Charles Stricklin

So, I see old Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, predicting six more weeks of winter.

It’s a shame that Claude the Crawfish’s prediction was canceled this year, for all reasons, because of bad weather! That means all you Mardi Gars revelers out there will have to stand to the side of the road and yell for beads in cold, cold weather.

Several years ago, when I regularly poli-blogged and read Dean Esmay religiously, I commented there that I felt the Reagan Revolution was over, and I took a lot of flak for that. I honestly believe that the election of George H. W. Bush as president marked the beginning of the decline and the results of Florida’s presidential primary proves it’s taken its last breath.

Of the five candidates left, the one who’s a clear RINO wins against at least two other candidates that are closer in principle and practice to Ronaldus Magnus, then has the unmitigated gall to claim the win somehow proves he’s the heir apparent!

I have issues with Ron Paul’s foreign policy, particularly as it relates to the war on terror in general and the Iraq in particular, but his vision of the USA in terms of limited government and strict adherence to the Constitution probably puts him closer to Reagan than anyone else up on the dais. He’ll never win the nomination, though. Pity.

Governor Romney, unlike either Mayor Guiliani or Senator McCain, has been married to one, and only one wife for nearly the last four decades. Unlike Senator McCain, Governor Romney actually earned his millions instead of marrying into money. (Being Vice President of Public Relations at an Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship doesn’t count as executive experience, sorry.) Romney’s in favor of limited government, lower and more fair taxation, a strong national defense, pro 2nd-amendment and pro-life.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, voted against the Bush tax cuts twice; co-sponsored McCain-Feingold which placed limits on the free speech of average Americans and led to the rise of advocacy groups such as MoveOn.org and Code Pink; worked with the Senate’s most Liberal member Ted Kennedy to try, not once, not twice, but three times to force amnesty for illegal immigrants down the throats of U.S. citizens; he led the “Gang of 14” that established the previously unheard of right for senators to filibuster judcial nominees; he’s embraced the anti-capitalist, man-made global warming nonsense with the McCain-Lieberman Stewardship Act; and he’s waffled on 2nd-amendment and pro-life issues.

No doubt, he’s a very personable man, and I’d support his nomination as Defense Secretary one day, but his POW days and his support for the Iraqi surge notwithstanding, Senator McCain should instead be running against Senators Clinton and Obama for the Democrat nomination, not being the front runner in the GOP primaries.

Not that Romney is the heir apparent to Reagan, either. All of the nominees fall way too short of what I’d call a Reagan Republican, meaning we’ll have gone 24 years (1988-2012) without a Reaganesque candidate. In my opinion, that means it’s time to declare the Reagan Revolution officially over.

Let’s hope someone growing up today is feeling particularly revolutionary four years from now.

…I hope your battery dies.

My given name is Charles. I’m named after my maternal great uncle, Charles Graham, who was the president of the bank and once mayor of Henrietta, Texas. My mother wanted to name me, “Chas,” which is the abbreviation of Charles (why is reducing a seven-letter name to three necessary, I always wondered?), but my father prevailed and I was named Charles.

My business cards say, “Charles.” My identification badge says, “Charles.” I introduce myself as “Charles.” Yet, for some reason, people rarely seem to pick up on the fact that my name is Charles.

They break down into two camps: Those who want to call me “Charlie” and those who want to call me “Chuck”. I bristle at the former much more than the latter.

One of Dale Carnegie’s important rules is remembering that people attach special significance to their own name. Call out, “Charlie!” in a crowded restaurant and I might not take notice… call out, “Charles!” in that same situation and my head immediately snaps around.

That’s because my name is Charles, not Charlie or Chuck.

I’m just saying…

Wow! When I posted my thoughts on Graffiti’s caustic advertising, I never expected to become the focus of a major controversy!

