This is an archived page. (current posts)

1.26.2005  

Walking the Land

Last night we went out around sunset and wandered around our new "yard". It was the first time since the move that the weather was warm enough to even consider going outside by choice, and it was beautiful. From the inside of the house it's one thing, but to walk through the brush, out past the barn and studio, over the hill is quite another. I really like seeing the place from those different viewing angles, like the house superimposed over the barn or vice-versa... it's so wide open out there on Day Hill that you can really get a sense of the place. In town, at our old house, as soon as you went 40 feet in any direction 'home' was concealed by other houses or trees. Here you can see it.

The first thing people ask when I tell them we moved to the country and that the place came with 10 acres is: "What are you going to do with the land?" -- as if not having plans for it would be very suspicious, if not outright neglect. Maybe it's the farming thing, maybe it's the luxury (?) of having it but not needing it. Maybe it's that we're classic Bobo's, with the stainless steel appliances to prove it, and that's the minority around here. But we don't have plans. Other than looking at it, walking on it, mowing some of it, paying taxes on it, and enjoying the space it creates around us, we've got no plans at all.

1.25.2005  

I Love Mac Gossip

Here's a good bit from an article by Robert X. Cringely:

"The first hint came to me a day or so before the MacWorld show when right at midnight my computer stopped playing Apple movie trailers. The only way to watch QuickTime movie trailers (the closest I get to a movie since we have little kids) was suddenly through iTunes 4.7, which takes you straight through the iTunes Music Store. The regular QuickTime player wouldn't work. Apple had made no announcements, nor had they upgraded QuickTime, so I'd say it was a glitch that presaged the eventual replacement of that player for the selling of movies. Since then Apple fixed things and the QuickTime player now works for playing trailers, but I had already seen the future."

Yay! I love the idea of inadvertant (or not?) tech glitches betraying future plans. Even more, I love the idea of Apple getting out front on the streaming video future, and using the gravity of the iTunes store to do it. And how about that iPod video player? It could be the same damn thing, with 50x the storage, a small screen, and easily jacked into both your broadband connection and your tv. I'll bet they already have the prototypes built in Cuppertino, and are just trying to figure out what the freaking frack to name it. The iVid? iTV? iSeeBigProfits?

A couple others:
Pricetags Get Smaller at Apple - David Pogue
The iPod Endgame - Mike Davidson

1.20.2005  

Desk Snacks

I used to loathe the peanut butter granola bars, and now they're my favorite. Go figure.

 

DVR (What the Hell Will I Do With All This Time?)

[write something clever here]

[or not]

[apparently, I got a DVR and it's taking up all my spare time!]

[damn]

1.19.2005  

Ideas Vs. Time

In the midst of our move-o-rama chaos the past few weeks, I've had several good bloglet ideas - things I would have written about given a more "normal" daily pattern - and it's kind of frustrating to have let them slip by. It's still a strange experience, this blog authorship thing; I enjoy posting a few times a week (or as the writers say, having posted!). But at the same time, I hate it when what comes to mind is dull, reactive, or just a daily tally of how the hell I was feeling just then. (I'll thank you for not paying too much attention to the recursiveness of that last statement).

I also regret lost ideas - the ones I have in the shower, or as I'm just about to go unconscious at night, or on the drive in to work... sometimes, they're fully formed down to the exact wording, and it seems sad for them to be that fleeting and not get captured here. But then, what's the value of an idea? Certainly, it's something - good ideas have changed history, made millions, imposed meaning - but in another sense maybe they're worthless without the follow through to record them or actually do something with them? This is a recurring question for me, particulary because of the decision making processes that happen in the clay studio. Cindy and I talk about the artistic thoughts that get away, and wonder if they'll resurface later, or morph into something else. If not, does it mean they weren't that good to start with, like the inflated manic ideas that come at 3 am and are indecipherable the next day? Maybe it's a question of filters; waking consciousness imposes one set of standards, while a caffinated morning high or afternoon mood slump creates others. (It's no surprise that most of my posts come before noon!). Are there ever really good ideas that get lost, or did they just seem good from the relative perspective of the moment?

I wonder too about the impulse to archive, fleeting attempts to capture and record what happens within one's head. Surely most writers have this urge; I've thought for a while now that making pots is a way of capturing a moment, but in a medium more durable than time. But in the end, it's all dust, right? Should we let that influence us, either to try harder or to give up altogether?

1.13.2005  

I Think I Move Me

Good Lordy, why the hell do we have so much stuff?

1.03.2005  

Entertaining Thoughts of a New Year

I'll start the new year off with some serious, soulful commentary on the state of the universe and my humble place within it:

It appears that our old nemesis, Blockbuster Inc., has given up on the late fees business model. Now that's what I like to see! Game on. In our DVD home rental watch, Netflix is down to an intro price of $17 per month, with BB and Walmart offering competition around $15. This is good for us, the TV nation of junkies, who just want to be distracted a few nights a week for a low price.

In unrelated, but seemingly related, news, I'm savoring the irony of the fact that we're finally going off dial-up at home in favor of DSL... and we had to move 10 miles from town into the country to do it. Maybe it's just an Indiana thing, but this is weird, weird, weird. And then there's no cable service, so we're switching to satellite for the first time, and on the face of it you seem to get more stuff for the same price there too. (Ahem... DVR service for $5/month? Sign me up!)

So: there's more media access in the physical hinterlands. Who knew? I feel like I'm moving into a William Gibson novel.