letterneversent.com

Havelock Ellis once said, “All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” It seems like the further you go in life the more you are faced with the decision of what to hold on to and what to let go of. It becomes more and more important to consider what you need to keep and what you need to change.

Maybe it’s part of getting older, but lately I’ve been trying to put more effort into getting along well with my family. It can be a lot of work. It’s been my experience that your family knows you in a way no one else will ever know you. In family there is an intimate knowlege born out of spending your most important and difficult years with the same small group of imperfect people. It is not a comfortable intimacy by any means. You love your family yet they are the ones who know exactly how to get to you and how to move across your boundaries. You cannot fool them with your different costumes and personas. They will not buy into your reinvention. It’s almost as if they preserve an original image of you, which you are unable to change. This is frustrating if you’d like very much to change who you are.

Your family can be an anchor, yet it can also be a smothering sea of quicksand. I’ve found this to be this case with relationships in general. What happens when you start to change who you are and the people around you do not welcome the change? What happens if you realize that you no longer want the same things as the people around you? This is a difficult realization. In the end you have to do what you need to do and hold onto the belief that everything else will fall into place. The people who love you will always stick by you, in one way or another.

Six Apart, the blogging software business founded by the creators of Movable Type, has hired one of their most productive and talented volunteers, Brad Choate. It will be interesting to see what they come up with in the upcoming releases of Movable Type. The more people they hire the more important it will be to keep growing the business and begin selling a lot more MovableType and TypePad subscriptions. The addition of Choate may increase their capabilities in the direction of supporting more dynamic content in MT and that in turn could lead to the development of additional products. We will be watching with interest.

I’m the king of missing important details, so I noticed a while back that the RSS feeds for LNS were not working then I promptly forgot this. Today I noticed it again and it took me all of two seconds to fix. The point is, the feeds are working now, which means you can just view the feeds without coming to the main page of the site.

To that end here are some cool RSS/XML tools that might help you.:

1. Convert eBay searches into feeds with RSSAuction.com
2. Create a calendar and share with friends in RSS
3. Sage News Aggregator extension (plugin) for Firefox

I’ve been watching Boing Boing pile on the ads and cluttering their front page for the past few months. They need a fresh redesign of the site if that’s what they want to do. The Boing Boing people have some ties with Denton and the Gawker Media crowd and it seems like they’re trying to do something along the same lines by placing prominent advertisements along each side of their page. Boing Boing shoots for a more eclectic and general subject matter, whereas most of Gawker Media’s sites are based on targeted themes (most likely to concentrate on a target ad base), for example: their gadget site, Gizmodo, and their porn site, Fleshbot. Is this the start of a trend toward more commercial blogging? With the proliferation of so many personal blogs is there a demand for strict content-based blogging? Do more blogs need editors to be successful? Will more blogs jump on the ad bandwagon?

Update: Most of the editors at Boing Boing are also contributors to Wired or Wired Magazine. Back in June, I speculated on the link between BB and Gawker Media because of all the gratuitous cross-posting and mentionitis going on at the time. Back then, Wired/BB contributor Xeni Jardin denied a link or deal between Boing Boing and Gawker, yet now at Nick Denton’s website it describes Gizmodo (the gadget blog) as: “Gizmodo, a blog for the gadget obsessive, recently partnered with Wired Magazine. ” Interesting?

Edit 19:56 CST: Maybe, but Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired, points out in the comments below that there is no money changing hands between Gawker/BB/Wired and that the relationship could be best characterized as that of mutual admiration:

“I’m a big fan of Gizmodo (and Nick’s other projects), so when we launched Gadget Lab, our weekly email newsletter, we agreed to highlight some Gizmodo content in exchange for a link on their site. Just a trade, with no money changing hands.”

This may all be true, although I would argue that since all three groups derive most of their income from advertising revenue that this amounts to a de facto business relationship as items of value are being exchanged as part of an agreement. It goes without saying that I do not have a problem with business of this type, only that it is important to know that such relationships exist.

Related:

1. How Can I Sex Up This Blog Business?
2. Estimated revenue represented by the Gawker stable
3. Business 2.0’s blog fantasy

I went to Office Depot on my lunch break yesterday and found a good deal on a Targus mini optical mouse for my laptop. It’s petite and winds up into this little button-shaped, spring-loaded coil dealy. It even comes with its own velvety bag for protection in your laptop bag. I like it a lot, a lot better than using the touchpad on the laptop. After using it for a while when you switch back to your desktop mouse it feels like you’re pushing a giant brick around. You can pick them up at Office Depot for $9.99 after rebate. The retail is $19.99 with an instant rebate of $5 and a mail-in rebate of $5. That’s the best deal I’ve seen anywhere.

There’s a new trailer out for the upcoming Wes Anderson film, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Judging from first glance it looks like typical Wes Anderson, which means it should be good. His films are uniquely quirky in a full and complete style, brimming with a trademark sense of humor and nostalgia. His films have always seemed to me to be monuments to innocence and imagination. (List of songs in the trailer, most of them will be familiar) Parts of the trailer reminded me of Fantastic Voyage (the movie where they explore the human body in a tiny submarine) and all those ocean movies of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Did you spot the vampire squid in the trailer?! It’s my favorite cephalopod.

I recently saw Napoleon Dynamite. It was enjoyable and very funny at times. There seemed to be a discernible influence of Wes Anderson in its sentimentality. Napoleon Dynamite seems to lack more substance, plot and character-wise, than Rushmore or The Royal Tannenbaums, but it was impressive as a debut.

Here are some pics from The Life Aquatic, and here are some cast photos.

