True Story: Why They Kneel

I've been working on a final project for my Digital Storytelling class for the past week and a half.  It's been excruciating. I used this really beautiful timeline tool from Knight Lab to tell a story that has become urgent for me.  See, I love football -- NFL football. I love cheering for my teams (the Saints, the Raiders, and new this year -- taking the place of the Seahawks -- the 49ers). It has been harder to do as years go by because the injuries and the CTE cases down the road are horrifying.

And, of course, the social justice issue.

I have a lot of friends my age who love football, too. Most of them -- like me -- are white. And about half of them have some very strong words for the players who have taken a knee through the National Anthem the past couple of years. They call it disrespectful to the flag and disrespectful to the military. They blame Colin Kaepernick for being the "instigator." They're with the President on this, and I am beside myself with an anger I'm proud to call righteous.

Some of them even stopped watching last year, using this "anti-American protest" as their excuse.

This timeline is for them. Kaepernick's protest was never about the flag or about the military. It has always been directly related to the disproportionate number of black men (and a few black women) killed by police -- and killed with almost total immunity. These are the killings that led up to Kaepernick's protest.  Page after page, name after name, story after story -- the weight of building this nearly crushed me.

The good news is that it's not nearly as crushing to view as it was to build. So take your time. Watch the videos embedded here. Do your own research with this starting point. Just today, Richard Sherman (CB, 49ers) referred to the "plantation mentality" of Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And the President keeps tweeting.

This is nowhere near over. 

TimelineJS Embed

#finalproject

The (Anti) Hero Journey of Walter White: Rhapsody in Blue

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not watched Breaking Bad and hope to avoid plot details, please LEAVE THIS PAGE NOW. (-;

So.

It always seems like a good idea when I sit down to binge-watch the entirety of Breaking Bad again. And generally speaking, it is. I mean, it's an incredible piece of drama with some of the best writing and acting on television.

But every time I watch it (this was my fifth time) I'm done with the "protagonist" (anti-hero) Walter White sooner. It's just hideous, the monster he becomes. It's even more hideous how long I actually rooted for him the first time I watched.

So here are my thoughts on how his story follows (although in an inverse way) a traditional Hero's Journey. A couple pieces of public domain music can be heard in the background: "Rhapsody in Blue" (Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin, in an original 1924 recording) and Chopin's "Funeral March" (The Edison Concert Band, 1906). Both are available at the site publicdomainreview.org.

If you're a Breaking Bad fan, you'll notice that "Rhapsody in Blue" is one of the ONLY songs about "blue" that wasn't used in the show. (Quite an oversight, I think....)

I've also hacked into a cartoon from freecartoonwallpapers.com to provide the graphic of Walter's Anti Hero Journey. I'll post it here (below) in case you can't see it all as the cover of the Soundcloud podcast.

The Hero's Journey as it applies to Walter White. (Actually, it's an Anti-Hero's Journey.)

10 Ways to Make Your Traveling Trainer Job the Best Job Ever

Hi gang -- I made this video for you!

Being a Traveling Trainer for the past 25+ years has brought so much good to my life. I've helped students all across the United States and Canada be more successful in their jobs -- sure, of course. (And this video includes some great shortcuts for helping you do that too.)  But I've also met thousands of interesting (and good) people and seen hundreds of amazing places.

If you don't have time for the full video, I'd encourage you to watch the first 5 minutes (especially if you don't have a TSA Pre designation yet). And I'd ask you to start again at about 23:23 to see my favorite two tips and to hear a story about how Tony Bourdain changed my life -- and my kids' lives.

Enjoy (-:

30-Second Radio Commercial: Write Like Hemingway

Alternate Movie Marketing Plan in the Year 2007

Craig McKey created a great minimalist poster for The Big Lebowski (1997) a couple weeks ago. (You can see it here.)

The bowling theme reminded me of my own favorite (and most appalling) bowling scene from the movies. Had Craig's poster been the studio's marketing poster for Lebowski, I would have re-printed it edited as you'll see below for the release of There Will Be Blood (2007).

Sorry, Craig. Yes, I'm riding on the popularity of Lebowski, but making hay with the blood-soaked graffiti and pool of blood.  What a movie!  #remix-thing

So I Found a REALLY Fun Tool

...It's called Mozilla X-Ray Goggles, and it allows you to make a copy of an existing web page, edit its code, and change its appearance (including what it says). It doesn't actually hack the original page, of course -- it just makes this new re-mixed version of the page as you have re-created it.

And what a PERFECT week to find this tool! The news here in the US, on the major news networks was SO bad, SO sad... It was actually therapeutic to build an imaginary page of CNN, 50 years from now. CNN now stands for "Canine News Network" because finally we realize that dogs are the best, always. We -- humans -- needed a break from trying to lead this country.

Here's the link:

Yes, it's science fiction. Enjoy!

5 Tips to Reclaim Your Power to Write

So many of the adult business writing students I've worked with have complained to me of an inability to write -- a mental block. Fact is, there's NO ONE who can't be a writer. If you've dreaded writing and avoided it for days, months, or years: Don't give up! All you need to do is get back into the habit. Click here for a quick graphic to get you back into an easy routine of writing. Use it for 30 days, and you will blow life's breath into your own identity as a writer.

Cinderella, Heading for Infinite Happiness

So I'm investing a few months this summer to learn how to become a digital storyteller -- an infinitely great digital storyteller, if I'm going to follow Kurt Vonnegut's brilliant explanation of the Cinderella story arc. (If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching here:)

Short lecture by Kurt Vonnegut on the 'simple shapes of stories.'

The Cinderella story arc is the last one Vonnegut draws on his chalkboard. Unlike most narratives that start at a status quo, this one starts at the (ill-fortune) bottom of the graph. That's close to where I am as far as my digital storytelling skills go at the beginning of my summer adventure. In the Cinderella story, things start getting better for Cindy when her fairy godmother shows up. In my story, things started getting better for me when my fairy godprofessor showed up, bringing weekly tasks and tools with him.  I expect to get stronger and stronger, week by week.

If I hear the clock chime midnight, it will be while I am working on my final project, juggling tools and trying to produce the most perfect project ever. I'll toil around down there until some friend or classmate tells me that it's great enough, to just let go and post it. Ideally, like Cinderella, I'll be rocketed into Infinite Happiness from there because I will be comfortable enough and skilled enough to build and release the online writing training program I've been working on for too long.

Funny enough, Vonnegut says that although this is the not most common story shape, it is the most profitable. I could be OK with that. (-;