think throw away think

Want a free scary bedtime story for your (older) kids this Halloween? I wrote this one called Throwing Voices, for mine a year ago, but once I finished it I realized that it was a little too disturbing so I didn’t share it with them (yet!). It’s based on a recurring fear I had as a child and is even partially true! Probably OK for kids 9 and up …  his an excerpt:

For my eighth birthday I ask for it. And I get it.

I tear the blue wrapping paper from the rectangular box, and there, through cellophane window he is looking at me, his eyes open, his mouth just slightly parted, a silly grin on his face.

“It’s the Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist dummy,” says Dad. “The one you wanted.”

I smile at him. Charlie is perfect. I run my hand over him – black tuxedo, white-collared dress shirt, black dress socks, polished black shoes, felty black top-hat, and his trademark eyepiece – the glass monocle fitted over his right eye.

I reach up, behind his head and find the string. I pull it and his mouth opens.

“Nice to meet you,” I mumble, trying not to move my lips. It leaves my lips sounding more like, “Eysh oo eat oo.”

Mom laughs. So does Dad. I practice all that day and even get a little better at making it sound like Charlie, not me, is doing the talking.

I play with him all night. And all week. And all month. I am getting good. I hardly move my mouth when I make the sounds and sometimes it even looks like Charlie is alive. My friends and my parents are impressed.

But then one day I come home from school and his wooden face looks different.

Full story here.

Last night I watched a very artistic music video directed by Tao Ruspoli and then a philosophical/aesthetic commentary on the video, then watched the video again and it was a really fun experience.  You might enjoy it (links to video and commentary below).  The philosopher who is doing the commentary, Mark Wrathall, taught at BYU when I was there.

When I served an LDS mission in Argentina, the President of my mission was a former scriptural instructor and an avid outdoorsman.  He told us, “When you’re out hiking, camping, hunting and you’re thirsty and find a spring, you don’t want to drink water downstream, where deer and other animals have trod through it and ‘contaminated’ it with their presence.  Rather, you want to follow it upstream toward the source and drink from where it originates, where it’s pure.  That’s how it is with scripture.  Don’t start with commentaries.  Commentaries are downstream.  They can help you understand the source, but use them as supplements, not your primary reading.  They can also influence you too much and prevent you from having your own insights and opinions.”

I’ve found that to be valuable advice for my life.  I always try and start with the “hard” source texts (whether it’s philosophy, business, scripture, etc) and do my best to understand them, underline what I don’t, and then research.  Only after reading the original source texts do I venture into commentary.  Then, I re-read the originals with the additional understanding of the commentary.

I feel like this gives me significant additional insight.

As I watched the video below, I had some impressions the first time I watched.  The commentary then gave me some additional insights.  On re-watching, I had a VERY rewarding interpretive (and aesthetic) experience.

Try it.

The whole experience takes about 45 minutes and I found it very worthwhile!  Uplifting and got me in an artistic frame of mind.  (The artist, Alexander Ebert wrote and recorded the song himself, played all the instruments, and did all the singing.  It’s a pretty great song and the words are very meaningful!)

Video:

I will have more to say about patent trolls in future posts (in part because I’m dealing with threats from one right now), but it’s great to see a patent troll get worked over. Excerpt:

A lot of you were already aware that Fark was sued by a patent troll back in January. I wanted to share that as of today, after eight months of legal work, that lawsuit was dismissed.

Their patent had nothing to do with Fark. The patent troll realized we were going to fight them instead of settle, so they asked for our best offer. I said how about you get nothing and drop the lawsuit? They accepted.

Normally, we wouldn’t be able to talk about any of the details. Terms of patent lawsuit settlements are usually bound by ironclad nondisclosure agreements. NDAs allow patent trolls to extract maximum settlements from each entity they’ve filed lawsuits against — as a result no one knows who paid what. In the last round of settlement negotiations we asked to strike the NDA provision. They agreed (and to the attorneys out there reading this, I’m as baffled as you are).

Striking the NDA was crucial because I wanted to be able to tell everyone what really happened: we didn’t pay them a single dime.

And then he goes on to vent about how dealing with the trolls cost him time, money, sleep, and one employee of his had to be fired because of costs related to fighting the troll.

My sentiments are like the guy’s who wrote that story.  It’s maddening. Patents, which are a monopoly right (and, therefore, very dangerous) were only ever entertained on the grounds that they incentivized innovation.  Well, I’m here to tell you that all they do these days is kill innovation. Inventors and developers live in constant fear of the baseless patent lawsuit.  I live in fear of them because we have been targets of them in the past and they are a huge time suck and destroy jobs and productivity.

