Monthly Archives: July 2012

A Lawyer Story that Gives Me Hope for the Future

…and sorta makes me want to drink Jack Daniels–in a good way.

Having both sent and received Cease and Desist letters of my own, I can say with confidence that the Jack Daniels folks set a new gold standard with their letter to an author who was very likely infringing their trademark on his book’s jacket.

It’s definitely the nicest (and likely one of the more productive) C&D letters I’ve ever seen. It also relied on a certain amount of courage on the part of the lawyers–they took a chance that the infringing author didn’t mean any ill will or malice, and dealt with him as a result with kindness and respect, instead of the default strategy of treating him like a  malevolent scumbag out to misappropriate the company’s property. It’s a rare move for lawyers to go in with anything less than all guns blazing, and it’d be the greatest of all shames if the author failed to live up to their kindness.

I’m in awe of the Jack Daniels lawyer’s civility and restraint. It’s an uncommon sight in our legalistic world, but one that definitely brightens my day.

Comic-Con is Over…Let Summer Begin!

It’s now almost a week after Comic-Con, I’m back in my home office in San Jose, and I’ve managed to clear enough piled up comics, receipts, camera parts, and juggling balls away that I can make out about 10 square inch piece of actual desk. I’ve also managed to cut down the bags of computer cables and Comic-Con swag to a level where vacuuming my office wouldn’t be an exercise in surrealistic comedy.

On Monday, we’ll be launching ComicBase 16 to the world in general, after a successful preview launch at the show. So far, it’s looking like it’ll be a great release for us, and the only technical hiccups we’ve had to date (fingers crossed) have been minor and easily dealt with. We’ve still got some publicity materials to put together (as well as a bunch of web site updates to do), but it looks like it’ll be a great launch of a very cool new version that’s been a long time in the making.

And so, with the chaos of Comic-Con starting to fade, I’m really looking forward to enjoying the summer, as well as the creative freedom that happens when I’m not staring down a product launch deadline. I’m really looking forward to heading up to Sacramento for the State Fair tomorrow, hopefully taking some good shots with my new Canon 5d Mark III, and sampling all the best of the fried exotic foods category. (Last year, I tried both crocodile and deep-fried Oreos–both were delicious in a “man, this has got to be bad for me!” kind of way).

I’m also looking forward to getting back into the swing with guitar playing (which I was actually starting to get a handle on before I managed to rebound a pry bar into my wrist while pulling up an old kitchen floor a couple of months ago, damaging the nerves which led to a couple of fingers in my right hand–ow!). For anyone else taking up guitar, I can’t recommend Rocksmith enough — it’s like Rock Band with a real guitar, and a very nice levelling system that paces the difficulty to how well you’re starting to nail the song phrases. It’s a great way of tricking yourself into doing the thing that’s hardest on any instrument–practicing. I’m expecting my level of guitar awesomeness to take a real hit after a couple of months away (and a semi-gimpy hand), but I should be able to climb up the old learning curve and actually get some of my guitar mojo working again).

Let the summer (all…err 3 of 4 weeks that are left of it) begin!