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Thursday, July 12, 2001 |
Today I received this message, and just as James Cole takes the advice to visit the Florida Keys, I realize that this was a personal message meant just for me.
Dear Ernie,My name is Eli Chalfin and I'm the CEO here at Blink. I'm writing you today for one simple reason: to ask for your help in keeping Blink free.
In our recent survey, I received over 10,000 comments from Blink members. The response was fantastic, and I'm truly grateful for all the feedback and support from the Blink community. Overall, there was one comment that I heard time and again: Please keep Blink free.
I want to keep Blink free too - but I really need your help.
How can you help keep Blink free? Since Blink is supported by advertisers, taking advantage of their offers helps keep Blink free!
I found two easy ways to help: they're both completely free, you don't need a credit card, and there is absolutely no obligation whatsoever.
1. You can apply for Blue from American Express: you don't ever have to spend a penny with it and you can cancel at any time without penalty.
http://www.blink.com/br/0/28937437/8935720/3b6d5a74cfa64ac9b27811142713829e020bcd
(You may need to cut and paste this URL into your browser.)
2. You can write a poem at Poetry.com: it costs nothing and who knows - maybe you'll become a published author!
http://www.blink.com/br/0/28939038/8935720/3b6d5a74cfa64ac9b27811142713829e020bcd
(You may need to cut and paste this URL into your browser.)
Your participation in these offers would go a long way towards keeping Blink free!
Thank you, and I'll update you soon on the effort to keep Blink free!
Sincerely,
Eli Chalfin, CEO
Blink.com
OK, so I kid a bit (once again), but there is a note of seriousness here -- Internet businesses have been going under fist over handful -- and they usually offer some service that we don't miss until it's gone. Sure, there were a lot of companies out there that just didn't have a realistic cost-to-revenue plan, some that hoped to sell overpriced advertising while producing nothing, and still others that tried to get away with doing even less.
On the other hand, as the market accordions in on those who knew the benefits (and sometimes the risks) of conducting legitimate business during a boom period, many concerns are reaching out to find other sources of revenue. Most of the time this means selling something: Some were using the boom period to support development efforts, and over time, we able to accumulate products that they could distribute through their websites. Others continued to provide services with confidence that the bubble was not ready to burst, and that bull-power was going to save them from bear cupboards. Optimism is often its own reward because it has to be.
Well, I'm not here to be the moral judge of who deserves to survive in the current market, and even trying to guess would take way more research than I'm willing to do (No matter how pathetic, I still have another life after I turn off the computer). I can tell you this, though -- there are a lot of free services out there that are not prepared to take a hit to their subscriptions when they are finally forced to charge for what they provide. Free services provide a complement to a business area, but they often don't distinguish themselves well enough to counter alternative practices with costs in the same neighborhood. When faced with a dollar amount, subscribers find other means, reducing site visits and hence revenue from advertising or other earning potentials. The later companies wait to start charging, the more the price is inflated to offset costs: The higher the dollar amount facing the consumer, the steeper the drop-off of site visits. I'll assume you can put the rest of the picture together without my help.
So I'm going to bite the bullet. I don't have to buy anything, but I'm going to make a sacrifice that has the potential for the kind of mutual benefit that companies usually depend on in regular commerce. Most of my creative writing has been relegated to dusty old notebooks (What do I call this? Oh, please! This is like a personal letter to a lot of people who remain unnamed and unknown.) because I just can't let go of my work -- especially until it is mature.
I was just talking to my friend Pete down at my regular hangout Kramerbooks
about labors of love and how it's so hard to let them go (grow up and take their place in the world), when, mid-sentence I looked around the Café and saw his works published on the plates of all the patrons. By the time my panorama of the restaurant and bookstore had resolved itself into a gaze wherein I again found Pete's face, he held out his arms with his palms up to acknowledge and emphasize my concurrent realization, I have to let go every day.
So in the spirit of letting go so that my labor of love my take on its own life in the big, broad world out there, I'm going to submit a poem to the poetry contest to help keep Blink free. I chose a poem that I wrote before I started dating my work back around December of 1974 -- and it has not been in a contest to date, nor is it published elsewhere. I call the Collection from which I picked it The Columbian Expedition because it was written in a composition book one weekend when I was stranded in Columbus, Indiana after having hitch-hiked there to visit some friends who were student-teaching there at the time (Karen Earlywine and Melissa Felling. I call the piece
Sisters of Serenity
Even through my lonliness,
I love thee, my sweet Solitude --
I need thee more than one might guess,
Tho' thou may'st be both soft and rude.
Being quite alone now,
In that I feel quite blessed,
I know I really must allow
My pressèd mind some time to rest.
