Changes

I guess I'm in a talkative mood tonight. I think I've posted more in the past few days then i have in the last few months. Probably the last year if you just look at posts where I acctually provided any kind of content. Hopefully, things will stay this way.

Anyways, I've been making some changes to the layout here, trying to get things set up with the new birth of the blog. I know I'm going to be making one more change to things (the name of the blog). But, I guess the rest will pretty much be in place for the time being.

The main changes that have happened (beyond finally getting the stylesheet to work right) are the links. I've included links to the labels that I'm ordering from and the magazines that I'm reading. I've got a feeling that music will be playing a big role in things now. And instead of having to create a link over and over again, it just makes sense to create perminant links on the side.

I've also decided to change the name of the blogs I list. I had given the names of the writers before, back when I was trying to be a good member of the blogging community, since that seemed to be the norm. I then looked at the list, and realized that with a few exceptions, none of the people listed are likely to be names that mean anything to most readers, and so I changed it around to the title of the blog.

I've also added a new blog to the list, The North Carolina Experiment. I came across this site, after poking around the blogger site near the end of last week. I've been going through the archives and waiting for new entries ever since. I'm not really sure why I feel so compelled to read this blog. With the exception of Boing Boing, Adventures of Accordian Guy, and Tokyo Tidbits, all the other blogs listed there are people that I have some kind of relationship to. Jesse over at The Three Dot Column is on a Moorish Othodoxy list that I'm on, the rest are friends.

I guess the reason that I'm so intruigued by the NC Experiment is a voyeristic nature. The same reason that I read Tokyo Tidbits and Accordian Guy. But, something is different. Tokyo Tidbits is set in a city that I've found myself facinated by. And Joey, over at Accordian Guy, is just full of funny stories. Beth at the NC Experiment though, is different. It's more low key then Joey's stuff.

I've been thinking about this off and on all weekend. The best I can come up with is that it's really well written. So much so that I'm feeling very self concious about my own abilites (I used to be able to write, somehow I lost the touch). She also has many of the same faults as I do, and views the world with a similiar outlook. I guess its an issue of taking satisfaction that you aren't alone and that others feel just as akward and celebratory about life as you do.

Its either that, or I'm falling in love with her. :)

Glimpses into a life lived

I've been meaning to post this for sometime, but keep forgetting. A friend of mine, Barbara, has set up a blog that is just a really compelling read.

No pontificating, no whining, none of the cliches of blogging, just stories. Stories of her life.

She's going through the bits and pieces that she's collected over the years. Letters, bail reciepts, post cards, ticket stubs, etc. and telling the stories behind them. She doesn't give you the full story in any kind of long winded fashion, just little flashes of memories, like they are in your head. It makes for wonderful reading. So honest and plain. Nothing is dressed up, and if things are being held back, it's in such an honest way, that you don't want to know.

Ussually, in these type of situations, I find myself wishing that I knew the in between moments, the full story. With this blog though, I don't want to know a single scrap that isn't told. It's just such an amazing body of work. Probably the most artistic use of a weblog I've ever seen.

Just perfect in every sense.

Correcting a misconception

So, Joey makes a pretty common mistake in this post. Where he says this,

"Going south of the Mason-Dixon line is sometimes like going back in time a hundred years."

Now, as someone who was born and raised in Maryland, I must take some exception to the phrase. See, what Joey really meant to say was the Potomac River, not the Mason-Dixon line.

The Mason-Dixon line seperates Maryland from Pennsylvania, the Potomac river seperates Maryland from Virginia. DC, btw, is on the northern side of the Potomac. The Potomac was the dividing line during the Civil War, and while Maryland is technically below the Mason, it's not really part of the South.

A few facts to prove my point:

1) Untill this last election, Maryland has had a Democrat as govenor since Agnew left the office. Hell, our last Lt. Govenor was a Kennedy for christ's sake!

2) DC was one of the first cities in the country to elect an African-American mayor.

3) DC is also the place where gogo was born. And is home to the legendary DC punk scene. Including such bands as Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Make Up, Jawbox, The Dismembermant Plan, and a whole slew of other great bands (it also must be noted that Black Flag didn't really hit it's stride untill they hired DC native, Henry Rollins for vocals. I blame the rest of Rollins' carrear on living in LA) Not to mention Dischord Records

4) The first time I ever saw, future mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley, his band, O'Malley's March, was opening up for Shane MacGowan, of The Pogues fame. So, OK, his band is a bit light for my tastes, and they ALWAYS open for Shane when he plays Baltimore (it's getting old) but name me another mayor who can boast opening for the legendary Shane? (And for Joey, O'Malley's March does indeed include an accordion player.)

So, please, in the future, don't lump Maryland in with the rest of the Southern states. Thanks. :)

Of course, even Marylander's are not immune to this mistake. Years ago the Baltimore band, Lake Trout used to play an instrumental called Mason Dixon. When a friend and I asked about the song title, their drummer told us that they named it that because people below the Mason Dixon didn't seem to like it. He felt kind of dumb when informed that we were in fact below the Mason Dixon. :)

And of course, this is all in good fun. Hell, I even find myself currently living on the bad side of the Potomac (Northern Virginia). Course I'm moving back to Maryland as soon as I can. It's kind of like a NY/NJ kind of relationship. :)

Writing in Public

Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross are collaborating on another short story together. This time though they're doing it online. So far the story is great. Highly reccomended.

