Jason Clarke

More great and well-deserved press for my friend Lance Dutson, who will be making history next week as one of the first ever bloggers credentialed to cover a federal court case.

According to the Portland Press Herald, Lance will travel to D.C. next week to cover the trial of former Bush administration official Scooter Libby. The credentials for two bloggers– a rotating stable that will include Dutson and at least three others– were arranged by Media Bloggers Association, for which Lance serves as web developer. MBA president Robert Cox, who brokered the deal, told The Washington Post “The history of where blogging is going to go is not defined. It could go in a very positive direction or it could go in a very negative direction,” Cox said. “We have to do more than just sit on our hands and see what happens.”

This is great news, as anybody who follows the business of blogging can easily recognize. Best of luck to Lance and the other bloggers covering the trial.

Disclosure: Lance is my good friend and podcast co-host. I am former web developer and Board of Directors member for Media Bloggers Association.

As you may have noticed, I have a new short story out, and I want to tell you all about it. It’s called “A Hard Word to Pronounce”, and it’s about a young twenty-ish guy on the day of his best friend’s wedding.

Because it’s a short story- and not a novel, or collection- I’m releasing it in e-book format, which basically means that it’s a great quality PDF. When you get it, you can either read it on your computer (or iPod or whatnot), or choose to print it out and take it with you. It’s $2 to own, and you can read an excerpt and purchase it right here:
http://jasonclarke.org/hardword

Whoah…a short story, in PDF download format, for two bucks? That sounds a bit crazy, no? But really, if you think about it, it’s kind of cool- because besides the fact that it gives you the option of saving some trees (and hasn’t it been a while since you had a chance to do that?), it’s also neat because it dramatically lowers the costs of production- savings which are passed directly on to you, dear reader.

Let me tell you just a bit more about this process, because I think it’s a direction that publishing is moving in. In this case, instead of packaging the story into a larger book– and that has to be done, because most printed books have set minimum page counts– you’re getting just one short story, but for much less than you’d pay for a typical book. That’s because it’s being delivered instantly (another benefit), without the interruption of a vast set of fixed costs such as printers, shippers, and even publicists and marketers.

That’s it for now. Even if you don’t care about the future of publishing, or saving a tree or two, please head over to my website, check out the story, and perhaps purchase it for yourself or a loved one. You can find all the info, plus order it, right here:

http://jasonclarke.org/hardword

And please do send me your thoughts and/or comments. I look forward to hearing from you, and I promise to keep you updated.

Here we are at playoffs, week 2! Last week saw some great games, particularly Seattle over Dallas and of course, my New England Patriots defeating the Jets. I like Pennington, so it’s a tiny bit of a shame to see him lose…so let’s hope he finds a home with a team that doesn’t choke against the Pats so consistently.

This week has some classic match-ups in store as well. New England at San Diego stands out, as does Indianapolis at Baltimore. I’m taking Indy, and calling it an upset, since I think the whole world expects Peyton to get shaken and stirred by Balt’s defense.

Last week: I went 3-1.

Playoffs overall: 3-1, good for 75%.

Here are my picks for this week:

Ind at Bal — Ind
Phi at NO — NO
Sea at Chi — Sea
NE at SD — NE

Thanks to my friend Lance Dutson, who is keeping things active over at Maine Impact while I’m spending time with family. In this week’s episode, Lance has a lengthy conversation with Jeff Inglis, editor of The Portland Phoenix newspaper. We’ve talked about blogs, we’ve talked about the mainstream media, and this time, Lance and Jeff talk about Maine’s “alternative” media, which is thriving, thanks to publications such as the Phoenix.

Take a listen to this week’s Maine Impact and don’t forget to share your comments!

• Directorship | Interview with Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot | Admits he erred in the handling of his annual meeting, but stands on his record.
  (tags: business toread)
• Firewall Free Firewall Protection Best Firewall Test Firewall Software Network Security Internet Attacks Computer Personal Firewall
  (tags: tools firewall software)

My NFL pool has wrapped up its regular season. I finished a strong 10-6 in the final week, but have yet to hear if that record was enough to give me my second weekly victory of the season.

So for the regular season, I finished at 131-113, good for 54%. Again, I haven’t heard how the regular season overall standings finished up, but I’ll post them as soon as I hear.

Now, on to the playoffs. In our pool, we count each regular season victory for 1 point, totaling the points once at the end of the regular season. But our pool doesn’t end there. For the playoffs, each correct pick is equal to 2 points, meaning people who didn’t finish at the top of the regular season standings still have a chance to play catch-up by making great picks for the playoffs.

So for round 1 of the NFL playoffs, here are my picks:

Ind at KC — Ind
Sea at Dal — Dal
NYJ at NE — NE
Phi at NYG — Phi

Happy 2007, to one and all…hope this time around is a great one for you.