Today we are thirteen
Today is the thirteen anniversary of All This ChittahChattah. And since it just about overlaps with Thanksgiving, I’ll once again give thanks for all the enthusiasm and engagement from readers and friends over the years.
Today is the thirteen anniversary of All This ChittahChattah. And since it just about overlaps with Thanksgiving, I’ll once again give thanks for all the enthusiasm and engagement from readers and friends over the years.
Today is the twelfth anniversary of All This ChittahChattah. And since it overlaps with Thanksgiving, I’ll give thanks for all the feedback and encouragement I’ve received for this blog in those twelve years. Hooray!
Eleven years of All This ChittahChattah! We’re solidly into our second decade of blogliness.
While it’s not a traditional milestone anniversary, it is our very first palindromic one, so that’s worthy of (a brief) note!
Ten years of All This ChittahChattah!
How many is ten? Some of the earliest posts dealt with Engrish, home electronics purchasing, epic FAIL with Fidelity, epic FAIL with Monster.com, and dark patterns from Comet Cursor.
Nine, oh nine!, Atlanta, GA, March 2008
Today marks the eighth anniversary of All This ChittahChattah!
Flashlight Play, Kauai, Hawaii, July 2006
The interiors are by Philippe Starck whom Sudjic describes as "constantly seeking to amuse the grown-ups with his daringly naughty tricks."
The ambiance is profoundly different a few blocks away at Blue Bottle Cafe. Here, light streams through the bare windows of a 17-foot-high corner retail space. The stools are utilitarian, the walls dull white.
Yet everything here is arranged as deliberately as at the Clift, including the coffee beans in grainy paper bags with the blend names stamped by hand. It's all very DIY – and you can grind the beans at home with the $700 grinder on sale a few feet away.
"In objects we value the 'authentic,' the hand-pressed. It's often the same thing with cities," Sudjic said .
1. I see you reading.
2. I remember what page you’re on in the book.
3. I head to the bookstore, and make a note of the text.
4. I let my imagination rip.
5. Readers become celebrities.
6. People get giddy and buy more books.
Why do you do this?
Readers are cool. Authors work hard. Publishers take chances. And you all deserve to be seen!
(Thanks Suzanne Long!)
You will find us near major subway stations on the first Tuesday of each month.The idea is that once someone is finished with a book, they either drop it off in one of our conveniently located drop boxes or back to us at a station. Unlike a library, there will be no due dates, penalties, fees or registrations. We only ask that you return it once you are done so that the same book can be enjoyed by another commuter.
There are those whose commutes are carefully timed to the length of a Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker, those who methodically page their way through the classics, and those who always carry a second trash novel in case they unexpectedly make it to the end of the first on a glacial F train."
(thanks Avi and Anne)
We just launched an update to our site that provides a better experience for people browsing on mobile devices. Now you can keep up with All This ChittahChattah on your iPhone, Pre, Android, Blackberry, and what-have-you.
Let us know if you notice anything awry!
Today marks the seventh (lucky seven!) anniversary of All This ChittahChattah!
Photos courtesy of flickr users rgusick, _Harry Lime_, Leo Reynolds, rehuxley, skeeter torino, Ju‚Ñìiette, korrey
I don’t think this is quite worthy of sidebar real estate, but I thought it might be fun to at least post it.
That Mall’s Sick And That Store’s Dead! is a blog that documents shuttered stores, office buildings, restaurants, malls…failures in commercial real estate that remain like small scars on our landscape. Nice niche!
Snacklash is the only thing worth reading in the recent Wired feature on snack culture (summary: lots of shorty-short-short stuff proliferates).
Snack culture is an illusion. We have more of everything now, both shorter and longer: one-minute movies and 12-hour epics; instant-gratification Web games and Sid Meiers Civilization IV. Freed from the time restrictions of traditional media, we’re developing a more nuanced awareness of the right length for different kinds of cultural experiences…Yes, it sometimes seems as if we’re living off a cultural diet of blog posts and instant messages – until we find ourselves losing an entire weekend watching season three of The Wire. The truth is, we have more snacks now only because the menu itself has gotten longer.
This sums up the challenge I’ve been in semi-denial of for a while now. My own output of content. For as content creators, we face the same challenges as well.
The posts here on this blog vary in length and thought and time. I’ve started the Quickies as a channel for passing on a link of interest with one or two key thoughts. And there are the longer pieces every so often that summarize an experience or an issue. If you go back and look at the earlier days of this blog, you’ll see a lack of polish and focus, and a lot less content by me.
Now take a look at FreshMeat. The earliest entries are on par with some of stuff I blog now (longer, more focused), but the later entries are like small theses. They are really in-depth, long, and demanding-as-hell to write, especially when a simpler blog entry is easily produced and delivered.
FreshMeat got longer and more intense, as did the blog. A blog entry now is more substantial than a FreshMeat started out to be. It’s an escalation.
And then there’s an infrastructure issue. FreshMeat originally was an email list, with a web thing as secondary distribution. But running a mailing list is increasingly demanding as customers of an ISP. Most don’t want you doing anything like that; moving an existing set of names to a new host sometimes means that everyone has to opt-in again. I’ve got over 1000 names, granted the list is a bit stale, but I can’t imagine I’d get more than 50% re-registering after 2 years of silence.
I still get asked “when’s FreshMeat coming out?” because people enjoyed it. They may be not the same people who make the commitment to read a blog on a regular basis.
The dilemma, then, to readers here, who have a good perspective on my brand and on content and all that, what makes sense? Should FreshMeat be retired? Integrated into the blog? What should the brand be? If I could send one last email to the 1000 names, what should I tell them?
I’m stuck on this one, and I would love your thoughts! Please!