Wired News: Delete Your Bad Web Rep

Want to get rid of that flame war between you and 1TuffMother on the ilovekittens.com discussion forum?  How about that a-little-too-friendly announcement you posted to MySpace at 4AM after a hard night of drinking?  Need to restore a shattered digital ethos?  ReputationDefender may be the product for you.

While the ReputationDefender methodology (a combination of software search agents and what Wired describes as “good old-fashioned human Detective skills”) sounds good in principle, there are a few inherent problems with this:

1. I doubt the technology is sophisticated enough to retrieve emails from client computers.  You know those notes you sent to the the marketing division calling your boss a waste of perfectly good carbon?  Not gonna get em’ back.
2. Since this was a product designed for kids, I’d like to see some examples of what the designers consider to be “potentially damaging postings to social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.”  All comments posted to these sites are potentially incriminating.  It’s a site designed for networking, and most users are bound to have at least one nitwit linked to their buddy list.  I wonder what makes a post “potentially damaging.”  Cursewords?  Pictures of juvey tats? Bad poetry? Unreadable Internet slang?  Take that away and you take away MySpace.  Wait, maybe that’s a good thing …. 
3. I’m a little skeptical that McDonalds or WalMart is going to go digging through MySpace looking for incriminating comments in order to keep a teen from getting their first job.  I think the Fresh Prince said it best in Parents Don’t Understand: “You’re only sixteen, you don’t have a rep yet.”  Careerbuilder says that 1 out of 10 hiring managers looks on a social networking site to check out potential employees.  Might this time be better spent on a little extra face to face time?  Don’t judge a person based solely on his MySpace heroes.  If Gallagher and 50-Cent are the primary role models in a young person’s life, then who’s to say that young person cannot be a productive member of society? 
4. The consequence of public communication is something I think is best learned early.  Understanding that anyone in the world with a computer can access your most recent blog posting is a lesson any up-and-coming Internet social journalist should pay attention to.  Maybe one day these folks will remember this and think carefully before “replying-all” to a LISTSERV with 3,000 members bragging about their latest romantic conquests.  ReputationDefender says, “It’s okay.  Be as asinine and immature as you want.  When you’re done, we’ll write a nasty legal letter and see if we can purge it all out.  No harm, no foul.”
5. Not surprisingly, the blame is shifted away from the true source of the problem (those users posting the offending material and, in some cases, their parents) to the service providers hosting the content.  What is really needed here is better parental monitoring of computer time (and there is good technology for this) and a heart-to-heart talk about how posting to the Net is different than talking with your two buddies at the lunchroom table. 

Link to Wired News: Delete Your Bad Web Rep

NaNoWriMo Day 5/30: Sunday Blues

Got my fun writing on my new novel done early today, which I’m a little sad about Too much work to do this afternoon and evening. I am now perched on a respectable nest of 8,444 words though, and Tim’s world is looking better than ever. Writing has been pretty consistent, and I’m only going back and making edits when there are logistical issues that require changing some prior page of exposition. It is a struggle to stop at my daily 1,667 words, but that’s probably a good thing. I need to build up some momentum to get me through Week 2, and I don’t want to exhaust all my fun ideas this week.

I guess I can always find a way to hack into Berserker’s WordPress account and find a way to steal some of his ideas if I get stuck. All his talk about hacked voting machines really has me thinking….

DVD Review: RV (2006)

I must have really bad taste in films.  Good thing I’m not over in the Film Department half of our school.  Carole and I watched RV last night — you know, the movie with Robin Williams as the Type-A worker bee who drags his family along in a ginormous RV on a business trip under the guise of a bonding family vacation?  This movie got really awful reviews from both users and critics on RottenTomatoes.  Worse even than The Omen, which I also thought was not too bad.  Maybe it’s something about the expectations I have for these movies; I’m not putting a whole lot of stock into them, so when I actually get around to watching them on DVD, I’m sometimes pleasantly surprised.  Such was the case with RV.

Thing is, I thought this movie was hilarious.  I always love physical comedy, even if the plot is ridiculous or underdeveloped, and Robin Williams can do physical comedy like a champ.  Like Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation, poor Robin keeps digging himself deeper and deeper.  Something about seeing someone who has it worse than I do, I think, is the key here.  Aside from his homeboy/white boy from the hood routine (which Steve Martin also did to ridiculous effect in Bringing Down the House) I was laughing pretty much through the whole movie.  It was good to see Jeff Daniels again, and it’s also nice to see Will Arnett and Tony Hale in something again (I was sad to have learned about the series Arrested Development recently, on DVD).  I also deeply identified with the lack of sleep Robin’s character experienced.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of slapstick comedy and don’t take it too seriously, I think you might get a kick out of RV. 

