If you are a true Trekkie, don't click on the link, as this is certainly going to offend you..."
Actually, if you are a true Trekkie, you would call yourself a Trekker, and spend several hundred hours defending this naming convention in various news groups, and in arguments with actors who may have once appeared on the damn show.
I wouldn't call this a Digg killer, at all. This isn't a zero-sum situation where Digg must fail for Netscape News to succeed, or vice versa. If you're in ad sales, of it you have some personal vendetta against one company or the other, I guess you could view it that way, but from a user standpoint, what's the big deal?
Complaining about the interface is a little silly, too. Clearly, Digg is doing something right, if another site wants to use a similar design, because that makes it _easier_for_the_users_. How is that a bad thing?
Ultimately, the users will go where they're happiest, and where they feel their time is best invested. For some, that will be Digg; for others, it will be Netscape News. I suspect that, for most, it will be a combination of them both.
Disclosure: I write for CardSquad.com, which is a WIN blog.
I see a lot of this illusion of competition among bloggers who are obsessed with Technorati and Alexa rankings, and seem to think that if someone reads their blog and another blog that's similar in nature, they're somehow losing something. Frankly, I just don't get that. As I said in my quoted comment, I don't see how this is a zero-sum situation. Does it diminish Digg's importance because I also read Reddit, Fantacular, and (until it vanished) 180News? Of course not.
Personally, I view this new Netscape News site as a hybrid of Slashdot, Digg, and TotalFark. Those are three of my favorite sites on the Internets, for entirely different reasons: Digg is great for breaking news and links, Slashdot is great for intelligent conversation (uh, at +5, anyway) and TotalFark is great for boobies and beer. I go where my mood takes me, and always leave happy.
I really like the channels at Netscape News, so I can read science and sports stories, while ignoring all the celebrity bullshit that is sure to populate the front page. That is what's so great about all these sites, and the philosophy behind them: the users not only get to determine what's featured (guided in some cases by editors) but we also get to determine what we read, or even see. We get news and information that's relevant to each of us, and we have several different formats from which to collect it.
Now listen kids, heres the idea... Just because Digg came up with a great idea, that people love, does not mean that other sites cannot use the concept. The idea of voting for what is hot and what is not has been around for a very long time and just because I turned it into a news based format does not mean that I had the idea first. So, just back right off all the Digg clones and accept the fact that people are able to use and visit more than one website on the internet at a time. I love you guys... You are my best fanboys!"
All of these sites can clearly co-exist, just as major newspapers and magazines have for decades.
For a website that spends so much time and energy combating FUD from Microsoft, and the MPAA and RIAA, it is baffling that FUD that was paid for and is pushed by the oil industry would make the front page here.
I am a huge Numbers Station geek, and I've been known to listen to the Conet Project just for fun at parties, shortly before I'm asked to leave. So I've been following this story on the Spy Numbers mailing list for at least two weeks, now. If you're intrigued by this mystery, you will probably love the resources at SpyNumbers.com, or the Enigma2000 group at Yahoo.
Anyway, my prediction: The next message will be posted on Craigslist for Boston. The first message announced Group 415, and the second message was posted on Craigslist for San Francisco.
The second message announces group 617, which means the next message will probably show up on Craigslist for Boston. If that proves to be true, it is 99% certain that this is just a prank, or something being done by amateurs having a bit of fun. There's no way a real spook or someone sending messages of any importance would use a scheme that some piker like me can figure out.
So what's going on here? Eh. If there's anything really in there, now that it's been on Slashdot and boingboing, it's quite likely to be cracked within a few days, unless it's encrypted with a one time pad. Whatever it is, part of me is afraid that it's part of that stupid DaVinci Code promotion, and the same part of me hopes that it's somehow related to the Hanso Foundation.
Or maybe Publius has finally returned . . . are there any Pink Floyd albums coming out soon?
I am sick to death of remakes, but this one could actually not totally suck.
It's got Johnny Depp, who I think is a fantastic actor, and probably the only actor working today who can bring this character (who is rightfully linked forever to Gene Wilder) to life in a way that honors Dahl's vision, as well as all of our collective memories of the original. (I shudder to think what would happen if an actor like Jim Carey or Will Farrell got this role -- I'm sure they'd be funny, but they'd bring so much of themselves to the role, it would distracting.)
