on poetry

a poem should be like good interface design:

immediately accessible
yet interesting
to an advanced user

The muse physical

write something she says

but just like happiness

the approach must be indirect

like the blind spot upon your nose

inspiration can only be seen

when you look elsewhere

Morning Meditation

The steam twirls and twists as it ascends 

morning thoughts gently twisting and rising

Mist upon the cold windows, warmth within

Awaken gently to be gentle with the world

20 year watercolors

They Took Everything Except One Odd Thing

Singly focused on one thought filling the mind
an instinctual rage that the camp was attacked
the outsider crossed from them into us.
I'm driven by a need to attack only barely aware of what I don't know.

They had said you have been robbed.
No, they said, sorry to hear about it
and I knew not about what
pointed in a direction, I spit nails
     pounded them into the ground
           with each step.

Only after the police left
did my mind empty.
After being so full of just one thought
my mind was blank
I wandered aimlessly around the crime scene, my apartment.

If it was worth taking it was gone.
I wasn't even staring at the empty spots
or filling the incomplete list of what was gone, what was missing,
just wandering like the way you enter a room with purpose and then forget what it was
searching for what was missing from me
what had been but was now an emptiness.
Truth be told in this modern age
they took everything except one odd thing:
my desire for things material -- objects that do not fill the loneliness of emptiness inside
would that I could leave the chain off
leave the door unlatched on the place
where my desire to consume is housed.

The Little Things

Some days
I miss tying shoelaces
much more
than wearing shoes.

But if I had shoes big enough for me to fill
my skin is so hard
I'd wear the insides down to the sole
not the other way round.

Never mind that my fingers
as dexterous as cucumbers
could never tie laces.
The four of us forget the little things.

Like writing.
I'm a scientist with a PhD
yet I hold a pen
buried in the middle of a fist.

Only metal pens
everything else snaps
even the strongest things
break sometimes under pressure.

Saving the world
has become normal
fitting into the world
is too fantastic a feat.

-- The Thing
    Four Freedoms Plaza

My new bike - updated

On our wedding anniversary weekend just recently, I bought a new bike. My old bike was 25 years old (it was my second bike) and though it still works, it is missing some teeth on the gears and has a bit of rust here and there. I started rebuilding it, but then started weighing what needs to be replaced vs. the cost of a new bike and decided to see what was out there. After spending the day at a lot of different bike shops test ridding and suffering a little in the heat, I decided on a VANMOOF M2 3.7 large frame (the small frame may have been a smarter choice).

photo (C) VANMOOF

As VANMOOF puts it:

we like bikes

and we like you

and the rest of the world

to ride bikes

and like them too

The saddle on the VANMOOF is a little stiff, so I upgraded a week later to the  Selle Royal Becoz eco-saddle. I plan to upgrade the grips to cork, so I liked that the cork in the Becoz will match nicely.

The Becoz is on top and the stock saddle on bottom

  

A nice feature on the Becoz saddle is the etched ruler along the saddle's mounting rail.

I was surprised to find the VANMOOF hardware had a lot of paint chipping already.

This is looking down the tube where the saddle post goes in.
Notice the red flecks along the edge (more on that below).

The first thing you notice about the VANMOOF is the headlight in the frame.
As I brought mine home I realized the taillight did not light up.
Inside the bike I found the crushed wire on the left inside the saddle post tube.
On the right is the other side of that same wire. As you can guess, the
wire somehow got pushed into the tube during assembly and then crushed by the post.

I'm working with VANMOOF support about the wiring mishap. I'm guessing it was the bike shop that made the mistake, but I'll post an update when I hear more.

So what about the bike? The hub shifter is extremely smooth and so far the 7 gears have been enough (I was a little worried about transitioning from a 32 speed). I'm mainly in fifth, sixth, or seventh.

The bike seems like it will be very low maintenance. The chain is fully covered as well as the brakes. As mentioned the gearing is an internal hub (I'm assuming planetary gears).

UPDATE:

So VANMOOF support is awesome. I explained the story above and was told that they would follow up with the place where I purchased the bike to see what's going on there. Then as we discussed the issue with the crimped wire they explained that not only would they send a new wire, but also the plastic seat post clamp since there was the possibility that if I mess up while removing it that I could damage it. I sent some of the pictures above and they said it was clear that the bike had not been assembled correctly. Also, because they understood my reluctance to want to deal with the original dealer, they sent the parts to another local dealer.

