Realistic Expectations

In just a few days the citizens of Pratt will decide on who will occupy the single commission seat that is up for grabs. In today’s Pratt Tribune there is an article which talks about the two candidates and there their viewpoints. A statement about the incumbent, Mayor Glenna Borho, immediately drew my attention:

“Borho wants to see more economic development in Pratt with an increase in manufacturing and service related jobs. She wants the population of Pratt to grow to 10,000 within the next five years to help spread out the tax burden.”

The first sentence tells me that retail is dead since she doesn’t mention an increase in retail-related jobs. I wish someone would have told me this before I opened the bookstore. Ah, such is life.

It is the second sentence that concerns me, this growth in population to 10,000. I have seen this number before in a city planning document, so it isn’t just the honorable mayor who came up with this number. Instead, it seems that this number is a sort of Holy Grail for those who run things here. My problem with this number is that the census statistics illustrate that nothing is being done to reach this lofty goal.

According to data obtained from the USDA/ERS site, Pratt County’s population dropped 0.57% from 1990-2000 and dropped 2.18% from 2000-2003. Yes, I said dropped and the problem got worse in the first three years of the new millennia. To get to a population of 10,000 in the next five years would require an increase in population of 56% over those five years!

Pratt, along with a lot of other small, rural towns, needs to come up with a coherent, viable and realistic plan for the future and we need to do it now. At a population of ~6,400 (and dropping) we don’t really have much time.

Tags: Pratt, Kansas, election, population growth, small towns

Election Day

In a little over a week, Prattans (Prattians?) will be given the opportunity to vote for a city commissioner who, up until just recently, was running uncontested. Now, we have a write-in candidate who wants us to vote out the incumbent and voting him in. The problem is that he isn’t offering any details on what and how he would do if elected and that is the subject of this blog: the lack of information in the Age of Information.

Our write-in candidate wants me to vote for him, which is all well and good, except I can find little information about him on the web except for what looks like a press release, some articles (one online here) printed in the local paper, none of which tell anything about the candidate himself. He may be a great candidate or he may not, but I don’t have enough information to tell.

In this age of Web 2.0 nothing is easier then setting up a website or a blog. Registering a domain name and signing up for a web hosting account is extremely easy and relatively inexpensive. There are oodles of people out there who would love to help design and upload a site, some even for free. Blogging is even easier. There is absolutely no excuse for any candidate for office not to immediately set up an informational website and a blog where the electorate can go to find out about the candidate.

Is this too much to ask for?

Tags: Pratt, Kansas, election, voters, website, blog

Appreciation

I had an epiphany today while shopping in an Independence, Missouri Wal-Mart: Pratt is a really nice place to live.

You see, I am in Independence attending the City Slicker Stomp clogging workshop along with my family. Anyway, I was in Wal-Mart and I found myself in the computer section looking at CD burners and external hard drives when I realized that everything was behind locked sliding windows. Every modem, every USB hub and every PCI card was under lock and key. Compare this to the Pratt Wal-Mart where all of this stuff is sitting out in the open.

The family and I really like living in Pratt and this is an example of why.

Tags: Pratt, Kansas

A Lot of Little Stories

Once owning a bookstore has ruined me when it comes to writing a book. When my wife and I were researching the idea of opening a bookstore, we immersed ourselves in all things associated with publishing. During our research we found out how easy it was to publish a book using a subsidy publisher, especially if one skipped the parts dealing with design, layout, typesetting and editing. We also found out how difficult it is to sell a self-published or subsidy-published fiction book in today’s market. Add to this the fact that I truly do not have the spare time to devote to such a project as writing a novel and you will come to the same conclusion I did: no novel writing in the foreseeable future.

I have found what I think is a better venue: a series of really short stories published to my blog for the entire world to see and by short I mean less then 1000 words. These stories could be chapters of a serialized story or they could stand alone. At some point, if there is enough interest, I could collect them and publish them as a physical or electronic book. In the interim, if there is interest, I could finance the project using Google Adsense advertising, or even sell banner ads on my blog.

And it doesn’t stop with written stories. I could experiment with scriptwriting for old time radio-style podcasts, or even short, no-budget films that I could post on the web as vlogs. And all of this is made possible by Web 2.0 technology.

The two primary keys to success using this idea are short-length and making money off of secondary channels. Short length plays into the idea that people just don’t have time to read a 100,000-page tome, but they do have time to read a 1,000-word short story, listen to a 10-minute podcast or watch a 5-minute film. An example of secondary channel profits is an inkjet cartridge. A printer manufacturer can loose money on sales of printers but turn a vast profit selling the consumable cartridge. In our case secondary channel profits would come from advertising, physical book sales, sideline sales and public speaking fees. Give away the food but sell the utensils.

