Powerbeats Pro Thoughts

After a little internal debate back when they were first announced, I eventually decided to pre-order the latest, wireless earbud offering from Beats, or should we just say Apple at this point?

Having spent a few days with them, I'm suitably impressed, which is no small feat given the spotty track record of both companies in recent years, particularly where new, first-generation products are concerned. Of course, most technical aspects of the Powerbeats Pro have been thoroughly field tested, refined, and proven at this point, so it really shouldn't be a surprise that they work as well as they do.

Still, there was a nagging, little worry in my mind right up to the point when I first slipped the buds into my ears that they'd be somehow disappointing, or not quite as good as predicted. In truth, I was initially rather underwhelmed by the sound of them until I quickly realized that, like many other such devices, placement within the ear factors heavily into the overall audio experience. Ultimately, I developed a repeatable technique for inserting each speaker stem with the main body of the device horizontal to align it with my ear canal, then rotating said body about 30 degrees to "lock" the stem into place, simultaneously setting the ear hook. I suspect that each person's technique for getting the Powerbeats Pro comfortably situated will vary at least a bit given the subtle differences in ear size and shape between users but, with a little persistence, and experimentation with the variously-shaped and sized tips included, I imagine that most folks will find a satisfying solution without too much hassle.

 As with other earphones that sit deeply in the ear, there's a bit of an adjustment period with the Powerbeats Pro that some might find unpleasant as one's ears adjust to their regular insertion, presence, and removal. To be fair, that's more a function of the sort of device they are as opposed to any objective shortcoming in their design. I'd certainly say that they're the most comfortable earbuds of their type I've ever worn and consider myself fully accustomed to them after just a few days of use.

I primarily purchased the Powerbeats Pro for work, having the sort of day job where I'm often in conference calls, consulting with other software engineers, or listening for notifications from various systems. My ears are bit unusual such that standard Apple earbuds and AirPods tend to fall out of them quite easily, so the snugger, hooked design of the Powerbeats Pro is more conducive for all-day wear, as is their verified, 9+ hour battery life.

As many others have noted, the Powerbeats Pro really shine when it comes to music playback, with a strong, balanced, full sound that is easily among the best I've heard delivered via Bluetooth. I have some rather nice wired and wireless headsets by Corsair, Koss, Logitech, and Sennheiser and I would say that the Powerbeats Pro compare quite favorably in terms of audio quality.

As with other Bluetooth devices, the Powerbeats Pro aren't capable of maintaining their high-quality stereo output when the built-in microphones are in use, so don't expect to continue rocking out while on a call. This also makes them ill-suited for use as a gaming headset since you'll need to choose between using them to capture your voice or output game/VOIP audio, or suffer a brutal drop in audio playback quality by using the "hands-free" virtual device for both.

Additionally, with regard to gaming, a dedicated gaming headset making use of a proprietary RF transmitter will almost-certainly produce a better, more consistent wireless experience for gaming than the Powerbeats Pro. Your mileage may vary, but the Powerbeats Pro partially cut out frequently enough to be annoying while outputting the combined, stereo audio from Rocket League, Spotify, and Teamspeak during my testing on Windows 10. Again, I see this as less of an issue with the Powerbeats Pro specifically and more of a confirmation of the limitations of the Bluetooth standard, or perhaps some issue with the way Windows mixes multiple audio sources down to a single, stereo Bluetooth signal. In any case, I think it's fair to say that the Powerbeats Pro are at their best when dealing with one audio source or target at a time.

All things considered, I'm quite happy with my Powerbeats Pro purchase so far and I'm not anticipating any significant issues moving forward. If you're in the market for a really nice set of wireless earbuds with top-tier stereo Bluetooth audio quality, that can accommodate a wide range of ear sizes and shapes, I'd say these are definitely the ones to beat, pun intended. :)

Book Sale - May 2019

I've always believed that it's very important for creators to value their work for a variety of reasons, particularly when aspiring to earn a living from it.

The amount of time, effort, and in many cases money required to create, refine, and release high-quality content is generally quite significant. As such, I've never been shy or reluctant in my efforts to monetize my work in various ways to help justify those investments.

