The Journal of his Delights

I know I’ve been negligent in updating the Journal, and I don’t know how much longer this extended break last. The breakneck pace of the election season is over and I have more time now, but it feels right to continue to leave this field fallow. It is winter after all, the season for digging in until spring rolls around to break everything open again.

But then again, maybe it won’t take that long. There’s a new blogging opportunity at work, and that’s something I’m required to do. Unless I want to stop eating.

When this new opportunity launches, I’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, please enjoy Turning, the latest submission for Poetry Monday.

You’ll notice that it’s a screenshot. That’s because I didn’t want to hassle with translating the intricate indentation of the line into HTML. I thought that this might be a simpler solution.

Over the weekend, I watched Citizen Dog (Mah nakorn), a Thai film that came out in 2004. A cross between Amelie and I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay, it’s a bright, charming love story that pokes fun at the illusion and disillusionment prevalent in Bangkok.

The story centers around a country boy named Pod who moves to the big city and falls in love with Jin, an obsessive-compusive maid. He follows a winding road in his pursuit, meeting along the way—among others—his grandmother reincarnated as a gecko, an undead motorcycle taxi driver, and a chain-smoking, homeless teddy bear.

Yes, it’s that kind of film. Plus the opening song is catchy. Check it out.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a creation of Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame. Born out of the writer’s strike, Dr. Horrible is three fifteen minute acts jam packed with awesome.

The whole thing is incredibly clever, and Neil Patrick Harris is brilliant as the megalomaniac yet sympathetic super-villain. I even liked the parts where they break out in song, which is quite often (note the title).

You have until Sunday, July 20 to watch all three acts for free online at Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. After that, according to the Master Plan, it’ll be available for download for a nominal fee.

This is a great example of what can be done on a small budget, outside of the Hollywood system, thanks to the Interweb (the real hero in this story).

This is a test of PhotoXhibit for Wordpress. If this works, you’ll have a pleasant flashback of my visit to Dazaifu.

Update: It works! If you click on the images, you get a cool lightbox feature. Even better, you can move from image to image from within the lightbox. Just move your mouse to the upper right or left till the Next/Prev buttons show.

I’m still looking for a theme for the Journal. I don’t want to continue using the old one, Chaotic Soul, because:

1) I want to mark the change in domains, and
2) white on black isn’t very readable and therefore not necessarily a good long term choice.

The current theme (as of this post) is God of Gates, which isn’t bad. I like it a little better now that I’ve figured out how to change the image header. The lotus flowers, by the way, are from Angkor Wat.

Maybe I would like it more if it was a different shade of green? I’ll keep hunting around, so don’t be surprised if things look different from moment to moment.

I also have plans to add a few resources for writers, so you might see some new additions the next time I get an extended break.

This last one (the 4th of July holiday) was amazing — I got so much work done. Moving the site was one part, but there was also a fair amount of writing and several poetry submissions to magazines.

Welcome to the new site! It’s not finished yet — I’m still not entirely happy with the look of things and I’m only half way through fixing all the posts — but like moving into a new apartment, it’s habitable long before all the boxes get unpacked.

I have to head out to help out with my work’s entry to Flugtag, but more later when I get back home.

UPDATE:

All the posts have be updated with tags and categories. I also went through and fixed all the videos. If you happen to spot something that’s not working as intended, just let me know.

So I’ve got a dilemma…

I have a site host all picked out, but before I can sign up, I need to come up with the domain name, and I’m stumped. The obvious choice is to use my name, but something about that puts me off. I’d consider using 3seed, except that someone’s squatting on it.

Colleague and friend, Emily, advises something easily searchable and/or unique, but I’m totally drawing a blank. And I can’t move the site until I nail this down.

Are there any suggestions from the gallery?

It’s been too long since I last updated. Mea culpa.

To be honest, though, the blog was suffering from an identity crisis. I wasn’t sure what I should focus on now that I’m not traveling around the world. My life? My writing? Making a difference in the world, the mundane, the absurd, all of the above, none of the above?

I didn’t have an answer, and I felt the blog needed a framework — some kind of structure to give it meaning. Or if not meaning, then at least a guiding principle or theme. Otherwise it was likely to become an incoherent mess and collection of random perceptions.

So I let the blog lay fallow; to give its landscape a chance to rest and become fertile once more. The result? I still don’t have a proper answer, but I do have the seeds of something; a sense of what I’d like to focus on next.

