The world didn’t end the day I switched from a Dell PC to a Mac. Granted, that was only last week — and the world is more likely to end from a slow, ongoing event like global warming than a catastrophic occurrence like a hit by a comet (or my switch to Mac). Which is to say, the day is young.
For a die-hard PC user, the change is like going from a hamburger-based diet to tofu. Or giving up lattes for flavored water. You’re likely to get coerced into these kind of moves against your will due to some medical necessity, and it usually comes with an ugly detox period.
Alas, no such impending medical crisis twisted my arm to join the league of the Mac Tribe. In fact, I didn’t see it coming, considering I’ve been a devoted Dell fan for my entire 15-year computer-purchasing life.
Dell, on the other hand, should have seen the writing on the wall — after one too many headache-inducing calls to customer service and endless transfers through internal departments by CSRs with heavy Indian accents, I realized last year our marriage was over.
So when time came for a new laptop, I was free to contemplate my options. Since I’m getting into multimedia and anticipate having to edit videos a lot within the next couple of years, I needed a machine that can accommodate more heavy-duty work than in the past. I also consider certain bells and whistles a must (like anti-glare screen, which is uncommon unless you opt for a military-grade, “rugged” computer that can easily take heat, water, drops and other unfortunate events).
As I researched non-Dell options and looked at rankings of everything from customer service to performance, a few choices floated to the top including Toshiba. But I couldn’t help but notice Apple was trying to get the attention from the corner of my eye, as I repeatedly ignored the MacBook Pro at the top of all those lists.
Finally, I decided to peek. After all, you can look as long as you don’t touch, right?
I am really digging the "Mission Control" option Mac has, which shows you all the open apps, both in Mac OS and Windows.
I groaned and cringed as I Googled, read, compared, ranked and Googled again. A Mac was making more sense as I “slept” on it for a few days. After a friendly geek at a Best Buy store answered some questions about Mac vs. PC advantages, I was nearly ready to wave the white flag.
Just to be certain, I popped into the Apple store at the mall — and suddenly was feeling that I needed to get a latte, just to make sure I still preferred one over flavored water.
I wasn’t always this adventurous. Although I was ahead of the curve in switching to a smartphone years ago — Palm became a convenient alternative to hauling the planner for coordinating my schedule while on the road — I was also proudly a minimalist. The latest and greatest gadgets didn’t entice me.
Blame it on the iPod Touch (or Steve Jobs, may he rest in peace, for knowing what we needed before we did). Once my husband bought one, I couldn’t think of anything else when my old MP3 player bit the dust.
The rest went downhill from there. The Kindle came. And then the iPad. I wasn’t an early adopter of any of those devices, but I sure didn’t follow my minimalist ideas much.
Yes, I’m conscientiously still sticking with a BlackBerry smartphone because I don’t need a choice of half a million apps, but beyond that, all bets are off.
The detox period, I’m happy to report, is going well so far. But — here comes the big confession — it’s because I’m having my cake and eating it too. I wasn’t about to invest a couple of Gs into replacing all my PC programs, so I’m running Windows on the MacBook, via Parallels.
So yeah, I’m cheating. Let’s call it going from hamburgers to soy “burgers” before embracing tofu. It’s a happy, beautiful union while I learn the quirks of Mac and avoid suffering from Windows withdrawals.
It’s not a perfect relationship — there are glitches and annoyances, like with anything else — yet so far, I haven’t regretted the decision.
Does that make me a Mac person? Not entirely. At least not yet. The world is still spinning, but let’s not forget that global warming idea.
Originally pubslihed in Gig Harbor Life
Independent filmmakers, artists working on an installation and entrepreneurs with a startup all face the same challenge: funding. Thanks to a trend called crowdfunding, which saw huge growth last year, these creative individuals now have a better shot at getting a financial boost.
Crowdfunding has been described as a marriage of social networking and philanthropy. It is similar to crowdsourcing — and what you’re asking people to do is fund an idea, project or need. An estimated 250-some crowdfunding websites provide a platform for making pitches to the crowd — anything from pleas to help a friend with cancer to tech geeks seeking funds for a new app —in hopes of getting dreams or needs funded.
More than 60 crowdfunding sites popped up in 2011, according to pleasefund.us, a United Kingdom-based site that was launched in November. Collectively, these websites have raised millions of dollars and some have become multimillion-dollar ventures themselves through the fees paid by their successfully funded users.