This paradigm fills the needs of both author and consumer: the author gets her/his fame, recognition and possible monetary reward while the consumer will actually have time to consume. Hopefully this creates a win-win situation for all concerned.

I really like this idea. Stay tuned for further developments.

Tags: writing, filmmaking, short stories

Obsidian Encrusted Ant Hill

As I work on another rant, I thought I would share with you another photo I took on my travels in New Mexico.




Here is an ant hill on BLM (Bureau of Land Mangement) Land near Grants, New Mexico (we are not sure what kind of ants they were since this photo was taken in winter.) The black particles are small pieces of obsidian (volcanic glass) brought up from underground by the ants. Obsidian pieces up to the size of golf balls litter the area(c.f. here for information on obsidian in this area.) We have also seen ant hills covered with small pieces of jasper and other minerals.

View from the top of the Capulin Volcano, New Mexico

I was rummaging through some files and I found this picture, which I thought I would share with your. It is a view from the top of the Capulin Volcano at the Capulin Volcano National Monument, New Mexico. Taken October 2002.

Not Enough Pencil Time

Not Enough Pencil Time

About three years ago I found myself having to write a journal for a project and the journal had to be written in long-hand. Now, at that time I had not written anything long-hand for many years (I have terrible handwriting), instead opting to use a computer. At first I was worried that I may have forgotten how to write long-hand. That turned out to be the least of my problems.

The time arrived whence I was to start my journal. I sat down and started to write and things went well until I hit my first snag—I didn’t know how to spell a word. Did I get up and get my dictionary which was sitting on the bookshelf next to my desk? Noooooo. I wrote out the word—misspelled, of course— and then proceeded to wait for the red underline to form under the word, from whence I could pick the correct spelling. I sat there for a minute until it dawned on me that I was writing the journal BY HAND and that I could sit there until Hades froze over and NO RED LINE WOULD EVER FORM under that darned word! Thank God no one was around to see me waiting for that red line.

I write long-hand a lot more, now.

rant, creative writing

Self-Control

On a daily basis I try to randomly scan through several dozen blogs using Blogger.com’s “Next Blog >>>” button. Occasionally I find a gem, but most of the time I find blogs that are useless to me—porn, spam blogs, blank blogs, blogs in a foreign language, etc. I have no problem with those blogs being that one man’s porn is another man’s gem. What I have a problem with are the blogs that refuse to use capital letters or punctuation. If I see one more 200 word paragraph with no caps or periods, I will scream!

And it doesn’t end with people’s seeming lack of caps keys on their keyboards. Another type of blog that drives me nuts is what I call a vitriol blog. These are the ones that are written by someone who has issues with some person or entity and which is written without any regard to such things as libel laws. Do the writers not know that once their diatribe is published it will course through the ‘net for the rest of eternity? Imagine ift the poster wants to make up with their “victim” after the fact. The term: “too late” swiftly comes to mind.

It is as if people lose all semblance of self-control when they post on the web. Be it a blog or a post on a forum, people seem to think that all social mores are suspended when they write on the web. I think that it may have something to do with the idea that people can post anonymously to the web—which is a fallacy. Given enough time, money and subpoenas, a good techie can track a poster at least to the computer they used, which in most cases sits in the writer’s house.

Maybe I am just longing for the days of civilized public discourse, a time when there was a formalized set of rules that governed the way that people discussed topics in public. Just imagine what a great orator or debater could do with a blog or podcast.

Here’s to hope.

Tags: civilized discourse, oratory, debate

Mad Hot Ballroom

In preparation for the opening of our dance studio, the family and I watched Mad Hot Ballroom (2005), a documentary about students from several New York elementary schools who learn ballroom dancing and then compete in a city-wide competition. We wanted to see it mainly for the ballroom dancing pieces as we will be training a kid’s ballroom performance team at our studio, but we found it a very uplifting movie in many respects that had nothing to do with the dancing. It was great to see how supportive and involved many of the parents were. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to anyone interested in what can be accomplished with motivated students or who is just interested in ballroom dancing.

The film follows 11-year-olds from three schools as they progress from knowing nothing about ballroom dancing to the competing in the city-wide competition. It is amazing to see how articulate these kids are as they express their unique viewpoints on life, ballroom dancing and the upcoming competition. I was also touched by the teachers and how they grew closer to their kids as the day of competition neared. And I cannot say enough about how good some of these kids became considering the short span of time (10 weeks) in which they had to learn rumba, merengue, foxtrot, tango and swing. It is truly a testament to how much kids can learn if just given a chance and a good teacher.

With so much negative coverage in the news about problems with our youth and our public education system, this film was an amazing departure from the norm and gives one a glimmer of hope for future generations.

Really, see it (it’s on DVD). You will like it. Check out the official site for even more information.

Mad Hot Ballroom is rated PG by the MPAA for some thematic elements.

Tags: ballroom, dance, movie review, education