I also think the kid playing Charlie is brilliant, and I've been a fan of Tim Burton's since Frankenweenie.
Nothing will ever replace the original movie, but this particular film could be the only remake in the last several years tp actually be a good time on its own.
I like to write at my desk, when the family is gone (which they usually are during my working hours). Occasionally, I'll take my powerbook out to the backyard, or to a park, or some other "change of scenery" location.
I've also found that sometimes music works, and sometimes it doesn't. When I worked on the first draft of Just A Geek, I listened to Dark at the End of the Tunnel on repeat, but when I did the final draft, I listened to Rattle and Hum, Dark side of the Moon, Zeppelin IV, and Abbey Road.
When I write for The Onion, I usually listen to Ethel 47 on XM, if I listen to anything at all.
It was the 138th Episode Spectacular, not 100th. C'mon Wil, you should know that one.
D'oh!
I have gone and inadvertently revealed my connection to super-secret, unreleased classic episodes of the Simpsons, which are always delivered to me by Jenna Jameson, who gives me a handjob before she leaves.
While you boycott me, you can spend your time watching the episode where they fill the Super Bowl and reenact Noah's Ark . . . or the episode where they name the Comic Book Guy . . . or that one episode where Homer mysteriously gets some new wacky job and they end the whole episode with a song and dance number.
I'll be watching Marge Vs. The Monorail, Last Exit to Springfield, and the 100th Episode Spectacular.
And Family Guy.
to you I say Good Day Sir!
I say GOOD Day.
Oh. I didn't realize I'd upset you so much . . . did you want your fizzy lifting drinks back?
Re:traditional channels for creative artists
on
Wil Wheaton Strikes Back
·
· Score: 4, Informative
You seem to miss one big point in this answer. You already had some "fame" gained from a time working through the conventional distribution channels to leverage when going DIY.
I agree with you. As a result of my acting career, I started the climb already a few steps up the mountain. However, keep in mind that I was hoping to climb up as a writer, when the few people who knew me only knew of me as an actor. In the traditional world, that hurt me, because almost every time a "celebrity" tries to be a writer, the results are disastrous. And though an argument could be made that I had a built-in audience because of my blog, by the time I published Dancing Barefoot, I'd been updating my blog daily for two years -- I think I'd paid a few dues -- and I think most of the people who would have been interested in buying a book I wrote weren't there because of the "You used to be on TV" novelty factor. In fact, my market research confirms that: People expecting Star Trek stories from me were unhappy with both my books, while people who expected narrative non-fiction stories like my blog were satisfied.
It's the same as when I hear people talk about Prince releasing his albums himself to his fanclub or whatever. "Just sell it direct, then you don't pay the label/studio a huge chunk of YOUR income, you don't lose creative control, etc".
Well... yes. But the thing is, the traditional channels don't just distribute, they promote. It's rather hard to compete with that.
You are completely correct about promotion -- it's the most important part of the whole equation. If you don't have promotion, you're doomed. This is subjective, but heavily-promoted crap (see albums: Idol, American) often does better than non-crap that doesn't get much promotional support (see albums: Doughty, Mike), simply because more people know about it. But remember what I said in my answer: the artist (musician, photographer, writer, actor, filmmaker, etc) is going to be responsible for nearly all the promotion, no matter what the publisher (or label, or whatever) promises you during negotiations. Once your work is out there, nobody will work as hard as you to promote it. Ever. And don't just take my word for that; ask any real author and they'll you the same thing (at least that's what they all told me.)
