Gilliard Grant Awarded to Michael Shaw at Netroots Nation

“The Gilly” artwork by Lower Manhattanite
GNB Exclusive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUSTIN - TODAY at 11:15 AM Eastern Time, Michael Shaw, clinical psychologist, blogger/writer, visual journalist, and curator of BAGnewsNotes, was awarded the first annual Gilliard Grant of Merit by Group News Blog.

The presentation was made immediately preceding the final keynote speech (Van Jones, with introduction by Mayor Gavin Newsom) at Netroots Nation in the Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas.

Presenting The Gilly were five members of GNBs' staff: Jesse Wendel, Publisher; Lower Manhattanite, Chief, National Affairs Desk; Hubris Sonic, Chief, Foreign Affairs Desk; The Littlest Gator, Staff Writer; and Sara Robinson, Managing Editor.

The Gilliard Grant, named after blogger Steve Gilliard (November 13, 1964 - June 2, 2007), including a monetary award, will be awarded annually.

Dr. Shaw was awarded the Gilliard Grant of Merit for Excellence in Journalism and News Blogging.

The Gilly artwork was created by Lower Manhattanite.

Contact:
Jesse Wendel
Dr. Shaw

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There's more...

Gilliard Grant To Be Awarded at Netroots Nation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUSTIN - TODAY at 11:00 AM Eastern Time (10:00 Central), Group News Blog will present the first annual Gilliard Grant immediately preceding the final keynote speech of Netroots Nation (Van Jones with introduction by Mayor Gavin Newsom) in Exhibit Hall 4, Austin Convention Center, Austin, Texas.

The Gilliard Grant, named after blogger Steve Gilliard (November 13, 1964 - June 2, 2007), including a monetary award, will be given annually to the blogger or blog who strives for and achieves excellence in journalism and news blogging.

Contact:
Jesse Wendel

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GNB Masthead Changes

Kindergarten graduation, Georgetown, Kentucky. Click for LARGE.

Promotions, New Staff

I am pleased to announce the following Group News Blog masthead changes:

Current Staff:

Sara Robinson, to Managing Editor.

The Littlest Gator, to Staff Writer.

Evan Robinson, to Staff Writer.

New Staff:

Maggie Jochild, to Staff Writer.

Minstrel Boy, to Staff Writer.


Sara Robinson is an extraordinary futurist and writer. She is a Fellow of the Campaign for America's Future where she blogs at the Blog for Our Future. She will complete her MS in Futures Studies from the University of Houston in 2009 and holds a BA in Journalism from the USC Annenberg School of Communication. She is a principle blogger at Orcinus and a co-founder of Group News Blog. Over the last year, Sara's many years of new media and journalism experience have saved and guided us, over and over.

The Littlest Gator is the Managing Director of an extraordinary restaurant, first opened in Tokyo's trendy Omotesando District, with a second version now open in Kona, Hawaii. She manages a staff of 50 people. The restaurant's commitment to local, fresh food is so enormous they have purchased their own farm on Hawaii so as to ensure the quality of their supply, its variety, and to guarantee it is grown without harmful chemicals. The food they are unable to use themselves in their restaurants on Hawaii and Japan, they sell to local customers.

Evan Robinson was one of Electronic Arts' first computer game developers and later became a Technical Director, one of the people who says if a product ships or not. He went on to be a Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe, ultimately accountable for a core portion of Adobe Acrobat. He spent twenty years in Silicon Valley, working his way up to being a Technical Director, Engineering Manager, and Consultant. He holds a MBA in Management of Technology.

Maggie Jochild is a poet and a writer. She is currently writing "The Great American Lesbian Novel", Ginny Bates. Maggie is a radical dyke second wave feminist activist. She was one of the most widely active agitators of the 80s on the west coast, and helped start The White Night Riot.

Minstrel Boy is a professional musician, a member of the Apache Nation, and makes delicious truffles. He made three tours with Seal Team Two in Viet Nam.

Jesse Wendel, Publisher
Group News Blog

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No More GNB Fundraising Till January

The $400 Question

When last we saw our heroes, they were struggling to raise one grand in 72 hours.

Y'all saved our asses.

I promised to explain what said $1,000.00 was for.

Let us review.

$400 -- embargoed till last Tuesday, to be explained in this post. Finally!
$350 -- OTR (off the record) then, OTR today, OTR tomorrow.
$250 -- shit we intended to pay for anyway in the final 3 days of fundraising.
---------------
$1,000 total emergency fundraising

That handles the last two, leaving only the story of the $400 to be told, which, I'm happy to explain very fast.

Only a few blogs were credentialed to report from inside the Democratic Convention this coming August. Some leading bloggers came up with The Big Tent -- a 9,000 sq foot tw0-story media center sponsored by the leading progressive blogs and liberal think tanks. Problem is, we didn't hear about the details till they let us know we'd been approved for four credentialed seats inside The Big Tent.

These seats solve a HUGE logistical problem for us during the convention. See, when we received our DNCC credential for the actual convention, that only lets one person inside the Pepsi center at a time. Plus, the actual "convention" only happens for a few hours a night. The question is, where do we work?

