Updike

Browsing the library shelves the other day I stopped at the John Updike novels. By my count he wrote 27 novels. I've never read any of them.

(I think that when writers reach a certain number of novels they begin to repeat themselves. Two obvious examples of why this is a foolish thought are Mark Twain and Jack London.)

So I thought maybe it was time to take a look at Updike. Two of his Rabbit novels won Pulitzers. I pulled Rabbit at Rest from the shelf and read the inside front flap. It didn't instill confidence in me. It was like reading Cliff Notes.

(When I read the inside cover of The Maltese Falcon it doesn't talk about the moral void Sam Spade lives in. It talks about a group of ne're-do-wells and a priceless statue from the Knights of Rhodes. I like an exciting story. I think I can find the human condition within by myself.)

I took a look inside. There were things like, “He looked over and watched her tuck back a stubborn fluttering wisp of half-gray hair from her sun-toughened little brown nut of a face.” I can't handle that many adjectives. It's like they're being shot out of a machine gun.

I put Rabbit back to rest. I'll try him again someday. Things change.

George W. Parker

Penn State - A Choice of Words

Since the business at Penn State is back in the news I thought I would re-post this from a previous blog:


I thought it would be appropriate to pile on the Penn State mess for my first blog post. But I wasn't sure that "mess" really conveys all that is involved with this.


So I looked up mess ... "an unpleasant or difficult situation." That seems to be an understatement for the affair. 


Affair... I won't even list a definition for that. That just so doesn't fit all the trouble up there.


Trouble... "to disturb the mental calm and contentment of; worry; distress; agitate"... Well that sits a little better considering all the worry and distress and everyone's agitation over the problem.


Problem... "any question or matter involving doubt, uncertainty, or difficulty"... There is certainly a lot of doubt with Penn State's imbroglio.

Imbroglio... "an intricate and perplexing state of affairs; a complicated or difficult situation" ... Again with the "difficult" and "situation" words.

Situation... "the state of affairs; combination of circumstances"... Even when you add "difficult" that doesn't really seem to cover this business.

Business... I went to the twelfth definition of "business" to get this... "of, noting, or pertaining to business, its organization, or its procedures". 

I think "business" is the correct label here. Penn State had a systemic failure within its organization to identify, correct and prevent any such "situation" as this. Obviously its procedures were geared to protecting itself, its employees and its reputation from anything and everything. Even the firings this past week were more about protecting the brand than cleaning up this business.



Thanks to Dictionary.com for the definitions.
George

Content Providers - You

I'm willing to bet you are member of a no cost content distribution network. I participate in several. They have names like Facebook, Goggle+, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. They make (or try to make) their money selling ad views to their content providers, aka, you. We like their services (generally) and we like their pricing (free.) They like our free content and our page views.

I've been using Twitter to initiate updates across my accounts because they seemed to be capable of playing well with others. Up until Friday that is when they and Linked In broke up.

The big boys don't want to play well together. They keep trying to herd us into exclusivity contracts with them so they can "manage" (control) our page views. Personally I don't like being herded. It's becoming like the early home computer wars, everyone wants you locked in with them

At some point someone is going to enter the field and offer a central content distribution system that integrates with everything and everyone. You can think of them as an ubiquitous, all pervasive content outlet, kind of a Visa or MasterCard for content. The other branded credit cards (content networks) will still be out there but we'll all rely on our Visa and MasterCard.

This Twitter – Linked In spat is not anything I won't get over. It's not my first breakup and probably not my last, but it is annoying. Now I have to re-evaluate my personal content distribution work flow. 

Don't forget you and your content are the value of these networks.

George W. Parker