Many of these platforms cater to the creative types — artists, filmmakers, writers, designers and musicians. But the idea is also taking hold among entrepreneurs. One wildly successful example is TikTok+LunaTik, a kit to convert an iPod Nano into a wristwatch, which received more than 13,500 pledges totaling more than $940,000 on kickstarter.com a year ago.
Some business-oriented sites have adopted a model that actually allows people to invest in a venture instead of being a donor or sponsor, and Congress is currently debating crowdfunding-related legislation.
The platforms vary but generally speaking, the person looking for money creates a pitch explaining the idea and the need, and usually offers rewards or perks in exchange — sometimes as simple as thank-you cards. Contributions are made through the website, and most use an “all or nothing” method where funds are returned to donors if the goal is not reached. Some sites also allow for partially funded projects.
Crowdfunding sounds easy in principle but it takes a tremendous amount of work, both behind the scenes and via social media. I learned that the hard way recently when I decided to take my own need — graduate school tuition — to the “masses.”
I set up my pitch on indiegogo.com, calling it “Mission Go to 11” (borrowing the “Go to 11!” unofficial motto of my 2011 cohort at MCDM, University of Washington’s Master of Communication in Digital Media program).
The decision to launch the so-called campaign (see it at indiegogo.com/Go-to-11) came after I pursued my dream of 10 years to return to school last fall, then saw it come to a halt after I lost a big contract as a self-employed writer and editor.
It wasn’t an easy move, having to tell the world about my tuition challenge, but at the encouragement of a friend, I went for it because I really believe in my dream. Also because I’m a rebel and you don’t slam the door in front of a rebel’s nose.
What I discovered two weeks into the adventure was that crowdfunding is not “build it and they will come.” I had experienced the power of crowdfunding two years ago when a couple of friends decided to send me to a national journalism convention after I cancelled my plans to attend due to unexpected circumstances. The idea went viral — in less than 24 hours, my friends and friends of friends as well as strangers pitched in $800 for travel. Imagine the overwhelmed feeling!
For “Go to 11,” I decided to offer my writing, editing and digital media skills in exchange for sponsorships, targeting mostly businesses, entrepreneurs and such. Many lessons were learned so far, but the biggest is this: Crowdfunding platforms are only a vehicle, and trying to get support is very much like trying to find a client, an investor or a capital campaign funder. In other words, it’s all about the marketing — and it’s a part-time job.
Gig Harbor artist and Army combat veteran Stephen Ewens confirmed that theory. Ewens used popular platform kickstarter.com this past fall to fund “The Afghan Project,” a series of 10 paintings exploring the emotional and physical challenges of the war, both overseas and at homes, from the perspective of a soldier.
He surpassed his $5,000 by 5 percent, receiving 39 pledges in 30 days. Ewens said he spent as much time publicizing the campaign as it would have taken him to get the money through paid work.
“Crowdfunding isn’t easy but people need to know it’s very possible, very doable,” he said. “It’s allowing the average Joe to follow a dream.”
For him, the formula for success was about having a compelling story — and his is powerful, indeed — then using all available avenues for publicizing it, not only social media but also traditional media such as newspapers and television news. And, of course, friends and family along with the rest of his network played a big part in spreading the word.
He was so inspired by the experience, that in January started a second crowdfunding effort, to fund an art show so he can share the work.
My own effort hasn’t been as successful so far — but it doesn’t end until Jan. 31 so I still have hope — but one insight I can offer, if you’d like to learn from someone else’s mistake. Before taking your idea to the masses, come up with a mini business plan of sorts. Figure out how you’ll promote the effort, who will blow the horn for you, what doors you’ll knock on.
And then, just hit the pavement running, and don’t stop.
Of course we’ve all seen this poster about poor Grandma.
But it could be worse. Here’s a one-sentence email press release I received a few years ago (with names removed to save embarrassment): ”By a vote of 42-3 with 5 abstentions the [District No X] Democrats voted for a Duel Endorsement of [incumbent] and [challenger ] for the US Senate.”
I had to save this email for posterity — once I stopped laughing hysterically. I mean, I knew politics can be murder, but a duel?
If you want your target audience to take you seriously — whether a customer reading your brochure, a fan reading your blog, or an editor reading your press release — don’t give them a reason not to. You don’t have to be a great writer or create perfect copy to look professional, but you can do a few little things to save your precious words (as well as grandmothers and senators) from certain death.