In the last few years, I’ve been interested in exploring human suffering. That’s one of the original reasons I went to London for the Masters in Development Studies. It’s one of the reasons I worked for over a decade with AI. But, consistent with all the changes in my life, it’s time for something new. Or not really new — more of an evolution.

Timelessness and change. That’s what I’m interested in exploring. I know they’re big topics, but then human suffering wasn’t exactly small either. And I don’t have much more beyond that — just the two seed words. But it’s enough for a start.

Of course, you’ll still get random perceptions, posts about food, photography, geekiness, and the like, but there’ll be a tendency to head in particular directions. And there will also be some changes, including moving the site to my own domain. I’d like to post some of my poetry, and I’d feel better if I had more control over the site.

I’ll also be focusing more on writing; one of the ways I’m changing my life. Also expect to see more posts about advocacy and issues of concern; to help with changing the world for the better. As for the timeless, well… that’ll be harder, but I’m willing to go looking. *grin*

So, I’m sorry for the lack of posts, but I needed to figure out where to head next with the Journal. I hope you stick around and enjoy the ride.

Since I’m using HTML everyday for work, work decided to spring for a HTML Fundamentals class, so that I could stop pestering my colleagues with questions. It was only a two day class, but I very much enjoyed it. It was the kind of thing that engages my puzzle brain. It’s the same reason I enjoyed geometry back in high school. Proving the theorems was fun.

You won’t see me creating the next Facebook, but I have a much better grasp of how thing work now. And it’s got me thinking about this site and what kind of a future it might have. At some point in the near future, you might see it migrate to an ISP. I’ll still use the Wordpress software - that bit’s very handy, but I want a little more flexiblity with the site just in case I decide to expand it somehow.

Maybe I should create a small website as a personal project? That way I can practice what I learned and also give back to the Internet, which has given me so much over the years. Any suggestions?

This is just a quick note to say that I’ve updated the reading list. Here’s what I’ve been reading:

Pretender and Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh
If you’ve read the seven (!) previous books in this series, then you know what to expect. Pretender in particular spends a lot of time in the main protagonist’s head, but this is something Cherryh excels at. Deliverer picks up the pace nicely though.

Territory by Emma Bull
This is such a fun book! I highly recommend it! Wyatt Earp is a sorcerer and the events leading up to the gun battle at the OK Corral are not as history purports them to be. I first read Emma Bull years and years ago when War of the Oaks came out, and I like her a lot. (You also see her writing at Shadow Unit.) She’s clearly enjoying herself with Territory, including messing with some of the iconography of the old American West.

The King’s Own by Lorna Freeman
Another fun book - I really like the main character. There’s a sequel that’s somewhat darker, but still enjoyable. Supposedly (*fingers crossed*) there’s a third book coming out this year. I’ve read this one before and will read it again.

Olympic Games by Leslie What
A solid book by an author mostly known for her short fiction. I liked this modern telling of the Greek gods in the modern day (although it seems only Zeus and Hera manage to make to the present). The cover is not exactly inspiring, but as I said the story’s enjoyable and there are some very nice writing bits.

Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
I’ll admit to being a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki. I’ve seen all of his feature films, and that was my introduction to Howl’s Moving Castle by Jones. A charming book - I enjoyed it. Castle in the Air continues that effort, although I found it slow to start. Mostly, I had a hard time reading the obsequiousness of the main character.

Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
These are books three, four, and five in the Vatta’s War series. Military SF, but Moon is very good at military SF. Command Decision is a transition book, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m happy to spend time with interesting characters. Victory Conditions is the final book, and ends the series well.

The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart
This is an omnibus of three novels featuring Master Li (a sage with a slight flaw to his character) and Number Ten Ox (his somewhat assistant and the narrator). These books are a delight! The characters are so endearing, and the stories take place in a fantastic mythological China. I was surprised to learn that the omnibus I own is worth $100-$150 used. Happily, there is a new edition coming out later this year that will be reasonably priced. Recommended!

Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver
If you have any interest at all in classical poetry, grab a copy of this book and read it. Oliver’s writing is a wonder to behold, and she is quite clearly in her element writing about that which she loves. The book is concise and elucidates simply the ins and outs of meter in poetry. Even better (at least for me) it contains some distilled, crystallized wisdom about writing. I love Oliver’s poetry, and now I can say I love her prose as well.

Hmm… I started out just wanting to note a couple of the books, but I seem to have gotten carried away and provided mini-reviews instead. What a rambling and enthusiastic mess this post turned out to be!