NewscomaGot A Two-Pack Habit And A Motel Tan

I’ve been tooling around the TNDP site for the last few days and think it’s a mighty fine thing to behold. I wanted to give it a few days before I started talking about it. When any new website/blog starts there is usually a heady anticipation about it with lots of buzz, and either it falls off or evolves into something better/worse.

After a bit of scrutiny, I think this site is the real deal. I hope to see an upward and forward progression using these available tools as we head toward 2010.

So, I did what anyone like me would do, sent out some invitations to join to people I know and then sat back to wait to see what would happen on the site.

Ning sites are really cool, in my humble opinion, and this one is interactive. I have to say that one of my biggest criticisms about the TNDP over the past couple of years was not having a communicative tool in which to have more instant communication. From our standpoint in the west, and I’m guessing the folks over in the eastern part of the state go through this too as I can’t speak for them, was being geographically confined by location and missing out on some information. The site has opened up some of those lapses and I applaud the folks that did this.

Now, I get to play political multimedia critic and talk about a few things.

• Hoots is extremely underrepresented in the membership drive on the site. Guys, get cracking. We have an outlet and a tool now to participate in the social media aspect of this site so join up. I’d also like to see my legislators, Rep. Mark Maddox and Sen. Roy Herron on this site as well. That shows great leadership and a sense of unity. This also includes our county chair and members of the local party. I realize this sort of technical ideology is all new and stuff, but it’s time to get it going on.
• Mark Brown, who is Ward Cammack’s dude, seems to be utilizing the features of the site better than any candidate’s team right now. Videos, editorials and interactivity are coming from the Cammack camp right now and much of it is happening at the TNDP site. I tip my hat. Or Brown’s hat. Well, there is hat tipping somewhere. And, as GoldnI says, you will know him regardless if you want to or not because he’s hit the ground running.
• The county chairman’s feature articles are excellent. I like that a great deal and am glad to see the spotlight turned on each of the countys’ chairs.
• One bit of advice that I would share with the candidates for governor or any politician, especially the ones I met last week, is that if you are on Twitter, join everyone that has joined you back. And if you are actually doing the Twittering, because some people let their handlers do it, then participate. Yes, it does get noisy, but on the other hand, you will have instant feedback on what you are doing in the legislature. This is better than any poll you could ever pay a lofty commission for while getting immediate results. Thank me later for this bit of advice later over a beer because it’s the best feedback I could ever give you. Legislators who are excelling here are Sen. Jim Kyle and Sen. Andy Berke. (I hear Zack Wamp is doing that as well, but I’m talking democrats right now.) The TNDP asked a question yesterday about guns in parks but I couldn’t DM my response so make sure your direct messaging system is working on any microblogging site. It might have been me, and I own that. One thing that I like is reading Kyle talking about being a dad and his daughter’s disappointment over a lost competition where you could tell he was disappointed for her or Berke talk about everyday stuff as well as legislation. It breaks down the fourth wall, if you will, between an us and them sort of mentality. This works for a lot of people because it’s more personal. Regardless of what you may believe, it’s effective.
• Many of the bloggers talk a great deal off the radar quite a bit. I’m just saying. The new site allows more people to be in the conversation with much more specific information.

Those are just some initial thoughts.

Zoey meets her new human, Juliet.

And I’m in Hoots. Amazing.

This is a pretty cool tale regarding the puppies.

Juliet is from Massachusetts and drove all the way from Amherst to Jackson, Tennessee on the lawn of Union University to adopt Zoey. She’s been watching Zoey on the blog, wanted to adopt a rescue puppy and drove here this weekend to pick her up in front of Union University.

A few things of note: It was pouring buckets when Zoey met Juliet and so we didn’t get to chat very long as water was pouring off all three of us. I, unfortunately, looked very much liked Ernest Borgnine yesterday morning which I’m sure made a great impression (which was a theme from this weekend apparently) and Zoey was very good in the car on the way to Jackson. (The only puppy that wasn’t smitten with the car was Foster but apparently he’s gotten the swing of it, I hear.)

I’ve never met Juliet before.

The adoption took place solely through her reading Newscoma and watching Zoey born and growing up. (I warned her that Zoey is the rowdiest one of the crew, followed by Tucker the magnificent who isn’t afraid to take on the older dogs with glee and joy.)

