|
|
Saturday, January 04, 2003
I had a very weird experience yesterday. feng had mentioned to me that he'd seen a quote from Sarah Hepola on the back of a David Sedaris book, and he thought she was somehow affiliated with NPR. I decided to search for her on the Net and see if maybe she'd written a book of her own. I typed her name into Google and got several pages of results. I browsed absently through the list and there, on page six, was my name! I sat upright in my chair, surprised and slightly confused. How did I get in there? The answer is obvious, of course - my site has a link to her blog - but that didn't do much to lessen my sense of displacement. It was like walking down the street in a strange city and then turning into a dark alley and finding myself in my own living room.
I then Googled myself and found that I had a fairly large list of results. Most of the hits were blog-related, but it also found my NaNoWriMo profile and the Stockstock web site. I guess I've been operating under the assumption that there is the INTERNET and then there's my web site, and never the twain shall meet. People are out there, though, and they're reading, and they can find you if they want to. It's exciting and slightly scary.
On a completely unrelated note, congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning the college football national championship last night. I'm not an Ohio State fan, but I was glad to see them restore some honor to the Big Ten after the pathetic, pathetic Iowa Hawkeyes got dismantled by USC in the Orange Bowl. Once again we find the rest of the world working overtime to make up for Iowa's inadequacies.
I then Googled myself and found that I had a fairly large list of results. Most of the hits were blog-related, but it also found my NaNoWriMo profile and the Stockstock web site. I guess I've been operating under the assumption that there is the INTERNET and then there's my web site, and never the twain shall meet. People are out there, though, and they're reading, and they can find you if they want to. It's exciting and slightly scary.
On a completely unrelated note, congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning the college football national championship last night. I'm not an Ohio State fan, but I was glad to see them restore some honor to the Big Ten after the pathetic, pathetic Iowa Hawkeyes got dismantled by USC in the Orange Bowl. Once again we find the rest of the world working overtime to make up for Iowa's inadequacies.
Friday, January 03, 2003
We're all about customer service here at Dierdorf Internet Enterprises (DIE!). In response to overwhelming customer demand, we have added notification support to this blog.
It seems that a good number of the literally 3 or 4 people who read this blog have jobs that require them to actually do work during the day, thus making it difficult for them to constantly check for blog updates. If you are one of these people, then notification is designed just for you.
To join the notification list, simply enter your email address in the text box in the left column and then click the "Join" button. I will send a message to the list whenever I post a new entry, thus reminding you to check in and see what amazingly exciting things I've been up to.
It's that easy! Sign up today and take advantage of this exciting new feature. Dierdorf Internet Enterprises — Time-wasting for the Information Age®.
It seems that a good number of the literally 3 or 4 people who read this blog have jobs that require them to actually do work during the day, thus making it difficult for them to constantly check for blog updates. If you are one of these people, then notification is designed just for you.
To join the notification list, simply enter your email address in the text box in the left column and then click the "Join" button. I will send a message to the list whenever I post a new entry, thus reminding you to check in and see what amazingly exciting things I've been up to.
It's that easy! Sign up today and take advantage of this exciting new feature. Dierdorf Internet Enterprises — Time-wasting for the Information Age®.
I've posted some higher-res versions of the snow pictures for use as desktop images. You can find them here:
White Christmas Desktop Images
Let me know if there are others you would like in this format. Enjoy!
White Christmas Desktop Images
Let me know if there are others you would like in this format. Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
So I'm reading The Hours right now for my book club. I'm only 55 pages into it (ack! Gotta finish by Sunday!), but I'm already impressed by Michael Cunningham. What struck me today is how simple his writing is. He doesn't fly off the handle with grandiose images. He describes everyday things uniquely but in a way that rings true, both for the reader and the characters. I want to know how one learns to write like that.
Speaking of people who write better than I do, I saw Adaptation tonight. The first half of the movie was great, mainly because it hit so close to home. If you want to know what was going through my head during NaNoWriMo, just listen to Charlie's voice-over monologue at the beginning of the movie. I've actually said some of those words to myself. As for the movie as a whole, it was pretty good, but I'm not entirely sure what I think of it yet. I think it will take a couple of days to sink in. My first impression is that it wasn't as satisfying as Being John Malkovich, but I might just be saying that because Adaptation is so much more complicated. I'll have to think about it.
I also want to mention that I haven't forgotten about my promise to post a long excerpt from my novel. I just haven't had a chance to read through it yet and make my final selections. It's laziness, not cowardice. I swear.
By the way: Happy New Year!
