Category: Blogging

Hmmm. Most popular “searches” on my site this month: “no I don’t love blog gossip” and “gossip sucks.” I guess someone doesn’t appreciate my sense of humour. I wish they would just email me instead of being so cryptic. Oh well, since they don’t love blog gossip, they probably haven’t come back. Not that I really traffic in gossip. I mean, certainly nothing hurtful. I was just speculating on a semi-famous person’s career plans. Just trust me on this one, no harm was intended.

Another popular search item was “Iran Maiden.” Now, I know I’m being optimistic, but it seems wonderful that many web surfers are trying to find out more about this elusive crime fighting woman. Or, maybe those rock dudes just don’t spell too good.

Are you being psychologically tortured by the government? Attacked by flying saucers? Watching too many episodes of the X-files?

Take the Personality Test over at TheSpark.com. The cool thing is you can see how compatible you are with other people who have taken the test. Enter my email address: james@SPAMBLOCKconsolationchamps.com at the end and see if we can still be friends.

I’m really enjoying John Heilemann’s article in this month’s Wired about the Microsoft antitrust case. It’s extremely well researched, as he had access to almost everyone over a period of several years. Fascinating look behind the high-tech business world. Buy Wired now or wait until November 14 and use the link to read it online.

Not sure if anyone’s taking bets, but I’d say Jason Kottke is going to San Francisco to work for Pyra. My guess is he’ll fill Derek Powazek‘s recently departed shoes there in a creative capacity. Anyone know anything? (don’t you love blog gossip?)

First, it was Heather. Now, Jeffrey Zeldman. All these people writing such heartbreaking things about their mothers. I may have to actually sit down and write something about mine.

In the meantime, go and read. Heather’s loss was a long time ago, but she made it seem uncomfortably fresh. And Zeldman’s piece nearly made me cry. Thank you both.

Hey, I liked what Shmuel had to say about personal expression on the web. He was responding to what Derek said. Both of them are very good writers with spiffy web sites. And Derek, I’m sorry to hear about your hard drive crash. Buy a cheap CD-R drive and just back up your email folders once a week. Of course, do I practice what I preach? Only occasionally…

I’ve just removed my first post from this blog. I made a rather lame joke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was trying to be satirical, but now I just feel dirty. I know there are people with very strong feelings on these issues, and I respect that. I just don’t think there are any easy answers in a conflict that has been brewing for thousands of years. The weight of history, of tradition, is just so crushing to these people, and to any people involved in ethnic or religious wars. Sometimes I wish we could all just forget about the past, our collective history, our personal stories, and just meet each other for the first time again. I know it’s naive, but when history and tradition are told from so many different angles, it’s no wonder we’ll never agree.