The Big Tent with its multiple large-screen television feeds and closed circuit is perfect. Perfect at $100 a seat...which I discovered when I logged in to their site late at night Saturday to register our core writers to write at the convention. When is why we turned to y'all Sunday morning for help.

Which you provided.

And we deeply thank you.

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Technical Problems

Jesse:

Massive technical problems. As in, I am gonna eat their ass.

Downstairs in the lobby on the wireless network from hell...

Beautiful hotel, but they has gots me upstairs (non-ADA) which is not only dumb, but PAIN. LM and/or Hubris have to help me up and down the stairs, carry my bags, and in general, wait on me.

Hmmmm. Strike what I said about “dumb.”

Hopefully LM and I get moved in the morning. I sure as shit can't go up and down these stairs another day. (Although maybe if they got me a mountain bike. Some of those suckers gear down so low a rider could climb telephone poles.)

Ooooh... and Maggie Jochild is here in the morning!!! Go Maggie!
.
So... No more writing from me tonight. Not till they fix their fucking technical problems. Or till I get to the convention center.

I'm also not even naming the hotel...YET. Not till after we, um, negotiATE an appropriate change in our room charge given I had to go down and up the god-awful stairs from my room which I'm paying for to their lobby which I'm not...

Austin rocks. This hotel's IT setup is rocky.

Lower Manhattanite:

“Whats a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?”--Gene Wilder's Waco Kid to Cleavon Little's Sheriff Bart

What am I doing here? Hanging with the rest of the GNB crew, commiseratin', “conversatin'”, and Netroots Nation-aytin', faithful readers. Be fooled not--this is not some cow-town, this beautiful Austin, Texas. From the moment I hopped off the plane, I knew I was in what one would call "cool" environs. It probably had a lot to do with the huge, bronze statue of the amazing Texas political giant Ms. Barbara Jordan, staring down thoughtfully, weighty book on lap and glasses at rest.

Nothin' like that at Kennedy or LaGuardia, kiddies.

Then, walking to the ground transportation area, I was captivated by a beautiful woman in a coral-colored dress--seeming to walk in slow motion in the sticky night air. She floated damn-near, dress catching just enough breeze to where she looked akin to something descending from a cloud---but then, it could also have been simple fatigue on my part--a tough flight after a doubly tough night full of more drama than Wagner's "Ring Cycle" on crack. Ye Gods!

But, the kid is here, along with Jesse, Hub, TLG, and Mme. Robinson. The nicest touches were entering the hotel room, and finding it festooned—not with corny-ass hotel art--oh, no! Instead? A beautiful, striking, vintage silkscreen poster of Bobby Womack and his Peace Band playing at Port Arthur, Texas from back in the “That's The Way I Feel About Cha” days. Then, descending the balcony steps, the ring and peal of live music from across the street at The Continental Club. Oh yes...I think this could be fun. Fun indeed. But now...on to sleep, perchance to dream...of a nice breakfast.

I doubt it will be bagels. :)

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Public Service is NOT Charity Work

The Crucible with Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder.
February 4, 2002. photo Barry Wetcher/Twentieth Century Fox.

“You Must SUFFER in the NAME of His HOLINESS”
“But I wanted a BLACK iPod. Frack!”

I dunno. You're buying the lastest gadgets, but then asking for money.
Bollox Ref

I'm not picking on Bollox Ref. This is one of those “attack the idea, not the person” moments. The above idea is about to be taken out. Bollox Ref on the other hand... no problem. *smiles*

Let's understood, then kill off this concept. It is an ENORMOUSLY destructive line of thinking and an ongoing barrier to raising funds for progressive causes.

The concept, said simply is this:

"Public service is charity work."

It sounds silly, but when you cut down to it, that's how many people think.

Call it the "Mother Theresa" VOW OF POVERTY life of public service model.

The penitent one takes a vow of poverty, turns over any and all income from all sources to charity, and works around the clock ceaselessly in a life of selfless service dedicating oneself to that which is being served. But it's okay, because of God.

In the Mother Theresa model, nothing is allowed but service. No money, no belongings (other than simple gifts made on potting wheels from Mother Earth, lovingly presented at a ceremony while school-children sing a song composed especially in honor of the occasion.) Of course, if the gift has genuine monetary value from a serious artist, one would naturally auction it at Sothebys and contribute the funds to “the cause.” If one suffered a little and wrote a short but heart-felt poem on tree-bark which was then posted on your blog to inspire your followers, so much the better.

Oh. My. Gods.

THAT IS NOT A FUCKING LIFE. (That is not a fucking life.)

No wonder the Republicans have been kicking our ass.

They have institutions, research grants, scholarships, third-party offers, 501C3s, 501C4s, and so goddamn many different institutes, universities and colleges, it isn't even funny.

From the moment Republican kids walk into college they are taken care of. An entire HOST of institutional choices are available to Young Republicans, all designed to make certain of two things:

1. Republicans get paid.

Got that? Republicans get paid.

Let me say it again. If there is one thing Republicans always make damn sure happens, it is this: they get fracking paid.

We could learn from them.

