During this time of year, sports fans are usually glued to their TV’s to watch the NCAA basketball championship tourney — also called March Madness. And basically right after that comes the professional NBA Playoffs. It’s the best time to be a basketball fan.

And while I’m pleased that our local professional team (the Golden State Warriors) is in the hunt for a playoff spot, I’m writing this to talk about dealing with pressure situations, in which during this time there will be plenty.

Clutch Performers

For athletes, we often praise the ones who are “clutch”, who, with the game on the line, are able to score the winning basket from the field, be it a lay-up against the “trees” clogging the lanes to the basket, a long-ranged jump shot over the outstretched arms of two defenders, or the successful free throws amidst the howling and hooting of thousands upon thousands of rabid fans, all with only seconds left on the game clock.

Real Life Pressure Situations

But for the rest of us mere mortals, let me ask you have you ever:

• Put in an all-nighter for a term paper, and wound up getting an A?
• Made a presentation in front of investors, and aced all the hard questions, landing the big contract?
• Received the proverbial client’s curve ball — something you never expected — but kept your cool and proceeded (and succeeded) as if you expected it all along?

Those are all pressure situations where the expectation to perform and deliver is high — and it feels GREAT when you do.

People often get paid big bucks for that kind of performance, and deservedly so.

Reason for Failure

However, many people do buckle under the stress.

And the stress comes from getting into a state of mind where uncertainty, doubt and/or fear reigns:

• What if I mess up?
• I’m not prepared!!
• What’s the next step?

These and any number of other questions and thoughts run through the mind, and the subsequent failure to perform is often summarized as paralysis by analysis.

Qualities of Clutch Performers

Clutch performers, on the other hand, have these qualities:

• Confidence from Practice – no one is born perfect, and neither does intense practice make one perfect, despite the popular saying. However, what practice DOES do is train your muscles, honing their “muscle memory”, and perfect practice instills the confidence to perform perfectly, so when the time comes, the person who has practiced a lot appears to perform effortlessly. When you know you’ve done it (successfully) before (in practice), you can be confident you’ll do it again (in real game situations). That’s the reason why Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were notorious for their intense practices/rehearsals.
• Being Prepared – basically, this is the same as confidence from practice, but it bears explaining that the best performers are always prepared. For the job seeker, it’s as simple as doing the basic research of a company at which you want to work. For the self-employed, it’s keeping apprised of what the competition in your market is doing. For the lone woman traveling at night, it’s being aware of your surroundings. Preparation also comes from real practical experience — both successes and failures. Everything you do (or choose to do) prepares you for new challenges.
• Stay in the moment and let the chips fall where they may – the confidence from practice and preparation also allows the clutch performer to stay focused in the present, allowing their minds or bodies to perform without distraction. Sometimes we hear of athletes getting into “the zone”, in which the action seems to be flowing in slow motion. My theory is that when someone is in “the zone”, that person’s mind must be operating at peak efficiency and thus is able to process all the incoming sensory stimuli, making necessary calculations, adjustments, recollections and reactions at lightning speed. The effect would seem like the outside world has suddenly slowed down.
• Know that failures are inevitable, but see them as minor setbacks on the road to their goal(s) - Michael Jordan did not always make the game-winning shot, but that never stopped him from continuously honing his game, working on eliminating his weaknesses, and maintaining confidence in himself. His sheer force of will would not allow wallowing in defeat. Clutch performers know that failure does not mean the end of the world, and in doing so, is able to move on after the occasional lapses. That awareness and acceptance also allow them to stay in the moment, and drives them to persevere.

How about you? Got any tips or stories on dealing with pressure situations?

photo credit: *tom*

Blogging everyday
Reading, writing, commenting
A lot of hard work

photo credit: quas

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to do a short review on the Artemis Fowl series of novels.

A New Take on a Popular Myth

Author Eoin Colfer has a wonderfully creative take on the world of leprechauns, sprites and pixies. In this series of novels, he mixes both magic and technology — beings living deep underground who have magical powers, as well as ultra-advanced computers technology and cool gadgets galore.

