imnotbored.net

I could use a little more of this: Peace and quiet.

Seemed like a good idea at the time: Learning Japanese from manga. It turns out the phrase “We missed the last train to Shinjuku, now we will have to teleport.” is not as useful as it first seemed.

To Do

Today - Catch up on homework.

Next Week - Start new novel. Most likely William Gibson.

Next Month - Try not to freak out about Christmas.

Next Life - Watch the instant replay and see if I died a foolish death.

Crazy idea that just might work: Sub-dermal fiber optic implants, aka light tattoos.

Song stuck in my head: Careless Whisper, by Wham. Don’t ask - I don’t know how it got in there either.

My most recent attempt at being quotable: If you want a degree, you need a college. If you want an education, you need a library card.

The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch.

Thieving priests, sorcery, sword fights, secret police…all going about their business in a city made of glass by alliens. I ask you, what more could you want? Oh yeah - there is also alchemy. Can’t forget the alchemy….

Rich in detail without being cluttered. Complexity without confusion. Pacing that leaves you breathless, but not exhausted.

Start it Saturday afternoon, read all weekend and call in sick Monday to finish it off.

Technorati Tags: Books, Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch

About a week ago I finished the final book in the Baroque Trilogy, The System of the World, by Neal Stephenson. I enjoyed the books very much. I love the fact he didn’t shy away from complexity. A story involving pirates, economics, physics, cryptography, politics, and religion, and computing (17th century style) is a lot to take in. Somehow, he made it all make sense. Not only did it make sense, by the end, you get the feeling that if any of the mentioned topics had been dropped from the mix, it wouldn’t have made sense at all. Now, I am ready for something lighter - figuratively and literally.

I’m thinking it’s time to try Graphic Novels. Luckily, there has been a couple of posts by Cory Doctorow on boingboing, as well as a group I found on facebook. No shortage of interesting titles and authors.

I also found a couple online resources for us noobs: artbomb and electric sheep. Some dystopian black and white sci-fi can be had here. I appreciate the opportunity to check out genres and styles on line, but I still want paper in hand - something that can be read under a tree in the park. After all, it is summer.

Technorati Tags: books, Cartoons, Graphic Novels

I have been lax on the blogging as of late. Sorry, Jules. Not without reason, mind you, but truant none the less.

I got the wind knocked out of my sails when I lost my February posts, work got busy and I got cranky, and I started making more music, and, and…. Plenty of reasons but no excuses. The only real rule I gave myself when starting this blog was that I wouldn’t whine, which sometimes means not writing.

I’ve upped my musical activities and I’m itching to throw some new tunes up here. I recently flipped through the collection of pieces I wrote while in school, and have undertaken the task of recording them. It all seems so simple when it’s on the page - then you start playing. I’m doing a lot of the drum programming myself, which is time consuming. At this point,I would like to retract all the drummer jokes I have ever made, except for the following:

Did you hear about the guitar player who locked his keys in his car?
It took him an hour just to get the drummer out.

When things are fun, you can forget that they are hard work, and the hours just slip by. For the next couple months I’ll throw the tunes up here in posts. Eventually, I’m planning to start my own little netlabel for the tunes, and see if I can’t get my composer friends to contribute a tune or seven. We all have libraries of music collecting dust, which doesn’t need to be the case.

In other news, I’m kinda bummed about Kurt Vonnegut. My mom introduced me to his books when I was about 13, and I read them all at least twice. Honestly, I had been expecting his death for a while, simply based on the math. For my money, he was one of the most sensible curmudgeons around. Thankfully, mom introduced me to plenty of worthy authors, and I’ve even managed to dig up a few on my own, so I’ll not go wanting. I will however re-read my Vonnegut collection this summer. Why? Why not.

Technorati Tags: blogging, mp3, music, books

Guy Kawasaki interviews the authors of Made to Stick on his blog today. The subject matter of the book is, as the authors explain “…sticky ideas are ideas that people understand, remember, and that change the way people think or behave.”
I’m no corporate marketing whiz kid, but these principals make sense to me ( they use JFK and the Moon landing as examples):

For example, JFK’s idea to “put a man on the moon in a decade had all six of them:

1. Simple A single, clear mission.
2. Unexpected A man on the moon? It seemed like science fiction at the time.
3. Concrete Success was defined so clearly no one could quibble about man, moon, or decade.
4. Credible This was the President of the U.S. talking.
5. Emotional It appealed to the aspirations and pioneering instincts of an entire nation.
6. Story An astronaut overcomes great obstacles to achieve an amazing goal.

Later in the article they discuss some pitfalls, and I identified all too easily.

Here’s the great cruelty of the Curse of Knowledge: The better we get at generating great ideas,new insights, and novel solutions in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly.

Hit that nail on the head, didn’t they?
I am forever in gratitude to the co-worker who told me ” Hold up! Just because you get it, doesn’t mean the idea works for the rest of us.” I sometimes forget that most of the world learns by rote instruction, and reading the instructions, whereas anything of consequence I’ve learned has been trial and error. The former is clean, precise, and easily transmittable. The latter is subjective, relative, and communicating that knowledge comes dangerously close to, as they say, dancing about architecture.

I want to be able to explain things better. Hope this book helps.

Technorati Tags: advertising, books, education, kawasaki

Freakonomics Blog » This is What Happens If You Illegally Download “Freakonomics”
Me thinks the issue that worries the publisher is the technology, not the download itself. If people form a habit of reading off of computer screens, their business model is useless. Making threats is easier than making changes, or so it seems. How unfortunate.