Dave Caolo

An honest-to-goodness Scranton Boy in the White House. Can you imagine?

I can. We Scrantonians are damn proud, Senator Biden. Now make us proud.

My brother-in-law so wanted me to read The 4-hour Work Week, that he gave me an iTunes gift certificate so that I could buy it prior to my 3-hour road trip this afternoon.

So, I listened to it. Some of Tim’s tips are really out there (“Act first and apologize later”), but one thing that struck me is the idea of mini retirements.

Tim asks: Why work like a dog for forty years — as the best decades of your life pass by through an office window — only to enjoy the “reward” when you’re older, less mobile, less active and generally less able to get the most out of your time?

A good question. At a cursory glance, the formula seems flawed: work, work, work and then stop when you’re old. Of course, I’d rather spend a month in Tokyo next summer than in 2036 when I’ll be 65 years old. Is it possible?

Tim suggests that we don’t want a bankroll in the millions, we want the fun and freedom that (supposedly) comes with it.

Interesting.  I’ll keep reading and tell you what I come up with.

I recently read that thousands of blogs are created daily. I’ll bet that the majority are crap, doomed to die in six months or both.

Sure, you can clutter the net with posts about your cats and the cute waiter at Denny’s (OMG LOL!), but honestly — on one’s interested. Especially the bit about the cats. Everybody hates cats.

If you want to make a real go of it, start with these simple, basic rules.

1. Don’t publish first drafts.

If you ignore all but rule #1, you’ll do the blog-reading public a huge favor. It’s easy to vomit some words into a text field and click “publish.” Don’t.

Instead, re-read your first draft. I print mine and make corrections with a pencil. If a post is especially long, step away from it for an hour or two. When you thoughtfully edit your posts, you’ll catch each instance of “you’re” instead of “your”, every unclear thought and all of the grammatical errors that make your 8th grade English teacher want to smack you.

For example, here’s my first draft of the preceding paragraph:

“Instead, save your first draft and re-read it. I always print mine out and make corrections with a pencil. If a post is especially long, step away from it for an hour or two. When you take the time to thoughtfully edit your posts, you’ll catch each instance of “you’re” instead of “your”, every unclear thought and all of the grammatical errors that make your 8th grade English teacher want to smack you with a ruler.”

But before you do that, you ought to …

2. Have an idea in the first place.

Steve Martin explains it beautifully in Planes, Trains and Automobiles:

“Everything is not an anecdote. You have to discriminate. You choose things that are funny or mildly amusing or interesting … When you’re telling these little stories, here’s a good idea — have a point. It makes things so much more interesting for the listener.”

Here’s an example of a great post. Ged spent several days testing the hypothesis that he could increase his car’s mileage by changing his driving habits. He outlined the original idea, the steps he took to test his hypothesis and then reported the results. Now, I’m not saying that you must introduce the scientific method to your blogging, but you must have a clear idea before hitting the keyboard.

In contrast, here’s an example of a bad post. Wait, that’s mine! Which brings us to rule number three.

3. Stick with your own voice.

We all know who the 300lb gorillas are in the blogosphere. Many bloggers try to emulate them, posting the same types of articles with the same old messages and drab tone.

I don’t want to see your Darren Rowse impression, or your best Merlin Mann (though, if you can pull off Merlin’s hair, please post a pic to Flickr. They guy’s got the best ‘do on the web).

Infuse your posts with your own vocabulary, sense of humor, thoughtfulness, etc. We, the blog-reading public, want to know what YOU think, not what so-and-so said you ought to write about. Write in your own voice.

Unless you ramble. On to rule number four.

4. Eliminate or otherwise do away with the unnecessary and superfluous words that are cluttering up all of your blog posts all the time.

Or, “edit.”

If you can say something in 7 words or in 3 words — without changing the meaning — use 3. Eliminate the unnecessary. Here’s why.

First, it’s exhausting to read all of those words that just go on and on, seemingly forever, causing the reader to wonder when — if ever — a sentence will end. See? Wasn’t that annoying? Get to the point and move on.

Succinct writing is especially useful for bloggers because your readers scan your text. Don’t make that task any harder for them. If they don’t find what they like, they leave.

Go buy On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser and read it. Keep it on your desk. Glue it to your laptop’s lid. Eat it, breathe it, live it.

These basic rules will make your readers happy. Now get blogging.

Moleskine Patent Leather Diaries. And nerds everywhere just shit themselves.

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

Bang Bang Bang

Teenage boy #1: “Why is the new Star Wars movie animated?”

Teenage boy #2: “I don’t even want to see it.”

Uh-oh.

Wine in a can

Rednecks in Georgia clam to have a real Bigfoot, CNN believes them

Robot cupcakes

Look, I love GTD as much as the next guy, but David Allen’s cheese has slipped off of his cracker.

While browsing the site tonight, I found the store. Check out the above package. It’s pretty nice — plastic In/Out trays, folders with a stand, some notebooks, a pen and desk tray.  How much do you think this costs?

Ready?

$735.

With shipping, you’ll be pushing a thousand bucks for a freaking desk set. My goodness. For that much money, this thing better have sex with me then make a steak and lobster dinner.

Besides, desk sets are only good for one thing.