Unfortunately, this means there is little excuse to not drag my butt away from the computer and get some yard work done.

Damn!

Actually, it was nice to spend a couple hours outside doing something more physical than depressing keys on a keyboard. I actually had to use my legs and my non-mouse arm! How revolutionary!

Today was a perfect yard-work day: In the low 70s and sunny; slight breeze.

Tomorrow is spoze to be more of the same, but I will be doing more bits & bytes work than horticultural efforts.

Very tired. In a terminal manner.

Few (recent) posts.

Understand?

A co-worker is currently appearing in a community theater production of Guys and Dolls, so I went to see it yesterday evening.

Opening night – on Friday the 13th – what could possibly go wrong?

How about the building losing power less than two hours before curtain?

Yep.

But they were able to get power (a generator) out there fairly quickly, and the curtain only rose about 30 minutes late.

And it was a great production – some really good voices in the leads, and a fun story, overall. I had no clue about what the play was about going into it (yes, I had heard of it; I’m just not a big musical guy); very enjoyable.

A good time was had by all…

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday (announced today, I believe).

I worked in a library all through high school, and – while a fiendish reader – never touched Vonnegut. Breakfast of Champions was big then – I remember shelving it in the New Fiction section.

A book named after the Wheaties tagline? Sounds dopey to me…

My roommate in college – sophomore year – had a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five. I read it, as I’d read anything.

I was captivated.

Read a bunch of Vonnegut – not all, but a bunch.

Yes, the comparisons to Twain do hold up, yet he also divined basic truths – hard truths – more straightforwardly than Twain, who just used humor and juxtaposition.

“You’re still in touch. I guess that’s the test.”

“Barely–barely.”

“A psychiatrist could help. There’s a good man in Albany.”

Finnerty shook his head. “He’d pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” He nodded, “Big, undreamed-of things — the people on the edge see them first.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

Is there a better succinct comment on genius, and the madness that is often part and parcel of this brilliance? Probably, but this is damn, damn good.

I know you’re an atheist Kurt, but: God bless you, Mr. Rosewater Vonnegut.

Once again, burrowed into that “no time to do anything worth doing” mode.

Bleh.

On the plus side, I gots somes ideas…….

Just need the time, the space and inclination to execute same.

Hello 2010!

Dave Winer’s Scripting.com blog turns 10 today.

Winer claims it’s the longest-running blog currently active; I don’t think there is any one who disputes this.

In terms of Internet Years, where one year on the Internet is like 5/7/10 whatever years due to the rapid advances in technology and the overall nimble and disruptive nature of the ‘net, that’s damn impressive.

I think one of the things that’s remarkable about Winer’s blog is that it has pretty much stayed the same over a decade – and I mean that in a good way. It shows the basic premise he developed – the whole blog concept – can endure.

Happy birthday, scripting.com