How's '06 been? A big, fat, steaming, fetid, worthless pile of Experience, that's how! And that's the year in review!
Why make resolutions you can't keep?
If you could want one thing for yourself in 7 what would it be? Nothing for the world at large, or even something for someone close to you; what do you want?
If you could ask one person you know for something what would it be? It could be an object, or maybe just something emotional or intellectual...
If you could give someone you know something what would you want them to have?
Let's hope I get better at this blogging thing this coming year.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Your Christmas Gift -- The Death Scene from Romeo & Juliet (abridged!)
Romeo: And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!
Juliet:Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!
[Snatching ROMEO's dagger]
This is thy sheath;
[Stabs herself]
there rust, and let me die.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
How to become an Illuminatus in one easy lesson
Mind now, this happened quite awhile ago, before that darn Interweb became ubiquitous, and the Earth was still cooling. In fact, had this situation come up today, the bubble would have been burst immediately, and a great yarn would would not be able to spun as I will spin it now. But for a brief time I was a hidden master of the world!
My close friend Rob, (we shall call him) was just entering his first year of Harvard grad school, and he invited me by to see Cambridge and Boston for the first time. One evening, he asked me if I wanted to go to a 'meet the profs and fellow grad students' party, and I said, sure, free food, why not? Walking on the way there Rob, totally out of character for him!, challenged me to come not as myself, but as a 'visiting professor in Information History.' These being the days before Library Science schools started calling themselves Schools of Information, I asked "What the hell is Information History?" To which he replied, "I don't know... make it up!" Even then I was quite the blarney stone kisser, and he thinks, what, I can't?
Within 20 minutes of entering the party, I had persuaded people that:
1.) I had an MIT Media Lab grant,
2.) My book on Information History would be published by Oxford in the spring,
3.) I had already discussed it on The Today Show.
My thesis? "The Pony Express from 1870-1920 as proto-network."
I had to patiently explain the differences between Information History and History of Ideas, and even some aspects of Material Culture study, but it was a lot easier than I thought. If anything, the grad students were the ones who asked the tough questions.
And I thought that's it, a good lark, and when we left we both got a kick out of it! But later in the week, when they apparently couldn't find my number in the MIT phone book, Rob got a call asking if I would give a lecture at an American Culture class on Info History! 'I didn't need to write anything new, just read from the galleys of the book', Rob was told to tell me! I really wanted to do it, as I could have talked about my belly button lint for an hour, but Rob was afraid that things had already spun out of control. He didn't want to get the boot! I tried to say that if they tried to boot him, we could could go to the NYT and say 'Bum walks in off street, teaches at Ivy League class,' but I couldn't give Rob any anxiety about things, so we dropped it, and I thought that was it!
A year later I had come back for another visit, and was hanging out with a group of people including Rob's future spouse, when someone from the party the year before spotted me, came over, and started asking Info History questions! Hey, I was up for it, so I played along and created even more nonsense, enough to placate him into leaving with learning anything! I now had to lay it out for everyone, and the delicious grins I got were, well, sublime...
Another year went by, and I had come back again. That particular morning I had gone out for breakfast by myself when I ran into someone from that same evening who had a group of students with him! This time, he started telling me things that I had been doing! I nodded in tired agreement. When I went back to Rob, I found that some of the group of people who had been with us last year had been making up stuff about me, just to flesh out the whole narative. For example, I had been publishing, but not under my own name, as an experiment in Information Flow vs. Celebrity Status, just a case study for future books! I must have "written" 10 books in three years!
And with that I let it lapse, having gone off into some sort of scholastic valhalla. Or, of course, I could still be out there running the world...hmmm...do I want the credit?
My close friend Rob, (we shall call him) was just entering his first year of Harvard grad school, and he invited me by to see Cambridge and Boston for the first time. One evening, he asked me if I wanted to go to a 'meet the profs and fellow grad students' party, and I said, sure, free food, why not? Walking on the way there Rob, totally out of character for him!, challenged me to come not as myself, but as a 'visiting professor in Information History.' These being the days before Library Science schools started calling themselves Schools of Information, I asked "What the hell is Information History?" To which he replied, "I don't know... make it up!" Even then I was quite the blarney stone kisser, and he thinks, what, I can't?
Within 20 minutes of entering the party, I had persuaded people that:
1.) I had an MIT Media Lab grant,
2.) My book on Information History would be published by Oxford in the spring,
3.) I had already discussed it on The Today Show.
My thesis? "The Pony Express from 1870-1920 as proto-network."
I had to patiently explain the differences between Information History and History of Ideas, and even some aspects of Material Culture study, but it was a lot easier than I thought. If anything, the grad students were the ones who asked the tough questions.
And I thought that's it, a good lark, and when we left we both got a kick out of it! But later in the week, when they apparently couldn't find my number in the MIT phone book, Rob got a call asking if I would give a lecture at an American Culture class on Info History! 'I didn't need to write anything new, just read from the galleys of the book', Rob was told to tell me! I really wanted to do it, as I could have talked about my belly button lint for an hour, but Rob was afraid that things had already spun out of control. He didn't want to get the boot! I tried to say that if they tried to boot him, we could could go to the NYT and say 'Bum walks in off street, teaches at Ivy League class,' but I couldn't give Rob any anxiety about things, so we dropped it, and I thought that was it!
