Saturday, April 17, 2004
BloggerCon: Jim Moore
I have to say Jim, it was cool to catch up with you, but I did expect you to have a rather more encyclopediac knowledge of Bug's Bunny's operatic oeuvre. What are you studying over at Berkman? You seem to be missing some key data.
BloggerCon: Jay Rosen
Great to see you last night, Jay, though your travel plans sounded much plagued by the Murphy's Law Travel Bureau. Can't wait to hear your thoughts this morning. I'll throw some links up here later.
Good Man At The Tiller
Whether you're sailing a ship or getting your garden ship shape, you need a good man at the tiller.
BloggerCon: Frank Paynter
It was great to see Frank last night, even better to leave the party with him. The spring night air was great outside the noisy Durgin Park restaurant hubbub. See the thing is, Frank and I both write over here, so as the night gets later and the partying gets harder, we get bored -- we don't drink. We strolled the ancient bricks around Faneuil Hall and headed up to Government Center. It's the first really lovely spring night in Boston in what feels like 800 years, after a hellishly cold winter. Everyone was out and happy and funny and silly. It was terrific.I'd parked on Beacon Hill, on the edge, so it gave us a little evening walk -- always nice -- and then we found the car -- found no ticket -- hosannah! -- and headed our wheels along Cambridge Street bricks towards Harvard Square.
The oldies station was on -- Frank, hope Pretty Woman by Ray Orbison wasn't cranked TOO loud -- but I love the radio. The Longfellow Bridge has the Boston T subway like a zipper running right up the middle of it, as you cross the Charles River on a fine spring night. They'd hauled all the skyscrapery costume jewelry out for the glittering night -- the rhinestone necklaces in high windows dotting the skyline -- ladies dressed up for the evening across Storrow Drive -- and shining VERY bright were the lights from the Red Sox game over at Fenway, across from Frank's hotel, The Hyatt, with their "to-die-for" view of the river, as we pulled into the driveway.
BloggerCon: Renee Blodgett
Renee looked great last night. She knows so many people. She's moving to SF soon and selling a bunch of cool stuff. She's getting rid of both a Palm Pilot and a Treo she doesn't need. Renee knows everyone -- I asked her if the Treo comes with her addressbook -- a few thousand names.
BloggerCon: Treo Nation
There were a lot of Treo's out and about last night at the BloggerCon dinner. People swear by them and Mary Hodder told the greatest story about using hers calmly as a truck tried to flatten her car and the pictures were so clear, so fast and so impressive, her insurance company was back in a flash only asking, "What Can We Do For You?" (translate -- you got us, just tell us how much you want.)
BloggerCon: Dan Gillmor
Good to see Dan and all the moblogging going down was fun too. Check this out.
BloggerCon: Britt Blaser
Always great to see Britt. I'll be back to talk more about what he's up to. It's very interesting. It's very political. It's very cool.
BloggerCon Betsy Devine
By the time Betsy Devine mosied on by, we were thrilled to have her Feedster credentials in the mix as we were talking about real site metering and real "counts" on blogs. If you consider spidering and feeds and actual eyeballs, we're left with a very questionable "Neilsen Rating" for a blogs actual traffic. Sounds like this is getting fixed or will be soon.
BloggerCon: Werner Vogels
If you don't know Werner Vogels from Cornell and his blog "All Things Distributed" -- where have you been? He was telling us funny stories about international Googling -- where his name which means BIRD -- brings up a lot of weird results for birdwatchers worldwide.
BloggerCon: Mary Hodder
Lovely to meet Mary Hodder from Technorati -- not the politician from Canada or whoever that is. Another Google issue she was explaining -- how the other Mary Hodder was ahead of her in the Google line a while back and now they've switched places. I'm not sure how I missed meeting her before but we had a pile of friends in common and she had so many interesting things to say. She was more than generous about hearing the many compliments I had for the new Technorati user interface -- also the gripes. The old one confused the heck out of me. I'm still not sure if I can find the same results putting in "Worthwhile Blog" as I would with "Worthwhile Magazine" and "http://www.worthwhilemag.com" and I think I shouldn't have to think so much about it when I go to Technorati -- or any engine for that matter.
