Today’s music artists and authors don’t necessarily need the record labels/publishing houses anymore. They are capable of forming their own labels and publishing houses and doing the work themselves. The RIAA is trying desperately to hold on to an antiquated business model that made them wealthy. The times have changed and they have failed to change with it. Now, their only recourse is to prey on our unsuspecting Congress to pass legislation that will enable them to shut down anyone that is making a dent into their business. This is foolish and probably illegal.

The First Amendment
(stated here:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.)

expressly forbids this type of legislation. We have seen in the recent past, the power of the Internet to bring people
together, We are seeing it now with the blackout of Wikipedia and other websites, as well as the Occupy movement (although I personally think that most of those people are idiots who should go back to work and occupy the VOTING booths instead).

We cannot allow a United States where we have this much broad filtering of content. If this legislation is enacted, how are we any different from China? This is not an issue where our civil rights are being violated in the interests of national security. It’s movies and music.

I understand the need for protecting against piracy; however,these bills (SOPA and PIPA) are NOT the answer. Please vote NO on these bills. Thank you.

EFFORT- must be expended in order to succeed- planning isn’t enough. I’m a GREAT planner…but the execution part is where I fail. Similar to ideas (where EVERYBODY has a great one that will make a million dollars for us- all YOU have to do is the work and we’ll split it 50-50.) You have to put in the work, or it just doesn’t happen. EFFORT reminds me that this is the case and that it won’t be easy, but it WILL be worthwhile.

FOCUS- on the prize or the goal. At 41 years old, I can still rock the ADHD with the best of them. A lot of times, that’s the problem. Once the project isn’t shiny anymore, I lose interest and go on to the next project, leaving a trail of half started projects in my wake. I am capable of finishing what I start. My MCSE in 1999 and MCSA in 2005?, as well as three Nanowrimo wins prove that. I have to be able to eliminate distractions. It won’t be easy, but will be necessary if I want to succeed.

GROWTH- in my career (with more certification and adding programming to my skill set) and in my personal life (with writing, music and my health). I started taking some steps last year, by cutting out one brand of soda and replacing it with sweet tea. I also cut down tremendously on the amount of typical fast food that I consume and by getting more sleep. Part of the plan is to lose 2 pounds a month, which is achievable.

This year, I plan to release 2 new CD’s, one technical book and learn to program in 2 platforms (C# and Android). That takes care of the GROWTH. I am also working on practicing my bass more often and working on reading music, which I know the mechanics of, but am not fluent in it at all. My attempt at BBCO proved that. By the time I found the note, then found it on my upright bass, they were halfway through the song. Reading is not necessary to the release of the two CD’s this year, but it will make me a better musician overall, and expose me to new ideas that I can incorporate into my work.

What are YOUR three words? What are your hopes and dreams for the new year? Best of luck to all who try to improve themselves and remember: baby steps. A thousand mile journey begins with one small step. Just take that step…then the next one…then the next one…

My 3 words for 2011 were Change, Create and Certify. Change was: change my station, change my health, change my career path. I did Change. I stopped drinking Sunkist soda in the morning, swapping it out for sweet tea instead (slightly more healthy…). I also started on changing my career path. I started more code related things.

Create was done as well. The year of Creativity helped fuel that endeavor. Results to follow.

Certify didn’t go so well. The intention was to certify my skills by passing the E-Commerce test, PHP and Database Design tests. None of that happened.

That’s ok, though. My 3 words for 2012 should fix those issues. (That post is tomorrow…)

Back to the Year of Creativity…

Because Chris Brogan (and others, I’m sure) say to measure your goals, I kept track of the Year. The summary is this: I missed 27 days out of 365. Not too shabby. I did a TOTAL of 554 things, averaging out to 1.5 things a day, so I don’t feel so bad about the 27 days. I broke them down to 4 categories: Code (including web design), Music, Writing (to include blog posts like this one) and Misc (Video, photos etc.)

Code had 107 events, Music had a whopping 273 events, Writing had 119 and Misc had 55 events.

In fairness, one of the 27 days missed was due to illness and another was due to a new job. Still, not too shabby. Was it a worthy project? Absolutely. Would I do it again this coming year? Nope. Keeping track wasn’t fun. I will continue the spirit of the project going forward, though. I just won’t document it. Next year is the Year of Music and Code (or the Year of Code and Music…haven’t decided which way sounds better…), so I will continue the spirit of this past year.

