Hermeneutics, or "You're a nudist" . . .

Whatever he said . . .

Happy Birthday Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Roseanne McGeehin, Billy Idol, Bo Jackson, Andrea Newness Brito, et al . . .

Late-Breaking November Goal!

Not sure how I overlooked this one: Score at least 2100+ on the SAT.

Oh, Boy! Then I can get into MENSA!

Taking it manana, for first time in 35 years.

You do the math!

Any help on putting a tilde on that first n?

Functions, concatenations, combinations, repercussions, and dingbats are all conspiring against me. Them and the clock.

Wish me luck!

Check out OwlSparks

Carlos Micelli's OwlSparks is an incredibly forward-looking blog dedicated to the dual propositions:

1) It's always about team.

2) There's always better.

He's welcome to disagree, or better yet, add value, aka "the lagniappe."

And don't forget to visit the new HepCatIndstries blog! We're hiring, and we pay EQUITY! Come on over and be the first to comment! Get a free HepCatIndstries sticker! More lagniappe.

Go, go read Carlos's post. You'll get a comment from me as lagniappe. Not to mention a definition of "lagniappe" (lan - YAP), and a link to Ben Casnocha's "Making Time to Think."

November '09 Montly Goals

Analyzing last month's goals, it's fair to say, they were only partially realized.

1. Can't say I consistently "wrote faster." Wrote some.

2. As yet, no "overhaul" of Pragmatic Alternative. Work in progress. Am learning from Wibbels. Smart move: He's a tremendous resource.

3. HepCat Industries blog still to be realized. But a major goal for this month. Whoops! That's for later.

4. Let's Play SAT! blog and brand. Not much accomplished on blog, but some progress made on SAT prep study book, and more to come. Worked on it today. All in all, made most progress in this category of monthly goals.

5. Some work accomplished on Autobiography of a Young Adult, aka AOAYA. Some. A difficult work. Lots of sadness in search of a joyful ending.

Oh, was that too honest?

Dag!

Oh Well (Pts. I & II) . . .

6. And in terms of that final goal: keeping all the others straight and effectively inter-connected. Not so good. Not so easy to balance all these goals, and integrate them seamlessly into a strong and effective whole.

Not without a few 1099s . . . Or at a minimum, a reinforced, more robust network. Need that support system.

And now, without further ado,

Monthly Goals for November '09

1. Primary goal is now developing the HepCat Industries blog and brand. At their best any of my blogging efforts are entertaining, insightful and, ah, educational.

HepCat Industries encompasses and incorporates those three strengths best. Need to further reach out to the graphic design community in an effort to create visually interesting t-shirts and net presence, and need to trust my own design capabilities, my own ability to flesh out my vision, pick up the tech pieces later.

2. Re-frame Pragmatic Alternative as a once a week blog, or at least a couple, three times a work, instead of an every day blog, which it hasn't been for a while. A better way to grow that brand, as well as the HepCat Industries brand, which is inherently more umbrella-like.

4. It's NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month, for you neophytes.

First attempted this in '06, for few words. All still there, but that story's for another day. Or year. Not too much to incorporate into AOAYA, but many tangents. They're both all about sex, death, politics, and love.

It's all about sex, death, politics, and love.

5. Keep 'em (monthly goals) all integrated best by focusing on HCI as the central organizing idea.

As Lindsey opined in that great '79 nugget on the even greater '79 LP Tusk, "That's enough for me!"

Talk to you next month.

Uh, tomorrow. Later this week. Soon.

Notes On Kawasaki's When Everything Is Free, Currently All Kawasaki's

The Most Important Things in Life Are Free

Guy Kawasaki (Alltop)

Oct 13, 2009 -

Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired and author of Free, recently gave a keynote speech at Garage’s Revenue Bootcamp. The main points of his speech were:

*

Digital economics has created a deflationary economy in which there is near zero marginal costs for distribution. Hence, content is getting cheaper and approaching free.
*

Today’s generation expects things for free because people have internalized these digital economics. Adults, by contrast, grew up believing that “free” is a gimmick—i.e. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” (Watch this panel of young people to see the accuracy of this observation.)
*

Quality is more and more defined by relevance and not price. Thus, you can’t use price to win market share when everything is free. You have to use product differentiation and relevance.
*

The challenge for companies is to create premium goods and services that they can sell to “free” customers. Companies need to offer people ways to save time, increase their status, or heighten their reputation and convert these ways to cash.

If you’re in a content or online service business, you’re well aware of the pressure to lower your prices to free. The key point is that what customers are willing to buy is far more important than what you’re willing to sell. To learn more about Chris’s concept, watch his keynote here.

HepCat Indstries . . .

. . . is a t-shirt company.

We are getting ready to launch a new product, in keeping with the monthly goals.

It's actually an old idea in a new package.

There's another old idea, needing approval, which will be coming forward in the next month, if not sooner.

Watch this space for more details . . .

All part of the general monthly--and ongoing--goal of staying fully focused on the work portfolio.

In an age of specialists, we hew to our goal of general expertise.

'Cause everyone else has abandoned that market.

Who'll serve the polymaths?

HepCat Indstries, that's who!

Vertically Integrated, For YOUR Convenience!

Not Just the Coolest -- the Best!

So, just what made the dollar that guy gave me the most honest dollar I've ever earned?

'Cause while the romance of it is undeniable, I'm not so sure it's true.

I mean, the guy strode purposefully across Washington Square, extended that bill my way with a big grin, so to say, “Yeah. That's what I'm talking about.”

That gut-level, spontaneous, grokking appreciation, the giving without needing to be asked, that's it.

Or was it?

I mean, what about every dollar I ever earned bringing music and joy to markets across America? My markets!

From that first door in Burlington, Vermont, evening 6/26/83, through the record-setting BoulderNovember "Heart and Soul" Weekend, through Eugene, Iowa City and Edmonton, to the last known rap, 7/11/95 in Ithaca, I simply walked, knocked, and said:

“Hi, my name's Jay Hepner. I'm a singer/songwriter working my way to California by playing songs I've written. I'm asking a dollar a song. May I play you one?”

Since when is asking for the order wrong?

Uh, never.

Still, the sincerity of that NYC dollar, the whole "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" ethos underlying it all. The Neil tribute, lyric pointing the way . . .

Then the guy, a crucial Great Pumpkin to my Linus.

Yeah, still the most honest dollar I've ever earned.

But the most honest job I've ever worked, the coolest, the best, was the job I made myself, door-to-door troubadour, asking condign payment for bringing the good times to you, rather than making you go downtown to get it.

It was a good idea then, It's still a good idea. And my customers got a good deal.

What they didn't get was my hitting the big time. There was no follow up album, though clearly, this was front-end marketing in support of back-end product at a premium.

Next time, I'll make sure I get a band lined up.

Maybe Monsters of Folk . . .

Something to do in November.

So what do you think? Which was the more honest dollar earned? New York, New York?

Or any dollar ever earned in exchange for an original song on a front porch or in a living room?

LMK, J


PS Special shout out to Anastasio, Gordon, Fishman and McConnell. Holdsworth and Daubert, too.

Hey guys, Burlington, June 26-27, '83? Did I play on your porch? If you can confirm, please do: JHepCat72@gmail.com.