A year later I had come back for another visit, and was hanging out with a group of people including Rob's future spouse, when someone from the party the year before spotted me, came over, and started asking Info History questions! Hey, I was up for it, so I played along and created even more nonsense, enough to placate him into leaving with learning anything! I now had to lay it out for everyone, and the delicious grins I got were, well, sublime...
Another year went by, and I had come back again. That particular morning I had gone out for breakfast by myself when I ran into someone from that same evening who had a group of students with him! This time, he started telling me things that I had been doing! I nodded in tired agreement. When I went back to Rob, I found that some of the group of people who had been with us last year had been making up stuff about me, just to flesh out the whole narative. For example, I had been publishing, but not under my own name, as an experiment in Information Flow vs. Celebrity Status, just a case study for future books! I must have "written" 10 books in three years!
And with that I let it lapse, having gone off into some sort of scholastic valhalla. Or, of course, I could still be out there running the world...hmmm...do I want the credit?
Monday, December 18, 2006
A Tag from Cynnie
Here it comes!
* Rules for this tag game are:
-Grab the closest book to you
-Open Page 123
-Scroll down to the 5th sentence
-Post the next 3 sentences on your blog
-Name the book and author
-Tag 3 people
* Rules for this tag game are:
-Grab the closest book to you
-Open Page 123
-Scroll down to the 5th sentence
-Post the next 3 sentences on your blog
-Name the book and author
-Tag 3 people
Chan's star began to shine in the late 70s though he had been a movie actor since the beginning of that decade. In the mid-70's, he was signed by director Luo Wei, who had directed Bruce Lee's first two films in Hong Kong. Luo featured him as a Bruce Lee clone in New Fist of Fury/Xin Jinguru Men (1976), The Killer Meteors/Fengyu Shuangliu Xing(1978), To Kill With Intrigue/Jianhua Yanyu Jiangnam(1977), The Magnificent Bodyguard/Feidu Juanyun Shan(1978), Spiritual Kung Fu/Quan Jing(1978) and Dragon Fist/Long Quan(1979).
Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions
Stephen Teo
I tag Ack/Nak
Sundries
and Old Panther
Stephen Teo
I tag Ack/Nak
Sundries
and Old Panther
Friday, December 15, 2006
Pant. Gasp. Wheez.
[Takes deep breath]...Ok, I'm here. Wow, are things just a cosmic fireball of suckage at the moment! I...I don't even want to write about it. I can't seem to do a single damn thing right, even my emotional capacity to deal with things has imploded. There's even an evil weird smell in the kitchen -- but only in certain places! -- and, and.... to hell with it! The only thing that sounds good is that I'm going to the Xmas party at Mighty Kim's tomorrow, which I will try and get some bloggy photos for you lot to enjoy.
Hey, Little Man, you good? Sending good thoughts to you...
I'm working on a better story, so watch this space! Tomorrow I may experiment in drunk posting....
Hey, Little Man, you good? Sending good thoughts to you...
I'm working on a better story, so watch this space! Tomorrow I may experiment in drunk posting....
Saturday, December 09, 2006
A day and a half ago...
...I met up with my friend Kim K in the mall. She called last minute, just because we hadn't seen each other in a tic, and so to the mall I went. We had fun singing Christmas carols in German while we pushed her 1-year old daughter around She invited me to her Xmas party next week, and I will try and take pictures! Kim will trick herself out, undoubtedly!
Made my cheesy macaroni, and had some for breakfast this morning, with nice strong coffee!
Chased a number of small things down, but the big things remain elusive!
As I sent bloggy support to Camie, so do we at the House of Fluff send our care to 4Dinners for all that he needs. He is one of the best on the web, if you don't know that! Go check him out.
I love the fact that all kinds of people find this blog through searching for 'stuffin young muffins', (ahem) and that crazy pic of the single of Jimmy Spiderman Allen!
Watched a good Pistons win the last two nights!
I'd like to think Ack/Nak has moved on to being a bumbershoot repairman, but, at any rate, he's moved on!
Check him out as well.
Sundries writes with her usual aplomb; it was as if she never took a break! More worthy reading.
My novel characters are talking to me in my head this evening. Should I post more of The Wendy Story or are all y'all bored with it?
Does anyone have a spare white icicle light strand? We need here, as such lights are part of my 'fireplace' of lights....
Peace Out
Made my cheesy macaroni, and had some for breakfast this morning, with nice strong coffee!
Chased a number of small things down, but the big things remain elusive!
As I sent bloggy support to Camie, so do we at the House of Fluff send our care to 4Dinners for all that he needs. He is one of the best on the web, if you don't know that! Go check him out.
I love the fact that all kinds of people find this blog through searching for 'stuffin young muffins', (ahem) and that crazy pic of the single of Jimmy Spiderman Allen!
Watched a good Pistons win the last two nights!
I'd like to think Ack/Nak has moved on to being a bumbershoot repairman, but, at any rate, he's moved on!