Some additional thoughts and clarifications, in no particular order:

1. I was mostly commenting on Telligent motives and manner of advertising, not mainly on defending WordPress. It needs no defense. I would venture 90% of those who choose it as either blogware or a CMS remain satisfied and are not looking for an alternative. It was the company’s marketing campaign that raised my ire.
   Choosing the keyword of one’s competitor was a bold and risky move of their part. I also think it was poorly executed. Because WordPress has established both market share and a devoted, almost religious following, challenging… no… taunting its devotees is almost certain to backfire on you.
   I liken it to the Catholic church placing an ad in Jewish World Daily claiming, “Judaism is a false religion… try ours instead!”, or, maybe a better example is the classic, “Hi, I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC” ads. Those ads are meant for two audiences: Mac users who feel secure in the belief that their operating system is superior and PC users who are considering switching. But because the ads portray PC in a doltish, yet not mean-spirited way, we all chuckle regardless of where we buy our software from.
2. One commenter mentioned that I’d been used to generate interest in, and no doubt Google juice for a product that, up until then, few people had heard of. I concede that’s a good point. But does WordPress have anything to fear? I think not. The people who would switch to this or other competitors are likely already unsatisfied and looking for an alternative. If I gave them free press, so be it.
3. I find it humorous the people at Telligent claim WordPress is not a CMS, like they’re the arbiters of such things. If people use it as a CMS, then regardless of how many features it has, it’s a CMS. In my opinion, their strategy should have been, “Here’s why Graffiti is a better CMS than WordPress…”
4. That they’ve created software to compete with much more well-established market leaders is commendable! Where would we be if no one dared innovate and compete when faced with daunting market leaders? More power to them!
5. Finally, what I objected to at the onset, and in the subsequent controversy, is the mean-spiritedness with which they conducted themselves. They belittled us as fanboys and not knowing what we’re talking about, and here we were, defending ourselves in a fight they themselves instigated.
   They’re free to do what they want, I just think they would have and will fare better if they focused on their strengths instead of their competitor’s perceived weaknesses.

When you produce The WordPress Podcast and your GMail address is wordpresspodcast, Google tends to pick up on the keyword… it’d be pretty hard not to. Now it turns out someone is using the WordPress keyword not to pitch themes or plugins, not to promote their consulting business or installation tutorials, but instead to diss WordPress itself.

Telligent, the makers of the Graffiti CMS software they’re promoting here, has been buying the Google AdWord ‘WordPress’ to display messages like this within GMail:

Previously, they’d said, “Tired of WordPress? - graffiticms.com/wordpress - Want something easier to work with Free and commercial versions”

Clicking the link takes you to a page that claims the Graffitti CMS is easier and quicker to install than WordPress, takes a swipe at PHP and claims that somehow Microsoft’s .NET and IIS technology is better than *nix and PHP. Many of the features they claim to hold over WordPress were included long ago. The crux of their beef with WordPress seems to be in their claim that WordPress is blogware, not a content management system (CMS). Really? Tell that to C-NET, the New York Times, Ford and several others.

What they seem to be saying, without coming out and just saying it, is, “Open Source Software = bad, proprietary = good.” And that’s a valid subject open to debate, but don’t start slinging mud and then skirt the issue.

Say what you will of Jamie Lynn Spears’ mother’s parenting skills or lack thereof, Miss Spears deserves to be commended for choosing to have her baby instead of aborting it for convenience sake, as she could have easily done. Becoming a parent at 17-years of age will not be easy, even if you do have money and fame.

Now comes word that Spears and her boyfriend Casey Aldridge plan to marry, despite her parent’s misgivings. Oh, now you’re concerned about her life choices?!

Well, my two cents: At least he’s manning up an making an honest woman out of her, so to speak. Sure, the marriage may not last, but what Hollywood marriages do? Maybe they’ll be the exception. My suggestion, young Mr. Aldridge? Be Mr. Mom while your wife pays the bills. Your future sister-in-law had a husband that envied her success and ended up bombing in every single department except parenting, and even that’s debatable. I’m thinking Shar Jackson might be inclined to disagree.

I handle the sound and video for the children’s ministry at Brookwood Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana. Lately, I’ve been serving both on Saturday nights as well as Sunday mornings.

