Change makes me antsy

So, yesterday I called your attention to the Communication & Cognition blog, now in its new form. Sam Bradley, the C&C blog author, and I have been emailing back and forth as I pick his brain about his recent transition to using WordPress to publish his blog rather than blogger.

I have known about WordPress for sometime now.
My first introduction to it was through friends of our family who publish blogschmog.
But I have been reluctant to switch to it because...well, I don't much like change. I like things to work. And even when it's not working exactly right...I have to get pretty darn displeased in order to make a switch. Now, when it comes to "designing" my own pages for my website and my teaching pages, I don't need much more than Dreamweaver--a program that I have been using and pleased with for about 7 years.

But when it comes to how the blog looks here on blogger...I'm getting tired of it and can't quite make it look better or lay it out better using this program.

So, now I'm thinking about switching too. But that means change.
I've got to download WordPress and see if it's as easy as folks say to learn.
Usually, flexible (which I can tell WordPress is) doesn't equal easy.
Plus, I will need to make changes to my web host, too...as it can't support WordPress under my current plan.

But, compare the look of my blog to that of Communication & Cognition or Blogschmog, or any of those in the WP showcase page, and it's no contest.

But change makes my stomach churn.

Here's a way to get the juices flowing...or let your mind glaze over

Today was not as productive a day as I had hoped...either in the writing realm...or prepping for S105.

Got a slower start to the day due to thunderstorms.

Then, it was meetings! (Isn't this summer).

Still, tonight via Twitter, I was pointed to this site.

Check it out.

Very cool way to just relax...or let your artistic beach bum come out.

This is Sand

A Storm Like No Other

I have NEVER experienced a thunderstorm like the one I witnessed this afternoon while in the ICR.

Check out this photo from Bloomington Herald Times Online

For the second time in my life...Earthquake

About 20 mintues ago, I felt my house shake.
No lightning...no thunder...
Weird.

I thought it might be an earthquake...but the dog remained quiet, so I figured it was a strong wind or something.

Then, my colleague Drew Bucksbarg sent out an email confirming it!

Here's the "proof"

Good news and a co-active website

Got word yesterday that an article was accepted for publication!

Potter, R.F, Callison, C., Chambers, T., Edison, A. (in press). Radio’s Clutter Conundrum: Better Memory for Ads, Worse Attitudes Toward Stations. International Journal of Media Management.

That's always a way to make my day, I'm such an academic!
And, this one was a long-time-comin.' The delay was all on me, though. Carted this data and manuscript around with me since my days at Alabama.

And, now, here's a link to a website that is very "co-active." In other words, it's a site that makes you feel positive and negative at the same time. Check it out, but be careful, it's rather addicting.

http://www.3trillion.org

Two new books

Just added two GREAT books to my electronic bookshelf.
You can check it out here.

Twitter--Not sure about it, but it pays off with a new website

After almost a year of planting little bugs in my ear by friends and the occassional student I have spent this weekend exploring and playing around with TWITTER.

This still seems to be like some sort of terrible, addictive drug for someone who tends to obsess about stuff anyway...and I'm not quite sure I'll stick with it for the long term.

But...one of the things that happened is I was very quickly being "followed" by people I don't even know. It sounds pretty ominous when I put it that way...and it seems pretty harmless (as long as I don't release too many specific details.)

Anyway, I digress...although I think I'll eventually just purge the darn program from my desktop, it one of the people that started "following" me visited my website (www.theaudiprof.com) and happened to send me a nice note saying that my research looks interesting.

So, being nice, I figured I should go visit this guy's website and be able to comment on it in my reply. While there, I found this terrific website:

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/index.php

I have only started poking around there...but it seems fabulous for all those interested in audio.

Check it out.

New (Relatively) Homepage

I know that I've been lax in the blog-writing department lately. Lots of things I want to write about...just not much time.

And I don't have much time now, either. But, it has dawned on me that I never officially 'unveiled' my new home page...something that I designed around Christmas break.

Check it out here: www.theaudioprof.com

And, one of the things I've been enjoying keeping up with lately is my page devoted to books I've been reading. It was a way of proving to myself that I was doing some reading for pleasure. Check it out here:

http://www.theaudioprof.com/books.html

Happy Reading

Brief Smile for a Busy Time

It's finals week.
My Teaching Assistant is busy grading.
I'm busy grading.
Plus, this is the week when I need to take reveiwed papers and make decisions about which papers to program for the Information Sytems Division of ICA this year. {You can see another blog post about this here}

But, I saw a story about this in the paper this morning.
And I had to take time to visit http://www.wackywarnings.com/.

You should too.

I love gadgets...but I also NEED them

CNN.com has an interesting task for you to waste some time with.

Rating your top 10 electronic gadgets.

Mine:
1. High Speed Internet
2. Laptop
3. Wireless internet
4. TIVO
5. Flash Drive
6. Cell phone
7. Ipod
8. PDA
9. Satellite Radio
10. TV



Click here to rate your top 10

Leave a comment and let me know!

Not the only procrastinator

It's good to know that I'm not the only person who works on a "just in time...push it to the deadline" mentality. This is the first of two years I'm in charge of the paper competition for the Information Systems Division of the International Communications Association. The deadline was 11pm November 1st....last night.

It is now 6:22am the morning of November 2nd. Yesterday at this time the division had 43 papers submitted.

This morning there are 103.

I'd write more but I'm preparing for a colloquium presentation I'm giving to the faculty of my department.

When is it? Today at 12:30, of course.

No Happiness in my Ads!

