Whenever I write a blog post, there's a small part of me thinking, "Who am I to be writing this? Just who could possibly care what I have to say?" I sit here typing words with the mild expectation that somebody out there will actually read them. I rarely know if people do, though from time to time I hear that someone has. Most times though, it feels like I'm whistling into the wind. And still I do it anyway. The very act of creating a blog carries with it a kind of "home movie" conceit. Each blogger thinks their...

Blogging's only a few years old and we're already debating what's real blogging and what's just journaling. I know lots of people spend lots of time pouring themselves into their pages, but really now, isn't it a bit early to be discussing authenticity in the new medium? From where I sit, I see three kinds of blogging: smalltalk, writing, and listing. Lots of people do the listing thing: post a link, write "interesting...", and they're done. Plenty stick to smalltalk: writing about their day, telling us what they had for lunch, who stopped by, etc. Fewer have the discipline for...

Blogs are abuzz with the most recent online nuisance: comment spamming. Someone figured out they can improve their website's Google rank by posting automated comments with their website's URL to popular blogs. Spammers hope that googlebot comes along and records their spam before the blog owner has time to manually remove their mess. It's working. Current solutions all have their problems: manual removal takes too much time, IP blacklists sometimes include "poison pills" (third-party web URLs that spammers include with their own), bayesian filters are too much of a moving target, automatic URL redirection breaks the back button. There are...

I'm surprised more people don't use IRC. This might sound nuts to those of us that do, since we rightly think too many people already use IRC, but given the number of people that use the web, that use instant messenging, that read and write blogs, I'm surprised the number of IRC networks, channels, and users isn't much higher. Tonight I explored Search IRC, which is pretty useful resource. The numbers are fascinating. Over a million users, connected by 7000 servers, forming 600,000 channels on 1500 networks. Have a look at the network stats. Four IRC networks with 70,000+ users:...

After reading Shelley's New Year's doubts, saddened there need ever be a question in her mind of her true effect, I remembered why I quit the Well: people can be cruel, and it hurts most when you're being real. Right now it seems clearer: Many of us have sorrows and fears that run through us, that define us. Humans are so wonderfully, so frustratingly, frail, that our hard edges & whiplash reactions often steal the show. But from a different perspective, it's easier to see the pain involved in hurting others. My father was a tyrant, who wielded his verbal...

Finished the ten-hour HBO series, Band of Brothers tonight. I found it breathtaking, much like From the Earth to the Moon, also by Tom Hanks and HBO. Trust me, if you haven't watched these yet, you're missing out on some of the most engaging, exhilarating, and inspirational hours on film. Both tell the story of a hard-won triumph. Both detail the human effort, the very personal sacrifices and challenges that collectively contributed to the outcome. As each episode ended, as the credits and the theme music ran, I'd get goosebumps every time. With each hour, I felt a sense of...

Shelley writes: "She who dares [sing] now does not live to pass her exuberance and spirit on to her offsping, and each new generation becomes more silent in the face of adversity." She's referring to birds outside getting quiet when a hawk is in view, among other things. This made me think of ani difranco, an incredible talent who sings her truth regardless. Sometimes I worry for her safety, since clearly there's danger in this world. By telling the uncomfortable truths, we could be painting targets on our chests. My wife once got hate mail simply by choosing Bobby McFerrin's...

Yesterday's post was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's a real concern of mine. I can say the right things, I can answer the naysayers, I can champion the grannies, but my words won't be worth much if no one reads them. So how's it going so far? Well, I launched with an email to 33 people, most of whom I met in Sanibel. I got a very nice mention in Shelley Power's blog. I've had a half-dozen supportive emails. Otherwise, no blog comments, or trackbacks, or website links as yet. The stats show that readership is slowly increasing. I'm getting...

I've watched the blog phenomenom from afar these last three years, but really haven't staked my claim until now. Yeah, I got a company blog, which even was linked by Ev a few years back. I've got a personal blog, which I share with my wife, where I occassional get creative. I even posted my writing in the early days, before the Web had search engines. My Letter to Jack Kerouac had some readers, as did Gravity Notes and The Nine Principles, which have a few pre-Web predictions that are still coming true. But up till now, I haven't done...