It’s just incredible to me that a woman living in northwest Tennessee in Hoots and two women from Massachusetts can find each other on a blog and give a puppy in a loving home. The blogosphere is a very small place in a lot of ways.

And I know that Zoey will be very happy with Juliet and Karen.

On another note, I have become very suspicious to the remaining two puppies that are up for adoption because I keep leaving with their brothers and sisters who do not return. They keep biting my feet to let me know that they know I’m apparently nefarious and I suspect that they are plotting at night to control me somewhat in a Gulliver’s Travels kind of fashion.

Marla (formerly known as Helen Thomas) and Tucker meet their respective moms on Thursday. All in all, puppy adoption Aught Nine has been a huge success.

I didn’t want to go nuts today over at NewsTechZilla with all the cool stuff I found at CopyBlogger this morning as I’ve already linked them over there this morning. Also, go read Kathy Tyson’s featured article right now. It kicks the proverbial hiney. Seriously, it is some good stuff.

Anyway, I found this:

When it comes to the things that keep us from writing, you’ll see the usual villains pop up. Lack of time is a big one, as are the various other life distractions that take us away from the keyboard.

But based on my personal experience, there’s a nasty demon hiding behind the excuses we make. This four-letter word represents a condition we don’t like to admit to ourselves, much less utter in polite conversation.

Yep, it’s the “F” word.

Fear.

I am no authority on fear, I assure you. I can tell you I’m afraid of a lot of things. I’m sitting on three novels that I won’t let anyone read. I’m afraid of being unemployed, as that seems to be happening to a lot of my friends right now. I’m ready to make some big moves and I second guess myself. I’m human.

We all have our own fears. Your mileage may vary.

But I was thinking after I read this that I know a lot of writers who aren’t writing or blogging right now. I know a lot of writers who aren’t writing in my little slice of the planet and their dream was to be a writer. Not everyone is going to be Jane Austin or Harper Lee. But that’s already been done, hasn’t it?

One woman I know said, “I don’t think anyone would be interested in what I write.” This is where I call foul. If you don’t think you are interesting, how will anyone else think you are interesting.

Everyone has a story. If you measure your story to another person’s story, you will be disappointed each and every time.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you are a writer, write.

The heck with everyone else. You might be a hell of a lot more interesting than you think.

And, I write this to remind myself as much as you that the only thing we have to fear is …

Spiders.

Nobody can break it down as well as Vibinc can:

Once again, this question, “We know what you’re against, but what do you stand for?””, has come up to the blogging community. The question gets asked a lot by people who end up on the wrong side of bloggers, the intent often being more about “getting the hell off my lawn” than anything truly constructive. It takes on certain significance, particularly in the wake of the fairly recent criticism of the TNDP and losses that spawned that criticism. So maybe, just maybe it’s time to clarify some things.

First, there are some things you should know about me. I don’t do this because I’m paid to do it. In fact, I don’t even have advertising of any kind on my blog. Truth is, most TN bloggers don’t make a dime off their blogs. This is due to laziness on my part, and that I want to keep my “loves” separate from a “job”. I tried to “monetize” my love of performing music throughout the early 90’s and burned myself out. Making this a job is not something I’m interested in at this point.

Passion is a good thing and Vibinc has plenty of it. In politics, don’t you want the guys with enthusiasm who aren’t “Yes” men on your side?’ I’ve never understood why politicians don’t realize these are the people that you need. Why not engage in a realistic conversation instead of, as some politicians do, believe that you are being ganged up on? Not everyone has a stick nor do they want to beat up on politicians which is a misconception.

But they want engagement and not spin. That’s what I got out of Vibinc’s post and he makes several good points.

Subscribe to his feed and you will not be disappointed.

I believe there is a transition happening in blogging. Transitions come around very quickly on the innertubes. An example would be how Nashville is Talking with BG brought a lot of people together. That’s been gone awhile and so everyone adjusted.

There will always be adjustments in immediate communication. And there still, thank goodness, aren’t any rules for bloggers.

I’ve been asked by some local bloggers in the Hoots area of what they should write about on their blogs. I’m no authority on this. I write about politics, zombies, Bigfoot, my dogs, music I like, things I think are funny and an occasional annoying autobiographical pause. I write about my life and my transition into my mid-forties, my concern over rural America and Hoots.