To me, it boils down to a simple truth. If I create something of quality, I believe I have just as much right to profit from it as anyone else doing the same, which is why I never hesitate to set the prices of the products I sell based on generally-accepted industry practices, and never sell products at a loss.

For example, without going into too much detail: The prices I normally set for my books are selected to ensure that I earn an amount of money comparable to the amounts earned by my printing and distribution partners. As a result, any discounts I offer on books during book sales are mostly taken from my third of the proverbial pie. In other words, when I sell my books for any less than I normally do, my printer and distributer still make nearly the same amounts they typically would, while my personal profit is significantly diminished.

As one might expect, things are a little different with eBooks as there are no printing costs involved, which allows me to offer more substantial discounts, while still maintaining a somewhat-fair profit share with my distributors.

I bring all this up because I've decided to offer the deepest discounts I possibly can on my first two books for the month of May in an effort to give as many people as possible the opportunity to read and enjoy them.

I don't know if I could ever adequately convey how inherently-unappealing the thought of earning significantly less for my work than I believe it's worth, not to mention significantly less for it than my business partners will earn, feels to me but at the end of the day, I'm willing to take that hit to get my books into more people's hands, and build my reputation as an author.

So, without further ado, behold the new prices for my first two novels, which will be in effect from May 1st, 2019 until June 1st, 2019!

Store Links 

Moving Forward as an Author

Over the past two years, I've spent a lot of time and effort establishing myself as a professional writer. In a lot of ways, I've experienced some arguably-amazing instances of success, particularly given the fierce competition inherent in the field, and the generally-limited number of opportunities that tend to be available to newcomers entering it.

Despite those successes, writing does not pay my bills, at least not with any consistency or reliability. At the end of the day, I still heavily rely on employment opportunities related to my previous profession as a software engineer to make ends meet.

With that reality in mind, I've found myself carefully considering the best way to move my writing career forward, while maintaining the ability to financially support myself in the likely event that the revenue generated by my written works continues to prove insufficient on its own.

Historically, my approach has been to commit for a time to an all-consuming, high-paying, full-time IT job, or a series of short-term contracts, accumulating enough money to support myself through the likely duration of one or more creative projects.

The big advantage to this approach has been that it allowed me to completely focus on particular tasks. When working an IT job, I was able to put everything I had into it and achieve impressive results. Similarly, when expressing myself creatively in-between IT jobs, I was able to give those projects my full attention and intensity.

Over the years, I've found that the down side to this methodology is that it tends to lead to some extreme and ultimately-unhealthy behavior on my part, particularly when working in the IT field. For many years, I was the guy who would spend 60-80 hours a week writing code and tackling complex technical problems, nearly completely immersing myself in my work duties to the point where other aspects of my life suffered.

In the early days of my IT career, this focus and determination had a lot to do with simply wanting to do a good job, opening potential opportunities for advancement within the organizations where I worked, but as years went by, my motivations changed a bit. At a certain point, my immersion became more of a way to prevent myself from becoming distracted, or spending the money I was accumulating so that I could more-quickly accomplish my IT-related goals and return to a more creative existence. As a result, there are spans of time in my life, some lasting for years, where I recall little more than constantly working on major technology projects, and not much else.

I wouldn't say that I regret those choices but I have become more aware of them as I've aged, and I've certainly developed a desire and practical need to avoid such situations moving forward in an effort to lead a more balanced, consistently-fulfilling, and healthy life.

As such, I've decided to try something I've never attempted before, and actively work on a writing project while holding a more traditional, 40-hour-per-week job. As one might expect, some changes and compromises have been required on both fronts to that end but I find myself optimistic that I'll be able to find a way to make this new scenario viable long-term.

The good news for fans of my creative output is that I won't be forcing myself to completely put those efforts on hold for a time as I have in the past. Consequently, things like this blog will likely continue to be updated on a far-more-frequent basis than would have been possible using my old methodology.

Of course, there's no way of predicting whether or not this new scenario will prove more or less effective than what I've done in the past but I'm eager to give it a try. If nothing else, I'm looking forward to comparing the new results with those from my prior efforts.