The Good: The scenes where poor old Robin had to empty out the septic tank and where he had to try and maneuver the metal behemoth through Diablo Pass had me in stitches. 

The Bad: I’m a little tired of the “fully-grown-upper-middle-class-white-man-acts-like-a-homey-from-the-hood routine” which I guess some people think is funny.  I have to disagree.  Martin’s version was bad, but almost bearable.  Williams’ version was even worse.

Grade: A-

Brighton Goes to the Park

It was a beautiful day yesterday, so we took Brighton to the park. He enjoyed the swings, and would have liked to eat some of the rubber pseudo-mulch, I think, but he mainly just concentrated on his thumb and pacifier.

NaNoWriMo Day 4/30: Day of the Beast

With Bonus DVD Review: The Omen (2006)

In honor of today’s writing goal (6,668 words) Carole and I finished watching the remake of The Omen last night.  This was supposed to be part of our Halloween Movie Marathon last weekend, but it turns out you need at least an entire week to watch movies with a baby.  Especially movies like The Omen, which might be a little mature for a .25 year old.  It was definitely not a great movie, but it didn’t seem to be as bad as the folks over at Rotten Tomato seemed to think.  There was some beautiful cinematography, and they managed to find the creepiest kid alive for the role of Damien.  I never saw the original, for some reason, but I remember hearing about it as a kid.  One of those movies mom and dad wouldn’t let me watch growing up.  Ha!  Can’t stop me now, can you mom?!

The Good: Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (the boy who played Damien) and Mia Farrow were both super-creepy.

The Bad: I wasn’t overly impressed with Liev or Julia.  The monkeys and apes in the zoo gave better performances at points.

Grade: B

As for my novel, I now have a title!  It’s called Drifting West, and no, it’s not a prequel to Brokeback Mountain.  Writing is still pretty easy, but I’m trying to stick to no more than 1,667 words a day.  Don’t want to burn out too early! 

I had to wrestle with a few lines today, as my genre keeps threatening to slip from a sort of creepy romance tale to a full-on spoof and comedy.  Don’t want that to happen, but if the story demands it, it must be done. 

My total word count (as of today) is 6,777 words.  This is a much more positive number, I hear.

NaNoWriMo Day 3/30: 10% Done!

Still on track for the National Novel Writing Month challenge. I have to say, I’m impressed that I’ve been able to actually develop a semi-plot without having one when I started on Wednesday. Three days and 5,132 words later, I might actually have a halfway decent start of a story arc by now. Either that, or I’ve passed away unexpectedly due to a massive typing-induced blood clot to my brain and I’m stuck typing the same 1,667 words over and over again in Purgatory until I can find a better way of treating my characters.

Oh, I found a great little trick online today. For anyone using MS-Word who just has to see how many words they’ve typed since the last punctuation mark, try the new word count toolbar. Screenshot below shows how to get to it. I’ve highlighted the “recount” button, which just begs to be clicked at least a couple times a minute. This can’t be healthy.

See you tomorrow for the next exciting update!

Indian Turkey Summer Chili

Carole and I bought a couple of Rachel Ray cookbooks last month and have already found a few favorite recipes.  Tonight, we made one of them for dinner: the Indian Turkey Summer Chili.  It’s a nice tangy alternative to traditional chili, and it’s fast and easy to make.  Plus, you get to drink beer while you make it, since it’s called for in the recipe. 

You can check it out here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_28727,00.html. 

Here is how we make it, according to recipe except for:

1. Leaving out the smoky BBQ sauce.  It might be delicious with that in there, but it’s not exactly my cup of tea. 

2. Use Lowenbrau beer.  Gives it a nice distinctive flavor.

As Rachel Ray herself would say, “Yum-O!”

NaNoWriMo Day 2/30: PM Update

I’m two days into the National Novel Writing Month challenge now.  I’m happy to report that I am still on track to meet the 50,000 word deadline on 11/30.  In fact, I have a 101 word buffer.  Yep, that’s right, I have a whopping total of 3,435 words in the bank.  I also read the first week’s writing advice in No Plot, No Problem, and I’m pleased to have sequestered my inner editor in a windowless room until December.  Take that, you comma-splice-pointing-out bastard.   

What’s going on in my novel so far?  Well I’m so glad you asked!  I don’t want to ruin the surprise by telling you everything (read: I don’t know anything else yet), but here are a few tidbits:

1. The title of my novel as of right now is Untitled Novel.  I pride myself in my creativity.

2. Like my writing pal Berserker, I’m choosing to go first person point-of-view with my story.  I realize this often means trouble for trying to get it published, but first person simply felt like the right voice for me to use for what I want to say.  One of my favorite books of all time, Odd Thomas, had an amazing use of first-person voice.  The story seemed more emotional and real to me when seen presented directly through the eyes of the character.  Not that I’m comparing myself to Dean Koontz, by the way.  That hack could learn a thing or two from me   Actually, Koontz seems to be a really nice guy.  I sent him a letter a couple months ago telling him how much I enjoyed The Face, and he sent me back a handwritten note.  Sure, it was scrawled beneath a form letter, but I appreciated the fact that he took the time to jot down a few sentences.   He gets an enormous amount of mail.  And, he wished my Golden Retrievers well, which always wins you points in my book.  Even if one of them does have diarrhea (see yesterday’s post).