This post from copyblogger that I highly recommend reading lists five of my personal pet peeves that are among commonly made errors (you’re vs. your, its vs. it’s, there vs. their, affect vs. effect and the sneaky dangling participle).
One common mistake missing from that list is entitled vs. titled, which I see commonly used by best-selling authors, big media publishers and PR gurus alike. You could try to argue with your teenager that you’re entitled to his or her attention, but convincing someone that your book, report, song or whatever is entitled to something is pointless, even if it’s cleverly titled.
My Other Pet Peeve is Capitalization. I realize your Idea is so Important that you want to Emphasize it, but using capital letters is not the way to do it. Neither is using ALL CAPS. Neither is using excessive punctuation!!!!! You get the point.
I’m not saying I’m a saint in my own writings. Episiotomy vs. epitome was my all-time low point (in a beautiful magazine story) that made me want to crawl under a rock and hide for a very long time.
I’m simply saying: If English grammar is not your friend, get a second pair of eyeballs to read your prose before you launch it out into the universe. Your grandma will thank you. Maybe even your senator.
If you’ve seen the movie “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” you may remember Kate Hudson coming up with one outrageous dating faux pas after another to make Matthew McConaughey dump her as part of an experiment for her advice column.
Her task was to break up the relationship in 10 days and write about it. But no matter how hard she tried, he wouldn’t let go because, unbeknown to her, he made a bet with friends that she will fall in love with him in the same 10 days.
When you’re trying to get a reporter to cover your story, it’s a little bit like dating. But take my word for it, it doesn’t take 10 days to forever lose your chance at that date.
Here are a few things you can do if you’re really, desperately do not want that story in print (or in cyberspace).
-Do not show up, then do not call to apologize. This actually happened to me twice and one of those time I drove 45 minutes each way for the interview.
Stuff happens, things come up, people forget. It’s no doubt embarrassing to call back if you’ve missed the appointment. Reporters are human too and with a sincere apology, you’ll be back in the dating game. But pretend it never happened, and you can kiss any future coverage good-bye. Nobody likes to have their time wasted.
-Pitch a story and then call back after the interview and ask for it to be held indefinitely. Reporters have compassion too and if you have a solid reason, he or she will likely cooperate if you ask for a hold and have a good reason. Needless to say, if you leave things in limbo and the reporter guessing when you’ll be ready, your story will likely not see the light of day when you finally are.
-Pitch a story then do not give the reporter access to the key people who need to be interviewed. After all, you’re the one who called and reporters get pitches every day. If you asked for a story about your business or project, you need to be prepared to open the door. If you’re not, just send a press release and call it a night.
-Throw a fit if your story didn’t run when you expected, or you weren’t included in a story that interviewed your competitors instead.
My editor once received an extremely irate email from a shop owner who was upset about only being mentioned in a story when similar shops had more detailed information. This person copied several dozen people and blasted the publication and the editors. Although the email was not sent to me directly nor did it mention me as the writer, I have never called the owner back for another interview or quote, nor did I go back to the business, which I loved and patronized.
Bottom line, free publicity is free publicity, whether you get interviewed or mentioned in passing. Is your aggravation worth burning the bridge?
-Pitch the same unique angle or new idea to several competitors. If you have an event or a new business, it’s one thing, but if you are trying to get your story out in all places possible by casting a wide net, what you’ll get is irritated reporters when they see the same story they just finished running in the competing paper.
Choose your top publication first and if you get turned down, move on, or at least mention that you are pitching the same story to the others. The reporter may not care about the competition but giving that notice is simple courtesy and it will earn you trust in the future.
-Spam the reporter with press releases to get coverage. Choose your best angle and pitch it once, politely follow up then let it go.
And if your event was covered once, don’t expect the reporter to jump at every new announcement you make, whether it’s newsworthy or not. Nobody likes to be viewed as the mouthpiece for a cause or organization, no matter how worthy.
-Finally, if you want the reporter to put you on the “do not call again” list, pester him or her when you don’t see the story in print. Reporters don’t love their stories being held by editors either and sometimes they are the last to know when the story runs.
Ask once to understand the editorial scheduling process, check back in after that time has passed, and then just be patient. The writer may already feel frustrated about that story being on hold, no need to add more pressure.