Another technique I'm keen to attempt with this next writing project is to expand my marketing strategy based on what I learned from promoting "309." As such, expect to hear and see a lot more from me about my next book well in advance of its release.

In summary, buckle up! Things are about to get interesting.

Out of Steam - The End of Valve's Gaming Empire

All things pass, no matter how mighty, how formidable, how iconic of their time. Inevitably, every empire either fails or diminishes to a degree as new empires are born.

This phenomenon echoes throughout history and manifests in a variety of ways, be it in the literal context of international affairs, or the rise and fall of corporate entities.

It's therefore completely unsurprising to see the current predicament of Valve's Steam platform playing out in a similar fashion within the landscape of the video game industry. The only real question I find myself pondering is precisely what form and role Steam will take now that Ubisoft, one of the last significant purveyors of third-party, AAA game content on the platform, has actively begun to move away from it.

In some ways, the dwindling amount of third-party, AAA content on Steam could be viewed as a positive. The platform has certainly cultivated and maintained a strong reputation and community around independent (indie) game development over the years. One could argue that the absence of titles by major publishers like Activision, Blizzard, Bungie, EA, Microsoft, and Ubisoft undoubtedly enhances the visibility of indie and middle-market offerings that might otherwise be overshadowed by releases from those giants.

Of course, it could also be argued that AAA, third-party titles have historically served as a catalyst, drawing new users to Steam who might not have otherwise adopted it. As such, it seems reasonable that the near-total absence of such offerings moving forward may adversely affect the platform's long-term growth.

It's no secret that Valve has actively been working on new, first-party titles for the past several years, likely in anticipation of this exodus, but it remains to be seen how effective they will be in filling the void. If the negative to lukewarm reception for "Artifact," Valve's recently-released collectable card game, is any indication, the company's renewed first-party game development efforts may well prove insufficient, or outright ineffectual in retrospect.

Personally, I don't see Steam going anywhere anytime soon; however, I do think Ubisoft's slow-motion departure from the platform does represent a pivotal moment in its lifespan. In my mind, and I suspect in the minds of many gaming enthusiasts, Valve and Steam are no longer the big dogs of the industry, leading through innovation and excellence. I increasingly see them as just another participant in an increasingly-fragmented and competitive marketplace, having nearly lost track of all the various game launchers I currently find installed on my PC.

As a consumer, I absolutely see the objective value in this increased level of competition, despite it often creating a somewhat-less-convenient and streamlined user experience. Moreover, I readily acknowledge Valve's many mistakes over the years, particularly those they've yet to properly address. Still, there's a part of me that misses the simplicity inherent in the vast majority of my game library being consolidated within Steam. There was something comforting and reassuring about the experience that meshed well with the escapist, often-artificially-simplified nature of gaming as a hobby, which I always found compelling. Of course, reality and its complexities always, inevitably intrude into every sanctum as surely as empires rise and fall but in my mind, the Empire of Steam was a worthy, wonderful thing while it lasted.

Assimilated: The End of Gaming Culture?

I love video games. For over 40 years now, I've been playing and enjoying them and there's nothing about any of those experiences, even the particularly-vexing ones, that I would say I regret.

Indeed, looking back on my time with the hobby, my only real points of lament or frustration have little to do with the actual act of playing games, and far more to do with the undesirable cultural elements that sometimes surround them.

That's not to say that I've found participation in gaming culture to be a predominantly-frustrating, or even generally-problematic experience. Moreover, I've certainly had far more positive and worthwhile experiences with it over the years than negative ones. Still, I have found myself noting with increasing frequency in recent years that the entire concept of a discrete gaming culture seems to have outlived its usefulness in a lot of ways.

There's a lot I could unpack here regarding the specific instances I've observed, such as the co-opting of gaming culture by groups and individuals in attempts to mask or enable behaviors that are widely and rightfully considered unacceptable in society at large, such as racism, sexism, and the like, or the mob-like dogpile that can occur when a vocal minority within the gaming community attempts to shout down or suppress ideas, or points of view that don't mirror their own on a given subject.

