Blogging binge persists 

I don't know why I'm doing this. Jeneane was saying today she hasn't had much to say. It seems I have too much to say lately. It's ridiculous. If I'm that up for writing I ought to return to my 2/3 finished novel. At this rate I could polish it off in a month.

What she says about Qumana? I feel the same way about the OPML Editor as a blogging tool. It's become an extension of my brain.

Teaching 

Wonder what Dave means by posting the Teach Your Children lyrics. It's a song that can evoke multiple interpretations. The slant I'd put on it at this moment relates to the part about parents and their fears: "And you, of tender years, can't know the fears that your elders grew by." I had my self-esteem beaten out of me with a virtual stick as a kid. Somebody whose opinion I respect suggested that boomers' parents who grew up in the depression were prone to fostering self-critical thinking in their children, believing it was the best thing for them. I have some late-breaking news for them. It wasn't for the best then, and it lasts a lifetime.

All gone 

I got a chance see the Andrew Baron video Matthew Ingram pointed to before it was taken down. Wonder why it was pulled? Baron was at a conference in Toronto this weekend and went into quite a bit of detail about the days leading up to the Rocketboom split and about plans for what's next.

He's a funny guy. Very genuine. You see him and you can't help but believe him. He's not quite as young as he looks, but you know what struck me as he was describing the mediation, and Amanda's surprise halt to it? These people are so young! Amanda is 24, just a couple years older than my oldest, who I've been worried about just because he's moving out on his own. The impulsive decision to quit might be chalked up to immaturity.

Later: the video still is not available but I found this report on the talk by Leesa Barnes who was there. Her take on it is about identical to mine.

Since I already have my mom's hat on (and incidentally because I spent two decades working in PR)... 

FWIW here is my advice for Rocketboom going forward:

1. Make it clear on Monday that the new host and the new package is a stop-gap deal. I've seen a few posts mentioning the "new look of Rocketboom," and it feels to me already as though viewers will be thinking on Monday, "The show was that, and now it's going to be this." They have to be reminded in strong terms that they're looking at a quick comeback from disaster. The show just went through a 6.5 earthquake and sections of the city are still burning. Whatever they are able to put together in three days can't be expected to measure up to the product achieved by two years of collaboration.

2. Go for a format change within two months. It makes a world of sense to continue on in blonde-behind-the-desk mode for now, but the quicker Rocketboom can detach from visual associations with Amanda the better.

3. Consider lightening up on the babe factor. I was surprised and pleased to hear Andrew say that the vampier host behavior was usually Amanda's idea. Cool, let her take that away with her; it doesn't play to all your viewers. I liked Amanda's quirkiness, but I'm straight. The flirting didn't do anything for me.

Really, think about it. I read a blog comment somewhere, it might have been on Techcrunch, from a guy wondering what the new host's cup size is. Gawker is on about the same thing. That's what you get when you are overt about the host's sexuality -- it's implicitly giving permission to the public commenters to be overt about it too. If I've never seen Rocketboom, and I read things like that I'm going to get the impression that it's something like the Man Show and I won't be inclined to want to check it out.

4. Consider agist issues, too -- don't pull a Helio. Just because I qualify for membership in the AARP (just barely) that doesn't mean I'm not wired to the hilt. (See my post from last week on the idiocy of writing off whole chunks of a market by excluding people like me.) One way to go for hosting duties might be a parade of has-been actors who have achieved the cult status that would also appeal to younger people. There must be a ton of old character actors in New York looking for work. I can't think of examples off the top of my head. You know, not the star of an old sitcom, but the crazy neighbor character, like the guy who played Roger Healy in I Dream of Jeanie and wasn't he a similar type on The Bob Newhart Show? I'll try to think of some tomorrow. If you think of any put your suggestions on the comments board.

Mom hat mode: off

Revealing picture game, clue #3 

See a bigger picture and make a guess.

Messing around with Yahoo maps 

I found this tutorial on the Amherst site. You just put two files on a server that runs PHP -- a php file that hooks up to the maps API and your text file of pipe-delimited labels and zip codes. I haven't been able to work out if you can get more specific than a zip.

It's horribly slow. Try this. I just have too much junk on this page. Do you think that as widgets and gadgets proliferate there will have to be new ways of displaying them?

Nope 

The message board feed doesn't seem to pick up enclosures either. That, along with not displaying pictures, doesn't give it much utility for this purpose. I posted a message to the Phorum forum about the image tag stripping, but haven't had a reply. Because I am avoiding doing other things this weekend, I'll have a look around and see if I can find where that happens. Of course, with modularized PHP program like this there are a gazillion files, but not as many as some I've seen.

Later: Got a reply: "You'll have to edit the rss.php file." I'd since worked out that much. I think the responder was trying to scare me off. I hate that. I think they do it more with women. Some participants on the Phorum boards are quite dismissive of non-programmers. Not all open source forums are like that. I think some don't like it when people like me want to muck around, flying legally blind but not afraid to substitute a line of code. I've never believed that old saying about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. You only hear it said by people who want to preserve, protect and defend their particular black box.

The creepy sad discouraging infuriating thing is it works. The guy may or may not be aware on some level that he's training me, but he is training me. I won't go back and ask questions anymore or as often. Shut up again. It's our own fault. We need to change our internal programming, but it's so hard. It may be impossible at my age.

I can't come up with the term! 

When I wrote "never believe that old saying" I was really trying to remember the colloquial term for a bit of oft-repeated but dubious wisdom. It's something like sawbone or horsefly or something earthy! I know that's not close, LOL! What is it?

Later: Chestnut is what I had in mind -- I think -- though the dictionary entry doesn't include the negative shading I laid over it.

Maybe it won't end Sunday night 

I might need to spread out the clues and have the game run longer than the weekend, depending on how available the site will be. See how it goes.

Clue #2 

See a bigger picture and make a guess.

Revealing picture game 

Trying a game something like one I used to run for Jane Austen adaptation fans.

This is the first of nine clues, each revealing more of the frame. The game will end Sunday night or when somebody guesses.

See a bigger picture and make a guess.

You can also play in RSS. Hmmm... at least you can get notification that another bit has been revealed. My forum software must strip out image tags. I'll try it as an attachment and see if the feed will show that. If you are registered you can get e-mail notifications by taking the "Follow this thread" link. You're registered for the game board already if you are registered for my comments board or Hil's.

Ha! I'm so ready to be amazed and impressed 

Fooling around a little in Second Life tonight. I still worry about getting hooked, so I've only spent probably a total of an hour or two in there over the course of 4-5 weeks. Mostly I wander around and look at things, and don't speak to people. I like to fly. Walking around underwater is pretty cool, too.

Funny thing. I was in a bar and got the urge to stand up on the bar. I noticed an option became available to take my clothes off, and I thought to myself, whoa, what a smart contextual menu. Later I realized it's probably always an option in an adult area, and not just available specifically while standing on bars or tabletops.