It has occurred to me that Microsoft is slowly trying to monopolize our alphabet. The reason they've been able to sneak up on us all is the clever approach of "working backwards". Rather than start at "A" and head towards "Z", Microsoft has started with the bottom and is slowly working towards the head.
Vista
Windows
X-box
Y - ???
Zune.
So, if we see the Microsoft unveiling the Y-Phone in the near future, we must take action. Nobody plays monopoly with our alphabet.
At Craig Cardiff's concert last week, he played "God Said No" - which is a gorgeous song.
I found the lyrics online. Dan Bern is the original artist. I've been working on it a bit, and I'm hoping to add it to the repertoire.
Today, Craig's podcast - "Craig Cardiff: Thank you for your ears" (iTunes) was him playing the song. You should go check it out.
Yes, you.
I like to write. And I'm kind of good at it, after a fashion.
But this guy blows me away.
From "Signal vs. Noise" (a great blog - by the way - comes an excellent example of writing:
And I swear on my daughter’s life, the following moment happened: As the official started to blow the whistle, Iverson’s eyes widened and he moved angrily toward the official, almost like someone getting written up for a parking ticket who decides it would just be easier to punch out the meter maid. For a split-second, there was real violence in the air. Of course, the rattled official lowered his whistle and never called the second T. By sheer force of personality, Iverson kept himself in the game.
Look, I’m not condoning what happened. It was a frightening moment. At the same time, I haven’t seen a player bully a referee like that before or since. And that goes back to the “seeing him in person” thing. Iverson plays with a compelling, hostile, bloodthirsty energy that the other players just don’t have. He’s relentless in every sense of the word. He’s a warrior. He’s an alpha dog. He’s a tornado. He’s so fast and coordinated that it genuinely defies description. He’s just crazy enough that officials actually cower in his presence. And none of this makes total sense unless you’ve seen him.
I've been thinking about blogs a lot lately. One of the truths I've discovered is that authors need to write what they know. I intend to maintain this blog as a way to share thoughts and links with everyone, but I have started a new blog based around what I know.
Introducing: adventureninja
adventureninja.blog.com is where I'm going to blog about adventure-based learning, experiential education, games and the outdoors. If you're interested, come for a visit. I've also associated an e-mail address (adventureninja[at]gmail.com) with the blog, so feel free to drop me a line.
Blog.com is not a great interface, but it's cleaner than Vox and so far has suited me fine. My computer remembers my logins, so I needed a new hosting service to run my second blog.
One of the features lacking in Vox is the blogroll. In the spirit of passing along good information, here's a list of the blogs I've been reading recently.
Also, for those who've yet to try it, Netvibes works wonderfully as an aggregator.
Signal vs. Noise;
ASCII by Jason Scott;
Creative Think;
Zoic's Blog;
Palais's Blog;
Fellowship of the Strings;
Kyri's Blog;
Pako's Blog;
Seth's Blog;
Happy reading!
This post is AWESOME. It made my skin crawl and my throat make involuntary little twitches.
A species of wasp lays eggs in the body of a live cockroach. It's a pretty stunning story.
Here's the link. (Thanks Carl)
The internet is not a window, it's a telescope. That's why we use it. A window shows us everything, a telescope shows us only what we aim for.
That's what makes internet browsers so frustrating. Firefox and Opera and IE all love to display shiny pages, but none of them help us filter and move deeper. They want to fill our screens with ads and banners and buttons. We, the users, want to focus.
The internet is exactly like a needle in a haystack. Our browsers allow us to find the needle (or at least to link to Google), but they insist on showing us lots of other detritus lost in the haystack.
Reaching for the needle is moving deeper, through the clutter - like reaching for a shell in the ocean. There has to be a better browsing interface that allows us to move deeper.
I don't want an internet browser to help me surf. I want a web diver to help me swim - to help me get to my destination.
Sarah's comment about life hacks made me think about some habits I already have. Here is a list of my best few life hacks.
- Daily Devotion reading. I leave my devotion book on my bed. Not on the bedside table, where other things get put on top, but beside my pillow. That way, when I roll-over for sleepy time, I remember to do my reading.
- Paying bills. When I get a bill I go straight to my computer to pay it. I don't pass go, get a glass of water, watch TV, put my mail in a special storage place...I just try to get it done.
- Daily Fitness Regimen. When I get up in the morning I throw my fleece blanket on the ground beside my bed. That way, come pre-sleepy time (when I get into bed) I step on the blanket and am reminded to do some pushups and crunches. As a bonus, my blanket is a nice, soft surface.
- Toothbrushing. Sometimes I forget to brush my teeth. It's likely because I just forget to visit the bathroom after my shower. So I put a toothbrush in my room beside my deodorant. That way I get a nice visual reminder to scrub the scuzz off my teeth. I left a second toothbrush in the bathroom, but I have a backup that works nicely.
Just finished.