I could spend a lot of time and effort breaking all this down but in considering the myriad of ways I might do that, it occurred to me that it would be a largely-pointless exercise beyond its possible worth as a historical point of reference in the future.

The truth as I see it is that the writing has been on the wall for a while, with the vast majority of positive elements from gaming culture having already been accepted and assimilated into popular culture. As a result, gaming culture can increasingly be viewed as an ever-shrinking, ever-less-relevant husk, largely containing the bad ideas, attitudes, and behaviors that were rejected.

Thus, the lifespan of gaming culture might be said to mirror that of many plants, beginning as a small, potent seed that grew into a complex, fruit-bearing organism, which was harvested for its best, most useful and satisfying elements before being left to rot.

Of course, if we carry the plant analogy a bit further, there is the possibility that gaming culture may produce, or already be in the process of producing new seeds that may manifest in some uniquely-positive (or negative) way in the future. Even so, I suspect that the end is near for gaming culture as we've come to know it.

Again, I don't see this as a universally-positive or negative thing. It's more of an observation based on some realizations I've had concerning what little impact a lot of the most talked-about and widely-publicized events in recent months have had outside the increasingly-tiny bubble "hardcore" gamers tend to inhabit.

In truth, it's been quite a while since I've self-identified as a "hardcore" gamer, having stepped outside that context with such frequency over the years as to ultimately find myself feeling disconnected from it. These days, I tend to view the remnants of the compartmentalized gaming community as one might perceive a dying star, slowly collapsing in on itself as it exhausts its remaining fuel.

I absolutely concede that my personal perspective on this topic may be a bit skewed based on my own experiences and where I currently find myself from a philosophical standpoint but no matter how I turn this notion around in my mind, I can't help thinking that the gaming community and gaming culture of my youth has been split into two entities: a larger, better one that transcended and integrated into the world at large, and a small, dark den of misery, well on its way to the grave.

Easy Come, Easy Go - The Social Media Conundrum

One of the big hurdles many content creators struggle with involves establishing, growing, and maintaining a presence and following on social media. Like it or not, social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have become all-but essential to help cultivate and retain an audience beyond the venues where one's work already appears.

A particularly-tricky aspect of this process involves formulating and executing an effective, individualized social media strategy based on a variety of factors, which often aren't given a lot of consideration by content creators until they find themselves in some form of trouble.

While an exhaustive analysis of such considerations would be well beyond the scope of a blog post, here are a few key concepts I believe are worth pondering that may be applicable and useful for folks trying to enhance their social media presence.

#1 - Determine Your Endgame and Focus on It

Why are you on social media? Do you want to be famous? Are you trying to promote a product? Do you enjoy sharing your opinions with others, or engaging in public debates? Are you attempting to educate people regarding a particular subject? These and many others are all valid, proven uses of social media but as one might suspect, attempting to achieve more than one of them at a time can be problematic.

As a general rule, content consumers tend to favor stability and consistency from content creators. For example: If a person follows you on Twitter because you post something clever or interesting about a particular subject, they may just-as-likely unfollow if your next Tweet is about something totally unrelated.

It's certainly possible to build a community of followers on social media without maintaining a rigid focus on a particular subject or goal, but it's absolutely a more difficult, time-consuming, and potentially-risky path to take.

#2 - Keep Your Opinions to Yourself, or Don't

This might seem like an obvious point and it certainly relates to #1 in terms of consistency, but I believe it also warrants individual consideration.

Sharing personal opinions about things on social media is one of the fastest ways to both gain and lose followers. One might assume that the gains are always based on ideological agreement, while the losses are simply down to an opposing viewpoint but it's sometimes a bit more complicated than that. Some content consumers simply inherently approve or disapprove of content creators expressing their opinions on particular topics, regardless of whether or not their own tendencies align. A classic example of this sort of mindset that pre-dates social media manifests in people's thinking and behaviors concerning celebrities who express their views on subjects beyond the form of entertainment that led to their fame.