Part of my goals (see tomorrow’s blog post) is to write a tech book or two and release 2 CD’s- one for The Robot Attack and the other for Agents of M * A * D. Come back in August or September for a listen.

See you on the flip side…

In related news, I called CreateSpace, who put my two previous books out on Amazon, to see what the deal was with the Expanded Distribution channels. I tried my local Barnes and Noble about two weeks ago, and my local library two days ago. It seems that I simply didn’t wait long enough. It takes six to eight weeks for it to start filtering through their system. The nice gentleman DID point out that when he searched bn.com by my ISBN, it did reflect that a page for the book is in the process of being built. That means that it is working; just slowly. The links are “The Family Business” and “The Trials of Elijah Marcus Ash”.

Stoked doesn’t even BEGIN to compare to how I feel right now. Just knowing that my ideas can get into their bookstores, is exhilarating. I foresee a book signing or two in the near future, maybe on the weekend. Pensacola, Tallahassee, and Destin, to start with. Then maybe expand to Gainesville and Ocala. From there, the WORLD…. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…

I also updated my writing page to reflect all the places where it can purchased. That link is http://www.greymatterideas.com/writing.htm. If there are too many more places, then I will have to devise a different way to showcase them. Not a bad problem to have…

The good news is that pacing-wise, it’s going well. I’m still happy with the book, and still have ideas and scenes that I will like that appear later in the book. Part of the secret is to incorporate your daily life into the book. The second year, I incorporated what I was currently working on in the storyline, as well as Bradley’s Country Day. This year, I am using what I have been busily working on into the book (a brief mention, but nonetheless…)

I’ll keep plugging away at it and I will cross the finish line this year, although it may be the very last day of the competition. It’s all good though…finishing is the goal.

Bit of advice: tell your internal editor (the one that tells you that that sentence is crap in your email message…), tell him /her to go on vacation for about 30 days or so…you won’t be needing his services for that time. This part is VERY important. If you try to edit and clean up and revise what you’ve written, you WON’T get through the month. Save that for December. I barely correct typos, and I don’t reread what I’ve written, other than the last paragraph or two to get back in the groove. You can have outlines and character sketches; I’m doing that now, and truthfully, it helps a lot. Just get in there on November 1st and write.
It’s that simple.

No…a cautionary tale…you will probably finish your novel in 30 days. My first was 26 days and my second was 28 days. That doesn’t mean that it was done. Not.Even.Close.

Here’s the timeline for my second novel and then I’ll share with you why you aren’t done on December 1st.

Character Sketch – 10/31/09
Rough draft started – 11/1/09
Rough Draft finished – 11/28/09 (YAY! I Won!!)
1st revision – 12/6/09
2nd revision – 3/17/11
3rd revision – 5/7/11
4th revision – 5/7/11
author pic – 7/19/11
cover designed and author bio – 9/17/11
interior layout – 10/10/11
uploaded to Createspace – 10/10/11
ordered proof copies – 10/11/11
proof arrived – 10/13/11
Finished reading proof – 10/18/11

And I’m still not done. I have to redo the interior files before I reload them back up to CreateSpace.com. After I do that, then it’s wait for the files to be approved, then order another proof copy (probably only one this time), and then wait for it to arrive to verify that all of the changes are what I wanted. Then and only then, will I release it for sale. And this is self- publishing!

The timeline for a production house doing this, or a real printer printing them (versus the print on demand that Createspace is doing), would take even longer.

My point is…you aren’t ready to ship off your manuscript to publishers on December 1st. It isn’t anywhere close to being ready. Yes, I put almost two years in between the 1st revision and second revision. Your timeline may vary. It’s important though, to put some time in between revisions. It’s got to feel fresh again. That, or get someone else to edit it for you. The issue that I have with that is that it will be their voice, not yours. Their words on the final page, not yours. That’s why I edit it myself, giving myself plenty of time to forget every word that will appear next. I’m not saying that you won’t know how the story ends. That’s fine. You should still be surprised or still laugh at some of the dialog or scenes that you wrote. Your readers will.

Now, why should you put some time into it? I understand the job situation is in the toilet for most, but publishing houses get swamped in the month of December, usually from bad, half-written, half-thought out novels all written in November, for NanoWrimo.
Remember your inner editor? You need him for AFTER the rough draft that you cranked out in November. It’s either him or the manuscript reviewer rejecting your ideas…better to be you…

Should you do NanoWrimo? Absolutely, it’s a blast, even when your story arc goes sideways and you hate your main character (Nov 2010). If nothing else, it’s an exercise in doing something that you love (or that you think you love). You won’t know until you’ve tried.

