8.31.2005

On blogs and anniversaries

Today is Blog Day, to which I've committed to sharing five blogs with the blogosphere. So I'm sharing the following:

John Martin's A Day in the Life: because I digress, often, and John understands that. It's so important to be accepted for the ditz one is. John has been blogging for at least five years, I believe, and has been working in the "new" field of information technology for over 25. He is one of my brilliant classmates in the Tech Comms program at NC State, and inspires me with his commitment to blogging, often, and his commitment to excellence in his classes. He always gives 110% to class and that pushes the rest of us to work harder and get the most out of our education. Or else why do it? John is also uncompromisingly himself. Thanks for blogging, John.

Jason Swartz' coherent fragments: because Jason is blogging, hurray! His blog is turning into an experiment about experiments in networking, writing, and communicating via electronic space . . . I think. His class on Online Information Design at NC State was challenging, interesting, fun, and timely. Also he is a music geek, too, which is cool.

Kevin Smith's My Boring-Ass Life: I'm really glad Kevin Smith is blogging, even though he doesn't quite the immediacy of the medium. He's been journalling, and then posting entries a week at a time. I love his writing, but the immediacy goes right out of it, so it feels deflated. I want to encourage him though. Go visit his blog and tell him to blog DAILY.

Dave Pollard's How to Save the World: I do not always agree with Pollard, but his thoughts are always complex and challenging and he shares them often. Sometimes it is hard to keep up with him, but he always presents ideas with fresh perspectives and a healthy dose of "why not?"

Ear Fuzz: A blog about music by four guys who live in London, Berkeley, San Diego and Montreal. They post about music old and new and share a lot of music with the world. I love the concept of mp3 blogs, and I'd like to set up my own if I could figure out how to do it the way they do it - and if I had the time to figure it out. I think I'd do a bunch of world music on mine. Lately they've been posting a lot of funk from the 60s and 70s along with the science they're dropping. To use an old-hat expression, their shit is dope.

By Lloyd Lemons: A marketing writer. You know, I do this stuff for a living, too, and I've read a lot of crappy marketing blogs. Lloyd and Hugh MacLeod are the guys I read everytime they post. Oops, and that's six. It's good to give.

Today was our one-year anniversary. We decided to always celebrate it by going someplace we had never been before. Tonight we went to Gino Russo's Oyster Bar in Raleigh. I liked it, nice atmosphere, at least while we were there. I can't vouch for karoake because I'd rather barf than sit through that. When we were walking out a guy in a tux with tails was walking in and I thought, "this place might get strange here in a minute." I did think, though, that for the quality of the food the prices were a bit on the high side. Although they did a fabulous job on my Chilean Sea Bass, and the caesar salad dressing was to die for, Richard's lobster tail was a bit tough and dessert was just ordinary. A very attractive interior with a beautiful floor and color scheme. Probably one thing that kind of made it hard was being distracted by the bar tv which had non-stop Katrina disaster on. It's hard not to feel enormously guilty when you are dry, comfortable, and eating sea bass while people are without homes, food, water, or future. 2.3 million people without power. There's just no words for what's going on down there that aren't trite, so I won't try. I am still happy to be married, though; and very grateful to be in Raleigh.

Richard and I also agreed that our best experiences during our first year together were going to the NCSU basketball games, and how much we look forward to year 2 of our marriage playing out in 21 or so games in the RBC Center, preferably with lots of stunning, heart-stopping victories.

posted by mktackabery @ 19:46 1 comments

8.30.2005

In the shadow no longer

I suppose I can understand why no one has faith in Ilian Evtimov. For the past four years, he’s been one of the guys in Julius Hodge’s louder, albeit thinner, shadow. Ilian is slower and the epitome of patience, the guy who could make something happen when no one was looking; Julius was brash, bold, and fell all over himself to make things happen just when everyone was paying attention. Ilian did not push out there and make mistakes. Julius pushed out there and made mistake after mistake, and we loved him for it. Ilian was out on the perimeter making threes and eyeballing the defense, watching for holes; Julius was pushing in the paint and creating holes. Ilian spent a year on the bench in a cast and another year with big heavy braces on his knees and lots of questions. Last year, when Julius seemed unable to make anything happen, Ilian did not seem to step up to the spotlight in the eyes of some. He is constantly being labeled as bigger and slower, European, quieter, as if this in someway makes him a lower-caliber player than Julius. Writers talk about the four languages Ilian speaks as if he’s a museum exhibit – our European player, look what a strange specimen he is - and continue to push him to the outside; a subtle but powerful marginalization. I’m sure he’s quite sick of being asked if his knees are alright, and being asked When? When are you going to . . . ? When is Ilian going to step up?