It takes a full day of turn around to get a response sometimes because of the timezone difference to the Netherlands, but it was worth it as the response was always understanding and simply good customer service. I had opened my first email to VANMOOF with, I think I bought the right bike at the wrong store, and now I'm convinced that is true.

Watercolor paintings

In 1992 I was taking art lessons from a children's book author/illustrator who taught me as much (more?) about life as art. There were maybe a dozen of us taking the lessons. We learned various mediums and often painted along the stream behind his barn. Recently I was looking through some packed away things and found the old watercolor pad. Since it happened to be twenty years later I decided it might be a fun project to use the other side of the pages to paint new things. Hopefully I'll find the time before the year end to do 20 of my 20 year series. What follows are the 1992 painting followed by the 2012 flip sides. They were painted on 9" x 11.5" paper and digitally cropped.

1 - 1992

1 - 2012

2 - 1992

2 - 2012

(This kitty a copy of masking tape art by Kayt Hester, so all credit and copyright is hers.)

3 - 1992

3 - 2012

4 - 1992

4 - 2012

Publishers Launch - Andrea Fleck-Nisbet - Workman Publishing

These are my continuing notes from the Publishers Launch conference held on 7/26.

Changed the title management system. It was previously in FileMaker which had its issues (slow and buggy) which were partly because it was used in seven different offices across the country.

Strongly considered switching to FireBrand but settled on Thomas Allen & Sons which had a web based system. Because of Thomas' small size they were very attentive and willing to customize.

The implementation took one year for the Book Connect & Book One systems.

There was complexity because they have 7 to 8 ISBNs for every title (they need these to support the various eBook formats).

Workman supports a custom ONIX files for each retailer with pertinent ISBNs. The reps love this.

Started the implementation with a best practices manual for editorial to handle title management (data management) better.

Web based offered:
* mobile access
* no cost per user
* ease of training new people
* easy management of remote access for freelancers

Workman also uses Collection Point and DropBox for flexibility.

Publishers Launch - Alfredo Santana - Wiley

These are my continuing notes from the Publishers Launch conference held on 7/26.

Permissions are the original micro-transaction.

Challenges with old permission systems:

mystery of ownership

time consuming process

small per-transaction profit

lots of freebies offered 

The last two above make you question if it is worth it.

Repurposing of content has driven permissions demands from ad-hoc to systematic, from low accountability to high accountability, from low profit to high profit. 

There was a dedicated and trained staff with an internal system connected to subsidiary rights, but they were detached from the customer. 

Goals for RightsLink:

improve customer service

be trusted (which the CCC (Copyright Clearance Center) offers automatically)

integrate seamlessly with existing DB and eCommerce site

tailored to Wiley's business rules and licensing terms

customizable messages, redirect, STM rules

retains publisher/publication branding throughout 

They set priority for journals as first product because of the volume of the requests; next was online books, and finally print books. Different product lines had different sets of rules. 

The entire process was 10 months, largely because of the number of products, rules and guidelines. 

Worked closely with editorial and marketing to choose which titles were included. IT provided metadata feeds and cover images. Legal group drafter terms and conditions documents for the site. Coordinated world wide.

Offered customer self service. RightsLink had the following benefits:

• immediate clearance (within a few minutes)
• directly from point of content or title
• quick and intuitive made it very easy to use
• available 24/7
• secure online payment (no worries for Wiley about someone having bad credit -- that is handled by RightsLink)
• user can purchase across multiple publishers in one transaction (more appealing for a customer to have wide selection rather than just Wiley)
• the site is transparent to the user -- looks just like it is part of the Wiley site
• a transaction used to take 4 to 6 weeks, now it is instant

CCC handles:

• technical issues
• invoicing
• payment
• debt chasing
• visually impaired access (coming soon)

There is robust reporting for the business

200-400% revenue increase in the first year and year-to-year increase of 65%

Not only has it improved the process, but the number of requests for permissions has increased -- it grew the market.

The permissions department now has real revenue which has given in clout within the business.

Smaller amount of staff doing more.

Publishers Launch - Book Publishing in the Cloud (various speakers)

Here are my notes from the conference held on 7/26. For some of the speakers I took lengthier notes and have broken those out into other entries.