2. Republicans have careers.

I didn't say jobs. I said careers.

Upward fucking mobility. With benefits. Mentors. Fully-paid conferences, retreats and education. All designed to make certain they STAY REPUBLICANS (because that is where they get paid) and that they have Republicans all around them all the time, telling them how great it is to be a Republican.

Damn. Sounds sweet.

Furthermore... (and this is really a third point.)

3. Republicans get quoted.

Where? By other Republicans. It's a damn echo chamber. Hello, 'lo, 'lo...

But Republicans also get quoted by the traditional media, which is lazy enough to fail to mention such-and-such an institute is being funded by Adolph Coors who coincidently gives x million a year to hard right-wing causes.

Which gives the Republicans cred when they apply for the research position. Which gives them status when it's time for that University appointment. Fellowships. Book deals. Editorial appearances on radio and television.

Round and around and around.

Republicans take care of each other, always. They have each other's backs.

* * * * * * * * * *

Progressives?

We?

Don't make me laugh; it hurts.

We have bloggers who hold fundraisers to pay some blogging bills, yet even though it's our own damn money get looked at funny if we buy a fucking iPhone!

Let's get a few things clear.

Professional work requires professionals.

It requires hiring pros. It requires being professional.

I used to cringe when Steve - a fucking pro if there ever was one -- felt he had to justify himself every time he bought Jen something nice. While with his enormous talent and big donor base, he still lacked the funds to buy a world-class health care policy.

My dear friend Melanie died in part due to lack of health care.

No damn well-known Republican ever died because their job didn't have full benefits. And a 401K. And stock options with a golden-parachute kicker.

We have fundraisers. And people questioning our commitment.

STOP IT.

It's ugly and it's mean and it is wrong.

Donate, don't donate, it's your call. But be clear... We are not Mother Teresa and we don't follow that model.

We will use the money you give us wisely and carefully. We are using it overwhelming for items such as:

• hotels (probably)
• travel (maybe)
• basic business expenses
• back end blog costs
• stuff you'll find out about Tuesday

I wish we had more money so we could pay for more. As it is we're all having to pay too much of our own expenses to suit me. But we do that and don't complain. Because we all believe in public service and we believe in America.

That the four of us, er, six of us now with Evan and TLG are able to afford to pay for our own expenses (and buy iPhones if we want) is what has kept Group News Blog up and running. We've been up for a year and this is the first time we've ever asked anyone for a nickel.

Why? Because I respect you too much to do this any other way.

Let us be blunt. Jen put the keys to the kingdom in my hands. Before I'm going to ask y'all to give us money, I had to be sure you thought what we were giving you was worth it. That takes time and trust. Traditionally it takes a year.

So here we are.

From the donations pouring in, you trust us.

You've read our posts. You know we're the real deal. You know we're not nuns or monks. If we get the chance to have a good time, we will. Probably not with GNB funds simply because there aren't enough of them to use them that way. But if there was, I wouldn't feel even slightly guilty having a good meal and buying the gang a nice bottle of wine on the company nickel. (I don't drink; with my meds it could kill me.)

So...

My point is, each of your bloggers contribute enormously to Group News Blog:

• financially with actual money in various forms and ways,
• editorially by writing posts and comments as well as emails,
• technically each within our own specialties, and
• physically through giving hundreds or even thousands of hours of time and energy.

What we do with your financial donations is... We use them wisely.

We have great lives which we're happy to live. We ask you to contribute financially because we can not afford to fund -- nor frankly, should we -- the expenses of a serious journalism business which is growing and expanding.

Mother Theresa was a Saint and she practiced holy orders.

Group News Blog is a business and we practice journalism.

Being a progressive liberal and a journalist doesn't foreclose owning cool toys.

Please continue donating -- $100, $75, and $50 dollars.

Thank you for your support.

There's more...

HaloScan Bought Out by JS-Kit

Good and evil kittens. icanhascheezburger.com.

Tired of HaloScan Sucking? Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice.

The deal is scheduled to close in 30 days.

Implementation has already started.

Some of the recent suckage has to do with migration issues. The claim is, as sites migrate over -- in theory, seamlessly and you can believe as much of that as you want -- the remaining sites will go faster as the load on HaloScan's servers decreases. The migrated sites moved to JS-Kit will go faster because they're on the good stuff. Thus, all is of the good.

So they say.

We're backing up comments. A lot. Frequently.

The Washington Post

JS-Kit, a provider of Javascript comments, ratings, and poll widgets for blogs, has announced their acquisition of HaloScan, one of the largest hosted comments service providers. This announcement is also coordinated with the launch of several major features. Financial terms were not disclosed.

HaloScan had previously partnered with JS-Kit in January to provide the users of their comment system with "one-click" deployment of JS-Kit's ratings widget (providing ratings for articles, not ratings for comments). This acquisition will result in an exponential increase of JS-Kit's customer base, providing new access to over 520,000 participating sites, bringing its total reach to about 550,000 sites. JS-Kit also claims that with this new acquisition, it will be registering 300+ new sites per day. HaloScan's comment systems will integrate with JS-Kit's Ratings, Polls, Reviews, Navigator, and Advisor widgets. JS-Kit's comments also comes with full Akismet spam protection and profanity filters.