And so, with the departure of Julius and basketball season still a few months away but schedules released and tickets on sale, we have sportswriters, who can’t think outside any box other than the ones they create, starting to ask the obvious question: who takes Julius’ place? As if Ilian is not already standing there. Okay, one sportswriter so far, but I’m pretty sure he’s not going to be the only one.

What I find sad about all of this, besides the obvious ignorance of Ilian’s talent which is prodigious, is that Ilian is not seen as unique in the same way that Julius is viewed, when he obviously is. He is obviously different than most of the players in the ACC. He has overcome what is perceived as weaknesses by creating (and even resurrecting) shots and opportunities based on what he can do, and learned ways to capitalize on his strengths.

When we go the games we get there early because I like to watch the drills. I like to see the players and what they are working on, and the expressions on their faces. Are they paying attention, or are they all over the place? Are they focused, or looking into the stands for someone with a camera? And what are they doing? Are they hitting their shots? At every pre-game drill last year, Ilian was working on that old-school baby hook, or reverse layup, or whatever the hell it’s called, and making threes, and concentrating with this furrowed look of intensity; always standing out because he was doing something different. He also always watches the other players and knows exactly where they are. And when he’s on the court during regulation, and he pulls those no-look passes as if he’s got eyes in the back of his head, that’s why. Ilian has cultivated his differences and made them work for him. He hasn’t tried to mold himself into an “American” player, whatever that is. He is himself; that’s artistry. Last year, after all of the games, Tony Haynes is always interviewing him, because he understands the system and he knows where it didn’t work or did work. He understands the game objectively and he doesn’t take things personally, especially when the team doesn’t perform. I can’t look into the locker room to see how this translates into leadership. But it’s time for the team to respect his smarts, even if the writers, and even most of the fans, can’t. He’s been there the longest and he knows what they have to do to make it work.

So where am I going with all of this? I think Ilian is a great player, and a confident player, but one who existed, because he didn’t have much choice, in the shadow of someone whose billing was set before he even stepped foot on campus in Raleigh. And now that the shadow has disappeared, I believe he is going to shine out brightly. I believe it will be his difference that will shine out, because it couldn’t be seen before, and I believe he can take a lot of people by surprise. Just like the end of last season, we are going to be the team that nobody takes seriously until it’s too late. Ilian is going to be the major reason why.

Just get some sleep and be yourself, Ilian, and everything else will work itself out.

posted by mktackabery @ 09:57 0 comments

8.10.2005

Boss Tool for JobSeekers

Indeed is a job site that is free for jobseekers. Advertisers pay for their ads based on clicks. It pulls from all over the internet. Best of all, you can subscribe to your favorite job searches via RSS feed and pull the results into your blogreader, like I do with Bloglines, or MyMSN, or MyYahoo!, or any other service. I found 264 jobs for with "PhD" and "technical communications."

This tool is just plain brilliant. I would think it would be a very good tool for advertisers too.

posted by mktackabery @ 18:17 0 comments

Blogday

I will be blogging on BlogDay 2005 and posting about 5 blogs that I like. If you have a blog or know of cool blogs you want other people to know about, consider doing it yourself.

posted by mktackabery @ 12:27 0 comments

8.08.2005

I have to rant, I just have to . . .

. . . because when I ask for help from a help desk I want friggin' HELP. I don't think this is so much to ask.

I have been the STC webmaster for two months now. It took six weeks for the administrator of student organizations to get our student organization listed as an active organization. It took two weeks, once that happened, for the IS Help Desk to add my unity ID and password to the organization's webspace permissions so I could access the webspace. Throughout this ordeal I continually asked WHERE exactly that webspace was. Emails have flown back and forth, but slowly. Like albatross slow.

I found out on a Friday evening that my id and password would now allow me access to the webspace to edit files. Still no word as to where in the hell that webspace is exactly. I think, okay, I will just go digging for it. Big mistake. I go digging and get continually hung up and have to log off and log back in and search some more. Imagine how many webspace users there are at North Carolina State University. I'll give you a hint: 35,000 students (thank you). Among all the folders that I just spent half an hour navigating is not ONE labeled "student organizations" or "student orgs" or any other variable thereof.

It's a simple friggin' question! I sent an email back Friday night asking for help to access the webspace. I figured I just needed to know the folder name so I could access via ftp. I get back (three days later - you know, some people don't work weekends. Like, I don't know, all of NC State University, apparently. But I digress . . .) canned instructions for how to navigate the folders on the unity folder via ftp and lots of nice links to software that I already have and am quite aware how to use. In the words of the great Charlie Brown . . . I can't stand it!

