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18 Jun 08 – Internet Comedy That Doesn't Suck?
![[IMAGE]](http://brentnewhall.com/graphics/blog/lrr.jpg)
Every time I try to write about Loading Ready Run, I end up with a dry essay. Which is the antithesis of Loading Ready Run.
LRR is an online comedy team. Which immediately conjures up images of college-age guys making cheap videos and desperately trying to be funny; folks who see Saturday Night Live and think, "That's easy!"
Ironically, LRR's videos are cheap, but they're also funny. Some of them are absolutely perfect; I've re-watched It's Very Simple and Halo: The Future of Combat many times and am consistently floored at how well they're executed.
LRR's got about a dozen regular cast members, and about that many more occasional contributors. They post a new video every week, almost always a sketch a few minutes long. They have a few themes that they occasionally return to, but those rarely amount to more than three videos.
Then they did something interesting.
After posting videos every week for years, they felt a need to grow. So they created "Commodore Hustle."
How to describe this? Okay, in creating several hundred short comedy videos, the cast members inevitably made videos in which they played, essentially, themselves. But just as inevitably, they were playing dramatized versions of themselves. Pushed to extremes. In reality, Paul isn't quite as single-mindedly geeky as the "Paul" you see in videos.
So they decided to create an ongoing video series starring these dramatized versions of themselves. They're essentially making a movie, in 15-minute segments of inter-related sketches about themselves working on their videos and generally dealing with life.
Which was fine and funny for the first few segments. Some of it's bizarre, some of it well-written, some relies on editing.
Then around about episode 5, it got really interesting. They developed a villain—who plays his role perfectly—as a frustrated comedy writer who works at a video store and wants to Take Them Down. It's evolving into a serial, really, something that I look forward to watching more of.
And they keep posting their regular videos every week, too, so they keep fresh with that.
Awesome to see folks build and develop their skills, and grow into creating something remarkable. They're an inspiration.
(Warning: I haven't been watching LRR recently, so likely they've finished Commodore Hustle or gone in a completely new direction or summat.)
9 Jun 08 – A P1k3 Through My Heart
![[IMAGE]](http://p1k3.com/chapbook/index.icon.png){kind=icon}
| Brennen | the content and duration of any moment is no more constrained and regular than that of a street corner or an open door. |
I'm re-reading Brennen's chapbook, unrequited poetry. Above is a quote, rather obviously. Every time I do this, I'm reminded of why I love poetry, and why Brennen's such a great poet.
I'm buying another copy, to give to a friend who's developing an interest in poetry.
I figure it's worth grabbing any chance to expand one's horizons of great poetry.
30 Jun 08 – My New Podcast - Otaku, No Video
Saalon, a friend named Nick, and I have been working on a fun little project for the past month or so. It takes some time to get three people together on a regular schedule. Now that the schedule's stabilized, I'm now announcing our new podcast.
We're doing a podcast called Otaku, No Video, a series of hour-long conversations about the anime industry and specific anime series. We discuss trends in the industry, what we see as problems, potential solutions, and our thoughts on various anime.
Amazingly, I'm even happier with it than I anticipated. I enjoy re-listening to our talks. We have useful, interesting things to say, and the conversation bounces from topic to topic. We keep the conversation from getting too geeky, as well; pretty much anyone should be able to understand it.
So, please check it out and let me know what you think (especially now that comments work here). I'd love to hear your feedback on what we doesn't work, and what does.
(In case you're wondering about the name, it's a reference to a classic anime parody named Otaku no Video, or The Anime Fan's Video, which told the story of anime fans in Japan in the 80's. Quite funny, and an insightful look into what anime fandom was like back then.)
28 Jun 08 – Akamai State of the Internet Report
The huge internet storage site Akamai recently released their first "state of the internet" report, where they detail internet traffic patterns. There are some very interesting trends.
For example, while the three countries with the most internet traffic were China, the U.S., and Taiwan (no surprise), the next three were Venzuela, Argentina, and Brazil. Turkey's also in the top 10. What's going on in South America?
Web site hacks continued, and the scale just astounds me. One attack in January 2008 infected up to 70,000 different websites. Two months later, over 10,000 web pages were infected by hackers trying to steal online game passwords.
How many unique internet IP addresses are used in each country? The U.S. has the most, followed by China and Japan...then Germany.
So, there are lots of smaller countries out there doing a lot of internet work. More so than I would have expected. I wonder what that will mean for the future? How well do you know German?
