Competing Messages: Misinterpreting Markets

Wherein we flog, once again, the expired equine.

Dave Weinberger links to a brief interview of himself answering a leading question explaining how, after all these years, some people still get The Cluetrain Manifesto wrong.

Dave mentions the seemingly obvious, odious example of people engaging in commercial messages and calling them "conversations," when they're not. He also says he still believes "markets are conversations."

Is it not possible that Dave is misinterpreting markets?

Markets are commercial activities, marked by competition and a transaction of some kind involving an exchange of something of supposed economic value. They are zero-sum transactions in the sense that if one competitor gets the sale, the others don't. Perhaps they're net-negative sum in that regard. The transaction between buyer and seller is supposed to be net win-win, but I think the economic evidence suggests that one side wins more than the other. Said economic evidence being the concentration of wealth into an ever smaller fraction of the population.

Conversations are social activities which, in the main, are not usually marked by competition. Transactions usually involve the exchange of attention, and they are non-zero sum, except when competition enters the picture and some people are excluded from the conversation.

Further, I would offer that the markets have done more to help inject competition into the social space, in order to manipulate and exploit people for commercial purposes. "All the cool kids have one..."

Trying to make the case that "markets are conversations" has merely exacerbated the situation, made it worse, not better.

Time was once when we knew marketers were bullshitting us. Now they can't even tell when they're bullshitting themselves.

Action Dave's Cool-Guy Skypad Condo

Cable guy was right on time Tuesday, and we got good comms right away. Command center was up and operational by Tuesday afternoon, but I've been too busy to do more than read e-mail (if I haven't replied lately, I will). I'm glad I bought that plastic folding table when I bought the new iMac. It was light enough to tie a line to it and easily hand-over-hand it up to the loft. Movers were on time yesterday, all the furniture is here, as are all the living things.

Two of my neighbors have been by, in spite of the impressive state of chaos, each bringing gifts for Bodhi. Leading me to wonder about chopped liver.

It's been warming up a bit, but I sat on the floor (Ceramic tile, remember?) yesterday morning to connect all the audio and video components of what passes for an "entertainment center" at ADCGSC, and I don't think my ass warmed up until sunset.

The cooler weather also brought dryer air, and my lips are chapped as are my hands, the latter mostly from cleaning. I'm not a big fan of hand lotion, but I was using it yesterday.

Moving is always kind of depressing for me. I think the Buddhists have it right, I should surrender all my material possessions. Makes moving a lot easier. Plus, I look at my "stuff" and it's pretty obvious to me that I'm "starting over." It's even more obvious that I'm somewhat "behind." I'm reminded of all the things that didn't exactly go according to plan.

Somehow, I haven't been able to totally let go of the expectation that my life was supposed to be different right now. Beware of expectations, they're seldom ones you've created for yourself, and they seldom serve exclusively your interests. You "buy" them, you surrender your authority to others before they become your own.

Gave me something to think about as I was walking Bodhi, and since I couldn't see Sandy this week, I imagined talking to her about it. In our imaginary session, she reminded me that everything in my life so far has led me to here, and if I were not here, then something potentially very important to me in my life would be missing. Then I recalled a little epiphany I had back in September, the day after I was playing around with the new compact photo printer and posted this image:

And I'm reminded of this little thing called faith. So here we go. "No matter where you go, there you are." and "Today is the first day of..." well, you know the rest. Expect this: All any of us ever have are moments to live.

Good morning. Time to wake up.

Cheese Sandwich: Chili Today, Hot Tamale

Forty seven degrees (Fahrenheit) this morning when I took Bodhi out. That's a bit nippy if you ask me. It's only supposed to get to sixty eight today, which is nice since I'm going to be spending much of the day lugging boxes o'crap to the new place. It was too damn hot on Sunday.

The cable guy is supposed to be by sometime between 8 and 11 to get the bits flowing. I hope to get the iMac set up over there today and arrange for the movers to come tomorrow. We'll see. Everything takes a little longer with Bodhi around. But it's still nice to have him around.

He's been testing me today, jumping up on the couch. I suspect it's more because he knows it'll get me to pay attention to him than he just wants to lie on the couch. I suppose I'll have to crate him while the movers are doing their thing, which I hope won't be too stressful for him.

I really hate moving. I won't say this will be my last one, though I would like to think it may be one of the last ones. Even though I'm buying this place, that's probably mostly because renting feels so temporary, the owner could sell the place and I'd have to move. I still don't exactly feel like it's "home." Mostly I'm staying here because of Caitie, and I really don't know where else I'd go. But I like my neighbors, I like being close to the beach, I'm close to my kids and I have a reasonably short commute, so it's fine for now.

Of course, who knows? In five years, it might just feel like home and you might have to dynamite the place to get me to move. Feelings come and go, kind of like the places you live. Like my good friend Buckaroo Banzai often says, "No matter where you go... there you are."

Competing Messages: Being Marketed To

Dave Weinberger offers some more thoughts about marketing, specifically with regard to the actions of one of his clients, Edelman, the public relations firm that created a number of "fake" blogs on behalf of Walmart, and congratulations to a new marketing venture called Crayon.

In the latter post, Dave offers this: I hope it can keep in mind the fundamental fact of marketing: We don't like being marketed to, whether in commercials, billboards, or conversation.

What makes this such a noteworthy post is the link Dave provides to Joe Jaffe's announcement of his new endeavor, and the comment the same Joe Jaffe offers on Dave's post. I really don't know what's going on here, but it seems almost as if neither guy is really reading the other, because it's almost hysterical.

In the post Dave links to, Joe Jaffe offers this:

crayon is a mash-up of the best of the agency, consulting, advisory, thought leadership and education worlds rolled into one shape-shifting package.

Um, what part of "we don't like being marketed to," does Dave not understand? Here we have a vacuous, nonsensical claim, that seems intent on evoking some positive emotional reaction through the use of popular, au courant buzzwords. It's a "mash-up!" And we know all the cool kids are into "mash-ups" these days! "Thought leadership," that's a term I've come to despise. I don't need anyone to lead my thoughts, thank you very much. That's pretty much what marketing wants to do, lead your thoughts. Since we mostly reason backward from our emotions, marketing manipulates our emotions to influence our thoughts. If you're not paying attention, you wind up parroting nonsense like "markets are conversations!" Or "Macs don't crash!" Either way, take your pick. The point is, marketing is bullshit, and while we can appreciate good bullshit, at the end of the day, it still stinks and you don't want to track it into the house.

