Why am I just hearing about this?

Last year Time Warner submitted a new postage plan for periodicals to the Postal Rate Commission that set up a complicated rate hike that has raised the cost of postage for small-circulation magazines by 20-30%. That represents millions of dollars of costs those publications won’t be able to pay. Soon, the only magazines you may be able to subscribe to or buy will be the pablum produced by Time Warner, Conde Naste, and a handful of other media conglomerates. Here’s why:

According to a May op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times by Teresa Stack and Jack Fowler, when the United States Postal Service originally proposed the postage increase, it was supposed to be a 12-percent hike for all publications. But, that proposal was abandoned, and in its place, a proposal drafted by the largest magazine publisher in the country, Time Warner, was pushed through.

By giving preference to higher-weighted items and bulk mail, the new rate system is expected to raise the cost for large publications slightly while piling on increases to the small publications. Some estimates from McGraw-Hill even estimate that it could increase postage for small magazines by as much as 30 percent. But because the new system is so confusing, no one is certain.

If you care about any of these publications, or if you simply recognize that our society will be stronger with more ideas and voices in circulation, take a second to send that message to Congress. Apparently Congress will hold a hearing on this rate hike tomorrow (Tuesday), so do it now.

I’ll get off my soapbox now, thanks.
[tags]media, conglomeration[/tags]

A few minor adjustments may be all you need to get a raise, nab the corner office or even start your own business. It’s all a matter of creating a work space that is both supportive and inspiring. ⇒

One thing is certain: Americans—of either gender—are reading fewer books today than in the past. ⇒

Two of my friends are right now, at this very minute, running the 2007 Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. One of them has just passed 19 miles and is on pace to finish in just over three hours. The other is more like I was—she’s just passed 10 miles and is on pace to finish in just over 5 hours. Go, kids, go!

The MCM and the training for it were, combined, among the very most fulfilling, satisfying, and rewarding—and therefore enjoyable and memorable—things I’ve done. Yet, just two years later, my life has become so different now from what it was then that I hardly believe I really did that, that that was really me.

What does it mean when people become strangers even to themselves? [tags]running, marathon[/tags]

It’s coming—just four days from now. I don’t seem to have time to update this blog or any other¹, yet I’m going to try to write 1,667 words/day for 30 days. No, I know it doesn’t make sense, but really that’s exactly why we do it, isn’t it?

Besides being a semi-insane thing to do, NaNoWriMo also allows me to play w/toys w/which I have no other excuse to play. Once again I will be using Scrivener as my writing tool. It’s got more toys to play with than even I can use, but at the same time it’s flexible enough to virtually disappear when all you want to do is get down to business. The highly-customizable full-screen writing mode beats the many other implementations I’ve seen. Plus, did I mention it’s chock full of toys to play with?

So what will I write? Now taking suggestions. I generally² launch into some sort of dystopian sci-fi odyssey that allows for plenty of room to just make stuff up and blather on about a world that doesn’t exist (but which, I hope, bears a striking and poignantly logical resemblance to our own world). That’s always fun, and I’m drawn that way again, but, well, I’ve also been toying with doing a satirical spoof of a an office full of lawyers. Specifically, I’m thinking something like JPod or Microserfs for public defenders (rather than tech workers). It seems like it should be easy, considering I work daily with a whole cast of rich, complicated, and highly amusing (not to mention aggravating, frustrating, disappointing, and sometimes disgusting, degrading and downright evil) characters who already exist and have heard or lived enough engaging anecdotes in that context to easily fill a few chapters. It’s not the book I thought I’d ever write about this profession, but it could be fun. Who knows, the writing may even be therapeutic. Then my next book could be, “Don’t burn out! Write it down!” No, I don’t think it would be a big seller, either. [tags]nanowrimo, satire[/tags]

1. I have been cautioned about the risks of any posting from the office, even during lunch hour or outside of regular working hours. Since the office is like my second home, that means I have few opportunities to post…↩
2. Where “generally” means every November for the last 5 years straight.↩

The dangerous food I’m speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they’re all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore. ⇒ Ha!

Google’s new 411 service is free, fast and easy to use. ⇒

I dreamed last night that a judge recessed court at the end of a day and then stood up and bragged about how few cases went to trial in his court. In my dream I stood up and told him that was nothing to brag about because it showed he was setting bonds far too high and coercing guilty pleas. In my dream we got into a shouting match about it and he’s the one that stormed from the room.

I can dream.

Not long ago something a little like this actually happened. My client and I won a motion to withdraw his guilty plea on a misdemeanor only to have the judge explicitly say “I’m going to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea but I’m going to set a high bond.” Needless to say, the bond was so high my client would have ended up spending at least two months in jail waiting for his trial—and this after he’d already served the sentence on his previous guilty plea and served only a few days jail time on the prior sentence. I explained this to the judge and requested a more reasonable bond that would account for these facts. The answer was absolutely not, but the judge would accept my client’s guilty plea if he didn’t want to go to jail. So, of course, what did my client do? He pled guilty again and walked out disgusted with the criminal justice system. So did I. [tags]bond, guilty pleas[/tags]