No more scraps

As I alluded to in an earlier post I've taken the two posts to Scraps of the Fringe and moved them over to this blog. I'll link to the two posts in the near future, with some added links that I've found recently. The Scraps blog will be dissapearing. I'm not sure what's going to happen to the idea behind it though. I'm planning on learning php and mySQL in the near future, and am thinking about creating a database for various little things that cross my path.
If I don't end up creating the database, I will be linking to such things here in this blog. Things that are already on the web, will be linked to their site, things that come through email will either be quoted here, or put on a page of their own and linked to here. Ultimetly, we'll see where this all goes.

Wandering Bishops post
Incunabula Catalog post

Are we losing our way?

Some interesting points have just been brought up in Joi Ito's comments section.

Jim O'Connell launches the first salvo:

While these things are certainly fun and give us a way to gauge popularity of sites, does anyone else think that the whole thing might be a bad idea in the long run? What happens when a site on the fringe of popularity starts to 'karma whore' just to gain a better ranking? I'd hate to see blogs go the way of network television, where they are tailoring their entries for some percieved popular ideal, rather than honest thought and personal insight. My site, while not popular or important, is a fair reflection of what I am doing or thinking about or reading, even when I know it won't be interesting or popular with my reader(s). (Lately, I seem to get more hate entries than supportive posts, but it doesn't bother me much.) What I've come to love about weblogs is the honesty - I'd hate to see that become a casualty of the popularity contests.

Adam Greenfield responds with support.

Each successive iteration of this idea just focuses us more and more on link-whoring and meta-discussions about link-whoring and meta-meta discussions about meta discussions, and it's gotten silly.

To be honest I'm a bit guilty here. Well, not really, just kind of. I'm guilty of wanting to get the hits, of wondering what it would be like if people paid attention to what I said. It's an old problem for me. I was pretty non-existant for a large portion of my life. At least as far as my peers were concerned. Just one of the people who wonder in and out of someone else's reality. I don't think anyone minded having me around, but i wasn't thhe kind of person you missed when I was gone.

When I was in college I got onto a couple of email lists that were discussing a small scene that was starting to come together and would eventually turn into the jamband scene. Since the scene was in it's infancy there was a great mixing pot of people and ideas, as there are with any infant scene. And it was not uncommon to find yourself on lists with bands, promoters, booking agents, label people, etc. Somewhere in that mess I ran into something that I'd never run into before, people who made a point out of reading what I wrote. people I had never met who based their purchases or thoughts, at least partially, on what I said. There's even a chance that a few "industry" people were trying to curry favors from me (let's just say I was getting free shit). It was a crazy time.

Long story short, I got drunk on it all. Went a bit over board, and suddenly realized that i was more concerned with trying to appear cool then just being the happy go lucky geek that I'd been originally. This is when things went down hill. And when the ride stopped, I found myself with some good memories, but having to start all over again. The great reset of life as me.

So where is this all headed? Well, to quote Adam, "I'm done." It's just time to accept that no one will read this site. And go back to the old idea of a place where I can talk to myself and no one thinks I'm nuts.

Care to place bets on how long this will last?

Ben and Mena

"I wanna be Ben, I wanna be Mena
If only for a moment or two
I wanna be Cory, I'll even be Winer
If that's what I gotta do

Like everyone else posted about it, but it so great. The above chorus is my slogan.

Thanks to Joi for the link.

A small amendum

BTW, I doubt Shava's blog will have much tech stuff on it. She's been focused on social change/activism type stuff for the last several years. The center piece of the blog right now would probably be a piece on the religious signifigance of the current war.

New Blog/Link

If I ever decide to have a hero, at the top of the short list would be my friend Shava Nerad. Easily the most intellegent, thought provoking, woman I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. And now, finally, she has caved in to her ego and set up a blog. So, if you enjoy intellegent writings from a perspective that you probably hadn't considered, go read her blog.

For the quick and dirty on her background and credentials:

• started working on the net in 1981
  
• Vint Cerf posited that she's one of the first 100 women with email addresses
  
• Chief Software Engineer on the first commercial multimedia project
  
• on the staff at MIT for about 5 years, where she managed the first
  "intrapreneurial" administrative group, the VAX Resource Center
  
• at UNC/Chapel Hill, she was one of three network engineers managing the largest Netware network in the world, and helped plan one of the largest and finest fiber optic campus networks
  
• was the manager of one of the largest and oldest community networks in the US (Oregon Public Network)
  
• shepherded OPN through a landmark fight with the IRS, of over three years, over the charitable nature of granting access to the net to disadvantaged populations -- which resulted in her appearing in the New York Times, NPR/PRI, Business Week, and many other prominent publications
  
• her INET99 paper on Community Networking and the IRS has been used as a model by several countries of how *not* to make the same mistakes the US government made

• currently she's the Marketing Director for a successful dotcom etailer
  

Or check out her little intro on her site. BTW, the above list, came from an old intro email I coaxed out of her on an email list I started many moons ago. So, no, I don't know all that stuff by heart.

Now, how do I introduce the rest of the world to this woman? Hmm... May be Doc will come by, find her interesting and drop a little link. Considering he's the only person to ever reference me. Acctually, considering that Shava spent several years in NC, and Doc's from NC, may be they acctually know each other. Wouldn't be the first time.

Must go plot.