The Kid Factor

Throw into the fray a 12-year old boy, Artemis Fowl II — an evil genius in his own words — who uncovers the secrets of this hidden world, and you get a fun series that should delight a lot of readers, both young and old (assuming you like fantasy or science fiction). The use of a protagonist who’s not all on the up-and-up is a little different from norm, but we’re used to lovable rogues like Han Solo, or the vigilante Batman.

Action and Thrills

Artemis is aided in his exploits by his more than able-bodied bodyguard, Butler. And then there’s the true action-heroine, Captain Holly Short, a female elf who is a member of the LEPrecon — Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance — who’s a bit cocky, but has a “good head on her shoulders” as they cliché goes.

And because Artemis is not without his faults, Captain Holly puts him to the test, challenging his schemes and intellect, and teaching him some important life lessons in the process. And so throughout the series young Artemis slowly begins to change, to grow (up) and actually become “good”, even hero-like in his own ways.

The two characters butt heads in the first novel — in fact he captures her, but in subsequent novels, the two often team up, at first reluctantly, but later willingly.

Explaining Leprechauns

Colfer’s explanation for the existence of elves, trolls and other “fantasy” creatures, known in the series as “fairies”, is that they were driven underground by man ages ago, and today mostly live the underground metropolis called Haven. The LEPrecon forces are responsible for tracking fairies who accidentally or intentionally meet with humans, and wiping those humans’ memories. At their disposal are stealth technology to mask their comings and goings between the two worlds, advanced surveillance equipment and communications with Foaly, a centaur who the super-geeky IT guy of the underworld. Certain races, including the elves, have their own magic that can also be called upon.

Of course, we wouldn’t have a series if there weren’t any bad elements, both above and underground. Threats of exposure, harm to either worlds, and some very human subplots all make for very enjoyable yarns.

It’s not heavy reading in any sense of the phrase, but all in all, the Artemis Fowl novels is still a fun series — easy to digest for younger readers, and offering some care-free fun for the rest of us.

photo credit: furiousgeorge81

A couple of years ago, a friend bought one of my kids a toy bowling set. They took to it immediately and played and played with it. However, it wasn’t long before we noticed cracks developing in some of the pins.

Sure enough, at one point, one of the pins broke into several pieces after a particularly “intense” frame. I could only surmise that cheap, brittle plastic was used in the set’s construction. No doubt the toy was bought at one of those “5 and dime” stores (inflation has turned them into dollar stores).

Looking for Bargains

I’m not against being frugal — it used to be that I was always on the look-out for bargains. But, especially after that experience, and being self-employed for the last few years, I am more acutely aware that there is a lot behind the final product or service we see in ads or stores.

To Get Products to the Stores

Now, whenever I see a product — whether it’s a toy, or a piece of furniture, or even a car — I also see it as something that has undergone a production and distribution cycle that include things like conceptualization, resource acquisition, creation, distribution, marketing and customer service. (I apply the same evaluation for services: painting, roofing, landscaping, etc.)

Costs are Incurred at Every Step

I then think about the price in terms of the wholesale costs for each of these steps:

• conceptualization – paying designers, engineers, inventors, research and development, etc.
• resource acquisition – paying for, and growing and harvesting raw materials, digging them out of the ground, refinining etc.
• creation – the actual process of construction, through labor and/or machines, all of which must be paid for
• distribution – packaging, shipping, trucking, etc.
• customer service – retail services, warranties, repairs and replacements, etc.
• support infrastructure – all the buildings, administrative staff, insurance, etc., needed to run each of the above “components”

Economies of Scale

I also take into account whether the item is mass produced, or whether the service is provided by a local small business — since materials or services do not come cheap on a single unit basis — in order to see if product is (seemingly) affordable, or worth what is being charged.