25 Jun 08 – Ning—Less Than I'd Hoped
I heard Leo Laporte talk about Ning the other day on TWiT Live, so I decided to check it out.
Ning's an online community builder. Think of it as a toolbox with templates for online groups, complete with forums, space for photos and videos, and all that. So, if you want to talk with a group of like-minded people, you either find a Ning "social network," or start your own. And it's all free.
Problem is, I haven't found a single active Ning social network that interests me. There are certainly active groups out there, but in the topics that interest me, all the social networks are either empty or way too specific ("This is the online space for Mr. Lennie Irvin's Summer 2008 English 0301 class.").
This may partly be a failure in their search algorithm. When I search for "writing," I get every writing group, in no apparent order. It should probably sort by popularity, and there's no way to filter results by language (I'm just not going to join any of the many Spanish networks).
That said, if you want to start an online social network, Ning seems to have great tools to support it. The technology's there, and it's easy to start using it.
24 Jun 08 – Johnny Bunko and His Career
![[IMAGE]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1594482918.01.MZZZZZZZ.gif)
Just finished—literally, just—a career management book called The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need. It's pretty short, it's got good advice, and it's got great art. It needs to be : it's a manga.
This sort of thing is commonplace in Japan, where you'll find how-to manga on just about any topic, from medical advice to sex. So it's neat to see one on this side of the Pacific, written by a well-respected career guide (he also wrote Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind) and drawn by a top-notch American manga artist.
The advice is, as usual, simple but true. With career advice, it's all about the presentation. We all know the importance of much of this, but we need to be struck by it afresh. Which he does.
For what it's worth, the book offers this advice:
- There is no plan.
- Think strengths, not weaknesses.
- It's not about you.
- Persistence trumps talent.
- Make excellent mistakes.
- Leave an imprint.
I argue that "talent" probably doesn't exist, but the point remains. Again, this is all sensible stuff, but it's how it's presented that really makes it work.
The story follows Johnny Bunko, a recent college grad struggling to figure out why he's not satisfied at work. He breaks open a pair of chopsticks, to be visited by a spirit who gives him career advice. Sure, it's corny—and it's played that way—but it works.
Strongly recommended; I'm thinking of giving copies to everyone I know who's nearing college graduation.
There's also a great little animation at the Amazon.com site.
23 Jun 08 – Incentives and Work
I've been thinking a lot lately. About a great many things.
I'm tremendously fortunate in being able to pursue a freelance career. While I don't have a lot of cash to throw at this venture, I'll be fine for at least a few more months. Far more than most can manage.
But I haven't been nearly as productive as I feel I should be. "Should" is always a loaded word, but in this case I think it's apt: I haven't worked for more than three hours on money-making work in any given day.
Granted, I spent the first two months or so in "detox," as I call it, relaxing after many years of work. I couldn't bring myself to do anything besides read, cook, play around on the computer, and putter around the house. I enjoyed my freedom the same way a tired executive enjoys a vacation: flat on his or her back on the beach.
This isn't that. This is having the mental space and flexibility, and the time, and sitting down to work, and finding yourself refreshing FriendFeed. Why do I do this?
I even wrote a long, plaintive email to Hugh Macleod, asking him how he orients himself to get his work done.
I think this phenomenon is important, and worth examining. People say they don't pursue their dreams because they don't have the time, but time's not the limit. Neither is relaxation.
Focus appears to be the limit. How can I increase focus?
One solution I'm trying now is to rewrite how I see work. I've always enjoyed writing (as far as writing can be enjoyed; I can be frustrated by it, too), but when I imagine writing as a job, it seems dreary. Partly because I see work as dreary, or at least something that one must put up with. So, when I prepare to write (or whatever), I imagine myself having fun at it. Which I usually do. But I need to remind myself that it will be.
It's working so far, though I'm only a day into it. But how strange our minds are. We think they're logical and sensible, and then we scream at the sight of a bug.
21 Jun 08 – Visiting a Local Carnival
For my weekly adventure, I checked Upcoming for a list of events in my area, and noticed a carnival nearby. So I went.
Carnivals are usually much more fun in memory than in present. Carnivals should be fun, exciting, lively, with a hint of danger. You always wonder what the carnies do behind the plywood. What lives do they lead, what secrets will they never tell?
This was a small carnival, and the company's based in this state. The website promises safety and courtesy, and that's what you get: about a dozen rides, half a dozen games of chance, and another half-dozen food stands. Nicely spread out, but at mid-afternoon on a hot day, the bright sunlight bleaches away the suspense and hints of danger.
