Took the column in a slightly new direction this time round.  Please, click in and and share your thoughts.  When I say “share your thoughts,” here’s what I mean:

The Huffington Post on Bloglove

Arianna, supportively, urges us to shamelessly solicit blog love in all its manifestations.  Manifestations can include anything from diggs, tweets, wall posts, buzz-ups, and de.li.cious,’ to links and Huffpo commentary — which she places particular importance on, for obvious reasons:-)

She encourages us to tap our colleagues, competitors, clients, prospective clients, friends, friends of friends, frenenemies, umfriends (well, she doesn’t actually go that far, actually) and so here is what I’m getting at:

Part of me will always be squeamish and somewhat apprehensive about asking readers, who are being so generous with their time and attention already to go to the added trouble of posting responses.  Blogging however necessitates that I be continually proactive in my efforts to reach wider audiences.

Thanks to everyone for the commentary you’ve been posting on this blog as well as on my Huffington column this entire time and thanks in advance for whatever commentary you might post in the future — your blog love rocks my world!

Idle Time Software

In 2008, Cathy’s company produced “Holding Pattern” a screensaver that simulates the experience of intermittently  gazing out of an airplane window and snoozing.  Apple praised  the work for its creativity and lauded Idle Time Software for its programming integrity.  Eventually David Byrne bought a copy from Cathy’s website and invited her collaborate with him on a photography project using the original software she developed to create Holding Pattern.

Cathy Creating Idletime’s Sunset 23
Photo by, Susanna Speier

Deluge of the Anti-gadget

The reason people hate screensavers, Cathy explained, is because skanky software scumbags load them with spyware, adware and viruses.  Screensavers –especially those free screensaver downloads people get online — are often the epitome of skank.

The Great Google Has Spoken

I went to GoogleAdWords to figure out what screensaver keywords have surged over the internet  last month.

1,220,000 users  trawled the internet using the word “screensaver” and the same number searched for the plural form.   “Free screensavers,” came in third, and “Halloween screensavers” was right after at 135,000.

There was no data available for look-ups of “search engine scam,” and fewer than 1,000 were savvy enough to specifically search  for “screensaver spyware.”  Legit as the fear of bogus downloads may be, the search patterns indicate that the fear is based more on conjecture than research and analyses.

Figuring Out Whether or Not Screensaver = Oxymoron

Cathy takes pride in Idle Time’s technical integrity.  She does not sell ad space or generate income through site referral, and she even posts a personal disclaimer officiating the fact she does that she does not add spyware.

And in case you’ve been wondering, the reason Cathy  could spend a year developing a technically, creatively and conceptually sophisticated screensaver  is revenue generated from the deluxe versions of her free software enables her to do so.  Cubicle Flood was therefore made possible by Holding Pattern’s success.

Despite Cathy’s disclaimers, getting people to trust a free screensaver  download  is increasingly challenging.  Could the Googletrends be winning?

Cubicle Flood - The Waters are Rising

The generic grey cubicle office where Cathy used to work inspired the brand new screensaver, “Cubicle Flood.” “It was an emotional response to the deadening work environment,” she says.  “You see a workspace that’s been generated for you by a Human Resources Department.”

Cathy’s Katrina survivor friends do not like the feeling that the  new screensaver evokes.  “Water is incredibly strong and it creeps in,” Cathy says.  The office depicted in Cubicle Flood, however, “isn’t affected the way a real space would be. Cubicle Flood is a dream of a flood and not a real flood.”

Daniel Alcheh’s Soundtrack

Daniel Alcheh, masterfully composed the original soundtrack of Cubicle Flood.  His music complements the flood’s progression over time without overpowering the visual elements.

One wouldn’t think that a disasterscape like a hurricane, tsunami or flood– with rising waters and rising music– would have a tranquil and meditative effect, but in Cubicle Flood, that peacefulness prevails as water and music gradually fills an otherwise sterile and impersonal office environment.

Composer, Daniel Alcheh in His Studio
Photo by, Susanna Speier

The music and the water move through time together.  The collaborative success is evident in the  fact that sound and image inform one another without imposing narrative and context.

Transcendance

“Its a really transcendent environment, but I see it as a beautiful state, a transcendence over what the office looked like previously,” Cathy says.

The soon to be released deluxe version of this production will fill your screen at different speeds and in different office environments.  You can flood an office several times a day or spend an entire day, flooding one.

Talk to Me - Fodder for Your Commentary

What sort of screensaver do you use?
Where did it come from?
How do you know whether or not a screensaver is safe?

Please note that although the Western haiku movement has been deviating from 5-7-5, Politiku sticks to 5-7-5. This topic was hotly debated with the Haiku Foundation and remains 5-7-5.