Here's how I did it with Dancing Barefoot: I thought of it as a "sleeper" release that would live or die based on word of mouth. I believed I had a product that didn't suck, but I didn't have a lot of money to promote it, so I did a limited release (just through my blog) and hoped that people would like it, and tell their friends about it. This is similar to the plan Columbia used with Stand By Me, and Miramax used with Swingers (though they had bigger budgets than I did, the underlying philosophy was the same.) I studied books about self-publishing, and books about marketing, and I set my prices and all that stuff according to what I learned. I got lucky, and it worked. It was a success, and along the way, I built an audience for the next book (which was the plan all along. I'd hoped that enough people would like Dancing Barefoot to give Just A Geek a chance.) With Just A Geek, I expected promotion and support from the publisher to go beyond the existing audience I'd built (that's why I traded away a huge chunk of my profits and gave up my creative control I felt it was an equitable trade for a vastly expanded audience and more robust promotional machine), and it never happened. In fact, when I tried to promote myself and my book in a way that would expand the audience, I ran into so much resistance, I eventually just gave up.
Imagine that you play in a band, and you build a loyal following by touring and playing in clubs every weekend. Maybe you got lucky and opened for a big act a few times, and got to play the side stage at a festival. People know about you, but they keep talking about you because you make music they enjoy. A label tells you tha
I love it when I say something, someone interprets it through their own filter, hears what they want to hear, and flames me based upon their misunderstanding. (Yeah, I read the parent.)
So, Fox_1 is correct. I enjoyed the first Matrix film enough to buy the DVD and I've watched it several times. I could care less about the supposedly deep philisophical implications of the movie (other than knowing that there's no spoon there's good Zen wisdom in that bit, I think.) I just thought it was a cool movie to look at, and the story didn't insult my intelligence.
The sequels were so fucking horrible, I wanted to find a spoon and gouge out my eyes with it . . . until I realized that there was no spoon, and I was able to go home and kill the memory with some Arrogant Bastard Ale.
But, you know, Mr. WTF, you go ahead and believe what you want to believe. You've clearly got a lot invested in it.
You say that you worked on Just A Geek for two years, which for many of us with first-person-shooter attention spans is roughly equivalent to three generations. During that time, how did you maintain your focus?
Just A Geek is a special case. I wasn't afraid to take my time with it because the story is very personal, and the writing process was very therapeutic. That book is, I think, about a journey of self-discovery, so I pretty much looked in the mirror and wrote about what I saw. (Incidentally, I owe Cory Doctorow a huge debt of gratitude. He was kind enough to read a very early (not so good) draft, and advised me to "show" more than "tell." I took that advice to heart, and I believe that the book is much better than it would have been without it.) Because I was more-or-less narrating scenes from my life, I could write until I got tired or bored, and pick up where I left off the next day.
When I write now, it's very different, especially when I work on fiction. I have treat it like a job, with set hours and deadlines, and I have to write whether I feel like it or not. It's just too easy to get lazy and goof off otherwise.
The schedule that works for me is to get up between 6 and 7, eat breakfast, read my bloglines subscriptions, and maybe write in my own blog a little bit. I start working on my current project around 9, and write straight through until noon. Occasionally, I will write a little bit longer, but I've found that this schedule results in more useful final material than if I go for epic 8 hour sessions, or if I just do a couple of hours here and there over the course of a few weeks. I write at least 5 days a week, and usually take the weekends to recharge and enjoy time with my family.
Do you use long-suffering friends as test-readers? Is an editor really needed for someone who wants to self-publish, or is the criticism of friends and family enough? Do you tend to write as a stream of consciousness and then edit, or are you more like P.G. Wodehouse (the greatest humourous author who ever lived, IMHO) who would paste crooked typewritten pages on the walls of his room, only straightening them when they were perfect?
Stephen King says to write the first draft with the door closed, and that's what I do. I may talk a little bit about some scenes with a few friends or my wife, but I keep most of it to myself. The only person who gets to see the first draft is my editor, Andrew. He and I talk about what is working and what isn't, and his advice results in version 1.1, which gets passed around to the same friends I talk with when I'm working on the first draft. I take all their advice to heart, work on the next draft, and give it to Andrew for notes that end up being hte final draft. I couldn't work without the help and input from a few trusted friends and my wife, but ultimately, I have to trust my instincts and know to trust Andrew's advice when I get too close to the material to be objective. I will rewrite something forever until I'm happy with it, but eventually I just have to let it go before I over-work it. That's the hardest thing for me.
