Sunday, November 21, 2004
Influence and the Apple universe
As I sit here watching the end of a great footballl game, trying to figure out just how to balance a laptop on one knee and the head of a sleeping dog on the other (without waking the dog), I can't help but marvel at just how absurd things have gotten over the past year. I'm not so much amazed at the things that are happening, it's more of a disbelief at what I've come to accept as being normal.
Take this month for instance. There's been quite a bit of debate across the internet this week as to whether my column about iPod sales at Virgin Megastore actually caused the company to hastily shift its iPod strategy nationwide, and the truth is that I really don't know if I did or not. But what strikes me as peculiar is that if I did, then I really won't be surprised at all. There was a time not so long ago when the possibility of such a thing might have had me a bit angsty, but now it's just like "Gee whiz, I wrote about something and it probably caused something major to happen, big deal, it must be Thursday again."
There's been an article in Macworld Magazine all month about me and my company and my website, and it only occurred to me today to let anyone know about it. Just didn't think about it, really. You get so locked into doing the interview (which I did over the phone, while I had the flu, if you're wondering), then doing the follow-up, then waiting for it to finally go to print, then grabbing a personal copy, working it into the marketing materials...but you sort of forget that hey, this is something really cool and really sort of scary, all at once. You just sort of don't have the time to take it in.
This past week I was invited to take part in not one but two major Apple-related events within the State of Florida. I can't say much about either one right now, except to say that the first will take place soon, and details will follow very soon, and it should be a lot of fun. The second event, if it happens, will take place next year and could be of epic proportions. Can't say a thing about it right now, but man, it's just a scary thought if it actually happens. Both of the events are what you would refer to as someone else's baby, and I've just been asked to play a part in each. But to be approached about them is cool, humbling, and to repeat a theme, a bit scary.
And a few days ago, I got word that thanks to MacUsingEducators.com, a site I founded, the creator of a twenty-year-old piece of educational software has managed to hook up with a developer who will re-work the software so that it will be around for another twenty years. This is software that actually gets used in classrooms, wasn't going to be able to be used anymore, but now apparently it will. All because I started a site and asked some educators to join me in publishing it.
When did all this happen? When did this become my life?
It's a strange, surreal existence, one in which I can decide that I want to do something like writing a weekly music-related column, and then just do it. No one's going to stop me. The other side of the coin of course is that I could make a raging fool of myself in doing so. What if I'm wrong? What if it turns out that iPod users really don't care about music after all? Nah, see, I know that's not the case. It's almost too easy to figure out. And yet, since no one else is doing it, you have to wonder if it being a good idea is just a matter of my imagination running wild. Once again, a lot cool and a little scary.
When I first began posting blog entries online twenty months ago, I never in a million years could have predicted that it would lead to all this. So if I could go back, would I have done it again? Yeah, no doubt. But like I said, it's still a little scary. Probably best that there isn't a lot of time right now to sit back and reflect (this particular blog entry notwithstanding).
Just a little pontificating on a Sunday evening, with a dog and a laptop on my lap.
As I sit here watching the end of a great footballl game, trying to figure out just how to balance a laptop on one knee and the head of a sleeping dog on the other (without waking the dog), I can't help but marvel at just how absurd things have gotten over the past year. I'm not so much amazed at the things that are happening, it's more of a disbelief at what I've come to accept as being normal.
Take this month for instance. There's been quite a bit of debate across the internet this week as to whether my column about iPod sales at Virgin Megastore actually caused the company to hastily shift its iPod strategy nationwide, and the truth is that I really don't know if I did or not. But what strikes me as peculiar is that if I did, then I really won't be surprised at all. There was a time not so long ago when the possibility of such a thing might have had me a bit angsty, but now it's just like "Gee whiz, I wrote about something and it probably caused something major to happen, big deal, it must be Thursday again."
There's been an article in Macworld Magazine all month about me and my company and my website, and it only occurred to me today to let anyone know about it. Just didn't think about it, really. You get so locked into doing the interview (which I did over the phone, while I had the flu, if you're wondering), then doing the follow-up, then waiting for it to finally go to print, then grabbing a personal copy, working it into the marketing materials...but you sort of forget that hey, this is something really cool and really sort of scary, all at once. You just sort of don't have the time to take it in.
This past week I was invited to take part in not one but two major Apple-related events within the State of Florida. I can't say much about either one right now, except to say that the first will take place soon, and details will follow very soon, and it should be a lot of fun. The second event, if it happens, will take place next year and could be of epic proportions. Can't say a thing about it right now, but man, it's just a scary thought if it actually happens. Both of the events are what you would refer to as someone else's baby, and I've just been asked to play a part in each. But to be approached about them is cool, humbling, and to repeat a theme, a bit scary.
And a few days ago, I got word that thanks to MacUsingEducators.com, a site I founded, the creator of a twenty-year-old piece of educational software has managed to hook up with a developer who will re-work the software so that it will be around for another twenty years. This is software that actually gets used in classrooms, wasn't going to be able to be used anymore, but now apparently it will. All because I started a site and asked some educators to join me in publishing it.
When did all this happen? When did this become my life?
It's a strange, surreal existence, one in which I can decide that I want to do something like writing a weekly music-related column, and then just do it. No one's going to stop me. The other side of the coin of course is that I could make a raging fool of myself in doing so. What if I'm wrong? What if it turns out that iPod users really don't care about music after all? Nah, see, I know that's not the case. It's almost too easy to figure out. And yet, since no one else is doing it, you have to wonder if it being a good idea is just a matter of my imagination running wild. Once again, a lot cool and a little scary.
When I first began posting blog entries online twenty months ago, I never in a million years could have predicted that it would lead to all this. So if I could go back, would I have done it again? Yeah, no doubt. But like I said, it's still a little scary. Probably best that there isn't a lot of time right now to sit back and reflect (this particular blog entry notwithstanding).
Just a little pontificating on a Sunday evening, with a dog and a laptop on my lap.
Comments:
Post a Comment
