Read all about it

Call me crazy, but I don't really care if newspapers are shutting down. Coincidentally, Andrew asked this question earlier today. I do have sympathy for the workers whose jobs are being eliminated, but that happens all the time in many industries. Innovation causes obsolescence. Covered wagons disappeared with the introduction of the automobile. DVDs and CDs rendered cassette tapes unnecessary, and new technologies are now threatening disc media. Companies have to grow, adapt, and change with the times or risk being left behind.

The simple truth is, people aren't going to buy what they don't want, and increasingly, what they don't need. If the people have spoken and they don't like your product, maybe it's time to find out what those former customers grew tired of. Better yet, examine what you can do to bring them back. I can read the same thing in hundreds of newspapers nationwide and now, even globally. Most big stories these days are written by a handful of wire services, which are then reprinted almost verbatim in your local paper. To survive, newspapers are going to have to adapt to a time when a person can sit down at a computer or pull out their mobile device and in five minutes, have a general idea of what's going on in their world.

Maybe I'm just tired of hearing about businesses feeling entitled to taxpayer money after running themselves into the ground. Companies fail, even large ones. Circuit City was forced out of US operations. Continental Airlines has filed for bankruptcy - twice. Even Fruit Of The Loom lost their (under) shirt. On the other hand, how many BMW airplanes have you seen lately? Or when was the last time you played a video game on a Sega console? Times change and so do wise companies. It's lamentable that the age of the newspaper is waning - if not dying completely - but they won't stand on principle, and I don't read them so I don't want to underwrite their bad business sense.

Photo by inju

Twitter, v.: To utter successive chirping noises; To talk in a chattering fashion

Ah, the Twitter wars. I've been a member of the site for almost a year now, but I only started paying attention a week or two ago. It's a bold concept, to be sure. Say what you're doing in 140 characters or less, and broadcast it to the world. I won't describe the service or try to validate it; I simply find it interesting. @drewmaniac* already did the heavy lifting in coming up with a good answer to the question "What is Twitter, and what is it good for?", so I defer to him on the issue. It is truly one of those things in life where you "get out of it what you put in".

About the time I began to listen, Ashton of Punk'd fame started a spitting contest with one of CNN's Twitter feeds, to see who could amass the most followers in the shortest amount of time, and at the same time, Oprah discovered Twitter and used her show to launch her Twitter account. The outrage these two events have spawned in the Twitter community reminds me of the similar "We were here first" mentality of Facebook a few years ago, when the website, initially exclusive to college students, opened its ranks first to high schoolers, then to the general public. Different forum, same problem - your favorite quiet establishment has been discovered by the soccer moms, and now it's crowded and noisy.

I sympathize with the Twitterers who wonder if @aplusk and @oprah have caused Twitter to "jump the shark", having been in a similar camp when the barbarian hordes descended upon my nice, quiet Facebook. However, those who joined Facebook after the floodgates opened should know what it's like to be late to the party, and just welcome those who join as a result of the celebrities, even if they resent the celebrities themselves for using their platform to take the escalator to popularity in yet another forum, since the celebrities are the ones taking advantage of their own recognizance. Everyone else will still have to build their contact base the old-fashioned way.


*Yes, I briefly campaigned against Twitter; it was short-sighted and curmudgeonly.

It could happen to you

Disarm you with a smile

originally uploaded by Brett L.

Hi there, Blogger. It's been a while. You doing ok? Me too, thanks. I didn't mean to ignore you. I just didn't have anything to talk about. I don't know that I now, but hey - that hasn't stopped me in the past!

I saw on ESPN today that John Madden is retiring. I fear for the future of football announcing with the likes of Joe Buck waiting in the wings. My uncle stopped listening to TV announcers for Sooners broadcasts a few years ago in favor of the radio and hasn't looked back. Personally, I don't think Bob Barry is much of an improvement, but at least he and Merv Johnson are Oklahoma fans and don't spend their time giving backhanded compliments. In any case, some people may have thought Madden was a little obvious, but I'll miss his analysis and (sometimes unintentional) humor.

I hope to be writing more frequently, so I'll leave it at this for now.

In many ways they'll miss the good old days

Albert Einstein Action Figure in Nashville
Originally uploaded by Amy Guth

In 1969, Brian May was studying astrophysics at Imperial College in London when he, friend Tim Staffell, and dental student Roger Taylor started a band together called Smile. Smile opened for fledgling British acts Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis and soon signed a developmental deal with Mercury Records. Staffell introduced May and Taylor to his friend Farrokh Bulsara, who replaced Staffell as lead singer when he left to form another band. Bulsara began calling himself Freddy Mercury, and at his encouragement, Smile changed their name to Queen. In 1973, Queen released their first self-titled studio album and the rest, as they say, is history.

Flash forward 35 years. Brian May resumed his university studies and submitted his doctoral thesis, A Survey Of Radial Velocities In The Zodiacal Dust Cloud, in 2007 - it has since been published. He was awarded his Ph. D. in astrophysics and in April 2008, accepted a chancellorship at John Moores University in Liverpool, England. It seems to me that Dr. May represents all that can be called "good" about the rock and roll lifestyle. He doesn't smoke or drink, and readily admits that he suffered from depression in the late 1980s, and that had he been a drug user, that would have exacerbated the problem. Reading up on Brian May recently, I feel that he is living proof that fame does not require the lifestyle that so many seem to blame on their place in the world.