Politiku F.A.Q.

Do I need to be a writer in order to Politiku?

It helps.  It’s not required, though.

How do I write a “Politiku”?

First line has 5 syllables; second line has 7 syllables; third line has 5 syllables. As traditional haiku tends to provide an unexpected twist, reversal or surprising resolution at the end.

Because it is so short, punctuation, space and rhythmic tempo will have heightened resonance.

How many?

Up to you. Please only send me one, though.

What do I Politiku about?

I assign topics based on current events. The topic I’m having people haiku about right now is the AMC Television Series Mad Men and so you need to be familiar with it.

What do I do with the completed Politiku?

If I know you and/or if you’ve published Politiku before just go ahead and submit via the commentary section of this post.

If I don’t know you then please send an email to susanna (at) susannaspeier (dot) com and in the email, please include the following:

(1) your web site address if you’d like me to include a hyperlink

(2) your name (as you’d like it to appear in the final version) and, if you’re submitting for featured placement, a tweet length bio highlighting your expertise on the topic.  Featured expertise on Mad Men would mean you actually worked in a New York Madison Ave (or thereabouts) ad agency during the Mad Men 1960s era.

(3) your Politiku

Is this a paid gig?

Unfortunately, no. If I even end up publishing what you wrote in a Politiku anthology, however, I’ll comp you a copy.

Where do you publish the Politiku?

My Politiku column on The Huffington Post.

Will the Politiku be published anywhere other than The Huffington Post?

Very likely. My posts get well syndicated. Previous Politiku posts have ended up as syndicated selections for the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal websites. Politiku will also be posted on my blog and twitter pages, subsequent to launching on Huffington. Sometimes unpublished Politiku get Tweeted out and thus, might appear elsewhere on the internet as well.

Where can I reach you if I have additional questions?

email - susanna (at) susannaspeier (dot) com

Is There Other Mad Men Stuff on Your Blog?

Matter o fact, yes:

Click here for reviews of other blogs following Mad Men Season Three

Click here for a babbley but well intended (was new to blogging and didn’t get how spacing for the web and headers worked) and comprehensive description of my experience working as a featured background performer on the Mad Men, Season 2 episodes Three Sundays and Six Month Leave.

Don’t Forget…

I look forward to reading your 17 syllables.

The Fog of Chronology

What year was Kennedy assassinated? After tossing and turning over the fog of chronology half the night, I needed to know.

Lay awake thinking after finding out. 1963.  That was 20 years after the end of World War II — the same distance between now and the first Gulf War.

Will distances between historical events preceding my existence always seem greater than distances between historical events I can recollect?

The Demographics of AMC’s Character Driven Mad Men

I’m actually not sure what the Mad Men demographics are but going by the disproportionate percentage of air time devoted to Lipitor, Viagra and Clorox, I’ll guess that the majority of Mad Men watchers remember where they were when Kennedy was assassinated.

“The Grown Ups,”  Mad Men’s Kennedy assassination episode

Sunday, November 1st, Mad Med episode, The Grown Ups, was the penultimate finale of Season Three and I can’t help wonder how next Sunday’s season finale will get anywhere close.

We have the satisfaction of knowing the historic outcome and significance of Mad Men’s chronological collisions in advance of the characters knowing.  This gives us access to their losses and their misunderstandings.  Their discoveries and their disconnects.

I just can’t get enough David Carbonara’s music, by the way.  Those melliflous counterpoint that begin a pause and a heartbeat after a clipped stream of dialog ends.  Why isn’t more television like this?

The Mad Men show I watch is different from the Mad Men show that Mom watches

Mom insisted on replaying the two Mad Men Season 2 episodes that I was featured and uncredited in –Three Sundays and Six Month Leave– over and over in a way that only a mom can.

Mad Men is the black and white television screen I never had

Mad Men is the corridor to those custom framed, soft toned hand painted photographs on the wall of the guest room that my Bubby once had.  Mad Men is a photo album full of square shaped black and white snapshots of my newlywed collegiate parents holding a simese cat.

From

From Susannaspeier.com
Mad Men is the font of the copper colored “flour,” “tea” and “sugar” canisters that once lined my Buby’s kitchen countertop and now lines the countertop of my mom’s kitchen.

Mom insists television receptions were not all that bad.  In fact, all her friends seem to agree they were actually quite sharp.  Does the distortion came from Mad Men creator and writer, Michael Weiner’s own fog of chronology, then?

Click here if you’d like to submit a Mad Men Politiku to my Huffington Post column

Click here for reviews of other blogs following Mad Men Season Three

Click here for a babbley but well intended (was new to blogging and didn’t get how spacing for the web and headers worked) and comprehensive description of my experience working as a featured background performer on the Mad Men, Season 2 episodes Three Sundays and Six Month Leave.

