What song or lyrics are stuck in your head at the moment? What album is it from?
Submitted by Lox Ly.
"Sister" by She Wants Revenge has been stuck in my head all day, mostly for the main guitar riff. Although, the lyrics are pretty twisted.
Moving out here has been so simultaneously extraordinary and mundane. Settling into the new apartment and daily routines has been same as anywhere - only there are unexpected hills on the horizon and the names of half of everything have changed. We haven't had the chance to get out socially much yet, so all the acquaintances I've made online remain as relatively equidistant as they were 3 months ago. But, I keep reminding myself that so many of my blogospheric contacts are real-world neighbors now.
I got happily married, changed jobs, and effectively changed countries with a move from the midwest to the west coast. It's a lot to process, and my mind's trying to grasp at the familiar and map everything else exotic onto a predictable metaphor. My mind resists further change, it feels like. I'm going to have to watch myself for signs of hermitage and social avoidance, though, hoping that the momentum of this world shift can carry me past old habits. This is an opportunity for self-revision while the situation remains elastic, and I'm hoping to make a few long-needed alterations.
I'm trying to keep cool, but on some days I just want to spaz out like the starry-eyed new-kid-on-the-block that, in part, I am. I mean, consider the extraordinary: In June, I was married in Michigan to the girl of my dreams, and tonight I'm sleeping in the Silicon Valley toward which I've gazed nearly since birth. But, remember the mundane: I'm riding the bus to work, hacking code daily and helping douse occasional server fires.
But of course, even the bus commute is a bit out-of-bounds for my post-Detroit car-bound normality and the work I'm doing rests within a surreal frame. I mean, my job is to work on the thing about which I just spent a period of months in my basement writing a book.
Bah, you see my oscillations here? Maybe if you grab me by the shoulders, I'll make that clicking sound fans make when you hold them in place.
Listening to an IT Conversations podcast of the Prosumer Media session at Web 2.0. Among other things, I hear Mena Trott talking about Vox (nee Comet). One thing she's talking about are the benefits of small and intimate audiences for one's
communication. This echoes another presentation given by
Anil Dash, about social networking and audience reach.
I've certainly been looking around for a closer-knit blogging community smaller than the whole blogosphere for awhile now. I had that for awhile at LiveJournal, and still might - but I've fallen out of the habit of posting in that neighborhood. And, as I just linked, I found another small community over in OPML-space. But, again, I've wandered away from there a bit - this time mostly due to recent major life events, overhauls, and happy disruptions. What's my point? Not sure, but I have found a lot of reward from smaller venues.
Another thing Mena was talking about was the importance of keeping people who've signed up engaged. In relation to that, again, I seem to wander away from communities after awhile. I'm sure a large chunk of it has to do with my personal combination of early adopter and serial enthusiast. So, maybe I'm hard to keep around in any case. But, some things I do like around these Vox parts include site-wide memes like the Question of the Day. These things get strong legs on LiveJournal and parts elsewhere.
But, what occurs to me this afternoon, is that I'd like to see more writing prompts. Not memes, per se - and I'm definitely leaving if Vox fills up with cut-and-paste quizzes. But, I'd be interested in more invitations to self-disclosure or plain old interesting writing. Hell, this might sound cheesy or annoying, but I wouldn't mind hooking into some half-serious "assignments" ala English classes I've taken.
Actually, now that I write that, I'm also kind of looking for some creative writing prompts in shared blogging form. Flash fiction, character sketches, etc. I wonder if something like that would fly around here? I've been getting finally serious about pushing some finished fiction out into the world is something I'm trying do, lately to the exception of my usual hacking sprees.
Anyway: rambling now - time to post.
What's your favorite way to keep in touch? Phone, snail mail, email, text message, Vox, _____ ?
I'm best with IM and email, with some lurking in IRC. I've been picking up text messaging over the last few years, but otherwise I'm no good on the phone. My wife and my mom are pretty much the only people who hear from me on the talky-talky part of my cell phone, and even that's a bit rare.
How can anyone be goth in California? There's dry air, cloudless skies, and a decided lack of gloom. With the exception of some pretty gigantic spiders spinning night webs near our apartment, certainly none of these things evoke visions of mouldering tombs or rot, per se. I suppose one could ignite such sentiments with a decent kindling pile of teen angst - but it just really doesn't seem like a sustainable state, no matter how much Robert Smith and early Sisters of Mercy you've got on hand.
I thought I was in for an overcast day earlier this week, but that cloud cover burned off by 10 am. It was just long enough to get a little homesick, listen to a few moody songs on the bus, and then it was all but dispelled.
Being an avowed SAD case, I really wonder how winter here will treat me? I wonder if I'll still have the January/February Blues and write bad disposable poetry and journal entries - or will I be somewhat chipper and write even worse stuff?
She Wants Revenge sounds a lot like the son of Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy. Cloudy day reminds me of michigan.
What was the last wedding you went to? Were you in the wedding?
The last wedding to which I went was my own, this past June 9th. And, of course, I was in it and deliriously happy to be there. At this point, though, my lovely bride and I are waiting for the video to arrive once the videographer has finished her editing - because neither of us remembers much at all of the event itself. We have photos, but the whole night sped past in an unbelievable blur.
How well do you know your next-door neighbors?
I don't know them at all, having just moved a month ago. But then again, I've never known my neighbors very well, anywhere I've lived since college. I knew our neighbors about a block away at the last place, but then they were already friends who helped us find the place to begin with. I was very good friends with all the surrounding neighbors in my college dorm. Of course, we all used to keep our doors open then, and we played euchre and Magic the Gathering in the hallways then.
Listening to The Writing Show podcast. They're talking about The Networked Book. This excites me. Now I just have to get back to more writing that can be networked.
What's your morning beverage of choice? Coffee, tea, juice? Homemade or store-bought?
Coffee, of course. That's the boring answer for a guy who's got a blog at decafbad.com. I make a pot at home most mornings, drink at least 2 cups. Then, it's off to work at Yahoo!, where the coffee is free. So, here I bounce between plain house coffee and triple-lattes.
Yes, my entire adrenaline system is completely shot.
Vox needs more memes. And cowbell.