I forgot to mention some of the weird themes in my dreams this morning:

• In one dream I was driving a car around with Jody spotting strange owls on the side of the roads and then later a snow white barn owl flew into the car and landed on my arm. Possibly influenced by hooting we heard while walking last night.
• Dreamt I was a mujahadeen in Afghanistan fighting quasi-American forces in some unreal/lunar mountainous landscape. Usually this just involved me hiding under hanging cliff edges while soldiers walked above me, alerted to my position.
• Strange and disgusting deformed people living in a mine. I don’t remember this one much.
• Preparing some sort of food or slop in a large bowl. I specifically remember crushing a black, thick-shelled, ostrich-sized egg with my hands so that my hands went into the viscous yolk and egg white inside.

1. New US strategy: ‘lily pad’ bases
2. Tutorials for making tile-based games in Flash via
3. Custom Viewmaster discs based on fiction by Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino via
4. Anxiety doesn’t detract from happiness
5. Personality Disorders Common in U.S. Caused in part, I would presume, by social isolation.

1. Dune, Prophecy, Eugenics and Islam
2. Islamic themes in Frank Herbert’s “Dune”
3. George Lucas also ripped off Frank Herbert

If there was a book that disclosed all the existential secrets of the universe, would you read it? Would you read it if you knew that the information enclosed within could potentially drive you insane? Which is stronger, your desire for self-preservation or wanting… to know.

1. Brain diseases treble in 20 years, says new report: Deaths from brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease have soared in the past two decades, a study has found. Researchers are blaming the increase on higher levels of pesticides, industrial chemicals, car exhaust and other pollutants.
2. Tecumseh’s curse

Bin Ladin’s Former ‘Bodyguard’ Interviewed on Al-Qa’ida Strategies via Cryptome.org:

(Abu-Jandal) Most of my answers were on Al-Qa’ida ideology and structure and why it deals in this way. The answers were to the point. They used to put forth rather strange questions. One question said: As far as we are concerned, 80 percent of what you said is true, but does Al-Qa’ida have chemical plants and nuclear weapons? I recall that my answer to them was that Usama Bin Ladin has a weapon that is far superior to all the US weapons. What is this weapon, the asked? I told them: “Among the believers are men, who have been true to their covenant to God: of them some have completed their vow (to the extreme), and some (still) wait: But they have never changed (their determination) in the least.” (Koranic verse) The US arsenal is full of weapons, but it does not have the men. …

(more…)

Like many of you I’ve been watching the Iraq and Najaf coverage with interest. It is challenging to try to read between the lines about what is happening. You have to sift through so many news reports to distill a semblance of what is actually going on, and you have to do a significant amount of research to achieve the most rudimentary amount of context. It seems like media coverage is impossible to obtain from a disinterested and contextual point of view. Anyway, whenever you see the Shiia marching with their portraits of Sadr you may have also noticed the presence of depictions of Imam Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam, who the Shiia regard as the true successor of Muhammad. Ali was betrayed and killed much like another famous religious figure. See the image below for a visual comparison of popular depictions of Ali (left) and Jesus Christ (right).

I have always liked listening to talk radio programs and music while I work and drive so getting satellite radio was a no brainer. Most broadcast radio sucks hard, even KUT, the local public radio affiliate, pisses me off. There was some indecision as to whether to get Sirius or XM Radio, but in the end XM Radio seemed to be the better choice for me. In many ways they are very similar. Sirius supposedly has marginally better sound quality due to the fact that they run the talk programs in lower bandwidth so they can boost the quality of the music programs. They also provide more sports radio options, which is not something I care about. The reasons I went for XM Radio are pretty simple. XM has 1 million subscribers versus Sirius with 200-300 thousand or so. Even though satellite radio is relatively new this tells me that XM is more serious about attracting subscribers. Also, an XM subscription is $9.99 a month whereas Sirius is $12.99 a month. And for the most superficial reason, I liked the SkyFi receiver better than any of the Sirius products. I can use it in my car and at home and it will connect to any powered speaker source like your computer speakers. My 5-piece computer speakers have dual input connections so I can listen to my computer and XM radio at the same time.

At home these days, I’m watching zero television. There’s just nothing on I want to see and it wastes too much time with too little benefit. While you watch television you usually have to pay attention with your eyes and ears. This makes it difficult to do much if any sustained activity. Instead I’ll just listen to the radio while I putz around the house.

There are no commercials on any of the XM music channels. Who knows if this will last, but it’s awesome. The variety is also really nice. Imagine radio stations where you can actually hear The Smiths, REM, and many other things that never make it to the radio. You can view the complete channel listing here. My favorite channels on XM are:

1. Hank’s Place (vintage country) I like old country tunes. They’re sentimental and often exquisitely morose.
2. Fred (classic and classic brit alternative) This is where you hear the Morrissey and Depeche Mode.
3. Ask! This is expert-type call-in radio where people call in for advice, etc. My favorite host is Bruce Williams, who is very wise especially when it comes to financial and legal advice.

Here’s an interesting piece of software I saw mentioned on Gizmodo. It basically converts XM radio content from your XM Satellite Radio XM PCR computer device to mp3.

Two very important people in my life are in the process of launching their own businesses. My father just started a security company in San Antonio called Intrepid-PI. He basically gets contracts from hotels and businesses to provide security. I should have a website done for him here soon.

My friend, Sab, is starting his own hair salon down on South Congress. It’s going to be called Primp Salon and it will be located just south of Magnolia Cafe, which I think will be a great location. If you live in Austin you should give him a try. He’s a good man and thorough.

Anyway, I’m proud of both of them and it provides an inspirational example to us all. Here’s one of my favorite quotations on the subject and it popped into my head today when Sab was telling me about how he went down to the AG’s office to incorporate:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.