So I had a hot dog, and a huge piece of frozen cheesecake on a stick, dipped in chocolate. The carnies were pleasant enough, if bored, and it was just too small.
Perhaps I should go back at night. Everything changes at night.
Either way, here are a few photos:
| www.flickr.com |
UPDATE: I went back the next night, and they closed at dusk. So I only got a few more photos of the rides as night fell. Disappointing, but at least I got a few interesting photos out of it.
19 Jun 08 – Lagend, a colorful comic
![[IMAGE]](http://brentnewhall.com/graphics/blog/lagend.png)
One of my favorite webcomics, North World, had a guest strip today by Nick Daniel of Lagend, so I decided to check out Lagend.
It's got a unique art style, and I mean well by that. Heads are mostly spheres, colors are bright but clear, everything is hand-drawn (including the lettering), and the artist has a thus-far-flawless sense of panel composition and timing. The art style appears to be a fusion of manga, furry, experimental American comics, and Vinnie Veritas.
Note that there's some strong language here and there.
Either way, I like the story and the characters, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.
18 Jun 08 – Upcoming Events from Upcoming
Seems like every week I stumble on another great service offered by Yahoo!. I'm no fan of its main site, but I love many of its services, including Games, Flickr, and GeoCities.
Here's one I've been using a lot: Upcoming. You enter your zip code, and the site returns a list of events happening near you in the next few days and weeks. This includes book clubs, band performances, DJ appearances, book signings, celebrity appearances, art exhibitions, and pretty much any other public event you can think of. I'm amazed at the exhaustive listings; there are over 100 events per day within driving distance of my house alone.
You can also mark if you're coming or interested, and see how many others have signed up. Most entries list the exact address of the event, with links to Yahoo! Maps and Google Maps for that address. You can even post any event to your iCal, Outlook, Yahoo!, or Google calendar, directly from the event's page.
And, if you have a Yahoo! account, you can add your own events to Upcoming, direct people to the site, and track RSVPs online with it.
Overall, it's a remarkably well-designed site that provides a useful service.
17 Jun 08 – How to Critique Fiction
I'm just back from writer's group, in which I received critiques on a fantasy short story of mine.
Scott, the critiquer, always gives great critiques. Here's why:
- He's detailed. As he writes, if anything strikes him as strange, out-of-place, or awkward, he immediately notes it in the margins. This is incredibly valuable, as I try to figure out what a reader understands as he or she reads.
- He doesn't rant or punish. He describes his reactions and problems, and suggests remedies, in the spirit of improving the story. His entire critique is focused on improving the story and the author.
- He's unfiltered. While always polite, he writes down every opinion and judgment as he makes them, even if they're personal or may not apply to every reader. As he says, the author is always free to ignore every critique made, but it's better to have more suggestions to think about than less.
- He marks everything with an easy-to-read red pen, in print (not cursive).
- He writes overall impressions on the last page, so I can compare his reactions as he read the story to his final impression. This is invaluable.
If you ever have to critique someone else's writing, please emulate Scott. I look forward to critiques partly because of him.
16 Jun 08 – Voicemails
After listening to too many bad voicemails recently, here are a few suggestions when leaving a voicemail:
- Start with both names, yours and that of the person you're calling. How many times have you got a voicemail saying, "Hi, just letting you know everything's okay. Call me, okay?" Who is it? You have to infer from the voice. Not only is it nice to leave both names, it grounds the conversation in a particular person and gets my attention, so I'm able to tune in to the main point of the message without also trying to guess who's talking.
- Continue the conversation. Many voicemails are simply "Hi, this is Joan, please call me back." That's not very helpful, is it? When you call someone, it's almost always to ask a question or provide an answer, right? Please do so.
- Leave your phone number. I may have it...or I may not. If I do have it, it may be in an address book that I can't get to at the moment. Always leave your phone number, except with very close friends.
- Keep it brief. Since I started using these guidelines, I can't recall leaving a voicemail more than 1.5 minutes long. If you have a lot of information to provide, a voicemail's a poor place to put it. Leave a voicemail saying that you'll drop the person an email with all the details.
At least, that's what I think.
13 Jun 08 – The Seven Swords
Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China, A Chinese Ghost Story) recently directed the martial arts epic The Seven Swords. It's beautiful. It's well-acted. It's completely incomprehensible.