A couple themes I noticed at the conference:

• price scrapping and analysis
• social listening
• moving from FileMaker to a SaaS tool

Michael Cader (Publishers Lunch)

Workflow: RSS content -> bit.ly -> publn.ch
Tracks click this way and builds brands

Uses: widget box (widgets that can run on multiple sites), WordPress, SocialCast (internal communication), Peer1Hosting, Virtual Merchant, MobileStorm


Ken Michaels (Hachette Book Group)

Hachette has 18 months in the cloud

Uses SaaS for email, piracy monitoring, eProcessing, RoyaltyShare, SalesForce.com

BookRadar offers price & on sale date compliance checking, correct errors & omissions in supply chain, scorecard for vendor performance, manually track titles on vendors sites. Price monitoring offers a view of discrepancies. On sale monitoring finds titles not on sale at the right time. Merchandise placement monitoring shows if the title is on the homepage, a banner, etc and the on/off date along with a screen shot of the actual site with the title.

Publicity tool: PIP (publicity intelligence platform) - offers easy export of tour feeds for use by third parties (such as the author). The site is divided into Contact Management, List Management, and Campaign Management.

ChapterShare offers Facebook integration is offered for easy sharing. It gathers data on readers when they read an excerpt or purchase a title.


Russ Stanton & John Wicker (TATA Consultancy Services TCS)

The most likely issues a company will have with the cloud:
  1. fear of security
  2. skepticism of ROI

By 2015 there will be 1 billion tablet users and 3 billion smart phone users. This is half the world population. Are you equipped to handle 4 billion customers?

You need your content to be product and presentation agnostic, you need to aggregate, and you need big data (velocity, etc.).


Ted Hill (THA Consulting)

It's not just SaaS (software as a service), it's also: PaaS - platform as a service IaaS - Infrastructure as a service

When should IT be involved?
* more than a few users
* noticeable amount of money
* need to push or pull data from another system
* when IT is helpful

Don't inhibit things like DropBox, but do use the rules above.

Check list for using cloud services
* are IT and management aligned in the build vs. buy decision?
* ready to contribute to best practices and evolve with your peers?
* willing to continually train and learn?
* do you know your content & data?
* are you thinking strategically rather than tactically?
* are you willing to simplify?
* how will the cloud interface with the enterprise?
* do you have content standards and repositories for both content and metadata?
* do you know what SLA you need?


Rick Joyce (Perseus Books Group)

Perseus has an HTML first workflow and a large North Plains DAM running on Constellation with title status and sales reports on a web portal. They use Crimson Hexagon for social listening.

Questions to ask when considering cloud:
* What do we want to be good at?
* What do we need to own?
* How stable is the supplier?
* What is the suppliers development track record and engineering plan for the future?
* What training, support, trouble shooting does the supplier offer?
* Does the supplier show ongoing excellence?
* What data integrity is offered (backups, track record)?
* What privacy and security is offered?
* What data integration/interoperability (in/out of data) is offered?
* What third party needs are there?

Could is:
* easy to pilot
* easy to scale
* initially a low cost


Michael Covington (David C Cook)

Legacy systems bread pockets of "tribal knowledge"

A service oriented architecture -- where cost and productivity live in harmony

Created www.christianmanuscriptsubmissions.com
* a virtual slush pile
* $99 submission fee
* offers editorial seal of approval
* can be mined for "digital first editions"
* Bowker took it and created their own separate process


Benefits of SaaS

• lower upfront
• scaleable
• less need for IT
• better support
• less "tribal knowledge"

Problems with SaaS

• can be rigid (not customizable)
• can lack security
• doesn't always play well with others
• may have bad customer service
• might not have an SLA

David C Cook uses

   ERP   JD Edwards

   DAD   FireBrand CS

               Eloquence

               NetGalley

               Ingram

  Sales    SalesForce.com

               bombBomb

               MailChimp

               Cushy CMS

  Production

               FireBrand

  

PANEL

Potential issues with cloud

* legacy or in house systems can't communicate with cloud system

* certain customizations can't be done

* IT frustration with lack of business to IT communication

* No oversight of who is doing what with SaaS

Yuvi Kochar (The Washington Post Company)

Does not offer SLA (a contract of uptime, etc), but instead a guarantee that your data will be transitioned to the next system if the partnership ends. Allowing the customer to move to another supplier so easily is something everyone easily understands and keeps the level of quality better since the supplier knows how easily the customer could leave. A provider is then a commodity not a customer and you treat it as such.