3. Here are the first two sentences of my novel: “My name is Timothy West and I have a story to tell. In some ways, it’s a love story, but that’s not really how I think of it. “  I’m pretty sure this opening paragraph will change as the novel progresses.  Had to get something down to kick it off, though.

4. Here is the final paragraph of the novel so far:  “I’d like to say I put my arm around her and comforted her, but like I said earlier, I promised to be honest with you. So, I told her to be quiet and stop shaking like a baby. It was mean, I know, but I was shaken up pretty bad too.”

5.  A few other tidbits going on so far: in the first two chapters, we hear about a dead love interest, two dead parents, a dead duck, and a red-haired nemesis named Lonnie Hamler who is still very much alive.  Things are looking grim for Tim-0. 

How did his parents die?  Who is Tim talking two at the end of Chapter 2?  What’s the point of killing off his love interest in the first chapter?  Did Lonnie Hamler kill the duck?  You’ll find out this December, when Untitled Novel becomes Untitled (but Finished) Novel.  By then, I may even have a title.  I’m told a belly full of turkey meat can do wonders for the imagination.     

NaNoWriMo Day 2/30: Tools of the Trade

Woke up today feeling renewed and refreshed, full of vigor and enthusiasm. Really? No. But, I did wake up, at least.

Haven’t started writing yet, but I did find a great collection of nanowrimo tools online. Check them out: http://brandicedesigns.net/monkey/?page_id=293.

The handbook looks especially useful.

Now, to eat some brain flakes (corn flakes with sugar, don’t tell anyone) and get those creative juices flowing…

Back tonight with an update of how it went.

NaNoWriMo Day 1/30

Today I started the National Novel Writing Month challenge. Armed with the founder’s No Plot No Problem book, I embarked on a new and exciting journal as a novelist. I discovered on this first day that not only am I truly and certifiably insane, but that this task may very well be my final undoing. Here are the snags I have run into so far:

1. The 4 1/2 month old baby doesn’t seem to understand this whole “national novel writing month” concept. I’m trying to explain it to him, but he only responds with drool and shrieks. Mom doesn’t have much sympathy for me, either.

2. Our younger Golden Retriever, Sampson, decided that today would be a good day to renew his passion for diarrhea. Picking up solid dog poop from the backyard is fun and all, but what I really live for is anxiously waiting for Sampson to do the poo-poo dance so I can take him outside and then wipe his butt with paper towels. Yeah, now that’s the good life!

3. 1,667 words a day for 30 days doesn’t seem so bad. However, 1,667 words after a full day of work and then a full evening of teaching and driving back and forth from downtown is a lot!

4. It might be good to have some general sense of, oh, let’s say plot, or maybe characters, or even environment. I actually wrote the beginning of three different stories before settling on one opening I think I can live with. My second idea was going to be about this guy who was known in “the biz” as a “dangler.” He would be used as bait to try and get the right crowd of people together and then things would happen. You see what I mean? Pure crap. Had to scrap that one quick, before it tried to hijack my fingers. I got about 500 words in, though, which is scary. Reminded me of writing my dissertation…

5. Using short names for frequently used characters is a good thing. Still have no idea where this thing will end up, but at least I have a protagonist’s name I can live with. It’s Tim. I think (see 6).

6. Writing from multiple locations can be annoying, especially if you’re scatterbrained. I was sure I had saved my first 450 words on my USB drive, then I got home, and no file to be found. I must have left it on the laptop. No way I’m hauling that behemoth inside tonight. So, I’m forced to write my remaining 1200 words separated from their parents. I hope they match up when I go to combine them tomorrow.

7. When you buy a book named No Plot No Problem, it might make sense to actually read the thing before embarking on a quest to write a book with no plot. Pure osmosis isn’t doing the trick so far.

8. Wednesdays this month are probably going to be the hardest for me. So, I’ll try to make a nice little cushion by doing a little extra on Thursday and Friday. Ha! I love telling myself stuff like this, because it never happens that way. Something always manages to come up.

9. I need to get over my relentless drive for perfection and my obsessive-compulsive need for symmetry. So take that, incomplete list! Only 9 items! Ha!! Who’s Howard Hughesish now? Huh, huh?

Need sleep….