The basic story is pretty straightforward—the emperor has outlawed martial arts, and a small evil army roams the countryside, slaughtering all those that practice martial arts. Someone comes to warn the village, two young people save that person, they wander for a while, then stumble upon the legendary Five Swordsmen hiding out in a mountain. They all then return as the Seven Swordsmen to kick the collective butts of the small evil army.
But the direction is muddy, and the shots are too close and don't last long enough to make clear what's going on. It's not unlike the Transformers CGI movie; even if the fights had been good, I couldn't tell what was going on.
And in an action movie, if I don't know what's going on, the movie loses all its fun. I watch an action film so I can enjoy the action. More depth than that is welcome, but it shouldn't betray its central raison d'etre.
11 Jun 08 – Freedom for Your Online Life
I've been working on a project called Your Online Life for a couple of months now. It's a "web guide for the rest of us;" an explanation of current web tech and trends. It's meant to describe the latest websites and services, how to use them and why you'd want to.
My original plan was to release the site as a pay service; $50 for lifetime access and upgrades. I've been increasingly uncomfortable with that, for a few reasons.
- I don't know how to market it, or to whom. I have a few contacts, but not enough.
- While I think it's worth $50, I don't know how to convince others that it's worth $50. People expect web content to be free, unless you're the Wall Street Journal.
- I like giving things away.
So I've removed the payment code. Your Online Life is now free. Go ahead and read through it, and let me know what you think.
I've added a tip jar, and in the next few weeks I plan to offer a few detailed, supplemental how-tos for a small fee ($15 or so), covering topics like securing your computer and a comparison of different messaging services. These are topics that will benefit from a holistic approach covering many subjects, and for which I can write essentially short books of strong, intense value.
The site's future is still uncertain, but I feel better about it now.
10 Jun 08 – Fixing MySQL in MacOS X 10.5, Leopard
Techie note:
For the past couple days, I've been struggling to get MySQL to run in Mac OS X 10.5. It would hang whenever I tried to start it. I finally put this updated preference pane file in ~/Library/PreferencePanes, then went in to System Preferences > MySQL and was able to start MySQL from there.
Very strange.
9 Jun 08 – Four Tips for Reading Many Input Streams and Maintaining your Sanity
I keep up with a lot of different streams of input: emails, blogs, comics, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, and IM. I have much to learn, but here's what I have learned:
- Skim. Don't worry about catching every bit of every email. Start by skimming, then pay closer attention if the content rewards it.
- Keep up. If you sign up for an email list, read it frequently. I read all my emails and blogs every day. Combined with skimming, it doesn't take very long.
- Reply immediately. Try to immediately reply to any email that needs a reply. Some may have to wait until you gather more information, of course, but can't you reply to most right away? And the more emails sitting in your inbox waiting for a reply, the more frustration and depression you'll feel when you look at them.
- Keep your inboxes clean. Move all emails you've read to a separate folder, or delete them. Process all your Facebook notifications (choose something to do with them). Close your IM windows when the conversation ends. Get it away from you, so you can concentrate on something else.
So, read everything at a high level to begin with, often, reply quickly, then get rid of it. Don't let it clutter up your mind.
7 Jun 08 – Charging up Napoleon Hill
I've heard positive things about Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, so I grabbed the free sample for my Kindle, and have been reading it over the past few days.
It's the Law of Attraction, but presented in the way that I've found true: that which you focus on, and consistently strive for, will come to life faster and easier than you expect.
While this works with just about any goal, Hill starts with money, and presents a six-step system:
- Write down exactly how much money you want. Work out how much you really want.
- Write down a specific date when you want to have this money.
- Write down what you're willing to give up to get this. You can't get something for nothing. This payment can be in time, resources, short-term money, etc.
- Write down a plan for how you're going to get that money by that date. Nothing complex. And start executing this plan.
- Rewrite the above into a brief English description, such as "By November 30th, I'm going to have $5,000 in the bank, by publishing thirty programming articles."
- Repeat this description aloud twice a day, once when you get up and once as you go to bed. Fix this in your mind. Make it a constant thought in the back of your head.
So, I'm trying it. My goal is: By November 30th, I'll be making $3,000 per month by tutoring, and writing code, short stories, and articles.
I spent the last hour reviewing short stories for submission to various magazines. Odd; I've only performed half a dozen short story submissions in the past few years, despite knowing that when you get a rejection from one magazine, you should immediately send the story to another magazine. I now wonder why I haven't been doing that.
Now to see if this works long-term. And how much money I'll be making on November 30th.
