January 16, 2006
Little Si Proj Hunt (dood)
Last weak, while sweating the usual travails of a-team at the climbing gym, a fellow suggested that without a project all this training will eventually feel hollow. He said, "Go up to 32, have a look around, pick something out, and keep going back." (PY2)
If he were younger he might have said, "brah, you need a sick proj." (PY3)
32 is Exit 32 which is the I-90 exit nearest Little Si, the little peak West of its big brother Mount Si. (PY4)
It's been raining for near record continuous days here in the pnw. The mountains have received a constant mix of snow and rain. Suburbs are a awash in a sea of trailer swallowing mud. But Sabrina and I needed some walkies, and I wanted to reconnoiter my proj (dood) so of we trotted yesterday, swaddled in our rain gear. Our dreary beginnings improved as the day wore on: (PY5)
It's a lovely walk to the top of Little Si. Not overly strenuous but not cake. It was very muddy. (PY7)
I'm not sure if I found a proj (bro). I took a look at the (very wet) crags and found them impossible to read. I'm spoiled by the near impossible friendliness of the rock of Red River Gorge. I'll have to return for more contemplation. (PY8)
All pics from our walk up little si. (PY9)
Today I reviewed some . Martin Luther King, Jr. history. (PYA)
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climbing
January 11, 2006
Affinity for Categories
I went to IdeaDay last night to listen to MattMay and AlexWilliams talk about podcasting. I've not become a podcasting fan, perhaps because I don't use my ipod (headphone issues) or perhaps because I'm too nervous to go around with environmental noises blocked out, but none of that matters because I was primarily there to meet the BlueFlavor guys, see who else goes to these things and participate in Sabrina's forays into the Seattle social network of folks what do things like what she do. (PX9)
The presentation was interesting but a little disjointed. Matt and Alex clearly know their stuff and could have talked for ages but I think they needed an agenda. An initial query to the audience of what they wanted to hear about threw things in the direction of how to make money podcasting. I think they should have started with a gentle introduction. It may have been a review for many of the people there, but would have established some baseline understanding and SharedLanguage. (PXA)
The most relevant discussion was a tangent in response to a "how do I find stuff, it's hard to index audio" question from the audience. Matt mentioned discovering community and making use of affinity groups to find stuff. (PXB)
This made some things related to tagging click. I've harped for a long time about the importance of SharedLanguage in collaboration and used naming as an ax to grind against the insidious evil of FreeLinks. Tags, WikiWords, nicknames are all ways of establishing affinity: If you have developed the SharedLanguage to understand the name, it's like having an invitation to a group. If you have affinity for the name, you may have affinity for the group using it; it's time to seek that invitation. (PXC)
All these things--tags, nicknames, WikiWords--are markers for conceptual categories. They are _not_ labels for classes. (PXD)
(An aside into my defintions of class and category may be necessary: (PXE)
- a class is a defined grouping of entities in which the members fulfill the definition of the class and can be listed. T (PXF)
- a category is a cognitive label applied to a non-enumerable grouping of entities wherein membership is determined by typicality amongst the members and not some overarching definition. T (PXG)
) (PXH)
Markers assume a measure of doubt, treasure it and get value out of connotation and suggestion. In other words, affinity. (PXI)
Affinity based systems assume a measure of tolerance for the happy accident of discovery: "This isn't exactly what I was looking for, but, damn, it's cool!" It's not about information retrieval, but discovery and enhancement. (PXJ)
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collaboration
January 04, 2006
google-based pc
Slashdot is rumor-mongering about a google pc. I can't be bothered to take the time off my busy schedule to actually research what I'm about to speculate about, but here goes: (PX6)
If I were going to build a cheap google pc, I'd position it for high speed networked folk only, give it a minimal os with very little on disk except for a local cache of various networked stuff. Applications are already out there or in progress (Gmail, reader, etc). The clincher is that data and settings go in google base. Why not? The network finally is the computer. They've got an identity system already. (PX7)
I figure my atom store will be in google-base soon. And if my busy schedule allowed, my purple numbered nodes or rubeads would be easy to do. oids looks a lot like nids. (PX8)
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geek-glaxon
January 02, 2006
Happy 2006
It's a New Year (Happy New Year everyone), so it must be time for some new resolutions. But first a review of the last batch. How did I do: (PW8)
- Back down to 150 T (PW9)
- Not likely to happen. I keep adding muscle because of this climbing class I have. I float between 155 and 165. I'd still like to be lighter but I'd be putting the hurt on myself if I tried. (PWA)
- Back up to 5.12 T (PWB)
- Not quite. Not enough outdoor climbing. (PWC)
- Yell at and/or thank the right people more T (PWD)
- This probably needs more work. The idea was to make sure that I didn't swallow my anger or my gratitude. (PWE)
- Put the beauty back T (PWF)
- Not enough. (PWG)
- Climb a mountain T (PWH)
- Not yet. My relationship to the mountains is such these days that this one can be subsumed into some of the others. If I succeed at those, then I will have climbed a mountain at some point. (PWI)
- Boundaries, Schedules, Routines T (PWJ)
- Ah, hmmm. Not really. Just recently I've started going out for breakfast each morning before work and doing a little catch up, taking advantage of free wireless around the place. This is good. There's a transition in the day which is very helpful. (PWK)
- More: sleep, water, exercise, traction, fruit T (PWL)
- This I probably managed. With the advent of diagnosed hypoglycemia and food allergies plus the climbing class, the amount of attention paid to sleep, water, exercise, and fruit has gone up. Not sure about traction. (PWM)
- Less: work T (PWN)
- Totally tanked on this one. Not only did I work more, but I made intentional decisions to remove some things from my life so I would have more time to focus on work. This was a choice and I don't regret it: the work was worth doing, but in the grand scheme of things it seems likely I'm making a poor trade. So for good measure this stays on the list. (PWO)
The New List (PWP)
- Less: work T (PWQ)
- (PWR)
- Maintain traction (PWS)
- Finish what gets started (PWT)
- When given responsibility, take power (PWU)
- There seem to me so many situations in life where one is given responsibility for some thing, but not at the same time given the tools and power to do the thing. I've always felt this an injustice and have felt bound to point out the injustice and push the problems back in the face of the givers of the responsibility, hoping for some correction. The injustice is perhaps just a reality and the only reaction is to find the power and resources to do the thing, or just don't do it. Which leads to the next thing. (PWV)
- JFDI (PWW)
- Just Fucking Do It. Or at least that's the translation I prefer. Ingy's been on me for some time do this. Less talk, more act. Less decision making, more happening. Etc. (PWX)
- More work on boundaries, schedules and routines (PWY)
- That is what it is. (PWZ)
- Climb outdoors (PX0)
- Doesn't matter where or of what type. Just get out there. (PX1)
- Put the beauty back T (PX2)
- Keep finding it where it is. (PX3)
- Stay in touch (PX4)
- I have fabulous family and friends. I feel like the connections with them are solid, but I don't do my part to keep information flowing on those connections. My life would be better if I did. (PX5)
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journal
