Garden Of Blog

This is a funny bit.  As I get closer to overhauling one of my sites by adding more and more CSS classes to the HTML, I’ll be keeping this in mind.  Colors and font sizes are one thing; layout is another.  I might save myself some trouble here.

pm20060621.png (PNG Image, 550×410 pixels)

Takes like, a minute. Not nearly as long as listening to CozmiKast.

The following are the contents of Marco’s first email:

kol  m m n m x

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

Okay, Andrew Keen got under my skin again. This guy is too much to believe. The chief irony of Andrew Keen is that he became known to me because of, and only because of, Web 2.0 channels. A post about him rode in on an obscure RSS feed I subscribe to.

He’s a smart guy though, who obviously realized that the world is full of internet prophets and we’d all take notice at an articulate naysayer like himself. I hope he sells a bunch of books. Well, not really. Boycott his elitist ass, LOL.

The Technology Chronicles : Special Guest Blogger: Andrew Keen

Enough free press for Andrew. Thought provoking though… I probably wouldn’t get angry if he didn’t make a couple stinging points.

“We all got Ron’s message loud and clear when that JPEG of his wife wipe-transitioned to a photo of her tombstone,” coworker Anne Thibideux said.

Project Manager Leaves Suicide PowerPoint Presentation | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

Friggin’ hilarious.

Andrew Keen, conservative commentator on Web 2.0, succeeds in making obvious connections– such as that between internet culture and Marxist thought (presumption: this is a bad thing). Check out this article:

Web 2.0 Is Reminiscent Of Marx, WS: Second-Generation Internet Is Dangerously Seductive – CBS News

I’m listening now to a UC Berkeley podcast in which Keen, as guest speaker for the Introduction to Computers class, makes an interesting contrast between our Web 2.0 present and the hyptothetical future described by George Orwell in 1984. Unlike in 1984, where writing in a journal is an act of defiance and individuality, Keen suggests that the ultimate act of defiance and individuality today is not to pick up pen and paper, or rather, not to blog. Most bloggers, he argues, have nothing to say.

Of course, Keen blogs. And podcasts. Incessantly. Main topic: why other people have nothing to say and ought to stop talking.

Why do stupid things happen to smart people? Poor Keen. The internet exists to serve him, apparently, and his fellow elite. But when it serves others, the whole thing feels too new and “seductive” to him (his book is called The Great Seduction; forgive no link). In some ways, I can find myself in agreeement. New ideas can be hard to digest. Better to go back and review time honored, classical concepts, like (ready, Keen?) hubris.

The latest and greatest progressive thinking from the building with five sides:

Pentagon lists homosexuality as disorder – Yahoo! News

Of course, there is an actual mental disorder which, for Americans, is caused almost exclusively by orders given from within that building.

Too bad the Pentagon levitation experiment failed way back when.  Maybe the Yippies would have had more luck if more of the building’s occupants were openly light in the loafers.

I had a feeling Abby would pick “Cars” over Jack Black, but I tried for Jack anyhow. Oh well, “Cars” was good; it was interesting how they transformed all of society into vehicles. Fun movie, and nice to get out of the heat.

Another movie I watched recently was “American Graffiti” which was arguably a film about the automobile as well. Finally got to see this classic picture made by George Lucas in the early 70s. Harrison Ford is good in it, as is Richard Dreyfuss and especially the lesser known Paul De Mat as John Milner.

This is my first Father’s Day as father of two. You can almost see how people end up with eight kids: each addition seems to make life that much sweeter. Never mind that much busier, more expensive, etc.!

For a gift I received “I Walk The Line: An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash”, with cuts from Jerry Lee Lewis, Emmylou Harris, The Everly Brothers, and (most notably for me) Elvis Costello and the Attractions. They also tacked on a live “Big River” from the Dead. Nice.

The kids were smiling and in good form when I rose today, having slept in the house (usually I crash out here in the studio). I had been hoping for a good Father’s Day weekend, and it has been. Jessica and I cleaned a corner of the basement yesterday; more to do today. Abby and I are going to check out what Jack Black is doing at the movie theatre later. Nacho Libre.

Control-B to blog!

I am obsessed with Flock.  I right-clicked on this image online and simply chose “blog this.”

Flock Icon on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Tying common actions to keystrokes is probably still the best UI tool available. In most any text editing program, Control-B is a way to bold the type. But in a browser, why not Control-B to blog? This is another great feature of Flock, my new favorite web browser. It integrates nicely with my WordPress installation here at Garden of Blog.

The downside: there may be a slight increase in pointless posts like this because it’s so easy for me riff ‘em off.

Hmmm… let’s try the bulleted list in this Flock editor… oh and look there’s a tab for the source and it’s clean and simple HTML… delightful… me tired… here we go…

• turn down music
• dim lights
• go to bed

Well I finally graduated to making simple edits in Final Cut Pro. Seems that setting in and out points goes more smoothly if I capture the whole tape to disk first, rather than making my $600 Panasonic MiniDV camera rev its tiny engines. I was hoping to save the disk space, but oh well. Grant me a terabyte.

Over in DVD Studio Pro, I set some chapters, and used one of their menu templates. I won’t tire of those for awhile. Easy skeezy. Now I’m waiting to see if the build succeeds. The only bummer about working with video is I only have a G4 Powerbook and 3/4 of the time, I’m waiting.