It sounds so obvious, but I’ve lost count of the number of writers I’ve heard complain that it’s hard for them to do X or Y, and wonder aloud how to do X or Y without effort. Where they got the idea that writing isn’t hard work, or that it’s supposed to come easily, I don’t know. Everyone laughed when Francis Flaherty, during a Q&A session after his reading in New York last night, put it as bluntly as this:

Writing ain’t easy.

Frank, as everyone calls him, has been an editor at the New York Times for 16 years, and spent five years on his daily train commute between NYC and Long Island writing this wonderful book. If you’ve put the majority of your attention as a writer (and reader) on style and grammar, why not turn your attention to what makes a story great? I was especially interested in this as someone who is perhaps unreasonably frustrated with the number of scribes who take pride in having Garner’s rules memorized…and then spit out work that is boring, without tension, or just plain bad (but it’s grammatically correct!).

Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, there are specific ways to engage readers and make them as much a part of the story as what is written on the page. In The Elements of Story, Frank writes beautifully on just how to do that, including plenty of examples. It has all the benefits of reading a textbook, with the right amount of interactivity to keep the endeavor out of boredom’s way.

Wednesday night at Jackson-McNally bookstore in Soho, Frank whipped out what I referred to as his “old school Power Point” - a single page of a flip chart - and led us through the components of chapter 22 of his book. It was a new spin on the traditional reading and hugely enlightening. I was happy that there was a full house, with many people left standing after all the chairs were filled, to spend time learning from this wise man. But the best part may have been seeing his proud wife videotape proceedings from the back of the room. Thanks for a memorable night, Frank!

I knew he was bad - dreadfully bad - at, well, everything. But public speaking is known to be one of the areas in which he regularly fails to shine. However, I had no idea he had gotten this dreadful. A politician who can’t lie properly - get yer coat, Gordo.

It’s almost enough to make me feel sorry for him…if I forget how many lives he’s destroyed and will continue to ruin, what he’s done to a once-great nation, and how much I wish him to fail at everything he turns his mind to.

via Guido

It’s been awfully humid in New York the last few days, with occasional torrential downpours to cool things off. I can forgive a lot of a weather system that gives us skies like this (photo is completely unedited - click thumbnail for larger versions):

Excellent post from Om Malik about how the seeming must-succeed online video content play ended up where it is today (i.e. not a great place). On Om’s list of what went wrong:

Too Big, Too Fast: Joost hired too many people, too quickly. It never behaved like a startup but instead always felt like a grown-up company with too many bureaucratic layers.

One of my biggest fears is that I’ll end up working again someday in a “grown-up company” that doesn’t allow a small team of smart people to exercise their own autonomy, be flexible, and move quickly to take advantage of opportunities. I’m sure this was a key issue at Joost which led to another item on Om’s list:

Chasing Its Own Tail: Joost also made some basic mistakes, such as not having a good SEO strategy. It never quite figured out a social media strategy in order to garner viral growth, either. It was like a tech company from the 1990s — out of sync with today’s web environment.

I’ve been surprised by how many people working at many online companies don’t seem to live in the space they seek to cultivate. Rather, they (and the company as a whole) talk about “strategy” (sorry, Om, but this is a really Business 0.5 term that marks an organization out as amateurish when it comes to the web) and still view the internet as just another broadcast channel through which they can shout out their “messages” to “consumers“. Unsurprisingly, they’re not doing too well online.

This was the view from my bedroom on Friday evening (click thumbnail for larger versions):

On one of the unintended consequences of the UK’s shambolic state school system:

The handicapping of the intellectual capacity of the country has definitely given the children of the privileged, who were able to buy a better education, great advantages.

-Guido Fawkes

Tonight I had two parties to attend on Qik’s behalf, each thrown by one of our fantastic partners. At each party, I met great people and was able to chill out a bit. Work can be work, but it’s often a lot of fun, too.

First up was the Nokia N97 launch party at the legendary Marquee. Qik is pre-loaded on the N97 and just announced a really important milestone in our partnership with Nokia, as well as being a featured app in the Ovi Store. (All photos are here, click thumbnails for full-sized photos.):

Me with Ilan Abehassera, founder + CEO of Producteev

Just around the corner was a party thrown by Ning (did you know that, with Qik’s Ning integration, members of your Ning social network can Qik straight to your Ning site?). All pictures from #ningnyc are here, click thumbnails for full-sized shots.