Okay, okay, almost two weeks since my last posting. Sorry. Busy with writing, teaching, and getting ready to collect more data on several studies. More on this later, I'm sure. For now I'm taking some time relaxing by watching the first season of Eureka , which my wife turned me on to earlier this summer. Reluctant at first, not a big "sci-fi" fan...it is a terrific show which we borrowed the DVDs of season 1. So, I guess I'll recommend it.

But, I've figured that I'd try to tell a story I heard from a friend of mine who works in the advertising industry. He's a writer, actually. And, one who is only in "the biz" because it is a way that he can get paid to do what he loves--which is write. He's the one who told me about the podcast Martini Shot which is a short "inside Hollywood" cast that takes a business view rather than gossipy.

Anyway...this story this friend told me is this:

He had a writing meeting at the agency he works for. Now, this guy is a writer in a way that I am not...while I am mostly interested in getting the gist of my ideas across...this guy crafts messages where every word is chosen. And the order in which he places them is consciously planned. He has given me examples of rhthym in advertising copy that I had never thought of. It's quite impressive. So, here he is in a meeting with a client. And when we say client, we mean the SEVERAL representatives from the client. Can't ever have just one decision-maker in the room. There have to be many different folks in there to earn their keep.

So, my friend presents the ad copy...which, remember, he has crafted to conveny the exact message the client wants conveyed. And, in this piece of copy is the word "Happiness." Now, I trust my friend's professionalism and talent enough to know that when he put in the word 'happiness' that was the best word...either because it fit the sentence/tone/rhythm of the sentence or it conveyed the correct meaning better than anything else....Not bliss, mirth, gaiety, deletation...He'd chosen happiness for a reason.

But, one of the clients said "You can't use the word 'happiness' in any of my ads. Change it." Well, now my friend has two questions. First, how much power does this guy have out of all the client reps in the room? In other words, will his devotion to his craft make him go toe-to-toe with this dude? And secondly, What is it that this guy has against the word happiness?

Well, after dancing around the second question for awhile, it the reason is finally revealed. "The word 'happiness' sounds like 'penis,' and I won't have the word penis associated with my business."

You can almost hear the jaws in the room drop. But then, everyone present probably did what I did the first time I heard this story...and probably what you're doing right now....they repeated the word "happiness" to themselves several times under their breath...My gosh, the guy's got a point! Kinda...close enough...

And, it turns out, the guy had enough power to have my friend change the word. After all, there's craft and then there's making a living.

It's a Small World--Eastern Washington State College

I live in a typical suburban, midwest neighborhood. The houses here are owned, primarily, by either young families or older, empty-nesters. The other day my family and I were out taking a walk and met one of our neighbor couples. After chit-chatting for awhile, it turns out that the woman had family members who live in Kennewick Washington. Kennewick is one of the Tri-Cities...a trio of cities in southeastern Washington...1716 miles away! And, here we were in the same neighbohood in Bloomington, Indiana.

Talking more, it turns out that her father was a kicker/punter for the Kennewick Lions and went onto Eastern Washington State College on a football scholarship. EWSC would eventually become Eastern Washington University, the place I began my academic career, met my wife, etc...

Later in the day, this same neighbor dropped by our house with a bit of memorabelia her father had given her from his football glory days:

My favorite gift this Christmas

Several years ago in graduate school, I came to Indiana University as a graduate student.
Deciding to make an investment in my educational future by purchasing a new computer. I had been using a VERY old Apple Macintosh. So, I bought a new "Power Mac" or whatever it was called. Shortly (like less than a year) after that, I started working with Annie Lang. She was (and is) a hardcore PC user and was somewhat reluctant to try to integrate system.

So, in 1995 I also became a PC user and--in all honesty--found them much more in-line with the type of work I like to do.

So, for the last two years or so I have struggled with PC-based portable music systems...primarily using my Palm pilot to listen to podcasts and music that I downloaded from Rhapsody. The trouble with Rhapsody was that darn licensing agreements made music that I thought I had just downloaded would not play. Very frustrating!!

And all around me were people using their ipods and raving about them. And, the huge market share that Apple was able to establish in the category. But, I couldn't bring myself to even much investigate an Apple product. I was a snobby PC user.

So, my absolute favorite Christmas gift this year was my ipod Nano.
It is the COOLEST thing. So convenient, and small, and light. And all the music plays without the annoying messages saying that I don't have the proper licensing agreement.

And on the itunes store site there are more podcasts than I'll know what to do with.

Great gift (from my inlaws...THANKS) and great design.

Richard Carlson Dies

Eight years ago I was dealing with a lot of stress in my life: finishing a dissertation, hoping to be able to find my first academic job, then finding it and having it be in the deep south--a culture that I thought might be difficult to adjust to, having to take my wife from a job she loved in Bloomington to Alabama, having to prepare for a my first academic position (new teaching preparations, new rules, new students, new responsibilities).

All of this came back to me this morning when I read that the author Richard Carlson had passed away at the very young age of 45.

Carlson wrote two books that I picked up eight years ago which certainly helped me through that very difficult time in my life.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and It's All Small Stuff and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff at Work each provided me with a 5 minute respite at the beginning of every day. To a certain extent, I owe a bit of my sanity to Carlson and I thank him for his publications. In fact, I took them off my bookshelf today and will periodically remind myself of some of his best suggestions like:

*** Develop you Compassion
*** Remind YOurself that When You Die, Your "In Basket" Won't Be Empty
[ironic, as Carlson had a heart attack while going to a TV appearance
*** Let others have the Glory
*** Choose your battles wisely
*** Nurture a plant

And from the at Work book:

*** Don't Sweat the Bureaucracy
*** Remember the Motto, "You Catch More Flies with Honey"
*** Never, Ever Backstab
*** Learn to Say No without Guilt
*** Forgive Yourself, You're Human
*** Remember to Appreciate the People You Work With

Thanks Richard.