I write about what I know.

Here is my answer: Write what you want to write about. There really isn’t a manual that you have to follow. If you want to write about your daily adventures, do it. If you want to talk about your community, do it. If you want to post pictures of bicycles, more power to you.

Everyone these days is in the advice business. I think that if you talk about what you know then that gives you credibility. If you have an opinion, it’s more than all right to discuss what’s on your mind. Yes, there will be typos, some people will disagree (which is OK) and other folks will tell you HOW to do your blog. Constructive criticism is fine but don’t change what you do for others, do what pleases you. Very few people get paid to blog so embrace your hobby with what makes you feel good.

Do what you want to with your blog. It’s yours and no one else’s. If you engage your readers and they feel like coming back to visit, then you know that you’ve done well. If you create a dialog, that’s a good thing.

I am no authority, but I will say, treat your blog with your own personal passion and flair and you are going to find that if you treat it with a bit of love and joy, that will be returned to you two-fold.

Hope I helped. Now go look at this cat dressed up as Santa. He doesn’t look too happy about it.

Ron is a great writer. He’s on about a kajillion blogs right now and he waxes philosophical on this beat of blogging.

Bloggers are vain.

Maybe we’re not physically vain, though I know some bloggers are. What we are is emotionally vain. Not to generalize or anything (he says right before launching into a series of broad generalizations), but we’re a lot of misfits. Basically, there’s no such thing as a normal blogger who doesn’t do it for pay alone. Hell, even those that do it for pay are probably weird, too. We’re overworked young professionals. We’re mothers stuck indoors with the kids all day who need to speak to someone on an adult level. We’re geeks, dorks, and dweebs who hide behind websites or nom de blog or the general anonymity of the Internet to reach out to other people in a safe manner without all the fear that comes with meeting someone face to face.

It’s a lot easier to relax and be yourself online (or be a totally fake person, but if you try that kind of thing you’ll generally get found out one way or another). You don’t have to worry about the fact that you need a shave, or that you’ve got popcorn husks in your teeth, or that you’re a 450lb albino balding midget. Nobody’s judging you for how you look, or how you’re dressed, or how much money you make. It’s all about how well you write, the links you find, and the connections you make with other bloggers with your personality.

The whole post is amazing and if you want to see someone break it down on why bloggers blog, this is your best bet today.

UPDATED: Aunt B. is talking about this as well this morning. As I’m still going through post-election blogging uncertainty and a blogging mini-identity crisis, the best thing I can add to her post is our words on the Internet, we want them to please others but in the end, they have to please us as individuals as well.

The Internet is a fickle bitch. As Ron articulated and as Aunt B. did as well, you have to have some real about yourself or people won’t come by to visit. I’ll never forget having lunch with Huck a couple of years ago and the man with him, his name escapes me, said he likes to read blogs where it’s not just one thing. That he wants to feel a connection with the writer. He also said that if political blogging is your thing, it’s best to feel like there is a real person behind it. I’ve taken this sage words of advice to heart. I figure that you guys come here because you choose to.

And I’m grateful to each and every one of you for being a part of Newscoma. It’s a wonderful bond as there are times I feel completely geographically challenged but the Internet and bloggers has opened the world to me. It’s important for me on a personal level. Yes, I do this for me. But also, yes, I like the connection of feeling a part of something bigger than myself.

Wow, deep this morning.

Kirk Varner breaks things down in this post-election haze.

My favorite read of the morning was an article by Techno-pundit Nicholas Carr who has postulated on the provocative headline “Who killed the Blogosphere?” Mr. Carr documents the shift away from the collective blogging of an army of dedicated private citizens to the success of the elite professional magazine-types, turned commercial blog-based media that now dominate the lists of sites that keep such lists, like the oft-quoted Technorati. You know, the Huffington Posts, Engadgets, and Boing Boings of the world.

Carr goes on to compare the short lifespan arc of blogging to that of the still surviving arc of amateur radio. While I can agree on some similarities between the two, I think the analysis of what has happened to each since its nascent success early on is flawed. Carr and a subsequent poster suggest that Amateur radio has all but died because of licensing and equipment costs. Nothing could be further from the truth, the equipment is cheaper than its ever been for amateur radio and blogging. Licensing for “ham radio” operators is far easier than it was when I was a kid and unsuccessfully struggled to learn even a tiny bit of morse code.

