Removing the Back(b)log
I’ve been reading much more than writing, having gone through about half of the sci-fi volumes ordered two months ago. But: blogging is writing, and writing is a skill like playing a sport or musical instrument that requires practice, experimentation and regular exercise. In various email exchanges with Cory Doctorow I’ve asked him how he [...]
The Cost of Freedom
I can only count one contemporary killed in active military duty — my middle school and high school classmate Steve Voight, the subject of one of my very first blog entries. While I’ve had family members who served in active duty in both World Wars, I and my own peers have been a bit young [...]
Summer Writing Projects
Writing is much like a sport: if you don’t exercise and practice regularly, you start to flail and eventually struggle to find even a few worthy ideas. My work blog has suffered from lack of attention for the past two months as travel, business management and lack of attention conspire to make it harder to [...]
180 Feet on 5 Legs
Whenever we teach “teamwork” to our kids or employees, we always imply that it’s intra-team work. And when we teach players to establish goals, far too often we imply winning or awards, rather than simple objectives that demonstrate improvement in any aspect of the game. This video segment from ESPN shows what happens when team [...]
Goat Rodeo
One of my co-workers refers to anything that involves confusion, lack of leadership, conflicting goals, and mild amounts of directionless meandering as a “goat rodeo.” That’s the best metaphor for the New York Yankees right now. A-Rod and Posada are hurt (hey, A-Rod, for $275 million dollars, try staying in shape in the off-season); the [...]
Team Asthma
Got this incredibly slick stick from Meredith Gran, author of the Octopus Pie online comic. She asked readers to send her hand-written notes so she could see others’ scribbles; what we got back was a personalized note backing mass-produced iconography. “Team Asthma” is how my wife has referred to my hockey endeavors over the years, [...]
Elias Scores, Halpern’s Sore, Israelis Need More
Patrik Elias had a goal and an assist for the Czech Republic as it became the first team to beat Switzerland in the World Championships. It’s amazing how productive Elias can be when you move him back to wing, and pair him up with a center who feeds him the puck like warm kolac. Meanwhile, [...]
“Little Brother” Release
Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother has been released, and if happen to have anyone in the teenage (oops, Milennial) generation in your house, make this required reading. Doctorow loves to borrow titles and ideas from his favorite writers, turn them on their proverbial listening ear, and remix them with his own view of near-present reality, and [...]
Bye-Bye, Rangers
Today I experienced the delight ususally reserved for watching Duke basketball lose to North Carolina. The Rangers were out-gunned, out-hit and out-hustled for all but about 3 minutes of today’s Game 5, and they got bounced by the Penguins. It’s becoming increasingly easy to cheer for the Penguins, as they generate excitement rather than controversy. [...]
Self-Fulfilling Prophesies and Typos
I check the logs on this blog every few days just to get a sense of what kind of topics generate traffic, and how people find my blog amidst the millions of voices on the net. I’ve discovered some interesting and perhaps perturbing truths: Google AdSense is really self-referential. Before rebuilding this site, I had [...]