Such silent sympathy I see arise
In shelt'ring, shielding shade
But I shall always realize
That Clarity hath honed her blade.
She's such a charming little lass;
She gives the bells a soothing sound,
And renders my mind to polished glass,
Yielding spectra of the truths I've found.
Oh, Solitude, thou speak'st through me,
And Clarity, I see through thee.
posted at 1:11:50 PM by Ernie Cordell
For me, the notable thing about this picture (to whose I also supply a link at the Air Force Museum Foundation) is that it was the plane in which my "Uncle Bob" (Robert Quentin Cordell) perished when he brought it down in flames over Sydney, Australia.
I wasn't personally acquainted with Uncle Bob, but in his 22 years of life he seemed to have made a tremendous effect on my family, and from what I have heard, on the world around him in general [Read as "his larger social circle" -- while he was widely known locally, I couldn't realistically call him a celebrated person].
We are now at a point in history when people look back on World War II and try to understand the atmosphere of that era and the motivations surrounding many of the events of The War. The one aspect that seems unchanged in any war is the impact of the loss of life on families: I could tell that my own family had been deeply changed, permanently altered, with its relationships skewed and twisted to fit around the void left by a fallen hero who was also a son and a brother.
For years afterward I was affected by this change in the family since everyone seemed to be continually surprised at the uncanny way in which I supposedly resembled him. I've seen his service photo in the newspapers, but I often wondered whether my uncanny resemblance weren't an extension of that void that called on me to fill it in some way. I could not know how he moved and how he spoke, but my static memory of him can't tell me what dynamic similarity they saw in me.
I do not have his letters ready at hand, but I was curious enough to save them and read them, and a certain kinship did come alive therein. His description of what he called a "Republican Thunderbolt" (probably some kind of inside joke with his brothers) varies somewhat from the statistics recorded on the AFMF website. I particularly remember the difference in the cost quoted, because he recalled the contrast from the time when "Dad wouldn't even let me drive the car." Maybe he exaggerated like any storyteller -- maybe he inflated the capacities of the plane to reassure his family about his security -- or it could be that he was emphasizing the performance that he was able to get out of his particular ship.
It was evident, though, that he loved this plane: For that reason it has become an enduring symbol to me of the legendary uncle that I didn't get to know, and the people who lived through a time -- and died -- when a confusion of tangled alliances created a dark agenda that tested the convictions to preserve Freedom through the sacrifice that it so often demands.
posted at 8:12:20 AM by Ernie Cordell
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Tuesday, July 10, 2001 |
I've been practicing my shameless self-promotion lately: I don't mind mentioning my strong points, but advice to "blow my own horn" either sounds like bragging or brings up an objectionable image in my mind. Despite what my old acquaintances might tell you, I object to bragging, too. Here's a résumée that lists everything imaginable and if you're looking for a job it comes out of a good tool, too. I wound up at the site by looking to see how the manpower agency turned out: ec77394
and another version is here -- from the main page: My Resumée
By the way, if you want to jump directly to my other blogs, they're here:
posted at 9:16:00 PM by Ernie Cordell
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Sunday, July 08, 2001 |
I had hoped to be able to offer something every day, no matter how small. I don't think I'll be able to deliver in any meaningful way today. I got a late start, engaged in some prospecting for revenue-generation, sent some E-mails, notably one that should have been in thanks for material contributed to my page -- the review of the Matrix with all the wonderful philosophical references. I keep getting the nagging feeling that I misspelled Bob Schaab's name, but I won't be able to check today if I do everything that I proposed. I wanted to watch a little superficial movie on television to relax, but it has already started and I'm still describing my change in policy.
I think I may try to find a little news to add to my Radio Blog today -- my "resolution" may have to be modified to promise myself that I'll add something to one of my Blogs every day -- not necessarily to this one, but to one of the three weblogs I have on my main page.
I want to fix the notion in my mind that I need to contribute more technical issues, partly because of my new policy to bring issues to maturity through posting here, and partly because I want to return to all the materials that I aggregated with the notion of posting them to the 'net, but found that none of them were really in a suitable format. I have a couple of pieces that I would like to add to my resumee pages -- I need to push them to a lower hierarchical depth -- but I have files that are already prepared with a full analysis of my talents, skills, abilities, preparation, training, temperament and aptitude, along with an index of the promise the different areas permit me in the future. This is not only an inducement to hire me, it's an interesting exercise with interesting results.
I'll have to install another application to make use of my Blogger subscription. It's driving me nuts switching between my sources and my browser to post and publish.
So now I'm going back to the Radio 'Blog to see what I can add that is interesting.
posted at 6:40:08 PM by Ernie Cordell
