Unabashed

Did you know MIT posts all their course material online? And that it’s freely available to anyone on the internet (they call it MITOpenCourseWare)? If you want a little light summer reading, give it a try. This guy is, and he’s going to blog about the experience. It won’t count towards a degree, but if you’re just after the brainstuff, then why not. After all, knowledge is power, right? He’ll have plenty of knowledge once he’s done, I guess. His goal is to be able to pass the course ”Biological Systems in Nature and Medicine.” I think it’s a grand idea, and I’m looking forward to reading about it.

I’m going to have to cull some of my RSS feeds. It’s getting ridiculous. And to think: it wasn’t that long ago that I sent out a request for good blogs to read. I’ve gotten more than my fill now, thanks. Though, I have to say, if it’s really good, I’d love to have another ;-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: education, edumacation, knowledge, MIT, OpenCourseWare, power

Two things I find very interesting this morning. First, the Neptune Society, from Matt Staggs:

A Florida company is offering a unique memorial service for your earthly remains. For a fee, the people at the Neptune Society will mix your cremated remains with concrete, which is then molded into a sculpture and placed with others in a giant artificial reef a little over a mile off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida. The reef then provides a new habitat for marine life and a destination for recreational divers and researchers. It’s apparently all ecologically sound, too. At first blush, I really like this idea. I’m certain that I want my remains cremated, and as much as I love the ocean this would be a perfect way to rest for eternity.

Also of interest today, from Curtis Palmer: Birmingham is gaining a new 1100 acre park in the Oxmoor/Ishkooda area. The park is bigger than New York’s Central Park and is going to have tons of amenities–hiking trails, 20 acre lake, softball and soccer fields, etc. I live in Montevallo, but I work in Birmingham, so this new park will be good for day trips. Oak Mountain State Park is closer and I’ve always loved it (it’s a refuge in an urban area, almost 10,000 acres). I go there often, but I love me a new park, yes I do. Especially interesting in this is that this park will make Birmingham the #1 U.S. city in terms of greenspace per capita. Birmingham catches a lot of grief around the country and is regularly noted as one of the worst places to live in America, so it’s nice to see the “Magic City” making inroads to be something better than it is. If only we could somehow craft a governing body that wasn’t corrupt and driving the city to bankruptcy.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Alabama, birmingham, cemetery, florida, greenspace, ishkooda, key biscayne, memorial, neptune, oak mountain, oxmoor, park, red mountain, underwater

My wife, who is a counselor, gave me a little personality quiz in which I was supposed to draw a person standing in the rain. Now, if she had really been counseling me, she might have been alarmed at the drawing I doodled with my free hand while I ate with my other:

The rain is supposed to represent my stress level, which, as you can see plainly there is only one drop above his head. It doesn’t matter that it’s a big fat drop, so evidently my stress level is low. Had I drawn an umbrella or a hat it would symbolize my readiness to handle the stress, but I only drew devil horns, so of course she can only deduce that I am unfit to handle my current stress level. She did remark that I drew him a nice chin butt, and that she’s going to take my drawing to work with her tomorrow to show her co-workers what a well-grounded husband she has.

written by Matt Mitchell

From the Sunday Hangover, by Warren Ellis:

Welcome to planet Earth, where, within a few years, we will all have been entrained to raise robot babies that we have designed to feel pain. Soon, they will reach their toddler years, powered by a vast array of monkeys wired up to the internet. We will send them out into the world, where they too will go on to the internet and show the world their chrome nipples and the sleek pink hatches of their robot vaginas before being shanked to death in motel rooms by vengeful, pregnant sea lions.

And, across the vast expanse of spacetime itself, an entire other universe is showing us its billion-light-year-wide arse.

written by Matt Mitchell

I’m at home sick today–sinus infection. I called in this morning barely able to scratch out an audible “Need. Day. Off.” My voice is still shot but I am at least feeling a bit better, so I’m thinking I’ll make it in tomorrow. For the time being, I thought I might entertain you with a picture of my new workstation at home, where I takes care o da biznaz. My company provides me with the Toughbook laptop in the right of the picture, with a docking station (I also have a docking station in the Tahoe they bought me, plus in-vehicle wifi. Yes, it’s rad.) The new monitor came with my new HP PC, which I bought for myself because my old Dell was running low on too many things to count. I kept that monitor, so now I have two 19″ monitors to gaze at with wonder. The rest of the goodies are: iPod Mini, Palm T|X, Blackberry phone… Anyway, I might have stood back and took a wider image to show more stuff (Playstation 3, widescreen LCD TV, etc…) but the rest of the office is a wreck and I’m embarrassed to have it seen. Maybe later.