So I'm sending another email back. Hopefully I'll get an answer back by the end of the week. The website is ready to go. Has been for nine weeks now. Jeez. Please, can I get a folder name? How hard is this question? Is anyone in help actually helpful?

Breathe deep and imagine yourself in a place where people actually work for a living. Aaaahhhhh.

posted by mktackabery @ 18:58 2 comments

8.06.2005

Waste some time

This is not an ad. It's something called internet art. Big fun.

posted by mktackabery @ 10:49 1 comments

8.05.2005

The upside of anguish

I received a link to this article in the Christian Science Monitor today because I have a Google news alert set up for anti-depressant medications of all types. Because anti-depressant use is so prevalent in our society, I regularly receive alerts for articles that have no direct relevance on the content I produce on drug recalls and other news for farrin.com. When Tom Cruise was in attack mode on the "pseudo-science" of psychiatry, I got about fifty alerts a day on that topic (and Brooke Shields' reaction, and psychiatry's reaction, and a million blog posts about the topic, but I digress), for example.

Why are we all so unhappy? I had reason to ponder this Wednesday night while I was channel-surfing from my comfy couch. Richard was playing Strat-O-Matic and I was catching up on quality time with my cats, who have been spending a lot of time yelling at me lately. I come home from class and it's whine whine whine (but it sounds like, miaow miaow miaow). But anyway . . . There wasn't a damned thing worthwhile on tv - it's the summer and it's all reality show re-runs. I flipped to the music channels - MTV2, MTV16, whatever . . . something called Fuse. There were a bunch of hip-hop shows on. I flipped around for about half an hour watching rap videos, marveling at the fact that videos have gone absolutely nowhere since somewhere in the mid-80s. At some point, videos stopped innovating anything. They are all bright, shiny, brilliant wastes of cash. Every single rap video I saw had three or four guys in long shorts and longer bling, lounging by pools or cruising in expensive cars. Women in bikinis (well, if you could call it that. There was no real fabric. They were more like judicious use of strings wrapped around flesh) strolled around in impossible heels (those are the kind that women cannot actually WALK in). The songs were about getting laid, getting high, and getting paid. They were so boring I nearly fell asleep.

When did rap get so commercial it's boring? Lord, I'm sounding old. But that's not what I want to rant about. It's the pointlessness of it all. The pointlessness of trying to achieve THAT -- whatever that is -- instant cash, a ridiculously expensive car you can't actually drive anywhere, not at the speeds for which it is designed anyway, women doing nothing but getting tanned and objectified, more jewelry, cash, multiple phones, lots of hats and pants. What's the point? No wonder all the people in the videos look, well, bored. It is boring. Life is only worthwhile when it's interesting, and it's only interesting if it's hard. If it's challenging. If you use your brain. If you make mistakes. If you fuck up repeatedly, fall down, get back up.

I went to Chavis last night for the championship game. It was great. People getting all worked up for what is, essentially, not worth much in the eyes of the world. By "the world," I mean the money-seeking materialistic machine that we all get caught up in. There's nothing essentially worthwhile about winning a summer rec league championship. What do you get, in the end? Bragging rights, a bunch of kids thinking you're a hero. Oh, and maybe passing on the passion for the game of basketball. The passion of learning a skill, getting good at it, making something happen. Accomplishing a win with nothing much more than your body and your will. On the way home Richard and I talked about the minor-league basketball team Chucky Brown is supposed to be starting up this year (we believe he's coaching; I have to find out more about it). I thought about all the championship dreams in the eyes of all the guys who are trying to make something happen through being ballplayers. About all the guys who don't make it to the NBA. Why would guys play minor-league ball? Why, for that matter, would Chucky Brown bust his ass in a summer rec league? Because it must mean something to him. Something about passing on something that has added to and shaped his life. Something that means more than longer bling and being a star for about five seconds before you fade away.

Something that works better than any pill may ever do. I acknowledge that drugs help psychiatry and they help people get over problems. They helped me get past the horror of my despair. But the upside of the anguish I suffered is that I found other ways to work through it, too. Ways that gave me something to hang on to more than just the quest for mo' money. They were the harder, longer way. And the stronger. MJ eventually got the cars, the jewels, the whatever . . . but if that was the goal I don't think he ever would have gotten out of that high-school gym when he was a sophomore in high school. Do you?

posted by mktackabery @ 08:40 0 comments