Speaking of people who write better than I do, I saw Adaptation tonight. The first half of the movie was great, mainly because it hit so close to home. If you want to know what was going through my head during NaNoWriMo, just listen to Charlie's voice-over monologue at the beginning of the movie. I've actually said some of those words to myself. As for the movie as a whole, it was pretty good, but I'm not entirely sure what I think of it yet. I think it will take a couple of days to sink in. My first impression is that it wasn't as satisfying as Being John Malkovich, but I might just be saying that because Adaptation is so much more complicated. I'll have to think about it.
I also want to mention that I haven't forgotten about my promise to post a long excerpt from my novel. I just haven't had a chance to read through it yet and make my final selections. It's laziness, not cowardice. I swear.
By the way: Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 29, 2002
Listening: The Streets, Original Pirate Material (Thanks to Mark F. for the tip!)
Hello! How was your Christmas? Mine was pretty good. One major Christmas present was the fact that I made it to Indiana and back without any major travel problems. Three years ago I had a horrible experience in which it took me 48 hours to make the 8 hour trip home. I won't bore you with the entire story, but the experience has scarred me for life. I now consider it a victory if I make it to my destination within 24 hours of my scheduled arrival time.
In fact, the only real airline-related problem I had was the fact that my plane out of Seattle was falling apart. I could overlook the minor problems – the broken window shade that couldn’t be pulled down, the broken meal tray that collapsed in the middle when you tried to put anything on it, the broken sink in the bathroom that refused to drain. What really disturbed me was the fact that the reading lights for me and the guy next to me were cross-wired: my button controlled his light, and his button controlled mine. Faulty electrical work does not inspire confidence on an airplane, and I spent the bulk of the flight hoping that the flaps had not been wired by the same electrician. They seemed to work OK in the end, or perhaps the pilots just knew enough to compensate for the fact that they were wired backwards.
As far as presents go, I did pretty well. I got some money (which I will be applying to the computer I hope to order soon), several books, a couple of nice sweaters, and a million billion DVDs. If you include the DVDs I bought for myself over the last two weeks, I have something like 20 new DVDs to watch. I also got a really cool antique camera from Ed and Meredith. I'm having a lot of fun researching it and figuring out how I'm going to make it work. Here's a picture of it.
Oh, and we had snow on Christmas. Lots of it. Between 7:00 PM and midnight on Christmas Eve we got about nine inches of snow. It was super fun to drive in it, but on the whole I'm glad I don't have to deal with it on a regular basis. I went out on Christmas Day and took some cool pictures, though, so you can enjoy it without the hassle. I've posted them here, along with a few miscellaneous snapshots from my trip:
White Christmas Photos
It's back to work for me tomorrow. I hope you all had a good weekend.
Hello! How was your Christmas? Mine was pretty good. One major Christmas present was the fact that I made it to Indiana and back without any major travel problems. Three years ago I had a horrible experience in which it took me 48 hours to make the 8 hour trip home. I won't bore you with the entire story, but the experience has scarred me for life. I now consider it a victory if I make it to my destination within 24 hours of my scheduled arrival time.
In fact, the only real airline-related problem I had was the fact that my plane out of Seattle was falling apart. I could overlook the minor problems – the broken window shade that couldn’t be pulled down, the broken meal tray that collapsed in the middle when you tried to put anything on it, the broken sink in the bathroom that refused to drain. What really disturbed me was the fact that the reading lights for me and the guy next to me were cross-wired: my button controlled his light, and his button controlled mine. Faulty electrical work does not inspire confidence on an airplane, and I spent the bulk of the flight hoping that the flaps had not been wired by the same electrician. They seemed to work OK in the end, or perhaps the pilots just knew enough to compensate for the fact that they were wired backwards.
As far as presents go, I did pretty well. I got some money (which I will be applying to the computer I hope to order soon), several books, a couple of nice sweaters, and a million billion DVDs. If you include the DVDs I bought for myself over the last two weeks, I have something like 20 new DVDs to watch. I also got a really cool antique camera from Ed and Meredith. I'm having a lot of fun researching it and figuring out how I'm going to make it work. Here's a picture of it.
Oh, and we had snow on Christmas. Lots of it. Between 7:00 PM and midnight on Christmas Eve we got about nine inches of snow. It was super fun to drive in it, but on the whole I'm glad I don't have to deal with it on a regular basis. I went out on Christmas Day and took some cool pictures, though, so you can enjoy it without the hassle. I've posted them here, along with a few miscellaneous snapshots from my trip:
White Christmas Photos
It's back to work for me tomorrow. I hope you all had a good weekend.