When a Bargain is Not Really a Bargain

However, when I see a product that is too cheap, then I have to assume one or more of the following must be true:

1. Outsourced manufacturing – The product is produced overseas, where wages are much lower, and worker treatment may be substandard or abusive, such as sweat shops
2. Remainders – the product is being dumped, sold at a loss because it couldn’t be sold otherwise. No one really wants it because it’s a piece of junk
3. Product Sold at a Loss – a strategy to gain market share, stifle competition, etc., like what Microsoft is doing with the Xbox 360
4. Short-sighted Management – product is manufactured with profit as the only motive — people and resources are unduly exploited for short term gain, perhaps a disregard for health and environment, etc.
5. Product is made of shoddy material, or with materials that might be unsafe – lower grade ore, cheaper plastics carcinogenic paints, leaded materials, less robust circuits, etc.
6. Product is unreliable – poorly designed components, mediorcre workmanship, and such can result in an inferior product like a cheap PC, or a car that’s a “lemon”

If it’s a service, then I have to consider whether or not the person offering the service is executing sound business practices. If the price is too low, he or she may be subsidizing the service with income from a full-time job. If there is no other job, then I would wonder whether this particular small business will be around in a year or two.

Cheapest May Not be the Best Option

So as you can see, sometimes purchasing a product or service based on the cheapest price will not turn out all that beneficial.

The product may be unsafe or it may break sooner than later — such that you need to junk it, contributing to our landfills, and need to go out and buy a replacement. Or returning it or getting it serviced may be more trouble than it’s worth due to poor customer service.

The service may turn out to be a one-time thing, with little or no recourse if you are unsatisfied.

A lot of times, we don’t think or even consider any of these things — we’re happy to simply buy, buy, buy.

photo credit: *tdl*

Have you ever:

• Shared a joke with friends?
• At a game, gave a high five to a complete stranger next to you after your team has just made a tough score?
• Chatted with a coworker about a TV show at the water cooler?

What do these three actions have in common?

They satisfy a need to belong.

The Instinct to Belong

I’m sure the development of this need harkens back to the days of the caveman — banding together was the prudent way for early man (and woman) to survive encounters with woolly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and the like (oh, my!) — those who didn’t, did not survive, and so the instinct was passed on.

Today, however, with those dangers extinct, we find other reasons to bond together. In the end, after food and water, and perhaps shelter, that next need is the need to feel a part of a group, whether it’s a life-partner in the form of a husband or wife, or something beyond a simple pairing.

Benefits of a Group

Indeed, there many benefits to being in a group

• Teamwork – working together can overcome many weaknesses
• Social skills – being successful usually means developing social skills
• Respect for others – the best teams usually have members who respect one another
• Support from others and camaraderie within the group – when one member is down, the others can pick him or her up
• Getting things Done fast – such as in an assembly line
• Brainstorming ideas in a meeting
• Strength in numbers
• Specialists are able to be developed or recruited, since other aspects are handled by others in the group, etc.

In fact, achievements such as building the Golden Gate Bridge or Hoover Dam is only possible through the power of a group. The strongest nations, the strongest corporations, are all groups.

Being in The In Crowd

It’s more than a great Ramsey Lewis composition, the “in” crowd is what makes us feel happy when we belong to one, and certainly makes us feel bad when we don’t — whether it’s a discussion on the latest episode of Heroes, or joining the after-work soccer team, the good feeling we get from being part of something is usually ingrained in all of us from the time we’re born, with things like:

• Being held in mommy’s bosom, where it was always warm and safe
• Cuddling with a parent as a toddler
• Playing in small groups in preschool

And then leading on to:

• School clubs
• Spelling bees
• Kick ball teams
• Birthday parties
• Sleepovers
• Music class
• Little league

Then we hear conversations like:

• “Oh, my kid got into the GIFTED program.”
• “My daughter’s teacher is Ms. Smith — teacher of the year.”
• “My son got into Harvard.”
• “My daughter got a full scholarship.”

These are all everyday conversations we might hear, but they all seem to point to one thing.

A Sense of Competition, and OneUpmanship

In our society, we are taught to (try to) thrive on competition. That push to be better than the other guy or gal is oftentimes a great motivator, and many individuals excel. As a person develops their skills, he or she may find him or herself:

• on a team, or even an “elite” team
• in a fraternity or sorority
• in a club
• joining a political party
• becoming part of the workforce, for a company, or starting his or her own
• at a company, become part of a department
• joining a union, and so on.

