New Year’s Resolutions; goodbye Ben, goodbye Jerry

I haven’t been a New Year’s Resolution type of person. Some years, I’d think of a few promises that would be broken by the first NFL playoff game. This year may be no different but it feels as if it is. I have a faint desire to change a few things and achieve some others that I’m going to document. Hopefully, writing it out publicly for the three or four poor souls that hap upon this blog will help me make it past the Superbowl and maybe even until mini-camp starts:

1. Goodbye Ben. Goodbye Jerry. It’s been fun guys. We’ve had a helluva year together. My loyalty to you knew no bounds. Each night, after a long day at the office or an even longer day at the office and classroom, I knew that there was a half-pint waiting for me. Whether it was Americone Dream, Cookie Dough, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch or another of my favorites, I could count on you to calm me down. Unfortunately, you also began to weigh me down to unprecedented levels. So I will go without you (and your cousin Haagen-Dazs) in 2009.
2. Monitor daily caloric intake with a food diary. This may seem extreme. And if I was walking around with a paper notebook and pen and scribbling something down each time I popped a Pringle, it would be extreme. And lame. But, I’ve found a handy iPhone app that makes it easy to keep track of calories and weight loss goals. 
3. Anyone sensing a pattern here?
4. Run in the Bay to Breakers on May 19th. I haven’t participated in a running race since my Junior Year in high school and this is certainly the one to return with. One reason is because I won’t be smoking cigarettes like I was last time. Another is because half my life later, I need a goal to look forward to in order to stay focused. Whether my preparation includes working out once a week or every day, I’ll do whatever it takes to prepare so I’m able to run (not walk, not jog, okay, maybe jog a little), the entire 7.46 miles. I don’t think I’ve ever run that far in my life. In one go or in the entire course of it.
5. Read two books every month. 24 would be a fine tally. No more, ‘I’m a student’ excuses (even though I still will be a student until mid-May). If George Bush can do it while destroying America, so can I. Although school books do count.
6. Write two blog posts every month. I have such great talks with colleagues, friends and family at work and home, I want to expand my conversational universe beyond and include a large circle of people. Topics will include favorite iPhone apps, latest books read, digital media trends, other blog or twitter posts and anything else that crosses my mind that I can share.
7. Enter the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition. I’ve been thinking about it for two years and now that I have a business concept I’m confident in, this is going to be the year. January 28th is the entry deadline. 
8. Use Mint to control spending. I’m fairly disciplined as it is when it comes to spending. Not because I have such great self-control but because I don’t have that much discretionary spending available to me. Still, monitoring it with a personal finance software program helps. Now that Mint is on the iPhone and available to me at all times, I should be able to cut out more frivolous expenses.

That’s all I can think of. Like David Caradine in Kung Fu, my resolutions boil down to strengthening my body and mind. Makes grasshopper strong. I wish everyone a happy New Year. May 2009 be the best year of your life so far.

Shelfari disappoints; where is a good online book community?

This blog has been in existence for less than an hour and I’m already ready to rant against something. I have a feeling this won’t be my last.

I joined Shelfari a few weeks ago after giving up on iBook’s Facebook application. Shelfari’s beautifully designed destination site and book shelf widget drew me in and I quickly added about 75 books I’ve read to my shelf. Aside from being able to meet and argue — I mean, discuss — books with other readers, I thought it would be a great way to keep track of the books that I remember having read. 

Things went swimmingly until I started looking for groups to join. The most popular one had only about 5000 members. By my count, only 13 have more than 1000 members and the fifth most popular is called Friendship for Universal Peace. The name telegraphs to me that only a wacko could come up with a name like that. I can’t say for sure since it’s a private group. Anyway, I joined a couple groups and posted to one that I was interested in learning more about the genre and wondered which books I should start with to get a good overview of it. Twelve days later, none of the 30 other member have responded. And for clarification, this was not the non-responsive book group. It was disappointing.

I also found the site slow but was willing to overlook that since I still like keeping track of the books I’ve read on the Shelfari shelf that’s now displayed on my Facebook page. However, I doubt I’ll be visiting the site except when I finish a book to rack it up. I’m not the only one disappointed with Shelfari.

Today, I found another flaw with Shelfari when I tried to add my shelf to this blog’s sidebar. Because it includes an embed, it can’t be displayed on WordPress. A user in the WordPress forum said they contact Shelfari about this a while ago, but they still have not provided simple html code to use for the blog. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Shelfari’s blog is hosted by Typepad,

Someone must be do a better job nailing the online book group service. Maybe Amazon’s backing of Shelfari has hurt its teams motivation. Maybe these are hard problems to solve (at least the part about attracting more interested users. The part about the slow site and no WordPress widget is easy). I’d give LibraryThing a try, but its site is heinous. If a company can get this right, the reward should be rich for the one that does.

Blogs foment media change

I like how this short presentation ostensibly created for novices to define what a blog is manages to concisely explain why the media industry is in turmoil. Has anyone in publishing seen this?