Yes, up on the shelf I do have a little Wolverine gnawing the knees of Galactus.

written by Matt Mitchell

I was all set to unleash all my righteous fury upon the Best Buy people; I would vent, rave, and when it was all over I would stand proud and tall and stare down upon the submissive masses who wronged me. But then they were all, like, nice and stuff.

The Geek Squad Agent who took my complaint said, (paraphrasing) “Well, let me plug it up and see what the problem is.” She then saw that it was a 50GB HD in the supposed 320GB slot and replaced it. No fuss, no problems, no hassles, only an apology for my having to redo the setup work I’d already done. But then she copied my setup over to the new HD and I didn’t have to redo that, either. So I’m satisfied, and my bad experience of a few years ago is now somewhat atoned for in my mind.

After accomplishing the minor feat of working conveniently and painlessly through a mire of supposed corporate bureaucracy, I decided to check up on the Geek Squad via the trusty old introwup (how many different ways can I mangle the word Internet? I’m working on at least 101 now…) and found a couple of blog articles that were both comforting and disturbing. For one, it seems that Geek Squad was once a great company to work for. The employees were almost cult-like in their zeal for the company. But after Best Buy bought them out I believe the zest has dissipated.

Too bad; Geek Squad has all the makings of a great idea and a great company, but with Best Buy at the helm it’ll likely be quickly losing its reputation. They charge way too much for every service they provide and Geek Squad Agents are being made to do things that aren’t in their job descriptions. Normally this wouldn’t raise any red flags with me; I’m often asked to do things that don’t fall within the framework of my job description as well, but when you ask tech folks to play salesperson you’re asking for trouble. But from what I read the people Best Buy is hiring as GS Agents aren’t always very technically apt anyway. And once they’re on the job they don’t get any training.

It’s a shame, really. It looks like a great company from the outside, but low pay and dumb management will founder the ship if they don’t sink it outright. If I didn’t already have a great job, I might consider looking into Geek Squad as a potential employer, but after all I’ve read now I’m not so sure.

Picture by irina slutsky.

written by Matt Mitchell

I’ve put together a social networking site over at Ning called Psuburbia. Check it out.

I’m also working on a Wetpaint wiki for my novel “Modern-Day Mythica,” which is still unpublished, but I’m working on that. The wiki will explore the universe I’ve created in detail. It’s unfinished, but feel free to check it out anyway.

Beyond that the last two days have been pure internet toil and drudgery (when I wasn’t at work). I’ve been looking into social networks, StumbleUpon, Digg, Sphere and tons of other places. If you’d like to friend me anywhere on teh internets, my handle is usually mattmitchell8 (because evidently I am the eighth Matt Mitchell on the interwubby).

And to cap off a Friday night, have a Guinness Stout on me:

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Guinness, Stout

I’ve been ruminating on a short essay I wrote in January, 1998. At the time I was beginning work on my second novel (the first one I would complete, but it is sadly unreadable) and had just completed work on my first website. I have had an Internet presence ever since, in various degrees. I’ve never had a particularly popular website, but then I haven’t worked at it very hard, either. It’s just something I’ve done because I enjoy the design and the creation, much like I enjoy writing. Anyway, the State of the Web Address was one of the first journal entries I posted, and I wrote it in raw HTML (at the time we called them journals, not blogs). The writing is very stiff and not very good (my skill in this area has gained considerably, even though I still have a long way to go before I might be considered “literary”) but it’s interesting to look now, ten years later, at what I thought then, when the Internet was really just starting out. So I’ll post it, and hope you enjoy it, realizing it was written by me, sitting in a dark room in deep winter in my home at the time which was out in a deep forest, long before I had very much skill or craft at writing.