JS-Kit will leverage its newly acquired users to launch important new features. One of which is the implementation of an open standards-based, portable, user profile. Users will have access to all of the comments made on any JS-Kit participating site through an OpenID login system. The portable profile is accessible through a pop-up on the hosting site. This does lend itself to easier discovery, which could possibly help with adoption for new publishers.

This also goes hand-in-hand with another new feature that JS-Kit is implementing, SEO support. JS-Kit now sets up a static page for indexing comment content, which you can host on your server as a sub-domain, so search engines see the content on your site, and not JS-Kit's.

Faster, better, standards based. Better technical support and backup solutions.

Also, you get access to ALL comments on EVERY site you comment (with OpenID.) This is causing a fight with JS-Kit's competition. Whatever.

What I like most is GNB will get credit for links to Group News Blog -- thousands of them across the Internet over months -- which people put in comments. It certainly will drive our rankings higher. Good news babycakes.

I am pleased by their promises. Now... we shall see.

As always, what counts is action, not campaign promises.

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We Care, and We Know You Do Too

Our first ever fundraiser is going on and we need you to show how much you care-- so we can keep on keeping on! .

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Group News Blog: Year One

LOLcats: Elephant “JOY”. Courtesy of Maggie Jochild's Meta Watershed.

This Gig ROCKS

One year ago Group News Blog opened.

There's an expectation at ends of years, birthdays and anniversaries, that we writers will be able to bring something special, over and above our normal stuff.

Yeah... Well, sometimes we choke.

Right this minute one year ago -- it's 11 pm Pacific time as I type right now; this post is due in one hour and one minute -- and one year ago with 61 minutes to go we were choking HUGE.

Hubris was fixing a computer glitch. LM was massaging the title graphic. I was changing words and commas in my first post EVER while going insane as the minutes ticked down with everything not fracking ready.

Whatever. Problems, no problems...
At 12:01 AM I hit post and Group News Blog began.

At 12:01 AM today, this post goes live -- no, I'm not fracking ready (the sad part is, I'm not making a joke) -- and Year Two begins.

Our rankings -- Technorati of 9.5K, The Truth Laid Bear of 6.7K -- and being credentialed to the Democratic National Convention. It's all good (hell, it's fracking great!) but that's not the point. The point is, we pulled it off.

People were going to come check us out. It was a courtesy look. But no one was going to stay if the writing didn't cut it. (We were following Steve Gilliard for Christ's sake.) And there was NO time to get up to speed. We were either up to speed right now dammit or we lost our audience. The gig demanded professionalism and a massive work ethic from Day One.

Which people gave. LM, Hubris, Sara and yes, myself. Six months later we brought on The Littlest Gator and Evan; it's been a roller-coaster year.

We take what we do seriously because we take you seriously.

Not that we don't have fun, mostly. Sometimes. Yeah, okay, from time to time a few of us have a little bit of fun, okay? Alright, there's no fun. We slave, slave away in pits wearing unwashed rags eating gruel, trying to avoid pie fights. Pie? Oh Gods, what I would give for a bite of pie, something fresh to eat... We sacrifice our lives, the small bits of fun, free time, health and well-being we'll ever have, all so you, you there, the man wearing the Obama pin... yes you: we do it all for you. *sniffs*

No. No, none of that's true. Well, maybe it's true for the interns, but I don't really care about them. Oh, wait. There are no interns. They're on my agenda for Year Two. Ah, yes...

Year Two. *grins*

If you think Year One was cool, you haven't seen anything yet. Lots-a-coming.

Our first fundraising drive ever starts today and runs through July 15. There'll be a post, however please: be among the first to donate to support GNB.

Here's the bottom line on Year One for me...

This is the best gig, ever. I love what I'm doing. And you. (Truly.)

I work with amazing people, passionate about their work. Our readers take our writing seriously and hold us to high standards. GNB challenges me professionally; it calls on most of us (myself included) to actively use a lifetime of varied disciplines to take care of our readers and each other.

Thank you, and thank the GNB writers for an amazing first year. Stay tuned...

Year Two is going to ROCK.

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Steve, One Year Later

Gilly Bear on Steve Gilliard's hospital pillow. photo by Jenonymous Feb 25, 2007.

Steve Gilliard (November 13, 1964 – June 2, 2007)

I can't stop crying.

One year since I got the email that Steve was dead.

An hour later The News Blog went black forever as the news swept out.

We'd lost Gilly.

I've been crying for a year.

Never know when it's going to hit.

• Reading a post.
• Riding my bike.
• Kissing my kids goodnight.
• I make a mental note, “Send this to Gilly.”

And then I remember...

Without warning I burst into tears. Like right now.

I shove my glasses up, rub at my left eye and face. “Fuck”, I say. “God dammit.”

After a moment or two, I force myself to breathe. Once, twice, often a third time. And wipe the sneaky tear from my right eye as well.

“Bastard.”

I close my eyes and breathe.

I hold on...

...and am slammed back a year ago.

