Election Night Tweeting

I'll be tweeting tonight about the election, and Libertarian races on my spare Twitter account for special events, @SSL_Conv

This will space those of you following me at @ShawnL the "full firehose" of tweeting throughout the night. 

I'll be spending much of the night hanging out with Andrew Ian Dodge at his Senatorial campaign's election night party at Gritty McDuff's in Portland.

The Heinous Growth of Variants

Comics retailer Brian Hibbs doesn't like variant covers that have proliferated in comics over the past several decades.

I personally, as an individual with an individual opinion, have no respect whatsoever for anyone, anywhere, who charges, under any circumstances whatsoever, more than cover price for any comic that is less than 30 days old. We shouldn't shit where we eat.

Hibbs covers the history, the economics, and the ethics of variant covers in his Tilting at Windmills column.

I've never bought into variants. I'm a reader, not a collector.

But in the 90's DC Comics pulled a dick move where the Teen Titans spinoff, Team Titans #1 had five variant interiors. Each of the variants had a different cover featuring a different team member, and an 8 page story featuring that character that tied into the main story (which was the same in all variants, meaning to get the whole story, you had to buy a lot of redundant paper)

Mercifully it was a stunt that, to my knowledge, hasn't been repeated.

Getting What I Paid For

Currently in the tech-blogoshphere, there's a lot of buzz about Twitter, and how their changes in the attempt to make more money through advertising and catering to advertisers. It's led to some people to back the start of a new Twitter-like service, at App.net, as a paid service.

In this context there's been a lot of discussion about being the customer when you pay, vs. being the product when you don't. I'd like to take a different tack. The fact that with free web publishing software, you often have to do a lot of work to get a site to look anything other than just a generic site.

In web publishing, there are a lots of free software packages. Lord knows I've used a lot of 'em: Blogger, Wordpress, Movable Type, and even hand coding my own HTML.

Now some of this is my own damn fault, but I've spent more time as of late tweaking web design and features of the software than actually writing. Especially when changing blogging platforms is a semi-annual thing for me.

Even being with Squarespace, where tweaking is simpler and easier, I've opted to dive into CSS to make changes beyond what their system allows. I've squandered the best aspect of paying for Squarespace: Being able to adjust design simply, quickly, and get on with the writing I really want to do here.

With the other systems, I've HAD to get into manipulating code to get what I want to display, but what you pay for when you sign on to Squarespace isn't just the hosting, it's the software that's constantly being improved upon, where the technical aspects of web design are kept mostly "under the hood", and untouched by the user. 

So, while switching to Version 6 of Squarespace. I'll keep my tweaking to a minimum, and try to stay focused on content more than form. Squarespace handles the management of the software too well, and I'll sooner be submitting feature requests of Squarespace than spend hours in the manual CSS file.

Even then, there are some design features of Version 5 that have yet to show on Version 6 that I'd like to see. But it's still early for this, I'll be patient, especially as I know they are working to keep me as a paying customer. 

With open source projects, development is more for the geekier users, as they are the ones who are developing the software, and are doing so for their own reasons. Some of these projects have a commercial aspect to them, but the core software is not their direct source of income. I could be wrong to some degree, but at the very least they do not sell to the average Joe User, whereas Squarespace's bread & butter is about selling the service to users big and small alike. 

This is demonstrated by the fact that Squarespace used to have about a half dozen or so tiers of service, with the higher tiers existing to get the most out of commercial customers. But now they have only two levels, simple enough to understand so that individual or small business users can easily get a grasp of and feel more comfortable with. The highest price is only $20 a month. Clearly the individual and smaller business accounts are what Squarespace is focused on.

So, I'm not only the customer, I'm the kind  of customer that Squarespace caters to. Something that needs to be taken into account when you pay for a service, even if that payment is a willingness to view ads.

Reflections on the Libertarian Party National Convetion: My race for Judicial Committee.

Thanks to everyone who voted for me, or even considered voting for me, in the recent race for the Libertarian Party’s Judicial Committee.

The following exchange from Shakespeare in Love could have easily been applied to the Libertarian National Convention…

Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush): Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Fennyman (Tom Wilkinson): So what do we do?

Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Fennyman: How?

Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.

The bad news

I did not win a seat on the committee. But it was a good process. I had many interesting conversations with fellow delegates. One pleasant surprise was that a few people whom I was sure would be impossible to persuade, turned out to respect my positions enough that they were going to vote for me.

The good news

I however was elected Treasurer of the Libertarian State Leadership Alliance (LSLA). Well, not so much “elected” as the incumbent wasn’t running again, and after several individuals declined their nomination, I stepped forward, presented my qualifications and was voted in.

Over the long haul, this is probably the better role. My deciding to run for Judicial Committee was based on my fears of internal party squabbles, as opposed to my participation in the LSLA is more about hopes for the work it is doing, assisting local party chapters, helping the growth of the party at the grassroots levels. Moreover having been treasurer of the LP of Maine, and my professional experience handing company finances, make this a far better fit for my skill set.

Comics & Politics intersect at the LPME Con:

Avengers: Ultron Quest Promotional comic available at Wyndham hotels.

Avengers: Ultron Quest

Promotional comic available at Wyndham hotels.

One cool part of the Libertarian Party of Maine convention, was the fact the Saco Ramada was giving out this comic to people staying there.

The premise of the comic is the Avengers use Tony Stark’s rewards points from Wyndham to stay at hotels across the country in preparation to fight various copies of the evil robot Ultron.

It is kinda cheesy. But hey, it was a free comic, and since I’ll be busy at the National Libertarian Party Convention when Free Comic Book Day rolls around, this will have to make up for it.

Oscar Tweeting Highlights

  • Cirque du Soleil in a tribute to going to the movies? Funny, its more like going to about 50% of Vegas’ shows. #oscars
  • Cripes, could they cut the technical awards presentation any shorter? #oscars
  • Short doc award winner thanking HBO. Ah my pet peeve, documentaries filmed for TV. This is the #oscars not the #emmys
  • The lifetime achievement awards used to each get an extended acceptance speech on the telecast. Now they just wave. #oscars #ScrewCirque
  • I know that they used to joke about how the #oscars always went long. But cutting out so much from the show is wrong.
  • “No Animals Were Harmed”® Wait… that’s a trademark? #oscars #credits (I stay through credits at movies I’ll do it for oscars)