Posts by Russell Brown
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This is just one side of the story, of course. There's a horrible mutual escalation going on here, and a child in danger. But other people are in danger too -- and I'm still not sure I can fault the parents entirely.
No; we weren't there.
And although I don't regard Myerson as a reliable witness, they clearly had something difficult to deal with.
But even her account of the assault raises questions. She and the hubby were off out for a night at the theatre, and, she says, her son grabbed the door key and wouldn't give it to them.
So she tries to take it from him by force and begins grappling with her son for possession of the damn key, and the assault takes place. Changes things a bit ...
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More email is currently being written than ever before. A colossal proportion of it is spam. But that doesn't mean that the non-spam isn't getting written, or that it's become spammy, or in any way less valuable.
The reverse, in my view. Until the mid-90s, people wrote to one another two or three times a week, if they were really keen.
Now, they're writing to each other several times an hour, and they've had to learn to express their own thoughts more effectively, to be more mindful of the impact of their words, and to present themselves through their written English.
There will always be idiots with keyboards, but noob horrorshows are much rarer than they were (the "think before you hit send" message was a staple of my Listener column in the 90s). The internet hasn't hurt the average person's written English, it has demanded much more of it.
Further, it is possible for an ordinary person to gain respect through writing good prose. That's quite cool.
We won't discuss texting here.
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Rod, I'd add:
6. Do a little sponsorship of something that fits your brand and will help bring it to others.
It need not even cost cash money.
Eden Coffee, for example, supplies the PA bloggers with coffee, and I know I can call them for pourage at an event (Foo Camp and The Great Blend, for example). They get ad impressions when I have spare inventory, and it works for everyone.
If you're going to sponsor websites, or organisations with websites, then:
7. Have a media kit that includes good-looking branding ads in the standard online formats. Saves a lot of bother.
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Yep, BenWilson, I have a similar library of classics (the actual Greek and Roman ones) plus the stuff of English literature for just that reason and for searchability when I'm trying to nail down a quote. That's where it's most handy, actually.
You have prompted me to put Plato's The Republic on my iPhone. That'll impress the ladies ...
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The quality difference in the voicing seems large, but then look how many folk regard MP3 as acceptable quality for music?
It's not the same thing at all though. MP3 is a resolution issue -- it's a matter of how fine you want the detail on your music.
T2S is a machine reading text, really just a display function. The machine can never understand what it reads, and I think that's insurmountable until such a time as machines have feelings. It could be a while.
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Wow - I knew Deja Vodo were crap but they could have at least thought up their own title as opposed to just rehashing someone elses (I'm reference the excellent album from Refused "The Shape of Punk to Come" ).
I should point out that when I say they're shit, I mean that lovingly. 'Today, Tomorrow, Timaru' is a work of genius.
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Great for David! Well done, PA publishing-
All David's doing. He's extraordinary.
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Russell - audio rights are usually between 10% & 20% (on the contracts I have had). This is *considerably* higher than ordinary paperback rights which edge up from between 6%- 71/2% to 10% as sales increase.
Yeah, I read a bit more after I asked about that -- those audiobook rates are clearly very valuable to authors, although that's only been a relatively recent thing, no?
And yes, I know several ANZ writers who carry copies of their book/s for sale. Some have self-published, and some have had their books remaindered (this can happen after *six months*!). It seems a good and practical way to go about things in the circumstances -but it isnt the usual way.
Hell yes. I think there's something quite noble about it. Here are my wares ... I now own the remaining copies of Great New Zealand Argument , although I tend to give those away.
BTW, I've just passed on an email from Unity Books in Wellington in pursuit of David Haywood's book. The power of Kim Hill! I gather the feedback on David's appearance was enthusiastic.
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I know the word 'church' had a wider meaning than the strictly religious, as when people say things like 'feminism is a very broad church'. But 'church' also has connotations which 'community' does not, and which members of the PA community might find offensive or simply discomforting. So why use it?
There are other metaphors I'd use for PA, but I have in the past described, to take one example, the dear old Windsor Castle pub as "our church".
We used to go there for the things folks go to church for -- music, community and transcendence. Although our methods for transcendence probably wouldn't have pleased the vicar ...
But people get that in various ways anyway. It's a great feeling to be part of a big match sports crowd, for example. You shout and sing and jump up and down and to some extent you lose yourself. And it turns out there are demonstrable benefits to that.
This of course sometimes winds up in the disturbing spectacle of the "rave church" ...
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Feeling strongly or having your business hurt isn't a full justification. If you try to control the use of your content over and above copyright (outside some particular contract arrangement, which admittedly is probably how the kindle thing pans out) it just looks like bullying.
Another way of looking at it is that if technologies were routinely disabled because they might facilitate infringement, we wouldn't have the internet.
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