Anyway - My intention is not to hold up Brian May as a beacon of goodness. I suspect he has had his share of indiscretions. I just find it interesting that this astrophysicist happens to be one of the greatest guitar players in the world, and that instead of starting new bands or trying to live off of his past accomplishments by trying to relate to a new generation who barely knows who he is (I'm looking at you, Gene Simmons), he has moved on with his life and contributed something meaningful to an entirely different part of society. My real intention in talking about Brian May is to bring up a song he composed and sang while with Queen. He evidently didn't put his scientific background away completely, as this song in particular makes use of Einstein's theory of relativity to tell a story of both adventure and regret. (Click the play button below to have a listen.)

'39
by Brian May

In the year of '39, assembled here the Volunteers
In the days when lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight ever seen

And the night followed day
And the storytellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For many a lonely day sailed across the milky sea
Ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried

Don't you hear my call, though you're many years away?
Don't you hear me calling you?

Write your letters in the sand for the day I'll take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew.

In the year of '39 came a ship from the blue
The Volunteers came home that day
And they bring good news of a world so newly born
Though their hearts so heavily lay

For the earth is old and gray
Little darling we'll away
But my love this cannot be
Oh so many years have gone though I'm older but a year
Your mother's eyes from your eyes cry to me.

Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand for the day I'll take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew

Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
All your letters in the sand cannot heal me like your hand
For my life still ahead, pity me.

A portion of Einstein's relativity theory, as I vaguely understand it, states that time moves at varying rates of speed when in graviational fields of varying strengths. So, for someone inside a vehicle moving at the speed of light, gravity increases and so time slows in relation to time for others outside the vehicle.

In the song '39, a group of 20 brave souls volunteered for a mission to explore the universe in search of inhabitable planets, while traveling near or at the speed of light. They know that what seems like a year to them will have been 100 years on Earth, and that the price of their travels will be that they never see any of their loved ones again. One volunteer ponders this eventuality, but ultimately decides that a life spent wondering "what if?" would be as unbearable as never seeing Her again. And so, he embarks on his journey. 100 years later, the ship returns, with joyous news of a suitable planet - mankind is saved! But in the midst of all the celebration, a face in the crowd reminds him of the one he left behind. Despite the adoration of millions, despite the fame he now enjoys, he knows that the New World will have no joy for him because he faces that world alone, wondering what might have been.

Don't always look for the Bigger Better Thing. Chances are it doesn't exist anyway. Don't assume that New = Improved. If you abandon something something good in favor of something new, be prepared for the consequences.

Sing a few more freedom songs

The Front of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow
Originally uploaded by marantzer

In the past, I've often thought about how emotions influence writers. Some of the best things I think I've ever written came during times of personal emotional turmoil of one sort or another. Things like that speak to people; those things demand attention and connect with readers. It makes me wonder what Shakespeare (Or perhaps Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon?) went through to produce such dramatic works. Knowing a minor portion of what he must have endured if he wrote from experience, I marvel that he survived to write at all.

Fyodor Dostoevsky often incorporated scenes from his own experiences in his works - in The Brothers Karamazov, he told of a man who was sentenced to death for participating in a study group that discussed the works of a utopian socialist author. He was placed in prison for several months. One morning he was led before the firing squad. A long line of prisoners stood waiting to be executed; the man was tied up and blindfolded. As the order came from the commanding officer for the riflemen to raise their weapons and take aim, another officer came forward and proclaimed that the czar had pardoned the man. Though the name changed, Dostoevsky wrote from personal experience, having been pardoned while standing bound and blindfolded before the firing squad. With such events in his past, it comes as no surprise to me that he was able to so prolifically create. In any case, I sometimes find myself slightly desirous of those composition-inducing emotions. Not the ones that come from staring death in the face - I would settle for just some slight dismay, of which I am in no short supply these days. Especially when I stare at a blank screen, wondering what to communicate to the world at large. Those heightened emotions really seem to bring out the best a person has to write.

I know that at this point I'm supposed to draw a conclusion, something to tie it all together and make you feel better for having read this far. I suppose I could encourage you to see writing as a personal experience, or rather a reflection of your experiences. Don't write simply because you think you have to - the world can wait. Hold out for the correct emotion, and words will present themselves.

You left me in a hole

alternative Venice
Originally uploaded by tsoukali

I've been looking for answers in the wrong places; or rather, I've been asking advice of the wrong people. Not that they give bad suggestions. Far from it, in fact. My fault has, however, been in asking questions of people who don't actually have much knowledge of the subject. The best advice they have given me has been to seek that of others, who know what they're talking about.

I liken my situation to a deep ravine. I can look across and see a better side, but I can't get there yet - I have to build the bridge. I've never been a patient person, so building a bridge is tedious work, and there are definitely times when I think it would be better to just climb down one side and up the other. That's dangerous though, and so it would obviously be wise to wait for the bridge to be built. I may not have all the tools necessary to build it all myself, but I can find them, borrow what I can't find, and get help from people who know how to use tools that I don't. Again, my heritage precludes me from being a person who asks for help very often. My people would much rather forge ahead regardless of how lost they are. I will seek help though, and I think I might actually do it today, while my mind is on it.

It gives me something to look forward to, at least. If I thought I would be doing in 20 years what I do now, I don't know if I could handle it. Luckily I have this thought in my head, one that I've been cultivating for over a year. I made a believer recently and it only took about 24 hours. He wasn't too sure at first, but once he got a taste of what he had to go through without it, he declared it to be a money maker. If he believes, then surely others will too. Multitudes of people just don't know what they're doing, so if a professional comes along and offers to do it for them, perhaps they won't leap at the first opportunity but once they get a taste of the alternative they'll see the value. That's what I'm counting on.