"One shape-shifting package." And that's a useful description how? Oh, wait, yes, the one constant in life is change. So anything that is "shape-shifting" must be hip to all the latest changes, working in internet-time. Yes, yes, I get it.

Of course this all makes sense in the very next paragraph of that post, but I want to point out that Joe Jaffe was so moved by Dave's post that he offers essentially that same paragraph as a comment to Dave's post! Does he think Dave didn't read that part of his post? Does he think Dave didn't carry enough water for him getting his "message" out? Is he too busy "mashing-up" and "shape-shifting" to actually carry on even a bastardized version of a "conversation?"

Yes, the comment and the paragraph was this:

Our motto or mantra is: "Conversation and Transformation above Communication."

So there it is. Capitalized even.

"Conversation and Transformation." The reference to "Conversation" (capitalized, no less) is a nod to The Cluetrain Manifesto, whence comes the pernicious lie that "markets are conversations." It should be patently obvious that "conversation" has lost any real meaning when the author of this "mantra" or "motto" fails to even try engaging in one, even a fake one, when he left a comment on Dave's post. It's just a marketing buzzword. "Transformation," isn't a reference to "shape-shifting," it's a reference to manipulation. It's about getting you to buy whatever it is they're selling, as you're "transformed" from a person into a consumer of whatever goods and services this marketer is hawking, in this case, his company.

But worst of all is the ending, "above Communication." Why "Communication" deserves to be capitalized if it's tertiary to "Conversation and Transformation" is a bit of a mystery to me, but I suspect it's a style thing - "Caps are back baby!" And I don't mean the kind you wear on your head backwards. Anyway, this is the greatest sin of marketing. If anyone could write an indictment for the criminal practice of marketing, it would probably contain those words: "Conversation and Transformation above Communication."

"Communication"

noun

1 the imparting or exchanging of information or news

Yes, "Conversation" and "Transformation" before imparting or exchanging information or news. Fake social engagement and emotional manipulation before we actually tell you anything. Read the fine print.

There is nothing new here. This is the same old same old.

Well, at least they're "transparent."

Irony is the fifth fundamental force of the universe. So it's no mystery that the authors of a book called The Cluetrain Manifesto are the ones who seem to be the most clueless.

Big Picture: Around the Neighborhood

Took a break from moving and hoped for a decent sunset. It didn't turn out to be as good as I'd hoped, but I shot a bunch of pictures anyway. Here are a few of neighborhood.

Condo: Moving In

(Editor's note: There is no editor, just me. This is a "cheese sandwich" post, but I'm going to make a separate category for the condo. That is to say, it's very likely to be mundane, tedious, minutia and not very interesting to anyone except my parents, and maybe not even them. So you're invited to move on to more rewarding things now.)

I wanted to take advantage of the fact that the place was empty to clean it before I started carrying stuff over from the apartment. So after my too-brief nap yesterday, I brought over a bunch of cleaning supplies and got busy.

The biggest thing was to mop the floor. The two bedrooms and the loft are carpeted, everything else is ceramic tile. Again, I'm not sure I'm much of a fan of ceramic tile, but it is what it is and I'm probably not going to spend the money to change it unless I decide I'm going to be there a lot longer than five years.

While it appeared as though the place had been cleaned prior to putting it on the market, it was kind of a superficial job, and there's since been a fair amount traffic through the place while it was on the market and for some repairs. So I ran the vacuum over everything to get all the dust and loose stuff.

Mopping is pretty easy when you don't have any obstructions to work around. What quickly became apparent, however, was that mopping alone wasn't going to get that floor clean. There's a "scrubby" edge to the mop, and it wasn't taking up some stuff that I could take up with a fingernail. This is going to require a scrub brush and that whole "hands and knees" thing I so don't enjoy.

"Better is the enemy of good enough," and I'm not sure I have the kind of time, to say nothing of the energy, to scrub the floor right now. So I'm thinking it'll have to wait until I'm out of this place, which has to be cleaned as well, before I think about doing a more thorough job.

It's not that I'm a "clean freak" by any means. Anyone who drops by would know that. It's just that it's a new place, and you'd kind of like it to be clean at least once during your time there, and not have it be at the end!

The stove is a glass-topped affair, and there was some stuff on it that didn't want to come off with a non-abrasive scrubber. The guy who did the home inspection mentioned there were some products formulated just for cleaning glass cook-tops, so I looked for some of those yesterday and bought one. It's a silica abrasive, and it did the job though it required a fair amount of effort, more than I thought it would. The cooktop looks great though.

All the appliances are black and shiny, and the counter-tops are Formica™ made to look like granite, because, you know, granite looks so "cool," or something. Anyway, everything is very shiny, so like the old iPod Nano and the full-size iPods, every smudge, streak and fingerprint shows. Less so on the counter-tops, which have a problem of their own in that black granite makes it hard to see where the dirt is! I used a glass cleaner with vinegar on the appliances, and they all look great again, and a regular kitchen cleanser on the counter-tops, though I had to go by "feel" to see where some sticky substance had managed to adhere itself to the counter.

I cleaned the big sliding glass doors that lead out to the deck too. I'll do the other windows later, but having to look at those sliding doors all the time was driving me nuts. I need to clean the outside of the front door, it has the build-up of all the dirt and mildew you get in Florida from high humidity and weekly leaf-blowers. The upstairs landing needs to be swept down, and I'm actually going to vacuum the deck because I wouldn't want any of that dust to fall through the cracks and coat my downstairs neighbor's patio furniture.

I'm not sure how much longer this site will remain up, but here's a link to some pictures of the place. I'll post my own eventually.

Anyway, it's probably time to get cracking.

Dog: Bringing Up Bodhi

Having a puppy is a lot like having a kid, albeit one with a lot more energy and teeth.

In many ways, I'm actually fortunate that Bodhi is as old as he is. I don't think I could have taken care of a puppy much younger than he is.

