Laser Lace Letters

Those of you who have been reading my blog may already be familiar with Haley Moore from the Creative Spotlight covering her amazing Etsy project Rule of Three, her Blag-O-Pets, or even amazing work I never even wrote about, like her crazy fantastic Majora's Mask laptop bag. Haley is an artist of the first waters, and she deserves nothing less than rampant support in all her endeavors. Which brings me to the Laser Lace Letters.

Haley is working on a gorgeous combination of story and tangibility. Her Kickstarter is running now, and for only another two weeks. You should support her today. But don't just take my word for it -- see for yourself. 

 This project is going to knock your socks off, I am dead certain. Fund fund fund!

Hurricane Sandy Wrap-Up

The hurricane is over for me now, but not for everyone. Right now, LIPA is reporting 62,000 people still without power. This isn't including the 55,000 customers who LIPA has determined are unable to receive power safely, presumably because these homes and businesses were too compromised by salt water, or in some cases simply no longer there anymore.

Friends and family, my community, will be rebuilding for a long, long time. And I'm trying to figure out what I can do to support them in the days to come. But for me, for now, I'm taking a deep breath and trying to get back to business as usual.

First, though, a grab-bag of things that have been knocking around my head the last several days.

Surprise Winners and Losers

Winners: Physical newspaper delivery, shelf-stable bacon, Panera.

Losers: LIPA, mobile phone and data service, C-batteries.

Lessons Learned

1. My mother was right about everything.

Well, almost everything. I was raised as something of a nutty survivalist -- I remember perusing books that explained nuclear fallout and blast zones, and how to live through them as best you could, when I was a wee girl of 11 or so. 

Thanks to that guidance, I knew just what to do ahead of a natural disaster. My shelves were stocked with bottled water, pasta, tuna, beans, and other shelf-stable foods. We topped up on gas. We filled the bathtub with water. We made sure we had batteries, flashlights, candles, matches. 

Not all of these measures were necessary. The water, for example, is still sitting in our cabinets, untouched. Though we were instructed to conserve water in the first days after Sandy, we never lost water service, nor did our water become unsafe to drink. 

2. We could do it better next time.

We evacuated more hastily than one might prefer, because we didn't get the evacuation order in a timely fashion. For some reason, none of our phone numbers are on the county emergency call list. Go figure.

I did bring our Important Documents folder when we left (yes, this is a real thing I really have) and some photographs, but there are a bunch of things I wish I'd done on the way out -- like disconnecting our gas grill from the house line and stowing that in the garage. I was petrified the grill would blow over, snap the line, start a gas leak, and blow up my whole neighborhood. Fortunately, none of these things occurred.

Next time, we'd also take our game consoles and other valuables up to the second floor of our home, so we at least might not lose our previous save games in the event of flooding. It's interesting how a night of lying awake, wondering what's left of your house and your stuff can clarify what's important to you. 

3. The psychological effects are killer. 

...even when you haven't personally suffered any long-lasting damage.

I swim in social media and IM all the day long. The net effect is, I think, very like living in a telepathic society -- I'm used to being able to share my thoughts with anyone, at any time, no matter where they are in the world. As hard as the physical privations of a freezing 12-day blackout were, being cut off from my virtual communities was equally hard. This is not hyperbole.

These communities are an important means of support that I rely on all the time. Being unable to access that support in the middle of an objectively pretty rough time was... difficult, more difficult than I would even have expected. I lived for the couple of hours in the middle of the night when data service would sometimes work, and for the hour and a half I could chisel out on wifi at Panera. And I wonder what that means about how technology is irrevocably changing how we (I) interact with the world.

Soooo that's it for Hurricane Sandy. Though I'm worried, now, about how many local businesses will be closing because they flooded and don't have the funds to rebuild, or because they lost two weeks of income, or because people broke from having to rebuild their homes are saving every penny they can. And all of the friends and neighbors who have to start over with nothing but whatever scraps they can plead from FEMA and insurance companies.

It's over, it's over, it was over two weeks ago. But in some ways, the actual hurricane was just the beginning.

Five Reasons to Hate LIPA

Still no power. Back at Panera for my morning charge-up, as usual. I'm going to need to buy Panera a nice gift when everything is back to normal.