It isn’t difficult to ‘get’ social media

That is, it isn’t difficult so long as you avoid empty caloried, time sucking applications involving cupcakes, first person dog profiles and ‘Which 80s sitcom characters are you’ quizzes on Facebook.  Linkedin’s also great.  Be aware, however that, though a great business resource, is more of a supplementary research tool as its unspontaneous and self-sterilizing nature kind of prevents it from being much else.

Twitter is a culture

Of all social media, twitter offers the ultimate flexibility in terms of branding and rapid niche connecting.  Though a ton of stuff is being written about it, IMHO, if you just follow “Trust Agents” author Chris Brogan’s tweets, read his blog posts and check out his streamed webinars, you should be fine.  Chris is like that super nice summer camp councilor all the girls had crushes on because, well, because he was so nice.  Brogan is humanizing, fair, community oriented and seems to perpetually exudes this ability to make more friends in a day than many make in a year.  Given that trust and transparency are his credo, his personality is hard to resist.

Listen to the linguists

As cerebral as Chris Brogan is warm, fuzzy, entertaining and anecdotal, when it comes to Web content, linguist Ginny Redish is clear, focused and streamline.  Her definitive book on the topic, “Letting Go of the Words” is mercifully readable and thankfully user oriented.  Be prepared to apply design principles to your words and expect to emerge with an updated arsenal of margin notes, color coding, Sans Serif, chunking and  contextual clarity.  Redish’s book so thorough that it is really the only actual investment you’ll need to make to learn about writing for the web.

Arianna Huffington is blogging, okay?

Though social media stars are generally famous for something achieved outside of their viral social media realm, with bloggers that is not necessarily the case.  Think of Perez Hilton.  Arianna Huffington is the living embodiment of the new media blogging superstar and her status is will deserved.  The Huffington Post provides everything from Pelosi to Politiku (the latter of the two, being a passion project of yours truly:-)  “The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging” is about as comprehensive as it gets.  As with, “Letting Go of the Words” once you’ve got it, you can go ahead and return your big yellow For Dummies volumes to the bookshelf…right back where you found them.

Knowing how to ask

Whether it’s where to go to learn more about SEO optimization, or how to treat a cat’s eye infection, be keyword sensitive, bearing in mind that a computer is categorizing your question. Aardvark.com (with a url that uses the shortened, Vark.com) will try and match the question to someone who can answer. Set up an account and it hooks you in through your Facebook network. Vark is undoubtedly one of social media’s best kept secrets. Not only is it a great when all else fails option. It’s also actually a good place to start your research.

When in doubt, Vark

As with Social Media, blogging has no epicenter.  Also, like the others it offers multiple entry points with multiple hubs around which multiple identities can cluster and congregate. What is different with Aardvark is that it is information, as opposed to personality, driven.  Questions are matched with compatible information providers who, like everyone registered on Aardvark, is encouraged to both ask as well as respond to questions.  If the answers the current online members aren’t doing it for you, you have simply to resubmit and Aardvark will send on to the next round.  Still not working, then resubmit.  Still not?  Then use Vark to ask someone on Vark to help you understand what’s going on.

If you’re into this kinda stuff, you should also be sure to check out the post about how Daylight Saving Time and how Google trends can lead you grammatically astray.

Watching Dudamel for the first time
Never seen him before.  Whoa, he’s so flow-ey my cousins in LA see him all the time. Its like a religious pilgrimage for them.  Shameful I haven’t seen him live, yet.  (Watching on PBS) I think it’s the arm movements.  And of course, the hair.  Something about the tux and sideburn combo.   And the silences, as well.

The Silences
The Silences.  Maybe its a good conductor thing. I remember how impressed I was when I saw my DC buddy, George Steele conduct the early music chorus my friends Hai Ting and Wesley sang in.  George would just hold those silences in his palm.  A little beyond the place one would expect.  It was okay, though cause we (those of us watching) were right there with him.

From Blog Archive

The Motion
I think what Dudamel is more about motion than silences.  Contant motion.  This thing he does with his eyes before starting another section of the orchestra also grabs me.  Its like he raises his eyes toward the section of the orchestra about to play, as though to give permission.  And then the music just tidal waves forth.  And you realize prior to that it was just held there, anticipating.  And there another thing about Dudamel.  He gets the softnesses also.  And the light part are like these tiny mountain river streams.  It’s all so utterly in motion the entire time; doesn’t stop until the end.

The Audience
Was sharing these thoughts with Wesley, who now directs opera, while writing them and this is what he pointed out to me:  “Being a good conductor is partly about your personality–it’s all about your ability to have and project musical ideas to other people, so manner and all kinds of communication are key.”

