The3six5 Project
My favorite blog, Mental_Floss, posted today about an interesting web-project proposed and organized by Constructive Grumpiness called The3six5 Project. Every day in the year 2010, a different writer will post a short journal entry documenting something interesting that happened to them on their day.
Needless to say, I’m enthralled. I can’t wait to see what sorts of perspectives and experiences get posted!
I sent them an email volunteering to write for one of the days. I know that I’m nearly completely unknown (except for my awesome Twitter followers. By the way guys, I love you!), but I hope that I’m accepted, just so I can say that I had a small part in this enormous and exciting adventure!
We’ll see where the journey takes us!
Annoyances
I was talking with my boss today and he happened to tell me about a philosophical idea that I had never heard of. In Judaism, he related, there is an idea that the good works that get you into heaven are not the grand gestures that we typically associate with charity, but small moments of annoyance whereby we give someone else some pleasure. As an example, he offered the scenario of listening without interruption to someone that you find boring. After my initial suspicion that he might be subtly hinting at the stores in heaven that he had accumulated in the course of our conversation, I realized that this was a truly beautiful and elegant concept.
Because of the principle of risk vis a vis reward, great tribulation and sacrifice necessarily incur a greater likelihood of earthly reward. Those who donate a substantial sum to a charity are likely to receive immense social benefits. But to endure an annoyance where there is no benefit is a genuine indicator of strength and lack of moral turpitude.
Though I believe not in heaven nor hell nor grand judgment, I am moved by this philosophy to try to work through life’s annoyances with grace and humility. For just as the annoyances ostensibly offer the greatest personal reward, so too can they eat away at us and cause the greatest personal emotional destruction. So take this and be refreshed with a sense of perspective. We could all stand to relax and not sweat the small stuff.
My Work
I’m not sure how it happened, but I have become one of those wretched and despicable things. No, not a writer; I am fully aware of how that sickening lycanthropic transformation occurred. I’m referring, rather, to the subtle corruption whose dark seeds germinated in my youth, and took root in my soul as I transitioned into adulthood. It choked my youthful jocularity, dulled my noetic sensibilities, and fertilized the fruits of my despair.
I became, through no fault of my own, a Carny.
(more…)
The Insult
I was sitting at work the other day, and several small children crowded around my cashier’s window. Their mother said,
“Get away kids, it’s just a man in a booth. He’s nothing exciting to look at.”
“Thanks,” I said dejectedly, to no reply.
PAX East Orphans
All your friends going to PAX East in 2010 while you’re stuck at home? Perhaps you’d be interested in coming to a get together on the West coast that same weekend. Please vote in the poll to indicate your interest, and please comment if you have any suggestions for locations, if you’re willing to open your home to accommodate traveling PAX East orphans, or if you have any comments.
[poll id=”1″]
Extra Extra Read All About It!
Looks like there’s gonna be enough interest for us to actually hold this little shindig. I think that now is as good a time as any to try to pin down where exactly this is gonna be held. The two front runners for location seem to be Vancouver and Seattle, but if you have a killer idea for somewhere else, don’t hesitate to voice your opinion.
[poll id=”2″]
Secret Santa!!!!
Oh my god oh my god oh my god I got my Secret Santa present today from @Winyder and I am so excited thank you so much!!!!!
This is it:
It’s the More Information Than You Require audiobook! John Hodgman is one of my favorite writers; his first book, The Areas of My Expertise, is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read, and has an audiobook to match. The audiobook versions of his books are amazing, as they play more like radio variety shows than book readings. Returning from his first book are Jonathan Coulton and Paul Rudd (who isn’t on Twitter [boo!]) along with new voices Ricky Gervais, Rachel Maddow, Sarah Vowell, Ira Glass, and others! I am so so excited to listen!
Thank you so much, Winyder! You are a goddamned rockstar!
Companies and Cash Flow, or, Why Assume They’re Dumber Than You?
In discussing the launch of Square today on Twitter, someone brought up an argument that I’ve heard from a myriad of different people about a myriad of different services: “It’s gonna fail, they have no revenue stream.”
My reaction to this is one of irrational anger. The question seems to me to make some faulty assumptions, most heinous of which is the assumption that the people who came up with the damned idea for the company in the first place never asked themselves that very question.
The fact of the matter is is that if a technology or service is good enough, someone will pay for it. Armchair business managing is pointless- you have no real perspective on what it takes for any business that you perceive as “set for failure” to actually do so.
I’m reminded of the start of the radio broadcasting industry; people then asked, “Who will pay for a message to no one in particular?”
Ultimately, what we as users of cool technology should do is just that: use them. Who cares if I have no clue how they’re generating revenue? They have a lot more at stake than I do; they’ll figure it out.
Greetings
Hey gang!
As many of you who follow me on Twitter might know, I’ve been writing game reviews for @Jules_party934‘s website Geeky Pleasures for about a month and a half or so now. It’s been absolutely exciting and I’m really enjoying myself! Writing for Geeky Pleasures helped kick start my creative engines, and ever since I started that project, I’ve been writing nearly constantly. Unfortunately, a lot of what I write has no place in a weekly game review column. I thought about resurrecting my old Blogger blog that I created five years ago, but I decided that, after spending a good deal of time with WordPress at Geeky Pleasures (and a brief but memorable tenure at Epic Default), I’d like to relaunch www.cwknight.com using the latest and greatest of blogging technology. So here I am; I have some inexpensive web hosting through Laughing Squid, a freshly installed copy of WordPress, and a bunch of ideas bouncing around my head!
I think that the only way I can sum up my excitement is by saying this:
A blank page represents limitless possibility.
See you here again soon!
~cwk~