BloggerCon: Jeff Jarvis
Jeff is cursed with as much non-stop energy as I have, poor man! We had fun talking about the nearly impossible obstacles to getting a computer to the Iraqi bloggers. Also blog advertising models and what's coming down the pipe or better expressed, what NEEDS to and how that might evolve. Henry Copeland, were your ears buzzing? You should have been there. Also about googling old girlfriends, old neighbors, old neighborhoods, all sorts of old strolls down memory lane. As he and I were both chatting, I was beginning to think about a world where you never have to say (or CAN say) good-bye to old boyfriends or old girlfriends. Is that GOOD?! I thnk not some days.Friday, April 16, 2004
Not To Be Missed!
Thanks Dave for posting my private email! Please, all Bloggercon folks, join us for drinks and dinner.Thursday, April 15, 2004
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Give Those Muscles A Rest
Back in the groove, sort of, with my exercising. I was such a lazy butt all winter and with this bitter cold being no inducement to be out and about, I'm in flabby not-so-great shape ... HOWEVER ... I've been working out a lot in the last two weeks and did a really heavy session yesterday, including lifting weights. I'm so glad to be exercising again, I feel like jumping in again today, but everyone tells you to give your muscles a rest the day after heavy lifting. So I'm officially off the hook. Can't I do a little yoga though? Please?
Hey Early Birds
Rise and shine guys -- let's take over the world while the rest of them are asleep. They'll never know what hit them.Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Rainy Day Things
Hey, hey, hey you! Don't go getting sad!Here are some things to do on a rainy day.
Crank up that music you love love love and dance at your desk -- at least until someone notices!
Coffee -- have absolutely all you want, have a lot of milk and sugar with it, even if you NEVER have milk and sugar.
Oh, go ahead, write that sexy email or mushy love letter to that special someone you really shouldn't be flirting with.
So how's that mood now? Much improved?!
Why You Don't Come Here To Read About The War
I certainly could write about it. I certainly have an opinion about it. I certainly don't think you come here to read about it.I want my blog to be a place you can visit that cheers you up. Or calms you down. There are never enough of those places.
My blog has fun and happy furniture. It looks like this.
In the waiting room of my blog you can read magazines like this one or this one. And we serve this and also this. You pick. Oh, yeah, on Fridays we do these -- dozens of them.
When you get your chance to come in and see the doctor -- she tells you you look MARVELOUS and today is going to be a great day. She knows it!
We Matter
Blogs let you remember what you think, what you feel, what you say, how you say it, what you care about and how you live in this world actually matters.Blogs remind us WE MATTER.
That's a big deal in a world hell bent on making you feel like you don't matter at all.
The Apprentice: Kwame or Bill
I have to wonder out loud here how Donald Trump is going to pick a white guy entrepreneur over a black guy with an MBA from Harvard Business School and a resume that has Goldman Sachs on the top line. Who will be the apprentice? I don't think it will be that tough to guess. I put my money on Kwame.But maybe there's a really weird plot turn heading our way -- with Jessica Simpson pulling some strange deux ex machina turn-around at the last minute. Maybe SHE wins?! That's it! I should have guessed it! The Apprentice will be Ms. Jessica "Chicken-Of-The-Sea" Simpson!
Not To Be Missed: Critical Section
Ole Eichhorn's blog Critical Section is bursting with great stuff, like a spring garden blooming in every direction. I wonder if he knew how crazy I am for The Phantom Tollbooth and New Yorker Magazine covers and a ton of other things he's been writing about. Can't wait to see him at BloggerCon this weekend.Monday, April 12, 2004
We Want Out
I've been writing about work a lot lately and especially the notion that even if the job market recovers -- we don't want no stinking corporate jobs -- and employers are going to be pretty surprised how hard it will be to hire good talent. I called my post in February on this subject "One Big Bad Boyfriend: The Way We Worked"Alan Webber, founding editor of FastCompany, takes on this very subject in USATODAY here. Check it out. He really nails it.
