WOLves

Let the Jocularity Ensue...

I dunno just read it.

Winer and Scoble and copyright issues

Yep, I know this is late -- so sue me! ;>)

If I had four keyboards and could type on them all simultaneously with both hands and feet,  I still could not blog all the stuff that's going on here at Schuett's Greasy Spoon. The cooking is the least of it!

Anyhoo, this is just an observation on EFF. Dave and Robert have been kicking around the issues, but, from a whole 'nother perspective, it looks like EFF may be going the way of Amnesty International (which was once entirely about human rights and is no longer) and the ACLU  Both are simply leaning toward leftist/feminist ideology these days.

For those of you kids who think collectivism and socialism is a fine thing, why not Google Stalin and check out what he got up to back in the day?

Sure, this is harsh. But it looks like there are those who would prefer that nobody be able to own the products of their labors, and that bothers me. It shouldn't matter if you're Apple or Microsoft or Bobby's Little Toolshed. I am all in favor of Creative Commons licensure for things like stories and blogs and things that could benefit from simply being dispersed all over.  I don't write software, but I recognize that is an entirely different thing than a novel or news writing.

Yes, Open Source also has its place, but do we need the gov to tell us when we may or may not share?

If Bobby comes up with a script that will magically solve the spam issue, he should be able to own that script and charge money for the use of it, just as Apple or Microsoft would. If Apple or Microsoft came up with something, the same rules should apply to them, because they are all businesses.

They are not charities or government entities, and I think sometimes people forget that.

April Fool's Day Looms!

Actually, it's already here in other places.

I have BEEG stuff to announce, but it's gonna hafta wait. I do not announce anything important on 4/1!

Watch this space!!!

Storyblogging Carnival

Yes! It's here!

Calista's Wednesday Links

Associated Writing Programs
http://awpwriter.org/
Writers resource compiled by George Mason University, includes information about writing programs in the U.S., writer's conferences and offers membership benefits.

Crime Magazine
http://www.crimemagazine.com/
For the Mystery writer this is an "encyclopedia of crime."

Elements of Style
http://sut1.sut.ac.th/strunk/
http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
Both sites off William Strunk's Elements of Style. Reference material that comprehensively covers both the rules of English and principles of composition.

The Carnival of Glee!

Sometimes we writers who aren't so well know we have to do a little auditioning.

I have a little website called "A Carnival-Like Atmosphere of Glee"  It's full of essays (serious and not so much), shorts, and a few photos about life politics and culture. And it's free.

Please check it out.  If any of you have done the same thing, let me know.

Arnie the Carney

Hillerman Wins Distinguished Author Award

Here's the scoop at the Yuma Daily Sun

American Idol #4 and other things…

Yes, my Michigander bud Dean Esmay has made it safe for us oldies-but-goodies to admit they watch it. Yes, we do. I found it by accident in the middle of Season #2, one day when I was channel surfing for something that wasn’t Law and Order.

That was the year they were sooo close, that everybody was holding their breath Clay vs, Ruben. Skinny white guy vs. hefty black guy. Some were attempting to make a racial issue out of it, but in the end, I think somebody said, it’s down to the pre-teen and teenaged girls with their cell phones. Who do they love?

I missed Season #1 entirely, and never have had much an impression of Kelly Clarkson. She was off-key and amateurish when she appeared on #2, and her subsequent single reminded me of an asthmatic trying to sing. Maybe somebody thought it was sexy – who knows?

Last year – Season #3 was entirely forgettable. I even forgot Fantasia, the winner, until I saw her on a daytime talk show while languishing in an $8 special-offer hotel room in Laughlin Nevada last week. I thank the Powers That Be in the American Idol machine that made her get rid of that nose ornament. She was always picking at it – that I remember! She’s a serious blast from the past tho, the era of Aretha, Gladys Knight, and Tina Turner.

This year I’ve seen so many good performances it’s really worth watching!

We are such addicts of this show, we stayed up to watch it waaay late, on Nevada time, no Eastern feed on the satellite dish, despite the fact we awakened at 4 a.m. in Prescott AZ, and drove for several hours, and spent the day walking miles to dump our nickels and quarters in their less-than-forthcoming machines. We were beat, but we saw it, by golly!

(Sayonara, Laughlin! Guess that will be our last trip. We’re certainly no high rollers, but we’re in the long tail…)

Anyhoo, I digress.

I agree with Dean –– Bo Bice maybe, but really anything goes this time. If either Bo or Constantine can manage to sneak in a good ol’ Bob Seger tune, or one by Seger's east-coast affiliate, Springsteen, then maybe we might have something!  Bo could kick ass on Night Moves. Whew!

I will always be a loyal fan of Bob Seger. Why? He was my first.

First interview, that is, as a high school journalist who had no idea whatdaheck was goin’ down…

;>)

BTW -- whazzup w/Simon?  I've almost always agreed with him until this time. He's gettin' soft, me harties!

All kidding aside, the American Idol series is so much like like the writing biz it isn't funny...most submissions, any publisher will tell you, are pure crap. The excellent, the wonderful, the not-to-be-put-down book are as hard to find as the American Idol.

If somebody did the same thing with books, they would need to go through thousands before they found 12 that would be readable, and maybe only one that would be a bestseller.

Beyond the X-Files

David Duchovny's got a blog, here.

Hint: The print is very, very small. Try adding it to your aggregator if you're visually challenged, as I am, to make reading it possible. Adjusting text size in IE6 at least, doesn't work.

THX to the Blog Herald.

What is News and What is Not?

Interesting commentary over at the Blog Herald  on Google News, and its (albeit temporary) inclusion of a Nazi site, while ignoring some of the A-list bloggers.

Well, back in 2003, I was actually reporting news on my activist blog, and try as I might, I could not get Google to get past the idea that all blogs were simply personal journals and nothing else. Now they’ve gotten past that issue and recognized that a blog can contain any kind of content, I haven’t even tried to submit that blog to Google News.

That’s because over time, the focus of the DesertLight Journal has changed. Instead of publishing reports contributed by activists all over the world, it now includes much more commentary, with a US-centric approach. It’s become a jumping-off point, at times, for discussion in  other places, such as forums and listservs.

Does that kind of conversation constitute news? I’m not really sure. It does appear that the definition of what is and what is not news is changing. I’ve always defined news as something happening, and the reporting of same. Does the reporting at some point become the news? Doe the commentary on the reporting also become news?

Heck, I dunno. These larger questions are bit much for this early in the morning ;>)