Oh, and since I don't think I made it clear: an editor is essential. If you can get a copy editor, proofreader, and style-editor in one person, you're very lucky. If you find someone you work well with, don't ever let them go.
haha, how about this one; why don't you post in your/. journal anymore?
For a brief time, I toyed with the idea of putting all my computer-related thoughts here, my political thoughts at dailykos, and my los angles-related thoughts at blogging.la, but then I decided that it was stupid to do all that, when I could just put them all on my blog.
I still post to blogging.la from time to time, but other than that, I pretty much stay in my own yard at WWdN.
Oh, and I do *all* my goofing off at totalfark, and occasionally UltraFark.
It's just going to be too weird to play a C=64 game that doesn't say
+_+ CRACKED BY THE FANTASTIC FOUR +_+
*** CALL OUR BBS FOR MORE! ***
*** TWO LINES! 1200 BAUD! ***
*** JOHN IS A HOMO! HAHAHA! ***
when it starts up. What will the kids of today think about classic gaming? That people actually paid for their games back then? I mean, if we're going for authenticity, let's go all the way, people.
I didn't see anything about viewers. In other words I suspect that your worries will turn out to be founded
When I was at G4, The Viewers were the last thing on management's mind. There were some executives who actually had a great deal of contempt for "those stupid gamers."
It's like that in most of television, though. The Viewer is just a potential sale for the advertiser. What The Viewer thinks just isn't important to The Company.
In this age of mega-mergers and vertically integrated companies who control distribution and content, they don't have to give a flying fuck about The Viewer, so they don't.
Of course Wesley would know. Saving the day again, are we?
Hey, you gotta know where your strengths are, and use them.
By the way, your matter / anti-matter influx is slightly off. You need to reverse the flow for.004 seconds, but don't forget to compensate for the inertial dampeners.
That one's free. The next one you have to pay for. These orange sweaters ain't cheap, you know.
Slashdot Mirror
If you are a true Trekkie, don't click on the link, as this is certainly going to offend you..."
Actually, if you are a true Trekkie, you would call yourself a Trekker, and spend several hundred hours defending this naming convention in various news groups, and in arguments with actors who may have once appeared on the damn show.
Trust me on this; I'm sort of an authority.
I say we resurrect him.
Then we stomp him.
Then we tattoo him.
Then we hang him.
Then we kill him.
I agree. I wrote at Digg:I see a lot of this illusion of competition among bloggers who are obsessed with Technorati and Alexa rankings, and seem to think that if someone reads their blog and another blog that's similar in nature, they're somehow losing something. Frankly, I just don't get that. As I said in my quoted comment, I don't see how this is a zero-sum situation. Does it diminish Digg's importance because I also read Reddit, Fantacular, and (until it vanished) 180News? Of course not.
Personally, I view this new Netscape News site as a hybrid of Slashdot, Digg, and TotalFark. Those are three of my favorite sites on the Internets, for entirely different reasons: Digg is great for breaking news and links, Slashdot is great for intelligent conversation (uh, at +5, anyway) and TotalFark is great for boobies and beer. I go where my mood takes me, and always leave happy.
I really like the channels at Netscape News, so I can read science and sports stories, while ignoring all the celebrity bullshit that is sure to populate the front page. That is what's so great about all these sites, and the philosophy behind them: the users not only get to determine what's featured (guided in some cases by editors) but we also get to determine what we read, or even see. We get news and information that's relevant to each of us, and we have several different formats from which to collect it.
Heh. As I've been writing this, I see that Kevin Rose said something similar:All of these sites can clearly co-exist, just as major newspapers and magazines have for decades.
NASA should really change Opportunity's name the T-1000.
For a website that spends so much time and energy combating FUD from Microsoft, and the MPAA and RIAA, it is baffling that FUD that was paid for and is pushed by the oil industry would make the front page here.
Come on, Slashdot. You can do better.
Well if anyone can come up with a unexpected and creative solution to that problem, it's you :)
Yeah, just reverse the polarity on your firewall, and send an inverse tachyon pulse on a rotating Heisenberg frequency spread though port 228.
But that's, like, second semester Academy stuff, so don't be too impressed.