Just like with the dating game, courting a reporter for coverage means you have to put your best foot forward. But for continued success, treat your relationship as if it’s in a perpetual honeymoon phase.
If you’re one of the few people who don’t live on Facebook 16 hours a day, you may still be catching up on the list it released recently of the 40 most-shared articles of the year.
No. 33 on the list, ahead of CNN’s story about the death of Steve Jobs, is a MoneyTalksNews article titled “Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know.” Published on Yahoo Finance, the article was inspired by a Huffington Post list of 20 things that became obsolete this decade.
As we get ready to wrap up 2011 with some gingerbread cookies and eggnog, it seems fitting to revisit the MoneyTalks list of obsoletes.
Although we can only speculate on the Web 51.4.3 universe in which babies born this year will come of age, no one would argue that newsletter classifieds, movie-rental stores and videotapes have gone the way of the horse and buggy. And we can only hope that Yellow Pages and dial-up Internet will be nothing but obscure Wikipedia entries by then.
But a few things on the list are worth reconsidering. Take the idea of never forgetting anything — since all the information is in your pocket inside the handy little device called smartphone, why bother remembering stuff, right?
Say good-bye to math flashcards drilling multiplication facts into your brain, or the pain of remembering your mother’s birthday, or the punchline to that joke about the two men walking into a bar and …ummm… hang on a sec, let me pull out the BlackBerry…
Sounds great in principle. Until you consider what actually happens in the brain when a human uses it for activating memory. Those 100 billion neurons and the 1,000 to 10,000 connections for each neuron didn’t magically appear, after all.
Some studies have shown it is not the size of the brain but rather the number of synapses that gives the human brain its superiority. I’m not suggesting that having information at our fingertips will degrade our brains back to the days of the Homo neanderthalensi (aka Neanderthal man), but I, for one, am not taking any chances in letting the noggin go.
The other item on that list that deserves a little more respect is handwritten letters, or anything else handwritten for that matter.
True, even Uncle Sam sees the handwriting on the wall, pardon the pun, and is trying to get out of the letter-delivery business, or at least downsize it, or maybe outsource it to India.
And it’s perfectly acceptable nowadays to save 44 cents and a hand cramp by ditching the handwritten birthday or Christmas card in favor of a singing, flashing, whirling celebratory sentiment you can send to someone’s email inbox in 15 seconds. Or if you’re trendy, you can post it on someone’s Facebook wall and at the same time discreetly display your thoughtfulness to the world, or at least to the 5,000 of your closest friends.
Trends, convenience and pony express troubles aside, handwriting remains one of the few things that make each one of us unique in this digital, crowd-driven world. This first “technology” that has enabled the human race to begin collecting all that knowledge we now effortlessly store in the cloud is a tradition worth passing on to the next generation.
Not an easy task, indeed. Even the public education system doesn’t think much of cursive writing anymore. Last year, cursive handwriting no longer became mandatory after new common core standards were adopted by most U.S. states including Washington.
By the time the 2011 babies graduate from high school, will pen and paper be replaced by paper-thin digital tablets they can simply talk to and have their thoughts translated into bits and bytes that instantly and wirelessly whoosh off to their destination?
Already, kids are learning to talk and write in code as they prefer to communicate via text-messaging and such. Who wants to try to spell out something like “from the bottom of my heart” when FTBOMH will do. Not even me, TY! IDK y u would.
Even the “words” LOL and OMG officially became part of the Oxford English Dictionary this year. We can see where this is all going.
The saddest item on the list, for me, however, is the end of separation of work and home. I’ve been self-employed out of a home-based office for years so I’ve forgotten long ago what that separation feels like. But maybe I’m kidding myself when I reminisce about those days in an 8-5 job when the time between 5:05 p.m. and 7:55 a.m. was nobody’s business but mine.
So I’d like to offer a toast to the babies born in 2012. May they grow up to still hang on to whatever makes their human spirit tick outside of their digital lives. May they learn to disconnect from all their gadgets once in a while, take a few minutes to write a thank-you card — by hand — or pick up the phone to say hello to a friend instead of firing off a quick text message.
Some old-fashion habits are worth preserving. At least IMHO.
(Reposted from my “journalist in retraining” blog)
(Not) just another gratuitous cat photo. When you're blogging about personal topics, sometimes you feel like the fish in an aquarium.