Try It
Take someone at work a cup of coffee -- a good one from a good place -- someone you've never bought a cup of coffee for. It will surprise them.Seems to me we can't go far wrong being kind to people. No one is getting enough of that.
Off To Jump Rope
I'm really getting into jumping rope. Not sure why. I even found a heavy jump rope my ex left behind in the great split-up of physical goods. I suppose I should ask him if he wants it back. It's a mighty fine jump rope. He has a DVD of mine I want back. We'll meet at the Berlin Wall and swap hostage items. No Berlin Wall, rethink that one. Off to Jump Rope.
Monday Again
How did they decide on this "seven days of the week thing" anyway? What if they had 14 new days and this wasn't Monday but something called Eightday or something else like Venusday and then you finally ended the week next Sunday on Novaday? Why not.
In Bed With Larry Lessig This Morning
Finally got my hands on his book, Free Culture. It's really good. Made it tough to get out of bed, I'll tell you, even for an early bird like me.I promised to read the whole thing and write an executive summary, which I will do, and make it available by audio as well. You can listen to all the chapters here, on AKMA's site where he asked all of us to contribute.
Jen's New Blog
Everyone love's Jen Balderama's blog -- but did you know it's slipped off to a new address. It's all spruced up and looking sexy. Don't miss it.
Robin Williams
I saw Robin Williams on The Actor's Studio last night and I was thinking about how amazingly unrestrained he is and how fluid and how brilliant really, even if he gets on your nerves, you have to give him credit. There were some great moments. James Lipton asked him where his art, his comedic talent, his stuff comes from and he answered almost every question by jumping out of his chair and doing amazing comedy monologues -- especially this one -- answering that most basic question about "why/how do you DO this?"The thing was so fast as he riffed on why he did what he did -- looking small like a little boy reaching for his mom's breast, baby-talking in a tumble of words about wanting his mother's love and attention and then letting his mind run wild, as if to present it as a specimen in a petri dish, for scientists to dissect how his humor takes him here, then there, then back, watching him physically playing with characters, mentally playing with words, with rhymes, with voice -- jesus, it was amazing. Play -- that's the word, both noun and verb.
Lipton said that when he'd interviewed another comic -- was it Billy Crystal -- I don't remember, but that they said that Robin Williams called comedy "legalized insanity" and I liked that phrase a lot.
He does what all great creative minds do -- he lets you see the world the way he sees it. Van Gogh had these sunflowers he wanted to show you. DaVinci had this babe with a funky smile he didn't want you to miss. Williams wants you to see how incredibly funny and dear the people are who live in his world can be. He's so good at it.
Last night he reminded me of a psychic -- a medium -- I had once seen, who could use his body to take on the form of just about anybody. I'm serious. It's hard to explain until you've seen it, but it makes you realize that the body is completely plastic, can be completely transformed into another type of vibration or energy. This medium was making manifest people in my family -- showing me amazing things. He made me understand that the body is a mask, a very fluid mask. The spirit that energizes that lump of clay gives it life and definition. You know this if you've seen people die. They leave that lump of clay behind.
Williams uses his body in this way, incredibly well. That's why he had to answer every question by standing, moving, expressing ideas physically. His lump of clay is completely fluid. His body is amazing. His face is amazing. His face is a nun, a gangster, a prissy schoolteacher with a will to power, a genie, an infant, an old Jewish woman, all in 5 minutes. He is so physically creative, it's thrilling.
Morning Person
I am hellishly awake in the morning. I am a dreaded morning person to the nth degree. Night owls have told me.If I had my way work would start with a big group meeting around 4:30am on a Monday and be done by 11:30am, that same Monday and then we'd all have a big lunch, go home, take a nap, then play outside the rest of the day. Nah, the rest of the week.
Things We Said Today
Having a real Beatles craving lately, seem to be binge-listening to them non-stop. Just flipped on the radio, expected Morning Edition on NPR but I was tuned to an oldies station and this was playing. Strange one, but just right.THINGS WE SAID TODAY
You say you will love me
If I have to go.
