*ping* tom smith and everybody else

@mikecane just posted about a post by amanda palmer and I think everyone should look at it. Artists are worthy and should be paid what they are worth (there's also a rant by Harlan)

not jewish or buddhist, but...

From belief.net from Ethan Nijchtern on Yom Kippur and Atonement: http://tiny.cc/V3QoL

The Four Powers (or Four R's - Props to Pema Chodron who teaches this impeccably):

1. Recognition - the practice of mindfulness meditation allows us to actually see how thought patterns work and link them to our actions in daily life.
2. Remorse - We take to heart that actions have consequence, and gently vow to shift our intention in the future.
3. Remedial Action - Simply put, we try something different, something outside our habitual reaction, whatever that might be. Maybe it's just resting with the impulse of the habit for a few minutes before deciding what to do.
4. Repeating Again and Again - Habits are not superficial things. They require us to view awareness as a daily practice, and moment by moment to keep working with our mind.

ick

Feel crappy...I may go home. I want to sleep (alone) and recover some balance. I really shouldn't need to recover balance since I got acupuncture today but i have been pretty tired and sugared out...bill (my ex-) called in sick today...he had car problems on the way to work (for one thing, one of his tires blew out. He reacts badly to stress...

I went to callahans yesterday and people are still invoking Speaker...in fact, I called someone a shit for brains bimbo...there's something weird in the air.

just making sure I haven't been hacked

Not that anyone would want to hack me. I mostly read things, decide that I am not going to be able to untangle them expediently, tweet them or retweet them, long for a brain fix, and move on to the next thing.

This is definitely not the zen way...instead of being here now i have generally adopted "i'll think about it tomorrow. tomorrow is another day."

Got this from Mike Cane. Brian Brushwood talks about learning the secret of magic from Penn Gillette. Penn said a lot of different things, but this one struck a chord:

Try stuff. Make your best stab and keep stabbing. If it's there in your heart, it will eventually find its way out. Or you will give up and have a prudent, contented life doing something else.

Thanks @mikecane

Read The Lefsetz Letter:

Imagine being in a relationship where you never had to compromise, where you were loved for the way you are. A job where you could tell off the boss. This world doesn’t exist, except in art. That’s the privilege of the artist, an ability to create in his own exact vision. A charge which Trent Reznor embodies, blazing a path in his own unique direction, willing to make mistakes along the way, worried not a whit what some overlord might think. The Lefsetz Letter

on love-xkcd

bless you Randall Monroe.

Sesame Street-Family

I wasn't a sesame street kid (too old) but I still love the characters and this video made me cry. http://filkertom.livejournal.com/1061572. I appreciate that Tom posted it.

no clever title

One of my fatal flaws is that I have too many interests...and I take such a scattershot approach that I know a little about a lot and not much about everything.

I've been browsing the ebook arena (google vs. copyright), various readers, metadata and more and just wrote the following email to a colleague who attended library school at the same time I did and who is getting ready to retire from SIU-C. (He also happens to be my ex-):

I remember virtually nothing about being in Library School...and it's not just because it was 30 years ago...my memory has always been full of holes and traps...I don't remember vast stretches of time and I do remember stupid stuff like Janine's birthday. My question is this: had metadata been invented yet when we were in grad school. I mean, I know it had been invented...cataloging is all about metadata...but I don't remember much about the cataloging class except AACR2 Chapter 6. Did the faculty ever talk about metadata?

This is kind of important to me...have you been following the big Google Books bruhaha? Google is going to become the "world's largest library" by scanning all the books in the world so everyone with a net connection will have access to them. Sounds good, non? Non! For one thing, they are screwing around with copyright law and pissing off various and assorted people. You can read the comments of the Judiciary Committee here http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_090910.html. Pay special attention to Marybeth Peters. For another, Google's quality control sucks. They haven't been following up after the books are scanned and while most of them are legible and complete (except for the ones that are not full text on purpose) sometimes you run across blank pages and other problems that are really frustrating. Also, because much of the scanning was done by amateurs (just like many of the things that were input into Project Gutenberg years before) things are mislabeled, misidentified, and generally not great. (Bad metadata). Even so, it is easier to find things on Google than it is in some library catalogs. (Eric Rumsey, U of Iowa, has a post dealing with Library Catalog Fail here: http://tiny.cc/DQE64 ) (btw the book he uses, Everything is Miscellaneous is excellent and the blog of the same name is interesting as well.)