No, I would suggest that Blogging and amateur radio have actually been dealing with the same social challenge. Those who got in at the start, thinking that their own stream of programming would attract large audiences of others have realized (for the most part) that it wasn’t going to happen. What is left are the people who find the art of casting forth a transmission of their own to be interesting enough, and worth doing whether there is one million or just one recipient.

And that brings us back to the question of hope. It is a very personal emotion, different for each of us. We hope for things based on our situation, whether than be a shared one with the national psyche or an individual one based on our own fates and fortunes.

Blogging is a personal emotion and expression and Varner hits it on the head. But the commercialization of the genre is necessary on many angles but it isn’t the end all be all. Blogging is what it is.

There is art to this hobby though. There are transcendent moments where good citizen journalism and artistic expression be it visual or the written word can be found in the most minute of places. If commercial blog-based media joins hands with amateur blogging, then it can work in a community environment. It’s one reason I advocate community-based blogs from mainstream media. If an incestuous environment of just linking to other large based commercial media becomes the practice, the venture doesn’t work.

We are in a changing environment regarding the place of blogs in the very near future.

I can’t help but wonder what will happen.

And what Jack Lail said.

Terry Heaton always has inspiring ideas about the changes in media and good advice how to enact that change.

He responds to a post by Seth Godin.

I would add, however, that to the extent that media companies are attempting to reinvent themselves, these certainly apply to them as well:

1. COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Find and connect and lead a tribe of dedicated users that contribute to and benefit from the work you do.
2. STATS FIEND. Measure everything that can be measured. Do it efficiently and consistently. Find out what metrics are important and cycle until they improve.
3. MANAGER OF FREELANCERS. Find and hire and manage the best outside talent in the world. If it can be defined as a project, and if great work defeats good, seriously consider having the MOF get it done.

Media companies simply must begin the slow process of developing communities of interest, so the first job is obvious. The Web is social, and social activity takes place within communities.

One of the practices of successful media company online ventures is an incredible thirst for data, so the second job is equally important. Web selling is all about data, but whose data? Local media companies really suffer here, and this needs to be changed.

One thing that Tennessee is missing right now is a Brittney Gilbert at Nashville is Talking. She engaged the entire community and brought people together. People are still together but have moved into different target demographics, in my opinion.

Just like the early VJ’s of MTV, I think mainstream media outlets need to add media positions of blog jockeys for lack of a better term. In the day of the internet just like the days of early radio, having a personality that connects with the community, giving that person time to cultivate and grow the audience (something WKRN didn’t get to do) is a sign of success in every major city and for the good of the state as a whole.

Andrew Sullivan writes for The Atlantic Online on how blogging for journalists has evolved.

Anyone who has blogged his thoughts for an extended time will recognize this world. We bloggers have scant opportunity to collect our thoughts, to wait until events have settled and a clear pattern emerges. We blog now—as news reaches us, as facts emerge. This is partly true for all journalism, which is, as its etymology suggests, daily writing, always subject to subsequent revision. And a good columnist will adjust position and judgment and even political loyalty over time, depending on events. But a blog is not so much daily writing as hourly writing. And with that level of timeliness, the provisionality of every word is even more pressing—and the risk of error or the thrill of prescience that much greater.

No columnist or reporter or novelist will have his minute shifts or constant small contradictions exposed as mercilessly as a blogger’s are. A columnist can ignore or duck a subject less noticeably than a blogger committing thoughts to pixels several times a day. A reporter can wait—must wait—until every source has confirmed. A novelist can spend months or years before committing words to the world. For bloggers, the deadline is always now.

The entire read is a good one and I suggest it whole heartedly. The one thing he says in the excerpt that caught my eye is about the deadline being now.

And that’s what’s breaking the back of traditional news media. Online is instant.

And people who read blogs or news sites on line, they want news as it’s happening.

It’s quite a thing to behold. But Sullivan also says this is a golden age for journalism. And it is.

News, as I’ve said before, is news regardless of if it is on the printed page or the computer screen.

