Craig's Corner

I just Googled myself. My LinkedIN page, this blog, my IMBD page and even my personal website came up on the first page. Same thing with Bing. Deeper in were links to my former workplaces and a bunch of other people who have the same name. I guess it’s something that I come up first, and dominate the first 2 pages of results. It’s been years since I’ve searched myself mostly because it seemed rather egotistical. It actually is a prudent thing to do since the first thing most of us do these days after meeting somebody is to Google/Bing them. Business acquaintances, romantic interests, job applicants all are easily pre-screened thanks to online search engines. Of course the information that’s out there is incomplete and not always reliable, but why should that stop anybody? There is a treasure trove of data for the taking. The U.S. Government in its inimitable wisdom has opted to create its own bureaucracy to check out people it might hire.  The White House is creating a n...

I enjoyed “The Tudors” when it was on Showtime a few years back. It fit well with the soap-opera story telling style of today – plenty of sex, deceit, back-stabbing and politicking to entertain for hours. Henry VIII had a voracious appetite for everything. His marriage to Anne Boleyn became the trigger that split the Church of England from the Catholic Church since the Pope would not annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The issue of marriage is therefore a founding bedrock principle of the Church of England which is the seat of Anglicanism. It’s ironic that marriage is still an issue 483 years later and may well be the undoing of the Anglican communion. On January 14 at a meeting in Canterbury England of the 38 Primates (bishops) of the Communion the Episcopal Church was sanctioned over its acceptance of gay marriage. “For three years, the Episcopal Church will not be allowed to participate in many of the communion's internal decisions or represent Anglicans in meetin...

The phone rang. “Would you like to answer a few questions?” [This was back in the dark ages of the 1980’s when you actually answered the phone.] It was Gallup calling. They wanted my opinion! I spent the next 45 minutes on a call with somebody who was clearly doing this for the first time – and I missed a wonderful dinner my mother had cooked. It was for the greater good, I self-justified.   I was one of those selected people who’s opinions was going to make a difference! The optimism of youth has now turned into the cynicism of someone not so young. Time isn’t solely responsible for the transition – a changing world is as well. Technology has advanced so that everybody’s opinions can be gathered and everything seems to be voted on. In 2006 more people voted  for Taylor Hicks on American Idol than voted for President. Polls have become so easy and sophisticated that anybody can do them. On any subject. Debate-org  has an entire section of “funny” polls. And G...

I’ve been writing this blog since August 2010 every week. You’re reading #287. At an average length of 750 words that’s 215,250 words. 83,389 people have read one post or another with a monthly average of about 1,000 views. Other than a handful of folks I email and a generic cross posting on Facebook and Twitter I have not done anything to generate readership. Self-promoting and marketing the blog hasn’t been its core purpose, exploring and discussing things that catch my interest has been the focus. The advertising income from Google the blog has generated in five years comes to less than $150. It’s not what you’d call the most lucrative gig out there. It’s not just that words are cheap – all content is. Today’s digital economy has spawned an entire generation who have no expectation to pay for content. Those who grew up conditioned to pay for newspapers, books, movies and music may have adapted to internet based solutions, and they are the most likely to pay for content delive...