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| Music, media, libraries and my tortuous ascent into the middle class. |
As of June 27, 2004 I have come to accept the fact that the majority of Waughblog readers share the same last name. But I have reason to believe that Waughblog may be moving to the top of the charts.
Apparently a freelance reporter noticed my post about being a Nielsen family for a week. When I told my brother, he was stunned, "Eeeeehhhh? People read Waughblog?" But he pointed out that the post had a pretty good Google ranking for "Nielsen family" (#12 last I checked).
Anyway the reporter is doing a piece for Wired Magazine on the Nielsen ratings and how old-fashioned they still are. They still use paper diaries. I guess there has been some buzz about them partnering with TiVo, which would be more hi-tech. The reporter figured that the comments I made on the blog were relevant.
She interviewed me on the phone. I mentioned that I recall being a Nielsen family about 20 years ago, and that the paper diaries and the method of marking the viewing selections seemed to be the same. I think I could hear her furiously typing my comments. I guess I said something good there.
She also asked if my viewing choices seemed to be different, since I had mentioned watching things like Spike TV, which is a smaller cable network. 20 years ago, the choices were limited to a handful of stations. There was also some questions about my demographic (men under 32, I think).
She also asked if I considered myself to be tech-savvy.--since I have a blog and all, then I must be. I said, "Well, as a librarian I have to use computers all the time."
She doesn't know that as little as four years ago, my brother was teaching me the wonders of the Internet. That whole deal about using the "tab" instead of the "enter" button to change fields on a form really gave me some problems early on. He cleared it all up for me.
I was on the cutting edge back when the Commodore 64 was king, but the 90s were my Luddite decade. I didn't even have a TV for some time. As late as 1999, I bought a fancy word processor so I wouldn't have to deal with a computer. But my brother Robert somehow kept up with the technology, and like a quiet sherpa, guided me through it all.
So how ironic is it then, that like a sherpa, poor Robert gets no credit. This blog would not exist except for his knowledge of Movable Type and MySQL and all that stuff. But which of the Waugh brothers will have his name first displayed in the pages of Wired Magazine? Mike Waugh, a 30 year old librarian from Baton Rouge, La. (who hardly knew an Internet without Google).
The article is supposed to come out in the August issue of Wired Magazine. Robert suspects that this will cause a deluge of visits to the Waughblog. I hope that means that Robert and I will spend the next month getting Waughblog chock-full of good stuff.
For example, at the end of July, be expecting a riveting account of my visit to Ohio and how I show Robert how Scrabble is meant to played: like music, like art, like dance--like water, which cannot have any enemy.
Ah yes, when Commodore 64 was king we were his lords. What a bitter disappointment when our hard drive died. We had just started making progress in programming BASIC... remember, a little ball that would move back and forth when you pressed the arrow keys, hit a button and it would jump. What wonders.
If the Commodore had only lived a while longer we would have both had quotes in Wired long ago.
Anyway, after such a glowing commendation of my computer prowess, how could I be jealous of your Wired interview? Besides, who knows, perhaps some producer will overhear me whistling as I walk down the sidewalk downtown and sign me on to a recording contract. Then we'll see who laughs last!
Posted by: Robert, Waugh the Younger at July 1, 2004 05:33 AM