I've been playing around with this more because I got hooked on reading and tweeting a guy named Mike Cane who is kind of curmudgeonly but who has gotten me to think very hard about some of these things. He hasn't convinced me to buy an iphone yet (neither has Steve Jobs) but he's pretty much convinced me that the dedicated e-reader is not the way to go. I was already convinced, my Acer kicks butt...and I have very little trouble reading on it (except on the bus). I haven't successfully managed to get a readable book on my blackberry, but that's probably UE (user error).

In any case, it's time to go back to looking for missing books.

Do Interesting Things

Leo for Zen Habits posted this today and I this it's pretty profound. Here is the part I liked best:

Do something interesting.

Be a part of the conversation, and say something remarkable. Create something unique, new, beautiful. Build upon the works of others and transform it into your own.

How to do this?

Write a book. Or an ebook. Write poetry and publish it on the web. Create interesting, lovely or funny videos, put them on You Tube. Be passionate. Write a web app that will solve a problem in people’s lives. Become a watchdog to replace the faltering newspapers. Explore the world, and blog about it. Try something you’ve always been afraid to try, and put it on video. Be yourself, loudly. Start a new company, doing only one thing, but doing it very well. Start a business that does a service you’ve always wanted, or that you are frustrated with in other companies because the service sucks. Put your heart into something. Say something that no one else dares to say. Do something others are afraid to do. Help someone no one else cares to help. Make the lives of others better. Make music that makes others want to weep, to laugh, to create. Inspire others by being inspiring. Teach young people to do amazing things. Write a play, get others to act in it, record it. Empower others to do things they’ve never been able to do before. Read, and read, and then write. Love, and love, and then help others to love. Do something good and ask others to pass it on. Be profound. Find focus in a world without it. Become minimalist in a world of dizzying complexity. Reach out to those who are frustrated, depressed, angry, confused, sad, hurt. Be the voice for those without one. Learn, do, then teach. Meet new people, become fast friends. Dare to be wrong. Take lots and lots of pictures. Explore new cultures. Be different. Paint a huge mural. Create a web comic. Be a dork, but do it boldly. Interview people. Observe people. Create new clothes. Take old stuff and make new stuff from it. Read weird stuff. Study the greats, and emulate them. Be interested in others. Surprise people. Start a blog, write at least a little each day. Cook great food, and share it. Be open-minded. Help someone else start a small business. Focus on less but do it better. Help others achieve their dreams. Put a smile on someone’s face, every day. Start an open-source project. Make a podcast. Start a movement. Be brave. Be honest. Be hilarious. Get really, really good at something. Practice a lot. A lot. Start now. Try.

Book for the first part of 2009

I got to June and quit adding books to the blog...and since I want to clean up my page I decided to move the list and do something different. You can find out what I'm reading (If I remember to update it) at goodreads.com 6/2/2009 Will Buckingham, Cargo Fever (Tindal St Pr Ltd, 2008).

↑ ↓	6/16/2009 Susan Wiggs, Just breathe (Don Mills Ont.: MIRA, 2008).

↑ ↓	6/15 /2009 Dan Simmons, Hyperion, 1st ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1989).

↑ ↓	6/12/2009 Charles De Lint, Moonheart (New York: Orb Books, 1994).

↑ ↓	6/11/2009 Daphne Du Maurier, The house on the strand. (Garden City N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969).

↑ ↓	5/9/2009 John Varley, Red lightning, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2006).

↑ ↓	5/7/2009 John Varley, Red thunder, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2003).

↑ ↓	5/25/2009 Michael Marshall Smith, Only Forward (Spectra, 2000).

↑ ↓	5/2009 3 random ebooks from Harlequin Romance

↑ ↓	5/14/2009 Peter Beagle, I see by my outfit, (New York: Viking Press, 1965).

