My former student – and The Invictus Writer – David Ake finally got me out to the shooting range today. It was a cold, dreary day but that hardly dampened our spirits. He’s an excellent teacher and an honor to his country. (He’s a veteran of the second Gulf War.) Here’s my first attempt to […]
Grades don’t matter. This is what I tell my students ever week throughout the school year. Education is about the process, I tell them as they roll their eyes, not the product. I implore them to focus on squeezing out every bit of knowledge from their assignments. I want them to attack uncertainty without fear […]
In the next few weeks, I’ll be giving presentations that recap what happened this year at South by Southwest. I’ve asked my friends (and the awesome folks at SXSW) to help me gather links and ideas. Here’s what we’ve assembled so far: SXSW 2011 Mind Map. What do you think? What did we miss? Once […]
If you’ve followed my blog at all, you know that I have a deep and meaningful relationship with Mr. Hank Moody (and Charles Bukowski, the writer the show Californication is based upon). At his highest, Moody is a sharp, witty writer examining the human condition while balancing his on-again/off-again relationship with girlfriend Karen and his […]
I wrote a piece on Tron over at in media res about the importance of Tron franchise for transmedia storytelling and user culture. Tron: Legacy hits theaters on December 17, 2010, 28 years after the original movie debuted. As a geek, Im giddy beyond comprehension. As a storyteller, I cant help think the name Legacy […]
My writing career was less than six months old in 1995 and things were not going well. I’d botched an interview with Jim Carroll. I’d choked a brief encounter with Hunter S. Thompson. I quit my job at Cincinnati CityBeat, a local weekly where I was writing news. Instead, I wanted to do surveys by […]
We have a weight problem in the USA. But it’s not the type of which you may be thinking at first thought. Please allow me to explain why de-emphasizing (while not ignoring) the scale is the best way to achieve metabolic health – including, but not limited to – weight management success. I’ve been blessed […]
If you don’t know who Steve Prefontaine is now is the time to find out. One of greatest runners of all, he is also the the standard bearer for all American runners. But he is far more than that. His attitude about competition – about life – are a road map for success. Maybe not […]
The first three long features I ever wrote for the Cincinnati CityBeat weekly paper were: the story of the American Federation of Riders, a motorcycle club my Uncle helped found (1995); the story of Cincinnati’s attempt to arrest the graffiti artists who were tagging the city (although most of that occurred in the storm sewers) […]
It’s always weird to do the vanity search after giving a talk. It’s also particularly hard for me because that moment before feedback comes is awful. I have a creative mind convinced that I’m quite bad at what I do. Which means I’m always – always – expecting the worst. My head is like a […]
I wished I had Brad King as a professor in journalism school. The Ball State University professor is a fellow researching how new technologies impact story-telling. He reminded the crowd that no one is a digital native. — TEDxCincy showcases think power, Laura Baverman in the Cincinnati Enquirer It was a good day at the TedxCincy conference. […]