I'm told that the rule of thumb for how long a pup can be crated without having to relieve themselves is their age in months, plus one. That would give Bodhi about seven hours of endurance in the crate. In fact, we've approached that a couple of times last week during the workday, and last night for the first time in the evening. I put him in about 10:15, but didn't manage to hit the rack myself for another half hour or so. Caitie's here, so she was up watching TV late, and left the TV on, which always has me waking up at 3:00 in the morning to turn it off. So while I might have had nearly a full night in the rack, it didn't work out that way. He's been doing very well each time, but I've been averaging about five hours of sleep each night for the last week, and it's beginning to feel like it.

The last few mornings I've felt like just rolling over and going back to sleep when the music came on, but that's not an option when your new four-legged family member is doing his best to "hold it." So I have to get up and put him on the leash and take him downstairs. Then it's back up the stairs to feed him, wait about 20 to 30 minutes, then another walk. And when he's up, he's up. Bodhi doesn't "go back to bed," even though his master would very much like to. While he's quite good at entertaining himself, I have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't start eating the furniture, or anything else that doesn't belong to him. He's lying next to me playing with his tennis ball right now. I certainly don't want to put him back in the crate, though he goes right in with no hesitation anymore.

Caitie kept an eye on him yesterday, while I grabbed a nap in the afternoon. I needed it. In a few more weeks, I'll be able to get a full night's sleep, or as close to one as I ever manage anyway. I'm sure I'll need it.

Mac: Mesa Not Universal Yet

There was a report at Macintosh News Network that Mesa, a spreadsheet application that began life on the Next platform, had gone Universal. I downloaded the application from the MacDev web site, and it's a PowerPC application, according to Finder. I've used Mesa before and I like it, but it seems to have some quirks. I haven't used it in a long time, but I thought if it was a Universal app, it might be worth the time to get reacquainted with it.

I've e-mailed the contact on the web page, Eric Tremblay, and he tells me that he's looking into it, so perhaps there is a Universal version to play with.

Update: There is now a link to a download for a Universal Binary Beta version of Mesa (3.1) at MacDev.

Apple is reportedly going to include a spreadsheet application in the next iteration of iWork.

Dog: Laser Mouse

I just discovered Bodhi likes chasing the little laser spot even more than the cats do! This is going to be fun in the new place, where I can be up in the loft, shining the spot on the floor and be able to cover most of the place.

It's been a few minutes since I stopped, and he's still searching for that little red dot.

DVD: The Breakup

While notionally a comedy, I found it sad and depressing. I'm sure many disagree.

BSG: Galactica's Back!

Okay, whatever reservations I harbored based on the first three hours of Season 3, they've been dispelled by tonight's episode. I'm not prepared to say it was the best episode ever, but, in my opinion, it is certainly among the top three.

Saul Tigh has become an epic figure of both tragedy and heroism.

The pacing of this episode was rapid, double-time in fact. The first three episodes never hit their rhythm. They really needed six hours, or more, to accomplish what they seemed to want to do dramatically. This episode fired on all eight cylinders. Not to spoil it for anyone, but what Adama did with Galactica was astonishing, I never saw it coming, and neither did the Cylons. Great effects too.

What happened to Kara Thrace was a surprise as well.

There are lots of loose ends that will provide plenty of suspense and tension and tragedy going forward, as the repercussions of all that has transpired begin to work themselves out. Suffice to say, while humanity may have been rescued once again from the Cylon, (for whom we now eschew the "s," I gather) their circumstances are more dire now than after the original escape, and their numbers significantly smaller.

I'm going to download this one from iTMS to watch it again. I didn't record it because the downloads are of better quality than my DVD recorder can wring from my cable signal.

I'm sure there's much to criticize in this episode, and others may not rank it as highly as I have. For me, however, this is Battlestar Galactica, and I'm glad to see it again.

Competing Messages: Choosing "Sides"

David Weinberger, one of the co-authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, offered a few, somewhat disjointed, "thinking out loud" comments about marketing yesterday. The last of which is a question, "Can marketing be on our side?"

The question is offered in the context of "trust." He wrote that "businesses now are the last people we'll trust about their products."

This is kind of a furball, but it's typical of how this "debate" is so mixed-up and conflated by fuzzy thinking and the desire for glib, quotable quips at the expense of clarity.

So, without placing all the burden on myself for being crystal clear, I'll offer a few comments of my own.

First is this notion of "sides." We're all in this thing together. There are no "sides," other than the ones we kind of create to establish some sort of competitive advantage. You have to figure, most of the people in Dave's audience probably have jobs working for, you know, "businesses." Dave himself is a "business," inasmuch as his "authority" as, well whatever, is how he earns his living. Is he on "our" side? Beats me. Should we trust Dave? I don't think trust really enters into it. I don't risk anything reading him, other than wasting a little time. Do I "trust" him not to waste my time? No, but that's okay. Every now and then, he gives me something to gnaw on. Perhaps I shouldn't trust him for his role in creating and advancing this pernicious idea that "markets are conversations."

We don't have "sides." What we all have are aspects of our existence that we have, in the past, been at some pains to keep separate. The idea that we should keep separate the authority of the church and the state goes back to the creation of our country. Today, many people want to remove that separation. Government, as it presumably serves the public interest, is not a commercial enterprise. It serves all the people, not just those who can pay the freight. That idea has been eroded away by those in commerce, who seek a competitive advantage by corrupting government. We have laws that try to protect that separation, but they hardly seem adequate anymore. In some forms of athletic competition, it's appropriate to pound the crap out of your opponent. It's not appropriate to do that to your next-door neighbor. If your neighbor comes over to borrow a rake, it's appropriate to say yes or no, but it probably isn't appropriate to rent it to him by the hour. You don't prepare your food where you make your toilet.

The point is, there are many aspects of our existence that are essential or enjoyable and rewarding, yet which are incompatible with other aspects of our existence. It has nothing to do with "sides," it has everything to do with understanding "boundaries."

Dave wrote that "businesses now (emphasis mine) are the last people we'll trust about their products." That's kind of a lame statement on many levels. First, caveat emptor ("let the buyer beware") has been around for a very long time, so there's nothing "now" about this. The somewhat untrustworthy nature of the marketplace has been a feature of its existence from the very start. Second, what's "trust" got to do with it? Dave repeatedly has problems with his Wintel boxes, yet refuses to convert to either the Mac or Linux platforms. You don't have to "trust" a vendor to use their products. You certainly don't have to fool yourself into thinking they're on your "side." A vendor is on the vendor's side! Maybe that of its shareholders. It certainly doesn't want to go out of its way to alienate and lose customers, but at the end of the day, the vendor serves the vendor's interests ahead of all others.