You'll be thinking of me,
Somehow I will know.
Someday when I'm lonely,
Wishing you weren't so far away,
Then I will remember
The things we said today.
You say you'll be mine, girl,
Until the end of time.
These days such a kind girl
Seems so hard to find.
Someday when we're dreaming,
Deep in love, not a lot to say.
Then we will remember
The things we said today.
Me, I'm just the lucky kind.
Love to hear you say that love is luck.
And, though we may be blind,
Love is here to stay. And that's enough
To make you mine, girl,
Be the only one.
Love me all the time, girl.
We'll go on and on.
Someday when we're dreaming,
Deep in love, not a lot to say.
Then we will remember
The things we said today.
Love me all the time, girl.
We'll go on and on.
Someday when we're dreaming,
Deep in love, not a lot to say.
Then we will remember
The things we said today.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
One Cellulite-ish Thigh
I'm running an experiment, putting this cellulite cream on one side of my butt and thigh. I like to be scientific about these things. Need to keep one side in a natural cellulite-ish condition in order to compare. I'll report back the detailed results.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
What a strange and interesting and beautiful and frightening movie. I saw it last night and it's still hard to put words around it. I liked it a lot.This review helped me decide to go see it. The screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, also wrote Being John Malkovitch and Adaptation -- so if you know those two movies, you know this movie will play with your mind. (Rent both of those if you haven't seen them.)
Ever had a relationship that leaves so many poignant memories -- sweet AND bittersweet -- so many powerful memories, that it's just too hard to go on. And what if you had the option, imagine if there were a service that could erase all the memories you have of a certain lover from your mind forever. Would you do it?
Well, shy guy Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) finds out his ex-lover, a sexy extrovert with ever-changing hair color from blue to orange, Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) has done just that. All his friends have received a confidential card from the Lacuna Service, the company performing memory erasure, explaining that she has erased him from her mind, and please do not mention her to him anymore. A friend lets him see the confidential card, when sends him reeling. And that's where the movie starts and only gets more and more strange from there.
Visually, there are shockingly beautiful and haunting scenes of the specific geographic locations they made their early memories -- beach, frozen Charles River, train to Montauk. These places start to merge, resulting in strange juxtapositions like their lovemaking bed existing in their apartment and then instantly on a beach next to the surf, the wind blowing sand on their sheets and a small picket fence slowly covered with drifting dunes. The scene with Jim Carrey playing a 3-year-old hiding under the kitchen table and his full size reduced to the height of a small boy, (but he retains a man's proportions)while his mother and other women in the kitchen are large, him begging for ice cream, barely about to reach the freezer door and incredible and incredibly surreal.
500 Degrees Below Zero
A friend who used to live here in Boston and moved south to that tropical paradise, Philadephia, sent this along today:NEW ENGLAND TEMPERATURES
60 above zero:
Floridians turn on the heat.
People in New England plant gardens.
50 above zero:
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in New England sunbathe.
40 above zero:
Italian & English cars won't start.
People in New England drive with the windows down.
32 above zero:
Distilled water freezes.
Moosehead Lake's water gets thicker.
20 above zero:
NYers don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
People in New England throw on a flannel shirt.
15 above zero:
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in New England have the last cookout before it gets cold.
Zero:
People in Miami all die...
New Englanders close the windows.
10 below zero:
Californians fly away to Mexico.
People in New England get out their winter coats.
25 below zero:
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Boy Scouts in New England put on long pants.
40 below zero:
Washington DC runs out of hot air.
People in New England let the dogs sleep indoors.
100 below zero:
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
New Englanders get frustrated because they can't "staht the kah".
460 below zero:
ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale).
People in New England start saying..."Cold 'nufffor ya?"
500 below zero:
Hell freezes over.
Red Sox win World Series.