So Genuine Advantage needs to contact the mothership in order to be told that it's broken and needs to terminate?
Wow. Windows users really have been assimilated.
I am a huge Numbers Station geek, and I've been known to listen to the Conet Project just for fun at parties, shortly before I'm asked to leave. So I've been following this story on the Spy Numbers mailing list for at least two weeks, now. If you're intrigued by this mystery, you will probably love the resources at SpyNumbers.com, or the Enigma2000 group at Yahoo.
Anyway, my prediction: The next message will be posted on Craigslist for Boston. The first message announced Group 415, and the second message was posted on Craigslist for San Francisco.
The second message announces group 617, which means the next message will probably show up on Craigslist for Boston. If that proves to be true, it is 99% certain that this is just a prank, or something being done by amateurs having a bit of fun. There's no way a real spook or someone sending messages of any importance would use a scheme that some piker like me can figure out.
So what's going on here? Eh. If there's anything really in there, now that it's been on Slashdot and boingboing, it's quite likely to be cracked within a few days, unless it's encrypted with a one time pad. Whatever it is, part of me is afraid that it's part of that stupid DaVinci Code promotion, and the same part of me hopes that it's somehow related to the Hanso Foundation.
Or maybe Publius has finally returned . . . are there any Pink Floyd albums coming out soon?
Looks like the mafia boss was pretty 1337 ;)
Wouldn't he be 47710?
I am sick to death of remakes, but this one could actually not totally suck.
It's got Johnny Depp, who I think is a fantastic actor, and probably the only actor working today who can bring this character (who is rightfully linked forever to Gene Wilder) to life in a way that honors Dahl's vision, as well as all of our collective memories of the original. (I shudder to think what would happen if an actor like Jim Carey or Will Farrell got this role -- I'm sure they'd be funny, but they'd bring so much of themselves to the role, it would distracting.)
I also think the kid playing Charlie is brilliant, and I've been a fan of Tim Burton's since Frankenweenie.
Nothing will ever replace the original movie, but this particular film could be the only remake in the last several years tp actually be a good time on its own.
I like to write at my desk, when the family is gone (which they usually are during my working hours). Occasionally, I'll take my powerbook out to the backyard, or to a park, or some other "change of scenery" location.
I've also found that sometimes music works, and sometimes it doesn't. When I worked on the first draft of Just A Geek, I listened to Dark at the End of the Tunnel on repeat, but when I did the final draft, I listened to Rattle and Hum, Dark side of the Moon, Zeppelin IV, and Abbey Road.
When I write for The Onion, I usually listen to Ethel 47 on XM, if I listen to anything at all.
It was the 138th Episode Spectacular, not 100th. C'mon Wil, you should know that one.
D'oh!
I have gone and inadvertently revealed my connection to super-secret, unreleased classic episodes of the Simpsons, which are always delivered to me by Jenna Jameson, who gives me a handjob before she leaves.
Please don't tell anyone.
That tears it you punk. I will boycott you . . .
While you boycott me, you can spend your time watching the episode where they fill the Super Bowl and reenact Noah's Ark . . . or the episode where they name the Comic Book Guy . . . or that one episode where Homer mysteriously gets some new wacky job and they end the whole episode with a song and dance number.
I'll be watching Marge Vs. The Monorail, Last Exit to Springfield, and the 100th Episode Spectacular.
And Family Guy.
to you I say Good Day Sir!
I say GOOD Day.
Oh. I didn't realize I'd upset you so much . . . did you want your fizzy lifting drinks back?
You seem to miss one big point in this answer. You already had some "fame" gained from a time working through the conventional distribution channels to leverage when going DIY.
I agree with you. As a result of my acting career, I started the climb already a few steps up the mountain. However, keep in mind that I was hoping to climb up as a writer, when the few people who knew me only knew of me as an actor. In the traditional world, that hurt me, because almost every time a "celebrity" tries to be a writer, the results are disastrous. And though an argument could be made that I had a built-in audience because of my blog, by the time I published Dancing Barefoot, I'd been updating my blog daily for two years -- I think I'd paid a few dues -- and I think most of the people who would have been interested in buying a book I wrote weren't there because of the "You used to be on TV" novelty factor. In fact, my market research confirms that: People expecting Star Trek stories from me were unhappy with both my books, while people who expected narrative non-fiction stories like my blog were satisfied.