Dave and Doc consistently conflate the social and commercial, applying social characteristics to commercial activities. To be sure, all the aspects overlap to some extent, but we have, in the main I think, understood the differences in contexts and, mostly, behaved appropriately. Until now, when all the differences are being blurred by the various entities seeking competitive advantages.

Religion seeks to blur the distinction between church and state, in part, because it sees itself competing with popular culture for moral authority. Today we also see religion blurring the distinction between commerce and religion with the rise of industrial mega-churches, and the new theology of wealth; and it isn't clear to me exactly what is going on there, but it's beginning to look like religion as commerce. Indeed, it has often been suggested that this country worships nothing more than the "almighty dollar," so perhaps this too was an inevitable development. It would seem that God's authority has been deprecated in favor of the authority of wealth.

Industry seeks to blur the distinction between the public interest and commercial interests in order to maximize its profit potential. Business also seeks to blur the distinction between the commercial and the social for much the same reason. Ideally, business and industry would prefer to see society and government both serving commercial interests. Competition and economic incentive drive industry in that direction, and absent intentional resistance, that's where it must go. Who speaks for the public interest? Who speaks for the social interest? And who does so with the authority, the wealth, of the commercial interests? Of what value are the social interests? In the past, we would rely on society to instill our values, to advance them so that we might be a better people. Honesty? Fair play? Respect for the dignity and worth of others? Do these ideas come from the commercial aspect of our lives, or from the social?

In this context, Dave Weinberger and Doc Searls serve the commercial aspects of our existence. I don't know whose "side" they're on, but they aren't promoting social values ahead of commercial ones, they are doing exactly the opposite. They've created a metaphorical framework to make the commercialization of social interaction seem legitimate and desirable.

It seems therefore somewhat ironic that one of the nicest guys on the internet (In a post he called "Get a real job," if you can believe that.) calls those who have embraced his conceptual framework "assholes," for merely "rolling the snowball" further down the hill, trying to make their "conversations" marketable commodities and making a little wealth of their own along the way. It's even more ironic that the social value of being oneself simply for the sake of being oneself is one of the very social values Doc, and Dave, have helped to erode by making social practices the servants of commercial interests.

What else did he expect?

It's a rhetorical question.

Home Ownership

Well, the deed is done. Pun intended. I now own a condo; or perhaps it's more accurate to suggest that my mortgage company owns me. Actually, I went through my regular bank, and they're pretty decent folks. The closing attorney commented that he welcomes mortgages from my lender, because the amount of paperwork is significantly less.

Bodhi is a trip. We receive many compliments walking around the place. He's getting used to his crate again, and is, for all practical purposes, housebroken. We still have to work on the chewing, and playing well with cats, but we're making progress. I tried to take a nap on the couch the other day, only to wake to find he had eaten one of my flip-flops.

Bummer. I liked those flip-flops.

For a smallish pup, he sure has a big voice! He doesn't bark often, but when he does, wow!

Competing Messages: PayPerConversation

PayPerPost is a necessary consequence of the notion that "markets are conversations." It's not that PayPerPost "pollutes the blogosphere," it's that commercial memes or metaphors, like "markets are conversations" pollute the social sphere, of which "conversation" is an integral part.

Everything we do in life shouldn't be "inherently for sale." But advancing the idea that "markets are conversations," has done much to help blur the distinction between the commercial and the social, making it seem natural and desirable that the social sphere serve the commercial one. Certainly, it gives those engaged in the competitive marketplace the justification to extend those competitive practices even more into the social sphere, under the popular though fallacious justification that "markets are conversations." It's not that this hasn't been happening all along, it's just that this especially corrosive metaphor has made it easier, and more difficult to resist the competitive pressures that compel commercial activities to intrude into the social sphere.

I think it will only get worse.

Instead of trying to make the marketplace more "humane," by wrapping competitive practices in appealing social metaphors, we should be at some pains to try and preserve the social sphere. The social sphere lacks the economic incentives that the drive the competitive practices of the commercial sphere. It's not that competition doesn't exist in the social sphere, it does, but it's not embraced and promoted as it is in the commercial sphere. We recognize that there are social values that are not served by taking an exclusively competitive view of life. So while "time is money," people still volunteer their time and contribute their money to social needs. Purely social activities, like conversation, are probably essential to happiness and well-being. Though the marketplace has been known to develop products that can purportedly deliver happiness and well-being, so perhaps I have nothing to be concerned about.

The competitive pressures and economic rewards of the commercial sphere compel it to expand, to try to seize any available attention and energy in any sphere that may afford a competitive advantage. It's pretty thoroughly entrenched in the political sphere now; and there are no parallel incentives or natural activities in the social sphere to counter the economic incentives and competitive practices of the commercial sphere. Other than, perhaps, the individual protests of people who don't see their own interests advanced by the notion that "markets are conversations."

Not that I expect anyone to change their minds.

Echo Chamber

The Washington Post had an amusing little piece yesterday called Why Everyone You Know Thinks the Same as You. It's worth a read.

From the last paragraph, quoting Duke University sociologist Lynn Smith-Lovin:

We participate in settings where we don't have to explain ourselves because everyone else agrees with us. What this means is, 'I have no reason to challenge or question my own beliefs.'"

Which pretty much explains the "blogosphere."

Actually, it doesn't do it entirely.

The "blogosphere" contains many people who "explain themselves," but nobody ever changes their mind about anything. At least, if they have, I haven't seen it. I don't recall changing my mind about anything! (But then, I'm right!) We don't challenge or question our own beliefs until something comes along that proves that they are fundamentally inoperative, and that's usually a significant emotional experience of some kind. "A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged," or something.

And we generally lead a pretty comfortable existence. So when we legislate away the right of habeas corpus, it's because we never envision it as protecting us. We're pretty comfortable. On the other hand, crash a few airplanes into a few buildings and we're ready to make war on the world and hand over all our civil rights because they're all just academic abstractions in the face of falling towers. See? Significant emotional experience.

I'm pretty sure everyone who argued with me about the invasion of Iraq before the war still thinks it was a good idea; and if things aren't turning out so well, it's not because it wasn't a good idea in the first place, it's somebody's fault. Take your pick: Incompetent administration, liberal media, jihadists, or insufficient optimism and positive thinking. It's never that it was a dumb idea from the start. War is chaos and we court chaos at our peril, so it better damn well be the absolutely last resort. But history is full of people who thought they were smarter than everyone else in history. Probably part of that whole "repeats itself" thing.

