Categories
Digital Culture

I just got off the phone with

I just got off the phone with my sister.

My grandmother just had a heart attack. She’s 74.

She’s recovering, and it doesn’t appear that she’s in danger right now.

I’m not sure how to feel yet. Relieved that it’s not worse, or scared to death that it happened.

Categories
Digital Culture

Realized that this blog is bec

Realized that this blog is becoming very random. I suppose that’s a good thing, since I’m kind of doing this for myself moreso than other people.

So, in the grand Blog tradition: a list of favorites….

Right now, I’m listening to probably my favorite band: Counting Crows. Got hooked on them with August and Everything After, and just love their use of language, Adam’s voice, and the layers that the now HUGE band create musically (they’ve got like 7 members currently…3 guitars, drummer, bass, Charlie, who plays everything from accordian to keyboards…and of course, Adam on vocals, ocassionally harmonica and piano).

So I’m listening to them, and trying to make sense out of RSS and XML feeds. It’s not often that I run across a tech acronym that I don’t know, but RSS was one of them. I’m fixing that now, hopefully.

Categories
Digital Culture

Blog MeetUp last night…very,

Blog MeetUp last night…very, very interesting stuff. Discussion about the reason for the blog explosion, the interesting social implications, the voyeuristic side of reading blogs (as well as the exhibitionist side of writing in one). Lots of interesting stuff.

In other thoughts…trying to plan for the summer. Lots of travel options, just have to work the finances out.

Categories
Digital Culture

Currently awaiting the Blog me

Currently awaiting the Blog meeting at Strong’s coffee in downtown Chapel Hill. Should be interesting, and will report later (maybe during!).

Categories
Digital Culture

have a handful of stories in m

have a handful of stories in my head now…one having something to do with geomancy and a character who discovers that they are one, and another having something to do with the grail myth. Both fall squarely in the genre fiction realm, and as such I’m a little wierd about getting them going. Anytime I start anything genre, I always end up thinking that it would work better as a short stories.

Categories
Digital Culture

Been thinking about story a lo

Been thinking about story a lot lately.This tends to happen when I read an author that I love, and Gibson certainly counts in that regard. Thinking of plots, characters…how to string them together. Person and perspective.

What it comes down to is that I really do need to find time and try to make myself write.

Need to write fiction, that is, not blog.

🙂

Categories
Digital Culture

Well…after a half inch or so

Well…after a half inch or so of ice and sleet, we’re stuck at home today. No school, and probably not a lot of moving until the stuff melts…a chance to catch up on some work and get some stuff done.

Categories
Digital Culture

I was attempting to make any s

I was attempting to make any sense out of some of the recent political events here in the US, and I found that framing them with Orwell has become just a little to appropriate.

Ministry of Peace:

We spend the better part of 2 years looking for bin Laden. When it becomes clear that hunting down one man isn’t what our military is trained for, we are told that Saddam is the real enemy. I have only seen ONE report on the major news networks about the recent bin Laden tape broadcast on al jazeera, but daily updates about the upcoming war in Iraq.

It seems that even now we are seeing the switching of opponents at will.

In addition, we get our dose of Two Minute Hate in our little terrorism scale…want the public to jump? Up the “threat”.

Ministry of Information:

I suppose that everyone saw the report by some in the government that Duct Tape and plastic sheeting was a good thing to have around in case of a terrorist action involving a dirty bomb or biological agents.

First off, as someone who worked in a pathological microbiology lab for the better part of 4 years, I can ASSURE you that the likelyhood of a modified smallpox virus caring that you have plastic over your windows is next to nothing. Unless you plan on locking yourself in for several months, and recycling your own air supply (and water….)….this is just ludicrous. But I suppose if you tell the plebes what it takes to scare them, it does make it easier to predict their behavior.

I have yet to see even one report on the major news networks questioning the upcoming war.

*double sigh*

Categories
Digital Culture

Uneventful Saturday, thu

Uneventful Saturday, thus far. Hoping to go see Daredevil this evening, but don’t have firm plans yet. Been working on homepage and rescuing all of my old web projects (like the wedding page I did, as well as the HIVEMIND website for my Raw Deal group).

Also working on a project for classes on anonymity on the web….checking how good certain anonymity products are.

Categories
Digital Culture

New website

So I’ve decided to gather a bunch of the web stuff I’ve done over the last bunch of years and link them all together from my homepage.

To that end: www.unc.edu/~griffey/

I’ll be slowly putting everything together over the weekend…we’ll see how quickly it comes together.