The Dangers of a Group

As we can see, society inevitably puts us into a group. And while we’ve seen the benefits of being in a group, there are also many dangers. Those dangers also begin early in our lives.

For instance, in school, we get the “bad apples” who are immediately grouped by being sent to detention. “Loners” may be shunned by the rest of the students for being “strange” or “radical”.

At work, sometimes the employees (”us”) versus customers (”them”) will result in poor customer service — ever get the “that’s not my department” line from an employee? Or a certain department (HR or Accounting or middle management) will eliminate members of the “regular” employees.

However, the true dangers come from exploitation of individuals in the name of the group, simply because the need to belong is so strong:

• Gangs – the need to belong is strong enough to entice some young people to join a gang, where terms like “family”, “brother” or “sister” are often used. Actions are executed in the name of the gang — “initiation” rites, such as robbing someone “outside” the family, turf wars, and worse — done to elicit praise from the leader(s), to get that love that is perhaps missing from their own (broken?) homes or parents that are too “busy” or uncaring, or to have a purpose
• Fanatic groups – think of the extreme right, groups led by zealous fanatics who use their charisma to gather a devoted following, oftentimes pitting them against the rest of society or other groups deemed unworthy, promising deliverance for successful execution of their agendas
• Religion – Religion is supposed to based on teachings of their founders (Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, etc.), and these teachings are taught by those who know “the truth” — the religious leaders — and so they form the group at the top, a group that has great power. But, some of these groups inevitably abuse that power and become corrupted. For all the good that is done, there are also great harm done in the name of religion. Think the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, and so-called “Holy” wars
• Politics – the “us versus them” card is often played here as well, resulting in impasses on policies at home, questionable campaign contributions that can sway decisions one way or another. Groups can cause civil unrests and other disturbances. Special interests are groups as well, and have sometimes been linked to conflicts and wars abroad. There are many examples today, but easy historical examples include Hitler and the Nazis, the plight of Native Americans, global Colonialism, Yellow Journalism, etc.

Suppression of Individual Thought and Critical Thinking

It’s easy to see how the group can be exploited by its leaders. Through the use of peer pressure, fear (of being cast out, or even losing his or her life), or simply the promise of love, individual thought and critical thinking can easily be suppressed, forgotten, or simply abandoned.

This can lead to the Lemming effect, where individuals simply go along with the group, not really knowing, or caring, in what direction they’re headed — mob think.

But I think a lot has to the do with the ones who lead the groups. Be it a gang, political, religious, corporate, whatever, leaders of groups have great power. And sometimes decisions are made not in the best interest of the group, but rather in the best interest of the leaders (e.g. to preserve their power and status).

Group is Great But One Still Has to Think

In the end, I think it’s important to be aware of the grouping phenomenon/instinct. Unless one is a total hermit, becoming part of a group is inevitable.

One still should practice critical thinking, especially when the direction we’re headed is not ideal, and voice his or her concerns, or simply leave the group.

One still needs to tell the Emperor he has no clothes.

The Group to Which We All Belong

Ultimately, we should remember that, whether we want to or not, from the moment we are born, we already belong to one group.

The human race.

I love bread, and I’m often amazed by it.

Think about it. Someone figured out that it was a great idea to mix crushed grain with water into a dough and cook it over a fire to create the first bread.

Later on, through accident or design, leavening agents (such as yeast) allowed for the dough to rise, creating the “modern” bread.

When I’m totally starving, I can devour an entire sourdough baguette. Plain.

Bread is, simply said, another of life’s simple pleasures.