Not that I'm changing anyone's mind about anything.

And markets aren't conversations, the world isn't flat, and metaphor doesn't explain everything.

Of course, it occurs to me to wonder to what extent the degree of fracture is a correlate of flatness? That is to say, as the world gets "flatter" does it necessarily become more "fractured?"

Something to think about anyway.

Big Picture: Monday, October 16th, 2006

Having a puppy is like having a kid. They require a lot of attention.

But, if you're careful, you can spare some for other things.

Like a pretty sky.

Bodhi

World, meet Bodhi.

Bodhi is a six or eight month, we're not sure yet, old Golden Retriever. He's something of a rescue dog, as his original owner was no longer able to look after him.

Yesterday he went for his first swim, climbed his first set of stairs and played with three new canine friends, where before he had only met one other dog. He plays well with others, and has unbelievable stamina.

My neighbor, who has a wonderful English Lab, found him and knew I had talked about getting a dog once I got into a bigger place. The timing isn't ideal, because Bodhi requires a lot of attention right now, and I've got to get out of this apartment and into the new condo. But we'll figure it out. He isn't quite housebroken yet, and his crate training to date has left something to be desired. He also needs to be neutered fairly soon, but I need to have him established in the new place first before we go through that little trauma. But it's a matter of a few weeks at most.

So far, the cats are terrified and Bodhi pretty much ignores them. He's eaten most of their toys already. Well, not really, but it's pretty clear whose toys they are now. The ones he hasn't destroyed yet, that is. My neighbor gave us quite a kit of toys to play with and he's only managed to destroy two of those so far. His favorites seem to be the tennis ball and the softball, and it's fun to watch him hold the tennis ball in his mouth while chasing the softball around the room, rolling it around with his nose and his paws.

Bodhi's name is derived from the Sanskrit word, Bodhisattva, "a person who is able to reach nirvana but delays doing so out of compassion in order to save suffering beings."

While perhaps not technically correct, I believe all dogs are Bodhisattvas. Or at least many certainly are.

We're going to be great friends.

Big Picture: Finish

Winged Mercury? An angel running?

Couldn't see this and not take a picture. But then, I'm easily entertained.

Big Picture: Sunrise, October 12th, 2006

Went to the beach at dawn, the day before yesterday. Wasn't a spectacular show, but it was very nice nevertheless.

Posted a few pictures here. They are repetitious, but whatever.

DVD: Off the Map

A tale of love, madness and redemption.

(I know, you're growing rather weary of this. But what else is there? Well, besides revenge?)

And Joan Allen.

What a wonderful movie. A wonderful movie.

Love, Madness and Redemption

Most of us seem to get stuck in the middle.

I think that's because we get focused on the external events that command our attention, that feed off it. We say it's "madness," and we're compelled to try to "save the world," which only contributes to the madness. Zero-sum thinkers who see everything in terms of conflict and winners and losers. Because that's the way to get attention, keep it, or direct it. And the way to stay stuck.

Trapped between the drama and the dharma.

The only way to save the world is to stop trying. You don't redeem the world, you redeem yourself. Redemption is earned. The tricky part is that you earn it from yourself. You look for someone else, and I don't care who or what that is, to tell you that you're "saved," and you're missing the point. Ask yourself what it is that someone who thinks they can tell you that you're saved really wants?

But you definitely have to earn it.

Love?

Well, that's what makes it all worthwhile. I think. I'll let you know when I find out.

Love is faith in action. I was wondering what grace was the other day.

After a while, I figured grace is the state of awareness of the universe's faith in you. After all, you're here aren't you? Or are you somewhere else? Some people are. Being here is hard. Sometimes I'm not even here. The lights are on, but no one's home.

Grace can be very hard to find, but keep looking. I find it every now and then. But, just like my car keys, I seem to misplace it. It's a lot harder to find than my car keys.

Faith and fear are two sides of the same coin, and I tend to believe one is preferable to the other, but the fact is that anyone can be kind of comfortable in either one. What can be very uncomfortable to someone on either side is doubt.

Which is kind of where you want to find that grace thing.

I think. I'm an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking.

I should have gone to the beach this morning instead of writing this. But then, maybe I wouldn't have thought about this, and maybe I needed to. Still, I think I missed a pretty good show.

BSG: Not Making a Jump

NBC has denied the rumor that Battlestar Galactica would move to NBC as a mid-season replacement.

Personally, I'm glad.

DVD: The Upside of Anger

Outstanding.

And where has Joan Allen been all my life?

DVD: X-Men The Last Stand

Sucked. Sucked. Sucked.

BSG: Rumored Move to NBC

There's a rumor going around that Battlestar Galactica is going to be picked up by NBC as a mid-season series replacement.

Not sure what the provenance is of that particular rumor; but, if true, it would seem to be kind of a good news/bad news situation.

It's nice to think that our favorite little science fiction television series might be taken seriously by the major networks. On the other hand, what makes our favorite little science fiction television series our favorite is that it is fearless. Major networks are afraid of their own shadows. Well, that and the FCC, but you get my point.

If BSG moves to NBC, it will be emasculated and die. Though it might actually pick up an Emmy nom on its way to oblivion.

Back when I was a youngster, one popular sentiment was expressed this way: "Get science fiction out of the classroom, and back in the gutter where it belongs!"

It was a popular sentiment among science fiction fans.

I think I feel similarly about the possibility of BSG appearing on NBC.

BSG: A Few Thoughts on Season 3 Premiere

I enjoyed the two hour season premiere for Battlestar Galactica, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Last year's season finale involved a closing gambit that I'm still somewhat reluctant to discuss because I don't know how many people who read GHD and who are fans of the show haven't seen it, and it does rely on surprise for its emotional impact. That said, it's pretty clear the creators didn't do it just for the surprise factor, but because it would allow them to do some creative things that aren't normally possible in serial dramas. I think it was a bit of a gamble, and it remains to be seen if it'll pay off. I think at least my reaction to the premiere of the third season may suggest that there is some risk.

Most season finales end on some sort of cliff-hanger, to spark conversation and to kind of promise something to fans who return the following season. BSG didn't offer that in the traditional way, though it did spark conversation and made at least this fan want to return for season 3. Of course, I would have returned anyway.

