Brief Episode

photo credit: kurtxio

Found this insightful for authors who are online (and those aspiring to either be authors or be online):

” … all things being equal, the edge goes to the plugged-in author. Take it from a real life sales assistant at a major publisher: they want you doing stuff. We can debate whether this is the best strategy or how many books blogs actually sell or whether this system is right or wrong until we’re hoarse, but the fact is: this is the way the business is right now. ”

NATHAN BRANSFORD, Literary Agent

I love Penelope Trunk.  She’s a riot.  This post in particular pinged for me because of this quote: Read the rest of this entry »

Eviscerated Shells

In all the Proposition 8 petitions from the side of the angels for marriage equality, I noticed a word crop up again and again about what the proposition would do if allowed as an amendment:  eviscerate. Read the rest of this entry »

Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist

The Brazen Careerist talks about why she won’t get plastic surgery even though studies show it helps careers: Read the rest of this entry »

I responded to Paperwight’s comment over on a American Constitution Society Blog, visited Paperwight’s sight and read a post with this fantastic quotation.

If you want to be someone better, you have to do something better.

The rest of the blog is pretty awesome, too and focuses on John McCain and how the media has treated him (too well, it turns out).

Paperwight’s Fair Shot: What You Do Is Who You Are.

I was watching CNN yesterday at lunch and saw this very disturbing video.  It’s much better with the sound because you can hear the McCain republicans denouncing the fear monger and encouraging him to leave.

Note how the journalist is asked by the skin head whether he’s Muslim.  But when people walk up and identify themselves as Muslim (and one gent as chosen by McCain and a campaign official), the guy backs down.

Google was at it again!

Google released a new product — its Chrome browser — and claimed rights to everything you could read or type into or submit through it.

This means… Owning your Tweets. Your blog posts. Your emails.

Crazy, huh?

Then Google caught its gaffe, and rescinded that part of the license.

Oddly, Google did this last year with its Google Docs.

The initial agreement claimed rights over “any Content which you submit, post or display on or through” the browser.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google tweaks Chrome licence text

I can’t help but notice that Google’s splash page has a Trade Mark symbol, meaning that they’re watching their intellectual property very closely.  But yours? It’s their’s until they think better of it.  Or receive copious complaints.

Über-blogger, author & tv commentator Andrew Sullivan asked his readers to vote for whether they would like comments or not. He advised his readers (I’m one) that they could vote more than once if they felt strongly:

“You can vote any number of times, so those who care strongly about this – pro and con – can have their passions reflected.”

However, in the same news cycle (that’s 24-hour period for those of us who aren’t news obsessed), he writes:

“… the poll is actually restricted to one vote per IP address…”

This reflects something about Sullivan’s blog…
Read the rest of this entry »

The AMPTP website is worth a few posts. No one has written about the subtext of everything on there.

Here’s a first stab.

The questions they put on their Frequently Asked Questions were surprising to me. I went to their site to find their side of the story right away. My questions, as a non-WGA writer were more along the lines of:

When will the AMPTP take their heads out their asses?
How long can the AMPTP afford to refuse to negotiate during a strike before it starts to really ouch them good?

Under the jump is what they list as Frequently Asked Questions and what I think of them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Tolan is writing a blog about the Writers Guild of America strike.

What’s fascinating for me about his being asked — and his writing the blog — is how blogging can be simply a platform for internet publishing… but it can also be about the singularity of voice.

Tolan’s blog feels like a blog in its feel:  a personal voice bereft of the typical journalistic style of feigned objectivity.