That last month, we knew what was likely. We spent it preparing everyone for the inevitable. We prayed for a miracle, even those of us who don't believe. But we knew.

People fall back on cliché when they're unable to be with life as it is. Many people told me, “At least Steve was blogging until he went into the hospital. He died having done what he loved to do.” Gods do I hate that cliché. People die. Steve died because he was in poor health, had long-term medical problems, was over-weight, and he failed to take his medical problems with the seriousness they needed.

He got decent care at the hospital, but yes, institutional racism played a role in his death -- and I'm not talking only about his medical care, but how everyone involved interacted with the system. That conversation isn't one I (or anyone on the inside) is going to talk about the details of now. (Ask me again in a decade.)

Racism is a fact of life, as real as dog-shit on the sidewalk. It just is. Sometimes you step in it. You might not even know you've got dog-shit on your shoe till you smell it. You look back and there's shit tracked all across the carpet. It was like that. The shit was everywhere. You can't blame the dog. Dog's shit; it's what they do. You shouldn't blame the people much; maybe they turned away for a moment and the dog did its business. It happens. And your attention was elsewhere as you walked and, well, it's a mess.

It was a mess for Gilly, and I don't blame anyone. Steve fought as hard as anyone could, but in the end too many systems were too messed up, and he died.

We're left, a year later with the fact of his death. Sometimes I know he'd be proud of all of us, and sometimes it's more than I can bear and I cry. Often both at once.

I am proud of our community. Of our bloggers, Hubris Sonic, Lower Manhattanite, Sara Robinson and myself, and The Littlest Gator and Evan Robinson. Of Jen, Steve's co-publisher and the heart of our community. And our readers, the few who comment frequently (regulars), the many who comment sometimes (lurkers), and the vast majority (in the tens of thousands) who simply read (*hi Mom*.) Among those who read us are the major blogs, political campaigns, national newspapers, networks and magazines, political parties, politicians and staff, and people in over 140 countries around the world.

Steve, my friend... it's one hell of a legacy you've left.

If only I could go a week without bursting into tears.

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GNB Credentialed for 2008 Democratic National Convention

Party in Denver in August

The Democratic National Convention Committee has announced Group News Blog is among more than 120 blogs credentialed for the convention.

Blogs Credentialed For The Convention.

From July 1 through July 15, Group News Blog will hold our first fund-raising drive. The primary use of these funds will be staff expenses for the convention.

Steve Gilliard was one of the roughly 30 bloggers credentialed for the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. This feels very much as if we've come full-circle.

We are deeply honored to be on the same list with the blogs who are credentialed, both the State Pool (released a few weeks ago) and today's release of the National Pool (both lists are combined in the above linked list.)

In the weeks and months to come we'll tell you more. Right now, all we know is GNB is on the list. Who from GNB is going, how much access bloggers will have, even where we're going to stay... the details are not confirmed. We're not going to talk till we have confirmed facts to tell you.

As people say when they're nominated for major awards or make it to the Show:

"We're just happy to be here. We're going to take it one day at a time. We hope we can help the Team. And the good Lord willing, it'll all work out."

This is THE BEST.

*smiles*

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Minor Technical Glitch

HaloScan Not Incrementing Comment Count

HaloScan is working. Mostly.

I've sent a note to HaloScan support. They normally respond quickly.

The issue is the Comments link isn't incrementing as comments are added. People's comments are being entered just peachy. Although to be safe, please SAVE your work before pressing Publish.

Normally where HaloScan says Comments at the bottom of a Post, the Comment field would change -- 1, 2, 3 -- to tell you how many comments are there.

Not happening. We're working on it.

Thank you for your patience.

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Driftglass 1,500

1,500

On the auspicuous Mission Accomplished Day, Drifty has posted his 1,500th. Crikey, they grow up so fast.

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Pain: Pt. 3

Meta Watershed: LOL Weekly Roundup

“Ouch!” (We're still healing...)

Quick update on your intrepid bloggers. And other notes.

LM had his dental surgery Thursday as scheduled.

Lots of ice, rest, taking his meds, watching old comedies, being a good patient.

He's recovering well, if posting a tad too much while still in pain. (And yes, as he pointed out, the Sean Bell verdict came in when it did. So he posted. Still. Take it easy, dammit. You're recovering from fracking surgery. “Doc” has spoken.)

*waves to LM sweetly*

As for me, I met with the pain doc Tuesday as scheduled. I am also recovering, and hope to resume a quarter-normal posting schedule late next week.

We -- my medical team and I -- think we have a fix, but it's been three, increasingly long months. Last month was the worst month I can remember having in, well, a long time. Probably a year and a half, back while I was still not myself quite yet. Pain is rated on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst. Each month when you visit the pain doctor, you answer a number of different question sets, in order to draw out a baseline over time.

One of these questions sets is:

What is your current pain level?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What was your worst pain in the last week?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What was your least pain in the last week?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

What was your average pain in the last week?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Normally, I average -- this, mind you, even with all the medications I take -- about a 4. We try and keep me in a range where I don't peak above 6, with lows of 0-2 pain; that's a good week (month.) This is normal for me, as much as I have a normal.