The problem with the way the creators chose to close the second season is manifest in the opening of the third. To me, it was almost as if it was a different TV series. I had lost whatever emotional engagement I'd had with the characters through the first two seasons. I obviously knew who they were, and admired them for whatever traits I'd admired them for before, but they were all in a "different place" and I couldn't quite connect to their stories in the same way.

I found that I spent much of the episode just trying to figure out what was going on with them, and feeling very much detached and out of sync. Now, creatively, this is possibly a great opportunity to the creators. It's a chance to hit the "reset" button for your viewers and how they see your characters. But it's not the same experience I had come to enjoy and look forward to in the first two seasons.

One character who's most noticeably seemed to have had their role reset is that of Col. Saul Tigh, the XO, who is now a much different character than he had been in the previous two seasons. Apollo also has undergone a startling change, although he didn't have much screen time in the premiere and the change is decidedly not for the better, but it's not at all clear to us why he's become the person he seems to be. Dualla is now his wife, and she offers what is almost an aside that is kind of intended, I think, to explain to the viewer what happened to Apollo, but it really explains nothing.

Galactica Sharon is also being reset, basically to Boomer from the mini-series, if we can take the first episode at face value. Of course, as a Cylon, you can probably never be certain, and I think the creators intend to exploit that, but it looks to me as though Boomer is back in the flight line, which is not an altogether unwelcome development. And, of course, there are some things from season 2 that will have to be resolved with Galactica Sharon/Boomer and her human allies that may yet again divide her loyalties.

It's not clear what is going on with Starbuck, and whether or not her character is being reset. This is kind of the worst example of the risks of this sort of gambit. In the season finale from last year, we learned that something significant had taken place between Starbuck and Apollo, and we didn't know what that was. Her relationship with Col. Tigh had also changed, seemingly for the better. But none of that is explored or explained in the season premiere; instead we have Starbuck being held captive by the Cylons, and psychologically manipulated or tortured. So again, whatever connection we might have felt toward Starbuck is no longer operative, and we don't really know what the hell is going on with her character, much as with Apollo.

Adama seems consumed by some angst. He offers, "I don't do guilt," but Galactica Sharon/Boomer seems to know he's punishing himself for something. It may simply be the action he took at the close of season 2, but one gets the impression there's something else going on, and so we're kind of disconnected from him too.

There were some fairly compelling scenes in this episode, especially with Michael Logan as Saul Tigh. Baltar and Roslin had a great scene together, and we get a brief glimpse of Tom Zarek, whose character as a political dissident slash terrorist seems tailor made for the current state of the plot. Col. Tigh's main weakness now seems to be his wife, though Ellen is also given some decent time in a complicated and compromised character.

In short, I was looking forward to rejoining the Battlestar Galactica I had found so richly rewarding in the mini-series and the first two series. I didn't enjoy this episode in the the same way. It's pretty clear the creators intend to make its audience work, to demand something from them in order to go along on this journey. It remains to be seen if the audience is willing to put forward that effort. In a lot of ways, it's like returning to the dojong after taking a week or two off. Everything is a little harder at first, but if you ignore the discomfort and push through, the rewards return.

Speaking only for myself, I intend to make the effort. I trust Ron Moore and his crew will make it rewarding.

New Digs

Groundhog Day headquarters will very likely be relocating later this month. It seems we have successfully concluded negotiating the selling price of a two bedroom unit in the same association in which I'm currently renting a one bedroom unit.

It's not exactly my dream home, and it's kind of an odd story in some ways, but most of the rest of this account is likely to be pretty boring.

I first moved here back in August of '04. Shortly after I moved in, Karma bolted out the door one day and went missing on me. I put up some flyers after a couple of days, just as one of the many hurricanes blew by that year. Somebody called me and said they'd found my cat, and gave me their unit number to go collect her.

When I got to the place, a woman opened the door and I told her I was there about the cat. She had me come in, and as soon as Karma saw me, she came trotting over. She said she'd found her huddled on her landing in the rain, and figured she was lost. Later, she saw my flyers. Well, what impressed me, apart from the kindness of strangers, was the interior of the apartment. It had a vaulted ceiling and a loft that had a spiral staircase leading up to it. It was a lot bigger than my little one bedroom apartment, and I thought it was pretty neat.

Anyway, not long after that the property began undergoing condo conversion. There are pluses and minuses about apartments being converted to condos, and I'm pretty familiar with most of them by now. But at the time, it seemed kind of exciting, and I kind of hoped I'd be able to buy one of the two bedroom units with the loft. Unfortunately, my divorce kept dragging on, and the whole place sold out pretty quickly. I later heard a number of horror stories from the new condo owners, and so the idea of buying one of these units lost much of its appeal.

Last November, I wrote about learning of the death of one of my neighbors, and the disturbing experience of knowing much more about people I'll never meet, much less ever be in a position to actually help; and having someone who lived less than 50 feet from me be a perfect stranger, and lie dead in his bedroom for some days while we went on about our lives, blissfully unaware.

My divorce was final that same month, and I hoped to be buying a house sometime by the end of the following summer. When I started looking, I had my first experience with the "real estate bubble." Modest three bedroom homes were selling for forty to fifty percent more than they were just two years ago. It's nice to be able to use the GIS Mapping services the county provides to see what houses sold for in the past. I was reluctant to try to buy a home that had seen all the appreciation it was going to see for the next several years.

But even early this summer, there were signs the market was beginning to cool. I think it was the ridiculous explosion in listings at ludicrous prices, as people decided to try to cash in before the bubble burst, that really did burst it. But I decided to sit it out and wait and see what the market did, and hoped to buy something this winter for a much more reasonable price.

I haven't been actively looking for a new place, though a couple of realtors send me listings by e-mail several times a week. One afternoon in the middle of last August, someone knocked on my door and I opened it to find a very tall blonde woman standing there, handing me her card. She said my neighbor downstairs told her I might be in the market for a condo, and she was having an open house in our building that day. So I said I'd probably drop by; and not long after she left, my neighbor called and told me it was the unit where the guy had died. So, I admit there was an element of morbid curiosity that kind of impelled me to go take a look at the place.