Do you ever get to that point in your blogging, non-virtual world where you run out of ideas?

Yeah, me too.

I sometimes struggle thinking whether or not I should post about my mindthink on politics (remember, I’ve become a conspiracy theorist, heh) and then sometimes I’ll post things that interest me.

Other times I navel gaze and talk about Homer (who is in Gatlingburg and got caught in the toxic spill on I-40. She had no idea what was going on other than she was stuck in traffic. If I know her hubby, Squeegee Monkey well at all, he refused to turn Fred off of XM which might have helped them understand their predicament.) The people who she is with are making her go to Dixie Stampede. I’ve heard of Dixie Stampede but I’m unsure if this is Homer’s thing. I don’t know if watching buffaloes run while eating will entice her. Then again, she might love it. One never knows.

We could start a Zombie Stampede restaurant. (Write this down in Newscoma’s brilliant ideas that never reach fruition.)

I’ve always thought the best thing to do is just blog about what you want to. There is also a new blogging age going on, in my humble opinion, where bloggers are going to go to their niche. I sometimes read new media strategists and think “Man, that’s cool. What the hell are they talking about?” I also read some mommy bloggers who are clever and think “I love my nieces but, man, that is a lot of responsibility.”

I tend to like the disc jockey approach to blogging but that’s just me. The days of BG being at the old Nashville is Talking is over. And with blogs monetizing (which I plan to do as well. Call me a sell out and also, if you know how to do technically groovy things, let me know) things are changing.

We create our own brand. True story, an A-Lister that will remain unnamed told me I was too all over the place. I thought about that because if an A-Lister said it, it has to be true. Right?

Well, wrong actually.

I thought about it and finally determined that for me, I like being all over the place. I’m okay with that. As long as I do this as a hobby, I will do what I want to. If I get paid, I’ll blog about whatever the entities paying me want me to write about. Until that time, you are stuck with liberal politics, Bigfoot, Zombies, goofy pictures and life in Hoots.

As for the black widow bitch of a spider that chomped on my foot. Well, my leg this morning does feel like it’s going to fall off but I don’t have the big gaping wound that some folks get. Last year, Killa got bit on her upper thigh and let it go several hours. Bless her heart, that girl was illing and I was worried about her. After seeing her and her hubby struggle with it all (he got bit too), I decided to go in to the doctor immediately. I think I’m going to have a luckier time but it hurts more today than yesterday. Back to drug therapy as this is a bit more painful than I had imagined.

Did I mention I hate spiders?

I did. Well, I’m repeating myself.

Blogging is about being a modern day pamphleteer making your ideas flow. Be it a discipline to communication or writing, promoting yourself or banging the drum for your cause.

You aren’t going to please everyone but if you please yourself, you win. And it it moves to another level, then that, my friends, is of the good.

Now, go see Bobblehead George in Greece. My gift to you.

I’ve read a few posts lately, where people are asking their lurkers to unmask, comment, and I’m kind of puzzled as to why?  Why do you need to know who’s looking at you?  Are you worried about stalkers?  Well, if so, then I guess I’d have to tell you that you probably should have thought about that issue before you started blogging.  You know, before you threw your life out there on the intarwebz, for all the world to see.  It’s really the equivalent of allowing random strangers to come into your house and root through your undie drawer, in a mental way.  You know that, right?

Missy goes on to write about her perspective on how blogging opens up the world and how she welcomes everyone. That they read her posts and then they move on. That’s true. I have found that blogging is doing just that. It’s bright and shiny but then it’s moving on to something else bright and shiny.

I’ve met a lot of bloggers and I hope to meet some more. With that said, I dig comments. I don’t really worry about stalkers in my virtual world.

It’s the ones in the real world that make me take pause.

Rex is writing this morning about bloggers and writing longer entries. Of course, I’m here only to blow his theory out of the water as I offer you this.

Finally, I have this theory: People don’t read past the first paragraph of a blog post (or the first sentence of an e-mail). If you are reading this sentence you are completely blowing my theory. You are to be commended and you prove that at least one person — you — still has an amazing attention span. Congratulations. Now, go read a book and enjoy your day.

I’m one of those cats that reads the whole thing. I never think something is teal deer.

Unless, of course, I think it’s too long to read.

Heh.