Captain Digital

Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.

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Random Stuff

A Challenge. A Real Challenge.

Sorry I’ve been a bit distant of late…I’ve been working (feverishly) on wrapping up the crafting of a business plan for the Amarillo EnterPrize Challenge. It’s a yearly contest to find – and fund – a number of worthy entrepreneurs’ ideas. I have one (www.guitarfurniture.com) that’s in the running. The winners will be announced in late March.

This is a big honkin’ deal, people…the winners will receive a check for $75,000. (!) If my idea is selected, it means that I could, in one fell swoop (or one swell foop) get enough funding to launch our products, and not have to go out and get a loan or shill for angel funding. That’s HUGE. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I’ve been a little lax in posting to the ol’ blogs.

The contest deadline is Monday at 5PM, so bear with me, please.

Reliving life through my daughter’s eyes.

Being a dad is the coolest thing I’ve ever gotten to do. Cooler than playing drums with a big band. Cooler than meeting the President. Cooler than getting published. Cooler than winning some big award for design. I’d trade every experience I’ve ever had, if that’s what it would take to keep being my daughter’s father. It’s that big of a deal. [Read more…] about Reliving life through my daughter’s eyes.

Happy New Year.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to shed a tear that 2008 is one for the history books tonight. Been a rough year, any way you slice it. Enough said. It’s time to look forward, and not agonize over the immediate past.

To all the readers of this blog, may you have a happy and prosperous new year, filled with success, security, and sanity, in an insane world.

Godspeed…

What’s important. And what’s not.

At this time of year, many of us get all wrapped up (read: “obsessed”) with the trappings of Christmas, especially the gifts – both giving and receiving. That’s all well and good, I suppose, but you might be surprised how little it takes to pull you back down to reality. Take, for instance, a health scare from someone you love.

Now I’m not going to get into specifics here, largely because the person in question values their privacy above just about all else, and wouldn’t want me trumpeting about their illness. So I won’t. I will say that something like this came as a real jolt, and if I didn’t have my priorities straight before, I certainly do now. [Read more…] about What’s important. And what’s not.

Flying blind…

I recently (four days ago, to be exact) updated the software this blog runs on, to the latest and greatest version – i.e., WordPress v.2.7. The upgrade was surprisingly easy to do, and by all appearances, went off without a hitch. Um…ALMOST without a hitch. Seems that one of the things that got trashed along the way was the settings for my Google Analytics code. Whoops.

I usually check my GA stats on a daily basis, just to see what’s going on. Check more often, and it will drive you nuts. Less frequently, and you stand to miss a trend…or a problem.

It had been four days since I’d checked my GA account. Color me “surprised” to learn that I’d (according to GA) gone from a significant readership to ZERO hits for the last four days. That’s like going from 60 to zero in, oh, about 0.0 seconds.

Once I saw the stats, I knew something was wrong. I dialed up the New! Improved! control panel, and found that my GA settings were pooched. No code – no tracking. No tracking – no results. No results – unhappy blogger.

I’ve restored the tracking code, and all should be right in my world.

But I’ll keep checking. As Joe Bob Briggs (Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, Texas) says, “Without eternal vigilance, it can happen here.”

As scene on TV…

One of the many benefits of having a home office is having a TV on my desk. I keep it tuned to Fox News or the Sirius Classic Jazz channel for most of the day – having either a background of news or jazz suits me just fine. I also have a conveniently-located mute button, in case I need to take a call, work on audio, or if it gets distracting.

This time of year, most companies pushing gifts spend a year’s worth of ad budgets in 30 days or less. Where as before November 2nd we were assaulted with All Political Ads, All The Time, now it’s ads for Omaha Steaks (making me hungry), has-been singers pushing a Greatest Hits album, or the latest and greatest kitchen appliance, each and every one guaranteed to be The Perfect Christmas Gift.

I’m sure you’re as annoyed with this kind of dreck as I am – at least you would be if you left your TV on all day. My vote for the most annoying ad in the Fox News rotation? Christy Lane’s 30 Christmas Classics. [Read more…] about As scene on TV…

A little housekeeping…

Well, campers, the readership of Captain Digital Speaks! is growing by leaps and bounds. That’s good. Unfortunately, along with that growth comes a bunch of associated problems – mostly of the spam variety. At first, it was enough to simply delete entries that were obviously spam. That worked for a while, but as you would expect, spammers have gotten increasingly more aggressive, not to mention crafty. Whereas before, I’d get a comment that was obviously spam (my favorite had to be the Viagra ad that was posted in reply to a piece I wrote about the Episcopal schism). But recently, the spammers have gotten sneaky – they’ll actually reply with some text that looks as if it’s a real comment…but then link back to a bogus website that either attempts to sell you the latest in sexual dysfunction products, or (even worse in my book) attempts to infect your computer with a variety of virus code. Not fun.

So with something of a deep breath and a great deal of trepidation, I’ve reconfigured the blog to require everyone to register before commenting. Furthermore, I’ve implemented a WordPress plugin that is designed to detect bots and gently discourage them from registering…or posting.

Frankly, I’m a bit fed up with idiots trying to spam this blog. I’m trying to share what I know with a larger audience. It’s a lot of work to post on a daily basis. While I enjoy all the “real” feedback I get, having to deal with a bunch of second-raters who parasitically glom onto creative work and then use it to spread their useless snake oil wares is a colossal waste of time. I’m in hopes that I can eliminate the spammers from the site, and get back to spending my time talking about marketing.

If you have any problems with the registration process, please let me know.

Giving Thanks.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. No cards. No gifts. No rampant commercialism. Just good food, good fellowship, and your family.

This year, I’d like to give thanks for a  lot of things.

  • My wife
  • My daughter
  • My family
  • My home
  • My job
  • My country
  • My faith
  • My church
  • Our friends
  • Our customers
  • My readers (that would be you)
  • Our military

I’m sure there are a bunch of things I’m thankful for that I didn’t list here, but I’ve got to go wolf down some pumpkin pie.

Godspeed.

You need to see this.

I’m not in the habit of endorsing products or companies. For a couple of reasons. First, it’s not like people are looking at me as if I’m the Great White Hope to dethrone the Oprah-centric world. Second, I like to think that people should make up their own minds as to how good a product might be. And Third, if you’re gonna buy my endorsement, my price is pretty high (a chalet in the Swiss Alps) and frankly, nobody’s been willing to meet my price (as of yet…I’ll let you know).

That not withstanding, a catalog came across my desk the other day, and I can’t help but to recommend it to you, my loyal readers. [Read more…] about You need to see this.

You can’t get there from here.

Cajun Country, USA

When I was a kid, I used to do a lot of powerboating with my family. My Dad is a very gung-ho kinda guy; anything he thinks is worth doing is worth OVERdoing (which is sort of the unofficial family motto). When he got interested in boating, he didn’t just buy a boat – he bought a boat and took every course the U.S. Power Squadron and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary offered. Seamanship, Navigation, Meteorology – you name it. He took it. (He got interested in shrimping, and ended up with a commercial pilot’s license to take people out for hire 50 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, but that’s a story for another time.) Anyway, once upon a spring vacation, we were cruising along the Intracoastal Waterway in South Louisiana. Dad had us on a boating cruise looking for the grave of the famous pirate/War of 1812 Hero Jean Lafitte – and the location of his secret hideout known as the Temple. 

As a kid, the treasure hunting aspect of this fascinated me. The cruising down bayous at about 5 knots (5 nautical miles per hour for you landlubbers) interested me a lot less. Boring doesn’t begin to describe. But I digress. [Read more…] about You can’t get there from here.