Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Follower Failure
September 08, 2009

I’ve been reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. I’m not actually that far into the book yet, so there’s time for him to come back around, but as yet, I’m finding a lot in the book to disagree with.

Yesterday’s discovery of Dooce’s clotheswasher issues have added to my dismay. I’m taking a completely different angle than the readers she complains about. Really, I’m not complaining about her at all – I’m glad she got her washer issues sorted out. But in a similar way to what irritates me about Here Comes Everybody, she makes a point to say that the power of Twitter that we should all use is one that empowers the common man to make changes for the good.

I Start Writing Again, Do You Care?
September 05, 2009

When I started writing this blog way back in the ancient times, I was using it to write. Sure, a lot of it was opiniony stuff, but there were a few poems and stories. It’s something I enjoy doing.

Over the years, I’ve kind of stopped posting that stuff here. I think this is primarily because I think the audience of my site here would be confused about it. When I have posted fiction in the past amidst regular opinionated content, it has seriously confused regular readers, who have commented in what reads to me as humorous, but really isn’t a kind way to treat readers.

Travel Prep
September 05, 2009

Here comes the busiest conference time of the year - September. Apart from school starting, which probably merits its own posting (assuming I can ever get back into the swing of regular writing on this blog), there are any number of conferences to attend this month and next.

This month, I’ve got plane tickets to hit Columbus, Ohio for the Habari Party – an event whose name I’m not fond of, but is good enough for the purposes of celebrating the third year of Habari development. It sure does not seem like it’s been that long. While I’m there, I’ll also be popping by the Columbus PHP Meetup chapter with skippy to pitch Habari in some fashion.

Marginally Insane, Talking to Myself
August 06, 2009

This is likely to be a somewhat odd post from the usual, but better that than nothing. I really need to stop starting my posts with these inane prefaces – you’d certainly get the idea that the post was odd just by reading it, without me having to tell you.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit more frequently lately: I can’t be the only person who has this running internal monologue. Actually, I know I’m not. Other people write about theirs. While I’m not certain I’m different, I have noticed on occasion that some people’s monologues stop. They stop frequently.

Zucchini Yield
August 03, 2009

We’ve had a reasonable year with the garden so far. The tomatoes seem to be eeking by. Every so often, one of them will just go bad. There seem to be enough that are good to bother keeping them. We keep spraying and hoping for the best. But the zucchini is outrageous.

I guess maybe you’re not supposed to let them grow this big? These things are easily at least the size of my calf. I suppose we could have picked them earlier, but then what would we do with it? It’s a paradox. You pick them small, then you get them too frequently to do anything with them. You leave them on the plant and pick them when you’re ready, you end up with giant zucchinis that you can’t do anything practical with.