The State of the Web Address

I once had the opportunity and honor to see a fledgling bald eagle testing out its wings. It had been in the nest for some while and was coming of age to fly. The young bird would spread its wings wide and leap into the air, wildly flapping in an attempt to stay aloft. Within a few hours of constant jumping and flapping, the eagle finally decided to take the big step and, under close scrutiny by its mother, leapt off the edge of the nest and began tumultuously flapping its wings. It paid off, for after a brief moment of shear terror (by human standards), the eaglet caught an updraft and launched itself up to the top of a neighboring tree, followed by another scare when it couldn’t seem to find a suitable perch atop the tree and fell down a few limbs before finding a grip. Of course, occurrences like this aren’t unordinary in the wild, and with a little practice, the young eagle is sure to be soaring with the great aerial skill for which eagles are renowned.

The state of the Web right now sometimes reminds me of that eaglet. The Web is young, and has a body that it must grow into, just as do all youths. But the body of the Web is massive, and growing still, and it will take a very long time for it to grow into its body. Right now, the web is being filled with so much information that it may have trouble at times keeping up, and making matters worse, a lot of the information is of a sort that need not be published in any medium. Yet still, the cup fills. Soon enough, there will be billions of users of the web, and the web will likely play a role in transforming all forms of communication, from radio to TV to newspapers, and could possibly consume all other forms of communication. The fact is, the web is an entity of the like this world has never seen, and when it is all said and done, will be the number one media medium in the world. It all contributes to our own evolution. The dark, gothic future that has been predicted by so many films and books will never come to pass. The web will not allow it. I’m not saying the sun will shine brighter because of it, nor am I claiming that the future will not hold corruption or infirmary; I am simply stating that the Web will become the unifying force of the world at large. Governments and despots have tried to conquer the world many times before, but they have always failed because ultimately the people would not allow it. I believe the people of Earth will allow the Web to unify them. Peace might be achieved through the Web, and that’s something that no man, woman, child, government or army has ever been able to do.
The regulations that the government is being influenced to impose on the Internet will not pass, for when the web grows into its own, it will need no guidance. It will take care of itself and its citizens, the unified citizenry of the world.

Perhaps in years to come we will look back on this tumultuous time with reverence and awe, perhaps we will see the now as a dark and gothic age. If we will allow it, and I think we will, the web will end hate, greed, and hunger. It will find its wings and fly, and we will fly with it, in a way that we never have before.

8Jan1998
Matt Mitchell

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Future, Internet, web

I hate poetry. I’ve fought that impulse for years, but the fact remains that poetry today is a contrived mess of lackluster swamprot. If I pick up a magazine or read an e-zine I just skim right over the poetry, which invariably sucks said swamprot. What ever happened to poetry that told a story, poetry with heart and gusto? Robert Service wrote excellent poetry, and I find that the majority of what I can tolerably read was all written prior to 1960 and usually has to be much older even than that. I love an old sea shanty, and I love to read Shakespeare. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for Shakespearean quality, just something with a little nerve. Who publishes this crap? Is there any where in the world where good poetry can be found or is it all just so much swamprot?

Here’s the poem of the day from Poetry.com:
Your eyes
like turquoise camel beads
smooth polished stones
tumbled in oceans of tears
ward off evil spirits
whispering and leering ’round icy columned
bedposts

Okay, it’s not exactly swamprot, but it’s far from anything close to quality, IMHO.

And as for this recent fad of writing “short-shorts” or short stories under 500 words: isn’t that what poetry used to be? Short-shorts written in verse; a way to write a story and to exalt the language, to show that words can have beauty and power. Telling a story in verse can be a powerful form of artistic expression, but sadly only about one out of a million in this modern era is worth reading.

Unfortunately, however, poetry will not die, because there are too many people left who think it’s a still a viable art form. These are the whimsical people who still sit down with a pad and pen and scribble, trying to think of a different word to rhyme with ‘fly’ than ‘cry’ or ‘die.’ Unfortunately, they always choose cry or die, however, and the poem of the day ends up looking something like this:

My poem of the day, entitled “Too Bad”
Poetry; how I wish it would die.
It makes me cry, makes me want to fly away
to another day where poetry does not suck.

Here’s another blogger’s opinion I value.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: poetry