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"Death by Stabbing"

While my daughter's graduation ceremony was wrapping up last weekend, another ceremony was taking place for some family friends.

They were listening to the eulogy for their son, stabbed to death at an unauthorized but organized camping bash by current and former students of a Regina high school.

Misha was 19. As he was being fatally stabbed, a friend who tried to intervene was stabbed more than 20 times. His friend made it, but Misha was dead at the scene.

Canadians talk about how safe our society is, but knives and alcohol -- usually in combination -- are the cause of death in a disheartening number of cases.  I used to think of knives as weapons that were past their time. Something from a fifties movie. But statistics and news reports regularly remind me that knives are still very much a weapon of choice.

When I heard the news I found myself wanting to reach out, both to Misha's family and to my own. You really don't know what 's coming tomorrow, so you have to seize today and live it fully.

There is something forever deadening about the death of a child -- your child. People who have been through it talk about the gaping void that takes up permanent residence in their being. Time eases the sharpness of the pain, but the emptiness never fully goes away.

I try not to be obvious about it, but I've been spending more time hanging out in the kids' rooms this week. Sometimes talking. Sometimes just sitting there, savouring what I have. And as I eat a little bit less and exercise a little bit more, that too is a result of the jarring reminder we all received last week of how precious but fragile life is.

I don't have any pithy words of wisdom on this subject. Just an ache for our friends, and for the young man who we won't see grow into an adult.

First Step into Adulthood

My daughter Jessica graduated from high school this weekend.

She's never been too big on ceremony, but this was different. Decked out in cap and gown for the grad ceremony, and in formal dress for the banquet, Jessie  was in her element.

Jessie plans to work in the film industry, and she got the chance to do some student work while in high school. Having maneuvered a high school photography class into more than a decade of photography, reporting and editing jobs, I know early practice can pay off.

Whether her calling turns out to be film, or something else, I'm proud of what she's accomplished so far.

If deadpan wit, an ear for dialogue, excellent writing skils and Google-like recall of anime, indie films and cheesy Hollywood can make a career, then Jessie's well on her way.

She starts at University of Manitoba in the fall, studying film where her late uncle was part of the Film department.

May the farce be with you, kid.

Blog Hiatus Over, Back to Work

I've been off the grid for a few weeks. Nothing calamitous. Just needed to spend some time with the family and not think about blogging for a while.

Tending a blog can border on obsession, and I enjoy that. But this May my attention was needed elsewhere.

My apologies to anyone whose sanity depends on a regular fix of this little nook in the blog universe. I expect to be posting regularly for the foreseeable future.

Naked Conversations about Family and Mortality

I've only met blogger Robert Scoble once, but my heart ached a bit as I read his account of rushing back to Montana to get to the bedside of his mother, who suffered a stroke.

The news today was worse, as doctors explained how much damage was done.

My own mother was hit by a stroke a year and a half ago, brought from an active, independent life to a life regulated by extended care aides, nurses and the limits of memory loss and partial paralysis. She's still hanging in there, using force of will to assemble the day's memories into her best approximation of normal. Sometimes she does a great job of it, but other days aren't good at all.

Scoble's mother is just barely there, and left orders not to resuscitate in case she was left in this state.

His bleak posts remind me of the early days of The Well, one of the early well-known examples of a community of virtual members banding together to get each other through tragedies and successes.

Scoble takes a lot of crap from critics. But in many ways he's a pioneer in corporate communications.

By sharing this family crisis with his readers, he shows how blogging is different from other communication methods. It's way more personal, and has the potential to reach past differences about technology platforms, corporate allegiances and pet peeves.

You can't fake this sort of personal communications. And with that openness, comes compassion and credibility.

Update:  Dave Traynor writes on a similar vein.

