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  • “Duty, assuming all tasks, can betray arrogance. The idea we can know what must be done, and do it properly. We cannot know the future, my friend. It claims so much to imagine we can. And the world is not broken any more than it always, always is” — Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven

    → 9:39 PM, May 18   •  quote, Guy Gavriel Kay, reading
  • Writing Every So Often: The Personal Essay Makes A Comeback | John Battelle's Search Blog

    In the blog-only era of the early 2000s, folks like me had our personal site, and we also watched a set of sites that we truly followed. RSS was our Twitter, and we carefully pruned a list of other folks who we’d check each day. I let about 40 or so “voices into my brain” each day, and those voices mattered to me, a lot. Most of us even created “blogrolls” – links to folks we felt were worthy of attention (really – remember those?!). And when someone wrote something noteworthy, others in the network might write a response, always with a link back.

     

    This pattern still happens, of course – that’s what I’m doing now. But it happens far less regularly, and without the clear social network that used to define communities of blogs.

    via Writing Every So Often: The Personal Essay Makes A Comeback | John Battelle’s Search BlogJohn Battelle’s Search Blog.

    I am slowly diving back into Google Reader AND reblogging items. That brief spurt of G+ sharing got some nice conversations, but… I do want things on my own site.

    Still a bit of schizophrenia about when to post here vs. when to post at links.bmannconsulting.com.

    → 11:48 PM, Dec 5   •  quote, This is Awesome, reblog, blogging, John Batelle, Blog
  • Myth of the Marvelous Ingredient

    [I] remind everyone not to be too hung up upon the Myth of the Marvelous Ingredient. Sure, the fresher the better, and yes, starting out with marvelous ingredients helps, but...you still have to cook. It´s annoying and patronizing and plain stupid to convince people that unless the produce was harvested within a mile of them by vestal virgins they needen´t even bother to start.
    via lobstersquad.blogspot.com

    The hardest part of cooking good food (after you've done all you can to buy good ingredients) is … cooking.

    And there are two parts to that cooking. There is the "I've got extra time on the weekend, let's make something special cooking", and there is "I need to cook tasty meals every day of the week".

    I'm home sick for the second day. I made myself soup yesterday, and it didn't taste very good. A cooking screw up hurts even more when you don't have the energy for a do over.

    → 8:08 AM, Aug 23   •  Personal, cooking, Food, quote, Blog
  • We need to make the FUTURE work, & the best way to do that is to be engaged in the present /via @chriscorrigan

    The most useful conversations to me have been the ones where we kick around ideas, blue sky, dream a little, roll our sleeves up and try and figure out numbers or options.  Not because we need to make a park work but because we need to make the FUTURE work, and the best way to do that is to be engaged in the present.
    via bowenislandjournal.blogspot.com

    I am so glad that Chris is part of my hometown (Bowen Island) social fabric.

    → 10:19 AM, Feb 22   •  Personal, quote, Bowen Island, Blog
  • The murder of nature upon your very soul

    What must it be like to have the murder of nature upon your very soul? To have sacrificed all the world’s creatures for your own kind, and thereby lost your souls more completely than by any evil magic?

    Storm Seed, by Janet & Chris Morris, p 194

    → 5:05 PM, Jul 10   •  Personal, book, quote, Thieves World, fantasy, Storm Seed, Blog
  • The altar that was the shore at the end of time

    The god had been looking for a heart in the city, a heart that was worthy, a heart that knew true worship. And the god had found such a heart, and a voice that called upon Him without greed or demand, without wheedling or whining.

    The heart of the prophecy did Enlil find in the stable while the storm raged, upon the altar that was the shore at the end of time.

    But though the prophecy was fulfilled upon that moment, the humbling of the city had just begun.

    “City at the Edge of Time”, by Janet & Chris Morris, p189

    → 4:58 PM, Jul 10   •  Personal, book, quote, Thieves World, fantasy, City at the Edge of Time, Blog
  • I accidentally bought the fourth in a series /via @akalsey

    No wonder this book is full of unexplained backstory. I accidentally bought the fourth in a series.
    via twitter.com

    → 10:25 PM, Jan 29   •  Personal, book, quote, Blog
  • Anything but elves and trolls /via @rtanglao

    the epic quests set in Tolkien-inspired fantasy universes have gotten really boring to me.  Give me sci fi, superheroes, or asian animism, anything but elves and trolls.
    via terranova.blogs.com

    A long post on looking for more new NEW in games. I think gaming is still catching up to the wild creativity of the web, and yes, some sort of Second Life-level piece of player interaction is going to be the more interesting space.

    All the comments about City of Heroes makes me want to kick the tires on it.

    Incidentally, gaming isn't going to go on my tech asides, it's going to go here.

    → 9:26 PM, Jan 11   •  Personal, quote, City of Heroes, gaming, Blog
  • They're tunnelling TCP/IP over AD&D!


    Halting State

    by <a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3189644/search/query?product=book&amp;q=Charles+Stross">Charles Stross</a><br />
    

    → See this at Amazon.com

    via allconsuming.net

    “They’re tunnelling TCP/IP over AD&D!” is one of the most amazing quotes I’ve ever read in a book. And the book is very good, covering ARGs and a future networked world very believably.

    → 9:12 AM, Jan 11   •  Personal, book, quote, Charles Stross, Halting State, Blog
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