There are – basically – professional mafia organizations that, as Bastiat said, use the law as an instrument of plunder. They know exactly how much it costs to fight a baseless lawsuit, so they ask for buy-off amount less than that and promise to go away if you pay for their extortion amount.  And they target and prey on companies they think don’t have the financial resources to fight them off.  (Sound like thugs that target kids and little old ladies for muggings?  Yes, it does.) It’s one of the most obscene and filthy rackets I’ve ever seen, and it’s done in open abuse of the spirit and, often, the letter, of patent law.

We ought to move to a “plaintiff pays” legal system in the US, at least when it comes to patents, so that if someone sues for patent infringement and a court finds that no infringement occured, then the person who filed the baseless lawsuit has to fully reimburse the defendent all costs related to having to fight their baseless suit. That would cause a lot of the baseless suits to dry up right away and allow more small businesses to fight the trolls.  Under the “plaintiff pays” system only legitimate patent holders who are extremely sure of their standing would ever dare venture forth.  And the trolls could go crawl back to their holes and, hopefully, shrivel up and die slow deaths.

Thomas Arts produced this commercial for Ask For It, the new startup I co-founded. They did a great job.

Today was kind of a cool day for me and I wanted to share it with you.

Got this graphic in an email from BYU.  Right when I read it, I responded viscerally.  I thought, “Well, my individual contribution isn’t going to make a dang bit of difference unless a whole bunch of other people join in.”

The message I want to see is, “Your contribution, however small, will make a big difference.”

While messages like “Together we can make a difference” are sometimes appropriate, you have to be careful not to send the message, “Alone you are nothing.”

People want to feel empowered.  And this ad did just the opposite for me.

Bad raindrop.

I made up this bedtime story a few years ago for my two oldest daughters … finally got around to put it up on the web. My 6 and 8 year old really liked this one. Your kids may like it, too … check it out. Free bedtime story.

Belinda Bling and the Magic Seeds. Excerpt:

Belinda climbed up into the flower and screamed. She was face to face with a green grasshopper as tall as she was!

It stared at her with unblinking eyes as big as hubcaps on a car.

“It’s just a bug,” Belinda said to herself. “It can’t hurt me.”

“You’re probably thinking ‘it’s just a bug’,” said the grasshopper in a deep, man’s voice.

Belinda jumped.

“You … you can talk?”

A woman’s voice from behind him spoke, “Of course we can talk.”

Belinda peered around him and a grasshopper the same size as the other, but a lighter green, inched toward her.

I posted a new story at StoryCircle.com titled Bernadette and the World’s Biggest Jawbreaker.  It’s for kids 5-10 years old and I wrote it for my oldest daughter, who is a voracious reader and loves “facts”.  Here’s the intro:

The moment Bernadette saw it, she knew she had to have it. A jawbreaker the size of a soccer ball that looked just like a globe of the world. Blue oceans and rainbow countries. The kids in her 3rd grade class would flip!

“How much for that one?” she asked the candyman and pointed at it under the shiny glass countertop.

“Oh,” he said, “that one’s $150. It’s a limited edition.”

Her heart sank. She turned away to look at something cheaper, like gobstoppers.

“But,” said the man, “you could always win it.”

“How?”

“By answering a question correctly,” he said as he motioned to a box on the counter-top.

On the front of the box a sign was taped which read …

Click on over and have a read.

Thomas Arts has been handling marketing and PR for Ask For It and I just can’t say enough good about them.  They are a national firm headquartered in Farmington, UT, but they give a great local, personal touch to their clients.

They normally only handle clients much bigger than us (as a start-up), but they have been believers in our model and idea and so took us on, and we’re extremely grateful.  They have already helped get us some favorable press and their market research, brand strategies, and ongoing guidance have been invaluable.

The next time you need brand-related market research, a public relations push, or new ad campaign or creative,  take a look at the best marketing agency based in the West.

Just posted the first chapter of the children’s story I’m writing to StoryCircle.com, the place to find free bedtime stories.

It’s titled Bright Lancet: The Guardian – Chapter 1 – They Came at Night

Bright Lancet is a boy who sees things others can’t. And that spells trouble.

Here’s an excerpt.

My arms goose-fleshed and shivered. I tried to turn and run, but my feet stayed planted like anchors on the sidewalk.

Another thundercrack boomed just beyond the corner of my street. I turned and looked and saw the prow of a ship peek out from behind the trees. Then there, above the corner house, I saw a huge sail, and on top of the sail, in a little perch, a bearded man with a bandanna on his head. Above him flew a black skull-and-crossbones flag. The man peered through a spyglass, which he lowered, pointed at me with a menacing smile, and yelled below, “Ahoy! Turn her portside. We’ve got a looker!”

The hulking ship came around the corner and zoomed up the street, a tornado-wake churning behind it. It had four smoking cannons on the side.

I turned to run, and this time my feet cooperated. I heard a crack and a tuft of grass blew apart in front of me. I stopped.

“The next one will be in your ear, mate!” screeched a voice.