BurningbirdPer Jeneane and Ann came news that Marek was ill from unknown causes, in pain, and in the hospital. Bad news.
Tonight, we hear from David that Marek has an intestinal infection and is going home on Sunday – much better news.
Marek, this is what happens when you quit smoking – your body starts becoming a much more attractive habitat for nasties.
Steve Himmer (or should that be Opt Himmer? 5 Himmer?) subtly started something yesterday* that was intriguing to say the least:
Is brevity really the soul of wit? Or, more precisely, am I capable of saying anything without rattling and rambling for 1000 words at a time?
Included with this paragraph is a link to a new weblog, OneWordMeal, containing one word attached to a link to another weblog:
gumshoe
Gumshoe? Gumshoe.
According to dictionary.com gumshoe is defined as:
gum·shoe (gmsh)
n.
A sneaker or rubber overshoe.
Slang. An investigator, especially a detective.
Was Steve’s use of “gumshoe” in reference to the other weblog author’s travels through Argentina (travels – walking – shoe – sneaker – gumshoe)? Or was it in reference to the term “closed room” mentioned in several of the postings (closed room – mystery – detective – gumshoe)?
Possibly it was a subtle connection to the weblog author’s literary discussions threaded throughout the weblog (literature – book – type of book – detective book – detective – gumshoe).
By linking to the weblog with the one word, Steve is pushing the limits of our ability to fill in the gaps and make the necessary connections, all within a context that lacks both shared experiences and environment.
For instance, I can point to something and say one word, and my roommate will easily deduce what I’m saying, fill in all of the verbs and adjectives and nouns, develop the appropriate mental image and link all of this back to the one word. But then, my roommate and I have both a shared history as well as home: all the ‘clues’ are in place.
Can Steve do the same in weblogging? I’m not sure, but the concept is fascinating, to say the least (pun not intended). I eagerly await the next entry in OneWordMeal.
*or Steve was in a mood of wimsey yesterday and the weblog and the posting was all a joke, using gumshoe because he stepped in some gum and got it on his shoe, but then I called the idea both intriguing and fascinating and now he has to follow through, which will teach him not to fool with Mother Blogger.
Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
Dorothea takes a moment and tells the world about herself, her husband, and her goth kitties in a new Frank Paynter interview, a blogging piece well worth the read.
Among the broad range of subjects covered in the interview was Dorothea’s experience with gaming and role playing, as well as her academic and musical experiences (hint – MP3 – hint). She also discusses an interesting time she’s had with a non-compete clause (the bane of technical/creative people everywhere), and her passion for text “artistry” – giving me an entirely different viewpoint of, and appreciation for, markup.
One item that surprised me was Dorothea stating that I remind her of herself. On further reflection, I would tend to agree. Neither of us is inherently maternal, and we both can be opinionated – at times. Additionally, I have this feeling that neither of us suffers fools gladly, which can cause trouble in the jobspace.
And we both like Ursula LeGuin and hate shopping for clothes.
In the interview, Dorothea also talks about her hubbie and his participation with the Tolkien movie, but I’ll leave her to tell this story.
From my reading, Dorothea struck me as being tenaciously strong, ultra-smart, as well as being artistically inclined and talented. And knowing Dorothea’s self-deprecating attitude (which we’re working on curing, BTW), I bet she hated that last sentence.
Thanks to the personal time and efforts of Ben Trott, I now have categories again!
As far as I’m concerned, Ben is a steely eyed missle man!
Now, all of you – got out and buy Movable Type.
Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
Mike Sanders has joined the conversation about anger. In particular, I found the following comment to be quite fascinating:
Much of my blogging about terrorism has been negatively affected by anger. The feelings were “How dare that blogging friend not care about innocent Americans and Israelis getting slaughtered?”. Of course their views are not aimed directly at me and most of the time are the result of believing false information or not thinking things through.
Mike – what an interesting way you have about you. I’ve never been beaten by the carrot that was held out to entice me before.
So much anger – perhaps a little humor, too? I have a really bad joke for you all (and my sincere apologies in advance):
As the woman crawls out of her wrecked car, the local sheriff asks her what happened.
The woman began, “It was the strangest thing! I looked up and saw a tree, so I swerved to the right. Then I saw another tree, so I swerved to left. Then there was another tree, and another and another …”
The sheriff thought for a minute and then said, “Ma’am… I don’t know how to tell you this, but the only thing even resembling a tree on this road for thirty miles is your air freshener.”
BTW Mike – congrats on being the number one Mike in Google. After reading this, I did a Google on myself and found I’m now the number two Shelley in Google.
Guess weblogging is more interesting than Frankenstein.