It’s been more than two months since I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into the blogosphere (I explained my trepidations in an earlier post) and I launched my first official blog, Sandwiched In. That doesn’t make me an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I did come up with some conclusions so far.
First of all, I can see why so many blogs are floating out there, tossed into the cyberlandfill like disposable utensils. Blogging is work, no matter if you’re writing about your cat or about the latest tech gadget — you have to put in the time, and you have to be disciplined about it.
Unless you’re an expert in a specific field, coming up with a topic is half the battle, and suddenly it makes sense why the going advice is to base the blog on something you’re passionate about. It’s hard as it is to keep up the writing unless you have nothing better to do, and if you don’t care about the topic, it’s even worse than pulling teeth.
During a recent discussion with some MCDM colleagues about challenges and lessons learned from our blogs, a few common themes emerged. We all found that posts that were emotional and somewhat universal attracted the most comments.
In my case, the post was about my father’s worsening condition and the knowledge that he’s at the end of his life. I received a lot of comments on the blog and social media channels, and some of the comments described the post as intense.
And that’s exactly what it felt like when I was writing it. The intensity and the raw emotion drove me to tears by the time I was done with it, more than two hours later. I considered not posting it, unsure whether I wanted that raw emotion out there.
The post was not revealing any personal information yet it was intensely personal on a different level, and I struggled with the decision of whether it should be shared or not. The response surprised me: The universal theme struck a chord and I think the readers felt my emotions.
I know that I can’t reproduce that intensity, nor am I willing to let raw emotion drive every post, but it was certainly a great learning experience. We’ve discussed a lot of theory in class about what makes a good narrative, and “authentic” and “emotions” are some of the buzz words.
A narrative that was truly authentic and evoked emotion seemed to have worked well, but the trick is to find a balance with the blog so not every post requires such intense writing while still keeping the appeal. Finding that balance and the right “voice” for the blog will be a matter of trial and error over time.
Now, for the real challenge: Keeping the writing up after it’s no longer required for the class.
Today I surrender.
I have resisted becoming a citizen of the blogosphere for some time, though in the interest of full disclosure I should mention I did throw in the towel once, a few months ago. The euphoria lasted for five posts, and then I went about my daily business.
Someone I met recently wondered how can I be a blogless writer. Writers have much to say, people would argue. Writing is already a piece of cake for them. They could blog in their sleep. They are WRITERS, for crying out loud!
It’s all true.
There’s just one little thing. Actually, many many little things.
For a professional writer like me, who spends as many as 10 hours some days writing on deadline, blogging at the end of the day is like being a chef and coming home after a busy shift, having to cook a gourmet meal for the family. It’s simpler to just order the pizza! (You guessed it, it’s the proverbial “cobbler without shoes” idea.)
My byline’s all over the place, so I don’t have to get that out of my system. And I’m sure what I have to personally say is not that important to the universe. (Actually, as a trained journalist, I had to promise I would never EVER let my opinion influence my writing, so help me God.)
But the most important little thing is this: Writers are (or should be) held to higher standards when it comes to any written musing or correspondence — as one of my Facebook friend reminds me, proofread, proofread! That means every blogpost by a writer is a resume, a “writing clip,” pardon the antiquated jargon (yes, I know what century we’re in).
But enough about the little things. I’m here.
A social media guru I interviewed a few months ago said everybody who’s somebody is blogging, tweeting, facebooking etc etc. Anybody who doesn’t get on the bandwagon soon will be left behind, he insisted. Of course, we didn’t get to discussing much the logistical nightmares that creates: It’s mighty crowded on the road to “somebodydom” and traffic jams are bad for deadlines.
Speaking of deadlines, I should get going. My editors don’t care that I got distracted getting a ticket for this bandwagon.
Oh yes, you may wonder: What the heck will she be blogging about?
Good question. I’ll let you know.
If you don’t want to guess, and I don’t blame you considering the blogosphere traffic, I know this much at this moment (terms and conditions may change without notice): I’ll share my thoughts about writing, journalism, the joys and tribulations of being self-employed (or, literally, a small business), some tips, and personal adventures of being a mother to three boys (think two teens and a preschooler), living in a three-generational, cross-cultural home, trying to go back to school for graduate studies 15 years later than I should have – and certainly any other random observations I can fit in between the other, paying deadlines.
Yes, I know I’ve violated rule number whatever of blogging: Keep it short. Give me a break, I’m a writer — what did you expect?
