Nuinca.com

Spending time wasting time

Here. This is why I’ve been away. Stop bothering me.

First up, the book 2666 by Roberto Bolano. Critics popped a collective boner (even the women, I heard it was weird) when this book was finally translated into English this year. Ya see, the Spaniard Bolano spent about 5 years writing 2666, and he had the proper marketing sense to die before it was published. So since 2004, this 1,000 page, 5-part book has been floating around molesting sensitive sensibilities since then, but only in Spanish.

I picked it up with a forgotten B&N gift card at the beginning of this month, and have been plowing through it ever since. Honestly, it’s a masterpiece, but I’m not finished with it, and I know there’s plenty left to discover before I can properly join the boner crowd. So that’s #3 time-consumer this month (we’re doing this in reverse-cronological, so tag along.)

Fallout 3. Oh, where to begin. Not since college has a video game so thoroughly robbed me of meaningful interaction with other real humans. LCD-screen-light poisoning might be a myth, but with the amount of time I’ve spent playing this god-damned game, I’m on the way to finding out.

I don’t feel like it’s fair to spend any more time talking about this game. Just please, don’t buy this. You will hate yourself.

No, it’s not my baby. Stop it.

Now, the final and most important item in April’s list goes here. The only people who read this thing already know what’s made this month truly one of the most meaningful of my life. Yes, I’m talking ’bout Luis/Lucas/Beth.

I am going to save the truly inspired reflections for an unpublished blog post, but let me assure you – I never understood the terrific precariousness of life until April 2009.

I have spent plenty of nights lying awake worrying about my own status in life – but almost never have I been unable to sleep for another person’s struggle. Maturity is weird, but strangely satisfying.

Life, etc

The more life I live, the more I like it.

Conversely, the more I like life, the less I understand it.

That’s your philosphy lesson for this week. Stay tuned for “More inebriated ramblings”

Why newspapers will die

There’s been a lot of talk lately in the newspaper industry about charging for the content online. It’s by no means a new idea – publishers around the country have been in favor of it exactly as long as they have been in favor of posting their content on Web sites.

Several newspaper Web sites have charged, or do still charge for their online content – the Wall Street Journal being the most notable among those still requiring people to trade dollars for pixels. The New York Times, who had a “premium” section of their site, reserved for paying customers, held on to that for a while before releasing everything. Even Slate did it, but that was a bit different from those last two, and any way, it didn’t work.

You see, most newspaper publishers today still think their content is worth something – that the days of creating and providing content are still with us, and that the public should be thankful that some benevolent force is willing to give them information at a relatively small price. Of course, that’s all utter shit. The internet was created to amass and distill information from anyone to anyone.

If newspaper are going to capitalize on anything online, it’s going to be the method of delivery.

That is, when I download a $1.99 iPhone app that lets me play Galaga, I’m not paying for the content – for hellz sake, I can play the game for free online at any time. I’m paying for the convenience and coolness factor of being able to play on my phone, whenever I want.

Newspaper needs to capitalize on that process, expand it well beyond iPhone apps, and then try to make some money. If you have to charge for anything (and I’m still not sure you do), charge for something that will make a deep and personal connection with your audience – something that goes far deeper than the latest city council brief.