Is it ok to give up? Sure…I’ve tried Script Frenzy (April 2009) and Camp Nanowrimo (June 2010) and neither experiment ended well. Live and learn, but most of all…have fun with it. I’m gearing up for Nano this year and writing the third installment in a series. As I re-read the 2nd book (“The Trials of Elijah Marcus Ash“) for additional final changes to make, I am also getting ideas for “Scarlet”, the third installment. Meanwhile, I have people from work reading the first book (“The Family Business“), giving me feedback and encouragement.

It’s going to be a blast…can’t wait for November 1st!!

Facebook has changed their site again. They added some new features, changed the way you have to navigate things, etc… And again, everyone is up in arms over it. I saw today the general rumblings of how Facebook has changed things and they don’t want the top stories, they want it to feature the most recent posts. In the other corner, there are people posting instructions on how to prevent your comments on other people’s posts from being shared with EVERYONE in the time line (one of the new features they rolled out).

News.Flash.

NOTHING you post online is private. Nothing. Get a tattoo if you need to, but that’s the cold hard truth. If you don’t want someone knowing your business, don’t post it online. It’s NOT Facebook’s fault that their changes to their site screwed up your privacy settings. (Actually…it is a little bit, but not nearly as much as you’d like to think.) Having to change your privacy settings every time they change their site is stupid. Ditto with asking your friends to change their settings on their posts. It’s a SHARING website. And its not yours. Which brings me to my next point…

For everyone bitching about how “Facebook has changed their site again and it makes me so mad because…”; it’s THEIR website. Theirs. Not yours. They have half a BILLION users on there. Do you really think that they are going to ask everyone every time they decide to make a change or add a feature? Go to Walmart, aisle 14 middle section and pick up your reality check. Get a couple.

First, it’s impossible to please that many people. Second, it’s THEIR website. You are merely a house guest. Hell, you’re not even paying rent. It’s a FREE site that costs them serious dollars to keep running and maintaining. Yes, I know that they are showing you ads and taking kickbacks from game companies that take your demographic information and use it for their marketing purposes. I know. But this is still a free country. You don’t have to be on there. You don’t have to play with them. Go build your own website. You probably need to anyway. (Yes, I know it’s about Google+. The point still holds true, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other social media site.)

Now, let’s turn this thing around, because there’s at least two sides to every story. Does Facebook change their site too often? Sure they do. Does it anger a lot of people? Yup. Sure does. But here’s the real deal. The fact that people stick around and bitch about it is a testament to how much they care. Everyone talking about how “This is gonna drive people to Google+ for sure” is a very good sign. People are passionate about their community. Should Facebook maybe try to listen a little better to that community? Sure. Still… half a billion people. The logistics of doing that may be too great.

Perhaps Facebook should roll out new changes like Twitter does, where it’s optional. Or roll out new services like Google does, with an invite system, not open to the public initially. I know. It sucks having to wait for an invite (I had to wait for Wave, Voice and Plus- didn’t have to wait for Gmail though). There are two advantages to this approach. The first is, you have the ability to make changes to the navigation of it and the feature set without angering your entire customer base. (Facebook…take notes here.)

Secondly, it gives them enough time to adequately build out the necessary infrastructure to support the new feature/service/whatever. AOL made this mistake numerous times. Even got a class action lawsuit against them for their troubles.

So I understand your frustration. They (Facebook) could be doing business better. Maybe they will and maybe they won’t. Regardless, it’s their business. You don’t have to play with them. Go do your own thing. Or not. But please….just shut up about it already. The conversation is getting old.

The impact of that action changed the world. We don’t have terrorist attacks here. Sure, we’ve been attacked on our native soil before (the War of 1812, Pearl Harbor, the movie “Red Dawn”), but not like this. Those were acts of war, acts that we had some notice of. The Twin Towers attack was a sucker punch to the stomach, and it felt like it too. It was a show stopper.

No one at my office did anything else the rest of the day. They stayed glued to that TV in the break room. The IT staff went back to our respective offices and tried to pull up news reports. They would be showing live footage as well. That was the first time I had seen the Internet slow to a grinding halt. All major news servers were overwhelmed, whether you were on CNN.com, MSN.com or Yahoo.com. The only one that remained consistently up was slashdot.org. They gave up their space and normal articles/posts over to news coverage of the attacks. I had never seen that happen before. The telephone lines were just as jammed.