6 Jun 08 – The Critical Path
![[IMAGE]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Buckminsterfuller.png/200px-Buckminsterfuller.png)
I recently finished reading Buckminster Fuller's The Critical Path. If you don't know him, Buckminster invented the geodesic dome, and is generally considered a slightly crackpot visionary designer. The Critical Path is one of his final books, in which he traces an overview of his life and mission.
In his early 30's, he decided to devote his life to "an experiment, to find what a single individual can contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."
So he studied energy problems and designed an efficient worldwide energy grid. He studied housing and developed inexpensive, portable housing (geodesic domes). And so forth.
My main problem with his theories: He was intensely rational. He assumed that people would adopt geodesic domes because of their efficiencies, ignoring how people like to live in traditional houses. Granted, he believed that people would adopt such things out of natural necessity, but I don't think people are that rational. People hold on to things.
On the other hand, Fuller impresses me. He accomplished a huge amount in his lifetime; far more than I have. This is a minor complaint about a giant of a man.
It's just a shame that humans can be blind like that.
5 Jun 08 – Wisdom of the Chinese
This is from a book I stumbled on a few weeks ago at a used book store in town:
The disciple Kung-too said: "All are equally men, but some are great men, and some are little men; how is this?" Mencius replied: "Those who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow that part which is little are little men."
Kung-too pursued, "All are equally men, but some follow that part of themselves which is great, and some follow that part which is little; how is this?" Mencius answered: "The senses of hearing and seeing do not think, and are obscured by external things. When one thing comes into contact with another, as a matter of course it leads (the sense) away. To the mind belongs the office of thinking. By thinking, it gets the right view of things; by neglecting to think, it fails to do this.
"These, the senses and the mind, are what Heaven has given to us.
"Let a man first stand fast in the supremacy of the nobler part of his constitution, and the inferior part will not be able to take it from him. It is simply this which makes the great man."
4 Jun 08 – Tenacity and Tech
So, a few years ago there was this TV channel called Tech TV. And the most popular show on that channel was The Screen Savers, a call-in tech variety show in which two guys and a crew of geeks covered all sorts of technology news and trends and such.
Then, Tech TV died.
So what did they do? They dusted themselves off and looked for jobs in new media.
One of them started Digg. One of them created DL.tv.
But I want to talk about Leo Laporte, who has since started The TWiT Netcast Network. He began producing free podcasts, then looked for advertisers. He only takes on advertisers who he personally supports, and he provides a live advertisement for their services or products directly in the podcasts themselves (instead of inserting an annoying, pre-generated ad).
Then he signed up with Stickam, set up a few cameras, and began streaming live video of his shows as he records and assembles them. It required a significant amount of money, but way less than a typical studio.
His podcasts now have tens of thousands of listeners, and thousands watch his live streams. Today, he's announced that he's breaking even, and his list of advertisers grows.
He's living the dream. Not through massive financial resources or brilliant marketing or incredibly hard work. Because he dreamed of something, and tenaciously worked towards it.
3 Jun 08 – RescueTime - Not For Me
I've been testing out RescueTime, a service that tracks and plots your computer usage. The idea is that it'll give you an idea of what's wasting your time.
You install a small app and let it run. Every few minutes, it uploads usage stats to www.rescuetime.com, which you can access at any time to check out your usage. It'll also email you a summary every week.
I used it for a few weeks, and to my surprise I learned nothing new. I know what I spend most of my time using (Safari and the terminal, mostly). I know what wastes my time (YouTube and Fark, mostly, which I've now blocked).
It was a worthwhile experiment, though, and you might want to give it a try if you're curious about how you spend your time. It certainly functioned well.
2 Jun 08 – It's Ready
I've just put the finishing touches on Your Online Life. It's a web-based course in web trends and technologies, covering a large set of sites and services. You can learn about online photo sharing sites, user-contributed news sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a host more—both how they work, and exactly how to sign up with them and use them.
The idea is to provide high-quality tutorials and explanations, that are constantly updated and expanding as the web expands. It's a one-stop resource to keep you up-to-date with the web. When you hear about a site or service, you can go to Your Online Life and learn what it is, why you'd want to use it, and how to use it.
I'm offering this for a one-time fee of $50, which gives you lifetime access to the site and every tutorial and piece of information I ever post there now and in the future. It's like access to an encyclopedia of web trends and technologies.
Should be an interesting ride.
2 Jun 08 – Busy
| Henry David Thoreau writes: | It is not enough to be busy....The question is: What are we busy about? |