↑ ↓	5/13/2009 ebook Linda Warren, Once a cowboy (Toronto ;;New York: Harlequin, 2007).

↑ ↓	4/3/2009 Dorothy Eden, The vines of Yarrabee., 1st ed. (New York: Coward McCann, 1969).

↑ ↓	4/28/2009 Charles De Lint, The little country (New York: W. Morrow, 1991).

↑ ↓	4/2009 Sarah Monette, The Virtu, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2006).

e ↑ ↓

4/2009 Sarah Monette, The Mirador, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2007).

↑ ↓	4/2009 1. Sarah Monette, Mélusine, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2005).

↑ ↓	4/2009 1. Sarah Monette, Corambis, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2009).

↑ ↓	4/2/2009 Dorothy Eden, Speak to me of love., 1st ed. (New York: Coward McCann & Geoghegan, 1972).

↑ ↓	4/1/2009 Dorothy Eden, The American heiress (New York: Coward McCann & Geoghegan, 1980).

↑ ↓	3/27/2009 Frederik Pohl, The way the future was, 1979.

↑ ↓	3/26/2009 Debbie Macomber, 74 Seaside Avenue (Don Mills Ont.: Mira, 2007).

3/22/2009 Dean Ing, Silent thunder, 1st ed. (New York: Tor, 1991).

↑ ↓	3/18/2009 Jayne Ann Krentz, Eclipse Bay, 1st ed. (Jove, 2000).

↑ ↓	3/18/2009 Jason Wright, The Wednesday letters : a novel ([Salt Lake City Utah]: Shadow Mountain, 2007).

↑ ↓	3/14/09 ebook Larry Niven, Inferno (New York: Pocket Books, 1976).

e ↑ ↓

3/13/09 Jude Deveraux, Secrets, 1st ed. (New York: Atria Books, 2008).

↑ ↓	2/24/-3/13/09 ebook Danielle Steel, Coming out (New York: Dell, 2007).

↑ ↓	2/24-3/13/09 ebook Michael Williamson, Better to beg forgiveness-- (Riverdale NY ;New York: Baen ;;Distributed by Simon & Schuster, 2007).

↑ ↓	2/23/09 Jim Hines, The stepsister scheme (New York: DAW Books, 2009).

↑ ↓	2/22/09 Sharon Shinn, Jenna Starborn, Ace trade paperback ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2002).

↑	2/21/09 Sharon Shinn, Heart of gold, 1st ed. (New York: Ace Books, 2000).

↑ ↓	2/11 Arthur Clarke, Fred Pohl The last theorem, 1st ed. (New York: Ballantine Books/DelRey, 2008).

↑ ↓	12/31/08 John Ringo, Into the looking glass (Riverdale NY ;New York: Baen Books ;;Distributed by Simon & Schuster, 2005).

↓	12/27/08 Leo Babauta, “Thriving on Less.pdf (application/pdf Object),”

↑ ↓	1/6/09 Marion Bradley, The shattered chain : a Darkover novel (London: Severn House, 1985). reread

↑ ↓	1/3/09 (ongoing) Wizards RPG Team, Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition, 4th ed. (Wizards of the Coast, 2008).

↑ ↓	1/3/09 (ongoing) Wizards RPG Team, Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition, 4th ed. (Wizards of the Coast, 2008).

↑ ↓	1/27/09 Mark Helprin, Winter's tale, 1st ed. (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983).

↑ ↓	1/20/09 Jonah. Lehrer, Proust was a neuroscientist (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007).

↑ ↓	1/14/09 Louisa May Alcott, Little Men (Cambridge : University Press, 1871).

1/11/09 Julia Ecklar, The Kobayashi Maru (New York: Pocket Books, 1989).

Outer Alliance Pride Day

Outer Alliance Pride Day has officially begun around the world! We’ll be updating the post here as more appear. Thanks to everyone for contributing, and for those who’d like to join along, it’s never too late. Just link to this post, and your pingback will appear in our comments. Keep in mind that many of these links will go live during the day (as noted).

Just read this in Tom Smith's journal and promptly applied to the Outer Alliance. It's a great idea and another source of reading material...

sometimes it's a train

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