The next day was a bit of a blur as well, with news reports streaming in. Most of the Internet traffic congestion was fixed, so we got info coming in. The Pentagon was attacked as well, and the heroic efforts of the people on United Airlines Flight 93, as they fought for their lives to wrestle control of the plane from their hijackers. The mood went from shock to horror to anger.

Shortly afterward, everyone had American flags flying from their yards, their porches, and their cars. I had a friend of a friend who was from Israel and I asked her how long this wave of patriotism would last. I guessed six months, and then everyone would remove them, the novelty and the “me too” aspects gone. Fortunately, I was wrong. Those flags stayed up for 2 years or so. I asked her what she thought about the reactions of people and would anything really change. Sh said that it really wouldn’t change all that much, and she was right. Sure, we have to wait a lot longer to board airplanes and submit to violations of our privacy and our dignity, just to board an aircraft. We have to jump through ridiculous hoops, just to travel within our own country. We took actions that other, less civilized countries do to their citizens and visitors. We engaged in profiling, and reacted with fear instead of common sense. Some of that hasn’t changed. We became that which we fought against back in 1776…tyranny. And the ones who did this to us just laughed. Laughed at the fact that the USA, high and mighty with morals and the idea of personal freedoms for its citizens, reduced those ideas to a crumble, just like the Towers.

The biggest loss that day wasn’t the lives of those in the Twin Towers, or the Pentagon or Flight 93. It was the loss of innocence, and privacy and safety. We had to explain to our children (and some of you are doing this tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to be you…) what happened. We had to reconcile the fact that family members weren’t coming home. We learned what being a hero really is. Most people run away from a burning crumbling building. We had police officers and firemen running towards it, putting aside their own fears to save the lives of others. Their sacrifice won’t be forgotten.

President George W Bush waged a war on terror…and we’ve been in the trenches ever since. Yes, we got the mastermind behind the attacks. But it took ten years to do it. Kudos to Seal Team 6 for that accomplishment. However, the terror cells are still there. They had ten years to establish multiple levels of leadership and communication. Are the actions in Afghanistan and Iraq still necessary? I’m not sure. I do know this though. Whatever people’s stance was on the war on terror, people still stood behind and supported the troops. A far cry from the days of Vietnam. Maybe we can learn something from our history.

Tomorrow will be a day of somber remembrance, as it should. News channels will feature heartbreaking stories of the events of that day, and stories of the lives of the people affected by this tragedy. I will be ignoring as much of it as I can. Not because I don’t care, but because I’m afraid of the actions that will follow it. I’m afraid that the anger will well up in people again and that more senseless things will happen. Ten years isn’t enough time to heal the wounds of a nation.

To those families who lost loved ones (either victims of the attack or the first responders)…my thoughts and prayers are with you tomorrow on September 11th. To everyone else, consider this something to think about…

Tonight, they announced at 9:00 my time that they would be doing a live stream in an hour. I clicked over to the page and it was set up with a live chat (signing in through your Facebook account) and waited until 10pm. It was supposed to be them doing a “behind the recording process”  type of thing. At 10:20, all they had done was show the “On Air” light and occasionally the dog would make an appearance. Now, I like the dog. It was cute. Even commented on how someone should get the dog a tennis ball. The comment worked just fine. The video footage that we saw was fine. It just wasn’t what it was supposed to be.

Hence, they’re doing it all wrong.

They took a really good tool, applied it in a great fashion (that could have introduced more fans to their music)…and completely blew it,by not showing up for the intended task on time. I waited 20 minutes. NOt a single “Hey the band is waiting on one guy to show up”. Not a single “We are having some technical issue in the studio”. Nothing. Nothing but disappointment. I was hoping to get some insight into how they piece together songs. Or maybe hear some new tunes, before they were available anywhere else. Anything else but what I got.

As I said, just because you have the tools doesn’t mean that you are using them right. Here’s a band that wasn’t. And now I’m off to watch something else.

Family depending on me
Why won’t the phone ring?
Apply for this, submit resume for that
Look, I’m your dancing monkey
(or at least trying to be- what’s the pay like?)

Jump through this hoop and that hoop
Put on nice clothes (aka the “monkey suit”)
I’ll be your dancing monkey
Ring phone, ring
No calls, no e-mails (except rejection- more rejection)

Ring phone, ring
“You have mail”
More spam… sigh
BUT… I can make $5000 a day working from home
While waiting on my prescription medicine to arrive in the mail
and the large check from that nice Nigerian man

Ring phone, ring
7 days left
I’ll be your dancing monkey