December 1st we began our campaign of giving for Compassion International. Our intention was to allow our 1st through 5th graders to give $384 over the month of December for the purpose of sponsoring one child through Compassion International. That night, after viewing a video about Compassion and hearing of the goal, one young boy named Josh began to come under God’s conviction and decided that a child in an impoverished village needed his birthday money of $85 more than he needed the Guitar Hero game he’d previously been saving for. Last Saturday night, he asked if he could contribute his savings.

That touched me, and God began to speak to me as well. I had recently become debt-free and was sitting on a lot of money for this time of the year. I thought that if a young child could give what must’ve seemed like a huge amount of money, surely I could give as well. I’d first intended to grab $100 from an ATM the next morning and give to the cause, but I later felt God’s leading that that wasn’t enough. I decided I’d match whatever the children gave, up to $384, provided they wouldn’t know it was me doing so (I didn’t want to become the focus) and that they’d choose 1 boy and 1 girl.

Rosalyn, our Children’s Director, contacted the boy’s parents to be sure they’d be okay with their son’s generosity. Not only were they okay with it, they each matched his amount, bringing the overall total to $639, just $129 shy of our new goal of $768.

Next, we began hearing stories of children raking leaves, cleaning around the house and doing other things without being asked to earn their allowance or otherwise earn money. At the end of today’s services, they’d given an additional $551, bringing our total to $1190 toward our new goal of $1920. Our intention is to sponsor 5 children; one for each grade.

Finally, one of the parent’s heard of Josh’s sacrifice and told of their child’s Guitar Hero game that is no longer used, and they’re planning to give it to Josh as a Christmas present next weekend.

If this isn’t the textbook definition of a “God thing,” I don’t know what is.

Update 12/23/2007: We added $102 toward our goal this weekend, meaning there’s $628 left to go.

Update 12/30/2007: Things have changed: We’ve decided to focus on 4 children; a boy and a girl for 1st and 2nd grades, and a boy and a girl for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, meaning $1,536 is our new goal. We’re at $1,428 as we start 1st hour church, so $108 left to go

Follow up 12/30/2007: We met our goal of $1,536 and change was raised. The kids are sponsors 4 children total, and they’ve already chosen who they’ll be sponsoring.

You may have noticed I quickly dispensed with the daily play-by-play the the goings-on at the 2007 Podcast and New Media Expo; There were just too many things to do and not enough energy or time to detail them in daily postings. My buddy, Jason Van Orden, asks over at his blog, “What was your favorite part of the expo?”

I’ll go him one better… I’ll tell you the what I thought to be both the best and worst parts of the expo:

Best

1. Susan Bratton’s session on attracting sponsors and advertisers
2. Don McAllister’s session on screencasting
3. Dinner at Rosa’s with Josh, John C. Havens, Paolo Tosolini, the guy with a British accent from Zimbabwe (?) and Jason & Melanie Van Orden
4. Dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack with Michael Mennenga, Brian Brown, Dan Kuykendall, Chuck Tomasi and others (especially the Vulcan rite of passage using plastic crab knives.)
5. Lunch at Lucille’s with Kris Smith, Jason & Melanie Van Orden, Matt Snodgrass, Craig Patchett, Stepan Masurov, Mark Chernesky, Randall Northcraft, Steve Fisher, Andy McCasky
6. Talking with Molly Wood, Tom Merritt, Paul Colligan, Leesa Barnes and Tee Morris
7. Meeting fans of The WordPress Podcast like Gregory Lemon and Betsy Flanagan, to name a few.
8. Allison Sheridan being nice enough to share her EVDO connection with everyone when the WiFi gave out.
9. Hanging out here and there with Jason White.
10. Speaking on a panel at the Podango booth with Dan Kuykendall and Doug Kaye.
11. Getting the chance to thank Tim Bourquin for his help in the past and for putting together a great expo.

Worst

1. PodShow’s party, being shoulder-to-shoulder in a hotel suite being deafened by music I don’t care for.
2. Not getting my business cards delivered in time from onemonthprints.com (and therefore having to be judicious in my distribution.)
3. Missing the chance to speak at length with Leesa Barnes.
4. Missing Jason’s pool party due to a misunderstanding of what time is was scheduled.
5. Seeing Michael Geoghegan several times but never being able to introduce myself, either because he was busy or I was busy, etc.
6. Seeing WordPress misspelled and mis-capitalized many, many times, most notably at Revver’s booth and site, when speaking of their new WordPress plugin.
7. After a year’s worth of hype, and two chances to eat one, I never did get to eat an In-N-Out burger!