How a Cloud Forms

A knot of dew mounts
her blade, plants a clammy kiss.
The jerk cuts her off.
-- Beth Bentley, Don't (Haiku 1)

Why do you do what you dew?
Sweet life to flowers
the misty gateway of morning

In our joints, our veins, our hearts
what cycles in the seasons
in all things that flow

"water of life"
"is" not "of"

So it is to you dear water
I write now and warn you
that I'm telling every poet I know:
when the words do not flow
it is you that is to blame.

the invisible worm (oh rose)

left alone on the platform
terrified the words will not arrive
I know what I've always known
it's not like that
... wait ... patiently
for the train that keeps no schedule

Weird NJ #34

Weird NJ #34

Blue Cliff

Blue Cliff

Ikea Table and Wacko Cat

Ikea Table

Wacko Cat

interpretation perspective

As I turn the corner, I find a woman is blocking my path. "Bad dog," she berates her sweet eyed black lab. His disheveled fur seems in conflict with his seeing eye dog sign that is strapped to the handle bar that is strapped to him. But despite his appearance, this is not a day off for him. I hear her say "that's a bad seeing eye dog that eats lettuce off the floor."

I flash back to my dad repeating the command "drop it" to our family dog as he ate something accidentally dropped on the kitchen floor. The repetition continued until the unintended snack was finished.

The hallway is narrow in the restaurant, so I wait for her to move and then I follow her as she heads to the restrooms. The woman and the dog push by a man who tries to give her distance though she is unaware of him. In so doing he gives up his place in line. She is speaking to another woman who's explaining that there are only two bathrooms, one men, one women. The men's room door opens and a man exits. The man who was waiting in line squeezes by and goes in. The blind woman asks what happened and when she hears she opines that both rooms are the same, why didn't they use the available rest room. Her companion explains that the man had been waiting there before them but otherwise she agrees the rooms are the same.

The woman's room door opens and a toddler toddles forward before raising his arms in alarm his body rigid. He lets out a little yelp as he locks his eyes on the dog who is panting, surveying the room, and uninterested in the boy. The stalemate ends as the companion pulls the dogs snout towards her. Happy, expectant eyes from the dog look upward to the companion who's holding him still. The mother pushes her son forward and he keeps his distance from the dog as he passes, the dog still unaware. The mother's voice faintly reaches me from the other end of the hall. She is complaining that pets are not allowed in the restaurant. The companion enters the women's room and announces there is only room for one.

The men's room door opens. Out walks the man and I wonder: Will the blind woman go in? Is it insulting if I suggest to her that the men's room is available?

A man behind me in line taps my shoulder, "Hey, uh, you going in?"

There's too much to explain I think. I answer yes. As the door clicks behind me I hear the blind woman say, "what a rude boy" which given my approaching fortieth birthday I decide to take the compliment in the age of my voice. There are so many perspectives I think as I relieve myself.

Irene

Shadows relate choreography on the window shade as trees dance in the wind
I'm reminded of the muppets when I was five
on a black screen long dancing yellow and orange creatures sang
they were just part of the show but despite knowing they were good
(and I should not be scared)
something in the shape of it
something in their long rope thin bodies
something in their movement foretold
of a reason to worry

Iowa Waters

There were floods the summer I went to Iowa
though the worst was over, the street lakes had not receded
but there was a path not yet chosen to the University
a detour sign here and there and
I had arrived
at the admission office

I was sat down and I heard, but could not listen
details of the creative writing program said to be the best
this next path was not marked
I just saw a road I could have gone down:

a downward grade to the river's water
waves danced in the lanes -- almost tidal
it seemed obviously not the way to go
but I thought: how I love the water

maybe I needed to learn to swim
or maybe they told me to wait
the waters will recede in time
but I knew then with certainty
I had no fear of drowning.


11 nov 2009
21 aug 2011

email enhancement

It'd be useful if you could flag emails with a setting for how soon you want a response, like 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month. People would be less likely to be abuse the "important" flag and it would give people an instant gauge on whether they need to read the email now or later.