Defining a Multi-Topical Blog
Film might not be the focus of most of my posts but when I weighed the options:  Do I write a political blog?  No, not really.  All the real-deal political writers wouldn’t think so, anyway.  Politiku is politics, yes, but fancified.  And I only post my Politiku on Huffington now anyway, for SEO purposes.

And, yes, I write a lot about science.  I’m not a scientist, though.  Nor am I a Search Engine Optimizer, though I write about Search Engine Optimization.

Embracing Hot Topics
Boring as this may be, I simply write about about whatever inspires me.  New hot topics like SEO, yeah, I’m into it.  Into it in so far as I’ve been doing it for almost a year now and am just starting to embrace this particular “hot topic” as a new direction in which to take my freelance writing.  What prompted me to embrace it was not the “hotness,” so much as it was the pragmatic simplicity of gaining a skill that there is an abundance of demand for.  Well, okay, that is “hotness” maybe?

Film vs Optimized Content
Unlike film –in which, content is an end in and of itself– the SEO stuff I write about creates content based on trending terms.  In other words, content is determined by the swarm rather than from within.

Thank you, Networked Blogs
So, thank you, Networked Blogs, for putting my ‘Film Blog’ in your top 50.  Glad to hear you like what I have to say about film.  Back to trying to find an agent to represent my unsold screenplays and back to trying to find new clients while seeking out a real job to get me by.  And yes, perhaps a real job that would involve writing in some capacity but I’ll take a permanent position with health insurance over that, any day.  In other words, if you –yes, you the reader– need someone to create Search Engine Optimized, keyword rich content, even better!

So…ya wanna read more of my SEO stuff?  Click here.

If the line is busy…well, that’s the idea, actually.  Please do not let busy signals deter you, please, please, please keep trying to reach these peops and let them know.  1-866-210-3678

Today is the day to utterly overwhelm Congress with the dire need for a Public Option NOW and so flood the lines if you have to.  1-866-210-3678

Tell your friends!!!  Tell your enemies!!!  Flood those phonelines!!! Flood, flood, flood!!!  1-866-210-3678!!!  Public Option NOW!!!  This can’t wait!!!  Public Option NOW!!!  1-866-210-3678!!!

(OMG, that was like a totally legit infomercial script.  Scary. You did call your Congressional Reps though, right?)

Wanna read a more zenlike contemplative take on Health Care Reform?  Check out my Politiku on Huffpo, click here.

1.) Daylight savings time is near an end

2.) Everyone is googling the term to figure out which exact day that end is gonna fall on.

3.) The search engines aren’t differentiating between beginning and end when discussing Daylight Saving Time.

There’s another reason, too.  Kind of an accidental one.  Rather than titling this post with the correct, yet under utilized, singular form of the word, “saving,” I deliberately and incorrectly pluralized it.  Here is why:

Search Engine Optimization -
According to Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool, the global monthly search volume for “Daylight Savings” is 1,000,000.  The grammatically correct “Daylight Saving” global monthly search volume, on the other hand, is a mere 368,000.

From Blog Archive

The Economy -
Were this a boom economy, I might well have chosen to use the phrase consistent with the National Institute of Standards and Time in my title.

Given the ubiquitously strained job market everyone is dealing with, however, it is in my best interest to revert to the inaccurate yet optimized Googleadwords.com degeneration of Daylight Saving because it will increase web traffic thereby optimizing my chances of my attracting a potential client or employer during this edge of the close of yet another end of Daylight Saving cycle.

In other words: this is me compromising my grammatical integrity in order to appeal to the larger, inaccurate, populous because I need a job.

Spring Forward / Fall Back -
“Spring Forward / Fall Back” is the best –not to mention, most accurate– colloquial way I know of to remember this stuff.  Unfortunately it is limited to the direction in which you need to move your clock and provides nothing about how to remember the actual day of the year that this switch falls on.

The Day That Daylight Saving Time 2009 Ends -
Last spring’s title phrase, “Why Daylight Savings Time Makes Me Miss My Atomic Clock” post not only falls short grammatically; it fails to provide the day and time that daylight saving time 2009 is scheduled to end: November 1st at 2:00a.m.

Because I used the accurate term, “Daylight Saving” (rather than “Daylight Savings”) chances are that this section, though most relevant to the majority of the readers of this post, will attract less attention from those long legged google spiders who will eventually crawl it.

Google’s Long Legged Spiders -
Doubtful as it is that the phrase, “November 1st at 2:00a.m.” will prompt those long legged spiders to unravel and reweave but at least now the peops who googled, “Daylight Savings” –the majority, in other words– will get the information they came here to find.

From Blog Archive

Not a computer geek? That’s okay.  You can read my history geek Daylight Saving post, then.