As it happens, it's right next to the one where the woman who rescued Karma lived, so it's pretty much an identical floor plan, just the mirror image. They'd remodeled the apartments somewhat, mainly with ceramic tile floors. One can certainly question the wisdom of putting ceramic tile on second and third floor units. There were also new countertops, new appliances, some new lighting fixtures, and new carpeting in the bedrooms. It was very attractive, and considerably larger than my current place. At 1320 square feet, it's about as big as many of the three bedroom houses, even bigger than some, that I'd been looking at online.

Caitie loved it, and I liked it too. I told the agent I was interested, but I'd have to do some homework first to see if I was in any position to make an offer. She told me the seller was "very motivated."

Well, as it turned out a number of things came up shortly afterward, and I decided it wouldn't be a good fit for me just now. Essentially, I was trying to get my head around a lot of uncertainty, and I just couldn't do it. The agent contacted me a couple of times, and I finally told her I was sorry, but I wasn't interested.

Fast forward about six weeks to the end of September. There's another open house going on at the same place, and Caitie wants to go take another look at it. We didn't really have any other plans for that day, so we took another look at it. There was a different agent showing it that day, though the original one was still handling the property. I noticed they'd lowered the price significantly.

Between Caitlin's enthusiasm, my lack of enthusiasm for the whole house-hunting endeavor, and the significant reduction in the price, the uncertainties in my life didn't seem to loom as large anymore. I know I like the location, I'm about as close to the beach as I'm likely to be able to afford. I like all my immediate neighbors, and I have a reasonable commute to work each day. It's an attractive place too. There are certainly downsides, not the least of which includes the nature of condo association living, with the politics and personalities attendant thereto. But sometimes it seems like it's better the evil that you know than the one you don't.

So I went back and did some more research and number-crunching in earnest. Called the credit union and found out what they would loan me, and if I could get the terms I needed - essentially 100% financing. It turned out that I could. I bounced what I thought the property was worth against what I thought I could afford in monthly payments, and since it's a condo, you have to add the hefty condo association fees in as well. That pretty much put a top figure on what I was willing to pay for the place.

I talked with the people I work with about negotiating. This is only the second home I've ever purchased, and I don't recall doing much negotiating on the first. My buddy's dad was my realtor, and I think he pretty much did all the negotiating for me back then. That was about 22 years ago. My inclination was to offer the figure I thought the place was worth, pretty much "my best offer," and then hope they would accept it. I was advised to make the initial offer significantly below that, because "they might just take it," and the buyer can always go up, never down.

So that's what I did, and the seller, perhaps predictably, "split the difference" in his counter-offer. That was still higher than my top figure, so I answered with what I thought was my top figure, and pretty much what I happen to think the place is worth, going by the sales prices of all the similar units. I think it'll appraise somewhat above that, but I'm not sure how much appraisals are factoring in the glut of housing on the market just now. I added some additional terms and requirements, because I didn't just split the difference again, but came in just a little over that. I'll get some help from them in closing, and they agreed to some maintenance on the HVAC system. I told the agent this was my best offer and if it wasn't acceptable, they'd have to find a better buyer.

I got a call from the agent tonight, and they've agreed to my offer and we have a signed sales contract. The financing has already been essentially approved, we just need the appraisal and the signed contract to finish the paperwork. I plan to close on the 19th, barring any difficulty with the appraisal or a home inspection I intend to have performed.

If all goes well, I'll start moving in the weekend of the 20th. It's a bit of a stretch, and I'll be kind of "house poor" for about 15 months until Shiva, The Destroyer of Worlds is paid off. There are two other units with the identical floor plan still for sale by their original owners in this association, for prices over $50K higher than I will have paid for mine. Naturally, I don't think they'll be pleased when this one is recorded.

What skews the data, and their thinking, significantly is someone flipped an identical unit in March, selling it for nearly $300K, with almost $70K in profit. I think that unit had some significant upgrades as well. So it was just at the peak of the bubble, they undoubtedly got the right buyer at the right time, and they got lucky. But now some people have $$$ in their eyes, and they want to cash in, even though the market has radically cooled. I needed my price to be much more realistic in case an undesirable uncertainty came to pass, and I had to try to get out from underneath this thing in a short amount of time. That's a lot easier to do when you can price it competitively and not take a beating. My interest rate is going to be 6.25%, and as along as the property appreciates at or near that rate, I'll be doing much better than renting. I figure I'll live here for at least the next five years, until Caitlin graduates from high school, and then I'll be finished with child support. At that point, who knows what I'll do?

So I think I got kind of lucky. I do think I'm paying a fair price for the place, so I don't feel as though I'm taking unfair advantage of the situation. But because of my neighbor's misfortune, I'm able to do something I wanted to do originally, but didn't get the opportunity to. I'm kind of grateful for that. One of the reasons I want to stay is because his death kind of made me take a greater interest in my neighbors, and it turns out that I like them (At least the ones in my building!), so it all seems connected somehow.

Still, it's been a bit of an ordeal. And it's not really over yet and I suppose I shouldn't be counting my chickens just yet either. There's still more ordeal to come, with closing and then moving. But it'll be nice to be in a place almost twice as big as what I'm in now. Caitie will have her own room. The loft will be the place where all the stuff that currently sits in what is notionally my "dining area" goes. Of course, I'll have to buy a bedroom set for Caitie, and table and some chairs for the "dining area," along with some area rugs to cover the ceramic tile so I don't drive my downstairs neighbors mad, or make my feet miserable. I won't be able to see the sunrise as well, so I guess I'll just have to make it a point to go to the beach more often.

But with any luck, I'll have someplace of my own for a while.

American Idle II

Charles Hardwidge sent me a link to a brief, interesting article on the "accuracy" of the pundits.

Imagine your job as a media executive depends on expanding your viewing audience. Whom would you pick: an expert who balances conflicting arguments and concludes that the likeliest outcome is more of the same, or an expert who gets viewers on the edge of their seats over radical Islamists seizing control and causing oil prices to soar?

Imagine you're a blogger hoping to garner a little attention to sell yourself as a consultant. Do you link to the guy who thinks that technology changes how we do things, not what we do, or the guy who breathlessly exclaims that "this changes everything." (Or worse, glibly claims that he or she is "changing the world" with whatever the technological novelty du jour happens to be.)?

American Idle

Sometimes it seems like opinions make the world go round. I suppose that's an opinion of my own. I find I'm growing rather tired of the whole opinion thing. And I've long since been tired of the attention-seeking thing, though I suppose that, again, these too are little more than my own opinions.