It's the same as when I hear people talk about Prince releasing his albums himself to his fanclub or whatever. "Just sell it direct, then you don't pay the label/studio a huge chunk of YOUR income, you don't lose creative control, etc".
Well... yes. But the thing is, the traditional channels don't just distribute, they promote. It's rather hard to compete with that.
You are completely correct about promotion -- it's the most important part of the whole equation. If you don't have promotion, you're doomed. This is subjective, but heavily-promoted crap (see albums: Idol, American) often does better than non-crap that doesn't get much promotional support (see albums: Doughty, Mike), simply because more people know about it. But remember what I said in my answer: the artist (musician, photographer, writer, actor, filmmaker, etc) is going to be responsible for nearly all the promotion, no matter what the publisher (or label, or whatever) promises you during negotiations. Once your work is out there, nobody will work as hard as you to promote it. Ever. And don't just take my word for that; ask any real author and they'll you the same thing (at least that's what they all told me.)
Here's how I did it with Dancing Barefoot: I thought of it as a "sleeper" release that would live or die based on word of mouth. I believed I had a product that didn't suck, but I didn't have a lot of money to promote it, so I did a limited release (just through my blog) and hoped that people would like it, and tell their friends about it. This is similar to the plan Columbia used with Stand By Me, and Miramax used with Swingers (though they had bigger budgets than I did, the underlying philosophy was the same.) I studied books about self-publishing, and books about marketing, and I set my prices and all that stuff according to what I learned. I got lucky, and it worked. It was a success, and along the way, I built an audience for the next book (which was the plan all along. I'd hoped that enough people would like Dancing Barefoot to give Just A Geek a chance.) With Just A Geek, I expected promotion and support from the publisher to go beyond the existing audience I'd built (that's why I traded away a huge chunk of my profits and gave up my creative control I felt it was an equitable trade for a vastly expanded audience and more robust promotional machine), and it never happened. In fact, when I tried to promote myself and my book in a way that would expand the audience, I ran into so much resistance, I eventually just gave up.
Imagine that you play in a band, and you build a loyal following by touring and playing in clubs every weekend. Maybe you got lucky and opened for a big act a few times, and got to play the side stage at a festival. People know about you, but they keep talking about you because you make music they enjoy. A label tells you tha
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
I love it when I say something, someone interprets it through their own filter, hears what they want to hear, and flames me based upon their misunderstanding. (Yeah, I read the parent.)
So, Fox_1 is correct. I enjoyed the first Matrix film enough to buy the DVD and I've watched it several times. I could care less about the supposedly deep philisophical implications of the movie (other than knowing that there's no spoon there's good Zen wisdom in that bit, I think.) I just thought it was a cool movie to look at, and the story didn't insult my intelligence.
The sequels were so fucking horrible, I wanted to find a spoon and gouge out my eyes with it . . . until I realized that there was no spoon, and I was able to go home and kill the memory with some Arrogant Bastard Ale.
But, you know, Mr. WTF, you go ahead and believe what you want to believe. You've clearly got a lot invested in it.
You say that you worked on Just A Geek for two years, which for many of us with first-person-shooter attention spans is roughly equivalent to three generations. During that time, how did you maintain your focus?
Just A Geek is a special case. I wasn't afraid to take my time with it because the story is very personal, and the writing process was very therapeutic. That book is, I think, about a journey of self-discovery, so I pretty much looked in the mirror and wrote about what I saw. (Incidentally, I owe Cory Doctorow a huge debt of gratitude. He was kind enough to read a very early (not so good) draft, and advised me to "show" more than "tell." I took that advice to heart, and I believe that the book is much better than it would have been without it.) Because I was more-or-less narrating scenes from my life, I could write until I got tired or bored, and pick up where I left off the next day.