Bread Appeals to all the Senses

• Sight – have you ever looked at breads? I’m not talking about the factory-made, store bought “clones” like Wonderbread, but rather the artisan, hand-made breads, where each individual loaf has a crust that’s unique unto itself, almost like a fingerprint, but similar to the other members of its “breadthen”. Some breads are “lacerated” prior to baking, resulting in crust with character — hills and valleys, nooks and crannies. The texture continues inside each loaf, in the “crumb”, where leavened breads exhibit air pockets, some fine and uniform, others randomly sized, almost swiss cheese-like. The natural colors of bread are all warm, earth tones. A bread loaf is such a simple looking thing from afar, but really a feast for the eyes seen up close.
• Smell – one of the best smells on earth is the smell of freshly-baked loaves of bread, just brought out of the oven. There’s something so rejuvenating about that smell, and being exposed to fresh bread simply flips my gastronomic dial to “hungry”.
• Touch – with fresh bread, one does not need to even slice it — tearing off a large chunk works just fine. The crust breaks apart, and the interior stretches, releasing steam into the air. The aroma is especially strong then.
• Taste – and who can resist simply munching down on a piece of freshly baked bread, no spreads, no condiments needed. Yum! Of course, after a few hours, when cooled, the bread invites one to ply its surface with a favorite spread or jam, or perhaps to turn it into a toast of some sort — say, garlic bread!
• Hearing – and when we’re greedily devouring our favorite breads, we also experience the crackle of new bread being broken, or the crunch of perfectly toasted garlic bread, and of course the rumblings of the stomaches of everyone careless enough to see you savoring.

Anyone hungry yet?

(I’m not even going to go into all the types of breads out there — my favorite’s sourdough French bread — more information on bread can be had in this Wikipedia entry.)

If you liked this post, you may also like my earlier post: Simple Pleasures of Life

Photo credit: isolatediguana

Even before I started this blog, I’ve been gleaning the various tips and tricks that abound in the Blogosphere, so much like a baleen whale, taking them in huge volumes, trying to filter out the best ones. Here’s what I have thus far — I’m calling it the ABC’s of Blogging. Enjoy.

• Attract readers with compelling headlines
• Books – read them to help improve your writing
• Creative, insightful, or timely Content is what will keep your readers Coming back — Crappy Content will torpedo Clever titles
• Dedicate time researching for and thinking about your posts, Do spend more than ten minutes writing
• Edit, Edit, Edit — good writing comes from rewriting
• Find your niche, if you want
• Get into a habit of writing regularly
• Have a conversational tone in your posts and comments to build a welcome Haven for your readers
• Inspiration and Ideas for posts comes from everywhere — news, conversations, comments, so pay attention
• Jot down ideas in a little notebook that you keep close by
• Keep a regular schedule of posting to train your audience — consider an editorial calendar
• Leverage the power of a blog in your business
• Monetize your blog if you’d like, but Moderation is key — no one likes to be bombarded by ads
• Never spam — follow the golden rule
• Offer true value in your posts, Offer an e-book, Offer an RSS feed and Offer full feeds
• Profanity should checked at the door — your blog is Public and little People will find it
• Queen. Content can be Queen, too — blogging is equal opportunity, and many of my favorite bloggers are women
• Reassess your blog Regularly to see if you’re on the Right track, or if you need to Re-adjust your direction
• Stumbleupon and other Social networking tools can help people find you, but may not be necessary if you have good, clear content and some SEO
• Try to keep your stat-gazing to a minimum — Too much attention means you’re wasting Time
• Use humor if you’ve got the skillz
• Visit other blogs you like and comment meaningfully on posts when you have something to say
• Wordpress is your friend
• “X-it” the online world on a regular basis — go out, take a walk, talk to real live people, have a life
• Zee truth once again is that Content is King!

UPDATE:

• Yes, um…I deliberately left “Y” out to see if people actually read the entire thing, Yeah, that’s it, that’s my storY and I’m sticking with it!

The World is Full of Mysteries

Ever notice how much mystery plays a part in our lives?

“Peek-a-boo! I see you!”

That innocent game we play with a baby is probably the child’s first conscious introduction to mysteries. When the blanket is up, where did mommy go? When it’s down, oh, there she is!

From that moment on, we are constantly engaged in solving mysteries.