More Than Just Holding Hands
IF I FELL
-- Paul McCartney, John Lennon
If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
'cause I've been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
If I give my heart to you
I must be sure
From the very start
That you would love me more than her
If I trust in you oh please
Don't run and hide
If I love you too oh please
Don't hurt my pride like her
'cause I couldn't stand the pain
And I would be sad if our new love was in vain
So I hope you see that I
Would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you
Happy Holidays
I like Martha Stewart. I really do. I've met her and she's a good egg. But there's something about the way she made everything about every holiday pretty and decorative and festive and charming and pleasant and creative and adorable and PERFECT, that was really getting on my nerves.It really wasn't her fault -- that is, her fault that she made me feel totally inadequate if I couldn't make a perfectly cute homemade Easter basket with hand-dyed pastel eggs and hand-sewn felt chicks or some other useless craft item perched delicately on real green wheatgrass, with Godiva dark chocolate eggs, jellybeans called jelly eggs and an expensive light lavender wire-edged ribbon crimped just so, that looked like something from her magazine -- but I have to admit, now that she has fallen from grace, it makes this holiday one whole helluva lot easier. I like this extremely imperfect Easter. I like the badly painted eggs the color of vomit. I like the baskets with headless chocolate bunnies on display. I like things NOT being perfect. I'm finding life isn't perfect and neither are holidays.
But my point here is not about Martha Stewart, but rather what she and a few other "perfectly happy" brands represent. I could have just as easily taken Hallmark to task. In fact, I might as well call this phenomenon I'm describing Hallmark Hell. It's all about feeling trapped in the perfect holiday card, where the perfect people live, who celebrate holidays perfectly.
Certain married people seem to exert their marital muscles strongarming you in to celebrating all the happy holidays with forced glee, without even noticing they are doing it. They just don't think anyone should be alone or not with them on a holiday. Let me say it plainly married folks, that your "happy holiday" is another person's annual nightmare. For divorced, separated, widowed, single, gay and a lot of other people, the "happy family" image of holidays is something not to celebrate but to dread.
Not to name names, but all these well-meaning married people want to throw holiday events and invite you over to make you feel ... I don't know ... sometimes I have to think, just to make you feel inadequate. I used to be one of those married people, but even then I saw no joy in inviting 20 people over for a traditional family holiday celebration.
There is no "traditional family" to invite over any more -- did you notice? Throwing the perfect holiday party isn't enough for these perfect holiday people, they also want to see if you measure up and are as perfectly and happily married as they are. Nothing keeps them from humiliating everyone they invite over with "Why Don't You Fit In?" type inquiries.
If you're a single woman age 20 - 45, get ready to be asked why you're not married. If you're a single man age 20 - 45, get ready for someone to whisper in the kitchen to someone in your family or circle of friends, "is he gay?" If you're gay and want to bring your same-sex partner to the party, someone you actually DO want to marry, tell me that's easy to pull off in front of these happily married people? If you're divorced, the rude inquiries seem to know no bounds. If you're widowed, everyone wants to fix you up and can't refrain from asking if you're "ready yet?" whether you lost your spouse 2 days ago, 2 weeks ago, 2 months ago or 2 years ago. When it comes to "ready" you are tempted to rephrase the question. Ready to bash Aunt Fran in the face for asking? Yes, you're VERY ready for that.
Why we still keep pretending everyone is one big happy family, I do not know. The statistics are all against the notion. The more "non-traditional" families we have, the more we seem to cling to outdated images of the happy holiday celebration of dad, mom, junior and sis. It' s most peculiar and really high time we got over it.
Try something new this year. Butt out of my family business and respect me and the way I happen to live. Try asking me about politics, movies, sports, the weather. The sense that certain subjects were taboo in public conversation, was something about the "good old days" worthy of retaining at the holiday dinner table. You can actually have guests over and NOT ask them the bloody details of their child custody battle or why they are wasting their lives dating married men at 35, when they obviously are desperate to get married or other "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS" subjects. Is this inquiry the kind of thing that's supposed to make guests feel welcome?
So all I ask is a little consideration. Consider the fact that I would rather go to the movies or shampoo my hair or rake leaves on your "special day" and it's really okay to leave me out. Or if I do join in -- yes, thank you for invitiing me -- but feel free NOT to ask me how my perfect happy holiday is going. It's not so perfect.