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6.22.2005  

Jobs Loves Jobs

You've got to find what you love... Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
Steve Jobs Commencement Speech, Stanford 2005

Coming from him, this isn't just the same old same old. I'm impressed at how genuine this sounds (even if he probably had some help from a speechwriter) and I like the connection he makes between something you love, the work you do, and finding satisfaction.

I don't even remember who spoke at my graduation, but I am certain it wasn't as good as this.

6.21.2005  

Neal Stephenson Geeks on Star Wars

"To geek out on something means to immerse yourself in its details to an extent that is distinctly abnormal - and to have a good time doing it."
Neal Stephenson, "Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out"

Stephenson is one of my favorite writers - he puts the words down and they just fit into my head like parts snapping in place. Long novels, short non-fiction, essays, even his disclaimer about why he doesn't answer email. Clearly he's smart enough to have figured out how dumb the rest of us are.

6.20.2005  

Vanity

A blog is a vanity project.
A blog is a vanity project.
A blog is a vanity project.
A blog is a vanity project.
A blog is a vanity project.

 

On Blogging

"Last year, a survey of 3,000 blogs by the software company Perseus concluded that in the United States 91 per cent are maintained by those under 30 and 'the typical blog is written by a teenage girl who uses it twice a month to update her friends and classmates on happenings in her life'. It estimated that by the end of this year there will be a million web logs, although most won't last a year and, like clasped diaries in the physical world, the majority will be abandoned within a month."
The Guardian U.K.

Teenage girl, twice a month, happenings... that's me all over.

 

In Training

This morning's idea was that you can train yourself down the Comfort Curve. i.e. that an upper-middle class lifestyle doesn't have to expand forever, sucking in all available resources, obliterating toughness and resiliency and deferred gratification and genuine desire. That there can be more meaning in having less, or more satisfaction in taking the harder path.

But...

You'd have to really want to. Really, really want to. Because life is hard enough, and the lure to go with the flow is too strong, and we're swimming in thoughtless consumerism, brand name-ism, brand new-ism, more-ism. Gadgets, God and Gravy - pass me a second helping! Or don't. The hell with it.

 

RGB Dreams

I don't know what it is, but I sure like it as a title. Found hidden in the HTML of a cluttered page on the DePauw site...

6.08.2005  

She's Nice

s: "Where'd I put that whoozamajig?"
c: "I'm sure you had it last night."
s: " Oh, duh - here it is. I'm stupid."
c: "You can't be stupid on your birthday!"

6.07.2005  

Seeya, 33

Today's my last day at age 33. Tomorrow I'll have outlasted Jesus himself, and only time will tell if that's a good thing. I'm ambivalent about birthdays. In preperatory celebration, I bought Coldplay's new album X&Y from the iTunes store, but I redeemed a gift card from last xmas to do it. Who says us old timers are cheap?

Damn kids - get off my lawn!

 

No. 11 With a Serious Vapor Trail

Last June, I wrote that my St. Earth site was #30 on Google's list of potters. A year later and I've soared to #11. My ego is awash with abundant stroking! My site is sorely outdated and needs scrupulous love to justify this high honor! I'm an idiot!

So where can it go from here? Paul Chaleff must be sweating it hard, as I surge into his rearview mirror. Dare I dream of the promised land: Dick Lehman, cemented into the top spot like a king on an iron throne? Nay, I dare not... those anagama guys get all the love.