Going to school allows us to find the answers to the mystery of:

• spelling
• arithmetic
• whether or not Susie likes Calvin

Mysteries are what fuels scientist’s curiosity:

• Are birds descendants of dinosaurs?
• Who built the giant statues of Easter Island?
• What can we do to save this species from extinction?

Many of us face personal issues to which we seek answers, such as those offered by unscrupulous marketers:

• “Learn the 10 Secrets the Pros Don’t Want You to Know!”
• “Lose 30lbs in 30 Days!”
• “Get Rich Using these 5 Easy Steps!”

We seek out and are entertained by mysteries in stories such as:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Indiana Jones
• Harry Potter

Why are Mysteries Important?

If you don’t think mysteries are important, let me ask you the following:

• Have you ever seen a movie where you start realizing what’s going to happen before it happens? Ruins the fun, right? That’s like telling people Darth Vader is Luke’s father before they saw Empire Strikes Back in 1980.
• Or how about seeing a magician do a trick that you’ve already seen before? The effect is not as…magical.
• Or why a woman wearing revealing clothing that much sexier than if she was simply nude?
• When you go see an Opera, Ballet, Musical, or Play at the theater, what if they didn’t have a drawn curtain?

We Love the Tease

Ever hear advice about writing a cover letter for your resume? Or how about a book proposal, or any proposal. What about the opening minutes of a TV show? The inside cover of a book jacket? Magazine cover? Promotional mailer?

They all feature something short, quick and easy to remember — to tease you into looking for more.

The best ones present a compelling mystery, one which you are eager to solve.

The Quest for Knowledge

• If fiction, we have the “MacGuffin”, what director Alfred Hitchcock referred to as an object or person — SOMETHING! — that is being chased after, sought after, and fought over. That continued searching is what the viewer of his films get hooked on.
• In Dashiell Hammet’s Maltese Falcon – detective Sam Spade is after the “black bird”, a supposedly jewel-encrusted statuette worth millions. His partner is murdered, and various parties are all after the falcon. What’s going to happen?
• J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – how is Frodo and his band going to destroy the One Ring, in the face of overwhelming odds?

In real life, we have the quest for knowledge.

• Buddha, in the process of becoming the Buddha, sought to answer to why humans suffered
• Leonardo Da Vinci, the Wright Brothers, and other dreamers sought out the answers to flight.
• We each all have our goals, and often wonder how we are to achieve them.

Mysteries engage our minds, our imagination, and our creativity.

The Mystery of Blogging

It even applies to our blogging.

Why do we ultimately subscribe to someone’s RSS feed?

To find out what’s going to be written next.

Have a great weekend!

I leave you with the following inspirational video clip:

TEDTalks: J.J. Abrams: The Mystery Box

Jame’s post on PLR articles yesterday got me thinking. What’s wrong with the PLR articles?

Too Much Run-of-the-Mill Content

PLR articles or Private Label Rights articles, if you don’t already know (I didn’t), are pre-written content that a subscriber can use for his or her own blog. Ideally, the blogger using the article will dress up the content, add his or her own twist to it to avoid having the exact same content as someone else who might have signed up (read: paid) for the same batch of PLR articles.

According to James, though, the proliferation of these cheap, repackaged material that is sold to thousands, if not tens of thousands of bloggers looking for content (with “low” prices, so volume must be high to gain profits) to fill their blogs will overwhelm the internet as we know it, burying us in a flood of recycled content that is old, stale and regurgitated.

The Microstock Business Model

What James is describing sounds similar to what professional photographers are experiencing in recent years as well, specifically with stock photography.

With free photo sites like Flickr (which is great!) and multitudes of “penny” stock — or microstock — image companies, the past work of photographers sitting in the vaults of the giant stock image companies become less valuable. Certain new work undoubtedly is worth less as well due to increased competition. (Wikipedia entry on microstock photography)

Professional photographer John Harrington, in his Photo Business Blog, describes it best: who needs to license a picture of the White House when you can find (a free) one on Flickr that is just as good?