When I write now, it's very different, especially when I work on fiction. I have treat it like a job, with set hours and deadlines, and I have to write whether I feel like it or not. It's just too easy to get lazy and goof off otherwise.
The schedule that works for me is to get up between 6 and 7, eat breakfast, read my bloglines subscriptions, and maybe write in my own blog a little bit. I start working on my current project around 9, and write straight through until noon. Occasionally, I will write a little bit longer, but I've found that this schedule results in more useful final material than if I go for epic 8 hour sessions, or if I just do a couple of hours here and there over the course of a few weeks. I write at least 5 days a week, and usually take the weekends to recharge and enjoy time with my family.
Do you use long-suffering friends as test-readers? Is an editor really needed for someone who wants to self-publish, or is the criticism of friends and family enough? Do you tend to write as a stream of consciousness and then edit, or are you more like P.G. Wodehouse (the greatest humourous author who ever lived, IMHO) who would paste crooked typewritten pages on the walls of his room, only straightening them when they were perfect?
Stephen King says to write the first draft with the door closed, and that's what I do. I may talk a little bit about some scenes with a few friends or my wife, but I keep most of it to myself. The only person who gets to see the first draft is my editor, Andrew. He and I talk about what is working and what isn't, and his advice results in version 1.1, which gets passed around to the same friends I talk with when I'm working on the first draft. I take all their advice to heart, work on the next draft, and give it to Andrew for notes that end up being hte final draft. I couldn't work without the help and input from a few trusted friends and my wife, but ultimately, I have to trust my instincts and know to trust Andrew's advice when I get too close to the material to be objective. I will rewrite something forever until I'm happy with it, but eventually I just have to let it go before I over-work it. That's the hardest thing for me.
Oh, and since I don't think I made it clear: an editor is essential. If you can get a copy editor, proofreader, and style-editor in one person, you're very lucky. If you find someone you work well with, don't ever let them go.
This is a great idea and everything, but it will never work.
No matter how hard I try, I can't grow a goatee.
haha, how about this one; why don't you post in your /. journal anymore?
For a brief time, I toyed with the idea of putting all my computer-related thoughts here, my political thoughts at dailykos, and my los angles-related thoughts at blogging.la, but then I decided that it was stupid to do all that, when I could just put them all on my blog.
I still post to blogging.la from time to time, but other than that, I pretty much stay in my own yard at WWdN.
Oh, and I do *all* my goofing off at totalfark, and occasionally UltraFark.
Do you use pepper spray, tear gas, or mace on people you meet on the street who call you Wesley Crusher?
Oh I'll take this one right now:
Yes.
It's just going to be too weird to play a C=64 game that doesn't say
+_+ CRACKED BY THE FANTASTIC FOUR +_+
*** CALL OUR BBS FOR MORE! ***
*** TWO LINES! 1200 BAUD! ***
*** JOHN IS A HOMO! HAHAHA! ***
when it starts up. What will the kids of today think about classic gaming? That people actually paid for their games back then? I mean, if we're going for authenticity, let's go all the way, people.
Please, think of the children.
It's about time some one makes this.
I've been hoping for this movie since I read the book in 1989.
I'm glad they waited until now, though, because I'm old enough to actually be in it.
Well, old enough to audition for it, anyway.
I didn't see anything about viewers. In other words I suspect that your worries will turn out to be founded
When I was at G4, The Viewers were the last thing on management's mind. There were some executives who actually had a great deal of contempt for "those stupid gamers."
It's like that in most of television, though. The Viewer is just a potential sale for the advertiser. What The Viewer thinks just isn't important to The Company.
In this age of mega-mergers and vertically integrated companies who control distribution and content, they don't have to give a flying fuck about The Viewer, so they don't.
Of course Wesley would know. Saving the day again, are we?
.004 seconds, but don't forget to compensate for the inertial dampeners.
Hey, you gotta know where your strengths are, and use them.
By the way, your matter / anti-matter influx is slightly off. You need to reverse the flow for
That one's free. The next one you have to pay for. These orange sweaters ain't cheap, you know.
To live in a house without a bathroom.
Hey, there was ONE bathroom on the Enterprise D. It's near Engineering, behind the hamster wheel.