One More Cup of Coffee

Late Adopter

I’m not a fan of early adoption in most cases.  It never works out too well for me - it just leads to more and more chasing.  So, instead of trying to fetch one of those beautiful looking iPads, I decided to go ahead and put my order in for the tried and true Kindle.  

I received it on Friday, and was able to take it on the subway last night as I trekked to the party.  My first book for the Kindle is Anathem.  I’ve owned the hardcopy since it was released, and could never make it out of the first 100 pages.  I was told by a trustworthy source that if I can just fight through that beginning, it’ll be worth it.  So I’ll give it a go.

So far, I like it.  I noticed that the limited screen size actual improves my attention, and the choice of the font and background colors are very gentle on the eyes.  Traditionally, I suffer from fatigue after an hour or so of reading due to the way light reflects off of white pages.  The Kindle does away with this by using a very gentle gray.  

Now With Slightly More Focus

Six months ago we welcomed two wonderful girls into our home.  Prior to that I had spent a couple years exploring various expressions of meditation and building up a daily practice.  When the kids arrived, my practice ceased.  

I’ve decided to get back to that today.  At the same time, it seems like a good idea to start writing more about it.  Now I’ll open all of this up by making it absolutely clear that I am not an expert on the material.  I am terribly undisciplined.  I am not enlightened, whatever that really means.  All I can really hope is that making myself write, I’ll discover a little more about what I’ve actually come to believe.

Joel threw a small party for the Fog Creek and Stackoverflow teams last night.  It was nice, and I was able to meet Jeff, Geoff, and Jarrod for the first time.  I also met the adorable Taco.

Then it took something like three hours to get home.  Probably.  Since the girls came along, I don’t drink often.  I had a total of six beers last night and was unexpectedly lit.  I’m a lightweight now, but that’s okay.  So I think I left the party at midnight, but could easily be proven wrong by the other attendees.  Hehe.  

On the other hand, if you live a life of privation and spend serious time and money on a dead end path with only one outcome, you’ve described a path likely to leave you broken and bitter. Does spending your teenage years (and your twenties) in a room practicing the violin teach you anything about being a violin teacher or a concert promoter or some other job associated with music? If your happiness depends on your draft pick or a single audition, that’s giving way too much power to someone else.

— “One in a million” from Seth Godin

Two Books

With an earlier post in mind, I decided to allow myself to pick up a couple of new book releases.

The first book, Stephen Batchelor’s Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, has been on my radar since it was announced last year.  I read his Buddhism Beyond Beliefs some years back, and was inspired by his application of skepticism to traditional (and typically unquestioned) Buddhist doctrines, delicately pulling them apart to reveal the gold and discard the dross.  I look forward to see where he takes me this time.

Second on the list is the latest from 37signals, Rework.  While I’m not in the camp of true believers, I can’t help but being inspired by much of their writing.  If it is anything like Getting Real, even if it just ends up being a rehash, I think it’ll be worth the time spent.

We recently released Kiln to the wild (and Joel wrote a great tutorial to go with it).  The Kiln mascot is a Dodo, so it was only fitting to give Dodo-like plush dolls to the employees at the launch party.  I was able to snag an extra one, and gave one to each daughter.

Ella loves it.

“Forever”, by griffmusic.

Heh.  In 2005 or so I picked up an MPC 1000 to mess around with.  I had fun with it, but haven’t touched it since moving to New York.  I was on random in my iTunes collection this morning, and this track started playing.

It’s nothing serious or good - just a minute or so demo I did, trying to get the feel of the thing.  I sampled some Earth Wind and Fire track off vinyl, slowed it down, and chopped it into little bits.  I’m pretty sure the drums were just a stock set.

Cryptography Engineering is Coming Soon →

Today I learned that Bruce Schneier is releasing a replacement for his excellent Practical Cryptography.

Beyond Theology by Alan Watts

I read this over the past few days and give it a big recommendation to anyone who would like to explore the idea of rescuing Christianity from the pulpits of the literalists.

In this work, Watts uses Vedanta to give new life to the Christian tradition, and then turns things around to show us how this new interpretation of Christianity can actually improve or complete Vedanta - something I did not expect.

I finally closed down my old site, retiring that domain for some other day.

I’ve also been letting boatloads of domains expire instead of renewing them.  It’s good to clean out the closet from time to time.

Ommwriter →

From the site:

A wise man once said “We are all at the mercy of our wild monkey minds. Incessantly swinging from branch to branch.” With multiple windows and applications all vying for our attention, we have sadly adapted our working habits to that of the computer and not the other way around.

Ommwriter is a humble attempt to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate.

Ommwriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.

If you are a scriptwriter, blogger, journalist, copywriter, poet or just someone who enjoys writing, welcome back to concentrating.

Apple and Red Cross accepting Haiti donations via iTunes →

mrgan:

Apple and the Red Cross worked together to create a frictionless way to donate to the Haiti relief effort through iTunes. Click the link (or hit the iTunes Store on your own) and pick your amount - that’s it.

It’s that easy.  If you have $10 (or more), send it on to those in need.