Check him out as well.
Sundries writes with her usual aplomb; it was as if she never took a break! More worthy reading.
My novel characters are talking to me in my head this evening. Should I post more of The Wendy Story or are all y'all bored with it?
Does anyone have a spare white icicle light strand? We need here, as such lights are part of my 'fireplace' of lights....
Peace Out
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Soldats! Je suis content de vous!
Damn it! I forgot to celebrate Austerlitz Day on Dec 2! There are so few Great Victories in Life, we must celebrate the greatest triumph of Napoleon, as a kind of signpost for what Victories we have in our own personal lives, both past and present. A few days late, but here we are!
What is your greatest triumph over the Grand Coalition of Mediocrity that has threatened to make your life less fantastic than it is? Discuss!
Thinkin about Thinkin
I actually think about the process of thinking a lot. I know, I know, don’t do it, go from the gut, blah blah blah. Well, I just can’t go there, my own rational nature won’t let me. At some level I feel I can figure out some way of improving the very process of my thoughts, through self-understanding and think better than I do now. This may be crazy, but I really do believe it. But I also know how quickly you can get into ‘paralysis by analysis,’ which is a disaster as well.
So I’ve been thinking about the thinking I do about thinking. Got that? Good!
Two things have come out which are workin’ on my cabbage about it. I remember a quote from Herder (I think!) where he compared the emotional and rational worlds to the difference between colors, shapes, scents and textures and the geometric world of lines, angles,circles, etc. For him the later represented the rational part of our minds. If we had to, you could exist in this world of lines better than you could in a land of undifferentiated colors, scents, etc. The latter would be too confusing; the former at least is defined enough that you could navigate through it. But the world is both. Why stress one at the expense of the other? I’m strongly drawn to this analogy, and have been chewing on it a lot.
The other refers to my older post about hitting a baseball. I’ve come to see the process of thought is a lot like that as well. Timing, execution, observation, just the whole gestalt of smacking line drives, for a while at a time, but every day, without exception. I’ve been working that way quite a bit lately.
The fusing of these two conceptual approaches has had a terrific effect lately. All of the objects in my mind lately, especially the emotionally tinged ones, feel “bigger”, more substantial, fuller, happier, just….just more than they have before. I wish I were a better writer than I am, I’d let you feel/think these things as they spill out of my fevered mind. There are tons of them now; it’s part of why I have trouble sleeping. I don’t want to sleep, it slows down the thinking/feeling process.
I wish I were in a hellfire passionate relationship right now. My significant other would get the full rush of all this energy, in about twenty dimensions. But it’s hard to share even with friends. Even Camie, with whom I think I have had the most beautiful, strongest friendship I’ve ever had, sees just the tip of the iceberg, and as Mama Vog has quite a full life herself, plus The Little Man, and PeaPod Vog to worry over, I just don’t think that Fate will gives us the chance for me to share that. Such is Life, I’m not complaining!
Perhaps this blog will get some of that heat, as I’m choosing even to share just this with you all. Sorry for going on here about myself; I promise that I’m going to try to turn this energy into things that are good for you, my bloggy readers, not just the echo chamber of my mind. Stay tuned.
So I’ve been thinking about the thinking I do about thinking. Got that? Good!
Two things have come out which are workin’ on my cabbage about it. I remember a quote from Herder (I think!) where he compared the emotional and rational worlds to the difference between colors, shapes, scents and textures and the geometric world of lines, angles,circles, etc. For him the later represented the rational part of our minds. If we had to, you could exist in this world of lines better than you could in a land of undifferentiated colors, scents, etc. The latter would be too confusing; the former at least is defined enough that you could navigate through it. But the world is both. Why stress one at the expense of the other? I’m strongly drawn to this analogy, and have been chewing on it a lot.
The other refers to my older post about hitting a baseball. I’ve come to see the process of thought is a lot like that as well. Timing, execution, observation, just the whole gestalt of smacking line drives, for a while at a time, but every day, without exception. I’ve been working that way quite a bit lately.
The fusing of these two conceptual approaches has had a terrific effect lately. All of the objects in my mind lately, especially the emotionally tinged ones, feel “bigger”, more substantial, fuller, happier, just….just more than they have before. I wish I were a better writer than I am, I’d let you feel/think these things as they spill out of my fevered mind. There are tons of them now; it’s part of why I have trouble sleeping. I don’t want to sleep, it slows down the thinking/feeling process.
I wish I were in a hellfire passionate relationship right now. My significant other would get the full rush of all this energy, in about twenty dimensions. But it’s hard to share even with friends. Even Camie, with whom I think I have had the most beautiful, strongest friendship I’ve ever had, sees just the tip of the iceberg, and as Mama Vog has quite a full life herself, plus The Little Man, and PeaPod Vog to worry over, I just don’t think that Fate will gives us the chance for me to share that. Such is Life, I’m not complaining!
Perhaps this blog will get some of that heat, as I’m choosing even to share just this with you all. Sorry for going on here about myself; I promise that I’m going to try to turn this energy into things that are good for you, my bloggy readers, not just the echo chamber of my mind. Stay tuned.
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