For now, though, the new normal is hating on LIPA in the cold and dark. But not just everyone at LIPA. In fact, I absolutely salute the linemen and tree trimming crews on the front lines who are making it possible for anyone to have power at all right now. But there's this, from Governor Cuomo's office:

Power Outages as of 10:00 am, Thursday, November 8, 2012:
Con Edison     87,300
LIPA     248,755
NYSEG     1,565
Orange & Rockland     7,052

TOTAL     344,672

Why, yes, Long Island DOES have more than twice as many outages as the rest of the state put together. Thanks for asking! In the interests of celebrating this, uh, achievement, here are my top five reasons that Cuomo needs to clean house at LIPA, and the sooner the better, for the public good:

1. By their own admission, they didn't hit milestones established on day one. LIPA said they'd have 90% of customers returned to service by end of day yesterday. From the sound of it, even before our snowstorm, the number of people with power never dropped below 164,000, out of a million people affected. That's 16%, not 10%. And that number of unpowered homes doesn't include the worst-hit areas such as Long Beach, Fire Island and the Rockaways -- those numbers have quietly been removed from the rolls, and could well be another 100,000 customers. I'd forgive them because of course the snowstorm set work back -- if that were their only sin against us. But it's not.

2. They're lying liars anyway. Every time I've been in a position to independently verify a statement LIPA has made, it's been factually incorrect. An example: their outage maps say there are less than a hundred homes without power in Baldwin Harbor; but there is no power in the entire area.

Here's another: They said they'd prioritize repairing infrastructure like hospitals, schools, and traffic lights. There are still lights out in major intersections everywhere we've traveled. In my town, Oceanside, seven polling places were relocated on election day because they never got power. Our schools are reopening on Tuesday -- only because the district has located generators. I don't know about you, but that doesn't feel like priority on infrastructure to me.

3. Surprise hoops to jump through. As per yesterday's post, they're requiring inspections before restoring power, a thing that has never occurred on Long Island before, even in storm surge-flooded homes. Yesterday on Facebook, someone made the point that these inspections might well be an important safety concern to prevent electrical fires. Hey, I'm not disputing that. The problem is in the communication and execution of the policy.

LIPA didn't start talking about inspections until a full week after the hurricane -- and homes like my own, that never flooded at all, are being held hostage to this policy, too. This is a symptom of criminally terrible management at LIPA, and makes me suspect they simply never had a hurricane plan in the first place.

To add insult to injury, this new policy isn't even being applied consistently. They've already restored a number of homes in their "affected region" without requiring these inspections. South of Merrick Road, all sorts of homes and businesses have power. Heck, the people who live behind us have been restored, too! Again, we didn't flood, either. Why is it that we need an inspection, exactly...?

4. Ten full days out from Sandy, there is still no plan to carry out these inspections. As of today's Newsday, LIPA has no plan for when and how they'll be doing these inspections. From the sound of it, they're still working on it. Oh, and they say they'll be bringing in up to a thousand inspectors. Now? After a week and a half? Seriously, you guys? You couldn't have done that a week ago? 

So all we can do is wait and wait and wait for LIPA to figure out how to fulfill a policy they only just came up with a week ago, that just happens to give them a good excuse for a very slow continued pace of restoration. I don't know about you, but that seems awfully convenient to me.

5. Zero communication with customers about what to expect. Throughout this ordeal, LIPA has never delivered information to its customers. This is paralyzing. I don't know if I'm going to have power today or in three weeks. Should I be packing up my family to Michigan? Will I have the lights on when I go home from Panera half an hour from now? If only I knew what to expect, I could plan accordingly. My whole life is in limbo right now waiting for LIPA. If it's going to be three more weeks... just tell us so we can deal with it.

Worse, because there's no information on where and when these inspections will be carried out, it's a dead certainty LIPA will cut meters even on functional homes because nobody was there to answer the door. It's ridiculous, in this weather, to make power contingent on someone's ability to sit around for days and weeks until an inspector finally shows up. Maybe they're staying with friends or family who have power, or went out to the grocery store or a gas line or a warming center. Maybe they're at work!

And speaking of work: I'm not talking about this much, but I am freaked right the hell out about my business right now. I'm a freelancer, you guys. When I'm not working, I'm not earning. And there is no significant amount of business I can conduct in an hour to an hour and a half in Panera while also managing my children. Zero income for dayr or weeks and a new roof: I'm going to come out of this kind of poor, you guys. Stay tuned for some serious hustle once our lights finally come back on.