These three days were the most fun I’ve had all year! If I left you out, I assure you, it wasn’t intentional. Shoot me an e-mail or something and we’ll catch up!

BTW: I have some photos, but not as many as I’d hoped.

P.S. Some people might call this “name dropping” or “link-baiting”, I prefer to think of it as “link love”.

I’m in Ontario, California for the 3rd annual Podcast and New Media Expo. I got in yesterday afternoon and checked into the Marriott across from the convention center, and was immediately dealt a few setbacks.

First off, the business cards I ordered from OvernightPrints.com (no, I won’t link to them) three weeks ago expressly so I’d have plenty while here, still aren’t finished. I had to wait about 30 minutes to speak to a customer representative to find this out, which nearly drained my phone’s battery. After I expresses extreme dissatisfaction and asked that she relay that to management, she offered 15% off my next purchase. I politely told her there would be no “next purchase” and that if she wanted to extend the discount to the current purchase, I wouldn’t object.

Also, the hotel I’m staying at, the Marriott, charges $9.95 per day for the use of broadband Internet in your room. I find out this morning that absolutely no Continental breakfast is provided. I suppose I shouldn’t complain for the rate I receive by reserving a room through the expo, but it drives home the point that Southern hospitality really does exist, since any Best Western worth its salt offers free Internet in every room and at least some apple juice and Fruit Loops in the lobby every morning.

However, not everything that happened yesterday was a disappointment. I spoke with my friend Kris Smith of Croncast for a moment in the lobby and met his lovely wife, Betsy, but it was only for a few moments. I then met up with Jason Van Orden of Podcasting Underground (among others) and finally met his lovely wife, Melanie (PunchBuzz, Podcasters Against Genocide) and had dinner in the hotel pub while discussing, of all things, covenant marriage and several little-known events surrounding the Gulf War, (all because Jason kept asking me questions knowing full well I talk too much.)

Jason, (unlike me) is a pretty popular guy in podcasting circles, and he kept being greeted by his fans and well-wishers. One such person was Chris Christensen, who produces Amateur Traveler, and I enjoyed hearing of his travel to foreign lands, and particularly how his sponsors make doing so financially possible. We were also joined by Dan Bach of Dan’s Math, who admired my t-shirt for its math geekiness (or would that be geeky mathness?) I, then, had a pleasant conversation with Jamie of The MedicCast in the lobby, mostly about Association for Downloadable Media and the meeting they have this morning before the expo officially opens, but other stuff as well, all this while I waited for Jason and Melanie to “freshen up.”

We then made our way to the Doubletree where PodShow was hosting a party there. It was loud, it was hot and everyone moved around a small hotel room like sardines writhing in a net. I met Michael Carrino from Feast of Fools, a GLBT podcast, briefly. I also spoke briefly with Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline.com and Adam Bloom with PodShow, whom I met at WordCamp San Francisco a few months ago. However, being the old fart that I am, I couldn’t take very much of the insanity and noise, and quickly retired to my swanky hotel room.

This morning I woke up at 4:00AM since I’m still running on Central time back in Louisiana. I’ll be getting showered and starting the day properly in only a few moments. Looking over the sessions, three of the four have presentations I plan to attend: At 10:30AM there’s Distributing Video in Various Formats: How To Make the Right Choice with Craig Syverson of gruntmedia and Kenji Kato of Edge-Runner, at 1:45Pm I’m supposed to be interviewed via Skype by Cali Lewis of GeekBrief, at 2:00PM there’s Striving for Excellence: The Passion and Pain of Producing a Professional “How To” Video Podcast by CAT and Eric Susch of LetsKnit2gether.com, at 3:15PM I’ll try and make Screencasting 101 with the forementioned Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline.com, and then after a little networking time I’ll make my way back to the Marriott for Jason Van Orden’s Pool Party.

There’s so much to do, and despite my girth, only so much of me to go around.