Three months ago my minimum pain was 4 with breakthrough pain up to 8. Two months ago I averaged 6 with peaks to 8. Last month I averaged 8 peaking to 10. Everyone who is around me closely, noticed. Bad month. Bad. *smiles*

This month my pain doc and I aren't getting fancy, we're just hitting the pain head on with more of the same drugs already known to work with me. So far, so good. My pain levels are dropping and associated issues are getting back under control.

If all goes well, sometime next week, I'll likely start posting again. Not at my normal pace; taking it easy. Now I'm still waiting to see if the meds really do bring the pain levels all the way back down to normal.

'Cause we sure as hell don't want the pain levels going up to an eleven.

Hmmm... I wrote about that once.

Group News Blog

“Ooooowww... Fuck!”

Furthermore, the numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven. Most blokes you know, will be torturing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten. Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere. Exactly. What we do with the Raytheon ray-gun if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Put it up to eleven. Exactly. One more painful.

There's more...

Bottom line... If you need time to get well, take it.

The rule at GNB is, wellbeing comes first. Period.

All of us at one time or another have taken a break to handle life issues. We love journalism, and we love you, but in order to do any of that, we must take care of ourselves -- and honor our parents, too. (Yes, I did talk with my Mom today, thanks for asking. And thanks again for those wonderful photos from your trip to Tucson. [That was a shout out to a regular whom I'm not going to mention.] But if you take a trip to Tucson, you can score with me by sending photos. I'm just saying I miss Tucson. Still. Always.)

People ask me sometimes, “what is it that makes GNB fundamentally different from other blogs?” Is it that people here are so smart? Or classy? That our men and women are so damn sexy? Our military coverage?

All these help. And yes, we inherited Steve's legacy. But more than all this, it's that at Group News Blog, we are profoundly committed to making sure people are left taken care of, in the interactions they have here. A year ago right now, the heart of who GNB is now was forming, as we worked together to make sure communication stayed in, and that everyone was taken care of, that people remembered to breathe.

You're our people.

We're in our tenth month, and committed to taking care of you.

Thank you for being here.

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Love On A Two-Way Street

We Don't Say It Often Enough...But Thank You.

In the ten months (!) since we've hung this cyber-shingle out, so many words, thoughts and ideas have passed from our fingers (our, being us the principal writers) and out into the electron-sparked internet ether that it's hard to keep track.

The pieces have ranged in topic from care for our elders, to electoral primary coverage, the destruction caused by and explanations of particulars of this horrible war, to analyses of school shootings, food, political history. movie and theater reviews, ruminations on American archetypes, tech, relationship issues, mental health, physical health, music, fashion and consumerism.

And maybe fifty other subjects as well.

With that hodgepodge of things, there is one constant.

That constant is YOU, the readers, and specifically the commenters.

What gets put up here for perusal is in many ways an unfinished product. It's a skeleton on which the comments you share hangs muscle, sinew and flesh. You animate the work.

There are countless instances where the comment threads so enhance the original works themselves that in the end, the idea of separating the two would be damn near blasphemous.

Like Reneé's “Dorothy Boyd” to Tom's “Jerry Maguire”, well...you complete us.

It's not just about yelling “Frist!” or all the funny and slick blog-isms we chuckle at every day. It's about the give and take—the feedback—and the learning that feedback inspires.

Not long ago, I wrote a post about the generational issues underlying this year's presidential campaign. The piece itself was decent enough, but what happened in comments was where the real action was. Within the thread there ensued a spirited and detail-rich discussion of a secondary element about clear and lucid behavior at the government's executive level—going back to Reagan, and then further, back to Nixon and the back-channel goings on in Washington during that time when the possibility of things going totally off the rails wasn't all doom and gloom-speak, but a possible reality with real potential of coming to pass. There was a helluva discussion on geopolitics in that thread that I just sat back and saw play out. I literally said to myself, “Wow!” and that discussion led me to do some reading up on the subject—which only made me that much more knowledgeable on the topic.

In my attempt to inform, I found myself informed. By you.

That wasn't the only instance of that occuring. You folks do that every day, for every one of us who contribute. In the thread based on the relative mundaneness of my agony of tooth pain, aside from all the wonderful wishes of good health, there emerged a little sub-narrative that struck me as being what this place is all about.

I turned the post towards a brief discussion about the need for decent health care for all, and you guys picked up the ball and ran with it alá Barry Sanders on a speedy turf. The gold-plating of access to emergency dental care in America—a life and death issue for more than a few people is one of those issues you don't think about. Until it's you suffering through a Friday night, agonizing through a Saturday, counting every painful hour of a Sunday, and if you're lucky like me, finally getting to see someone on a Monday morning. If you're un-lucky, you inflame and fever up until something much worse than a sore mouth lays you flat on your back in a hospital bed. And beyond that, there is the issue of there being pretty much no such a thing as ER dental care—even if you really require it. A longtime reader, but infrequent commenter “Fuzzy” chimes in with this tale:

“It still blows my mind that you can't really get anything done with your teeth in the E.R. or the minor emergency room. I was with the misses after she had a bike accident and lost a quarter of a tooth when we went to the minor followed by e.r. to find they had a dentist's chair, tools, everything there but a dentist. We were told to find a dentist somewhere and schedule an appt. She was given pain killers and antibiotics to last the weekend. When I asked why they didn't have a dentist since there are cases where a problem with your teeth could be lethal or life threatening, the doctor on duty frowned and said they would be doing crowns and cavity fills for every poor person in the city and probably bankrupt the hospital. His statement there shocked me and I to this day can't understand why dentistry isn't considered as important as any other medical procedure. We as a country need national health care of some sort, and dentistry needs to be included and in hospitals. It really is ridiculous.”