So, I haven't had much to say of late.

I could bitch about all the people who know all the answers and have all the prescriptions for what ails the world, whether it's attention, or intention, or vendor "relationships," or whichever is worse, bad legislation or hypocritical legislators, or the war in Iraq, or the war on DRM, the console wars, or media wars, or whatever it is somebody thinks they know more than everybody else about.

It's all too much for me these days it seems.

I don't care. Let the know-it-alls have their day. They pretty much will anyway. The popular "thought-leaders" will attract their share of sycophants and like-minded wishful thinkers, and no amount of argumentation or persuasion will change the mind of a "thought-leader" one iota. "Information" may do something to "form" some people, but it seldom changes anyone's mind, once they've formed their opinion. The followers live to defend what they follow because they have nothing to live for or defend of their own. Pointing that out to them is pointless; because it merely validates the uniqueness of their insight, their singular perspective, which, if only everyone shared it, would bring peace and harmony and an end to halitosis to the world.

The "thought leaders" can't change their minds, because where would they be then? Wrong? This is why dumb ideas get traction. Whether it's torture or markets being conversations, or Iraqi WMD, nobody likes being wrong.

I just don't "get it."

As I am often told.

And they're undoubtedly right. So, by definition, I'm wrong.

Which I'm happy to be. Because I'm not a "thought-leader." Or I'd better not be. I make all this shit up, you're supposed to do your own thinking. I can be wrong. I have the liberty to be wrong forty seven times before breakfast. If I'm wrong, it only matters to me. But if a "thought-leader" (or a political leader, or any other kind of leader) is wrong, well, then they're responsible for a whole lot of other people being wrong too. And a whole lot of effort being expended in the service of a wrong idea.

Like that never happens.

I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. Maybe every time.

Maybe it's "battle fatigue." Maybe it's just that it just doesn't matter. Probably the latter. Just my opinion though.

Anyway, just couldn't think of anything else to write about.

DVD: Call Northside 777

Saw this on the rack at the Navy Exchange and had to watch it. I'd seen parts of it many years ago, and wanted to see the whole movie.

A small set of notes inside the cover said this was the third film Stewart made after returning from WW II, the first two being A Wonderful Life, and Harvey, and he wanted this role to sort of toughen up his image.

Of course, Stewart went on to play many "tough" characters in his career; few tougher than the grizzled pilot Frank Towns in Flight of the Phoenix seventeen years later, but this is an excellent movie.

What was also a surprise to me was that it's based on a true story.

DVD: Flight of the Phoenix

The first of two Jimmy Stewart flicks I watched over the weekend. I'd seen this when I was a kid, and just loved the whole idea of making a new airplane from the wreckage of an old one. Sort of appealed to my "inner engineer." The human interaction in a time of crisis thing was more of a distraction for me then. Of course, I've seen bits and pieces of it on TV many times since then, but it'd been a long time since I'd watched the whole thing.

This is a long movie, but it's worth it. There's a resonant sub-theme in the movie about technology and humanity. It's not especially profound, but it is affecting. It reminded me more than once of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, himself an aviator who once crashed in the desert, and the author of The Little Prince. Maybe I'm just getting old.

I have not seen the remake with Dennis Quaid, and have no plans to either.

DVD: The Fisher King

Completing, I suppose, a trifecta of Robin Williams movies (What Dreams May Come, Good Will Hunting), I watched The Fisher King the other night.

It'd been in my collection for some time, but I'd never watched it before. This is one of Williams' more manic performances, and those of us who became acquainted with him as the extraterrestrial Mork will recognize and enjoy the experience.

It's a movie about four love stories, madness and redemption. Worth your time.

Assorted non sequiturs

Insomnia does little for inspiration.

I'm in the midst of trying to buy an apartment in this condominium I currently reside in. Not exactly a lot of fun. It goes without saying that I'll be paying too much, but pretty much anyplace you buy around here these days requires paying too much. So I guess I just said the thing that "goes without saying" twice! For all that, I'm actually getting a relatively "good deal." Closing costs are probably going to kill me though. There are more parasitic costs in real estate than any other market. A reminder of what utter bilge "markets are conversations" really is.

Battlestar Galactica starts its new season this Friday with a two-hour season premiere. If you have never watched this Peabody Award-winning series, you're well advised to at least watch the synopsis, The Story So Far, offered for free at the iTunes Music Store. You're better advised to watch the mini-series, and both of the preceding seasons, but you probably don't have the time before Season 3 begins.

I've been thinking about photography some more. Gives me a headache. I like this blog The Online Photographer that Jonathon Delacour pointed out to me. But like anything, you kind of have to take the good with the not so welcome. Yesterday I read this in a post about a review of the Nikon D80, My one cavil regarding language would be that the D200 doesn't deserve to be slapped with that horrible bastard moniker "prosumer"; it's more of a semi-pro camera in my opinion. "Prosumer" is a term more often applied to small-sensor cameras that put on airs—compact cameras that aren't compact.

"Small-sensor cameras that put on airs." All of a sudden, I can't help but get the feeling we're comparing penis size here. And, as a construction, I suppose it's okay; but, really, cameras don't "put on airs." Marketers do. And that whole "prosumer" schtick is just more marketing. A camera is simply a technological artifact with various capabilities and limitations. How those are characterized is something people do, mostly to try to attain a certain competitive advantage. Certain photographers might be said to be "putting on airs," when they kind of make dismissive comments regarding the size of a camera's sensor.

But that's the nature of human nature, regardless of the area of endeavor. Some people are just better at it than others, and some of those people want to make absolutely certain that everybody else can tell who they are. You get that a lot in just about everything, regardless of whether or not it's the old "non-flat" world, or this new, égalitarian, flat, aren't-we-all-so-special, demand-supplying-itself world.

As for me, I'm not a photographer, I just take pictures. I'm not too worried about the size of my sensor, and I'm not too impressed with the size of yours. But hey, whatever trips your shutter, you know?

Sorry about that "shutter" thing. Rather pedestrian of me, I know.

The weather has been pretty nice around here. Mid-80s most days, not too humid. Pretty sweet. Not much in the way of clouds. I may have to resort to taking pictures of the vegetation if the sky doesn't start getting interesting again.

Okay, I guess I'd better get on with the day.