The key takeaway here is understanding that expressing opinions about literally anything on social media will often attract or repel potential followers. It's up to you to determine whether or not that's a good thing, or conducive to your overall strategy.

Again, it's certainly possible to build a thriving social media presence by consistently expressing one's opinions on a variety of subjects but it's a far trickier thing to accomplish, particularly as the range of topics being touched on broadens.

#3 - Play the Long Game

One of the worst, most unproductive things you can do as a content creator where social media is concerned is to focus exclusively on short-term success or failure. Constantly obsessing over follower numbers, or the performance of individual posts, or any sort of excessive, micro analysis of one's social media metrics, then making knee-jerk adjustments based on such assessments, is usually a recipe for disaster. With the exception of an essential response to a catastrophic faux pas or blunder, a far better, more effective approach is to think long-term, and periodically evaluate larger sets of data to get a clearer, more consistent picture of your overall social media performance.

Look at where you are now versus three months ago, or six months, or last year. If your numbers are up or down for that span of time, that's a much better indication of the effectiveness of your strategy. Of course, even if you're doing well, there's always room for improvement and it's certainly easier said than done to not be affected by short-term wins and losses, but it's critical to recognize that effective participation in social media is more of a marathon than a sprint.

Case in point: One might look at my current subscriber and follower numbers on various platforms and not be particularly impressed; however, the fact is that my social media presence has consistently grown year-over-year. Moreover, its slow growth makes sense given my intentional choices to directly address a variety of topics, while sharing opinions on even more.

I have no doubt that I could easily accumulate many more followers, much more quickly by adopting the techniques mentioned above but my social media endgame has always been to build a dedicated, core audience with diverse tastes, who appreciate the range of subjects I tackle, and my personal style. That's not the sort of thing that happens overnight but I consider it a more satisfying and worthwhile goal than pursuing the sort of easy come, easy go engagement I might otherwise cultivate.

At the end of the day, I primarily use social media to promote my creative works but I've also come to understand and appreciate that many people, particularly my most active followers, prefer to know (at least to some extent) something of the person behind the content they experience. I think social media is a good tool for accomplishing that and hopefully, this post has given you some useful, new ideas about how to wield it more effectively.

Nobody Succeeds Alone

As I wrap up the marketing efforts for my latest novel, "309," I wanted to take a few moments to acknowledge and thank the folks who've helped me in various ways throughout the process. It would of course be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do that for every individual but hopefully, the following shout outs will properly convey my gratitude to everyone:

To my Customers and Readers

I have to start with you folks because ultimately, you're the ones who've made "309" a success. Every time one of you buys the book, or reads it, or tells someone about it, you make it that much more "real" and present in the world. I can't thank you enough for that.

To the Book Bloggers and Reviewers

If not for you, a lot of people wouldn't even know that "309" exists. If not for you giving me, a relatively-unknown, independently-published author a chance, and an honest review, "309" would just be another book lost in an ever-expanding sea of releases. I am truly grateful for all the time and effort each of you has graciously provided in support of my work.

To all the Helpful Folks on Social Media

Every like, every share, every comment, indeed every action associated with my efforts to promote "309" on social networks like Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter has helped to increase people's awareness of the book. As I've said in the past, the internet is in many ways a numbers game and everything you have done has pushed "309" closer toward winning that game.

Some Additional Thoughts

When I was a kid, one of the biggest, most pervasive falsehoods perpetuated throughout American culture was the notion of the self-made individual. Actually, back then, the concept was almost exclusively invoked in the masculine, describing the mythical "self-made man," a fella who through his own skill, grit, determination, and will succeeded at a given task, or in a given field, alone, often in spite of an opposing individual, group, or obstacle.

This fable was frequently trod out as a means to motivate folks, particularly young people, to pursue aspirations and ambitions beyond the limitations of their socioeconomic class, with time-tested mantras like "If you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything," or "you've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" frequently used as a sort of battle cry by a multitude of individuals seeking a better set of circumstances than those they'd been born into.

