Categories
Burningbird

Some you keep, some you don’t

One of the benefits to manually going through old weblog postings and other articles—to see which to keep and which to 410—is re-reading old work. When you haven’t looked at the material in several years, reading your old stuff is like reading something someone else wrote.

It’s surprising what you can learn about yourself when you read your old writings. For instance, among my older works, some of it is still good, even among the technical work, which typically has a short shelf life. All of the keepers are being moved to RealTech.

Most of the Missouri-related writings are decent, and I’ve managed to stuff MissouriGreen with both photos and stories about places I’ve been. Other of my work, such as reviews of books, and readings of poetry are timeless, and they’ve gone to Just Shelley; same with my movie reviews, which have gone to Secret of Signals. Too much of my old stuff, though, is just plain dated, with inside jokes even I can no longer remember. We all took ourselves way too seriously at one time.

The work I’ve enjoyed re-reading the most, though, is what I call “writing just to write”. I haven’t done enough of this type of writing in the last several years. Too busy fussing about things that, when you look back, don’t make no matter, as my grandmother would say.

Now that I’ve got my site where I want it to be, hopefully I’ll have more time for “writing just to write”. Now that I’ve also seen what a silly ass I’ve been in the past, I’ll spend less time on the “don’t make no matter”.

In the meantime, I’m pulling a few of the older stories out, and pushing them in front of you, one more time. Maybe you’ll like them. Maybe you won’t. If you do like them, good. If you don’t, well, it don’t make no matter.

Categories
Photography Places

Day lilies and lotus blossoms

I spent several happy and restful hours at the Missouri Botanical Gardens yesterday. We’re in a period of cool weather, and the day was overcast up until getting ready to leave.

Overcast skies make prettier flower photos, especially when the sprinklers are still going, dusting the petals with plenteous fairy tears.

Rose Courtyard

day lilies being watered by sprinklers

Yesterday, the day lilies and gladiolas were in peak bloom, and I managed to catch the tail end of the Lotus blossoms in the Japanese Garden.

star day lily

purple gladiola

Lotus blossom in bloom

fully bloomed lotus blossom

I call this one, “Eat, and be Eaten”. Poor little bee didn’t have a chance.

Bird pulling bee from lotus blossom flower, holding it in its beak

Categories
W3C XHTML/HTML

XHTML2 is dead

XHTML2 news on Twitter

I have mixed feelings on this news.

On the one hand, I think it’s a good idea to focus on one X/HTML path.

On the other, I’ve been a part of the HTML WG for a little while now, and I don’t feel entirely happy, or comfortable with many of the decisions for X/HTML5, or for the fact that it is, for all intents and purposes, authored by one person. One person who works for Google, a company that can be aggressively competitive.

Categories
Books HTML5 Writing

Summer roads

I did continue with my effort on the HTML WG, but I no longer feel either comfortable or welcome in the email list, so not sure what I’ll be doing with HTML 5 from this point.

Chances are, I’ll just focus on preparing a couple of Formal Objections, which don’t require any email communication, other than posting a link. I hate pulling out, as I am concerned about the lack of diversity among those making the decisions about HTML5. I’m still concerned, because there is little diversity, and even less empathy, but I’m a chorus of one: it’s not fun to fight battles when no one is covering your back.

On to other things…

I have a new book contract with O’Reilly. I’ll have more on the subject and title at a later time. Both I and my editor, Simon St. Laurent, think it will be a kick ass book. It really has a great table of contents.

I’m still working on my own self-publishing book, but more slowly, to free up time for the O’Reilly book. I also have an article to write for a popular web design site, which I hope to get finished in a few weeks. All this on top of the work I’m still doing at this site, and my books site. Freeing up time is a silver lining for decreasing HTML5 involvement–though Formal Objections can take a considerable amount of time to create. Less time, though, then reading emails about how mean I am to the HTML 5 guys.

I am a bad, bad girl.

To US folks, Happy 4th of July. To everyone else, Happy 4th of July. Maybe some new photos over at MissouriGreen for you all later.