Just as James sees PLR articles as a bad business practice, Harrington also finds the microstock model lacking as well. The once almighty Getty Images bought one of the larger microstock companies, iStockPhoto, and consequently shot themselves in the foot, according to Harrington. Why pay $200 when you can pay $1 for the “same” image? (Getty was recently sold to a private company, so we will see if doing so will mean a shift in focus back to doing what’s beneficial to their content providers — the photographers instead of what shareholders want — the bottom line.)

What’s Wrong with the Microstock Business Model?

I bet in the beginning, the early adopter photographers who put up their images on sites like Shutterstock, which currently pays 25 cents per download, made off pretty well. On this particular stock site, it pays 25 cents to the photographer for each of his/her image that is downloaded, so it states if your image gets downloaded 2000 times, you get $500. Sounds good, right?

Well, it is if you, the image-creator, were on a roster of only several hundred photographers, and you had at least a few dozen top-selling images: $500 x 20 images per month = pretty good money!

However, the site mentions these stats as of today:

• 3,141,584 royalty-free stock photos
• 36,756 new stock photos added this week
• 91,940 photographers

Over 90 thousand photographers. And over 3 million images. Seems like a lot of great choices for the end users: tons of high-quality, royalty-free photos at low, low prices. But how is it for the content creator — the photographer? Of 3 million images, how many are “top-selling”? One must realize that if the supply far, far outweighs demand, the likelihood of anyone having a top-selling images becomes marginally better than winning the lottery.

How many images does the photographer need to have that sell? Would they get enough payment to make a decent living? If not, they’ll have to do something else instead of creative great images, wouldn’t they?

Who actually makes the money here? Hint: the middle-man (remember it’s a numbers game.)

PLR Articles is the Microstock of Professional Writing

I believe Jame’s sentiments about PLR articles is the same as what I’ve described about the microstock business model. The people that truly profit from PLR articlers are the ones selling them — the middle men/women who promise writers hefty pay-out for their well-researched, well-written content. Those content-providing writers who got into the game first are sure to do well, just like those early-entry stock photographers, but as more and more dive in, the result will most likely mirror what’s happened with stock photography — writers would have to write more and more content to generate the same income, most likely resulting in poorer work, and devaluing the overall web experience.

What Will Happen?

While James may be going for the dramatic flare when he says the influx of run-of-the-mill, repeated content will CRASH the internet, I have to think that while the internet will most likely survive, the writing landscape will undoubtedly change.

According to Technorati’s State of the Live Web report (April 2007),

• approximately 120,000 new blogs are create each day, or 1.4 per second
• bloggers write 1.5 million posts per day, or 17 posts per second

Mind-boggling, er…rather, mind-bloggling when you think about it.

What will happen in the end, I think, will be up to us, the bloggers who care about what we want to say, and ultimately who care about our readers.

Already, I see some hints of things to come, but I’ll save that for a future post. Thanks for reading!

photo by Saudalf

I was a D&D junkie.

Actually, I lied. I was never obsessed with playing the games, but was more of a fantasy genre fan. The few games I did play were fun, but they ultimately gave way to way “cooler” computer games like, um…Telengard and Infocom text-based games like Zork.

Some five or 10 years later, I found myself playing games like Baldur’s Gate — now there was a RPG game!

Anyway, these days, with the popularity of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Harry Potter, I wanted to talk about one aspect that all role-playing games seem to share.

Character Attributes

Whether on paper or on a computer game, determining your character’s attributes was always one of the first things you do. The attributes describe the various skills and abilities of your character. In D&D, the attributes are:

• Strength – physical strength, comes in handy when you’re a Fighter
• Dexterity – hand-eye coordination, adroitness, etc., requirements for a Thief
• Intelligence – learning and retaining knowledge, critical thinking, crucial to spell-casting Wizards
• Wisdom – ability to make good decisions, common sense, comprehension, usually tied to spiritualism in D&D, represented by Clerics
• Constitution – physical endurance, health, toughness, enabling survival
• Charisma – level of personality, attractiveness, persuasiveness, almost a throw-away attribute when I played, but seems to be utilized more in computer RPGs.