It IS ridiculous, and is a subject you just never really hear discussed. But Fuzzy's anecdote just makes you think that much more about how one horribly neglected aspect of health care can impact you, and from there highlights how health care in general in this country so desperately needs to be fixed—for all. It's a simple story. One rarely articulated and rarer yet as clearly. It made me stop and think about the ludicrousness and flat-out danger of a situation like that existing in a country we like to call forward-thinking. That simple thing typed into a haloscan box (yeah...it's a kludge sometimes, but hey) adds so much to the discussion I began on access to health care that it's kind of stunning. Fuzzy's a longtime reader—a “lurker” he says. But that one missive of his has spurred me on to think about this situation with an increased intensity and you can bet—will move me to post more on health care issues and how they affect us as a whole. And how we can affect said health care as involved citizens. One comment. Driving the point home. Completing the circle. Sparking the mind to move foreward in figuring out solutions to these problems—big and small. You have no idea how good it makes us feel when that happens.

So I don't think I'm engaging in hyperbole when I say that you guys and gals (outside of our little troll-y hit-and-run friends) are among the most literate, most knowledgeable, and well-rounded co-contributors I read on these here internets every day. I think we learn and get as much from you as you get from us.

And for that, I—no...we cannot thank you enough.

For your knowledge, your humor, your willingness to push the discussion along, and yes, your odd ability to inspire us to do certain things based on the creativity of your responses —again, we thank you.

Now, I know life hasn't all been a crystal stair. There are scraps. Boundaries are nudged and crossed. Feelings get bruised. Words are said sometimes in haste, which engenders some waste. Sensitivities are not always considered as much they should and maybe, yeah—we piss each other off. In the end though, we dialogue. And just as life is an every day learning process, it's that for us in putting this thing out here and it's the same for you in your reacting to it. We're actually working on this thing together and maturing as we go. Post. Read. Comment. Reply. We think. You think. Thousands of people's brain cells a' firing. That's a helluva thing. We thank you for indulging us in your reading and truly appreciate what you give back in your sharing via comments.

It's something you don't hear often enough in these venues. But I mean it. We mean it when we say it. You're valued. Simple as that.

Through whatever disagreements there are—whether between poster and commenter, or commenter and commenter, the fact that you as commenters for the large part choose to come here respectfully (even when in disagreement) time and again and share—and in turn enhance what we try to do here is a wonderful thing. Back in the day, Steve himself would from time to time publicly let folks know that their readership was appreciated, and I still have several e-mails he sent me that personally thanked me for what little input I contributed to the comments.

Those still kind of get to me. Especially since whatever I do here these days is directly attributable to where I got my start (like the stratospherically talented Driftglass)—talking with folks on these here intertubes—as a commenter. I remember how nice it was when someone would even notice a comment I'd make, and maybe pick up from it and continue the conversation in-thread. And what was most rewarding of all was when a little blast within a thread would spur or be attached to a greater conversation “above the fold”. You'd be amazed at just how much you folks do that for me...and we.

So thank you again, for your readership, and beyond that—your feedback in comments. It means a lot, and makes what we do here more worthwhile, and in the long run, that much better.

You guys are...the best.

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Final Theme Song

DrBopperTHP asks a great question:

What specific song do you want played at your funeral as your "final theme song?"

My favorite tune of all time is Vienna Teng's Lullaby For A Stormy Night (live version; poor recording).

However when it happens I'll be dead. I have no wishes for those who are there except my ashes's eventually being released on both Mt. Lemon (north of Tuscon) and Mt. Rainer. No marker; let my body return to the earth.

I love music, so whatever music is there -- except religious hymns, other than classic music such as Bach -- would be fine. What might be even better is simply paying attention to the music of the birds, the trees and the wind. Just being present would be perfect.

Followed by everyone going somewhere and having a big-ass party. With lots of Margaritas. 'Cause otherwise people might think life and death was fracking serious. *laughs*



How about you? Do you have a song you want played at your memorial?

We're taking last requests.

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Google Takes it to the Cloud

Developers Get Access to the Google Cloud

Yesterday, Google announced that Developers could Beta new services from Google. Specifically, that web applications could be developed taking advantage of all of Google's internal structures, from Google Bigtable to the Google File System.

This is a BIG FRACKING DEAL.

'Course, the catch is, as a developer, as other's have said, you're tied in tight to Google, and it would be nice if they gave you more than just Python to hack in. Sure, if you wanted to migrate away, you probably could write abstractions and move out, but still. On the other hand, for those who want to live in Google's world, this is the way to go. Everything from authentication to mail is handled.