The problem with this mindset has proven to be twofold for our society as those who espouse such a philosophy, who happen to achieve a measure of success in life, often wrongfully assume that they are the sole architects of that success, while those who fail in similar efforts often do so because the philosophy prevents them from recognizing the critical element missing from their approach.

Perhaps one of the greatest revelations brought about by the Information Age, and the consequential ubiquity of communication resulting from it, is the irrefutable evidence indicating that literally nobody in this world succeeds at anything of significance without the assistance of others.

A political leader is nothing without their supporters, a celebrity is nothing without their fans, an employer is nothing without their employees, a writer is nothing without readers of their work, and so on. No matter how self-sufficient one might be, or think oneself to be, it is all-but-certain that they rely on somebody for something vital to their existence on a daily basis. In a deliciously-ironic twist, the more successful, prominent, and influential a person becomes, the more that generally proves to be the case.

Thus, I often find myself pleasantly surprised by and deeply appreciative of people who support my creative efforts. There are so many worthy voices in the world, constantly vying for attention and struggling to reach an audience, that content creation can often feel like whispering into a hurricane and hoping to be heard.

I bring all this up not to boast of my limited success in this regard, but to acknowledge just how meaningful every bit of support I've received for this project has been. Hopefully, "309" will continue to flourish and reach an even-wider audience of readers as time passes but if nothing else, I'm very humbled by and grateful for the support and love you all have shown it so far.

Thanks again!

- Michael -

The Art of Appeal

When I wrote and published my first novel, "The Big Men," back in 2017, I had a few specific goals in mind for it. Mostly, they centered around the notions of challenging myself artistically, and completing the project to the best of my ability.

I knew from the onset that "The Big Men" would face an uphill battle in terms of finding its audience, not for any lack of quality or value as a novel, but by virtue of being an independently-published debut from an unknown author, featuring an unorthodox premise and literary style. In short, I did not expect much of "The Big Men" from a commercial standpoint beyond the relatively-modest goal of establishing myself as a "professional" novelist via its meager sales.

In retrospect, I still feel good about the way I handled the marketing of my first book: Keeping things rather low key and low impact, and letting the book find its audience at an organic, albeit somewhat glacial pace. I've always been a firm believer in the idea that some manifestations of creativity are more art than product and to me, "The Big Men," being one such example, warranted a more subtle approach.

Of course, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with a given work having an inherent, commercial appeal. Many might argue quite successfully that such efforts often represent the pinnacle of any medium, being simultaneously artistically and commercially viable.

Still, I've always had a soft spot for the sort of avant-garde, off-kilter manifestations of art that by their very nature, challenge the traditional standards of comfort and acceptance in those who experience them. As such, I can't help but be proud of what I accomplished in that regard with "The Big Men" as I feel it manifests those qualities in satisfying, compelling ways.

 As rewarding and personally fulfilling as the experience of writing "The Big Men" and bringing it to market was for me, I felt it was important to begin to show my range as a writer with my second novel, which led to me taking a very different approach, with a very different set of goals in mind, as I began work on "309."

For me, one of the more interesting takeaways I've gleaned from my experience is that there is in essence a different form of artistry in creating something of quality intended to be broadly appealing. When preparing to write "309," the cynical portion of my brain had repeatedly sparked a protest in my conscious mind suggesting that there was something invalid or unworthy about the premise of creating something with the specific intent of mass appeal. It was as if I'd been conditioned to view such an effort as less than artistic.

Ironically, this could not have proven to be further from the truth in my case. As it turned out, I found myself artistically challenged in a very different way by virtue of the constraints I'd willingly adopted. I have no doubt that such constraints are often used as an excuse for lazy, or half-hearted creative efforts in many circumstances but I was genuinely surprised to find just how much creativity and intellectually-satisfying output was required from me to ultimately craft something artistically valid, yet broadly accessible.

Having said that, I still often embrace and generally appreciate the value of a less constrained, more raw artistic expression but I feel I've also turned an important corner as a writer by challenging myself in a different way, without compromising my core standards of quality and authenticity.

As an added bonus, the critical response to "309" has consistently backed up that assertion. A development that, while absolutely not essential, certainly doesn't hurt. :)