Life and LIPA After Sandy

One week ago, I tallied up my damage from Hurricane Sandy: some lost shingles, but no flooding, though the storm surge got to within a hundred feet of our house. We had hot water and a functioning gas stove, food supplies to last several days, and in general felt immense relief at our near miss.

Now, in Day #10 without power, there's a worse situation brewing. It's because of a man-made disaster, not a natural one. And I need your help.

LIPA is the Long Island Power Authority, an organization with a colorful history of mismanagement and outright corruption. In the aftermath of Sandy, over a million Long Islanders were left without power. Huge swaths came back on in the first few days, thousands of workers were imported from dozens of states. From our refuge in Pennsylvania, it looked like, for once, the situation would be under control. Their helpful map showed areas clearing and having power restored rapidly. We thought once we made it home again on Sunday that even if we didn't have power yet, at least the town my in-laws live in would be restored -- after all, there were no colored triangles showing outages there.

We came home to discover that neither town had power. The map was disgustingly inaccurate. It was replaced shortly by a less-helpful map with no streets and no estimated repair times whatsoever.

At that point I was still willing to give LIPA the benefit of the doubt. After all, they were saying 90% of service would be restored by the end of today. (Now LIPA is saying there are roughly 164,000 customers without power. Note that number is not including homes in Long Beach or the Rockaways, who they have removed from the rolls. A neat trick, that.) 

And, you know, sometimes these things are slow for logistical reasons... but then came the Inspection Fiasco. here are a few facts that I want to get a little more public attention:

* LIPA is requiring homeowners who flooded to get a certificate of inspection before power is restored, or they'll cut the power to your meter when your neighborhood is restored.

* They first started talking about this requirement on Thursday.

* It's unclear who needs these inspections; some sources say everyone south of Merrick Road and Montauk Highway; others say you only need such a certificate if you flooded. We live south of Merrick Road, but we didn't flood, so... do we need a certificate or don't we?

* LIPA has never before required such a certificate of inspection for a flooded home. 

* No concerted effort to inform homeowners of this new requirement has taken place. We found out through hearsay and our paper Newsday subscription.

* LIPA's CEO is on record saying that homeowners don't need to do anything to make sure this inspection occurs except "answer the door." 

* Our home in Oceanside is in the 40s right now. We're sleeping all together in a tent on the living room floor and escaping to Panera for a little heat and power in the mornings.

* LIPA has previously warned homeowners about fraud and burglaries -- you're not to open your doors to anyone who says they're from LIPA, as nobody from LIPA needs to go into your home to restore power.

* They have not given a timetable nor appointment times for these inspections.

* They say 40,000 homes will need this inspection.

* LIPA says they have 100 inspectors working on the job.

So the upshot is that LIPA wants homeowners to stick around unheated, unpowered homes in freezing weather on the off chance an inspector happens by, and given the resources they've allocated to the job, that could be weeks and weeks yet. Nevermind the people in shelters because they can't stay in their unheated homes. Nevermind the people still trying to make it to their jobs during this disaster.

Here's the kicker: The places affected by this ridiculous new rule don't have much phone or internet service... because there is no power. Cell phone towers aren't operating. VoIP phone lines and computers aren't working. Also: Gas shortages.  So many of the homeowners affected by this policy don't have a way to contact LIPA and get the straight truth, and not everyone is as fortunate as us to have the gas and financial resources to escape to another town for a few hours like we're going. And even so, we just might be shooting ourselves in the foot by seeking out warmth and missing the inspector.

We're still not starving. We're not going to freeze to death in the night. We haven't lost all our possessions. But we're cold, and tired, we're running low on clean laundry. The kids are at the end of their rope, especially my little one; there are only so many games of War and books a six-year-old can take in good stride.

There's no power in our school district, and school in Oceanside won't be back until Tuesday at the earliest. That'll make for a full two weeks without school. Even Long Beach -- Long Beach, the poster child for Sandy damage -- has resumed some limited school already. But not us.

We're being worn down.

We're in discomfort, not danger, but even so, I'm starting to feel a little desperate. How much more so those who don't have the same resources as we do? If this is what being lucky after Sandy feels like... I just don't even have words.

So look: I'm just one customer. It's easy for LIPA to ignore me. But maybe public attention and pressure from outside of Long Island can get LIPA to do something -- recruit more inspectors, announce a timetable, or even drop this inspection requirement entirely. So please, please, PLEASE share and Tweet and propagate this information so the public knows what's going on out here. It's the only thing I can think of that might actually help me and the other 100,000+ powerless LIPA customers out here to get back to something like normal.