May a million startups bloom. The age of needing your own hardware to run a startup is damn near over. Thrown everything up in the cloud, even if you're video intense. You'll still own it. Just run it on someone else's stuff. Focus on what you do best, which is hacking code, and getting customers. Managing infrastructure is no longer a core competency for a startup. Or at least, it doesn't have to be.

Matt Cutts

This is pretty cool. Google launched App Engine, which lets you write code for a web application, then Google takes care of the scaling/failover/logistics-type issues. You can store your data in a Google Bigtable using the Google File System. There’s a bunch of App Engine APIs to simplify things like sending email and fetching urls. Your application can authenticate users that are using Google Accounts, so you can avoid the whole “ask your users to create a new account” issue if you want.

The official blog post makes it clear that this is a preview release, so Google will be adding more functionality over time but they’re opening the program up now to start to allow real-world applications and to get real-world feedback. The first 10,000 developers to sign up get to play with it now.

My favorite part is that the usage model looks pretty solid:

During this preview period, applications are limited to 500MB of storage, 200M megacycles of CPU per day, and 10GB bandwidth per day. We expect most applications will be able to serve around 5 million pageviews per month. In the future, these limited quotas will remain free, and developers will be able to purchase additional resources as needed.

ReadWriteWeb

Let's firstly review what this is - and what it is not. Google App Engine is similar to the Amazon Web Services stack, which rolled out at the end of 2006 and has since gone on to be utilised by many startups for their infrastructure needs. But it is not a set of standalone services like Amazon's - which includes S3 for storage, EC2 for hosting and the SimpleDB database. Google App Engine is an end-to-end service and bundles everything into one package.

In that respect Google App Engine is more like the so-called "Platform-as-a-Service" (PaaS) apps like Bungee Labs, which we profiled firstly in April 2007 and then more recently in February when it launched a new version. Other PaaS contenders include Salesforce.com's Force.com platform (nicely summarised by Dan Farber) and Morfik's Ajax platform.

There are many compelling reasons for startups to use Google App Engine; and Alex Iskold summed them up in his post Reaching for the Sky Through The Compute Clouds. Alex explained why the likes of Amazon, and now Google, are providing a valuable service to startups:

"We are witnessing a fundamental shift in our ability to compute and this is just the beginning. Amazon is at the forefront of making massively parallel, web scale compute services available to the world. Free from the need to solve the scalability problems, startups are able to focus on the specific problems that their product or service is trying to solve. All of this is happening while the cost of hardware, bandwidth and services overall keep dropping."
(emphasis mine)

However, there are a few downsides to the Google approach. For one thing, it means developers must use Python as their programming language - PHP and Ruby are two other popular languages today. But looking at the bigger picture, startups which use Google App Engine are essentially tying themselves into Google's technology. They'll need to host with Google, do their processing with Google, store their data with Google, etc. And as some people have already speculated, having a web app built and deployed with Google App Engine makes it much easier for Google to eventually acquire that web app.

It does make you wonder: would you want Google to control your entire end-to-end development environment? Isn't that what developers used to be afraid of Microsoft for?

I'm not as afraid -- yet -- of Google as I am of Microsoft. Mostly I guess because Google is riding the historical wave, and Microsoft still is fighting the tide of history.

Cloud computing is here. It isn't getting here. It is here.

GNB routinely serves almost all of our data from the cloud. From Google's Blogger cloud (mostly), HaloScan's cloud (mostly), and from Amazon's S3 cloud (a little.) Plus other clouds we call to frequently such as Google's YouTube. In addition, we have a datacenter in Tokyo where we serve our "We Fight On" graphic. We run daily backups to our Tokyo datacenter and our Seattle headquarters. Not to mention some of us routinely back up our work to little flashdrives and aways have backups with us, where ever we go.

The point is, having our data live in the cloud and not on our own servers (except for local backup) means we don't have to concentrate on infrastructure. We don't have to pay for infrastructure either (which again, is a big fracking deal.) We just have to concentrate on what we do best, which is journalism and taking care of listening to our readers. This lets us increase our customer base.

This is precisely what Cloud computing is about. Off load startup infrastructure (and costs) to the Cloud, allows startup companies (such as GNB) to focus on their core competencies and see if they have a viable business. How you know you have a viable business, by the way, is if customers show up. If they do, you've got one. If they don't, you don't. Cloud computing lets startups test out ideas without having to make enormous infrastructure investments.

GNB (and The News Blog before us) wouldn't exist today without Cloud computing.

Bring on the Cloud.

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“Steve Would Have...”

People somehow still think they can get at me by saying:

• “That's not how Steve would do it,”
• “You'll never write as good as Steve does,”
• “Steve would never/Steve would always,”

and instead of reacting with “go fuck yourself,” I thought...

I'd tell everyone -- yes, you can get at me that way.

Not because I buy into negative views of myself.

Because I miss him too.

You're right... That probably isn't how Steve would do it.

You're right... I won't ever write like he did. And I love that you still read him, and that he lives for you in his words.

Steve