How high certain attributes were helped determine the way a character makes his or her way through the role-playing world.

For instance, strength is the ability that allows one to prevail in physical combat. A character belonging to the Fighter class must possess a high degree of strength. A thief must possess a high degree of dexterity in order to ply his “trade”, and to dodge projectile weapons.

In the end, the application of attributes in the D&D gameplay can be seen as a extremely souped-up version of “rock, paper, scissors”. Add in (modifiable) randomness from dice rolls, a basic plot, and some imagination, and many hours can be whiled away.

Character Alignment

Alignment in D&D describes a character’s morality in nine possible ways:

• Lawful Good
• Neutral Good
• Chaotic Good
• Lawful Neutral
• Neutral
• Chaotic Neutral
• Lawful Evil
• Neutral Evil
• Chaotic Evil

There are two axes to alignment: Good — Neutral — Evil, and Lawful — Neutral — Chaotic

Good implies altruism, respect for life, sacrifice for others, etc., while Evil is the opposite. Lawful implies abiding law and order, while Chaotic means total freedom, anarchy.

How Attributes Apply in the Real World

In the games, your characters would have attributes that are higher than normal mortals, with a score of 9 as average, all the way up to 18. Different attributes would be higher depending on the class of character, e.g. fighter, wizard, thief, etc. Spells and magical items might boost any one of the attributes beyond 18, or even curse a character and “permanently” lower an attribute.

Let’s see how it would work with people in the real world:

• Police Officers and Firefighters – they ideally fall into the Lawful Good alignment. Inspectors would need high Intelligence to solve crimes, while your city’s Bravest need good Strength and Constitution scores to fight fires.
• Politicians – They would have high Charisma scores in order to get elected, and perhaps even some Intelligence, although it seems like sometimes that’s an afterthought. JFK, Ronald Reagan, even the “Governator” all have high Charisma. Not surprisingly, a couple were actors! Some politicians will be Lawful, but some are Chaotic. Despotic dictators would have a Chaotic Evil alignment. Many politicians, it would seem, have low Wisdom.
• Elite Athletes – Depending on the sports, we would expect to see high attribute levels in Strength, Dexterity and/or Constitution. In the NFL, linemen would have high Strength, while receivers have high Dexterity, etc. Someone like Terrell Owens would have high Dexterity and Constitution, but his show-y antics and brash personality indicates low Wisdom, while his disregard and disrespect for many indicate a Chaotic Neutral alignment.
• Scientists – Some of the best thinkers in the world would have high intelligence scores, such as Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. Stephen Hawking also comes to mind, but he would also have a lower Charisma score.
• Actors and other Celebrities – these usually have high Charisma. In the case of Britney or Lindsey, their recent personal problems show low Wisdom, as well as a shift to Chaotic Neutral alignment.
• “Psychics”, TV Evangelists, and the like – they all exhibit high Charisma as well, with the ability to read, persuade and influence people, especially people who have lower Intelligence and Wisdom.
• Bloggers – good bloggers would also have high Intelligence, and perhaps Wisdom, in order to build and maintain an ongoing blog with remarkable content. By the nature of the medium, they could have average physical Charisma and still be very successful.

Charisma Important in Real Life

While in the games I played, Charisma was never that big of a deal. My characters usually used all the other skills to get through the game, and when I was divvying out points from my allotted pool to each attribute, I would usually not give any to Charisma (unless I wanted to be a Paladin).

In real life, however, it would seem that having high Charisma helps a lot. As we can see, many profession depends on it. Indeed, Charisma is one of the things that gets you job prospects such as by networking with friends, and then even through the job interview process itself. If a supervisor had to choose between two equally skilled competent workers to promote, she would probably choose the one with higher Charisma (ability to get along with others, to talk, to be a team player, etc.)

Of course, we also need our Intelligence and Wisdom, and depending on the job, Strength, Dexterity and Constitution in varying degrees. And we all have these attributes, and can work on improving many of them.

I just find it interesting to start looking at people in the way sometimes, just as a little exercise in character analysis, and a little bit for fun.