Author: gulley

Alas! Feed is now more. Then again, I never sent them any money. When the NPR folks hijack your radio station during a fundraiser, eventually you send them money. But when a web site goes silent… oh well. Read about it: Feed On Ice: A Word to Our Readers

Those wacky Japanese! They have their own version of reality television, and it blows our version away. Read all about Nasubi and his efforts to live for a year solely on what he could win in contests.

Find here a woman who draws pictures of every meal she eats on her Palm and then uploads it to her blog. Obsessive-compulsive order run wild, or post-modern hero? pocketpig.com – a daily dose of delectable drawings

Atomica Corporation, formerly GuruNet, is a mildly interesting portal-for-sale kind of an idea. I wonder if it will last.

TimeFinder

I always enjoy reading any interview with Chris Ware. He’s a thoughtful talented artist. Here’s a good extended quote from the The Onion.

I guess I’ve read once or twice that people think I’m “trying to bum them out,” which certainly isn’t the case. I’m only trying to present as honest a portrayal of the grimness of human ambition as I can. I’d hope it’s rather uplifting, actually, since I find the sort of blind optimism and empty laughter of a great deal of “contemporary culture” to be more depressing than something that admits to a potential for disappointment and a gnawing sense of existential mockery. I don’t trust art that promises a 24-hour joyride. In fact, there seems to be a modern sense of entitlement for such constant “ups,” which is a repugnant attitude any way one chooses to look at it. I definitely believe in the possibility of happiness, though; it’s just something that I think, rightfully, is rare in its genuine form, and that it can’t be counterfeited.

Here’s the whole interview.

Another gem from Dan Bricklin’s things-I-like-to-talk-about personal website. How the Blogger Deal Happened describes how his company Trellix is pumping cash into Blogger. Vive le Bloggeur!

It’s the world’s largest stinky penis-shaped flower and it’s just finished blooming in Wisconsin: Amorphophallus titanum. That’s over eight feet of purplish “corpse flower” captured on camera. The Little Shop of Horrors has nothing on this thing.

We hear about software patterns all the time. Here are some Non-Software Examples of Software Design Patterns. Nice idea… good concrete reinforcement.

Congratulations, graduates!

On this auspicious occasion I’d like to blah blah blah blah blah. Furthermore, yadda yadda yadda. Which reminds me of an amusing story: blah blah blah.

It’s a difficult thing to make a graduation speech work. Who wants to listen? Everybody’s so distracted by premature nostalgia or postpartum dread or pre-party anticipation, you might as well address a crowd of milling sheep. Most speakers are wise enough to realize how hopeless the situation is and cut their losses by delivering a speech that takes little or no time to prepare and almost no energy to deliver.

It is possible to make a graduation speech stand up and work for a living. Here’s one entertaining example: Conan O’Brien speaking to last year’s graduating class at Harvard. And included below for your reading pleasure is the speech given by my nephew Ben upon his graduation from Elkin High School. It shares with Conan O’Brien the common theme of failure… a worthy point of rumination for us all.

And in conclusion, graduates, blah blah blah blah blah.
Continue reading “Elkin High School Graduation”