Me with Ning co-founder + CEO Gina Bianchini - one of my tech and business heroines.

Me with Sandi Bachom - what a life she lives!


Best view from a party EVER

Qik is fortunate to have such fantastic partners, and I’m glad they throw parties as well as they build products and services!

This was a spur of the moment video, but I think it gets the message across. Thanks to the legendary Documentally for ambushing me last week in NYC! He’s the best.

We hadn’t planned to announce this just yet, but one of our testers got overly excited and leaked the news, which quickly spread on Twitter. So we got the app onto the Android Marketplace ASAP. It’s an early version but so far we’ve had great reviews from our users. Greg Kumparak from TechCrunch/MobileCrunch/CrunchGear has more.

It’s been hard to keep my big yapper shut about this, especially with all my G1-owning friends asking me when Qik would be available for Android. So that’s one less secret to keep!

Yep, Qik now integrates with the world’s number one online video platform. It is, to say the least, hugely exciting to bring mobile video to such a prominent, popular, and all-around kick-ass video service.

On a personal note, it’s a geeky thrill to be working with a company founded by Jeremy Allaire. He’s one of my tech heroes, which is why I was so thrilled to spend some time with him last month. In fact, the entire Brightcove team has been fantastic as we worked up to this announcement. I hope I get to go visit them again in Cambridge very soon!

Day one, I met my best friend’s baby girl for the first time (after first being all tearful through my airport reunion with her mommy and daddy, because I’m cold as ice):

Day two, friends from Cincinnati came to visit (but not for long enough!), I got to spend a whole 20 minutes with my little brother, then went to a real country hoedown on the banks of the Scioto River and ate too much (but had no moonshine).

Day three, 5chw4r7z and his wife came to see me from Cincinnati, which was a successful visit by so many measures:

Day four, I was reunited with my brother for a few hours, during which we didn’t hit each other even once. I thought my face was going to break from smiling and laughing so much.

I didn’t cry when we said goodbye, but only because I think he may come visit me for our birthday (both born on July 21, three years apart):

Then I had to say goodbye to Karri and Isabella (and Karri’s husband, who was a great sport for tolerating all the dumb stuff Karri and I laughed at like hyenas for four days). I have no idea when I’ll see them next, which made that farewell a lot harder.

Here’s hoping it won’t be another year until I see everyone again - and that I can process the 400+ photos I took before the month is over. (What’s on Flickr is just the tip of the iceberg.)

Surreal weekend so far, full of people I haven’t seen in 10+ years, former teachers, and some of my favorite people in the world. Not to mention Reggie the rooster.

Yep, I’m back in southern Ohio for a few days. (And southern Ohio is back in my accent, according to some.) So far, so…different from Silicon Valley and NYC! (That’s an annual hog roast that my friend’s family has, where something like 300+ people show up, set up camp - hence all the camper vans - and chill out like nobody else in the world chills out.)

Boy, did I need this trip. All photos so far are here.

Me and my little brother, John:

Me, my best friend Karri and her baby girl:

The nicest outhouse I’ve ever seen (though I did not actually visit it):

Me and the woman who was my current events and world geography teacher in high school (maybe you can blame her for my eventual turn to blogging):

It feels so good to be in the middle of nowhere. I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.

The world needs more people like this:

When I finally got to the front, the woman taking tickets tells me I now owe two dollars. I frantically search my bag and luckily, luckily, find the cash.

“It’s kind of nuts up there on the second floor,” I say to her.

“Yeah, that’s what the lady in front of you just told me,” she says. She shakes her head, putting my money into her drawer. She doesn’t hit the button to open the gate. Instead, she glances up toward the line of angry cars, listening to the honking.

Then she turns back to me. “It’s like, I guess I could hire someone to stand up there and direct you guys in and out of the building. But the way I figure it? Y’all grown.”

I start laughing.

“See, you get it. Make them wait for a second. I’m not done. I mean it. Y’all all grown. Supposed to be grown-ups, big people, parking your own cars. You all grown enough to drive those fancy things in here, you should be grown enough to drive them away.”

“That’s very true,” I say.

“I mean it. Y’all’re grown. For real.”

I love her.

I have so many blog posts I want to write, but not enough time to write them. Life is beautifully hectic, and that is far from a complaint. I find myself in the most interesting places.