And if any of you is a lawyer itching to start up a class-action lawsuit... I know a whole lot of people on the South Shore who want to see LIPA called to account.

Disney Living Worlds: Yeah, No

I love Disney.

This will be no secret for long-time readers here; I've written entire posts about the top Disney properties I'd love to work on, how Disney has inspired thoughts about cynicism and engagement... I've even used trips to Walt Disney World as rewards for my family for a summer house cleaning game, and another year-long version of the same that is not yet blogged. Big fans in this house, both on the level of personal consumption and as a matter of professional respect. Disney does great work.

It stands to reason, therefore, that I'd be jumping backflips with joy over the new Disney Living Worlds grant program -- and then polishing up a proposal to send their way.

This is not happening, nor is it going to happen. To explain why, let me walk you through the most notable landmines found in their FAQ and Submission Rules.

1. They can do anything they like with your submission, forever and ever, without compensation.

From their terms and conditions:

Enrollee hereby agrees and grants to WDI R&D, its parent and affiliated companies (“Affiliates”) and the successors and assigns of each a fully paid-up, transferable, non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license, including the right to sublicense, throughout the universe to fully and freely use the Work Product;

This is a big deal. It means that they can do anything they like with your idea, even without awarding you a grant or work contract, once you submit it. This has a notable detriment to the market value of that idea -- I could never sell that concept to anyone else afterward.

Why in the world would Penguin or Time Warner pay me to license or develop a concept that Disney's already claimed rights to -- even if they've declined to pursue a relationship? I would never, ever, ever in a million years submit the work of my heart's desire under those terms.

2. ...They can even give your idea to someone else:

You will own your idea. However, your application will be shared within Disney and possibly with other applicants so be careful not to put anything in it that you wish to keep confidential. 

So technically... even if they love your idea, they can give it to someone else to develop! They probably mean to protect themselves from cross-pollination here -- when you have a lot of ideas kicking around, sometimes the sources get foggy. It's a human thing to see a strong idea in a weak proposal and mention it to fill in a weak aspect of a stronger proposal. But this is woefully inadequate protection for creators.  

3. They aren't even providing Disney resources to develop with:

We will work to set up an Agreement with you to further develop the work in your proposal for WDI R&D as well as provide any necessary design guidance, but we will not provide any production resources to develop the proposals.

One of the big upsides of working with a company like Disney is access to resources, be those resources people, knowledge, money. I'm an indie creator without a production team to call my own; but apparently they're not interested in anyone who isn't interested in running a production team. So I can't go to Disney purely as a creator with great ideas to share -- I have to go as a project manager willing to hire and manage budgets, paperwork, and other administrative overhead. 

If Disney isn't promising to pay me for their license to my idea and won't even be giving me their muscle and expertise in the development process... why am I giving them all of those rights, again? 

In summation: basically this is unpaid concepting.

It's likely -- in fact, it's probably exactly the case -- that the people behind this grant program have nothing but the best of intentions. But I've been through enough bad projects and bad contracts by now to know that you should never accept questionable contract terms just because you trust the other party. And while I might even trust the people running this program... I kind of don't trust Disney's lawyers.

If I were at a different place in my career, or if I had different priorities, the risks wouldn't bother me as much. It's true that in the marketing world, every time you pitch, you risk the client taking your idea to someone else to develop. Hey, when you're trying to get your foot in the door, sometimes that's a risk you just have to take. And if you're a creator without much of a track record to leverage, maybe the gamble with Living Worlds looks pretty good to you.

That's not standard op for the entertainment industry, though, and we shouldn't be adopting the practices of the ad business when we're pitching original transmedia works. No credible publisher, film studio, TV network, or music label is asserting the right to use your work forever and ever even without paying you... just because you pitched them that one time.

Luckily for me, I'm at a place in my career where I can refuse to do concepting or pitching for free. Ownership of original work and fair compensation for work-for-hire is a big deal to me, actually. Working with Disney would be a great opportunity -- maybe even a career-changing one! But submitting to Living Worlds is a little bit like buying a lottery ticket. The cost of that ticket is just too high.

Sorry, Disney. I love you, I really truly do, but we can't be together on those terms. Call me if you change your mind.