Tags: robertscoble, blogs, health, crisis, family

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PR Briefs - News Items, May 8, 2006

Social Media Put to Good Use - Forward Blog points to the use of Flickr to raise awareness of runaway children. (Kevin Dugan original source)

Online Communities, Bikers and the 1% Rule - Colin McKay takes the 1% rule out for a test drive, and find that in online communities, about 1% of the users are hard-core contributors.

DIY Planner Hipster PDA Edition v3 Released - Lee Hopkins points to Douglas Hopkins' latest templates for Hipster PDA organizer cards.

My NYC Talk on Journalism Principles and Future - Citizen journalism pioneer Dan Gillmor posts his Hearst New Media Lecture given to Columbia University.

I'm Looking for Help: Exampes of internal transparency - Shel Holtz asks for examples of companies that practice internal transparency.

All Things Web 2.0 - "THE LIST" - A comprehensive list of web 2.0 sites.

Warren Kremer Paino Withdraws Lawsuit - Clueless ad firm launches a lawsuit against a blogger who pointed out a dumb error in an ad mockup. Firms drops suit after much blogger outrage, and a legal response.

Tags: flickr, social media, hipster pda, tools, efficiency, lifehacks, transparency, employees, communications, ads, legal

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Damn! Spammer/Spyware Jerk Only Has to Pay $4 Million

I've never met him, but I hate Sanford Wallace.

In the mid '90s, I had just talked my spouse into an e-mail account and was helping her figure out how it could help her writing career.

That's when Sanford Wallace entered our lives, and started peppering her with the same e-mail every day. (Photo from O'Reilly Media site.)

I laugh when I compare that one intrusion with the dozens of spam messages one of my public-facing e-mail accounts gets hit with daily. Today I shrug them off without pausing. But that first spam attack by Wallace felt like the time our house got broken into. It felt personal, and abusive.

Our ISP was no help. I don't remember what finally worked in getting rid of that daily message from the spam king.

Now Wallace has been hit with a $4 million penalty for his spyware intrusions. All I can say is, the penalty is a decade late, and the penalty isn't nearly high enough.

Tags: spam, security, spyware, sanfordwallace, bastards

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CBC Radio Launches Best-of Podcasts

The podcasts announced today by CBC Radio are a step in the right direction, but they don't approach the extensive podcasting already undertaken by the BBC in Britain and NPR in the U.S.

CBC Radio One Podcasts

Since getting an MP3 player for Christmas, my religious listening of CBC shows has fallen off significantly. I've forsaken  my portable radio for the iPod, and because it doesn't have a built-in radio, my radio listening has plummeted. I've gone from 10-12 hours of listening to CBC Radio One to maybe catching two hours a week. The rest of the time, I'm choosing podcasts that cover topics I'm interested in. I'll certainly add some of these CBC podcasts to my regular listening, and I'd add more if there was an option.

In the comments section of Tod Maffin's post about the new podcast service, several readers criticize the changes as too little and not timely enough. Instead of the compilations of programming being offered, they're looking for podcasts as an alternate delivery mode for the full radio shows broadcast and webcast by CBC.

Maffin, while stressing he's not an official spokesperson, points out that there just isn't enough money to go whole hog on podcasting. He directs people to provide feedback directly to CBC with their ideas.

Unlike BBC, which receives a hefty broadcasting fee from every U.K. resident, and NPR, which supplements a small federal subsidy with paid sponsorships, CBC Radio gets a relatively small operating grant from the federal government, and is prohibited from running paid ads.

How CBC could offset the cost of a more robust podcast service is a topic that's very much open to discussion. Maybe product placements, with a John Deere lawnmower roaring away in the background of a program, and a Husqvarna chain saw buzzing away, too?

Update:  I should mention that I think today's announcement is a huge improvement.  Regardless of how much further room there is for additional podcasting, CBC has made a long overdue move toward making their content more portable and less tied to a given broadcast schedule. As someone who often can't listen to daytime programs while at work, I really appreciate the ability to "tune in" on my schedule, to the shows I'm interested in.