take it easy until after New Year's.

Our white Christmas made the news...again

Just like last year, our white Christmas made national headlines.

The article comments that by mid-morning we had already gotten as much snow as had been predicted for the entire day. Actually, I'd say we surpassed the original forecast by mid-morning: As of yesterday, they'd still been predicting 2 to 4 inches of snow. This morning they decided it would be more like 4 to 8 inches, but by mid-morning we'd already gotten that.

It didn't stop snowing until mid or late afternoon.

Michael and I have taken it easy today — we're watching movies, and for dinner we'll have the sweet potato soup we were intending to take to my sister's house. Tomorrow we'll try to make it to the stables to see Panama, and to my parents' house to visit them. (My sister and her boyfriend are taking his mother skiing tomorrow.)

I haven't been working the last couple of days, but I've used the time to get caught up on my blogs. It's been nice to do some writing that is entirely for my own pleasure.

How have you spent your Christmas?

Good news no longer sells

Who says news has to be negative in order to sell? Michael found this article about the Saguache Crescent — a local paper in a small Colorado town that specializes in good news.

I found the article interesting because it operates on the exact opposite premise of big newspapers and newstations:

"There's plenty of media that will center on anything bad, the crime, accidents," said Coombs. "Doesn't sell papers. Good news sells papers."

It's sad, though, because as wonderful and wholesome as that sounds, it sounds like the paper actually isn't bringing in enough money to continue on to the next generation.

I've thought about it before, but this story is a reminder of how focused we (as a society) feed on gossip, drama, and stories of other people's misfortunes. We're so focused on the negative that a positive publication like the Crescent no longer has a place in our world.

Watch it, I dare you!

Please excuse the off-topic post, but I want you to watch something: a video on animal testing.

Evidently, PETA has discovered that the Mars candy company is testing on animals.



Learn more at MarsCandyKills.com.

Can't handle watching the video? Then why on earth would you support animal testing?

SUPPORT PETA — BOYCOTT MARS!

The power of (Internet) words

NPR reported Thursday on the Hollywood writers' strike, which hasn't changed very much since the last time I blogged about it. The report is an audio clip from NPR's Morning Edition, so be sure to click the "Listen Now" link.

What was interesting about the NPR report is the discussion of how the writers have used the Internet to get the word out about the strike and what they're asking for. The point was that the writers have done better with the PR work than the producers have, and as a result, only 4 percent of the public supports the producers.

Personally, I'm not at all surprised that the writers have succeeded in rallying the public via the Internet. While these are screenwriters and not PR writers, most writers (of any kind) understand the power of the written word, so it makes sense to me that the striking writers would know how to use words to generate support for their cause.

This situation reminds me a little bit of Laray Carr. (For those who don't know the situation, basically Laray Carr/LCP was hiring writers to write articles for 30-some magazines, which it seems they never had any intention of launching. To my knowledge, no one ever was paid, and at this very moment Quincy Carr is probably running a new scam under a different name.)

Although Laray Carr was obviously on a much smaller scale than the Hollywood writers' strike, it's another example of how writers use the power of words: We discussed LCP on forums and blogs, despite bogus legal threats, and eventually informed enough people that Quincy Carr had to shut LCP down (though he just set up shop under new names).

The message is the same in both instances: Don't mess with the writers.

Podcasts and supporting strikes

Thanks to a MySpace friend request (one of the few useful friend requests I've received), I discovered a new podcast for writers: Will Write for Wine. It's recorded by two romance authors, Samantha Graves and Lani Diane Rich. You can download it on their site (maybe — I've been having trouble with it) or subscribe to it on iTunes.

Michael and I listened to last week's episode — "Unscripted" — today. (I'm a writer, and Michael loves wine, so I figured it would be of interest to both of us.) In the episode, Lani gave the best explanation of the screenwriters' strike in Hollywood that I've heard yet. Basically, writers are getting the same royalties for VHS and DVD sales that they negotiated almost 20 years ago: 4 cents per $20 DVD. They were promised at the time that their percentage would go up, but the conglomerates apparently have conveniently forgotten their promise.

The writers, who are now striking, want a raise to 8 cents per DVD — not unreasonable, considering it's been two decades, and the conglomerates' excuse then was that they didn't know how well VHS (a new technology at the time) would sell. In fact, they are parroting that excuse now in their refusal to pay writers for online sales, such as downloads through iTunes and other virtual stores. The fact remains, though, that digital sales are pure profit — whether digital media takes off or not (which it will, of course, just as VHS did 20 years ago), they can certainly afford to give writers their cut.

To put this into perspective, this would be like you contracting a book to a major publisher, and having them turn around and start selling an ebook version without paying you any royalties for those sales. The ebook version competes with the hardcopy version, and since it is cheaper and easier to get, many readers might opt to go digital — which deprives you of the royalties you would usually get, at the same time as it saves the publisher considerable money on printing, storage, and shipping.

You'd be pretty pissed, I imagine.

In the podcast, Lani asks listeners to support the strike. She specifically asks us not to buy or download TV shows and movies online, since the writers are — as of this writing — not getting paid for them. I checked out the official site, and you can also support the strike by buying pencils: The pencils get sent to the conglomerate, and the money goes into a fund to help the striking writers.

I'm joining Lani on this one. Although I'm not buying pencils as of right now, I am pledging to not buy or watch TV shows or movies online until the writers start getting their cut. As of right now, negotiations are to resume, but the strike is not over. The writers still need our help!

Literature Nobel Prize winner, Doris Lessing

The Nobel Prize for Literature was just awarded to Doris Lessing. I hadn't heard of her before, but I've already requested a couple of her books from the library: The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook, both mentioned in the article.

I have quite a backlog of books to read right now, but probably in about a month or so you should see these books pop up on my book blog, Livre du Jour.

Be sure to read and/or listen to the NPR story on Doris Lessing and the Nobel Prize — it is quite interesting!