tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4972254401664966699.post5166616432300502207..comments2024-03-03T11:21:12.438-06:00Comments on The Mallard of Discontent: Despite All My Rage...Chad Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13219295562957353591noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4972254401664966699.post-19051186470471099092013-10-20T12:42:50.125-05:002013-10-20T12:42:50.125-05:00Good thoughts, Chad. And I think you're absolu...Good thoughts, Chad. And I think you're absolutely right - the printing landscape is changing dramatically these days, though it's also good to remember that it certainly isn't the first time - many a highbrow cognoscente thought that literature and quality writing were utterly "doomed" when inexpensive printing processes and paperback books were first developed, for example. Instead, a number of the most prominent writers of the 20th century made their rent money by writing for them.<br /><br />"Adapt or die" has always been an inescapable maxim, in my experience, but there will continue to be an audience, and an appreciation for, quality writing. And there will continue to be ways to make (at least some) money at it. Newspapers, books, magazines - they all may die in short order, as we currently know them, or at least transform into other things. And for those of us with nostalgic attachment to these mediums (myself included), it can seem depressing. But I refuse to believe that good writing will ever die. After all, new formats are only that - at the end of the day, its still the <i>content</i> that matters. But people who have been in the business for a while, and don't/aren't willing to change, and keep lamenting that it "isn't the same business it was 20 or 40 years ago" are sealing their own fate, just as they always have, regardless of the business they are in. Remember when there were journalists who refused to give up their typewriters, and loudly proclaimed that they would "never write with a computer?" Where are they now? <br /><br />As in just about everything, I think it's important to take the long view - which usually makes it obvious that whatever "dilemma" we think we are currently facing has probably happened numerous times before, in some shape or form, yet things evolved and continued on. I think it's also important, just as it always has been, that when you can't find the outlet that you want, <i>you need to create it.</i>Smithhammerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01771440476655478031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4972254401664966699.post-90093542112705197192013-10-18T01:01:04.618-05:002013-10-18T01:01:04.618-05:00I think the location of your bookstore dream is Fa...I think the location of your bookstore dream is Fargo/Moorhead. Sure North Dakota is desperately trying to fuck up it's western horizon right now with the boom in the oil patch (cute,eh - like cabbage patch - that's what they call it), but it has all the qualities that you described. And it will likely take another twenty years before it's totally trashed. In the mean time, there's a lot of money floating around, a couple of great Universities, lots of old fishing junk and plenty of gun freaks. Might work. Oh, and the wind blows all the time - it is (or was) the great northern prairie. PFhttp://piscator-fontinalis.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4972254401664966699.post-75292219929358498202013-10-17T10:25:32.460-05:002013-10-17T10:25:32.460-05:00Freelancing isn't much different regardless th...Freelancing isn't much different regardless the industry. For most of my career, I freelanced as an "Instructional Designer". There was always uncertainty and the constant search for the next gig, but I had a niche when I started, with experience that few people had. I did some pretty cool stuff, and they paid me well for it. I did some boring stuff, but didn't care because they paid me well for it and I knew it was temporary. It was a hard, uncertain lifestyle, but it suited me (in the same way that I think freelancing suits you). <br /><br />Now universities have both undergraduate and graduate degrees for every aspect of my work and wide-eyed, eager college grads and post-grads to fill those positions at a fraction of my hourly cost. Even worse, they have turned what I do into formula that can now be outsourced to people who don't even fully understand the words they're transcribing. <br /><br />I bailed. Back into the world of Full Time Employment (FTE). Benefits. Paid vacation. All that jazz. And let me tell you... I'm a shade older than you, Chad, but I'm not old enough for this life. It's stifling. I'm getting out.<br /><br />We all want what we don't have. Philliphttp://www.hog-blog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4972254401664966699.post-21020987926351615322013-10-16T17:43:56.078-05:002013-10-16T17:43:56.078-05:00There is always the fallback of being a public inf...There is always the fallback of being a public information officer for some wildlife agency, I suppose, if you could stand it. I almost applied for a regional PIO job with the Colorado Division of Wildlife once — my wife did not like the town it was in (she has since changed her mind), but I was more concerned about whether I could function in a bureaucratic environment. I think I survived twenty years in a university environment by having an office that was off the beaten path and trying to stay out of politics — not always possible, of course. <br /><br />Through firefighting, I have met a lot of agency PIOs (e.g., US Forest Service) who don't have that reporter experience in their resume. Sometimes that does not matter; other times, it shows in an underlying hostility toward the news media, usually described as wild animals who should be caged far from the incident scene and tossed scraps of meat at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.Chas S. Cliftonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00923547685265741325noreply@blogger.com